Author's Notes: …So I'm a couple days late. No big deal, right? ^___^ I wanted to explain more on the exorcist stuff; like what Hollows were and so forth but the exposition was longer than I expected so that stuff will have to wait until the next chapter. Sorry! But if there are any other question, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them next time I update. ^_^

The Broken Horn

Chapter 4

The Date

"Okay, it's uploaded," Toji announced and handed a disgruntled-looking Laurence the cracked mini-camera.

After being dragged into the control room, Inuyasha remembered about that little trinket. Back in Xingli when he saw that his attacker was masked, he immediately attached the mini-camera to one of the broken machines in the old factory that they were in. In case his assailant got away, he wanted to know who the hell that person was. See? He knew stealing from Laurence's work desk would prove handy one day.

"Alright, here we go."

Inuyasha looked up to see a video clip begin to play on the big screen.

The image quality was high but the lighting was bad from lack of sunlight so everything was mostly in shadows, except from the few beams of sunlight that came from the damaged roof. But in the shadows, two figures clashed with one another, jumping off walls and steel beams before clashing again; a third figure soon joined them.

"That's me," Miroku pointed out. "The chick caught us by surprise and went for me first. Knocked me out for a couple of minutes."

"I'm starting to think that her target was me," Inuyasha said. "She seemed to be in a hurry to get rid of you."

Miroku sighed. "What a disappointment…Usually it's the other way around."

"Did she use any weapons?" Chiaki asked as he leaned closer to the screen.

"Yeah. Two blades but the handles were on the sides instead of the ends," Inuyasha replied. "I've never seen those kinds of swords before. I'm pretty sure that those blades are one of a kind, most likely custom-made. If we can identify the weapon, I think we can find out who the hell attacked us."

Chiaki frowned slightly, his eyes following the movements in the shadows. After a few moments, he announced, "Double-bladed baton swords. Both blades are 30 inches long, probably made of the finest steel. The handles are most likely wrapped with black iron wire with brass and onyx stone on the end of the handle."

Ling squinted. "How can you tell? All I see is shadow, shadow, and oh, more shadow."

"Oh, well…here, Toji, move over." Chiaki took over the control panel and rewound the clip. It played again and after a few seconds, he paused it. "See, right there, our attacker passed through a beam of light, giving us a nice, sort of blurry, view of one of her weapons."

"Oh, I forget how sharp your eyes are. But how do you know it's onyx?"

"I'm glad you asked," He grinned. "Well, if we zoom in a little bit here…there, so as you can see, the pommel -"

"Ah!" Toji suddenly shouted. "H-h-he's going into one of his rock talks again! The last time he did that, I fell asleep and missed dinner! And that was the night that Charlotte was making her famous pork dumplings." He pouted at the memory.

"Fine!" Chiaki scowled; disappointed that he couldn't share further on his analysis of the weapon. He looked back at the paused clip and after a few moments, he frowned deeply.

"Alright, so what's the problem?" Ling asked, noting Chiaki's puzzled look.

Chiaki exhaled heavily as stared at the screen. "Baton swords - it's an ancient art. And well, no one practices it anymore. No one who's alive anyways."

"Why not?"

"Well, when you're using baton swords, you need stealth and really good hand coordination. Here, Toji, get me a picture of a baton sword."

Toji obeyed. He entered a few commands and after a few seconds searching through the computer's database, he was able to withdraw a picture.

"See how both ends of the blade are exposed?" Chiaki pointed at the picture. "They're both equally sharp so it's easy to slip and cut yourself. Even for the best swordsmen, it takes years to master. And nowadays, it's like, why take the time to master this funky sword when you can just pick up a gun and shoot someone."

"There're still swordsmen today," Ling countered.

"But they all use regular swords. The standard sword is way easier to maneuver and now, taking the time to try to learn the art of baton swords is just a big hassle."

"You said you needed stealth to use the sword. Why's that?" Laurence asked.

"Well, back in the day when these were still used, the majority of the people who used them were assassins. Learning how to move the baton sword discreetly was one of the most difficult skills you had to have to master the art."

"Assassins?" Inuyasha said with a raised eyebrow. "Well that just made the situation a whole lot better."

Ling turned to Inuyasha. "Can you think of anyone who'd want you dead?"

"Yes," Both Inuyasha and Miroku chorused.

"There's a number of people in the Church that aren't exactly fond of Inuyasha," Miroku remarked.

