AUTHOR'S NOTES
Um, yeah, sorry for the long wait of no update… A lot of small things piling up causing us to take a little longer than we wanted… Hopefully the updates will be coming in much quicker, though I honestly can't say for certain… However, this is kind of a chapter that I would love people to review about because… um… something big happens in it… so even though you probably hate our guts because we never updated, could you try and reply? Thanks.

One last thing: Uh… I like learned a whole bunch of stuff about the Japanese culture because I get a bit energetic with learning about different cultures… So for your reading pleasure (or annoyance, whichever one ) this post has footnotes to explain anything you might not know. And there are also two paragraphs that contain some form of Japanese characters. I'm awfully sorry if you can't read Japanese characters on your computer, but you should be able to read the post just fine without being too terribly confused. And if all the footnotes annoy the hell outta you, I promise to not do so much next time! And was freakin' up and wouldn't put brakets so teh numbers were seperate from the post... live with it. I fixed it six flippin' times and it still won't work. I won't fix it another million times!

DISCLAIMER
Don't you people know by now? Rumiko Takahashi owns InuYasha, not me! Or Ravyn…

InuYasha: Hey, I'm not owned by anyone!

Yeah, yeah, sure…

Sueko: Aren't you forgetting something!

Oh yeah, if it wasn't mentioned in the anime or manga, WE own it!

Sueko: There you go! I feel better now!

InuYasha: Feh.

Yoshiko: Hey, why do those two get to talk and not me? Aren't you forgetting about me?

Sango & Miroku: Us too!

Shippo: You don't care about us, do you?

WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP! I'm trying to write a disclaimer here!

Ravyn: Hey, don't I get to do anything?

Well, I'm the one who posts the chapters here… and you've never mentioned that you wanted to write the AN and stuff. Why, you wanna?

Ravyn: Nah… OMG, this-character-in-HarryPotter-six-that-we-won't-mention-because-it's-a-huge-spoiler died!

I'm just so cruel, making fun of my friend! Okay, here's fan fic:

Chapter Thirty: The Return Home

Through the fog in her brain as she sat next to Sesshomaru's unconscious form, Yoshiko thought it was strange that nobody had come to bother her; try to cheer her up; just come to watch her so she didn't commit suicide. Coming out of her trance, her gaze shifted over to Sesshomaru's face. Suddenly, she sighed and dropped her head, closing her eyes. Then she started turning around and just as she faced the doorway, InuYasha walked in looking like he was thinking really hard. If it had been any other day, Yoshiko would have joked about it. Instead she just gave a small smile and shook her head. Just then InuYasha noticed her and looked a little surprised. He then tried his hardest to look serious. He managed it pretty well.

"How you doing?" InuYasha asked, putting his hands in his opposite sleeves and looking away.

"Hmmmm..." shrugged Yoshiko, standing up slowly.

There was a pause in which InuYasha thought a bit more. Yoshiko rolled her eyes at him, finding it a bit odd that he would bother trying to think. Usually he just said the first thing that popped into his head and normally it wasn't the nicest thing. Finally she sighed.

"What did Sueko send you for?" she asked.

"Huh?" said InuYasha, looking up. "Oh. No, Sueko didn't send me."

"Okay…"

"Look," said InuYasha, taking a deep breath and dropping his arms to his side. "I understand secluding yourself when one you care about is hurt but… he wouldn't want you to worry so much you just depressed yourself."

"And you would know this… why?" asked Yoshiko quietly, looking away.

"For one, I did the same thing with Kagome and I didn't exactly like myself during that period of time," sighed InuYasha, looking away again. "Plus, if I were him I wouldn't want Sueko to be sad."

Yoshiko gave a small smile and glanced at InuYasha. She almost wanted to tell him all about the legend. Even the parts she hadn't explained before. Mostly the part about it all repeating again and how he might have to lose Sueko. But she also had this feeling that if she did tell him, there would be no chance at all of changing her fate. So, instead, she settled with something simpler.

"Yeah, well you're more human than Sesshomaru."

"That's true," shrugged InuYasha. "But he still cares."

"Oh really," laughed Yoshiko. "You've talked to him recently?"

"You don't have to talk to him to know it," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes. "And its not like he would say anything of the sort to anyone."

"Whatever," said Yoshiko, rolling her eyes and walking out of the hut trying to not look at Sesshomaru.

She had hardly left the hut when someone jumped out of a tree not too far away right in front of her. As the women lifted up her head to shake out her hair, Yoshiko realized that her aunt was glaring at her. Rheda's eyes were a bright shade of green and her hands were in fists as the wind swept her hair out of her face.

"Did I do something?" asked Yoshiko, blinking.

"How could you?" snapped Rheda. "How could you leave her alone?"

"Who are we talking about?" inquired Yoshiko.

"My sister!" screamed Rheda. "You left her alone to die!"

It was like somebody had replaced her blood with ice water. Yoshiko just stood there shaking slightly as she recalled Hotaka stabbing Katsumi through the chest. Though Hotaka had sent her away before she could see what happened, she had had a feeling that Katsumi ha died. Now she knew for sure. Now she didn't even have a mother. Now her only family left was her aunt—an aunt that blamed her for Katsumi's death. And she did necessarily want to make up excuses.

"First it was the stupid human she fell in love with," started Katsumi. "Then they had you and she had even more of a reason to stay. But even after the villagers ran her out she wouldn't come back home! No, she had to go off and be all lonesome so she could watch after you! And now she's dead because of you!"

"Hold on," said InuYasha, stepping forward. "How do you know it was Yoshiko's fault that—"

"Don't," said Yoshiko, putting her hand out to stop InuYasha and stepping closer to Rheda. "None of this is anybody's fault. Least of all yours, Aunt."

Rheda just stood there blinking at her. Yoshiko wasn't sure if it was because of the fact that she turned the tables on her aunt or because she called her "Aunt". Even InuYasha was a little confused and surprised. Sighing, Yoshiko moved closer and set her hand on Rheda's shoulder.

"I always looked up to my older sister," said Rheda, dropping her head. "She said that we were going to always be together and nothing would bring us apart."

Before anybody knew what was going on, Rheda burst out in tears and flung her arms around Yoshiko's neck. At first she was a little taken aback, but she then settled with patting the women on the back. She was a little surprised to see her aunt's long silky black hair in tangles. Not that her hair was any better.

'I really need to cut my hair,' thought Yoshiko, as Rheda pulled away, wiped her eyes and smiled.

"I don't know what you're doing out here," chuckled the women, seemingly much better. "Isn't Fluffy in there?"

Yoshiko just blinked and raised an eyebrow at her aunt as she started to turn away with a wave. Half way through her hand in the air, she grinned mischievously.

"See ya around… Tora!" she laughed, before running away.

"Wh-what…" said Yoshiko. "Hey! Wait a minute!" she cried.

But Rheda was already long gone.

It was the middle of spring but it didn't feel like it. The sky was grey, the air chilly, and the mood around her just all around gloomy. But that might have been because of what happened…

She didn't quite understand what happened. So because she didn't understand she tried to forget and move on, except she couldn't. Even though it didn't exactly pertain to her, she still couldn't forget. But seeing how she knew it was impossible to make Yoshiko happy why'd she bother?

In fact, lately Sueko had been feeling pretty useless. She wasn't good with medicine or finding herbs for people so she couldn't help out with Sesshomaru. And she was pretty sure nothing she did would cheer Yoshiko up so she didn't even try. Besides, Sueko wasn't exactly in the mood to figure out how to cheer really depressed people up. Her head hurt enough with the confusion to tackle that task. It helped she was feeling terribly homesick… But she couldn't leave now, nor did she exactly want to until Yoshiko was better…

Maybe that's why she decided to take a walk in the woods to clear her mind. Sueko didn't think it was doing very good mind clearing, though. It just made her more restless.

Perhaps it was because of Sueko's restlessness that when she heard noises behind her, she quickly grew alert and pulled her sword out of her sheath. When the noises grew louder and closer she turned around quickly with her sword in front of her and cried, "Show yourself!"

The rustling stopped for a moment, then continued, until suddenly the branches of the tree moved away by the source of the noise so Sueko could finally see what it was.

"There. I've shown myself!" said Sango with a smile.

"Oh… uh… hi…" said Sueko sheepishly, putting her sword away just as Miroku showed up behind Sango. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you don't get lost and run into random people," said Miroku sweetly.

"Normally Yoshiko would do this sort of thing," said Sango thoughtfully. "So I guess we're just doing it for her…"

"Oh. Okay then…" said Sueko, putting on a smile. She couldn't think of anything else to say so she just stood there trying to figure it out. But when Sango suddenly wore an expression of surprise and Miroku frowning Sueko turned around to see what they were looking at.

"I know you've ran across her more than once! So why is it that she's still alive?" the woman fifteen feet away said fiercely.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sango.

"She's that lady from before," said Miroku. "The one with the Water Stone."

Sueko vaguely remembered running across someone named Sachiko who asked InuYasha to kill a demon in exchange for one of the Shrine Stones. Was this really the same woman? Sueko was surprised she actually remembered the event after all that had happened with Hotaka.

"I ordered you people to kill her," said Sachiko angrily, "so why is it that she's still alive?"

Now Sueko was remembering one day when she was sitting under a tree with Yoshiko. Suddenly this girl who looked like Kagome showed up demanding that the group hand her the stones. She mentioned this lady… They were sisters…

So Sachiko had actually asked them to kill her sister for her.

"So let me get this straight…" said Sueko, walking forward a few feet and trying to stand as tall as she could. "You're hiring InuYasha to kill your own sister? Why kill your own family member?"

Sachiko blinked a few times in confusion. Then her eyes narrowed to a glare and she snapped, "How dare you? How can you say those things if you don't understand—"

"Please!" snapped Sueko, putting her hands at her hips. "Okay, so I don't have a sister… But if I did I wouldn't want her killed!"

"You're just a little girl!" barked Sachiko. "Some little girl who doesn't understand what I'm talking about! So how about you just—"

Sueko really didn't get why she was being so rude, yelling at this woman she didn't even know that much. Then again, why would Sachiko be yelling at her so much?

Then unexpectedly Sueko felt a breeze go by behind her as if someone was walking past her, while at the same time Sango cried out in surprise. Before she could turn around to see if Sango was okay the answer to her question was solved.

"What in the hell are you doing here?" growled InuYasha, standing in between Sueko and Sachiko with his sword pointing at Sachiko's face. How on earth InuYasha got there so fast Sueko had no clue.

Sachiko didn't look unnerved at all by the sword in her face, just bored. "So, it's you."

"Yes, it's 'me,'" said InuYasha, "Now what in the hell do you want!"

With a slight smile Sachiko slyly pulled a blue stone out of her robes. Sueko's eyes opened wide, wondering what the woman was going to do with it.

"You do realize what these little stones can do, don't you?" Sachiko asked InuYasha, holding the stone close to InuYasha's face.

He looked a little unnerved with the Water Stone in his face. "What rubbish are you spouting!"

"You're only a half demon," said Sachiko. "A half-breed, I believe some people call it…"

"What are you—"

"All you're life you've been pushed around," continued Sachiko coolly. "Too weak to be a demon but too dangerous to be with humans. You were probably one of the many demons after the Shikon Jewel, just so you could use the stones powers to become a full demon. Perhaps that's why you're following these people around, so you can collect all the stones to become full demon…?"

"That… That's not true!" cried InuYasha, pushing the Tetsusaiga closer to Sachiko's face.

"Perhaps not…" said Sachiko, tossing the stone teasingly from one hand to the other. "But do you realize that with all the stones anything you ever wanted could come true—anything at all? Like… resurrecting the dead?"

Without another second to waste InuYasha pounced at Sachiko, swinging his sword blindly. With a laugh Sachiko dodged the attacks swiftly, and even had time to pull out a bow and arrow and, in what seemed like seconds, had pinned InuYasha to a tree.

"She may be my sister by blood," said Sachiko coolly, putting the bow and arrow away, "but to me she's not family at all."

"What does this have to do with anything!" cried InuYasha, trying to yank the arrows out that kept him stuck to the tree.

"Five years ago she sold herself to a demon," said Sachiko darkly. "Ever since then her soul has been tainted with evil."

"Wait, wait, wait!" cried Sueko, shaking her head and waving her arms to slow it all down. "Just because you're a demon doesn't mean your evil. It's your actions that determine who you are, not what you are… Like…um…" Sueko hesitated, turning a bit pink and fidgeting with her hands. "All right! I'll admit it! Sesshomaru's not really that much of a jerk… at least not lately… Okay, the point is that demons like Sesshomaru can be good if they want to! So…um…yeah…"

"Are you done now?" asked Sachiko tiredly. Then she turned to InuYasha and said, "I still expect you to do your job. So I'll come back in a few weeks to see if it has been accomplished."

