Deep in the wilds of Japan, during a bygone age (supposedly) a small group of travellers slept, on a hill overlooking a nearby villiage.
The first two, a young man, and a young woman were fairly normal looking. The young man was dressed in the robes of a houshi, his black hair bound behind his head in a short ponytail, clutching an ornate staff in one hand as he slept, peacefully sitting near a tree.
The woman, fairly young and pretty, around nineteen years old, wore a simple pink kimono, the front covered by a green apron as she lay on the grass nearby, her head propped up on a blue cloth bundle, her long, midnight tresses spilling over the makeshift pillow and onto the grass, and brushing against an enourmous boomerang lying on the ground behind her.
A little ways away, another girl, younger than the first...roughly fifteen years old, was lying at the base of another tree, huddled deeply in a sleeping bag, somewhat odd, considering the apparent time period. Her black hair, not quite as long as the other girl's, but still past her shoulders, spread out around her in a sleepy, dissheveled look.
Curled up close to the girl in the sleeping bag, a young red-haired boy of about eight slept. On the surface, a fairly ordinary child, despite his odd haircolor. Or he was, until one got closer, and caught sight of his bushy red foxtail, and his paw-like feet...
Finally, high above the others, sitting in the branches of a tree, a young man, clad entirely in crimson robes sat, sleeping soundly, despite the unusual bed. on his left side, a slightly beaten-up looking katana was tied, and around his neck was a simple, but functional rosary. However, despite all this, the most eyecatching things about the young man was his long, silver hair, and the luxuriously fuzzy dog ears sticking up from the top of his head, which twitched slightly as he slept, a disturbed expression on his face...
"Mmph," she murmured to herself, trying to burrow deeper into her pillow, drawing her legs up towards her chest, only to find herself tangled up in her... bed...?
That was odd, it felt like she was in a sleeping bag...?
Her eyes snapped open to see the blue sky above her, framed by green trees. Calendar looked around her surroundings quickly as her eyes widened. She saw Miroku, and Sango... and she stifled a scream of shock.
She looked down at her sleeping bag, knowing what she was about to see... but the sight of Shippo in person made her giggle. He was so cute! She reached out to touch his tail, and she giggled again.
This was the weirdest dream ever... Calendar rarely had dreams, and when she did, they were never this realistic. It was a new experience for her.
She looked up at the sky again, searching for something in particular... and when her eyes hit upon Inuyasha, she couldn't help but let out a loud squeal. She was an Inuyasha fangirl, after all.
Who the fuck is touching my butt?
Not that there weren't girls that liked to touch his butt, but normal circumstances didn't warrent anyone touching his butt. The girlfriend figure wasn't around, and the mom figure wouldn't be touching the butt. No other female was really allowed in his room without him knowing... This bore investigation.
Of course, the train of thought was derailed when someone's loud squeal managed to set off his reflexes.
In a matter of seconds, Ginn was up and about in a loose stance, trying to figure out what was going on.
I don't remember being this short... or there being grass in my bedroom... or...
Ginn caught sight of the group.
There's InuYasha... Sango... Miroku... *looks up* Kagome... and that would make me...
Ginn looked down at his pawed hands and odd clothes, and promptly screamed.
Note: Not a girly scream. =P
The squeal, followed by the scream, stirred the other member of the sleeping group to awaken. Sango let out a soft groan, but sat up quickly, her hand slipping the the cloth bundle as she looked around, trying to locate the cause of the noise.
Miroku, however, had already been up for several seconds, having awakened instantly at the sound of Kagome's squeal. Discerning that there was no immediate threat nearby, he was at their sides like lightning, but his attention was fixed solely on Kagome.
"Are you in distress, Kagome-sama?" he inquired smoothly, standing just a tad inside what was commonly referred to as 'personal space'.
Up in the tree, as Shippo screamed, Inu-Yasha's ears twitched again abruptly, and his eyes snapped open. Growling, he hopped down from the tree, and glared at both Shippo and Kagome. Before Kagome could answer Miroku, he interrupted.
"Oi! What the fuck are you two screeching about this early?" He demanded sourly.
Calendar scrambled backwards in an attempt to get away from the houshi... She hated it when people invaded her personal spac--
"Oi! What the fuck are you two screeching about this early?"
She blinked, and then blinked again as a pink blush spread over her face. "I-Inuyasha... you're... SO CUTE!" She stood up quickly, careful not to tangle herself in the sleeping bag again, and rushed over to rub his ears. So cute!
Inu-Yasha's eye twitched, and he backed off a step as Kagome rushed him, but not quickly enough to get away before she latched onto his ears and rubbed them, which promptly twitched under her fingers. He glared at her. "What the hell...?"
