Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Ranma ½ or Inuyasha. . .
though I really wish I did. . .
A/N: Again, thank you to all the reviewers. You guys made my day when I saw your notes! This is the last chapter that I had pre-written before I started posting the story. I'm currently about halfway through Chapter four and hope to finish it soon so I can post it here for all of you to read. Thank you again!
***
Luckylady1818, The Wielder of the Glaive, Kirei-CKSM - I'm glad you like the story so far! Thanks for your compliments, and keep reading!
elisteran - Thank you for your review. I plan to heighten the conflicts from here on out. . . but I had to get them out of Akane's house so Inuyasha didn't destroy the place! . . .not to mention the fact that if they woke Nabiki up again, all hell would break loose.
E2K - I'm not too great at researching. . . I started this awhile back, I'm not sure when, but when I did, I didn't know about the last shard. I've seen up to 136, and I still don't know where this shard is. Did I miss something? As for your questions about Akane's necklace, those will be answered in later chapters.
Nikka - Akane is OOC for a reason. The pearls, bonded with the Shikon shard have a sort of love spell over her. It will become more clear as the story continues. Thanks for your review!!
***
Please read and review!!
**********************************************
Lost Time Chapter 3
Ranma watched as Akane clutched the necklace in her hand. "No! I won't give it to them!" she insisted, glaring at Ranma. Suddenly, her face fell. "Does this mean you don't love me?"
Ranma jumped back. "What!? Who said I loved you!?"
"You did! When you gave me the necklace!"
"You're making stuff up! I never told you that, and for the last time, I did NOT give you that stupid necklace!"
Akane burst into tears again and turned away from him. "I hate you, Ranma!" she cried. "I'll never speak to you again!"
By then, Ranma knew there had to be something wrong with her, because this wasn't the Akane he knew. That Akane would have hit him in the head if he had even implied that he loved her. . . which he most certainly did not. With nothing else to do, Ranma grabbed the pearls from her neck and tried to pull them off. A blinding blue light lit up the whole room, and the necklace went back down against Akane's skin.
Ranma, Inuyasha and Kagome looked at the necklace for another moment. The two boys exchanged glares, and then, without another thought, dove for Akane's neck, trying to remove the pearls.
Knocked to the floor, Akane swung up and hit them both in their jaws, sending them flying to the floor beside her. "Let go of me!" she cried. "You perverts!"
Ranma sat on the floor, rubbing his jaw as he stared at the necklace. "It. . . it won't come off," he said, his voice monotone. "But it's just a necklace!"
Inuyasha, who sat on the other side of Akane, glared at him. "You're wrong," he said. "That isn't an ordinary necklace. It's held together with a shard from the Shikon jewel, and whoever made it, put some sort of weird spell on it."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed as she crouched down next to him. "That's just like your-"
"Shut up, woman," Inuyasha muttered, putting his hand over the purple beads that hung around his neck. "And no, you're wrong, too. This girl's necklace is bonded with the power of the Shikon shard. . . which is much more powerful than one of your pitiful commands."
"What are you saying?" Akane demanded as she scooted closer to Ranma. "That I'm going to have to wear this necklace forever?"
"No," Inuyasha said, his amber eyes drilling into Akane's brown ones. "Because if it's the last thing I do, I will have the shard that's around your neck."
Ranma put his arm around Akane. "Like hell," he said. "I know what you're thinking, you monster."
"Actually," Kagome interjected. "He's a demon."
Inuyasha's face turned red. "I told you to shut up!"
"I'm sorry," she said. "I mean half demon."
He turned to growl at her. "I don't know why I even bother to bring you along with me!"
"Because if you didn't, you wouldn't find any shards," she reminded him.
"Ha! Lot of good that does me! Naraku's got most of the shards, anyway! You practically handed them to him on a silver platter!"
Kagome's face turned a bright shade of red, and she balled her fists up tightly. "Inuyasha. . ." she said.
Inuyasha cringed.
"SIT!"