"Yeah, yeah," mumbled InuYasha, finally managing to get the arrows off of him, and getting back on his feet.

"Oh my, I guess my archery is a bit lamer than usual," said Sachiko, turning an ever so slightly pink. The color looked weird on her pale skin.

"Feh," said InuYasha, walking back to camp. Sachiko left in the other direction, and the other three were left standing there, a bit confused. Then suddenly they heard Yoshiko scream and they rushed back toward camp to see if she was all right.

She knew very well that everybody else was sleeping outside to give her some space. And that they were probably much more comfortable spread out over the ground in the fresh air anyways. But still, Yoshiko felt a little guilty. Sueko brought her some food before going to bed but didn't say a word. She found this a bit odd. Then again, nobody really did talk to her. Not since InuYasha talked to her that morning and her aunt had left. Since then she had been alone in the dark, just talking to Sesshomaru's unconscious form.

"You know, I could wait here forever," she said, as she knelt beside him, her hands clenched on her knees. "But, you probably wouldn't want that. And I wouldn't be able to take care of Rin, or spend time with my friends."

Yoshiko paused and sighed. She was wearing her undergarments to her kimono. They had been stained slightly but Sesshomaru's blood, but you could hardly tell since blood is red and the clothes were purple. But still, she knew, that she would need to get rid of them soon. And she would definitely need some new clothes. Then with a small smile she looked back at Sesshomaru.

"It's been a while since I admitted it to anyone," Yoshiko said softly. "But I did tell Sango that if it was my last chance I would tell you. So, I love you… Despite that, though, I can't wait around forever for you to wake up. I also don't want to live knowing that we're together and I always afraid that I'll lose you. With that said, I'm leaving now… Cause I'm not waiting around for you anymore."

Then, taking a deep breath, she got to her feet and started to turn toward the exit. Just as she was about to take one step a hand closed around her wrist. With a gasp of surprise she glanced down and saw Sesshomaru staring up at her seriously. Yoshiko's gaze blurred and she turned it toward the wall and she slumped down into a kneeling position again. The hand did not loosen its grip as she shakily turned her gaze back toward Sesshomaru, wondering how much he had heard. Tears sprung to her eyes and the hand, instead, went up to wipe away a couple.

"It wasn't your fault," he said quietly.

"Get down to the point, don't you?" laughed Yoshiko.

And before she could stop herself, she was sobbing with her head on Sesshomaru's shoulder. For a split second she recalled the fact that he didn't have his shirt on because of the bandages. She soon pushed this out of her mind. Nothing was said as Yoshiko cried and Sesshomaru lay there with his hand on her back. She wasn't sure who fell asleep first but when she woke up, they were in the same position.

Smiling, Yoshiko slipped out quietly and slipped on her dress that Sueko had given her for Christmas (the one that resembled Sango's pink one, though this one in purple), glancing over her shoulder just in case Sesshomaru should wake up. Him seeing her naked wasn't on her list of things to do today. Birds were singing as she walked out of the hut, met with blinding light. When she could see again, she stepped out the rest of the way and looked around. Seeing nobody, she was just thinking about looking for them when a familiar noise caught her ears. Right away her good mood evaporated as Koga came running toward her and grabbed her hands in both of his.

"How are you doing my—" Koga started before Yoshiko had hit him over the head. He fell to the ground and she stood over him, hands on her hips and feet spread wide. Big mistake. "Wow… Has anyone told you, you have very nice legs?" asked Koga, sitting up.

With that, Yoshiko let out a half shriek half scream, as she kicked Koga as far as she could and blushed furiously. Just then Sesshomaru came rushing out of the hut, hand on his sword hilt. A few seconds later, InuYasha arrived with his sword drawn. Sueko, Sango and Miroku all soon caught up. This caused Yoshiko to blush a darker shade of red, especially since she noticed that Sesshomaru wasn't wearing his shirt but had taken off his bandages.

"Ack!" cried Yoshiko, slapping her hands on her cheeks. "I'm fine! Leave me alone!"

"Ow, that hurt!" said Koga, gingerly getting to his feet. "You not only have nice looking legs, but strong ones too."

Blushing harder than ever, Yoshiko dropped her hands into fist and leaned forward so to look angrier.

"Koga! You immature, pigheaded, possessive, pervert! YOU'RE WORSE THAN MIROKU!" she shouted.

Koga laughed guiltily, put a hand behind his head and took a step back. Yoshiko was still in the same position when Miroku walked toward her.

"But he is right, you do have nice legs…" he said thoughtfully, reaching out and feeling her butt.

With another scream of rage she grabbed Sango's large boomerang (which nobody was exactly sure how she accomplished) and swung it around hard, hitting Miroku over the head and almost knocking him unconscious. How come he didn't was also a mystery as he stumbled backwards and fell down. Breathing heavily, Yoshiko stood up straight and turned away. When she did, she noticed Sesshomaru shake his head and walk back into the hut. When he emerged he was putting on his shirt. Quickly, Sango separated Yoshiko from the large dangerous object.

"I'm sorry, Sueko," fumed Yoshiko. "I love the dress, I really do, but with men like these," she pointed at Koga and Miroku, "around, I am unable to wear it!"

"That's all well and good," said InuYasha, sheathing his sword. "But what are you going to wear?"

"There's a village near by that I'm sure will be more than happy to give me another kimono," said Yoshiko, feeling that she was still blushing.

"I thought you didn't like villages," said InuYasha, rolling his eyes. "You avoided them as much as you could."

"But this isn't an ordinary village," said Yoshiko patiently, keeping a wary eye on Koga. "See, they deal with demons a lot and I use to live there for a while. That's where I met Raoul."

She said this in such an off-handed way Yoshiko was a little uncertain as to whether she said it. In fact, she glanced over her shoulder to make sure somebody else hadn't said it. Not only was she surprised, but also Sango, Sueko and InuYasha all looked a little surprised. Sesshomaru, however, had no idea what she was talking about and only looked baffled. Before anything could be said to her remark, a small figure burst out of the trees and collided with Yoshiko's midriff crying out "Lady Yoshiko!"

It was quite clear whom the small figure was when Yoshiko landed smartly on her butt and saw the top of Rin's definite head. Her little ponytail was in danger of falling it and it was very obvious she hadn't brushed in a couple of days. With a smile, Yoshiko put her hand on Rin's head and looked up, seeing her aunt leaning next to a tree. Seeing that her charge was in good hands, she gave a wave and started to walk away. Then she looked as if she forgot something and turned back around. Before she could say a word, Yoshiko spoke good-bye.

"So much for your dramatic exit," she said. "Leaving without anyone knowing you had even been here."

"Aunt Rheda has been telling us stories," said Rin, looking up with a large grin on her face. Yoshiko had half expected her to be crying. "It makes me wonder why you don't like her. She's an awfully nice person… even if she is a demon."

"You're a strange child," laughed Yoshiko. "You spend most of your time with demons and are rarely afraid of any that don't attack you."

"Well, you're not a demon," said Rin indignantly. "You're only half!"

"That's right, I'm only half," muttered Yoshiko, gingerly getting to her feet, though feeling a small bruise forming on her rear already. "So you have her calling you Aunt as well?"

"It's better than her going around dubbing me 'Lady' or 'Miss,'" shrugged Rheda. "You know how much I hate that."

"Uh huh… You just enjoy it," laughed Yoshiko. "You just miss me calling you "Auntie" and thought to have Rin do it instead. How's it working out for you?"

"Quite well, actually," said Rheda thoughtfully. "Anyways, I just came back to try and talk you into telling everybody about your second name as with Hotaka around it may become useful."

"Or," said Yoshiko sternly. "It could prove to be dangerous. What if Hotaka hears about it? Or he—"

"He possesses you again and I'm not around to give you a good whack over the head again? Which I enjoyed immensely, may I point out," said Rheda, examining her fingernails. "Or he gets smarter and thinks of a way of possessing you that hitting you over the head won't break it? Either way, your very good friends ought to know your secret name because it could prove to more helpful than dangerous."

"Well… um…. I… I guess…" stuttered Yoshiko, knowing full well that the only people here that didn't know it was Sesshomaru and Rin. But telling them seemed harder than telling her friends. Because…

'They're more family like… I guess…' thought Yoshiko.

"So we just have to agree not to go around yelling out that your second name is Tora, correct?" said InuYasha, as if trying to save her from having to tell everybody.

"When did you get so clever?" blinked Yoshiko, turning toward him.

Behind her she heard a couple of whispered words and when she turned back around a small wind blew her hair into her face. When she could see again, Koga and her aunt were gone. Suddenly, rushing out of the tree, came Jaken followed by Aun. Yoshiko's eyes went wide. With an evil smile on, she walked over and picked Jaken up by the back of his kimono.

"Jaken! I missed you soooo much!" cried Yoshiko, a mad glint in her eye.

"I… um… well that is to say… PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" cried Jaken, throwing his arms up over his head, closing his eyes and looking away.

Yoshiko raised her other hand, ready to hit him. Then, seeing how pathetic he looked, she rolled her eyes and dropped him. Carefully, Jaken opened out eye and looked up. Seeing that Yoshiko was sighing, crossing her arms and turned away, he also gave a sigh and sat up.

"That's a relief," he said, wiping his forehead.

"I guess I was serious when I said I missed you…" muttered Yoshiko grudgingly. Jaken looked up at her suddenly, eyes wide and misty. She glared down at him. "Don't you got getting any ideas, imp! This half-demon can still whip you're butt!"

"Yes!" said Jaken, getting on all fours and bowing. "Yes, yes, yes ma'am! From now on I'm going to respect you with every fiber in my body!"

"I look like I care," said Yoshiko. "And of course I won't hold you to that. I can't expect a whole lot of demons to still respect me when I become human."

"What do you mean 'when?'" snapped InuYasha.

"Well, that's what I plan to do with all the stones once he gather them up," said Yoshiko. "And at least it won't be a waste for all of you, because you can get a wish or two as well. At least, as many as… er… the shrine is willing to spare energy to fulfill. So I guess you could become full demon as well, InuYasha… Not that you should expect me to respect you in the least. And I'll still be able to beat you up!"

"Oh yeah right!" cried InuYasha.

"What? Your as weak as they come!"

"But I'm only half-demon."

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"You only beat me once."

"Twice. I beat you the first time I met you and then the first half moon that you met me. Really, InuYasha, your as weak as a dandelion during a winter's frost," said Yoshiko. "And you even got a nice club to swing around that does nice magic tricks."

"Don't you dare bring it up," snarled InuYasha.

"What? The fact that if you had learned how to use your sword better Kagome might still be alive?" snapped Yoshiko. "Well, think it out lover boy, it's not just that! Its all those times before that you couldn't protect her that led her to have to take care of herself so she took care of herself and decided that she needed to take of you too and ended up dieing just to save you. Things are far more complicated then you learning to use a sword properly and a little girl that couldn't be saved."

"Kagome was a wonderful women!" shouted InuYasha. "You didn't even know her, so don't you go and insult her."

"I thought you were over her!" yelled Yoshiko.

"I am!" screamed InuYasha. "Its you who seems to not be over that little farmer boy of yours after years and are running little love circles around every other guy you meet."

"Oh…" said Yoshiko evenly, glaring at InuYasha through silted eyes, walking closer. "INUYASHA, I HATE YOU!" she shouted, grabbing Sango's boomerang again, swinging it around once and hitting InuYasha over the head. In a huff, she dropped the weapon and walked off, leaving everybody else thoroughly confused.

Though she found the sudden trip to the village kind of random Sueko went along with it none of the less, glad to be on her feet again instead of sitting around. Besides, with Sesshomaru awake Yoshiko was happy again… or happier than usual. But Sesshomaru being around was kind of weird. Who could like a guy who just stands there and doesn't say a word, and is so quiet you can barely tell he's there, and then it turns out he was standing right behind you and it freaks you out!

However, Sueko didn't really want to go to this village. So they were going to get Yoshiko a new kimono… what next? Where else would they go? They had no leads on anything… no new stone to go after, no new… anything. It was almost like Sueko was bored of Feudal Japan… or maybe it was just because she missed things back home. She had been back a few times long enough to grab make-up work that her parents got from school so she wasn't so behind she failed… but that was only for a few minutes…or a few hours, depending on how weird of a mood her mom was. But, even though it was so weird, Sueko kind of missed school… which usually she hated, but ever since she moved to Tokyo it hadn't been so bad. It helped that she actually had friends in this school, seeing how she was around long enough to keep them. Then again, she hadn't been around lately…

She couldn't help remembering that Hotaka dream thing… Sueko knew it was a dream but at the same time realized that something along the sorts could end up happening… without it being that dramatic. She didn't think Keitaro could get that angry with her…

Hopefully…

Now I just wanna go home morethought Sueko bitterly. And what a better time to get homesick, at a time like this! Sure, Yoshiko looks happy, but is she really truly over it just yet!

