SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG!!!!!! bows over and over I just kinda forgot about it. But I hope this extra-long (well, for me at least) chapter makes up for it! Well, have fun! R&R, and I might not take another 3 months to update again! .;;

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"You mean you didn't know?!" Sanosuke said incredulously. The two had gotten the young girl out of the well, and now were sitting on its rim, trying to figure out what had happened. But so far she had only sat perfectly still, hands folded in her lap, eyes wide in shock. And Sanosuke was starting to get a little bit annoyed.

"ANSWER ME GODDAMMIT!"

"Sano!" Kenshin waved a calming hand. "Please! We're trying to get information, not scare the poor girl out of her wits!" Then he turned back to the huddled figure beside him. "Please, we're trying to understand. Did you say 1995?"

The girl nodded blankly.

Kenshin waited for a further response, but none came. He cocked his head to the side. "Miss, how can you expect us to help you if you won't tell us anything about yourself?"

"Aw, who cares about her?" Sanosuke spat on the ground. "If she won't tell us anything, it's her own damn fault." Getting to his feet, he started to walk out of the woods.

"Sanosuke, please!" Kenshin scolded. "How can we expect her to answer if she's scared to death?"

"I'm not scared of that chicken man!" The girl shouted suddenly, drawing both men's attention back to her in a flash. "Trust me; I've seen a lot worse back in the feudal era-" She clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Did you just say the feudal era?" Sanosuke's interest had perked up again and he now looked her over with curiosity. "Wasn't that a few centuries ago?"

"Uh, did I say feudal era? Eheh, I meant…um…"

"I gotta hand it to ya kid, you're the WORST liar I've ever seen in my life." The former fighter for hire poked her in the side. The girl shrieked and fell backwards into the well. "Ticklish too," he added with a chuckle. "You alright missy?"

His only response was a clawed hand grasping the edge of the well.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Sano's bandaged hand lashed out at the one coming from the well. "It's a demon!"

"Damn right!" White hair flowed gracefully on the morning breeze as the demon poked his head out of the well. His yellow eyes glared at the rurouni and his friend as he cradled the girl close. "I'm a demon. So what are you gonna do about it?!"

"Well, technically you're only a half demon," the girl muttered, "not that it makes any difference."

"Shut it, Kagome! They don't need to know that!"

"So your name is Kagome, huh?" Sano settled down on his haunches. "Well I guess it's good to have a name to put with the face, right missy? My name is Sanosuke Sagara, former fighter for hire."

"That's nice," the demon said impatiently, dumping Kagome on the carpet of leaves. "Do you have any other useless information that you'd like to share?"

Sano ignored him, choosing instead to help Kagome to her feet. "Say, you're quite the looker. What are you doing hanging around with a stupid arrogant little hanyou? You could be selling--"

"--nothing!" Kenshin interrupted, bonking the former fighter for hire over the head with the hilt of his sword. The girl goggled at him, not quite sure she wanted to know how the spiky haired man was going to finish his sentence. "So you say you're from 1995? That's very interesting. This is only 1864, that it is. Not saying I don't believe you--" he added as she started to protest -- "I can tell you're not from around here just from your clothes. And you…uh…sir." he said, turning to Inuyasha. "You are most definitely at least some part demon. And as I heard this girl say…" Kenshin's brow furrowed as he pushed the unbelievable words past his lips. "…you're from feudal times?"

Before her friend could say something he would regret, Kagome nodded. "Yeah, that's right. This stupid little hairball is from the feudal times. His name is Inuyasha."

"Stupid…stupid little hairball?!" Inuyasha sputtered. "Girl, I swear you've got some kind of death wish." White hair swirled as he turned to face the two Meijians. "You actually BELIEVE us?!"

"Of course. Why shouldn't I?" Kenshin cocked his head. "You don't appear to be lying."

"Yeah, well, looks aren't everything, samurai." The hanyou averted his gaze and instead stared off into the woods.

Kagome glared at him. "Please don't pay any attention to him. Of course we're telling the truth." She breathed a sigh of relief, planting a hand over her heart. "God, I'm so glad someone actually believes me! When I first arrived in the Feudal Era, they friggen tied me up!"

"With good reason," Inuyasha put in with a snort.

The school girl inflated like a puffer fish, her face going red with fury. "You know what, Inuyasha?! I've had enough of you and your arrogance!" She shot a sly glance back at her new friends, who wore identical looks of puzzlement. "Watch me put him in his place. SIT, BOY!"

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" The beads around the hanyou's neck glowed an eerie purple, then sent him crashing to the forest floor in a heap.

