AUTHOR'S NOTES
Oh, more fan fic! Like my evil, confusing cliffy in the last chapter? Maybe I'll answer your questions in this chapter… If I ever get around to it, that is… Heh. Yeah, not a whole lot to say, besides teasing you all, sorry. Oh, and to tell you to look out for these nifty clues of foreshadowing! Dramatic music plays in background Don't you just love foreshadowing? I'll give you a hint: they have something to do with anime that are mentioned in the chapter, and maybe chapters before...

Speaking of which, notice how when I mention anime it's so out of date… Half of it probably didn't exist in the year 2000! Especially Wolf's Rain (I believe it was made in 2002). However, Tamika has an obsession with that particular show for a reason! Like, maybe there are some hints there! Anyways, have fun with my new update! Though kept note that I was rather lazy and never re-read through anything so there might be a few errors…

Oh, and if you're reading and find any Lena's, they're supposed to be Tani's. Ravyn was writing the post and forgot her name and was too lazy to look it up (after all, the fan fic is so long it'd take forever to find the right spot… it's reached 424 pages on a word document. Who'd want to go through all that for a name!) so she put Lena… I think I replaced all the Lena's by Tani's but I might not have. Just a little warning that I might have forgotten one. Sorry!

DISCLAIMER
Yet again, you ask me this question. And yet again I say the same thing. Are you people's sculls THAT thick! Because if they are that is just really sad and I worry about the overall state of humanity…

Sigh When I fall through a well and meet a half dog demon I'll get back to you. But for now I never have met a guy like that, or any of the other characters in InuYasha. Wanna know why? BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL FICTIONAL! Sure, it's nice to pretend it's real, but it's not! It's all Rumiko Takahashi's overactive imagination.

However, characters like Sueko, Yoshiko, Tamika, Keitaro, Rheda, Utako, and other such people that appear in this fan fic but not in the actual TV show or manga are from the overactive imaginations of Ravyn and Kayhera. So NO STEALING!

And there's also this other character that is both in this chapter and the chapter before and maybe the chapter after this one… Kimiko! We actually do not own this character. She belongs to a good friend of Ravyn and me. If you'd ever want to use Kimiko you'd have to whine to her, not us. Though I don't think any amount of whining will get her to let you because that'd just be annoying. Especially since she's remaining anonymous, so it'd be rather hard to contact her to whine at. But we don't own Kimiko, sorry!

And I don't own any anime that's mentioned! Sorry! And I don't own Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings… they were created by the genius minds of J.R.R. Tolkien and George Lucas! And Peter Jackson, but that's only for the LOTR movies… And I can't have Keitaro rant on and on about how much they left out in the movies because they didn't come out in American until December 2001 and it wouldn't go in Japan until it goes out in DVD/VHS (that's what it seems like they do… I wouldn't know, I don't actually live there, I just saw a Top Ten list and it had all these movies that in American were already out on video) so that's probably like June… Aww, poor Keitaro. Oh yeah, go read fan fic! And reply!

Chapter Thirty-One: To Tell the Truth

As soon as Yoshiko exited the other room she was met with InuYasha who arms were crossed.

"What is going on?" he snapped.

"How about you listen to me talk to Sango," Yoshiko yelled back, feeling as if her head was about to split open. "Then I'm taking a well deserved nap before my head explodes."

InuYasha rolled his eyes and then rounded upon Sango who was glowering as Yoshiko. Miroku was standing as far back as possibly, carrying Kimiko's weapons. Rin and Shippo exchanged glances and then exited the hut followed by Sesshomaru and Jaken. Finally, Yoshiko sat down staring pointedly at Sango.

"Alright, I've heard your sister's story – " started Yoshiko.

"Half-sister," corrected Sango.

"Yeah, right, whatever! She's a quarter demon… sort of a like a half-demon and related to you," snapped Yoshiko. "That's all that matters to me. So explain to me why you would want to kill her."

"What?" cried InuYasha, staring at Sango wide eyed. The demon slayer refused to meet his eyes. Miroku too seemed a little shocked as he sat down in the corner of the room. InuYasha sat down next to Yoshiko still staring at Sango.

"Well, her father raped my mother and…" started Sango.

"Heard that part," sighed Yoshiko, waving her hand. "So she entered marriage pregnant and died shortly after Kohaku was born because the father was abusive. Something new please."

"It was obvious to me, even as a small child, that she wasn't like the rest of us. Once she was playing with these boys near this cliff. She thought it would be funny to trip them and they went over the edge, taking her with. Though she was extremely injured she didn't die like the boys."

"Yeah, its hard to control your demon strength when your younger," said Yoshiko, nodding. "I hurt my own brother a couple of times on accident. Go on."

"So I grew up a little frightened of her," muttered Sango. "Until I realized that she couldn't be too dangerous if father let her stay. So I started to get to know her and… we sort of befriended. We were with each other often."

"I'm not hearing the regular abuse half-demons get…" muttered InuYasha.

"Oh, she got it," said Sango, rolling her eyes. "Often! Mostly from the women and girls and some of the older men. But you have to admit she was quite beautiful so the boys around our age… well they grew very fond of her and lavished her with gifts. Even those that had told me that they liked me above everyone else would forget about me when Kimiko was around."

"She mentioned something of the sort," sighed Yoshiko, bored. Sango wasn't execrating anything. "Are you going to tell me anything new? I don't care if it's as far fetched as it comes! I missed a good nights rest listening to Kimiko's story, I don't want to heard it again."

"You want her telling stories!" cried InuYasha, staring at her. "Are you feeling alright?"

He started to put a hand on her forehead.

"I'm fine!" she snapped, baring her teeth. She slapped his hand with her own. Then she paused and frowned. "You know what… I need to take a walk… In the fresh air… You can continue listening to Sango's story."

InuYasha and Miroku blinked at her as she stood up. She poked her head into the other room and looked at Kimiko who was sitting perfectly still.

"Would you like to take a walk with me?" sighed Yoshiko. "It probably wouldn't be safe to stay."

"You think Sango is going to try and kill her while – " started InuYasha.

"I was thinking more of Miroku," said Yoshiko heavily, starting out with Kimiko walking behind her stiffly. Her and Sango's eyes met briefly. Yoshiko elegantly brought out her dagger, spinning it around her fingers. "Please, none of that."

The two girls looked away immediately. They started out of the hut and Yoshiko looked one way and then the other. She started to walk up the hill but then paused and turned toward Kimiko.

"Do you mind if I leave you at a friend of mine?" she asked. "She's extremely nice and would probably like a friend… if she'll let herself. Plus she normally needs a lot of help with the house and her siblings so…"

"You're asking if I might do some physical labor for her?" said Kimiko. "Why don't you do it?"

"Because I need to sleep!" cried Yoshiko, whimpering. "I don't normally complain but I really need to just lie down…"

Kimiko's mouth staid a thin line but she nodded and followed Yoshiko's lead. They reached a hut that was full of holes and looked like it was about to fall down all around them. The sounds of children laughing, screaming, yelling and crying floated through the air to them. Yoshiko smiled grimly at Kimiko who had no expression on her face. It was obvious she didn't prefer being in a human village at all. This was to be expected after a childhood of abuse. She wondered if the women trusted even half-demons after her father's abuse.

Sighing, Yoshiko strode over and knocked on the door. A woman with long brown hair and wearing the usual garb of a village woman answered looking haggard and tired. Recognizing Yoshiko she sighed in relief.

"I was just about to visit Raoul's grave," said Tani, closing the door behind her. "I know how much you love children so maybe you could watch the kids while…" she stopped, noticing Kimiko. "Who is she?"

"If you're willing," said Yoshiko, motioning for Kimiko to come forward. "She's going to help you out in return for somewhere she can stay safely."

"Oh…" said Tani, frowning. "For how long?"

"Not very," said Kimiko quickly. "I hope to leave as soon as possible."

"Not until I've figured out Sango's problem," hissed Yoshiko. "And that's not happening until after I've had a good long rest!"

Tani's mouth was a similar line as Kimiko's as she nodded stiffly and set about telling the quarter demon all the children's names and that firewood needed to be chopped. Then she headed off into the woods, holding up her skirt and carrying a bouquet of flowers. She turned back to Yoshiko and noticed that Kimiko had disappeared inside.

"If you wish for quiet," said Tani, "then you might as well sleep in the forest. There's a bed in the old hut. I put it there for sometimes I wish for a nap as well.'

Yoshiko sighed, nodded and headed off wondering how she was going to help Tani along with Kimiko and get rid of this headache. Why couldn't Sueko just come back? How long had it been anyways? She just couldn't remember this sort of thing anymore. Thankfully she fell onto the cot inside the half finished hut and fell asleep almost instantly. Though it was fitful, filled with earth stones going dark, the figure of her father killing Katsumi and herself stabbing Sesshomaru who always turned into Raoul wondering why she would do this to him after all they had been through. She woke up with a familiar laugh ringing through her ears.

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!"

The boy raised his head, the look of utter happiness still plastered on his face. Then he frowned slightly as if thinking. "You're a lot younger than you should be. What are you, a teenager?"

"Um… yes… last time I checked…" said Sueko in a high-pitched voice, feeling extremely weirded out.

"I thought the locket was supposed to get me to the right time, not the future's past!" said the boy, letting go of Sueko and crossing his arms. "Why'd you give it to me if it wasn't going to work right?"

"What?" said Sueko squeakily. "What locket?"

"But maybe I'm supposed to go farther back than I thought… I don't know, I don't really get it… you didn't exactly have a whole lot of time to clarify it…"

"What in the hell are you talking about?" cried Sueko, practically yelling. But the boy was sounding like he was talking to himself—like what Tamika does once and a while, and sometimes Yoshiko… hey, why was she thinking of Yoshiko suddenly?—and she kind of wanted his attention.

The boy looked up like he was just noticing her standing there. Then he sighed and put his arms to his side in a gloomy way. "I guess I make no sense, do I?"

"No, you do not!" said Sueko, nodding her head in agreement. Then she decided that if she was going to get any answers out of the kid she better start acting a bit kinder so she sighed and said in a sweet voice, "Let's just start all over again and see where that gets us. I'm Kim—"

"I already got your name," said the boy impatiently. "Though I suppose you don't know mine yet?"

"No, I don't," said Sueko frustratingly. "Why do you keep talking like you know me?"

The boy ignored her question. "I'm Toboe!" he said, pointing at himself with his thumb. Then he suddenly made a face, then…

"ACHOO!"

"Let's get out of the rain…" muttered Sueko, pulling the kid into a roofed alley.

"So did I just hear you right?" said Sueko, shaking some of the rain off her umbrella (it wasn't like she needed it at the time being). "You're name is… Toboe?" (1)

"Uh huh!"

"Um…"

"Yeah, its kind of a weird name… apparently you got it out of some anime thingy…"

Sueko groaned. "Why do you talk like you know me?"

"Because I do?" said Toboe, cocking his head. (2)

"That doesn't help me any…"

"Sorry…"

Sueko sighed, unsure of what to say. Then she suddenly burst out, "And why'd you call me 'mom' for!"

"Because you are…" said Toboe.

"But… that's impossible!" cried Sueko, suddenly talking very fast. "I'm only seventeen! I haven't had sex yet! I rarely even think about sex! I'm not even sure I have a boyfriend because the one I have is being really confusing… I'm pretty sure I haven't had sex with him yet!"

"Ahh!" cried Toboe, shaking his head and waving his arms in front of him. Apparently he was just as uncomfortable with the subject as Sueko.

"Well, that's how you get a kid!" snapped Sueko, hands on her hips. "You have sex!"

"That's nice!" snapped Toboe. "Do I want to hear about it? NO!"

Sueko groaned, leaning her head on the brick wall behind her. They weren't getting anywhere at all.

"So how am I your mom again?"

"Look," said Toboe with a sigh, "I was in, to you, Japan's past before, then you in Japan's past gave me the locket so I could go through the well, which was destroyed there, hoping that it would tap into the well's time thingy and get me through. And it did. But I really don't think I'm in the right time frame because you're way too young. But I don't know exactly what time I should be in anyways so—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" snapped Sueko. "How do you know about the well?"

"Well, it's kind of right by the village I live at… everyone knows about the Bone Eater's well…" he said with a shrug.

"How do I know if I should trust you, huh?" said Sueko, crossing her arms. "You could be some bad guy trying to trick me into doing something for all I know."

"Um, okay…" said Toboe sarcastically, "except I don't think a twelve year old is that threatening, plus I have no weapons…"

"You're twelve?" said Sueko curiously. "You look… nine or something. Way too short for a twelve year old, that is…"

"I'm just short, okay?" snapped Toboe, reminding Sueko a lot like how she reacted when people questioned her height.

"Sorry…" she sighed, trying to sound like she really meant it. "Okay, so you aren't an evil demon… How do I know whether or not to trust you?"

"I don't know…" said Toboe, shrugging with defeat. He was just about to lean against the wall behind him when it looked like something caught his eye. With his eyes wide Toboe started walking closer to Sueko as if to get closer to whatever he was looking at.

Worryingly, Sueko backed away from him and said, "What are you doing?"

"The locket…" said Toboe slowly, pointing at Sueko's neck. "It's the same locket…"

"What, this?" said Sueko, picking up Keitaro's locket from around her neck. Then Toboe started digging around from underneath his sweatshirt until he pulled out what looked like Keitaro's locket from around his neck. But that wasn't the weirdest part. When Toboe fumbled around with his sweatshirt he accidentally knocked his hood off, which he hadn't taken off yet. At first Sueko was just amused by the fact his black hair looked a ton more messier with it off—not in the "haven't brushed your hair" way, just in the way it sat on his head—and the fact it was pretty long looking, though most of it was still under the sweatshirt. Then she gasped as she noticed what else was now in plain view: two black dog-like ears on top of his head.

"They're just like…" breathed Sueko, putting a hand to her chest in hopes it would stop beating so rapidly as she backed away even more until she bumped into the wall. "They're just like… InuYasha's…"

"Huh?" said Toboe, his dog ear's flicking to match the confused expression on his face.

Despite having a troubled sleep, Yoshiko woke up refreshed around noon. She exited the hut and stretched out and suddenly realized she was still in her silk dress. It was wrinkled, ripped and covered in blood by now (though the blood wasn't nearly as recognizable except for its smell). Moaning, she wandered down to Ringo's hut and knocked at the board. The old man came bursting out of the hut and gave her a large hug before she could protest. Then he looked at her clothes, clucking his tongue disapprovingly.

"Good thing my girls just finished your clothes!" laughed Ringo, pulling her into the hut. He was so short she had to stoop to follow and keep her balance.

They entered and she saw a few vases around the room that now lay empty. Some even still kept the stems of old flowers. Ringo had never been a very neat man and she had a feeling they were still there from when Raoul died. Sighing, Yoshiko waited as Ringo entered another room and came out with a set of clothing. At the sight of the kimono made Yoshiko was so happy that she pounced on it and put it on quickly before she noticed that it was green. Not purple. Green. She stopped and blinked down at it.

"Something wrong?" asked Ringo, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh… well… no, not exactly…" muttered Yoshiko. "But… Um… why is it green?"

"Why is it…" started Ringo. Then he burst out laughing. "Please, you're the priestess of the earth shrine! Shouldn't your robes be green like the earth?"

"Well, yes… I guess…" sighed Yoshiko, feeling like a child. "I'm not a priestess though! Besides, I've always been wearing purple. Its kind of weird to wear something different."

"But the green brings out your eyes much better!" cried Ringo. "Really, you can be a very pretty girl but you have to… er… play on your assets."

He turned around and made the figure of a very curvy girl in the air with his hands. Yoshiko felt her cheeks turn pink and she quickly exited the hut, saying a rushed good-bye. Once outside, she took a deep breath and started to take a walk. But she had hardly reached the edge of the village when some little kids surrounded her. Eyes wide, Yoshiko spun around looking for some adult. Then she realized that all the adults would be cooking, cleaning, farming and hunting. Sighing, she put on a smile and looked around.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Priestess Yoshiko!" cried a little girl. "Are you really a demon?"