"SUEKO!"

"What!" cried Sueko, turning around to see who was behind her.

InuYasha was much more preferable than Sesshomaru randomly standing there. It still weirded her out a bit, though.

"You've been standing there for five minutes, just holding your bag's strap! And you've been ignoring me. Are you all right up there?" said InuYasha, poking at his own head.

"Um… yeah…" said Sueko. "Are you sure I've been spacing out for five minutes?"

"The thing with spacing out is that you don't keep track of time," said InuYasha, picking up Sueko's book bag for her. "What have you got to think about so much?"

"Nothing much…" said Sueko, looking up at the sky and sighing.

"Stop that!" cried InuYasha, putting his hands on her shoulders and shaking her slightly. "What's the matter with you?"

"God, why do you care so much?" cried Sueko, shaking his hands on her shoulder.

"Well, obviously something's wrong! What, you just expect me to ignore that?"

"That's what you normally do!"

"I do not!"

"You do too!"

"Are you going to tell me or not? 'Cause now it's just bugging me…"

"Argh!" cried Sueko, clenching her fists. She was just about to use "Sit!" on the guy when he interrupted her thoughts.

"You're homesick, aren't you?"

Sueko blinked a few times. "WHAT?"

"Oh, come on!" snapped, InuYasha. "I noticed it with Kagome all the time! You don't think I wouldn't notice it with you?"

"Um… Well…"

"Look, you haven't been home in a while and I'm sure your family misses you," said InuYasha seriously. "So how about you just go home? Nothing important is going on around here."

"But—"

"If Yoshiko decides to go on some suicide mission again I'll get you," said InuYasha with a slight smile. "And I don't think you care that much about Sesshomaru."

"But… but… Oh, fine!" said Sueko, taking her book bag from InuYasha. "God, maybe you're the one who isn't right in the head today!"

"Hmm…" said InuYasha. It actually looked like he was considering the thought seriously.

"Uh…" said Sueko, suddenly feeling very foolish. "Um… InuYasha? Where's the well?"

"Not that far from here," said InuYasha. "Just a few miles that-ah-way," he added with the point of a finger.

"Oh. Okay…" said Sueko, looking to the left of her, which was the direction he had pointed. Turning back, she added, "You sure the others won't miss me?"

But he wasn't there. It looked like he had rushed off to the others, who had already left.

Why does he have to show up and leave so darn quickly! Sueko thought bitterly as she started walking.

It ended up only taking a half an hour to get to where she wanted to go. Which was surprising, seeing how there was so much distance. Without any hesitation she jumped into the well, waiting to fall hard on the surface though she knew the fall wouldn't hurt as much as she anticipated. Falling through a time-warped well was not the easiest thing to get used to…

The first thing she wanted to do once she got to her time frame was just go home and go to sleep—and maybe take a hot bubble bath before—but then that Hotaka dream popped into her head…

"Oh…my…God… I'm so pathetic!" Sueko muttered to herself, hurrying down the steps and walking towards her friends' house. "What is the point in all of this? The dream was obviously not reality so why in the hell do I care so much?"

So Sueko spent yet another half hour walking all the way to Keitaro and Tamika's house, seeing how she had no money for fare. Good thing she was used to walking! But once she was standing right in front of their front door, she couldn't bring herself to knock on it.

Then she noticed the buzzer, which was far easier to push than knock on a door. Yet her finger still hesitated before pushing the buzzer.

Don't be so nervous! Sueko thought. It's not that big of an issue to stress over!

Though it was still taking a while for someone to actually answer the door. Just when Sueko expected no one to be home it opened to reveal a sleepy looking Keitaro still in his pajamas.

"Sueko?" said Keitaro, blinking.

"I know…" sighed Sueko. "I should have called first…"

"No!" said Keitaro hurriedly. "Er… I mean, it's okay… I was just surprised, that's all…"

"Oh," said Sueko. "Well, I'll be sure to not surprise you next time!"

Keitaro smiled, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Um… wanna come in?"

"Okay," said Sueko cheerfully, but before she could get all the way inside someone out of the blue hugged her from behind and cried out, "Finally! I've missed you so much! I was just about to go down that well myself, but I suppose that wouldn't have worked…"

"Ta—Tamika?" croaked Sueko, eyes wide.

"Yay, she remembers me!" cried Tamika, spinning Sueko around to face her. "Oh, you're even wearing a skirt! It looks so cute on you! Though you haven't been taking that good of care of your clothes in Feudal Japan…" she added, brushing some dust off of Sueko's red blouse.

"What's in the bag?" asked Sueko, noticing the shopping bag in Tamika's hand.

"No peaking!" snapped Tamika, holding the bag far away from Sueko. "It's your birthday present!"

"But my birthday isn't for another week…" said Sueko. "Wait a second… how do you know when my birthday is? I never told you!"

"Did so!" said Tamika brightly. "I asked you in math class one day…"

"…Which would probably explain why you don't remember the incident," added Keitaro sweetly.

"Math wasn't my greatest subject…" mumbled Sueko.

"Neither is science or Japanese or moral studies or English… especially English…" said Keitaro, counting the classes with his fingers. 1

"Um…"

"And considering you've missed the first month and a half of school," added Keitaro, "you're in for some real trouble when you get back to school." 2

"Thanks for rubbing it in!" cried Sueko. "But I've come back a few times to get make-up work… plus apparently my dad is donating a bunch of money to the school… so with enough studying in this visit I should make it!"

"I wouldn't count on that…" said Keitaro, shaking his head. "May I suggest yobiko after school?" 3, 5

"Please," said Sueko. "My dad might want me to go to college, but does that mean I'm actually going to do so?"

"…What?" said Keitaro, blinking.

"Well…" said Sueko, sighing guiltily, "I do have a job to do in Feudal Japan. So it isn't that much of a future and I don't get paid… It's still my job—probably my destiny. You might think that's weird but it's something I've got to do…"

"Alright," said Keitaro understandingly, "but juku or yobiko is not a bad idea. It'll help you study for the tests in high school, at least." 4, 5

"Oh!" said Tamika suddenly, finally taking off her shoes and coat and setting the shopping bag down before leaning against the back of the sofa while standing in between Keitaro and Sueko. "How about you—" she said, pointing at Keitaro, "—tutor her," then pointing at Sueko.

"Huh?" said Sueko.

"Well," said Tamika, shrugging, "Juku and yobiko can get pretty expensive, while this guy's free," she explained, pointing her thumb at Keitaro. "Well, he might pay you something besides money…"

"Don't go there!" said Keitaro, waving his hands worriedly.

"I didn't mean that!" cried Tamika. "Though that isn't a bad idea…"

"Ugh!" cried Sueko and Keitaro simultaneously.

"Just don't mention Star Wars anywhere near my oniisan," Tamika muttered to Sueko, "or he'll never shut up." 6, 7

"I heard that!"

"Anyways," said Tamika eagerly to Sueko, "what are you planning to do tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" said Sueko. "Go to school? Tomorrow is Monday, right?"

"Yup," said Keitaro, pointing out the fact he was still in his pajamas.

"But tomorrow is also your birthday!" said Tamika. "Come on! Don't tell me you've forgotten!"

"Tomorrow?" croaked Sueko. "I thought that was next week!"

"Today's the 21st," said Keitaro matter-of-factly, "so tomorrow would be the 22nd." 8

"Oh… crap…"

"What do you usually do?" asked Tamika helpfully.

"Uh… just dinner with my family," said Sueko with a shrug. "Sometimes go see a movie if there's no school that day. If there's school that day, then go rent a movie or something… Just stuff like that." 9

"No party?" said Tamika.

"I moved around so much I never had friends," said Sueko. "My dad's an only child so no family on that side, and my mom was born in America so her only family is there… plus her brother died so there's only a cousin and a grandmother there. I think there's just a grandfather on my dad's side…"

"How tragic! That's IT!" cried Tamika, standing up tall and clenching her fist up in the air, and even getting a bit teary-eyed. "As your best friend I'll be sure to throw the best surprise party ever, even if it kills me! Even if I get none of my homework done that day. Even if I miss my favorite anime show! Even if the freakin' world blows up, I'll DO IT!"

"Um… Tamika?" said Keitaro timidly. "It's not a surprise party if she knows about it…"

"Oh. Right… I knew that!"

"But there's school tomorrow!" said Sueko. "There'd be no time!"

"Then I'll make time!" snapped Tamika. "Hey! Oniisan!" she added fiercely, turning to Keitaro and pointing an accusing finger at him. "You didn't even get her a present yet! What kind of friend are you, anyways!"

"I-I did too!" cried Keitaro.

"Oh yeah? When then?"

"Friday! After school! I told you to go on right ahead and I got something! God, are you happy now?"

"Yup!" said Tamika happily. "Wait, now I have to bug Akio…"

"Akio?" said Sueko. "He'd probably get me something weird…"

"Nonsense!" said Tamika. "Besides, he's coming to our birthday party, so why not yours?"

"Oh, is your birthday coming up soon?" asked Sueko.

"The 27th. This Saturday," said Keitaro matter-of-factly.

"How convenient," said Sueko. "We only get half a day of school on Saturday. Why can't my birthday be on a Saturday? Or a Sunday at the very least?" 10

"In 2004 it'll be on a Saturday, if that's any help to you?" said Keitaro. 11

"Where do you get this stuff?" asked Sueko.

"Internet!"

"With a test coming up in history I guess it's out of the question to actually throw a party tomorrow…" said Tamika thoughtfully, "so I guess we'll just have to do something simple that won't take up too much time…"

"How about we all eat together and then I go home and watch a movie," said Sueko. "There! Both birthday traditions are fulfilled!"

"What kind of food do you like, then?" asked Tamika.

"Chocolate?" said Sueko brightly.

"That won't do," said Keitaro. "A whole entire meal of chocolate?"

"What? I like the idea!" said Sueko.

"There's no restaurants in Tokyo that serve just chocolate!" said Tamika.

"True…"

"Let's see… It depends on what you're in the mood for. Seafood, ramen, pork, chicken, beef… or are you in the mood for American or Italian food or…"

"Italian's okay…" said Sueko thoughtfully. "Same with American… not really in a ramen mood… Oh, I don't know…"

"I hear a restaurant down the street a few miles serves really good sweet potatoes," said Keitaro.

"I'd rather go with something simple…" said Sueko.

"A potato is simple…" muttered Keitaro.

"Okay, I have it figured out now," said Tamika. "I'll just surprise you! How does that sound?"

"Now I'm worried…" said Sueko.

"And the check's on me, k?" said Tamika. "So no need to worry about cost!"

"You don't have to pay for it!" cried Sueko worriedly.

"It's your birthday!" cried Tamika. "Loosen up! Oh, by-the-way, I gotta discuss something with you, so if you'd excuse me…"

Before she could do anything about it Sueko found herself being dragged away to Tamika's room.

"What are you doing?" cried Keitaro, hastening over to Tamika's side.

"Out, out, OUT!" cried Tamika, pushing Keitaro out of the bedroom he had walked into when following the two girls. "This is girl stuff! No boys allowed!"

"Fine…" muttered Keitaro just as Tamika slammed the door.

"I haven't experienced this much energy in days," sighed Sueko, collapsing on Tamika's bed and dropping the book bag on the floor.

"Hey Sueko?" said Tamika innocently, laying down on the bed beside her and leaning her head on her hand.

"What?" asked Sueko, turning around so she could see her face.

"You know that Feudal Japan guy?" she said. "The one with the doggy ears?"

"Yeah…"

"Do you still have feelings for him?"

"WHAT?" cried Sueko, sitting right up as her face turned bright red. "What made you think that?"

"I was just wondering," said Tamika, sitting up also. "Didn't you have a fight with him before you came here last time?"

Sueko suddenly remembered that night, when she had thought InuYasha had been two-timing her. Except he wasn't and she was just insanely jumping to conclusions…

"Oh… that was just a huge misunderstanding. It turned out to be some bad guy—I mean, bad girl—who can shape-shift and was trying to trick us. So nothing actually really happened…" said Sueko.

"Oh…" said Tamika. She sounded a little disappointed. "So you're back together with him?"

"What's the big deal?" cried Sueko, turning pink again. "So what if I like him, and he might possibility, perhaps, maybe like me too…" She took a deep breath and shook her head. "Why do you care so much? Do you have a crush on him!"

"No!" said Tamika. "He's not my type!"

