Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Tactics.

Uncertainties and Questions

All she remembered was the warm ray of sunlight hitting on the surface of the very jewel that she was locked up in. The next moment she was brought to consciousness, she was inside what it seemed to be a "universe." There were different galaxies near by, as well as the planets that rotated around the gigantic sun. Though Kagome had been to many places before, she never visited a place like this.

She traveled to many places in the jewel, but usually stayed in a small shrine in the countryside. The priest from her old companions had sealed the jewel there, hoping that no greedy human or demon will try to taint it again like a certain half demon did until the priestess from the future will claim this object. One thing the priest didn't realize was that she, the supposed guardian of the jewel, was sealed inside the jewel, unable to return back to her original era. Yet she did not feel depressed; she knew how the world on the other side of the well worked, and she definitely did not want to get tangled into that dirty mess. She did not have any hobby to dirty herself voluntarily by jumping into a mud pool. It was her decision that caused her to get sucked into the jewel as a replacement for Midoriko's soul. The jewel needed a "good;" a good that will continue fight the "evil" within the jewel like the creator of it did before her. And so Kagome decided to take Midoriko's place.

Many years past by, and though she spent hundreds of years in that little jewel, she was never bored. Or rather, she didn't have time to be bored. The demons came after her continuously, and every once a while she had to purify them to mere dust so that she could at least enjoy some peace before the dust formed back into a demon. She was so occupied with keeping the jewel pure that when she felt as though she was getting sucked into a black hole, she could not care nor do anything about it. So when she woke up, she could not stop herself from asking the question that popped into her mind.

"Where am I?"

"Where am I?"

Muu was quite shocked to hear a girl—nevertheless, what it seemed to be a human girl—inside her stomach. She counted numerous times, checking and going through the lists of things she ate that they, but despite her effort, she still couldn't remember eating a girl. Or Muu actually wondered if she ate the girl by mistake. That was possible, if the girl could not withstand the power of Muu's sucking breath and was sucked right into the demon's stomach along with the food. For a moment Muu pondered about what she could do. She could feed herself so that when the food is dropped into her stomach, the girl could somehow eat that food to continue surviving, but that meant no bugs or warms for food. No aradama. No demons. No spirits. Scratch. The second option probably was to tell Kantarou or her husband about this matter, but once again, no body could hear her. Scratch. The last option that was left was to throw the girl up. Though that might be a bothersome task, Muu decided that was the only best option she had. Muu smiled at her intelligence.

"Muu."

Bravo.

Kantarou stared down at the green demon. Muu was unconscious since yesterday, and though he searched every single book he could obtain, there was no cure for such strange occurrence. Without any background information or knowledge, Kantarou had to fix—to borrow Haruka's expression—this demon's sickness and return Sugino who was by now wailing and crying every second. All the folklorist knew was that before Muu collapsed, she ate a stone. He could not stifle a short chuckle at that information: such an irony that a simple stone could make the aradama-eating demon fall ill. Yet Ichinomiya knew that the stone probably wasn't as simple as any stone that could be found anywhere. What could powerful enough to overwhelm and disrupt Muu's youki? He felt the headache coming again. Just then his bells started to jingle again, even fiercer than it did yesterday. He tried to calm or at least mute it, but his effort proved to be futile when Haruka, with Sugino dangling on the black tengu's neck, came dashing into the room, worry laced beneath the indifferent mask.

"Is it an oni?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

And honestly, he didn't. Though Haruka shot him a 'tell-me-or-I'll-force-it' glare, Kantarou had no idea why the bells were ringing and he didn't have any chest pains. Certainly it wasn't an oni. Then what was it? Just as the frantically ringing bells shattered into tiny little fragments, a bright light erupted from Muu with surprisingly strong force. Sound of gushing wind covered Sugino's desperate cry of his wife's name, as well as the grunts of pain from the folklorist who was near the demon. Just how the light had erupted suddenly, it died fairly short after the wind calmed down, leaving a disheveled room and a green youkai.

"Muu-chan!"

