Forest: ((is running around in circles)) Chapter 10, chapter 10,chapter 10, chapter 10, chapter 10…
Hiei, Kurama, InuYasha, Sesshoumaru, and Yusuke: ((stare))
Forest: Chapter 10, chapter 10…….
Hiei: ((runs up and hits her with the flat of his sword)) Shut up! You've been doing that for the past hour.
Forest: ((rubs head)) Well you could have left if you wanted to!
Sesshomaru: That is untrue. You locked the door and the windows.
Forest: Oh yeah! Guess you'll have to stay here until I unlock them! Shame I couldn't keep everyone in here though…My room is, unfortunately, tiny.
InuYasha: ((Sitting on bed all curled up)) Tell me about it!
Forest: It ain't my fault! Jon got the big room downstairs…CURSE YOU BROTHER! Anyways, this chapter should indeed be fun to write… And more characters will indeed be added, including my OCs! But you don't get to hear about them….YET!MUAHAHAH!
Yusuke: Which one of you gave her the coffee?
Forest: My ma won't let me drink coffee in public…For reasons which are know to only a few unlucky people… Hmm…. Oh right! I know what I was gonna say! Wait…no I don't… ((Starts coughing a lot))
Kurama: ((looks worried)) Forest! Are you alright? ((Feels forehead)) Nope. You're sick. You need to lay down and rest!
Forest: Not until the chapter is finished! I will ((cough-hack)) complete this chapter! For my fans!
Hiei: You don't need to. You have no fans.
Forest: Too tired…. To complain…I'd like to thank my reviewers, before I die from…. The evil Neo-citron! THE HORROR! ((Hack)) ((cough))
InuYasha: Since she's too busy hackin' her lungs out, and since no one else wants to, I guess I'll do the disclaimer. ((Reads off a card)) Forest does not own Yu Yu Hakusho or InuYasha, but she does own her own characters, and if you use them in any way without her permission, she, and her demon/animal mafia will come to your house and cut you into little pieces. Ouch, a little protective aren't you?
Forest: Damn straight. ((cough)) I need to do something special for the end of the chapter, I can't be sick! NOOO!
Sesshomaru: Start the chapter.
Forest: No wait! ((Cough)) This chapter is dedicated to a girl at my school who unfortunately passed away after being in a car crash. ((Cough)) I am not going to put her name, as I do not have the consent of her parents, but I would like you all to send a prayer for her if you can.
Disembodied audience voices: Awww……
Forest: cough-hack)) Yeah…
Yusuke: That's really nice Forest.
Kurama: Yes. I'm sure she would be honored.
Hiei: Good…job…
Forest: LE GASP! ((Hack-cough-cough)) Hiei being nice? This really is a momentous occasion! ((Nudges Sesshomaru)) Now you can go. ((Cough))
Sesshomaru: Now you may commence your reading, though why you read this pathetic story is completely beyond me, and—
Forest: ((claps hand over his mouth)) You didn't hear that last part. ((Cough))
After supper, InuYasha and Forest watched some more TV. Forest put on her favorite shows, and InuYasha just watched with interest. The only time that a lot of questions came up was when they watched Crocodile Hunter.
"What is that thing?" InuYasha asked as he pointed a clawed finger at the large lizard on the TV screen, which was snapping at our favorite Australian's hands, feet, and occasionally face.
"It's a crocodile." Forest said simply. She was lying on the other couch with Deuce curled up around her feet and Emma on her lap.
"Whoa! What the hell is he doing! That guy is gonna get his arm chopped off!" the dog-boy exclaimed. Forest looked at the methods the Australian team used.
"They know what they're doing. I wish I could help people trying to help animals. You know, tell someone that could make a difference. I did tell someone once you know," she added to InuYasha who looked at her. "Yup. I thought the girl was my friend. Boy how wrong I was. She told my principal, who told my parents, who told a therapist, who would throw me in a mental hospital if I didn't lie. Oh well. Such is life." She sighed.
InuYasha felt a bit sad towards this girl. He normally would tell someone to suck it up and get on with life, but he just couldn't say it. Kagome and the others must be making him soft.
There came a tapping and fluttering at the window and they all looked over to see a large hawk with red tail feathers fluttering at the window.
"Friend of yours?" InuYasha asked as Forest got up and walked over to the patio window.
"Yup. InuYasha, this is HuntSong." She said as she opened up the window. "And vice-versa of course. Now, what did you see HuntSong?" she asked the red tail.
-I saw 3 people wearing strange cloth-furs, and one wearing a…Uniform was it? Well one wearing one of those, which is strange because we are now in the summer and there is no school. There were two females, and two males. All were young, but the youngest was a male, and had a tail and pointed ears. One female had a sort of cat with her, but it wasn't really a cat. I don't know what it is.—HuntSong said. Forest translated for InuYasha.
"That's them. How are they? Are they injured or do they have a place to stay?" He asked the hawk.
-The youngest met up with the older male, and found shelter, and the two females didn't meet up with anyone, though they found shelter as well. It is a warm night, and there will be no rain. They will be fine.—HuntSong reassured. Forest translated once again.
"So Shippo met up with Miroku? Good. That's one less thing to worry about." He said as he sunk back into the pillows. "And by tomorrow I should be able to walk around on my own. I'll find 'em." But at the same time he thought, And then what? We have no idea how to get back, or even if we can get back from here. And until we figure that out, we have no place to stay.
"I'll help you look tomorrow too. I know the city like the back of my hand. Which is actually pretty good considering all the scars it has on it." Forest said. She admired her many scars and added, "And you said there's five of you. You guys can stay here for about 2 weeks, until my parents come back if you need to, as long as you don't trash the place or anything." It was like she could hear the words in his mind and answered the questions that kept flashing through.
"Thank you. But why are you helping me? I'm a half breed and you don't even know me! How do you know I won't hurt you? And you haven't even met my friends yet." InuYasha asked, the confusion was showing in his eyes.
Forest smiled at him sadly. "You must not have had a lot of kindness in your life, to think that way. I'm helping you because it's the right thing to do. Anyone can see you're a good person, regardless of being a half demon. And if they haven't they must be nuts." At this InuYasha made a little half smile. "And about your friends. They ain't got no where to go right? Well, helping them is the right thing to do too. They must be good people too. I doubt you keep bad company. Now…Oh right! HuntSong let's get your dinner." She walked up to the stairs and the hawk flew onto her shoulder. She didn't flinch as his claws sank into her flesh. After all the times he had landed on her shoulder, she was used to it.
She had left the chicken she had promised HuntSong in the sink to thaw, but it still wasn't finished so she popped it in the microwave for five minutes, and it came out perfectly thawed, but still raw. Just the way HuntSong liked it.
The rest of the night was peaceful, with the only incident being a slip on some of Deuce's spilled water in the kitchen on Forest's part. They all watched TV until about 10 o'clock when InuYasha started falling asleep on the couch. Forest looked over sleepily at him.
"I think it's time to go to bed." She remarked, and InuYasha's head perked up.
"I wasn't sleeping." He lied, trying to look like he wasn't tired.
"Ok, I believe you. I'm tired though. How about we all just go to bed? Then we can get an early start tomorrow, and have a better chance of finding your friends early. Sound good?"
"Yeah whatever."
They went upstairs, all the animals included, and first went into Forest's room, where InuYasha would be sleeping.
He hesitated before getting into bed. "Where are you gonna sleep if I'm in your bed?"
"Go ahead and lay down. Sleep. My family is on vacation, I've got four beds plus a pull out couch to sleep on! I think I'm gonna sleep in my parents room because Jon's is all the way downstairs, and his room is too cold, and 'cause Alex's room stinks too much. You can probably smell it right now, 'cause even I can, although faintly. So…Yeah! Bathroom is across the hall from here, and if you need anything just yell. I'm usually a light sleeper, so I'll be up."
"Thanks again." InuYasha said as he settled under the covers.
"Have a good sleep. Make sure you rest well, and get that wound of yours healed!" Forest said as she left the room with her pajamas in hand, and her faithful companions following her. Tomorrow would be a busy day.
Next Morning
Forest woke up with Emma and Deuce snuggled on either side of her and HuntSong resting on the headboard of the large queen-sized bed. She stretched, careful not to wake her companions, and looked over at one of the alarm clocks on one of the bedside table (A/N. There's on either side for each parent…Get it? Whatever.) and saw it was 6:15. Perfect. She got up and Deuce and Emma woke, and rose their heads sleepily.
