When Kagome stepped through the entrance to the hut, she nearly dropped the matt curtain on her head in surprise. A young woman with deep brown skin and long red hair sat in priestess garb chewing on some smoked pork Kagome had brought to her friends a few days ago.

"Uh…Hi." She stepped into the space and put her bag down. The girl looked up to her and stiffened up slightly, but didn't respond.

Kagome stopped and looked to the boys on the opposite side of the room. Well Miroku and Inuyasha weren't boys, but—

"Oh well," she sighed. "Who's our guest?"

Inuyasha looked up at her with a mouth full of instant noodles. He attempted to explain but his words came out muffled. Shippo rolled his eyes as he took a bite of potato chips and Miroku translated.

"She doesn't speak Japanese. Shippo found her last night, naked and starving."

"Naked and starving?" Kagome sat between the group of males and the strange female. "And no Japanese?"

Shippo shook his head and crunched on another bit of potato. "We're calling her Sumi for now because of her pretty facial ink."

Kagome nodded and pulled a small candy bar from her pocket. She pulled open an end, peeling the wrapper back halfway, and held the treat out in her hand. The girl looked to her, then to Shippo, took note of the ease in the fox, and quickly reached out her hand and took the bar from Kagome's hand. Kagome closed her hand after the food was taken and pulled back her arm with a smile. The girl gave her a side-glance and smiled softly as she chewed on the chocolate.

Kagome clapped her hands lightly. "Progress!"

Miroku stood and walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Kagome?" She looked up to him from her place on the floor. "Kagome, I had another occurrence today." He placed a hand over his heart to indicate what he meant and watched as her eyebrows pulled together.

"Could we try to get Miroku through the well to see a doctor in your time?" Inuyasha was now standing next to his friend.

Kagome nodded slowly. "Maybe if he held onto the jewel…" she fingered the orb around her neck. "He does have spiritual strength, so maybe it will work for him."

Inuyasha nodded. "We'll leave in the morning."

"Well, wait," Kagome stood to face the men. "Usually you need to make an appointment. I'll have to call the cardiologist…" she flipped up her longer sleeve and checked her wrist watch she now wore religiously. "Actually, there is enough time for me to run back now and call…we could see if Miroku can make it through the well now."She lowered her hand and looked at Shippo. "Will you be okay alone with her?" She thumbed behind her, indicating the newest member of their group.

Shippo stood and smiled softly. "I think we'll do okay. Will you be back tonight?"

Kagome eyed Miroku and shook her head. "I think we would be, but late. Miroku needs something else to wear."

"Couldn't he wear the clothes you keep for me?" The silver-haired young man stepped closer to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. She was used to it now.

"No…you'll both be there at the same time, and if he has to have a series of appointment, he might as well have a couple outfits." She looked at the two men, scrutinizing. "And while you two are similar sizes, you aren't exact, and I'm afraid Miroku wouldn't fit too well in a pair of your jeans, Inuyasha."

"Just what are you saying Lady?" Miroku scoffed jokingly.

"I'm saying Inuyasha has a pancake ass, and you don't."

Inuyasha's cheeks reddened at this, and Shippo vaguely wondered how Kagome knew so much about the shape of Inuyasha's bottom.

Inuyasha murmured under his breath "When did you adopt such language?"

Kagome smiled and tapped him on the nose."Got it from you."

Shippo felt he might puke.

"We have it covered here, don't worry about the kids." Shippo smiled and walked over to sit with the girl he named Sumi. She let him sit beside her without any outward signs of distrust. She continued to chew on her jerky

Kagome sighed and nodded. "Tell Kaede we'll be later than we intended." She turned and grabbed Inuyasha's hand then motioned for Miroku to follow them out the door.

"See you later, runt." Inuyasha smirked as he left with the young woman. The monk chuckled as he followed.

Shippo was alone with the woman.

He turned to look at her. He was pretty sure she had gotten the concept of her new name. "Sumi?"

She looked at him. "Shippo."

Awesome.

He turned around for a moment and pulled out something else Kagome had brought back from her time. "It's a hair brush. Works better than a comb."

The girl looked at the brush and held out her hand in her way of asking for permission to hold something. Shippo placed it into her open palm and sat back to watch. Sumi quickly pulled her long hair to one side of her neck and began to brush her hair at the tips. It was very tangled and Shippo could see the beginnings of a few dreadlocks starting. She started at the black tips and slowly made her way up into the darker red length, patiently unknotting some problem areas with the help of her longer claws. Her attention was focused on her hair as she worked, and Shippo found the soft sounds the brush made as it pulled through her hair was a relaxing constant.

He would have sat for hours listening to just that graceful motion but a thought popped into his head. "Hey." She turned her eyes to him, though she never dropped the brush or ceased moving it through her hair. He tilted his head. "Where's your tail?" He pulled his own longer puff around his body and motioned to it. "Tail. What happened? I saw you had one when I dreamed of you, but—"

He stopped suddenly. When he dreamed of her, she also had weight on her. Had something actually happened to her to remove her tail?

She must have been responding to the strong change in his eyes when he realized what her missing a tail might mean. She stopped brushing her hair and lowered the tool. She watched his face as his eyes drooped and an obvious upset came over the fox.

"Tail," she murmured.

"Yeah?"

She turned and pulled at her waistband. Shippo was about to object, but figured if she felt comfortable enough with him to show him such a thing, she probably needed to tell someone. She quickly undid her waist tie and pulled down on her red clothing and pushed her white up. She turned more and he had full view of her lower back and just the top of her bottom. He winced when he saw what she was trying to tell him. The area where a human's tailbone would have ended stuck out slightly more on her. In place of where her tail should sprout from her spine was a gnarled patch of dark skin and fur. Her tail had been removed, and it didn't look like it had been a clean cut from the remaining scar tissue.

Shippo felt small tears prick his eyes. His tail was so sensitive, a direct part of his spine, he couldn't imagine loosing it in what must have been a violent accident. He reached out his fingers, almost to touch the ugly scar, but stopped when he thought about what he was doing. He blinked back tears and instead pulled up on her red waist to place it over her curves, to let her know he was finished. She turned around and simultaneously tucked in her upper robes, while tying her lower.

"Will it grow back?" It felt like a stupid question, but he knew some youkai that could grow back such things as limbs and tails.

She stared at him as she finished dressing herself and sat back down with him. Of course she couldn't understand. "I doubt it by that scar…" he mumbled to himself, then looked into her eyes. They were emotionless, simply large dark pools.

"I'm sorry."

She blinked and pulled her brows together. At the same time, she picked the brush up from where she had placed it on the floor and resumed her work on her long locks. She kept her eyes on him though, Shippo suspected she was trying to understand his universal expression of remorse and pity. As if—it seemed—she was not used to finding such emotion for outsiders in other people. Unraveling a particularly long tangle from her temple, she turned away from the young male beside her, as if she wished to break the eye contact quickly. Shippo found himself again reaching out his fingers as if to touch her, but stopped and again pulled his hand back before he made a fool of himself.

"I'm sorry."