Tomodachi

Annie couldn't believe their rotten luck. Their adventures through the tree house had never gone this badly before. So far, they'd been nearly killed twice, separated from who they thought was the hero – Kagome flickered in Annie's mind – and now dropped into the care of someone with no intention of helping them. Rin seemed totally enraptured with whatever business with the paper Jaken had to show her.

"Hey, you guys," Rin called over her shoulder. "Come watch this."

Annie shrugged at her sibling and Jack trudged behind. "What's he doing?" she asked as Jaken folded the paper quickly with deliberate creases the human eye couldn't follow.

"Slow down, Master Jaken!" Rin pleaded. "We can't see what you're doing."

"Dolt," he grumbled, though not without a trace of arrogance. "The secrets of yokai aren't meant to be revealed." He puffed into the paper, tugged once on either side and presented what looked like a small paper crane, its wings sticking out with perfect symmetry.

"Origami," Rin pronounced, holding up the fine work of craftsmanship, "is the art of folding paper into different shapes without ripping it up. See?"

Annie's mouth made a silent "o," but Jack just rolled his eyes. "We don't have time for toys," he reminded his sister.

"Yeah, but look how beautiful it is!" Annie cupped the little crane in her palms, gently stroking its head with one finger.

Rin smiled brightly. "You can keep it if you like it."

"Really?" Annie hugged it to her chest. "Thank you!"

"Hey! You better not pester me for a new one!" Jaken hopped to his squat feet. "I didn't make that thing so you could just give it away!"

"It's fine." Rin pressed the origami into Annie's hands. "Cranes are symbols of friendship and even when you do go you can keep this with you to remember your adventures here."

"Definitely!" Annie grinned at Jack who looked like he'd rather not remember anything.

"And it'll be extra special," Rin added. "Not too many people can say they've gotten a gift from Sesshomaru."

Annie blinked as Jaken voiced her question. "How is that crane a gift from Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Well, it's from all of us, really," Rin giggled. "Lord Sesshomaru brought the paper, you, Master Jaken, made the crane, and I gave it to Jack and Annie. So we're all friends!"

"Don't drag the master and me down to your level!" the imp fumed, though he didn't fuss too much when Annie stooped to embrace him a grateful hug.

"Thank you!"

"Get. OFF."

Rin laughed and even Jack cracked a smile.

Their laughter reminded Annie of something. "Hey, that guy, Sesshomaru –"

"Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken corrected with a huff.

"Lord Sesshomaru, doesn't speak much, does he?"

"Lord Sesshomaru doesn't talk much to strangers," Rin admitted. "You're lucky if you can get three words out of him."

"Bet I can!" Annie challenged.

Rin laughed harder and Jaken scoffed at the idea.

"Okay, seriously," Annie said. "We need to find our way back – "

The crack of smashing trees and thunder of rumbling earth, stopped Annie in mid-sentence. A gigantic bear, if that's what it could be called, lumbered out of the trees. Its back inlaid with boulders and shrubs bigger than cars, the monster could have passed for a mountain. But all the jagged teeth dripping ropes of saliva sort of ruined the effect.

"Hungry!" it roared. "Hungry for power!"

Power? Jack wondered, then he remembered. "Annie, it wants the jewel!"

"Jewel?" Jaken sputtered. "You twits have a Shikon shard?!"

Ah-Un moved to the frontlines of defense, but its fired lightning blast was harmlessly absorbed by the ground-based bear.

"Brute!" Jaken expertly spun his little staff and one of the eerie heads atop it spouted a fiery blaze.

The earth demon roared and jus the wind alone snuffed the flames.

"Run!" Jack pulled Annie after him.

She lagged to point at a comet that whizzed overhead. "Look!"

The comet broke to reveal Sesshomaru, his sword drawn and his face taunt. In a blur of steel and silver, Sesshomaru's blade arced between him and the bear. The beast groaned, backpedaling toward the forest. Sesshomaru didn't let it get so far. Raising his sword parallel to the ground, he pointed at the bear and the blade released one powerful shot of pure energy. The blast entered neatly and exploded behind the forest demon in a million brilliant holes. Crumbling earth and charred brush were all that remained of Sesshomaru's short work.

Replacing the sword at his side, the dog-demon turned to his troop. "Rin, give me their jewel shard," he ordered.

The little girl looked at Annie, smiling gently. "Don't worry, he probably just wants to see it."

"But how'd he know…?"

Rin's hand waited expectantly. Shikon in hand, she hustled over to the daiyokai.

Sesshomaru took the shard, delicately holding it between the claws of his thumb and forefinger. "I know where this must go."

"Wait!" Jack protested and Sesshomaru stunned him with a glare.

"I mean…" Jack looked at his feet, vaguely wondering why he felt like he was the one doing something bad. "We need that shard…to get home…please?" He dug into his pockets and pulled out the poem. "Here. It says so right there."

"Jaken," Sesshomaru said. "Review it."

Swiping the slip from Jack's fingers, the imp read aloud:

"Find a small treasure.

Men seek it, demons fight it.

Its strength conquers all."

He snorted. "Not one mention of the Sacred Jewel, my lord!" Jaken reported.

"But it answers everything!" Jack argued. "We need it to find the—"

Claw-tipped fingers grazed the boy's chin, tilting his head upward. Jack froze at the strange menace concealed in the gentle touch. Then he paid attention to where the owner was looking. Jack followed Sesshomaru's line of vision. There. Just some yards in one of the elms that edged the meadow…

"It's the tree house!" he cried.

Annie took a step back in wonder. "How?"

Sesshomaru handed her the poem…before tugging on the paper crane Rin had given her.

"Hey, I get it!" She beamed.

Rin leaned over her friend's shoulder. "Get what?"

"'Find a small treasure' – so, something of value. And 'men seek it,' while demons, like Jaken" – she snickered – "fight it. 'Its strength conquers all'…Rin, it was your friends – Ah-Un, Jaken, and Sesshomaru – who protected us and if it weren't for you, Jack and I would still be stuck here. The answer to the poem is friendship! Your paper crane is a symbol of friendship! That's why the tree house came back!" Annie squeezed Rin tightly. "Thank you!"

When Rin pulled away she looked a little sad. "So you're leaving?"

"Well, we do have to go. It's September and school starts soon." She held the crane up. "But I'll always remember."

"We'd better go," Jack said.

"I agree," Jaken voiced.

"Okay, okay, wait." Annie smiled up at Sesshomaru. "Rin said you don't talk a lot, is that true?"

Sesshomaru stared dully ahead.

"Well, I bet her I could get at least three words out of you before we leave."

The stately demon arched an eyebrow. Then looked back to the horizon. "You lose."

"Come on, Annie," Jack said, tugging at her wrist. "Let's go."

"Bye, Rin! It was nice meeting you!" She kept waving until they'd climb up the old rope ladder and into the tree house.

Waiting right in the middle of the planked floor was a book opened to a picture of Frog Creek. Laying the paper crane on the page, Annie huffed softly, then pointed. "I wish we could go there."

The wind started to blow.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

--

A/N: Even though I'm not writing at the appropriate time in the story, I was really tempted to give Byakuya a cameo. :P

One more chapter to go!