Disclaimer: Nope I donot own Inuyasha

A/N: Sorry guys but this is going to be an exceptionally short posting...(not the chapter but my extras and thank yous andsuch...) I'm only going to say that I can't proofread this (please forgive me!) but with Graduation in two months and suddenly a friend of mine who's dating a guy (MY Miroku actually) that has had a thing for me for a long time (I mean I watched him dump hisold girlfriend one daynot a week after he asked me "hypothetically" what I'd say if he told me he was "madly in love with me." and I answered smartly, "I'd say that you have a girlfriend." and he shot back, "What if I told you that IcouldGET RID of her?"Tell me that it's not a coincidence! I'd actually be glad to hear it!) And now he's dating one of my closer friends and I know that even if I just hang with this guyit'll silently tempt him andhe'll ruin her and chase me again, and dating him is against my morals...and SHE will HATE me...I'm graduating soon and I don't want to lose anymore friends...(HEAVY sigh) so I'm chatting with her trying to set things straight so she doesn't feel threatened by me at the same time I write this out...Please, pity for me and forgive me? Thank you ALL...Just BE WARNED There is a cliffy in this chapter...yes, I know, another one...but you have been warned...I'm sorry again...I hate my life (sighs) you guys are the best part of it (winks)...onward to the story now!

Truth

"Nothing's wrong with them Hobo…" Taro snickered, breaking the thick silence with his sniggling little excuse for a joke. Hojo hardly seemed to notice the youth's attempt to break the tension. All his attention was focused on the pup and its mother, confusion written there as he watched the ears—the bloody DOG ears!—move before his eyes, showing themselves as undeniably real…

Unlike Taro, who was both younger and less educated in the realms of life science, Hojo knew of nothing that could so warp the baby's ears. With a jolt he realized that the hair—the silvered hair—matched the ears almost perfectly for color. It wasn't blonde hair; it was silver or maybe even white hair…his mind reeled, seeking some sort of explanation. He looked to Kagome again, seeing the unmistakable horror on her face, the stunned, terrified pallor of her skin, and knew he'd stumbled onto something big, no more than that—huge. What the hell was happening!

"Hey Hobo," Taro tried again, looking from his best friend, who'd buried his face in his hands in despair, to Kagome, who, although still undeniably very sexy, was now paler than he'd ever seen her, as if her kidneys hadn't worked in ten years and she was late for her dialysis appointment. Why were they all terrified in this situation? Why not just tell stupid Hobo-I-have-the-biggest-die-hard-crush-on-the-super-sexy-but-happily-married-new-mother-big-sister-to-Sota-Kagome the truth?

When Hojo's eyes glided to Taro, Taro took advantage of the moment and started to explain for the stricken Higurashi siblings. "See her baby was born with a disease—" he started, confidently, only to have Kagome whirl on him her face a mask of outrage, her color restored with her surge of maternal protection.

"My son does not have a disease!" she hissed, looking as if she might cut him into tiny pieces and feed them to that aforementioned child. Taro gulped and backed away, too stunned to speak or refute her.

"Yea! Yea!" Sota suddenly exclaimed, looking between his sister, his friend, and Hojo eagerly, "She's right, he doesn't have a disease, he has a—" he begged his sister with his eyes momentarily as he swallowed, finding the right words, "A genetic anomaly."

Taro blinked at him stupidly, and Kagome, her wrath on pause, seemed to freeze, thinking as fast as she possibly could with the situation developing around her. Hojo was the first to react, and his response didn't bode well for Sota's fast thinking.

