Ch: 4

Accepting Truth Ain't Easy...

WritingWoman: What? He could have wanted to give Shippo a lollipop.

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Anyways, despite a mishap or two, a couple chewed up ears, a few insults, and the many threats to kill each other, they all arrived at their destination.

"Are they... farming!" People. Lots of them. Working hard, farming, a thing Sky had never seen before.

"Yes. They don't even farm in your time?"

"Our time," Sky persisted, though without so much conviction as before. This was really starting to worry her. 'Maybe...' As they entered the village, Kagome risked making herself seem like a fool by asking every other person what year it was. Sky felt more and more depressed as the answers remained the same. It felt that every answer provided another brick, slowly trapping her in the truth, making her feel like she was going to have a mass case of claustrophobia. Breathing hard as they exited the market place, she sat heavily on a stump. Shippo came up to her.

"See? Kagome didn't lie." Sky sighed, not taking offense at his smug tone. 'Why should I? I was rude, when they were only telling the truth.' She sighed again. A weight settled on her shoulder, and something soft touched her cheek, as Kilala tried to comfort her. Absently, Sky petted her on the head, still thinking. A voice cut through.

"All right, she gets it. Can we go get some ramen now?"

"Sit!" He crashed through the dirt again, and Sky laughed weakly, then fell silent. Inuyasha got up again, and started arguing with Kagome. Sky heard her mention the Well. 'Wait, the place I had been sitting on to eat lunch before collapsed... and I woke up... next to a well!'

"Hey, Kagome, what does a well have anything to do with going home?" Kagome glanced at the girl, who seemed over her sudden depression.

"Er... the Bone Eater's Well is a portal between this time and my time. It's how I get home. And, home is where ramen is, so Inuyasha really wants me to go, but only if he can go with me."

"The Well! The old woman was talking about the Well!" She leapt to her feet, and took off, running along the straight path through the village, knocking people over.

"Hm. She's not one to be careful about other people, is she?" Sango mused. Kagome watched her go.

"Where do you think she's going?" It hit them.

"The Well!" They all ran after her, but Inuyasha kept pace with them, not running ahead. He was sore, and if that woman happened to hit her head on the bottom of the Well when she found out that you couldn't go through without a shard, then oh well.

Sky ran as fast as she could through the village, past the farms, and into the woods. As she reached the woods, she tripped over something, and fell heavily on her shoulder. Turns out, it wasn't a something, it was a someone. The same crazy old lady from before! Before Sky could get to her feet, the lady cackled from where she sat on a log, and grabbed the young woman's shirt, saying, "I know the way!" then running to get away from Sky. "Ookkaayy..." Sky muttered, then started running again, this time not stopping until she found the Well.

"Uh, does this thing have an instruction manual?" She walked around it, looking for some clue as to how to use it. Rayanne watched her from the trees, and heard the sound of the other's approaching. They were looking for Sky. 'Well, we can't have them find her yet! This will be too much fun for them to mess it up!' So she ran out into the clearing, and shoved Sky in the back, just as Sky was standing on the edge, looking down the Well, trying to see if there was a bottom or not. With a choked "What the hell!" (Ending in a scream) Sky fell down, and down ,and down. Rayanne disappeared before the others showed up.

"Where is she!" Kagome asked no one in particular. "Did she actually jump through the Well!"

"Kagome, talking to yourself makes you sound like that crazy human," Inuyasha muttered, not loud enough for her to hear. He was tired of getting sitted for the day. Looking down the Well, he said in a louder voice, "Well, I can't see her. Maybe she died." 'Hopefully.'

"If she died down in that Well, you wouldn't have to see her, you could smell her." Miroku stated. Everyone turned around and looked at him, startled. He hadn't been heard from in a couple of pages.

"Ookkaayy..." Kagome said, unknowingly copying Sky. "Someone should jump in, to see what happened to her. I mean, if we go through, and she is just sitting there at the bottom, she should also go through with us, right?" She went through without waiting to hear what they said. Reluctantly, Inuyasha jumped in too, dragging along Miroku, who in turn grabbed Sango, who grabbed Shippo, who grabbed Kilala by the tail, forming one long chain, as they passed through the Well, and into Kagome's time.

Sky sat up where the Well had coughed her up, but this time she was conscious.

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WritingWoman: Sorry to interrupt, but, I changed my mind. Rayanne is going to be carrying around some spare shards in a pocket somewhere, and she slipped one onto Sky when she bumped into her the first time. All right? All right.

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Looking around, her eyes opened up wide. 'Cars!' A voice squealed delightedly in her mind. She was in Kagome's time, before Leaving Earth! Sky got to her feet, and walked away from the Well, not paying attention to the people watching her from the doorway.

"Uh, that's not my granddaughter, is it?" Kagome's grandpa asked.

"Not that I know of." His grandson replied. "Where'd her hair go?"

