Last chapter, kiddos! Hope you have enjoyed the fic! (And NO! I still don't own Inuyasha. Happy?

Chapter eight: Blue plate specials!

Jaken and Rin had successfully found their way back to Sesshoumaru. The youkai lord slightly raised one delicate brow when his green servant deposited the pile of milk white eggs at his feet.

"Jaken, why are you blocking my path with eggs from filthy chickens?" his cold, calm voice sent a chill of doubt through the frog demon.

"S-Sesshoumaru-sama, one of these eggs is the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome!" he stated excitedly. "I happened upon them not far from where Rin and I were, near the river. I heard them talking about their baby girl!"

He was spouting off fast and furious now, certain his master would be impressed and very appreciative of all his efforts to see the child of his filthy excuse for a half breed brother, brought to him.

"He must have mated with that human, and they produced," he held up one of the white treasures triumphantly. "An EGG!"

Sesshoumaru's eye twitched a bit, one corner of his mouth moving ever so slightly into a smirk. For the space of a minute, there was complete silence as Jaken waited for his praise and Sesshoumaru waited to control both his frustration and his amusement. Finally, the youkai lord spoke.

"Jaken, when was the last time you saw a human lay an egg?"

His servant's mouth fell open to answer and a blank and dazed look came over his eyes.

"And I certainly would hope that you're better informed than to think a dog demon, even a half breed like my brother, is 'HATCHED'."

Jaken clamped his mouth shut and started sweating bullets. "Well I- tha..tha..that is I assumed... you see, they were chatting-"

Sesshoumaru glanced over at Rin who was watching the whole thing in fascination. "Rin, do you like eggs?" he called out.

"HAI!" Rin replied genkily. "I like them very much Sesshoumaru-sama."

He nodded slightly then fixed his disinterested gaze once more on Jaken. "You've done well, collecting food for Rin. Cook her something then catch up." He turned away and left Jaken, Rin, Ah and Un, ready to put the silliness behind him.

"AH! Jaken-sama! You brought all these eggs for me?" Rin bounced about happily, then caught the still dumbstruck demon into a tight hug before he could avoid it. "I'll make us both something to eat with them. How do you like your eggs, Jaken-sama?"

He couldn't answer. He was too busy sobbing like a child over the trouble he'd gone through.

All for Rin's breakfast.

Kagura was having some new doubts of her own. She'd been picking up each egg, one after the other, that she had collected. Each one gave off no feeling of power or magic. And none seemed that special.

It had all been a waste. She'd spent all that time wrestling around with that wolf leader, chasing after Sesshoumaru's filthy little green lackey and exploding from a chicken coup only to realize how silly the whole concept of an egg having any magic in it really was.

"Baka..." She scolded herself, glad she hadn't taken the egg to her master. He'd have crushed her heart for sure over such a ridiculous offering.

With a deep sigh, she was about to toss the eggs from her perch when she got an incredibly wicked idea.

She swiftly turned about and went to find her target.

Koga was miserable. Not only had he not found Kagome's egg and returned it to her, he'd been beat up by two woman in one day, one of which was a silly human. Now how was the leader of the wolves to live down such a humiliation? And he could just hear Inuyasha's snide

little comments taunting him in his head.

'Oi, looks like wolfy-boy got his ass kicked by a broom wielding woman.'

'How'd you enjoy the straw up the ass there, wolf pup?'

He gave an irritated snarl and continued running. He'd just have to kick that stupid dog turd's ass and show him who was meaner. Better! TOUGHER!

SPLAT!

The egg that caught him in the back of the head held enough force that he went down hard face first and got a mouth full of gravel and dirt. He was hit by two more before he made it to his knees and looked up, ready to kill whomever had dared take pot shots at him. His eyes went huge then narrowed dangerously when he spotted Kagura.

"WENCH! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" he shouted up.

She tossed an egg from one hand to the other, a sly smirk on her lips.

"You wanted the eggs so badly, I thought I'd oblige." She lobbed off another shot and caught him in the face.

Furious and gooped with egg snot, Koga let out a snarl and launched himself at the wind woman.

"Draft shaft! I'll teach you to mess with me!"

Kagura pulled out a few more feathers to attack with, but they turned out to be chicken feathers and only floated delicately down out of her fingers after she had dramatically thrust them out.

"Ge-h!" She couldn't believe the dumb luck. It was enough time for Koga to tackle her from her feather and the two went falling, along with a dozen or so eggs trailing behind them, towards the forest below.

They landed with in a heavy thicket of shrubs. Before they had finished sighing with relief over their good fortune, a rain of eggs descended and covered them both.

"Mmmmm-BBAAAKKKAAAA!" Kagura shrieked furiously, egg yolk sliding across her cheek.