"There is no such anomaly! It's be documented otherwise!" he huffed, looking at the innocent baby again, frowning in confusion. The ears twitched and swiveled this way and that again, making him feel dizzy, as if the baby's ears were messing up gravity…how could I have missed them? He wondered, astonished at his blindness, they're to big to be combed down into his hair, and he moves them so well and so often…how—and then he remembered, with a jolt, the blue woolen cap. Kagome kept them hidden from me. She was hiding this secret from me…but why? If there were some genetic anomaly that could cause such a strange thing in a baby, why would Kagome hide it? Nobody can change his or her genes, what didn't she want him to know? Why didn't she understand that he was her friend—and more if she'd let him, although with a child and a husband that was impossible now—why would she want to hide it, unless she didn't trust him for some reason…?

He shook his head, feeling dizzy still, as if he might suddenly wake up and find out that his was all a strange, very twisted dream…but wait…his memories of growing up returned, pushing forward with their quiet insinuations, forcing him to realize that he'd seen those features before…the silvered hair, the shape of the nose, the length of the fingernails which should've been more accurately called claws…

Hojo looked to Kagome, an expression of softer, gentler confusion blooming there. He was about to speak when Taro raised his voice instead, catching everyone's attention.

"Look man—all I know is that Sota told me about this disease—Can-it-lupp—uh…something or other." He frowned and gestured at the baby, "This genetic disease that makes the baby like that. He said that it makes him look like a dog almost. Right Sota?" Kagome's little brother said nothing, but his face reddened and he tried to avoid Kagome's gaze, he looked miserable, "Sota even said he'll grow fangs! How cool is that Hobo!"

Hojo's face didn't react; his eyes were still on the baby, his mind still spinning. Fangs, Taro says…fangs…he remembered sharp canines too, flashing just underneath the lips…and a red baseball cap! His body stiffened with realization as his eyes slid from the baby to Kagome once more—and saw fear. She seemed to know that he knew her secret, or suspected that he did. He'd worked it through…the baby didn't look strange because of random mutation or "genetic anomalies," it looked the way it did because of very simple genetics, the kind that you learn in some of the earliest sciences.

One female egg plus one male sperm equaled a new life. A new life that shared traits from those that had provided the two cells that had spawned it…

He looked to Taro, "I've never heard of that before…" he started, making Taro look uncomfortable, his gaze fell on Sota again, who offered nothing, and he started to wonder if the Higurashis weren't really space invaders or something…after all, the ideas for the books, the TV shows, the video games and the movies had to come from somewhere! Right?

Before Taro or Hojo could make things any worse, Kagome let out a loud, long sigh, and resigned, she glanced at Hojo, carefully, before finally speaking, "I'll tell you all about the disease if you come with me, Hojo." Behind her Taro and Sota were confused, and Koinu had started to coo and mumble in his baby language, but between Hojo and Kagome nothing stirred. Silently they were exchanging a promise of the truth after so many years of deceit. But would Hojo accept the truth? She had her doubts, but the good news, she thought, was that if he didn't believe her he'd likely just think she was crazy and take off, never thinking to come back and bug her with his infatuation ever again…maybe it was the only way to get rid of him…

Solemnly, Hojo nodded.

"Okay," she sighed, "Then I'll go get my coat." She scooped Koinu up into her arms and stood up slowly, making the pup squeal with glee and wave his arms eagerly, pawing at her with his tiny-clawed hands.

"Kagome!" Sota suddenly spoke up, dragging her gaze back on him. "But…why do you need to have your coat to tell him about the disease…?" his older sister blinked once at him, bounced Koinu in her arms a little, and, in little fractions, the realization dawned on him. "Oh…okay…" he tried to smile, but the muscles in charge of such an expression were shivering with tiny tremors of uncertainty, and it died before it was completely formed. "Have fun!" he coughed with that one, also destroying the authentic feel.

Hojo was frowning as Kagome and he exited the room, Koinu squealing happily, blissfully ignorant of the tension among the adults. Sota watched tensely as Kagome and Hojo disappeared. He heard their feet down the hall, a pause at the closet where their coats were gathered and put on, and then the front door slid open…and slid shut again. The moment they were gone he heaved a great sigh and reached to turn the TV back on to resume the game they'd been playing before all the fuss had started…

But Taro was unsatisfied with that.

