Liger003 ~ Hey! Hello! Guess what! I got Inu-Yasha episodes 1-92 on DVD! ( They are in Japanese and subtitled in English! I am so happy! Unfortunately, though, I spent a lot of money on them and now I am broke (as if I wasn't before, but I am even more broke now!):'{ . . . *sniff* . . . but anyway! I can't wait until they arrive! YEA! Good-Bye terrible Cartoon Network Dubbings! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (I didn't watch them much anyway, I read the English comics. I have up to twelve, I'd get them all, but I can't read Japanese, yet anyway, I know a little. That is where my English to Japanese dictionary comes in! But I have to wait until May until thirteen comes out in English . . .) Oh, I know that I am just rambling, but I'm happy! So . . . I'll just start writing now . . . Oh, and I guess it won't take the mouse Shippo. . . It hates me.

Disclaimer ~ I do not own Inu-Yasha and co.

Angel?

Chapter thirteen ~ Mouse to Worm to Shippo

"Hey, Grim." Silence looked over to her younger sister who was putting the Ramen into the pot.

"Yeah?"

"You know that Inu-Yasha can't stay, right? He has to go back. He can't stay in between life and death here with us."

Grim's body tensed. "Yes, I know. What about it?"

"Just, don't get to attached. I know that you like him. You can't hide it from me."

"I do not. I know that he has to leave and I am not going to stop him." Grim stirred the ramen with a frown on her face. She knew that he would have to leave, but she didn't want to think about it.

"Deny it all you want. Just remember, he is not staying."

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Kagome and Inu-Yasha sat in silence for a while after the reapers left. Kagome didn't know what to say. She just looked at the half demon who stared back at her. She knew she needed to break the silence so she said the first thing that came to mind. "We all missed you, Inu-Yasha."

Inu-Yasha was surprised at what she said, but he didn't show it. "Why would you miss me?" He wanted to know.

Kagome thought for a minute, how could he no understand why they missed him? "You're our friend, Inu-Yasha."

"Feh. I haven't done anything to be considered a friend."

"Yes, you have. You have saved our lives so many times we have lost count."

Inu-Yasha's ears pricked up at this. She was right. He never really knew why he saved their lives, he always just did. Was that what friends did? Saved each others lives? He wouldn't know, he never had any friends before.

He didn't answer so she asked her next question. "Inu-Yasha, you are really going to come back, right?" Her voice shook as she played with the hem of her skirt. "I don't know what we'd do if you didn't."

"Feh. I'm coming back, alright. Why would I want to spend more time being dead than I have to?" Inu-Yasha heard her sigh.

"Good." Was her only answer. Then he heard her sniff and he looked down at her. He couldn't see her eyes, her hair was covering them, but he was sure that she was crying.

"Kagome?" Inu-Yasha stood up and walked up over to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She started pulling on the hem of her skirt harder and he saw a drop of water hit it. She was crying.

"You don't normally cry over nothing. Well, sometimes you do, but not normally. " Not knowing what else to do, he put his hand on her shoulder.

She couldn't hold it back anymore. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and quickly jumped into his arms. "Oh, Inu-Yasha, I missed you so much."

Inu-Yasha was shocked but he hugged her back. He felt his shoulder getting wet, but he ignored it. "Kagome, it's going to be all right." (there's the fluff of the fic. Light fluff, but hey, could be worse.)

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Shippo followed Naraku through the maze of a castle. He was going to go crazy. He had to be careful. Not only because Naraku could easily squish him if he was stepped on in his mouse form, but because he didn't want him to get suspicious of the little white mouse following him through his castle. Who knows what he could do. Would he just turn around and a laser beam pop out of his finger and barbeque him? He wasn't exactly sure what one was, but he saw some of Kagome's movies with laser beams and they didn't look to friendly.

He let out a sudden squeak as Naraku went into a room and shut the door behind him. Shippo ran as fast as his four little legs could carry him, which wasn't fast enough. 'Now why would he shut the door? It isn't like anyone is in this castle with him besides the others. None that I have seen anyway. That's weird. No servants, no people, nobody.' He thought and shivered. 'What'd he do? Give them all the day off? I don't like this.'

Shippo de-transformed and turned back to his regular form. It felt good to be untransformed. He hated being trapped in that small body that wasn't his. He knew that he had to sacrifice to help, though. Or else his friends would be stuck in here forever. He sighed and in a puff came out as a worm. He slinked under the door to the other side.

He was breathing hard when he came out the other side of the door. Even for a worm, that was a tight squeeze. He quickly found out that it was very hard for a worm to move without dirt.

Shippo glanced around quickly and made sure there was no Naraku around. He sighed in relief and transformed into the regular Shippo, who in a blink transformed back into a mouse. There was no way he was going to inch around this huge castle as a worm. The mouse was better, they were faster and they could hide better and less likely to be stepped on. (tell me, haven't you seen hundreds of dead-stepped on worms? But have you ever seen a dead mouse because it was stepped on? I didn't think so. This is what Shippo is thinking.)

He ran over to the wall where Naraku turned and poked his head over. Naraku just stood there . . . brushing his hair? What? Did he think that he had to look good to go see his prisoners. 'Dang it, Naraku!' Shippo thought, 'just take me to them!'

Finally, after what seemed hours, Naraku put the brush down and started over to a wall. He waved his hand in front of it and the wall seemed to open. There were steps going downward in the passage way. Shippo was at first shocked, but then Naraku started downward and Shippo squeaked as he realized the passage was beginning to close. He ran as fast as he little mouse legs could take him. He got within three feet to see the door on his tail, literally. It was threatening to run him over.

'Just a little further. Just a little further!' He let out a loud squeak as he made his final jump through the door. He was to late. It ran over his tail and he stood there, like an idiot, with his tail stuck under a door.

There were tears in poor Shippo's eyes as he looked back at his tail. He had to do his best not to scream, well, squeak really loud. The pain jolted through his body and he shook. He quickly transformed back to Shippo, which wasn't the brightest move, it just hurt more because he was bigger, he had more tail under the door. 'Don't scream, don't scream . . .' Shippo quickly changed into a worm. He sighed in relief as he was able to get his tail out. Just then Shippo screamed. It was a silent scream, worms don't make noise, so he didn't have to worry about screaming anymore, he had gotten it out of his system.

Shippo quickly turned back into a mouse and started down the stairs after Naraku. Poor Shippo, tripped and fell, though. So he more like fell to the bottom instead of walking. Once he fell to the bottom, he first noticed the pain in his back. He tried to shake it off, but he had no luck, so he twisted his body so that he could look around.

In the room were two jail-like cells. Inside were his three friends.

End of Chapter 13

Liger003 ~ I hoped you like it. If you did, please review, if you didn't (I wouldn't know why you have read this far but. . .) tell me what I need to change! Either way, review! Please?!