So, I started re-watching Bleach to try to get me in the writing mood (used to be Inuyasha), and . . . Was no one gonna tell me Shun'o is a girl? Just kidding. The anime says she's a girl, and the manga says he's a boy. Guess you know my preferred media. Also, I don't remember Orihime's 3 other friends from the beginning-the wavy haired one, the long dark haired one, and the nervous, short-haired one.

I have two other parts written, but I've been staring at a screen since yesterday and I must work for a living now. Ho hum.

Enjoy!

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Auburn Strands and Red Threads #31

Kisuke stood over his bathroom sink, his stomach twisting with waves of nausea. Sweat was beginning to form on his forehead, and he took slow open-mouthed deep breaths to regulate his body temperature faster. He had taken a moment to excuse himself to the bathroom because he needed a moment to get his nerves under control. His legs were shaking, and he was hit with the miserable urge to curl up and sleep until he couldn't sleep anymore.

After seeing the message Orihime had sent him and the way her name disappeared off the phone's map, Kisuke, Yoruichi and Sora spent the next few minutes discussing whether or not the message was sent in a state of duress. Inuyasha was in the Feudal Era so he could fight demons—Orihime knew this. Inuyasha also didn't have a way to contact Orihime while he was gone, so why would she suddenly go to see him like this, and how did she know where to find him?

But more than that, Kisuke was too bewildered to think properly. He was with her just hours before, and he had no idea whatsoever that she would do this. As much as he wanted to brush this off as just a teenager sneaking out, Kisuke had to admit he never thought it was something that was normal in the first place. Out of all the times he's known Orihime—spanning over what would amount to an astronomical number of lifetimes—Orihime had only snuck out of the house three times—with this being the third. The first two times, she had been upset by either an argument they had or something else she wouldn't talk about, but nothing was wrong this time.

Kisuke turned on the bathroom sink again and alternated between taking deep breaths and splashing cold water on his face. He let the water run as he closed his eyes and braced both hands on either side of the sink.

.

'I went to see Inuyasha. I'll be back soon. Love you.'

.

So, she snuck out to see Inuyasha for real? That's the only reason this was happening? Even then, that still didn't make sense. No matter how much Kisuke wanted this to be normal, no teenager would be sneaking out to go see a boy that lives in the past! At least not a boy they barely knew! And she's only been to the Feudal Era one time, so how would she know how to navigate the terrain?

Kisuke felt his stomach drop, and he didn't want to figure out why. Then again, maybe he just didn't want to think too deeply when he should have a while ago.

He hadn't thought too much when Tessai promised Inuyasha that dimension displacer. Hell, Kisuke was honestly riding a high of creating devices and giving them away, and he had already been thinking of a cellphone equivalent he could make for Inuyasha. If the boy was going to spend all this time around Orihime, it would be more than a good idea to have a way to communicate with him as well. Kisuke didn't want to mess up the past too much, though, despite what some may think. The dimension displacer was a good alternative, but Kisuke never seriously thought Inuyasha could get it working without asking for assistance. Sora had helped Kisuke design it, and the two didn't need much convincing for the other to try to make the device just a little more unnecessarily difficult than it had to be.

Did Inuyasha actually get it working? And did he give it to Orihime to visit him any time she wanted? Is this what it meant to raise teenagers these days?

But that explanation was so easy, and this situation did not feel easy. Kisuke's stomach and nerves couldn't believe this was just teenage hormones because there would be no reason to sneak all the way to the Feudal Era just to see each other. She had a whole apartment, for crying out loud! Inuyasha was more than welcome to see Orihime at Kisuke's home, but he was out fighting demons right now. So, what if this was something bigger?

What if this was Captain Yamamoto?

How long has it been since the old man used Orihime to deliver that message, and how long has it been since Kisuke has blatantly ignored him?

Kisuke was initially prepared to do a restart, but the more time passed, the more Kisuke was . . . reluctant to do so because he had grown to feel entitled to his current life.

To restart and give up a perfectly good life because someone decided to take Orihime from him . . . This time he had questions. This time it made him angry. Truth be told, he had thought himself into anger not long after Orihime had delivered the message from the Captain. If that old geezer knew what Kisuke was doing, then Captain Yamamoto should know why Kisuke was messing with time so much. If Yamamoto didn't know, what was such the big deal? Why was the Captain being so shady about what he was doing? Why not just come and ask Kisuke himself? This disappearing act being Captain Yamamoto's master plan made the most sense.

