Disclaimer: I don't own him, her, or them.

Shippo: Want to see something amusing? I think we can get him to admit how he feels.

Sure Shippo. Go ahead and try.

Shippo: (transforms into Kouga) Where is my woman?

Inuyasha: Where did the mangy wolf come from? Did you let him in?

Um….ye…YEAH…I did. Yep. I sure did Inuyasha.

Kagome: (laughing) Kouga? Where did you come from? Did you come to save me from this evil lady?

Shippo/Kouga: That dog turd couldn't get you out of an open field. I am taking you away from that worthless mutt.

Inuyasha: Kagome isn't going anywhere with you, I protect her.

Shippo/Kouga: You don't care for her. I am taking her from you.

Inuyasha: Like hell, She's my shard detector! (grabs her and runs)

Shippo: Oh…Damn. So close. He had to call her his shard detector though didn't he?

(Wham!!)

Inuyasha: (far away) Kagome! You bitch.

Kagome: (far away): Shard detector?!

Chapter 13

"Hojo?" Kagome yelled, patting his face. "Get up Hojo." He had been unconscious for several minutes now. He had just begun to stir to consciousness. "Hojo, I'm not carrying you inside. You better wake up."

"Higurashi? What happened?" He said, quickly looking around the grounds of the shrine for the proof of what he had seen moments earlier. His eyes landed on Kagome's arm, torn from one of the ninja stars.

"You passed out, Hojo." She replied grabbing his hand and trying to yank him to his feet. "I think you should come inside for a little while. You probably have some questions to get answered."

He laughed nervously, giving Kagome a strange look. "Just a few." He looked back at the yard; ninja stars littered the ground. He shook his head in disbelief. He got to his feet and followed her to the house.

"I am just going to have to clean up these cuts I got. I will be down to talk with you in a moment." She said before running upstairs to her bathroom to clean the gashes she received from the ninja stars.

As she descended the stairs, she looked at Hojo. The poor kid looked to be in total shock still. He probably won't come near me after tonight. For some reason the thought didn't upset her in the least. She joined him at the table, waiting for his questions.

"I don't understand!" He blurted out. "Did you just fight a demon?"

Kagome nodded.

He pointed at her neck, "She said that was the shikon no tama."

Kagome nodded.

"It's only a legend. How could you possibly have the shikon no tama?" He said in disbelief. He shook his head before continuing. "You are the protector of the jewel now. Is that right?"

"The jewel did exist, Hojo. The legend, well, it isn't a legend." She took a deep breath. "Yes, I am the protector of the jewel now."

"You haven't been sick this whole year?" He looked at her warily.

"I am sorry, Hojo. No, I have not been sick for more that a couple of days this whole year." She looked down, ashamed at all the lies she had told this past year. He had been so nice to her, bringing her gifts and all. "Injured, yes. Possessed, too often. Attacked, most definitely. Sick, no."

"I guess I just thought the jewel had been destroyed after it ruined so many lives. That is what the legend led everyone to believe. So how did you end up with it?" He looked at her curiously.

Here goes. "Do you remember the miko who arrived and unbound the hanyou? Didn't you wonder where she came from?"

"Well yeah, Sensei Hikito said she suddenly appeared. Her name was….No! It isn't possible." He shook his head so quickly; she feared he would faint again.

"For the past year, the well on my property has allowed two people to transport between this time and the feudal era." Kagome said quietly. It sounds crazy, I know, she thought.

"It is just a legend, it isn't real. You are a smart girl. Traveling through a well isn't possible." Hojo looked at her as if she had lost a piece of her mind.

"For the past year I have been traveling throughout Feudal Japan, Hojo. I have been with a group of friends collecting pieces of the jewel shards, which I broke."

He paused and looked at her carefully; she believed whole-heartedly what she was telling him. "Kagome! Are you nuts? There is no way you're the Kagome in the legend? Traveling through a well, that is insane."

"It is true, Hojo. You have actually met Inuyasha."

"I think I would remember meeting an inu-hanyou, Higurashi." He said dryly. He couldn't believe she continued to argue this whole nonsense with him.

"The festival play. Do you remember all of the odd things that happened that night? The strange special effects, the guy who carried me away? That was Inuyasha!" Her hands clung in her hair, willing it to sink into his head.

It worked, her words slowly sunk in. "I thought Inuyasha protected Kagome with his life. Where is he tonight?" He asked bitterly.

She cringed at the hurt and anger in his voice. Tears sprung to her eyes and threatened to fall thinking about her hanyou. She said softly. "The legend ends pretty abruptly doesn't it? What did they do with the jewel once it was complete? They never say that Kagome disappears the instant the jewel is complete, with the jewel. The well sealed when I transported back here. I didn't even go through the well the last time; I just ended up here again. I never had a chance to say goodbye to my friends."

"They never say anything about the miko coming from the future."