"Sota?" he asked, frowning when his friend's gaze fell on him. "Why didn't Hobo there believe the disease? I mean—duh! The baby fits the description! Why couldn't he believe it? Stupid loser…" he growled, but his confusion was still very apparent, and Sota was thinking as fast as he possibly could while pretending not to. The game controllers in his hands were slick with perspiration.

"You said it—Hobo's a loser." He threw the second controller at Taro, "You gonna play or not?"

"Yea, I am…but…" his voice drifted off and Sota cursed inwardly, searching for a better explanation than just blaming it on Hojo.

"Okay Taro, Kagome's sensitive about Koinu's appearance because Gramps has trouble accepting it. He always says stuff like she should've married someone like Hobo, you know, prissy Mr. Charming and all…but Kagome married Inu—er—her lover boy from America, John, and had Koinu instead. So when you said Koinu had a disease she got all upset because you know," he shrugged feebly, "Disease is like a bad word to mothers, you know…"

Taro suddenly sighed, a heavy sound of extensive relief. "Oh yea, man, you know when a doctor once accidentally told my mom that I had 'attention-deficit-disease,' instead of 'attention-deficit-disorder,' and she got all upset over it…" then he chuckled and slapped Sota on the back, wondering briefly why his friend's muscles felt as stiff as steel—why would he be so tense? "You know, for a minute, I was really starting to think you guys were like aliens that the government created that got out and like ate people you know?"

Sota laughed, genuinely, "If that were true, Taro, they would've made me smarter or just let me go because I am so screwed up!"

"Yea, you're right," Taro snickered, "But your sister," he couldn't stop his face from twisting into a lecherous, dreamy, hormone driven mask of bliss, "Your big sister climbed outta that secret government place with a price tag on her head, cuz man oh man she's—"

"Say one more word, Taro," Sota growled with a dangerous glare, imitating, although neither was aware of it, the aforementioned big sister's hanyou husband, "And I'm going to have to kick your ass."

"C'mon Sota man!" Taro whined, "Why don't you let Kagome spank—I mean kick my—"

"That's it!"

A scream resounded through the house and a lamp met a tragic end as it crashed and splintered into a thousand pieces. It was days like that when Mrs. Higurashi longed to have her very own subduing spell, but could only shake her head sadly as she realized that it wasn't quite a perfect world.

The snow was mostly melted around the small building that she led him toward. Hojo wasn't really paying attention to their surroundings; he was lost in his own thoughts and memories. His mother had been rather traditionally spirited. She gave him many of the folk remedies he'd given Kagome over her years of "illness." He'd always had a fondness for the strange thanks to her influence, which had led to his pursuing biology. One day he hoped to become a nurse or a physician's assistant and move his practice to the United States, where he'd heard that the need for young health care officials was critical. (A/N: I'm pretty sure that that's true. There aren't enough doctors and nurses in the US now and as the Baby Boomers generation starts entering the critical aging years the need will skyrocket. Go Hojo! He's not really a Hobo!)

But not in one study, not in one medical, or biological, or genetic textbook he'd looked into over the years had he ever seen a note about an abnormality such as Kagome's son had. Of course it had to be in the baby's genes—how else could they work so well, those fuzzy, twittering organs—because he doubted that even the sickest parents would try to experiment on their child with abdominal surgeries or gene therapy. And besides—such things were still science fiction! It took hundreds, even thousands of failed eggs and embryos to create one clone, which usually died young anyway. How could Kagome have such a strange baby that seemed so healthy?

