Welcome back!

I hope you all enjoyed your time since my last chapter. I did! I'm getting closer to the end of Inuyasha, which means soon I'll get to start actually watching Yashahime. I don't have super high hopes for it, but I'm hoping it'll surprise me. Some anime have in the past. If you've watched it, what did you think of it? Is it worth the hype I've seen it get?

Anyhooo, I'm gonna let you get on with this chapter!


Catch The Rain

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet
- Roger Miller


Four days of yagen-weilding later, Kaede deemed me fit enough to actually do something that wasn't torture on my back and arms. How the Hell wasn't this place barren now with all the herbs Kaede had given me to grind up? It was a never-ending stream. Day after day she found me something to mash up for medicine. How?!

I never wanted to see a fucking yagen again. Ever.

And I was never going to miss arm day at the gym again, either. I'd thought I was pretty fit until I'd faced off against the yagen and lost. Five days in a row. I apparently had noodle arms. I could work it on a pole better than anyone else I'd ever seen, but that monster was definitely proving to be my downfall.

But life had found a rhythm after my first week staying with Kaede without the yagen's involvement.

It turned out living with the old woman wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was sure I was going to end up hating every second of it when she invited me to stay in her hut with her. I'd never had a roommate before, unless you counted the couple in the apartment next door to mine that enjoyed arguing so loud that they sounded like they were stood on either side of me as they screamed at each other. But they hardly mattered right now.

I was roommates with a shrine maiden. That did not sound like a good time to me. What commonalities could a shrine maiden and a whore have?

Humour, apparently.

I'd cracked her on the fifth morning, with some quip I couldn't even really remember now, something dry and dark that I was sure would have gotten her hackles up and her morals chafing like any other old woman that spent more than twenty seconds around me.

She'd reacted to the quip, all right, but it wasn't abject disgust or horror. She had laughed.

Granny Kaede had a dark sense of humour.

That made her alright in my books.

It was easier to get on with her after that. She cook and we'd sit and chat in the evenings interrupted occasionally by different villagers needing something or other from their shrine maiden. Sometimes I went with her to learn her way of healing minor ailments. Sometimes I stayed in the hut and did my own thing.

Our days got more varied, too. Sometimes we went out and picked herbs together. Sometimes we migrated through the village to visit all the sick people to make sure they were still kicking. Sometimes she led me up the tall steps beside her hut to help maintain the small shrine there. Sometimes I had some free time to myself.


The first time I got time to myself, I'd taken myself on what was supposed to be a short walk along the rice paddies to watch people work. Everything here looked like back-breaking work. It was so exhausting.

No rest for the wicked, they say.

But were all these people wicked?

They were trying to survive in a fucked up world just like everyone else. There was no war in this area, so Kaede had told me, so these people didn't have to do whatever they had to survive. Yet. I was sure that someday the time would come for them to have to break out and really work to survive, but it wasn't yet. Still, there was always something to do to keep them busy.

Until then, I think they had it covered. These people were the most harmonious I'd ever seen people act together. They worked together so peacefully, lived together and ate together. They co-existed in a way that I would never understand, as a well-isolated city girl. We didn't have this sort of close community back home.

It made me envious as much as it made me sick to see.

How could people get on as well as this village seemed to? There was so much that could go wrong. So much greed and lust in people. That had to be going on in the background. There was no way it wasn't. Were husbands sleeping around behind each other's backs? Was Kokichi really his father's son? Was Kaede the maiden she claimed to be?

I didn't have the answer to these questions, and I wouldn't unless I really pried.

When I reached the end of the paddy fields, I continued on past them towards the forests, not quite wanting to head back just yet.

I didn't even want to know the damned answers. I had no interest in actually digging that deep into any one of these people's lives. They didn't interest me at all. I just wanted proof that this place wasn't as sickeningly perfect as it seemed to be from the outside, even with the hard work that made up their lives. It couldn't be. People weren't that kind.

They never were.

Not everyone was kind to everyone here, at least. I'd seen proof that they weren't kind to outsiders. I'd felt proof.

I still needed to get Rikichi back for that one. Kaede had been playing guard dog for him every time he came near me. I had to give it to the wicked old crone, she knew how to protect people from well-deserved beatings. I was itching to beat the man black and blue for that slap and being knocked out. Kaede was making sure that didn't happen.

But she couldn't protect him forever.

Her game plan was probably just long enough for me to decide I was one of them and forgive him for treating an outsider poorly, but don't worry Cami, you're one of us now, so I would never again.

I'd heard it all before and I didn't believe it for a second, no matter who's mouth it had come out of. Someone like Rikichi had no chance of making me believe it.

Outsiders never found where they belonged. Not in my experience.

My annoyance-fueled stride through the forest slowed.

We never belonged...

My hands fumbled in my sash, grasping the pack of cigarettes I'd taken to keeping shoved between the sash and my body. It took me just a second of practiced movement to bring a cigarette up to my lips and light it. I grimaced as I looked down into the box, though. Just three left.

I'd be climbing the walls by tomorrow if I wasn't careful.

Great. Fantastic. Perfect.

I hadn't noticed a single person smoking in the village, so it wasn't like I could even bum something from them when I ran out of my own meager stash. When these were gone, I was officially screwed.

"What do you think?" I asked out loud, eyes turning up to my current company to distract myself from the bubbling fear of withdrawals. "Will there ever be a place for outsiders here or what?"

InuYasha was predictably silent.

"Just hanging out here for some quiet time, huh?" I asked him. Again, there was silence. "You're not very good conversation, dude."

I took another drag, staring up at the man hanging above me, then shook my head and moved forwards. It didn't take much to hoist myself up onto the large roots wrapped around him and lean against his legs. He was just as warm as he was when I'd first touched him.

How was he so warm still? What was going on with this absolute freak?

"I've got a feeling you're like me," I spoke to him, looking out at forest scenery. This was a pretty place now there was no rain or pain to mar its beauty. It was the sort of place I could sit and enjoy for hours.

"You know they named the forest after you. Called it a heinous place. They wouldn't do that if you were a guy they liked. Hell, Granny can deal with my ass, so I don't know what you did for her to turn on you like that." I tilted my head back to look up at him. His skin was a little more tan than mine, his long silver hair draped over his chest, his lashes long and brushing against his cheeks. He wasn't exactly a stunning man, but there was just something about him I liked. "You know, I don't usually like a man that looks better than me, but you get points for being quiet."