-Go back to sleep. I need to have a shower anyways.—She said silently. They dropped their heads as a response. She had a quick shower, making sure to wash her long hair well, as some dirt had got in it from the previous day's run, and came out smelling like Papaya and a hint of Kiwi (A/N That's what my shampoo smells like and I love it!). She changed into a pair of jeans and a dark blue ¾ shirt, then ran upstairs and brushed her hair and teeth. She put on her prayer bead bracelets and hemp necklace, while checking all her earrings, making sure none had fallen out during the night or in the shower. Nope, all were accounted for. She checked on InuYasha who was still sleeping peace fully and started giving the animals their morning meals. At the sound of flowing kibbles the cat and dog came running, and immediately dug into their food. It was gone in minutes and Deuce looked up at her and wagged her tail. –I want the wet stuff tonight. The dry stuff tastes like cardboard. —He complained. Forest laughed.
-And when have you eaten cardboard?—
-I was a stray you know. I did more things than you know in that time.—
-True true. I need you guys to stay home today while I look for InuYasha's people.—Forest started.
-What!—Both Emma and Deuce cried in her mind. She shook her head, trying to get out a feeling similar to ringing in your ears.
-Ouch. Keep it down you guys that hurt! I might have to do some flying today, and who knows what else. I don't want to have to watch you guys. Come on, it ain't that much of a loss. They're coming back here anyways, so don't sweat it.—She reassured them. –Breakfast for me now…How about…CHEERIOS-She yelled in her mind. Now it was the Emma and Deuce's turn to get the ringy feeling. –See how it feels?—She teased, getting out the big yellow box and pouring herself a bowl with milk. "Yummy." She said aloud crunching on her cereal. She heard footsteps upstairs. "You gonna be joining us InuYasha?" she yelled. He moved onto the landing and it was clear by the way that he walked that his wound was almost healed.
"Hey quit yelling I can hear ya!" he growled as he descended the stairs.
"Yeah yeah. Want some Cheerios? They're really good."
"Cheerios? What is it?" He said as he sat down in the chair and sniffed at the little round things in his bowl.
"It's a cereal, made from…grain? I dunno. Something like that. Just eat it. I'm too lazy to make anything else right now."
He took a bite and chewed a thoughtful look on his face. "This isn't bad." He admitted. He quickly finished the bowl and drained his glass of milk.
"Told ya."
"Whatever. Let's go, we've got four people to find today remember."
"Ok, but first I think we need to get you some street clothes."
InuYasha looked down at himself. He was still wearing the pajamas that Forest had given him. "What's wrong with these clothes?" he asked.
"Those are sleep clothes, not regular clothes. I'll go get you some normal stuff." Forest ascended up the stairs and went into her parents' room and dug in her father's clothes again, knowing exactly what she was looking for. Aha! There they were! A pair of baggy jeans her father wore last Halloween when he was a 'cool teenager'. If the sleep pants fit him, these would too. She dug around in the shirts and came out with a blood red one. Good enough. She ran back down the stairs and threw the clothes at him. She pointed to the bathroom. "Go put these on. It's what guys wear here. You wont fit in if you walk around with your other clothes on. Now go." She pushed him in.
"Ok, ok! Jeez are all girls this pushy?" she glared at him and shut the door. She whistled for Deuce.
-Do you mind getting HuntSong? I need him to show us where to look.—she asked as the Border collie cross came over and sat in front of her.
-Well I don't know, since you won't let us come with you.—he teased, with an amused sparkle in his eyes. She glared at him too.
-You're not coming! Holy fudge what is it with everyone today?—she grumbled as she walked back up the stairs and into her parents bedroom where HuntSong was still sleeping on the headboard. –Hey HuntSong wake up! We gotta get goin'!—she said to the hawk. He opened his eyes sleepily and looked at her.
-I love staying here overnight. It lets me get so much more rest not having to worry about that peregrine… Oh how I loathe him.—He trailed off as he flew over to her shoulder.
-Yeah I know. Come on, he's got to be finished by now.—
They went downstairs and InuYasha still wasn't out of the bathroom.
"Hey you finished or what?"
"Shut up I ain't comin' out! These clothes are stupid!"
"They are not! And you better come out or we're not gonna be able to get your friends! And if you don't come out I'll just break down the door. That door is pretty easy to break down!"
"Fine! You can't escape bossy women wherever you go!" InuYasha opened the door and stepped out, muttering something about women controlling his life.
"What the heck are you talking about! Those clothes look fine! Except you gotta pull your pants down more. Otherwise, everything looks good." Forest commented as she looked him over. Everything fit perfectly and under the T-shirt you could see hints of a finely toned upper body. InuYasha pulled down his pants a little bit, so now they were at least under his belly button. "Perfect. Hmm, for your ears though…Aha! Here!" she got a black baseball cap off of the hooks near the bathroom and put it on his head, first forwards, and then backwards. "Backwards looks better. Ok, and uh, we may need to go into a mall or the store or something, so we better get you some shoes."
"Shoes? I've never worn shoes in my life! And these pants are uncomfortable. They're too stiff. And how am I supposed to run or jump in them?"
"Sandals then. You won't even notice them. And about the pants, you'll get used to them. And you won't need to run or jump because today you are a normal human." She fitted him some sandals, grabbed her wallet and put on her own shoes. "Let's go!"
Now to the Detectives!
Kurama's alarm woke him up at 7:30 as always. He stretched and looked around his room, waiting for his mind to fully awaken. Today Koenma himself would be coming to see Forest, along with all the other members of the Spirit World team. He got up and had a five-minute shower, then brushed his long red hair while thinking.
'Koenma must know something special about this girl if he himself is coming to see her. He said someone else was at work here as well, but I wonder whom? Well, I should think they would show themselves today.' He looked in the mirror at his reflection and moved to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
-Fox open your window.—Hiei commanded from outside. Kurama held in a laugh.
-Hiei, you really should be more polite.—He teased as he opened up the window.
"Hn." Was all Hiei replied. He sat down on the unmade bed and stared out the window for a minute before stating, "Today we have to go to that girl's house again."
Kurama nodded. "Yes, and the others as well. We'll get them at about 11, because we said we would be there around 12-ish and we want Yusuke and Kuwabara to have a chance to wake up." Hiei continued to stare out the window.
"Would you like some breakfast Hiei?" Kurama asked after about 2 minutes of silence.
"Hn."
"You know that doesn't work anymore."
"Yeah…Fine. Breakfast."
They went downstairs and Kurama made some bacon and eggs for them both, which they ate in silence. Kurama didn't care, he knew it was all just an act on Hiei's part. They had been best friends for quite a while and though Hiei never willingly talked about his past, some things had slipped out, and Kurama also knew the tough life of living in demon world.
After breakfast Kurama cleaned up and Hiei sat on the couch and waited for Kurama, so he would turn on the TV. Hiei had no clue how half of the things Kurama had worked, so he didn't even try to work them anymore. Not after last time.
-Flashback…(sorry couldn't help it!)-
Kurama was in the shower when Hiei came in, and not wanting to disturb him, Hiei decided to try and make himself an omelet. He turned the heat on high and put the frying pan on, thinking how very easy it was. He tried to crack an egg into the pan and it shattered, causing some of the eggshell to fall in with the yolk. Hm, not so easy. But it would be fine. He had eaten worse things in his life. He looked around the kitchen for something to flip the egg over with and realized that in that short time it had already cooked and started to smoke. He looked at it with a raised eyebrow, and it suddenly burst into flame.
"That can't be good." He said, as he turned off the heat hurriedly. Kurama ran into the kitchen in his towel as he smelt the smoke.
"Hiei! Put out that fire!" he yelled as he ran around the kitchen trying to find the fire extinguisher. Hiei ran into the living room and came back with a pillow, which he used to beat at the fire. The pillow caught on fire too. Kurama ran to the sink and got a bucket from underneath, filling it with water. "Hurry Hiei bring it here!" he commanded. Hiei brought the burning pillow over and Kurama soaked it, and it turned into a soggy blackened mess. He poured the rest on what was left of the fried egg.
"Now that that's over." Kurama said with a sigh. Hiei looked at him.
"I'm still hungry." Hiei started, and Kurama glared daggers at him, and gave him a long speech on not touching things if he didn't know how to use them.
-End Flashback. -
Hiei gave a sigh as the painful memory filled his mind. Kurama sat in an armchair and turned on the TV.
"Which channel?"
"Do you think I care?"
"Fine. How about we see what's on the movie network? There's usually something on there." Kurama said. As he flipped over to those channels he saw that he was in fact wrong. (Kurama being wrong? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?) Shrugging, he turned it on to a British movie about goth punk British people in a band, having sex, taking drugs and swearing a lot.
