Last Time: Naraku passed his free hand over the well, casting a spell over it. "Have fun in whatever time you end up in, and know for the rest of your days... that I WON."
"What!? No!!!" she screamed as he threw her down the well.
Kagome came to in the bottom of the well. She heard murmuring voices and sat up. She held her head. "What... what happened?"
Cautiously, she clawed her way out of the well. It was a bright, sunny afternoon and the sun poured in through the shrine's door. "How did I get home?" she wondered and stepped out into the sunshine.
The visitors to the shrine were dressed in traditional Japanese kimono, and many of the men were dressed in strange, western-style suits. There were two white foreigners in the crowd. She turned and looked towards her house. It wasn't there. The shrine was the same, only the wood it was made from was still very blond and new.
"That's weird..." she thought.
"Can I help you?" a young priest asked her. He was tall and dressed just as her grandfather dressed.
"Um, no. I just need to use the well again." She smiled politely and jumped back down.
Kamiya Kaoru rang the bell and prayed to her ancestors. She spied the collection box and grimaced. 'I feel so bad, not being able to contribute, but since we've fallen on such rough times, I can't afford to give anything away. I wish there was something I could do that doesn't involve money. Maybe I can perform a charitable act,' she thought. Kaoru got up and went to find the priest.
Kagome landed on her butt and made a face. "What the...?" She suddenly realized that the Shikon shards were gone. "Oh my god! I'm trapped!" she cried. "What happened?! Where's Inuyasha!?"
"Excuse me, Miss?" a voice called down. "Could you please come out of the scared well?"
She sniffed, but agreed and climbed out. "Excuse me, but could you tell me when I am?"
"Well you're... when?"
Kagome nodded.
"About 3:30 in the afternoon..."
"No, what year please?"
The priest looked on her with pity. "Poor dear, she's mad! This is 1877."
Kagome moaned. "Well, at least I have another hundred twenty something years before I have to take another test..."
"Do you have a home I should send you to?"
"Not for a while..." she moped. "It's over there where those wisteria bushes are."
A young woman approached them. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but over hear. If you'd like, you could stay with us!"
The priest brightened. "You would do that, Kamiya-san?"
"Sure. I got enough nutjobs hanging out already.. what's one more!" she smiled. When Kagome sighed she changed her tone. "What I mean is I have a big house you can stay at with lots of cool people to talk to until you get your bearings. Whaddaya say?" Kaoru smiled again.
"Sure. Why not."
"I'm Kamiya Kaoru. What's your name?"
"Higurashi Kagome."
The priest looked at her. "I'm Higurashi Junichiro, how strange!"
"Heh," she laughed. "Not to me, it isn't"
Kirara streaked across the sky. Shippou cried and tried not to look back.
"Kirara! We must find your Sango and the others!" Myoga advised her. The demon cat growled and dove down. "Where are you going!?" the flea screamed.
She hit the ground and dropped Shippou as she transformed.
"Hey! wait!" Shippou called after her as she ran into Kaede's house. The kitsune was overjoyed to see his friends and even happier that Myoga could tell them the story while Sango held him in her arms and shushed him.
"This is terrible," Miroku repeated.
"What can be done if we have lost the Tama?" Kaede wondered.
"We must do something." Sango stared at the floor as she stroked Shippou. She held him like a baby. Tears still glistened on her cheeks. Shippou was falling asleep. "I cannot give up."
"Sango..." Miroku watched her carefully. Something about his love had changed. She was so intense and sad recently, going on about Naraku like that... He wanted to kill him if only to make her smile again. "If only we knew where Houseki was..."
"Who's Houseki?" Myoga asked. They gave him the short story and decided that he should take Kirara and search Houseki out. He left after admonishing them that they should wait till he got back before investigating the scene.
After lunch Kagome helped Kaoru mop the floors. Kaoru had protested, feeling that it wouldn't be charity work if she had her guest doing chores, but Kagome insisted. She was given a Kimono to wear for modesty's sake. A man and a boy walked into the enclosure and greeted them.
"Kagome-chan, this is Himura Kenshin and Myojin Yahiko. They stay here too. Guys, this is Higurashi Kagome. She'll be staying with us for a while."
They had brought back tofu and vegetables from the market and all sat down to lunch.
"Don't get too spoiled, Kagome," Yahiko warned. "Kenshin's the only good cook around here."
He was promptly whacked over the head with a mallet. "Watch it, brat."
"It's true, your cooking sucks!"
"Guys, it's ok," Kenshin tried vainly to stop them.
Kagome just laughed. "You remind me of..." she stopped and looked down at her half-eaten rice ball.
The fight stopped. "Of who, Kagome-chan?" Kaoru asked.
"My friends. I have no idea if they're even alive right now."
"Where are they?" Yahiko asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Kenshin wondered what secrets she held. Kaoru pouted but noticed something. "Hey, looks like we have visitors."
Standing in the entry way to the dojo grounds, reading the sign which read "Kamiya Dojo" was Sango and Miroku.
"Guys!!!" Kagome yelled and jumped up. Miroku dropped his staff and embraced her. "I was so worried! What happened!?"
Sango gasped. "You mean you don't know?"
She shook her head. "I don't remember." Kagome looked at Sango strangely. Not only was she wearing her hair up, but she was clutching a bundle to her chest. "You didn't...?"
"No!" Sango blushed and showed her that the 'baby' was only Shippou. He stuck his tongue out. "We had a bit of a scuffle with the temple priest."
"Ah..."
"You really don't remember?" Miroku asked.
"Not a thing. All I know is that my shards are gone. Where is Inuyasha?"
They looked at each other.
"Never mind. I don't want to know. Not yet. Let me be ignorant for a little while longer."
"Myoga's gone to look for Houseki."
"So there's still hope?" she asked.
