Chapter 40-something or another: It's Important to remember, if nothing else, what you are.

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Miroku opened one eye sleepily. Something had woke him up. A steady thud from somewhere to his left. A knocking on the door? Who would be knocking on the door at this hour? Who would dare bother him right now? Didn't they know he was currently sleeping beside a beautiful woman? Granted, he couldn't be doing the normal things he would be doing when sleeping beside a beautiful woman, seeing as how there was a young child, two if you counted Shippo, also sleeping beside him.

"Would you get that already?" It was Shippo, apparently, the knocking had woke him up too.

Sighing, he drowsily stood up and sundered over to the door, he opened it to find a moderately nicely dressed man, more than likely some kind of high level servant to a prince or something, standing in front of him looking uncertain.

"It's still dark outside… " At the man's confused face, he quickly masked his sleepiness with his monkliness. "Hello sir, whatever brings you here at such an ungodly hour?"

The man began to shuffle around on his feet, obviously uncomfortable, perhaps because of the fangs that showed when the man he had been told was a monk spoke, or maybe it was the big fluffy dog ears.

"I… ehm.. Heard that a monk resided here with high spiritual powers…?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

'Monk? What is he talking about? 'Oh wait, that would be me..' Remembering that when people came looking for him, for his monkly gifts, it usually held a promise of money, he hastily changed his grimacing, squinting face to a bright (but wise) smile.

"Oh, yes, I am the monk you have heard of, for what reason have you sought me out on this fine morning?" Odd, the morning had been 'ungodly' just a few seconds ago.

"Is it true that you can ward off even the most vile of demons?"

Miroku began to smile that cocky smile of his. "Why yes, yes it is."

"If what you speak is the truth, the Oji-sama kindly asks for your assistance in a dilemma we are in, with the promise of appropriate rewards."

Rewards! Oh sweet rewards. "There isn't by any chance a beautiful Princess-" He stopped himself immediately, remembering the 'beautiful woman' whose side he had been so slow to leave earlier. Who was currently carrying his child. Who had a big giant boomerang as well as the wrath that only a member of the female gender can bring. Who he loved.

"What was that Houshi-sama?" The man was beginning to take doubt in the houshi's monkliness.

"Oh, nothing. Anyway, I will humbly be at your assistance, just allow me a moment to get dressed and alert the other's of my leave."

"Others?" Other monks? Or other people with fangs…

"Yes, my um…" He briefly wondered what would be an appropriate title for Sango, they weren't technically married, and by youkai standards, without the mark, they technically weren't mated.

"My woman." Oh dear god, if Sango heard him say that… "And her best friends son and brother."

"Your… woman?" Of course, by that time, Miroku was already back inside.

~

"Sango, wake up."

"Ehm? Hoshma?"

What the hell was a Hoshma?, she always seemed to say it when he woke her up early.

"Sorry for waking you, but I thought you might like to know that I'll be out today."

She was suddenly a lot more awake. "What? Where? You're leaving??"

"Yes, my assistance has been requested in a demon warding somewhere, apparently nearby."


"Demon warding? Why would they want you for that?"

"I am a monk if you remember correctly, it's just been a while since my services have been asked for."

She eyed him suspiciously. "There aren't any 'poor helpless pretty princesses' involved, are there?"

He laughed a little too quickly. "Oh, of course not!"

And then Sango 'accidentally' rolled over onto Souta for no apparent reason.

"Oh no!" She began in feigned regret, 'I appear to have woken up Souta on accident! How clumsy of me!"

When Souta continued to sleep peacefully, she began to 'accidentally' bonk him on the head with the tip of a conveniently placed abnormally large boomerang. "Oh dear, Miroku, my arm appears to be moving on it's own."


Miroku looked downright baffled. "Sango.. What are you-"

Finally, Souta began to open his eyes and look at Sango as if she were crazy.

"What…Why are you hitting me."

Sango quickly hid the boomerang behind her back. Which really did no good considering the sheer size of the thing.

"W-Whatever are you talking about?"

"The boomerang, you know, the one looming four foot above your head that looks like it's about to fall on top of Miroku-san, you were hitting me with it."

Oh, that boomerang. "Um… umm.. Well, as long as you're awake, Miroku is going to go do a demon warding today! How'd you like to go with him? I'm sure it'll be great fun!" Maybe a tad bit dangerous…

"Sango?" Miroku tried to interrupt.