My gaze was distracted by a plume of smoke ascending to the canopy of leaves shielding us from the sun.

"Want a drag?"

I held the cigarette up to him for a moment before taking the next drag myself.

"You get points for not taking up the sharing, too, y'know."

This InuYasha guy was almost the perfect man.


The day was a fine, warm one. Granny Kaede and I had gone through the same morning ritual of me hurling some form of insult at her when she dared to wake me before noon, and Kaede cracking back some dry retort. We'd dressed and shared a quick breakfast together, then bathed quickly in the river, cursing how cool the water was in spring all the while.

Kaede had decided what we were going to be doing for the day while I tried to squeeze out as much of the water in my hair as I could.

Today's poison- I mean, torture- I mean, task? Let's go with task, though torture was very much what I wanted to choose.

Herb picking.

Joy.

At least it wasn't herb grinding. Small mercies, I reminded myself with some faint semblance of positivity. Herb picking was a thousand times better than herb grinding, but still a thousand times worse than getting my head beaten in with a rock.

By the time we got to the field that Kaede had chosen for our outing, we had gained a small army of children following behind us.

Just swell.

At least a couple of them was kind enough to take the large woven baskets Kaede and I had been carrying.

Little mercies.

"We'll be looking for rabbit giku today," Kaede informed the children as we walked through a field filled with blooming flowers. "I have noticed the blooms growing early as of late. Look for a yellow flower."

As the children ran off in search of the coveted rabbit flowers that made up their quarry, Kaede began a lesson with me as the two of us sat down amongst the flowers around our feet. She'd taken to explaining the herbs to me as I ground them in the torture device of evil. Today I was getting a nice scenic lesson for a change.

Slightly better than being hunched over the yagen while she droned on, but not something I was excited about having to go through.

"Rabbit giku makes up the salve ye have been using," she began, plucking a yellow flower and handing it to me.

It wasn't a particularly pretty flower, but the smell was familiar now, in the goop Kaede had spent every morning and evening rubbing into my ankle for me. It had become a comforting smell.

No one would know.

"What do I care for flowers, Granny?"

I got the same patient smile she'd been giving me for the past few days when I bit at her. "As ye will be the one grinding them to save a poor old woman's shoulder, I believe ye would like to know something about them."

I dropped the flower in the basket one of the kids had left at my hip, totally uninterested. "Save a poor old woman's shoulder? All I see in the situation is slave labour, old crone. It's not out of the goodness of my heart I do shit for you. I'm just desperate and you're taking advantage of that for your own gain. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself."

She chuckled, relaxing and lifting her head to enjoy the feeling of the sun on her face.

After taking a moment to sneer at her, I followed her lead. It was a lovely day for April... May? I didn't know the days anymore. I had clocked out a while ago, and just let the days pass by. I didn't see much reason to keep an eye on the days. I had no idea just how many had already passed now. Should I be worried that it had all become a blur?

"Lady Kaede! Look!" One of the little girls that had joined our herb-hunting party came bounding towards us, holding out bright yellow flowers in her chubby little fist. "I found some!"

Peace broken.

Why did anyone want kids? I just didn't understand.

"Why, my girl, ye have found just what we need," Kaede praised.

I kept my eyes closed, trying to ignore the kids that were starting to filter back to us. Their enthusiasm was exhausting. Of all of the duties of Kaede's I had shadowed over the past few days, babysitting was the worst of them all.

I'd even take the yagen over the children, and I hoped I would never have to see that bastard thing ever again. At least it didn't make noises, gros smells and have sticky fingers. It never tried to talk to me, either.

"Lady Cami?"

My eyes snapped open, down to the little girl who stood by my feet. She had her arms behind her back and was shuffling her bare feet shyly.

Lady? Oh no no no no. Not happening. Not now, not ever. Not as long as I lived would I ever be a lady in any capacity. I didn't want so much as a miss from these people, let alone lady. "Aint no damn ladies here, kid. Don't call me that."

The kid looked scared at my response. Her wide grey eyes were starting to well up as she looked up at me.

Well... not the quickest I had made a kid cry.

7/10.

The execution could have been harsher. Better luck next time, Camille.

I let out a rough sigh and gestured for her to continue. "What do you want kid?"

My middle finger rose proudly to her when Kaede made a pleased noise in the back of her throat. I only mourned that she had no idea how rude the gesture was. I'd love to see her reaction if she did know what the gesture actually meant. I wasn't about to tell her though. Explaining why took away all the fun of actually doing it.

The kid did perk up again when I prompted her, though, even if it was rough. She fumbled with whatever was hidden behind her back and then thrust her little arms forward.

She held a pretty red anemone in her grasp.

"What's that for?"

"I believe she wishes for ye to take it, Cami." Kaede's helpful intervention had the girl nodding so hard I thought she would make herself dizzy.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with a dead flower?"

At least if it was in a planter, it could still grow. If it was picked, it was just dead. What was the appeal in that? Was I supposed to just pretend that I wanted something like that? No, that just opened up the opportunity for the kids to start chucking every dead plant at me they could for validation. That wasn't happening any time soon.

"For your hair," the shy kid suggested.

What was I? Five?

Like every other kid in the seventies, I'd grown up with an appreciation for painfully bright patterned dresses and fake flower hairbands. I couldn't tell you how many I had owned. Probably one for every colour dress I had. Not a huge collection, admittedly, but I remember feeling naked without my flower hairband in place. I had left that behind really quickly as I grew out of my childhood years, and I'd never looked back.

Not until now, apparently.

With a grimace, I plucked the flower from the kid's hands and tucked it behind my ear.

"Happy? Oof!" The kid had launched herself at me, knocking me onto my back and cuddling me. "Nope! I'm done. Uncle! Uncle! Granny Kaede, you old crone, help me out here!"

The traitorous bitch did exactly the opposite. With a cheerful tone, she prompted the rest of the kids to aid Yone in showing me the affection I deserved.

They all piled on top of me, cooing and cuddling and just generally being little demons, ignoring my shouting to get off of me in favour of hugging me more. Lady Kaede apparently had the last say in this situation.

Eventually, Kaede took pity on me and shooed them away to carry on the hunt for as many rabbit giku as we could carry home, letting me actually take a breath without a child-shaped weight on my chest.

