Lunch passed by quite interestingly. Not being of modern times, the entire gang-Inu Yasha in particular- poked and prodded their lunches experimentally, wondering if it was edible. Kagome's friends and classmates watched in confusion, not understanding why they didn't know what the food was. They rationalized that the group from the feudal era was foreign, and that they simply had a different culture; it was very plausible that they were mainlanders any ways. This thought made Kisho and Miroku even hotter in the eyes of the high school girls. Kagome made sure to silently but firmly publicize that Kisho at least was off limits. The bell rang and it was back to classes.
Finally the dismissal bell for the last class of the day rang and all of the students stampeded out of the building, have crazed with the habitual want of freedom. As Kagome and Miroku unlocked the bicycles, a thought hit her. "Hey, Miroku. How exactly did you Sango and Shippo get into the real world? I thought only Inu Yasha and I could travel through the well. Miroku looked up at her with a nod and a slight smile. "Well, Inu Yasha of course wanted you back to look for more shards. Sango and I were curious about your world, and we couldn't just leave shippo alone. So we sought out kaede and inquired her about how this time travel worked. She said you and Inu Yasha could travel because of the bond your spirit shares with his as kikyo and him were... lovers of a sort. Then Inu Yasha used his head and remembered how when your brother, Sota, had had some of your blood on his hand, Inu had smelled it and knew to come quick. So we experimented. Remember how you had gotten cut recently?" kagome nodded at this and miroku continued. "Well, we still had your bandage, with your blood on it. So inu yasha crossed over here, and we all jumped into the well, each holding part of the bandage with your blood, and focusing on what we knew of your world." He shrugged, "turns out it worked, and here we are." At that moment inu cried impatiently for them to hurry up. He wanted to go home, and get into more comfortable clothes. Kagome walked her bike over alongside miroku and mounted it as Inu jumped on behind. She called goodbye to sakura and was off, miroku not far behind. They slowed as they approached other people, and kagome waved recognizing her friend akiko. As Akiko turned there was a shimmer of an aura coming from something beneath her friend's shirt. The only object with that particular aura was the shikon.
The group of friends neared Kagome's house, put away the bikes, and made their way into kagome's room, whereupon Inu Yasha stripped the hair band from his head and began massaging his poor ears. Hearing his friends, Shippo popped into the room and asked quite bluntly, "So didya find the shikon yet?" he looked up, his innocent eyes filled with curiosity. Miroku sighed, Sango looked down, Inu possessed a sour expression as he stated, "No." he then whirled on Kagome, "where in all the seven hell's could it be! You said one of your friends had it, but we've seen every one of your friends plus a million other's with no luck!"
Kagome smiled, "Actually, I know who has it. It's akiko. I saw it on her as we rode by her on our way home."
Inu exploded, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US!" his emotions were a combination of anger and excitement. This burst faded quickly and his voice was now filled with confusion, "is akiko the one who kept staring at me the entire day?"
Sango burst out laughing, Kagome suppressed such a reaction, barely, and stated, "No that was Sakura; Akiko's the one who…" she searched for a prominent attribute of her friend's. "She's the one who kept staring at Miroku." Not only did this comment cause Inu to vaguely remember the girl, it also succeeded in making Sango shut up and glare protectively, Miroku to blush scarlet, and Shippo to look around bewildered at the situation. No one however commented on it except for Inu Yasha's nod of understanding and a quick statement of, "I think I know who you're talkin' about."
Kagome's mom called for them to come down for supper and the conversation was put on hold for a later time. Kagome made a mental note to get Inu Yasha to help her with her math homework as she put all plots of retrieving the Shikon in the back of her mind to sleep on later… she just hoped that it wouldn't cause trouble.