"Demon…warding… I don't know that sister would want me off warding demons without her knowing…"

"Oh, don't be silly! She'd love it, I'm sure! It will make her ever so happy that you are beginning to adapt to this time, plus, you and Miroku can bond a little!"

"Um… okay.."

~*~

Dressed and outside, Miroku, with Souta at his side, greeted the servant.

"We are ready, I hope it's no problem that I'm bringing along a guest."

The man looked at Souta with fear. "What…what are those strange clothes he is wearing? Is he some kind of fashion demon?"

Fashion.. Demon? Souta gave the man a dubious glance. "Um… no, I'm just your average young boy."….. From five hundred years in the future, but there was really no need to relate that.

"Well, shall we be off now, if we're lucky we'll be there by sunrise."

Souta looked at his watch, which, despite his sisters earlier assumption, he actually was wearing. It was three o'clock in the morning. Three in the morning! Sun rose around, what, six? That meant, if they were lucky it would only take them three hours to get there. And he was guessing they didn't have cars here.

"We're… walking aren't we?"

"Why, of course, what else?" After all, the Oji-sama wouldn't very well just go lending out his horses to servants , monks, and little boys.

Miroku realized for the first time that walking for such a long period of time was probably a very new thing for Kagome's brother. It wouldn't be easy on him. After all, even he, as a human had often got tired of long walks like the such, it would probably be much harder on someone not used to it. Back when he had first joined Inuyasha and the group, Kagome usually rode on Inuyasha's back for the long distances, as she often got tired. This was usually achieved by a view bitches and a sit or two. If it wasn't bound to scare away the servant, he would have brought along Kirara.

Instead, he lifted Souta up and put the young boy on his back, feeling too much like Inuyasha, especially with his newly developed inu hanyou-ness, for his own liking.

~*~

"What the hell is this?" Inuyasha picked up one of the hundreds of small boxes containing small, cylindrical objects Kagome had placed in the 'shopping cart'. They'd only been shopping for about an hour now, but it was more than enough for him. "And why do we need so many of them!?"

Mrs.Higurashi came twirling towards the cart with another armful of them. "Batteries! Batteries Inuyasha! All of the modern conveniences you will be using must be battery powered!"

Kagome picked up a battery powered T.V and a battery powered DVD player, hey, at least now they'd be able to watch movies. She set them in the cart amongst all the masses of different kinds of rechargeable batteries.

Jii-chan waltzed over with a battery powered microwave and toaster. "What was the name of this store again, Kagome?"

Kagome turned around from the battery powered refrigerator smiling. "'Battery Powered R Us'"

Jii-chan shook his head in wonderment. "Who knew such a store existed." Yes, who knew?

Kagome adjusted the kerchief she had on her head that was squishing her ears and making her mighty uncomfortable, feeling like she should be somewhere cleaning something.

"Inuyasha, you see anything you think we should get?"

He gave her a dry look. "Oh yeah Kagome, I know exactly what everything in this store is."

"Oh…right."

"Wait, what about that 'V~iD~Eee~ooo Gayy~meh' thing Souta's always playing whenever I see him?"

"A video game system? That's a terrific idea! I'm sure Shippo would love it."

Kagome approached a sells lady, who gave her a strange look, probably because of the white hair protruding from the kerchief. "May I help you?"

This wasn't the first strange look Kagome had got today. Sure, she and Inuyasha both had their ears covered and she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but Inuyasha was still wearing his usual clothes, out of stubbornness, and of course, they both had long white hair.

"Um, yes, where is your battery powered video game section?" She covered her hand over her mouth as she talked, trying to keep her fangs out of view.

"Excuse me?"

"Video Game Section."

"Excuse me ma'am? Maybe if you'd remove your hand from in front of your mouth…"

"Kagom-eeeh! I found it! I found it all by myself!" Inuyasha was quite proud of himself over this little accomplishment.

She smiled politely at the sells lady. "Never mind."

~


"Wow Inuyasha… you really did find them."

"Yeah, I did."

"…How?"

"I followed the scent! I remembered what Souta's smelt like.

Of course. "Oh."

She looked down the aisle as she detected a scent approaching that wasn't one of her family. A girl, maybe a year older than herself, but not out of high school, dressed in to put it simply, bizarre clothes, with dyed bright rainbow colored hair and piercings galore, approached her.

"Oh wow, love the hair!" She looked between Inuyasha and Kagome, "Cute, your going for the look-alike-lovers look right? Totally cool." Before Kagome had a chance to respond, she picked up one of Kagome's hands and began to inspect the long sharp fingernails. "Jeez, these look so real! Did you get them done professionally?"

