Five hundred hits! Woo-hoo! Me likey!!

He he, and if you don't mind, guys, I would love if some of you would leave a review or two after reading. You know, encouragement and all that?

Pity the author?

Heh.

X X X

Comprehension

X X X X

All-in-all, it hadn't been that bad a choice, Kagome decided.

The evening proved to unfold in a fashion that was very familiar to her and Shippo. Once they finally stopped in the midst of the forest, far away from even a clearing, Kagome thought her feet were through with protesting and were about to thoroughly separate themselves from her body, permanently. She slumped down to the ground, her back against the nearest tree, swinging her backpack from her shoulder as she descended. The others were faring considerably better than her – Kohaku didn't seem to be tired at all, despite the length of their trek and Shippo and Rin had both ridden all the way.

As Rin moved to go find some fresh grass for Ah-Un, as it turned out her two-headed dragon escort was lovingly called by the girl, Shippo rummaged through Kagome´s bag – with her permission, of course – and found food for them, unfolded her sleeping bag and went to help Kohaku, who was collecting some firewood. Kitsune bi helped before Kagome could summon the strength to find her matches and soon, the smell of cooked fish and mushrooms was surrounding them.

Rin returned, hopping down on the ground, but only after Kagome told her that she didn't have to collect her own food, but could take some of theirs – her surprise and gratefulness made Kagome wonder just how she had collected her food previously. Nevertheless, the humans and Shippo and Kirara sat together by the fire while Jaken sulked a few meters away from them, clearly still dissatisfied with the situation. Sesshomaru was nowhere in sight.

Kagome rationed their food for the moment and counted that they would last at least another day, but not much beyond that. For the first time, her mind strayed to the well and her world beyond it, where it would be easy to replenish their supplies. She could also bring some shoes for Rin, as she didn't really approve of the little girl strutting around barefoot. Kagome understood that warm and quality footwear was something of a luxury in the Sengoku Jidai.

And giving Rin something useful and rare at the same time probably wouldn't hurt to better her relationship with Sesshomaru. Despite her weariness, Kagome found herself thinking of the word "hah!" in a very mocking, not-so-triumphant manner at the expression and shaking her head. Relationship. Well, considering that thus far their "relationship" had consisted of a series of unintentional encounters that usually involved his attempted murder of her, there was very little that could ruin it even more, if that was possible at all.

But an entire day spent in the taiyoukai´s company proved one thing to her – they could coexist. Of course it wouldn't be the warm, friendly coexistence that she had had with Inuyasha and the others, but she found out that they could coexist without any violence.

That certainly was something new.

"This is delicious, Kagome-sama." Kohaku said while munching on one of her last bags of potato chips. "I haven't seen anything like it. Is this food from your village?"

Kagome laughed slightly edgily. Questions about her homeland were best left unanswered or avoided. "Yes, it's from my homeland. Mama says they aren't too healthy, but I like the taste."

Rin was watching the whole conversation with a wide smile, despite struggling with her chopsticks. Shippo jumped to help her, even offering her some of the cookies Kagome brought him. "Try these, Rin. Kagome´s mom buys the best food. You won't find these anywhere here!"

Rin munched on the cookies and Kagome refrained from saying that it probably wasn't a good thing to mix tastes. The little girl had clearly never eaten chocolate before and she smiled widely. "This is the best food Rin has ever eaten! Arigato, Kagome-san! Will we pass your village? Could your okaa-san make us more of these?"

"I'm sorry, Rin-chan, I don't think we'll be going to my village anytime soon." Kagome dug out her last chocolate bar and sacrificed it to Rin to lessen the girl's slight disappointment. "But when I go there next time, I promise I will bring you whatever you like best."

And so Rin smiled again and then decided that Jaken-sama could use some chocolate as well, to make him feel better about the whole thing. He didn't seem to like Kagome-san much, which was a pity, because Kagome-san seemed very nice, much nicer than the kind of humans she was used to encountering. Thus Rin pranced right to the youkai and offered him a bit of her bar, saying that he should try it. Of course, he refused to do so and didn't want to even be persuaded by the girl, who insisted. Kagome, who wasn't very hungry, remembered that she had promised to change – from what she knew of Jaken, she had come to understand that his master wasn't very indulgent when his orders weren't obeyed (and those conditions had certainly left no room for debate).

Therefore, she found the borrowed miko outfit that was tied around her bag to dry itself and straightened it out. After many hours in the sunlight, it was dry, fortunately. Quickly excusing herself, she made a beeline into the woods a bit further away. She had no problem with changing in front of Rin or Shippo, but Kohaku was a different matter entirely – and it was for his benefit as well. Kagome knew he was very shy, even more than her. And then there was Jaken – Kagome shuddered a bit at the mental image of her undressing in front of the toad youkai.