"Well, they certainly use colorful language." Kurama remarked after a few inappropriate words were said. Actually in the whole sentence almost every word was a swear. "Maybe we should watch something else." He turned it onto some other various movies, some in different languages. "Why is there never anything on in the day time? In summer none-the-less. No wonder ratings are going down." Kurama joked as he channel surfed. Hiei remained silent, not knowing anything the fox was saying. "Ah! Lord of the Rings. You would like these movies Hiei. Lots of fighting." They watched some of the first movie, which Kurama said was good because then he would understand the others when he happened to watch them.
"Yeah whatever. Let's go somewhere I'm bored."
"Fine. I suppose you want to just wander the streets?"
"Do we ever do anything else?"
"Good point."
They headed out the door to wander around aimlessly until it was time to go wake up the other two detectives. Little did they know they were about to encounter something very abnormal in their aimless wandering (Yay for foreshadowing! Cough-hack Stupid cold!).
-Members of the Inu-gang…-
Miroku woke up from underneath the huge pine tree that had sheltered him and Shippo during the night. Some how, when they had jumped through the well, they didn't emerge on the other side.
He had awoken on someone's property, lying at the side of the house. None of the others were with him, nor anywhere near. Where was he? Why had they all been separated? He didn't know the answers to these questions, but he did know he had to try and find his friends before nightfall. By the time he had woken up it had to be mid afternoon. He wandered around, ignoring the stares he got from the people for his strange monk clothes, and staff. He thought the way they were dressed was odd, but he didn't stare…except if it was a beautiful girl in a miniskirt. There were so many girls walking around dressed like that and he couldn't decide which one to ask his usual question. So he asked whichever ones were closest to him. Basically, he thought he was in pervert heaven (You know those neighborhoods that are just filled to the brim with the skanky girls? That's basically where he is.). He wandered around, looking at some of the girls and receiving some rather rude comments from the more strong-minded ones. After getting several slaps from a group of girls, he decided to concentrate on the task at hand and find his friends…after asking that one beautiful girl a simple question…
"Excuse me miss?" He asked as he walked over to the girl. She had long black hair that stopped in the middle of her shoulder blades. She was slim, about 4'9 and had a light brown skin, showing her Filipino heritage. She turned to meet him and her eyes were a light icy blue, with thin pupils that most people found unusual.
"Yeah?" she asked casually, sticking her fingers in her black jeans. She was also wearing a black tank top over top of a hot pink collared T-shirt. He had on a chain necklace fashioned from a dog choke collar and another silver necklace with a gothic cross pendant as well as one that was a rune for ice.
"Well miss, I was simply wondering if you would do me the honor of bearing my child." The monk said. The girl looked at him in surprise, then yelled in his face, causing him to fall over.
"What the hell do you think I am! Some little slut that'll give it away to some random guy on the street? Jeez you stupid pervert!" Miroku scrambled up and she punched him in the nose, leaving him with a huge look of shock on his face and a bloody nose. "You need to learn some respect, you got that! Respect!" She walked away muttering about freaky perverts and how men needed to learn their place. Miroku got up again, and rubbed his nose reproachfully.
"Women in this era sure pack a punch, which ever one it is anyway. Too bad, she really was beautiful…" He picked up his staff and starting going on his way, suddenly realizing something about that girl's energy. 'She's a demon! Or at least a half demon. So there are demons in Kagome's time after all…' He looked back at her. She wasn't doing any harm, and she acted like a human, so he decided to let her be. Kagome had said there were no demons here, maybe she was wrong. Maybe there were none of the mindless demons that slayed people all the time, but the kind like InuYasha and Sesshoumaru, who could pass off as a human if it weren't for some of the more demon-ish traits like InuYasha's ears. Perhaps one day humans and demons could live together in peace. 'Why am I thinking such things? I must concentrate on finding the others.' He walked around the neighborhood, looking through all the faces, searching for the four faces he knew the most. He was worried about InuYasha, Sango, and most importantly Shippo. The young fox would most likely panic since he was separated from them all in this strange time and place, and wouldn't think to hide his fox tail or feet, or his pointed ears. Kagome, if this were indeed her time, would be fine. Looking at the sun he could tell he had maybe 2 or three hours before the sun went down.
He walked down the streets and around plazas, still trying to find some of the others without success. Now he was getting frustrated, as he had been searching for 3 hours and couldn't even find a sign that they were in this era with him.
"Hey Bobby! C'mere and look at this kid! He's got a tail!" A little boy who was carrying a wooden board with wheels on it ran over to another who was looking at something lying under a tree.
"What d'ya mean he has a- wait what the! It's gotta be a fake!"
"I dunno he's got demented looking feet too. And his ears are pointed."
"I'll try to get 'em off. Then we'll see." The little boy named Bobby bent down and started to pull on an unconscious Shippo's tail.
Miroku's eyes went wide and he ran over to the two boys. "Hey what do you kids think you're doing! Leave him alone!"
"Do you know this kid mister? We ain't never seen him before, and his ears and feet are messed up. And he's got a tail! What is he?" The first little boy whose name had not been stated said. Miroku thought up a lie and he thought it up quick. (A/N: So I've been watching the Grinch. What are you gonna do about it? Muahhaha!) Maybe humans just didn't know about demons in this era.
"Yes kids, I do know him. He was born with a severe deformity that made his ears and legs like that, and gave him that tail. He doesn't like to talk about it." The little kids nodded solemnly.
"Ok mister. If you know him maybe we should go then." The nameless little boy said. He turned to walk away but Bobby hesitated and gave the monk a questioning look before leaving. He shrugged and walked away. Miroku gave a sigh and bent down, looking over is young friend. He didn't seem injured at all, and Miroku shook him awake, quietly calling his name.
Shippo's eyes opened slowly and he looked around him, a slight look of shock on his face. He looked up and saw Miroku, but still looked confused. "Mir..oku? Where…? Are we…?" he stammered trying to sit up. "Where is…everyone? Wait where's Naraku!" He cried.
"Calm down Shippo. He's not here, we're in Kagome's time. I'm not sure where everyone is, but we'll find them." The monk soothed. Shippo calmed down quite a bit, but was still scared. "Now Shippo, it doesn't look like people know about demons in this time, so your tail, feet and ears are standing out. Do you think you could use your fox magic to disguise them? Make yourself look like a human?"
"I can try." The young fox offered. He pulled out a leaf from a hidden pocket and put it on his head, then changed his demonic features, seemingly becoming a young boy.
"Good! Ok, now we're gonna have to look for InuYasha and the others. Can you walk?"
"Can I sit on your shoulder?"
"Sure hop on up." As the fox jumped onto his shoulder, he didn't even feel the hidden fur. 'It's an illusion. I knew that was the specialty of their magic, but I didn't know that it was so effective. It's like nothing is there...' They straightened up and set out down the road once more.
They wandered around for a bit, then finally settled down under a huge pine tree on an abandoned plot of land. They would continue the search tomorrow.
-Next day-
Miroku woke as the sun rose, stretched and looked around, still a little sore from the battle with Naraku. None of the group had gotten away unscathed, and there were more people hurt than just their small group. Kaede had been there too, as well as Kouga, the remaining members of his pack Ginta and Hakkaku, Sesshomaru, Rin and Myoga. Myoga as usual, had run away, and no one knew where he went. Kaede had to stay in the village with Kouga and his wolves to make sure Naraku did not attempt to cross over to Kagome's time as well, and Kouga would jump through to warn them of any danger. The jewel shards in his legs would let him cross over the same as they all had, and their plan seemed fool proof. They would protect the shards of the sacred jewel in Kagome's time, and though InuYasha and Kouga did not like the plan much, but it was best to sit and wait it out.
'If Kouga goes through the well, he's going to be lost too! This plan really backfired…' Miroku thought as he got up andgently roused Shippo. "Hm?" the little fox said with a yawn. He too stretched and his stomach rumbled loudly. He looked down at it then up at Miroku. "Do we have any food Miroku?" he asked sleepily. Miroku shook his head.
"No I'm sorry Shippo. I know it must be tiring pretending to be a human and searching for the others, but we'll have to carry on for a little longer. Do you think you can do that?"
Shippo nodded and stood up. "Of course Miroku. You know I'm a strong demon, I can handle that."
"Good. Are you ready to go?" the monk stood up as well.
"Yes, lets go find Kagome."
And they wandered around aimlessly, eventually finding one of their allies. (Notice I didn't use the word friend.)