Forgetting the fangs that resided within, Kagome had her mouth open in shock. "An..ano…"

Inuyasha's expression basically mirrored Kagome's. What was he supposed to do in this situation?

"Wow! Fangs! You must have butt loads of money to have gotten them done! They look so real!"

"Ano…"

Inuyasha feh'ed. "Yeah, we got them profionally done, and we do have butt loads of money."

The girl looked at him strangely at the weird way he had pronounced 'professionally' as well as the deliberate and unfamiliar way he said 'butt load'.

"Gee, I wish I had that kind of money, I did this hair myself."

At last regaining the power of conversation, Kagome smiled friendlily. "Oh, really? It looks so nice. Me and my boyfriend considered getting ours dyed rainbow, but he changed his mind to white at the last minute."

Kagome had heard of these kind of people, they dressed up strangely, trying to look almost anime-like, and walked the streets displaying their fashions on certain days. A lot of towns though had already outlawed this. Apparently the town in which 'Batteries R Us' was located had not. *(a/n: Aside from the 'Batteries R Us' bit, this is true, anyone else heard of the book 'Fruits'? )*

Inuyasha was about to ask Kagome if she had gone insane. Boyfriend? He was her mate! And they had never considered getting their hair dyed rainbow. What youkai in their right mind would do such a thing?! Of course, after a few of this berating in his mind, his denseness faded a moment and he realized she was just trying to play along.

"Oh yeah, my boyfriend is like that too, he never can make up his mind!" The girl laughed as if this were insanely funny and Kagome joined her in the way that females often do.

"Ah! I almost forgot! My name is Hisa! It's so nice to meet someone else with a unique fashion sense! The numbers of people like us are decreasing quickly with the outlaw of this type of art in so many towns." The girl, Hisa, bowed politely with a big grin.

"Um, yeah, it really is a shame… My name is Kagome, and this is Inuyasha."

"Inu-yasha? Dog… demon? Oh! It's a pseudonym right? Cool!"

"Um.. Yeah… a pseudonym."


Inuyasha was steadily growing bored. "Kagome what the hell is a pseu-"


Kagome quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. "He's a bit dense at times, but I love him anyway." She patted the top of his head as if he were a small child (or a dog).

Inuyasha growled. So she was calling him dense was she? And patting his head like he was some fucking pet.

"Hey you bi-"

"Sit." She murmured quiet enough so that only she and a certain hanyou could hear it.

Inuyasha fell to the floor.

The girl eyed her with wide eyes. "Did he just…fall down for no reason?"

Kagome giggled a bit. "Oh, he's also terribly clumsy."

Hisa looked down at the fallen Hanyou, "Why isn't he getting up? He's not dead is he?" she kept staring at him… "Were those cracks in the floor there before?"

"Oh um.. Yes! He's fine, he just likes the ground is all…"

"Likes… the ground?"

"He's kind of strange I guess." Kagome laughed hysterically-- on the inside, of course.

"….Kind of.."

Released from the subduing smell, Inuyasha stomped off in search of Kagome's family, to tell on her for being so mean to him.

"Where is he going?"

"Who knows!, he's just weird like that, sometimes he leaves for no reason at all and I find him a few weeks later, hanging out at the pound."

"…Pound?"

"Oh yes! He's an animal lover if there ever was one!"

Shrugging off the strangeness, Hisa began looking at the many battery powered video games.

"'Batteries R Us' can you believe there is store out there that actually specializes in selling modern conveniences, battery powered? I mean, who knew!" Yes, who knew.

Kagome giggled. "Yes, it's so convenient, I mean, like, it'd be really convenient for someone who say, I don't know, fell into a well and was transported five hundred years back in time, met a lot of friends, three of which were demons, then fell in love with one of the three demons, defeated a big bad guy, turned demon herself, and now lived in the past because of how much she had grown to feel like she belonged there, and, as a result, still missed her modern conveniences so she wanted to get some battery powered ones."

"Oh wow! That'd be a great plot for an anime!"

~*~

Mrs.Higurashi felt of the large red rug embroidered with tiny floral designs in the furniture store, oddly enough, titled 'Furniture that is small enough to fit through a well R Us'

"Inuyasha, what do you think of this couch?" It was red and just small enough to fit through a well.

"Feh, it's fine." , he admitted from his spot sitting in a big red leather recliner that was just small enough to fit through a well. He was still sulking over the Hisa incident from earlier. " I want this chair."