Miroku sighed and shrugged, smiling in amusement. "Kagome-sama seems to be in a good mood this morning..." he mused.
Sango, for her part, yawned and let her hand relax, no longer searching for her sword, as no danger was apparent. She walked over to where the Shippo was standing, and crouched down to face the young fox. "Is something the matter?" she asked mildly.
OOC: Con sucked my time away. o_o
IC: Ginn stared at InuYasha as Kagome rubbed his ears, before Sango asked him a question.
Ginn looked up at Sango.
"Ummm... nothing really, just had a bad dream I guess... ummm... can you tell me why Kagome is all of the sudden latched onto InuYasha? Maybe she's possessed by something."
Calendar giggled at the look on Inuyasha's face, and stepped back after she'd rubbed his ears to her heart's content. They were so soft...
Once she had satisfied that urge, she looked around with confusion. Weird dream, all right. There was Shippou and Sango... Miroku over there...
She frowned slightly... and looked down, barely hearing Shippo's query to Sango.
Green skirt...? With trembling hands, she grabbed a lock of her hair, and held it before her eyes.
Black.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sango smiled down at the fox-boy, shrugging. "I don't know." she admitted.
"She woke me up, too...well, the two of you did. Though, now that you mention it, this isn't quite right, is it?" She mused, watching the spectacle curiously, and starting slightly as Kagome screamed...
****
Inu-Yasha winced, his ears twitching at the scream, then glared. "What the hell was that all about, Kagome?" he demanded as she finished, his eye twitching.
Miroku moved a little closer, frowning. "Kagome-sama, are you well? Your behavior has been strange..."
Kagome, Kagome, Kagome!
She stared at the two boys with wide eyes. Oh, yeah... if she had entertained any hopes of being wrong, that had washed them away.
She pinched the soft flesh of her arm, and winced at the pain. This wasn't a dream at all.
"I'm..." She trailed off slightly, then shook her head and barged on. "I'm not Kagome!"
Inu-Yasha frowned, and looked at Miroku. "What the hell is she talking about?"
Miroku stared hard at Kagome, making a quick gesture with his staff. "I don't detect the taint of possession on you, Kagome-sama. Perhaps you're just confused?"
"Er..." Calendar was vaguely frustrated. "No, I'm just not Kagome, okay? Take my word for it."
"Then who are you?"
Inu-Yasha snorted. "Feh. You sure as hell aren't Kikyo...so who else would you be?"
He leaned up against a tree as he spoke, looking at Kagome through slightly hooded eyes. Miroku frowned slightly at Inu-Yasha, but returned his gaze to Kagome concernedly a moment later.
"I'm Calendar. I don't know how I got here, or why... but I'm definitely not Kagome."
Inu-Yasha sniffed the air slightly, and snorted. "You sure stink like her..."
Miroku shot Inu-Yasha a look. "Mm...Ano...'Calendar'-san, can you offer us any proof of this?" he asked in an overly gentle voice, which all but shouted of his belief that Kagome was 'not quite right' in the head...
Calendar blinked. There really was no proof, was there?
"Let's see... if there's no physical evidence... let's go for the personality." She smiled lightly, eyes vague as she thought for a second. "What's something Kagome would never do, that I would be willing to do...?"
Suddenly she smiled and walked up to Sango. And kissed her very, very firmly.
She giggled and broke the kiss, then wiped her mouth. "Uck, just like I remember. No zing."
Inu-Yasha's eyes bulged as he stared at Kagome, his hands twitching. "W-Wha...th' Fu-?"
Miroku's jaw dropped slightly, but he recovered instantly, a somber expression on his face. "Ahh...Kagome-sama, I didn't quite catch that, could you repeat it?"
Sango, for her part, was staring wide-eyed at Kagome, her mouth opening and closing in shock.
Kagome stared at Miroku for a second. "No, you fucking pervert."
She put her hands on her hips. "Did THAT convince you? I'm not going to do it again, Miroku, so don't try anything. I'm NOT Kagome. Or gay, but that's really not important at the moment."
Inu-Yasha broke up laughing, as Miroku gave Kagome a nonplussed look.
"As you say." he murmured, coughing lightly. "Still, you claim not to be Kagome-sama, so we're left with more questions than you have answered so far..."
Sango simply stared, shaking her head slightly.
"But you DO believe I'm not Kagome, right?"
Inu-Yasha's snort told her all she needed to know of his particular opinion of her story. Miroku was slightly more diplomatic.
"Well, I beleive that you don't believe yourself to be Kagome-sama..." he replied carefully.
