Disclaimer: I'm an 18 years old Israeli boy, not a 50 something Japanese woman, therefore, I'm not Rumiko Takahashi and I don't own Inuyasha.

Chapter 02: Some reunions.

The car finally stopped, Kagome took a look a the woman standing next to it, she had the same feeling as the other two, she dressed modern, but her hair was styled in an old fashion way, wings as hair pins and the whole deal, the only advantage in that style was that even skydiving the hair kept it shape, so it was often used by pop idols who tried to make a special entrance to parties.

"For the kids of tomorrow, one year from now..."The woman started quoting the motto, Kagome now noticed her hair wasn't the only old fashioned part of her look, she also carried a fan, one with the night hounds symbol on it.

"Kagura, such a thing isn't needed for us, you know me very well, and so do I know you" Sesshomaru interrupted her," Agent Shippo, lead Agent Kagome to the plane, I want you to make sure she doesn't do anything to it, losing it might force us to risk our cover"

This time, Kagome noted something in the man's form of speech, the woman next to them wasn't just an employee of him, under normal circumstances, she would have tried to further analyze the relationship between them, but at that time, she was more concerned about the aircraft standing before them.

"This.. This looks like you cut off the newest jet fighter engines and stuck them on an early design of the Wright brothers, can this thing fly?"

"Most likely, and I bet it's pretty fast as well, Kagura really likes stuff which can go faster than her... anyway, you shouldn't be worrying about dying in a plane crush, or anywhere in the air, for that matter. We can gain a few days advantage on Kikyo whenever we take the air route, plus, she can't do much if we are far away from land", Shippo said to her, slightly pushing her to take a seat, for some reason, it was an open seat.

"Flight Kagura one-eight-eight to NZ is departing in ten seconds, hold tight to your seats and try not scream too loudly during the takeoff, for your pleasure, you can find stink bombs under the chair, so you can try hitting a ship if you see one"

"Kagura, where did you get that idea from? And since when are you wasting the organization's money on commercial flights?" Sesshomaru asked her, Kagome couldn't hear the answer as the plane was somehow accelerating and producing some ominous noises in the process, but she could see that whatever the answer was, it pleased Sesshomaru to the point of blushing and trying to respond, just in the moment the engine started to quiet down.

"... 20,000 feet club with me!"

She suddenly felt something pushed on to her, Shippo's elbow "god, first living with Miroku and now these two, my fragile soul is tainted by perverts all around me." he whispered to her, somehow, against her will and better judgment, that comment got her laughing hard and loud.

"So, young lady, how are you taking this so far?" Kagura asked, raising her voice especially high.

"I'm sorry" Kagome answered, "I acknowledge you three are my superiors, but I've yet to be really briefed about the situation, where are we headed now?" she asked.

"You poor thing, I guess the shock was too great for you, I told you two that it's best

to approach her long before anything remotely smelling like trouble would begin, but you had to follow that brain-dead's ideas, what exactly made him believe he could stay away from Japan for over forty years... saying all the crap about letting the girl live out the rest of her life in peace, did he really believe Kikyo will calm down once Kagome is settled?"

"Kagura, it's a waste of breath trying to explain anything to Agent Kagome right now, she's blocking everything, I think it'll be best to leave it to my brother"

"Please, sir, I don't understand the position I'm in yet, so in order to be useful in whatever situation we're headed to, I plead of you to inform me of it"

"Listen, Kagome, let me explain it to you in simple terms that you'll grasp, you're good with numbers, right?"

Kagome nodded for agreement.

"we have 3 main objects, A, B and C, those are either on point alpha or point beta, if A and B are both together, then C will go after both, so as long as A is at alpha, B is strictly staying at beta, so that C will only go after him and leave A alone. However, a month ago, B had to arrive on alpha, causing C to follow, and when C realized that both A and B are at alpha, she tripled her efforts to get to both of you, i mean them. So at the moment, we're delivering A from alpha to a point at beta, in which D will provide us the necessaries we need to get with A to B at a different point at beta without making contact with C, is it clear?"

