A/N: Thanks to reviewers Western White Tiger, A Most Sovereign Lady, Novert-A-Rex, Nirvana Slayer, Flower of Venus, Lorien Legacy and the guest for their kind comments in the last chapter. About the archery club chapter last time, I admit I included it because I thought it would make Kagome's archery skills more believable. Hirose was modelled after Hirose Sumire of Saki because Sumire was the first anime archer that came to my mind - she will likely not make another appearance in latter chapters, and her motivation for helping Kagome was simply because she was a busybody (not unlike Sumire in the Saki anime), with no ulterior motives. I have not thought much about what Kagome would be wearing in the Sengoku Jidai. While I do want to adhere to canon where possible, I agree that a school uniform seems rather impractical. As for the term "harem", I thought of it as just a reference to a nobleman's wives and consorts, which were pretty common in those days. In a stricter sense of the term, referring to the actual living space where women were secluded, there were examples in Japanese history such as the koukyuu (Imperial harem), and the shogun's oooku in the Edo Period. Literature about the koukyuu (such as Genji Monogatari and Makura no Soushi) have been around since the Heian Period, so since Izayoi was a noblewoman, I thought that she might have read such works before and made offhanded mentions to her son. I do sometimes wonder how familiar was Inuyasha with human culture, as in canon he did seem to have learned some things from his mother, but after her death he spent little time around humans until meeting Kikyou. At any rate, it would be interesting investigating this, along with other tidbits of his character. With that said, here is the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.


A Different Journey

The story of Inuyasha, and the miko he loved who had survived death


Chapter 12

Something lunged from the darkness. Kagome shot the arrow, but couldn't hit the moving target. She drew another arrow, and another, but none of them hit. The thing closed on her and she now saw it was a giant snake. All she could do was raise her hand and try to do that "miko thing", damned be Inuyasha's vague description of it. A bright flash of light erupted from Kagome's hand and slammed the snake's wide-opened jaws.

Pop.

The impact was not heavy as Kagome imagined. The snake popped anticlimactically like some sort of balloon. The darkness vanished. A crow cried overhead as though chiding Kagome and Myouga's idiocy. Yeah, Kagome was inclined to agree with the crow when she saw that the snake was not so giant after all, nor even alive. It was the length of her forearm at best, made of cloth and stuffed with hay.

Beside the toy snake was a small fox-boy. "Please don't kill me!" he pleaded, small hands waving in the air.

"Myouga-san, is the really bad thing that you felt this little boy?" Kagome glared at the flea demon by her side.

"I-I-I'm sorry. It had felt super bad at the time."

"Coward."

Kagome batted Myouga off her shoulder and instead turned her attention to the fox-boy in front of her. His hair was a fluffy ball of bright brown tied by a green bow that matched his eyes. He was adorable! Kagome wanted to pick him up, but when the boy shook as she neared, she refrained.

"Ahem. I should introduce myself first. My name is Higurashi Kagome. And yours?"

The boy looked cautiously up to her. "You aren't going to kill me?"

"Of course not! Why would I?"

"But…I tricked you with my illusion magic…"

"I am sure you have your reasons. You can tell me all about them later, but first, tell me your name."

"…Shippou."

"Shippou? As in seven treasures?"

The boy nodded. What a good boy! Kagome couldn't help but pat him on the head, causing the boy to tilt indignantly to the side. He didn't move away though.

"So Shippou, what are you doing here on the mountain all alone? Where are your parents?"

At this, Shippou's gaze became downcast. "They're dead."

Kagome wanted to bite her own tongue for asking such a stupid question. Of course, this was the Era of Warring States – had she expected everybody to live in a mansion with two puppies? She took one of Shippou's hands and gave it a squeeze. "Then do you want to stay with us for the time being? At least for the night? It is dangerous for you to travel in the dark all by yourself. What if there are bad youkai out there?"

"I am a youkai too and I can handle myself!"

Shippou's stomach didn't seem to think the same, as it gave a growl in response. Kagome chuckled, causing him to turn away with crossed arms.

"My bad, my bad. I am sure even a great youkai as yourself need some sustenance. If you don't mind, I can share with you my lowly human cuisine. How do noodles sound?"

"Noodles?"

As a result of this conversation, Kagome took it upon herself to make dinner. She boiled some water with her camping stove and poured it into the cup noodles she had brought. In no time, the delicious aroma of cooked noodles was spilling out the paper tops. Kagome removed them, showing Shippou the plump, golden noodles soaked in rich broth. She handed him a pair of disposable chopsticks.