He fell to the ground with a thud, his face pressed firmly to the wood paneling. "Man. . ." he groaned. "When are you gonna quit doing that!?"
Kagome folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "When you quit acting like a jerk!" she said.
Ranma took it that that would never happen, and he guessed that Inuyasha did, too, because the boy rose up from the floor and glared down at her.
"Damn you, woman!" he said through clenched teeth.
It was quiet for a moment while Kagome ignored Inuyasha, and Akane and Ranma stared at them. This wasn't the most fruitful situation that one could be in. Ranma's eyes widened when he realized just how tightly he held Akane in his arms. How did that happen?
"There's nothing we can do," Inuyasha decided as he sank back to the floor. "We'll have to take the girl with us and keep her until we can get the rest of the jewel from Naraku."
"Oh, yeah?" Ranma said, panic lacing his voice. "And then what?"
Inuyasha only stared at him.
"No way," Ranma went on. "You're not taking Akane anywhere!"
"Look, punk," Inuyasha spoke up. "It's either we take her now, or Naraku comes for her later."
"Who is this Naraku guy you keep talking about?" Akane wanted to know.
"You don't want to meet him, trust me," Kagome assured her. "He's already got most of the Shikon shards, and every day he becomes even more powerful."
"Feh," Inuyasha said. "I'll slaughter him."
To Ranma, it didn't look as though he had a choice in the matter. He would have to let them take Akane. . . that is, if they were telling the truth. This Shikon jewel obviously held a ton of power, and there was no question that that was why they wanted the shard that hung from Akane's neck. . . but this Naraku character. . . did he really exist? If Ranma kicked these clowns out of the house, would Naraku show up for the jewel tomorrow? He didn't know if he could take that chance.
Sadly, Ranma lowered his eyes. "Where would you be taking her?"
Both Inuyasha and Kagome blinked at him.
"Back through the well," Inuyasha explained, "to my time."
Ranma suddenly felt even more doubtful. "Your TIME?" he questioned. "And when exactly is that?"
"Feudal Japan. . . five hundred years ago," Kagome said. "There's a well by my house that takes us there."
Akane looked up at Ranma. "Stranger things have happened," she whispered.
Ranma gulped. She was right. Stranger things HAD happened. But five hundred years? Wasn't that a bit extreme? That weird guy with the ears might be running some sort of scam, kidnapping girls and-
"Okay," he said. "You can take Akane."
"What!?" Akane wailed as she reached up and grabbed Ranma's collar. "You're just gonna let them take me!?"
"No!" Ranma cried, pushing her away. "Because I'm coming with!" That is, if this so called time well even existed. If not, he'd just break Inuyasha's stupid sword and pound him into the ground with it.
"No way," Inuyasha said, his tone firm. "There's no way in hell I'm babysitting yet another human."
"Babysit!?" Ranma exploded. He let go of Akane and leaned forward to grab Inuyasha by the collar. "Are you kidding me? I can take care of Akane, and I can most definitely take care of myself!"
Inuyasha's gaze was unchanging. "You know nothing about my time, so why don't you just shut your big mouth before you regret anything you say."
Ranma shoved the other boy away and sat back down. "I don't care what you say," he said through clenched teeth as he folded his arms across his chest. "You're not taking Akane unless I go with her.
Kagome nudged Inuyasha. "You're forgetting about the well," she said. "What if neither of them can get through?"
Inuyasha closed his eyes. "I don't want to think about that now," he muttered. "We're getting that shard and we're completing the Shikon jewel!" He stood up, gazing down at Ranma and Akane. "Pack your bags, and let's go," he said to Ranma. "Kagome, you stay here with Akane while she gets her things together. I'm not taking any chances." He grabbed Ranma by his sleeve and pulled him to his feet. "Come on."
*****
Ranma and Akane had changed into their clothes, grabbed a few things, and they were on their way. The streets were dark and damp as the four of them hurried toward Kagome's house.