Yet Kisuke's mind kept coming back to the text message.

Orihime wasn't frantic or in a frenzy, and maybe she was trying to reassure him so he wouldn't panic. No one who was trying to impersonate her would know to compose a message to him like that. Only people who knew what Kisuke was really up to would know how to compose a believable text, and they all live with him and would have absolutely no reason to impersonate her.

He really couldn't let his mind go there right now . . .

Kisuke shut the water off and exited the bathroom. Sora was leaned against the wall opposite the door and was unblinkingly staring at his phone as his eyes snaked across the screen. Kisuke watched him as he closed the door behind himself, but Sora still didn't notice Kisuke was in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

Sora finally looked up and pushed off the wall. "Seeing if any of her friends were close by when all this started." He put his phone in his pocket. "Did you manage to get a hold of her friends?"

"I talked to Ichigo. I think Yoruichi is still on the phone with Rukia." Kisuke paused to swallow the lump in his throat. The shock of being woken up also hadn't faded. His body felt as though an electrical buzz was circulating through him with no sign of fading. "I'd give them about an hour. I'm not sure. Everyone is still trying to understand what's going on."

Sora nodded. "She didn't contact any of them, though?"

Kisuke shook his head.

Sora nodded, but he retreated into himself as he turned down the hall and went downstairs. Kisuke went back to his own bedroom, where Yoruichi had just gotten through tying on a robe.

"Rukia hasn't heard anything from anyone in the Soul Society," she said as she met Kisuke at the door. "This may be a positive sign this has nothing to do with them. I'm going to go see if Tessai's awake." She paused to examine Kisuke's expression. "Did something else happen?"

Kisuke sighed. He slowly pulled Yoruichi into a hug and exhaled into the crook of her neck, which was muffled by her hair. "I'm . . . so tired."

Yoruichi rubbed his back, pressing her head into them. "We'll all be able to rest soon."

o0o0o

Yoruichi went to wake Tessai as Kisuke and Sora went to the living room to talk things over a little more.

Sora paced around the room in a trance with both hands over his mouth as he mumbled to himself. His eyes were wide under his hanging bangs, and his posture became more hunched as he made lap after lap. Kisuke watched him from the position at the small table, and he could feel himself finally starting to sober and gain his rational mind.

"It's supposed to ding. Why didn't it ding?" Kisuke heard Sora say.

"Hm?" Kisuke said anyway, mainly to snap Sora out of it.

Sora halted, his head snapping in Kisuke's direction. "Huh?"

Kisuke patted the table space next to him and gestured to the tea that Sora forgot he had prepared. "Talk me through what you're thinking. You're mumbling to yourself."

Sora looked at Kisuke for a beat longer before straightening his posture a bit and allowing some sanity to reach his eyes. "My phone . . . It's supposed to ding when she's in trouble, but it didn't make a noise." His eyes slid away from Kisuke's as he began to slip back into his thoughts. "If I hadn't checked the time when I did, I may not have seen her."

The fact that the phone didn't ding genuinely relieved Kisuke for a second, but other questions flooded him. Still, he found himself saying, "Maybe she's not in any danger."

Sora scowled at him and slowly began to pace again. "There are demons there, remember? And the southern mountains? Do you know how far that is from here?"

"In relation to my house right now? No, but . . ." Kisuke began thinking where Orihime would pop up in the Feudal Era and how she would know where she was going. He knew she would pick a direction and travel it way past the point she would have been lost. Could she sense Inuyasha all of a sudden? Without any real training in doing so? And even if she could, why was she doing it to find him now? Why was she being so reckless about this boy? Had she done wildly impulsive things for Ichigo that Kisuke had never noticed? Was this all even about romantic feelings for another person?

Or was this Captain Yamamoto?

"Kisuke."

Kisuke snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Sora, who was paused next to the living room door and looking at him.

"If we . . . No matter when we see Orihime next, we need to tell her about me."

Kisuke's heart started to pound as if he was first woken up again. "I . . . understand."

"Right." Sora waited a few seconds. "It's just . . . I need you to say out loud that we're going to do that."