"In other words, they hate me," Inuyasha said blatantly.

"Who hates you?"

All heads turned to the door to where the voice had come from. With a small basket of freshly baked dumplings in her hands, a middle-aged woman stood in the doorway. Her dark hair was kept back in a messy bun and her deep green eyes looked at the group of boys inquiringly.

Toji was the first one up to greet her. "Charlotte!"

Charlotte stuck out the basket. "Here, fresh out of the oven."

Toji took them and inhaled deeply. His eyes looked like they were tearing up as he pulled the cook into a tight hug. "I love you." He immediately pulled away and jumped into his chair, eagerly digging into the basket.

"What do you want, Charlotte?" Inuyasha asked coldly.

"Straight to the point, are we?" Charlotte said with a wry smile. "I heard you were going to Zephlin tomorrow."

"Apparently so," He grumbled bitterly.

Charlotte didn't seem to hear him as she pulled out a half sheet of paper. "There are some things I need you to buy for me." She held the sheet of paper in front of him, expecting him to take it.

Inuyasha pulled away. "Hell, no! Since when am I your errand boy?"

"Inuyasha…" The cook said warningly.

"No! I absolutely refuse! Seriously, I'm the captain of this ship! You guys should at least act like -"

Charlotte closed in so she was an inch from his face. "Do you want a good meal?" she asked threateningly.

Inuyasha stared defiantly back. After a few seconds, his jaw twitched and he snatched the sheet of paper out of Charlotte's hands.

Charlotte straightened with an annoyingly sweet smile. "Good! Well, I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me," she said in a chipper tone and left.

Inuyasha stared after her resentfully.

"Aw, cheer up, Inuyasha," Miroku piped. "It's probably only a few things anyways. What does she want?" He took the list from Inuyasha.

Inuyasha immediately snatched it back. "That's 'Captain Inuyasha' to you."

"You do realize the reason we don't call you that is because of how stupid it sounds."

"Shut up." Inuyasha held the list in front of his face. "Let's see…'get me garlic, two spatulas, cabbage, flour'…what does she need another pot for?"

"Oh, the one she had before broke," Laurence answered.

"How?"

"She threw it at me."

Inuyasha deadpanned. "Why?"

"Because I touched her oven."

"When you know that no one's allowed to touch it?"

"…Mm-hm."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and returned to the list. "'Radishes, apples' - ugh, why does she want broccoli? Someone give me a pen." Miroku handed him one and he crossed 'broccoli' off the list. "'Tomatoes, tangerines…'" He paused and his eyes narrowed. "Teach me how to spell tangerines'..."

"Hey, you know what this makes you?" Toji said with a toothy grin.

Inuyasha blinked. "What?"

"You're her bitch."

Toji fell out of his chair in his attempt to avoid the speedy dumpling that Inuyasha threw at him.

Ling cleared his throat. "Can we get back to business?"

"Right. Well, the only people of the Church who are in possession of weapons are the Orders," Chiaki said, "and they keep an inventory record so…"

Toji climbed back onto his chair and nodded. "I'll look it up."

Laurence turned to Inuyasha. "Can you think of anyone else?"

"Not at the moment," he answered. "Well then, I think that's all we can do for now. Toji will work on that inventory record and someone kick Daisuke out of bed for me." He looked at everyone. "So everyone good?"

Laurence raised his hand. "I actually have a request: can you stop stealing from my work bench, Inuyasha?" He held the cracked micro-camera in front of him.

Inuyasha blinked, and then laughed.

Chiaki clapped his hands. "Oh! I just remembered! Toji, bring out those pictures will you? Inuyasha, here are some places that we highly recommend that you take Kagome to when you're in Zephlin."

Inuyasha immediately stood up and started towards the door, but he didn't get very far. Ling and Chiaki grabbed his shoulders and arms, and pulled him back into his chair.

Chiaki grinned mischievously. "Stay, boy."

------------

Kagome looked up from her book when she heard someone knock. Her door opened and standing in the door way was Miroku with a tray of food in his gloved hands.

Kagome placed her book on the tabletop as she greeted him. "Hi."

"Hi, can I come in?"

Kagome nodded and Miroku walked in.

"You didn't come into the kitchen for lunch and you haven't eaten all day so I brought you something. I hope you don't mind."

"Oh no, I don't. Sorry, I didn't mean to be an inconvenience."