"Which one of you is D?"

"None of us is D, she lives at beta, and we should be getting to her in a few hours,"

"Where is beta?"

"Beta is anywhere not alpha, however, in a way, alpha is defined by A, so if alpha is getting closer to B, then C is following"

"That still doesn't make much sense, can you explain it again?"

"Do you want me to draw storyboards of it? You used to like years ago, I can steal a pack of crayons and doodle something"

"Agents F and A, shut your noise holes, the vein of agents S forehead is about to explode"

"Excuse me? What do you mean by that, Kagura?""

"Hey! How come I'm Agent F while he keeps his name?"

"The F stands for failure in your code name, and in his name the S stands for him being so damn se..."

"I've spotted a Soul snatcher tailing us, so please shut up"

---------------------------

At some aspects of his life, he would have much preferred if things didn't change from how they were 500 years ago. Sure, he had to put his life on the line every day or so, sometimes twice a three times a week, and sure, his love life was still horrible and non-existent, but for all it counted, he didn't travel alone then.

His thoughts wandered back to the decision he once made, "take one, leave the other", and it still did no good, he broke Kagome's heart to mend Kikyo's, but things didn't go as they should have, Kikyo's life were extended more and more, far beyond those of any human known in history. And Kagome? He didn't know much about her now, in the past 50 years he only received three reports on her: one when she was born, the 2nd when she started going down the well, and the third when she stopped, he then informed Sesshomaru to forbid the cleaners from reaching to her.

Sometimes he allowed himself to imagine how her life looked like, had she passed all the tests she was ever so afraid of? Did she find a decent job? Has she met someone and started a family like his mind told him to hope for? Or did she stay loyal to at some point, like his heart unwillingly hoped. For her safety, he was hoping that she has long since forgotten about him and moved on, Kikyo never directed her hate to Kagome, so he truly believed that as long as he stays away from the island, Kikyo won't feel the need to go after Kagome.

"Give me something quick, Amigo" he said to the bartender, one of the many advantages of long life was the chance to learn languages, and while he wasn't as good as his brother or Shippo in faking the accent, it was enough for him to be able to find a common language with just about anyone. Plus, it gave him the opportunity to hide at towns which weren't tourist based, thus giving Kikyo a harder time finding him.

"oh, I see this isn't your first time in Mexico, but what brings you to our town?" the bartender said, his voice was enough to confirm Inuyasha's suspicion, an eagle demon.

"You're right, it isn't, but it is my first time here, so could you direct me to an inn?"

Inuyasha replied, slowly reaching for the knife in his pocket, staying at inns was dangerous, it was the first place that Kikyo would search, but staying at a youkai's house was perfect for him, his new youki would blend in the old one and leave him almost invisible to her senses.

"oh, sir, you must be joking, there is no inn in our town..." he started the sentence, but his eyes closely followed inuyasha's hands, the Sakki (killing intent) was quite easy for him to sense.

Too easy, the thought stroke him at last, the sakki wasn't real, it wasn't the normal 'about to commit a violent act' vibes that he normally received from criminals, the sakki was generated by touching an object with a violent history, in other words, the customer wanted him to look at his hands.

Sharp nails, general claw like look, a damn demon. It just wasn't his day.

"But of course, my friend, my house is your house, feel free to stay as long as you want."

"I'll raise a toast for you, Amigo" Inuyasha said, "just tell me, how are you called?"

"What do you mean? You've said my name already, my dear friend"

"Oh, you're called Amigo? I thought that everyone was addressing you like that just because you're Mexicans"

"Please, buddy, I must beg you to avoid forcing wrong stereotypes of us, it's bad enough that whenever I fly to the states to import Russian drinks everybody sees me and starts shouting 'Amigo, Amigo' because that's the only word they know in Spanish, and then I have to turn to everyone of them to find my dealer. So I beg of you, put that Spanish of yours into good use and speak normally"

"In that case, I'll toast for my good luck, for having someone like you as my new friend! For you, Amigo!"