"No, stupid!" snapped one of the boys. "She's only a half-demon. She must be weak and that's why they let her in the village."

"You're the one that's stupid!" shouted another girl. "Priestess Yoshiko helped to protect this village."

"Yeah!" agreed one of the eldest boys.

"Alright, alright!" said Yoshiko, holding up her hands. "That's enough fighting. I'm a half-demon. Yes, I'm not as strong as a full demon and I have helped the village out before. But I am not a priestess."

"But you must!" cried the first girl. "I've heard that you can control fire."

"Yes…" said Yoshiko through tight lips. "But that's because of this magic stone that I have and…"

"Boring!" cried the first boy.

"Look, this is enough!" snapped Yoshiko. "We don't need to be arguing. Now let's go for a walk and then you can come back for dinner."

"Yay!" cried the children except for a few of the older ones. They grabbed the hands of a couple of children and led them on. Yoshiko sighed in relief and grabbed the first girl's hand. As they walked she noticed a couple of trees and bushes. She pointed them out and asked if they would like to rest there. The children all nodded. As they neared a few of the children broke away and ran off toward the shade and the spring that came up at the trees. Once there, Yoshiko was about to sit down to rest because of the heat when she heard something. A few children screamed and she turned, catching an arrow as it neared.

Narrowing her eyes, she saw the man in the bushes and snapped the arrow in two with her hand. Then quicker than she had ever gone she jumped into the bushes and caught the man around the neck. She glanced over at the children.

"Go! Stay together, don't panic, and get back to the village," she snapped.

Once again the older ones took charge, grabbing some of the younger children's hands and leading them off. Yoshiko didn't look to see if they made it but turned back toward the man. He had dropped his bow in surprise and fear and was quivering. Yoshiko felt her grip tightening even though she wanted to question this man. But a part of her just wanted to crush him. And reveled at it. Just as she was sure she was going to kill him a hand grabbed her wrist and she dropped the man, suddenly afraid of what she was doing. The grip on her wrist wasn't tight but it didn't loosen. Yoshiko took a step back as InuYasha crouched down next to the man, looking him in the eye.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked. "Trying to kill Yoshiko? You're only a mortal, how did you think you would succeed?"

"I—I—I…" stuttered the man, looking from the person holding Yoshiko's wrist to InuYasha. "I was ordered to! B—B—B—Because she's only a demon pretending to be a priestess and has everyb—b—body under a spell."

"Feh," said InuYasha. "So, who ordered you?"

The man just gulped but didn't answer.

"You're brave but I have ways of making people talk," said InuYasha, raising a hand and cracking his knuckles.

"Please don't hurt me!" cried the man, bowing down and exposing his neck and back.

Then she felt it. An icy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her head felt like it was going to split open for a second. Then she found herself kneeling on the ground and the man was dead, a tiny dart stuck in the back of his neck. Sesshomaru still had a fairly good grip on her wrist staring at her intently. She got to her feet shakily and saw InuYasha and Sango return from another patch of bushes and trees. Yoshiko wondered when Sango had shown up but then realized that she had been with InuYasha but he was quicker than her. She must have went after InuYasha when he rushed over to stop Yoshiko from killing the man.

"It was Kimiko! I'm sure of it!" snapped Sango, glowering at InuYasha.

"I'm telling you, I didn't smell her scent around here," said InuYasha patiently, but his patience was obviously growing thin.

"God damn it!" cried Sango. "You don't get it! She's not like you or Yoshiko! She likes to kill. Her father was not as kind as your parents were."

"Hey, I didn't even know my father!" snapped InuYasha. "Besides, its nurture not nature that makes a person. From the sounds of it, Kimiko shouldn't have turned out any worse than me or Yoshiko. Other than a little bit more uncalled for abuse after she had grown up."

"Oh, so you're going to blame me?" cried Sango. "Her father abused her just as much – "

"Exactly," said InuYasha, crossing his arms. "So why would she want to turn out like him?"

"Besides," added Yoshiko. "You just admitted to abusing her. Maybe you are to blame."

"You… you… you two are impossible!" shouted Sango. Just then Kimiko showed up, looking around and her eyes landed on Yoshiko. She started striding purposefully toward her but then her eyes lighted upon Sango and she paused. Then, raising an eyebrow at Yoshiko, she walked away obviously hoping to avoid Sango.

"When she kills you I won't lose an ounce of sleep over it because it was your own damn fault!" hissed Sango, glaring after Kimiko.

With that she turned on her heels and strode off. InuYasha stared at Yoshiko and Sesshomaru with his eyebrows raised. Then he sighed and walked after her, keeping a good distance behind. Before he had disappeared, though, Yoshiko saw him glance back at her worriedly. She tried to pull out of Sesshomaru's grip but he wouldn't let go. She tried again but his grip only tightened. She sighed.

"Let me go," she said simply, not in the mood to fight. She had been hoping not to have to talk to him.

"You should rest," said Sesshomaru.

"I just had a nap!" snapped Yoshiko. "Now let me go."

"You're not yourself," said Sesshomaru. "You should rest."

"God, how about we say something new!" cried Yoshiko. "Hi, how are you? I'm fine. Let me go!"

Sesshomaru eyes merely narrowed but he slowly let go of her wrist, turned around and strode off. Yoshiko blinked after him. Perhaps she could have been a bit nicer to him. He had been worried about her and had only been trying to help. Maybe she should go after him and…

"Feh…" muttered Yoshiko, throwing up her hands and walked way.

"How in God's name do you have dog ears?" shrieked Sueko.

"Um… Is it really that big of a deal?" sighed Toboe, looking up as his ears wiggled again.

"Stop teasing me by their… wiggling…" said Sueko.

"They just do that…" growled Toboe annoyingly. "Don't tell me you haven't even met InuYasha yet, or Yoshiko or—"

"How do you know them?" snapped Sueko.

"Why do you think?" snapped Toboe, glaring.

"Hey! I'm not the weird kid who claims to be my kid!" hissed Sueko. "I have no reason to trust you! For all I know you're some puppet of Hotaka or something!"

After the last sentence Toboe no longer looked irritated—his face paled and he suddenly looked frightened.

With a smirk Sueko said, "Ha! I'm right after all! You are working for Hotaka after all, aren't you?"

Toboe flinched. Then he snapped, "You don't understand, do you?"

"I think it's pretty clear to me!" said Sueko cockily. Then her eyes widened, surprised at her boldness. What was going on with her today? Must be this cold mixing up her emotions…

The boy turned around, his back to Sueko. Then after clenching his fists several times he said in a somewhat shaky voice, "You shouldn't jump to conclusions. I would NEVER work for Hotaka… ever…"

"Um…" said Sueko, taking aback. "Okay? Why?"

"Do you even know who Hotaka is?" said Toboe with the same shaky voice. Like he was trying really hard not to cry or something, which was really weird…

"Of course I do!" said Sueko. "I met him once! He nearly made Yoshiko kill Sesshomaru! How could I suddenly forget that?"

"I guess there is too much of a time difference!" cried Toboe in defeat.

"Um…" said Sueko, wanting to comfort the kid even though she had just yelled at him seconds ago, but had no clue what to do about it. "See, this is what I don't get," she said soothingly—at least, that's what she was trying to sound like. "You say you're from a different time frame—and I believe you, okay? It's just… It doesn't sound like you're from Feudal Japan, or, at least, the one I go to…"

"It is Feudal Japan!" said Toboe, turning around to face her again. His face was wet again and his eyes wide. Well, they were pretty wide normally… wider than usual. "Just…" he stopped, looking stumped. Sueko waited patiently until it looked like a light bulb went on in his head and he said, "When'd you get that locket?"

"This?" said Sueko, lifting it up again. "Two days ago… Monday…"

"So the locket let me go back in time to the time you first got the locket from your friend…" muttered Toboe. "So maybe you did send me to the right time after all…"

"…And this is when you start to make no sense again," said Sueko sweetly.

"Well then…" Toboe started, looking like he was thinking very hard, "how about we go to your house and I'll explain there—"

"No, you'll explain now!" cried Sueko. "I can't wait that long! The curiosity would kill me! Plus, you realize I'll be bugging you the whole way there about it, right?"

"Oh… fine…" muttered Toboe. "Okay… So you got the part where I'm from Feudal Japan but the future, right?"

"Sure… I guess…"

"Well…" started Toboe.

Normally he didn't wake up in the middle of the night. Normally he didn't get up at all until someone woke him up because it was like he was dead to the world or something… Well, that's how some people liked to put it.

Before he could ponder about the matter and wake up properly Toboe was suddenly coughing. And it wasn't until his eyes adjusted to the dark that he saw the smoke in the air… and with a look around he saw that no one else was in the room except for him.

So he tore out of the house and outside. At first all he could see was the bright light from the many flames on top of the houses in the village. In the bright light Toboe couldn't see where he was going real well and nearly tripped when he stumbled across something soft on the ground. Looking down to see what it was, Toboe's stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch and he blanched.

"…Dad?" he moaned, falling to his knees and shaking InuYasha by the shoulders a bit. But he should of known by the amount of blood that it wouldn't do any good. The least he could do was close InuYasha's eyes… Dead people's open eyes were really creepy…

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" cried Sueko. "Don't tell me InuYasha's your dad?"

"This isn't exactly the easiest thing to explain, okay?" snapped Toboe.

"But… but… I'm your mom! So if InuYasha's your dad that means… Eww…"

"It's not that big of a deal…"

"Yes it is! That means we officially got together. And we… eww…"

"Could you get out of your perverted teenage fantasy and get back to reality so I can continue! Please…"

"I'm not Miroku! But come on! I just found out I had sex with my boyfriend! Who I didn't even think was really my boyfriend! How can I not be the least bit upset about that! And you can't pull the teenager excuse on me because in a few years you'll be a perverted little brat!"

"I will not!"

"Oh, you so will!"

"CAN I CONTINUE?"

"I guess…" said Sueko huffily, crossing her arms and trying to ignore her hot face.

"Okay… Let's see…"

So he got up and turned away, trying not to look at the dead body and not puke at the same time. But then he suddenly started running, trying to find mom while praying to God she wasn't dead either.

They were just on the other side of one of the flaming huts… Sueko and Hotaka. She already had a few cuts on her arms, legs, and face, as though she wasn't able to dodge Hotaka's weapon quick enough. They both had their weapons drawn but neither were using them, as though taking a break and talking to each other instead. Indeed, Hotaka was about to open his mouth to say something when something caught his eye. He turned and, seeing Toboe attempting to hid behind the wall of a flamed hut, smirked.

"Look who came out," he said teasingly, turning back to Sueko.

She looked confused, but when she turned her head she looked fearful instead. "Toboe… Get out of here! Now!"

But he couldn't. Not only could he not stand running away and letting his mother die without doing something about it, but Toboe was also frozen with fear as well.

"Wait," said Sueko, a bit nicer this time. "Where are Sango, Miroku and Yoshiko? Shouldn't they be there as well?"

"Hotaka killed Sango, Miroku, their two kids five years ago, and Yoshiko and her family one…" said Toboe.

"Oh…" said Sueko, feeling it all sinking in now.

Toboe continued.

"Ah, don't go just yet!" said Hotaka. "Do you really expect him to survive this, Sueko?"

"Yes, I do," said Sueko firmly.

"Well, someone needs a reality check!" laughed Hotaka. "But the question is who should I kill first? Should I let the mother watch her only son die or the other way around?"

Sueko didn't let him say another word, going at him with her sword. Hotaka blocked it easily with his flaming sword, saying almost pityingly, "You swing it so recklessly… It's even worse when you're suffering emotionally. At least with InuYasha he was a bit quicker… I guess you won't be as fun though…"

What do I do? thought Toboe feverishly, looking around for a weapon of some sorts. But all that the dead villagers around him had were spears and arrows. Throwing really wasn't his thing. He was better with a sword but there were none around. And he wasn't about to pull the Tetsusaiga off his father's dead body.

The clanging of steal against steal interrupted his thoughts. Both tried to harm the other while blocking the other's attacks, causing them to not get anywhere. Though the two looked pretty tired so someone was going to slip up any second now… Aiming higher than before, Sueko managed to slash Hotaka across the chest, but he dodged the swing a bit so it wasn't that bad of an injury. Grimacing with frustration, Hotaka followed the same idea… except for this time he aimed lower, and he didn't swing his sword, he stabbed. So his flamed sword went just below her ribs. And then before she could fall Hotaka held her by the neckline of her light blue kimono to flash her a toothy grin before twisting the sword out of her and pushing her aside.

"MOM!" cried Toboe, suddenly being able to move his limbs again as he rushed to his mothers side. She was still alive but she was already so pale…

"I thought I told you to get away from here…" muttered Sueko, her eyes narrowing.

"I don't' want to lose you!" cried Toboe, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm not dead yet!" snapped Sueko. She closed her eyes and breathed a few shaky breaths. When she opened them she starting fumbling around with something around her neck.

"What are you doing? You're hur—"

"Hush!" hissed Sueko, finally finding what she was looking for: the golden necklace she always wore around her neck. Not that Toboe had a clue what she wanted to do with it…

"Take it," said Sueko, handing him the locket.

"What?"

"Just take it!" said Sueko, shoving it into Toboe's hand. "Now, you remember where the Bone Eater's well is?"

"Yes, but—"

"I don't have much time," muttered Sueko. "Just… it should get you through, since it's originally from modern day—well, the future… Look, just warn the others about the Dark Stones."

"Huh?" said Toboe, very confused.

"Well," said Sueko, smiling slightly, "it should get you to just the right time frame where you can warn everyone about the Dark Stones before Hotaka kills us all. Because if Yoshiko had just told us a bit earlier and didn't doubt herself we wouldn't all be dead, now would we?"

"But what about—"

"I'll be fine," said Sueko, smiling reassuringly. "Now go!"

Toboe nodded and stood up. Not that he wanted to go… but he knew there would be no point in sitting there any longer. But just when he turned around to head towards the Bone Eater's well at the edge of the village he heard Sueko cry out in pain.

He spun around so fast he lost his balance and nearly fell down. But when he got a clearer look he really did fall down. Hotaka had stabbed Sueko in the chest, and he had just lifted his sword out of her body with a look of disgust on his face. Then he turned his head to meet Toboe's eyes.

Hotaka rolled his eyes. "You should have left when you had the chance. Now I have to kill you too…"

Again, Toboe lost the ability to move his limbs. Instead he was lying on the ground like an idiot with a sword right at his neck—a sword on fire, none-of-the-less. All he was left to do was hope death wouldn't hurt too much. Hey, maybe he would be able to see everyone else again…

"Hotaka," someone said—someone behind Toboe that he couldn't see. It was a deep voice that sounded familiar but he couldn't remember whom it could belong to. But whoever it was Hotaka could see them, and after glancing up to see who they were, widened his eyes slightly and moved the swords blade away from Toboe's neck.

"You aren't dead yet? I killed your wife ages ago… I thought after a while you'd give up looking for me and get yourself recklessly killed…"

Toboe turned his head, ignoring the danger it brought in doing so and letting his curiously take over. He blinked a few times, not quite believing what he was seeing. But when he finally believed it he couldn't help smiling a little. All along Toboe knew he wasn't dead yet, even though his parents insisted that it was false hope. Really though, how can someone like Sesshomaru be so easily defeated?

Sesshomaru was different looking than how Toboe remembered. Even though Yoshiko wanted to settle down and have a family and Sesshomaru went along with it, there were still times when he would leave the village for a little while, sometimes to find Rin—a young woman who still wanted to travel around like she had when she was a kid and was always out and about with Jaken, the annoying green imp—and sometimes to fine leads on some demon, usually Hotaka. And sometimes they got into some quarrel and he left to cool down. So when Hotaka attacked Yoshiko, Mika, and her other two children Sesshomaru had been away yet again. When he came back and heard the news he left again to avenge her death. After not seeing him again for several months InuYasha and Sueko had doubts about his return. After a year and a half they decided he must have died and stopped wondering about it. Despite all of this, Toboe had always marveled at the full dog demons strength—even though being around him for long periods of time kind of weirded him out, since all he did was stand there not saying anything and staring—and couldn't believe that Sesshomaru had been defeated by Hotaka, even when all of his parents friends had meet their defeat from the same powerful demon. It was nice to know he was right all along, even though it made Toboe feel guilty to even consider feeling haughty about being right.