"Not at all." Miroku grinned and placed the tray on the table. His sleeve rose up a little and Kagome thought she saw a hint of metal, but his sleeve fell down before she could give it a second look.

"Is something wrong?" Miroku asked, seeing that Kagome was staring at his wrist.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry."

Miroku chuckled and began to take the dishes off the tray. Kagome looked up at him again. She frowned slightly. Now that she was really looking at him, she realized that the purple hooded coat he was wearing was rather inappropriate for this warm day.

Miroku had finished setting the table and placed the tray aside, and sat down. He was about to name each dish to her when he realized that she was staring at him again.

He smiled. "I guess I am really that handsome, then."

Kagome blinked and seemed to focus again. "I'm sorry, what?"

Or not.

"You're staring," Miroku said with a charming grin.

"Ah, sorry," Kagome apologized. "It's just, don't you think it's a little warm to be wearing a coat?"

He blinked before he realized what she was talking about. "Ah, I see what you mean." He chuckled. "Well, I was thinking of keeping this from you but now I see that there's no point in doing so."

Miroku took off his gloves, revealing that his right hand was not of flesh; it was mechanical, much like Nina's leg. He then shrugged off his hooded coat. Kagome's eyes grew wide. His entire right arm was a mechanical limb!

"You…" Kagome started.

"Yeah, I know," Miroku said with a smile as he moved his forearm up and down, and flexed his metal fingers. "My right leg, too."

"Your leg -?!"

Kagome's eyes widened even more after Miroku removed his right boot to show his mechanical foot. "See?"

Kagome swallowed and looked up at him as he wiggled his toes. "What a…surprise. Um, if you don't mind me asking…how…?"

Miroku slipped on his boot, coat, and gloves. He stared at his folded hands, carefully choosing his words. Finally, he looked at her and spoke. "I'm an alchemist, Kagome. Meaning, I can perform transmutations within the Law of Conservation." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I've studied alchemy for as long as I can remember. When I was thirteen, I was foolish enough to think that I was ready to perform this very advanced transmutation. It rebounded." Kagome gave him a puzzled look. "In other words, it backfired and I lost my right leg and arm."

"Oh…I'm sorry to hear that," Kagome said sincerely.

He waved it off. "It's been six years. I'm over it." He grinned. "Well, eat up. Your food will get cold." He pushed the bowl of rice toward her.

Kagome thanked him and picked up her chopsticks. "Is this beef?"

"Yup. Sautéed."

She held the square piece of beef to her nose to take a whiff.

Miroku chuckled. "It's safe, you know. I didn't drug it or anything."

Kagome looked up at him. "You know, for a crew of pirates, you guys are surprisingly nice."

"What can I say? We're a bunch of nice guys. Though, I'm starting to think that's why Inuyasha doesn't like us very much."

"Well, I expected -"

"That we pillage and plunder, drink and smoke all day while counting our stolen loot?" Miroku finished for her.

"Something along those lines…"

"Must be a common stereotype in your world. Well, actually the pirates here do that too…"

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "And what? That just doesn't apply to you guys?"

Miroku grinned. "We're a special kind of pirates. The most feared, I might add."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, pirates attack and steal from civilians, correct? We, well, we don't touch civilians. We're like, the pirates to pirates."

Kagome looked confused.

"What I mean is that we steal from pirates."

"Oh…" Kagome gave an amused smile. "So you're kinda like the good pirates. And what you meant by 'most feared' is that you're feared by other pirates because they don't want you taking their loot."

Miroku shrugged. "If you want to put it that way."

"So you're indirectly stealing from civilians."

"Yea - no. Well, er…" He thought for a moment. "Well, if it helps, we don't keep most of it."

Kagome popped a piece of the sautéed beef into her mouth. "Mm-hm."

"It's true. We pick out the stuff we need and then give the rest to towns and whatever places that were attacked by pirates. Also, those pirates that we steal from are usually caught by the authorities, so in the end, everyone's happy. 'Cept for the pirates."

"The authorities don't bother you then?"

"Well, the military is kinda after us. I mean, we're not really supposed to be taking any of the stuff, but you know, we gotta get our supplies from somewhere. Besides, it's only those old conservative idiots that are after us. To be honest, the president, the head of the military, doesn't even bother with us, which is mostly because we're hella good exorcists. See? We're really just helpers of the community."

"In a twisted way."

