Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and them. I've gotten over it.

Chapter 3: Homecoming

It seemed to take the sun a few days longer to rise than normal. I had gone though a night of pure torture answering Sess's endless questions. He asked about things that I couldn't even remember. For example, he asked me what was in my backpack. Easy, huh? No. I could remember basic things, like my fan fics, keys and cell phone. (We aren't supposed to bring cell phones to school, but what does the school board know?) But when he kept asking me what else was in my backpack, I almost had a breakdown. Fortunately for him, I think he noticed this. Not all of the questions were difficult- some were extremely easy, like where I came from. I told him all about my life, whether he wanted to hear it or not. Though why he asked me all these questions, I have no clue.

Sess only quit asking me questions when the sun rose, and only then because of the deal we had made. I had a feeling that he could go on forever, and I was pretty sure he was going to continue once –if- I got back.

After he finally stopped interrogating me, I stood up. I was ready to leave. Sess wasn't quite ready, though. Instead, he told me to sit down again. Once I had, he showed me a pendant with a symbol on it. The symbol was fire and ice twisted together forming a five-pointed star. It was very petty. And shiny. Then, he took out another pendant identical to the first one.

"This is the sign of the fire and ice masters. An old prophecy tells of the arrival of two powerful demons- one controlling ice, one controlling fire- from another dimension. They balance each other perfectly, and therefore, as the prophecy states, the only two who can prevent the destruction of the world when the time comes."

"So?" I said, rolling my eyes in annoyance.

"I believe you are the ice demon," Sess replied coolly.

I just sat there, mouth hanging wide open. Finding out that I'm an ice demon, a –powerful- one at that, didn't do my poor, overworked brain any good what-so-ever. After a few seconds with my mouth open, I realized it and closed my jaw. Quickly regaining composure, I stood up.

"Okay, well, take me home now," I ordered.

"Why do you insist on going home?" he inquired.

"Because I left my glasses there, and I can't see my hand in front of my face without them."

"Apparently you saw that yokai in front of your face when you killed it."

I narrowed my eyes at Sess. He knew what I meant, so why did he have to be such an ass about it? "I hate you," I said through gritted teeth.

"And I you," he agreed while smiling coldly. "Very well. Follow me." With that, Sess walked out of the cave. I, after a debate about whether I should follow or not, decided that being stubborn would only hurt me and ran to catch up with him. I was about to go home- I couldn't worry about insulting the guy right then.

The place where I'd landed was quite a long way from the cave. About two miles would be my estimate. Now, that wouldn't seem like a long distance by car, but we were walking. Plus, Sess was going at a back-breaking pace. I didn't complain, though- I would NOT give him the satisfaction of knowing I was weak. I would prove to him that I was strong. It really sucks that I'm not.

It took every ounce of will power I possessed not to collapse on the ground when we finally reached the site. It looked blurry for the most part, but otherwise still the same. The pond was still there, but the ice had melted. Thank Kami- it would have been extremely weird if it was still frozen.

Everything seemed great. I was all too ready to return home. Okay. I got here by falling of a cliff. A cliff.

"There's no cliff here!" I exclaimed, scared to death that I wouldn't be able to go home.

"No, there isn't. This is a problem," Sess replied.

I looked at him as if he were insane. "OF COURSE THIS IS A PROBLEM! HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GET HOME!" I yelled. At that moment, I got one of those idea things.

Before Sess had a chance to respond to my outburst, I started walking towards the pond. It was the only thing nearby that wasn't flat and grassy. I turned around to face Sess and said," If this works, se you tomorrow." Then I jumped into the water.

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This time, I landed in a tree. That may sound better than the ground, but it wasn't. The distance of a few feet doesn't make much difference when you're coming from the altitude I was. Plus, slamming into a thick, hard tree branch hurts, for those who haven't experienced that particular event. And, after hitting the tree, I still continued my descent to the ground.

It took me a few minutes to get up. My whole body hurt from the traveling, since there was no Sesshoumaru to break my fall. After a nice, relaxing rest, I forced myself to rise. I wanted to hurry and get back to the Inuyasha world, which was weird. I had been in a rush to get back home. I guess I'd undergone a change of heart.

When I left the forest, I found my backpack in the exact same spot I had put it when I went to investigate the sound. Picking it up, I started running. There was one person I had to inform of my adventures, and it wasn't Valen.

A few minutes later I arrived at Keia's house, which was close to the school. Her mom's van wasn't in the driveway, which was good news. I wasn't in the mood to deal with adults just then. I was barely in the mood to deal with my friends.

I walked to the back door that led to the computer room, where I knew Keia would be. She's addicted to her computer like I'm addicted to Inuyasha. I hesitantly stepped up to the door and prepared to knock. I hoped that she would believe me.

"Kariko? What are you doing here?" Keia asked as she opened the door.

"It's a long story. But first," I said, digging in my backpack, "is this." I handed her the Yu Yu Hakusho movie with a smile on my face.