But now, looking at the thought-to-be-dead-Sesshomaru, you could tell that the last two years hadn't been the best for the guy. His face looked tired and weary, his kimono dirty and torn, his once silky silver hair tangled. Though before it looked like he took great care in his appearance it now looked like he hadn't because he had spent so much time grieving Yoshiko's death—you could tell by the look in his narrow, hazel eyes.

Sesshomaru looked around at his surroundings vaguely, taking note of the villagers' bodies and Sueko's dead body. It took him a while to notice Toboe, and when he did he growled, "What are you still doing here? Go to the well!"

"Huh?" said Toboe, still on the ground.

"Isn't that what your mother told you to do?" said Sesshomaru calmly, as though he was merely scolding him for doing something he wasn't supposed to, like be outside in the rain or eating too many sweets.

Toboe looked down at his hand as if finally realizing he was holding on to the locket. He was just starting to get up and leave when someone laughed. And it was then that Toboe remembered Hotaka was still there.

"I don't think so," said Hotaka, smirking as he raised his sword. "Not if I have I say in it."

Before he could raise his sword down completely Sesshomaru rushed over and blocked the attack with his sword… Toki… Toki-something…

"Tokijin," said Sueko automatically.

"What?" said Toboe, surprised by the interruption. "Oh… Well, I never got the point of naming inanimate objects so…"

"Because it's cool!" said Sueko. "Well, that's why they do it in anime. I don't even know why I remember the name of Sesshomaru's sword, I just do… Speaking of which, I have yet to give mine a name! What kind of name for a sword is 'the Last One's sword'? I mean, hello, how lame!"

"Um…" said Toboe.

"Oh, right! Don't mind me, babbling on!" said Sueko, shaking her head. "You can continue now!"

So Sesshomaru blocked the attack with the Tokijin. Of course, this didn't please Hotaka a whole lot. Hotaka seemed bored of his job and wanted everyone to die already. So he immediately started attacking Sesshomaru. However, Sesshomaru was so quick he blocked every attack effortlessly, only getting someone scratched once.

Toboe was still lying on the ground, watching the two fighting and completely forgetting about everyone else. But then Sesshomaru glanced back at Toboe and growled, "Get out of here!" and, slightly startled, scurried away.

As he ran, he wondered if Sesshomaru was actually going to defeat Hotaka after all or be killed like everyone else—or if it all really mattered anymore. He didn't quite get what his mother wanted him to do. Hotaka had destroyed the well seven years ago so no one could go back to Sueko's time frame and hide out. So how was a locket going to get him through? So what if it was originally from Sueko's time? He still didn't see how it could possibly work… but what else was there to hope for?

When Toboe got there he got on his knees, moving away the broken pieces of wood, stone, and dirty away while wondering what good it'd do. After several minutes of digging at the Bone Eater's well's site he had yet to tap into whatever amazing powers would send him back through time and he was in a state of hopeless despair, half expecting Hotaka to jump out of the bushes and end his life. But suddenly Toboe felt something pulling his left hand—the one holding the locket—and all of his surroundings vanished as a sort of blue light surrounded him. And he felt like he was falling, but falling so slowly it was as though he was floating… but as quickly as it happened it stopped and Toboe suddenly found himself dropping on a hard stone ground.

Did it work? He was obviously in a different place… Toboe looked up only to see darkness. However, he did spot some sort of vine dangling on one of the walls and, seeing nothing else to do, he climbed up. And once he reached the surface met a strange and loud world filled with everything but what he was used to.

"…And I've pretty much just been wandering around… I kind of stole these clothes because the ones I was wearing had too much blood on them and everyone was giving me weird looks… They hid the ears and helped me blend in a bit. And then… What?" said Toboe suddenly, looking up at Sueko's face, which had a peculiar expression on it.

"It's just…" said Sueko tentatively. Then she shook her head. "I'm sorry for thinking you were evil. Then again, if you still turn out to be evil… Well, you're a damn good liar and story teller and you should get a noble prize… if they had one for lies and even handed them out to evil people, that is…"

Toboe laughed slightly, except it quickly turned to a cough afterwards.

"How long have you been out here, exactly?" said Sueko sheepishly.

"Um… two days?"

"Okay, that's it! Out of the pouring rain and straight to the kotatsu for you!" said Sueko, pulling up her umbrella and dragging Toboe out of the alley. (3)

"Ko-tat-what?"

"Honestly! You Feudal Japan people know nothing!" muttered Sueko, rolling her eyes.

So the two went straight to Sueko's house, occasionally saying a few things here and there. But then Sueko suddenly remembered something and went, "Hey, you came here to warn me about something, right? So, warn away…"

"Huh?" said Toboe. "Oh… um… Yeah, Dark Stones…"

"What about them?"

"I don't know a whole lot about them myself," said Toboe, shrugging. "Basically it's something Hotaka has, I think he gets his powers from them, and Yoshiko never warned you about them… Yeah, that's about it…"

"So I guess I'll have to wait until I see Yoshiko again before I figure out more," said Sueko with a sigh.

It was then that they had finally reached Sueko's house. She hastily shook as much rain out of her umbrella as she could before opening the front door to walk in and cry out, "I'm home!" to whoever was around. She was just about to rush downstairs to drop off her stuff when she remembered Toboe was there, which was rather weird, actually. So she said a bit timidly, "Um… I'll just be upstairs real quick to drop my stuff off… Er… Make yourself at home," before walking up the stairs, wondering how a kid that had gone through all that could just simply "make himself at home."

But when she got downstairs a few minutes later with a clean—not to mention dry and warm—set of clothes Sueko found that it wasn't too bad. She just found him poking at the television curiously. It was actually rather cute. Sueko couldn't help but imagine InuYasha's reaction to a television and, though it probably happened when he first met Kagome because it had certainly never happened when he came over here now, it wouldn't have been as cute as Toboe's reaction. InuYasha would probably just stand there glaring at it, as if daring it to do something.

Man, she had a weird boyfriend… husband… Eww…

Just then something furry rubbed against Sueko's leg and meowed and, smiling, picked up Neko the cat while fondly rubbing the back of her ear. Then an idea came to her and she cheerfully went along with it.

"Hey, this should cheer you up!" said Sueko merrily, walking over to Toboe and holding up her cat. When she was a little kid it was what her mother always did to cheer her up when she was upset or sick. And if anyone in the whole world needed cheering up in Sueko's mind it'd have to be Toboe.

His reaction was not the one she had in mind. Seeing the cat, he yelped and jumped behind the television set, peeping out the side of it a few seconds either to see if it was still there.

"It's just a cat…" said Sueko, trying not to laugh. "What, are you allergic?"

"No…" said Toboe, still hiding. "They just kind of creep me out…"

Today was just full of surprises. Sueko didn't think she'd ever meet a person who was terrified of cats! But then again, she didn't think she'd ever meet a random kid on the street who claimed to be from the "future" and her son. But she supposed the had to be a first for everything… It was rather unusual to move into a new house with a time traveling well, after all…

"Well…" said Sueko, trying to fix the awkward silence. She set the cat down and pulled Toboe out from behind the television set. "Look, you just push this right here and it turns on…"

"Ack!"

"Hmm…" said Sueko, looking at the program. "Hey, I know that show! I love Digimon! I used to watch it as a kid! Hey, I remember this episode! It's when Davis and Ken have to go and—"

Sueko was interrupted by the doorbell, which suddenly rang… Toboe jumped up in surprise.

"Oh, don't worry, that's just the doorbell!" said Sueko quickly. "So we know when people are at the door… Um… if you just excuse me I'll go see who it is… Have fun with Digimon!"

Then Sueko rushed over to the door, wondering who it could be. When she opened the door she suddenly felt really stupid.

"Sorry we're late," said Keitaro, letting himself in. "Tamika was holding me up…"

"Well, sorry if I wanted to change into some warmer clothes, you… you... you meanie!" said Tamika, following Keitaro to the living room.

"Um…" said Sueko, severely taken aback. She had completely forgotten that her friends were going to show up! "Wait a second…"

"Uh…" said Keitaro, hesitating at the doorway.

"Oh, he's so cute!" cried Tamika, rushing over to hug Toboe. "Oh, and you even have little kitty ears!" she added, rubbing one of them too.

"I'm a quarter dog demon, thank-you-very-much!" cried Toboe, turning a bit pink.

"Uh… Oh dear…" mumbled Sueko. "Er…" She turned to Keitaro and sighed. "Um, Keitaro, Tamika, meet Toboe! Yeah, uh… Toboe, this is Keitaro and the one hugging you is Tamika…"

"Oh… my… God… You're name is Toboe?" said Tamika, letting go of Toboe and looking at him in shock.

"Uh… Yeah?" said Toboe, confused.

"Oh… THAT MAKES YOU EVEN CUTER!"

"A friend from Feudal Japan, I take it," said Keitaro, looking annoyed.

"Yes… Sorry, it was all very sudden and—" started Sueko but Keitaro interrupted.

"I'm not annoyed at you. I'm annoyed at Tamika and her stupid Wolf's Rain obsession!"

"Uh…"

"There's a character on there named Toboe… Ugh, why do I have to waste brain cells remembering this stuff?"

"Oh… Oh yeah! I should watch that sometime…" said Sueko thoughtfully.

"Oh, wow, Digimon is on!" cried Tamika. "I love that show! Almost as much as Wolf's Rain!"

"Oh… my… God…" sighed Sueko and Keitaro. Toboe just looked very, very, very confused.

All this lack of sleep was starting to get to Yoshiko. She had hardly laid down to sleep when she heard somebody cry out. People got up and ran out and there was the clash of swords. Yoshiko started to moan and turn over, hoping that the others would take care of it. But when the sounds only got louder she started to get angry and jumped to her feet, storming out of the hut. Kimiko was laying on the ground, her lip bleeding and good number of bruises on her arm. Wood lay around her and she clutched at her sword. Not too far away was InuYasha, who was holding a struggling Sango. She had a black eye and a cut down her arm. Her sword, however, was laying a few feet away as Miroku helped Kimiko to her feet.

"What the hell?" cried Yoshiko, her hair disheveled as she glared from Kimiko to Sango. "Can you just pretend that you like each other till morning?"

She felt Sesshomaru's eyes on her but she didn't care. Yoshiko continued to glare at Sango who finally stopped struggling against InuYasha. He loosened his grip but didn't leave entirely. Somebody cried out again and she turned to see Kimiko sitting back down on the ground, grabbing her ankle. Miroku kneeled down and took a look at it and then turned to Yoshiko gravely. She didn't need him to tell her that it was obviously broken. It was already starting to swell and turning a nasty shade of purple. Forgetting about Sango, InuYasha walked over, picked up Kimiko and carried her into the hut. Sesshomaru walked over to Sango and started to grab her arm but she shook him off.

"I don't know how you can trust her to gather firewood for one of your friends," snapped Sango. "Or is that just her story and really she was taking that wood to burn the hut down?"

"Oh my god!" cried Yoshiko, throwing her hands into the hair. "You just don't get it! Kimiko may have made some mistakes but I sincerely doubt she's going to try and kill any of us."

"You're just not frightened of her because you have more demon blood than her," spat Sango. "But the rest of this village is quite as lucky as you."

"I don't give a damn about demon blood!" shouted Yoshiko. "In fact, I wish I didn't have any! But she hasn't given me any reason not to trust her. I don't think there's ever been a time when I trusted somebody and was wrong about them. Not once!"

"I would say Sesshomaru but he's obviously shaped up…" muttered Sango. "But I do have reasons not to trust her but you won't hear me out!"

"Fine, whatever," snapped Yoshiko, throwing her hands up in the air again and turning around. "Fine, tell me! What did Kimiko ever do to call for you trying to kill her?"

There was a long pause. Yoshiko started turning around to look at them over her shoulder. She crossed her arms and still Sango didn't speak up. Miroku and Sesshomaru exchanged a glance. Finally Yoshiko sighed in frustration.

"Fine, don't tell me!" she cried. "See what I care!"

She walked into the hut and saw Rin putting some ice on Kimiko's ankle. She felt a rush of gratitude for the girl, knowing that she wouldn't complain and would put up with almost anything. Yoshiko sat down behind Rin and smiled at her. Then she quickly frowned as Sango stormed in, quickly followed by Sesshomaru and Miroku. Yoshiko started to get to her feet, ready to fight with her bare hands if she had to.

"If you want to know, then listen!" shouted Sango. "You remember Myoga saying that Sukiyama's village was burned down?"

"Yeah… so?" sighed Yoshiko, sitting back down.

"Well, when we first met Utako I heard a rumor at the village about a village that had been burned down," continued Sango, a little surprised that Yoshiko was listening. "There were stories from children that were now grown up of a women with obvious demon blood who had waist long hair. A few days later they sighted the women again and could get a good look. She had blue hair, wore the garb of a demon slayer with purple armor and had that exact weapon!"

"Why would Kimiko want to burn down Sukiyama's village?" asked Miroku as Kimiko blinked up at her half sister.

"Well, it is where the shrine of the Water Stones are, isn't it?" said Sango, standing up tall. "And Kimiko is part water demon. Don't you think that a water demon would feel that they deserved to be in charge of the Water Stones?"

Yoshiko sighed and everybody turned to look at her.

"Yes, well, that's a nice theory," she said, closing her eyes. "But Kimiko didn't burn down the village of the Water Shrine. The Tiger demons did. Because that's where the demon that was killing tiger demons was rumored to be. Besides, there were only two survivors of that village burn down."

"But what about the rumor about the women?" asked Sango desperately.

She sighed again, dreading what she would have to say. Yoshiko opened up her eyes and looked at Sango sadly.

"That wasn't Kimiko either. Besides, that was a different village than the one the Water Shrine resided in," she said, looking away. "Its far too recent and… it was near to the village I use to live in. I'm the one that burned that one down. I'm not proud of it but I did it. There were survivors because I tried to warn the villagers. It was infested with demons and it was the only way I could think of killing them all. But a lot of the villagers didn't believe me and they… they…"

She stopped feeling on the verge of tears. Little arms wrapped themselves around her neck and she looked to see Rin hugging her. It made her feel good that the little girl didn't turn away in disgust and think her repulsive. She looked up at Sango shakily and gave a faint smile. The demon slayer looked down at her in horror, shaking uncontrollably. Then she turned to Kimiko and blinked back tears. Kimiko looked from Sango to Yoshiko thoroughly confused. The men were staying out of it completely. They had no idea what to do in this sort of situation. Fighting made more sense to them.

"I – I – I'm so sorry!" cried Sango, turning around and running out of the hut.

"Sango!" called Yoshiko, getting up and following her out.

As soon as she exited the hut it started pouring down rain. She took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder at InuYasha. He opened his mouth (probably to say "come inside and leave her be") but she gave a sad smile and ran off in the direction Sango had disappeared in. She wasn't too far off, leaning against the hut that Raoul had half finished and crying, though you could hardly tell because of the rain. Yoshiko pushed a bit of wet hair out of her face.

"Its kind of wet, isn't it?" she said, looking up at the sky.

"God, I feel stupid…" said Sango, hugging her legs. "You and InuYasha must think I'm so prejudiced now and – "

"It's not me and InuYasha you should be worried about," said Yoshiko grimly. "Its Kimiko. She's the one you almost killed… twice…"

Sango gave a hollow laugh.

"And I'm sure she'll forgive you," said Yoshiko. "Because you gave pretty good reasons as to why you should be able to kill her… Just you didn't do your research too well. And if she doesn't then I'll make her!"

Sango laughed again but this time it sounded a little more realistic. She looked up at Yoshiko.

"You still like me, then?" she said. "After what I did and said?"

"Of course!" cried Yoshiko. "God, its me that should think you wouldn't like me after what I did and said."