------

"Can't we get it off our tail? Kagura, surely you'll be able to outmaneuver it in this plane" Shippo said.

"Idiotic fox, no matter how fast we go, that thing is gonna focus on our energy and re appear next to us, we've got to fight it" Kagura quickly answered.

"wait a second, is it patrolling the area or was it ordered to follow us?" Kagome interrupted the conversation, today's pre-mission briefing did specify that there was a difference between following spirit creatures and guarding ones when it was rat spirits, but perhaps soul snatchers were similar?

"I assume that it was given an order to patrol and follow the highest source of power, I don't think we were discovered yet. However, I fail to see how it matters for anything, Agent Kagome."

"it's basic, if we give him something of similar power to follow then he'd get of our back, I'm talking about the 101 decoy tactics, are you sure you're part of the Night Hounds?"

"that might work, A, but we can't let Kagura out of the plane and I don't have nearly enough power to fly and create a diversion"

"I don't recall giving my permission for you to keep on using that form of speech, Agent Shippo, but I guess Agent Kagome has a point"

"well, but it doesn't really matter, does it? We don't know where your brother is, so we can't lead her to him, right?"

"Kagura, while that certainly is true, I'm positive that once Kikyo reaches new Zealand then your sister will have to move out, and I'm quite sure that Agent Kanna isn't as keen on moving like you are, Kagura."

"well, too bad for her, I hope she's got the guest room ready, cuz the family is coming like a hurricane"

Two seconds after Kagura's sentence ended, Kagome understood she wasn't lying about hurricane, the hybrid aircraft was moving twice as fast as before, she saw Shippo pulling something beneath his chair, a brown bag? Was that what kagura meant by stink bombs? She watched as Shippo opened the bag and started puking into it, then she realized. The air was lower in oxygen and other gasses, which meant that the smell was much, much worse. A few seconds later, she fainted.

((( AN: moving to Kagome's P.O.V)))

"I'm sure it's okay, Kagome-sama"

"You shouldn't worry this much, Kagome-san, he'll be back to you shortly"

Lies, utter complete lies, he didn't come back, he said that it was his responsibility to take care of her, that it was his fault that she died. Why wouldn't he at least come clean about his feelings? Just tell me what I already knew, don't hide your heart with noble words. What are you even trying to do? Make me feel less of an idiot? Are you trying to convince me that if things were different we could have made it? No thanks, mister. I should've known it all along, you didn't even try to hide it much, I guess it was all my fantasy of first love. I wonder what you really thought of me? A friend like Miroku and Sango or a bother like Shippo and Kouga? Actually, did you even consider them to be friends?

You were always so clear about it, and I was so blind. You always said "just tell me where the shard is, woman", how could I ever think you meant something else?

I shouldn't even think about it anymore, my life at that time is over, I should move on, I don't have anything left here anyway, tomorrow morning, no, tonight, I'll say goodbye to everyone, and wish him a good happy life.

I'll just jump through the well, and everything would be back to normal, I'll be with mom and Souta again, and also with ji-chan. I wouldn't have to worry about one of my friends getting killed each day, my friends won't be all historical figures anymore… I'd finally get to live my own life as myself, no more playing as someone's dead lover.

I woke up, the bed wasn't my bed, nor was it the office couch or the one at the clinic, was I injured in last night's mission? I can't remember, Bossuke said it was a low risk mission, just a simple arrest of two rat youkais, no youkai these days had the gutts to stand up to a human, defiantly not the cowardly rats…

"just a second there, kagome" I realized something. Since when have I known the name Bossuke? my boss's face suddenly had a name attached to them, how did that happen?