"Good…" said Sueko, feeling relieved. "Because I don't think you're his type either. Not that I know his type… Oh, I give up!" And she slumped back down to a laying position on the bed.

"Um… I do have a reason for asking… and with that answer I don't think you'll like it…" said Tamika, suddenly sounding both serious and guilty all at once.

"What?" asked Sueko.

"It's just… um… I…" Tamika closed her eyes and said all in a rush, "I think my oniisan might like you!"

"Huh?" said Sueko, slowly sitting back down and blinking.

"I don't know…" said Tamika with a sigh. "Sometimes he acted a bit… out of character… whenever you were around the last time you were here. I didn't really get it then. But then when you called to say you were going back to Feudal Japan because something came up that was really important, he bolted out of the apartment like there had been some big accident. I didn't really get it then either. But then after you left he acted all tired and gloomy all the time, which really doesn't make any sense with Keitaro. When he's tired he's just all sleepy and kinda stupid, not cranky. So then I was trying to figure out what would bug him so much. And then I fit it all together!" she cried suddenly, clapping her hands together.

"So what was bugging him?" said Sueko, kind of knowing the answer and sort of not… like when a word is on the tip of your tongue but you just can't remember what the word was.

"You," said Tamika, poking Sueko's forehead for clarity.

"So…"

"He likes you!" said Tamika exasperatedly.

"Well, I got that part!" snapped Sueko. Then she took a deep breath. "Are you sure?"

"I might need to make more observation to make sure… But I'm pretty sure, yes," said Tamika seriously.

"But… But I don't like him in that way!" cried Sueko.

"I know!" cried Tamika. "Which is why we have a dilemma."

"Oh God… What am I supposed to do?"

"You're going to have to tell him somehow…"

"I know…" moaned Sueko, covering her face with her hands.

But how on earth can you tell your own friend that you had to break their heart?

The start of the journey was extremely uncomfortable. Not only did Sesshomaru never speak, but also Yoshiko and InuYasha weren't speaking. Also Rin was sullen, Miroku still a little stunned and Sango was keeping her distance. She kept glancing at Yoshiko pointedly. Finally, the half tiger demon sighed, stopped and turned toward InuYasha. The rest of the ground paused.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" she said, putting her hands on her hips. "What I said about you and Kagome was mean."

"Yeah. And…" said InuYasha.

"And what?" cried Yoshiko. "I apologized. What more do you want?"

"Well, nothing, really," shrugged InuYasha. "I just, you know, expected more. Like, some snide remark like 'but you deserved it' or something."

"Just because you would…" said Yoshiko airily, turning to walk away.

"Now what is that supposed to mean?" cried InuYasha heatedly.

"How about we refrain from starting any more petty arguments," said Sesshomaru, though he only sounded amused.

"It's just a friendly argument," giggled Yoshiko. "Don't sweat it… Fluffy."

Sesshomaru merely raised an eyebrow at her in an annoyed gesture. But far from caring she didn't even notice. In fact, the one thing Yoshiko had noticed was that something was missing. A someone to be exact. She spent a minute too look for her. But when the someone didn't spring out of the ground, Yoshiko rounded on InuYasha with a hard expression on her face.

"Where's Sueko?" she snapped.

"What?" said InuYasha, who had been looking at Sesshomaru uneasily but wrenched his gaze away to look at Yoshiko.

"Where's Sueko?" screamed Yoshiko.

"Oh. She went home," said InuYasha passively. At once everybody else seemed to realize that this was the wrong thing to say. But InuYasha only got it when Yoshiko shouted: "She WHAT?"

InuYasha took a step back with the air of a man that obviously wanted to be as far away as possible. He glanced from Miroku to Sango for support. But Sango just shook her head sadly at the poor half-demon. Realizing that he was on his own, InuYasha took a minute to think it out, though he knew he was far past the chance to redeem himself.

"I noticed that she was looking very homesick and thought that since you weren't as depressed anymore it would be safe for her to go back home for three day," said InuYasha, putting his hands in his opposite sleeves and turning away. "I don't get the big deal, since we're going to your old village and you'll be perfectly preoccupied and… and…"

He faltered for Yoshiko's face was growing in intensity. But when she spoke it was in a calm voice that didn't match her furious facial expression.

"You mean to tell me, InuYasha, that you sent her to the well, when there are demons out there that would love to see her dead including Hotaka, alone?" said Yoshiko. "AND IF SHE DOESN'T COME BACK IN THREE DAYS I'M GOING TO SHOVE YOU DOWN THAT WELL AND AREN'T LETTING YOU OUT UNTIL SUEKO COMES BACK WITH YOU! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

"Very clear…" whined InuYasha in such a small voice they could hardly hear him.

"Now that that is settled," said Yoshiko, turning around and putting a hand above her eyes. She then pointed slightly North West. "It's that way!"

"The well?" said Shippo, who was cowering behind Sango.

"No, silly," said Rin, who seemed undisturbed by Yoshiko's yelling match and grabbed the half-demon's hand instead. "Her village."

"Oh… I knew that!"

The rest of the trip took only an hour. By the time they reached the village, however, the sun was starting to set. The most conversation to be heard was between Rin and Shippo who were happily enjoying each other's company. Yoshiko exchanged a few words but this only started Shippo on a rant about her and InuYasha liking each other because they acted so much like Kagome and InuYasha. This was brought to a halt when Rin said, in her innocent way, that it couldn't happen because she was going to stay with Sesshomaru forever and Yoshiko was going to be her mommy. There was no way that Yoshiko could get together with InuYasha. Yoshiko seemed to be the only one uncomfortable but Sesshomaru did almost noticeably drift away from the group a little bit more and not meet anyone's gaze.

Finally they stepped into a small clearing and recognition chased out any embarrassment on Yoshiko's face. A small half finished hut sat in the middle. She gave a little nod and was about to leave when arms wrapped around her neck and almost pulled her backwards. A familiar laugh filled her ears as Yoshiko disentangled the arms and turned around to face the little girl. She was about two heads taller than Rin and looked like she had a black eye. Other than that, Nana looked perfectly healthy.

"I wondered when you were going to show up again!" laughed the girl, rushing off towards the village. "I'll tell grandfather that you're coming. Oh, they'll be so happy!"

"No, wait!" cried Yoshiko. "I don't want a welcoming committee…"

"Far better reception that at your home village," pointed out Sango. "And she almost reminds me of Utako."

"She's younger though," said Yoshiko to nobody in particular. "Well, let's go see the worse of it."

"Odd place to have a grave," said Miroku, bowing in front of the hut. "Do you know who's it is?"

"Yeah," said Yoshiko, walking off. "He was almost my husband and we were going to live here."

Nobody made a comment and she gave no better explanation. In fact the only people that looked slightly baffled were Shippo and Rin. Even Sesshomaru seemed to understand and this only made Yoshiko feel uneasy. Until, of course, she remembered that Rheda had been telling him all sorts of stories about her past. As they emerged out of the trees onto a small hill covered in small yellow and white flowers, Yoshiko looked down upon the little farms stretching out into the village where already people were gathering. With a grim smile, Yoshiko headed down and as soon as the group entered the village, the welcoming party surrounded them.

"Out of the way! Let me through! Excuse me!"

There were obvious signs that people were moving out of the way but the head of the person moving through the crowd couldn't be spotted. Eventually the people in front of Yoshiko parted and out came a rather short wide old man with a scraggly short wide beard and curly grey hair that still showed signs of being browns in the past. Little blue eyes peered out from underneath very bushy eyebrows and a crinkly smile spread across his face, wrinkling his baggy cheeks further than they already wrinkled.

"There you are! It's so good to see you again, Yoshiko!" he said, opening up his arms wide as if to sweep her up in a hug, though he hardly reached her navel. But he didn't exactly look surprised or hurt when she didn't hug him.

"Oh god…" she muttered, then she hitched up a smile. "Hello Ringo! Still alive, I see."

"Of course! It's going to take an entire army to bring me down!" cried Ringo, puffing out his already large belly proudly. Then he seemed to deflate a little and motioned for Yoshiko to bend down a little so he could whisper in her ear: "But just between you and me, my joints have seen better days."

But as Yoshiko straightened up he let out a great round laugh and finally took in the sight of Yoshiko and her group. His eyes swept over everybody, giving each an appraising nod. When he reached Sesshomaru and Jaken though he gave a little jump, of which Sesshomaru either didn't care or took no notice of. Ringo raised an eyebrow at Yoshiko who gave no explanation but he quickly shook it off, giving his eyes entirely to Yoshiko.

"Well, well, well, now!" he boomed, his eyes moving up and down her figure. "Since when did the great Yoshiko wear dresses? You should wear them more often. It makes you down right sexy."

A slight blush crept over Yoshiko's cheeks as Sango gave a small giggly and InuYasha grinned. To cover up her embarrassment, Yoshiko rounded on Miroku, crossing her arms and giving a look of disgust and annoyance.

"Careful, monk, or this is the kind of person you'll turn into when you grow old," she said, nodding toward Ringo who was bouncing on the balls of his feet. At this comment though, he positively beamed at Miroku.

"Ah, so you're like me, are you?" he said, putting his hands behind his back. "Well, here's a small bit of advice: don't stick with one girl, lad. It gets rather dull after a while and then they'll ask you to settle down and have children… Not really what it's all cracked up to be. Cause once you have kids there isn't time for anything else, if you get my drift—"

"Alright!" said Yoshiko loudly, who had noticed Sango eyeing the two men evilly. "Look, Ringo, I came just to ask if you wouldn't mind making me some new robes because my old ones… well, let's just say I can't wear them anymore."

"Really?" said Ringo, with a mischievous glint in his eye as he turned away. "I'm sorry to say that we can't—"

"But—"

"Unless! Unless you agree to be our priestess in the Jewel Ceremony," finished Ringo.

"You still do that silly festival?" said Yoshiko blankly. "Are you guys like totally secluded? Don't you know the Shikon Jewel is gone?"

"Of course!" said Ringo, turning around aghast. "If we didn't I'm sure that Kikyo would be more than welcome to be our priestess instead."

"So is that why she was so near by!" cried Yoshiko, putting his fist in her hand and looking off into the distance. "I wondered…" Then she shook her head and looked back down at Ringo. "But isn't there anybody else? I mean… Somebody… well… more qualified?"

"Who's more qualified than you?" cried Ringo. "You're a part of this village. You're the best choice of them all. Even over Kikyo."

"Yeah right," said Yoshiko, rolling her eyes. "I don't have mystical priestess powers like Kikyo. I don't purify things and stuff like that…"

"Fire can purify things," said Ringo, almost to himself than anybody else.

But before Yoshiko could respond to this, a group of women came out of the crowd and surrounded her. They pulled on her clothes, on her hair and her face. One talked about make-up (a rare thing), another talked about new clothes and a third mentioned doing something fancy with her hair. But when the women tried to run her fingers through Yoshiko's hair (suddenly aware of the fact that she hadn't brushed it for an entire week… or washed it for that matter) she found all sorts of knots.

"Maybe it would be best just to cut it!"

Suddenly Yoshiko's eyes went all misty as if her dream had come true. Then, surprising everybody including Sesshomaru, she whipped around and grabbed the women's hands.

"Really? You would do that?"

"I've never heard of anybody that wanted their hair short," said the women, taking a step back. "But, yes, we can do that."

Maybe it was her imagination or the trick of the eye. But as Yoshiko was led off by the women and Ringo told her friends about where they would be staying that night, she thought she saw Sesshomaru give her a disappointed look and then she was being taken into a large bathhouse.

Normally Sueko was really good with history. It was the one subject in school that was somewhat interesting at times so she was actually able to retain the information she learned in the lesson more often than not. But if that was so, why was this up-coming test full to topics she knew nothing about?

"And considering you've missed the first month and a half of school, you're in for some real trouble when you get back to school."

Shut up, Keitaro! Sueko thought annoyingly, flipping through her textbook so she could finish her study guide. Her trip on the subway was only forty minutes so she didn't have all the time in the world to finish this study guide. Tamika forgot to tell her when the study guide was due—or maybe Sueko forgot to ask—so it could have been due Wednesday, or maybe even today, for all she knew.

When the train stopped, Sueko looked up long enough to see what stop it was. Maybe Keitaro could help her finish her study guide… Seeing that it was Tamika and Keitaro's stop, Sueko sighed with relief and looked down at her packet just to see how much she had gotten done…

Five… out of ten pages… two and a half of which she had done with Tamika the other night…

Sueko sat up taller, trying to find her friends through the crowd, as paranoid thoughts about having to turn in her unfinished packet when she walked into school going through her head.