"You burned down a village to kill a few demons," said Sango, shrugging. "The villagers were stupid enough not to believe you. Its happened in my career before."

"Oh?" said Yoshiko, raising an eyebrow.

Just then another person walked through the trees to them, wearing an umbrella hat and staying considerably dryer than Sango and Yoshiko. Miroku smiled at them and Yoshiko started to walk away. But she quickly hid behind a tree feeling as if she had a right to snoop for a little while.

"You were planning on coming back, right?" said Miroku, walking up to Sango. She merely looked away. "Because we would all miss you. Kimiko has said she's willing to forgive you partly as long as you don't try and kill her again."

"Yes… Well, it would be difficult now considering what you all must think of me," muttered Sango. Miroku knelt down.

"Sango, I could care less because I know the women you truly are," he said, smiling. "You can't be perfect so I forgive you as easily as that as long as you are willing to forgive yourself."

"Oh Miroku," said Sango, smiling at him. Then she burst out crying again and wrapped her arms around his neck. Miroku hugged her back but ever so slowly his hand moved downward until…

"YOU PERVERT!" filled the forest along with a loud slap and somebody crying out in pain. Sango stomped past Yoshiko who glanced back to see Miroku sprawled out in the mud. She giggled and followed after. They heard the monk scrambling after them but didn't stop for him. Once back at the hut, InuYasha handed out towels looking obviously annoyed. Yoshiko leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You're just jealous because Sueko isn't here and you can't get all lovey dovey with her," she hissed.

"Wh-what?" cried InuYasha, moving away, his cheeks turning pink.

Yoshiko started laughing but it almost instantly turned into a cough. Sesshomaru started striding to her side but she waved him off saying she needed some sleep. But long after everybody else had fallen asleep she lay awake wishing that her headache would just go away. And the ringing in her ears was starting to get annoying. Sighing, she rolled over and attempted to fall asleep.

Kimiko's demon blood became even more obvious the next day when she was walking around on her broken ankle with nothing more than a stiff bandage. Even InuYasha remarked that it would have taken him at least another day to be able to walk around as easily as she was. But just as things were seeming to settle down between Sango and her half sister… Well, Miroku thought he would be a gentleman and help out a wounded lady. This of course ensued into some jealousy from Sango. She yelled at the monk to get away from Kimiko but the quarter demon calmly replied that if she wanted to date Miroku she could care less. When Sango didn't say anything Kimiko continued by saying: "You obviously don't want to date him, sister, so you should care who he likes."

Sango stood dumbstruck and turned on Yoshiko who walked out of the hut without a word. She glanced back to see InuYasha sweating as Sango glared him down. Sesshomaru, too, exited the hut after Yoshiko. She sighed and noticed that it was still drizzling but would more than likely clear up by tonight. Which was good because the festival was tonight. Miroku and Kimiko stood a little ways off and Yoshiko stood there watched. An entire minute passed without any action. She was just about to give up when Kimiko sighed, crouched down, picked up a rock and smashed it on top of Miroku's head. He fell over backwards with a dazed look on his face. Kimiko hobbled over to Yoshiko.

"He is tactless, isn't he?" she said, smiling. "One minute he's wooing my sister and the next he's all over me."

Kimiko sighed. Miroku started to get up, laughing shakily and rubbing his head.

"He just doesn't have the capability to know when to talk a women and when it's okay to touch them," said Yoshiko, shrugging. "I'm taking a break from their romantic situation as, according to InuYasha, Sueko and Sango, I can hardly take care of my own."

She felt Sesshomaru staring at her and felt a bit foolish talking about her romantic situation (which included Sesshomaru) right in front of him without out right saying it was with him. And if she had mentioned names it would mean she would have to admit that she liked him… to his face and he would probably want to start a permanent relationship that she just couldn't handle right this instant. But if he was smart he would know that she was talking about them and then what? Luckily, as it was around noon, some of the village girls saying that they were supposed to dress her up for the festival. So waving good-bye, Yoshiko allowed herself to be dragged off.

Around sunset the decorations were all set up and the guests and villagers were ushered toward the large tables that had been set up. Yoshiko was told to stay in her little hut until she was announced. But she couldn't help but peer out. There was a large pit in the center of the curved tables. She spotted her friends on the sides of the tables nearest a raised dais where she more than likely sat. Her sword leaned against a large throne like chair. She also figured she would be the one to start the fire. Just a little something to "prove" she was a priestess. More likely to make it seem as if she were a priestess. It would have just been better if Sueko had been here. She was more of a priestess than Yoshiko was.

Thinking of Sueko made Yoshiko realize that the girl had been gone longer than three days. But now that InuYasha was seated at the table she couldn't ask him to go and get her. She wondered if perhaps Sueko was sitting with Kaede lonesome and bored, wondering when they would come and get her. Yoshiko shook her head to rid herself of the thought. She thought and thought but couldn't think of any way to tell Sueko where they were. Then, just as she was giving up hope, Kirara walked in to the hut as if reading her thoughts. At first Yoshiko just tried to shoo the two-tail away. But then it hit her and she knelt down, grinning at Kirara. The little cat just cocked its head, mewing.

"Hey, Kirara, you miss Sueko don't you?" started Yoshiko. The cat jut meowed again. "So do you think you could go to the well and see if you can find her there? And if she's not perhaps you could stay a couple of days and keep an eye our for her. I'm sure Kaede would love to take care of you!"

Kirara blinked a couple of times, meowed again in a happy way and walked out of the hut. Yoshiko looked out of the flap to see the cat change in a flash of fire into a large saber tooth lion type demon and fly off. Just then Ringo rushed over and, without a word, grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the festivities. Then when they got closer he pushed her toward the dais. She stumbled and looked around. Then she smiled and walked up the steps, took up her sword and pointed it toward the fire pit. The wood instantly burst into flames and burned nicely. The villages cheered and her friends clapped politely. Kimiko blinked in surprise.

Just then food was carried out and served. Yoshiko sat patiently in her chair knowing that she would be the last to be served. Finally a few men came up, each carrying a large plate of food. They set them on small tables next to her chair and didn't leave. She blinked at them and started toward her food slowly. When they didn't stop her she ate a little bit of this and little bit of that. But her headache had come again and she didn't feel that hungry. She heard some voices and looked around but nobody was talking to her. It came again. And again. Finally she looked up and said:

"What?"

"I didn't say anything, priestess," said one of the men, bowing. "Did you need something?"

"Uh… no…" sighed Yoshiko, putting her finger in her ear to try and stop the ringing. It didn't help.

The entertainment came in and the food taken away. She watched it detachedly, with her elbow on the arm rest and leaning her head on her hand. Her head ache was starting to become unbearable and all the sounds around her seemed to echo. Things would blur and seem to be underwater. Then she would blink and they would be normal again. At one point she moaned and leaned back in her chair, sliding down a few inches. The voice was getting louder and louder and now she could make out that it was calling her name. It was so familiar but with her headache she just couldn't figure it out.

"Don't you find all this just annoying?" said the voice. She moaned and rubbed her head. "Wouldn't it just be nice to grab up your sword and be rid of this foolishness?"

Yoshiko glanced at her sword and then shook her head. The men near her were so intent on the dancing women that they hardly noticed. Her eye lids were starting to become heavy and she was sure she would fall asleep at any minute.

"Don't try and fool yourself!" snapped the voice. "Your part demon and should start acting like it."

She slapped her hands over her ears.

"Go away…" she muttered fiercely. "Go away!"

"Tora?"

She jumped and looked behind the chair to see Sesshomaru staring down at her. Thankfully the ringing stopped in her ears and she no longer felt angry at her surroundings but scared. Scared at the fact that she felt that a moment longer and she might have gone on a killing spree. And in her other state she would have enjoyed every moment of it. Like she would have in killing that man with the bow. What was wrong with her? She started shaking.

"You're not well," said Sesshomaru. "You should get some rest."

"I'm fine…" murmured Yoshiko. "I probably got a cold from being out in the rain. I'll be fine."

"You were acting like this before the rain," said Sesshomaru, grabbing her arm and helping her up. "It is not a cold."

"Will you leave me alone?" cried Yoshiko, pulling out of his grip. "You sound like my step-mother: 'Oh, you got your nose wet! Let me take care of you!' I can take care of myself."

"But you're not yourself," said Sesshomaru patiently, reaching out for her arm again. "So I say you should rest."

"You're just a demon!" snapped Yoshiko. "What would you know of this sort of stuff? Now leave me alone!"

With that she started down the steps. But as suddenly as it had left, her headache returned twice as powerful as before. It was so horrible she couldn't see clearly except for little white stars until suddenly she lost all consciousness.

Today was Thursday. A very annoying day in Sueko's opinion because you wanted it to be Friday and it was so close to Friday yet it was still Thursday and you'd have to wait a whole other day for it to be Friday. But there was still school on Saturday most of the time so Sueko didn't get why she preferred Friday… maybe because it was the last full day of school left.

Sueko was trying to finish up her science homework, but it was rather difficult when Akio and Tamika kept talking. She still didn't quite get what Akio was doing at her house… He just showed up and said Tamika had invited him. At least he didn't bring his little sister Hikari, because there was barely enough room in the kotatsu as it was… it was only made for a few people, not five.

"So, did anyone watch last night's episode of Gundam Seed?" asked Akio casually. He hadn't even opened his textbook yet. At least Tamika had opened hers and had started out doing her homework.

"Um… I don't watch that…" said Sueko boredly.

"No?" said Akio disappointingly.

"I missed it," said Tamika, sounding like she didn't like the show either.

"I can't stand that show," muttered Keitaro from behind the book he was reading—he had already finished his homework. "There's no way—"

"Okay, nerd boy, no one wants to hear it," said Akio. "The whole point in anime is to do fantastic things that wouldn't happen in real life. Can't you just face the facts and move on?"

"Well I'm the only one paying attention to the facts, since it seems no one else in the world is…" muttered Keitaro moodily.

"That excuse so does not fly with Cowboy Bebop or Full Metal Alchemist," said Akio, shaking his head. "People can't live on Mars and do magic by making alchemy circles…"

"What's alchemy?" asked Toboe suddenly, looking up from his drawing. Apparently he really liked to draw so Sueko handed him some pencils and paper and let him do whatever. She also had made him take his clothes off, hoping some warmer clothes would make his cold go away quicker. So he was wearing some old blue flannel pajama pants that were still a bit too long in the legs for him and some old Naruto shirt Sueko had owned since a little kid and never threw out… It was back when she was in this huge ninja phase and it only lasted a year… It was a black tee shirt with the three main characters on it: Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Ironically, the main characters from the popular anime and manga series were the same age as Toboe. Not that Sueko remembered a whole lot about the show since it'd been forever since she actually watched it… When was it, third grade?

Keitaro smiled, looking more than happy to explain to Toboe what alchemy was. The two seemed to like each other a lot, but that might have just been because Keitaro was the only one who bothered to answer Toboe's annoying questions about modern day, since he enjoyed sharing his knowledge so much. "Well, the real definition of alchemy is a medieval chemical philosophy in which they made claims about its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals like gold, the discover of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity…"

"Uh…" moaned Toboe, looking confused and overwhelmed.

"But on Full Metal Alchemist they basically just use alchemy by drawing a circle on the ground and 'transmuting' things by, for example, using water to make bread," said Keitaro.

"That doesn't sound like very tasty bread," commented Toboe.

"However, the really stupid thing about the show," said Keitaro, starting to rant, "is that Edward Elric doesn't need a stupid transmutation circle because he's the main character and he's special that way…"

"It's okay, Keitaro," said Akio, patting Keitaro on the head. Keitaro just glared.

"Oh, I give up already," moaned Sueko, putting her head on the table in defeat. She just couldn't concentrate with all the talking!

"I just finished!" said Tamika happily, closing her textbook—not that Sueko saw her do much work so she didn't get how she was done… "Study break, study break!"

Sueko moaned.

"I haven't even started my math assignment yet," said Akio, looking at his blank worksheet.

"I wonder why…" hissed Keitaro, giving Akio a death glare.

"Ha! All done!" said Toboe suddenly, putting his piece of paper and pencil down on the desk and then laying down and closing his eyes with his hands behind his head, like drawing had really tired him out or something.

"Huh? Oh, let me see!" said Tamika excitedly, snatching the picture to look at it. Everyone turned to her to see her reaction because they couldn't actually see the picture themselves. At first she blinked a few times. Then her eyes widened a bit and she went, "Oh…"

"It can't be that horrible, God," snapped Keitaro impatiently, snatching the drawing and looking at it himself. He had the same reaction, except went, "Wow…"

"What!" snapped Sueko, wanting to know what it was. But Akio took it before she could glance at it and took forever to inspect it.

After a few minutes he looked up from the paper as if just noticing Sueko's death glare. "Oh," he said with his eyebrows raised, surprised. "Would you like to look at it?"

"Yes, thank-you-very-much!" snapped Sueko, snatching the paper away and looking at it. After looking at if for a few moments she looked down at Toboe and said, "Hey, how long have you been drawing this for?"

"Wha…" said Toboe, opening one eye. "Oh, since you all started studying." Then he went back to his "nap."

"But… but…" said Sueko, looking back at the paper. "That's only been thirty minutes… And I could spend all day drawing and I couldn't draw anime that good…"

"It's just a doodle…" muttered Toboe sleepily.

"It's exactly how they draw it in the manga," commented Keitaro, going back to his book. "Well, I've only read the first Chrno Crusade manga and Chrno only transformed to his full demonic form once in it… Did I mention that the likely hood of a bunch of nuns getting together to destroy a bunch of demons is very slim, and the fact that Rosette and Chrno are partnered together despite the fact Chrno is a demon—"

"Buddy," said Akio suddenly. "No one cares."

"Humph…"

"How did you learn to draw this good?" snapped Sueko, poking Toboe's face annoyingly.

Toboe blinked exasperatingly a few times. "From you, duh… I'm tired, stop bugging me…"

"But…" muttered Sueko, looking back at the picture. Wow, did she really draw that good in the future? If so, could the future happen already so she could have amazing drawing skills? Please? That'd be nice…

"So, what about that study break?" said Tamika, standing up and stretching her arms.

"Well, first you have to actually study…" muttered Keitaro darkly.

"And I did!" said Tamika proudly, showing off her finished history essay. "I already told you, I only had a paragraph to write and I'd be done. So I still managed to finish it even with Akio babbling on and on…"

"I don't babble," said Akio, clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry, Akio, but I don't like Trigun as much as you do, okay?" said Tamika sweetly. Then she leaned down so her face was right in front of Akio's and then she snarled, "SO SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT VASH FOR TWO FREAKIN' SECONDS!"

Keitaro coughed, as though he'd like to mention a certain anime about wolves going to paradise but thought best not to. Sueko couldn't help but giggle a little.

"So…" said Tamika, standing up again and blinking innocently. "Study break!"

"Fine…" sighed Keitaro. "Though only for ten minutes, and only if you shut up about it afterwards… you hear?"

"Okay!" said Tamika. "Let's go already!"

"Huh?" mumbled Toboe sleepily.

"Hey!" snapped Sueko, who was being pulled up by Tamika. She also had grabbed Keitaro by the arm and was attempting to drag the two out of the room but Keitaro grabbed the doorway at the last second so Tamika wasn't going anywhere.

"Let… go…" cried Tamika, pulling Keitaro with all her might.

"You let… go!" snapped Keitaro.

"And maybe you can let go of me too while you're at it," said Sueko, trying to get her wrist out of Tamika's death grip.

"Oh, are we going to venture outside?" said Akio curiously, who was still innocently sitting at the kotatsu with a napping Toboe across from him. "What fun! I'm up for it!"

"No… Wait, Akio…" started Keitaro, but Akio was helping Tamika pull the two out of the house. And Akio somehow managed to grab Toboe as well, who was looking just as annoyed and exasperated as Sueko and Keitaro.

"Hey, it's not raining anymore!" said Akio once outside with everyone.