The tearful wail of Sugino brought Kantarou back from shock and astonishment, and he automatically looked around the room for the sign of black winged demon. Seeing that the black tengu was leaning against the wall, Kantarou sighed, relieved that his friend was not hurt. His red eyes settled on the crying figure of Sugino and the green demon that now seemed to be conscious again, and Kantarou smiled. No matter how annoying Sugino was during the short visit, to see him crying like that over his wife's welfare was quite a touching scene.

"Hey, how did you fix her?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

Kantarou found himself repeating the same phrase again to Haruka's question as he was pulled up with the help of certain demon. There were so many uncertainties and questions that made Kantarou baffled and confused about the whole situation. Though Muu regaining her health back was a thing to celebrate, he couldn't pinpoint what exactly fixed her. Everything was a mystery that he couldn't solve, and that frustrated him. Sighing in frustration, Kantarou straightened his clothes when he noticed an unfamiliar object lying besides Sugino.

"Eh?"

"What is it Kantarou?"

"Haruka…were there any pink stones in my room? Or anything like that?"

"Not that I remember."

Haruka turned his gaze towards the end of Kantarou's gaze and found a little shining stone lying on the tatami mat. It was mesmerizing. The way that it lay on the mat innocently, reflecting off the sunray creating a pink reflection of light was absolutely beautiful. At least to a crow's eyes Before Kantarou could even restrain him, Haruka had reached out and picked up the jewel and observed it closely, admiring the beauty of a pink stone that popped out of nowhere.

"Haruka! That might be the cause of Muu's sickness! Put it down!"

Somewhere distant in the background, Haruka heard his master yelling at him to put the stone down, as well as Sugino's worried cry, but the crow didn't care, nonetheless. It was so shiny and pretty against the sunlight, and the way that it made a pink shadow on his white skin was absolutely stunning that Haruka could not let go of the stone. Instead, he gripped it tightly, not wanting to let go of his precious jewel.

"Haruka, put down the jewel! Now!"

His master had used his name. The black tengu felt the need to put the jewel down, the need to obey, but at the same time, he did not want to let go of this stone. This was his, and no one, no one, could take away his.

"It's mine!"

A small growl escaped Haruka's mouth and Kantarou seemed to be dumbfounded by the sudden violent reaction from Haruka. He felt Haruka's youki flare a little when he spat out each word slowly, his hand trembling from the inner fight to whether let go or not. Kantarou narrowed his eyes. The stone seemed to charm the demons, and he wasn't going to let Haruka get sick because of that simple stone. Just then, he felt it. A wash of power that swept across the room. Kantarou's heart thumped. He had never felt such energy before; purity and power, that was all he could use to describe the foreign power that was growing by each second. Before Kantarou could realize, there was a big explosion, and everything went white.

This round's light took longer time to fade away than the last one that happened with Muu. When the blinding light subsidized and left three stunned people in the room, Haruka was the first to open his eyes. When he was holding on to the stone dearly, he had felt the sudden growth of the power in the stone, and he had let go of it just before the explosion. His eyes were still adjusting to the normal darkness of the room, but he could make out a fuzzy outline of someone sitting at the place he threw the jewel at. He heard a small cough and grunt from where Kantarou and Sugino stood just a moment ago. It seemed that both were all okay. After checking both were all right, Haruka turned his gaze back to the mysterious figure. His eyes were better adjusted to the darkness of the room, and now he could clearly make up the appearance of the figure.

Standing there was a girl of young age wearing a traditional white and red priestess' garb with a bow and arrows. The dark black locks of hair were tied into a lose ponytail with few strands of hair lose and lying besides her white cheeks. What attracted him the most were the shining silver eyes that pierced his dark blue-green orbs. She first seemed to be puzzled at why she was there, but seemed to gain her senses as her attitude became much calmer and colder than she was few minutes ago.

"Who are you?"

Haruka wanted to ask her the same thing.

A/N

Well, this chapter took longer than i expected!

It is 1:54 AM here in Shanghai,

and I am so freaking tired right now TT I better go to sleep, ne?

Thanks to: kakashixangela, mystlady, kits-hold-their-tears, WraithReaper, Narutofallenangel123

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews, especially kakashixangela who has been reviewing my other story as well :)

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!