Disclaimer: I was only seven when the Inuyasha series first went into print. Furthermore I can count the Japanese words I know on my fingers…well, and my toes, too, I just did a mental count. Anyway, anyone who thinks I'm Takahashi needs their head examined.

Review replies (Yay, more than two!):

Biggest anime fan: You are the greatest. I can't remember which of my things you gave that outrageous compliment on, but take it back! You're much better than I. I'm just bumbling along…. And no, I won't show it to you. None of it. I could show you a lot of the others, but this thing was years ago, poorly written and cliched. I ought to burn it. Everyone who hasn't read 'Sesshoumaru, Sit!' should. It rocks. Plus, if you all review, maybe she'll post faster! (Such is my hope.)I have posted six things in the time it took you to post the one. New chapter! Now! (Bangs biggest anime fan on head with Lack of Prop.) And I do laugh, now, I learned last year, from the best history teacher in the world. (blows kiss to Ethan Richman).

NefCanuck: She was when I first wrote her. Sickeningly perfect. That's one reason the book sucked. She's trying to stop yanking his chain - or was; right now as far as she's concerned he's the one minus his head - but it's gotten to be a habit. Besides, it's fun!

'inu fan' : Hey, get self own pen name, it's fun even if you don't want to write anything…or if not, at least have some fun with wild'n'wacky one-time-use names! 'Dog fan' isn't any fun. OK, done with that. In actual reply - Well, I didn't kill him. 'Inuyasha' without Inuyasha would be…um…really bizarrely titled! Aerie (I think I said this in the first chapter….) has been popping in and out of assorted worlds for the past…four months or so, now, trying to get home. I'll explain it in a little more detail, since you asked. Goes like so: The Inuyasha universe is one of a whole host, as is our own. Aerie keeps ending up in different ones on her way home, getting tangled up in things, and getting yanked away again when the powers that be send her hurtling to the next one. She has no conscious control over when or where she goes at all, but if she's afraid for her life sometimes that sets it off. She has vanished in the middle of so many battles…!:) Picture it kind of like in 'The Homeward Bounders,' only she's actually homeward bound; every time she moves she's closer to home. Oh, and a lot of the time Trisak is there to help her out, but they mislaid each other two worlds ago.

Authoress' Note: I'd like to apologize for two things. One is the length of time it took me to post. I had to go to school again, which kept me busy, plus no matter what I did, this chapter refused to be funny. I went through five drafts. The first one was positively angsty. That's the other thing, because it's still not as funny as the others, but it's hard to make vowing-vengeance scenes funny! To do so would have required either the talents of Terry Pratchett (which I sadly lack) or turning this part of the story into something resembling a Punch and Judy show, which I did not want to do. So, I'm sorry if it's not funny enough. I did my best

Recap: At the end of the day, with the sun already set, Inuyasha at last stopped and said the first thing he had said since they left Rath-tama's village.

Recap:

"OK, this seems like a good place to - Argh!" A spear-point had appeared through his chest and before his startled friends had a chance to do anything, he had been yanked into the undergrowth, dripping blood.

"After him!" cried Sango. They burst into the forest, pelting after the trail of blood and the sound of dragging. Sango and Aerie, in the lead, burst into a clearing and Aerie was nearly sick. Silver hair was knotted around an overhanging tree branch, a familiar head hanging from it….

"Shippou! Kagome! Don't look!" Sango shouted, a heartbeat too late. The rest of the group came pounding up behind them, saw the dangling head. Shippou yelped and shot away, Aerie and Miroku running after him. Kagome fell to her knees, hiding her head in her hands. Sango did her best to comfort her, but 'comfort' was not really what Sango was good at.

Aerie sped after Shippou, biting her lip, Miroku close behind. Inuyasha, dead? It couldn't happen in the manga. He was the title character, they couldn't kill him off, not unless they were trying to end the story. Like the way Sherlock Holmes had been killed twice and then retired to Kent to grow cabbages. Oh, shut up, she said to the corner of her mind that was throwing up this trivia to distract her. This wasn't the manga, this was real…even though she'd been treating it like a game. She caught Shippou by the tail and swung him into her arms, trying to calm him down. He just cried harder. Aerie met Miroku's eyes as he caught up. They exchanged unhappy glances, then turned and headed back toward where they had left Kagome and Sango. Well, and that head…Aerie shuddered. She'd seen worse things, but somehow…she didn't want to go near the thing. They met the two women coming after them, and Aerie was surprised to see that Kagome's face showed no sign of tears.

"I'm going to find them," she said as the threesome approached.

"Huh?" was Aerie's brilliant comment.