"I like the rain…" sighed Tamika. "Oh well… I used to jump in the mud puddles when I was a kid… that was fun…"

"Don't even think about it," muttered Keitaro, wrenching his arm out of Tamika's grip. Then, noticing that Sueko was still struggling, pried Tamika's fingers off her wrist.

"Yay…" said Sueko, feeling her wrist. "I think I was starting to lose circulation."

"Hey, some fresh air will do the two of you some good," said Tamika seriously.

"Sheesh… doesn't all these stairs annoy the hell out of you?" said Akio as the group started heading towards the sidewalk several feet away.

"Only if I'm wearing really crappy shoes," said Sueko.

"So, anyone want to go to someplace in particular?" asked Tamika.

"Yes…" said Keitaro. "How about back inside?"

"How about we just go along with it?" said Sueko sweetly. Then she muttered, "It's not like we have much of a choice…"

"It's not like there's a whole lot of stuff to do around this part of town…" commented Akio once they finally reached the sidewalk.

"Oh!" cried Tamika, pointing to something in the distance. "A pet shop!"

"Um… okay… so?" said Keitaro.

"Let's go inside!" said Tamika, rushing over to the small store. With a sigh everyone else followed with Akio shaking his head and Toboe looking rather curious.

It looked like an ordinary pet shop to Sueko. Tamika was looking at all the animals cheerfully as Keitaro kept an eye on her and Akio looked very amused by the whole situation. You could tell that all the different smells and odors were bugging Toboe a bit but he still looked interested at all the weird stuff. Sueko decided to follow him around instead of Tamika and the others.

"Hey, what do you think InuYasha's reaction would be if I gave him a dog collar?" said Sueko jokingly, holding up one.

"I don't know…" said Toboe, giving the collar an odd look. What's it for?"

"You put it on your pet dog or cat so if they run away they can be found easier," said Sueko, putting it back on the little hook on the shelf. She forgot how much he wouldn't get about her world. At least InuYasha was a bit more educated about it. Thank God for Kagome… I suck at this job…

"Hey!" said Sueko, suddenly getting an idea. "I should find something for Kirara…"

"Sango's cat?" asked Toboe.

"Yeah…" said Sueko distractedly, looking at all the cat things. There was so much stuff she wasn't sure what to get… and she only had five dollars in her pocket so she couldn't spend a whole lot…(4)

"Hmm… Would Sango get annoyed if I got Kirara mouse filled catnip?" wondered Sueko out loud. "Hey, I wonder if Yoshiko would be attracted to it… That'd be kind of funny…"

"Cat litter?" said Toboe. "What, is it a litter of cat's in a bag?"

"Um…" said Sueko, trying not to laugh. "No, it's for your cat's… like… poop…"

"And it can't go outside why?" asked Toboe.

Sueko didn't answer; she heard a lot of bickering the next isle over and, recognizing Tamika and Keitaro's voices, went over to investigate.

"How about not," said Keitaro, rolling his eyes.

"But it's so cute looking!" said Tamika, looking at the clear box where some small mice where rolling on top of each other. She was looking at a tan one doing back flips by climbing up on a round plastic toy and jumping backwards.

"So? Like we have time to take care of one," said Keitaro exasperatedly.

"We do too!" cried Tamika tearfully, turning back to Keitaro with her hands on her hips. "All you'd have to do is feed it, clean it's cage and play with it! Oh, and don't forget to wash your hands afterwards!"

"I don't want to take care of a lousy mouse," snapped Keitaro. "And you'll forget to take care of it so I'd have to!"

"Hey, I have an idea!" said Sueko, walking over to stand between the two. "How about we forget about the mouse and go somewhere else! After I buy Kirara's cat nip…"

"Humph!" muttered Tamika. Though Keitaro flashed her a thankful smile as she went back to grab the mouse with catnip in it.

"So…" said Keitaro once they were outside. "Can we go back to studying now?"

"But I'm all done!" said Tamika.

"I gave up with mine…" sighed Sueko.

"Uh… I was planning on not doing mine…" said Akio slyly. "I got bored with the assignment anyways.

"'Glad I don't have to go to school…" mumbled Toboe.

Keitaro sighed. "We never do get much done with these study sessions, do we?"

"Hey! I was doing really well with my English homework the other day!" said Sueko. "And… okay, yesterday my mind was on other things… but I still got most of my math assignment done. Oh, and not doing so good with science… but Akio and Tamika wouldn't shut up!"

"You could have joined in the conversation any time you wanted…" mumbled Akio.

"Okay… How would that help me get the homework done?" cried Sueko exasperatedly. Akio just shrugged.

"You know what…" said Tamika thoughtfully. "Our birthday is the day after tomorrow and we have no clue what we're going to do for it…"

"That's your own fault," muttered Keitaro. "You're the one who always plans them."

"That's because if you planed them we'd do something boring, like go to the museum or see some silly Sci-Fi movie!"

"Nothing wrong with Sci-Fi once and a while…"

"I like museums," said Sueko thoughtfully.

"But I don't want to repeat what we've already done…" sighed Tamika. "But after several years you run out of things…"

"Picking a theme always helps," suggested Akio.

"No Wolf's Rain!" snapped Keitaro.

"Then no Star Wars!" Tamika snapped back.

Akio rolled his eyes. "Oh, grow up you two. Is there a moment when you don't bicker?"

"Why not just all anime-themed?" suggested Toboe, surprising everyone. "It's vague enough that you wouldn't have probably done it before… That works for a themed party, right?"

"Everyone could dress up as their favorite anime character!" cried Tamika. "It'd be great!"

"Three guesses as to whom you'd dress up as…" muttered Keitaro, rolling his eyes.

"Sounds like a great idea," nodded Akio.

"I'm up for it," said Sueko while wondering where on earth she'd find a costume in time.

"Oh, you're so great!" cried Tamika, hugging Toboe and rubbing his head playfully with her fist. But then she started petting one of his ears instead.

"Well, he's already dressed up, now isn't he," said Akio, sounding amused. But then Sueko realized that she had never told Akio about Feudal Japan and was wondering why he wasn't freaking out by a kid with dog-ears…

"Oh, it's all right," said Keitaro, seeing Sueko's shocked face. "Tamika told Akio about the well and crap while you were gone…"

"Oh…" Sueko sighed in relief. Then…

"I can't believe you told him without my permission!" screamed Sueko, chasing Tamika around to…oh, who knows what? Now she was kind of wishing for the sit thing…

"Ack! I'm late, I'm LATE!" cried Sueko, rushing around the house as she frantically tried to find her Sailor Moon costume. Toboe looked curious, her mom looked amused.

"No need to panic, sweetie," said her mom. "I'm sure we just haven't had the chance to unpack it yet… Are you sure it even fits?"

"Where would the box be, then?" asked Sueko, rushing back over to her mother.

"I don't know… maybe you could get your friend's little brother to help you find it in the extra storage room," said her mom with a smile.

Sueko had told everyone that Toboe was InuYasha's little brother… That way there wouldn't be any weird questions about how he looked so familiar. And it was pretty believable; they both were dog demons. What would be impossible to explain was the truth, so Sueko didn't even try. She couldn't even begin to figure out what she would tell everyone back in the Warring States era… She had the feeling she would not be able to lie her way out of it.

But the important thing to worry about was where her costume was. Sueko was already late for the party (well, would be in ten minutes) and she hadn't even gotten on the train there yet. At least she had her presents wrapped and ready to go.

"So, what's this sailor suit thing look like?" asked Toboe in the extra storage room, going through the many cardboard boxes in the room with Sueko.

"Sailor Moon," said Sueko irritably. "And it's like a weird version of my school uniform. Except not green, blue."

"Um…"

"What do you expect? It's anime! Ah… I'm going to be so late!" moaned Sueko.

"At least this place's transpiration is a lot quicker than where I come from," said Toboe.

"Oh, found it!" cried Sueko, lifting it up. "What's it doing in the Christmas ordainments? And where the hell's the wig…"

"I think I found it…" said Toboe, lifting up a wad of faux blond hair.

"Yup!" said Sueko, taking it. "Where's the boots? Oh, I don't have time to look… I'll improvise… Be right back!"

Five minutes later Sueko emerged from the bedroom with her Sailor Moon costume, looking almost exactly like Usagi thanks to the blonde wig that went with. Okay, so her pink snow boots didn't go too well… they weren't knee length or red. But it was good enough. (5)

"Moon Prism Power Make-up!" cried Sueko as she came out of the bedroom door.

"Huh…" said Toboe.

"How do I look?" asked Sueko sweetly.

"Okay… I guess…" said Toboe, scratching his head.

"Oh, you're a guy! Who cares about your opinion!" muttered Sueko, being reminded of InuYasha as she walked away.

"I don't get it…" muttered Toboe.

"Don't forget your gifts, Sueko!" called her mother.

Before she could open the front door it opened for her, but found Tamika's appearance a bit more surprising than having the door suddenly open. She was wearing a light purple suit, a pink cloak, and it looked like she had died her long dark hair purple…

"Hi, Sailor Moon!" said Tamika cheerfully.

"Hi…Tamika?" said Sueko.

Tamika sighed. "I didn't have a wig so I died my hair… but it wouldn't die pink…"

"Sorry…" said Sueko.

"Plus it won't wash out in the shower like it's supposed to! I think I got the permanent kind! I can't go to school with purple hair!" cried Tamika in dismay.

"Oh, I think it's hot," said Akio slyly, coming over to the doorway. He was wearing a blue suit and caring a giant cardboard cross. And Sueko had no clue who he was trying to impersonate either.

"Nicholas D. Wolfwood on the case!" said Akio importantly. (6)

"Good for him…" muttered Sueko. "So who are you, Tamika?"

"You don't know?" cried Tamika. "How could you not know!"

"Hmm…" Sueko said, trying to think. "Maybe it's from Wolf's Rain since you like it so much…"

"You're getting warmer…" said Akio.

"…And the only girls I know the names of from that show is… Cheza?"

"Ding, ding, ding!" said Akio.

"Get a life…" muttered Keitaro, walking over to hit Akio on the head.

"Oh, I know who you are!" cried Sueko. "Okay, so his name was…"

"I thought you said you knew who I was," said Keitaro. He was wearing a black shirt and pants under a cool looking red coat that went down to his knees. He was also wearing a blond wig, which was so long it was put in a braid.

"I'm thinking…" said Sueko. "Um… oh yeah! Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist!"

"Ding, ding, ding!" said Akio again.

"Shut up!" cried Tamika and Keitaro, whacking him on the head at the same time.

"Aren't you a little too tall to be Ed?" asked Sueko.

"Oh, shut up…" muttered Keitaro, crossing his arms. (7)

Just then someone looking like an anime character Sueko couldn't quite recall came walking over and, with his hands in his pockets, said, "Hey, shouldn't you four move away from the doorway?"

"Good idea, dad," said Keitaro, rolling his eyes as they moved into the living room.

"Ah… I remember during Halloween me and Haruka would dress up as Spike and Faye together…" sighed their dad dreamily. He was wearing a suit almost like Akio's but different too, and his hair was unusually messy, like he was trying to make up for the fact that he didn't own the wig that went with. (8)

"So…" said Tamika, sitting down on the floor. "What should we do first?"

"I don't know… isn't it your party?" asked Sueko.

"Oh yeah… I'm seventeen today, how weird…" muttered Tamika. "Hey, you haven't even started watching my birthday present, have you?"

"Um…"

"I knew it… you haven't!"

"Well, a lot of things have been happening lately, it's hard to keep up!" Like Toboe showing up… "Can I wait till this weekend to watch Wolf's Rain without you killing me?" asked Sueko, blinking innocently back.

"Sure…" muttered Tamika, trying to look like she was still mad but failing greatly at it.

"I never got what was so fascinating about it…" muttered Akio, waving his hand casually.

"That's because all you can appreciate are guns, spaceships, hot girls and giant robots!" cried Tamika.

"Oh yeah… Ha…" said Akio.

"Doesn't Wolf's Rain have guns?" asked Keitaro. "And the giant robots that shoot guns at them? And space-ship-looking aircraft?"

"The humans do…" said Tamika. "Stupid nobles! Aww, Toboe dying was so sad…" (9)

"Ack! Wait!" cried Sueko.

"Let's see…" said Tamika thoughtfully. "If I'm remembering right Quent shot him… And then he like took forever to die and everyone cried… I cried…"

"I knew that…" muttered Keitaro.

"Oh…" said Sueko, sitting down on the couch. She couldn't help thinking of what she'd have to tell everyone else back in Feudal Japan—and seeing how she had told them she'd be gone for a week that'd be coming up very soon. It's not like she'd want to tell the whole depressing story about Toboe's past, though it was the only evidence she had to prove he wasn't some evil demon trying to kill them all—though he was too cute looking to be evil… But it wasn't like she could force him to tell it all. The first time was probably hard enough for the kid…

And suddenly Sueko felt someone's hand on hers, and the next second her face was bright red as she stared at Keitaro's face, whose face was just as bright of color. Her heart was racing and she couldn't help wondering what was going to happen next…

"Okay, I need to talk with you… NOW!" cried Tamika, pulling on Sueko's arm.

"Break it up, you…" muttered Akio, pulling on Keitaro's arm.

"What!" cried an alarmed Keitaro and Sueko.

Except they were still holding onto each other's hands so Keitaro and Sueko were becoming stretched… They seemed to forget that they could simply just let go of each other's hand and be free… Their hands slipped and Tamika whisked Sueko away to her room while Akio dragged Keitaro along to his room.

"You like Sueko, don't you?" accused Akio, pointing a finger at Keitaro's chest.

"I—I—I—" stuttered Keitaro. "Aren't you a priest? Shouldn't a priest mind his own damn business?"

"Aye, but I am no ordinary priest!" exclaimed Akio, holding up his grey giant cross threateningly.

"Cardboard is really not that scary," said Keitaro, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, just pretend it's an extremely threatening gun and you're going to DIE!" cried Akio.

"I think we're getting off subject…" muttered Keitaro. Then his eye's widened and he added hastily, "But we can keep it off subject!"

"Too late, bud," said Akio, shaking his head. Then he said in a singsong voice, "You know you love her! You want to hold her! You want to kiss her!" (10)

"Argh, shut up!" muttered Keitaro, turning pink.

"So…" said Akio slyly, "When are you gonna make 'the move'?"

"Oh God… Akio, this is exactly why I don't want you in my personal life!"

"Okay, okay…" said Akio, grinning. "I think you'd make a cute couple though."

"Thanks for the support," said Keitaro dryly.

"Are you going to tell her?" asked Akio.

"Am I supposed to!"

"I don't know… Girls are pretty tricky… They usually see through all our motives and always know when we are in love with them… Usually… Of course, if this was Tamika she might take a little while…"

"I'm not in love with my sister!" cried Keitaro.

"Did I ever say I was?" asked Akio, blinking.

"Oh my God…" muttered Keitaro, putting a hand to his face.

"I can't believe you haven't told him yet!" roared Tamika.

"I know, I know!" wailed Sueko. "But I've had a lot on my plate lately…"

"So? All those times you've been studying with him and you couldn't mention something?" cried Tamika.

"But you were there!" cried Sueko. "It's not like you ever helped me anyways!"

Tamika sighed. "You have to tell him eventually though…"

"I know…" sighed Sueko. "It's kind of hard to just randomly say 'I'm not single!' He wouldn't know what I'm talking about and then I'd have to explain it more…"

"I'd tell you to do what I do," said Tamika thoughtfully, "except I don't want my brother to have a black eye afterwards…"

"And I don't normally punch people so I'm not sure I'd leave a black eye…" said Sueko just as thoughtfully, remembering that one day in PE where Tamika beat someone up with a dodge ball because… well, she couldn't recall why, exactly...

"Just try and get it done before you leave…" said Tamika.

"Before the party's over!" cried Sueko.

"That'd be better…" said Tamika thoughtfully.

"But… you can't do that to a guy on their birthday!" cried Sueko.

"Oh, you're right… You better think of something better than!" said Tamika. Then she walked out of the room saying, "Present time!"