While they ran across the field, Kaede helped me brush off all the grass that managed to stick against me while I had been flattened under a pile of way-too-affectionate children. When I was dubbed grass-free, and I'd taken a moment to curse her out, Kaede and I returned to our quiet sunbathing.

Of all the emotions I could feel in this moment, the one that stood out was the most surprising to me.

I felt... comfortable.

Even after being attacked by crotch goblins, in an unfamiliar place full of danger and fright, not much about the situation felt wrong. I was relaxed and still enjoying the day.

Something had to happen to fuck it up.

"Lady Kaede! Lady Kaede!"

Ah, there it was. Right on time.

"What is it, Rikichi?" Kaede asked, her relaxation sapping away quickly.

Rikichi, with his fantastic timing, came running from the path between two paddies, out of breath and looking stressed up to his eyeballs.

Okay, so maybe this wasn't too bad. Seeing him stressed was surprisingly cathartic for me. I could definitely get used to the sight. If it was a permanent fixture, I might even enjoy it. I did love the idea of the asshole being unhappy.

I absolutely didn't love what came out of his mouth next, though.

"Lady Kaede, we found a demon in InuYasha's Forest. You must come and vanquish it at once!"

A demon?

What the fuck?

The ridiculousness of the demand clearly didn't register to Kaede the way it did to me. Her face drew tense and she rose to her feet, reaching out to grasp the bow and quiver of arrows she had cast aside when she sat down. They were pretty much a permanent fixture on her body when she left the hut, from what I could tell. She didn't go anywhere without them. It was like my multitool, which I had tucked into my bra for now, until I could find myself a bag to tie to my sash.

"Children," she ushered, voice tense. "It is time to return to the village. Quickly now!"

The kids jumped up the moment she called out to them, gathering around her with their questions and whines about their nice morning trip out of the village being disrupted.

I was just as confused and miffed as the kids were. "You're not serious, are you?"

The look she gave me as she strode past was clear. She did. She did. Demons! She thought a demon was an actual threat to them.

What the Hell?

"Come, Cami. We must get back to the village."

I watched Kaede, Rikichi and the kids' backs for a moment, not quite sure I could believe that this was a serious threat. A demon?

Nevertheless, I got up and followed after them. Even if there wasn't a demon around (demons, ha!) there could still be unsavory characters. I wasn't about to get caught out by a traveler that didn't have a too high opinion of women. No thanks.


By the time I caught up to Granny Kaede, she was in her hut, bustling around amongst the many jars that cluttered up her home. I'd never seen someone own so much in such a small space. Sharing my sleeping space with all the jars definitely wasn't something I enjoyed about staying with Granny Kaede.

"Ahah," she muttered as she found one particular jar she was looking for.

I leaned against the frame of the doorway, my arms crossed over my chest, waiting for her to notice me. Something she did just a few seconds later when she turned around to leave again, her prize in her hands. "Cami?"

"Wanna tell me what's going on?" I was totally lost.

The villagers had cried demon, and what? Kaede dropped everything to check out this demon? Like it was normal. Like demons really existed and were an actual, real threat? She had to be joking, right? Humouring them. There was no other reasonable explanation I could think of that could go even a little way towards explaining why Kaede was doing this.

She seemed like she was a smart woman.

This wasn't the act of a smart woman.

This was superstitious. It was stupid. I hadn't pegged Kaede as a superstitious fool. I needed to understand what could turn a clever woman like Kaede into this.

"A demon," was the only answer she gave me as she slipped her waraji back onto her feet.

"And that's your answer, is it? That's enough? A demon? Really, Kaede?"

She straightened up so she came nose-to-nose with me. Even huched over in her old age, Kaede was slightly taller than me. She must have been quite a tall woman in her youth. "What sort of world is it ye come from, Cami, that doesn't believe in demons?"

"Believe in demons? They don't exist!"

Time-traveling was something I was having a hard time accepting as it was. Demons? No. No, it was totally impossible.

"Perhaps in the world ye live in, Cami, they do not. That is a blessing for that world. This world is rife with them. They are dangerous and I must dispel this one before it can cause trouble in this village."

This woman was so stubborn!

How could she actually believe it?

"Alright, then, show me." I threw my arm outward, toward where the entire village seemed to be gathering at the other end of the square. "Prove to me that it's a demon and not just a mangey tanuki, and I'll believe whatever the fuck you say, about demons or any other superstitious bullshit you want to throw at me."

I had low hopes, clearly, but Kaede gave me a firm nod and strode past me, carrying her jar.

I let out a rough sigh, reaching for my pack of cigarettes, but pausing before I did pull it out of my sash. I only had one left. I'd had every intention to ration them out to just one or two a day, to give me at least a couple of weeks worth, but the stress of this ridiculously impossible situation had driven me to spoking way more than I planned to. My meager stash had burned down far too quickly.

The last one had to be saved for a really desperate moment. I couldn't just squander it on petty frustration.

So I dropped my hand and followed after the woman as she approached the crowd of villagers.

Their whispers hit me the moment I was close enough.

"She could be a kitsune in disguse."

"Nah, them shape-changing foxes are a lot trickier than that."

In... disguise?

Had... Had they just found a damned woman and captured her because they didn't like the look of her?!

Why the Hell was I surprised by that? That was exactly what they did with me. I still had the sore spot on the back of my head to prove that they would do just that with someone if that someone didn't get away quickly enough.

Was that their demon? A scared, captured girl?

As Rikichi announced Kaede's presence, I got a good look at the supposed demon.

My mouth went dry as my gaze turned over her.

She wasn't a demon, that was for sure. Different than these people? Absolutely. She wore clothing I was familiar with. The school uniform she wore wasn't totally familiar. I'd never seen the colour of that school uniform when I had been knocking around in the city when schools got out. If she was from the same time as me - listen to me - then she wasn't from Yokohama.

I jumped when she did - her surprise the result of Kaede throwing some form of powder at her face. Was that purification salt?

Really?!

I grabbed the old crone's wrist before she could throw any more at the girl, just as the girl spoke up. "Hey, hey! I'm not a demon, okay?!"

Preach it, sister, before these idiots got any other bright ideas in her head.

Kaede wasn't hearing the poor girl's insistence though. "Are ye not?" she questioned forcefully. "Then why were ye found in the Forest of InuYasha?"

Was that the reason? Did they accuse everyone that walked through the damned forest of being something evil? They were stupid. They had to be. Well and truly stupid. I was astounded.