"AWE, CAN IT WOMAN!" Koga howled back.

The sudden chattering around them made them both stop their thrashing and they looked about with deep worry. A group of monkeys surrounded them, all eyeing the mess of eggs that covered them with wild hunger.

"Oh shit..." Koga muttered just as they were buried alive by the monkeys. Kagura shrieked furiously as she was dive bombed and shuddered at the tiny tongueslapping at the eggs on her face.

On a branch just above it all sat the monkey who had stolen Aiko in the first place. He held a partially cracked egg, happily licking at the leaking egg white.

Hachi had met up with Toutousai and the two were in the hermit's cave, a fire burning and their mouths watering as they prepared their eggs for consumption. Hachi hummed to himself happily while Toutousai sat and cracked the eggs over a hot flat rock placed beside the fire. The decision to combines their spoils was one made for two purposes. One, the more eggs they put together, they figured the more food they would have, and two, Toutousai was lonely, not receiving very many visitors and was glad for the company.

"It's a shame we have no nori to add, or a nice pickled plum..." Toutousai sighed.

Hachi nodded and inhaled deeply. "True, but this will be wonderful just the same. I am STARVING!"

Toutousai smiled his agreement and picked up the last egg. It had a strange mark on the side of it, one he had never seen before. The egg looked a bit beat up as well, cracks and scrapes all over the outside. But it was still an egg, so he shrugged and gave it a sound cracking against the stone.

The rank smell was immediate and it sent tears to the old man's eyes. Hachi had just started taking another big whiff of air when it hit him as well and his fur stood on end, his tail shooting straight out and his snout crinkling up in wild distaste. He slapped both hands over his nose to stop the noxious smell from intruding.

"What is that stench?" he mumbled, backing further away towards the cave opening. His apatite was rapidly diminishing.

Toutousai was practically gagging now and trying his best to scurry around the fire and high tail it to the door.

"Rotten egg!" He called back as he beat a hasty retreat from his home, leaving everything else behind.

Hachi took off after him and the two stood outside, fanning the air about their noses and watching dismally as their breakfast began to smolder, then smoke. The smell of rotten and burnt eggs wafted out of the cave opening and both the demons sat down, looking dejected.

Inuyasha sat pouting on a tree limb outside of Kaede's hut. Not long after they had retrieved Aiko, Kagome had left for her own time, insisting that the only way she would be able to be certain nothing else happened to the egg was to go back to her own time until the project was finished.

Inuyasha had grudgingly agreed, but now regretted it. He missed Kagome. And as stupid as it was, he was missing Aiko. A damn egg. How foolish was that? Missing an egg of all things.

But three days had passed already and every day, his mood got worse and worse. The others were acting a bit strange too. Miroku seemed more determined than ever to father a child now, and Sango had been slapping him silly. Except she wasn't slapping him as hard. Something in her had changed as well, and she was protesting just a little less over his advances every

day. In fact, Inuyasha could have sworn that he saw Sango watching Miroku with that strange female intent.

It made Inuyasha wonder if having the egg around and pretending it was a real child hadn't stirred something in the youkai exterminator as well.

"Feh! Surrounded by baka's." he decided, then turned slightly so his back was to the hut and it's occupants. He decided that the best course of action he could take was to avoid them all until Kagome returned and they could start looking for the missing shards again.

Miroku stepped out of the doorway and called out to him congenially.

"Inuyasha! Come and join us. Supper is almost ready."

The cranky hanyou gave a rather rude finger gesture that he'd picked up on one if his trips to Kagome's world and replied with his surliest, "Feh!" yet.

Miroku's eye twitched slightly over the discourteous sign he'd been given, remembering it was meant to be rude since Inuyasha had been promptly 'SAT' by Kagome when he'd tried it on her once. He decided to let his uncivil pal stay up in the tree and sulk. Better he was up there then down in the hut glaring the rest of them into distraction.

He re-entered the hut and gave the others a mild smile.

"Inuyasha graciously declined joining us for the meal." He took his seat next to Sango, who raised her eyebrow slightly and half smiled.

"Funny, Inuyasha declining anything graciously sounds a bit far fetched to me." She passed a bowl full of rice to him and turned back to scoop another for Shippo.

"That boy be in a foul mood. Thou would think he'd lost a real child." Kaede interjected biblically.

Sango gave an irritated puff. "It was an egg!"

"But it was a way to connect to Kagome without feeling like he was betraying his memory of Kikyo." Miroku explained sagely.

Everyone stared at him in shock. They hadn't thought of it in such a way before.

Shippo stared uncertainly at his bowl of rice, mulling over the words of the monk. He felt guilty and miserable all the time ever since that day at the chicken coop. A heavy weight rested on his tiny shoulders, and it was one he felt he needed to share with the others now.