Kagome sighed, "No, they don't. From what Miroku wrote, it is for my safety. He wrote two books. The first is what is distributed as legend; the second is for me. He left out many things that happened in the first book. The second is pretty much their gift to me, as I never had a chance to say goodbye. I still am trying to read it, as I only have been home for three days. If I were to find out what actually happened after I left, before I left, I could change life as we know it. Therefore he kept the two books separate, one that was protected so I could read it when the time came, I guess."

He nodded, "Are you sure that you haven't spent the past year in the psych ward of a hospital?"

She almost growled at him in frustration. "Do you need proof? I might be able to prove it to you." He nodded and she ran to retrieve everything that she could find that would prove her claim to the boy. Photographs, drawings, anything that would prove that she had actually done what she said she had; she carried them all downstairs.

She placed everything in front of him. She grabbed the picture of the five of them, where she sat Inuyasha. "Here! This is Sango, the demon slayer. The perverted monk, though you wouldn't know he was a pervert, he left that out of the books. Anyway, that is Miroku. This is the fox demon Shippo. This is Inuyasha; he made me mad so I am sitting him with the command spell. Here I am. See this tree? That is the tree right outside. See it even has the same place the hanyou was pinned to the tree. Do you notice how much smaller it is than the one outside? Because it was five hundred years ago. There are no streets, houses or anything around." She babbled at Hojo as he stared at the picture in disbelief.

"Higurashi, this isn't possible." He mumbled to her as he flipped through all of her photographs. "The author said the miko fell in love wi-" He stopped his train of thought abruptly as he reached the framed photograph of her and Inuyasha in the tree. "Oh…I am sorry Higurashi." The light bulb had just gone off in his head. It all was true; he stood up embarrassed.

"No, Hojo. I am sorry. Please don't be mad." She pleaded, watching him head for the front door.

"It is fine, Higurashi. I only wish I had known sooner. I will see you in school tomorrow." He opened the door to let himself out.

"I never knew what to say. 'I am sorry, I met a hanyou dog demon from the past and I fell in love with him. I can't date you this weekend; he needs me to be his shard detector in Feudal Japan. He refuses to tell me how much he cares so his first girlfriend can drag him to hell.' Sounds charming doesn't he?" She muttered to herself after he walked out the door.

She lifted the jewel from around her neck and looked at it. "You have caused me a whole lot of trouble. First, you didn't even grant my wish. Now you are all charged up and attracting demons again. The least you could do is open the well, did you do that?" Kagome headed out to the well, hoping against hope that the seal had been broken.

When she reached the edge of the well, she took a deep breath. Please be open, please be open, she prayed to herself. Then she leapt into the well. She hit dirt, yet again. "Arghh!" She screamed into the night. "Why have me fall in love with the baka if I can't ever see him again!" She climbed out of the well, enraged. Storming over to her bow and arrows, she cocked one, lighting it with her miko powers. She released it, aiming at the floor of the well. It hit into the dirt. "Open! Open! Open! Open! Open! Open! Open!" She screamed into the well, firing arrows each time she yelled.

Eight purified arrows stuck out of the dirt in the well when her tirade was complete. She leapt into the well, hoping that maybe that would work. Still, nothing had changed. She closed her eyes and sunk to the dirt floor in frustration. Fate is too cruel.

Angered, the young girl yanked the chain from around her neck. She admired the pink glow of the jewel for a moment. "You mock my pain." She spat at it, throwing it as hard as she could against the side of the well. She watched as it bounced off the side and rolled back to land between her feet.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know. I am supposed to protect you!" She growled, picking up the jewel from the dirt and placing it around her neck again. She stood, brushing the dirt off her legs before pulling all of the arrows out of the ground. Throwing them into the quiver, she climbed back out of the well.

Still upset she stormed back into her house. Her mother stopped her as she tried to rush upstairs. "Kagome? Why are all your pictures out?"

Kagome stopped and turned around, facing her mother. "Because my life is horrid. Do you know what happened to me tonight, Mama?" Her mother shook her head. "Hojo came to visit."

"That nice boy who always brings you gifts?"

She sighed, "Yes, I don't think that will be happening anymore. My jewel began to glow." She pulled it out to emphasize her point, before continuing. "I ran to check the well, hoping it had opened. As soon as I got outside, I was attacked by a demon. A demon! Since when are demons in the present day and how did they know where to find me? Anyway, Hojo saw everything, so I had to explain it all." She gathered all the photos and began to walk upstairs.

"Dinner is almost ready, Kagome." Her mother called after her.

"I've lost my appetite." She muttered bitterly. "The well is still sealed shut."

"Do you want me to make you some ramen?"

Ramen?

She was going to cry.

"That would be great, Mama." She ran upstairs before she began to bawl. She would spend the rest of the night reading and eating Ramen.

Right now, nothing sounded better to her.

Inuyasha: Ramen??

Yes, and if you don't behave you will never see it again.

Inuyasha: You would never do that to me.

Miroku: She tends to take away the things you enjoy most. (shows his tied hands)

Inuyasha: You tied the monk up?

It was for his safety. Honestly. Poor Sango keeps getting mauled so I moved her. Now he is sitting next to….

Inuyasha: Kagome? You touched Kagome? I am going to kill you.

That is why I tied his hands.