"Thanks for the advice…" muttered Sueko wearily, walking out as well.

Akio and Keitaro were in the living room when Sueko entered. Before she even had the chance to wonder about it Tamika exclaimed, "Dad went in the kitchen!" She was sitting in the middle of the living room floor again, despite the fact there was plenty of seating.

"Presents, presents, presents!" chanted Tamika from the floor.

"You're worse than Hikari during Christmas, and she's way younger than you!" cried Akio.

"I think since I'm older, and more mature, and more responsible… not to mention smarter…" said Keitaro innocently, twiddling his thumbs and looking up innocently, "that I should get to open the presents first…"

"With that attitude I don't think you should be allowed any…" muttered Akio.

"Jan-Ken-Pon?" suggested Sueko. (11)

So they went along with that idea; Tamika won two out of three, and Keitaro asked to make it three out of five but Akio dropped that idea. Then he handed Tamika his present to her with a clever grin on his face.

"Hmm…" said Tamika, peering into the tissue-paper-filled bag. "Let's see… it looks thin… plastic… and shiny…"

"Pull it out!"

"Oh yeah!" It turned out to be a CD. A M2M CD, to be exact.

"Never heard of them…" said Tamika, nodding her head sideways back and forth and staring at the CD.

"They're English…" said Akio.

"I knew that!" said Tamika.

"Here's mine…" said Sueko, handing it over. "I couldn't think of anything specific so…"

"A fifty dollar coupon to the mall?" said Tamika once she had it unwrapped. "Sweet…"

"My turn!" cried Keitaro, jumping off the couch to sit down on the floor next to his sister. They smiled at each other childishly for a minute, than gave each other the other's present.

"Oh my God!" laughed Tamika. "It's so cute…"

"What is it exactly…" asked Sueko, leaning over to get a better look.

"Kiba, silly!" said Tamika, holding it up. It was a plushy of some white dog. A really weird looking plushy… Then again, whenever they made plushy's out of anime characters they always look weird.

"Okay…" said Sueko, going along with it.

"Wow, a Palm Pilot!" marveled Keitaro. "Not that I know what to do with it… Hey, why's my background Wolf's Rain themed?"

Tamika giggled. "And when you get e-mail's it'll ring the theme song!"

"Which one…" sighed Keitaro.

"Oh, that one they played that was really pretty when Toboe was going on about this dream he had with lunar flowers…" said Tamika, nodding her head back and forth as if she was playing the tune in her head. (12)

"Technically that's not a theme song…" muttered Keitaro.

"Here you go, buddy!" said Akio, walking over and hitting Keitaro on the head with a party bag.

"It'll probably be a CD…" said Keitaro, grabbing the bag and going through the tissue paper. "You're pretty predictable with presents and almost always get Tamika and me the same thing… Ah ha! Linkin Park!"

"Oh, an American band I've actually heard of!" cried Sueko. "Not that I can remember any songs they do… or understand what they sing too well…"

"Maybe you should work on your English assignment a bit more," said Keitaro teasingly.

"I'll get right on that…" said Sueko darkly.

"So what'd you get me?" asked Keitaro, leaning over so he could rest his chin on his hand.

"I don't know…" said Sueko, crossing her arms. "Maybe I won't give it to you…"

"Aww…" said Akio, smiling. Thinking he was starting to catch on to the fact that Keitaro liked her, Sueko tossed Keitaro his present rather huffily.

"It's kinda heavy…" commented Keitaro, weighting the box with his hand.

"Open it already!" cried Sueko.

"I don't recall Usagi having this much of a temper," said Akio.

"Last time I checked my name was Sueko…"

"See? Cranky!"

"Hmm…" said Keitaro, ripping the paper off. Then his eyes widened. "An exact replica of the Millennium Falcon, first seen on Episode One, the New Hope!"

"Cool it," muttered Akio, holding his fist in the ready position.

"Neat-o…" muttered Tamika, poking it.

"I was trying to find something different and saw some Star Wars merchandise…" mumbled Sueko, turning a bit pink. "And I kind of thought Harrison Ford was hot so tried to find something Han Solo-ish… I had to ask the store clerk for help because I don't remember the two Star Wars movies I've seen too well but they were kinda helpful… Kept going on about Obi-Wan Kenobi, but whatever…"

"Vroom…" said Tamika, making the space ship fly around Keitaro's head.

"It's not a toy," snapped Keitaro, taking it away from her. "It's a collectible. I could sell it on Ebay for thousands of dollars."

"I'm sure you could…" muttered Tamika, "if you'd ever decided to sell it!"

"Sheesh," said Akio. "You bicker on just like you were brother and sister!"

Tamika and Keitaro just glared at him.

"So…" said Sueko, sitting down on the ground in front of them. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't know…" said Tamika thoughtfully. "Food?"

"Did dad actually get the cake yet?" asked Keitaro.

"I don't know. Maybe he's making it. He hasn't left the kitchen for a long time," said Tamika.

"You two know me too well," said their Dad sweetly, who had come out of the kitchen with—well, the cake.

"Ack!" cried Sueko, surprised.

So it was after cake and a bit of joking around that the four were left with nothing to do again.

"Any party games planned?" asked Akio.

"Nope…" said Tamika.

"I have an idea!" said Akio.

"Oh no…" moaned Keitaro.

"Spin the bottle!"

"Do we have a bottle?" asked Sueko.

"How about not…" muttered Keitaro.

"Too bad Kiba isn't here…" sighed Tamika.

"I have a beer bottle I'm almost done with," said their dad with a shrug. "Let me finish it off… I'll go get it…"

"No… Dad, NO!" wailed Keitaro. But too late, he already left the room. "Akio, I hate you…" mumbled Keitaro, lying on the floor with his hands covering his face.

"Nothing like good ol' resentment!" said Akio.

"This has got to be the weirdest birthday party I've been to…" said Sueko thoughtfully.

"That's what you get for inviting Akio," said Tamika, nodding her head knowingly.

"Got the bottle!" cried their dad, coming out of the kitchen.

"Dad, are you okay?" asked Keitaro worryingly.

"I might have had a bit much…" muttered their dad, giving the bottle a funny look. "Ah… what the heck?" He handed Tamika the bottle and left the room with a funny smile on his face.

"Should I worry?" asked Sueko timidly.

"I want to go first!" cried Tamika, setting the bottle down and spinning it. It pointed to Keitaro.

"Um…"

"No incest allowed!" said Akio fiercely, making Tamika spin it again. Luckily for Sueko it pointed to Akio.

"Hell-oh Kiba!" said Tamika slyly, stretching out her "Hello" into two syllables. She grabbed Akio's face to keep it steady and kissed him right on the lips. Then she quickly stopped and sat back down like nothing had happened at all.

"Um…" said Sueko, a bit taken aback. "Are we going clockwise or counter-clockwise?"

"Since you asked… counter-clockwise!" said Akio. That would have made it Sueko's turn.

With a sigh she spun the bottle, worrying who she'd get. She found it all too ironic that she got Keitaro.

"Okay, game over!" cried Tamika suddenly, standing up.

"What?" asked Akio curiously, standing up as well.

"Hey Keitaro?" asked Tamika sweetly, a look of pure innocence on her face as she put her hands together.

"Erm…"

"Sueko needs to tell you something!" cried Tamika, pushing him and Sueko into the nearest room with a door on it—that just so happened to be a broom closet.

"Oh… my… God…" muttered Sueko, heart pounding.

"Where's the stupid switch…" muttered Keitaro, moving his arm vaguely around in the air. His white-gloved hand made contact with the cord and he pulled it, and light from a single dangling light bulb filled the small space.

"Tamika…" muttered Keitaro, shaking his head. "I'll never get her…"

"Um…" said Sueko timidly, fidgeting with her hands and looking down at her feet.

"You okay?" asked Keitaro, sounding concerned.

She tried to think of what to say but the words just didn't seem to want to come out. But she knew she'd have to say something… but right now really wasn't the time she wanted to say it. But there wasn't exactly a right time for this sort of thing.

"Sueko?" said Keitaro again.

Sueko took a deep breath. "I'm sorry! But it can't work out this way!"

"Um… what?" said Keitaro, sounding confused.

"Look… It was just some really big misunderstanding the other time," Sueko tried to explain. "It wasn't that InuYasha was two-timing me, it was that some demon was tricking us so we'd break up… Not that we were really together…"

"Oh…"

"I really like you Keitaro!" cried Sueko. "But… only as a really good friend."

"That's okay," said Keitaro, laughing a little. "I've heard that dating your sister's best friend never works out."

"Uh…" said Sueko, taken aback a little. But just then the closet door opened and Akio popped his head in.

"Hey, we're having ice cream if you want any," he said. Then he sighed. "Damn, no action…"

"I've got to go…" muttered Sueko, pushing Akio aside as she hurried out.

"Wait, Sueko!" called Keitaro.

"What are you up to?" asked Tamika curiously, watching as Sueko picked up her stuff and headed toward the door.

"Um… I'm sorry. But I've got to go!" cried Sueko, rushing out of the door.

"We can trap him by using you as bait!" cried TK.

"Me? Why do I have to be the one?" snapped Davis.

"We have to use some kind of bait we could do without!" replied TK frustratingly.

"Oh, yeah? Well, we could easily do without your hat!" retorted Davis. (13)

Just then the front door opened and Toboe jumped up in surprise. Maybe he had found the Digimon marathon he found on TV a bit too interesting and forgot about reality…

"I thought you weren't coming home for at least another hour or two!" cried Toboe. "Wait… what time is it?"

Sueko acted as though she didn't hear him, rushing upstairs without so much as a glance.

"Um… wait?" said Toboe, jumping off the couch and following. Then before he reached the staircase he turned back around and glanced at the TV.

"I'd love to see how this turns out, but I've got to run," said Ken, the evil Digimon Emperor, haughtily. "I have a few chores to take care of, like taking over the digital world."

"There's no way we're going to let you use Patamon to help you with your plan!" cried TK.

"The same goes for Agumon!" agreed Tai.

"That's really funny. Because I don't remember asking for permission," said the Digimon Emperor with a toothy grin.

"Hmm…" said Toboe. "This all seems vaguely familiar… Oh yeah, Mom upset!"

And he rushed upstairs to find Sueko going through her room and throwing things into a bag. It looked like she was packing. She had taken the blond wig off but was still wearing that Sailor Moon thing. Close up she just looked even more stressed and upset about… something.

Toboe walked up to her a bit timidly. Though she looked pretty preoccupied and still didn't notice him. So then he cleared his throat and tried to think of something to cheer her up, but he couldn't think of much. His mind was still stuck on Digimon… Wait…

"You know what?" said Toboe. This caught Sueko's attention finally, and she turned around with a hand on her hip and a wad of socks in the other hand, looking a bit surprised. He blinked a few times, then continued. "In like every episode of Digimon they always have to fight these really… action packed battles and stuff… but in the end it all turns out to be a happy ending because they always learn this life lesson at the end, and… Well, maybe there's a life lesson in what… whatever… and in the end you'll have a happy ending too! But since life isn't as long as an episode of Digimon so it might take a little longer for you to realize it…"

"What do you know?" said Sueko sweetly, "It sounds like pretty much every other TV show out there… Hey, we're going home!"

"What?" said Toboe just as Sueko rushed over to her closet.

"You know… Feudal Japan…" said Sueko, rummaging around until she came out of the closet with a yellow backpack. "Okay, don't mind the fact this belonged to some dead girl that you don't know… I don't have any other bags and I'm pretty sure she's a nice enough gal that she wouldn't mind at all!"

"Um…" said Toboe, taking the backpack.

"I'm going through the well!" said Sueko loudly, as though Toboe was too deaf to understand her. "I'm going whether you want to or not! So I suggest you start packing!"

"Ugh!" cried Toboe, covering his ears. "I'm not deaf!"

"Then start packing!" cried Sueko, shoving some spare clothes in hers.

"But… I don't have anything to pack…" said Toboe.

"Hmm…" said Sueko thoughtfully, wearing an amused expression on her face. "I guess maybe bringing a few manga wouldn't be too bad…"

"Oh… really!"

"Only ten!" cried Sueko as Toboe rushed out of the room. Then she shook her head a bit sadly, shoved a few last minute things into her book bag, and left the room.

She didn't find Toboe in the living room like she thought she would… No, he was in the kitchen looking around for food. And he failed to understand the fact that there would be plenty of food in Feudal Japan and asked if there was any Pocky. Sueko just shook her head and left the room.

"Hmm… I still think Pocky's really neat…" muttered Toboe, poking at the strange square box on the counter before looking through the drawer underneath. But then after a few more minutes of searching he grew bored of it and wandered back into the living room.

"Are you ready yet?" asked Sueko, laughing.

"Sure?" said Toboe, shrugging.

"Great! I can't wait to see Yoshiko! I can't believe I miss her so much!" cried Sueko, rushing out the door. He slowly followed, too busy looking around to walk outside quickly. He still couldn't get used to all the strange buildings in Sueko's world.

"Oh, well, I've missed you so much!" cried Sueko once inside the shrine. "What's wrong with me? I'm sounding like Tamika!"

"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Toboe timidly, looking down at the well.

"What do you mean? Of course it'll work!" snapped Sueko. "Wait, what are we talking about?"

"But only you and Dad were ever able to go through the well…" said Toboe. "When it wasn't broken, that is. Though apparently if you have a Shrine Stone you can go through but…"

"Um…" said Sueko, a bit taken aback by the "dad" thing. She shook her head to get rid of the weird thoughts that followed afterwards. "I'm sure you'll be fine…" Then just to make him feel a little better she took his hand and smiled. "And if it doesn't work I can always make it work!"

"Sure…" said Toboe.

"One… two… three… JUMP!"

Going through the well with someone else was just plain weird. Though she'd gone through a few times with InuYasha when she first met him… it was still weird! But once she got through to Feudal Japan and helped Toboe up to the surface she was surprised that no one was there. Well, why would everyone be waiting around the Bone Eater's well for her? Her friends probably had better things to do.

"Mrew…"

"Wow… It's Kirara!" said Toboe, looking down in surprise.

Okay, so maybe a friend of hers was waiting around for Sueko. Just not the friend she had in mind…

Wait, why'd she want to see InuYasha? All that'd lead to would be a bunch of questions about Toboe… and why she was late… Actually, she'd rather argue about being late than meeting a random kid that was their child.

Eww…

"Kirara… Digivolve!" cried Toboe. Sueko just stood there blinking at him.

"I like that show…" sighed Toboe. "How else do you make the cat get bigger?"

"Um… I don't think making her Digivolve is helpful," said Sueko.

But just then Kirara actually did transform as though she could tell what they were talking about.

"Try not to do any flying, okay?" said Sueko nervously as she climbed on the large cat.

When Toboe got on Kirara took them to where the others were apparently staying. The large cat looked back at them and gave a sort of meow before taking off… but totally ignoring what Sueko said by flying off. She cried out in surprise and grabbed a hold of the cat's fur as Toboe caught her around the waist. Probably because they were flying it didn't take long to get to… where ever they were trying to get to. Kirara landed in the middle of this village but didn't shrink down. Which was probably smart because all the villagers were running away… the opposite way that Sueko was staring at. Then again, normally when weird stuff like a weird miniature mountain that probably isn't supposed to be there comes up Sueko goes toward it. And if this was where InuYasha and the rest were they were probably over at the weird mini mountain.

"Um…" said Toboe, blinking at it.

"Come on!" cried Sueko, grabbing his hand and rushing off with Kirara running in front of them.

They came to a big field that might have been flat at some point in the past. But now it had that mini mountain so it wasn't so very flat anymore. And these weird dead guys were fighting her friends. But she had hardly taken that in when she heard somebody cry out "Yoshiko!" and saw Yoshiko, who was looking very strange, jump at this blue haired lady. Kirara cried out as Sueko gasped. Luckily Kirara got the girl before Yoshiko killed her. The half tiger demon stood there for a long time shaking before she looked up and noticed Sueko. Except the reason she had looked strange was because she had black eyes.

"Dammit!" cried Yoshiko.