When Kagome finished eating, Miroku put all the dishes back onto the tray. After assuring him that there was nothing else that she needed, Kagome watched Miroku leave. Her thoughts trailed back to his metal arm and leg. It appeared that there was more to this crew that met the eye.

Kagome sighed. She felt weary. She hadn't been on this world for even a day, yet she was already feeling overwhelmed by emotions and she felt like she was being pressured to adapt quickly to this place. With all this exorcism, pirates, and Undead, it was a bit troublesome to adapt to. And all this talk about Hollows - what exactly was a 'Hollow'?

Kagome went back to her book, but she only got into it for a few minutes when she heard someone knock on her door again. She looked up and her face fell slightly at the sight of Inuyasha leaning on the doorframe.

He grinned brightly. "Well, aren't you happy to see me."

"What do you want?" She asked coldly.

"Oh, well I just wanted you to meet two new friends."

Kagome looked behind him and saw no one.

Inuyasha's grin broadened. "Meet Mr. Mop." From behind his back, he pulled out a mop. "And Mrs. Bucket." With his other hand, he pulled out a bucket full of soap water.

Kagome raised her eyebrows.

"What? You want to stay, you gotta work." He held out the mop and bucket expectantly. "You didn't think I'd let you stay here leisurely did you, princess."

With a resentful look, Kagome slammed her book closed, stalked over, and snatched the mop and bucket out of his hands.

"Why don't we start with this hall?" He said as Kagome stepped out of her room.

Kagome placed the bucket down, dipped the mop head into it, and grudgingly began to clean the wooden floors.

Inuyasha smiled patronizingly. "Well, while we're at it, I might as well show you around. Hey, don't stop mopping."

"If you just wanted to show me around your ship, then just do it! You don't have to make me clean your floors!"

He blinked. "But this way, you get a tour and I get clean floors. Two birds with one stone." He turned away, ignoring her look of disgust.

Inuyasha gestured behind her. "Well, you know that's the bathroom. This is my room, quite the misfortune that it's across from yours. And down this hall is the entire crew's quarters."

As Kagome progressed down the hall, she could see that all the doors on her right and left had the occupant's name on thin wooden blocks, which hung from a hook on the door. As they neared the stairs that led up to the deck, they reached the sliding shoji doors.

"In there, is the galley," Inuyasha said. "Where the fire-breathing dragon resides."

"Your cook? She can't be that bad."

"You can't say that. You haven't even met Charlotte yet. Femininity, hell even humanity hardly applies to her."

They walked past the stairs and went down a shorter hall.

"It's a bit strange," Kagome remarked. "I remember watching this documentary on ships - "

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Man, what a nerd…

" - and, well, you're the captain, right?"

He cast her a wary look. "Yeah…"

"Then your room would be largest, right? From of the looks of it, it seems that your room is just as small as everyone's."

Inuyasha turned around to face her fully and placed his hand against the bulkhead. "While you're on this ship, there's one thing you have to understand," he said. "The Fortis Libertas is unlike any ship you have ever seen or will ever see."

"And how is that?"

"I built this ship. She's not going to be some damn cookie-cutter boat."

"You built this ship?" Kagome's voice was incredulous.

"Uh, yeah."

Kagome laughed. "Right, and it took you how long? 10 years?"

"Ha, ha, that's funny because it took me 15 weeks."

Her face immediately grew serious. "You're lying."

Inuyasha gave her a brief pert smile before he wheeled around and walked on.

Kagome picked up the bucket and hurried after him. 15 weeks? That wasn't possible. The Fortis Libertas was not a small dinky boat. He couldn't have built this boat on his own in 15 weeks!

Inuyasha stopped at the first door he reached. "This is sort of our electronic room, a.k.a. Laurence's 'Jungle of Wires'. He's our electronic specialist and -"

"How could you have built this ship in 15 weeks? I mean, this ship is like a-a schooner or a-a…shebec -"

"This is ship is actually a mix of a frigate and a sloop," Inuyasha said smartly.

Her mouth hung open. "That makes it even more impossible!"

"Well, what can I say? I'm just good. Now as I was saying, this is where all our nifty little gadgets and stuff are made and stored."

"But that still doesn't make any sense! 15 weeks is too short of a time to build a ship."

Inuyasha acted as if he hadn't heard her and knocked the door. A muffled "what?" came from behind the door.

"Mm, Laurence's in here," he said. He opened the door and walked in.