"Uh, thanks," she replied, taking the movie.

"Sit," I ordered as I walked in the house. She sat. I guess you don't necessarily have to be Kagome to make that command work.

I also sat down and took a deep breath. Then, I told her my story. It didn't take too long, but I described every little detail and added a few things, so my throat was really sore when I finally finished. All this time while I was telling her things, Keia sat with her eyes wide and her mouth open. She knew I wasn't lying- I would never joke about something like this. When I finished, her expression quickly changed from complete awe to anger.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner! You could have come back sooner, ya know. I can't believe you didn't. And if I had walked home with you like we'd planned, I would have gotten to go there too!" she yelled in my face. Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "Is this Sesshoumaru guy cute? I mean, is he almost as cute as Yoko Kurama?"

"I did the best I could! I was only there for one night, so I didn't have enough time to come back. And yes, Sess is pretty cute, though not as hot as Yoko. And definitely not..."

"Cuter than Inuyasha. I know," Keia finished, smiling. I had only said that phrase a million times. I had good reason to, though. –Nobody- was as hot as my Inuyasha.

"So who do you think the fire demon might be?" she asked while fingering the silver pendant Sess had given me before I left.

I briefly considered that it could be Keia since she is obsessed with fire, but dismissed the thought as I remembered the vision I'd had last night.

"Valen. Remember that vision I told you about? In it, I was telling her to jump, like I wanted her to follow me through the portal-thingy. She's probably the other prophesized demon," I replied.

"So are you going to get her like you did in the vision?" Keia wondered.

"Yeah. It seemed to work fine in the dream. I guess I must have rung the doorbell, but she wasn't able to hear because she was getting ready to watch Inuyasha. That's when I went to the backyard." I slowly pieced together this puzzle.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Can you tell my mom that I'm okay and not to worry too much? I'm going to get my glasses when she's not home. I just can't put up with her right now."

"Sure. Will you come back and visit soon?" she asked.

"I'll try. It might not be easy, though. I honestly don't know what's going to happen," I said.

"You're not coming to school on Monday, are you?' Keia guessed.

"N...wait. Yes., I think I will. It might be a little fun," I decided. Me and my new ice powers were going to have some fun.

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Now, at my front door, I started getting second thoughts. My mom's van wasn't in the parking lot, which meant that she was probably somewhere with my aunt Karen. I hoped they weren't shopping- that would be –extremely- inconsiderate of her. The only daughter she ever had goes missing and all she can think about is spending money. Some mom. Anyway, I didn't want to go in for fear of not being able to leave again. I would go to school on Monday, but then disappear for who knows how long.

Pushing those negative thoughts out of my head, I unlocked the door and stepped in. The apartment looked like it always did, and nothing felt different. The floor still sported the stain from when I had spilt ravioli on it, and the counter was still littered with my mom's bills and junk. It just didn't seem like I had spent a day in an –anime- world. So, I went to the kitchen. Who knew how long it would be until I got another halfway decent meal.

While the pizza was cooking, I went to my room. The first thing I did was look for my glasses. It took me a few minutes to locate them, but I did. When I realized that I could see better without them on, I decided to get out my lens cleaner. That really helped.

After that particular task was accomplished, I started packing. If I was going to travel to the anime world again, I would need a few things. In my backpack, I put the following items: a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, razor, fan fics, book, my digital camera, and a notebook for whatever. I didn't trust some of the things from the feudal era, like soap. I could not take any chances. My camera was for, well, vacation photos. This was the best trip I'd ever gone on.

When I finished eating the pizza, I took one last look around my apartment and left. It was only 2:00, so I had a good nine hours left before I had to be at Valen's house. I went to see the ducks.

At my apartment, there is a pond in the very center of it. In the cemetery next to my apartment, there are three ponds. I went to the smallest one where nobody ever goes. Val and I discovered it by accident. One day we were just walking along the street in the cemetery, and she wanted to go back to my apartment. I told her no, because there was another pond close to us. At that time, I hadn't known this pond existed, so it was kind of cool. Anyway, I went back to this water for one reason- it was time to conduct an experiment or two.

I climbed down the rocks on the side of the pond and stopped. Carefully, I stepped onto the water. Just like before, it froze. I walked about fifteen feet from the land, then turned around. As I walked back, I made the ice melt behind me. Sitting down, I touched the water with my hand. I had wondered if the water would freeze when I did this. I thought it would, and I was right.

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The light was on in Val's mom's room. I stood in her backyard with a rock in my hand. Time to make the vision become reality. I had walked over to her house around 9:00, according to my watch. The watch now said it was fifteen seconds until Inuyasha.

I flung the rock as hard as I could at the window. Any second now, Valen would open it. She would really be surprised to see me.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, baka!' I yelled back, lie in the dream.

"What are you doing?!" she asked.