"I can't believe they wouldn't even let us say goodbye," Inuyasha heard Akane whisper to Ranma. "Our dads will be so worried when they find out."
"Yours will," Ranma corrected her. "My dad will think I'm on a training trip of some sort. Besides, if they knew what was going on, they wouldn't have let us go, anyway. And if we stayed, then they would have been in danger, too. They'll understand everything when we get back. Quit worrying."
Inuyasha looked over at Kagome, and their eyes met. He knew what she was thinking. There was only one way to remove the spell that bonded the shard tightly to Akane's neck. . . well, one way that they knew of, anyway. He gulped and looked back down at his feet. He had a horrible feeling about everything.
*****
It wasn't long before they arrived on Kagome's property and in front of the well. Inside the wooden structure that was built around the well's entrance, and only through the glow of the Shikon shard, Ranma looked down into the abysmal darkness. He suddenly felt sick. Maybe this Naraku guy wasn't as bad as Inuyasha and Kagome had described him. Maybe Ranma could take after all. The truth was that he had no idea where he would go, or what would happen on the other side of the well. Jumping into a world where everyone and everything wanted the stone from around his fiancé's neck, terrified him.
Inuyasha gave him a shove toward the edge of the well. "Go on," he said to them. "Jump."
Akane leaned over the edge, but Ranma grabbed her arm before she could fall in. "Wait," he said. "Who says that this Naraku guy is coming for her. What if we're putting her in more danger by dragging her into this mess?"
Kagome, who stood beside Akane, joined them in gazing down into the depths. "Naraku will stop at nothing to get the shard. Though I don't think he himself has the ability to travel through time, I have no doubt that there are ways for him to retrieve the shard. The last thing we should do is underestimate him."
Ranma gulped as Akane turned to him.
"Did you hear that, Ranma?" she said defiantly. "There's no way out. Stay here if you want, but I'm going."
Ranma blinked at her. The old Akane was back. . . but what had happened to change her? "Akane," he said, almost in desperation. "Don't go. We'll figure something out. We'll-"
"I'm going!" she yelled at him. "So quit telling me what I should and shouldn't do!"
"You heard her," Inuyasha put in. "She's going. Why don't you leave this to us and stay behind?"
Ranma was so busy glaring at Inuyasha, preparing a comeback, that he almost missed seeing Inuyasha's hand reach out and push the small of Akane's back. Fortunately, he noticed just in time. He grabbed her by the waist, trying to keep her from falling.
But it was too late.
The two of them fell into the darkness. Ranma squeezed his eyes painfully shut as he held onto Akane, who clung onto him. "I won't let go!" he yelled, bracing for the blow when that was bound to come. Instead, they only continued to fall.
When Ranma opened his eyes, the two of them were at the bottom of the well in a heap, moonlight shrouding them from above. He jumped to his feet, pulling Akane up with him. He was surprised at how willingly she latched onto his hand.
"C'mon," he said. "Let's get out of here."
Unlike before, there were thick vines growing all the way up to the top of the well. Ranma could barely see them in dim moonlight, but it was enough for the two of them to climb out.
Once over the edge of the well, they looked around to see a forest instead of Kagome's house. Either this was some sort of elaborate trick, or what Inuyasha had told them was the truth; this really was another time.
"This is too weird," Akane mumbled as Ranma slowly led her away from the well. She pointed to where a path opened up on the edge of the clearing. "Isn't that were Kagome's house should be?"
"Yes, it is," a voice said from behind them.
Both Ranma and Akane spun around. Kagome and Inuyasha were climbing out of the well.
"But this is five hundred years earlier," Kagome went on, "and the village is down that path."
"So, this really is the past," Ranma mumbled. "It's so. . . bare."
"Come on," Inuyasha said, hurrying them along. "Let's go back to the village and prepare for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Ranma and Akane echoed.
"We're going after Naraku," Kagome explained as they made their way into the forest. "If my hunch is right, then we can get the shard away from your necklace by combining it with the complete jewel."
Ranma looked over at her. "And if your hunch is wrong?"