Rikichi wasn't helping their case with his helpful suggestion of: "she could be a spy from another village."

"In that case, she would be a fool," Kaede insisted.

"Just one of many in this village," I snorted, arms crossed over my chest. "Granny, you can stop torturing her now."

Kaede's shoulders were tense, but she thrust out her arm, pressing the jar of purification salt against my stomach. I grabbed it as she let go to stop it from going everywhere, eyes narrowed at her in suspicion as she approached the girl. What was she doing now?

"Let me have a look at ye." She plucked up the girl's chin and tilted her head back and forth so she could get that good look at her. "You're clever, girl, or be ye a halfwit?"

What had the girl done now?

"It's there," Kaede continued, her voice grave and just a little confused. "Though I know not why."

"What's there, you old crone?" I tossed the jar of salt and Rikichi, who scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground. He wasn't as successful as I was, ending up spilling some of the salt. Ha, stupid ass. "The human appearance? That's because she's human."

I passed by the shrine maiden and knelt next to the girl. The ropes were just as tight as mine had been, cutting into the poor girl's pale skin.

"Fucking heathens," I grunted, tugging at the knots until the rope came loose. I hurled the rope at Rikichi. "I'm waiting for her apology. Fuck sake, Rikichi, do you just go around tying women up for fun? That's fucking disgusting."

The man looked down at me with confusion as I pulled the ropes from the girl's ankles.

"Well?!" I prompted sharply.

He turned a look to Kaede, who nodded, then muttered a quiet apology that wasn't anywhere near good enough.

The girl held up her hands though, a tense smile on her face as she glanced at me then back to Rikichi. "It's okay! Honest."

Ugh, she was polite.

"Don't say it's okay, idiot," I snorted, rapping my knuckles against her head. Rikichi wasn't ever going to learn if people kept forgiving him for shit. Seriously, did no one see that but me? It was fucking infuriating.

"Hey, I'm not an idiot." Her brows pushed together and her lips pushed out into an angry pout.

"Well, I'm not hearing a name, am I? Til I get that, I'll stick with idiot."

The girl let out a frustrated shriek. "My name's Kagome!"

Kaede stepped in, placing a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Pay ye no mind to Cami, Kagome. She is a difficult woman. Join me in my home and we can discuss what has brought ye here. Cami, ye can join us, as well."

Kagome looked nervous, but she nodded at the shrine maiden hesitantly. "O-okay."

"Yeah, whatever." If the girl really was from the same place as me, then I wanted to know how the Hell she had gotten here. Had she come from the shrine, as well? Between us, could we find a way to get back home?


Between Kaede having to placate the villagers to assure them that the new girl wasn't in fact a demon (wow, coloured me so shocked) and having to comfort the frightened children that had been uprooted with our quick return, it was starting to get dark by the time we reconvened in the hut.

Kaede was knelt by the hearth stoking its fires while Kagome was sat at the edge of the raised platform when I stepped inside, tucking my pack of cigarettes back into my sash. I'd debated cracking into that last smoke after that, but had instead chosen to stand with my nose stuffed into the pack. A few deep breaths and more than a few rounds of counting down from ten had calmed me at least a little. Enough to try and deal with this situation, at least.

When I climbed up onto the hardwood to join the two of them, Kaede held out a bowl of stew for me.

"Finally. I swear if I had okayu one more time, I'd have puked in the damn pot. That'd probably be more appetizing." I enjoyed it on a cold day when I was down, but Okayu was not a meal that I could eat day in, day out. Not now, not ever. It was bland and boring, even with a plum to shake it up a little.

The stew smelt incredible, and that first bite of meat - real meat - for the first time in far too long had my stomach rumbling loudly for more.

Kagome herself was just as excited to chow down as I was.

It was almost a race between us to see who could inhale the stew quicker. Kagome won by a margin of a few mouthfuls, sighing in delight as she set her empty bowl down by her knee. My bowl followed suit just a few moments later.

Kaede needed to make stew way more often. Okayu was being banished from the home now until I got tired of the taste of stew, something I didn't think would happen if it tasted like that every time. I hated a lot of things about this place - the plumbing, the lack of convenience stores, the plumbing, the non-existence of electricity, the plumbing - the food wasn't amongst that list. Until the day I started craving pizza.

Hopefully, that day was far off. I'd break down and cry if I didn't get my craving fix.

"Bear us no ill will, child." Kaede's voice cut through the contended post-dinner haze Kagome and I had settled in. "For though I now see ye mean us no harm, in these troubled times of war, no stranger may be welcomed among us without deep distrust."

A snort tore from my nose. "Yeah, fucking tell me about it. They knocked me out and stuffed me in a shed when I first got here," I told the teen with a little smirk. "Warm welcomes are pretty foreign here."

Kaede wasn't letting that one rest on her watch. "After ye attacked my men, I should add," her dry voice responded.

"Don't even go there. Rikichi was begging for it the way he was going on. The only regret I have is not nailing him in the nuts when I floored him." I threw up my hands in an overly casual shrug. I had no guilt, and Granny Kaede wasn't going to be able to force it. Not a chance in Heaven, Hell or Earth. "Honestly, I should have turned right when I got here, save me the trouble of meeting him in the first place."

I expected more bantering from Kaede, but the voice that spoke up was Kagome's. "We really aren't in Tokyo anymore, are we?"

"Tokyo?!" Nooo, that wasn't supposed to be it. She was supposed to be from Yokohama like me, and be able to tell me what the Hell she did to get here so I could do the same and get home to my shitty apartment with shitty plumbing and shitty convenience food twenty seconds away. If she was in Tokyo when she crossed over through whatever void was trying to torment us, then I had little hope of being able to turn to her for information on getting. I was still stuck here. For fuck sake.

Kaede repeated the city name slowly. "Never heard of it. Is that where your people are from?"

"Uh, yeah!" She sounded nervous. "So I, uh, should get going."

I snorted sharply, rising to my feet. "Yeah, good luck with that." I had no idea how to get back. How would she be able to? I needed to get away from this nightmare moment before I imploded. "I'm going for a walk. Don't wait up."

Neither woman stopped me from leaving the house, and not one person in the village tried to get in my way when I started walking towards the paddies. I knew where I was headed before I even got to the paddies. InuYasha was quiet and could help me process what I needed to right now. I needed a good long think about how possible it would actually be to get back home now I knew it was possible for someone else to get through here.