"The ones who did it. They're going to pay." Her features were stony. "Do you know how many times Inuyasha fought to avenge me when he thought I was dead? I owe it to him. He didn't even get a fair fight. I'll get them if it takes the rest of my life." Aerie thought grimly that no fight was a fair one if Inuyasha was on one side. He had the luck of the gods. But it seemed to have deserted him.

"And the Shikon shards?" she asked, a final question since that had been Kagome's last quest and you have to wrap up old quests before starting new ones. Kagome waved a dismissive hand.

"I'll get them. After." 'After' the rest of her life would seem to necessitate coming back from the dead. "This is more important."

"I agree," said Sango, "I once set out to kill Inuyasha when I thought he'd killed my people; now we must avenge him." Aerie nodded. She remembered a time when she had pulled her enemy's castle down around his ears because he had convinced her her friends were dead. Miroku shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't know," he said uncertainly, "Revenge for revenge's sake…." All three females glared at him, and he shut up. Shippou had fallen asleep, presumably exhausted by tears and unwilling to face an Inuyasha-less world just then, but it was assumed he would have cast his vote for vengeance, since it was through his attempts to avenge his father that Inuyasha and Kagome had met him in the first place. They moved off, intersecting the trail that whoever had killed Inuyasha had left after beheading him, apparently dragging the body along, just past where they had left the head.

"They want us to follow," Aerie announced, just before the sun rose. She and Sango had been taking it in turns finding signs and resting their eyes, after she had let slip her skill with tracking, all night. The waning sliver of moon didn't cast much light, but it was too easy, really. A trail of bent grass blades, broken stems, and the occasional bloodstain or footprint proceeded with hardly a break from the place where they had found the trail. "For one thing, can any of you believe that someone who could kill Inuyasha could then not be able to move any faster than these did, or could be weak or small enough to have to drag the corpse along?" Everyone shook their heads. "And besides, what the hell do they want with his body anyway?"

"But this is the only clue we have," said Kagome, glowering as she had been all night. "We can't stop."

"Of course not," Aerie said soothingly. "Just keep alert. This could be a trap."

"We have to rest," put in Miroku, "Soon. If we actually do catch this person, we're going to be too exhausted to do anything." Kagome surrendered to the inevitable gracelessly, but at last lay down between Sango and Shippou and went immediately to sleep. Miroku and Aerie exchanged glances.

"I'll take first watch, Miroku." Aerie said. "And wake you later."

"Mm," said Miroku, falling into his bedroll. Aerie wedged herself into the crotch of a tree to watch, figuring being squeezed like that would keep her awake. It had better. The last time she had fallen asleep on watch, she had woken up to find everybody else dead. That had been…two worlds ago…. Oh, Trisak, ((Not me! I stole the name! I confess!))she thought, where are you?

When Kagome was shaken awake she blinked and wondered momentarily why she felt so sad…oh. Inuyasha was dead. She bit her lip, then made her face carefully blank. She wasn't going to break down. Not until after her revenge.

"What is it?" she asked Miroku sleepily.

"Your turn on watch," he told her. "We're in an uncertain situation, and Inuyasha isn't here." That's right, Kagome thought, feeling a lump in her throat. They had always taken Inuyasha's sentry duty for granted. She stood up, brushing leaves out of her hair, her face feeling like it was made of stone. Miroku shot her a worried look, and she knew it was because she looked so cold.

"I'm on it," she said, stretching her face into something resembling a smile. Miroku, not looking at all reassured, went back to bed.

Kagome let her facial muscles relax, staring into the fire. She could feel the tears asserting themselves, but forced them down. She cast about for something else to concentrate on, and noticed that Aerie wasn't in her place. Puzzled, she stood up and walked toward the edge of the camp, looking to see if Aerie was nearby. As she passed Sango, she paused, hearing voices in the woods. She moved toward them.

"…kill him…" she heard. That was Aerie!

"…know nothing…" said a voice she didn't recognize.

"…girl…don't understand…sauerkraut…" responded Aerie. Kagome frowned. Sauerkraut? She had to be mishearing, just like she was only catching a few words. She moved stealthily forward.

"…none of our business." Said the stranger.

"It's my…care about..."

"…can't stay."

"Nani?!?" Aerie cried. Kagome winced, since she had been straining to hear, the sudden volume of that comment hurt her ears. "What do you mean you can't stay, you just got here…" then Aerie lowered her voice again and Kagome resumed her approach.

"...need me…a gay new…. Hsst!" Kagome stiffened. "Someone's coming."

"Don't go!" Aerie exclaimed. "Damn," she said a moment later. Kagome burst into the clearing where the voices had been coming from, to find…absolutely nothing. It was empty. Kagome returned to camp, frowning, and found Aerie in her place, asleep.