"Ohayo!" 12

Sueko turned her head to the source of the sound to see Tamika waving cheerfully as she tried her best to get through the crowds to the door. Sueko moved her school stuff, making two seats clear, which both Keitaro and Tamika sat down on when they got to Sueko.

"Ohayo!" they both said, though Keitaro was looking at the packet on Sueko's lap with a raised eyebrow.

"Ohayo, ohayo," said Sueko distractedly. "Keitaro, this packet is due tomorrow and I don't have it done yet… HELP!"

"Oh, calm down already," said Keitaro, taking the packet from Sueko and skimming through it quickly before saying, "This isn't due till Thursday, Birthday-Girl."

"Really? Oh, thank God!" said Sueko, raising her arms in a "Wahoo!" sort of way.

"We have other… more important matters to deal with, besides," said Tamika seriously.

"Wha?" said Sueko, who stopped shoving things into her book bag and looked up curiously.

"Happy Birthday!" cried Tamika, pulling out a box out of her back pack that shouldn't have been able to fit in there with all of her other school stuff but somehow did, and handing it to Sueko proudly.

"We're doing this now? Before school?" said Sueko, looking down at the neatly wrapped box on her lap. Tamika just nodded.

"She couldn't wait," said Keitaro, sounding tired but looking amused all at once. "So I suggest you just go along with it."

"Okay then," said Sueko, looking at the box on her lap and wondering what it was. Just as Tamika opened her mouth to hurry her up Sueko tore off the paper, being careful not to make a huge mess and yet do it rather quickly.

With all of the paper off of it, Sueko blinked at it as Keitaro heaved a really loud sigh and Tamika giggled a bit.

"You'll have to be sure to watch all of them this weekend!" said Tamika with another giggle.

"Wolf's Rain," said Sueko, eyeing the title of the DVD-box set before looking for the synopsis, which she was having a hard time finding.

"Where's the summary?" asked Sueko, still turning the box in her hand. She couldn't quite believe Tamika had bought her a whole anime series, but it only had thirty episodes so that wasn't too bad…

"Oh, it's on the side there… See?" said Tamika, turning the box to the side and pointing at the box of writing. "Basically, it's about…"

Sueko spent a good twenty minutes listening to Tamika going on and on about Wolf's Rain, which was apparently about four wolves—Kiba, Tsume, Toboe and Hige—who took the appearance of humans whenever they wanted as they searched for paradise with Cheza, some Luna flower who also took the appearance of a human girl when she wanted. Tamika described each character vividly, giving the appearance of Kiba the most detail—apparently she had a huge crush on the guy. Sueko tried to listen but couldn't help being reminded of Sesshomaru when she described Tsume.

"He's kind of a jerk… he becomes less of a jerk because Toboe's all nice to him and stuff but he's still a jerk! Tsume was so mean to Cheza, and keeps yelling at Kiba all the time! If I was Kiba I would have kicked him out of their little wolf pack, but, then again, Kiba is a nice guy… he's so the type to give people second chances—even big jerks like Tsume…"

"Tamika…" said Keitaro fumingly. "Could… you… please… just… SHUT UP!"

"But…" said Tamika, getting a bit teary, "I haven't even gotten to explain the romantic relationships… or the fact that everyone ends up dying in the last episode—"

"What!" interrupted Sueko. "They all die!"

"Um… yeah, pretty much," said Tamika. "Why?"

Sueko stared at her new birthday present while muttering, "What's the freakin' point in watching it if they all die…"

"Humph!" said Tamika very loudly. "Let's see what Keitaro got Sueko for her birthday!"

Suddenly realizing that Tamika was angry, Sueko said very quickly, "I really like your present, Tamika, I really, really, do! It sounds so interesting!"

Actually, she didn't get why her friend was so obsessed with a show about the end of the world—well, after the end of the world—where these four guys who were actually wolves go wandering around looking for a paradise that has no signs of actually existing, only to end up dying in the last episode…

"Really?" said Tamika, getting a bit teary eyed again.

"Sure," said Sueko. Then she asked a bit timidly, "You sure everyone dies?"

"Don't worry!" said Tamika, grinning, "See, they all die, and then it sort of starts all over and everyone turns out to be alive anyways… so… yeah!"

"Okay," said Sueko, very confused. Turning to Keitaro, she said, "Hey, do you have something for me?"

"What?" said Keitaro, looking back at Sueko. "Oh… um… yeah…"

As he dug around in his bag for her present, Sueko looked down at Tamika's present, wondering when she'd ever find the time to watch all thirty episodes—she'd have to watch them quickly so Tamika's feelings weren't hurt.

But suddenly a small, narrow box was tossed onto Sueko's lap, interrupting her thoughts. She looked back at Keitaro, who was now staring at a book. Though he was staring at it so much it looked like he might actually burn a hole right through the pages if he wasn't careful.

Sueko looked back down at the small box guilty. She didn't forget last night when Tamika had told her about Keitaro's feelings. And that someday she'd have to find the right moment to tell him the truth…

Sueko tore the paper off rather apprehensively. She had no clue what kind of gift Keitaro would give her. Sure, at Christmas he gave her a CD player but that was when they were just friends… now they weren't exactly "just friends" anymore if one had feelings for the other. But once the paper was off all that was left was a narrow black box with a lid on top. Still clueless as to what could be inside, Sueko nervously took off the lid, dropping it on her lap as she stared at the object inside.

"Oh, I wanna see! He never told me what he got you and it's been driving me nuts trying to figure it out!" cried Tamika, leaning over to see properly.

Sueko looked over at Keitaro, who was a bit pink in the face and staring at the same spot in the book he had been looking at earlier, before looking back at what was inside.

A locket. A simple golden heart shaped locket. But it obviously was not a "simple gift" judging by the increasing color on Keitaro's cheeks. And as she picked it up Sueko's guilty feeling grew and grew. The color in her cheeks grew darker as well.

A gasp of breath surprised both Sueko and Keitaro, who looked up and saw a very shocked looking Tamika, who put a hand on her mouth and stared wide-eyed from the locket to Keitaro.

"It's not that big of a deal," muttered Keitaro, trying to sound way too casual.

Sueko opened the locket curiously, wondering what it would contain inside. Some love note? A poem? Some candid shot of her, or maybe just a plain photograph of Keitaro?

"Hey!" cried Sueko, looking at the empty locket annoyingly.

"You know," said Tamika seriously to her brother as she waved her pointer finger in his face. "If you're gonna give a girl a romantic present, you've got to do it right!"

"What?" said Keitaro, his face now the color of a tomato and a look of confusion on his face.

"Oh, I have an idea!" said Tamika, ignoring Keitaro's confusion. "We'll just stop at that photo hut thingy before we get to school and have our own little group picture inside!"

"Huh?" said Keitaro and Sueko at once.

Suddenly the train started slowing down. Tamika didn't answer, just stood up and put on her backpack. When the train finally came to a sudden stop and people started filing out, Tamika, put her hands on her hips as she started down at Keitaro and Sueko, who were still very confused.

"Come on, then!" cried Tamika, dragging Keitaro and Sueko by their shirt collars out of the train. The two just barely managed to grab all of their stuff before they found themselves on the sidewalk.

Sueko tried to get herself out of Tamika's grip but it was too strong. Some how—perhaps out of years of practice—Keitaro managed to slip out of Tamika's grasp and walked up to the nearest person in front of him, wrapped his arms around their neck and moaned, "Save me… please…"

"Oh, hello Sueko!" said the person, waving at her cheerfully. "I didn't know you were well enough to come back to school!"

Sueko walked up to the guy just as he pulled Keitaro off of him (Keitaro leaned against the wall with his arms crossed moodily instead). With her hands on her hips and trying her best to stand tall, she cried, "I know your name! I know it! I just can't think of it…"

"Akio?" said the boy with a grin.

"Oh. Yeah…" said Sueko sheepishly, turning more pink. She observed the shopping bag in Akio's hand and wondered what it contained.

Noticing this, Akio held up the bag and said, "I figured Tamika would want us all to give you our presents early, so… Ahem… here you go…" As he handed it to her he added, "Sorry I didn't have time to wrap it…"

Digging around past all the tissue paper, Sueko felt something rather fuzzy, but couldn't get a good look at what the fuzzy thing was because the bag straps kept getting in her face. So she set the bag on the ground and knelt near it, moving aside the tissue paper to see a soft-feeling blue sweatshirt and light purple miniskirt to go with.

"Wow…" said Sueko, standing up and pulling out the sweatshirt at the same time to get a better look of it.

"I left the tags incase it didn't fit…" said Akio. "But Tamika helped me get the right size, so…"

"You make it sound like I went with you to pick it out!" cried Tamika, turning a bit pink. "I just told you what her shirt and pant size were because you asked! Sheesh…"

She didn't get why the shirt had a heart with wings in the middle, and she didn't get what a flying heart had to do with tengoku, which was etched below the heart, but it was a cute sweatshirt none-of-the-less so she didn't really care. And judging by the soft material it would be very warm come winter, yet cool enough to wear on a breezy, sunny day. And perhaps she could stand wearing the purple miniskirt, which wasn't actually as mini as it looked by first glance. 13

"Happy Birthday!" said Akio.

"Hey," said Tamika, an odd twinkle in her eye. "Now that we're all here…"

Before they could do anything about it, Keitaro, Sueko and Akio found themselves in a small square box getting their picture taken with a very happy Tamika.

When Yoshiko was done with her make over it was already past lunch and well into dinner. She took instructions to the hut at which her friends were staying but already knew very well where they were staying. It was the hut right next to Ringo's where she had staid often because the village hadn't had its own priestess for years. Before she walked into the hut she stood right outside the doorway, listening to the chatter inside. Sango was laughing gleefully as InuYasha shouted insults, probably at Shippo. Rin gave a halfhearted defense for Shippo and then went back to talk to Miroku. There was then a loud "Ow" as Sango hit Miroku for whatever reason. Finally she heard Jaken speaking to Sesshomaru who said nothing in return.

Sighing, Yoshiko flattened out her new green, silk dress and held her bag of old and new clothes behind her back. Her newly cut hair was up in a sort of half bun, half short ponytail; if down it would reach her shoulders. Though it was longer than she liked it still was short enough that she didn't feel that she would complain about it. Also she had realize that if it was too short she may find that it would get in the way but there would be now way of holding it back. Then, holding her head up high, she walked into the hut where a silence fell. Dropping her bag, she held out her arms and turned around so that they could see all of her.

"Well, what do you think?" asked Yoshiko, turning back around with a large grin on her face to prove to her friends that she was happy with it.

"It's very nice," said Sango, nodding.

"Very ni— " started Miroku before Sango hit him again.

"I would hug you but I'm afraid I would wrinkle it," said Rin, feeling the hem of her dress.

"Wow!" said Shippo, coming over to stand next to Rin. He hesitated and then poked at the dress. "Cool…"

"Feh…"

Yoshiko looked up at InuYasha who was eyeing her warily. Before she could say anything he continued:

"The festival isn't for a week," he sighed. "What are you going to wear till then?"

"We're going to stay?" cried Yoshiko, feeling like a little girl. When InuYasha gave a half nod, half shrug she leapt at him and gave him a large hug. "Thank you, InuYasha! Thank you, thank you!"

"Feh."

As this was going on, Yoshiko heard somebody leave. When InuYasha pried her off of him, she turned around and saw that Sesshomaru had disappeared. Not only disappointed that he hadn't even said anything to her since they got here but also a bit confused by his behavior. Saying that she needed some fresh air, Yoshiko disentangled from Shippo and Rin and exited the hut. Luckily Sesshomaru hadn't gotten very far, but was standing just a few feet away, staring at the setting sun. When she looked at him and realized that she was wearing a very thin dress, Yoshiko felt her cheeks turn pink. Still she walked up to him, clutched her hands behind her back and looking slightly to his left.

"So, what do you think?" Yoshiko asked quietly, trying to surprise him into saying something.

She was sadly disappointed. Instead he sighed, and turned slightly to glare at her. Yoshiko blinked and dropped her hands to her side, but didn't move. When he still said nothing she sighed, then frowned at him. Still Sesshomaru made no sign of speaking, which just infuriated her! The guy had no decency! Sure, he was looking at her, but she had asked a question and he wasn't even giving a simple reply. Finally she put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but he decided that now he was going to answer.

"I don't see the point of changing your appearance when there was nothing wrong with it in the first place," growled Sesshomaru.

"Wh-what?" said Yoshiko, a little taken a back. She regained her composure almost immediately. "Well, it's a girl thing! Sometimes we just like to dress up and feel prettier than usual."

"Or this is the only way you can think of to hide what you really are," said Sesshomaru. Yoshiko merely blinked at him. "Apparently you are just a silly half-breed."