In an ecstatic daze, Sky wandered around in the area for a while, then a big building caught her eye. 'A ... school? My god, is that really a school?' The schools in her time were little cranchites, with all this data really to be uploaded, and the information was zipped into your brain through a pair of headphones. Walking up to it, she entered, and wandered the halls. 'The outside says 'High School,' she noted mentally, forgetting it two seconds later. 'I should get a prize! First hand research on the time before Leaving Earth!' Striding through the empty halls of the building, she wondered where all the people were. There had been enough outside, and if this was a school, weren't all the young people supposed to be here? A bell rang over her head, and she looked up, startled. Then the doors all around her burst open, and students flooded the formerly empty halls. Watching them pass, she saw that several were around her own age. 'What the hell?' Sky thought. 'Shouldn't they be in jobs by now?' With the invention of teaching cranchites, long days of school had become unnecessary, and people often had a collage degree at thirteen or fourteen, and were working by sixteen. As she began pushing her way through them, another bell rang, and suddenly the halls were empty again.

"Er..." For a moment, Sky just stood there, then shrugged, and continued walking. Every time she passed something she didn't know about, she tried to describe it, but often failed to find the right words. Finally she gave up, and just snatched whatever it was, and stuffed it into her pouch.

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WritingWoman: Ok, I'm going to explain a little bit about the pouch. The pouch works like this: it is a tiny void kept inside the fabric, (the mouth of the pouch opens up to any size) and to bring something out of the pouch, all you have to do is think hard about it, and it will come to the surface, where you can reach it. But, basically, right now, Sky is stealing everything.

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A whistle came from inside a half open door, catching her curiosity, so she opened it up a bit further, and looked inside. Her eyes opened wide, then half-shut in silent laughter. The people inside were running in circles, a completely pointless activity. Sky's gaze wandered a bit from the silly people, and came to rest on a young man, older then the rest, barely, but obviously in charge, as he encouraged them to keep going, just three more laps. Sky inhaled sharply. The man was fine, and built like a god. Her eye-smile spread to her face, as she grinned in pure delight of seeing him. But his clothes were... odd. 'So,' her brain told her mischievously. 'Take some with you for closer analysis.' The little devil on her shoulder agreed wholeheartedly, and the angel didn't object, though she didn't approve either.

Sky walked right into the class, and up to the young - teacher. 'That's right.' Going up to him, he must of thought she had a question or something, because he smiled – an amazing smile, by the way – and asked her what she needed. Without responding, she whipped his shirt off, and walked out the door, leaving him to stare after her. She didn't look back. Ok, she did, but only twenty million or so times. As she exited the gym, (to the cheers of the female half of the students) she smiled some more, and wrapped the shirt around her head like a turban, hiding her hair. She continued on her way through the school, stopping every now and then to add something to her collection.

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"Kagome! Nice to see you! Something strange happened earlier..."

"Not now, Sota! I have to go! Inuyasha, which way did she go?"

"How do you expect me to know?"

"Look, you can either volunteer to find her scent, or I can smush your head into the dirt until you find it. Who knows what she could do to my time!"

"But Kagome, I–"

"Sota! I told you, not now!" Kagome started to walk away, with a reluctant Inuyasha in the lead. But before she could go very far, her little brother wrapped himself around her leg, clinging to it like a limpet. No matter how hard she tried to shake him off, he stubbornly kept his hold. "Fine, Sota! Tell me, what is it?"

"A strange woman came through the Well. Grandpa thought it might be you for a minute, but I knew better. Who was it, Kagome?"

"A friend of ours." Inuyasha snorted. "Sota? Which way did she go?"

"Well, I followed her a ways, until she went into the High School. Then I came back here. I didn't know who she was, so I decided to wait for you." Abruptly, Kagome hugged her little brother, effectively pulling him off her leg. Putting him back down, she ran off to the school, the rest of them in tow. "Thanks, Sota! Tell mom that I'll be home for dinner!"

"All right, I will!"

Sprinting, Kagome entered the school in front of them all. Unfortunately, the principal was just exiting his office, and she ran right into him. He had been leaving because there were reports of missing items, and one of the newer teachers reported that his shirt had been stolen right off his back. The principal promised to look into it, but as Kagome ran into him, he must have felt that he had to sympathize with her over her latest 'illness', which took about ten minutes, and then he had to tell her how glad she was that she was recovered now, and back in school, taking another five minutes of her life away. Nodding, impatient, but trying not to let it show, she listened, with her friends waiting outside the door. When he finally went away, she motioned Inuyasha in, startled when Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kilala also appeared through the door.

"How did you guys get here?"

"Through the Well, of course. Inuyasha dragged me along, and I dragged the rest." Miroku answered. Kagome sighed, and said,

"Well, you'll all have to come along then. We got to find her before you can go back."

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While the principal had been talking to Kagome, Sky had finished her first walk through the school, and was doubling back for the second time, to see if she missed anything. Passing a familiar door, she couldn't resist looking in, to see if he still had no shirt. Unfortunately, he did, and that made Sky angry. Marching up to him, his back to her, she turned him sharply around, and pulled this shirt off as well, saying,

"Didn't you learn anything the first time? This sort of stuff is bad for your health. Never do it again. And, just so you don't feel tempted, I'll be taking this one as well." She started to walk away, stuffing the shirt into her pouch this time, when a loud thundering noise caused her to automatically dive off to the side. From her position on the floor, she watched as the shirtless male gym teacher ran for his life from the mass of girls chasing him. She wanted to join in the chase, but remembering her profession quelled the urge. She had a lot more to see before she could go off to chase half-naked hotties. Sighing, she got to her feet, and walked out the door.