"That was…really really weird," the girl muttered, resolving that she would eventually get Aerie to talk. She sat by her friends and acquaintance, lost in thought, until she noticed that it was Sango's watch. She woke the taijiya and went gratefully back to sleep.

When everyone had taken a watch and they were prepared to drag their bones onward, Kagome realized that they had wasted almost an entire day and got 'most agitated,' as Miroku put it.

"Jeesh. With this hurry-hurry you'd think she was channeling Inuyasha's spirit," mumbled Aerie. Then she realized what she had said and her hand flew to her lips. No one seemed to have heard her. They kept moving. It was an hour or so until sunset when Aerie, to her surprise, bumped into Kagome. Sango, in the lead again, had paused.

"What is it?" asked Kagome, but in a moment she saw. They had walked right smack-dab into someone's camp. The someone in question, dressed in green with long black hair, knelt with his back to them, apparently trying to build a fire. Kagome cleared her throat. "Excuse us?" she said. The person stood, turning, and bowed.

"Good day," he said, sweeping a bow and smiling at them as he straightened. The entire group had a hey-hang-on moment, and then Kagome asked uncertainly,

"I-Inuyasha…?"

When Inuyasha opened his eyes, he knew there was something wrong immediately. He still couldn't see anything. What the…? He tried to sit up, then let out a growl as he found he couldn't move. The growl sounded really strange, since he was gagged, too. He sniffed. He could smell metal, mostly, metal and his own sweat and breath. Ew. Maybe Aerie had a point, calling him 'dog breath,' not that he'd ever admit it. Wherever he was, the place was hot and confined and made of iron. The gag was cloth, though. Inuyasha started chewing.

The thing tasted awful. Like whoever had gagged him had made sure to soak it in something bitter first. Jeesh. Talk about inventive torture. As soon as the material parted and he ejected it from his mouth, he let out a stream of invective that would have made Kagome 'sit' him about six times. When he began to repeat himself, a voice said,

"Yes, yes, that's all very interesting, but it won't get you out of the chains, the box, or the cage." Iuyasha snarled, secretly relieved that someone was going to talk to him. Being unable to move or see, and there being nothing to hear and little to smell, would probably drive him mad if it lasted too long.

"What the hell is the idea here?"

"Well, I want the Shikon shards, obviously," his captor replied.

"I don't have them." Inuyasha pointed out.

"No, Kagome does," agreed the disembodied voice. Inuyasha blinked.

"Then why -"

"Didn't I kidnap her?" the voice cut him off. "I should think that was obvious. But then, your skills don't lie in scholastic endeavor, do they? My reasoning goes like so. She has been kidnapped before, and when this happened you came after her and killed her captors. If I had kidnapped her, I would shortly have had a hanyou, a taijiya, and a houshi with a cursed hand knocking on my door. This would be an undesirable outcome. I might win, but I might not. You are the most formiddable of an impressive grouping. Since I could take only one by surprise, I chose you. You can't harm me now. I can handle your friends. You're bait. Oh, and one other thing. It's the dark of the moon tonight. I have plans…."

Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Two cliffhangers in one chapter! Haha! I have sunk to new levels! But please don't hate me! I accessed my e-mail again once I got to school, ::scowls at evil home computer, too stupid to load e-mails:: and found those lovely reviews waiting for me. ::bawls:: I'm touched. (Oh, and to the person who sent me my sister's hate mail, I must say it was a new experience.) So, how can Inuyasha simultaneously be lying in a cage at some unspecified lair, standing with black hair in a forest, and hanging off a treebranch? This you must read the next chapter to discover. (Allright, the head in the forest was a fake. I'll give you that one.)

Yes, Aerie did pull down a castle. She doesn't have that kind of power anymore - she was drawing on Aghenu's - but she still packs quite a wallop when she wants to. Kagome is definitely a bit OOC in this chapter, but I have a defense - grief does funny things to people. In Kagome's case here, she is not going to give way to her usual crying pursuits until she has her revenge. Maybe this makes her more like Kikyou than usual. If this isn't believable, I am sorry.

Oh, and a further note - 'tama' does not, apparently, mean stone or jewel, but soul, as I have recently discovered. This was a reasonable mistake, since in the mangas it is often referred to as the 'Shikon Jewel.' This is actually 'Jewel Jewel,' so why the translators do it that way is a mystery. (Oh, and by the way, everyonegive a big hand for those tireless people who translate and re-insert sound effects! Such careful,dedicated labor all for the sake of us stupid people who read Japanese graphic books without knowing any Japanese whatsoever!)

Will post again soon, though am growing to hate this story. Until. Go well. Review. (Prettyprettypleasereview!)