Written by: Giulia "Kagome".
Translated by: Djibril.
Beta-read by: Myst. *thank you*.

Legal Disclaimer:
Inuyasha doesn't belong to me, but to Rumiko Takahashi.
Inuyasha's manga © 1996 Takahashi Rumiko, Shogakukan.
Inuyasha's anime © 2000 Takahashi Rumiko, Sunrise, YTV.

Introduction:
This is an idea I've had several time ago, but I've never had neither the time nor the will to write it. You know, when you tell yourself: "It's short, I can write it next time"? That's what I thought.The fic is placed in a random point of the series, after Kouga's appearance. The sentences inside the parenthesis [Hello] are the thoughts, the others inside the quotes "Hello" are the speeches, and the parts in italics are the flashbacks.

NOTE: THIS FAN FICTION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 3 FILMS DIRECTED BY ROBERT ZDEMECKIS.

Chapter 1

"Kagome, you bitch! How can those 'tests' be so much important?"

"Sure they are, my future depends on them. But how can an ignorant and boorish person like you understand?"

"Who's the ignoorish person?"

"I said ignorant and boorish! What do you have the dog ears for, if you're deaf?"

As always, Kagome and Inuyasha were quarrelling. She had to go back to her time to attend to a school test, and he didn't want her to go, because he thought it was a stupid loss of time.

"Yaaaawn.... Will those two ever stop arguing?" The young fox demon rubbed his eyes and tidied up his tail with his little hands. He had fallen asleep, lulled by Kirara's regular breath, but the growing yells had awaken him. He couldn't understand why Kagome always left them to go back to her time, but since she cared for those so called 'tests' so much... he'd never dream to say anything but to come back soon. Inuyasha instead... he was such a jerk!

"Shippou, you're too young to understand such things," Miroku said. Sango nodded, but soon after she felt something slimily sliding towards her butt, to cop a feel. As soon as she felt it, she pinched to death the priest's lecherous hand, earning a barely audible groan of pain.

"Houshi-sama(1), you'll never change! You're always thinking about dirty things!" She glared at him scornfully, her arms crossed, and her right hand's fingers nervously tapping on her left arm.

He smiled and rubbed his left hand to ease the pain. On the clearing background, near the magic well, Inuyasha and Kagome seemed to raise their voices higher and higher. Miroku adjusted himself on the boulder he had chosen to seat on, and raised his stare to the sky, trying to remember the zen meditation methods his shishou had taught him. He'd never do it to peek on a romantic scene, but to listen to a boring quarrel wasn't worth the thing.... Soon, his friends' yells became just a distant memory, and the monk started to relax.

He noticed out of the corner of his eyes a small movement in a bush nearby, and turned to look at it. After a while, a rabbit sneaked out of the bush, stared at them for a moment in amazement, then kept running, to plunge himself in another bush nearby. Birds were chirping and chasing each other in quick love pursuits.

[Lucky them, at least they've found someone to care about,] he thought, while his betraying stare fell on the young demon-exterminator next to him.

He loved everything about that marvellous maiden. Not only she was beautiful, but she had temper, obstinacy, pride, and a strong will. Sango was smiling and talking with Shippou, while petting her lynx-youkai, Kirara, which was purring in delight. How many people would have had the strength to smile and keep living, after what she had been through? Miroku truly admired her courage.

[But... there's something more. It's not only this. It's her temper, yes, and her beauty. But above all, it's her inner strength. Maybe she'll be able to accept the fact that I...] The priest's eyes were caressing all over Sango's body, passing in review her beautiful brown silky hair, which he would have loved so much to caress, that gorgeous and sculptural body he'd like to... [But no, what am I thinking about?] he suddenly thought, blushing a bit at what his imagination had given birth to. Yes, Sango was right, his head was full of obscenities.

As if she had followed the trail of his thoughts, Sango turned in his direction, and they stayed still, staring at each other for a long moment. She was the first one to avert her glance, blushing lightly and causing the amused priest to smile. But, once again, their attention was caught by the poor show their friends were performing: Kagome was shrieking, as if Inuyasha had tried to kill her.

"REPEAT IT, IF YOU DARE!"

"I'll repeat it again and again, as many times as I want: Are you sure you don't want to go back for a different reason than those fucking tests?"

"What are you trying to imply? I have nothing to hide!"

"So why did you sprang up at my words? Feh! Is there another male like that low 'wimpy wolf' in your time?"

