Chap. 2

"Botan!" cried Yusuke again. What was he going to do? Keiko had just been captured and he had no way to get to her. He drew in his breath to call for help again when he saw a familiar shape appear before him. "It's about time you got here! What took you so long?"

He was then rewarded for his rudeness with a swift whack to the head from a rather large paddle. "Quit your whining," said Botan, "I got here as soon as I could. Now what was so important that I had to drop everything to help you?"

Still rubbing his sore spot, he quickly explained about the monster in the well. "...and now I have no idea how to get to her. For some reason I can't get through."

Botan thought quietly for a moment before speaking, "This is a dilemma. I wonder what the demon meant when it asked for the jewel shards. This Kagome girl seemed to know something about it but that just might mean she was raised on a lot of stories about the well. Still I wonder..." Yusuke twitched angrily, "This isn't helping me get through the well Botan. Do you have any clue how to help me or not cause if you don't you'd better just get out of my cause I'm gonna dig that well right out of the ground."

"Maybe if I had a closer look at the well," she said ignoring Yusuke's rantings. They proceeded to walk down to the scene of the crime. She looked around carefully and set her hand down on the well's edge, suddenly a shiver ran through her.

"What is it?" asked Yusuke, "Is something wrong?"

"No I just sense something. It's as if reality shifts out of place here." She paused for a moment. "Bingo! I think I've got it!" she turned smiling towards Yusuke. "This must be a gateway between two dimensions. For some reason, things from that side can come over here but not the other way around. So, the only way through would be if you could fool it into thinking you were from the other world. In order to do that you'll need to have something that belongs in that world."

Yusuke sweatdroped, "That still doesn't help me. What am I supposed to do wait until the monster comes back? Keiko could be dead by then!"

"Didn't you tear a limb off it or something?" Yusuke looked down a little shamefully. "Do you mean to tell me you let that thing get Keiko and didn't even try to stop it?"

"Don't be stupid Botan! I was about to attack but it went back down too fast. I didn't have a chance to do anything."

"Well then we'll just have to hope it left a hair or something here. Let's start looking."

They spread out and start looking around for anything that might help. Suddenly Yusuke saw something sparkle on the ground. He picked it up; it looked like a necklace with a piece of pink rock on it. Suddenly he remembered that Kagome had been wearing this earlier. It must have broken off when she was grabbed.

"Hey Botan," he called, "Do you think this would work?"

Botan came over to see what he had found. After looking it over for a minute she said, "I don't know Yusuke. It might work but I can't tell if it's from this world or that one."

"Well there's one way to find out!" he jumped towards the well but suddenly Botan blocked his path.

"There's no way your going there by yourself. We have no idea what could be on the other side of this well and you're not going anywhere without help. We should go get Hiei or Kuwabara or...."

"How about you?" without waiting for a response Yusuke grabbed her and jumped into the well. Suddenly there were purple lights everywhere and it felt like they were falling through time itself. Then just as soon as it had started it was over and they were at the bottom of the well.

"Did it work?" asked Yusuke looking around. It didn't look any different but something had definitely happened that time.

Just then, he felt another whack to his head. "You idiot!" yelled Botan, "We have no idea what's here, do really want to get us all killed just so you can get here a bit sooner?"

"Well if there is anyone out there wait to kill us they'll certainly know we're here now with all the noise you're making!" he yelled just as loud. "Now let's get out of here."

When they climbed out is was easy to see they had made it through. They were now in a thick forest. Just to their left Yusuke heard a noise, there he saw the demon from earlier cut up bloody on the ground. Next to it was an unconscious Kagome and a strange man holding a bloody sword with Keiko slung over his shoulder. He had long white hair, red robes, and looking closer he saw what appeared to be dog ears on top of his head! He was a demon too! And he was kidnapping Keiko!

Without waiting another moment Yusuke sprung up and started running towards him, "Put her down you bastard!"

The man turned around looking a little confused just in time to have his face meet Yusuke's fist. He sprawled out on the ground. "Alright," he said, "now I'm mad." He put down Keiko and punched Yusuke into a nearby tree leave an indentation.

Yusuke grunted this guy was a little tougher than he'd expected. Suddenly waiting to get help didn't seem like such a bad idea; not that he'd ever admit it. He dodged to avoid another punch and while his opponent was off guard he shot his spirit gun and sent him flying.

In the meantime Botan had gone over to Keiko and Kagome and focused on healing on healing them. Keiko woke up first blinking in surprise and was soon joined by Kagome.

"Kagome," she cried, "Someone's attacking Yusuke!"

She looked up just in time to see Yusuke narrowly dodge a fierce sword attack. "Inuyasha," she called, "Stop it!" But the two were too fiercely locked in battle to notice anything else. She tried again, "Don't Inuyasha, you're going to kill him!"

"That's sort of the point!" he yelled

"What'll we do?" asked Keiko.

"We'll just have to hope Yusuke can find a way to beat him," said Botan.

"We'll just see about that," said Kagome sounding more than a little miffed. Just as Inuyasha was about to rain down the final blow on his offender, she said the magic words "Sit boy!"

Without a moment's notice, he fell face first into the ground.