Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or Yashahime.

Chapter 4: Down the Rabbit Hole and Back

The sun was setting as Kazuki stood outside the wooden hut and looked out at the landscape. He still couldn't quite believe he had gone back through time to a Japan he had only read about in history books. Now that he had gotten the chance to process everything, Kazuki realized he had stumbled upon something wondrous. He had even pinched himself several times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. By this time Towa came up to the house carrying a few small logs of firewood in her arms.

"Everything okay Kazuki?" Towa asked.

Kazuki nodded. "Where are your aunt and Moroha?"

"They went to pay a visit to someone named Kaede. You look like you're pondering something. What's up?"

"Oh, I was thinking maybe I'd go back to the Bone Eater's Well and take another quick look at those corpses."

"Don't you think you should wait until morning? Aunt Kagome says this area can get dangerous at night. You could run into more demons or even bandits."

"Don't worry. If things get dicy I've got this," Kazuki pointed out as he pulled out the blaster he had taken from one of the slain soldiers.

"But you're a terrible shot! Remember the time your dad took us and Papa-Sota to that paintball fight? You didn't even come close to hitting any of the opposing teams. Plus at the end you came out looking like one of the paintings by that Jackson Pollock guy."

Kazuki became thoughtful for a moment. "Okay, true. But I figure if I shoot wildly enough I'm bound to hit something."

Towa let out a heavy sigh. "Okay. I guess I can't stop you from going. But be careful, will ya? And try to come back soon."

"Not to worry dear Towa. I may be below average when it comes to physical strength, but I make up for it in ingenuity."

With those words, Kazuki marched off. He had paid close attention to the surroundings when Moroha has escorted him and Towa to Kagome's place, so it was easy for him to find the path back to the Bone Eater's Well. Within a few minutes Kazuki had reached the well. To his dismay though, he found no trace of the dead soldiers.

"Good thing I took that cranial component when I did I guess," Kazuki remarked as he scratched his head. "Of course this leaves the question of why the bodies disappeared."

Kazuki went over to the well and looked down into it. He thought someone might've come along earlier, discovered the bodies and threw them down into the well. After all, the well had once been used as a trashcan of sorts for the bodies of slain demons. Kazuki bent forward over the well's edge as far as he could, and in doing so he fell over the edge. As he plummeted into the well he entered a tunnel of light; the same kind of tunnel he and Towa had passed through at the start of this crazy journey. After a few moments Kazuki came out of the tunnel and found he was sitting at the bottom of the well.

With some difficulty Kazuki managed to climb out of the well and discovered he was back in the old shrine that had been put up around the well in modern times. He saw the remains of the door that had been broken by the soldiers.

"Well dang! Guess I passed through the…guess it's a wormhole?" Kazuki remarked as he placed his hands on his hips. "In any case, I sure hope I didn't destabilize the thing coming back here. Still, this might be for the best."

Kazuki came out of the shrine and headed for the Higurashi house. He tried the back door and found it unlocked, just as he and Towa left it earlier in the day. Upon entering the house, Kazuki discovered the place was empty. Apparently Towa's grandmother and great grandfather were still out. Kazuki decided to leave the two a long note explaining everything that had happened. He decided he didn't need to disguise the truth, as they already knew about Kagome's trips into the past.

Once the note was finished, Kazuki grabbed his computer and other belongings. He also found the phone Suzumi had left behind and decided to take it along as well. Kazuki thought it might be useful, but only if he could still get back to the past. He would find out for sure in the morning. For now though, Kazuki thought it was best to head home.

The sun had almost completely set by the time Moroha and Kagome returned to the house. They immediately spotted Towa standing outside looking worried.

"Something wrong Towa?" Kagome asked.

"It's Kazuki. He went back to take another look at the bodies of those soldiers we fought," Towa explained. "I'm starting to get worried."

Moroha smiled and patted Towa on both shoulders. "Not to worry, cousin! I'll go bring him back for ya!"

"Moroha, wait!" Kagome called as her daughter ran off.

"Be back in a flash!" Moroha called back as she vanished from sight.

Kagome groaned and shook her head. "I swear! That girl is so much like her father sometimes."

"Should we go after her?" Towa asked.

"No. It's better if we wait. If neither of them is back by morning we'll go and look for them."

