Toyko 1878

Unlike Hiei, Bankotsu stayed for breakfast. Everyone was hung over from all the sake, except for Bankotsu, who seemed neither to get drunk or hung over. Sanosuke, trying not to walk loudly because his head throbbed, figured it was a Demon thing. He had really enjoyed the Demon's company, but had a lot of trouble remembering that he was a Demon. Bankotsu didn't act like a Demon and he certainly didn't look like one -- or at least how Sanosuke imagined them.  He was funny, happy, and seemed to like everyone. Sanosuke wondered what his story was, but didn't since Bankotsu didn't offer up anything personal about himself, he didn't pry. Maybe he could get the story from one the other visitors.

Miss Megume came in the early afternoon to check on Kurama and change his bandages. This time, when she had Kenshin gently turn him over, he woke up, eyes glazed and dim. It was just for a few minutes and they couldn't hear what he murmured, but Miss Megume considered it a good sign.

Nothing much got done at the dojo. Kaoru and Yahiko practiced only a little, and even Kenshin was walking quietly and doing things more slowly.

At dusk, there was the expected knock, and Kenshin went to answer it. The others rushed to the porch to see who (or what) was going to be at the door.  But no one expected what was standing at the door:  a teenage girl.  She was dressed in very strange garb, her legs almost totally uncovered.  Everyone stared.  She couldn't be a Demon, could she?

She smiled and then turned to yell up the road at the top of her lungs, "Where are you? Come on!

They both came into the dojo and Kenshin closed the outer door and followed behind. "Hi! I'm Kagome and this is Kouga." she said cheerily.

Kouga was a Demon. That was obvious, although he looked very human, he was not as human looking as Bankotsu. He had black hair pulled back into a long ponytail and his pupils were sky blue long ovals. He was wearing fur, but his long lean legs and muscular arms where bare except for fur coverings around his ankles and wrists. And he had fangs and pointed ears.

"InuYasha was supposed to come, but he got detained, so we volunteered. If it is okay with you, could we stay a couple of days?" she looked at Kouga and they smiled at one another as if they were sharing some secret between them.

"Of course. You are welcome here." Kaoru replied.

Kouga took the packages to the porch. "We brought some supplies." Kaoru and Kenshin began to unwrap the parcels. Potatoes, squash, tubers, lettuce, radishes, all sorts of vegetables, looking like they had just been freshly picked. Another parcel had fresh fish. And another contained a whole side of deer. In one large package there were two dozen bottles of sake.

"We knew Bankotsu was here last night and figured that he probably drank you out of house and home. He does love his sake!" Kagome explained when she saw the surprised look on Kaoru's face (and the very happy one on Sanosuke's).

"What are you?" Yahiko asked with his usual tact.

"Kouga is the leader of the Wolf Demons," Kagome replied for him, then added, "And my mate."

"Your mate?" Kaoru was even more surprised now. "You don't look like a Demon at all!"

"I'm not!" Kagome said laughing, "I'm from here, from Toyko, but from the year 2000.  But I live in Otherworld now with Kouga."

"I've got to hear your story!" exclaimed Sanosuke. Otherworld was beginning to sound more and more interesting.

"I'll tell you my story over dinner. But let me see Kurama right now. Has he awoken at all?" Kaoru and Kagome left for Kurama's room. The men gathered up the packages and took them to the kitchen, where Kenshin started dinner.

"You do the cooking?" Kouga asked.

"You should taste Kaoru's cooking!" Sanosuke exclaimed. "Kenshin's food is at least edible."

"Oh, don't cook that, please." Kouga said when Kenshin unwrapped the liver, "I like it raw."

Sanosuke grimaced, but Kenshin didn't blink an eye. He just put the liver on a plate.

"I'd better cut it up," Kouga said. "Kagome doesn't like me tearing up my food in front of people." He began to cut it up into wet, bloody chunks.

"He looks like a nice person. He only woke up for a minute or two so we've haven't been able to talk to him. Bankotsu told us his story -- how he became human."

"Well, he got his Demon powers back a few years ago, so he can change to his Fox Demon form whenever he wants, but I don't think he can stay in that form too long." she straightened the covers around him, "You wouldn't think the power of growing plants was much, but he is probably the most powerful of all the Princess' males."

"Isn't that strange to you?" Kaoru asked. "One woman with so many men?"

"At first it was, but then I got to know her. Princess Aara is such a loving person. You just feel good being around her. Her four males are content and all very good friends. There is no jealousy or rivalry between them. It's amazing."

"The three I've meet seem quite different from each other. InuYasha is the one I haven't met. Do you know him?"

Later that evening, they all sat down to a wonderful meal. Kenshin had prepared both fish and deer and steamed vegetables for them. And a bottle of sake was opened, but neither Kagome or Kouga drank. Kaoru also abstained and Kenshin drank only a cup or two. Even Sanosuke didn't feel like drinking much after last night.

After dinner, over steaming cups of tea, Kagome told her story. Of how a 21st century girl from Tokyo went to Otherworld, met InuYasha, and fell in love with a Wolf Demon. 

Otherworld, 3 Years Ago

Kagome and her family lived next to a 500-year-old sacred shrine in Tokyo. One day when she was 16, she accidentally fell into an old dry well next to the shrine and instead of hitting bottom, she went through a portal and came out in Otherworld. She wandered until she came to a village and there met a Miko priestess named Kaede. Kaede's sister, a powerful priestess, had been in charge of a crystal talisman which would make Demons and humans alike more powerful. At her death, it had shattered in a thousand pieces, the shards scattering all over Otherworld.

Princess Aara, being the protector of Otherworld, was trying to find the shards before they got in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, some of the shards had already been found and new powerful Demons were attacking the people of Otherworld. The Protectors had their hands full.  Kagome found she had the ability to sense the shards, and she was asked for her help in finding them.  After seeing all the inhabitants of a nearby village slaughtered by a Demon who had gotten one of the shards, she agreed. How could she do otherwise?  The Princess sent her third male, a Dog Demon named InuYasha, to protect her and help her retrieve the shards. Kaede's Village became the center point and they traveled a few days out and then back; then a few days in another direction and back again. When she came back to the Village, she would go through the portal and return home for a few days. InuYasha also used the break to visit the Princess.

But occasionally it would get the better of him and he would brood. Feeling his life was going to be very short, he had a tendency to ask every young woman he met to bear his child, his heir. Including Kagome, who slapped him -- very hard! -- leaving the imprint of her hand for quite a long while.  He never asked her again.

They were also joined by a Demon hunter named Sango, who had a two-tailed Demon cat named Kirara.  Kirara, like many Demons had a second, more powerful form.  She could transform to the size of a small horse and fly through the air. Sango wielded a huge boomerang made of Demon bone as her weapon. Together, they were a formidable team. Shippo, a small fox Demon, also joined their group, but he wasn't really powerful enough to help, but he was sweet and Kagome liked him a lot.

InuYasha was loud and brash and immature, but he had a good heart and was very good protector. He seemed to know no fear at all and would jump right into the fray of things, often before thinking things through. He was always getting hurt and requiring Kaede's stitching to repair deep wounds. Fortunately being a Demon (or half Demon in his case), he healed quickly and completely. But still, Kagome began to carry a first aid kit with her at all times.