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Chapter 5: Key to the Problem
Higurashi Shrine, Tokyo Japan, 7:45 a.m
"Are you sure you have everything?" Mama asked Kagome finished putting packing the last of the things she would need for her trip into the past.
"Yes Mama." Kagome replied as she placed the last item in her backpack.
It was like this every time she prepared to go back through the well into the past to help her friends look for the missing shards of the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls. True, sometimes her mother simply added something extra to her normal assortment of items as a thoughtful gesture but most times it was like this.
She knew her mother wasn't exactly pleased that she went through to such a dangerous time no matter how often she was assured by InuYasha that everything would be fine. Still it would be refreshing to be able to leave just once without the having to think about how she was worrying her mother.
Then, as if some divine being had decided to give Kagome a break, the phone rang downstairs, which got her mother to put whatever she had to say on hold at least for a little while. She hoped it was someone hoping to rent out the courtyard of the shrine for some gathering or festival. Despite the numerous services the shrine provided on a daily basis it was by no means lucrative so the extra money would be welcome. One problem that would be solved would be the repair bills they occasionally got when some youkai came looking for the shards of the Shikon jewel.
Of course she wasn't entirely ignorant of the side benefit that it would also keep her mother both busy and distracted for a few days at least which meant no hovering cloud of concern and worry to deal with.
"Kagome! Minamide-san is on the phone! He wants to speak with you!" Mama yelled from downstairs.
"Coming!" Kagome found Minamide-sensei calling her somewhat strange given that they had only met once a little over a month ago.
Her ribs still ached a bit from that adventure and while the doctor had cleared her for light activity and school she still wasn't back at one hundred percent. When her mother had learned yesterday that she planned on travelling back to the Warring States era she had been firmly against it. They had argued, with both of them getting to the point where they were almost in tears, but eventually they had come to a compromise of sorts. She would be allowed to go back in time if she promised to stay well clear of any danger and not do anything to make her condition any worse.
Walking down the steps as quickly as she could without jarring her ribs she arrived in the kitchen in time to hear her mother exchanging the usual polite pleasantries with Minamide-sensei.
"Well Kagome is here now so I'll let the two of you talk." Mama said in her kind way, "It was a pleasure speaking with you again, Minamide-san."
"Moshi-moshi Minamide-sensei! It's good to hear from you again." Kagome said, honestly happy to hear from him again, "Are you and Buffy-chan enjoying Australia?"
"I'm afraid that matters have taken a turn for the worse." Minamide-sensei replied, although it was a bit difficult to hear what he was saying due to some noise in the background on his end of the line, "Buffy-san has become seriously ill and we believe it may have something to do with her trip to the Warring States era."
"Oh no!" Kagome exclaimed as she tried to think of what might have caused the American youkai-taijya to get sick.
"We are airborne and en-route to Tokyo. We expect to arrive within the hour." Minamide-sensei said with the now identifiable hum of plane engines in the background, "Did you follow my instructions regarding the portal key?"
"Hai! I buried it under the sacred tree and made sure Mama or Sota sprinkled the powder you gave us over it every day." Kagome replied as she looked at the container sitting on the kitchen counter.
After the adventure with the portal keys Minamide-senpai had decided to place one permanently at the shrine just in case. While the portal keys weren't exactly a common item they would be fools to think that they had the only two in existence. So just in case another one happened to fall into the hands of demons like Naraku or some other youkai from the Warring States era he thought it wise to keep one at the shrine so Mirokou, Sango and Shippou could come to this time to help.
InuYasha of course claimed that it wasn't necessary and that he was strong enough to crush anything that attacked the shrine but she had agreed to keep one of the keys anyways. To safeguard it from demons in this time though they had buried it under the sacred tree and put some special powder on the soil above it. According to Minamide-senpai these precautions would be enough to make sure no demon or youkai would be able to get near it.
"Good. Dig it up and have it ready for use when we get there." Minamide-senpai ordered in a firm tone, "Buffy-san's condition may require her to travel through the well in order to recover."
"It'll be ready when you get here." Kagome said as she came to realise that a friend was in danger and she could help.
"Arigato gozaimasu. See you in under two hours." Minamide-senpai said with gratitude, "Dewa mata."
Hanging up the phone Kagome didn't waste any time. She ran out of the house as fast as he feet could carry her and went straight to the sacred tree. Dropping to her knees she began to rapidly dig, down to where the portal key was.