I looked at the room, it could have been one of those lovely old rooms of old women, if only it wasn't completely filled up with mirrors, on the back of the door, on the walls, on the sealing, on the closet's doors, and smaller mirrors on the night stand. "probably the house of some narcissist" I thought to myself. I stepped to the washroom and splashed some water at my face, I looked down at the sink, the water were spinning down the drain, but not quite as I used to see them.

I'm not in Japan anymore

Then where am I? brazil? Austerlia? Alpha? Beta? Perhaps both?

"why did I think of that?" I asked myself, but it didn't matter, first thing I had to do was to confirm the time and location, the room had no windows, but it had some sort of natural light, I thought it was probably done by directing light through the mirrors, not much help in determination of the time. Next thing on the list, my human instincts told me that I have slept for a longer while than usual, and I was fairly hungry, making it somewhere in the late morning, perhaps ten or eleven o'clock?

"But what if I was captured, drugged, tortured and integrated?" I looked at my body, no needles signs or symbols of struggle, I breathed in relief, at least that was confirmed.

"Would you like some coffee, dear?"

My heart jumped, the lady was standing right next to me and I haven't heard her coming? I turned to look at her, she was older than me, long past the thirties, maybe even at the middle forties, her eyes were empty and the skin was pale, however, she was defiantly Japanese.

"No, I must decline your offer, Ms, but can you please fill me up on the details?" I asked her, then immediately wondered to myself since when was I this polite?

"oh, I guess Shippo has made some mistakes with his charms, it shouldn't have caused memory loss, what do you wish to know?" she answered.

SHIPPO?

Did I know anyone else named like this? No, it wasn't a common name any Asian language, so who did she mean? Had the mission gone so awfully wrong I had to be introduced to at least two new people?

"oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that I had to take care of Karin today, you must see her, she is as adorable as Rin, and she looks almost exactly like her, I guess you'd probably like to meet the parents later, I tell, that family has a really limited gene pool, no matter how many years pass, there's always either a Kohaku look-alike or a Sango one, but Rins are pretty rare"

Sango, Kohaku, Rin?

How did she know those names? Why were people acting so familiar with me all of the sudden? 'all of the sudden' why did I think that? Have I met others who treated me the same way?

I heard footsteps, a child was coming near, was it the Karin she mentioned?

"Kanna oba-san! I'm here"

Yes, it was a girl, and it was clear that Japanese wasn't her first language, didn't sound like Portuguese either, so it must have been some dialect of English.

Wait a moment, Kanna?

-------!-----

"So, where do you think Inuyasha will meet us? I'm guessing Berlin, he likes showing off his germen, that's the only language his better than me in…" Shippo said, Kanna had met with Inuyasha two weeks ago, he told her that he'll meet them somewhere in Europe after he takes a detour through central America.

"I don't care, we're going to take a plane to Paris, you can take Kagome to wherever you want to, but we're going to spend at least a night in Paris" Kagura tight-gripped Sesshomaru's hand.

"Paris? Inu hates Paris almost as much as he hates Rome and Venice. All the tourist think he's some damn attraction and take pictures with him.. I swear, I met him once at Rome, he was this close to attacking the pope, I had to drag him away from their and push him down to the sewers"

"Kagura, have you just said we'll take a plane? Do you have any idea what people will say? That damned prime Minster is already yagging about how those few yens she spares us each year are too good for the likes of us, I can't believe the nerve of that bitch, telling me how to run my business, I had men all over the world before her no-good far-sighted grandfather missed the US cruiser with his kamikaze jet"

"come on, you know I don't care for those stuff, I told you already that I want us to join the 20,000 feet clu…"

"Gosh, why haven't you two gotten married yet? You act like two high scholars on their first date, I feel that if I let you two off my sight for minute you'll be making out in the public restrooms"

"That's entirely his fault, he keeps saying that I'm bound to the wind and can't settle down and other crap like that, but when I bring the topic up he suddenly has migraines like there's no tomorrow"