-Sango-
Sango woke up beside a small shack that was behind a big building. Her Hirakotsu was lying beside her, as was Kilala and her pack. She looked down at herself and realized she was still in her armor. She looked past the huge building, and saw all the people walking along, tons of them. They were all dressed in strange clothing, and it hit her. 'I must be in…Kagome's time…' She stood up slowly, still a little dizzy from being unconscious (A/N: Do you get dizzy after your unconscious? Seriously, cause I ain't got a clue.) Kilala mewed and looked up at her in concern as she swayed. "Don't worry Kilala I'm fine. Just a little dizzy. Are the others near by?" Kilala raised her head and sniffed the air, then shook her head. "I wonder where they are…Guess we'll just have to go look for them." She grabbed her Hirakotsu and her pack and set out from behind the building, and towards the crowd. Kilala in her smaller form jumped up on her shoulder, and they stepped into the crowd, though they didn't exactly blend in because of the large weapon strapped to Sango's back, and the strange clothes she was wearing. There was a pet-store nearby, so people were often seen with their pets, and Kilala looked like a strange breed of cat. She came out into the parking lot and gasped, ready to grab her Hirakotsu and fling it at the large metallic looking things that had gathered in the stone field. Most weren't moving, but the ones who did had glowing eyes. She then realized that people were inside the moving ones, and going to or coming out of the stationary cars, she remembered Kagome had told her that in this era they had horse-less carriages, and realized that must be what these things were. She looked inside the large building she was standing in front of, and saw it must be some kind of trading center. She took a quick look inside and nearly jumped out of her skin when the doors slid open by themselves. She wanted to see some of the things inside, but realized that it was not the right time (She has a sense of priority unlike a certain perverted monk…but hey, he caught on eventually right?) and started walking out of the black stone field, occasionally calling out the names of her lost comrades. In the end she would find shelter for the night in an old shed in an abandoned lot. (I have no imagination right now, so bear with me.) The next morning, she woke up at about 10 o'clock, and her and Kilala set out, trying to keep a steady pace despite the fact they were tired from battle, and hadn't eaten anything the day before. Now they were stuck in this strange place without their companions and no way to get back to where they belonged. "I think we should have stayed home Kilala." Sango muttered.
-Kagome-
Kagome awoke in the bushes in front of someone's house, and her first thought was: 'Why the heck am I in the bushes in front of someone's house?' (Wouldn't you be thinking that too?) She got up slowly, catching her hair in some branch on the way. "Oh…crap." She freed it, and stood up, taking in her surroundings, when her second thought came to her. 'Why aren't I in the well? Did something go wrong?'
"Hey! What are you doing there?" A man yelled in English as he walked around from the side of the house.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Kagome answered apologetically, in perfect English.
The man looked at her with a worried expression. "Uh, sure. Do you need some help or something?" He looked at her dirty and bloody clothes. (Remember they were in a fight with Naraku before they went down the well.)
She looked down at them too. "Oh, I'm fine. Um, can you tell me where I am?"
"You don't remember?"
"You could say that."
"Oh, well you're in Dunston Ontario, Canada. This is 86 Eastwick drive, near the Dunston mall. Do you need some help getting somewhere?"
"Can you tell me which way the mall is?" Kagome asked.
"Sure, it's about 2 blocks that way." The man pointed over to the east. "You sure you don't need anymore help? I'll give you a drive if you wait a minute."
Kagome shook her head. "I should be fine now. Thank you very much." She turned and walked away. 'How can I find them? They must be so lost, so confused…Just like me. Why did the well send us here? To Canada?' She walked about a block before she realized that she wouldn't get anywhere because she had no idea where she was going. 'Oh, I have no idea where I'm going…and I need to find InuYasha and the others…What do I do? How do I find them…' Her jewel shards under her shirt began to glow. 'Duh! The jewel shards! Of course! They each have a piece, and I just need to find that piece to find them!' She concentrated, but barely even had to before she sensed the power of the jewel. She smirked and set out in one of the 3 directions of the jewel. 'I can sense all the shards they had. Tracking them down is gonna be easy…'
-InuYasha and Forest..-
"Will you slow down. You don't even know where you're going!"
"All I need is a
scent! And I ain't even going fast, you're too slow!"
"I
am not! And HuntSong can find them; you just have to be patient! I
can get the crows to look if you want too."
"I don't need those
stupid birds to look for me! I can find them myself!"
"No you
can't you're still injured. And they heard that. You may want to
pick a different group of animals to insult. Birds are pretty rude."
People stopped to look at the two seemingly human teens yelling at each other in the streets. InuYasha of course stood out with his long white hair, claws and fangs, and the fact he insisted on carrying his sword made him stand out even more. Forest looked normal, but was drawing just as much attention to herself by yelling at him. Several crows cawed at InuYasha, causing Forest to laugh at the insults they were shouting.
"What's so funny?" InuYasha questioned.
Forest laughed. "The crows. They have very colorful language. Believe me, you wouldn't want to hear half the stuff they're yelling at you."
"Haha. I'm not scared of some dumb birds." He glared at a crow sitting on a lamppost.
-Can I peck him? Right in the eyes. Teach him to have some respect. —The crow said. Several others cawed in agreement.
-Better not. He's already injured, it wouldn't be a fair fight. —Forest said silently. Crows were probably some of the most proud and brave birds around. They were smart, but their pride sometimes clouded their judgement. It was best to steer them away from a fight in this way, by persuading them, and complimenting them. —But I'm sure you could win anyway. He's a weakling, and just by looking at you, I can tell you're so strong. —
The crow puffed up his feathers with pride. –I wouldn't want to fight an unfair fight. I'll let him go, just this once. —
-Thank you—
They looked around a bit, but InuYasha still hadn't picked up any of his companions' scents. Forest went over beside a tree and HuntSong landed on her outstretched arm. "So, did you find them?"
-Yes. —The hawk replied while cleaning his flight feathers. –I found them all. Ask him which one he wants to find first. —
"HuntSong said he found them all, and to ask you which one you want to find first." Forest translated for the hanyou, who was still trying to pick up someone's scent.
"Damnit. Why can't I pick up one of their scents? Stupid wind! It's blowing all these weird scents all over the place! Did you say something?" He looked over at Forest again, who face vaulted.
"Weren't you listening to anything I said?" she repeated what HuntSong said again.
"He's found all of them? What about a girl in a short skirt with long black hair?"
Forest listened for a moment. "Yes, he found all of them. Do you want to find her first?"
'Kagome…' "Yes, take me to her."
"Ok, HuntSong, lead
the way." She threw the hawk out into the air where he soared on
the thermals, steering himself over towards where Kagome was.
InuYasha walked faster and faster over towards where HuntSong finally
started spiraling in place, occasionally moving forwards a bit. "Slow
down will ya!" Forest was almost running after him.
"No, you
hurry up!"
Forest rolled her eyes at him. "You act like a child." He let that one slip and just kept going, sniffing the air until the wind blew just right and he caught her scent.
"I got it! That's Kagome's scent I know it!" He walked even faster over towards her, almost breaking out in a run. Forest changed her muscles into a cheetah's so she could catch up to him in a few strides and grabbed the back of his shirt, so he stopped.
"Take it easy turbine! She ain't going nowhere, and this isn't like Toronto where you can't walk around alone. I got two words for ya. Slow down."
InuYasha just stared at her, having almost no idea what she just said. "Huh?"
"You are a human today, not a demon. No running around with your nose in the air."
"Feh." InuYasha once again started to walk away, though not as fast as he was before. Forest sighed and went to catch up, noticing that HuntSong was moving faster towards them.
-Hey HuntSong, what is she doing?—
-She's running towards you. She's going to turn the corner in about 30 seconds…-The hawk replied. Forest looked at the corner, silently counting down the seconds. Right on time, a girl in a school uniform with a really short skirt turned the corner. She stopped, and looked at the half-breed in front of Forest.
"InuYasha!"
"Kagome!" InuYasha forgot all about being human and ran as fast as he could to Kagome. She threw herself into his arms and he hugged her tight.
"InuYasha…I was so worried…The well it didn't…"
"I know. I know…" They stood there for a moment, just silently hugging each other.
"Do you know where the others are?" Kagome asked.
"No. I can't even pick up their scents. This damn wind is weird, and it's carrying all the other smells around. But you can sense their jewel shards can't you?"
Kagome nodded. "It's how I found you." She pulled herself away and stared at his clothes. "Where did you get those? You didn't steal them did you?" She seemed to notice Forest for the first time, who was standing a little ways behind InuYasha, with HuntSong on her shoulder.
"Um, hi. I gave him the clothes. Me an' my dog found him when we were going for a walk and I invited him to my house."
"Thank you. Thank you so much. My name is Kagome Higurashi."
"Michelle Harding. You can call me Forest though. This is HuntSong." She jerked her head at the hawk who nodded, surprising the girl.
"I really can't thank you enough. Most people are surprised at InuYasha's…Uniqueness."
