Disgustingly short chapter. Actually, don't even consider this a chapter! Think of it as a sort of . . . a sort of filler. It's setting the stage for everything that happens next, which is a lot. To summarize the next few chapters, which will be longer: Two years have passed. We run into Sesshoumaru, we run into Naraku, we go for broke in the fight against Naraku. But whose side will Sesshoumaru end up on? He has a nasty temper, after all . . . So. Await my next update, which will be soon. And it will definitely be longer than this chapter. This is just setting the stage. But it's a good cliffy, I think.

*

I gradually put the incident with Sesshoumaru behind me (yes, I had gone far enough to call it an 'incident'). Time passed—a lot of time. Maybe too much time, even. The silly bet between myself and Inuyasha still remained in the air—or forgotten, whichever suits you best. Our group, which didn't often include Kaede, went from four to five with the addition of Sango, our very own supermodel with an attitude and a boomerang to back it up. She was tough—and cool. Not like the Mary Sue's that we ran into a lot, who wished they could be everything Sango was—she just was. And she had it in for Naraku (oh yeah, and Miroku, but I'm not supposed to know that. Shh! Big secret. Badly kept, too.).

Things seemed to be wrong with our journey, though. For every jewel shard we had, Naraku had two. For every step closer we came to defeating him, he came two steps closer to getting the final drop on us (sometimes it felt like three). I had a feeling in my gut that it wasn't supposed to be like this—we should have destroyed him long ago, taken his jewel shards, and been done with it, but it just kept on going. It went on for what seemed like lifetimes—which in reality was only about two years, but still. When your group morale is centered around someone who acts like he has PMS all month, it can get painful.

But not unbearable.

I poked at our fire one night not long after I turned seventeen—finally. I didn't have my driver's license or anything, since I wasn't in my own time enough to take the class, but the euphoria of being sixteen and then being seventeen made up for it. I was getting closer—to what, I didn't know, but I was definitely getting closer to it.

Sango had a fish that constituted as still alive skewered on a stick and held over the fire as I stared into the flames thoughtfully. I had grown up a bit and everyone had noticed—you can't stay fifteen forever, you know. I watched the fish wriggle around on the stick and felt a distinct sickness creep up from my stomach when I decided that fish screams must be silent, since the poor fish was probably screaming its head off. I glanced back down at the flames to keep from watching it continue on the slow and painful path of being cooked alive.

Disgusting.

"Couldn't you have killed it before you cooked it?" I asked with a sigh.

Sango glanced up at me. "Killed what?"

"The fish. That can't be humane," I told her. "How would you like it if you had a stick crammed up your butt and then roasted over a fire?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Are you implying that I'm a fish?"

"No, I'm just saying . . . you know, if you were a fish, would you want that to happen?"

"If I were a fish," she said smoothly, "I would avoid me and therefore not have to worry about it."

I shook my head. "Sure. Sounds good to me." I sounded like a member of the Green Peace.

Inuyasha came up and sat on a rock that was by the fire, and Miroku popped up close in tow. "Okay, here's the plan," he declared.

Shippou gave him a skeptical look. "Uh . . . so where did you two disappear to?"

"The nearest village," Miroku explained. "To see what we could get on Naraku."

"And?"

"And he passed through here two days ago. They're holding the funerals tomorrow," Miroku told us dryly. "In case you were looking for a pattern."

"Oh, we've found one," Sango said just as dryly. "We're not stupid, you know."

I flinched. "You know, we get a little closer to him every day," I commented with a shiver. "Gosh, I miss the good old days when we weren't the only two groups with jewel shards." We had long since collected all the jewel shards that Naraku didn't have and now we were thinking on the same lines as he was. All the jewel shards in either our possession or his.

All except one.

And that's where Naraku was going: the West. We were following him.

To the last place I wanted to go.

In search of the last person I wanted to see.

Hey, I have dignity. Not a lot, but I've got some left. I wasn't eager to put it on a plate and hand it to Inuyasha's brother again.

"So how far from Sesshoumaru's fortress are we?" I asked.

Inuyasha shrugged. "A day, two at most. I hope no one expects him to give us all hugs and kisses when we show up," he added.

"Did anyone think about how we're supposed to get the shard?" asked Sango. "I for one don't think he'll just hand it to us if we go up and politely ask him for it."

"She has a point," Miroku agreed.