Kagome sighed at the memory of a young brown-red haired boy wearing a school uniform. [Houjo-kun...] she thought while her cheeks burned with shame.

"You ... you're such a jerk! How can you talk to me in such a way? Kouga-kun is a very nice guy! You on the other hand ... are dull and rude! I've had enough! I'M GOING AWAY! And don't you dare come and look for me, or I'll tell the 's' word so many times your back will hurt for ages!"

"Feh! And who wants to! And don't try to come back, 'cause we're going to leave as soon as you're back to your time, and we'll be away for three whole days!"

"Don't worry, I won't be back... I don't care about you, nor about this stupid Shikon Jewel!" Kagome turned over, stumping angrily towards the magic well. She didn't notice the startled half-demon's chest jumping in hearing her words. She didn't notice his golden eyes filled with worry.

No, Inuyasha would never change. She was nothing but his 'Shikon Detector', an expedient useful only when Kikyou wasn't near, good only to find the shards.

[I'm so stupid. I deceived myself, I thought he may feel something for me. He's just a jerk! Jealous of Kouga-kun. As if I care about him! I bet he'd be jealous even of Houjou-kun if he ever met him! Inuyasha you're an idiot!] She stopped in front of the well, suddenly doubtful. She eyed at the half-demon and saw him turn over, and blush. [But ... he's jealous. You can't be jealous of someone you don't care about.] She kept staring at him for a while. She didn't know what to think, or what to do. She wanted to go back home, since the term was going to end and that test was important. Naraku was hiding again after all, and they didn't know where to look for him, so she had no real reason to stay. But ... she didn't want to be away from him.

"What are you doing up there? Are you planning to leave, or are you just going to stay there like a fucking idiot, staring at me all the time?" Kagome sighed, already regretting that little moment of hesitation she had. But when she crossed the hanyou's eyes, he was all but happy to see her disdain.

[I really can't understand him,] she thought angrily as she sat onto the well border. [I wonder how my future will be. He doesn't want me to stay with him, but I do want to ... I'd really be happy if, one day, he'll decide to stay with me instead of dying with Kikyou. I'd really love it if....]

"So? D'you want to go away? We'd like to keep on with the quest ... are you so much of an idiot not to know how to do such a simple thing? D''you need help?" The glance Kagome sent him could freeze a fire. He got the creeps and hid himself behind a boulder... that girl had the power to scare him to dead. He was still hiding when Kagome finally jumped into the well.

"If that is what you really want, then farewell, Inuyasha!"

[Damn jerk! And I was worried for him! I want to go away, I want to be as far away as I can from that bastard! I don't care about him. If he really wants to die with that wench ... well, he can do it without ruining my life!]

The girl planed gracefully on the narrow and dark basement of the well, slightly trembling in anger. She suddenly noticed two weird things: the ladder his grandfather had put on the well wasn't there anymore. [Souta! He must've done something. But things won't stop here!] she thought angrily. Then, the air had a weird smell. It was ... musty. It was so heavy she felt like she was stifling.

Luckily that was helping her to calm down, so she tried to get back enough mind to think. She looked around: the bottom of the well didn't show so much traces of humidity anymore, and the ground was crumbly.

The ladder hadn't been just moved: it wasn't there anymore! But there were some old roots on the wall, strangely dried up. Using them to climb, she got to the surface, but what she saw left her bewildered.

The well's shrine had been closed, the door was barred and she couldn't find any visible way out. But this wasn't the first thing she got worried about: the well's shrine itself wasn't the same she remembered. It was different. It wasn't made of wood, but in a material that, at first sight, looked like cement. The girl got close to one of the walls, to have a better look: no, it didn't look so much like cement, it was leaky.

"Could it be that Grandpa demolished and built again the well's shrine? But I've been away for just one week!" she muttered, stunned.

Her first instinct was to yell to get her family's attention and make them open the door for her. But the weirdness of the particular situation blocked her scream before she could utter it: how could it be possible that her grandpa had blocked the door of the well's shrine, well knowing she could come back anytime?

[And then ... this building is too strange. I don't think it was built recently, it must be at least 10 years old. How come? One week ago, when I came back to Inuyasha, there was still the old wooden one!] Thousands of doubts passed through her mind. Maybe she had been ... transferred in the wrong place? Maybe the well could transfer people in other places, and not only in other time periods? So ... maybe she wasn't even in Japan anymore!