With that he started to walk past her, Yoshiko still staring in one direction, his words slowly sinking in. When she realized what he had said, she spun around, one hand at her chest but Sesshomaru was already starting to disappear. Yoshiko dropped her hand and shook her head.

"What does he know?" she muttered angrily. "Its not like his opinion really matters…"

Before she could dare to answer herself, Sango popped her head out of the hut.

"Hey, you coming in?"

"Huh?" said Yoshiko, wiping away a stray tear. "Oh, no. Not right now. I'm going to go for a walk. You know, get my bearings… Haven't been here in a long time."

"Right," said Sango. "Well, don't stay out all night."

"Sure, whatever…" muttered Yoshiko, turning and walking the opposite way as Sesshomaru. She knew even if she did stay out all night, somebody would come after her. Maybe it would be Sesshomaru…

'Except I don't think I'm going to talk to him!'

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air as no one said anything, just sat around the kotatsu—it might be May but an unexpected storm had come and it was blistery and pouring down rain outside, so it was actually pretty chilly, even indoors—waiting for someone else to say the words that they couldn't think to say. But then, after about five minutes of this continuing gauche silence, someone spoke up. (14)

"So… erm… Keitaro. Any ideas as to where to start?" asked Sueko clearly, looking up from her twiddling thumbs.

"Well, let's face it," said a tired looking Keitaro, "you suck at everything!"

"Hey, have you looked at my History grade lately! It's a perfect B-!"

"Don't mind me, I'm just here for moral support," said Tamika with a sweet, innocent-like smile. It helped she was wearing pigtails, so she was looking pretty childish today.

"Uh…" said Keitaro, rubbing his temple in annoyance. "How about we start with… uh… er… Anyone got a coin to flip?"

"You're going to help me keep up my grades by gambling!"

"What does tossing a coin have to do with gambling? Besides, we don't gamble with money in this country, so what's up with you?" (15)

"Blame the thirty-minute phone conversation I had with my cousin," said Sueko brightly. "She lives in Kansas!"

"Oh, I liked that movie!" said Tamika. "Toto was so cute!"

"Um…"

"Okay, English is your worst subject so how about we start with that," said Keitaro suddenly, taking their textbook and flipping through to the chapter they were on in class.

"How did you manage to talk to your Kansas friend if you suck at English?" asked Tamika.

"Uh… cousin," Sueko corrected. "Besides, she knows Japanese from our Grandparents, so there."

"Did you start on Monday's packet at all?" said Keitaro loudly to stop the two girls' conversation.

"Uh… not really," said Sueko. "Hey, it's not due 'til tomorrow!"

"See, there's your number one problem!" said Keitaro seriously. "You leave your homework until the last minute and then understand none of it so you just rush it and get a low score on it!"

"Um… okay…" said Sueko, blinking.

"So," said Keitaro, looking at the first page of said packet. "What's the translation of engei?"

"Uh…" said Sueko, glancing at her choice of words (it was a match-up on vocabulary words to prepare students for the upcoming test). "I know this one! Oh my God… um… Oh! Entertainment?"

"No, the other engei," said Keitaro, almost getting away with hiding a smirk. "Horticulture is 園芸 while entertainment is 舞芸." (16)

"Fine…" said Sueko, writing it down and trying to memorize the fact that 園芸 equals horticulture while the other engei meant entertainment.

"What am I supposed to do?" asked Tamika, playing around with a mechanical pencil.

"You didn't have to come," said Keitaro. "Unless you have some amazing new tutoring tips that I don't know about you really have no use being here."

"I'm here for moral support!" said Tamika stubbornly. "Besides, I can help Sueko pray for luck."

"Oh please," said Sueko, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, your next word would be… nogyo," said Keitaro.

"Yay! No trick word like engei!" said Sueko cheerfully. "Alright… um…" She glanced quickly at her choice of words before looking back up, hoping the quicker she was the less guilty she would look, seeing how she was trying to not have to peek at the words in the first place. "Uh… agreculture?"

"In English the i sounds like an e…" said Keitaro. "But yeah, agriculture is correct. You didn't get the i wrong with entertainment…" (17)

"Wahoo! Two done, fifteen to go!" said Sueko, marking her page and completely ignoring Keitaro.

"Are we done yet?" yawned Tamika.

"No one invited you!" cried Keitaro.

"Yeah, but what else was I supposed to do? Lay around the apartment all day? Besides, Sueko has a pet cat! We don't have a pet cat at home!"

"We had a mouse when we were four…" said Keitaro slowly.

"Oh yeah! Her name was Umi…" said Tamika dreamily. "And then… and then… KEITARO KILLED HER!" (18)

"I did NOT!" said Keitaro.

"Did to! I went to this week-long Nihon Buyo camp and then I came back… and… and… Umi was dead! And you know why? Because YOU forgot to feed her!" (19)

"I so did not do that!" cried Keitaro. "Why'd I forget to feed Umi for!"

"Um… hey, Keitaro?" said Sueko timidly. "I can't figure out what tagayasu would be…"

"Huh? Oh… cultivate…"

"Okay!" said Sueko, eagerly writing it down.

"I thought you were over the Umi thing…" said Keitaro quietly to Tamika.

"Who ever said I wasn't?"

"What's the difference between transplant A and transplant B?"

"What?"

"For number seven…" said Sueko timidly. "I mean, I get that on number seven the answer is transplant, but there's two versions of transplant and I don't know which is first…"

"Oh," said Keitaro, looking down at the packet. "Utsusu is transplant B, which is to move something from one place to another… And transplant A means medically with a organ transplant, or a plant transplant, so that'd be…"

"Ishoku suru!" cried Sueko, jotting it down.

"Wow, you did three problems all by yourself!" said Tamika, looking at Sueko's packet.

"Oh, I did!" said Sueko. "This is simpler than I thought it was!"

"And it was because you took your time with it!" said Keitaro proudly.

"No… it's because you gave me the answers for half the problems," said Sueko sweetly. "Thanks, by-the-way."

"Fine! Just for that remark I'm not giving you any of the answers ever again!"

"Hey, no fair!"

Tamika yawned, raising her arms in a stretch before saying, "I have an idea! How about a study break!"

"We haven't been at it long enough for a study break!" snapped Keitaro.

"So? I'm so boo-ored!" whined Tamika.

"You could help me with number fifteen," said Sueko, poking her forehead with the mechanical pencil with annoyance as she glared at her packet.

"Nah…" yawned Tamika.

"Wow, number fifteen already?" said Keitaro, looking at the page to double-check.

"Yup. And I totally blame you!" said Sueko, pointing at him with her mechanical pencil. "You're smartness must be contagious because I've caught the bug!"

"No, you're confidence has just been lifted so your work effort has improved," said Keitaro stubbornly with his arms crossed.

"I like the smart disease better," said Sueko just as stubbornly. "Except sicknesses eventually go away and then I'll just be stupid again…"

"You're not stupid!"

"Okay, fine then! I'm not stupid! But I'm certainly not bright so what other word is there?"

"Just because you have bad grades does not mean you're stupid!"

"You're both stupid!" said Tamika annoyingly, who was doodling on a scratch piece of paper with her head resting on her hand. "So both of you shut up!"

"Humph!"

The only sound that could be heard for the next ten minutes was the sound of Tamika's humming (by the sounds of it, a Morning Musume song), the flicking of Sueko's mechanical pencil, and the flipping of pages by Keitaro, who was working on his own homework. But then the flicking of the pencil stopped as Sueko sighed in defeat and said quietly, "Is shokubutsuen vegetation or food-poisoning?"

"Neither," said Keitaro tiredly. "Shokubutsuen is botanical garden. Shokubutsu is vegetation and… I have no clue where you got food-poisoning from, but it's shokuchudoku…"

"Okay…" said Sueko, writing it down. "Sorry…"

"Uh… no, it's no big deal…" muttered Keitaro, waving a hand but not looking up from his work.

Sueko sighed, adding in the word greenhouse for onshitsu.

"Oh, all done!" cried Tamika suddenly, setting down her pencil and leaning against the wall with her hands behind her back while she smirked proudly.

"What?" asked Sueko.

"With my drawing!" said Tamika, holding up her piece of paper. "It's Kiba!" (20)

"Okay," said Sueko, not really caring. She was too busy feeling guilty over the silly little argument she and Keitaro had just had. Which was sad because it wasn't even an argument. She was being more pathetic than when she and InuYasha had a fight. What was up with her today? She didn't need to get a crush on InuYasha, get over it, get a crush on Koga, then get over it, then fall in love with InuYasha, and suddenly start falling in love with Keitaro. That would just really suck. Plus she'd had enough romantic problems in her life for a year—for a lifetime. And she really did not need to deal with her best friend being in love with her. Honestly, Sueko could not believe she was attractive enough to attract three guys (that is, if Akio still wanted to date her. Oh, and that InuYasha still liked her; that guy was confusing as hell at times, it was hard to tell.). Maybe Sueko should change her mind about hating mini skirts because her schoolgirl outfit was sure doing wonders…

"I'm hungry!" said Tamika suddenly.

"You have got to be the whiniest study buddy ever!" snapped Sueko.

"What? I'm bored," said Tamika with a smile.

"I guess we've done enough for a small break," said Keitaro, closing his textbook. Then he glared at Tamika and added sternly, "A short break."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," said Tamika, not really paying attention. But just as she was walking out the living room door she turned around and, with one hand still on the door she had been opening and the other on her hip, she said exasperatedly, "What do you two think you're doing?"

So then Sueko and Keitaro found themselves being dragged outside with Tamika. Which was getting rather annoying, getting dragged around by Tamika. Sueko was surprised her shirtsleeve wasn't completely stretched out by now.

"Why are we outside for?" snapped Keitaro, wrenching his arm from Tamika's grip.

"Ah, it's so nice outside!" said Tamika, going down the long shrine steps two at a time.

"Okay… it's raining!" cried Sueko. "And I'm already soaked and cold…"

"I like rain!" said Tamika. "How can you not like the rain?"

"When it's drizzling or something it's just fine… but it's dumping out here! And cold!"

"I think you'll live for five minutes," said Tamika sweetly, turning around to stick her tongue out.

"Humph…"

"It's not as windy as it was before," said Keitaro with a slight smile.

"Yeah," said Sueko with a sigh.

"So," said Tamika, reaching the last step and spinning around to face Keitaro and Sueko, who were a few paces behind, "where do you want to go?"

"I thought we were taking a study break," said Keitaro.

"Yes… but when people go for a walk aren't they headed somewhere?" said Tamika, smiling.

"Then pick some random direction and go that way," said Sueko. "Or go by your gut feeling. That's usually what we do when we're trying to figure out which way we go to find some more Shrine Stones. Though Yoshiko keeps complaining that I should just practice trying to 'talk' to my sword because that'd be a lot more easier…"

"Come again?" said Tamika.

"Since when did you have a sword?" cried Keitaro. "More importantly, how come you never let me see it!"

Sueko shrugged. "It's not that important. It's rather plain looking, actually. I'm sure you could find a nice picture of one just like it off the Internet."

"Hey, a photograph and seeing the real object up-close and personal are two totally separate things!"

"All it does is glow blue once and a while when there's a stone around," Sueko continued, ignoring Keitaro's comment.

"Whoa, just like Frodo's sword when orcs are around?" said Keitaro, eyes wide.

"Um… Frodo? Ocrs? What?"

"I can't wait till they finish making the movie in New Zealand!" said Keitaro breathlessly (he was starting to act and sound like his younger sister with his excitement, and it was starting to creep Sueko out a bit). "Of course, we'll have to wait months for it to show in Japan… but it's a good enough movie they'll be sure to show it in the theater! Dad already said we can see it as soon as it comes out…"

"Oh God, I forgot to warn you about Lord of the Rings," muttered Tamika, pulling Sueko aside. "It's some really huge book that no one in their right mind would want to read. It's really boring, and was written in, like, the thirties. How old!"

"How dare you insult J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece," growled Keitaro, an odd glint in his eyes as he suddenly appeared behind the two girls. "Besides, it was written in the fifties, not the thirties! Well, actually, it was originally going to be published as one big book but the publishers decided to split it into three books, so they were actually published between the years 1954 and 1966. And you can't forget the prequel, The Hobbit, which was published in 1937…"

"So!" said Tamika loudly, talking over Keitaro's rambling. "You were saying about Feudal Japan, Sueko?"

"Fine! Ignore me! But I warn you, when—"

"Uh huh," said Tamika, nodding her head "understandingly." Then she turned her head and said, "Oh, look, its Akio!"

"No way," said Keitaro, turning his head. Sueko did too, and even though she thought Tamika made up Akio being there, it actually turned out to be that he was.