Kagome fought the urge to jab the back of his head with her mop. Instead, she placed it against the bulkhead and went in after him. She blinked. What in the world? Metal shelves full of electronic parts, manuals, tools, wires, and other electronic components were crammed into the small room. Among them was a large desk. Despite the mess around them, the contents on the desk were kept neat and orderly. But it was like an elaborate computer workstation - two tower CPUs, a flat-screen monitor with speakers, and an array of hard drives. Several foreign-looking gadgets were stacked around on the desk along with a large lamp and a magnifying glass attached to a stand. Sitting at the desk was Laurence, who seemed to be working on something with the magnifying glass between him and the thing.

Laurence glanced up and when he saw Inuyasha, he said, "How did you do so much damage to this camera? You said you only fell on it, right? Since it was in your pack with all that stuff padded around it…"

"Well, actually, I dropped it," Inuyasha admitted.

"Still, I designed it so it -"

"No, no. I dropped it and then I fell on it."

Laurence let out what sounded like something between a groan and a whimper before going back to the mini-camera. When he glanced up again and saw Kagome, he said, "Giving our guest a little tour?"

"Laurence, did Inuyasha build this ship in 15 weeks?" she asked. It was still bothering her.

He blinked. "15 weeks and two days to be exact."

She stared ignoring Inuyasha's look of triumph. "You're kidding me."

"Well, he didn't build it himself, if that's what you're thinking. He did the blueprints for this ship by himself, but Daisuke and Miroku helped him with the actual labor work."

Okay, so that made a little more sense, but still…

"15 weeks is still an awfully short time," she said quietly.

"Well, you should know by now that Inuyasha, Miroku, and Daisuke - those three aren't actually ordinary people, now are they?" Laurence said.

Inuyasha sneered at her. "Didn't I say, "I'm just good"? But I guess that would be hard to swallow for a puny girl like you."

Laurence frowned and opened his mouth to say something but Inuyasha was already ushering Kagome ("Why you arrogant, pig-headed -") out. He led her to the room next door. He flipped on the light switch and she peered in.

"This is our little armory. This is Chiaki's workstation since he specializes in weaponry."

Kagome's jaw dropped. Lined up on the bulkheads were guns, rifles, and pistols of all sizes, along with swords, bows, and arrows. The whole room was just filled with weapons. In the center of the room was a long table with large lamp and a disassembled machine gun with tools lying around it. Kagome was just about to step inside when Inuyasha suddenly closed the door.

"Yeah, like I'd let you touch a weapon. Alright, next." He gestured the door across from them. "That's our infirmary."

Kagome waited for him to open the door for her as he had did for the last two rooms, but instead, he turned and started to walk on.

"Wait," she called out. "You're not going to let me look inside the infirmary?"

He turned around. "Um, right, well, our healer's a bit in a foul mood today."

"With you, you mean."

"Hey, pick up your mop," Inuyasha snapped suddenly. "No one said you were done." He went on to the end of the hall.

Kagome scoffed indignantly and grabbed her God-forsaken mop. When she reached him, Inuyasha opened the door and walked into -

"This is the control room," he announced. "The brain of the Fortis Libertas."

It was a substantially large room. When she walked in, right next to her was a ladder that led up to a second hatch. In front of her was a long table, looking almost like a conference table. All over the table were maps of all sizes and many other documents. Behind the long table was a huge screen with smaller screens surrounding it, and beneath it a more elaborate workstation. Kagome wanted to walk around and give the room a closer look when she found herself being pushed out by Inuyasha.

"Okay," he said, "Next place."

"Rushing through this tour a bit, aren't we?"

"The sooner this is over the better."

They approached amidship again where the stairs were. Kagome then saw that the stairs went down to another level.

Inuyasha pointed up to the hatch above. "That's the main hatch. The one you saw in the control room is just a secondary one," he explained.

She followed Inuyasha down the stairs to a narrower hallway. The floor was grated and the lighting in the hall had a reddish tint. Along the hall laid crates, barrels, and so on. Inuyasha walked to a steel door and turned around to face Kagome.

"Now this room is the best room on this entire ship. No touch, look only."

Behind that door must be where he stashes all his loot, Kagome immediately thought. Though when Inuyasha opened the door, what she was looking at wasn't exactly the kind of treasure she was expecting.

