InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Flower Girl ❯ You are Wonderful Friends (Part Two) ( Chapter 87 )

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

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

---oOo---

Kagome stared at Yuka, Eri, and Ayume as her words dropped like stones into the sudden silence.

They stared back.

The rest of the group, Kagome's family, Sesshoumaru, and the children all watched with interest, wondering what was going to happen next.

Would the girls accept Kagome's words, or would they argue with her - think she was crazy?

Yuka blinked, as Kagome's words infiltrated her mind, and then she glanced at the other two.

Five hundred years... into the past?

"Uhh... how do we do that?" Eri questioned blankly, obviously still shocked.

Kagome chuckled nervously. "By jumping into the well." She ran her finger along her collar, cheeks red. "That's where I've really been, you guys... all those times that I wasn't in school? It's not because I was really sick," she admitted sheepishly. "I was in the past... you remember the legends we studied in junior high - the ones about the shikon no tama?"

The girls glanced at each other, then back at her and nodded. "Yeah..." Ayumi said slowly.

"It's not a legend. It's real," she pulled it out of her kimono, and showed it to the girls. "See?"

Ayumi's eyes widened with surprise as she stared at Kagome, obviously putting two and two together.

"Kagome," she began, a suspicious look settling on her face, "if you have that jewel, and it really is the shikon no tama from those old legends, then..." her voice trailed off as Kagome nodded, knowing what she was thinking.

"Yeah... I'm the shikon miko."

Yuka shook her head as though to clear it, and glanced behind her at the group of people standing behind them, being surprisingly quiet, and it all clicked.

"Youkai... that's how... I should have guessed." She turned her head back around and looked at Kagome, then at the wellhouse. With a shrug, she picked up her bag and walked towards it, sliding the doors open and walking inside. She looked back at the other two girls, who were gaping at her in surprise.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Let's get going!"

There was a sudden rush as everyone piled into the structure, and Sesshoumaru put up a hand. "We will take people through one at a time." Looking down at his miko, he said, "I will take your family, you take your friends."

Yuka stepped forward as did Hitomi, and Kagome and Sesshoumaru each took their hands, along with Shippo and Rin, and then they jumped over the rim and into the well - and as the two girls left behind rushed forward and stared into the well, the blue lights flashed - and their friends disappeared.

They had no more doubts after witnessing that, and Kagome's grandfather laughed at the expressions on their faces.

"You young ones nowadays... never listen to the old stories - and even when you do, you dismiss them as impossible old wives tales." He grunted. "Finding out now that maybe they aren't so impossible, aren't ya?" he cackled happily.

Souta shook his head at his grandfather, then looked at the two girls. "Don't mind him, he's just crazy."

Ayumi and Eri exchanged glances at that, similar thoughts running through their minds. Crazy? This whole thing is crazy... Maybe we're all crazy at that...

Just a few seconds later, the lights flashed again, and Sesshoumaru came over the lip of the well holding Kagome. As soon as he landed, he let her go, and they grabbed the next two to go.

Eri and Souta.

As they came through and hopped out of the well, Kagome smiled at Ayumi.

"Ready?" she asked, and her smile widened when she nodded. "Good, then let's go."

With that, the two hopped back over the rim, and into the time slip, accompanied by Sesshoumaru and Kagome's grandfather, whose eyes were shining with excitement.

Once they landed in the bottom of the well and climbed out, Ayumi joined the other girls in the now crowded clearing around the well, and looked around in awe, almost unable to believe that she was standing on the same ground as the shrine - five hundred years in the past.

None of them noticed when Kagome hopped back into the well, bent as they were on exploring the area they found themselves in, but they did notice when she arrived back carrying several large bunches of flowers.

Once she did, she motioned for them to follow, and the group, led by Sesshoumaru and his soon-to-be lady, began walking, headed for the village.

Kagome chuckled to herself as she listened to the excited, awed whispers and choked exclamations of her friends.

Their expressions... kami, were they funny!

As they approached the village, Sango, Miroku and Kanna came out to meet them, and Inuyasha landed hard out of the treetops next to Kanna, who shook her head at him in exasperation, as Kohaku joined them from the treeline.

When Kagome saw the group come out to meet them, she stopped, and laying the bunches of flowers on the ground, she motioned for everyone to gather round.

"Okay, everybody!" She grabbed ahold of her mother, Souta, and grandfather. "Sango, Miroku, Kanna, Kohaku, I want you to meet my mother, Hitomi, my brother Souta, and my grandfather." As nods and smiles were exchanged, she looked at her mother. "This is Sango, and this is Miroku," she eyed the lecherous monk narrowly, "watch out for his hands, mama, he's a lecher, this is Sango's little brother Kohaku, and this," she gestured at Kanna, "is Kanna - Inuyasha's girl."

She chuckled at the blushes and Inuyasha's spluttering as the group all laughed and Sesshoumaru watched with a raised brow and an amused light in his eye at his brother's embarrassment, then moved to stand behind the three girls, who were staring around at everything and everyone as though they couldn't decide what to look at first.

"And these three are Yuka, Eri, and Ayume - my three best friends from my time. Girls, meet Sango, Miroku," again, she narrowed her eyes as the monk began to move closer, and glanced at Sango, who grabbed the back of the monk's robes, halting him in his tracks, "Kohaku, and Kanna." She sighed deeply and laughed.

"There... that takes care of most of the introductions," she looked around with a frown, "except Kaede. Where's she at?" she asked Sango.

"Still in her hut. She should be out in a moment, though." Sango smiled at the still bewildered looking girls. "Confusing, ne?" she asked sympathetically, and giggled when the three nodded, eyes wide, as if unsure whether they should believe what their senses were telling them, or not.

The three smiled a bit uncertainly at her, then looked at Kagome's family - her mother, who was now talking to the elderly woman who had appeared in their midst, Kagome's grandfather, who was eyeing Inuyasha narrowly, holding a stack of sutra, and Souta, who was talking to the other young male, Kohaku, all acting as though this were an everyday thing, and finally Eri shrugged, and looked at Kagome herself, who was watching them hopefully.

"Oh, well. The reality we were taught about in school was so boring, anyway. This is a lot more interesting."

Ayumi and Yuka glanced at her, then at Kagome. "Yeah. What she said."

Kagome squealed happily, then bent down to grab some of the flowers on the ground and stood and began handing them out. "Everyone, I want you all to have some chrysanthemums... because you guys are all such wonderful friends - a girl couldn't do any better!"

Sesshoumaru watched indulgently as his soon-to-be wife ran around the area handing out flowers and smiling madly, joy lighting her expression.

Such a simple woman - jewels and wealth, and servants to carry out her every whim do not make her eyes light - and yet... flowers and friends, do.

He smiled inwardly.

Just as with Rin... the most beautiful things are indeed the simplest, and it took two small ningen to teach me so.

---oOo---

A/N: Wedding time...! YAY! Finally, after 87 chapters... we get to the good part! This story is almost over - and I'm surprisingly sad to see that. I've looked forward to writing the characters and the situations around the flowers and their meanings - it definitely took a lot of thought at times, and stretched my creativity sometimes to it's max.

I hope everyone's enjoyed this journey as much as I have - though it's almost over, we still have a little ways to go together, I promise!

Amber