People who got it right: Thank you, once again, Kitsune Ryune. (You are the new Britannica, I swear) She's also the winner of the Longest Review ever Contest!

So yay for you. (Claps.)

"It's back here. Watch out for the water, it's pretty far out right now."

Kikyo looked around her with carefully concealed awe. She figured she was only a few miles away from the bone eater's well but her method of getting there had been… different.

Now, she was standing by a large waterfall that poured into a lake. The whole thing was surrounded by trees, their leaves tinting the air a deep forest green. As she watched, the red-haired kitsune slipped behind the waterfall, and out of sight. Watching the falling gems of water, to make sure she didn't get hit by any of them, she followed.

"It's not much, but it's dry and we won't get attacked," Shippo continued.

"You never did tell me your name," Kikyo said suddenly.

"You never gave me yours."

"My name is Kikyo."

"Shippo. At your service," he joked, giving a large, theatrical bow.

"You've got a tail!"

"Huh? Really?" Shippo twisted around, trying to look at the orange fur. "You don't say."

"You're mocking me."

"No I'm not. You're just saying obvious things and I'm humoring you."

"Humoring me, huh?"

"Exactly. I'm rather good at it, I think."

There was silence for a second.

"Can I ask you something?" Kikyo said.

"Too late."

"True. Well, can I ask you something else?"

"You can ask whatever question you want. Except," Shippo held up one finger. "That one. By the time you've got the sentence finished you've already got your answer."

"Why do you want to help me?"

"You look like you needed it."

"What?"

Shippo backpedaled. Wrong answer. Kikyo was one of those independent chicks.

"I mean…"

"I don't need it."

"Fine. Whatever floats your boat."

Eek. Wrong answer, again.

"I bet one on one I could beat you."

"Look, I didn't mean to upset-" the kitsune froze. "What?"

"You heard me, I could kick your ass!"

"Yeah? You bet? Let's make a wager."

"Fine," Kikyo raised her fists. "When I win, you have to help me find a way to fix the well."
"You're asking for help, now?"

"Only because you have the magic to break it, you should be able to fix it."

"Fair enough. But if I win, you have to kiss me."

Kikyo's jaw dropped, her fists going slack.

"Pervert!"

"Yeah, I know. But I thought you weren't going to lose?"

"Fine."

Kikyo attacked without another word.

"Hey, Kanna, any water around here?"

"Who's Kanna?"

Sesshoumaru's question was answered as the white- clad girl stepped from the shadows. She held an outturned mirror in her hands. On it's surface were swirling patterns of water, though there was no sound. Silently, the ghost-like girl pointed.

"Oh, good. Come on, let's see if we can't get some of this blood off."

Sesshoumaru watched the two girls disappear, not looking back at him. He raised a hand to his face, feeling the cut there. It wasn't so bad, but it made him think.

This was really a dangerous place, and he didn't seem to be nearly as powerful as Naraku had led him to believe. Actually, at this moment, he didn't seem to have any power at all. He couldn't work his demon powers well enough yet, and on top of that, his father's sword wouldn't cut things.

It fixed things, actually. That gave him an idea. The cut on his right shoulder was pretty bad. It would hurt like hell for a while, if nothing else. Could the tenseiga fix a wound it had not inflicted?

He pulled his shirt off. He'd test it.

Raising the sword with his left hand, he drew the blade along his right shoulder, making a second cut perpendicular to the first. He winced as the skin bled anew, but wiped the red liquid away. It was not replaced with more. The cuts, both of them, were laced over with new skin, which darkened to the color of the flesh around it. After slightly less then a minute there was no sign that anything had ever happened. The cut on his face was gone, as well.

"Perhaps it's not such a worthless sword," he murmured.

"Hey, are you coming, or what?"

His eyes snapped up. Kagura was standing a few yards away, clicking her fan impatiently.

"What?"

"Your clothes are covered in blood, and you'll get attacked more if you look like you're injured. You also get attacked more if you're alone. So why don't you come with us?"

"So you can kill me when I'm off guard?"

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. I've had much more practice in fighting than you have."

He had to admit that she was right.

"Fine."

He grabbed his shirt from the ground and followed after the demon girl.

"You found them in the forest?"

"Aye, milady. They seem to be but children, and humans at that."

"We supposed you would be able to deal with them?"

Kagome rubbed her temples. It was too late at night for this, much too late. On the other hand, she couldn't just tell them to keep the potentially dangerous demons tied up all night.

"Fine. This is gonna take ten minutes, right?"

"Aye."

Kagome followed the two villagers outside, to where she could vaguely make out three figures on the ground. Their hands and feet were bound, but if they were really demons, the ropes would do them little good.

"Okay, what have we got here?" she asked, taking a torch and lowering it. She froze.

Sitting there was a boy and a girl of about ten, and the hanyou she had seen earlier.

"Kikyo?" the boy asked. "I thought you were going home."

"Why're you dressed so funny?" the girl added.

"That's not Kikyo, guys. That's the lady from earlier."

"I SO do not need you right now," Kagome said, gesturing to the hanyou on the ground. She'd been killing demons all day, and eighteen hours worth of work was weighing heavily on her mind, as well as body.

"Why me?"

