MONDAY

Yuka Shimizu had not had a good morning. So when she, Eri, and Ayumi walked into class together and saw Kagome's black mop of hair lying on her desk, it was a much needed good turn.

"Kagome's here!" Ayumi gasped. The three of them rushed to Kagome's desk as she lifted her head, yawning. She smiled when she saw them and gave limp wave.

"Hey guys!" she said, pushing back the work book on her desk. It was a page of math problems the class had covered about a week ago. "Do any of you have notes I can borrow on this unit? I'm totally lost."

"We're doing great, Kagome, thanks for asking!" Eri said. Kagome laughed sheepishly.

"You're right, sorry, it's really so great to see you," she said. "It's just that my makeup test is tomorrow and I'm freaking out." She buried her face in her hands and dragged downward, pulling down on her bottom eyelids. "And I haven't studied like, at all. So that's fun."

"Yeah, we've got notes," Yuka said as the three of them took turns hugging her. "It's just that we haven't heard from you in a week and a half, and the first thing you say to us is about school!"

"Technically the first thing she said was 'hey guys,'" Ayumi said.

Eri cut her off. "Give it a rest, Yuka. She's been in and out of the hospital for months. Obviously she can't focus on school work when she's sick."

Kagome laughed nervously. "Yeah," she said, trailing off and rubbing the back of her head.

"So what were you in for this time?" Eri asked. "Hasegawa-sensei said Alice-in-Wonderland syndrome, right? The one that causes hallucinations and migraines?"

"Uh, yeah," Kagome said. "That's the one. Anyway. I'd like to take advantage of my time home- from the hospital, I mean- to get caught up on classwork. So about those notes…?"

"You can copy them after school," Eri said.

"Oh, thank you! I'm—"

"If," Eri interrupted, "you come with us to karaoke after school." She turned to Yuka. "Is that alright? You don't have track today, do you?" Yuka shook her head no.

Kagome groaned and looked pleadingly at the trio. "I want to Eri, I really do," she begged. "But I can't afford the time to play around. I need to get as much work done before I have to- before I, um, get sick again. Which will probably happen tomorrow night."

Yuka slapped her hand on Kagome's desk. "Live a little bit!" She said. "When you're old and dying, do you want all your memories to be of the hospital and homework? No! You're healthy now, so you should take advantage of it and come out with us."

Kagome rested her head on her hands with a snort. "Yeah, I guess all I'll ever know is homework and hospitals, huh? No life of action for this girl."

"Great!" Yuka said. "I'm glad you agree. You can copy mine or Eri's notes after Karaoke."

"Erk. Wait, that's not what I meant!"

As other students began to trickle into the room, the quartet took their seats. Hojo came and homed in on her with a pleased "Higurashi!""How about a compromise," Ayumi suggested. "Instead of Karaoke, we just go to WacDonalds after school. That way we get to talk and hang out, but it doesn't take as much time as singing."

"Works for me," Yuka said. "Talking about Kagome's love life always works up an appetite."

Kagome loved her friends, despite the fact that they were each pathologically incapable of minding their own business. She'd known Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi for years.

More than that, they represented home. The real world. Safe. And they represented the important things she needed to do that each demon attack blasted out of her brain entirely. Like homework.

The copier beneath her hands whirred musically, its old mechanisms drowning out conversation. After grilling her for a good hour on her boyfriend drama, ("He's not my boyfriend!" Kagome had insisted, accidentally spewing out a mouthful of Dr. Pepper,) they'd finally agreed to let her copy their notes. Yuka waited patiently as Kagome finished copying the last of page of Literature before she opened her mouth.

"Do you think you'll be coming to school tomorrow?" she asked, putting the notebook in her bag. "You look pretty healthy right now. I hope it lasts."

"Oh, me too," Kagome laughed nervously. I'm going to school tomorrow if I have to Sit him into next week, she thought. I have too many make up tests scheduled to let him convince me to leave early!

The three ninth graders nodded together in pity for their poor, frail, friend. Bundled up in their winter coats outside the convenience store, they hugged her goodbye and prepared to separate.

"Oh, you poor thing," Eri moaned as she hugged Kagome goodbye. Yuka and Ayumi quietly echoed, "poor Kagome" behind her.

"I really wish you could stay healthy this time," Eri continued. "I mean..." she leaned back and looked Kagome up and down, holding her by the shoulders. "Look at you! You look more fit than me! What do you do in the hospital all day, climb mountains?" She let her arms fall with a sigh.

Kagome realized with a twinge of remorse that despite the jokes, her friends really worried about her. Maybe it was easy to make light of since they only ever saw Kagome in good health; but it must have been frightening knowing their friend was in the hospital. Because of course she'd be okay…until she wasn't.

Kagome surprised her friends by gathering them in one last, tight, group hug.

"Guys, I promise I'll be okay," she assured them. "Modern medicine is amazing. No matter how sick I get, I'll definitely always come back. So relax, no need to be so down!"

...Well, probably. Hopefully.

Ayumi wrapped her arms around Kagome's waist and squeezed tightly. "We know, Kagome. But just in case, I'm working on those one thousand cranes. I've got about five hundred already, made entirely by yours truly." With a smile and wink, she released her arms and backed off. The four of them made some more goodbyes before splitting up, Eri and Ayumi in one direction, Yuka and Kagome in another. As they walked away, Kagome heard Eri saying,

"Wow, five hundred all by yourself? That must have taken so much time. And you're using fancy origami paper, right? Isn't that expensive?..."

Kagome sighed, but was interrupted from internal flagellation when she noticed Yuka still standing, waiting for her. Oh yeah; Ayumi and Eri lived in the opposite direction, but she could still walk with Yuka for a few blocks before they had to part ways.