There was only one explanation, and by the time he noted that the white of snow under his feet had changed to cleared and salted concrete, he'd already dismissed every other radical excuse she could try on him. He looked up and saw that they were stepping up three small stairs to one of the shrine's many storage houses. He was aware that, like his mother tended to do, her grandfather was a packrat that stored anything that kept his eye or that he believed had powers. Naturally the other shrine-keepers had had similar compulsions. Thus the storehouses were packed to the brim and stored with many, many things of various natures. He'd never been inside one before but could guess that it was like his mother's own storage areas…

Kagome started to fumble with the lock hanging on the door, her hands pale and white as the snow in the courtyard. Wrapped up tightly, pressed to her skin, was Koinu. Hojo kept his distance from mother and son, hoping his face didn't look too cold or hostile. Kagome's held no expression, and he didn't once catch her eyes flicking toward him. The baby, wrapped in the jacket with her, turned his blue eyes on Hojo and grinned toothlessly. Hojo, possessing a genuinely kind-hearted nature, couldn't help but smile back at the baby's happiness…

Yes, I was right…that baby wasn't the result of anything but love. I don't know where her husband is right now—but I don't need to be introduced to know what he looks like, I can see it in their child's face. Despite the bitterness he felt at the realization he could also feel a sort of strange acceptance coming as well…if not for the relentless question of how father and son looked as they did…he'd assumed before that the individual that so looked like Koinu in his memories had bleached his hair—people do that sort of thing. But obviously he'd been wrong…

The lock opened up with a click and Kagome let loose with a deep sigh that Hojo could easily see blow off in a mist. His instincts wanted him to reach out and try to warm her up—or to offer her his own coat—but he refrained. Instead he waited silently while the woman that he'd always found so alluring, turned slowly to face him, her dark eyes utterly serious, unlike he'd ever seen them before.

"Hojo," she murmured, nailing him under her gaze. The baby in her jacket seemed to be getting cold. He tried to squirm and duck below the jacket, his ears turned backward, twittering more rapidly in the cold. Kagome's hands came up and rubbed over the bulge that was her son, trying to comfort him, and—except for the fact that the bulge moved—Hojo realized that she'd once looked close to this months ago while still pregnant.

He realized with a jolt that she expected him to speak. "Yes?" his breath fogged around him.

"If I tell you the truth…" she started, carefully, "You're going to have to take it to your grave with you—understand? And you're going to think that I'm crazy if I tell you—so be prepared…" she paused, frowning deeply for a moment. He saw, with some alarm, that her hands clutched over the baby protectively, as if she feared that he might try to steal her son or hurt him. But then, just as he was going to speak out and swear that he would never harm her or her son or even her husband, Kagome turned away from him, straining to look over her shoulder.

"Kagome…?" he asked after a moment when it became apparent that she wasn't going to turn back immediately.

The young mother jerked back, her eyes widened, "Y-yes?"

"What's wrong?" he scowled, seeing genuine fear in her eyes.

"Nothing." She chewed her lip for a moment and gestured with her eyes at the still closed storage house doors. "What do you say? Give me your word, Hojo…" she seemed uncertain, especially when the baby moved inside her jacket, mumbling in his baby tongue, "And I'll trust you with my biggest secret…"

Slowly Hojo nodded, his brow furrowed in interest. "I give you my word, Kagome Higurashi…" he paused a moment, trying to summon up some feeling to put into his voice, "You know I would never do anything that might harm you or your baby, or even your husband," his face tightened, "And that most certainly includes divulging secret information."

She seemed a little relieved at his words, but still so pale and uncertain…yet despite it she nodded and turned to the doors, moving with a determined strength. She wound her palm around the lock and pulled it free, shoving it into her jacket pocket. Reaching out, she snapped the doors free, shaking off the ice with a jolt that made Koinu whimper inside the warmth of her jacket. With a loud sound, almost a roaring, the door slid open, revealing a dark, shadowy inside, bristling with unknown objects. Hojo saw everything from jars and scrolls, to portraits that must've been a hundred years old, and boxes and boxes piled a mile high and dimly visible in the back reading simply: kimonos.

