A/N: (laughing hysterically) That's it, no more fanfiction for me! The well of my inspiration has run dry and I'm completely stuck on both of my stories. Yay! Cheers to writer's block! (banging my head on the wall) Somebody help…

c-dog: I can't wait for Inu & Kag to end up together too... ^__ But it'll probably be another while~~ (laughing evilly)

kagome246: Yeah, I'm probably mistreating Shippo, but.... poor kid, gotta think of a way to repay him back for what I'm putting him through. XP

Denisse: Sorry for taking to long to update. I'm very honoured that you like the story. ^_^

sumi101: Well, Miroku and Sango probably won't really appear in this story... I'm sorry. +

Disclaimer: Hate to break it to you, but Inuyasha doesn't belong to me. How tragic.

Chapter 3

Shippo pouted as he kicked hard at yet another stone lying in his path. The stone bounced and soon skidded to a stop a short distance away. Shippo continued walking.

"Why? Why me?" He wondered. "This is not fair! He's so mean!"

He looked down at his human form and heaved a sigh. He didn't look much different. He was still wearing his favourite green shirt, blue pants, and a light brown vest. His physical appearance didn't change either. It was just that he was now a human; or rather a punished cupid materialized into human flesh and stripped of his magic.

He felt crippled without his magical abilities – the ability to fly, to be able to navigate his way through the human world without a map. Like now, he was lost and had completely no idea where he was heading or where he was located in the human world. All he could tell was that he had been walking through one unfamiliar street after another and he felt hopelessly alone.

"Who would've thought that he could be so stingy and so narrow-minded, out of all people!" He muttered indignantly under his breath.

He turned his gaze towards the sky, light blue and clear of clouds, and shook his fist. He shouted at the invisible person that had occupied his thought. "You didn't even give me the chance to say that I could pay you back!"

Having let out part of his built-up feelings, he resumed his aimless walk.

Similar to what he was doing before, he kicked hard at a stone lying in his way. This stone, being lighter, lifted off the ground and hit the nearby wall. It bounced off and came back to whack Shippo on the head.

"Ouch!" The poor kid held his head and bent down. "Damn the stone, damn my luck, damn Totosai!" He cursed and shot a glare at the stone lying motionlessly by his feet.

'That's what you get for kicking me,' it seemed to say quietly.

"Oh, shut up you!" Enraged, Shippo grabbed the stone and threw it far away.

He never thought that he would end up like this: magic taken away and stranded in the human world that was still mostly unknown to him. All he did was just eating a chocolate pudding!

He recalled being led to a room to wait for Master Totosai by Mr. Ox when he went to report his progress on the task given to him.

"Master Totosai will be here in a moment, just wait patiently" he was told. After Ox exited the room, he did wait patiently and quietly like how he instructed him.

He studied the room. There were some cushioned chairs that lined up against the wall like his chair with a tiny coffee table separating each. The floor was carpeted forest green, soft and simple in style. It was just like any normal waiting room that one expected to find at a proper business building, except for the large table in the centre of the room. It was covered by a pyramid of cupped chocolate puddings.

Shippo's eyes bulged. Wow! Never in his life had he seen anything as grand as this. He bet that if the pyramid ever toppled over, he could be completely covered and buried by that vast amount of pudding.

Seconds ticked by and Totosai still hadn't shown up. Shippo glanced at the clock. It had been half an hour and he was getting bored with absolutely nothing to do besides staring at the giant structure located on top of the table at the centre of room.

So much sweet, yummy, delicious chocolate pudding… He gulped. His gaze had transformed from amazement to something close to desire, need, and hunger.

There are so many of them, I guess it'll be okay if I just take one pudding and eat it. Shippo told himself as he dragged a chair up close to the table so that he could stand on top of it to reach the cup of pudding positioned at the very top.

There!

Settling back down in his comfy cushioned chair, he began happily enjoying his dessert. Ah~ The taste of soft, rich, creamy chocolate…

"YOU!" Shippo looked towards the source of the voice, which was by the doorway. "You are eating MY favourite chocolate pudding!"

It was Totosai.

Shippo shifted his glance towards the pyramid of chocolate puddings stacked at the centre of the room, then towards the cup he was holding in his hand, and then towards Totosai, whose face was turning red and who seemed extremely mad. Uh oh…… Don't tell him that he –

"You ate my dessert!" Totosai accused, pointing a finger at Shippo.

"But… there's a whole pile of them." Shippo finally managed to find his voice.

"The entire pile is mine!" The old man gave the boy a death glare and made a possessive gesture. "MINE!"

"I'm so sorry sir, I'll – "

The next thing he knew, he was standing all by himself in an empty street.

"I'm turning you into a human for one day to punish you for eating my pudding," Totosai's still-angry voice sounded by his ears. "Good luck surviving down there on your own. That'll teach you to stay away from your elders' food."

"Master Totosai, I didn't mean to eat your pudding! I swear!" Shippo cried exasperatedly. Turning human for one day without any of his magical abilities or any human currency? He would die for sure! How was he supposed to make it through the day without anywhere to go, anything to do, or any food to eat? "Master Totosai, I'm sorry! Please turn me back! Forgive me! I'll buy you 10 puddings to pay for the one I ate! Just don't do this to me. Please!"