They walked for a few blocks, talking about simple, asinine subjects, which miraculously did not include Kagome's romantic affairs. Maybe Yuka was satisfied with what she'd got from WacDonalds(Ha!). Or at least sated enough to respect how much Kagome didn't want to talk about it.

They chatted about classmates and teachers, and songs on the radio. Simple, easy, and safe- just the way Kagome liked the modern era.

When they passed the corner where Yuka would normally peel off, she surprised Kagome by continuing to walk straight.

"You're not going home?" Kagome asked.

Yuka shrugged, her breath fogging in the air. "I'd rather spend time with you. I'll just walk with you to the base of the shrine."

"Aw!" Kagome said, pulling Yuka close in a one-armed hug. Yuka grinned in response, and they continued to chat until they reached the bottom of the mountains of steps that led up to Higurashi shrine.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Yuka asked.

"Yeah. I'll definitely be in school tomorrow," Kagome promised, nodding. "But I can't speak for after that."

Yuka nodded, because of course Kagome could predict when her next mortal illness would strike.

"Do you think the three of us could come over to your house tomorrow after school?" she asked. "If you'll be feeling alright, I mean..."

"Ah..." Kagome began. She had promised Inuyasha she'd return to the feudal era tomorrow night, after just enough time to get notes and make up some tests. By the time she came home from school the next day he'd definitely be champing at the bit, (if he wasn't already,) waiting at her house to whisk her away as speedily as half-humanly possible. "...No, I don't think tomorrow night's a good time."

Yuka frowned and sighed, but looked more resigned than disappointed. "Yeah. Okay," she said. "See you at school, then."

"See you."

As Kagome walked up the steps to the shrine, she made a wish. A little one. A wish that she knew she didn't mean, even if her heart ached.

I wish I could stay here more, she thought.

She didn't want to leave the feudal era. She loved her friends in the past. She loved the sound of crickets as they traveled through forest, and the sky full of stars she'd never have glimpsed in Tokyo. And I'd never just leave the people who need me, for as long as Naraku is alive and the Shikon Jewel exists to tempt people. I definitely don't want to stop going back to the past.

But...I just wish I could spend more time with my friends.

Yuka walked down the street until she couldn't see Kagome any more, smile fading. With a practiced motion she kicked a rock off the sidewalk. The stone flew into the side of a trashcan with perfect precision.

Yuka was sick of it.

Yuka wasn't idealistic like Ayumi, or as trusting as Eri. She could face the facts when she was being lied to. It hadn't taken long to see that Kagome was doing just that.

After the first time she'd been "sick," shortly after the scare where she vanished for three days at the start of the year, Yuka had believed Kagome's story. But as the absences became longer and more frequent, and diseases more and more outrageous, so too grew Yuka's skepticism. It was so obvious that Kagome was in perfect health, and that her family was lying for her so she could skip school for whatever reason. In any other situation, she would demand answers. But for no reason she could explain, Yuka feared the truth. That the acceptable lie Kagome told was the only thing bringing her back every few weeks. And if Yuka let on that she wasn't buying it, the spell would break and Kagome would disappear forever.

It was a stupid and irrational feeling, but that wasn't anything new for Yuka. She'd been doing stupid and irrational things since she was twelve, when the restlessness started. Yuka would look around at the world, at her life and her family and her school, and feel trapped inside it. Like some sort of emotional amputee. Running helped, but it wasn't always enough to stop her from lashing out and saying the kind of stuff that got her kicked off the soccer team.

"Demon child," she muttered. When she was a toddler, Yuka had insisted to the point of tantrums that she was a yokai. Her parents humored her until she grew out of it, but the nickname stuck. They said it a bit less lovingly, these days. And now she was going to open her big mouth and ruin everything, and Kagome would disappear forever. Stop it, that's stupid. That doesn't make sense.

Yuka expertly kicked another rock, and made a wish. It was a big wish, the one she made every time Kagome came back and visited their school.

I wish Kagome would trust us with the truth. I wish she would share her secrets with us, as friends do.

Wasn't sharing secrets, thoughts and dreams and fears and drama, what made a friendship? And with Kagome gone so much, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi couldn't share their own secrets with her. How could they, when Kagome was so rarely around? She didn't know that Yuka had been kicked off the soccer team and switched to track, or that Ayumi was taking guitar lessons to pursue her dream of writing music. She didn't know that Eri had a boyfriend, and that their relationship was so steady that not even Yuka wanted to harass her about it. No. Even if Kagome shared her secrets with her friends, she had to be there to hear theirs in turn.

Fine. Yuka thought. Even if she won't give us the truth, I wish things could go back to normal, and Kagome would stop vanishing.

Yuka kicked another rock at a trash can, and wished that the clang it made could become a gong, waking up some sleeping god to grant her desire.

TUESDAY

Shippo's wails yanked Sango awake. The migraine that had put its jacket on in the front parlor of her brain took it off and hung it back on the coat rack. She let out a soundless sigh, waving off Miroku's hands from where he'd been massaging her neck. Though she'd probably need more of that pretty soon.

"Kagomeeeeee!" Shippo sobbed (rather dryly, Sango noted,) as he ran into Kaede's cottage. Sango sat up. She, Miroku, and Kilala watched with mild interest as Shippo was quickly followed by an enraged Inuyasha, whose usually silver hair was now brown with mud. "Inuyasha hit me again for no reason! Make him-"

"I did not! The little shit dumped a load of—"

"—I was just sitting at the river—"

"—the size of a damn horse! It was entirely—"

"Kagome's not here, Shippo," Sango interrupted smoothly. Unfortunately. Because now she had to deal with the boys. Miraculously, both immediately stopped screaming. They also would rather whine to Kagome than to Sango.

"She went back to her own time for her tutoring, remember?" Sango went on.

"Oh yeah," Shippo said, his face falling. Inuyasha scowled next to him.