Kagome didn't answer him.
A/N: Again, thank you to all the reviewers. You guys made my day when I saw your notes! This is the last chapter that I had pre-written before I started posting the story. I'm currently about halfway through Chapter four and hope to finish it soon so I can post it here for all of you to read. Thank you again!
***
Luckylady1818, The Wielder of the Glaive, Kirei-CKSM - I'm glad you like the story so far! Thanks for your compliments, and keep reading!
elisteran - Thank you for your review. I plan to heighten the conflicts from here on out. . . but I had to get them out of Akane's house so Inuyasha didn't destroy the place! . . .not to mention the fact that if they woke Nabiki up again, all hell would break loose.
E2K - I'm not too great at researching. . . I started this awhile back, I'm not sure when, but when I did, I didn't know about the last shard. I've seen up to 136, and I still don't know where this shard is. Did I miss something? As for your questions about Akane's necklace, those will be answered in later chapters.
Nikka - Akane is OOC for a reason. The pearls, bonded with the Shikon shard have a sort of love spell over her. It will become more clear as the story continues. Thanks for your review!!
***
Please read and review!!
**********************************************
Lost Time Chapter 3
Ranma watched as Akane clutched the necklace in her hand. "No! I won't give it to them!" she insisted, glaring at Ranma. Suddenly, her face fell. "Does this mean you don't love me?"
Ranma jumped back. "What!? Who said I loved you!?"
"You did! When you gave me the necklace!"
"You're making stuff up! I never told you that, and for the last time, I did NOT give you that stupid necklace!"
Akane burst into tears again and turned away from him. "I hate you, Ranma!" she cried. "I'll never speak to you again!"
By then, Ranma knew there had to be something wrong with her, because this wasn't the Akane he knew. That Akane would have hit him in the head if he had even implied that he loved her. . . which he most certainly did not. With nothing else to do, Ranma grabbed the pearls from her neck and tried to pull them off. A blinding blue light lit up the whole room, and the necklace went back down against Akane's skin.
Ranma, Inuyasha and Kagome looked at the necklace for another moment. The two boys exchanged glares, and then, without another thought, dove for Akane's neck, trying to remove the pearls.
Knocked to the floor, Akane swung up and hit them both in their jaws, sending them flying to the floor beside her. "Let go of me!" she cried. "You perverts!"
Ranma sat on the floor, rubbing his jaw as he stared at the necklace. "It. . . it won't come off," he said, his voice monotone. "But it's just a necklace!"
Inuyasha, who sat on the other side of Akane, glared at him. "You're wrong," he said. "That isn't an ordinary necklace. It's held together with a shard from the Shikon jewel, and whoever made it, put some sort of weird spell on it."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome exclaimed as she crouched down next to him. "That's just like your-"
"Shut up, woman," Inuyasha muttered, putting his hand over the purple beads that hung around his neck. "And no, you're wrong, too. This girl's necklace is bonded with the power of the Shikon shard. . . which is much more powerful than one of your pitiful commands."
"What are you saying?" Akane demanded as she scooted closer to Ranma. "That I'm going to have to wear this necklace forever?"
"No," Inuyasha said, his amber eyes drilling into Akane's brown ones. "Because if it's the last thing I do, I will have the shard that's around your neck."
Ranma put his arm around Akane. "Like hell," he said. "I know what you're thinking, you monster."
"Actually," Kagome interjected. "He's a demon."
Inuyasha's face turned red. "I told you to shut up!"
"I'm sorry," she said. "I mean half demon."
He turned to growl at her. "I don't know why I even bother to bring you along with me!"
"Because if you didn't, you wouldn't find any shards," she reminded him.
"Ha! Lot of good that does me! Naraku's got most of the shards, anyway! You practically handed them to him on a silver platter!"
Kagome's face turned a bright shade of red, and she balled her fists up tightly. "Inuyasha. . ." she said.
Inuyasha cringed.
"SIT!"