If there were multiple... what? Portals? Gateways? Doors? Whatever. If there were multiple, were they all connected? If Kagome's... portal was marked better than mine was, could I use that to get through, if Kagome could find it again? Or were they individual? Would only she be able to get through her own portal?

Was this some cruel cosmic taunt?

I really fucking needed a... cigarette...

"What the fuck is that?"

The long grass just ahead, past the end of the paddy fields, was rusting in a weird way, parting around something big moving between the blades, low enough that I couldn't see what it was. Whatever it was, I'd never seen something so fast that wasn't mechanical. Was it mechanical? Was I actually not just in the past after all?

I let out a shriek as it broke the long grass and dipped into the paddy ahead of me.

That was not mechanical.

I had no idea what the fuck it was. It was huge, for one. It dwarfed me as it flew past, not even acknowledging me. I turned as it did, watching its back and tail go by. Its tail was still going as I tried to figure out what I was looking at.

That was... a woman. With a...snake body? No, it had legs. A centipede? Ugh, bug woman.

Wait, no. No, she couldn't be a demon, could she?

A demon...

"Oh, fuck!"

The demon had reared up when it reached the village, barrelling right into a hut and crushing it.

What... what should I do? Should I run? I'd always been the type to get the Hell out Dodge if things started to look hairy. Self-preservation was something I liked to think I had at least a little bit of. Trouble founds its way to where I was often. Strip joints got their fair share of it, and I was good at scooting when it looked like it was coming in.

I could run.

Get into the forest where something that big would struggle to move around. I wouldn't be safe, but I would be safer. Safer was better than nothing.

But this was my home for the foreseeable future. I'd slept in that village. I had friends - okay, a friend - in that village. My bag was in that village. RIkichi was in that village. I couldn't just skip out before he'd learned his lesson proper, could I?

But... I wanted to live.

My fearful dilemma was cut short when a familiar green form started running towards me, following the same path I had just walked. The demon was right on her heels. Kagome was fast. Faster than some. I wasn't exactly a sprinter myself, but I spent plenty of time on the treadmills at the gym. Kagome would probably be on par with me.

But if I waited for her to catch up, the two of us would be warring with each other to get out of the demon's range.

Sorry kid. Every bitch for herself.

I span on my heel and bolted towards the forest, my initial plan for the evening, but with a lot more urgency.

"Cami," Kagome called out as she approached. "We need to lead her to the well!"

The well?

"What well?!" I'd been in the forest a grand total of two times, and I hadn't seen a well either time. The only place I knew how to get to was that tree that held InuYasha. So that was where I ran, ignoring the stitch forming in my side. I could make a plan on the way. Or maybe Kagome could lead the way from there.

Whatever worked, I didn't care, as long as I lived.

A giant bug was not going to be the thing to kill me. No chance. I'd always been the one that wasn't scared of bugs in the house. Laura would cry, my mother would scream. I'd be the one with the cup and bit of paper in hand to get rid of them.

This bitch would need a fucking huge cup to get rid of her. Kaede probably wouldn't have one of them lying around in the cupboard above the sink.

If demons existed, maybe giants did, too. We just needed one with a really big rolled newspaper or flipflop to come passing by and all our troubles would be solved. The chances of that happening were probably slim to none. We needed a better plan.

We needed a fucking miracle.

We needed help.

"So where's that old crone?!" I yelled back to Kagome, dodging around trees as I ran the vaguely familiar path to the quiet young man that kept me company when I needed it. He probably wouldn't be much help this time, though. "We could do with some fucking help here!"

A shiver chased down my spine as a pulse of warmth bloomed in my chest.

What the fuck?!

A flash of red between the trees calmed my frantic mind a little. InuYasha. I had no idea what we would do once I got to him, but getting to him was all I could focus on right now. Anything past that was something I could deal with when I got there.

Like ten seconds away.

I was close enough now that I could see InuYasha's features, glaring down at us.

What?

No, there was no time to think on that right now.

"Kagome! Where's the well?!" I glanced back over my shoulder to see whereabouts she was, and cursed myself the moment I wobbled on the uneven ground beneath my feet. Idiot. Who doesn't look where she's going when she's running?! Panic was not good for logic. It sent me sprawling forwards, grunting when I hit the large roots that curled around the tree InuYasha was pinned to. I clung to his hakama to keep myself up, whipping around to see where Kagome was.

She was trying to pick herself up off the floor in front of me.

"Hello Kikyo," a rough masculine voice above me greeted in a low tone. InuYasha?

My head tipped up, but I couldn't see much besides the roots wrapping around his body, and the arrow sticking out of his chest. Was that really him... awake and alive? But how? He had an arrow in his chest. People didn't live through arrows to their chest. Especially not arrows that had been in their chest for well over a week.

"Playing with bugs now, are we?" he continued, oblivious to my dilemma over his position.

He had a nice voice, I had to admit, as Kagome spoke back to him. It was low, rough, just a little gravelly, but not really all that deep. It was a nice voice to listen to, even with the mocking tone it had right now. I'd definitely heard worse voices.

I kept my eyes on the woods, though, looking for the demon that had been chasing us. Where was it? It had gone too quiet.

"You're taking so long to kill it," InuYasha continued, his voice jeeringly antagonistic. "Just do her like you did me."

Do her? Like... kill her? What? Kill... What the fuck was he going on about?

Apparently he had no shortage of shit to spew, and he wasn't being kind to Kagome - or Kikyo. Kikyo. Why was that name so familiar? Where had I heard it before? I was sure I'd heard it here in the village at some point in the last week.

His insults were enough to get the fire in Kagome going. "Kikyo. Kikyo. Whoever she is! She's not me 'cause my name is-"

A vicious shiver tore through me, chasing up my spine, that shot ramrod straight at the feeling. I don't know why I was so sure, but I was. The feeling was from the centipede chick. "She's here," I said, cutting Kagome's tirade off. My voice was echoed by the man I was still leaning against.

Just a second later the demon broke through the trees above us, reaching out for Kagome. My grip tightened on InuYasha's hakama, and my breath caught in my throat. If not for the horrific tail, she'd only be about Kagome's height. She was basically human-looking without it, even with her horrendously pale skin. I thought I had pale skin, with my Western looks. Mine didn't even rate against hers.