"Yeah . . . Okay." Kisuke fidgeted under Sora's insistent stare. "Sora, we really need to focus on-"

"Kisuke, listen." Sora took quick, large steps towards Kisuke and carefully but firmly placed his hands on either side of the blond's head. "She has to know about me. You may have lost count of how many times we've done this, but I haven't, and Kisuke . . ." Tears had welled in Sora's eyes. "This is the first time I've gotten to interact with her. The first. I'm not saying you're not doing a great job, but maybe if she had real family to turn to, she would've—"

Kisuke tensed.

Sora let go of Kisuke, but he continued to stare pleadingly. Kisuke remained silent himself, not knowing if he wanted Sora to finish that sentence. Maybe she would've still been here if she knew about Sora? Kisuke hadn't meant to have a physical reaction, but he also never meant to have such a complicated touchy subject with Sora either. Orihime didn't contact her friends; she sent Kisuke a text message, but would she have turned to Sora before making the decision to leave? Maybe each tragedy happened because she didn't know about Sora? Maybe if she had "real family" to turn to, things would be different every time?

Not that Kisuke wanted to revisit this line of thinking right now. Kisuke always worked hard at building a solid and loving foundation with Orihime so that she knew she was loved and had a family to turn to, but Sora always would be her family. Sora and Orihime had a real loving bond from the very beginning, and it was that love that led Sora on this journey with Kisuke in the first place.

Sora didn't see Orihime at first when he started accompanying Kisuke and his household because death was involved every time a reset happened, and Sora was not yet over the trauma of Orihime dying the first time for him. The next few resets, Sora had locked himself away in the extended world hidden in the closest and threw himself into research and experiments. Nothing really ever came from them, and Kisuke had been more determined than ever to give the Inoues a happy life.

But doubt had been planted . . .

It was on the resets that Sora was locked away that Kisuke had been able to form a true and genuine bond with Orihime. Kisuke couldn't remember what it was exactly that changed things, but Orihime had said something along the lines of, "Sora may not be here, but at least I have you, Kisuke."

Why? Why did that make Kisuke worried about when the two would finally meet? Their bond had always been strong, and the two had always wanted to see each other again. Kisuke wanted them to see each other again, too . . .

It just . . . wasn't supposed to take this long.

The original Soras of each world spent roughly twelve to thirteen years of uninterrupted time with Orihime. True, the Sora he travels with hadn't been the one spending time with Orihime, but Sora still got the foundation years of Orihime's life. Kisuke just had the same few months—two to three years if he could actually find a way to interact with her after Sora's death. Kisuke wasn't exactly trying to wait twelve to thirteen years after each Soras' death to introduce the two, but with every reset, he had to start the waiting game again. And as much as it wasn't fair to Orihime that Kisuke will always have spent more time with her brother than she ever could have, he wasn't trying to make this arrangement forever . . . He was just trying to do things right.

"We'll tell her," Kisuke agreed, hands and feet cold and clammy. "I promise."

"And I can be part of her life," Sora add. "No more resets."

"No more resets," Kisuke parroted.

The Inoues would surely grow close once again, and there was no telling if Kisuke would remain in the picture all the same. It was a selfish thought, Kisuke knew, but every restart, there was a very slim time period between trying to establish his own bond with Orihime, and hoping something didn't happen to start this process all over again.

Kisuke just wished he could remember the two resets before he met this Sora. Kisuke knew he couldn't have possibly cared for Orihime before Sora came into the mix, but why did Kisuke do two resets if there was no Sora? He supposed it didn't matter since he did care now, but Kisuke knew he himself must have been a different person when this all started. Who was he before, when he only cared about experiments, Yoruichi, and living free?

Why was he thinking about this now?

Kisuke didn't have time to mull that over because his phone played an 8-bit tune. He retrieved his phone from his clothing and saw that it was Ichigo letting him know the group was outside.

"Orihime's friends are here," Kisuke announced.

Sora sighed. "Can't I just stay? Don't you have a spare gigai or some disguise I could use?"

"A gigai would serve you no purpose, and Orihime's friends have a keen eye for detail when they want to. We don't want to chance one of them recognizing you from a picture or something."

Sora gave him a look before leaving through the door in the corner. There was no time to go back and forth on this.

Kisuke placed the folding screen back in place before going to the front door to let the kids inside his home. He was a bit surprised they were prepared for battle—the soul reapers and the quincy in their uniforms while Chad sported flexible yet durable wear—but he was proud of how serious they were taking the situation.

Kisuke led them all to the living room. There were a few seconds where they looked at him, expecting him to say something, and he did when they all shifted their gazes to each other.