A shiver passed all over her spine. She had wished to be as distant as possible from Inuyasha ... but not to be in the middle of nowhere ... maybe far away from Japan and her family, maybe on the other side of the Earth! Just the idea made her feel uneasy. She felt her stomach contract ... Alone, with no money and no identification papers ... how would she come back home?

She looked at the well, determined. [You brought me here, so you can also bring me back home, right?] she thought warily while approaching it. She jumped inside, stayed on its bottom, and squeezed her eyes shut. Then, slowly, she opened her eyelids and glanced up, hoping to be welcomed again by the wooden ceiling of her family's well's shrine ... or, at least, by the blue sky of the Sengoku Jidai.

Instead, there was still the grey cement ceiling over her head, and no trace of the little staircase. Her heart skipped a beat: why? It didn't work anymore? The well wouldn't bring her back home ... or to the Sengoku Jidai? Her chest ached, she felt a sort of physical pain while tears fell freely on her cheeks ... and she didn't bother to stop them. [Inuyasha ...] she thought, between sobs.

No, it couldn't be true! It couldn't be possible! Could it be that the moron had put another tree in the well, just to prevent her from coming back?

[No, it can't be. That time, it wasn't the tree that didn't let me come back, but the fact I didn't have any Shikon shards with me. This time I have them, so I shouldn't have problems.]

What could've happened? Did her wish to never see Inuyasha again seal the well? No ... there surely was another reason ... how many times did she come back to her time after a furious quarrel with him? She never found herself in a similar situation before.

[But all the other times, I let out my anger in different ways: I sat him, or I walked to the well from a distant place ... I was calm when I jumped in it. Now instead ... damn it, is it really my fault? Inuyasha....] While thinking this, the girl grabbed the ivy roots and climbed again up the well's shrine. She spent a little time looking all over the place, while sweating madly: the first thing to do was to try to get out of that hot and closed place. She really needed some fresh air.

The door was barred and there was nothing inside the room. Several spider-webs on the ceiling made her understand that, surely, the place had been there for so much time.

She scanned her surroundings, to find a way out: the well's shrine was enlightened by a soft light, so it couldn't be completely closed. She suddenly noticed a small window, placed in a strategic position, as to let her slip away from that place. It was closed, but not barred.

She tried to open the shutters, but they seemed to be glued: the rust had almost bolted the pivots. She worked at it for a whole half an hour, while sweat drops fell all over her body and hair, but finally she got it and the window opened. The fresh air was like a balm for her face, but she kept her eyes closed: they were used to the darkness of the well's shrine, and the sudden light had almost blinded her.

Pointing on her arms, she hoisted herself on the wall under the window and jumped outside, falling with a thud on the ground. She sighed heavily, happy to be finally free.

It took a moment to open her eyes: she didn't want to look... she didn't want to find out she was in some unknown place, distant from her family and her friends... maybe on the other side of the World from Japan.

But, then, she was forced to come back to reality. She opened her eyes and, slowly, she turned around. Her racing heart almost skipped a beat.

"But ... it can't be...!" she said with a choked yell, and looked around in amazement. That place was very similar to the Shinto shrine where she had lived for all her life. Her house was exactly where it should be, and even the Sacred Tree was at place.

[However, the Sacred Tree is taller. The house is painted with a different colour, and there's one more balcony.] The girl began to walk, amazed, in the shrine's courtyard. It was as if she were walking in a dream: her house wasn't hers anymore. She tried to nip herself, but she felt pain on the place she had pitched herself, so she understood it wasn't a dream. What kind of place was that?

Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from the big steps that introduced to the courtyard. Looking around herself like a thief, she searched for a shelter and hid behind a bush... just in time. Jumping joyfully, a girl with long, dark hair had just reached the top of the steps, and was now walking home.

She wore a school uniform a bit weird, different from the ones she was used to. It was nothing more than a jacket and a mini-skirt, but the way it was done wasn't like anything Kagome could remember.

"Wait, Ki-chan!" A male voice echoed in the air. The girl stopped, and turned towards the steps. Soon a boy around her age, maybe one or two years more, appeared. When he had finished to climb all the stairs, he stopped a moment to gain back his breath.

"Oni-chan, you're a loser ... you still can't climb all the stairs without stopping to rest? Your mum won't be happy about it!" Her eyes were looking at him with disappointment.

"But Ki-chan! You're too fast for me ... I can't follow you at the same speed!" The boy was still out of breath.

"C'mon ... are you a man or what? You should be better than me in any sport, Onii-chan...."