"Look, we aren't any sort of threat, boy scout promise. We came upon your village on accident, and if it's all the same to you, we'll just leave."

"We can't let the demon boy go," one villager spoke up. "There's too many already."

"There's no reason to kill him," the girl spoke up. "My name is Sango, this is Miroku, and the boy there is called Inuyasha. I come from a family of taijiya, and I can swear to you that none of us shall do you any harm."

"You," Kagome said, pointing to Sango. "You come with me. As for the others, untie them and find somewhere for them to sleep."

She watched as her orders were seen to.

"In the morning, if either of you are missing, we'll assume that you are, in fact, hostile and will not hesitate to kill her."

The two boys nodded.

"All right then. Come on."

Sango followed after her, sending a look over her shoulder at her friends. Inuyasha waved slightly, and then the darkness came between them.

"Are you really a taijiya?"

"I am descended from them, yes."

"How can you be descended from a family that is still alive?"

"We come from far in the future. There, demons do not exist. We had to come here, or Inuyasha would have been killed, like his parents."

"And what loyalty do you have to the boy?"

"I am his friend. I have nothing else to offer."

Kikyo unrolled her sleeping pallet in front of the only door. She gestured to another for Sango.

"So what will you do, should I decide not to kill you?"

"We seek a terrible demon by the name of Naraku. If we don't kill him, Miroku will be killed by a curse that was placed on his ancestors long ago. If we destroy him here, he will not exist where we come from, and will have never existed. It's hard to explain, but a lot of lives will be saved that way."

"Seems like an honorable enough quest. I don't know a demon named Naraku, but there is a village of taijiya in the north. Perhaps they can help you."

"Thank you."

Sango suddenly noticed something as Kagome blew out the light,

"What's that glowing thing?"

"This is my charge. It is the Shikon no Tama, and it's my job to protect it from demons who would use it for evil."

"Sounds hard."

"It is."

With that, Kagome dropped off to sleep. Sango following her.

"It's getting kinda dark," Sesshoumaru remarked.

"You're not scared, are you?" Kagura teased.

"No, I'm not. I was just remarking."

Kagura looked up at the sky. It was changing quickly from a dark blue to black. Slight winds blew across the lake, whispering to her.

"We should make camp."

"Over there," Kanna directed, pointing.

"What? Why there?"

"She never says why," Kagura explained. "But it's always better to just do what she says."

"Yeah, whatever…"

Sesshoumaru carried his shirt with him, it was still too wet to actually wear. He was lucky. Kagura had to actually wear her dripping clothes, though she had removed them to wash them. What an ordeal that had been. The stereotypical anime I'm-not-looking-but-I-may-see-something-on-accident scene. To his credit, he hadn't.

"It's freaking cold out here. Why's it so cold all of a sudden?"

"I dunno. I can't feel it," Sesshoumaru mumbled, lying back on the grass. Kanna had actually picked a nice place. It was a grassy hill looking out over a town. The stars reflected off the water in the rice paddies, giving the impression of a village hanging from the sky.

"Well, it is," she said, dropping down beside him. Kanna positioned herself at the top of the hill, watching the stars move.

"Does she even sleep?"

"No."

"See, now that would freak me out."

"You get used to it."

"I'm going to sleep now. I'll trust you not to kill me."

"Ditto."

The two teenagers closed their eyes and slowly drifted off

She's quick, for a human. Not quick enough to beat me, but still quick.

The kitsune grinned. If Kikyo didn't have anything better than this, that kiss was as good as his. He dodged a fluffy of attacks that would probably have crippled a human. She knew pain points, as well as fighting skill.

He didn't strike back. If he hit her, she'd get hurt, and badly. He'd win faster, but then his prize would come from unwilling lips, and would therefore not progress any further than the rules of debt specified.

Which made the whole fight useless.

Why doesn't he fight back? He's just dodging, playing with me.

Kikyo had to win this, she really did need his help, even if it killed her to admit it. Not to mention that the price of losing was more than she really wanted to pay.

No matter what tricks she used, she couldn't land a single hit. This unnerved her a lot, because back home she'd been able to take on anyone in the force. She almost always won, even without any tricks. But this guy… it was like he wasn't even trying to fight, just to dodge.

She was using up a lot of energy, launching a barrage of attacks… and he was waiting for it to be gone.

She slowed her attacks, hoping to draw him into a false sense of security. It didn't work.

Every time she misses she put her guard up anyway. I'm obviously not hitting back, so why bother?

Kikyo's assault lessened. But she was only faking. Her body betrayed her, putting more and more force into the lessened number of attacks. She was getting desperate, he could see it in her eyes.

This human woman was absolutely fascinating. For someone who claimed not to need anyone, she fell apart rather quickly when he acted differently than she expected.

It was really too bad she'd be gone in the morning.

I shouldn't ever have challenged him. He carried me here over the treetops, for god's sake. What was I thinking?

Kikyo was honestly beginning to get tired, while Shippo showed no sign that he was even fighting. Ah, well. She hadn't really expected him to help her, had she?

No, not really….

Okay, only two people took me up on the last offer for my awesome pic, which is a shame for all the workI did on it.

So here's another chance: If anybody reviews another story of mine that I did, I'll send it to you, okay?

baibai!

melissa