"How long are these portals going to keep on appearing for?" Shippo asked rhetorically, annoyed.
"I actually think they're kind of fun!" Colette said brightly.
"Speak for yourself!" Lloyd groaned, looking slightly green.
"Aw god, where are we now?" Zelos exclaimed.
"Who knows," Ed grumbled, "We could be anywhere!"
"It might be a good idea for us to identify our surroundings," Presea said, in her robotic, emotionally-deprived voice, a habit she was desperately trying to break now that she was no longer troubled by what had caused it.
"Good idea, Presea!" Genis said.
The group of twenty split up into ten pairs of two so that they could cover more ground in the same amount of time. The groups:
Lloyd and Colette
Genis and Raine
Ed and Al
Presea and Regal
Zelos and Miroku
Kaoru and Kenshin
Shippo and InuYasha
Sheena and Misao
Yahiko and Kratos
Sango and Kagome
Everyone went different ways, agreeing to meet up again in about an hour. That search turned out to be a fruitless one, so they regrouped and set up camp at the meeting place. As everyone started to fall asleep, the already half asleep Yahiko jumped up, startling everyone.
"Where's Sanosuke?" he asked. Everyone but the newest additions to the group gasped as they realized Sanosuke had mysteriously disappeared!
"When did he--?" Kenshin asked, shocked.
"It must have been after we crossed that bridge," Ed reasoned, trying to stay calm.
"I'm worried now," Kaoru said, sounding exactly as she said.
"So not only are we lost, but we've been separated from this Sanosuke person as well?" Lloyd asked, trying to understand what was going on. Everyone sat down to think.
"Sanosuke never fought against you, did he?" Kaoru asked the Tales of Symphonia section of their group.
"He couldn't have," Yahiko realized, "because I don't remember hearing him getting all pumped up for a fight like he usually does." The others that knew Sano agreed.
"What should we do?" Colette asked, her kind nature causing her to be as worried as everyone else, even though she had no clue who Sanosuke was.
"At this point, I doubt that there is anything that we can do but wait," Kratos said, somehow still managing to maintain his emotionless, level, and calm voice.
"Maybe this is all just a bad dream," Kagome said, trying to be optimistic.
"Kagome could be right." Colette said optimistically, "let's all go to sleep and see how things are in the morning." Agreeing to this since there was nothing else to do, they all went and worried themselves to sleep.
The next morning, nothing had changed. They were still in the same weird place in one huge group. So their predicament wasn't a dream, after all. It was reality, cold, hard, brutal reality. Although nobody really wanted to explore at the early hour of the morning that it was, they sort of had no choice because they had to find food. Pairing up again, they all went out and searched for breakfast.
Edward and Alphonse were again paired up, and they were walking one way through the forest.
"I'm so freakin hungry!" Ed whined. His stomach grumbled loudly, and so he started whining about his hunger again. Al seemed to ignore his complaints.
"Nii-san, are those what I think they are?" he said, pointing to a nearby bush and seeming slightly bewildered.
"What? Al, are they berries--WHAT THE HELL?" Ed asked excitedly, however his enthusiasm turned into disgust and bewilderment.
"M-Milk bottles? On a bush? WHY MILK?" he shouted to the sky in agony. Al again seemed to somehow ignore his brother, who was now throwing a temper tantrum like a two year old, and collected the milk off of the bush.
"We should head back now," he said, sighing and picking Ed up by his jacket collar.
Elsewhere, Kaoru and Kenshin were climbing down a steep pile of rocks, searching like the others for food. Kaoru's hand slipped, and so she proceeded to fall the final five feet to the ground. Kenshin caught her about five inches from the ground, however, so she didn't get as badly hurt as she thought she would.
"Kaoru-dono, are you all right?" he asked.
"Y-yes, I'm fine," she said, still a little shaky from her close encounter. They stayed like that for a minute, until Kaoru realized their positions. "You know, you can let me down anytime soon," she snapped. Kenshin immediately got the point, and, in order to stop the awkward moment, put her down. That little incident over, they continued their search as if nothing had happened.