It was highly fortunate that she had voiced her request that they stop near a hot spring of sorts earlier. The uniform shirt she was wearing was almost as soaked as her haori had been and she longed to rid herself of the sticky feeling. Her bath was only short, because she didn't fancy leaving the rest of the group alone for a long time. Another thing was that she realized she would probably have to be the one to oversee Rin and Shippo´s baths… and, with a sinking feeling, she realized that Jaken, who had probably been the "nanny" before, would think nothing of dumping all childcare on her shoulders, purely because she was female.

Wonderful.

There were aspects of life in the Sengoku Jidai that were simply irritating. Where were equal rights for women when you needed them?

She folded her discarded clothes carefully, the shirt along with her shirt, before sliding on the white haori and, finally, the bright red hakama, highly grateful that priestesses didn't have to wear full multi-layer kimonos. If she wasn't the daughter of a family that lived in a shrine, she would probably have no idea how to fasten that kind of clothing. She actually wondered when she would have another chance to wear her uniform.

Well, Kagome thought, studying her appearance, she had, by and large, followed every demand Sesshomaru had made to the last word. Now no one could tell her she didn't look like a miko.

"Miko." Yes, a miko. No one could contradict that she now looked like one, no one.

"Miko." Again, more insisting.

Wait… the voice in her head sounded rather like…

Kagome snapped out of her reverie and spotted Sesshomaru meters away from her, devoid of expression as usual, but with an impatient edge coloring his voice. Which was probably only natural, as she had apparently zoned out more than she had wanted to, because in contrast to the now blackish forest, Sesshomaru stood out even more than usual in his white clothing, looking rather luminous.

How he remained that clean and seemingly immaculate – at least on the outside – when he traveled through the wild in white and probably silken clothing, she had no idea.

It was simply one of the anomalies of the universe, she supposed.

"Wha-? Oh, sorry, Sesshomaru. You needed something?" Polite, polite, be polite. That was the key to a peaceful cooperation and coexistence.

The word "statuesque" seemed to come to a whole new level when concerning the taiyoukai. It was really difficult for Kagome to discern if he was mildly irritated or highly angered at the moment.

"You are absent from camp. Is this how you intend to protect the humans in battle?" That he had noticed her absence alone was surprising. But it didn't mean he had to insult her battle skills!

"You said you wanted me to change, so I did!" Kagome said, feeling slightly hurt by such criticism. "I can't exactly change in front of Jaken, you know!"

Oddly, Sesshomaru found this strange. Why would it be impossible for her to do that? Was it some kind of human etiquette – if the foolish creatures possessed something of the sort, by kami – that he had no knowledge of? Or perhaps… oh, surely not. The loud, impertinent human wench who dressed as risqué as possible possessed feminine modesty? "You do not usually seem to be troubled by your state of undress." He noted logically, eyes moving to the green and white garments the miko held in her hands.

Kagome wasn't amused. In fact, this remark really pushed her buttons. "That's my uniform! I have to wear that to school and there's never enough time to change when Inuyasha barges into my house to drag me back here before I even get to do my homework or study a bit!"

If he understood correctly, Sesshomaru deduced that the female was referring to some kind of education she seemed to receive. And, apparently, to receive that education, she was obliged to wear the offensive garment. Well, it wasn't that he had never questioned the human's state of mind previously. Not that he spared her thoughts of any kind, but when the miko stood in front of him, with her vulgar clothing, wild, loud words and foolhardy courage, one had to question her sanity.

With what she clearly considered a frustrating sigh, the human continued. "I'm trying to adapt, okay? You're not exactly easy to cooperate with, you know. Look, I've changed my clothing like you wanted. Are you happy now?"

The demon lord wasn't entirely certain about whether she realized her impertinence at using such a tone with him or how to answer her. Certainly she didn't expect him to be… happy about anything that concerned her?

But then again, eying the miko critically from head to toe, Sesshomaru had to admit that her current appearance was acceptable. The human was clean, decently dressed in accordance with the traditions of the shrine maidens and, though she was weaponless, radiated a scent of holy power in her probably angered state.

Surprisingly, while it clearly showed danger to lesser youkai, at least, it was mixed with some sort of… flowery scent? But it smelled strange as well.

"Your scent is obscured." Sesshomaru commented, his eyes returning to the miko´s face. From his experience, no human ever had a flowery scent, fake as it was, especially not a scent that collided with their own.