Sango glanced away. "Yeah, well."

"How do we get the shard?" I wondered aloud. "It's what's kept his arm on for two years—he's not going to want to part with it."

"Well hey, Kagome, you could bat your eyelashes really big and pretty-like at him," said Inuyasha sarcastically, "and then maybe he'll give it to you nice and easy. He may even let you keep the arm it's attached to."

I made a face. "Really funny. You're a regular comedian, did you know that?"

"We'll get the shard from him the way we get everything from him," he snapped, "and that's by having me kick his ass and mop the floor with his head till he says 'uncle.' That's the only way anything ever gets done with him."

"If he hasn't grown stronger since you last fought him," Miroku countered. "We haven't heard one thing about him since that day in the forest."

"When Naraku attacked Kagome?" asked Sango.

We nodded. "Oh, sure, there have been rumors," Miroku continued, "but nothing I believe. For example, someone said he had a daughter—of course, there were no names given about the child or the mother, but it's always like that. It's nothing I take seriously. Now the rumor about his sword . . . I don't know. It seems ironic that he would have a sword of healing, but I can't disprove it one way or another. All we know is that he's had no official dealings with Naraku since the jewel shard and his arm."

"And that's all that matters," I added. "If he were working with Naraku . . . trust me, many bad things would have happened by now. I think it's safe to say that while he won't exactly kill us on the spot, he won't be happy to see me. Us," I amended. "Any of us. Especially Inuyasha."

Great save.

"And here I thought you were his favorite person," Inuyasha muttered.

I rolled my eyes. "No, I think you are."

"I'm not the one he slept with."

"I DIDN'T SLEEP WITH HIM! It was one incident where he happened to be in the right place at the right time!"

"Like where, your pants?"

"Oooohh—sit! You are such a jerk! I was never attracted to your brother, okay?"

"Half," came the muffled mutter from the ground after a mighty crash.

"Oh, whatever. The point is, I never did anything with him, so leave me alone—you necropheliac!"

I only used the Kikyo reference because it no longer hit as close to home with him as it used to, and the desired effect was for him to spew out obscenities—which he did, but he was having a little trouble peeling himself out of the ground, so they were barely discernable. But he wasn't truly pissed off at me or anything, which was why I used them every now and then.

"Jailbait," came the distinct word from the ground.

"Sit!"

No more words flitted up from the earth for a few moments.

"Kagome," began Miroku, "we really don't stand a chance against Sesshoumaru if you keep hammering Inuyasha into the ground until he's beaten bloody."

"If he'd be nice," I said flatly, "then I wouldn't beat him bloody."

"Oh go blow your lid!" came Inuyasha's voice.

"Cork it, Fido!"

"Hey!" cut in Sango.

"She started it," Inuyasha said from the ground, where he had gotten all his limbs loose except his head, which was stuck and so he had planted his feet and hands to try and un-stick it.

"I did not! You started it!"

"Well I'm going to finish it," Sango said coolly. "Unless you two can be mature adults and resolve it yourselves."

"I'm going for a walk," I muttered. "I'll pick up some more firewood or something."

"Sounds good," Sango agreed in a motherly voice that amused me. "Don't wander far."

"Okay, Mom," I told her as I hopped over a rock and began searching for sticks and logs.

A voice in the back of my mind. Do not walk these woods alone after dark, or you will meet those less merciful that I. God, why did that always pop into my head when I was alone? It wasn't like bad stuff always happened to me. Besides, I could still see the glow of the campfire and hear Miroku seriously hitting on Sango while at the same time pretending he was just kidding. I ought to have locked the two of them in a room together—then maybe the sexual tension wouldn't be so rampant. I didn't know if anything would ever come of their flirtation after the jewel was completed, but it seemed like they would be happy together, even if only for a little while.

Do not walk these woods alone after dark . . .

I wasn't walking far. And it wasn't like Sesshoumaru was going to pop up out of the forest and kill me or anything.

Or you will meet those less merciful than I . . .

Oh cork it! I wasn't doing anything dangerous!

So of course, right as that thought popped into my head, a voice spoke up from the darkness, and I felt real, true, honest-to-God terror rip through me.

"I thought you were told never to return to the Western Lands."

Oh God. I was really, really in a lot more trouble than I could have even imagined.

*

Oh no! Who's in the woods with Kagome? Gee, let's take a guess . . .