Towa sighed. "If you think that's best. I just hope nothing bad's happened to Kazuki."

Kazuki let out a contented sigh as he ate from his beef bowl. He was home, sitting at the table with his entire family. Sitting at the head of the table was his father, Akira Tachibana, a friendly but straitlaced architect who had designed at least a third of the skyscrapers in Tokyo. To Kazuki's left was his mother, Keiko, a dentist with a thriving practice. The final person at the table was Kazuki's older brother, Takeru, a convenience store clerk who's ambition was to become a professional gamer; an ambition he had so far been failing miserably at.

"You were a bit late coming home tonight, Kazuki," Akira remarked. "Everything all right?"

"Oh, yeah. I was visiting Towa at the Higurashi Shrine we got tied up with something," Kazuki answered. "We had an unexpected visit with her Aunt Kagome."

"I remember hearing about her," Keiko recalled while Takeru texted on his phone. "She got married right out of high school to someone who lived out in the country, right? At least that's what Mrs. Higurashi told me once when I ran into her while out on a walk."

"Must've been some romance," Akira remarked. "Your mother and I didn't marry until we both finished college."

Before anyone could respond, the door to the dining room burst open and Moroha stormed in. Kazuki froze with his chopsticks right at his open mouth. Both of his parents immediately froze as well. The sudden appearance of the quarter-demon was enough to make Takeru tear his attention away from his phone.

"There you are Kazuki!" Moroha practically shouted. "What's the big idea running off like that?"

"A cosplayer?" Takeru asked.

"Son, do you know this girl?" Akira asked.

"Oh! Um, this is Towa's cousin, Moroha," Kazuki explained. "Moroha, this is my family."

"It's…nice to meet you Moroha," Keiko spoke, her eye twitching a bit. "Towa never mentioned she had such an…interesting cousin."

"Moroha, how did you find me?" Kazuki asked.

"Are you kidding? All I had to do was follow your scent," Moroha answered. "So you just decided to bail on me and Towa when we had those weird soldiers and everything to deal with? And what'd you do with the bodies of those soldiers she and I took out? You know I wanted to sell 'em!"

"I don't know what character she's doing, but she sure is committed," Takeru remarked.

Kazuki shook his head. "First of all, I didn't do anything to those…things you mentioned. They were gone when I got back to the well. Second, I have no intention of bailing on you or Towa. In fact you being here means the w…I mean, you being here means we can easily pick up with the 'project' the three of us started. I have every intention of picking things where we left off in the morning."

"You mean it?"

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of leaving things unfinished."

Akira cleared his throat. "Ms. Moroha, since you've come all this way perhaps you might like to join us for dinner."

"Oh hey. Thanks! Don't mind if I do," Moroha agreed.

After a rather awkward dinner of watching Moroha's atrocious table manners, Kazuki had gone up to his room to examine the items he had brought back from the past. Moroha had gone up to his room with him and was currently rummaging through his drawers and various possessions. Kazuki was at his desk as he fired up his laptop and plugged in the component he had taken from one of the soldiers, Moroha opened a drawer and pulled out a Swiss army knife.

"What the heck's this?" Moroha asked as she began pulling out the various blades and other attachments of the knife.

"Just one of my spare pocket knives," Kazuki answered as he tapped his keyboard. "I keep a bunch around because I have the unfortunate tendency to lose them."

Moroha folded the knife back up and stuck it into her ponytail. She then came over and stood behind Kazuki to look at the screen of his computer. The black window Kazuki had open on the screen began showing strings of numbers and letters.

Moroha raised an eyebrow. "Is all this supposed to mean something?"

Kazuki nodded. "It's programming code. Right now the computer's examining the contents of the drive. Hopefully it'll be able to read it. Of course it's likely this thing uses an operating system that's way beyond anything I have, but we'll see."

Moroha crossed her arms. "That thing you plugged into your mystic box was part of one of the demons Towa and I killed, right?"

"Right. In fact this drive was probably part of its brain."

"So…you're saying we might find out what the demon was thinking or something?"

"Essentially, yes. But only if my computer can decipher its code." The computer dinged and Kazuki smiled. "Ah! Looks like it did it."