"What are you doing here, Akio?" Keitaro called.

Akio rushed over to the trio, being sure to hold his hood in place so the wind wouldn't blow it off. Sueko was surprised Tamika spotted him, since his dark raincoat was doing a good job of hiding his face.

"I didn't expect to see you lot out in this weather!" said Akio, raising his eyebrow at the sight of them; the three were still wearing their school uniforms since they had gone straight to Sueko's house. No one grabbed a coat when Tamika dragged them out.

"Me neither!" said Keitaro, looking as if he wished he had Akio's coat for warmth.

"I didn't know you lived around here," said Sueko. "My house is just over there."

"I live two miles that way," said Akio, gesturing behind him. "I missed the train so had to walk to the grocer—Hikari drank all the milk and we kind of need some… like, now… So I volunteered to go buy some."

"Hikari?" said Sueko.

"Oh. My little sister," said Akio with a grin.

"Oh great," muttered Sueko. "Why does everyone have a sibling except for me?"

"They aren't that great," said Keitaro. "They're annoying, selfish, rude, and insulting to great works of fiction!"

"Oniisan? Shut up!"

"Aww, they're all right," said Akio, smiling at the twin's bickering. "Okay, Hikari's really annoying, but she's also really adorable too. She's only six," he added.

"Um… I have a cat!" said Sueko brightly. For some reason everyone found that hilarious, and laughed for a whole two minutes about it.

"So, what are you three doing out here?" said Akio conversationally. "I mean, it's pouring down rain…"

"I know," said Keitaro.

"It's all her fault," said Sueko, pointing at Tamika, who had her hands behind her back as she looked up towards the heavens and whistled an odd tune.

"Figures," said Akio. "Well, I should go… I was hoping I could catch the next train or something because I don't want to be out in this weather much longer. And I suggest you all hurry up and head inside before you catch cold!"

"Sure thing!" said Keitaro as he waved good-bye to the Akio rushing past the crowded sidewalk.

"Onward, march!" said Sueko, pushing Tamika back towards the house.

"But… but… oh, fine…"

"I don't want my new necklace to rust or anything!" said Sueko. "Wait… I don't know, will it rust in the rain, Keitaro?"

"Huh?"

"The locket!"

"Oh… no… Wait, you're actually wearing it?"

If he were InuYasha Sueko would have hit him on the head, or possibly have said sit. Except Keitaro wasn't the kind of guy you could hit on the head… at least, not the kind of person Sueko would want to hit on the head. So instead she just cried out, "Of course I am, you idiot! What else would I do with it? It pretty much only has one use."

"Yeah…" said Keitaro thoughtfully.

It was then that Sueko was reminded of the fact that she would eventually have to say that she was no longer single to Keitaro… and, wishing Tamika had never brought the subject up, grudgingly went up the stairs and back into her house.

Miroku was intent on finding her and, at the moment, Yoshiko just didn't want to be found! She had spent a good ten minutes trying to lose him but the monk just wouldn't let up. As she was passing a small lake in the middle of the forest, she noticed someone bathing. Hoping to distract the lecher, she led him into the clearing but hid before the person could see her. As she had hoped, as soon as Miroku saw her she called out to the bathing figure. The women looked up, jumped to her feet, her long blue hair falling into her face and grabbed up her clothes trying to cover up. Her face was turning a dark shade of red but she merely glared as she drew up her sword.

"What manner of man watches women bathe?" she snapped.

"I did not to intrude fair lady," said Miroku, grinning as he held up his hands. "I merely thought that someone with great beauty may perhaps bless me by bearing my child."

Yoshiko groaned and started to head away when another person appeared in the clearing. Wishing to see how Sango would react, Yoshiko wandered closer but hid herself a bit better. The demon slayer looked at Miroku and the regular look came across her face. Just as she was about to lift up her large boomerang, she saw clearly the girl in the water who was quickly coming out and dressing herself. She was muttering to herself and still a very dark shade of red. Her blue hair was draped over one shoulder as she bent over, glancing at Miroku occasionally. She, too, suddenly noticed Sango and froze. But the strange women fade the first move, straightening up and glaring at Miroku, her hair still over her shoulder causing her to look only more dangerous now that she was clothed in the garb of the demon slayers, only her armor was purple.

"You know my sister, Sango?" she snapped. Yoshiko blinked. 'Sister?' That complicated things.

"Half sister," Sango corrected sternly, surprising Yoshiko by giving the women a look of right out hatred and loathing. Why could the demon slayer stand to be around InuYasha and Yoshiko and despise a half-demon related to herself? "So, Kimiko, thought you would pray on the first man the strayed by and have yourself a little fun?"

"You may enjoy perverts, sister," said Kimiko coolly, "but I have a little more taste."

It happened practically in a blink of an eye. Sango raised up her boomerang and threw it but the women… Kimiko was already out of the way. She threw a scythe at the end of a chain at Sango who had to dodge it and missed her weapon as well. Pulling in her weapon, Kimiko tried another attack but Sango had had time to pull out her sword and blocked it. The women dropped her weapon of choice and drew up her sword again. The clash of the metal was so loud that Yoshiko flinched. She was surprised that the weapons didn't break under the pressure of their ferocity. Miroku stepped forward and drove them apart with his staff.

"That's quite enough!" he cried. "This is uncalled for."

"Out of the way, monk," hissed Kimiko.

"This has nothing to do with you, Miroku," snapped Sango. "Now move!"

She shoved Miroku out of the way and took a swing at Kimiko. The women had hardly any time to move and Yoshiko knew that at that speed even she or InuYasha would have been struck. Kimiko clutched at her wound in her abdomen but kept a firm hold on her weapon. By this time Yoshiko as seen enough. She leapt out of the bushes and caught Sango by her sword arm and twisting it behind her back. The half-demon had a good though to break it off but a small voice told her that Sango was still her friend and was a good fighter. Their group needed her. So instead, teeth bared, Yoshiko threw the demon slayer to the ground and caught up Kimiko before she had hit the ground.

"You can clean up this mess," snapped Yoshiko to Sango who was sprawled on the ground. "When you get back to the hut and Kimiko is safely in bed you can explain this."

Sango looked up at her in complete surprise, acting as if she had forgotten all about her sister. Yoshiko could tell it wasn't the fact that she had stopped her from killing Kimiko or was trying to save her that bother Sango. It was how she had done it, her power and the way her voice sounded. It bothered Yoshiko too but she didn't feel like she had time to figure it out or apologize. She glanced once at Miroku's shocked face before striding off, careful not to knock Kimiko's head against a tree. Her mind was fuming at the lack of respect Sango had given to her half sister who was no different from two of her companions. How could this women have deserved it any more than herself or InuYasha?

'Then again… I don't know exactly how she treated InuYasha when she first met him,' thought Yoshiko. 'Maybe she had tried to kill him because of her sister and by the time she met me had come to realize that not all half-demons are bad. Perhaps her sister does deserve it…'

But even so she felt an anger toward Sango rising through her like fire. When she had reached the hut she hardly registered the fact that Sesshomaru was still here. She gave no response to anybody but walked into the other room where she started dressing the women's wound. Kimiko rested for a good while and Sango did not return… and neither did Miroku. Yoshiko had a thought that perhaps they were plotting how to kill both herself and the blue haired women. She felt an odd satisfaction at the thought of an excuse to strangle Sango and break every bone in her body.

'Actually, it should be the other way around…' she thought.

Then, with a horror at the thoughts, she shook her head, awakening Kimiko who sat up. She looked down at her ripped clothing and looked at Yoshiko. Without a word the half tiger demon rummaged in her bag and brought out her purple dress. The women quickly dawned it before sitting down and looking Yoshiko straight in the eye.

"I must thank you," she said stiffly. "You saved my life. My name is Kimiko. My mother was the same as Sango and my father was a half water demon."

"So you're only a quarter demon?" said Yoshiko in surprise. "I thought perhaps you were half-demon like myself."

"No… Apparently Sango has much more respect for half-demons than myself," said Kimiko, averting her eyes suddenly. "Though I admit she did try and kill that InuYasha it wasn't for the fact that he was half-demon. It was Naraku's doing."

"Oh…" said Yoshiko, suddenly coming up with a whole scene in her head where Naraku tried to blame Sango's brother's death on InuYasha. Or something of the sort. From what she had heard of this Naraku it seemed the thing he would do. And Kamatari. He would probably do it too.

'Perhaps this is his doing,' she thought. 'Could it possibly be Kamatari that laid Kimiko out for Sango to stumble across? But for what reason?'

"My father was not very nice. He raped my mother before she married and so she entered marriage pregnant. Though he was often away, he would come to claim me and often beat myself and my mother. It was become of him that she died when Sango was still young and Kohaku barely a year old," sighed Kimiko. "My step-father attempted to be kind and knew that my birth father could do little to harm a village of demon slayers. But Sango always seemed to blame me for the constant unease and her mother's death."

"She wishes to kill you because of your father's mistakes?" cried Yoshiko. "That doesn't sound like the Sango I know…"

"Oh but that's not all of the story," said Kimiko with an almost insane smile. "You see when she was younger she was afraid of me because I looked different and acted different. It wasn't that she didn't like me. But then she learned of her mother's death and started to dislike me. When she grew older and started to like boys she realize that they never would look twice at her whilst I was around. Besides I refused to become a demon slayer and was away when Naraku attacked the village. I was the only one left that could have perhaps saved the village. She blames me for this."

"Yes… But it doesn't explain why Sango would wish to kill you," said Yoshiko thoughtfully. "I, perhaps, would despise you to some extent but not to the fact that I would shove you into your grave."

"But there is still more to my little story. Though the fact that I wish to become all demon my weigh on her mind heavily," continued Kimiko. Yoshiko found herself looking away in disgust momentarily. She despised demons. "But I confronted her at the young lord's palace where she was being healed and told her that she should not listen to him. The stories that Naraku told were false and InuYasha had nothing to do with it. She would not listen to me and once remarked that those a like stick up for each other. So in her mind I was working with InuYasha and possibly destroyed the village as well. Even when she found out it was not InuYasha she still believe it. When I stole a weapon and armor from the Demon Slayer village it only helped her to come up with some wild stories."

"I see…" said Yoshiko though she didn't quite. There seemed, to her, to be another underlying story. This was the one where Kimiko spread herself out in the good light. Sango would take the darker story and twist it to the point where others around her would wish to help her in her quest to murder Kimiko. It would be Yoshiko's job to shift through both and find the points that fit together so that she may find the true story. But the fact that she thought that at some point one of the two would stab her in the back was not helping. She rubbed her head and was about to say that she was going to sleep when she heard Sango come into the hut. The sun was rising and she knew that there would be no sleep for her tonight. Sighing, she told Kimiko to wait while she went out to talk to Sango and explain to the others what was going on.

The pouring rain persisted the next day, and Sueko was feeling a runny nose starting by the end of school. Luckily, she brought an umbrella! Unluckily, she had no coat…

She had just walked off her train and was walking the mile and a half home with her Hello Kitty umbrella. Sueko had owned the umbrella for quite a while and never thought to buy a new one… maybe she should reconsider that idea. At least it was big enough for at least two people to keep out of the rain, even if it was dorky looking. Sometimes comfort was better than style. So she ignored the bright pinkness of her umbrella and walked on.

But after a minute of walking Sueko had the sudden feeling of forgetting something. Though this "gut feeling" was handy at times, it was rather annoying when you couldn't remember what you had forgotten. So now Sueko was left to ponder over what she could have possibly forgotten.

Homework? Yeah, I'm remembering it all… and even if I don't Keitaro can remind me because he'll be at my house in thirty minutes. There's nothing in my locker I could have forgotten besides my textbook… She hastily shuffled through her book bag. Nope, that's there… God, what else can I be forgetting? I fed the cat this morning… Nothing happens on Wednesday that I'd forget about besides chore day…

She gave up, speeding up her pace so she could get out of the rain quicker. But as she walked faster the feeling of forgetfulness only grew stronger… Now she was just starting to wonder if it was some Shrine business, but she wasn't in Feudal Day Japan, so why should she be feeling any sort of "magic"?

It has been a while since I've been there… Sueko thought. Wait, no it hasn't, I was there last Saturday! That's only… um… four days from today. Or maybe three… Maybe Keitaro should make me do my math homework today…

Something caught Sueko's eye, and she couldn't help that her heart started to race and her eyes go wide.

Red. The same… same exact shade of red as InuYasha's kimono. It had to be him, it had too…

Without another thought, Sueko rushed past the people while trying to not poke someone's eye out with her umbrella or bump into them… or the walls of the buildings… but when the red color finally became a clearer sight Sueko couldn't help but stop in her tracks and sigh in disappointment.