"Orihime went to the Feudal Era," he said, despondent.

"Like, she was kidnapped?" Uryuu asked. "Or did primitive Ichigo come back?"

Ichigo gave Uryuu a confused look.

"I'm . . . not sure," Kisuke admitted. "She sent me a text saying she was going, but I was asleep when she sent it." Why did he feel as though he was picking his words carefully? "Does anyone have any idea why she would leave like this?"

"Maybe you guys didn't see it," Ichigo said, "but according to this app on my phone, she was moving way too fast for her to have left herself."

"That's true," Rukia confirmed. "She got to Tokyo in very little time before disappearing."

Kisuke's stomach knotted. He remembered how the screen had looked. Kisuke sniffed, but it was involuntary because he was overcome with a wave of heat and nausea. It's possible Orihime unlocked some new abilities that allowed her to move faster. Would she really have not said anything about being able to do so?

"And none of the texts are going through," Chad said as he tucked his phone back in his pocket. "So, we won't be able to track her with our phones once we do get to the Feudal Era."

"How are we getting to the Feudal Era?" Uryuu asked. "Do you have more of those orbs that Inuyasha had?"

"Ah. That reminds me." Kisuke left the group staring at him as he paced his way towards the kitchen. He placed his hands on the countertop and let his head hang once again as he focused on his breathing. This was actually very difficult—keeping calm. If this were Rukia or Ichigo that went missing, Kisuke would have no problem clearing his mind to come up with a proper recovery plan. This was Orihime, though, and Kisuke was half hoping her friends would have a little more insight into the situation, but they were clearly as surprised as he was.

So Kiuske had to come up with a plan.

He just couldn't think pass why did she leave like this?

"What are you thinking?"

Kisuke looked up. Yoruichi had just walked in the kitchen, now dressed in her oversized shirt and sleeping shorts. She had pulled her hair up in a hastily made bun and was now looking him over as though he had been in physical pain. For some reason, seeing that look on her face twisted his heart and made his stomach feel weighted. She was a beautiful woman who loved him. He wondered if she felt loved by him like he did by her.

Kisuke cleared his head and walked to be near her. "I just don't understand what she's doing. None of this makes sense."

Yoruichi walked closer to him in case they needed to whisper, her eyes over-filled with concern. "What's making you react this way? Worst things have happened and you were calm."

"I wasn't, and I'm . . . just getting tired. To deal with situations like this every time . . . It's just making me tired."

"I understand, but we're all here. I'm here. We're going to find her."

He wanted to cry. Was he just emotional right now? Yoruichi's love for him always manifested in a way that caught him off guard, and he was swarmed with her love, yet his mind was on the verge of collapsing thinking that something terrible was happening to Orihime right now. He really wanted to go back to bed and be wrapped in her embrace once again. He really wanted to enjoy the love he shared with Yoruichi again.

Before . . . she started to sacrifice so much for him.

"I hear Ichigo and the gang in there," she said. "Did something else happen? Have they heard from Orihime?"

He took a deep, steadying breath as he turned to face her. "We- I need to come up with a plan. I'm just having a hard time thinking straight."

Yoruichi nodded solemnly. "Well, don't stay in here too long. Imagine how those kids feel right now." She paused a moment. "What are you going to do? I've talked to Rangiku, and this is definitely not Captain Yamamoto."

"I . . . honestly don't know then." And he didn't. His mind was surprisingly blank. Everyone was waiting to discuss what to do about Orihime; no doubt they wanted to go after her. No doubt there really was no other option than to go find her and bring her back.

They knew nothing of resets, though.

They knew nothing of blissful ignorance and how maybe they didn't want to know what happened. He could spare all of them the heartache by starting over and adding this scenario as yet another obstacle he had to avoid, but he had never done a restart without confirming she was no longer alive. Did he have to see a body this time? What, exactly, was Kisuke supposed to think happened when she goes from one side of town to the other in no time at all?

How was he supposed to respond when it was always something?

Her message said she went to see Inuyasha, but Inuyasha certainly didn't call her. Was this Fate working against Kisuke again? Did it see no outside force was going to take Orihime away this time, so it manufactured a way to drive her insane? Kisuke didn't think too much of it before, but maybe her attachment to Inuyasha wasn't healthy. The boy was a demon and not a Hollow, so was Inuyasha the kind of demon that lured people away to do who knows what?

Yet not once did the phone flash showing she was in danger.