Three minutes and some dirt covered hands later she reached the metal box that the key was kept in. It was made of various metals and alloys that supposedly repelled evil and would burn both youkai as well as other demons on contact. Pulling the box out of the ground she ran with it back to the house, going right past her now concerned family, and up to her room where she kept the fragments of the sacred jewel that had been collected so far. She was about to open the box and insert a shard of the jewel so it would be ready the instant Minamide-senpai and Buffy arrived but was interrupted by her mother
"Kagome, what's wrong?" Mama asked with concern and a little fear on her face, "What did Minamide-san say?"
Torn between telling the truth and giving her mother one more reason not to let her go back into the past she eventually decided that honesty would be the best policy. If she tried to lie to them or pretend that nothing was wrong it would only give them reasons to keep her here in the present. With a sigh she began to explain what the problem was and how Minamide-sensei would be here soon.
As her mouth did some talking she couldn't help but think about Buffy-chan and pray that she'd be able to do something to help her when she arrived.
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Tokyo International Airport, Thirty Minutes from the Higurashi Shrine
"Is she getting any better?" Dawn asked as she kept one hand on the railing of the gurney carrying her sister while jogging to keep alongside of it.
"A little bit but nothing you can see with normal sight." Willow replied as her eyes temporarily glowed white before returning to their normal colour, "It looks like you were right Giles. There isn't enough youki here in modern day Japan for the Slayer essence to feed on."
Xander repressed a growl of frustration as the easier of the two solutions to Buffy's condition went down in flames. It had been a faint hope of all the Scoobies that simply being in Japan would be enough to at least ease the blonde Slayer's pain if not stop it outright. None of them liked the idea of sending Buffy back to such a dangerous period in Japan's history especially when they found out how dangerous some of the youkai were back then.
Giles, Dawn, Willow and he got into the Council ambulance while the others got into a Ford Explorer that was waiting for them nearby. Even with all of the unnecessary medical equipment taken out there was barely enough room to fit four people plus the gurney itself. Once the doors were closed Giles did not hesitate to order the drivers to make for the Higurashi shrine as fast as they possibly could. The vehicle surged forward and everyone inside had to hold onto something for a moment or risk being thrown about by the sudden acceleration.
Once they were underway the four members of the Scooby gang were forced to endure a torturous waiting period of waiting since there was little else they could do until they reached the shrine.
Buffy was still in so much pain that Xander almost didn't believe Willow's statement earlier that the blonde Slayer's condition had improved. Even with the thick restraints keeping her pinned to the gurney she was still jerking every which way as wave after wave of pain hit her. None of the others liked having to be in such close quarters with their friend and not be able to do anything to ease her pain. Willow was probably wondering if it might be possible for her to somehow synthesize even a small portion of concentrated youki so she could give it to Buffy.
For thirty minutes straight they had sit and watcher their friend suffer while occasionally being required to grab a hold of something since whoever was driving the vehicle apparently valued speed rather than passenger safety. Not that the gang would want anything less at the moment but it still made for a rather bracing ride with at least one British curse coming from Giles after they went around a particularly sharp turn.
Beeping horns from other cars that nearly collided with the ambulance could also be heard and the Zeppo was willing to bet that they wouldn't be able to use this ambulance for a long while. Eventually though they came to a complete stop and while he didn't understand what the driver yelled into the back he figured it had to mean that they had arrived at the shrine. This belief was confirmed when Giles, who had been the last one in, opened the back doors of the ambulance and got out.
Once everyone was out they wasted no time in grabbing the sides of the gurney and like those guys that carried the coffin at a funeral (although he would toss himself off of a cliff before he made that comparison out loud) they carried Buffy up the long staircase of the shrine.
They moved as quickly as they could without tripping over each other's feet or the steps for that matter but it was not easy with how the blonde Slayer was jerking around. With Koji leading the way they soon reached the top and found a teenage girl in one of those Japanese schoolgirl outfits. He assumed she was this Kagome girl that Buffy had mentioned when they talked of her adventure here in Tokyo last time she was here.
If the situation weren't so dire he'd probably make a point of asking jokingly what was up with the short skirts but he pushed down his inner Joker. She was holding some kind of jewelled object in her hand that would look right at home among the crown jewels of England or in some pirate treasure exhibit of a major museum.
"Kagome-san! We have to get her through the well immediately." Koji said as the teenage girl joined their group as they headed to the small building that Xander assumed house this 'well', "Be prepared to activate the key the moment we are inside."