Miroku nodded. "I wish I'd listened to Myoga. Maybe combined we could..."
Sango shook her head, discouraging him from speaking on the subject further.
"I'm sorry, Kagome. I guess there'll be plenty of time for that later."
She nodded. "Well, come here. This nice woman Kaoru is letting me stay here. Maybe we all can stay." They were introduced and Kaoru gladly accepted them into her house.
Kirara streaked across the sky with her nearly invisible passenger. Myoga sat just under her left ear and gave directions.
"I had heard that a woman who looked like Inuyasha had been spotted in the south, but I'm afraid that's all I have to go on. Can you detect her, Kirara?"
The youkai roared in response.
"Good, good! Then to the wolves we go!"
Kagome and the others sat down to dinner that night with their new friends. Although they were exhausted, they tried their best to stay awake through the meal. A tall man with the character for "evil" on the back of his shirt joined them.
"Good evening, Sano," Kenshin said as he saw his friend approach.
"You must smell free food!" Kaoru scolded.
"Jo-chan, do you really think I'm like that?"
Yahiko made a face. "She KNOWS you're like that."
Miroku reached into his pack and pulled out a small bag as Sano gave Yahiko a noogie. "I want to repay you for your hospitality, Kamiya-san. I hope this will suffice."
Kaoru blinked as she opened the bag, revealing the ancient coins. "Are you sure? These are Ryoo."
"I know." Miroku nodded.
Kagome whispered to him. "Maybe you should give her half for now. In my time, the Ryoo is worth almost 10 times what's it's worth in the Sengoku Jidai. I'm sure it's pretty valuable today too."
"Aa..." He sweatdropped. It was too late, but their stay was secured indefinitely.
As they ate, Sango's "baby" became restless.
"Shippou, please. Be still!" she hissed.
"I'm starving!" he hissed back.
"Shippou? That's an odd name for a baby." Kaoru leaned in to get a better look at him and Sango put him up against her shoulder.
"Well, he's an odd baby!" she laughed.
Sanosuke snarfed down another rice ball and said something with his mouth open about how much tofu one could buy with just one of the dozens of Ryoo Miroku gave Kaoru.
"That's it! I can't take it!" Shippou hissed and leapt out of Sango's arms.
"Shippou, no!!" his friends yelled in unison.
He grabbed a bunch of rice balls and started cramming them in his mouth. Kaoru, Kenshin and Yahiko watched, stunned, but Sanosuke leapt up and pointed. He was as pale as his shirt and shaking.
The others gasped and waited for a reaction.
"Yuh yuh yuh..." Sano stuttered. "YOUKAI!!!!"
Kenshin, Kaoru and Yahiko looked at him funny.
"Well, he's a pretty ugly baby, but that's not a very nice thing to say, Sanosuke!" Kaoru scolded.
"I am not ugly!" Shippou barked back, rice flying out of his mouth.
All four Edo-period people leapt up and screamed.
"It's ok! It's ok!!" Kagome tried to assure them. She got them calmed down and explained that yes, Shippou was a fox-youkai and no, he was harmless.
"He's going to eat us in our sleep!" Sano cried, still unable to cope with his existence.
"No I'm not, you silly ningen!" Shippou promptly turned into a pink balloon-thing and the poor man made a Sano-shaped hole in the wall as he ran away.
"Don't you think it's strange," Sango asked Miroku, "That the tall one saw him right away, but the others didn't?"
Miroku sipped his tea. "Hm. Perhaps the others are experiencing some kind of block that makes them unable to see the super-natural."
"How strange," she commented and sipped her own tea.
The next morning, Houseki snuggled in next to Kouga and smiled. It was a chilly morning, but their cave was dry and warm. She never thought that such simple living could be so wonderful. He kissed the nape of her neck and she fell back to sleep.
A nagging, pinching feeling woke Houseki only a few hours later. She sat up and smacked her face.
"Oyaho gozaimasu, Houseki-sama!" a tiny voice cried as the flea fluttered down from her hand.
"Good morning? Who are you?"
"I am Inuyasha's retainer, Myoga the Flea, and I've come to seek your immediate help!"
"What's wrong?" she asked, very seriously. Kouga was drowsy but as Myoga revealed the details of what had happened, they both sprang into action.
The area around the well was desolate. Houseki smelled that Miroku, Sango, Shippou and Kagome had been there recently, as well as Naraku. She wrinkled her nose. Kouga nodded.
"Myoga, go back to the village. This isn't going to be pretty."
"If you insist, Houseki-sama."
Kouga saved his comments about Myoga's cowardice, because he sensed Naraku's presence. They walked cautiously towards the God Tree.
"I really don't want to see him, Kouga," she said, referring to her father.
"I know." He held her hand.
"About time," an unmistakable voice intoned. "The stragglers have shown up."
"Naraku!" Kouga shouted and pounced.
"Kouga, no!"
It was too late, Naraku struck him down easily, picked him up by the neck and began so squeeze. "You owe me a favor, my dear," the hanyou hissed to Houseki.
"I owe you NOTHING. I spared your life. Let Kouga go!"
"That's not the way I work," he sneered and squeezed tighter.
"What do you want!?" Houseki screamed.
"Cooperation. You do me a little favor and I'll consider letting you live. I really have nothing against you, Succubus. If you go through that well and kill Miroku, Sango and Kagome, I will leave you alone."
"Fuck no."
He raised a brow. "Every bit your Father's daughter, aren't you? Too bad he's dead."
Houseki growled and prepared to launch herself at him. Her claws clicked together.
"Hou..ski..." Kouga croaked. With everything he had left, he threw a small bag at her. She caught it: Kagome's collection of Shikon shards.
"What!?" Naraku yelled and dropped Kouga. Houseki thought fast and ran for the God Tree.