Kagome stepped into the room and flipped on a light switch. Immediately the shelves and piles and racks of mysterious treasures lit up. Prayer beads glittered down at Hojo from the first shelf he stared at, an old book, leather bound and dusty caught his eye after that, and following that still his gaze landed on two very old sandals on the lowest shelf. Dazzled, Hojo gawked.

Without word, and without sign, Kagome stolidly led him inside. Cobwebs swung down with the air she disturbed as she passed. Hojo glanced down at the floor and noticed dried and dead leaves scattered about. How long has it been last since someone besides us has come in here? He wondered, absently. He stopped when he saw that Kagome had stopped and was now fumbling her cold, thin fingers up over a high shelf, searching for something. Normally her grandfather probably came equipped with a stool of some sort to aide him with things that were stored up high…without it Kagome was like a hero trying to save a sinking ship with a straw.

He approached her and reached gently, slowly, to follow after her hand until she understood, withdrew sheepishly, and told him what he was looking for. "It'll be an old dusty scrapbook, Hojo." She murmured. He nodded and silently dug for it until his fingers met with plastic—something relatively modern.

"Plastic?" he asked her.

She nodded, "Yes."

Hojo gripped the thing and pulled it down. It wasn't nearly as old as any of the things that sat around it in this storage house but it wasn't exactly new either. The book was worn, cracked, and stained by mud and dirt…or was that just dust? He tried picking at it with his fingers but found the stains sticking stubbornly to his surprise. Who would leave a scrapbook outside? This thing looks like it was left outside during a rainstorm!

"Is this it…?" he asked, obviously unsure.

She nodded again, and reached out for it. He handed it over; still shaking his head about the shape it was it. It was a simple blue, bound in cracking plastic. Amidst the dirt on one corner he caught a name in kanji letters, neatly scrawled. It read: Higurashi Kagome.

Hojo looked up in surprise. "Did you leave it outside?" he chuckled; one eyebrow raised at the thought, and was astonished to see her frown and nod. "Why?"

She sighed, "It's not an easy story to understand."

He pursed his lips, deciding to let her know that he already understood something about it. "I remember Koinu's father." He was rewarded with a startled look from Kagome; her eyes widened, surprise and puzzled at the same time. He didn't wait for her to ask anything further, just plunged into what he knew, "At least, I assume that the person I remember must be Koinu's father. You never really introduced me to him, but I saw him from time to time, always around you." He gestured to the swell in her jacket where the aforementioned pup was blubbering to himself against Kagome's warm skin within her jacket, "He looks just like Koinu except for the eyes, and of course the ears, which I never really saw, because he was always wearing a red baseball cap."

At that Kagome laughed, loudly, glee crinkling her eyes. Hojo blinked, wondering if he'd somehow been very wrong.

When she was finished laughing at him Kagome looked Hojo in the eye, still smirking, and asked, "You remember seeing him in that silly little baseball cap?"

Hojo nodded, solemnly, "Yes—can I guess that there were ears like—like uh your son has, under that cap too?"

She nodded, her face dropping its mirth a little, "Yea—that's this little guy's father, my husband." Hojo nodded at her words, grateful that she'd answered his next question without him needing to voice it aloud. He'd wondered if Koinu were someone else's child other than her husband's. After all, he hadn't seen the man yet, so it was anyone's guess…he was about to ask her if she expected him to believe that there was a "genetic anomaly," in her husband's genes that made him and the child look so…inhuman…when she spoke again: "Do you believe in any of the old stories, Hojo?"

He blinked, thinking for a moment. "Old stories? As in…?"

"As in the ones your mother might tell you. As in the kind my grandfather tells to scare little kids every New Year. You know them—stories about demons that ruled over Japan hundreds of years ago, eating people and whatnot."

Hojo stared at her as if she'd sprouted wings. "Um…"

"I didn't think so." She sighed, her facial expression tense, her lips curved downwards. Slowly she extended the cracked, ripped, and prematurely aged scrapbook toward him. "This was my diary and memory book when I was just starting high school. I wrote in it while I was out "sick.""

