InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Braving Mystical Worlds ❯ Chapter 7: Clues ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I can try to claim the concept and creation of the Xmen or Inuyasha - but then, I'd be knee deep in doggie-do or flung to another dimension, so just to clarify, NO!!! They aren't mine, but give it a year or two. Or not.

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Braving Mystical Worlds: Chapter 7: Clues

-Jasmine Fields

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Jazz: Hey guys! I'm back from my vacation!

Inuyasha: Keh! As though you were missed!

Kagome: Sit boy! (Inu crashes into the ground)

Remy: So, Cher`e, when do I make an appearance in your fic?

Jazz: (looking thoughtful) Great question! Actually, I want to put you in soon, but was in dire need of ideas. Haven't been able to find out where my betas went. I think everyone moved away. (sighs)

Inuyasha: (eyes unable to tear away from the sight of Jazz's lazy advances toward Remy) So wench, what you're saying is that you're so screwed, right?

Kagome: (puts hands over Inu's mouth, muffling his words)

Remy: So, you need help from the reviewers, right, love? (smiles, eyes twinkling)

Jazz: (turns head away) Ehrm, yes, Gambit, I especially need ideas for you...and how you might fit into my story-telling plans.

Inuyasha: (breaks free of Kagome's hold) Oi! Just give 'em your email and have 'em submit that way...wouldn't want to ruin it by giving away your secrets, right wench?

Jazz: Um, well....(looking into Remy's eyes, flushing deep shades of red)

Kagome: ...I think she's busy, so, I'll do it for her: jasmine_jazz_fields@yahoo.com for idea submissions. I know she'll give the ideas she uses the proper credit...and she might be willing to take Kellen up on that beta offer...so long as she gets to keep the 'A-U-R-O-R-A' spelling...and has 20 minutes to spare for a chapter critique. (on email, of course) Mostly, she needs plot ideas regarding Remy --- not so much pairing ideas!

Miroku: This should be interesting...Wonder what she's got up her sleeve? Gambit's more perverted than a monk such as I could ever be.

Inuyasha: Feh! Ain't nobody more perverse than you! By the way, where did youcome from so suddenly?

Miroku: (clearing throat speaking matter-of-factly) Well, I was checking the stats before I headed over.

Jazz: (backs slowly away from Remy's embrace) I'm thinking that -

Inuyasha: Again? Will ya' stop doing that?!?

Jazz: (stars in her eyes reigns in temper and glances in Kag's direction)

Kagome: (glares at Inu) Sit boy!

Miroku: Thank you Kagome. Now, as we were saying...apparently we have a few fans who liked us enough to put us on their favorites' list!

Jazz: Really? That's such an honor! Who?

Miroku: Kellybug, xmenfightingmiko, Dark Phoenix Akurei, and look here - another reviewer! Welcome Qem!

Inuyasha: So, you think our ratings will go up now?

Kagome: (jumps up and down excitedly) I do! I do!

Miroku: What makes you say that, Kags?

Kagome: The room - I mean story - always warms up with Remy around! Eeee - Jazz! Let me join! (skips over to Remy and Jazz)

Miroku/Inuyasha/Mystique: (eyes saucer-pan wide open)

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~Japan-Sengoku Jidai~

"You know, I'd still be your friend even if you told me you didn't know where we are - or any thing about why we've been walking almost two whole days straight!"

Shippo remained quiet and sniffed the air; he tried a different tactic.

"I thought you said we were close."

"We are, but I misjudged their distance - "

"By at least a milestone, I'd say."

"Hey, I can't help it that you don't have superior demon senses to track them down. If you did, you'd smell the rich cedarwood scent - that's Miroku. Then, there's some other flower undertones - baby-breath, I think Kagome calls them - that scent belongs to Sango. Then, there's Kirara...interesting scent of spiced cloves and fire. Anyway, if you just followed your nose then you could use your - what is it called again?"

"Mutant power."

"That's the word! You could use your mutant powers to transport us there in an instant - and maybe beat Inuyasha to a pulp before he caught wind of you - that is, if you would stop your moping long enough to concentrate on getting us there."

"- But, I am not the one with the dog nose! You are."

"Fox! It's a FOX nose!"

The small fox-demon pouted and puffed, biting back what he really wanted to say, but clobbered him on the head, nevertheless.

"Ouch! I can't believe you're trying to beat me up! Anyway, doesn't it matter that I haven't even been able to control transporting between dimensions lately?"

"But it only matters that you can do it. I've seen you."

"Aren't you concerned? It doesn't explain why or how I've been so inconsistent these last few days. Really, I don't think I'm ever using my powers again after this - not even in the Danger Room."

"Relax, even Inuyasha has his weak moments. Just think about the first few times that happened. It was a good thing, remember?"

"Yep. Spared us from becoming crisp barbeque ribs, that's for certain."

Throwing his hands up in utterly nervous defeat as the kit won the arguement, he recalled the last couple of days in search of these friends that Shippo claimed to know.

He was tired, hungry, greasy feeling - and dead-set ready to give up the hopes of ever seeing his sister or home again. It was grating on his normally patient nerves that he wasn't even prepared with some pocket change from this era - or a poorly drawn map of Japan in his hands - surely he'd have been able to identify something of this time. Feeling sorry for the mischief caused and his own fall-out, he quit his current flow of thought.

Mind wandering, Kurt's eyes glazed over and once more the pair fell into blissful silence.

Berating him self, again, for snooping through the Higurashi's home - and snatching a relic that he now deemed useless, he wondered why he hadn't found more value in - say, historic globes or maps around the shrine. They weren't completely useless, when considering the fact that he was traipising around a very not-so-modern Japan. He should have been content with just being a tourist and bought-out the store when he had the chance with the money he had been saving that year.