It was this large mechanism with generators whirring, gears grinding, and steam blowing. There was some sort of control panel on the machine with dials, buttons, and handles, along with several meters depicting pressure, heat, and so forth. Across from the machine was a table with wrenches, screwdrivers, drills, screws, nails, and more tools scattered about it.

"If the control room is the brain of the Fortis Libertas, this room would be the heart - the engine room." Inuyasha beamed. "My pride and joy."

Oh, so that was what it was…

What a strange thing to be proud of, Kagome pondered, looking at Inuyasha strangely.

"Okay, last room," he announced, leading her to the other end of the hall. "This room is our cargo hold. Our storage room. Your room was actually a storage room too, until we had to clear it out for you to move in." He opened the door.

So then, this would be where all his loot is kept, she thought. But Kagome was surprised again. It wasn't filled with gold, silver, rare gems, and the usual pirate treasure she was expecting. The first things that caught her attention were the racks upon racks of clothing that filled the room. There were clothes of all different kinds, each set looking completely different from the next. Then under the racks were shoes - boots, sandals, slippers, and many other different sorts. Next to the racks were shelves with little cubbies, and each one was labeled with its contents. There were also several large chests, all lined up next to each other.

"Disappointed?" Inuyasha asked, noting the look on her face.

"What? Oh, no, it's just…not exactly what I expected."

He gave a brief chuckle. "You were probably expecting this then." He kicked open one of the chest. Kagome looked inside and her breath caught in her throat.

The chest was filled with gold and silver pieces, diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Kagome's eyes grew wide as saucers.

She looked up at Inuyasha. "You only have five chests. That's hardly fit for a crew of pirates."

"Actually, we only have one chest full of this stuff. In the other chests, they're just full of hats, goggles, rolls of fabric, and that kind of stuff. We didn't have any extra boxes so we picked up these chests instead."

"You only have one chest of treasure?" Her tone was incredulous.

But he just shrugged. "You know about us being pirates to pirates, right? Well, if we take more, we get pressed for more charges. We're sought after criminals as it is. Besides, what's in this chest is more than enough."

He left her to look at the "loot" by herself as he went to talk to Shun, who was sitting at a desk in the corner reading a book.

Kagome turned to look at the racks of clothes. It was like a mini-mall…She started to look through the clothes and recognized that some of them were very similar to some of the traditional clothes back home. She found kimonos and yukatas, and she found some garments that were from other cultures too. She went to the next rack and saw that all the garments had a thin plastic covering over them. Looking through each one, she noticed that each set needed some mending. Some pants were torn, or tunics were dirty, or shirts were reduced to rags. There was this one set that she recognized from this morning. They were the clothes that Inuyasha and Miroku had come in from their recent exorcism.

She heard Inuyasha come up from behind her. She turned and commented, "These clothes look very Chinese. Well, from many decades back when they were still worn."

Inuyasha light rapped his knuckles on her head. "Hey, we're not in your world anymore, remember? These clothes are from Xingli - that's where I went this morning."

"Right," Kagome muttered as she rubbed her forehead. "I have to say, you have a pretty big wardrobe."

"They're for all the countries that we go to. When we go out for a job or whatever, we don't want to draw attention, so we wear something of their culture."

"Makes sense. So is Shun sort of your culture expert?"

"Something like that. Speaking of which, Shun will get you dressed and I will meet you on deck in a half hour."  He turned to leave.

Kagome gave him a confused look. "Getting dressed for what? Am I going somewhere?"

"Zephlin. To do a little sight-seeing. Besides, I thought you would be relieved to get out of those clothes," He said, jerking his head to the clothes that she had been wearing since she left home. His hand waved lazily at her as he left. "See you in a half hour."

Kagome stood transfixed in her spot, trying to process what he had just said. She turned to look at Shun. "Wait, so…why am I going to Zephlin?"

----------------

Miroku watched Inuyasha polish the pistol meticulously with a rag. "So you're not taking the Tessaiga?"

Inuyasha snorted. "Come on, it's Zephlin. It's not like I need to."

Miroku shifted in his seat. "Well, why bring any kind of weapon? This outing should be fun for you too. Bringing that thing, you're just going to spoil the whole night."

"I'm just taking a precaution," he said, not looking up. "If something comes up, like a Hollow or a demon, I'll be ready to take it on."

"And what about Kagome?"

He shrugged. "I'll keep her out of the way. Anyways, is Chiaki done with those bullets that he's been working on for the last week?"