A flash beyond her had relief flooding through me. There was the cavalry, some villagers on horseback, carrying weapons of all kinds. Spears on ropes sailed through the air, lancing the demon's chest, making her wince and jerk in the air. She barely flinched after the initial impact, though. Just what were demons that they could handle that without so much of a flinch.

My hands tightened again in InuYasha's hakama, fear making nausea roll violently in my gut.

I didn't want to take my eyes off of her for fear that she could turn and catch me. I just had to reach out to touch her. I didn't know what the hell I could do if she did turn on me, but I didn't want to give her the chance. So, using all the strength I didn't even know I had, I let my eyes flash away from her, flicking around to see if there was an escape. If I could just make a run for it anywhere while she was distracted, I might be okay.

It was cowardly, but my life meant more to me than fighting a demon. I was just a human. How could I even compare?

My feet shifted under me, preparing to make that run as the villagers began tugging on the ropes attached to the spears buried in her flesh, under Rikichi's orders. I guess he wasn't all bad, though you'd never catch me actually saying that.

He was distracting everyone enough to let me plan my escape, at the very least.

If I survived this, maybe he'd get a thanks from me, after all.

"You're pathetic."

I froze at the husky insult. Was he talking to me? Calling me pathetic for turning tail like this? Yeah, maybe I was, but I wasn't tied down to a tree like he was, and I didn't have any strength beyond some self-defense lessons. I had a feeling those weren't going to be much help against a demon. So what if I was pathetic? I'd given up any dignity and self-respect the moment I started selling myself for money. Being pathetic wasn't exactly a new thing to me.

But I'd jumped the gun, because the moment after he'd said pathetic, he spat that familiarly unfamiliar name again. Kikyo. Why the Hell did I know that name? It was going to annoy the shit out of me if I didn't get it.

Kagome was clearly even more infuriated by the mention of the name, because she jumped up from the floor, pointing at the man above me. "I'm not Kikyo! Look, I'm telling you. I'm not her! Whoever her is!"

She climbed up the large roots holding InuYasha in place, and I ended up flattened against his legs as she got up into his face. Typical tactic. She didn't do too well, though. Kagome was the sort of person that looked like an angry kitten. She was too cute to really be a threat to anyone. I still didn't exactly want to be close when she blew up.

InuYasha had no such care, though, cause he was hot-headed enough, apparently, to sling words back at her just as sharply. "I'm saying you gotta be her! 'Cause if you're not there's no way you could smell so-"

Oh, fuck this. I wasn't dealing with all this stupid drama when I could be running.

So that's what I tried to do, as those two fought, I slipped from the roots I was perched on, touching the ground lightly, quietly, with the intent to slip away unnoticed. I got as far as a single step before Kagome screamed. Reacting on pure instinct at the sound of the scream, I whipped around and grabbed the girl, holding onto her feet tightly. trying to pull her down again, away from the demon holding onto her with all its arms.

It was strong but between my grip on her, and the grip she had on InuYasha's hair, we were at least able to hold her steady for a precious few seconds.

"Oi, dickhead," I barked up at the demon I pressed back against as I tried to drag Kagome closer to me. He was crying out in pain as Kagome yanked on his hair, so I yelled louder. "Your arms are free. Grab her!"

The idiot was just letting her pull at his hair and not trying to do anything to help. Was he stupid? I didn't know how strong demons were. Two of us were struggling, but three people pulling against it? That had to be worth something right? We could get Kagome away from the demon and to relative safety. At least away from its grasp.

I let out a short burst of a scream when the demon lurched forwards, its mouth splitting open, skin tearing and blood seeping from the self-inflicted wounds as fangs began to grow.

Kagome screamed herself, throwing one arm out reflexively. A bright glow emanated from her hand, searing the demon's flesh and forcing it back. the momentum of the backwards shove had Kagome dropping to the ground, surrounded by the limbs that she had seared off the creature.

What the fuck?!

The smell that hit me a second later had me gagging. It was like seared meat - a smell that would have been delicious if I didn't know what it was from. Just the thought that the smell of burnt flesh smelled delicious had me gagging again, turning into InuYasha's body as I tried to recover from the nausea. Oh fuck. I never wanted to smell cooking meat again.

By the time I was over that bout of nausea, Kagome was screaming again.

The sight I turned around to was horrific. She was being thrown through the air like a ragdoll.

When she landed, it was on her knees right in front of InuYasha and I.

"Give me the jewel! Quick!" InuYasha was quick to lurch forwards, restricted by the roots and arrow binding him. The move unbalanced me enough to cling to his shoulders so I didn't fall. "Hurry!"

Jewel?

What jewel? Had I missed something in my panic?

The thought process was cut short very quickly when the centipede demon's long body wrapped around the tree, dragging Kagome up and pinning her against us, effectively trapping me between InuYasha and Kagome. I winced when the tail squeezed, pushing Kagome against my back painfully.

"I heard some half-demon spawn was after the Sacred Jewel," came the hoarse voice of the demon woman, way too close to my head for my liking.

I flinched closer to InuYasha, clinging to his kimono, even as her words hit me. Half... demon? What?

"It's you, isn't it?" her raspy voice continued.

I tilted my head upwards to get a better look at the supposed half-demon I was pinned against. The first thing I noticed were his teeth, so close to me, as he shot back a quip to her. His teeth were straight and white, but his canines were long, pointed and curved, rounded at the end. They looked like animal teeth. Not teeth I'd ever seen in a human.

"Half's all I need to kick your scaly hide. Anything more than that would be a waste of my time," he shot back. This guy had no shortage of quips and shit to shoot back, did he?

Was he really a demon?

But more importantly... "Fuck, you have a real mouth on you, don't you? Is it all bark?"

His eyes snapped down to me, dark brows drawn together in a deep furrow on his forehead. "Huh?"

Oh, they were so gold...

"Are you going to let her crush us? I'm human. I don't stand a chance in Hell against her. If you're a demon, you might." If he was a demon, there was a big chance that he could stand up to this centipede. I wasn't about to put my hopes in someone so small taking on a creature this big, but I was going to run with any damned chance I had to stay alive.

I should have fucking run when I had the chance.

Stupid fucking fear and stupid stupid morals.