All was quiet around him. There was no reply that came from the thin air like it did before. It seemed like the old geezer had left, probably gone back to finish off the rest of his pudding.

"Stingy, mean, nasty, unforgiving old man…" Shippo grumbled sulkily as he once again reviewed the reason why he ended up in the human realm. Still rubbing his head where the stone had hit, he decided that it was time for him to start heading towards who knew where, since he had nothing else better to do.

"Grrr~~"

'Eh?" He noticed a dog growling dangerously at him. "What the – "

It was then that he took note of the somehow seemingly familiar stone that was now resting beside the dog's front paw.

Oh no, he groaned inwardly. The stone that he threw couldn't have possibly hit the dog, could it? He wasn't even aiming when he tossed the damned thing!

However, when the dog barked and began coming after him, his suspicion was confirmed. He had obviously angered the huge, black, fierce dog. No! It was the stone's fault! He was the victim slash target of the stone too! Why was the dog coming after him, not that piece of rock over there? Not fair…

"Why me?" Shippo wanted to cry as he began running as fast as his short legs could carry him. The barking dog was chasing closely behind, bearing its teeth between the intervals of its barks.

Shippo ran for his dear life.

To think that all this started with a chocolate pudding.

x x x

Carefully balancing the bags in one hand, Kagome stepped out of the grocery store. Her right hand, which was free of grocery bags, held a copy of the Job Search Magazine. Since she got fired from her previous job at the café a few days ago, she decided that she should start looking for another job. After all, it would be hard for a teenager her age to survive without allowances. Plus, it was about time that she started saving up for university tuitions. Due to these reasons, she simply had to find herself another job and thus another source of income.

"Full-time gardener for a mansion with baseball stadium sized garden? Haha, very funny." Kagome rolled her eyes. "I won't exactly call that a garden anymore."

She moved on to the next section on the page.

"Help needed at Ken's Dry-Cleaning Store? Dirtying someone's clothes is pretty much what I was fired for. Cleaning? Not a chance…

"Hm… Hiring assistant for the Butcher Shop? I'll skin you alive!" Kagome glared at the magazine.

"Oh! This one looks perfect for me! A cashier at the convenient store! Let's see, what's the pay – Argghh! 200 yen an hour? Go to hell!"

The magazine was immediately trashed in a nearby garbage can. Kagome trod past the can fuming and puffing like a fire dragon on an especially hot day.

Why was it so hard to find a suitable job? She just wanted something decent, not too hard, and could earn her a bit of cash!

She halted. Biting her lips, she pondered for a moment before wheeling around to go retrieve the magazine that was violently thrown into the tall green bin back there. It wouldn't do to throw away her job search tool, would it? Her connection to the list of possible jobs out there lies in that single magazine.

Just when she was reaching out to pick up the magazine, she noticed a commotion throwing about nearby. Curious, she lifted her head up and looked.

A little boy about the age of 10 was surrounded by three young men who looked like rogues judging from their appearances. They seemed to be harassing the short, reddish-brown haired boy as they formed a circle around him and kept on pushing him around.

Kagome's eyebrows furrowed. What was with morality these days?

x x x

Shippo tried to appear as menacing as he could in front of the three humans and glared at them.

After going through much turmoil in escaping the scary fierce dog, he bumped into one of these three humans. He immediately apologized and tried to pass, but they blocked him and insisted that he pays them money.

"Look at the stain that your hand has made on my expensive brand name shirt, brat." A human with nearly bleached-white hair indicated at an invisible stain on his garment. "The cleaning is going to cost me some money, say, about 5,000 yen?" He looked towards his fellow rogues for agreement.

The other two, one with red hair and one with pierced ears, nodded, both snickering.

Shippo gaped at them confusedly. He grabbed the bleached-haired man's shirt and took a closer look. "But I don't see any stains."

The man slapped Shippo's hands away. "Don't touch me brat! There's a stain when I say there is one. Are you going to pay up or not?" He was growing impatient and his tone contained a trace of viciousness.

Shippo gawked for a few seconds before realization dawned upon him. "You're bullying me!" He blurted out. He read about this type of human behaviour in one of the textbooks before. No wonder the guy was so rude and kept on asking him for money. It was all because this was part of the bullying behaviour. Ah~ now he understood.

"So what if we are?" The young man snapped. He grabbed Shippo and lifted him up by his front collar. "Look, brat, if you want it easy, just hand over your money. I know kids like you are rich these days. If you want this the hard way, don't say I didn't warn you, it'll get really nasty with me and my pals here – What the hell are you staring at? Get lost or I'll deal with you too!!!" Realizing that a few people had gathered around and were watching, the man turned his head and barked at them.

The spectators dispersed quickly like a flock of frightened chickens.

Satisfied, the man turned back to Shippo, a smirk on his face. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the hard way. As I was saying, if you want it the hard way, me and my pals here will – "

"Go to hell!!!"

The man was interrupted as a green lime landed squarely in his open mouth.