"Emm, M- Miroku?" the little fox child stammered out, his voice a bit hesitant.

"Yes Shippo?".

"I- I need to tell you something." Shippo was looking at his rice bowl, his little ears drooping lower and lower on his head as he buried his little chin into his chest.

Miroku shared a curious look with both Kaede and Sango before placing a gentle hand upon his shoulder.

"What is it, Shippo?"

"The egg... the one that Kagome took back to her world?" he started.

"Yes, what about it?" Miroku urged.

"Well," he stammered out. "..Kagome was so upset, not being able to find Aiko, so I..." he seemed to roll into a little fur ball as he mumbled the rest inaudibly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Miroku leaned in closer, his curiosity peaked.

Shippo looked up with fearful eyes. "I cast a spell on one of the eggs to make it look like the one she brought here," he wailed out pathetically. "Now that she's back in her own world, I'm not sure how long it will last!" He promptly burst into tears as the others looked on in mild shock.

"Well..." Miroku struggled for some sentence that might comfort the kitsune, but nothing came to mind.

"You mean the egg that Kagome went back to her time with..." Sango began.

"...is really one of the eggs that was in the chicken coop," Shippo wailed out. "Which means the real Aiko is out there somewhere. Cold and alone!" He sniffled pathetically, then covered his eyes and wailed out miserably. "I'M SUCH A BAD UNCLE!"

Kaede rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "I see not what the problem be. An egg be and egg, in this time or any other." She shuffled over to the door to move back the cover and let some air in. At the same moment, they heard Inuyasha's voice raised in excitement.

"OI! KAGOME!"

The occupants of the hut fell silent and stared at each other for a second before scrambling to their feet and running out of the hut to see what story Kagome had to tell concerning the egg.

Inuyasha had dropped down from his sulking branch and was waiting for Kagome to reach him.

"Well, she's smiling. That is a good sign, I'm sure," Sango whispered helpfully to Shippo and Miroku.

"Be thou glad you don't wear a necklace that allows ye to be 'sat' young one," Kaede muttered to Shippo darkly. "Ye would be most wise not to mention this to either Kagome or Inuyasha if there be no need to."

Shippo gulped loudly and nodded his agreement.

"How did your project go, Kagome-sama?" Miroku called out curiously.

Kagome smiled happily as she reached them all and started to take her heavy pack off.

"Wonderfully! I was the only one to bring the egg back in good condition. I completed it and passed the course, and I have all of you to thank for it."

Sighs of relief escaped from Miroku, Sango and Shippo.

"To show my appreciation, I brought you all gifts." She beamed happily and reached into her pack. "But first, I have a special surprise for you, Inuyasha." She looked over at him and smiled warmly.

"You brought me a surprise?" the hanyou couldn't help but get a bit excited now. He hoped it was a huge pack of ramen. Oh, how he loved that ramen stuff!

"Mm," she nodded. "Hold out your hands and close your eyes," she commanded. Inuyasha gave her a rather suspicious look at first, then grumbled as he complied.

Kagome pulled out the little white egg and placed it in the palms of his hands.

"Okay, open your eyes now Inuyasha."

The dog demon cracked open his eyes to peek then shot them open as he recognized the egg. "Aiko!" he asked in surprise.

"Hai!" Kagome giggled happily. "I'd grown so attached to it, I asked my teacher if I could keep her. I thought you might like to hold her again." Kagome blushed deeply, hoping he wouldn't think her offering silly or make some snide comment about it. The whole experiment had turned out far better than she had ever dreamed, thanks to him.

"I couldn't have kept her in one piece without your help," she said softly.

Inuyasha was trying his hardest not to let his happiness show to much. When the egg suddenly gave a slight jolt, he cupped his hands around it, afraid he might drop and break the thing. It jolted again and the sound of shell cracking reached all their ears.

"Inuyasha, don't hold it so tight. Your breaking the shell on my godchild!" Miroku admonished. Sango smacked the back of his head over the ridiculous remark.

"I ain't holding it to tight! It's moving around on it's own!" he snarled back irritably.

"What!" Both Sango and Kagome said at the same time.

Crack.

"Peep! Peep!"

Inuyasha stood stalk still and looked dumbstruck at the others at the tiny peeping sound coming from his cupped hands. Slowly, he un-cupped his hands and found himself staring down at a semi-fluffy little yellow ball of feathers.

"I-I-I-" Inuyasha suddenly looked up at Kagome with wild eyes and wonder written all over his face.

"I'm a daddy!" he wheezed out happily before passing out cold.

The baby chic sat upon it's new daddy's chest, peeping steadily. Her new adoring family looked on with a mixture of amusement and wonder.

And thus Aiko, daughter Inuyasha and Kagome, was born.

The end