"Don't call me that! I'm not your brother!(2)"

"Onigumo, I can't help it, this is your name!" she said, making the verse.

Kagome jumped at it--Onigumo? It surely wasn't a common name.

"Kikyou, don't you dare mock me, wench!"

"So ... now I'm Kikyou huh? When you don't want me to call you 'Onii-chan', you call me with my own name. You really are a loser..."

"Damn girl! If I catch you...." He seemed to be mad at her; she ran in the house direction.

"Let's see if you can catch me!" They left, laughing and giggling like first grade children. Kagome's eyes didn't follow them, though. Having fell on her knees at the mention of that name, she hadn't needed to hear anything else. Kikyou? What was a person with Kikyou's name doing in her house? If that really was her house. She couldn't understand anything, what had happened?

[Those two ... they wore school uniforms I've never seen. It's impossible that it's just a different school: it's the fashion type that is totally different. It can't be that the tastes changed so much and I didn't notice it. It's true that I travel back and forth to another century, but I still walk in the streets.]

A terrible doubt was beginning to assault Kagome's mind. Was that really her home? Onigumo and Kikyou ... Coincidences of life could be weird, surely unbelievable, but she didn't think it was possible that two people with those name could live in the same house ... by chance.

Still worried, she stood up and fixed the jacket and skirt of her uniform. She wanted, she NEEDED to know. She ran towards the stairs, and then she went to the street and kept running on the road, almost without looking at the things around her. When she had distanced herself enough from the shrine, she stopped, gasping for air, and took a look at her surroundings.

The street she had learned to walk through was very different from the one she had memory about. There were more trees, making the grey asphalt a bit more pleasant; besides, some old buildings she remembered being in the street had been demolished. Kagome couldn't believe it: she knew that the people living in there didn't want their houses to be demolished. So she thought it was weird that they decided to let them go down so suddenly. And then ... the replaced buildings couldn't have been built in a week, could they?

The girl walked, lost, while some people glared at her in disdain: all people were wearing odd clothes... or was she the odd one? Everybody was staring at her as if she was a ghost!

Some young girls were coming back from school; they wore the same odd uniform the Kikyou she had seen earlier was wearing. She guessed they attended the same school... And the cars... and the public transportation... since when the subway station was so close to her shrine? Since when those high buildings, with wide-screens on them, were near her house, and not only in the centre of Tokyo?

"Matrix 5, from may 10th, 2015, available in DVD." This sentence appeared on one of the wide-screens on a building.

[2015? How comes 2015?] Kagome's eyes widened in astonishment, and her face grew pale in a second. If someone had tried to sting her with a pin, she wouldn't have drawn a drop of blood. This meant that ... she was in the future? The well had sent her eighteen years after her own time? Why? It didn't work anymore, then! She was in this new time, alone, with no ID, no family, and no house to come back.

[My family does exist, but how can I come back there? It's not my own anymore.] The faces of the amused people began to spin whirlingly. New styled cars, smog, and noises she wasn't used to ... she felt like she was choking.

"Miss, why are you here and not in your class? Which school do you attend to?" the school inspector's voice startled her. Damn it! What should she do? She couldn't explain him she was in the future!

"Hum ... I...."

"I have no memory of schools with such a weird uniform. Which school do you attend to? ANSWER!"

The veins on Kagome's temples began to pulse frenetically, while her scared eyes were passing all over the inspector's figure. Now this really was a problem. This inspector could bring her to the police department. She didn't have an ID, nor someone to call to help. And she had no identity ... they might put her in prison!

[No, I don't want to! I want to go back home,] she thought and suddenly started to run. She noticed with a small part of her senses that the inspector didn't resign. He yelled her to stop, then began to chase her. She ran faster. She tried to take small alleys that she didn't even know. Pell-mell. She wouldn't be able to tell where she was, anymore.

Advertisements, traffic, curious faces. Everybody stared at her. Everybody judged her. They bumped into her, causing her to totter. People talking, shop's jingles, the city's noise ... everything was scary. She wanted to go home. But where was her home? Who was she? What could she do to survive that situation? Would she survive it? Tears began to flow on her cheeks, mixing with the sweat drops that had already fallen from her forehead, while an uneasy feeling made her stomach feel heavy. She wouldn't be able to run in such a way for a long time.

She looked behind her, noticing that the inspector wasn't there anymore. She slowed her pace, gradually, and then began to walk with a certain rhythm. But, suddenly, she bumped into someone and fell.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I...." She gazed at the person she had hit and panic assaulted her: there was the inspector. Again. Probably, knowing some alley she didn't, he had preceded her.