There was a moment of silence as Shippo considered what to do. His usual strategy of making sure Inuyasha only hit him in front of Kagome (and then gleefully enjoying the show) wasn't an option now. He glanced nervously at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha had not returned to beating him up, but was looking backwards, staring intently at the door of the hut. He looked around to give Sango a wary stare.

"Don't even think about it," Sango commanded, standing up. "You promised Kagome two days uninterrupted. At least."

Inuyasha scowled. "I wasn't going to go interrupt her."

Sango raised a skeptical eyebrow, but didn't sit down. "Good."

"I'm said I wasn't!"

"I didn't say you were."

"Inuyasha," Miroku said patiently, standing up as well. "Why don't you collect supplies to travel, so that we can leave as soon as Kagome does come back?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "I did that already," he said, pointing at some bundled packets in the back of the room.

Damn. "Then go clean that—" Miroku began, and paused. "Hey, where did Shippo go? Hmm, whatever —go clean that mud off your head."

Inuyasha stared suspiciously at Miroku for a few seconds, who gazed serenely back.

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered. He must not have found too much of an ulterior motive in the monk's advice, because he then turned around and stalked out the door.

Despite Kagome's, Sango's, Miroku's, and Shippo's thoughts to the contrary, Inuyasha wasn't an idiot. He could tell when Miroku was just trying to get rid of him so he could be alone with Sango, even if he did have a valid point. Besides, he needed to find a particular little twerp and strangle him.

And yet, as he ran towards the river to wash out his hair, Inuyasha's thoughts weren't on Shippo. They were occupied, as they often were when she was away, with Kagome.

Yeah, he'd promised not to bother her for two days, but why? He never understood why she cared so much about that stupid place, that school, where people just sat all day and listened to some old fart drone on about…well, he never actually listened to what the geezers were saying. If it was anything like the gibberish in her "textbooks," it was a wonder everyone in the future hadn't gone crazy. She may have extracted a promise from him, (after making a three-foot deep Inuyasha-shaped hole in the ground,) not to interrupt her studies, but he never understood her reasoning, and therefore why he should be faithful to it. "School" was stupid. He'd never heard of anything called "turigunameturi," and if he'd never heard of it, then it probably wasn't that important.

Inuyasha reached the river, where the water was burbling along. It was as slow and peaceful as everyone else in this stupid village, glittering in the bright winter sun.

He stripped off all his clothing and jumped into the river, which came up to a bit below his hips, and bent down to immerse his head in the water. The cold was uncomfortable, but he wasn't some weak human, susceptible to frostbite. And the freezing water let him cool his head. Inuyasha had found, lately, that he didn't quite like the person he became when Kagome wasn't there. He reminded himself of how he'd been in the past, violent and unhappy. Things were better when Kagome was there.

Inuyasha got out as soon as he washed all the mud off. He shook himself off and donned his clothing, staring at the flowing water. So different from his own fiery nature.

I won't go down, he thought. I'll just go take a look in case she came back early. And began to walk in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well.

To anyone else, the well was an accursed place. Just one more hole full of demon corpses, in a country lousy with them, filled with jagged bones and painful memories. To anyone else, jumping in meant getting impaled on those bones, instead of never touching the bottom.

The half-demon stood still on the lip, staring down, but his mind swayed with indecision.

You promised.

Yeah, but it was a stupid promise.

Kagome's going to be pissed. Really pissed.

Nah, only as angry as she ever gets when I try to rush her….Besides, it's her own fault for caring about that stupid school and those stupid tests. She knows that finding and killing Naraku is a thousand times more important.

You told Sango you wouldn't go bother her.

Well…shut up.

Inuyasha ran his claws through his hair one more time—it was almost dry—and shook his head vigorously. Then he jumped into the well, and with a flash of blue was gone.

Shippo had gotten lucky this time, and he knew it.

He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid, forgetting Kagome was gone! But she'd left two nights ago, after Shippo had fallen asleep. And during yesterday and today, he'd been so busy playing with Kilala and some of the village boys that he simply hadn't noticed her absence. Normally Inuyasha wouldn't let him forget it, what with constantly moping at the well and jumping back and forth between the present and the future…

But this time, for some reason, the dumb dog hadn't acted by the script.

No. No more excuses, Shippo told himself. He'd been stupid, that was it. If he made a mistake like that again, he'd end up a bloody pulp punted halfway across the ocean.

The rice paddies were empty this time of year, bare of either rice sprouts or the many villagers who tended them. Shippo sat at the base of a cliff overlooking the frozen fields, sucking on a lollipop.

This is my last one, he realized sadly. I hope Kagome comes back soon.

Inuyasha must have gone into the forest, because it had been about an hour since Shippo had run into the fields, and he'd heard nothing of dog-boy in the village. Shippo looked past the village to Inuyasha's Forest. It was the place Inuyasha frequented most, which was why Shippo had run in exactly the opposite direction.

He hoped the hanyo was brooding at the well; it would keep him occupied until he broke down and broke his promise. And then Kagome would be back, and she'd protect him if Inuyasha tried to hit him again. Shippo unconsciously snickered around his lolly.

"What's that?"

Shippo jumped at the sound of the girl's voice. He hadn't even heard her footsteps, or smelled her approach.

He gave a look at the child who'd interrupted him. She was a human girl, probably a villager, though her face was so unremarkable that he couldn't remember if he'd ever played with her before. Her face was smudged with dirt, and stringy brown hair escaped from a ponytail to fall over her eyes. She looked to be about the same age as him physically, so about seven years old, and was dressed in the same children's yukata worn by everyone in the village.

"What's what?" he responded, suppressing the urge to edge away from her on his log. She was just a human, after all.

The girl pointed at the lollipop stem sticking out of Shippo's mouth.

"Nothing," he grumbled. "It's mine."