"I don't know why, but I wasn't really… I mean I was, but then again, I'm not that normal myself. I'll explain later I suppose. I can tell you aren't normal either Kagome." Forest added.
That surprised the young Miko. "You could say that I suppose."
"How about we look for the others? I feel sorry for any girls who have gone across Miroku's path." InuYasha suggested. The two girls nodded. "Ok then, lead the way Kagome."
"HuntSong, you can go now if you want. I guess Kagome has someway of finding them." Forest said.
-I don't want to miss any of this.—The red-tail replied. –It should be interesting.—
-Kurama and Hiei.-
Kurama and Hiei had been wandering for 15 minutes, and all they had managed to do was walk around Kurama's block 3 times, then go to the park that held the tree Hiei slept in.
"You really should get an apartment Hiei. I'm sure we could convince Koenma to get you one." Kurama said as they stood under Hiei's favorite tree.
"And why would I want an apartment?" Hiei questioned.
Kurama shrugged. "It makes sense. You have somewhere to stay when it's cold in the winter, or when it's raining. You won't have to come over to my house and I won't have to make excuses to my mother for letting you stay over."
Hiei scoffed, "Hn. I don't need anything like that." He snickered and added, "Momma's boy."
Kurama frowned. "You've been around Yusuke too much."
"No I haven't." He paused, as if listening to something. "Look over there fox."
Kurama turned, and saw a young guy, around 17 with short hair pulled back into a small ponytail, who was wearing black and purple monk robes. On his shoulder was a child, also dressed strangely, with a fur vest on and a bow on top of his head. He sniffed the air, and although in his human form of Shuichi Minnamino his demon senses were weaker, he could still tell that the young boy was a kitsune.
"A kit. That's interesting. And a monk."
"Yes. Look at them. They're completely lost." It was true, they were looking around and talking to each other quietly.
"Do you think they found a hole in the barrier?" Kurama asked quietly.
Hiei snorted. "Hn. If there was a hole I would have known about it, and taken it back to the Makai. Besides, how many humans have survived in the Makai before? Not including some demons mates of course."
"Let's try to stay on topic. I'm going to go over and talk to them." Kurama walked over to the monk and waved in greeting. "Hello, you two look lost. I'm Shuichi Minnamino." The monk looked at him warily(hey too many people have Miroku hit on Kurama, and it ain't gonna happen here!)
"Yes I'm afraid we are. We're looking for our friends and we got separated. My name is Miroku, and this is Shippo."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both. I see you are a monk." Kurama remarked. Miroku nodded. "It's a strange thing to see a Buddhist monk in Canada."
Miroku didn't answer. He was watching Hiei, who had come up very quickly behind Kurama to glare at the other two with his blood red eyes.
"And this is?" Miroku said to Kurama while looking at Hiei. Hiei 'hned' and said nothing, causing Kurama to sigh.
"This is Hiei." Hiei glared some more, just to make an impression, and crossed his arms over his chest. Miroku saw when he moved the outline of a katana under his cloak. Miroku gave him a good look over again, sensing his aura.
'Another demon. And with a sword as well. He is someone to look out for, that's for sure.' "It's nice to meet you Hiei." He said aloud. Hiei 'hned' again. Shippo's stomach growled.
"I'm so hungry." He moaned, and fell off Miroku's shoulder onto the ground.
"Shippo! Are you alright? Hang in there Shippo!"
Kurama looked at the young kit in concern. "He hasn't eaten today has he?"
Miroku shook his head. "Or yesterday. Neither have I. Now if you excuse us, the faster we find our friends the better." He picked up Shippo and made a move to leave, but stopped when Hiei spoke.
"Tell the kit to drop his illusion." Miroku stared. "You heard me. It is wasting the little bit of strength he has left."
Miroku dropped his head close to Shippo's ear. "Drop your disguise Shippo. You need to rest." He lifted his head up and looked at the two demons. "Who are you really and what do you want?" He asked.
Kurama raised his hands. "I will not hurt you, that I can assure you. I just want to help."
Miroku glared. "You know too much demon. I do not wish to be pulled into a fight, but if that's what you want, that's what you'll get." He directed that toward Hiei, who pulled his katana from its sheath under his cloak and held it in front of him.
"I won't go easy on you monk." Hiei warned.
Miroku put Shippo safely on the ground and held his staff in front of him. "Neither will I."
"Now now, no one here needs to fight. Hiei knock it off." Kurama said as he attempted to break up the fight in progress.
The two sped away, running down the park. Hiei was surprised by the monk's speed, though he didn't show it. He had extremely good fighting skills for a monk, and blocked all of his attacks. He was just testing him though. If he had wanted him dead he would have done it a long time ago. He rushed at him, and the monk once again blocked his attack. He pushed him off, then reached into his robe and pulled out a sutra, which he threw at the fire youkai, who cut it as it burst into flames. It was just a distraction though, and he rushed at Hiei this time, hitting his sword with his staff and almost knocking him over. They held each others blocks and blows (that didn't sound right…) off, and stood there, basically growling at each other. Kurama sighed and reached behind his hair, pulling out a special rose seed that he had grown himself. It would look like a normal rose, but have no thorns. He flicked his wrist and his rose whip grew. Then he reached for another seed of the same type from behind his hair and grew that out as well. The other two didn't even notice, that is until they were starting to snake itself around them then firmly pinned their arms to their sides, forcing them to stop their fighting.
"That's enough I think." He said firmly. Miroku struggled against his bond and Hiei just glared at him.
"Was that really necessary fox?" He asked while maintaining his glare.
"I think so, the kit over there is starving, and I think it is necessary to help these two out instead of fighting with them don't you?" He said while meeting Hiei's eyes.
-There's something more than that I assume?—Hiei asked Kurama telepathically.
-Of course. But I expect we will find out whether my assumptions are correct in a short amount of time.—He replied and broke off the connection. "Now then, can I let you two go, or will you keep fighting?" The two both glared at him but he took that as a yes. "Alright then…" The thornless rose-whips unwrapped themselves from around the two and grew back into seeds, which Kurama put back into their special spot, small braids in the back of his hair. He grabbed another seed, scratched a small spot on the ground and planted it, then covered it back up and put his hand over it. In about 3 seconds a small shrub had grown, and on it were several bright red berries. He popped one off and put it in his mouth. "Mmm. Strawberries." He explained to the other two, who were looking at him like he was crazy. By means of an explanation he picked them all and brought them over to the kit, who was almost passed out from hunger and exhaustion.
"Here." He said as he offered him a berry. "Eat. You need to build up your strength."
Shippo looked hungrily at the strawberries, then shoved them all in his mouth and barely even chewed before he swallowed. He looked up at Kurama, and said "Wow I feel much better! What were those?"
Kurama smiled. "Glad to hear you like them. They are strawberries that I crossbred with a special plant from the makai to fill up your stomach."
Shippo seemed confused. "The Makai? Where's that?"
"Isn't that where you're from?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Shippo! Miroku!" a voice yelled out.
"KAGOME!" Shippo cried. He ran as fast as he could towards a girl in a Japanese school uniform, who was standing with another girl and a guy with long white hair. InuYasha and Forest.
"Shippo! Thank God you're all right! I was so worried about you!" The girl Kurama supposed was Kagome said. She looked up to the monk Miroku. "Miroku! I'm glad you found Shippo! Are you ok?"
Miroku too ran over."Kagome! InuYasha! Yes I'm fine, though a fair bit hungry. Are you two alright? I know you were injured InuYasha." He stopped for a second to look at InuYasha's clothes. "Where did you get those! You didn't steal then did you?"
"No I didn't steal them! Why does everyone think that!"
"Well InuYasha, this is you we're talking about…" Shippo said. InuYasha growled and smacked him over the head. "WAAA! Kagome InuYasha hit me!"
"InuYasha sit!" Kagome said. InuYasha smacked into the ground with an "ack" and layed there for a few seconds.
"What di'ja do that for Kagome!" He yelled once he got back up.
"Because you're being mean to him. He's just a kid."
"Getting back on topic. Where did you get those clothes them InuYasha?"
He jerked a clawed thumb at Forest you was having a whispered conversation with a squirrel under a tree. "She gave 'em to me and gave me a place to stay during the night."
Forest looked up when she heard someone was talking about her and looked at the others. "What about what what now?" She questioned. Miroku was over there in a heartbeat.
"Hello miss. I'm extremely thankful you helped out my friend here. But may I ask you a serious question?"
"Uh…Sure?"
"Will you do me the honor of bearing my child?"
"…Wait a minute what!"
"I said will you do me the honor of bearing my child?"
Forest gave him a blank look. "You are so not serious."
