Disclaimer: The following chapter is entirely fictitious. Any similarity to the history of any person living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Except when noted otherwise in the cast and crew credits, all celebrities voices are impersonated and no celebrities have endorsed any aspect of this fic.

Chapter nine: How long has it been?

'-'

As the others continued the fight, it hit. A violent earthquake hit them all. It shook them so violently; the six of them hit the ground hard.

"Bloody- where is she!" She disappeared, leaving the rest of them dumbfounded.

'-'

Inu-Yasha and Ebiru's fight seized as the three of them shielded their eyes from the ray.

'What the fu- damn, she's gone!" Ebiru shrieked. Ebiru slammed her fist into the wall, and then disappeared.

"What was that about?" Kagome questioned.

"Who cares? The good thing is that I can get you out. He walked up to Kagome, and broke the chains. Kagome winced, but was glad that she was free. They ran to join the others.

'-'

"Where the hell did she go!" Kuro shouted, now in her human state.

'How the fuck should I know!" Ebiru screamed at her. "She just up and disappeared alright!"

"Damn! Where could she have gone?

"Gee, I don't know," Ebiru said extremely caustically. "Maybe she went somewhere she felt she felt safe? Or maybe, she went to get herself a cookie, why don't you try to figure that out!"

"There's no time for your damn sarcasm! We need her!"

"Why? To reverse the time polarities, why don't we just use that other person Kagome's blood? We have enough of it and besides, we can use her blood for our ultimate use, remember?"

Kuro stared at her, glaring. "I hate you."

"I know," she smiled. "But it's in a good way."

"There's no time for this. We might as well get this over with." She ran to a counter across the room, and grabbed the vile that sat there.

"Time to fast forward time. There's just one score I need to settle." And she disappeared.

'-'

They met up with each other, bartering their stories of confusion.

"She just left!"

"-Without any reason-"

"-Didn't even bother to finish what she started-"

Toku, who was just watching them, finally said something.

"Look, who cares if they left or not! They might be doing something that might cause some permanent damage to something out there!"

"She had a point," Miroku backed up.

"I don't care!" Shippo, who had been hiding a good chunk of the time, only to try to help, spoke up. "As long as this is over-"

"It's never over," Kagome whispered. All of them turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Sango asked.

"I'd like to know the same thing," Inu-Yasha stared.

"If anything, it's just beginning. A battle's not over until the last breath. And if the other has enough hatred or passion, they'll keep at it, even if they'll die trying. If anything, they might fight from the grave too. It'll never end until we can breathe a sigh of relief. They might have disappeared, but that doesn't mean they won't come back. They might just be plotting our own individual deaths. You never know."

"Kagome, what are you talking about?" Inu-Yasha raised his eyebrow.

"She's right,' Toku said. "She has a very well thought out idea. A battle's never over until you can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It's just like admitting something."

"Not what are you talking about?" Miroku asked.

"If you think something and like it, and admit it aloud, you can tell if it's true or not if you feel weird or normal. Say as an example, someone gives you an offer they claim you can't turn down. You take their word for it, thinking that it's true. You keep thinking it and finally you say, 'It's an offer I can't turn down.' If you listen to yourself and think 'That can't be right. It sounds weird,' then you know it's not true. Listen, Kagome's right. This battle's not ove-"

Another tremor hit, tossing them around like rag dolls. As the others tried to stable themselves, Kagome's image started to fade.

"Kagome, what the hell-." Inu-Yasha tried to grab her, but she was gone. Their surroundings were fading away too, leaving them in the cold darkness of the sengoku jidai.

'-'

Kagome rubbed her eyes, the harsh rays of sun hitting her eyelids. She looked outside to see a thin blanket of snow on the ground.

That can't be, she thought. It's May.

But that wasn't what her clock or calendar said. They said two totally different things: December 30th, 2004.

That can't be right! Kagome rushed downstairs.

"Good morning," her grandfather welcomed the Tokyo Shimbun open in front of him. His newspaper said the same thing her clock did.

"You certainly came in late," her mother said, cooking breakfast.

"It's no fair that she gets to go and fight demons," Souta complained.

"What's the date?" Kagome asked, ignoring what everyone said.

"It December 30th. Why?" her mother answered.

"Yeah, but what year, uh, again," Kagome cringed, not wanting to sound stupid.

"She spends so much time in the sengoku jidai, she forgot what year it was," her grandfather joked. "It's 2004."

2004

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And that's the end! YEAH WOOHOO! YEAH! DA BOMB MAN! ROCK OUT LOUD! I DON'T HAVE TO TYPE UP THIS CRAP ANYMORE! NOT THAT ANYONE CARED! BUT WHO CARES NOW? IT'S OVER NOW! SEEYA! IF YOU NEED ME, I'LL BE WRITING MY DP FIC! SIGNING OFF! WOOHOO!