Akari had no earthly idea what was going on. She was merely following dog-boy and Kagome, who apparently knew what they were doing, to what appeared to be a village. It was unlike any village Akari had laid eyes on. Kagome led her to a house on the edge of the quaint little town and knocked on the door. An elderly woman answered it and smiled in relief. Clearly something inside was about to drive her insane. "Come in, come in," she said. She widened the door to allow the two to enter and then shut it in Akari's face. Normally she would find this funny if it happened to any other person, but today was not her day and she found herself extremely miffed. The door flew open and Kagome looked at her apologetically.
"Sorry about that," she mumbled. Akari nodded and crossed the threshold. What she saw as her eyes adjusted to the light was clearly what she thought was her imagination playing tricks on her, but unfortunately it wasn't. Her eyes traveled over some of the strangest people she had ever seen. The first, being a tall, handsome monk with an odd staff. The second was a young woman with a giant boomerang and an odd-looking cat at her feet. Was it a cat? Or was it some alien that planned to take over the world once people realized it wasn't as cute as it looked? Oh bother. The third person, thing, whatever you wanted to call him, was a young boy with fox ears and tail. During this whole time Akari could not help but widen her eyes. This had to be a dream. The elderly woman was an odd site too. She had an eye patch and a certain aura that seemed to scream, 'Priestess!' This was just too overwhelming and Akari plopped down on the floor. Doing such action was not a wise move when her back was searing with pain already and so she cringed.
Someone finally decided to speak up. "Who are you?" The little kitsune asked bluntly.
"My name is Akari. Now, could someone please tell me what is going on? Kagome? Do you know these people?"
Kagome smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I do. Everyone meet Akari, she goes to my school. Akari, this is Inu Yasha, that's Miroku, stay away from him, he's a hentai, next to him is Sango, at her feet is Kirara, and then there's little Shippo. Oh, and the woman with the eye-patch is Kaede." Over the course of the next hour, Akari's brain was verging extreme overload. The things she learned was just too much and she found herself dozing into a light sleep. Eventually, it turned into a deep sleep.
"What should we do guys? Should we let her join our group? I don't think she realizes how dangerous it is out here." Kagome whispered urgently.
"I say we see how she handles it for a while, but I think she'll do fine. Look at how well she handled being landed on and then this," Inu Yasha whispered. "She seems as if she can keep her wits about her."
"All right then, it's decided. We'll see if she can handle it, and if not, we'll send her home," Kagome said with finality.
"What's this about being landed on?" Asked Kaede. Even in the darkness, everyone could see Kagome blush.
"I, uh, accidentally landed on her when I jumped down the well," Kagome replied, highly embarrassed.
"Good lord! She should have been examined. That could snap a human's back. Why didn't anyone say anything?"
"Look miko. She's fine, she managed to climb out of the Bone Eater's well without any help, I think she'll live." Kaede rolled her eyes and dismissed what Inu Yasha said. She would look at the poor girl's back tomorrow.
Akari woke the next day sunlight poring in from the window and warming her body. She sighed, yesterday was all a dream. She would open her eyes and be in her own room safe and sound. Then, she felt a hand on her rear. No, this was definitely not her room. There was nothing in there that would do something this perverted. Akari shot up like a rocket to see Miroku grinning in his sleep. 'That monk's going to pay,' she thought to herself. Positioning herself in just the right manner, Akari prepared herself to punch Miroku in the guts. But then, Inu Yasha's voice pierced through the quiet.
"What are you doing?" He whispered. Akari put a finger to her lips and put her plan into action. One punch straight to the gut and Miroku curled into a ball, whimpering like a lost little puppy. It was just too much. Inu Yasha burst out laughing waking everyone else. They looked around confused as to what was going on. Even Akari had to laugh; the site of Miroku curled into a ball was hilarious, the others joined in, even though they didn't know what happened. Akari wiped a tear from her eye and whispered into Miroku's ear:
"That'll teach you where to place your hands? Don't you think?" Miroku could only nod. "Okay then!" Akari said brightly and stood up. Surprisingly she was in no pain at all today. The priestess Kaede walked up to her and attempted to examine her back. Akari flinched at the touch. "What on earth are you trying to do?"
"I heard about your little accident with Kagome and wished to see if your back was all right. Something like that could kill you," Kaede said with concern.