Kisuke huffed, slumping against the wall. Tessai had entered the kitchen in that moment, and both he and Yoruichi rushed to keep him steady. The look in Kisuke's grey eyes were distant, as though he was already at the point of hearing she was dead.

"I'll talk to them," Yourichi said, a small quiver barely noticed as she strengthened her tone. "I don't know if you can handle talking about this." She hesitated. "At the very least, I can get Rangiku here and she can help, too. Hell, if we really need the manpower, I'll order Soi Fon to help us."

"She went into the past," Kisuke said listlessly. "The Warring States Era. How would she even get to the Warring States Era?"

"Perhaps," Tessai offered, "Inuyasha let her hold onto the prize you made for him."

Kisuke almost groaned as his stomach twisted. He meant how did she travel to Tokyo before changing time periods, but there it was again. So, it was entirely possible Orihime had the dimension displacer and Kisuke's the one who created this situation in the first place.

"What prize is this?" Yoruichi asked. "I remember you saying it was a way for him to see her, but I regret not asking further at the time what that meant."

Kisuke felt himself deflate, anger at himself making him groan. "I thought if I made him his own personal portal to come and go from the Feudal Era, Orihime wouldn't go there as often."

Yoruichi looked at him in shock and then at Tessai in disbelief. "You two really shouldn't have done that." She paused, many thoughts swirling in her head. "We don't even know him well, and who knows how many portals to different worlds is too much for this one." She thought a moment longer. "Perhaps we should leave the Soul Society out of this as much as we can then."

"I know, I—"

"Pardon my intrusion, children," an unfamiliar deep voice said from the living room. "My name is Sosuke, and I'm a close friend of Kisuke's. I'm here to help you find your friend."

Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Tessai looked at each other—alarm and confusion on their faces. They quickly went to the living room just as Rukia called for Kisuke.

Upon entering the room, the three saw Ururu and Jinta had awoken and now joined the group as well. Disturbingly, they also saw Sora Inoue dressed in a dark colored long-sleeved shirt, a pair of light sweatpants, and a pair of slightly too big sunglasses that also had a thick, hairy mustache attached to it. Sora looked over at trio that entered the room, smiling triumphantly as if he had done anything good.

Sora looked back at the larger group. "Now," he said in that deep voice, "to put it simply, Orihime snuck out to go to the Warring States Era, and we have no idea why. Do we have any volunteers to go find her right now?"

"What are you doing?" Kisuke interjected.

"Um," Uryuu said, "who is he and why does he know all of this?"

"And are we sure she went to the Feudal Era?" Ichigo asked, highly confused. "That Inuyasha has also been to the Soul Society, so maybe half of us could check there." Ichigo eyed the oddly disguised man and the screen that had been pushed to the side. "And how did he come out of that door? I thought it was a closet."

"I understand there will be many questions," Sora-Sosuke said, "but I assure you we should move under the assumption that we don't have much time. We need to find Orihime as soon as possible."

"So—" Kisuke stopped himself, his head feeling full of pressure, "—suke, not to undermine you here, but what in the world are you doing?"

Sora-Sosuke pulled out his phone, displaying it so everyone could see. "Orihime's presence disappeared in Tokyo, and thanks to the tracker in her phone, we will be able to find the last known area she was in within a few meters. If she has somehow gone to the past, we can transport her friends there and they can get her back."

"Yes, but . . ." Kisuke looked around the room, his senses numb, "how exactly would we do that?"

Sora's eyes lit up, almost shocked, which caused his next words to be slightly higher than a whisper. "The Here-to-There Method."

Kisuke blinked, his mind slowly catching up.

Orihime and Tsubaki stared down at the wolves and the two humanoid beings that were running while the large demon slowly glided them overhead. No one and nothing in this wolf pack appeared injured, but they had pretty darn good stamina if they were.

"When are you going to say something?" Tsubaki muttered.

Orihime jumped as she looked at her shoulder. "Me?"

Tsubaki scoffed. "You're in the Feudal Era; grow some nerve. What, do you expect us to do all the talking?"

Orihime's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, her body becoming jittery and warm as she realized how foolish she was being. She hadn't given any serious thought as to whether or not she would have to converse with anyone in the Feudal Era to find Inuyasha. She didn't expect Tsubaki or anyone to do all the talking, per se, because she didn't honestly expect anyone to do any talking. Tsubaki had an uncanny way of tracking Inuyasha, so why would there have been a need to talk to anyone?