"Well…"
She slapped him on the face then scrambled away. "PERVERT! InuYasha your friend is a freaky pervert!" She got up and looked at his clothes. "Wait, aren't you a monk? Don't monks have to take a vow of chastity or something like that?"
-What did he ask?—HuntSong had landed on her shoulder again, frightening away the squirrel despite Forest's reassurances.
"He asked me to have his young." She replied while still staring at the monk who was rubbing his face. HuntSong glared at him.
-I can take off his ear if you want.—he offered while screeching at him. –One quick snap and it's off.—
"It's ok I think he's learned his lesson." She took her eyes off Miroku to look at the snickering InuYasha, Shippo, and Kagome, but saw Kurama and Hiei. She walked over to them. "Weren't you supposed to come over to my house at 12 or something?" She asked Kurama teasingly.
"Yes well, Hiei decided to pick a fight with Miroku over there. I suppose he decided to pick a fight with you too. Remind me not to ask you to bear my children." He said while flashing a smile.
"Yeah well, since you're here, you wanna help us find InuYasha's last friend?"
"Ok. We may have to leave soon though to go wake up our associates." They walked back over to the group of others.
"So…This is?" Forest asked gesturing to the two newcomers.
"I'm Shippo, and that's Miroku. Who are you?" The small kitsune said. Forest knelt down beside him.
"I'm Forest. And this is HuntSong." She said. Shippo stared with wonder at HuntSong. "Wow, how did you get him to go on your shoulder like that?"
"He's my friend. I invited him to land there so he does. How about I tell you the whole story later. Ok?" Shippo nodded. "How about we find your other friend now. Um…Which way Kagome? Or do you want me to look? You guys can have a rest if you want." She added after Kagome's stomach growled.
"If you could that would be great."
"Alrighties. Just tell me what I'm looking for here."
"Ok, she's a girl around my height, who is either wearing a long green skirt and a white and pink top or some black and pink armor. She has long hair, and carries a pack and a huge boomerang kind of weapon. Um, she also has a two tailed demon cat with her, named Kilala. Her name is Sango. Does that help?" Kagome said all in one breath. Forest nodded. "Yeppers! HuntSong stay here, and I'll be back soon!" She looked around, and when she saw there was no one else looking ran and jumped into the air, changing into a bald eagle, a form which could cover a lot of ground quickly, and almost effortlessly. The people who hadn't seen her changed before stared at her in awe, and the others just watched her fly away.
She caught a thermal almost immediately and floated up, almost lazily floating on the breeze. The wind was warm, and it was a perfect day for flying. 'Now, where should I look? It seems as if they are all kind of in this same area, so I'll just kinda cruise around a bit and see if I can spot her.' She wheeled around, looking for anyone who matched Kagome's description. After about 5 minutes, she started to head back to the park, but decided to go back over to the direction of her house. Sure enough, one street over from her house Sango was wandering around with the demon cat on her shoulder. 'Bingo' She followed her for a bit to make sure of her direction then headed back to the others. It was perfect, she was going straight in the direction of her house! She touched down in the park, transforming into her human form.
"So?" InuYasha asked when she had landed.
"Found her, and she's heading straight for my house. If we start heading that way now we should be able to catch her. Where did Kurama and Hiei go?" She asked as she got sidetracked.
"They went to go wake up their friends." Kagome explained. Forest nodded her head.
"Shall we go find Sango?" Miroku suggested. Everyone nodded and started walking in different directions.
"Um, guys? My house is this way." Forest said while pointing in the right direction. Everyone kind of walked over like they had meant to go in that direction it the first place while Forest laughed at them.
So they set out once again, while Kurama and Hiei walked over to the apartment that Kuwbara and Yusuke shared, hoping they would wake up quickly.
-Yusuke and Kuwa-
Yusuke and Kuwabara were disappointed to find out that Koenma and Botan had come over even earlier than Kurama and Hiei, and woke them up instead of just watching TV or something.
"But did you come so damn early!" Yusuke yelled from the bathroom, still not letting it go.
"Because I think we should get there early. That's why. And because I'm your boss and I can do whatever I want." Koenma in his teenage form said smugly. Kuwabara sat on the couch falling asleep and Botan was trying in vain to find something edible in the fridge. Unfortunately, most of the food that had at one point been edible was on the counter, and consisted of pizza, KFC, and McDonalds.
"Kuwabara this is disgusting! Don't you two ever clean?" She exclaimed after opening a box of pizza to find some form of evolving goo on it.
"Clean?" Kuwabara asked as he tried the new word out.
"Oh God…Yusuke hurry up your apartment is disgusting!"
"Maybe I should just buy them a little shack to live in. It doesn't cost hardly any money, and they can keep all the mold in it they want." Koenma mused.
Yusuke stepped out of the bathroom. "Don't even think about it." He saw Kuwabara sleeping and flashed an evil grin, then took off his shoe and threw it at him.
"Hey who did that!" He yelled stupidly.
"No one Kuwabara. That shoe fell from the ceiling." Yusuke said innocently.
"I knew those upstairs neighbors were forming some kind of conspiracy against us! Throwing shoes through the ceiling! Jeez how low is that!"
He continued ranting on in a loud voice and was about to be interrupted either by Yusuke's laughs or Koenma asking why he would consider having him as a spirit detective when the phone did a little buzzy thing that meant someone wanted to come up. Yusuke ran to the phone to pick it up, but was cut off by Botan, who snatched the phone and ran to a corner.
"Hello?" She asked in a goody goody voice while Yusuke glared at her and everything went silent.
"Botan? Why are you in Yusuke's apartment?" Kurama asked on the other side of the phone downstairs.
"Kurama? We came to wake up Yusuke and Kuwabara. Are you there for the same reason?"
"Yes yes. Koenma didn't want to be late. He woke me up early as well." Botan turned and glared at her employer. "You can come on up. The other two are almost ready. I warn you, it's a pigsty up here!" She pressed the pound button that would let them up twice.
Downstairs there was a big buzzing noise and the door unlocked and opened. Kurama grabbed the door handle and walked in, while Hiei glared at the strange automatic door. Kurama walked to the elevator and pushed a small silver button that would bring the elevator down from it's magical place in the sky. (sorry couldn't help it! I've always wanted to say that!) The elevator binged and the doors opened, and the two stepped inside. Kurama pressed the sixth floor button and the doors closed again, trapping them in an elevator with a funny smell and gross elevator music. It jerked as it went up, making Kurama a little nervous, then finally stopped, on the fifth floor. Kurama raised his eyebrow and pressed the sixth button again. All that happened was the doors shut, then opened again. He pressed it again, a little harder, and the elevator dropped a bit, all the lights went off, and it shuddered a bit.
"Guess that didn't work. Ah well, on to the stairs…" Kurama stepped out of the broken elevator with Hiei following to a huge sign that said 'STAIRS'. They opened the door and were up the one flight of stairs in about 5 seconds.
"Remind me why we didn't take the stairs before. It would have been faster." Hiei said as they walked to their friends' door.
"I don't know. Human laziness must be rubbing off on me." They knocked once, and Botan answered the door. She already had her coat and shoes on, and Koenma was behind her.
"Ok, you're here, we're here, let's go." She said while rushing out the door and plowing into Kurama, who gave her a questioning look. "Something in there moved. It was a bunch of mould and it moved! How is that possible? I think they're food is evolving into an intelligent life form. It's disgusting! So now can we leave?"
"Yes, I suppose if their leftovers are evolving, we should leave. Besides we don't want to be late. Forest had already found most of InuYasha's friends."
They walked down the hall, and as Botan headed for the elevator, Kurama stopped her.
"Stairs would be a good idea." He said and walked over to the door to the stairs.
"Why?" Botan questioned.
"Because he broke the elevator." Hiei said simply and walked over to the door to the stairs with everyone following.
Six flights of stairs later, they all emerged onto the street and blinked in the bright august sun.
"Which way was her house now?" Koenma asked. Kurama pointed to the east. "Ok team, you catch up. Let's go Botan." Koenma commanded.
"How the hell are you getting there then?" Yusuke asked the child prince.
"Botan will fly me over there. I'm not going to walk."
"No way! Open a portal to her house!"
"Why should we waste energy when you can walk? You have legs!"
"So do you! Make a damn portal!"
"No, I have to know someone who's been there to do it you dolt."
"Duh you dolt! Kurama and Hiei were there yesterday! Make a damn portal!"
Koenma was speechless for a second but then he simply sighed. "Fine Yusuke you win. Kurama, where exactly was it?"
"I'll make it myself Koenma. But may I suggest moving somewhere a little less public?"
Koenma looked at the busy street and over behind the building, where the dumpsters were kept. "There looks like a good place."