"Alright Inuyasha, It'll match this couch at least."

Jii-chan pointed to a oak coffee table, that was just small enough to fit through a well. "What do you think of this one?"

"That's nice Jii-chan." Kagome inspected an entertainment center that was just big enough to hold the T.V, the dvd player, and the video game system, as well as fit through a well.

Jii-chan once again smiled in wonderment. "Who knew that they would ever so conveniently have a store dedicated to furniture that is just big enough to fit through a well?" Yes, who knew?

"Kagome! Let's go look at the beds ,alright?" Mrs.Higurashi called from the 'Beds that are just small enough to fit through a well' Section.

~

Two hours later, Kagome finished pointing out every single item they wanted to the sells boy.

"And I'm assuming you want this delivered?" If the strange girl with the white hair was planning on bringing all the fifty something pieces of furniture home herself….

"Of course!" Mrs.Higurashi exclaimed exuberantly.

"It's going to cost you extra." He looked around at all the merchandise that was just big enough to fit through a well. "A lot extra."

Kagome shrugged it off. "Oh, don't worry about money, we've got plenty of it."

Jii-chan began to sing a song about money and was soon joined by Mrs.Higurashi and Inuyasha, wait, did I say Inuyasha? I meant just Mrs.Higurashi. Sorry, my mistake, Inuyasha just stood there scowling at anything that moved.

"Alright, could you write down your address right here?" He handed Kagome a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. Kagome jotted down her address.

"Now, is there any specific place on your property that you'd like it delivered to?" Mr.Employee of 'Furniture just big enough to fit through a well' asked.

"Yes actually, could you put it as close to our wellhouse as possible?"

~*~

The rest of the day passed by uninterestingly enough, bedding, towels and the such we're purchased at a store called 'Bedding, Towels, and Other Household Goods Such as These that Are sure to Never Fade Even In Fuedal Conditions R Us', dishes, silver wear, and other cooking utensils were purchased at 'Cooking Utensils that Will Never Rust even in Fuedal Conditions R Us' (a sister store to Bedding, Towels, and Other Household Goods Such as These that Are sure to Never Fade Even In Fuedal Conditions R Us'). Other household goods were purchased at 'Other Household Goods You are sure to Have Forgotten R Us').

Now Kagome and the group were back home, exhausted from all the running around (well, Inuyasha was just terribly bored). Mrs.Higurashi had gone to the kitchen to start cooking supper, Jii-chan had gone to watch the people deliver the furniture that was just small enough to fit into a well.

Inuyasha and Kagome were up in her previous room, Kagome looking through her room for stuff she might like to add to her house, Inuyasha watching her from the bed.

"She's got two inside her. Can you tell?" Inuyasha inquired, nonchalantly from the bed.

Kagome pulled open a drawer to find it empty save a few school books she had forgotten to return to the school.

Multitasking, she answered him with only half her attention. "What are you talking about Inuyasha?'

"Sango. She's got two. I thought you could tell."

"Two wha-" She slammed the drawer shut and jumped to her feet. "You mean… pups!? She's having two?"

"Yeah."

"Girls or Boys?" She was getting dangerously near the Mrs.Higurashi giddiness level.

"Keh, can't you even smell gender yet? You need to start paying more attention to scents. Girls."

"Ohh!! When did you find out?!" She practically squealed.

He shrugged. "She just got far enough into pregnancy that I could tell yesterday."

"You knew yesterday and you didn't tell me!?"

"You made fun of me today!"

"Yeah, well you didn't know I was going to do that yesterday! Oh! I can't wait to tell her!"

"Feh. I don't know what the big deal is, it's not like they're yours."