Having accidentally bitten into it, he gargled at the sour taste, but the fruit was firmly stuck in his big mouth as he tossed Shippo aside and grabbed at his throat to try to spit it out.

His two companions turned to see a girl with long, dark hair glaring venomously at them. Their tense expressions softened. It was just a girl. They could take care of that with no problem.

Shippo's eyes widened. It was Kagome! He was cheering inside because she was the only, okay, one of the two only links to the human world that he was familiar with.

Without a second thought, he bounced towards her and hid behind her back.

Patting the child lightly on the shoulder to assure him that he would be all right, Kagome shifted her attention back onto the men in front of her. What should she do? She was obviously outnumbered and she only knew the most basics of self-defence, which probably wasn't enough to protect both the little boy and her. She supposed that she could always try to take out one of them first and then deal with the other two, but she didn't think that she could do it quick enough to not allow the other two to have time to react.

Shoot… she landed herself in a dilemma. She had acted without thinking again, but she couldn't stand to see the little boy getting pushed around and the passersby pretending that nothing wrong was happening in front of their eyes as they kept on walking.

"Well, little girl, want to come and play with us?" The geek with the red hair said in a mocking tone.

"Dream on, you bastards. Why can't you pick on someone your own size? You people are nothing but worthless crap and cowards who only dared to threaten those who are weaker than you. You're afraid to see what sort of cowering weaklings you actually are in front of people who are stronger than you."

"My, my, fiery, aren't you?" The man with earrings grinned lopsidedly. He licked his lips. "Definitely my type. Exactly the way I like my woman to be."

"Back off!" Kagome took a step back as the two men advanced towards her, while the bleached-haired man was still coughing on the side.

The men were sneering as they took another step closer……

"Move aside, heroes. You are blocking the way." A gruff voice sounded right by one of the men's ears as he felt a hand roughly pushing him aside.

"What's your problem kid? Can't you see that we're busy here? Stay out of it or I can't promise that you'll still have your pretty face intact by the time I'm through with you!" The man with earrings lashed out at the young teen who pushed him aside.

Inuyasha sighed. What the hell was this geek talking about? Stay out of what? Better not find out. He'd already had enough trouble minding his own business. Shrugging, he replied, "Look, man, you're blocking my way. If you'll so kindly step aside and let me pass through, I'll gladly leave you alone to whatever you were doing before."

"Yeah, yeah, just go." The man waved his hand.

Rolling his eyes, Inuyasha walked on, not even taking heed of the young girl and the little boy who seemed to be in trouble.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of tiny hands grabbing his left palm. He looked down to see the little boy holding on to him.

"Let go, kid." He frowned. What was wrong with this kid?

"Help," Shippo whispered and pleaded with his innocent puppy eyes. How could he let Inuyasha go when he was there right in front of him? Even in his human form, Shippo still had not forgotten his mission: to bring Inuyasha and Kagome together. This was one of another perfect scenarios described in the Idiot's Complete Guide to Becoming a Good Cupid. The boy had to save the girl before they fall in love! It would be good if Inuyasha could save him on the way too…

"Help?" His frown deepened. He glanced at the men and then back at the kid and the girl who was probably his sister and understood the situation. So that was what was happening here. Too bad. "Sorry, kid. I'm not a hero material. Afraid that I can't help you out here." He prepared to walk on.

However, the kid clung himself to him and wouldn't let go.

"Hey! Let go!" Inuyasha tried to pry the boy off of him, but he was keenly stuck onto him like an octopus.

"Look, Mr. Silver-Hair, are you going to get lost or what?" The earring man was getting impatient. He hated it when people interrupted his fun.

"Shut up! Can't you see I'm busy here?" Inuyasha responded as he desperately tried to push Shippo off.

A punch landed on Inuyasha's right cheek before he even had the chance to register what was happening. He fell to the ground from the impact and looked dazed.

"Nobody tells me to shut up. Don't forget, we're the ones giving order here." The earring man spat.

"Why you…!?" Wiping the trace of blood from the corner of his mouth, Inuyasha launched himself at him. Now that Shippo's hold had loosened when he fell, he was free to move about.

Kagome stared wondrously at the scene in front of her. That was certainly an unexpected turn of event. At first, it seemed like the white-haired teen was just going to pretend that he didn't see what was happening and leaving them behind, but the next moment, he jumped on one of the rogues. Well, although the reason that he was fighting them was more like getting his own revenge than helping them out, Kagome was more or less relieved at not having to take on so many guys at once.

Inuyasha cursed as a third man jumped him from behind. He hadn't noticed the third person who was originally kneeling on the side coughing. Now that he had recovered, he joined in the fight. It was now one against three. Inuyasha wasn't faring well when he had one person on his back and two coming at him from the front. That was, until the eggs decided to join in the fight.

Each one of the ruffians clawed at his face as numerous eggs cracked and spluttered on his forehead. They backed off for a moment as they tried to wipe the sticky gooey material off of their face, all the while cussing loudly.

In the midst of the chaos, a hand grabbed Inuyasha and tugged.

"Run," he heard a light female voice say as he still tried to gaze out of the slit of his swelling left eye.

Led by a soft hand, Inuyasha blindly followed. He ran away from a fight.