A/N) Oh MAN. That… That was horrible. I'd just like to apologize to the world for that last chapter. I can't write angst and I can't write fluff, so what did I think would come of angsty fluff? Ug. (bangs head against wall) Thatt was horrible.

I've had about half of this typed up for ever but I hated the last chapter so much I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

And while I'm angsting, I need to apologize to the original Ryu. What the hell did I do to your character? Ug.

Maku

Taka pass was just a short path through the mountains, brining us to a small village on the other side. We were greeted with a few airborne rocks.

"Get out! We don't want demons here!"

I stopped, alarmed. "Hey, look buddy." I pointed to my ears. "Human. HUMAN, see?" They ignored me and continued to chuck rocks at my head, shouting obscenities. Suddenly, a strangely dressed girl came over the hill, yelling at the villagers.

"One of your protectors is hanyou and you treat youkai like this? Scram! Get back to the village!" Her tiny green clothes rustled in the wind as she walked up to us. "Sorry about them. They're narrow-minded." She smiled warmly at us. "My name is Kagome, what's yours?"

After introductions she offered to put us up for the night in an abandoned house at the edge of town. Between the ridge and the house we met a hanyou named InuYasha. He didn't do a while lot except sit in a tree and stick his nose up at us. We all set up a cot of some sort and lay down. Except, of course, Aiko, who chose to sleep on the roof.

With dawn, though, came a blue-haired pretty-boy. Normal, everyday occurrence. Until he starts yelling at the top of his lungs and trying to kill our resident doushi. He had this big blue trident that he kept using to jab at Taikoubou. They ran around the village for a while, fruitless chase ongoing. Eventually Taikoubou led him into the woods. We all kind of sat around waiting until he emerged a half hour later, grinning like mad. Kagome approached cautiously.

"Um, where'd the other dude go?"

"Youzen? He fell down a well." Taikoubou's grin widened.

Kagome froze, her eyes growing huge. "He WHAT?"

Kasasagi blinked. "What's the problem? It's just a well."

Kagome fumed. "That well is a portal to my world! YOUR future! The Youzen is now walking around modern Tokyo! Did you see his clothes? He'll stick out like a sore thumb. What the HELL was up with that ZIPPER?"

"Calm down!" Said Taikoubou, Reiki and Talis in unison. Aiko offered the next suggestion. "We'll go look for him, okay?"

"Like hell you will!" Said the young miko vehemently. "You guys'll just get run over or high on soda!"

I spoke up quickly, cutting her off from going on at length about the many horrible deaths that awaited us. "Then come with us. Just show us the way around while we look for him, okay?"

The look on her face clearly showed her thoughts. 'Deep breaths Kagome, deep breaths…' "Okay. Fine, let's go to the well."

After we had all taken the plunge, we climbed one by one out of the well in the future. We looked around and, deciding not to wait for the miko to follow, set out north-east. What we didn't know was that she and the hanyou had gotten into a fight, and she would not be joining us for quite a while. For the meantime, we forgot about her completely and had no qualms wandering around Chibuya.

We pretty much walked in a straight line until we came to the southern edge of Ueno Park. By that time it was about two in the morning, so we kind of pulled a breaking and entering. Nothing big, just an abandoned building. Aiko and Reiki pulled down the boards on the north-facing windows, right on the edge of the park.

I went up the staircase first, musty smell of spiderwebs. I'm not claustrophobic, but even I was a bit antsy in this place. We finally got to the third floor, which had an old western style bed and three futons on the floor. Talis dragged Jahiro into bed, but thankfully it remained chaste, so we didn't have to block out ears. She did, however, in the middle of the night mutter "Ah! Racecars!" Then, later: "Ooooh, racecar…."

I woke up the next morning staring at a pair of dark blue shoes. Blinking twice, I looked up and was starting to a see young woman, no older than thirty, glaring at me.

"Excuse me," She said. "This isn't a hotel."

All around me the others were waking up to various degrees.

Kasasagi grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," she muttered. "We thought it was abandoned."

The woman rubbed her temples. "Well, it's not. Now pay the rent or leave." We all shuffled out single file, looking guilty. Reiki mumbled as we left. "Unless we could work it off, but all I can do is cook."

The woman paused. "You can cook?" Reiki looked mildly bewildered. "Uh, yeah." The woman ran a hand through her magenta hair. "Okay, if you cook, I'll hire you on as a chef. The rest of you can waitress or clean. Or something. I'll even pay you a bit, but I'll take out a bit for renting the top floor out to you. Deal?"

We all looked at each other, then simultaneously nodded vigorously.

And that was how Reiki came to don the apron for the good of the team. Not that it was a huge sacrifice on his part. A few days later, as he served us all at the table, he put on a pained expression as we guzzled down his food. "Do you have to eat so fast?" Aiko pulled her face out of the rice for long enough to respond. "Food is sustenance. Not an event." Then shoved her face back in. Reiki spent the rest of the evening sobbing in a corner.

A few days later, Youzen showed up on our doorstep, looking like he had had a rough few days. His hair was frizzy and sticking out everywhere, and he had bruises all over his face. He was leaning on his big tridenty thingy. After trying to strangle Taikoubou, he dusted himself off and introduced himself to Kuniko, aiming to be employed too.

"Greetings. I am Youzen. Though you may have heard of me as…" He paused dramatically. "As the Genius Doushi."

Kuniko looked bewildered. "The Genius Douche? Is that a nickname you really want?"

Youzen facefaulted.

Mealtimes are always lots of fun. Youzen tends to use his big tridenty thing - Sans tes toes? – To help himself to food across the table. When he made the mistake of making for the duck in front of Aiko, she grabbed it and whacked his head repeatedly. Next time he tried it with his hand, which got really long and all spindly.

He had the teeth marks in his hand for a week.

I, of course, have learned for other's mistakes. When I want duck, I untie a ribbon from my hair and use it like a whip to get it.

Then, I run like hell.

((Chibuya)) The main part of Tokyo (Um, according to my 1988 guide... sweatdrop)

((Ueno Park)) A large park with temples and shrines and stuff in the North-easternly (ish) region of Tokyo. (see above..)

((Genius Douche)) In French it means shower, but…. There's, ya know, another meaning… I guess it's better than the genius enema. ((Sorry, I HAD to use that! Thanks to Mearl, all of us have started calling Youzi-chan the Genius Douchebag. And Emra uses DOUCHE as a sound effect for everything.))

((Sans tes toes)) The first two words translate as 'Without your' in French, and the last word is…. Toes. In English. Did I really have to say it?