Shippo and Presea had been teamed up together, something that was a little awkward at first, but now they could talk freely as friends. Since Presea was only a little taller than Shippo was, he found it easier to talk to her than to the other, taller people. They were walking, talking, and searching all at the same time when Presea suddenly stopped. She had heard a rustling in the bushes, a fact that scared Shippo. Brazenly, Presea pushed through the bushes to see what it was--and found Sanosuke.
"Sanosuke! Where have you been?" Shippo exclaimed, bravely coming up behind Presea to see what it was.
"I'd love to tell you what happened, believe me, and I would if I could. But I have no clue either, so I can't." Sanosuke said.
"We should return to camp, so you can get some rest" Presea said.
Back at camp, everyone except for Sheena and Misao's team had returned.
"Let's see...Milk berries, milk bottles, milk bananas, milk flowers, Sanosuke, milk, milk, and more milk!" Kagome said, reviewing what they had collected. Every time that she had said the word 'milk', Edward sank lower and lower to the floor. At the end, he was flat on the ground and whining about how there was nothing to eat. When Kaoru was about to point out the plethora of milk products, Al explained that Ed abhorred milk, so it was like they hadn't gotten anything at all to him.
Meanwhile, Misao and Sheena were still out exploring when they came upon the grounds of an ancient temple.
"Wow! Look at this stuff!" Sheena exclaimed, "Raine would totally go nuts if she saw this."
"Let's see what we can find around here," Misao decided. Sheena agreed to this, so they began searching the stone temple and the grounds around it. There were several towers and trees connected by vines and moss. One side of the temple even had an old building swaying on a rickety old pillar in the air!
"This place is pretty cool!" Misao said.
"Shhh!" Sheena hissed suddenly, "Someone's coming!" Not knowing if they were about to encounter a friend or foe, they took the safe route and hid behind a nearby clump of bushes. A rhino holding a really bright flashlight stomped by, a decidedly unfriendly look on his face. After he passed, they were about to come out of hiding and explore some more, when another surprise hit them.
"I didn't expect anyone else here," a voice said behind them. Both kunoichi jumped and whirled to face the owner of the voice: a raccoon with a blue jacket and cap. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"We're a little lost, and so we found this place while exploring and trying to find where we are." Misao explained.
The raccoon said "Just making sure you weren't an enemy. By the way, I'm Sly Cooper, a master thief of the Cooper clan."
Sheena said "Um, okay then, Sly, nice meeting you, but we have to get back to where our friends are, so maybe we'll see you later!"
"Right, maybe you will," Sly said, then slinked away into the darkness.
When the two girls finally returned tot he camp, they were almost drowned by their comrades, who had been worried about them after they didn't return for two hours. This of course meant that they had to explain everything. As Sheena had said, the minute that they mentioned the ruins, Raine started to have archeological mania spasms, as she always did when ruins, artifacts, and things like that were in question. She quickly suggested—or, more accurately, demanded—that they go visit the ruins that very moment, a suggestion that was almost as quickly responded to with a flat out 'NO' from everyone else. Since her desire to visit the ruins persisted, they finally agreed to go the next morning.
The next morning, at about seven o' clock, the people that weren't already up were woken up by an impatient Raine. In less than half an hour, everyone but Raine grumbling in annoyance, they hurried off to the ruins so that they could investigate it.
At the temple, everything was eerily silent. Other than their rather large group, there was absolutely nobody.
"I...have a bad feeling," Kenshin said.
"Yeah," Shippo agreed nervously. The others chimed in, agreeing with Shippo and Kenshin. Only Raine said nothing; she was too busy inspecting every inch of the temple in minute detail. She was about five feet along the first wall when above them they heard a
"Pssst!" Everyone jumped, startled, and looked up to see Sly, who jumped down to talk to them.
Sheena and Misao said "Hi!", but Sly quickly hissed "Shh! Rajan, a member of the Klaww Gang, is looking for me! If he sees you guys, we probably don't want to know what would happen! You should run and hide as fast as you guys can!" Before they could ask about this matter, a growl sounded from above them, sounding like it came almost from where Sly had been a minute ago.
"I'll be fine, now you go!" Sly said, interrupting the beginning of a comment that would have come from Kaoru. Nobody hesitated after that. They split up, curiously into trios, and ran to congregate somewhere safer. Where they regrouped was at a stairway into the stone temple. Deciding this would be the best escape route, they hurried down, only to find themselves falling into a portal a second later.