"Is…is that your magic, Kagome?" Shippou asked.

"Umm…sure, you can call it that." She secretly apologized to whomever invented instant cup noodles.

As Shippou and Kagome feasted, Myouga landed himself on the log adjacent them. "So, Shippou was it? Are you gonna fess up about why you attacked us?"

Shippou pouted. "I didn't have a choice!"

"What do you mean you didn't have a choice? You initiated the encounter. Don't make it sound like we are the bad guys here!"

"Now, now, Myouga-san," Kagome said between a mouthful of noodles, "let's let this go and listen to what Shippou has to say, okay?"

Myouga flew off in a circle – perhaps it was a flea's equivalent to an eyeroll. After a moment's silence, Shippou felt pressured to give an explanation.

"Like I said…my father is dead."

Kagome moved closer to Shippou and held her hand around his shoulders. "I am sorry to hear that."

"The Thunder Brothers killed him. Manten is the big, ugly one, and Hiten is the skinnier one with the long braid. They have shards of the sacred jewel on their foreheads, Manten has two and Hiten has three."

"Ah, I have heard of them," Myouga said. "Then why aren't you after them instead of us? There is no way you could have mistaken us for them, right?"

"Don't ask the impossible." Kagome defended Shippou. "There is no way a little boy can fend off two ugly demons with a jewel shard boost. You just have to look to me for an example."

"That is not true! Unlike you, I am a full-fledged demon and I can take them both on just fine!" Shippou shouted above the commotion, chopsticks tossed onto the ground. When both Kagome and Myouga turned to him in surprise, he looked downwards and stuttered, "…eventually. Eventually I will take them both on and avenge my father. I just need a bit more strength."

"I see. Is that why you attacked us? To get something to eat so you can replenish your strength?" Kagome asked in a gentle voice. "I can't encourage you to do this again, but I can understand it must have been hard for you to walk this road all alone. But becoming strong as an individual isn't a one-day feat. Instead, you can become stronger by joining with others and borrowing their strength. Have you ever considered this?"

Shippou looked up to her with teary eyes. "Are you saying that you will help me?"

"Well, Myouga and I are hunting the jewel shards too, so it wouldn't just be us helping you, but you'd be helping us in return. Mutually-beneficial cooperation. You up for it?"


Shippou had agreed to Kagome's proposal. As it would be dangerous to scale the mountains at night, Kagome made a campfire with Shippou's help (which completely circumvented the need for Kagome's matches as his foxfire was enough to light the tinder) and set up her tent beside it. Myouga was awed by the tent, and the bicycle and the cup noodles for that matter, and asked if Kagome's country traded a lot with the foreigners frequenting the south. Kagome didn't know how to answer him – like Japan is still Japan even five hundred years into the future, and she had no idea whether the tent was "made in the south". Chances are it was made in China, like 90% of almost everything out there?

After digestion kicked in to ease the pressure in their full stomachs, they retired to the tent. Kagome had lent Shippou her "sleeping bag", a curious contraption that looked like a hollowed-out giant caterpillar. Shippou had reserves about crawling into that thing, but quickly dropped his complaints when he realized just how warm and fluffy it felt inside. It was better than his futon back home…the home he had lost after his father died.

He would give anything to have that futon back, even if it were sort of thin and smelled funny from years of use. The thought made tears trickle down his eyes.

He held back a sniffle. He couldn't let the others know his weakness. Tomorrow, they would find the Thunder Brothers and defeat them so no one would ever experience a pain like his. But the journey would be dangerous. Shippou was not stupid. He had witnessed how easily the Thunder Brothers had overwhelmed his father. It frightened him to even imagine himself standing before them, but what frightened him even more was if he had to witness someone stricken down by them again.

No, he couldn't let Kagome and Myouga face them in his stead.

Shippou left the warm haven of Kagome's sleeping bag and crawled over to her. He confirmed that Kagome had fallen to a deep sleep with Myouga similarly resting on her shoulder. As quietly as he could, Shippou crept to where Kagome's backpack was seated in the corner of the tent and searched it for anything useful. He found a small vial tucked at the bottom of the bag.

It held shards of the Shikon-no-tama.

"With this, even I can become strong enough to defeat them," Shippou muttered to convince himself. He nodded to assert his decision before sneaking out the tent. He took a final gaze at Kagome and Myouga. "Sorry, I have to do this alone. If I survive the battle, I'll be sure to come back and thank you."

With that, he ran off into the distant dawn.


End of Chapter - reviews appreciated