"Marriage is overrated nowadays, in the past youkais never cared this much for it, it was only a human ritual in which the father gave away his daughter to the first young man who could take care of the fields and was old enough to drink sake without making a complete jerk out of himself. I blame the westerns for the sudden change in the way woman view marriage, filth-ing the screen with bad movies one after another, and each movie is the same"

"Don't believe a word he's saying, Shippo, he didn't argue half as much when I suggested we go on a world tour back in the sixties, he's simply afraid of commitment"

"Another American based lie, what the hell is fear of commitment? What I'm afraid of is organizing the wedding, I'm bound to forget at least three or four guests out, and they'll start some stupid financial boycott of those who were invited, and it'll be a big mess"

"Like you even care about those stuff, every time you have to meet them for more than two hours you end up calling me and shouting how much you hate, and I quote, those "filthy, garbage, low race, inferior, human trash", unless it directly affects you or the organization, you would rather have someone die by your doorstep than actually stop reading and help him. So tell Shippo the real reason why you won't marry me, or I'll tell him"

"I understand your point, Kagura, listen well, Agent Shippo, for I am going to tell this just once, the reason for which I can not marry her is simple: budget problems, the filthy humans I have to deal with everyday expect me to invite them, and each of them insists that he has so many enemies that he needs five bodyguards when he drinks coffee, and as the holder of the party, I'll be required to pay for all that security, and I can't use my men, since they're all guests in the party, so I'll to recruit them from outsider security companies, and I'll have a hard time explaining them how come so much of my guests are deformed and have tails, anyway, marriage is an expensive bitch"

"Have you thought about doing something small? Y'know, just family and friends?'

"I advice you to reconsider that, Agent Shippo, we don't have enough of neither to make the marriage legit, the best we can scrap without throwing the marriage into disorder is three guests………………….

However, speaking of the original topic, I believe he'll be staying in Sweden or Norway , he likes places with lots of trees, It's due to his living in that forest for so long, I assume"

------------------------------

"So, mister Japanese demon, what brings you to Mexico? Don't tell me it's a woman" Amigo asked Inuyasha, if some foreign demon as going to threat his life and sleep in his house, he wanted to at least know the reason.

"In a way, it is" Inuyasha replied, though he was sure that Amigo was thinking about something silly, like the kind of things Sesshomaru did with Kagura.

"You don't sound too happy about it, must be quite a woman to bring you all the way from Japan… so, is she human or another demon?"

"which one?" Inuyasha half hearted replied, "oh, she's human, I think, but probably not, more like a vengeful angry spirit"

"oh, your wife, I tell you, things like this should be resolved as soon as possible, no good running away from it, it's not like any of you are gonna die soon, so you might as well talk to her and get it over with…"

"I could have used the advice 500 years ago, you know?" Inuyasha said "while she was still saying 'you spend too much time trying to talk to those two humans' and 'stop working so much' and then 'you're thinking of that girl, aren't you?'. She wasn't so deadly back then, either" that defiantly was one of his greatest mistakes, giving Kikyo back her life was one thing, but holding that wedding? Even he could tell it wasn't the right decision, his only remorse was that he understood that only 300 years later.

"well then, you might think I'm rude for asking, but how long are you gonna stay here?"

"havn't I told you? Just for tonight, I'm going to meet an old buddy of mine tomorrow" Inuyasha shrugged, as far he considered, the word 'buddy' was another way to say bastard, "you might have heard of him, wolf demon, cocky personality, hot headed and loud mouth", Inuyasha described Kouga, finding him was the least of his problems, he and the demon wolf were never on good terms, and when Inuyasha and Sesshomaru exiled him from Japan at 1860, things went from fairly bad to absolutely worst.

"Oh, you mean Kouga? He's a regular in the bar, he comes to a late night drink usually, he's gonna be surprised that I'm closed today…"

Three thoughts awoken in Inuyasha's head, the first, that Kouga will come to the bar, second, he will sniff out Inuyasha's smell, third, he'll be coming after the smell, coming right here.