Kagome went back to scouring her room for useful stuff. "I wonder what they're up to, back in the Fuedal Era…. I hope everything's going alright."

~~~~~~~~~~~*~*~*~*~*~*~The Exorcism Ordeal-Brought to you by Kaylana~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was standard warding; an ofuda against evil spirits and one to kill approaching youkai, one on each side of the door. The Ojii-sama looked on anxiously as Miroku slapped the spirit ward in place.

"Will it be enough?"

"Of course," Miroku replied, "You can rest assured that I have protected your house from evil-"

Miroku froze as he put up the second ofuda. The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and the air was suddenly thick, making it hard to breathe. Power crackled from the ofuda, then there was fiery pain, starting in his hand and rapidly shooting through his body. Something pulled at him, a strong force ripping him out away from the house. Damn! The youkai-killing ofuda! He braced himself against the pain and hurriedly got out of range. The lord and Souta watched curiously as Miroku leaned heavily on his staff, shaking.

"...Houshi-sama?"

"Miroku-san?"

"It was deliberate," Miroku managed, "I was testing its quality." He forced whatever pitiful laugh he could get without worsening the throbbing in his head. "Well, now we know it works..."

~

Sango twitched her ears as two sets of footsteps approached. One was the rushed, nervous patter of the lord, and the other was a less steady, heavy gait. I minute or so later, the lord and Miroku opened the door. The lord looked satisfied, but Miroku looked exhausted, even through his crooked grin, Souta appeared a bit troubled. They bade each other goodnight, then slid shut the shoji. As soon as it was shut, Miroku sunk to the floor with a loud groan and sat, rubbing his temples, ears drooping. Souta jumped off the monks shoulders after figuring out Miroku had no intention of removing him himself.

"Houshi-sama, are you okay?" Sango asked worriedly.

"Kami you're brilliant," mewed Kirara, "Does he look okay?"

"Shut up," Sango scolded. Souta perked up.

"What'd the cat say?"

"You don't want to know," Sango assured him."

"If I ever," Miroku gasped as a reply, "Ever try to use an ofuda that looks like this..." he pulled a complicated-looking ofuda out of his robes. "...Slap me. Or kill me and save me alot of suffering," he sighed dramatically.

"He tried to use that?" Kirara guffawed, making strange wheezing noises that were probably laughter. "He's more of an idiot than I thought he was!"

"What'd she say?" Souta asked, curious.

"You don't want to know," Sango repeated. "Miroku, what does it do?"

"Kills youkai," Miroku said miserably.

Kirara burst out laughing. Sango sighed in exasperation. Shippou looked horrified.

"It was just recently that I turned hanyou!" protested Miroku.

"Are you gonna die?!" Shippou wanted to know.

"God, now the kit's being an idiot," Kirara commented, "Whose turn is it next? Souta's?"

"No,I won't die," Miroku replied, "but I might get halfway there. Sure feels like I am," he moaned, sliding the rest of the way to the floor and curling up in the fetal position.

"That was REALLY REALLY STUPID," Souta blurted out.

"Yup," Kirara sighed as started to look angry, "It's his turn."

"It's so routine that I didn't think about it," Miroku said defensively.

"Well I mean, even if it's routine, you'd sorta think you'd think about it before putting up something that might kill you or-"

"Souta!" Sango exclaimed.

"See?" Kirara said contentedly.

"What?" Souta protested innocently

"HE'S NOT FEELING GOOD AND YOU'RE SITTING HERE YELLING AT HIM!"

"...she yells," finished Kirara.

"Could you two please quiet down?" Miroku begged, clutching his ears to his head.

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Japanese Vocab.

Ano: Well, um, uh, erm… ect. I really like this word.

Ojii-sama:Prince

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The Exorcism ordeal was brought to you by the ever spifferifacatastic Kaylana (Who Goes by the Pen name of the Same, Go check out some of her work, it's all great, especially the penguin story!), well, the second part of it was anyway, I wrote the part you see at the very beginning or the chapter. But she wrote the part where Miroku gets well… tortured. Yep she wrote it, and I built a chapter around it. Isn't she great?

Ah, so sorry for the wait. I know it's been a while. But I have excuses. First, I've been at my dad's. He doesn't have the internet for some reason. Actually, he does, but I use a cable modem to connect at home, and he uses modem. For some reason, after I got my computer back from having it sent off after it died, the modem port no longer works. I know… it sucks.

So, in order to go to the internet, I have to go to my dad's place of work. There, I use his computer, but seeing as how he only lets me go there about every three days or so, and only for about ten minutes each time… well, you understand.

Anyway, I've been working on building a website, I've been writing in another story, I've been doing lots of boring things.

I'm not sure when I'll be home, but it should be in about a week, so expect the next chapter to be in on time…. I hope.

*sighs*

Ah, well, I'm sorry that I don't have the time to go do my writer/reader thing. Well, it's not that I don't have the time, it's just that without the internet, I can't access my reviews and respond to any. Sorry.

I'll just thank all of you as a whole, I'm almost at 1,000 reviews! This means so very much to me! Thank you all, so very, very much!!!

In honor of all of your reviews, EVERYONE gets Imaginary Hisas! *sends everyone an imaginary Hisa*

Please Review! Thank you.

The Internetless Deity,

-Heather-