Kurama nodded, and they all walked over to the smelly dumpster place and Kurama summoned a green energy ball in his hand, which he threw to the ground and a portal was summoned. It twisted green, yellow, blue and silver, and all of them basically got sucked in before they could jump. They emerged at the side of Forest's house, all in a tumbled heap of people.
"Oops, sorry everyone." Kurama apologized as everyone got up and groaned.
Botan rubbed her head where it had smacked against the ground. "Next time I'm flying."
"Sango! How I've missed you!" A male voice said in the background.
"Miroku? Gah, Miroku what are you doing?" A female voice said. "AHH! You pervert! Can't you even give a proper hello without groping my butt! What is your problem!"
"He can't even hold off on groping her butt this once…that's sad…"Another voice said. Everyone leaned to one side, and saw that there was a group of strange looking people in front of the house, including Forest with Huntsong still on her shoulder, who was watching the scene with amusement written clearly all over her face. Suddenly she stiffened and sniffed the air deeply, then looked over at the side of her house, seeing the large group there.
'Whoa, that's a ton of people, especially with this other group here too.' Forest did a small salute-like wave to Kurama, who waved back, and to Hiei, who did nothing. The group walked out on the lawn, looking around at their surroundings. Forest looked each one over. There was a big guy with orange hair, a average sized guy with slicked back black hair (what a punk), a girl with light blue hair that didn't look like it was dyed, and a kinda tall guy with brown hair, a forehead tattoo that said "JR" and a blue pacifier in his mouth. 'Not normal people either…why does that guy have a pacifier?' She walked over to them. "Um, Hi?" The people all looked at her, or more accurately, at the large bird who was looking each of them over on her shoulder. The girl with the blue hair stepped up cheerfully to her and stuck her hand out.
"Hello! I'm Botan! You must be….Forest?" Forest nodded. "Cool! And this is Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, who we just call Kuwbara, and Koenma." She pointed to each one in turn.
"Uh yeah…Hi? I like your hair…" Forest said lamely. Too many people around her bothered her, especially of she didn't know them.
"Thank you! It's natural." She said while flicking a stray piece over her shoulder.
'Ahhh…Too many people…and she's way to happy…ahh…play it cool Forest, play it cool…' "Um, would everyone like to step inside now that…uh, everyone is here for whatever reason? And, don't touch the cat, or the hamsters mice or rats. Most of them don't like strangers. The dog is ok though, but he jumps, so watch out for that."
She walked to the door, and the immense crowd of strange looking people, 11 in all, followed her in like a line of little ducks (aww…adorable image). Deuce and Emma looked up from where they had been laying on the couch, and Deuce bolted to the door, while Emma coolly trotted up behind.
"Hey baby! How you guys doin'?" Forest asked as HuntSong flew off her shoulder to land on a nearby chair, and Deuce jumped up on her to lick her face.
-We ran out of water, but mostly we were just bored. So…this is the group demon boy wanted to bring.—He walked around to each and sniffed them as everyone looked around the house.
-Hmm, they don't look like much to me…-Emma mused as she too walked up to the group of people just standing in the front entrance.
"Wow a kitty!" Said Kuwabara. He obviously hadn't listened to anything that Forest had given as a warning, and was making messed up clucking noises to call the cat to him. "Here kitty kitty kitty! Come to Kuwabara! Come on pretty kitty!"
Emma walked calmly up to him and made it look like she was going to rub against his hand, then quickly turned around and scratched his face then bit his hand, all in the time it took Yusuke to get out a short 'ha'. Needless to say, everyone was laughing at the stupid fool who decided to try and pet the 'kitty'.
-I am not a kitty you idiot. I feel bad for the ones who live with him. Or even be around him for a couple of minutes.—She said coldly. Investigations done, she jumped on Forest's shoulder and glared at the big orange oaf, who was still ow-ing about the scratch on his face and the bite on his hand.
"Hn. You idiot. I wonder if I split your head open would there even be anything in there?" Hiei remarked.
"Hey shut up shorty!"
"Is that all you know how to say?"
"No…."
"Umm, how about we go into the family room and sit down? Uh…yes, would that be good?" Forest asked as she was still a little nervous around the large group. Everyone answered 'yes' and took off their shoes, going to sit down in the family room which was about 10 steps, including the stairs, away. They had to bring in chairs from the kitchen though, seeing as how there was only 2 medium sized couches and 2 arm chairs. Kurama and Koenma each took an armchair, Yusuke, Botan, and Kuwabara took one couch, Sango, Kagome, Shippo, and Miroku took another, Hiei and InuYasha sat on the kitchen chairs, and Forest sat on the floor in the middle of the room.
"So Forest, Kurama and Hiei tell me you are a little unusual," Koenma began.
"Ah crap! I forgot! They need food!" Forest said, as she quickly got up and pointed at InuYasha's group, all looking tired and hungry. "Sorry, hold on a sec. What do you guys want?"
"Anything would be good Forest." Miroku said with a smile. All the others just nodded in agreement.
"Um…Ok…Hold on a minute I'll see what we have…." She ran up the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards… Hmm…For having a ton of food they didn't have much…maybe soup? It was quick and filling, and yummy. "Soup good? Yes?" They nodded. She put the water on to boil on the stove then added the soup package, and left it to cook. She headed back down into the family room, stopping only to let HuntSong up on her shoulder. She took her place back on the floor, with Deuce and Emma sitting on either side of her, and HuntSong back on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry." She said to Koenma. "But they said they haven't eaten since the day before yesterday. It'll be about 10 minutes by the way." She added quickly to InuYasha's group. "And, I get nervous around big groups of people, so if I seem a little off, just ignore it."
"That's alright, now what I wanted to talk to you about was," Koenma got cut off again by a bright light that suddenly appeared next to Forest, then faded. Within that light was a man of about 18 or 19, with long dark brown hair and light brown eyes that had flecks of green in them. He wore a dark green cloak with a hood and brown baggy pants, and a white simple shirt to complete the old fashion hunter outfit. On his back was a huge longbow, carved with intricate patterns and designs, mostly of animals, and leaves. At his waist there was a long curved dagger that hung without a sheath, also carved with animal designs along the blade, and the handle was made of silver with dark jade inlays.
He looked down at Forest and smiled. "Finally, we meet face to face. Hello Forest."
Forest gasped. It was the voice that spoke to her! The very same one that had led her to InuYasha the previous day, and the one that had been with her all of her life. "You're…You're….Who are you?" She managed to choke out.
Koenma got up and gave a short bow. "Lord Kiba. It's good to see you again."
Forest looked back and forth between the two. "Lord Kiba?" She echoed, confused out of her mind. She scrambled up and looked at him.
"Yes. I must admit, it is a great thing to meet my chosen face to face for once. I didn't particularly like talking mind to mind. It always feels better when you talk to the real person." He said with a smile.
"Chosen? What does that mean?"
"Lord Kiba, if I may?" Kurama said politely. Kiba nodded. "Forest, if you are a god's chosen, it means that they have chosen you to do their will for them. They have given you powers similar to that particular god, and traits of whatever they command. Does that sum it up?"
"Yes, thank you very much. Do you understand now Forest? This is why you are different." Kiba explained.
Forest sat down hard, on the ground. "But…why me?"
"Before you are born, the gods can tell what kind of person you will be under certain circumstances. One of the gods is my divine sister, Fate, well, you can guess what her job is. She knows all about the future, all the possibilities of every person, and the major events that will occur, though she cannot tell even us what will happen directly, she can give hints. Mine was to pick a chosen, for one will be needed. She told me the day you were to be born, not your name or your parents, and then I had to find you. Seeing you would be perfect, and that you indeed had more wild in you than almost all humans, I gave you some of my power." Kiba explained. "A god's chosen is a special honor, and as humans grow away from us, many of us choose not to even pick one, unless in a time of great need. In fact, Koenma, a demi-god, but capable of having a chosen nonetheless, has assembled a team to help take care of spirit world. I assume they are these fine people?" He added, looking over at the tantei on the other side of the room.
"Yes." Koenma said. "Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei are my spirit detectives, and Botan is my head ferry girl."
Kiba gave a small bow. "It is an honor to meet the famous spirit detectives of Koenma." He looked over at InuYasha's group on the other side of the room. "Ah. You must be Kagome." He said. Kagome nodded, looking as confused as everyone else. Suddenly, there was another blinding light, this time a pink and blue instead of the green and goldish-brown of Kiba. A woman, dressed in a beautiful priestess kimono who also wore armor emerged, her long hair flowing down her back in torrents, and her blue eyes sparkling. Kilala suddenly gave a small but loud mew and jumped off Sango's shoulder and into the new woman's arms.