"That's not necessary. I feel fine, really. It doesn't hurt anymore," Akari said quickly. Everyone stared at her. "What?"
"For humans, it normally takes a while for such injuries to heal," explained Inu Yasha.
Akari frowned. "I know that. I've had my fair share of injuries, but they've always healed quickly for me. Why? Is that not normal?"
"For humans, no. Half-demons and full-blood demons, however, have the ability to heal at fast rates," said Kaede.
"But I'm not a demon, or half of one," Akari said confused.
"That's what makes it so odd," Sango spoke up for the first time. "Perhaps maybe when you travel with us we will find some answers."
"Wait! 'When' I travel with you?" Akari asked. "I thought you said it was dangerous out here. I mean, not that I don't mind a little adventure, but give a girl a little warning first. I'd love to travel with you, though."
"Then it's settled," said Inu Yasha impatiently, "now let's get out of here." Everyone gathered their stuff in a rush and within ten minutes they were on their way. Akari reflected back on what she had learned last night. It was all so mind-blowing. She truly was 500 years in the past, in the Feudal Era for kami's sake! Despite the fact that most people would have had a mental breakdown about now, Akari found herself enjoying this. The air here was so clean, unlike the air in Japan now. Everything was more vivid with life; it was breathtaking. Eventually Akari grew tired of the silence and decided to say something.
"So, where are we going?" Akari asked curiously.
"We are going to the Western Lands to look for some more shards, but we need to be careful, Inu Yasha's half-brother lives there and roams around there a lot of the time. Sesshomaru is a very dangerous youkai," answered Kagome.
Akari nodded her head. It was understandable that the two brothers hated each other. One thought to be better than the other because his blood was pure. If Akari had any say in the matter, she wouldn't care about blood or anything like that; a sibling is a sibling no matter what. "Do you have any leads on where a shard of the Shikon no Tama is? Or are you just heading this way on a sheer whim?"
"A whim," said Miroku. "There is no real way to track down a shard unless we follow rumors, but there were none, so we are just hoping against hopes to find one."
"And also to find this Naraku guy, right? The one that cursed your family and tried to kill Inu Yasha?" Akari asked. "He sounds dangerous from what I've heard. Cunning and powerful; that's a bad combination in the wrong hands."
"Yes," said Inu Yasha with fervor, "I intend to destroy him. He can't get away with ruining all of these lives." The rest of the day was spent mostly in silence. When night fell set up camp for the night. Akari couldn't believe how beautiful the stars were tonight. They shone with a brilliance like no other. Soon Akari fell asleep along with the others.
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Sesshomaru wandered the woods early that morning. He had left his camp to explore the surrounding area. In all his years of being Lord of the West, he could honestly say he had never been to this part of the region. His thoughts were in jumble as they normally were; he was just too intelligent for his own good. He let out a rare sigh; he supposed he would never find his match in an opponent. There was no one good enough for his standards. Perhaps the hanyou would be if he learned how to wield Testuaiga correctly, but the dirty half-demon never listened to reason. Sesshomaru was deep in thought when he passed the oddest site he could imagine. A person with black flowing hair was pinned to a tree, by an arrow among other things. The great taiyoukai could not tell what gender it was for its head was drooping; in fact, he could not tell what species it was, it had no scent whatsoever. Odd. He thought for a brief moment of releasing the person from their prison, but then wondered how others would react to it. In the end, he decided to move on and think nothing more of the strange person. He headed back to his camp where Rin, Jaken, and Ah-Un should be waking up momentarily.
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The group gathered their things and head out; they wanted to cover a lot of ground today. Akari walked deep in thought, a sense of foreboding filling her. Something bad was going to happen today, she could feel it aching in her bones. They passed through a field later on in the day where obviously someone had used it as a campsite. Inu Yasha sniffed.
"Sesshomaru," he growled.
"He was here?" Asked Akari nervously. She didn't want to meet this powerful demon; he seemed terrifying.
"Yeah, but he's long since moved out. We have nothing to worry about," said Inu Yasha relaxing. The group sighed in relief. None of them wanted to encounter the cold-hearted youkai. They continued on their way. Akari fell deep into thought again. Surely that wasn't what was so bad. There had to be something else. 'Akari! Stop trying to scare yourself. It won't do you any good,' she mentally berated herself. She decided the let the internal conflict drop for the time being. Maybe nothing would happen today. How wrong she was.