But she still hasn't mastered this new power . . .

Tsubaki could only track Inuyasha in the first place because of the Sacred Jewel Shard, and she still knew very little about what it was and what exactly it transformed her fairies into since it fused with them. Resurrection, tracking, redirection . . . These were not abilities Orihime thought she was capable of when she received these powers. Her original powers were still a mystery in a lot of ways, but tracking had never been something she could do.

But that was neither here nor there.

Orihime looked down again at the beings running. Her heartbeat in her throat as she swallowed hard and willed her voice to rise.

"Excuse me!" she yelled.

Ginta, Hakkaku, and the wolf pack stopped in their tracks. Confused heads turned on a swivel as their ears perked and stung from the high-pitched screech that came from above them. All heads shot skywards as the presence of a large, deformed demon descended rapidly towards them. The pack howled as they ran away from the beast and into fighting stances.

Of course.

The demon had used a false voice to throw them off guard. They were so disorganized since Koga ran away earlier that they hadn't even sensed the giant stalking them until it was too late.

"Isn't this wonderful?" Ginta sneered, his mind racing with a million different ways this demon could take them out with one blow.

"It's like they know when he isn't around," Hakkaku whined though his blood was pumping with anger. What kind of pack constantly gets separated from their leader? Every time this happens, Hakkaku always thinks to himself, We should have been stronger. But then some miracle is performed, and their lives are spared again and again, and they're just as weak as they ever were.

Well, where was the miracle now?

The giant deformed demon landed, and dread crept up through their feet and trembled out their scalps. It'd be terrible for a pack leader to lose his whole pack and no one was around to tell him.

"H-hello!"

A figure slid down the side of the large demon and walked closer until the pack could see it better. It was a beautiful young woman with bright shiny hair and dark clothing. The clothing was plain with no patterns, but they still looked strange in some way that unnerved them. The shortness of her sleeves left pale arms exposed, and her long pants still seemed to display her body's shape in a way that seemed foreign to their intended purpose. She looked at them with wide eyes that sparkled in the moonlight. Her expression was cautious despite her stance being resolute.

"Um, can you gentlemen please point me in the direction of the southern mountains? I want to be sure I'm headed the right way."

"The southern mountains?" Hakkaku questioned.

"Why are you trying to go there by yourself? It's really not safe right now," Ginta said.

The young woman rubbed her arm and shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I think my friend might be in trouble, and he might need my help if he is."

Ginta and Hakkaku looked at each other.

"Give us a moment," Ginta said before the entire pack huddled into a tight circle. "Okay, what are the odds that she has friends that need help in the southern mountains, too?"

"It's crazy, right? She can't be talking about Koga, and I've never seen her around Boss Kagome and her friends either. You think there really is a treasure of jewel shards in those mountains now?"

"What even would be a 'treasure of jewel shards' anyway?" Ginta asked, genuinely confused.

"Who knows," Hakkaku shrugged. "But it really must be something good to cause demons from all over to want to go there."

"Then should we help her get there if her friends possibly want the shards, too?"

The pack looked back at the stranger for a moment before huddling back together.

"Then again," Ginta said, "her friends could be one of the many demons that are causing all that rukus in the first place."

"Right!" Hakkaku agreed. "Beautiful women don't travel by themselves at night unless something's wrong with them, so what's wrong with her?"

The group nodded and made sounds of confirmation before turning to face the stranger.

"What's wrong with you?!" Ginta and Hakkaku demanded as they pointed right at the girl.

The girl froze for a solid second—eyes wide, not even breathing—before she began to stammer incoherently. She was saying words they couldn't make out and then with no warning, she clambered back on the demon. Shock and confusion were the main emotions as the pack large demon rose back in the air and soared off in the direction the wolf pack had been running.

"That was awful," Tsubaki said.

"I know!" Orihime cried, wiping tears from her eyes. "That was just scary. Did you know wolves were that big?!"

"Well, they were demon wolves, so, no, not that big."

Orihime audibly whimpered as Tsubaki sat on her shoulder in silence. She's been alone before, but this was a completely different feeling. She pulled out her phone to check for messages, but she soon found that she had no signal. She tried her luck at texting and calling a few of her contacts, but nothing went through.

So, even if she needed help, there was no way for her to contact anyone.