"Now, can you tell me, please, which school do you attend to? Miss, that beautiful face of yours is useless... You even made me run. I'll make you a report you won't forget for your whole life, you'll see..."

"Er.... No, it's that ... I...." The world was collapsing on her. The moment the man was going to bring her to the nearest police department was close. What a disaster!

"Er ... sir? Can I speak a moment with you?" The mature and gentle male voice made the man and his prey turn. Kagome's face went suddenly pale, but her heart began to pound madly in her chest. The man before her seemed incredibly like ... no, it couldn't be. What was he doing there?

"Of course, houshi-sama."

"I'm very sorry for this increscious accident. The girl was under my responsibility. A friend from Okinawa sent her to me, but I arrived late at the station, so she probably found herself alone and bewildered ... in the middle of a town she didn't know. I thank you for all this noise, or I would have never seen her in the crowd."

[Station?] Kagome took in her surroundings. Indeed, they were near the central station of Tokyou ... she didn't remember one being near the shrine. [They probably moved it,] she deduced. She had to stop thinking of her time. Now, she was in the 2015! 2015, she couldn't believe it yet! And Miroku was in front of her.

"Oh, I understand, houshi-sama. That's the reason for that strange outfit. In Okinawa, the mode tends to be a bit retrograde ... it looks like an outfit from twenty years ago, I remember that...."

"Don't worry, sir. As you can see, the girl is scared right now. I'd really like to keep this conversation, but it will be better if I bring my guest to the Higurashi shrine."

"Of course, Houshi-sama, you're right. I'm so sorry...." The man smiled with shut eyes, nervously, and bowed several times, a hand behind his head. He was clearly embarrassed. He apologised again to Kagome this time, helping her to stand up and disappeared, assuring Miroku he would go to the shrine to buy a talisman, because his grandmother was very sick.

Miroku waited the man to turn the corner, still smiling, then became suddenly serious and looked at Kagome.

"Welcome to the future, Kagome-chan. Do you mind if I call you this way? It will be a bit silly for me to call you more formally."

"Oh no, no. There's no problem, Miroku-sama." The girl kept on watching the monk with a surprised and worried expression at the same time. It was very easy to recognise him, he hadn't changed that much. But, watching him with more attention, Kagome noticed some grey hair among his black ones, always bounded behind his head in a pigtail, and his features were no more those of a teenager. He was wearing a kariginu composed of a white haori and a blue hakama, the traditional outfit the Buddhist priests of her time wore: her grandfather too used to wear them, she remembered.

"But, how comes...?" she asked.

"Shhhhhhh... wait. I know you're dying to know why I'm here, but I think we shall discuss it at home, maybe in front of a fuming cup of tea. What do you think, do you agree?" He was smiling at her.

"Well, I...." A part of her brain knew the monk was right, those weren't things they could discuss there. However, the curiosity was just too much to bear, and even the relief was great.

She noticed that the monk's hand wasn't covered with the sealing beads anymore. Besides, he seemed to have abandoned his holy staff. And his presence there was more than timely. It almost seemed he was really waiting for her.

Then she felt it. Something. On her bottom. It took her a moment to link Miroku's presence there, his lustful habits and that hand, but it took even less to slap the monk. Miroku smiled, amused.

"I see that, Sengoku Jidai or 2015, your behaviour is still the same, Miroku-sama!" She gave him an annoyed look, before turning and starting to walk. "Still, you're right, it's better to speak calmly at the shrine." She said while walking at a quick pace.

"Err..."

"What?"

"The shrine is in the opposite direction, Kagome-chan." The monk pointed towards the opposite street the girl had taken. Kagome blushed; she wasn't even able of finding the right direction! All her haughtiness lost, she followed the monk.

Author's Note:
This fic was born as Oneshot. But as I revised it, I noticed that it was long, and probably this was the reason why almost nobody had reviewed it. Thus, I'm putting it online separated into a few parts: I will post a chapter every week, so please review and come back next Saturday to read chapter 2!

Dictionary:
(1) Houshi-sama = venerable monk. It's the way Sango addresses Miroku.
(2) In Japanese Oniichan (pronounce 'Oneechan') means "big brother". Cutting a person's name and addying a "chan" to it (as in Oni-chan for Onigumo) is used normally between childhood friends. Kikyou points a lot on the "i" and makes the word sound similar to Oniichan which means brother. It's her way to tease him.