"InuYasha?"

That specific name rang throughout Ranma's head as if it was being shouted through the deepest and darkest depths of a cave. Sweat soon formed near his temples as he could feel an unexpected gulp sliding within his throat. Was it really a mistake to wrap around his arms around her? To smell the sweet fragrance of her fresh shampoo hair? His head turned away, knowing what hellish outcome will erupt. Akane Tendo still stood there, speechless. He was surprised that she wasn't the angry tomboy she is yet he wasn't surprised of the silence surrounding them all. 'It was a stupid mistake', he would tell himself, 'and 'it was a mistake that I brought her here.' The martial artist took a good fist clenching guilty stare at Akane.

Kagome took a good look at her 'InuYasha' and gasped deeply. She backed away with a blush smearing all over her face and looked down in embarrassment. Her legs oddly connecting with each other, blocking the entrance view of her skirt, and arms wrapped around her cheast. She was not the only speechless but Ranma could tell that the mysterious girl was trying to stutter out apology—even though it was his fault he wrapped his arms around her.

"Oh my god—I'm—I'm so—sorry—I thought you were someone else—I didn't mean to…" Kagome's attention was immediately on the ground again. "I was total idiot, I'm sorry."

Knowing it wasn't the right time to smile, he did anyway but that didn't mean it wasn't caught by Akane Tendo. He took a short sigh of relief, thinking that the girl didn't notice his reaction towards hers. "It's alright. You've been knocked out for hours actually." The marital artist began to stare back at his fiancée and gave the guilty expression of saying that he's sorry. He didn't know she was going to jump in or any of those wrong timing events. He loved Akane too but maybe his feelings for her is the same as how he feels for Shampoo and Ukyo.

"Ranma… I'll… leave you two alone." Akane muttered as she turned around. Wasn't she supposed to blast him with a mallet by now? Blue orbs began to soften as he stared where she left off.

"Akane..." Ranma whispered softly enough so no ears could hear its existence.

Kagome looked back and forth between the two teenagers until she decided to break the uncomfortable silence pondering on her mind over and over until she was able to take the courage to speak. "Excuse me but… where am I?"

Ranma cleared his throat to explain carefully enough so she didn't get freaked out. He wanted to chase Akane but something told him that that will come later on. "You were mysteriously lying on the concrete right across my school today. It was raining really hard and you looked unconscious so Akane and I decided to take you to our residence so we can try lower your fever. We used Akane's sister's, Kasumi, remedy to make you feel better but you still look sick so I'll try get some of that stuff and you can go back to your family, kay?"

It seemed that Ranma's quick explanation wasn't enough for our reincarnated priestess so she spoke again to put everything in the right place. "No wait… where exactly am I? I'm not in Tokyo anymore… am I?" She quickly turned her head left to right to make sure her hypotheses were right, "Because this doesn't look like my home at all."

"Well that's because you're in Nerima. A kind of huge town with weird things goin' on most of the times. I don't know how you got here but the only thing that matters is that you're okay." He sighed deeply, wondering if Akane was going to forgive him or not. She's predictable at most times but—today it just felt a little off. "Rest for a while, you still looks sick."

Kagome blushed deeply at the young man's comment and began to stare into his drowning eyes once more. How could he have that same voice as InuYasha? She shrugged off the thought and agreed while lying back down into her sleeping bag. After an hour of sleep, she would be okay—or would she? Naraku's virus nearly killed her, so it's best to take it easy for now. Besides, what could possibly go wrong at a time like this? The young priestess turned her head away from Ranma, breaking contact with him. She looked down at her clammy hands sweating from the nervous breakdown about what happened hours ago. She could no longer go back to the Feudal Era. For fate decided to play with her heart once more. "Thank you, may I please have your name since you saved me from getting sicker?"

It took a while to answer Kagome's question because his mind raced thought after thought about Akane, the mysterious powers, and this mysterious girl. Now she was asking for his name? The young martial artist looked down and his eyes slowly peeked up to hers. "Ranma Saotome."