Why'd I think it was him? Why would it be him? Sure, he wandered around Tokyo and ended up at Keitaro and Tamika's apartment just to see me, but that doesn't mean he's going to do it every time I go through the well. Why'd I think it was him?

All the red turned out to be was some boy sitting on the sidewalk with his back to a wall and his chin resting on his knees. Sure, his red sweatshirt just happened to be the same shade as InuYasha's outfit, but why'd Sueko have to jump to conclusions for?

But before she could hurry on home Sueko instead hesitated, still standing there as the rain hit her pink umbrella. Okay, so maybe she couldn't see the boy's expression since it was covered by the hood of the sweatshirt—it was a bit big for him, so it was doing a good job of hiding him—but he obviously looked sad. You could tell just by the way he was sitting. And maybe Sueko was being silly—hell, the "boy" could actually be a girl who just looked like a boy since she was wearing boy's clothes—but he still looked sad, and… Ugh… what am I, Tamika? Actually, maybe Yoshiko would do the same thing…

While a part of her wondered what the hell she was doing, Sueko slapped a friendly smile on her face and started walking. When she reached the boy—or "girl"—she kneeled down in front of him and said, "Hello! My name's Kimochi Sueko! What's your name?"

How corny… thought Sueko dully. Even in this position she still couldn't see the boy's face—she was pretty sure he was a boy by now—because the hood was covering so much and he had a lot of black hair covering his face. At first he didn't do anything, just blinked a few times. Then he looked up. His eyes were so much like InuYasha's it was rather creepy. But after considering it for a moment they weren't a lot like his at all, just the same color: hazel. Though Sueko tired to forget about her sudden obsession with the half dog demon and think of something to say because the two were just sitting there staring at each other; perhaps the time just felt like it was going slowly but it was actually going the normal time. Sueko didn't know, she didn't wear a watch! She only wore it to Feudal Japan because no one was really helpful with the time there…

"Hey, Yoshiko, today's Sunday, right?"

"What! What's Sunday?"

So a watch came in handy once and a while.

Her thoughts were interrupted as time suddenly sped up again. The boy blinked at her a few times, then his eyes went wide with shock. Before she knew it the boy was no longer there.

Okay, he was running away a few feet away from her. Whatever. He was just so damn quick it took Sueko a few seconds to register the fact that he was there… and then not…

"Hey!" cried Sueko, getting up and chasing after him, nearly tripping but catching her balance with the help of waving her arms and umbrella madly about for a few seconds. Now he was just being annoying. And she hadn't even met him yet! How lame was that? What kind of manners are those, running away after someone says "hello"?

He was running so fast it was hard to keep up. However, Sueko did have one advantage: the boy obviously wasn't used to running past a crowd of people so he was frequently having to stop in his tracks and jump out of the way at the last minute. Sueko had pretty much lived in some sort of city her whole life so running past large cliques of people was not that hard to accomplish. So within minutes she had caught right up to the speedy brat and, grabbing his arm to turn him around, went, "Hey, wait just a minute—"

Her anger quickly abated away. Instead she felt guilty for her quick temper. For when she glanced at the boy's face it was damp—and not just by the rain—and his eyes were wide in wonderment, like he had just seen a ghost. And then before she could do anything about it he had his arms around her and was saying happily, "Mom! It's really you!"

"Um… WHAT!"

Footnotes:

1 – I have no clue what moral studies are. It just mentioned it on that Japanese site I went to. If you do actually know what it is, tell me! That'd be really useful! Plus I just want to know… won't give me a definition! cries

2 – This post is taking place in May… Japanese students start school in April. Judging by the fact Naru graduated from high school in March in Love Hina I'm assuming that's when all Japanese students go out. You can do the math to prove me wrong: Japanese students have 240 school days a year, which is 60 days more than American students. Man, I should move to Japan after I'm done with school! ;) Though apparently a lot of days are spent preparing festivals and all that crap so we don't have to feel too sorry for the Japanese, I suppose, since they apparently do fun stuff during school too…

3 – Education is a major thing in Japan. Kids get a lot of pressure from it. So that's why Keitaro is being so negative right here. And considering how much slacking Sueko is doing he should be negative anyways… Sueko's worse than Kagome for god's sake! Why does InuYasha complain for when Kagome probably left more than Sueko does!

4 – Juku is one form of cram school. A cram school is where students go for help with their studies… like a school for school, in a way… though fans of Love Hina already know this! It's after school, and about 60 of Japanese high school students go to these cram schools. Juku offers both unacademic subject help (swimming, calligraphy, abacus, etc., especially for elementary school students) and academic help for help in all levels of entrance exams (You have to take an entrance exam for both high school and college. I've never heard of you needing to take one for junior high/middle school but you might have to for that too. I doubt it, but whatever.).

5 – Yobiko is another form of cram school. This one is solely for high school students preparing for their college entry exams. Some yobiko's are made for a particular college, like Tokyo University, which is the only Japanese college I know of. cough-Love-Hina-cough. I think on the site it said you had to complete juku in order to get into yobiko but that sounds really stupid so I'm not totally sure with that one… Both juku and yobiko are pretty expensive, but most families are eager to pay the costs in order to ensure a good future for their children. Cram schools are located in places that are easily accessible, sometimes right by the train station, while high school and college can sometimes be two hours away! And of course this is all by public transportation… gotta love those subways! If they have subways in Japan… All this education is very necessary because when getting a job they look into what schools you went to, so it's not that the Japanese are just a bit obsessed or anything…I suggest you take a look at the website at the end of the footnotes if you want a bit more clarity. It is very informative, and I probably make no sense!

6 – Oniisan means, simply, Big Brother. I thought with Tamika's childish nature she'd like to call Keitaro Big Brother all the time… And just for the hell of it, oneesan means Big Sister. But no one has an older sister in this fan fic… wait, I forgot about Sukiyama! My bad! Emiko doesn't count, Katsumi died… And I forgot which one was older. DON'T KILL ME, RAVYN! Oh, whatever…

7 – Japan does watch a lot of American movies, so being able to watch popular American movies like Star Wars in Japan is not unusual… I ran across a Japanese theater Top 10 list the other day while looking on InuYasha news and they had movies like the Incredibles on there! Only three movies (not including the new InuYasha movie, Fire on the Mystic Island, which was playing there also ) were actually Japanese. The rest were American! But I guess being an American myself makes me a bit naive about how other countries respond to us…

8 – I actually looked up a calendar from 2000 on a website and used the correct dates for May 2000 according to the Japanese time. It's an awesome site! The link is at the bottom of all these insane footnotes. It also shows the moon phases so if you ever felt like looking what day and moon phase you were born on it's a cool website for just that. Any-who, InuYasha as a manga was first published in Japan in 1997… so, assuming that's when it takes place, add two years in which Kagome was there and you're at 1999. Kagome died in August, Sueko showed up in September… (Remember, a month went by in between the death and the mysterious "Last One" showing up!) This update takes place in May; so now we're at May 20th, 2000, according to the date Sueko shows up at her own time. If you really analyze the fan fic you might discover we're at July by now or something instead of May… But I've thought of this chapter for MONTHS! MONTHS! It's staying as May! The Birthdays are all very important, and them not being in May would just make me annoyed! How are they important? Like I'd tell you… read the damn fan fic and find out yourselves! Besides, it's not like we're going to publish this fan fic or anything… and I don't think a lot of you care that our time thing is screwed up. LIVE WITH IT!

9 – I really tried to find on the Internet any special Japanese birthday customs, with no luck. So I had to just figure something out. I figured a meal would be traditional enough… and being with close family and friends too… which is why Sueko is going to ramble on about her family tree in a few paragraphs. That's all basically her family's traditional birthday celebration… sorry I couldn't be more realistic. I'M NOT JAPANESE! I'm mostly French Canadian and Irish, so there:P

10 – Yes, some schools get half-days on Saturday in Japan. And then on Sunday no school… because it's that "'Day of Rest' day" or whatever… But my friend in Arizona gets out early on Friday's every week so that's not too unusual or anything.

11 – That's nerdy-me being bored and messing around with that calendar website… But hey, Keitaro's a nerd, why wouldn't he do that too? So there you go:P

12 – Ohayo is "Good morning!" in Japanese. It's a lot simpler to type… Oh, I'm just so lazy sometimes… rolls eyes

13 – Yes, I'm a pathetic person who draws characters from her fan fic. :P Well, I try… I really suck at drawing. So I actually drew doodles of Sueko wearing that sweater. And the reason why I said it had tengoku written on the sweater was because it has 天国 written on it. As in, Japanese characters. Though most shirts there have random English written on them… but whatever. And just to let you know, tengoku means heaven or paradise… I was thinking along the lines of heaven at the time…

14 – A kotatsu is a short table (you know how Asian tables are all short and the people all sit on little cushions, right!) that has like some heated blanket so your legs are warm while they're under the table. You know, for a perverted manga Love Hina is really educational… It's kinda cold in Japan. Though a kotatsu would be a nice thing to own around here during winter…

15 – According to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, it's actually against the law in Japan to gamble with money. So with the lottery and stuff you win clothes and crap, not money. Which is actually a really smart thing to do, if you think about it…

16 – It always annoyed me how they recited English on anime shows translated into English when it was Japanese class, and Japanese when it was English class… so when I wrote a vocab word from their homework assignment I stayed true to the language. Sorry if that was confusing. I put the English words in italics so they'd stick out and make more sense, but whatever… Any-who, you know how we have words that sound the same when spoken but are spelled differently and have different meanings? Like meet to meat, and there to their, etc… Well, Japanese is like that too sometimes. Well, the romanized words are spelled the same because all they are is the pronunciation of the word (NOTE: romaized words are what you're reading right now). So I put the kanji (well, kanji is just Chinese characters in Japanese… but I don't know the difference between kanji and kana that well, plus I'm lazy, so I just call it all kanji. Don't mind me…) when I was explaining the different versions of engei. Sorry if that was confusing as well… I tried to be as clear as possible. If it was confusing in any way please note what confused you in your review so I can make it clearer in future writings. And I apologize if you can't see Japanese fonts/scripts on your computer and all you see is jibberish… But hey, maybe the jibberish makes a little more sense now.

17 – In Japanese some of the vowels are pronounced differently than they are in English. So for them i would sound like e. So that explains the madness there. ;)

18 – You know how little kids give their pets little dorky pet names, like Hamy for a pet hamster? Well, nezumi is Japanese for mouse, so Tamika named their pet mouse Umi. Actually, I was going to have them have a pet hamster but my—I mean, my sister's—Japanese dictionary didn't have hamster in it, so I did a mouse instead. Though I might have just made my job easier by naming the hamster Hamtaro…

19 – I was trying to think of some excuse as to why a four-to-seven-year-old Tamika would be away from the house for more than 24 hours. And suddenly that thing from Mulan popped into my head: where Mulan was making herself look all pretty for a husband or whatever (If you don't know what Mulan is, it's a Disney movie. And if you don't know what it is you really should watch the damn thing because that's just sad). And I know the Asian's have this dance thing and they wear kimonos and white face make-up and all that stuff so I looked it up on the Internet. I couldn't find that much information but I found a web page on kabuki, which is some theater thing with songs, dancing, and acting—in fact, the Japanese characters for kabuki are the characters for singing, acting and dancing according to the site I went on, so there! Kabuki was created around the 1700's and the plays act out scenes from the early Edo period (1600-1880 is the whole entire Edo period… so like a century after the Warring States age, or the ever-so-famous Feudal Japan ;) ). If any of you out there watch Samurai Champloo, that's the time period I'm talking about. Any-who, Nihon Buyo is a form of dance closely related to Kabuki. (Nihon is Japan in Japanese. I have no clue what buyo is…) I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some camp out there that introduced kabuki or nihon buyo to young girls or boys that were interested. I mean, they have ballet camp, right? Whatever… If you want more information about kabuki or nihon buyo you can click on the links offered at the end of the footnotes.

20 – If you haven't gotten it by now, Tamika's a Kiba fan girl. You know, those girls that have insane, obsessive crushes on guys? cough-Draco-Malfoy-fans-cough Maybe she'll get over it when she meets some other guy… cough

Websites used:

Yeah, I know I said I'd post the websites but is flipping out and wouldn't post those either. So maybe next post it'll be nice and let me post it... glares Yeah, this website is pissing me off at the moment... And I'm trying to keep the foul language at a minium. I kinda get like InuYasha when I'm pissy. So sorry about the footnote problem and the website problem, I just want to post this update today and do other things before seven o'clock...and I've spent an hour editing and posting this. I don't want to waste any more time. So yeah... Hey, you can reply to our fan fic, right? Because that'd be real spiffy and make me less cranky...