Then suddenly her eyes turned their regular green and this young guy was striding forward looking really pissed off. Sueko immediately recognized him as Hotaka though when she saw him before he didn't have this weird black shadow hanging around him. She figured it just had to do with showing how angry he was. He stared at Sueko for a long time with his teeth bared. Finally he raised his hand in a fist and then held out his pointer finger slowly brining it down to point at Sueko.

"Damn, damn, damn!" he shouted. "You weren't supposed to show up!"

"Who are you?" said Toboe suddenly.

Hotaka had opened his mouth to say something more and almost fell forward at this. He blinked then slowly stood up straight and lowered his arm. He turned toward Toboe with his eyes narrowed.

"Who the hell are you?" he snapped. "You don't look like any of their pathetic friends."

"That's because I'm from the—" started Toboe before Sueko slapped a hand over his mouth. He came up for air smiling sheepishly. "Only kidding! I'm nobody!"

"Well I am the great… something or another… Hotaka!" cried the boy, standing up tall and the shadow dissipated. Yoshiko had disappeared and the weird warrior things had stopped moving. The others came through breaking as many as possible… especially InuYasha who looked extremely annoyed and pissed. Kirara was still with the weird blue haired lady.

"Oh…" muttered Toboe. "But you're just a kid!" he cried, pointing an accusing finger at Hotaka. "How can you be the guy of pure evil that kills… people…"

Hotaka put a hand to his head as if he had a headache. Then he seemed to realize that all the dead people things had stopped moving. He sighed and then turned around toward InuYasha and the others. Sueko found it very frustrating that he was deciding to ignore her now. Not exactly sure why she was doing it, she pulled out her sword and pointed it at Hotaka's back.

"Hey, dude!" she snapped. "Weren't you like just freakin' out about the fact that I was here?"

"Yes, yes, yes," sighed Hotaka off handedly, waving a hand backwards. "I'll deal with you in a minute."

"Excuse me?" cried Sueko, waving her sword a little wildly. Toboe took a step back so as not to get hit. "I thought I'm your big enemy! You should be worried about me."

Hotaka was still holding his head when he turned back around.

"And if I don't deal with your little friends I won't have the chance to deal with you properly!" snarled Hotaka.

"Um…" said Sueko. "I could tell them to stay out of it…"

"Fat chance!" snapped InuYasha. Then he glanced around. "Where'd Sesshomaru get to?"

"He went over there," shrugged the blue haired chick, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb.

Then, as if he were really bored, Hotaka snapped his fingers and the dead things started moving again. One of them started toward Toboe and Sueko. The little kid cried out and jumped behind Sueko. She rolled her eyes and hit the dead thing.

"Okay, get over to Kirara!" she cried. "That way you're less likely to get hurt and I don't have to deal with you."

"I guess…" muttered Toboe, starting to walk away. "But what about Hotaka?"

"I'll deal with him!" snarled Sueko. "Just get going."

Then, just as she was wondering whether she should actually fight Hotaka, he made the decision for her. He jumped at her with his weird flaming sword and she quickly jumped out of the way. Then she lifted her sword to block another attack. As she blocked attack after attack she had a feeling that this was going to be a long day…

As soon as she had felt what ever it was holding her let go, Yoshiko had stumbled away hoping that the voice in her head would just go away! Not that she had really expected it to, but it would have been very nice. She had hardly realized that it had been Sueko who had shown up. Her mind was mostly on the fact that she had almost just killed Kimiko. Eventually she made it to the base of the weird rock formation and collapsed at its base. She hardly noticed that she was still clutching at the weird fan though it had fortunately become blade free again. Suddenly somebody grabbed her upper arm and Yoshiko turned to see Sesshomaru kneeling next to her. She gasped and attempted to pull away.

"Next time I say rest…" started Sesshomaru, then he just stopped. "What is it that you didn't tell us?"

"Please… go…" muttered Yoshiko, looking down and clutching at her head. "I don't want to… hurt you…"

"I think if you were going to you would have tried by now," said Sesshomaru. "Now, how is he doing this?"

"I… I don't know!" cried Yoshiko, pulling out of his grip and standing up. "Look, soon he'll get bored of Sueko and he'll possess me again! He probably will think it's funner to fight her with me! So you don't want to be here when he…"

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and stood up too, grabbing her arm again as if expecting her to run away. She glared at him, finding it odd that she was acting so much like herself. Then the headache came back and she pulled out of his grasp again to clutch at her head. When Sesshomaru stepped toward her she held up the fan not exactly sure why she was. There was a pause and then… he merely touched her hand.

"Tora?"

Yoshiko's eyes popped open and she looked up at him shakily. There was absolutely no change in his face. And then slowly the voice went away and the headache disappeared. Her eyes turned toward the fan and she glared at it.

"Piece of crap…" she muttered, breaking it in half with her hands.

As she did so, the ground started shaking. The rock formation went back into the ground as the dead warriors slowly turned into dust. Yoshiko turned toward the fight and saw Hotaka push Sueko down. Then in a flash of black smoke he disappeared and then came to stand next to Yoshiko, glaring down at her.

"Damn, damn, damn!" snapped Hotaka, seeming to grow with his anger. "Why do you have to not be possessed anymore?" he whined, suddenly shrinking back down to the same height as Sueko.

"Um… I have a cool boyfriend?" said Yoshiko, blinking down at Hotaka.

"Yoshiko!" cried Sango. "Are you okay?"

"Hmmmm?" said Yoshiko swaying slightly. "Hi Sueko! I missed you!"

"Um…" said Sueko, scratching her head.

"I think I'm going to leave before I throw up… or worse, start acting like you," murmured Hotaka. Then, as he was pretending to retch, he disappeared.

"Wow… I'm kind of…" started Yoshiko. Then she stopped to yawn. "Tired…"

With that she fell toward Sesshomaru, resting her head on him and lost consciousness.

"Well, Yoshiko seems to be doing fine," said Sango, coming out of a hut a few minutes later. "She's just sleeping is all."

"Good!" cried Sueko, sighing in relief.

"Will you stop poking me?" cried Toboe suddenly, making everyone look at him. Miroku had been… "analyzing" him. He seemed very fascinated by his ears, so he was poking them rather curiously.

"Who's the kid?" asked InuYasha.

"Uh…" moaned Sueko, putting her face into her hands. "Do I have to…"

"He has doggy ears…" muttered Miroku obviously.

"So!" cried Sueko loudly. "Who's the blue haired girl!"

"Oh," said InuYasha. "She's Sango's half sister. She's some quarter water demon. Who's the kid!"

"Are you sure you want to know?" asked Sueko.

"I'm from the future!" said Toboe excitedly. "And Sueko's past! Yeah… let's just leave it at that…"

"Fascinating…" mumbled Miroku.

"Um… so that means what exactly?" asked Sango bewilderedly.

"Feh…" muttered InuYasha, crossing his arms.

"So what exactly happened while I was gone?" asked Sueko, trying to get past the subject of Toboe as quickly as possible and yet still curious about it.

"Well, first Kimiko showed up…" said InuYasha. "Then Yoshiko collapsed."

"Wait, what!" cried Sueko.

"Well, she was kind of acting weird…" said the blue haired girl thoughtfully. Sueko figured she was the Kimiko girl they were talking about. "Which it's kind of odd that I'd notice that when I don't even know her that well!"

"So… was she, like, possessed or something?" asked Sueko.

"Basically…" said Sango.

"And what was the point of it all?"

"What do you think? What's always the point?" snapped InuYasha.

"Um…" said Sueko hesitantly.

There was a pause where no one did anything. Sueko was just watching Toboe look at a butterfly, which whirled around his head a few times and flew away. Then he jumped up and said excitedly, "Oh, pick me, pick me!"

"What!" cried Sueko.

"Maybe…" said Toboe slowly, "they were trying to kill us all… Like they do on Digimon all the time!"

"What is up with the Digimon thing?" cried Sueko.

"There was a marathon on TV this morning…" said Toboe.

"Okay… I ask yet again… Who's the kid!" cried InuYasha.

"Sit!" cried Sueko, standing up and pointing at him angrily.

"Hmm…" said Sango, blinking a few times. "Anyways… I found this dark colored stone with Yoshiko when I was in the hut. I think it was the thing that might have been controlling her, but I don't really know what it is… Hey, Sueko, maybe you do!" She added, holding up this black colored rock.

"Not really…" said Sueko. "Isn't that Yoshiko's area of expertise?"

"Oh yeah!" said Toboe suddenly, pointing at the stone. "That's what I was supposed to warn you all about!"

"Huh?" said InuYasha, still on the ground.

It had been a very good dream. Filled with libraries filled with books, being human and building a house with Sesshomaru… Okay, maybe it had just been a weird dream. But Yoshiko still felt very good when she woke up. Sesshomaru was standing over her. When he saw her awake he nodded and left the hut. Apparently he just wanted to make sure for himself that she was all right or something like that. For a minute Yoshiko thought about going back to sleep. Then she recalled Hotaka with the black stone and decided it would be smart to actually tell her friends about it.

So she got up, sighing heavily, and exited the hut behind Sesshomaru. Her eyes landed upon InuYasha on the ground like Sueko had just said 'sit' and a weird kid with black dog-ears pointing at… a dark stone. Sango was holding it up for everybody to see. Yoshiko cleared her throat guiltily and everybody turned toward her happily. InuYasha pulled himself off the ground just to sit down and cross his arms, looking away. She had a feeling that he was thinking about what had been said about Sueko possibly dieing. Then the weird kid's eyes lightened up.

"Aunt Yoshiko!" he cried, jumping up and hugging her around the waist. "You're okay!"

There was a pause where nothing was said and it was almost completely quiet. Even the village seemed to have stopped everything it was doing. A bird gave a small chirp, then stopped suddenly. Later Yoshiko saw Kirara walking away with a bird in its mouth looking very pleased of herself. Then the boy pulled away blushing slightly, scratching his head and laughing sheepishly.

"Oops!"

"Oh yeah," snapped Sueko, hands on her hips. "Big oops."

"What the…" said Yoshiko a little taken aback. Then she looked from the boy, to Sueko and then finally to InuYasha. Something clicked in her head. "Oh… He's so cute!" she cried, hugging him herself. "I want a kid like him!"

"EXCUSE ME!" shouted Sueko.

"Er…" said the boy, looking weird because Yoshiko was hugging him around the head.

"Its kind of obvious, isn't it?" sighed Yoshiko exasperatedly, letting go of the boy. "Wait, what's your name?"

"Um… Toboe?" muttered the boy.

"You don't know your own name?" cried Yoshiko. The she sighed. "Oh, whatever. So, you're from the future, right?"

"How can you tell?" said Toboe, stepping away from her.

"Because your face structure is exactly like Sueko's," said Yoshiko. "And as far as I know she doesn't have any weird half-demon brothers – "

"Quarter demon…" muttered Toboe.

"Yeah, that's what I meant!" cried Yoshiko, throwing her hands into the air. "Anyways, she's also way too young to have a kid at this moment in time so you have to be Sueko's kid from the future."

"WHAT?" cried Miroku, Sango, Kimiko and InuYasha. Then they turned toward Sueko she grinned sheepishly and waved slightly.

"Hi…" she said, taking a step back.

"What is going on?" asked InuYasha grouchily.

"Now is not the time to discuss this," sighed Yoshiko. "We need to talk about this," she said, holding up the black stone. Sango looked at her own hand in surprise.

"How'd you get that?" she cried.

"Secret," said Yoshiko, grinning. "This is called a Dark Stone… at least that's what the only book in the whole entire world that mentions them calls them."

"Er…" said InuYasha, turning toward her.

"Apparently Hotaka can make them but he has to have the Spirit Stone to get the power to do it," continued Yoshiko. "Once he makes one he can make as many as he wants without the use of the Spirit Stone. There are tons of theories as to what they're used for… all made by the same person…"

She stopped glaring at nothing in particular as if annoyed at this person who came up with all these theories. Then she blinked and turned back toward everybody smiling brightly.

"So… any questions?" she asked, clapping her hands together.

"I have one," said Sueko. "Why are you acting like my friend?"

"Because I am your friend," said Yoshiko, raising her eyebrow at Sueko worriedly. "Or did you forget that while you were away from home for… let's think… AN ENTIRE WEEK!"

"Tomorrow it'll be a week," snapped Sueko.

"Whatever," muttered Yoshiko, turning away and crossing her arms. "I missed you no matter how long you were gone. Even if it had been only ten minutes!"

"Now what do we do with it?" asked InuYasha, standing up and snatching up the Dark Stone from Yoshiko. "It's obviously dangerous…"

"Duh," muttered Yoshiko, rolling her eyes.

Before she could say anything else InuYasha dropped it on to the ground and pulled out the Tetsusaiga. Then with a cry he brought it down upon the stone but before it actually hit the actual stone a small barrier pushed InuYasha away. He landed ten feet away. He lay there for a minute then suddenly jumped to his feet, rushing toward the Dark Stone, pointing a threatening finger at it and swearing at it profusely.

"Yeah, that's going to help," muttered Yoshiko, rolling her eyes again. She went over and pushed InuYasha away. "Look, only Sueko's sword can destroy it moron!"

"Who you calling moron!" cried InuYasha, turning toward her.

"Obviously you because you're a freakin' block head," snapped Yoshiko. "Now put away that thing before you poke somebody's eye out. It's no help to us when you're swinging it around like a silly club!"

"Yes, Mother," muttered InuYasha sarcastically, putting away his sword. Yoshiko smiled at him.

"Good boy!" she said, clapping him on the shoulder.

He rolled his eyes and walked away. Nobody thought twice about it as Yoshiko turned toward Sueko.

"Okay, now you get to destroy the Dark Stone," said Yoshiko. "I have no idea how you would do it, but I bet you can get away with wielding your sword like a big club!"

"If you say so…" said Sueko, pulling out her sword slowly and staring at Yoshiko weirdly.

Then she walked over to the Dark Stone and looked down at it. She raised her sword then looked around at everybody who was staring at her. She coughed in embarrassment and merely tapped the stone with the tip of her sword. Then she pushed down at it with all her strength. Finally the stone cracked, fell into many different pieces until disappearing completely.

"Oooh!" said Yoshiko. "That was cool!" Then she patted Sueko on the back. "Okay, I'll be right back!"

With that she rushed off in the direction that InuYasha had disappeared in. She eventually found him sitting in a tree staring in the distance. When Yoshiko came nearer he looked down slowly. She held her hands behind her back as he just looked down at her. Then she smiled slightly.

"Can I come up?" she asked.

"I guess," said InuYasha, shrugging and looking away again.

Yoshiko looked up at him and then looked around. Then she shrugged and merely leaned against the tree trunk, too lazy to actually climb up. Climbing trees was something she did when she was younger for fun. Not when she was depressed.

"So, what's on your mind?" asked Yoshiko, trying to start up a conversation.

"What Hotaka said…" said InuYasha, "about the fact that Akemi died… is it true?"

"Oh…" said Yoshiko, her brow furrowing slightly. "You see… I didn't want to say anything hoping that it would change fate…"

"So it is true?" sighed InuYasha, not sounding at all like himself. She had expected him to get mad at her or quiet and sullen. Not this sort of helpless sounding InuYasha.

"Unfortunately," sighed Yoshiko. "But maybe you knowing will change fate!" she added, grinning half heartedly. "Except I don't think the others need to know so how about we let it stay our own little secret."

InuYasha jumped down from the tree and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Um…" said Yoshiko, blinking.

"I was starting to think the same thing," sighed InuYasha. "We should probably go before they start to wonder where we are."

"Oh… yeah…" muttered Yoshiko.

They walked silently back to the others who were talking to Sueko and Toboe. The two looked as if they would much rather not be having the conversation they were having. And they looked very thankful when InuYasha and Yoshiko showed up. Miroku opened his mouth, probably to ask what they were doing, when Yoshiko turned toward InuYasha.

"You know what?" she cried. "I haven't like practiced with my sword since I beat your butt when I was human!"

"Wh-what?" cried InuYasha, taking a step back.