I decided that telling her to jump was a truly idiotic thing to do, so I skipped ahead to the last part. "Let me in and I'll explain."

I saw her leave the window, so I ran around to the front door. In a few seconds, she opened the door.

"What's up?" she asked, sitting down on the couch in her living room.

"You're never going to believe it in a million years, but I swear on Inuyasha that it's true," I swore, using the only promise she would believe. I then launched into a detailed version of my story, and acted out everything. Of course, acting out the part where I hit my head on a rock wasn't very smart. I even told her about the visions, and how I thought she was the fire demon. When I finished, she asked to see the pendants. I took them out of my pack and handed one to her.

"Wow, she breathed as she examined the pendant. Then, she walked to the computer room and brought out leather cord, She proceeded to fashion a chain out of it for the pendant, because the medallion had a hole just big enough in it.

"Here," she said, handing the leather to me. "We need to make sure these don't get lost. They seem somewhat important."

While making my own cord, I wondered how in the world she was taking this news so calmly. –I- was supposed to be the sane one, and Valen was the crazy-insane-psychopathic one. I guess she was just shocked by it all.

"So, when are we leaving?" she inquired.

"Monday morning. I want to go to school one last time," I told her.

"Ohhh...I see," she said, noticing the evil tone in my voice. "When do I get my powers?"

"I think that going through the portal activated mine, so it might be the same for you."

"Oh," Valen replied, looking down. I could tell that she was disappointed because she wouldn't be able to use her fire power at school too. "Anyway, where are you going to stay till then?"

"Sleepover, anyone?" I replied, grinning.

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Monday morning came all too soon. Val and I had done nothing but pointless fun stuff that entire weekend, because who knew how long it would be until we were able to again. It was hard hiding from her parents, but I managed. In fact, it was kind of exiting, the whole hiding thing. To me, at least. That's why I was sad on Monday. Still, I was anxious to wreak havoc on my last day at Pontiac Jr. High.

I woke up at 5:00 since I had to walk to school. I borrowed some of Val's clothes to wear, and was out of there in thirty minutes. Fortunately for me, Valen lives right on the border of Swansea, so I didn't have to walk –that- far. While walking to school, I prayed that Keia had spoken to my mom before she had a chance to call the school.

Keia had succeeded. When I arrived at school, twenty minutes late, the secretary acted perfectly normal. I let out an inward sigh of relief.

Nothing unusual happened until third hour. I have English then, and the second most annoying person ever- Brandon- sits right behind me. While I'm trying to work, he pokes me –and- hits me in the back. He won't stop. Well, now he was definitely going to pay.

That day, as he was walking by my desk, he grabbed my pencil out of my hand. Then, he didn't give it back, but just stood there.

"Give.That.Back," I said in my evil voice.

Brandon just kept ignoring me. I, needless to say, was very annoyed at the baka. Then, I wondered if floors would freeze as easily as water. Might as well give it a try.

He was only a foot away from me, so nobody would have been able to see unless they were staring intently at my feet. I called on my power and made the floor ice over. Not very much, just enough to reach were Brandon was standing. When he slipped and fell flat on his face, I was one of the people laughing hysterically. Then, I called the ice back so it looked like an accident.

Next hour, I went to PE. I decided to do something mean and evil to Rod. I didn't like him for various reasons. For one, he's a hentai, and he's always bugging me. Not for long. Mwahaha.

We were playing basketball indoors since it the students from William Holliday were using the track. Mrs. Walsh had gone to the office to check something out, so I went and leaned against the basket. I then used my powers to form a ring of ice around the inside of the hoop. When Rod shot the ball, it got stuck. Perfect.

Naturally, everyone was wondering what had happened. Except Keia, who was trying not to look too suspicious, since she was in on the whole thing.

"Why don't you try shooting another ball to force it out?" My fellow conspirator suggested innocently.

Rod went to get another ball. While he was gone, I spread the ice from the hoop to the basketball. When he came back and shot the new ball, I froze it to the other one. Rod, of course, cursed and stood under the hoop.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," he said as he looked up. Then, all of a sudden, he looked at me.

"You did something," he accused.

I shrugged my shoulders and called the ice back. When I did, the first basketball dropped and hit Rod on the top of the head. Then when he looked up to see what hit him, the second one dropped and hit him in the face. 'These new powers are so much fun,' I thought between laughs.

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"So this is the cliff?" Val asked as she looked down nervously.

"Yup," I replied. I had my backpack on with the straps tied around my waist. Valen had done the same. We had walked to her house after school, and she left a note explaining things to her parents. Man, would they be surprised. Then, we walked her. I didn't know if jumping from a window or something would have the same results, or land us in the right place, so we just came to the good ole cliff.

"I'm ready," she stated simply.

I nodded and took a deep breath. It was scarier the second time, since the first time was a complete accident. We had to do it, though. I couldn't. I took a step back and froze. Valen got behind me, and I thought she had the same thoughts. Until she pushed me.