The centipede's body tightened around us again. I buried my face into InuYasha's chest and whimpered as Kagome pressed into my back again. I could hear the tone of the centipede's voice, but so focused on the pain wracking my body, I couldn't really make out what she was saying. Another whimper fell from my lips, long acrylic nails biting into InuYasha's chest through the layers of his clothing.

She needed to stop. I couldn't handle this.

A growl rumbled under my hands and cheek. Whatever the centipede was doing, it was really pissing him off.

"Hey," his voice bit out, rumbling under my ear. My head tipped up again to look at him, but he wasn't looking down at me. He was focused ahead. Looking at the centipede demon? "Can you pull out this arrow?"

The arrow? The one in his chest? Weren't you supposed to not pull things out of a wound? But... I'd seen his chest. It was like there was no wound, like he'd totally healed around the arrow. Would he still bleed out if the arrow was pulled out?

He didn't like the moment of hesitation. "Wel, can you pull out this arrow or not?!" he demanded on a growl.

"I-I don't know," Kagome replied hesitantly. She reached up towards it, but flinched when we were pressed together again by the squeeze of the tail around us.

"Nay!" Kaede's voice rang out, her tone desperate and scared in a way I hadn't heard from her. She was always so confident and unflappable. Nothing I'd done had upset her, but this guy scared her. What could he have done to scare her like that? "Once the arrow is removed, then InuYasha will be free to destroy us all!"

What did he do...?

Whatever it was, he didn't seem to care. "Don't be stupid, you old hag!"

His snarl looked nothing like the relaxed expression I'd seen on his face when he was pinned to that tree and asleep. Sealed? Dead? I had no clue anymore. Any semblance of sense had been taken away now. I had no clue which way was up in this crazy world.

"At least with me you've got a chance!"

That was true... Kagome and I weren't any help being crushed like we were. Kaede was a shrine maiden, and she'd mentioned purifying demons before, at least. She could do something. But she was old. What could someone her age really do in a fight? I knew from living with her that she wasn't that nimble in her old age. Her joints were old and her hands arthritic. Any help she could give wouldn't be enough against this demon. The village men? Just men with pointy sticks.

InuYasha was a demon. He was young, his body felt fit, pressed against mine like it was.

He could at least try to face off against the centipede.

That was enough for me.

"Whereas that thing's gonna-"

His rant cut off with a pained growl when my hand curled around the arrow, yanking it backwards. Like the last time I touched it, the frail old wood crumbled under my fingers, breaking off and disintegrating in my hand. That was enough, though. Right away I felt something strange coming from the man I was pressed against.

I couldn't explain what it was. It wasn't a physical feeling, more of a sensation, a gut feeling that something was happening, something dangerous and dark. Whatever it was, it was heady and powerful, and I liked the feeling, even as wild laughter tore from InuYasha's throat.

It had excited shivers chasing down my spine.

Those were quickly dispelled when the centipede's body wrapped tighter around us, crushing us all closer so hard, I felt tears trickling down my cheeks.

But then I felt an arm wrap around me, warm and hard, long nails piercing through the fabric of my kosode, tearing through it and my skin. There was a grunt of effort in my ear, a whip of air around us, then the sensation of flying.

That arm slid away from me, ripping through more of my skin, and I hit the ground hard.

My vision was hazy, unable to focus as I stared up at the canopy of leaves against the starry backdrop. There was a dull ringing in my ears and a throb in the back of my head.

Those stars sure were beautiful. Couldn't see stars like that in Yokohama.

A face coming into my still hazy vision distracted me from searching out familiar constellations in the brightest blurs of stars.

"Rikichi?"

He knelt beside me, helping me sit, and holding me up when I hunched over, gripping my head. Fuck that hurt.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Get back to me on that when I can think straight again, my good man. "What's happening?"

We were pinned against the tree, and then...?

I don't know what happened.

Rikichi held me closer, looking up to his left. I followed his gaze. InuYasha was stood above us all, balanced on the tall stump of a cut tree. Stump was barely the word. The tree had to be at least fifteen feet tall still, even without its large top.

"InuYasha killed her, Mistress Centipede, and now he's after the Jewel in Lady Kagome's possession. He will kill her to get it."

The little playback definitely got me caught up. It made me feel a little guilty, too. I was the reason he was free, trying to cut down Kagome.

I twisted in Rikichi's arms, using him to help me push myself to my feet, and stumbling away towards Granny Kaede when I caught sight of her. After what had just happened, I was far more inclined to trust her judgment on the situation now. She had to have some way to fix my mistake.

Stupid girl. Never trust a man.

Wasn't that obvious by now?

When was I going to learn? Twenty-six years and I still made stupid mistakes like that.

"Granny, what are we going to do?" I asked the moment I had stumbled close enough to her. My hand found her shoulder, using her to hold myself up just as much as for looking for comfort.

She heaved a great sigh, reaching into her kosode. "I knew that it would eventually come to this."

"Come to what, Granny?"

What she pulled out of her kosode was a set of Shinto rosary beads. Religion was not something I boasted. Ever. While my father had some influence in at least introducing me to Buddhism, he hadn't stuck around, and my mother was only a surface-level Christian herself - Church at Christmas and pray to God when the world was falling down around you - so I hadn't grown up with any strong religious leanings myself; Buddhist, Christian or Shinto. It wasn't like I wouldn't be caught dead at a shrine - though, after last week, that standing might change - but I had little interest in practicing any of those beliefs.

I could appreciate the beauty of the beads, though.

I was a sucker for pretty jewelry. What could I say?

The polished beads shone in the moonlight as Kaede held them up between her hands. A low roll of nausea filled my stomach as she began muttering into the beads she held up to her mouth. They glowed a bright pink. It was a beautiful colour, but bright enough for me to shield my eyes as they moved, falling apart from each other and gliding through the air towards the half-demon, who I could just see through the trees, with his bright kimono.

There was no way you could lose him easily. I was highly debating whether that was a good thing or not.

Kaede hustled forwards, and out of reflex, I followed her. She was the one with demon knowledge. I wanted to stick by her.

"Quickly, child!" Kaede called out when Kagome came into view, knelt on the ground in front of a bridge that InuYasha was on. "The word of subjugation!"

Word.. of what? What was she on about?

Don't question the magic lady and her crazy magic, Cami. It could save your life.

"What word?" Kagome called back, frantic.

Fuck if I know. If someone yelled at me to pick a word, I'd probably forget every word in every language I knew. Fluency in two and casual knowledge in another meant I knew my fair share of words. None of them would come to me if I was put on spot.