Perhaps he'd be able to make it up to everyone eventually - in time - after he got out of jail for stealing and paid his sentence for robbing a priest's family - and in a foreign land, no less! Working it out in his mind, he figured Japanese prisons were a lot more worse for the wear than New York ones....

Unsettled, he tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other towards their shared goal.

Time...a bridge of 500 years or more worth of making-up and begging forgiveness to fill in the gap of trouble that he had unwittingly caused. He just knew it would be a vanity to attempt living out his dreams. Nobody in New York would put it past him to have started this mess, and he just knew he'd spend out the rest of his days distracted from the possibilities of never having fun again when word reached the professor's ears of his delinquency and the upstart that enterprised as a result.

A sudden curious thought flicked across his mind, snapping him out of his inner reflection.

"Why are you and your friends traveling together, again?"

"Kagome and Inuyasha are searching for Shikon Jewel shards...it's a long story - "

A deep baritone voice interrupted their conversation.

" - And I'll take it from here, Shippo."

"Miroku!!!"

"You look like a - " he couldn't quite put words for the description of the man that stood before him in purple robes carrying a jangling pole.

"I'm a holy man - faithful, loyal follower of Buddha. I'm Miroku and this lovely porcelain doll standing next to me is Sango."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kurt." He bowed his head in greeting, remembering Japanese custom.

"It seems you are lost, missing your friends."

"Why - yes! How did you know?"

"Sango? Should I really tell him?"

She nodded and the monk momentarily sighed looking a little worse for the wear, as a result. "Well, you are the only 'blue boy wonder' wandering around here."

Attentive, he listened carefully for snits directed toward his person, and discovered that the monk did not seem surprised with his appearance nor were there any hidden traces of malice in his voice or actions. Leaning in he whispered to Shippo, "I wonder how he knew that we were lost."

The kit must have heard, since he nodded without verbally responding, but was choosing to ignore him. He understood, in that moment - when his ears were nearly deafened from a surprised shrill shriek and a slap.

What is that monk doing?

"Kitty told us what happened after the pervert assaulted her with his hands!"

He detected fierce wrath raging from the woman that had spoken up. Her hands were balled into fists and her large boomerang hung snuggly around her chest strapped to her back across her shoulders. He wondered at that, just before she unleashed her anger and slugged the supposed holy man across the cheek.

"So, tell me, my good blue friend, where is your other friend - Rogue, right? I hear she's another beauty queen her self and - "

-POP-

Shippo and Kurt vanished into thin air.

*****

~Japan-Modern Era~

"We have to go back, Kagome!"

"I know! I know! Sorry - it's just hard to believe that people other than us can go through the well from this era!"

Sighing, he slipped one hand beneath her elbow gruffly and started dragging her towards the Bone-Eater's well.

"You and I are leaving now..." he said trying to guide her at a faster speed.

"Hey! Not with out me saying good-bye to Mama, first mister!"

Snorting, pride and ego still in tact, he considered her words.

"Make it fast woman!"

"Yeh, yeh...get my back pack ready with some of those noodles you like so well, while I come up with a good reason for us to go back!"

"Hmph! As if having people from another country - let alone another country's era - isn't good enough!"

Walking out of his possessive hold, she removed his hand gently and stalked over to her bedroom door.

"Well, the explanations and reasons I give aren't necessarily for you, since there are a number of visitors for the rest of the summer staying at the shrine - "

"What?!? Why!? As if we don't have enough troubles of our own! What if - "

"Inuyasha - they are our guests! I'll have to return some time anyway. It's summer and even though we don't have to go to school for a month or two they may want to practice language course material with me - which will, inevitibly keep them up to speed in their own studies!"

Barely catching her breath, she continued her near-practiced speech.

"And besides, if I can get ahead this summer in at least one or two classes then it will keep me from failing and I won't have to come back quite so often to play catch up! Don't you understand how important school is? Like this - it's a win-win situation for everyone!"

"Except for us! We have Naraku and shards to find, don't forget! And these people, who ever they are - certainly don't belong any near Musashi or near Kaede-baba. Not that I care about those other humans or anything, but I'm tired of wasting time here - "

She stared at him thoughtfully, posing her self taller with one hand gracing her hip when he stopped verbalized his thoughts aloud. Flinching and pinning his ears back in apology, he realized that he knew that look...It was the one she almost always wore right before she said...

"Sit boy."

Muffling his short string of curses as the spell loosed him from those binding words, he gambolled over to Kagome silently repenting for his ruffian ways. Finally, he relented and released a low whimper of true remorse and convinced both of his halves that he was most definitely the aggravating mongrel that everyone in the group accused him of being.

"I'm sorry."

Slowing her stride, Kagome glanced his direction surprised.

"Really?"

Taking her hand, she lifted it to his brow feeling for a fever - or any illness to boot.

"Lay off, will ya'? I said I was sorry."

Not once, but twice in one day had he stunned her with his self-proclaimed admonition. Dropping her hand to her side, accepting his atonement and buried the proverbial hachet - so to speak - as she peeked into the kitchen and searched out its owner.

"Mama?"

"Yes dear?"

"We have to leave again to go take care of an emergency back at Kaede's. I know it's soon..."

"Be careful...and take these with you."

"Ooo. How'd you know? This is great! We can have a picnic when we reach the other side! Thanks Mom - you're the best!"

Sweetly she smiled, hands folded in front of her resting on her apron and watched as her turned adult daughter carried, albeit ever so awkward, several home-made boxed lunches on her person as she and Inuyasha bounded toward the well-house.

Ahh...to be full of youth once more...

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