He fell to the ground with a thud, his face pressed firmly to the wood paneling. "Man. . ." he groaned. "When are you gonna quit doing that!?"
Kagome folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "When you quit acting like a jerk!" she said.
Ranma took it that that would never happen, and he guessed that Inuyasha did, too, because the boy rose up from the floor and glared down at her.
"Damn you, woman!" he said through clenched teeth.
It was quiet for a moment while Kagome ignored Inuyasha, and Akane and Ranma stared at them. This wasn't the most fruitful situation that one could be in. Ranma's eyes widened when he realized just how tightly he held Akane in his arms. How did that happen?
"There's nothing we can do," Inuyasha decided as he sank back to the floor. "We'll have to take the girl with us and keep her until we can get the rest of the jewel from Naraku."
"Oh, yeah?" Ranma said, panic lacing his voice. "And then what?"
Inuyasha only stared at him.
"No way," Ranma went on. "You're not taking Akane anywhere!"
"Look, punk," Inuyasha spoke up. "It's either we take her now, or Naraku comes for her later."
"Who is this Naraku guy you keep talking about?" Akane wanted to know.
"You don't want to meet him, trust me," Kagome assured her. "He's already got most of the Shikon shards, and every day he becomes even more powerful."
"Feh," Inuyasha said. "I'll slaughter him."
To Ranma, it didn't look as though he had a choice in the matter. He would have to let them take Akane. . . that is, if they were telling the truth. This Shikon jewel obviously held a ton of power, and there was no question that that was why they wanted the shard that hung from Akane's neck. . . but this Naraku character. . . did he really exist? If Ranma kicked these clowns out of the house, would Naraku show up for the jewel tomorrow? He didn't know if he could take that chance.
Sadly, Ranma lowered his eyes. "Where would you be taking her?"
Both Inuyasha and Kagome blinked at him.
"Back through the well," Inuyasha explained, "to my time."
Ranma suddenly felt even more doubtful. "Your TIME?" he questioned. "And when exactly is that?"
"Feudal Japan. . . five hundred years ago," Kagome said. "There's a well by my house that takes us there."
Akane looked up at Ranma. "Stranger things have happened," she whispered.
Ranma gulped. She was right. Stranger things HAD happened. But five hundred years? Wasn't that a bit extreme? That weird guy with the ears might be running some sort of scam, kidnapping girls and-
"Okay," he said. "You can take Akane."
"What!?" Akane wailed as she reached up and grabbed Ranma's collar. "You're just gonna let them take me!?"
"No!" Ranma cried, pushing her away. "Because I'm coming with!" That is, if this so called time well even existed. If not, he'd just break Inuyasha's stupid sword and pound him into the ground with it.
"No way," Inuyasha said, his tone firm. "There's no way in hell I'm babysitting yet another human."
"Babysit!?" Ranma exploded. He let go of Akane and leaned forward to grab Inuyasha by the collar. "Are you kidding me? I can take care of Akane, and I can most definitely take care of myself!"
Inuyasha's gaze was unchanging. "You know nothing about my time, so why don't you just shut your big mouth before you regret anything you say."
Ranma shoved the other boy away and sat back down. "I don't care what you say," he said through clenched teeth as he folded his arms across his chest. "You're not taking Akane unless I go with her.
Kagome nudged Inuyasha. "You're forgetting about the well," she said. "What if neither of them can get through?"
Inuyasha closed his eyes. "I don't want to think about that now," he muttered. "We're getting that shard and we're completing the Shikon jewel!" He stood up, gazing down at Ranma and Akane. "Pack your bags, and let's go," he said to Ranma. "Kagome, you stay here with Akane while she gets her things together. I'm not taking any chances." He grabbed Ranma by his sleeve and pulled him to his feet. "Come on."
*****
Ranma and Akane had changed into their clothes, grabbed a few things, and they were on their way. The streets were dark and damp as the four of them hurried toward Kagome's house.
"I can't believe they wouldn't even let us say goodbye," Inuyasha heard Akane whisper to Ranma. "Our dads will be so worried when they find out."