"It is wonderful to see you again my old friend." The woman said, delight showing in her voice. Kilala purred loudly. The Inu gang all stared at the woman, knowing they had seen her before, but not where. It was Miroku who figured it out at last.
"Lady Midoriko?" He said his eyes wide. "You were made a goddess?"
"Yes Miroku. I was. I have been watching over you all ever since the jewel entered your world once again. I made it so the well would take Kagome back to the era of the warring states, where all of you would meet, and help each other."
"But I thought your soul was trapped within the jewel. That's what Myoga told us." InuYasha said.
"It is. Inside of the jewel is my human existence. I am not all I was when I was alive, and half of my soul is still trapped fighting those demons. In this way I am still connected to the jewel, and that is why I have entrusted you all to take it back from Naraku, and all the evil in the world. But, this is not your current mission. Now, Kagome. You are also a god's chosen. I chose you to be the new protector of the jewel. Your powers are equal to mine when I was your age, however, since you have had no training, they have not reached their full potential. Your powers are far greater than the previous keeper of the jewel, the priestess Kikyo, even though you are indeed a reincarnation of her. But now, this is not a time to talk about your mission in the past. You have all been here, to help Lord Kiba with this mission."
"But Lady Midoriko, I still have so many questions," Kagome began.
"The time is not now child. Listen to Lord Kiba as he gives you your instructions."
Kiba nodded to Midoriko. "Yes, I believe that is enough for them now isn't it? I suppose everyone is wondering why they are here, how they are here, and so on. They are all here because I needed to bring the 3 teams together to fight for this world successfully. However, I see that others have not come. Was there a problem in bringing them?" He asked Midoriko.
"They had no reason in coming through the well. I shall bring them now if you wish it brother."
"If you would." Midoriko once more disappeared as she was enveloped in the bright pink and blue of her goddess power. "Forest indeed had no reason for going to Japan, where the two other teams were located. So, I asked my brother, Thailin, god of travel, to simply redirect a rip in the barrier between the Ningenkai and Makai to send the demons here, ensuring that Koenma would send his team here. Next, I asked Midoriko if her well would send the people she selected to any place desired, and any time. The answer, as you should know, was yes, and she redirected that so you all came into this place instead of the Higurashi shrine. You are all able to speak English, as I thought this was necessary incase you for any reason had to spend more time here than planned." He stopped for a breath. It seemed the only people who really followed him were Kurama, Koenma and Miroku.
"Obviously, I have been jabbering on for long enough, but not really making my point. At this very moment, a multi-billionaire is designing products he says will better the earth, that will better the environment and the economy. However, all this is a lie. He is in fact a chaos demon named Senshimaru, who has been doing business under the guise of Robert Leilan for over 10 years. In his factory, he has been gathering stray demons that have come through the barrier to wage a war on all the things that are wild. That is the plants, the water, the earth, and the animals. Everything will be affected by this, but all that is wild will die. Senshimaru will feed off the darkness that overcomes the earth, and next he will attempt to go against the weaker gods."
The atmosphere came from confused to confused and shocked. A demon that would be so powerful he could beat the gods? Something that seemed so impossible turned into truth as it was told to all the people sitting in the small family room of Forest's house. Silence was all that could be heard in the room until a sizzling, popping noise was heard.
"Ah! The damn soup!" Forest said. She jumped up and took the soup off the stove, pouring it into several bowls and leaving the rest on the stove so it would stay warm. She brought a bowl to each of Midoriko's team, and told the others they could have some if they wished to, then she sat down once again and stared at the ceiling.
"So I'm not a regular human, I never will be, I'm surrounded by a whole bunch of two-leggers who aren't only humans, but demons and gods, I'm supposed to fight in a war to stop a demon who will eventually kill everything that is wild and then will be able to kill the gods." Forest said with a look of shock still on her face. "Wait, there's more to this isn't there? You said 3 teams. One person, doesn't make a team." She pointed out.
Kiba grinned. "Right you are. Are you ready to meet the rest of your team?"
Without waiting for an answer, a light like Kiba's flashed in the room once again. When that had died down, there stood 3 teenage looking guys. Who just happened to be more demons.
One was a bat demon. He had large, leathery bat wings sticking out from in-between his shoulder blades as well as long pointed ears, fangs, and claws. His eyes were a dark color that looked like black, and his hair was short except for his bangs, that swept over half of his face, covering one eye. He wore a white vest with a black shirt underneath that had it's sleeves ripped off. His pants were baggy and black as well. On his neck he had strung a shell on a leather cord. He looked around at everything with interest.
Another was a fox, which was obvious by his large fox ears and fox tail, which were both black. His hair was also black, but not the blue-black like a raven that the bat's was. He wore a silver vest and blue pants, with a long sleeved shirt underneath. His eyes were an icy blue, and on his neck on a long silver chain was a small icicle that didn't melt. He looked unemotionally around the room, not really caring that he was there.
Next was a wolf demon. He had just regular pointed ears, not long ones like the bat. He was dressed in the traditional armor/fur clothing style of most wolf demon clans, and wore an armor breastplate and fur shoulder pads (think Kouga for that part), as well as fur breech type pants and a fur sash around his waist. He had a long wolf tail that flicked a little behind him, but he looked very shy, and was staring at the floor rather than at the people. He had long grayish hair that was flecked with black that he kept in a low ponytail. His eyes were brown, and like the other two he had claws and fangs.
"Well Forest, meet your team, Akiyo, Kuroi, and Shikamaru."
-End chapter-
Forest: Yessss! I finally…FINALLY got it up! That took so long! I'm really REALLY sorry! I had the most horrible case of writer's block EVER. Didn't I Kurama?
Kurama: Yes she really did.
Forest: See?
Hiei: That's no excuse. You said you would be quick with this chapter.
Forest: ((sneezes)) So I lied. It's funny because I wrote the beginning author notes when I started writing the chapter, and then I was sick, but got better, then got sick, and got better, and now I'm sick again! What is with that! ((cough))
InuYasha: ((looks bored)) Aren't you supposed to be throwing a party or something?
Forest: I am? Why?
Sesshomaru: For your tenth chapter.
Forest: ((grins)) Oh yeah! But first…..I have to say that I'm sorry I missed Christmas and New Years…but Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! Presents for everyone! ((throws presents at everyone expect Kuwabara.))
Kuwabara: Where's mine?
Forest: In the toilet.
Kurama: That's not nice Forest!
Forest: No seriously! It is in the toilet! My brother put it there.
Kuwabaka: Aww…((goes to get present out of toilet)) It's soggy!
Forest: It ain't my fault!
Everyone: ((opens presents to find chocolate and a teddy bear)) ….O.o ((stares at Forest))
Forest: Hey I'm low on money and I dunno what you guys want! Jeez blame everything on me!
Kouga: You gave them to us!
Forest: True…but Steve picked them out! I blame you Mr. Pirate man! Captain No Pants!
Everyone: ….
Forest: It's my cousin ok. Jeez, you all met him in my other fic…On with party! ((pulls rope that is hanging from the ceiling with duct tape.))
Rope: ((falls down))
Forest: ((stares at rope)) Well that was cheap. Oh well. ((snaps fingers, and room turns into party room again))
Miroku: Where is this?
Forest: It's my secret pirate ship, the S.S Better than Your Ship! Ahahah! ((is dressed in pirate clothes)) Yes, well, onto the party! ((turns on Linkin Park/Jay Z CD.)) Woot! ((starts to dance))
Everyone: ((stares))
Forest: Why you not dance?
Hiei: Because there's only guys here fool!
Forest: Oops! ((pulls another rope that falls down)) Curses! ((snaps fingers, and all girls come in, grab their men and dance.)) Now 'tis a party!
Boys: ((All are dancing crappilly except Sesshy, Kurama Hiei, and Kouga, who aren't dancing at all))
Forest: ((Walks over)) I need a dance partner….but who to choose? Hmmm….
Sesshy, Kouga, Kurama and Hiei: look nervous
Forest: How bout I let the reviewers decide! And, I need a separate vote for Romances! The choices are these four stunning examples of men, and my OCs, who I obviously described in the past chappy. Seriously, I can't get much further without starting the layout for the romance, so I want you all to go to that little button at the bottom of the screen that says 'review' and click it and tell me! The review button is my friend and yours! Now please, tell me which one should I have with Forest! PLEASE!
Hiei: ((panicking)) Don't pick me don't pick me…..
Sesshy: ((loses his cool and looks around in a frightened manner))
Kurama: laughs nervously
Kouga: ((looks over at Kagome)) But I wanna be with Kagome! KAGOME SAVE ME! PLEASE SAVE ME!
Forest: ((looks insulted)) I'm not that bad am I? AM I! Please please please PLEASE REVIEW!