"It is too something! Is that food?"

"Yeah, but I told you, it's mine!"

The girl glared at Shippo. When this strategy produced no reaction, she switched tactics.

"I'm a demon, you know," the girl finally said, folding her arms haughtily at the kitsune. Shippo wondered if that was supposed to intimidate him; did she not see the tail? He sniffed condescendingly. He could smell her easily now. He wondered why he hadn't been able to sense her approach before.

"No you're not. You smell entirely human."

"I am!" The girl snapped. "Demon, I mean. Not human. And I'll curse you if you don't give me that…whatever it is in your mouth."

Shippo took the lollipop out to both wave at her and stick out his tongue. "No you won't," he taunted. "Come and get it if you can!"

The village child grabbed at the candy. Shippo easily avoided her grubby fist, and continued to tease her with it for a few more attempts. At length, she seemed to realize that doing the same thing over and over again wouldn't produce any different results. She stopped and glared at Shippo again.

"I really will curse you," she huffed. Shippo merely smirked; he'd found that it was more enraging than saying anything.

The girl screamed in frustration, and grabbed at the lollipop a few more times, with similar results as before.

"I hate you!" She screamed, pointing at her foxy opponent. "And I'm cursing you right now!"

Shippo laughed out loud this time, and bit the last bit of lollipop off the stick with a sticky crunch.

"Stinks to be you!" he teased. He stuck his tongue out at the girl, and pulled down the bottom of his eyelid for good measure. She shrieked again and lunged at him, an attack he easily avoided. At that moment, he heard his name being called.

"Shippo, where are you? Shippo!"

Shippo dodged a tackle from his new playmate and looked up at the ridge above him, where Sango was walking. Awesome, time for a dynamic exit! He grabbed a leaf from the supply in his pocket, and held it up to his forehead.

"Try to do better next time," he mocked, and jumped. His feet landed on the girl's head as he boosted off, transforming into an enormous pink bubble at the apex of his leap. He chuckled all the way up the ridge, to where Sango was watching with a tired smile. The child's shrieks and threats of curses him followed him up.

"Are you torturing the village children?" Sango asked wryly as he transformed back. Shippo shrugged.

"Kind of," he admitted with a grin. "But she made it way too easy."

Sango sighed, and rubbed her forehead. "You need to be more careful, Shippo," she said. "The villagers are tolerant because Kaede approves of us, and because they sort of see Inuyasha as their mascot. But you need to remember that you are a demon. Don't give them any reason to want to do you harm."

"I know," Shippo pouted. "But she started it!"

"I'm sure. But try to stay out of fights, okay?"

Shippo scowled. Any mirth from teasing the girl—what was her name? Had she said?—was dissipating. Maybe he'd just go play with Kilala.

Sango and Shippo started back towards Kaede's house, to prepare for Kagome's return. Since they didn't look back, they didn't see the little village girl turn away and speak into the air. And since they didn't look back, they didn't see the thick indentation that appeared in the dirt next to her, snaking away from her in the direction of Inuyasha's Forest.

Kagome loved waking up in the Feudal Era. The rising sun that woke her up gently with its budding light, the dawn chorus of the birds, the healthy schedule of sleeping with the sun…she loved them more than she hated the shrill bell of her alarm clock.

But nothing could compare a medieval futon to her bed.

Kagome groaned into her pillow and fumbled for the alarm clock on her bedside, hoping to turn it off without having to open her eyes or move her face. It screamed cheerfully out of reach. Which idiot had put it so far away? Right, that had been night-time-Kagome's strategy to wake up morning-Kagome. Asshole. Kagome dropped her arm and listened to the ringing for a few more minutes before mustering the strength to raise her torso from the bed.

The door of her room opened as she managed to silence the clock.

"Morning Sis," Sota called cheerfully from the doorway. He was already dressed for the day with his backpack in hand, the little snot.

"Sota!" Kagome shouted, throwing a pillow at her little brother's head. It flopped against the door ineffectually. "What have I told you about opening my door without permission?"

Sota grinned and closed the door a fraction of an inch.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "But Mom sent me up to tell you that breakfast is on the table. I don't know why you set your alarm so late."

"None of your business," Kagome grumbled. "Now get out and close the door or I throw something heavier." Sota stuck his tongue out and left, closing the door behind him.

Okay, Kagome thought as she went through the familiar routine of dressing and packing up her studying materials from the night before. I have one day—and possibly less, if Inuyasha comes to get me in the middle—to absorb as much school work and information as possible. And she knew she couldn't extort any more time out of him as she had in the past. Though the gang had no idea where Naraku was, the stakes were higher than ever, and Kagome knew they needed to find him as soon as possible.

"Kagome, breakfast!"

"Right, coming Mama," Kagome called down. She'd go home with Inuyasha when he came to get her, but until then she would put the thought out of her mind. It wouldn't do to be distracted from school in the little time she had.

She hopped down the stairs to the kitchen and took her usual seat at the table.

"Good morning sweetie," her mother smiled at her, setting a plate of fish and rice in front of her. "How did you sleep?"

"Wonderfully, thank you," Kagome said with a grateful smile. God, it was wonderful to be able to eat fish that had been cooked in an oven instead of a campfire. She murmured an itadakimasu and dug in.

"Is Inuyasha going to be coming over today?" Sota asked eagerly, leaning on the table, just as Kagome put a big helping of rice into her mouth.

"Prorolly," she answered before swallowing. "I mean, I told him not to come until tonight at the earliest, so he's probably going to be here around midday. Don't let him follow me to school, alright? I have four tests to make up, and really don't need the distraction."

Sota shrugged. "I can't do anything, I'm going to be at school too."

Both Higurashi kids looked expectantly at their elderly grandfather, who was fastidiously avoiding their eyes.

"Well I don't dare put him to work around the shrine," Grandpa protested. "You remember what happened last time I tried that!"