"Yours will," Ranma corrected her. "My dad will think I'm on a training trip of some sort. Besides, if they knew what was going on, they wouldn't have let us go, anyway. And if we stayed, then they would have been in danger, too. They'll understand everything when we get back. Quit worrying."
Inuyasha looked over at Kagome, and their eyes met. He knew what she was thinking. There was only one way to remove the spell that bonded the shard tightly to Akane's neck. . . well, one way that they knew of, anyway. He gulped and looked back down at his feet. He had a horrible feeling about everything.
*****
It wasn't long before they arrived on Kagome's property and in front of the well. Inside the wooden structure that was built around the well's entrance, and only through the glow of the Shikon shard, Ranma looked down into the abysmal darkness. He suddenly felt sick. Maybe this Naraku guy wasn't as bad as Inuyasha and Kagome had described him. Maybe Ranma could take after all. The truth was that he had no idea where he would go, or what would happen on the other side of the well. Jumping into a world where everyone and everything wanted the stone from around his fiancé's neck, terrified him.
Inuyasha gave him a shove toward the edge of the well. "Go on," he said to them. "Jump."
Akane leaned over the edge, but Ranma grabbed her arm before she could fall in. "Wait," he said. "Who says that this Naraku guy is coming for her. What if we're putting her in more danger by dragging her into this mess?"
Kagome, who stood beside Akane, joined them in gazing down into the depths. "Naraku will stop at nothing to get the shard. Though I don't think he himself has the ability to travel through time, I have no doubt that there are ways for him to retrieve the shard. The last thing we should do is underestimate him."
Ranma gulped as Akane turned to him.
"Did you hear that, Ranma?" she said defiantly. "There's no way out. Stay here if you want, but I'm going."
Ranma blinked at her. The old Akane was back. . . but what had happened to change her? "Akane," he said, almost in desperation. "Don't go. We'll figure something out. We'll-"
"I'm going!" she yelled at him. "So quit telling me what I should and shouldn't do!"
"You heard her," Inuyasha put in. "She's going. Why don't you leave this to us and stay behind?"
Ranma was so busy glaring at Inuyasha, preparing a comeback, that he almost missed seeing Inuyasha's hand reach out and push the small of Akane's back. Fortunately, he noticed just in time. He grabbed her by the waist, trying to keep her from falling.
But it was too late.
The two of them fell into the darkness. Ranma squeezed his eyes painfully shut as he held onto Akane, who clung onto him. "I won't let go!" he yelled, bracing for the blow when that was bound to come. Instead, they only continued to fall.
When Ranma opened his eyes, the two of them were at the bottom of the well in a heap, moonlight shrouding them from above. He jumped to his feet, pulling Akane up with him. He was surprised at how willingly she latched onto his hand.
"C'mon," he said. "Let's get out of here."
Unlike before, there were thick vines growing all the way up to the top of the well. Ranma could barely see them in dim moonlight, but it was enough for the two of them to climb out.
Once over the edge of the well, they looked around to see a forest instead of Kagome's house. Either this was some sort of elaborate trick, or what Inuyasha had told them was the truth; this really was another time.
"This is too weird," Akane mumbled as Ranma slowly led her away from the well. She pointed to where a path opened up on the edge of the clearing. "Isn't that were Kagome's house should be?"
"Yes, it is," a voice said from behind them.
Both Ranma and Akane spun around. Kagome and Inuyasha were climbing out of the well.
"But this is five hundred years earlier," Kagome went on, "and the village is down that path."
"So, this really is the past," Ranma mumbled. "It's so. . . bare."
"Come on," Inuyasha said, hurrying them along. "Let's go back to the village and prepare for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Ranma and Akane echoed.
"We're going after Naraku," Kagome explained as they made their way into the forest. "If my hunch is right, then we can get the shard away from your necklace by combining it with the complete jewel."
Ranma looked over at her. "And if your hunch is wrong?"
Kagome didn't answer him.