And, from his experience, no human's smell could be defined by even some word remotely close to "bearable". The miko´s scent, despite the interfering flowery unnatural one, classified somewhere between "acceptable" and "pleasant". Definitely not crossing the border of pleasant. Merely better than the average.

Much better.

Thus polluting the air was crossed out of the list of Reasons To Get Rid of the Miko.

It took a few seconds for the miko to understand what he was referring to and she produced some sort of vaguely cube-shaped scented object. It smelled like she did, only far more intensely and offensively. "This is soap from my… from my village." She said brightly, but the slight untruth easily pierced even the fake scent emanating from her. "It helps me wipe away dirt when bathing. I don't really fancy the smell of demon guts on my clothes, you know."

If someone had told Kagome three days ago that she would be showing and explaining the use of modern-day soap to Sesshomaru, she would have deemed them mad without a second thought. Currently, however, she was fixed by the demon lord's stare… and realized that it wasn't as blank as she had thought it was. More like calculative, really. Perhaps he… Kagome gulped slightly. Explaining the more detailed origins of a modern-day item hadn't been her plan.

But fortunately, she wasn't faced with such a demand, as Sesshomaru suddenly turned and began to walk away from her as if they had never even spoken. A loud "huh?" echoed in her mind. Now, shouting matches she was used to, but the other person walking away from her as if she wasn't even worth the effort… that was definitely something new. And just then, something else drew her attention.

Just how long had he been standing there?

And so, though Sesshomaru had long since vanished, Rin, Kohaku, Shippo and Kirara found themselves glancing up, wondering where the loud shriek of "Pervert!" had come from.

X X X

The next day began all too early for Kagome´s tastes, but then again, she was used to rude awakenings. This time, it had been Jaken, nudging and poking her with the staff he carried around. Kohaku had already been up and ready, but Rin and Shippo were still snuggled in their sleep, Rin on her pet dragon, Shippo in Kagome´s sleeping bag, as it was custom. Kagome had offered Rin the bag as well, but the girl refused, saying there wasn't enough room in it for all three of them – she was right, of course. But she appeared to be very thankful for the offer.

How unusually quiet it was not to have demons wanting to steal their jewel shards attempting to kill them without a second thought. How strange it was to be able to pleasantly chatter the day – and the journey - away with Rin and Shippo – and even Kohaku, who seemed to open up slightly to her after witnessing her treatment of Rin.

They entered no village, merely passed through the wilderness, almost like phantoms, shadows. If a youkai was insane enough to attempt to attack them – as the purity of Kagome and the youki of Sesshomaru could probably be felt miles away – they were slain within seconds, before most of the group even had time to register what had happened. Surprisingly, Kohaku occasionally lent Sesshomaru a hand when such things happened.

Kagome experienced her first real shock when some bandits attempted to rob them for the money they didn't possess. Even the glare and the single syllable that would have sent even braver humans or demons running Sesshomaru spared them didn't affect them. Needless to say, Kagome had stood back to avoid getting in the way of the splattering blood. They were dead without any pretext or threat. Sesshomaru didn't even draw the Tenseiga – it seemed he had deemed them unworthy of being killed by the mystical sword.

"You could have just scared them a bit." Kagome couldn't resist saying when she caught up with the demon lord again. She didn't really think the whole "they were bandits, but they were still human beings" bit would work with Sesshomaru, despite him being a little less cold-blooded than he had perhaps been before Rin had crossed his path.

Predictably, Sesshomaru only glanced at her before dismissing her and her words. "They would not have retreated. Such… gangs…seek both glory and vengeance for their fallen comrades."

Kagome blinked. She was actually receiving a response?

Wow.

"Ungrateful wench!" Jaken had apparently decided to voice his opinion on the matter. "You would have been killed had Sesshomaru-sama not disposed of those thieves and you complain about it!"

"Well, when you put it that way…" Kagome mused. But still, it had been shocking to see that life meant so little to Sesshomaru. Sure, she knew that humans were supposed to be worthless, lowly creatures in his eyes, but seeing the reality of it was rather brutal.

No, that was the wrong word. Chilling was more like it. For all the blood involved, Kagome had to admit that Sesshomaru wasn't brutal. She didn't know a lot about different swordplay styles and what they involved, but she had a good guess that he hadn't made any unnecessary moves or caused a deliberate slow death because he enjoyed it. No, it was really more like Jaken had said – disposing of them. Like one did with garbage – you pack it up and throw it away. No need to crush the tins or shred the papers to tiny pits. You just dispose of it.