"Mmm," Kagome hummed. She supposed the fact that he'd destroyed only three precious antiques instead of the whole storehouse was a blessing. Inuyasha's talents lay more in breaking things than in preserving them. "Fine, I guess you're right. And Mama's going to be at work until five…"

"Just send him to me when he shows up," Mama Higurashi offered. "I'm sure Ms. Rekihara will be okay with me leaving early."

Kagome was about to voice her doubts about letting Inuyasha try to navigate the city by himself when she saw the clock on the wall.

"Crap, I'm late!" Some things never changed. "Thanks Mama, I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to rush home today." She hugged her mother in thanks, grabbed her bag, and raced out the door.

The smell was always the first thing Inuyasha noticed when he jumped through time. The sour odor of "gasoline", and other noxious gases, pervaded the air even in the apparently pure shrine grounds.

He jumped out of the well and exited the well house. Inuyasha didn't even bother with the front door, instead jumping straight to Kagome's window.

She wasn't in there. He hadn't really expected her to be. But Inuyasha opened the window and went in anyway, breathing in the smell of the room. Kagome's scent washed through him and he breathed in deeply, relaxing, releasing the constant tension he felt in her absence. She'd only been away for a little over a day, but it already felt like forever. He knelt down next to her bed and put his face in her pillow…

"Oh Inuyasha, welcome back!" Grandpa Higurashi wheezed out, noticing the home invader as he passed the open door. "What are you doing?"

Inuyasha stood upright. "Uh, nothing," he said. "Hey, Old Man, where's Kagome now? Is she still at that stupid school?"

"Uh," Grandpa stalled, mind creaking furiously. "Hmm, well, no, she's not at school. She's on a…field trip. To, hmm, to Guam. Yes. She told me to tell you that you should go to the florist down the road, where her mother works."

"What the hell is Guam?"

Grandpa backed away nervously. Lying to the teachers about Kagome's illnesses on the phone was fun. This was not. This had consequences. "Somewhere far, far away. Just go to the florist." He fled, sure that Inuyasha would see through his lie if he kept at it.

Inuyasha snorted. "Far far away" was very different for him than for regular humans. And even if he believed the old man—which wasn't a sure thing—it would be much simpler to just follow his nose from the school than to try to find Kagome through her mother.

"I'll just follow her to Guam," Inuyasha called down the hall, grabbing the baseball cap Kagome kept for him and perching on the windowsill. "See you, old man!"

Grandpa didn't hear him. His ear was too busy listening to the school's hold music. Hopefully his message would reach Kagome before Inuyasha did.

"Higurashi, phone for you."

The whole class swiveled as one to look at Kagome, who stood up once the office secretary had relayed her message.

"Do you know what it's about? Who it's from?" Kagome asked as left the classroom, her imagination instantly cranking out a hundred horrible tragedies that would cause her to get called out of class. Mom is dead. Sota is dead. Gramps is dead…

"No clue," the young secretary shrugged. "I'm just delivering the message." The two walked in silence towards the administration office while Kagome tried to tell herself to calm down. It was probably nothing.

"That one," the secretary said, and directed her to one of the several phones used by the office administrators. Kagome picked up the receiver, her blood pounding in her ears.

"Hello?"

"Kagome," Grandpa's voice wheezed over the telephone. "Bad news."

"What? What is it?!" Kagome asked, gripping the receiver with both hands. "What's wrong? Is everyone okay?"

"What? Something's wrong?" Grandpa gasped, horrified. "Did something happen, Kagome?"

"Tell me why you called me, Grandpa!" Kagome snapped.

"First tell me what's wrong, Kagome."

"That's what I'm asking you!"

"No. Nothing's wrong," Grandpa said, sounding hurt. "There's no need to take that kind of tone with me."

Kagome resisted the impulse to bash her head on the desk. "Grandpa," she said, slowly and clearly. "What's the bad news that you called me about?"

"Oh that, yes. Inuyasha's here. And I think he's heading towards your school. I tried to divert him to your mother, but I don't think he bought my excuse."

Kagome rolled her eyes. The fact that the man who had excused her from school with "Alice-In-Wonderland Syndrome" was unable to come up with a convincing reason to keep the tenacious Inuyasha from following her to school was about as surprising and unexpected as Miroku rubbing Sango's ass. "He does that every time I come back from the past, Gramps," Kagome sighed. "Why does it suddenly mean pulling me out of class to tell me?"

"Well, you seemed so insistent this time, even going so far as to make a plan for where he should go," Grandpa sighed. "I thought it was more important than usual, and that you might want to know."

Kagome gave a little laugh through her nose, and her fear-stiff spine relaxed. "Oh Gramps," she said. "I appreciate the thought. But today was no more important than any other day he interrupts me at school."

"Alright," Granpda replied. "Good luck with your makeup tests. I hope that boy doesn't distract you too much."

"Me too Gramps. Me too."

"He may be there already," Grandpa suddenly realized. "He left nearly ten minutes ago; your school had me on hold for quite a while."

Crap, Kagome thought. She had to get there before he caused too much trouble. "In that case, if he isn't here already he will be soon. I'd better go and do some damage control. I'll see you later."

Kagome hung up the phone and started speed walking back to the classroom. Who knew what sort of trouble Inuyasha could get up to in the modern world, especially around her classmates. Maybe if she Sat him enough times he'd go wait patiently at home. Or better, the feudal era. Yeah right!

But despite her frustrated thoughts, a small smile bubbled up onto Kagome's lips. She hadn't seen her rude, violent, oblivious half-demon for almost two days. And the thought of seeing him again soon, even when he was making her life complicated and difficult, had her quietly humming as she walked back to class.

