Hotaru followed the two strangers who had found her by the water. Her mind was racing too fast for her to keep up with it. She had to organize her thoughts. If she panicked now she would never survive. She focused on what she knew about her situation.

She wasn't where she should be. That much was clear. The cliff she had woken up at the bottom of was not the same cliff she had fallen off. It was much younger, much shorter. Less of the ground had fallen away to erosion.

As they walked, the landscape only reinforced the fact she wasn't where she belonged. There were no signs of roads, no towns, no train tracks. Hotaru had woken up that morning in a hotel room in Nagasaki. They had only driven twenty minutes to find the monsters that they had been fighting against. Now there was no sign a major city existed even remotely nearby.

Hotaru studied her companions. They were immensely interesting to her, particularly the woman. Hotaru spent enough time with her friend Rei to know the traditional kimono of a shinto priestess, but Lady Kikyo's kimono was more than just traditional, it was historical. It looked like it had come out of a museum.

Hotaru was overwhelmed by the woman's aura. Sailor Saturn was the guardian of death. She knew when she was in the presence of it. Lady Kikyo was not of the living world. She hadn't been for a very long time. Hotaru did not question this yet. They had reached a silent agreement on that wave cut platform. Lady Kikyo was aware of Hotaru's unnatural power; Hotaru was aware that Lady Kikyo was some sort of specter. Both of them knew that the other could sense their secret. Neither drew attention to it.

The boy gave off a strange aura as well, though his was not nearly as profound as Lady Kikyo's. Hotaru could tell he had died at one point. Something was forcing him back to life, but whatever that something was actually kept him alive. He wasn't a phantom like the priestess was. His heart still beat. He could continue to live the rest of his life completely normal so long as whatever was keeping him alive remained with him at all times.

They walked in silence for most of the day. Kohaku kept looking at Hotaru as if he wanted to strike up a conversation but he was unsure how to start one. Hotaru wasn't much better. She wasn't great at making friends under the best of circumstances. Chibiusa had mostly brought friends to her.

"So, how old are you?" Hotaru started, deciding at last that one of them had to actually say something eventually, she might as well start with an easy question.

"Oh…" He seemed immediately flustered, "Uh...twelve. How about you?"

"Same." Hotaru replied.

There was another long period of silence.

"Where are you from?" Kohaku asked.

"Tokyo." Hotaru replied. "Have you heard of it?"

She desperately hoped that Kohaku would scoff at the implication he didn't know the name of Japan's capital city. But he didn't show the faintest hint of recognition.

"No. Is it nice there?"

Hotaru signed. She wasn't surprised. She was starting to suspect that she hadn't actually ended up in a different location, but rather a different time. Maybe Tokyo didn't exist yet.

"What about Edo?" She asked. "Do you know where Edo is?"

"Do you mean Edo Castle?."

"Yes!"

"Yeah, it's only a day and a half's journey from my village."

Hotaru tried not to get too excited by the fact he recognized Tokyo's former name. If anything, it served as proof that she was in a great deal of trouble. But it also provided her with a great deal of information. She could now figure out when she was. Edo Castle was built in 1457. The city of Edo didn't become the capital of Japan until 1603. That narrowed the time period down to a span of just under 150 years. She silently thanked Setsuna for all of her childhood history lessons. Of course, this didn't bring her any closer to finding a way home. But at least it would be easier to survive now that she had some idea what to expect from the world around her. She was in the warring states period. It wasn't an ideal time period to be stuck in, but it was a very well documented one. She would be able to use her knowledge to her advantage.

The rest of the day went in spurts of conversation between Kohaku and Hotaru. After their initial silence was broken, it started becoming easier and easier for them to ask each other questions. She decided that she liked Kohaku. He was kind and patient.

She found out he was a demonslayer. She had smiled and told him that she was kind of a demonslayer, too.

He told her that he had a sister. She told him she had been adopted by three older guardians.

They talked about the weirdest things they had ever fought against. He claimed to have actually gotten rid of a kappa with a cucumber when he was eight. Hotaru had told him she and her best friend had warded off vampires with garlic, though he didn't seem to understand what she was talking about. She remembered too late that vampires and garlic came from western influence.

About two hours before dusk they had entered a forest. An hour after that, they found a small glade and decided to settle down to camp there.

"I'll find us something to eat." Kohaku announced before disappearing deeper into the forest.