"My name is Kagome Higarashi. Thanks for taking care of me—but my mom must be worried by now… so would you mind if I call here?" She spoke formally, making sure that she wasn't making any bad impressions at the young man. Although, he didn't seem to care wither she did or not because if you look deeply enough, you could see that he's concern with something else.

"Right—I'll go get the phone downstairs." He raced downstairs, expecting to find the one person he hoped he sees. 'Akane wouldn't be in her bedroom so she has to be around here somewhere—oh right! The dojo!' He reached the destination and peeked with heavy stealth, his predictions were right. Akane was there, training heavily by punching the punching-bag with clean swift hits, along with several kicks. Strangely, she didn't look frustrated or angry. Just relaxed and focused enough to hit the bag.

"Akane!" Ranma suddenly took the courage to shout at her and disrupt her training. "Akane..."

She looked surprised at first, than gave a certain weak smile. Her arm quickly wiped off the sweat increasing on her forehead and gave a cheerful smile. Wait—she was smiling? Ranma took a good look, searching for any fake flaws she was making to fool him. Nothing. His mouth opened but no words rolled off his tongue—he was speechless over her mood and reaction.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were taking care of that girl—she's sick so don't just interrupt my training." Akane's voice had a tone of hostility but her emotions seemed unpredictable, which confused Ranma on what to do on his next move.

"Look Akane—it's not what you think! She mistook me for someone else and--"

"Then why were your arms wrapped around her?" She looked down, ashamed to even look in his face. Her hands lightly fidgeted with her fingers. Cool air wrapped around them both, for the rain never ceased eversince. Night befallen the skies and they both grew silent for her question still seem to hang in the air. "And—you've been acting strange today Ranma. First it was your attitude this morning, your mysterious outrage with my dad and your father and now you look at that girl as if you knew her from somewhere. Were you childhood friends are something? Or—is she prettier than me?" Akane could feel the tears emerging from eyes again—why did she felt this way? Was she… jealous?

"Forget what I said. Go do whatever to help her—stop giving your attention to me." Akane grabbed her towel and walked away, leaving him alone in the stranded dojo.

Ranma was speechless; he hated to have her hurt like this. No matter what the excuse, he just can't stand to admit that this is his fault. One day, a young girl just suddenly appears into his life and changes it. 'InuYasha?' He could have sworn he heard of that name before—but—it was just too vague. Probably he was hallucinating or being paranoid, but what would explain the strange connection with the girl name Kagome Higarashi? And Akane—he could see the tears staining the wooden floor. Frustrated, he punched the dojo wall and cursed. Never—never—he had he ever been more confused in his entire life. He wanted to scream and flounder his old man around or give Kuno a good swift punch in the stomach—but—for once—he needed to relax.

"Ranma!"

His eyes quickly looked at the running figure charging at him and dodged the punch swiftly reaching towards his cheek. A round-house kick was coming in fast, so he ducked and backed away with a soft glide. He knew who this person was—a friend and a foe—more likely a rival.

"Ryoga! I don't have time for this. I'm serious."

Another punch reached to his stomach but Ranma grabbed it and pulled Ryoga towards him. His face was inches away from Ryoga but his hand gripping onto Ryoga's clenching fist still stayed. "Enough."

Ryoga pulled away and loosen his fist from Ranma's hard grip. It took a while to stare into his rival's face but he did it anyway. "Ranma—what the hell happened back there?"

Ranma's attention went back to the ground again and silence once more, coated the question. "I don't know Ryoga—I don't know…"

Meanwhile in the Feudal Era…

"What! Kagome went back to her own time!"

The cute fire-fox demon wailed and cried for her to come back but all it did was frustrating InuYasha enough to bonk him on the head again. That was the 17th bump tonight. Although, not only was the little demon. The demon-slayer and monk looked disappointed as well. They were shocked from the news that Kagome can never return here but the tragedy slowly accepted them and all they could do was sit there and wish for her health to stay in tact. InuYasha saw the two humans and 'feh' at their disappointments.