Kagome scowled. "Fine, whatever. I don't care anymore, just believe what you want."
Still scowling, she turned and marched back to her sleeping bag.
Miroku and Inu-Yasha exchanged a glance, and they each shrugged.
Miroku frowned. "Did she aquire a head injury yesterday, Inu-Yasha?"
Inu-Yasha shrugged. "How the hell should I know? I was dealing with the Samurai!" he snapped. "You were supposed to be watching her, Miroku!"
"Y'know," Calendar called back in a sugary-sweet voice, forcing the scowl from her face, "why don't you call me Calendar? It's a name I've picked up in certain circles... and I like it better than Kagome."
Hmph. If they weren't going to believe her, she'd just try and keep them wondering. Might as well be as un-Kagome as possible...
Miroku snapped his fingers suddenly, Kagome's statement passing him by. "Perhaps if we take her to Kaede-sama..."
Inu-Yasha frowned. "Eh, Kaede-baba is a long way from here, Miroku..."
Ginn coughed and motioned for Cal to come over.
"Ahh... Kagome-san, could I have a word with you for a second?"
Calendar blinked. "Kagome... san?" She looked at Shippo oddly, wondering what on Earth had made him refer to her like that.
"Sure." She headed over to Shippo. "Privately?"
Ginn noded and looked over to the rest of the people.
"Please don't follow, it involves... um... puberty."
Ginn took Cal's hand and dragged her a good distance away into a clearing.
Kagome blinked... "Wow... aren't you a little young for that talk?"
As they reached the clearing she eyed the little boy oddly. "You... want to talk to me about... PUBERTY?" Hm... maybe it was a dream, aside from the pinch. Because it was all very strange.
Miroku, Inu-Yasha and Sango all watched the retreating pair with a mass 'blink-blink'
Sango shook her head in confusion. "I don't know much about these things, especially for boys, but isn't Shippo-chan still a bit young for...that?" she asked, blushing slightly.
Inu-Yasha nodded mutely, the twitching eye having returned.
Miroku shrugged. "Perhaps that kiss affected him, as well?"
Both Sango AND Inu-Yasha glared at the houshi for that.
Ginn turned to Cal.
"So, you wanna tell me what happened that you managed to wind up in Kagome's body?"
Calendar blinked. And blinked again. "Um. You believe me?"
"For now, yes. Now, assuming you do come from another world, and miraculously learned to speak japanese before you got here... what would you be doing here?"
"Okay," Kagome said slowly, looking at Shippo carefully. "If that were the case, which it is and I wonder how you KNOW THAT, I have absolutely no idea how I would have gotten here." She laughed in embarrassment, running her hand through her hair in a nervous gesture. "I woke up and here I was."
"Then, were did you come from before?"
Calendar's embarrassment disappeared as Shippo questioned her again without giving any real reasons. She really, really hated being polite at times like these... but she was a polite person, goddamn her mother's insistence on it, so she didn't order the boy to tell her what he was going on about and why he didn't sound very much like the Shippo SHE was familiar with...
"The US. Ohio, to be specific." And then with that pretense of formality over with, she put her hands on her hips and looked down at him. "Who are you? Because you don't seem very much like Shippo, and I'm guessing the questions mean what happened to me, happened to you. So, who are you?"
Ginn visibly relaxed.
"Good. Sorry to have to grill you like that, but I wasn't sure and don't like to keep hopes up. I'm Ginn. The one you know from IRC."
Ginn looked at himself.
"Well, I guess I really am Chibi, now."
Ginn laughed and scratched the back of his head.
"So uhh... what does Shippo do, anyways? I haven't caught up on the whole series myself. ^_^;"
"GINN?!" Calendar gaped at him, clearly stunned. Shaking her head and laughing lightly to clear the air, she smiled. "Wow... that's odd... I wonder if it's a coincidence that we know each other, or... something else?"
She thought about his last question, and bit her lip. "Well... he's really close to Kagome, actually. He often gets in fights with Inuyasha, and..." She shrugged, not really knowing how to describe him further.
"I know he can turn into a mushroom thing... and probably other things... and he's got good speed and quick hands... Mmm... I need a knife..."
Ginn shook his head to clear violent thoughts.
"Anyways, we need to figure out what we can do or not, and plan on what to do to get out of this situation. Any thoughts?"
Calendar stifled a snicker. "He doesn't turn into a mushroom thing... he can MAKE them... Er. Well, actually, he probably could turn into one, but he doesn't." She calmed down enough to answer Ginn semi-seriously. "I have no idea. We could convince Inuyasha and Miroku to turn back to talk to Kaede... but I don't think Inuyasha would take kindly to that..."
