Disclaimer: Inuyasha doesn't belong to me.

Silence.

And Hojo could see a pink coloring on the hanyou's cheeks. Was she blushing? Or was she only that angry?

"I thought you said I didn't look at all like Monk Miroku."

The triangular appendages atop her head flicked.

"Keh! You don't! And what does that have to do with anything?" she said, folding her arms under her navy blue coat and turning away, acting as if he was truly out of his mind.

"I don't like this either, InuYasha... but we need each other to collect the jewel shards. You heard lady Kaede very well..."

"Keh! You need me! I have no use for you!"

"Earth to InuYasha! I'm the only one that can sense the jewel... but if you insist... I have no problem going back home..." he said, turning around and heading to the portal between both worlds... er... times.

"WAIT KID!" he heard.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"You're not taking the..."

"What? You mean this sacred jewel shard?" he said,holdingthe pouch that contained theslightly tainted shard by it's string.

The hanyou nodded, extending her palm and silently telling him to hand it over.

The boy simply shook his head in annoyance and said the word she most dreaded.

"Freeze, girl"

She lost her balance, and fell hard to the ground.

"Hey Stupid! Come back with that jewel shard!"

"My name's not 'stupid'."

"HEY!"

"It's not HEY either! It's HOJO!"

And it was the last she heard from him as he disappeared into the forest.

"Damn it all!" InuYasha cursed.

'I don't need him. I can find shards all by my self!'

So she leapt from tree branch to tree branch, heading towards the village... when she saw what she least expected.

Girls floating in the air.

"Um... how did you girls get up there?" she asked as she flexed her clawed fingers, but they all seemed to be unconsious.

"InuYasha! Don't hurt them!" he heard from the side. It sounded like the old hag was in pain.

"Huh? Old hag! What have you been up to, all drenched in blood?"

"These girls are being manipulated." she stated.

"Damn... so, what do I do?"

"Where's Hojo?"the old priestess asked, glancing around from the ground.

"That stupid kid went back home... wherever 'home' is..."

"Good," was all she heard in response.

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'Aren't I glad that creepy well brought me back,' he thought. It would've been very sad if he had jumped and simply hit the hard ground, not to mention, very hard youkai bones.

He climbed out of the well, walked out of the dark well-house and into his time.

"BROTHER!" he heard, as he stepped out of the darkness and into the light of that spring evening.

"RIN!" he shouted in response. "I missed you so much, big brother!"

His little sister continued babbling about all his grandmother had been doing to bring him back from the dark well. The old lady tried ofudas and chants she learned from her husband... a monk himself.

She cried and he held her close as they walked back into their home.

"Oh, Hojo. We're so glad you're back!" came his father's voice as he ran over to his son. "Oh, dad. I was so... afraid I'd never see you guys again..." he exhaled, hugging his father so tight, just to make sure it wasn't all just a continuance of his dream.

"Hojo..." he heard from behind his father. A familiar voice... an angel's voice. The voice that often told him he would be okay.

Kagome.

"Higurashi... you're here..." he managed to speak.

Yes. There she was, holding the weight of her yellow backpack on one shoulder.

"I came to see how you were doing and to bring you some notes since you've been absent to school for three days. Oh... and don't thank me, thank your classmate, Shinichi." He couldn't stop smiling. He was glad she thought of him. 'InuYasha's probably glad I came back home. I was only creating problems for her,' he thought as he reached into his monk's robes to extract the pouch that held the tainted jewel shard.

"By the way, Hojo. What's with those robes? Don't tell me you're training to be a monk."

"Eh..." he began, scratching his head, trying to find a reasonable explanation.

"Hey, watcha got there?" she asked as she reached for the pouch he held in his hand.

"Eh... that's..." he paused, watching as the girl pulled the fragment out of the pouch and held it up to her face. She studied it closely... and his eyes widened at the instantly changing color.

"Wow... where'd you get this... mood stone from?" she asked.

"Eh... Kagome. You just... you just..."

'Purified it...'

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A/N: YAY! Two updates in a row. I hope you guys like it so far. I know... very weird... but I just couldn't leave pretty Kagome out it. She's so cool. ANYWAY.

Please R & R.