Kagome also saw the crush of people coming, but not in time. Thankfully, Inuyasha had, and pulled her out of harms way, as the man and the crowd ran by. Kilala saved the others.

Quirking an eyebrow, Inuyasha said, "Somehow, I think your 'friend' had something to do with that, Kagome. Call it a hunch." The principal ran by, huffing and puffing. Bending over, he tried to catch his breath, but it ran faster then he did.

"Do... you... know... who... started... all... this?" Gasp. "Most... all... the... posters... and... projects... on... the... walls... are... gone... and... there... is... no... trash... in... the... hall... way." Cough, hack, cough, wheeze, gasp. "Do... you... think... who... ever... it... was... would... be... the... janitor?" They ignored him, and backtracked the mobs path.

Sky saw them coming before they saw the mob. 'Oh no!' She thought. 'They're coming to take me away! But I'm not done here!' Looking both ways, she slipped into a door to her right. Not paying any attention to the stunned class inside (except to steal a pencil or two, because hers was getting short), she looked for an exit. 'A window!' Though a life-time of training told her to never open a window (there's no light breeze outside a space station), she opened one up and looked down. A two floor drop to the ground. 'Um.' Studying the place in front of her, she saw the tree almost reaching to the window. 'If I jump...' She went back into the room a little ways, the people inside just watching her, not saying anything. A flutter caught her eye, and she snatched one of the many flags hanging from the ceiling off, muttering, "And if I fold it just like this, it should..." Hearing footsteps just outside the door, she knew she didn't have long. Taking a running leap, she launched herself out the window, swinging the flag over the branch just as she came near, catching herself from falling, sliding down the branch. She smacked into the trunk, just as Inuyasha and the rest burst in through the same door. The class was still silent.

"There she goes!" Kagome said, trying to follow her. Inuyasha caught her around the waist before she could launch herself out the window.

"Stupid wench! There is a door! What the hell is wrong with you today, Kagome!" She stopped struggling. There was a door. Sheepishly, she went out it, the rest still following. As the door closed, the teacher in the room turned to the class and asked,

"Ok, so, what did you learn from that? Yes, Shashayla?"

"Always lock the classroom door so that psychos stay out in the hall."

"Good! Now, back to what we were talking about..."

Sky stood outside the classroom, and shook her fist at it. "You'll never catch me! I have too much to study!" Kagome rounded the corner, and Sky took off toward the very heart of the city. "You'll never catch the Dread Pirate Roberts!" ... "Whoever he happens to be!"

As she ran to catch up with Kagome, Sango said, "This is stupid, all this running. Why don't we just ride Kilala?" Not pausing, Kagome answered,

"Can you imagine what it would be to these people, to see a giant neko tearing around the city, with people on it's back?" Sango thought a moment, then nodded.

"It might seem a bit strange. I guess it's not such a good idea."

Sky stopped for a moment, and merely studied the people and places as they swarmed around her. One certain building caught her attention.

It was a mall. And it was huge. Stepping towards it as if in a dream, slowly she entered the brightly lit place. Sounds assaulted her, and smells of fried foods filled her nose. Still moving slowly, she walked into the first store she saw, and was enveloped with a strong perfumed scent. Picking a small bottle up, she uncorked it, and brought it to her nose, then nearly choked with the power of the smell. Still, she dropped it in her pouch. Walking through the store, she dropped one after another into the void, and when she walked out, no alarms went off.

So she went through the mall, entering every store, and taking something from each one. When the rest finally caught up with her (they were behind because they had had to play dodge ball with traffic; rush hour had started after Sky had gone across. Thankfully. If it had been occurring while she was out there, she would probably have stood right in the middle of the street and tried to suck one or two up into the pouch) she was in the grocery part of the mall, taking her time going up and down the aisles, putting food into the pouch. For a moment they just watched her, emptying all the shelves into the pouch.

"Grab her! She's going to steal the whole mall!" This time it was Shippo. But the others were too busy laughing to do anything. While they were laughing, Sky turned around the end of the aisle, and disappeared from sight. "She's gone, funny people!"

They stopped their laughing (a little) and walked around the corner on their side of the aisle. This aisle held all the ramen.

"She's going to steal the ramen! If she does that, how am I going to buy any!" Kagome half wailed, accompanied by a choked laugh. Inuyasha, instead of flying off the handle to save his precious ramen, had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Kagome, instead of stopping her, how about we let her steal it all, then steal it from her later?"

"But Inuyasha, we can't let her steal all this stuff. Stealing is wrong."

"Yeah, but think of how much you'll save, without even having to buy car insurance." Kagome considered this. Well, this was better then having to pay all that money... and apparently her pouch had some anti-thief-catch on it, so...

"All right, Inuyasha, let's wait."