Sachi walked through the forest. There were grown men in her village who would hesitate to walk in Inuyasha's Forest without protection, but it didn't bother Sachi. There was nothing in the wood that could harm her, not even the weather. The greatest danger to her were the twigs that dug into her bare feet.

Because Sachi wasn't alone.

"What was wrong with that stupid fox?" she grumbled, the salty lines on her cheeks a stark clean within the general grubbiness of the rest of her face. She's been crying earlier, the tears of indignation that came easily to a seven-year old, but her eyes were dry now. Now she was just confused.

What was wrong with the stupid fox? one of Sachi's friends echoed. She felt a breeze as her friend circled her, raising pleasant gooseflesh on her arms.

"He was a demon, wasn't he?" Sachi asked. "He was. He had a tail. And he transformed into a giant pink bubble."

None of her friends responded, but Sachi felt a puff of breath that smelled like a confirmation. They agreed that the stupid fox was, in fact, a demon.

"If he was a demon, why didn't he want to be my friend?" Sachi asked. "All demons want to be my friend."

There are many kinds of demons, Sachi.

"I hate him," Sachi mumbled. "I want him to be my friend."

We can help you, Sachi. We can help him become your friend, if you would just grant us a gift.

Suddenly the voices were clamoring around her, begging, asking her for a gift. In the past, some might have yelled at her, commanded her to give them what only she was able to provide, but she quickly disabused them of that behavior. They had to ask her nicely, or they would receive nothing. Sometimes, no matter how polite they were, Sachi wouldn't give them anything.

But they stayed, Sachi knew, because they loved her. And she loved them.

"Alright, I'll do it," Sachi said. "You promise it'll work? That getting rid of the priestess will make him my friend?"

I have watched them, whispered one of them, the first of Sachi's friends. With a voice like branches scraping against leaves, he said, I know them. The priestess is the one the fox favors. With her gone, he will turn to you.

Sachi nodded. Bekikou had told her the same thing earlier, when Shippo had treated her so unkindly. She didn't understand how this plan would work, but she trusted her friend. It was Benkikou who had taught her to produce the strange energy that made her know she was a demon, and he was the one who made the rest of her friends invisible. Sachi was the only creature who had ever seen him, and she trusted him most out of all the other demons.

Yes, many friends answered, voices on the wind. We'll get rid of the priestess. Now give it to us! The dark trees around her rustled with the movement of unseen creatures as they crowded up around her.

Sachi held out her hands and concentrated, and felt rather than saw the white light emanating out of them. Demons and ghosts—her friends—crowded around them, desperate for it. It wasn't youki, exactly, but it slid into their demonic energy like ink into water. She managed to hold it out for thirty seconds, her friends shoving and crowding each other (though not her, never her,) before the light gave out.

"That's enough," she panted. "I'm tired now. Benkikou, take me home."

The wind swirled around Sachi and picked her up with a touch as soft and delicate as rabbit fur, carrying her homeward.

Yuka Shimizu made it her business to know everything that happened in her school. The one thing she didn't seem to grasp was the piece of gossip that everyone knew about her: Yuka Shimizu didn't know how to shut up. So when the teacher shouted "Shimizu, no talking in class!" Yuka didn't let it go.

"I wasn't talking, I was explaining the theorem to Arisawa," she snapped back at full volume. Arisawa, next to her, cringed.

"Maybe if you actually taught it properly the first time I wouldn't have to," Yuka went on.

"That's it." The teacher slammed his fist on the desk, breaking the piece of chalk within it. With the other hand he raised an almost trembling finger and pointed to the classroom door. "Your attitude is unacceptable. Go stand in the hall. Now!"

Yuka left the classroom, but she didn't stand any longer than the instant it took her to decide where to go. Like hell I will, Yuka thought as she stormed down the hallway, wishing for a rock or a can on the floor to kick into next week. She'd had enough of listening to authority figures for one day. Maybe the teacher would discover she'd left, maybe he wouldn't. She needed to run.

Yuka briefly considered changing into her gym clothes, but decided she was willing to stink up the classroom for the rest of the day in exchange for those precious extra minutes of running she would get. Got to get out, got to move, now, now, NOW.

She didn't bother to put on a coat as she left the building and jogged to the running track. It was empty of gym students, but she'd have gone there regardless. She sprinted a lap and a half around the school track before she caught a flash of movement in the corner of her eye that made her slow to a stop.

"Holy crap," she couldn't help but murmur, and jogged into the school's front courtyard to stare.

The figure was definitely the weirdest thing she'd seen in a good long while, and that wasn't even taking into account the fact that they were twenty feet up a tree.

"Are you part of a historical play, or something?" Yuka asked as she walked up behind the person standing a few yards past the school gate, staring up at the building. Sure, it wasn't such a shock to see people walking around in kimonos these days, but not the loud crimson this one was wearing. The fantasy-historical-roleplayer vibes she was getting fit neatly with the prop sword hanging from their waist. The only thing that ruined the image was the person's anachronistic baseball cap.

"What? Who the hell are you?" The guy said, turning to look down at her. And despite the long, beautiful silver hair that ran down to the boy's back, he was very clearly male. His scowl sat comfortably on his handsome face, as though it spent a lot of time there. Everything about him seemed to just exude masculine obstinacy, though Yuka couldn't really explain why. She felt a small shiver of pure aesthetic appreciation, looking at his face.

"I'm a student here, duh," Yuka said, gesturing to her only-a-little-bit-sweaty school uniform, which he took in. "And you are obviously not." No one as striking as this guy could go anonymous for any amount of time in her school.

He gave a little snort, as if the thought him going to her school was utterly ridiculous. Yuka gasped as he stepped out of the tree and fell, landing in front of her. Her eyes widened; he'd fallen twenty feet without even dropping to his knees. As he landed, Yuka had the strangest sensation of—something. A smell? A feeling, in the pit of her stomach? It made her take a step back, even as something inside her uncurled and reached for it.

