The Ingenuity of Shippou/Lala

As Shippou neared the village, he saw Kira again. He watched her get dressed again, and she started to go back towards the village. Shippou then disguised himself as another girl and followed her back.

He caught up to her and made small talk, saying he was a visitor from another village, and his father was a merchant who was only coming through the village. Presently, as they were in the village, he asked her about the "fox boy" who lived in the forest.

"So, have you met that boy, that fox boy, who lives in the forest yet?"

"Shippou?"

"yah him, I think he's so talented, and soooo dreamy!" Shippou congratulated himself on his ingenuity and even made himself look like he was daydreaming of himself, but to Kira, it merely looked kind of strange, and she began to wonder about this girl.

"What is your name?"

"my name? Uuuh...it's...umm..."

"what's the matter? Can't remember your own name?"

"of course I can! It's just that thinking about Shippou makes me forget things sometimes...*sigh* my name is...Lala! Yah that's my name, its lala."

"Lala? Hmm...So what are you doing around here?"

"didn't I tell you already? Did you forget? Were you thinking about Shippou? Do you forget stuff when you think of him too?"

Kira gave him (or her) a look and said, "well, to tell you the truth, I think he is a bit clumsy, and apparently he doesn't know much about girls."

"Yes I do!" Shippou blurted out defensively before he could stop himself.

"What was that?" asked Kira.

"ummm...I'm sorry about that, I was daydreaming again, and me and Shippou were getting married, because he always seems so mature and strong all of the time, what was that you were saying?"

"I was saying that Shippou seems so clumsy and confused about girls."

"hmm, well he didn't seem that way to me! You just need to get to know him a bit better!" he raised his eyebrow at Kira, who then looked back at him, and asked, "where did you meet Shippou anyways?"

"uuuh we met at...that tree that's in that forest. He was battling off a demon and he saved me from sure death! He's so braaaaaave..."Shippou made himself trail off and make it look like he was daydreaming again.

Kira then surprised him by saying, "well, sounds like you really like Shippou. To make it easier for you, I think I'll just back off. I was thinking of going to see him tonight, but I'll just let you instead. You know where he's staying?"

"do YOU know where he's staying?" Shippou asked, surprised that Kira may have known this, since he hadn't told her.

"Yes, I...umm actually followed him there yesterday. I wanted to see that guy he's been hanging out with, that Inuyasha guy! He's sooo cute! I know he's a bit too old for me, but it's a helpless crush. I'm sorry, did I upset you?"

asked Kira, for Shippou was on the ground, with a feeling of despair upon him. INUYASHA? She was after INUYASHA? But...but...

"he already FOUND a mate! He's with kagome!"

"of course, I know, I hate that girl sooo much! I just wish she'd...I don't know...go away or something!"

Shippou sat there in shock.

"Oooh I heard that it was Inuyasha himself who defeated that evil guy Naraku, did you hear about that? But he did it all by himself and he did all for fun!"

"that isn't true!" Shippou had once again said something without being able to stop himself.

"What was that?" Kira looked at him with big eyes, as if wanting him to tell her it was a lie, that what she had said about Inuyasha was true.

"He didn't do it himself; he had m...Shippou, and those other people, Miroku and Sango" where is she? He thought, "and kagome! We...they all worked together and he used the tetsaiga and he did it for revenge for a past love, so there!"

"you seem to know a lot about him, have you ever met him? Have you talked to him? Did Shippou talk about him?" Kira then went on to ask some more questions, but found that he wouldn't answer any of them, so she went to talk about Inuyasha, and the stories she heard of him, and so on and so on, and so on....

Shippou got very bored during this time and ended up looking upon himself, to see what kind of girl he had transformed himself into.

When he looked down, however, he saw two quite large bumps on his chest. He speculated on the matter of what the heck those were. He felt like poking one.

"Umm...lala? What are you doing? Have you never seen those before now or what?"

"Huh? Oh! Umm yes...I guess so...just that...I have them! This is quite strange..." Shippou continued to poke it. What was it, and why was it there? Maybe he'll ask kagome later. He even wondered if he was attractive or not.

"Excuse me Kira, do you have a mirror?"

"yep, just hold on a sec, I'll get one."

she dug in her bag that she seemed to carry everywhere and pulled out a small mirror. "Here ya go!" she handed it to him and he took it and gazed at his reflection. Back at him stared a girl of about Kira's age, and she had long red hair, and she looked pretty much like himself, except for the longer eyelashes, the fuller lips and the smaller nose. Not to mention the weird things on his chest, and the figure of his waist and WHOA he had hips! Now that was a weird thing to look at...

After he was finished checking himself out, he gave the mirror back to Kira, and looked around. Where were they? He voiced this thought to Kira, who then shook her head and said "I've no idea...we were just walking I guess."

Realizing he was alone with Kira, Shippou thought of doing something about it, but the recent viewing of the mirror reminded him of the fact that he was still a female. Now what? He thought of something quick.

"Whoops! I hear my dad calling! I guess we're leaving now, so I'll see you some other time Kira! Nice to meet you! Oh yah and I need a favor, a biggie! Keep those girls away from Shippou, I'm sure he wouldn't mind you though, he seemed to like you a lot, and he couldn't stop talking about you the other day! see you!" with that, Shippou mentally patted himself on the back and ran into the forest, and quickly turned back into his former self, posed himself and then went back to Kira, trying his best to act smooth.

His smoothness was ruined when he tripped over a rock and fell on his face instead.