"Hai!" Kagome said as Robin Wood and Faith pushed the doors to the building open.
Once inside Xander was momentarily puzzled at the sheer commonplace appearance of the well and the interior of the building itself. After all with a name like 'The Bone Eater's Well' he was expecting a perpetual layer of fog lining the ground as well as maybe an eerie light coming from inside the well itself. A moment later though he remembered that not everything advertised its wacky demony nature with a light show and special effects like in the movies. In fact the most dangerous tended to appear perfectly ordinary to the naked eye until it made its move and by then it was usually all over except for the screaming and the dying.
"Kagome-san, please activate the portal key." Koji said with an urgent look on his face.
"Hai, Minamide-sensei." Kagome said as she began to press in sequence some of the jewels on the object she held.
Less than ten seconds later the eerie glow that Xander had been expecting appeared in the well with the appearance of a star field as seen on many a sci-fi show rather than through a telescope in reality. According to Buffy it was actually some kind of time portal that allowed school girl here to travel back to the 1500s and fight demons along her own version of the Scooby gang. True he could barely see her fighting anything in that outfit he had watched enough Anime in the past to know it could be done. Not exactly the most heroic outfit for her to wear but then it wasn't like they wore much better back in Sunnydale starting out.
"Alright, now we're going to have to leave the gurney behind as I doubt that it will fit all that well down there." Giles said as he began to undo the restraints holding Buffy down, "Xander you and I will take Buffy through first as we most likely have the necessary strength to restrain her in her current state. Next will be Willow, Dawn and Miss Higurashi at which point hopefully the portal will close."
"Hey G, why are you leaving me behind?" Faith asked a little miffed that she was being left out of what she thought would be a wicked cool ride.
"My theory concerning Buffy's condition is just that, a theory." Giles replied trying to sound reasonable while at the same time maintaining a firm grip on his former charge, "For all I know the moment you arrived in the past you too would be afflicted with the same condition as Buffy. Besides which I want to make sure that should the unheard of happen and the portal key is stolen from us that there remains a line of defence here in the present to deal with them."
Faith didn't look all that pleased with the reason but at the same time Xander knew she couldn't fault the logic.
Reaching over with both hands he grabbed Buffy's right arm just as the last strap across her chest was removed and almost got tossed across the room when she yanked her entire body away from him. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of coherency in her movements so the jerking stopped almost as soon as it began resulting in him just being off the ground vertically for a few moments. With careful steps that every so often resulted in a stumble, thanks to the blonde Slayer choosing that moment to jerk one way or another, he and G-Man stepped up onto the edge of the well. Looking down he paused for a moment as he was hit with the enormity of what he was about to do and where he was about to go. Granted he wasn't moving there and once they had Buffy's condition all sorted out on the other end they'd all be coming back but still the idea of time travel and deadly youkai intimidated him a bit.
"Once more unto the breach, eh Xander?" Giles said from his left and when he looked he saw that the Watcher had a reassuring grin on his face.
"A little too old fashioned for me G-Man." Xander said with his trademark lopsided grin, "I prefer something a little more modern like 'see you on the other side'."
With a nod between the two of them they leapt into the well and were soon surrounded by and endless sea of stars and light that defied description. It was the single most bizarre thing he had ever experienced and given what he currently did for a living and used to do in Sunnydale that was saying something. Eventually they landed at the bottom of the well and for a moment he thought that something had gone wrong until he looked up and saw clear sky where before there had been a dark room and a wooden roof. Add to that the vines along the sides of the well that he now noticed and he could conceivably believe that they were now in a different time.
"We had best get ourselves out of the well now Xander." Giles said he felt around the stone wall in front of him for a place he could get a grip, "The others will likely be along shortly so it will get rather short on space fairly quickly if we remain."
"Gotcha G-Man." Xander said as he removed his right hand from Buffy's arm and began to look for handholds of his own.
It took a few moments but eventually they were able to find some purchase and began to rather awkwardly climb up the side of the well with a tamer Buffy held between them.
If what he was seeing was any indication it appeared that the plan to help the blonde Slayer was working. She was still visibly in pain but the thrashing and jerking had toned down considerably, which made the task of getting out of the well easier.
It was a little awkward once they reached the top since they didn't have the use of both hands to pull themselves over the top but eventually all three of them made it out of the well and onto the green grass surrounding the well. Deciding to take a small breather while he and Giles waited for the others to come through, he looked at the environment around him. It looked like just about every other forest in the world but then again since botany and biology weren't exactly on speaking terms with him he could be looking at a rare species of plant and be not the wiser.