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Sano sprang ten feet in the air, arms flailing wildly. His hand caught at a branch, and he used every ounce of his strength to pull himself atop it. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! THIS GIRL IS A WITCH! A WITCH! GOD FORSAKE ME, A WITCH!" He tried desperately to get higher into the tree.

Kagome looked hurt. "I'm not a witch!" she whined, frowning up at the man who now clung to the highest boughs of a pine. "Come on! You can't possibly think I'm a witch…"

"Speak for yourself," Inuyasha muttered, and promptly received a kick in the rear.

Kenshin put up his hands, an apologetic smile on his scarred face. "Please forgive Sanosuke-kun. He is…unused and adverse to the supernatural. But I'm sure that if you…EXPLAIN…this strange happening, he will gladly refrain from calling you by such a title."

"SHE'S A WITCH!" Sano cried.

"AM NOT!" Kagome screeched, stomping her foot in frustration. "AM NOT AM NOT AM NOT!"

"Feh. You're such a baby." Inuyasha climbed to his feet, brushing the dirt and rotting leaves from his kimono.

"Inuyasha, you tell him! Tell him I'm not a witch!" Kagome got right up in the hanyou's face, her big brown eyes welling up with tears. "Pleeeeeeeeease…? This is really hurting my feelings…"

Inuyasha's eyes went wide and he backed up a few paces. "Uhhh…"
"Please! I hate being called something so degrading." She sniffled and looked away.

"Okay okay okay! Just put those eyes away!" Rubbing his nose irritably, Inuyasha spun around and easily scaled the tree, settling onto his haunches a foot away from Sanosuke. "Look, you moron, if that girl was a witch, she'd have killed herself by now. Her stupidity knows no limits. And…well, look at her! Does she LOOK like a freakin' witch?!"

Sano looked down. "…yes," he squeaked.

"NOT FUNNY, INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed. "SI--"

Realizing what was about to occur, Kenshin quickly clamped a hand over the girl's mouth. "Please, don't do that right now. If you do, you'll never convince Sano-kun that you're not a witch."

Kagome's heart skipped a beat. The rurouni's hand smelled of the leather on the hilt of a sword, mixed with a scent that was…blood? Her eyes shifted to look up at his scarred face. The x mark was the only thing that met her gaze.

"Sano, please come down," Kenshin was saying. "You're being ridiculous. This girl is no witch and you know it." Letting his hand fall away from her mouth, he walked to the foot of the big pine. "I don't want to have to cut you down."

Inuyasha looked down at him and snorted. "A mere mortal couldn't cut through three spans of solid pine."

"Oh believe me, he can. Alright, I'm coming down. But if anything funny happens, I swear I'll knock her out before you can say Sengoku." Sano slipped silently from the branches, landing gracefully on the fallen leaves below. He shot a scornful look back up at the hanyou lounging on the branch. "Comin', fluffy?"

"F…FLUFFY?!" Inuyasha shrieked. Leaves flew everywhere as he landed heavily on the forest floor. In a flash the Tetsusaiga was drawn, the gigantic fang at its full strength. "SAY IT AGAIN AND I'LL--! Huh?!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Kenshin had closed the space between them and had the point of his reverse-blade pressed against the hanyou's throat. Yellow eyes that matched his own bored holes into his irises.

"Stand down," the rurouni commanded in a cold voice. "He meant nothing by it."

Inuyasha glared down the blade at him. "Feh." There was a quiet 'shh' as the Tetsusaiga was slipped back into its sheath.

Kenshin drew his sword away and turned to face the rest of the group, who were all looking on in silence. "Well then. There's no use standing around an old well. What do you say we go back to the Kamiya dojo and talk around a cup of tea?" A compelling smile was all that was left of the glare from only moments before.

"Yeah, ok. I'm up for that as long as Kaoru doesn't cook it." Sanosuke gathered up his little pile of bones from the well and started into the woods. "I'll lead the way."

"Thank you, Sano-kun. Shall we, then?" He offered Kagome his arm.

Kagome smirked at Inuyasha and took it. "By the way, I know that idiot's name is Sano, but I don't believe I ever caught yours," she said, ignoring the yellow eyes boring holes in her back.

"Oro? Oh. This one's name is Kenshin, that it is." He smiled at her.

She grinned back at him. "That's a great name. Nice to meet you, Kenshin."

Inuyasha looked away from the two. "They'll make a great couple," he muttered sarcastically. "God knows I don't care what that bitch does with her time. All I want to know is why the old well didn't connect with her time as it usually--huh?" A faint scent tickled his nose. "A…demon?" he looked over his shoulder at the well just in time to see the last of a demonic aura dissipate into nothing.