"So… give me!" she cried, taking InuYasha's sword.

"What was that for?" snapped InuYasha, reaching for the sword. Yoshiko put a hand on his face to keep him away. "Get off!"

"But if I do you'll try and take my sword away!" cried Yoshiko.

"It's not your sword!" growled InuYasha.

"Hey, maybe it'll stop you and your brother from fighting over it," said Yoshiko, grinning. Sesshomaru blinked.

"Yeah, but then we'll fight over the sword!" said InuYasha exasperatedly.

"Not if you, like, don't…" said Yoshiko lamely. "Or I could kill you! What do you think of that doggy boy?"

"D-doggy boy… What the hell?" cried InuYasha, taking a step back.

"I got tired of mutt," sighed Yoshiko. "Anyways, let's go find a demon so I can kill it with my cool new sword."

"Can you just give it back?" cried InuYasha.

"You're just jealous because last time I used it I was able to use the Wind Scar on first try!" cried Yoshiko, pointing an accusing finger at InuYasha. "What, afraid that I'll use the Backlash Wave this time?"

"Show off…" muttered InuYasha.

"I'm sorry I understand swords more than you," said Yoshiko, handing the Tetsusaiga back to a confused InuYasha. "They all have voices you know. You just need to listen to it… like Sueko does! Except I don't think other swords actually talk… it's just something my dad said." She stopped, thinking. Then she shrugged. "Anyways!"

"What now?" sighed InuYasha exasperatedly. Yoshiko shrugged.

"I don't know!" she said happily.

"Well, I think if everybody is just fine I'll leave now," said Sesshomaru, turning around and starting to leave.

"Without saying good-bye?" cried Yoshiko, her eyes wide and watery. Sesshomaru raised his eyebrows.

"Good-bye?"

"Oh! I see how it is!" said Yoshiko, waving her hands.

Suddenly Toboe's eyes went wide and he jumped behind Yoshiko, glancing around her at Sesshomaru. She blinked and then looked at him from under her arm.

"Are you okay?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Toboe nodded… then shook his head. He thought for a minute and finally shrugged. "Okay…" Yoshiko turned back toward Sesshomaru and something clicked in her mind. She turned back toward Toboe completely grinning evilly. "You're afraid of Sesshomaru!"

"Um…" said Toboe, blushing slightly. "I'm sorry your boy… He's really weird!"

"I'll leave you to this," said Sesshomaru, walking off.

"Yeah, you do that…" muttered Yoshiko. Then she turned back around. "Bye!"

"So, where are we going now?" asked Miroku.

"Hmmmm…" said Yoshiko, looking like she was thinking really hard. "I don't know!"

Footnotes:

(1) – Toboe is actually the word "howling" in Japanese. So of course Sueko thinks the name is weird… what kind of person is named "howling"? And yes, I did get that out of Wolf's Rain… more on that later.

(2) – I'm going to say this right off the bat: whenever this kid—Toboe—is confused, unsure, worried, or anything of the sorts like that, he talks like the sentence is a question. Hence the question-mark. They are not grammatical errors in my part. The question mark is there for a reason! And you might find that rather an useless thing to say but there are some grammar freaks out there, so I have to tell it for them.

(3) – Hey, remember this one? If not, I'll remind you! A kotatsu is a heated table with a blanket on it. And it might be mentioned later on but I won't remind you anymore… Yeah, if ever you come across a weird Japanese thing and you don't know what it is, that's probably because we've already told you! So you could look in previous chapters instead of wondering about what it could be. Like Tora equals tiger! Lol, I pray to God you got that one drilled to your brains, otherwise you're probably a very confused reader when it comes to Yoshiko being called Tora…

(4) – Since I'm American and want to make my job easier—and also because I'm lazy—I'm sticking to American money because I'm American and—guess what?—I use American money! What a concept! However, I found this nifty website where you can type an amount of money for your country and see how much it is in a different country. So if is nice and let's me post the links I use for research I'll post the website on here. If not… well, than this site just sucks! Or is really, really, evil…

(5) – Yeah, I have never watched Sailor Moon before. I mean, I watched a few episodes when I was, like, five because my older sister watched it. I don't remember too many things about my five-year-old life, so I barely recall the show. I didn't even understand the show at that age! I had no clue what Tokyo was, barely got what Japan was, didn't get why all the city signs on the show had these funky symbols on them, and annoyed my sister with my thousand questions. (Yes, I was pretty much like Toboe with asking what something was every ten seconds. I'm surprised my mom didn't put me up for adoption. I must have been one annoying kid! And the sad part is that I still ask a whole bunch of questions all the time because I'm a naturally curious person, and I'm fifteen now. FIFTEEN! Not FIVE!). So I didn't watch too many episodes back then because the show just confused me. But I have watched several Sailor Moon AMV's. So yeah… And in Japanese, according to my memory of the AMV's I've watched a million times, which show the captions of what the people are saying because that's how AMV makers work, they call Sailor Moon Usagi. That's her Japanese name. In America her name is like Selene or something… If I'm remembering my friend's ranting correctly. (Two of my friends are totally obsessed with Sailor Moon). So that might solve some of your confusion if you're not aware of her Japanese name. Seeing how this is a fan fic taking place in Japan I figured saying her Japanese name would be the correct thing to do. Yet I'm not doing this with Digimon… see, I'm just weird that way… And yeah, I had to find some Sailor Moon website to get that catchphrase in the next paragraph, so blame them if it's wrong, not me!

(6) – I've had this "Anime Party" thing planned out for ages. By the time you're done reading it you should know why. When I first got the idea I knew a little about Trigun because my friend really liked that show and went on and on about it (sheesh, all my friend's are obsessive about something and go on and on about them… Like me!). I decided that Akio would probably go as Vash the Stampede because it sounded like an anime Akio would like. (Vash is the main character of Trigun. And I'm sorry if I'm spelling his name wrong!) Then I borrowed the first six manga of Trigun from my other friend and ran across the character Wolfwood. His character matched Akio a lot more than Vash so I decided to make him be Wolfwood instead. But anyways, at the time I was going to have Akio say this awesome quote from the manga of Wolfwood introducing himself. Sadly, right now it's August and I have no way of getting that manga from my friend, and I suck at remembering quotes and stuff… so I had to improvise. Ah, it's just so tragic indeed…

­(7) – For those of you who have never watched/read Full Metal Alchemist, the frequent joke on the show/manga is how short Edward Elric is compared to his little brother, Alfonso Elric (Al lost his body so his soul was put into this giant suit of armour… um, yeah…). Whenever the brothers travel around and meet new people they always assume that Al is the famous "Full Metal" alchemist because of the armour, but really "Full Metal" is Ed, who had a metal arm and leg (Ed is an official State Alchemist so he gets a cool nick name. Al can do alchemy too, but he isn't a State Alchemist like his bro so he isn't special enough to have a nickname… apparently). Then Ed throws a temper tantrum, including jumping up and down, yelling, and waving his arms and legs madly about, about how just because he's a short fifteen year old doesn't mean everyone has to make fun of him, and how Al sucks because everyone always assumes he's the Full Metal, and all sorts of crap like that… Yeah. And Keitaro's pretty tall so for him to be dressed up as the short Edward Elric is just a bit odd. Though since Sueko would have not seen that many episodes of FMA I don't know why she'd get that…

(8) – Did you guess whom Keitaro's dad is portraying? Spike from Cowboy Bebop, of course! He's like the guy with poofy hair…and Faye is the girl with the yellow outfit. And I so stool the name Haruka from Love Hina. Funny how Love Hina's Haruka is the main character's aunt, and the main character's name is Keitaro! Watch out, or I'll put a character named Naru in the fan fic and she and Keitaro will start dating! ;)

(9) – Yeah, on Wolf's Rain they have these upper-class people they call nobles. Not much more I can say unless you want me to explain to you word-for-word about the show, and I think after all these chapters you people would be rather fed up with my ramblings so I won't even start. But keep in mind that as your watching the show you're following the four main characters, which are wolves, and all the humans are just part of the scenery. Practically… You care about the wolves, and you could give a rat's ass about what happens to the humans. Unless you're one of those people who cares about Cher, Hubb, and Quent… but whatever… (And I'm pretty sure Quent is the dude who ones the half wolf Blue but I'm not totally sure about that… sorry if I'm wrong!).

(10) – cough-Miss. Congeniality-cough! I don't remember the quote from the movie too well because I suck at that sort of thing, but it's the part where Sandra Bullock, playing Gracie, is teasing the dude I forgot the name of. She's saying it in a sing-song voice, just like Akio was back there. Though I have no clue why he'd possibly watch a "chick-flick" like that for…

(11) – I thought I would stop it with the footnotes? Sorry… Jan-Ken-Pon is the Japanese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Same concept, except afterwards whoever wins gets to hit the person with whoever lost. Example: Yoshiko got scissors, InuYasha paper. (why am I using those two for examples? Sigh). So Yoshiko gets to hit InuYasha with scissors. (Yoshiko: Yay! InuYasha: Feh…). So two fingers together. Rock would be a fist, paper a slap. At least, that's how my friend, who takes the Japanese language class at my school, taught me. Hey, in Korea they just punch people really, really, really hard. Like, as hard as possible. At least the Japanese way you can be nice about it… Except according to my friend the Japanese exchange students weren't nice about hitting. And she had been hitting them lightly because she was trying to be nice to the foreigners. Ha!

(12) – She's talking about "Paradise" by Raj Ramayya, if anyone actually cares. Hey, is Raj supposed to be a boy or a girl? I can't really tell by their singing and I have no clue if Raj's a boy or girl name…

(13) – More information about this whole thing in my Author's Notes below… I just wanted to say that the site I got it from has scripts from the actual show (more info below) but the way they have it written is like "Kari: Blah, blah, blah! Cody: Blah, blah, blah-blah!" So I have no clue how they're saying it, how they're moving their body, etc. The context of the quotes in the fan fic make it sound like their frustrated and angry. (And I asked Ravyn, who watched the show, and she said TK was really pissed of and Davis kinda was too). So I put things like "snapped Davis," and "replied TK" to make more sense. But I haven't actually watched the episode and didn't want to put too much detail because I had no clue what the "action" was, so yeah… Sorry if it sounded rather boring, but I couldn't just write something that didn't happen in the show!

AUTHOR'S NOTES, Part Two!
I'm sorry if Wolfwood's (the character Akio dressed up as at the party from Trigun) doesn't have a giant cross that's actually a gun. Well, I know he has a giant cross, I'm just not sure about it being a gun. I've only read the first six manga of Trigun and that was a while ago and I'm not sure about that little bit of information… However, I found it a cute thing for the two boys to joke about so I put it in anyways. Sorry Akio, but cardboard was never a threatening weapon.

As for Naruto, I've only heard my friend go on and on about that show a million times but I've never actually watched it or read the manga… I went on a website to double check to see if I was remembering the three kids' names right… And they seem like the main characters but I'm not sure so sorry if I'm wrong about that! And the website said they were twelve… if that's wrong you can complain to the website, not me!

Lately I've been into Digimon, which is really weird… Ravyn was already into it, and I'd watched a few episodes before… Now I'm watching it whenever it's on TV (except the season where it's actually a trading card game because that, to me, is lame and annoying). I knew before hand that Sueko would kind of be into it as a kid (out of Digimon, Pokèmon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, that is, which are basically the three main Kid-Anime shows in America… and for today's pointless information: Keitaro was a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan as a kid but denies it because now he thinks the show is so stupid and is rather ashamed of how much he liked it as a kid, and I think Akio would like DragonBall Z. Not that I've ever seen more than ten minutes of that show, but it seems like all they do is attempt to kill each other, and… that seems like an Akio thing. Laughs Obviously I made Tamika like Digimon too but I think she'd also like Pokèmon… She'd just find all the little creatures on both shows so cute! Though I think she'd like Hamtaro more—it's a kid-anime show about hamsters that go on little adventures…). And I knew that when Toboe showed up he'd find the whole concept of television and comic books so freakin' cool… and he's a dorky kid so I had to get him obsessed with a really dorky anime show. Why not Digimon? Did you catch the foreshadowing? On this one Digimon website Ravyn went to they had scripts from the TV show, and I believe we took lines from episode eleven from season two, entitled, "Storm of Friendship." According to Ravyn some Digimon actually got possessed in it… Seeing how Ken really likes to possess Digimon to do his bidding. And I think Ken is a little possessed as well, seeing how he's actually a good person but gets turned evil somehow to become the Digimon Emperor… Um, yeah. And then right afterwards Toboe and Sueko go off to save the possessed Yoshiko… If that's incorrect you can yell at Ravyn; I haven't actually watched that episode yet! Yeah, I'll attempt to put the link of the site at the end of my "Notes" if any of you are Digi-Fans and wanna check it out.

I'm pretty sure my anime information is correct… I don't go into detail with a show/comic unless I've watched/read it. Now, I have never watched Sailor Moon and had to rely on hearing about it and websites, but that's probably the only exception. If I'm wrong on any information please don't harass me about it in your reply! Except I really like Wolf's Rain—not as much as Tamika, mind you—so if I'm wrong on that stuff… that's just sad… But, yeah, despite copyright/publication dates I think I'm accurate with the information. Though I bet that if our fan fic was a TV show they'd take all the anime stuff out except Tamika's obsession because it's somewhat important and Toboe's Digimon thing because that's just cute… Yeah…

Anyways, I hope you liked it! I tried to make the whole Toboe thing as believable as possible. I'm actually really picky about this sort of thing (you know, like characters in fan fiction and stuff being able to do all these amazing things with no real explanation. Which is why Kagome kind of annoys me, because she's apparently such a powerful priestess. Which is fine… but how in the hell is she's more powerful than Kikyo when she's Kikyo's reincarnation! WTF?). As for his weird name… Yes, I did get it from Wolf's Rain. See, when I first thought him up he popped into my head rather randomly. At first he was just some kid that was a younger version of InuYasha who showed up in modern day and was going to warn Sueko about some really bad thing. So then I tried to kind of figure out what the hell was up… And slowly came up with the whole thing… (By the way, this was months ago, so lots of time as gone by). And then I told about it to Ravyn because I found it was a really cool idea, except I figured she would probably find the idea really lame… But, amazingly, she liked it! She said he reminded her of Chris from Charmed, who was also a son to a main character (Piper) who came back from the future to warn the "Charmed ones" about some bad thing. At the time his name was "Sueko's son," which isn't really a name and is really annoying to have to say over and over again… "kid" gets confusing sometimes and "InuYasha's son" was just harder to say… So then I started calling him Toboe because, as a way to describe his character, I said he was a lot like Toboe from Wolf's Rain. And I had just seen the first five episodes of the show… I guess if it weren't for WR I would have never come up with him. But, though my Toboe has changed in my head over time, they are still pretty similar. Both are young… Not immature like Shippo, but innocent and naïve. Hige always calls Toboe "the runt" because he's pretty small compared to the other three wolves in the pack. But time went by and I realized that my Toboe was a lot different from WR's Toboe, even if they were pretty similar at times. Which was cool, because I didn't want to feel like I was literally taking the WR character and putting him in my fan fic… So yeah. I tried to be as clear and believable with my explanations as possible (which is why I just made it one flashback thing… considering I've never really written flashbacks before I think it's pretty cool. Though I imagined it so much cooler in my head… Sesshomaru kicked ass! Then again, I suck at writing Sesshomaru… sigh). If, however, you have any questions afterwards, you're more than welcome to ask them in your reply. Though I might explain things more as the fan fic goes on…

Yeah, no one really reacted to Toboe… That's because the scene where that part is kinda "discussed" didn't fit in. Besides, they were just getting over the whole Yoshiko-was-possessed thing. It probably hasn't sunk it yet… Hopefully I'll go more on that in the next update! Or Ravyn, whoever is writing it…

Had fun reading? Good! Now review! And I have yet to figure out how in the hell I'm supposed to put links on this stupid page... I could have sworn I did it before but NO! now I can't... God, can they just make it to where the stupid flippin' program, like, WORKS? Or is that just too hard for them to do!