Hojo chuckled, "No wonder it's so big!"

She nodded, "Yea," but there was little mirth in her eyes, "Open it."

He did as she ordered and was immediately greeted with two very different group photos. The first had been taken at the Higurashi shrine in front of the old building that housed the shrine's old well. All of the Higurashi family was standing in front of it, Mrs. Higurashi next to her daughter on one side, Sota next to their grandfather on the other, and in the very middle, between Kagome and Sota, was a figure robed in strange red clothing, eyes flashing gold, hair silver-white, and clear dog-ears atop his head.

The second photo, just below it, had been taken in a meadow somewhere. The countryside stunned him at first—so clean and clear! There were flowers speckling the grass, bright white clouds dotted a vibrant blue sky. The people caught his eye next—five of them. His eye caught the red robed figure he remembered, again without a baseball cap, the white, inhuman ears exposed. Beside that figure Kagome stood, wearing her school uniform, he noted that one of Kagome's hands was wrapped around the red robed man's strange necklace, the grin on her face contrasted the thick and heavy scowl of the red robed figure. Beside the two he recognized there were two others, a man and a woman, both dressed in ancient Japanese garb. The man seemed very friendly with the woman, he saw that the man had one hand over her knee, squeezing. The woman didn't, however, look as if she appreciated his attention. In her lap, about to slap at the over-friendly man's hand, was a small child, a redhead with green eyes, pointy ears and…a tail? Also on the woman's lap he noted some sort of strange kitten—possibly Siamese, and wondered if the film had been ruined or warped when it was exposed—that kitten seemed to have two tails…

Kagome cleared her throat, drawing his attention, "Hojo, the first picture was taken here of course, with my husband several years ago. The second was taken by an old woman named Kaede…" she paused, pursing her lips, noticeably uncomfortable, and then blurted, "Five-hundred years ago…"

Hojo blinked at her, looked to the picture again, the one with the two adults, the kitten and the child that he didn't know, and back up at Kagome again. "Um…"

"I brought the camera." She told him, absently, "And I made them pose. And no, you're not hallucinating; the boy in Sango's lap does have a tail. That's because he's a kitsune youkai—a demon."

He looked up at her, blinking. How crazy does she think I am!

"Kagome…pictures can be faked. I only believe in this guy's ears because I've seen them on Koinu's head…"

She sighed, one hand flying to her temple while the other continued to support her son, still wrapped and shrouded in her coat. She stayed that way for several seconds and then, abruptly, her head shot up and she turned, looking back at the dark, cold, empty wall as if it's just called her a few atrocious names. After a few seconds had passed, with Koinu's baby murmurs as the only break in the monotony of silence, Hojo cleared his throat hesitantly. That brought her looking back at him, but this time he was sure he could still make out the fear in her eyes…what was making her look in that direction? He wondered. What was over there anyway…?

"Hojo, I told you it's hard to swallow but here goes nothing…" she sighed, biting her lip before she began to speak—rapidly. "Ever since I started middle school I've been jumping through the well on our property, right over there," she gestured with her thumb in the direction he was certain that she'd been looking to with fear in her eyes just moments ago, "Jumping through it and traveling through time to sometime about 500 years ago. On the other side I met those people—Sango the demon slayer, Miroku the monk, Shippo the kitsune youkai, Kilala was Sango's faithful neko-youkai companion, and Inuyasha…" she stumbled over the last name, her face abruptly burning red, "Is a half-demon. A half dog demon."

Before he could stop himself Hojo blurted, "Demon?" incredulously.

"Yes—demon. I know you think I'm crazy but that's why Koinu has ears like he does! That's why he has claws! That's why he'll have fangs like Inuyasha does!" to make sure that he hadn't forgotten about the living evidence, she unzipped her jacket some and nudged her sleepy son out for Hojo to see, despite his whimpering. "Do you see the ears? Do you see his claws?" she demanded.

