Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or any nursery rhymes.

The Mother Goose Escapades

No. 16

As I was going to St. Ives,

I met a man with seven wives.

Each wife had seven sacks,

Each sack had seven cats,

Each sack had seven kits.

Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,

How many were going to St. Ives?

"Errgg!" Kagome moaned in frustration, slamming her books to the ground. "I just can't do it anymore. It's pointless. Futile. I'll never use any of this information." She crossed her arms and glared at the offensive book. Sango and Miroku walked over, concern etched in their faces.

"What is it, Kagome?" Sango asked, bending down to pick up the book. "What is al-algebra?" Miroku took the book from her and started flipping through the pages.

"It's a form of math," Kagome explained. "Like adding, and subtracting, but harder. And much more useless." At this point Shippou bounded over.

"I'll help you, Kagome!" he said excitedly.

"Thanks Shippou, but I think this might be a little over your head." Kagome smiled at the young kitsune. Shippou pouted.

"I can do it," he grumbled.

"I'm sure we can help," Miroku said. He held open the book. "It's just a matter of putting numbers in, right? So like here, where it says x plus sixty plus five x equals ninety six, the answer is six, right?" Kagome grabbed the book and looked at the problem. She mumbled to herself a bit, and then looked up at the monk in shock.

"You're right, it is six. How did you know?" Miroku shrugged casually.

"I've always been interesting in maths. As a monk, I've been able to look into education, and am a little skilled."

"Wow," Kagome said, and Sango echoed the response, both girls looking at Miroku in an impressed manner. He smirked under their adoring gazes.

"So let's get started," he said, and his hand slid behind Sango. Soon enough he was lying on the ground, a red mark on his face and Kagome wailing about how Sango had to be careful not to hit the intelligence out of him. It had been worth it.

"What's going on?" Inuyasha finally walked up to the group, curious about the goings on. It wasn't that he hadn't heard everything, but sometimes seeing things was better. Kagome chucked the book at him. Luckily, he caught it before it smacked him in the face. "Hey!"

"Can you do algebra? More specifically, word problems?" Inuyasha looked at the book at Kagome's question. Then he looked back at her.

"Probably not." He smirked at her rolled eyes. "Here, ask me a question." He handed her the book back, and Kagome opened the book and read the problem she had been stuck at out loud.

"That's easy," Inuyasha said. "Twenty-eight."

"No," Miroku interrupted. "It's twenty-nine, you forgot the husband."

"Well if that's the case," Inuyasha snapped, "It's thirty. After all, the speaker was going as well." Kagome looked back and forth between the two as they bickered. Then Sango sat down beside her.

"I think the answer is one," she said softly.

"One?" Kagome asked in surprise. "How do you figure?" Inuyasha and Miroku stopped fighting to look at the demon slayer.

"Well, it said that he was going to St. Ives. And on the way he met these people. But it doesn't say where they're going. All we know is this one person is going to St. Ives." Sango looked at Kagome. "What do you think?"

"I think it sounds right," she said slowly. Inuyasha and Miroku looked at each other, then at Sango. Then Inuyasha shrugged and meandered off.

"Excellently answered!" Miroku praised Sango. She blushed and stood up. As the two walked away, only Shippou was left with Kagome. The miko looked down and gasped.

"Shippou!" she yelled. The kitsune looked up at her, smiling innocently.

"What?"

"You can't color in my textbooks!" Grabbing the books out of Shippou's reach, Kagome glowered at him until he turned and scampered off, afraid of her current temper. Kagome rubbed her temples, and then looked at her colored pages. Then she shrugged and stuffed them in her bag. She glanced at her algebra book, with her scratched out answers. Writing '1', she also put it in her bag. She had had enough algebra for one day.

Author's Notes: Hahaha, wasn't that fun? Maybe not quite an algebra problem, but it works within the story. It's also hard to come up with algeraic problems that work. But 'x + 60 + 5x 96' works, thank you very much! I'd like to take a moment now to thank my reviewers...you really make writing worthwile! So, thanks!