Moroha leaned in closer to take a look at the screen and squinted. "Just looks like more of those weird numbers and letters to me."

"It's more than that. This is a list of the soldier's programing instructions. Basically we're seeing its mission."

"Which was what?"

Kazuki adjusted his glasses as he took a closer look. "His primary objective was to retrieve…Project Angel?"

"What the heck is Project Angel supposed to be?"

"If I had to guess, it could be a codename for Suzumi, or maybe some kind of item Suzumi has on her?" Kazuki sighed and leaned back in his chair. "In any case, this seems to confirm we were right about her."

"And that's all we can find out?"

"Well…this is only the most recent set of instructions on the drive. If I scroll back further, we'll see regarding previous missions. In short, this drive has a log of everything that cyber demon has done."

"Whoa! You're actually pretty amazing, Kazuki. I've never seen magic anything like this before."

Kazuki smirked. "Moroha, I'd like to use tonight to examine the contents of this drive and get a good night's sleep before I return to your era. Plus I'd like to get some supplies and examine the components of the blaster I took from the soldier. Perhaps it would be best if you retuned home for now."

"No way! This is too interesting." Moroha declared as she crossed her arms. "Besides, I want to make sure you actually do come back to my time."

Kazuki sighed. "There's no way I'm going to change your mind, is there?"

"Nope."

At this moment, Keiko popped her head into Kazuki's room and knocked on the door. "Kazuki, how long is your cosplaying friend going to be staying with us?"

"Oh! About that Mom, there's been a bit of a complication. Moroha's mom…just had to leave due to a sudden work emergency and won't be back until morning, and she doesn't doesn't like Moroha taking the bus alone to go to her hotel," Kazuki lied. "Plus none of the Higurashi's are home right now and Moroha's mom doesn't want her staying in the house alone either. So would it be okay for Moroha to use the guest room?"

"Oh…that's…perfectly okay son," Keiko responded with a false smile as her eye began to twitch wildly. "I'll…I'll just go get it ready."

"No offense, but your mom's kinda weird," Moroha remarked the moment Keiko left.

Kazuki let out a nervous laugh. "Well…I guess she's just not used to unexpected guests. I'm glad you're here though."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Honestly, you're probably the most interesting person I've ever met. In fact this whole thing I've stumbled into, traveling back and forward through time, meeting you and your mother, encountering those cyborg demons…I admit I was freaked out at first, but I realize I've stumbled upon the adventure of a lifetime. So you see Moroha, there's no way I'd bail. Other people might, but I'm sticking with this."

Moroha smiled. "I think I misjudged you Kazuki."

"…You're still gonna stick around until I come back with you, aren't you?"

"Well yeah! I wanna see what you find out from that demon's metal brain. Besides, you and I just became friends."

Kazuki sighed. "I figured as much." He began to scroll through the logs on the drive when he paused. "Say Moroha, now that we're friends, mind if I ask you something? Why is it you're a bounty hunter? I know your mom seemed to object to your line of work. Is it really all so you can get the money to get your family a bigger house?"

"Well…that's part of it. But I also want to give my parents the kind of life they deserve. I mean they're basically heroes. They saved my village and maybe most of the world before I was born. They deserve more than some rundown old shack."

"I can understand that."

"There's more though. I kinda think…if my parents and I had some real money, people might start to respect us."

Kazuki raised an eyebrow. "Your mother seemed pretty respected."

"Yeah, everyone in the village respects both my mom and dad, but most strangers who pass through treat my dad and I like we're freaks."

"…It's because you're part demon, isn't it?"

Moroha nodded. "Half-demons and quarter-demons like me don't have it easy. Full demons look down on us and humans look at us like we're monsters. I figure if I made it rich, people would have to respect me and my dad."

Kazuki shrugged. "They could easily only resent you more for having a lot of money you know. But it's none of my business what you do. If it's any consolation, I think you're pretty amazing. Others might see your abilities as freakish, but I just think they just make you even more wonderful."

Moroha blushed a little. "Thanks."

It was nearly noon as Towa and Kagome were waiting by the Bone Eater's Well. The two had been contemplating the idea of trying to dive into the well to see if Kazuki and Moroha had gone back to the modern era when a large yellow backpack nearly bulging at the seams suddenly flew out of the well and landed right in front of it. It was followed soon after by two slightly smaller black bags. Soon after, Moroha popped her head out of the well with Kazuki hanging onto her back.