Surprisingly, Inuyasha heard a knock on the door, followed by the door breaking into small pieces.

"Where is he? Where's that bastard! Tell me now so I could kill him!"

Kouga roared at Amigo, out of the Japanese wolf youkais, he was the only one who was exiled, and he knew damn well why, he stepped forward, ready to break Inuyasha's face.

"I'm here, come outside" Inuyasha called, trying not to let his own anger take over him, knowing that he was here to ask for Kouga's help, he figured that beating the wolf up was not a good way to do so.

"why are you here? No, let me guess, Kagome died happily a few days ago, and you came here to gloat in my face about the wonderful life you had with her?" Kouga shouted at him, eyes filled with hate, he knew the reason for his exile was Inuyasha's fear of him getting together with Kagome, so as soon as Kagome was about to be born, the night hounds organization had made preparations for him to be sent on an 'exploration' ship to America, and then they blew up the ship, he couldn't leave the continent afterwards…

That was already too much for Inuyasha, he snapped.

Kouga couldn't see anything, but he had a pretty good understanding of what happened when he felt a hard punch meeting his jaw.

"Don't say something like that ever again, or next time I won't hold back" Inuyasha shouted at him, and then calmed his voice "I need your help" he whispered.

"Why should I help you? You sure as hell haven't done anything for me, other than ruining my life!"

Inuyasha dropped on his arms "it's for Kagome, she's in danger" he begged.

That one word was enough to lit Kouga's eyes, he always knew she wasn't from the feudal ages, and he planned on waiting for her to be born, but only Inuyasha knew when it was going to happen, him mentioning her name meant that she was alive, finally.

"I think Kikyo is after her" Inuyasha said.

Kouga looked at him seriously and asked "Kikyo? The woman you were involved with long before I cared? How is she still alive?".

Inuyasha stoop up and replied "do you remember what happened when me and Kagome killed Naraku? So when the shikon jewel was completed, we gave it to Kikyo, to bring her back to life, and then Kagome left back home"

"Don't lie, she didn't leave, you kicked her out of our world, just because you weren't enough of a man to let anyone else have a chance with her!"

Inuyasha turned his eyes to the ground, he knew Kouga was right, for what he did, there was no remorse.

"But still, you said she needs me now, so, how are we gonna get back to Japan? You and your brother sent me here over a hundred years ago, I spent twenty years just learning the language"

Inuyasha smirked to himself, the plan was going well so far, in a few days, he'll finally meet Kagome, "we go to the embassy, of course, and get you a passport, then, we catch a plane back to Japan, about ten hours. I assume you know what a plane is"

"don't push it, I know what a plane is, I just haven't been on one yet…" Kouga replied. "and while we're doing all that stuff, you'll have to tell what sort of trouble have you gotten my woman into".

Chapter 02 end.

Actually, about the memory loss part, that's the part I feel the worst with in the entire story, I just couldn't find any decent way to get Kagome to act the way I wanted to…

As for new characters (or ones who first appear this chapter): Amigo is an OC, I quite like him, and I've started working on his side chapter (I haven't mentioned it earlier, but the one about Bossuke will be published after chapter 04, I think), which will light up his past, his name and some information about some stuff, nothing serious, though.

Kouga is basically still Kouga, the perky wolf that I don't care for.

Kanna is a combined old woman with the annoying girl she was in the original setting, I've decided to tie her up with some information about Sango/Miroku/Rin/Kohaku, more about them will come afterwards, and if you still have questions, I'll answer them specifically.

Writing Kagura and Sesshomaru was the most enjoyable thing in this chapter, I usually write Sesshomaru as an composed smart type, but when he's with Kagura I write him as a more gentle character, and actually quite humane. It's a blast.

However, I read the 38 volume after writing this chapter, and the manga readers among you probably know how sad I felt…

That's about it, don't forget to review, since for every review I don't get, a kitten might be suffering from a cold. ACHOO!