Hojo glanced back at the book, his mind muddled and confused. He could see the baby's features so clearly reflected in this other man's…the relation couldn't be doubted, but…demons? He frowned, his rational mind throwing her story away immediately. When he looked up again he muttered, "This is crazy!"

Frustrated, Kagome reached for the torn and scraped memory book and began flipping through the pages. More pictures ran by, colors, faces, emotions blurring together. And then she paused suddenly, stopping. When she thrust the book back at him Hojo found himself staring at a vast empty field, miles and miles of it…and covering most of it in the bright afternoon sunlight, were men. Men on horses, men in armor, men with bows and arrows and swords…if he squinted he could make their weapons out, their armor, the horses, the dust they threw up into the surrounding air. The photo had to have been taken from some great distance away from a hillside or a cliff somewhere. It took Hojo only a moment to realize what he was looking at. "They're samurais…"

"Yes…now, you tell me how I got that picture if I wasn't really in the Feudal era…"

She was right—finding an expanse that was empty like that in the modern day world almost anywhere was hard enough, but getting a bunch of men to stand about with weapons and armor and horses…unless it was a movie set he didn't think Kagome could've faked it unless she'd used a computer, again. Still he frowned, unable to believe. "Kagome, you can't honestly believe me to think any of this is real!"

Kagome growled to herself and buried her face in her hands. "Oh no…" she moaned, "Why did I think he would believe the truth…?" as if speaking to her baby.

Suddenly her head shot up again, as if she'd had a startling idea how to prove her crazy story to him, but instead of do such a thing she was silent, her eyes staring off into nothing. In her jacket Koinu whimpered, a prelude to crying. But his mother ignored him; instead she turned her head, once again, slowly, and looked over her shoulder, in the direction of the well house…

Hojo felt a shiver race up his spine, "Kagome?" he asked, wondering if she'd lost her sanity sometime between when he'd last seen her when they'd left high school and now. "Are you all right? Are you with me?"

"Shh!" she hissed at him, glaring for a moment, and then, before he could stop her, she hurried out of the storage house, back out toward the snow.

With a sigh Hojo put the strange book away, shaking his head. Where was the girl he remembered? Was the crazy young mother of the dog-eared baby really his Kagome? Disturbed, but loyal till death, Hojo walked out after her.

The bright light of the outside world startled him, making him squint and cringe. Carefully he cupped one hand over his eye and looked around the shrine grounds, scanning for a sign of Kagome…but she was nowhere to be seen…

"Kagome?" he asked the deaf and heedless wind. Mutely it didn't respond—and neither did the young mother. "Kagome!" he tried again, yelling this time. Cautiously, still looking around, Hojo skipped lightly down the stairway. On the last step he stumbled and his arms shot out to balance himself again, his gaze landed on the crusty, snowy earth and he froze.

Footprints! He saw the tracks leading from the house toward the storage shed that he and Kagome had just been in—and on top of those he saw small prints coming out and turning toward the well house, just distant…She's gone to the well…but why doesn't she answer me? Another chill raced down his spine, despite the chuckle that escaped his lips, there's nothing to worry about…

He started to follow the prints at a gentle trot, and called, "Kagome?" as he neared the well house…but when a high pitched feminine scream rent the air, shivering through the cold, suddenly haunting and desolate shrine, Hojo felt his heart race.

"Kagome! Kagome, answer me!" but as he dashed up the steps, hearing a rushing, whooshing sound in his ears, and seeing a flickering flash from within, there came no answer but more screaming—this time from both woman and child.

With shaking, terrified hands, Hojo scrabbled at the door, sliding it wide, and then, rushed in, only to gape stupidly on the threshold at what he saw…

Yes, I know, I'm cruel! Terrible Terrible cliffy! Take a guess if you like...but I gotta get going...the girl just signed off and I smell trouble brewing...Gosh I just want to cry...