"Hi Mom," Moroha cheerfully greeted.

"Young lady, do you have any idea how worried I've been about you?" Kagome asked furiously.

"Apologies Mrs. Higurashi," Kazuki responded as he and Moroha got out of the well. "Moroha was very insistent on sticking by my side until I came back here, but I wanted to do a few things and get a good night's sleep before I came back here."

Kagome sighed. "I see. I hope she didn't cause you too much trouble."

"Well, it was a little awkward when she barged into my house while my family and I were having dinner. Plus my mom didn't seem too crazy about having to set up the guest room for Moroha either. Like I said though, Moroha was pretty insistent on staying by my side. I would've sent word to you if I could. But anyway, your daughter was a delight to have around."

"Well, it's good to know we can go back home and come here again whenever we want," Towa remarked. "How come you were gone for so long though?"

"We would've been back a little sooner, but I wanted to get some supplies I thought might be useful before we left," Kazuki explained.

"I'm guessing your computer is one of the supplies you wanted to bring back."

"Actually I felt it best to leave my baby home for the time being. Given what this era is like I realized there'd be some real danger of it getting damaged. Plus there's no way to recharge it around here. Though in theory I might be able to build some sort of crud electrical generator if I can get my hands on the right materials."

"So now you're Senku from Dr. Stone?"

Kazuki cleared his throat. "It was just a thought, and it's not too ridiculous of an idea. Anyway, Moroha and I would've been back a couple of hours ago but of course her grandmother and great-grandfather made a big fuss over her when they found out who she was."

"Those two were all over me," Moroha declared. "Oh yeah. Mom, both Grandma and Great-Grandpa wanted me to tell you hi."

Kagome smiled. "It's good to know they're doing well. Are they the ones who gave you that backpack?"

"Yep. Apparently they've had it ready for a few years now because they thought Towa might end up coming back here," Moroha explained as she reached into the bag. "Guess they always knew or at least suspected Towa was a half-demon and came from this era. Anyway, Great-Grandpa also gave me this neat gift. Check it out!"

The item Moroha pulled out of the bag was a dark greenish-brown flipper that looked like it came from the leg of an oversized frog or lizard.

Kazuki raised an eyebrow. "Uh…okay, I give up. What're we looking at here?"

"It's a mummified kappa's foot!" Moroha enthusiastically answered. "Isn't it awesome?"

"It sure is, Moroha," Towa answered with an insincere smile. She then whispered to Kagome, "Great-Grandpa once tried giving me that thing for my tenth birthday. I just tried feeding it to the cat."

"I did the same thing," Kagome whispered back.

Kazuki adjusted his glasses. "Anyway, our next goal is still the find Suzumi. I'm guessing she didn't show up during the night?"

Towa shook her head. "Nope. The question is how do we find her?"

"With this," Kazuki answered as he held up Suzumi's phone. "She left her phone at the house yesterday. Given Moroha's abilities as a bloodhound, I figured she could use the phone to get her scent."

Moroha grabbed the phone. "Leave it to me!"

"Before we get started, I'd like to leave some of the equipment I brought back at your place, Mrs. Higurashi," Kazuki requested.

"Perfectly fine," Kagome agreed.

Moroha and Kazuki began to head back towards the village. Towa began to follow them but stopped when she noticed Kagome hanging back by the well.

"Aunt Kagome, is anything wrong?" Towa asked.

"Oh, it's probably nothing," Kagome responded. "It's just…back in the old days, the only people who could pass through the well were me and Inuyasha. I was able to travel through the well because of my spiritual powers and connection to the Shikon Jewel, though I never knew why Inuyasha could travel through it. Anyway, I'm not surprised that you and Moroha can travel through the well, but I'm surprised your friend, Kazuki can go through it."

"Maybe whatever Suzumi did to the well made it possible for anyone to travel through the well?"

"Maybe. Or maybe there's something special about Kazuki we don't know about." Kagome shook her head. "I'm probably just overthinking things."

Towa nodded. "We should join the others. Right now I'm just eager to find Suzumi and hopefully get some answers."

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