"Naraku is still alive." InuYasha said with regret while looking at the trio. "And this time—we have to work without Kagome's help, got that?"

Miroku nodded, "although without her purification-arrows, we may have a difficult time defeating him. The only one who has the same powers as her is Kikyo."

InuYasha cocked and eyebrow and felt a sudden jerk in his heart. Just hearing her name—it made his heart skip a beat. "Are you saying that we need her help?"

"Now I didn't say that we actually need to find her InuYasha. If you think about it, we need every bit of help—even from our rivals. Koga has the same determination to kill Naraku; Sesshomaru has the same motive, and followed by Kikyo. This could make up for Kagome's loss."

"… I don't know." The half-demon looked to Sango to see if she agreed but her look was emotionless. That is—until she answered.

"He's right. If we gathered all of our friends that want to destroy Naraku, we could have a chance at it. He is getting stronger mysteriously and we do need to a lot of help. So that doesn't mean it would be enough.

'Kagome… please be alright.'

Back to Nerima...

"Hey mom—I'll be staying in Nerima for a while. No, you don't have to pick me up really. There's still a mystery about the demon were fighting. No his name isn't Nakago, its Naraku. Yeah, uh-huh, don't worry I'll be fine. I should be getting home in several days or so, so don't worry. Yeah—alright—bye." Kagome hanged up and looked at Kasumi with a smile, "thank you Kasumi for letting me staying here."

"Oh don't thank me so much—you just rest for a while, okay?" Kagome nodded and went upstairs to see wither if she could figure out on how to go back to the Feudal Era. 'Well… the well's destroyed—so there's no way—unless I try… but I promised to stay here for a while.'

"Oh—hey Ranma." Kagome found him in her room again, but he looked different this time. Actually, he looked depressed.

His head hung and there was no light. The shadows hiding his eyes, they scared her a bit. She didn't talk, for she feared that he might bark or lunge at her for even speaking through thick silence. Finally, he decided to talk. "Kagome—I've been meaning to ask you but—have met somewhere before?"

She blinked several times, "No, I doubt it. I would have recognized you by now."

"Oh… I see but you mistook me of this InuYasha guy."

"Because you have the same voice as him, it's actually scary."

"Not to butt into your life or something but—are you sure we haven't met?"

Kagome was about to answer but before she could…

BOOOOOOOMMMMMM

"Where new girl hiding that steal Ranma from Shampoo?"

End of Chapter 3

All your reviews motivated me and I will update after I finish my fourth chapter on 'Patience of a Martial Artist." Don't worry, it won't take long.

Darkepyon- Thank you for a more descriptive review my little friend!

Innortal- … you're creepy. Alright, about those things—that ain't going to happen. You can tell that InuYasha's going to come soon.

Lord of the Pit: Yep and here it is.

Wonderbee31- Ahhhh… you see through my tricks, yes?

Death, the Destroyer- You didn't need to say you were getting bored. God, at least pretend you enjoyed it all the way!

Rubel- I HATE GRAMMAR! I suck at it so don't remind me! XP LOL

Firehegdehog- here it is!

Kuno-Baby- ANOTHER CLIFF-HANGER! BWHAHAHAHAHA!

Ss4-Link: I am loyal and I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN IF YOU CALL ME MR. PANDA! I WILL EAT YOU! I'M WARNING YOU; I AM NOT A VEGETARIAN! LOL XP

Cloud1239999- -waves to the hawk dude- Here's my third chapter!

Shiner: Do you think those last chapters were rushed? Because I have a hell lot of homework and I've been trying my best to satisfy you all.

Proud Yusuke Fan- You sound very sarcastic, therefore, I shall eat your mother's garden and homework!

Alright, any suggestions are find so review on your way out!

Panda.