He stared at her for a moment before turning back to look up at the school building, away from Yuka.

"So what are you doing here, Mr. Not-In-A-Historical-Play? I'm Yuka Shimizu, by the way," Yuka said, crossing her arms against the cold. She started to shiver, now that she wasn't running.

The nameless boy turned back to face her, but instead of answering, raised a sleeved arm to cover his mouth and nose. "What's with you?" he asked. "You smell…weird."

Yuka gasped. She hadn't even run two laps!

"You're one to talk, weirdo," she snapped. She spun on her heel and stomped back to the school building. What an asshole!

She was still seething by the time she walked back to the classroom, remembering just in time not to go in, that she was supposed to be standing penitently in the hall. Was he raised in a barn, or something? Maybe he was crazy socially awkward, and didn't know how to talk to other human beings. Yuka wanted to punch something. Preferably that hot, weirdo asshole, right between his unnerving yellow eyes.

The door opened suddenly and the teacher stuck his head out. "Alright Shimizu, I think you've been out here long enough. You can come in now."

Yuka gave the teacher a bow and a thank you, and returned to her seat. Angry as she was, she found that the feeling of antsyness she'd had, the helpless frustration that usually took a good twenty minutes of running, had vanished.

Since returning to the classroom, Kagome kept her eyes on the window, just waiting for Inuyasha to appear somewhere. So when he suddenly appeared outside her third floor window, it was practically a relief.

Get down from there, she mouthed with an expression that promised a Sit if he didn't comply.

He pointed to her, and then downward, an obstinate expression on his face. No, you get down.

Kagome twitched her head in the direction of the oblivious teacher. Kind of busy at the moment.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes impatiently, and Kagome saw his mouth form a Keh! But he jumped down from the window ledge, just as the teacher dismissed the class.

"Hey Kagome, do you understand—"

"Sorry Ayumi, I've got to go," Kagome said as she ran out the door. "I'll be right back in a few minutes."

He was waiting in a tree in the school courtyard, blending in with the green like a priest in a strip club.

"Inuyasha," she sighed as she walked up to the base of the tree. "You promised me two full days, uninterrupted!"

Inuyasha scowled and jumped down from the tree. "Why do you even care about this stupid stuff, Kagome?" he asked, gesturing to the evil, oppressive school building. "It's a waste of time, and you've said yourself that you're never going to use any of the crap in those dumb spellbooks!"

"Just because you live in a world where all you need to know is how to swing a sword doesn't mean it's the same for me." Kagome stomped her foot emphatically. "My education is important, Inuyasha!"

"What, more important than finding and killing Naraku?" Inuyasha scoffed. "You know that's bullshit. Once we do that, and reassemble the jewel, you can spend as much time on your stupid 'education' as you want."

"I know that!" Kagome shouted back. "I know it's important, okay? But he's disappeared, again, and there's nothing we can do right now to find him. There's no point for us to go on a wild goose chase around the country, especially when I could be using this time to at least try to bring my four Ds and two Fs up to a passing grade. I give up a lot to help search for Naraku, so the least you could do is just give me these two days that you already promised me!

"Okay, I'm done yelling. You don't have to hide behind the tree."

Inuyasha peeked around the trunk. Kagome was terrifying when she was pissed. Maybe coming earlier than he'd promised hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"Listen, Inuyasha, I have two classes left," Kagome huffed, running a hand through her hair. "I just need to take one more test, and then I'll come home. It'll be less than two hours. Then I'll pack up and we can go, alright? I promise." She shot him an ironic glance. And I keep my promises.

"Keh," Inuyasha grumbled. "Fine. But don't expect this whole school thing to keep happening, wench. We're going to find Naraku, and we're gonna have to chase the bastard for however long it takes, got it?"

Kagome grinned. She couldn't really say why, since she was supposed to still be mad at him, but that whole statement was just so Inuyasha that his speech bubble could have worn fire-rat fur and dog ears.

"Fine," she said. "But only if you stop harassing me at school! Go to the shrine or back in time, and I'll meet you there."

Inuyasha snorted. "I still think it's a waste of time," he growled. Instead of leaving or trying to convince her to come with him, his expression changed to one of thoughtful concern.

"Kagome," he began.

"Hmm?"

"Are there any demons in your school?"

Kagome blinked. Weird question. "No, of course not," she said. "The only demons I've ever seen in this era were the Soul Piper and the Noh Mask." The Noh Mask had been the product of a shikon jewel shard embedded in a piece of wood, dormant for the five hundred years since she'd first shattered the jewel. The Soul Piper was an amalgamation of spirits that lead the souls of dead children to the underworld. Neither were the typical, corporeal demons they usually faced. "I don't think physical demons exist in this time, not in this world."

"I saw something weird," Inuyasha said. "There was a girl, dressed in the same dumb robes that you wear." Kagome rolled her eyes.

"But she smelled…weird," he continued. "Human at first. But there was something strange underneath."

"Strange?"

Inuyasha nodded. He licked his lips and flexed his hands as he searched for words. "I can't describe smells to humans," he began. "But there was something about it the smelled like…food. But not food that you eat."

"I don't understand," Kagome said. "Food you don't eat?"

Inuyasha ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "Maybe not food. But something…something desirable." More than desirable. Intoxicating. Inuyasha thought if he'd stood next to her for too long he'd have taken a bite out of her then and there. "But also untouchable, pure," he went on. "Like if you mixed the smells of cooking meat with flowers and it smelled good. But also nothing like meat or flowers."

Kagome shook her head in confusion. "I'm not getting it. But do you think she was a demon, this person?"

"No!" Inuyasha snapped. "Human, but also…" he yanked at his hair some more.

"I still don't understand what you're trying to say," Kagome said. "But if she's not a demon, and she smells like a human, then she's probably not a threat, alright? So don't worry about it."