The same couldn't be said for Kagome. After a bit of fumbling, a clear cry of "sit, boy!" rang through the air. The beads around the demon's neck glowed and dragged him down against the rickety wood of the bridge.

I winced just watching it as he hit the wood hard, multiple times as Kagome cried out the words a few times.

Ouch.

"What the heck is this thing?!" InuYasha cried out, yanking at the beads, but as he tried to lift them over his head, they glowed again, staying firmly in place.

Magic jewelry that fucked a person over with just a single word. Damn, that thing was almost as dangerous as an engagement ring. I think I'd still rather take the beads over the ring.

"I'm sorry InuYasha, but even you lack the power to remove it," Kaede called out to him. She sounded a lot less stressed now than she had back there. Back when the threat of him being loose was very real. But now he was subdued, even if just a little bit. What was it about him that scared her so much? The fact that he was a demon? No, she had strutted up to Kagome with all the confidence of a madwoman when she thought Kagome was a demon. That couldn't be it. It had to be something he had done, to ear this sort of fear.

But what could he have done to her?

"I'd come up there and finish you off if you didn't look half-dead already!" he threatened with a loud cry of frustration.

Maybe he barked one too many insults at her in the past and scared her that way? But I'd thrown insults at her from day one, and she hadn't so much as flinched then. That couldn't be it.

Maybe he had hurt her?

That one seemed very real.

My arm burned from his claws even now. I tried to keep my eyes away from it, away from the blood I knew was seeping through the fabric. I could feel it soaking in and sticking to my skin. The kimono was probably ruined.

"The word, please," Kaede asked, which was met with instant compliance from Kagome.

That last command was enough to break the weak wood from the rickety old bridge. InuYasha fell through the splintered wood with a shout, dropping down into the river below.

Ouch. That was harsh.

But he was gone, carried off by the river, leaving the rest of us stood shakily in a silent moment. I had no idea what to say, what to do. I didn't think anyone else did, either. What did you even say to what had just happened? Was there really anything you could say?

Granny Kaede knew exactly what to say.

"Well then," she murmured, walking past me to get down to Kagome's level. "Shall we head home?"

Please, yes.


Information Time

Rabbit Giku - Usagijiku is part of the Arnica family. Arnica has historically been used in field medicine for a long time. It's often also called Wolf's Bane, Leopard Bane, Mountain Tobacco. I am going a little out of bounds here, because while it is native to Japan, it grows on Hokkaido island, not Honshu, but I hope you're kind enough readers to overlook that little fact

Seventies - with the modern setting being 1997, that puts Camille's date of birth in 1971, so she did most of her time growing up in the seventies, with that beautiful seventies fashion that everyone so adores

Waraji - Traditional sandals that are woven from straw, most often rice straw. These are the most likely options for what sort of shoes Kaede would wear, given that she lives in a rice-planting village. These sandals tie around the wearers ankles to keep them in place on the foot. They were worn by all classes of Japan around the Muromachi period

Tanuki - Tanuki are also called raccoon-dogs. They're very beautiful creatures. I love tanuki. Funnily enough they share their name with a type of Japanese demon that looks like an anthropomorphic version of the animal, known for being jolly, having shapeshifting abilities, but being very absentminded and gullible. Hachi is the tanuki that shows up in Inuyasha, and fits rather well with the description of them

Mangey - Of a creature, it means to have the skin condition mange. It's caused by parasites infecting the animal, that create sores and hair loss. I chose this analogy because it's actually pretty common for this - people mistaking animals with mange as demons - to happen; mange seriously alters an animal's appearance when it gets bad enough. Particularly in places like Mexico and the Southern United States. La Chupacabra is often sighted, and some cases that have been chased up have been confirmed to be wild dogs with mange. I've seen more than one documentary on it

Purification Salt - Salt has been used in magic and rituals for thousands of years. It's known to purify spirits, repel demons, and heal

Rosary Beads - The Beads of Subjugation are a set of Shinto rosary beads. They're usually made with agate, lapis lazuli or glass crystal. The presence of the magatama, those white fang-shaped beads, means it's a Shinto rosary and not a Buddhist one, which makes sense as Kikyo, the original creator of these beads, and our favourite shrine maiden Kaede, are both Shinto shrine maidens. I'm gonna say that the beads on InuYasha's rosary are made of glass crystal, because of the colour. Japanese Agate, from what I've seen, errs more towards browns and lapis lazuli is a gorgeous blue flecked with gold

Religion in Japan - So while a whopping 60% of Japan's population is non-religious, Shinto rituals are so ingrained in Japanese culture that even the non-religious participate. Shintoism is the most-practiced religion in Japan, followed closely by Buddhism. Most people practice a mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism


Episode One: The Girl Who Overcame Time And The Boy Who Was Just Overcome
Episode Two: Seekers of the Sacred Jewel


Review Corner

LadyAmazon - It's great to see you over here, too! Thank you for reading. Yes, she certainly does have quite a strong personality. She's a little more explosive than even Dan is, and Koga isn't quite as explosive as InuYasha either. It's gonna be fun


What's that? Plot? Oh my!

So I actually had a long debate with myself over whether I wanted to bring Kagome into this story or not. A lot of InuYasha romance stories omit Kagome and replace her directly with their OC. I enjoy those stories, I really do, but I ultimately decided not to go down that route myself. While Cami does have strong spiritual energy, she is not Kagome. She isn't a reincarnation of Kikyo, she can't see the jewel shards, and she doesn't react like Kagome does to situations. I don't want to just slot her into Kagome's place all the time. So I decided to keep Kagome in the story. Kagome is an important character, and frankly a character I enjoy for the most part. I didn't want to lose her spark, or dampen Cami's character by just replacing Kagome with her

Working in Kagome will be difficult, for sure. I'll have to work hard to make it work, but I'm excited to see it come together. I have plans for the two of them, and I want those plans to work out. You can decide whether they do or not as you read on, if you choose to read on

There are another couple nods to the novel in this episode, too. In the novel, when Kagome first sees InuYasha, she actually makes a point of saying that she doesn't think he's all that handsome. I like the idea of that. Standards of beauty and attraction aren't the same, obviously, five hundred years ago and now. I like that maybe those big differences are at play at first, and the attraction grows as they get to know each other. That can be a powerful form of attraction.