Hotaru started gathering some firewood. Something passed over her head. Hotaru looked up to see two long, thin creatures. They looked almost like very thin dragons, but they gave off a soft white light. Each one held a sphere of light that Hotaru recognized to be human souls. She watched the creatures twist around in the air until they deposited their burdens just above where Lady Kikyo sat leaning against a tree. The souls drifted downwards until they disappeared into the priestess's chest.

"They are soul collectors." Lady Kikyo said when she noticed Hotaru staring at the creatures.

"They're beautiful."

"You have noticed that I am no longer of this world." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

Lady Kikyo looked back to her soul collectors. She held out her hand, and one of them landed on her knuckle.

"I died many years ago. The body you see is made out of clay. I cannot keep this form forever."

"So you need the souls of others to survive."

"I will do whatever is necessary to complete my mission."

"I'm not judging you." Hotaru said. She didn't sense any harm being done to the souls. It was likely that this only caused a temporary delay in their journey. "I'm just trying to figure things out."

"You are not from Edo Castle." Again, Lady Kikyo was not asking a question. She was simply stating the fact. "You are no ordinary child."

"No, I'm not."

Lady Kikyo nodded and closed her eyes.

"Does it hurt?" Hotaru asked. "Walking in the living world?"

Lady Kikyo cracked a small smile. "That is what you are concerned about? Whether or not I am in pain?"

Hotaru felt her cheeks grow red. It was probably a childish question now that she thought about it, but it was the one thing she could do something about.

"It is uncomfortable." Lady Kikyo said. "But manageable."

Hotaru deposited the firewood she had been gathering in a pile and approached the priestess. She knelt down and placed her hand on Lady Kikyo's chest. She channeled her energy into the artificial body. There was no real flesh or blood, so she couldn't repair any damage, but she could mask the pain. Judging by the deep sigh of relief, Hotaru figured that it must have helped at least a little.

"Thank you." The priestess said.

Hotaru smiled in response and returned to trying to make a campfire. She managed to get a small flame going by the time Kohaku returned carrying a dead rabbit. He immediately sat down and started skinning it. Hotaru watched as he cut the animal into pieces and started skewing them with sharp sticks, so they could be roasted over the fire. Every few minutes he would test the meat with his fingers before finally he determined it was done. He handed one of the skewers to Hotaru, and she thanked him. She guessed Lady Kikyo didn't eat.

Cautiously, Hotaru took a bite. She had never eaten wild game before. The taste was not what she expected. It wasn't particularly good. It wasn't particularly bad, either. It more or less tasted like really dry, stringy chicken. Still, she was too hungry to care about taste. The bowl of rice and rolled omelet she had eaten for breakfast felt like a distant memory, and she found herself devouring the rabbit meat in only a few ravenous gulps.

Kohaku stared at her. Hotaru felt her face turn bright red.

"It's been a while since I've had anything to eat…" she said sheepishly.

Kohaku burst out laughing. Hotaru was about to tell him off for making fun of her, but she stopped when she recognised his laugh. Not the tone or tinder of his voice, but the way he was laughing. He was laughing like someone who hadn't laughed in a very long time. It was the same way she had laughed the first time she met Chibiusa. She would never forget that laugh; when after years of darkness she had been given a single normal childhood moment. It was a laugh of relief.

Hotaru laughed with him. She was stranded hundreds of years in the past with no idea how to get home. She may never see her friends or family again. She was exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually. Yet in spite of all of that, she had just gotten embarrassed about how fast she had eaten like she was sitting with her friends at lunchtime. It was utterly ridiculous.

Kohaku finished eating and laid down next to the fire. Hotaru curled up next to him. She thought again of how ordinary her morning had been. She and her parents had gone to the park. They had eaten ice cream. They had figured they could investigate the monster stories by the sea and be back in the city by lunch. The morning had hardly been remarkable. Already eight hours ago seemed like another lifetime. It didn't take long before a wave of exhaustion pulled Hotaru down into sleep.

Author's Note: Hey, everyone. Hope you're all doing okay. Time has officially lost all meaning to me. Which is why this chapter was my favorite to rewrite. Sorry if I've kind of drawn it out too much, but in my original story I really glossed over Hotaru's entrance to the past. It was kind of just "Oh, I'm here now, guess I'm rolling with it." Suddenly, however, I've gained a new understanding of what it's like to suddenly fall from mundane life into a world where nothing is certain and you have no idea what's going on.

Thank you all for reading. Please remember to review, not just this story but any fic you read and enjoy. We all put so much time into writing, it only takes a few seconds to review. It really brightens the author's day. We could all use that right about now.