And that was what had happened.

With their food, too.

They were steadily running out of it. And how long had it been since she had visited her family back in the future, Kagome wondered? Mama and Sota and jii-chan… they had no idea just how serious the situation in this era had become. She hardly had any idea what they were studying at school at the moment and, strangely, didn't care much about it. At the moment, Naraku was her priority. And the jewel. She would finally deal with those two problems and then…

Then… if she would survive… she would attempt to make things right. Then she would continue on living.

Somehow.

Her chance came when they suddenly stopped an hour or two after midday. Apparently, there had been some disturbance in the vicinity – not that Sesshomaru bothered to explain anything to them – but, the important thing was, the inu youkai decided to investigate it and took Jaken with him, instructing Rin to stay where they were and informing Kagome, very friendlily, that he held her responsible for whatever happened in his absence.

After having so much practice with hearing those words, Kagome was very surprised to see just how much sweat tickled down her throat at a simple "I'll kill you." Well, it had been something more along the lines of: "If something happens to Rin and Kohaku, you will suffer the consequences." But the meaning remained the same.

She definitely wouldn't have the time to cross the border between the past and the future, nor did she have the skill to protect Rin and Kohaku while in the future. Thus, she opted for a simpler thing.

"Is this a good idea, Kagome?" Shippo asked. "Sesshomaru won't be very happy if he doesn't find you here when he returns."

Kagome smiled bravely. "To be honest, Shippo, I'm not sure about that. But don't worry about that. Kaede´s village isn't far off – I'll go there and ask for some food. I'm sure Kaede-bachan will help us."

"Don't go, Kagome-san." Rin pleaded as well. "We can go catch some fish if you want. Or wait until it goes dark and we can go to a village and get some food."

Rin was little – she could get away with stealing a vegetable or two. But Kagome highly doubted that the three humans, plus Shippo and Kirara, would be equally lucky at acquiring their own stolen food. She began to miss Miroku´s fake exorcisms slightly, though she would never admit it.

"I have to, Rin-chan. I won't take long. Promise. Kirara, please!" Obediently, the nekomata transformed into her more fearsome form and Kagome prepared for a usual take-off. However, before that, she extended a hand towards Kohaku. "Please, Kohaku-kun. You have to come with me." She had talked to the taijiya before, but he didn't seem too certain about leaving Rin and Shippo. "Ah-Un can help the others fly away in case of need, but without you, youkai are less likely to attack. We'll run out of food if we don't go."

With a sigh, Kohaku hung his head, but nodded heavily after a moment. she was right, of course, but when he sat down on Kirara´s comfortable back and the youkai took off, he felt a slight dread. He hoped dearly that ane-ue wouldn't happen to be found in the village they were going to visit.

Shippo and Rin watched them leave. Then, once Kirara was only a small fiery dot in the sky, Rin sighed slightly.

"I hope Kagome-san and Kohaku return soon. Sesshomaru-sama won't be happy if he doesn't find them here when he returns." Then, she perked up slightly. "Shippo-chan, do you think Kagome-san will bring us some more cho-chocolate?" the girl asked, struggling to remember the word.

The fox-child folded his little arms in a serious manner. "No, Rin-chan, not now. Kagome gets the chocolate and color-pencils and paper from her home beyond the well."

"Well?" Rin repeated, curious.

"Kagome is from a whole different world!" Shippo said happily as Rin sat down on the ground near their fire. "She and Inuyasha can get to the future when they pass through the Bone-Eater's Well, where Kagome lives."

Rin was stupefied, but in the positive sense of the word. she smiled widely and glanced at Ah.-Un, then at Shippo. She didn't really understand magic, but she believed Shippo. If he said that Kagome-san came from the future, then Kagome-san came from the future. After all, he had shared those pretty coloring sticks with her, so why would be lie? "Could Rin go see Kagome-san´s home sometimes?"

"Only Kagome and Inuyasha can get through the well." Shippo sighed. "I wish I could get through and see what other candy they have there. Kagome says she can't bring many things from there and she always has a very heavy bag…"

But Rin was already wondering what the future could possibly look like. Did they have more sweets? Were all people nice like Kagome-san? Didn't they need to hunt for their food that often? And, more importantly, how did they make such magic coloring sticks and such nice paper?

Would she stay with them? It would certainly be nice. Kagome-san seemed to know about herbs and flowers and how to make pretty combinations of nice-looking plants. And, along with the magical colors and paper, she had definitely gained popularity with Rin.

Only one thing was certain: Kagome-san was definitely magical.