"Why not just tell him it's a woman thing?"
Ginn winks.
Calendar blinked. "Actually. That would probably work. On INUYASHA. I don't know about Miroku, and probably not Sango... but Sango's Kagome's friend, so she might not say anything..."
"I guess you could say you had a question about the Shikon shard... or say you have a report to do about feudal japan in the home world, and need to ask her about being a priestess."
"Ginn... that would just piss Inuyasha off, probably... Hm. Honestly, what were you THINKING?! PUBERTY?!" She finally recalled what had prompted her to follow Shippo to the clearing in the first place.
"Hey! I'm not exactly great at these things, especially when I wake up as SHIPPO, and find out one of the people I know from the INTERNET is stuck here with me! I'd like to you see you think that much faster!"
Ginn crossed his arms.
"So, I suppose you have a BETTER idea, Ms. Thinks-oh-so-fast?"
Calendar eeped. And then made weird noises of outrage and shock. "I-ah, well--AH! Shut up, you." She glared at him sulkily. "Honestly, though... let me handle it. There are two ways I can imagine to deal with the situation. The first approach is to tell him that it's a 'girl thing,' and then if he argues, fight and say OSUWARI a lot. Eventually, I'll get my way. That's the classic Kagome approach.
"The OTHER approach is something Kagome wouldn't do, and I probably wouldn't do it either, but... flirt with him until he's good and confused, then go back to Kaede's while he's stunned. I may not be Kagome, but this is her body, and he likes it." She smiled brightly, then added thoughtfully, "and Kagome herself, too."
She looked at Ginn seriously. "Either way, that should get us to Kaede's, and we can talk to her. She's the only one I can think of who would be able to help, aside from Miroku, but he doesn't seem too willing to help us..."
"Sounds like a plan, now lets see it in action."
Ginn started walking back towards the group.
Calendar nodded and followed Shippo back. "Guess so..."
Inu-Yasha, and Sango watched the returning pair, hoping that Kagome had managed to answer the child's questions suffienciently.
Miroku, however, was actively curious. He leaned forward to ask a question, but Sango's reflexes were equal to the task. She clapped a hand over Miroku's mouth, and looked to Inu-Yasha, who shrugged irritatedly.
They both looked to the pair, and waited for them to speak...
Calendar smiled at Inuyasha cheerfully. "I need to back to see Kaede about something private. Girl stuff."
Internally, she waited with bated breath... would it work?
Inu-Yasha twitched. "...After eight days of travel, you want to turn around and go back???" he growled. He pointed at Sango. "Get her to help you!"
The Taiji-ya blinked. "Me?"
Ginn wisely kept his mouth shut.
Inwardly, Calendar sighed. She should have expected that... but outwardly, she scowled. "It's not something Sango can help with... I need to see Kaede."
Sango blinked and raised her eyebrows, obviously curious, but she didn't say anything, simply clamped her hand tighter over Miroku's mouth, and watched Inu-Yasha's reaction.
Inu-Yasha made a disbelieving snort. "Kaede-baba? That old hag doesn't-"
"Ano...Inu-Yasha." Sango interjected. "Kagome-sama wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important, ne?" she pointed out reasonably. "If she really is ill, we could be delayed longer than eight days..."
THAT stopped Inu-Yasha cold, and he looked to Kagome.
Kagome coughed hard suddenly, trying to cover her laughter. "Er... yes."
She tried very hard to look weak and tired.
Inu-Yasha looked stunned for a minute, and and unreadable expression crossed his face, and he growled. "Teme...Alright, FINE. We'll go back."
He stalked away, mutting under his breath. Sango smiled briefly at the departing hanyou. She then turned back to Kagome and gave her a searching look, easily read. The unmistakable message was: 'I covered for you, and I expect you to tell me later what this is all about..."
The Taiji-ya then smiled at the two of them, and wandered off to pack up her possessions, dragging Miroku along...
"Yay! We're going to go see the old grandma!"
Ginn runs around.
Calendar sighed in relief, and then looked at Shippo oddly. She grabbed him and followed after the others.
"What... was that about?"
"I haven't been a kid in 8 years, cut me some slack."
Ginn rasberries at Cal, and flees towards the rest of the group.
Sango, having long since released Miroku, looked up at Shippo approaching, and smiled.
"Did Kagome-san tell you what you needed to know, Shippo-chan?"
"Haiiiii! How long before we get there, Sango-san?"
Sango blinked, slightly put off by the fox-child's response, especially concerning 'that' question.
She smiled, sweatdropping slightly. "It's as Inu-Yasha said, I'm afraid...eight days at minimum..."