"No, I'm not," Chiaki coming out of the main hatch with Toji behind him. He put a small device into Inuyasha's hand. "Here, this is how we're going to keep in touch with you."

Inuyasha held it up and raised his eyebrow. "Cellphone."

"Yup," Chiaki clapped him on the shoulder. "With it, you'll fit right in with the Zephlin crowd. Oh, and you might wanna…" He gestured to his head.

Inuyasha blinked. "Oh…right." He sighed heavily. He hated pinning his ears down. It was literally a total pain. It was funny how he could get away with his white hair and gold eyes, but his ears would be a dead giveaway.

"So when am I going to meet this Kagome?" Charlotte piped up from where she was sitting, peeling potatoes with Ling.

"To be honest, I'd rather that you don't ever meet her," Inuyasha said.

"Oh, tish-tosh. I think it would be good for me to meet her. It'll be nice to have another female around."

"Another?" He tried to look serious. "Since when did the word 'female' ever apply to you?"

"You're lucky you're eating out tonight."

Which was why he was being especially pert. Inuyasha grinned and turned around to see Kagome emerged from the hatch, all dressed up in the unique style of Zephlin. He discreetly slid his pistol into his knapsack, ignoring the warning looks that Miroku was sending him.

"Oh, good! Our princess has finally arrived," he said with false enthusiasm.

Kagome shot him a wry smile and just opened her mouth when Charlotte approached.

She wiped her hands on her apron and held one out to Kagome. "We haven't been introduced yet. I'm -"

"Yes, yes, introductions," Inuyasha cut in. "Our ride's coming so let's make this quick, shall we? Stupid moron, meet fire-breathing dragon. Fire-breathing dragon, stupid moron. Good! Now we all know each other." He turned away and walked to the side of the ship.

Kagome looked Inuyasha with disgust before giving Charlotte an apologetic bow.

"That was rude," she said when she reached his side.

"Whatever," he muttered, not giving her much attention.

Kagome scoffed softly. She was beginning to consider bailing out of this trip but the curiosity of this "Zephlin" place got to her. "So how are we getting there?" she asked, seeing that they were pretty far from shore.

"A cruise ship should be coming by soon. We'll be hitching a ride."

"What, by just -"

" - Jumping right on."

"Why can't we just go into the harbor over there?"

"Well, I've been trying to keep the Fortis Libertas from being seen from civilians, the military, and the like for about two years. The only ones who have seen her are the pirates, and they don't exactly go running to the authorities to report me, now do they? Sorry, princess, but you're not worth sending out the Fortis Libertas for all to see."

"So you don't let people see your ship because if you docked at some random town, people might recognize you ship and you'll be handed to the authorities."

"Smart girl. Nice to know that you got some brains in you."

"So how are we going to jump on without any the passengers or crew noticing us?"

"Relax, we'll be jumping from behind and all the passengers will be inside packing their things or partying."

"And how do you know that?"

"I checked the ship's events schedule. They're having this huge party below deck; anyone who's anyone will be down there."

"What if someone's still hanging around on deck?" Kagome challenged. "Or what about the crew?"

"No one's going to see us," he said in an irritated tone. "Just trust me for a little bit, okay? Ah, here's our ride."

A distance away, a huge cruise ship was slowly sailing by. Inuyasha pulled her up onto rim. She looked down and gulped.

"You know, that's quite a distance -"

"We'll make it."

"Don't stay out too late, kids," Ling called out from behind.

Inuyasha gestured rudely back before he wrapped his arm around Kagome's slim waist and secured his knapsack around his other shoulder.

"Ready?" he asked. But before she could answer, they were already in the air.

Chiaki watched them sail over a hundred feet over the water and land on the highest deck on the cruise ship. He could see Kagome, the smaller silhouette, slip and fall. The larger silhouette, Inuyasha, seemed to be shaking with laughter before being knocked off his feet himself.

He turned to Toji. "I bet five yuros that he screws up the date."

Toji grinned. "You're on."

FAQs

Are all the original cast (Sango, Sesshomaru, Rin, Naraku, etc.) going to be making an appearance?

They will in due time.

Who in the world is Daisuke (Current love interest of Kag's in "Double Life" but that's all I know)?

You probably noticed that Chiaki, Shun, and Toji are from DL too. But yeah, all four of them are from DL. I'm just reusing my OCs. ^_^