He was about to say something to Giles when he heard the sounds of something running very quickly in our direction and not particularly caring about any bushes that got in its way.
Worried that one of the local demons had smelt fresh meat and come running, he put himself between Buffy and Giles, hoping to shield them from the worst of it.
Not that he'd be able to do much, considering his lack of depth perception along with no weapon within arm's reach. Still he at least hoped that he'd be able to give Giles a few minutes to come up with some super spell to hit the demon with otherwise they were all dead.
Bracing himself and remembering everything he had ever learned about dealing with demons, he waited for whatever was headed their way. What eventually emerged from the forest and vegetation was not exactly what he had been expecting in the slightest.
Standing at the edge of the clearing surrounding the well was what looked like a teenage boy. That is if the Zeppo ignored the long white hair, amber eyes, claws and fangs that at the moment were being shown off since the teen was currently growling at them. Wearing baggy red pants with an equally baggy shirt, while odd, did nothing to diminish how fierce the guy looked and Xander was quickly motivated to prevent things from devolving into a fight. However he had a limited grasp of modern Japanese never mind whatever version they used back in the 1500s so he decided to go with something he had heard a fictional character say every time he met someone.
"Ohayo!" Xander said in his best 'hey buddy, ol' pal!' voice.
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Five Minutes Earlier, In the Forest, On the Approach to the Bone Eater's Well
She better not be late! InuYasha thought to himself as he ran along the grass-covered ground towards the dry well.
It had been a whole month since Kagome had gotten injured when they fought to get the portal key away from that bastard Naraku. A whole month they had to sit around doing nothing waiting for her ribs to heal up enough so she could travel safely. For someone like himself who wasn't used to waiting and didn't like waiting it had been frustrating as hell. Even worse was the fact that he couldn't do what he usually did whenever Kagome took too long in her era. All it took was one measly look at her wincing when she moved or a glimpse of the bandages and any thought of yelling at her died. So his impatience combined with his inability to get on Kagome's case like he usually did pretty much had him travelling back and forth through the well about every ten days or so. Fortunately for him today was the day she was finally coming back and could travel without hurting herself.
Thankful that they all could get back to looking for sacred jewel shards and killing Naraku he didn't pick up the odd scents in the air until he was almost at the well. The first and most potent of the scents he smelled was a complete mess and he couldn't figure out what it was other than it was putting out a lot of youki and getting stronger every second. There were two other scents there but they were almost completely drowned out by the stronger youki producing presence that he almost missed them. They were both ningen for sure but beyond that he couldn't tell anything more about who they were and what they might be here for.
Picking up the pace considerably he ran for the well intent on finding out who was there and dealing with them before Kagome showed up. Not that the girl had been all that precise on when she'd be coming through the well other than to say that it would be in the morning but every other time she had come through the well in the morning in had been around this time. He knew Kagome would probably say that he was overreacting and that he shouldn't assume that whoever was at the well meant anyone harm but unlike her he wasn't so naïve as to think that every stranger they met was harmless.
Guess I'll just have to beat 'em quick before she comes through! InuYasha thought to himself as he cleared the bushes at the edge of the clearing that contained the well.
What he found at the well was not at all what he was expecting but not for the reasons one would think. For one thing the two ningen he had smelled were dressed in clothes that looked like they came from Kagome's time. An old man that looked like he was only a few years younger than old lady Kaede and some guy that was putting on a pathetic show of getting ready to fight. However it was the woman lying on the ground that caught his interest immediately both because he could tell she was in great pain and because he knew now that she was the source of the increasing youki he had sensed. He couldn't see her face with the guy in the way but judging from how the youki was getting stronger and stronger it wouldn't be long before he'd have a real fight on his hands. Flexing his fingers and getting ready to pound these three into the ground he was completely surprised when the guy stopped looking defensive and tried to look as casual as possible.
"Good morning!" the guy said the same way that Mirokou or Kagome would when they were in a particularly good mood in the morning.
This confused InuYasha for a moment as it was not the typical response he tended to get with humans he didn't know. Usually whenever he encountered ningens their behaviour came down to one of two responses: either they would run away screaming or they'd grab whatever was handy and try to kill him. The number of humans he had met in his life that had actually said 'hi' or treated him like this guy was were so few he could count them with his fingers easily.