"Keh," Inuyasha growled. He considered her suggestion. Inuyasha wasn't the kind of dog to leave a mystery un-sniffed, but Naraku was more important. He jumped, and with a flash of crimson was gone.

"You've got your medicine?" Mama Higurashi asked.

"Check. Antibiotics, pain relievers, allergy meds… wait, I'm missing the disinfectant cream."

Mrs. Higurashi looked up from the checklist and spotted the missing ointment on the table, right behind where Kagome was standing. She pointed to it, and her daughter grabbed it up and put it into the already stuffed yellow backpack.

"Change of clothes?"

"Yep."

"Food?"

"That's an understatement."

"Textbooks?"

"Uh-huh."

Standing by the door as he watched the two women pack, Inuyasha snorted. "You know you really don't need any of that. Kaede can give you all the food and medicine you need."

"You never seem to say that when you're stuffing your face with instant ramen," Kagome snorted as she closed the mouth of the bag. She let out an "oof!" as she put it on, her knees buckling a bit under the weight.

"Well then, obviously you should just fill it entirely with ramen," Inuyasha said as he walked over. He grabbed the pack from the top to allow Kagome to slide out of it, and slung it over his back.

"Ah, makes perfect sense," Kagome said as they walked to the front door. "And it's silly of me to waste the space on things like deodorant and tampons, right?"

"Exactly," Inuyasha agreed. "What are tampons?"

"Never mind," Kagome laughed. She turned around to wave goodbye to her mother. "I'll see you in a week or so, Mama. Good night, I love you!"

"You take care, dear," Mrs. Higurashi said with her signature kind smile. "Be safe, and come home soon. You too, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha responded with a lazy wave, and Kagome slid the screen door shut. The two walked in silence to the well house, the cold winter evening crisp with the smell of snow. Both eagerly anticipated their return to the past.

Kagome opened the screen door of the well house and went to stand on the lip of the well.

"Shall we?" she asked. Inuyasha nodded and joined her. They jumped in unison into the well.

The well wasn't very deep, but enough to break an ankle if one didn't land properly. Kagome realized that something was wrong two seconds in to their fall. Instead of the bright blue vortex that usually appeared halfway through their fall, that beautiful void in which Kagome could feel herself moving through centuries, there were just the mundane dirt walls of an old well. In a second she would crash into the earth, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Fortunately for her, Inuyasha was faster. In a split second, Inuyasha grabbed her and rolled over in the air, in time for the two of them to land on their backs on the well floor. Inuyasha let out a winded grunt as all of Kagome's weight fell on top of him, but Kagome knew he wasn't hurt. She was more worried about why that had been necessary.

"What just happened?" she asked as she scrambled up. She knelt down and felt around the dirt floor, as if that would somehow yield a clue to her question. "The well's…not working? But—that's only ever happened when…" When Inuyasha had forced her down the well and then clogged it with a tree, but she didn't really want to remember that. "Do you think someone blocked it up from the other side?"

"…What," whispered Inuyasha in shock. He'd never been blocked passage by the well before.

"Try digging; that's what got me through last time." Kagome was already scratching at the dirt, heedless of the soil catching under her nails. Inuyasha quickly joined in, and between the two of them (read: mostly Inuyasha) they soon had the whole area of the well torn up. Nothing.

"Let's—let's try again," Kagome suggested desperately. Inuyasha agreed. He grabbed her and the backpack and jumped out of the well. This time, when they jumped, they were prepared.

Inuyasha landed on his feet on the floor of the well, Kagome in his arms. Still in the modern era.

"Fuck!" Inuyasha shouted. He punched a wall, leaving a four-inch impression in the packed earth.

"Let's do it again, Inuyasha."

They tried again. Still didn't work.

"One more time!"

They continued to jump in and out of the well. They tried different methods of making the magic work, no matter how ridiculous it felt. Kagome tried falling in backwards, because that was how she'd passed through the first time. Grandpa's sutras, which had never succeeded in sealing the well before, were carved off with desperate claws. Kagome meditated, she shot an arrow into the well. Each time, they got the same results.

"This isn't working!" Inuyasha snarled. "Why the hell isn't it working?!"

"I don't know!" Kagome cried. She squatted down and moaned, holding her head in her hands.

"I don't know."

"Let's…let's try again tomorrow," Kagome suggested. "Maybe this block—whatever it is—is just temporary. Maybe Sango and Miroku will have taken care of it by the time we wake up." She didn't know how many times they'd jumped up and down the stupid well. She checked her watch—it was 1:46 AM. They'd started at about 10:00. "There's no point in us wearing ourselves out."

Inuyasha grabbed a clod of dirt from the ground and let it fall through his fingers, disgusted.

"Yeah," he muttered. He had some dark bags under his eyes too. "We'll try again first thing in the morning."

They left the backpack in the well. Nothing in it was perishable, anyway, and Inuyasha was tired. He grabbed Kagome and leaped out for the last time.

As they walked back to the house, Kagome didn't even know what to think. She simply couldn't fathom the possibility that her time portal wasn't working.

But it looked like, for now, the well was broken.

NOTES:

This is a heavily edited repost of this fic that I first posted on FFnet in 2013. I've edited the bad writing from the early chapters and trimmed the fat a bit. The point of this fic is to see Inuyasha get up to shenanigans in the modern era, but I did need a plot to tie it together. Like the jello that contains the stapler, it supports the fanservice we're all here for. It also takes up a lot more words than the stapler. So as much as I wanted this story to be about Inuyasha learning to wear jeans, it's fairly plot heavy. I hope you enjoy the meal, jello and stapler and all.

For those of you who read the original on FFnet, the character named "Kurukufumu" has been renamed "Benkikou," since I know more about kanji than I did in 2013.