I have to survive no matter what, she thought despite the thought terrifying her. She had been attacked by a demon before, and now she was in their home. Inuyasha warned her the jewel shard would attract demons, so absolutely no matter what she had to survive.

"I won't make anyone cry for me," she mumbled to herself, and she would repeat it as many times as she needed.

"Weird tornado."

Orihime snapped out of her spiraling thoughts. She was about to ask what Tsubaki had said, but then she noticed the odd wind funnel as well. It was not as big as a normal tornado because it didn't connect to the sky, but it was still higher than the trees, and it was coming straight towards them from the horizon.

Tsubaki chuckled to himself. "You feel that?"

Orihime nodded because she felt uneasy. She felt unease from an explained tornado, of course. "Do you think that's a-a demon?"

"Yep, and it knows your boyfriend."

Feline energy.

That damned dog must have feline energy because why did Koga find himself hating Inuyasha so much? It's one thing that the damned mutt mouths off to him every chance he gets and takes Kagome for granted, but to rush Koga off while Inuyasha was dead on his feet was laughable. Kagome was lucky that Koga always thought ahead. Koga was going to quickly find his pack, give a few of them a shard, and they were racing right back to the southern mountains so Koga could save his woman.

With that fueling him, Koga pushed himself to run faster, trees and shrubs ripping out from the roots as he passed. He was envisioning the look of relief on Kagome's face when he finally made it back to her when his senses spiked and he planted his heels in the ground, coming to a skidding stop. He sniffed the air, the hair on the back of his neck bristling, and jumped to the top of the highest tree.

He scanned the treetops and moonlit paths until he noticed a dark cloud approaching him. He sniffed again and scowled when it became clear this was a demon.

"Tck! About time." Koga grinned. "I was wondering why none of you bastards were followin' me." Koga skirted along treetops, jumping to gain altitude, and prepared to strike the demon down with one swipe from his claws.

But then his hair bristled again.

"TSUBAKI, NO!"

Koga's attacking arm was hit with a force so strong it knocked him off course and sent him hurdling to the ground. He landed with a loud crash, and it was pure shock and confusion that left him unable to take on the defensive. Something else was on that demon, but he had no idea what.

He cursed as he attempted to get to his feet, but his arm immediately raged in pain. He looked at it to find that it had turned a sickening red and black color with his flesh blistered and peeling. He stared in disbelief, the pain not registering.

Again, his senses screamed at him, and he looked up to see the large demon descending upon him. He jumped to his feet and took a fighting stance though his arm hung miserably at his side.

"Hold on!" a female voice yelled before the demon fully landed. A girl with bright hair and dark clothing jumped off and began running towards him. "I can heal you!"

"Stay back!" Koga warned. "You attack me then want to heal me? What kind of trap is this?"

"I-it's not a trap!" But the girl did well to not get any closer. "He- We- I thought you were trying to attack me, a-and I acted rashly and hurt you. Please, let me heal you."

Koga laughed without humor. "No, thanks, lady." There had been better scenarios orchestrated to get the shards and this was just too obvious.

"Please, I . . ." She seemed to flounder in place. She could pull off looking guilty extremely well. "Shun'ō, Ayame."

A shimmering yellow dome appeared around Koga. He tried to escape, but one shoulder thrust proved that this was a sturdy structure, and his arm was healing. He stared in awe as his arm bubbled and healed over like he had never been attacked in the first place.

"What . . . ?" he said to himself. He moved and flexed his arm. There was no pain and no scarring.

"Whew!" The dome disappeared and two bug-sized people were in front of him. "Another fast-healing dog boy?"

Koga focused his eyes and saw of the two tiny people, the one with blond hair was looking at him with disdain.

"You're definitely not Inuyasha, right?" it asked.

"What?" Koga said incredulously.

The tiny people turned and floated over to the girl.

"Orihime, is this Inuyasha?" the tiny man asked.

The girl laughed nervously, her face genuinely relaxing for a moment. "No, but he might be able to help us find him."

"Oh, fun," the tiny man said, looking back at Koga. "Is that true, dog man? Do all dog men here know each other?"

Koga didn't respond. The human—because she did smell like a human—with the bright hair didn't appear to be much older than Kagome, now that he was really looking at her. Her skin was pale and seemed to glow in the moonlight, and her clothes . . . were just strange. She herself was beautiful, but a beautiful woman traveling by herself at night was not something to be trusted.

And she was looking for . . . Inuyasha?