Before he could do much of anything besides look at the human like he was a crazy person the woman lying in pain on the ground suddenly became a lot more active. Where before she had simply been lying on the ground writhing in pain she now was digging deep gouges into the ground with her fingers and jerking around like every muscle in her body had a different idea of what they should be doing. This got the two ningens' attention in a flash causing them to ignore him and focus on the woman on the ground. The old man seemed to be trying to calm the woman down and at one point tried to stop her from clawing at the ground anymore than she already had.
This turned out to be a mistake.
The moment the old man tried to keep one arm from moving the muscles that made up that arm took offence to the action and almost as one backhanded the geezer across the chest sending him sprawling away from her a good twenty paces.
As a result the guy who had said 'Good Morning' was redoubling his efforts to keep the woman still while at the same time talking like he was trying to calm her down. A growl of the sort that InuYasha had heard coming from his own mouth was the response the male ningen got before he was the one on his back with the woman on top of him.
With neither of the humans in the way and the woman up off the ground he was able to get a better look at her and what he saw confirmed that she wasn't human.
She had long golden hair for the most part even though he was pretty sure he saw some white streaks mixed in there somewhere and given what she did to the old man she was obviously stronger than she looked. It was when she reached back with her right hand, as if preparing to strike the guy, that he knew for certain she wasn't human because on the tip of each finger as well as both thumbs were youkai claws.
No time to think about that now! InuYasha thought to himself as he charged forward to stop the unknown youkai from executing her attack, If these guys are from Kagome's time then she probably knows them and will blame me if they get sliced up by some demon.
Grabbing the female youkai by her right arm he threw her hard over his shoulder and away from the two ningen causing her to briefly fly through the air before falling hard to the ground. The two ningen seemed to be angry at him for doing this but he figured it was just their pride talking and that they had wanted to beat this demon themselves.
Well tough luck for them! He thought arrogantly as he went in for the kill intending to finish off the demonness with Sankon tessou.
"InuYasha! OSUWARI!" came a voice and a command he had heard so many times before.
With force equivalent to a giant boulder being dropped on him he was forced face first to the ground and for a few moments his mind was a complete haze.
When he got his senses back in order he pushed himself up off the ground and looked back towards the well to see Kagome and two other girls wearing clothes like hers climbing out of the well. Once out the two women he didn't know went to check on the old man and the moron confirming that they were friends of Kagome's or at least that they knew Kagome.
"Kagome! What the hell did you do that for?" he yelled as he got to his feet and turned to face her.
"These are my friends and Buffy-chan is in enough pain as it is without you adding to it!" Kagome replied with the same sort of tone she used whenever he disciplined Shippo for being too much of a brat.
However when the words Kagome spoke sunk in his eyes darted over to look at the person he had thrown over his shoulder and tried to reconcile the short yellow haired youkai taijiya he had met a month ago with what his senses were saying was a demon growing in strength.
No way could that be that weird speaking taijiya! Sure she had given off a youki aura when they had fought, one that was much stronger than Sango's, but nothing like what he sensed from the form the two unknown women were kneeling beside. Deciding to get a closer look at the demon in question he trotted right over to wear she lay, ignoring the looks and no doubt threatening words being sent his way, until he got a clear view of the youkai's face.
"What the fuck?" he exclaimed in surprise as the face of the demon he had thrown was indeed that of Buffy the foreign youkai taijiya.
This was not making any sense at all! How in the hell was Buffy generating so much youki if she was just a human? Forget youki! Why the fuckin' hell did she have claws! It didn't make any sense and he sure as hell couldn't figure it out! Still he'd be damned if he was going to let the others know how clueless he was at the moment.
"Keh! What is she doing back here?" he asked sounding like he was annoyed rather than confused at what was going on.
"I don't know. Minamide-senpai didn't tell me everything." Kagome replied as she walked up to him, "All he said was that Buffy was ill and he needed to bring her here as soon as possible."
"Great! Something else to slow us down." Said InuYasha as he just knew that Kagome and the others wouldn't want to go anywhere now.
"InuYasha!" Kagome exclaimed both in anger and in disbelief at his statement.
Deciding that he was only a few short comments away from another 'osuwari' he decided to end the conversation with a 'Keh!' and just began to walk away towards the edge of the clearing.
He might not be willing to push his luck arguing with Kagome but nor was he going to leave her alone with a bunch of people he didn't know. Especially with that foreign demon slayer turning into who knew what and attacking anything that moved.