And to think, Kagome observed with a sigh, it had started out as such a nice day.

The morning had dawned clear and sunny, with spring birds chirping brightly in the budding trees and a warm breeze quickly melting the thin frost. Almost all of the snow was gone, the grass was turning green, and the first flowers were starting to show their petals. Such promising weather made it almost impossible not to be in good spirits, and indeed, everybody had been quite upbeat when they'd set off after breakfast. Even Inuyasha seemed, if not exactly chipper, then at least less grumpy than usual.

Unfortunately, a lot can happen between morning and noon. It was now almost lunchtime, and storm clouds were building up over both the horizon and everybody's temper. Sango and Miroku had argued over something during a rest stop and were no longer speaking to each other. Kagome hadn't even bothered to ask what the problem had been this time... which may have been why her attempt to talk them into making it up had accomplished nothing. And Inuyasha was... well, he was being Inuyasha.

"This is ridiculous," he snarled, coming to a stop in the middle of the road. "We are going in circles through these stupid woods."

"Don't be silly, Inuyasha," said Kagome, as mildly as she could. She knew very well that if she let herself become angry, it would only make everybody else worse. "Of course we're not."

"If we were going in circles," Miroku pointed out, "we would have been past this spot already, and we haven't been."

"How can you tell?" the hanyou snarled. "All these trees look the same, and we might as well be going in circles for all the progress we're making." Having had the last word, he turned to Kagome. "Where exactly is this shard we're following?"

Kagome squirmed. The whereabouts of the shard were actually starting to worry her, as well. She'd first sensed it yesterday, and they'd been looking for it ever since... but somehow, although they were constantly approaching it, they weren't actually getting there. "That way," she said, pointing up ahead. "It's still in that direction. That's all I know."

The entire party had stopped walking by now. Shippou sat down on a rock in the road and heaved a big, theatrical sigh. "Kagome, I'm hungry," he said.

Sango frowned, reaching up absently to scratch Kirala's ears as she thought for a moment. "If we're not getting any closer..."

"We are getting closer," Kagome insisted. "The shard's not moving. It's as if..." she bit her lip, trying to find the right words to describe the impression she was getting. "It's not running away. It's trying to hide, I think."

"That doesn't mean," Miroku began, "somebody might not be using it to lure..." he stopped in the middle of his sentence and looked back over his shoulder. Kagome cocked her neck to follow his gaze, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Just the road and the trees, with some patches of leftover snow in the shaded spots.

"Miroku?" asked Kagome. "Do you sense something?"

The monk hesitated a moment, then shook his head. "Just my imagination," he told them. "But all the same, I think we ought to keep moving."

"Good idea," Kagome agreed, trying to sound cheerful. "Wherever that shard is, we'll never catch up with it if we just stand here. Let's go, everybody!"

"I'm still hungry," Shippou complained.

"We'll have something to eat as soon as we find a place to stop," Kagome promised him. "I brought chocolate-covered jellies. Strawberry are your favourite kind, right?"

"Did you bring ramen?" Inuyasha asked hopefully.

None of them noticed the youkai, sitting quietly in the shadow of a pine tree.

In all honesty, Meimou didn't pay much more attention to the party passing by than they had to her. She knew where they were and where they were going, and although they were starting to become suspicious it seemed that, at least for now, they would keep on heading in the same direction. That was good. As long as she could keep track of them, she had the leisure to search for something.

She was playing with a small lacquer box that hung from her obi on a black silk cord. A physician would have identified it as an inro, a container for herbs and drugs... but if anybody had tried to put such things into this box, they probably would never have gotten them out again. Meimou's inro was not for carrying medicines. It held entire universes.

Right now, she was rummaging inside it like a doctor looking for a particular pill. Scenes from a dozen possible realities flashed by before her eyes as she searched for just one universe. Just the right universe to do the job she had in mind.

"That does it," announced Kerry, unfolding her laptop as she sat down heavily on one of the cafeteria's creaky old chairs. "I absolutely quit."

Jessie looked up from her macaroni and cheese and gave her friend an odd look. "Quit what?"

"The Four Souls Archive," replied Kerry, who was better known in the online fandom community as BouncyKitty. "I quit! I will not host these on my web space... I refuse to even read these disgraces to fanfiction. Look at this." She double-clicked on something and then turned the screen around for Jessie to look. "This was submitted this morning," she said. "Just look."

Jessie, who went by LuvTheFluffy, leaned closer to look at the screen. "The Girl at the Rock Show, by Inu-Miko," she read aloud. "Sesshoumaru is a famous rock singer, who's tired of his younger brother living off his hard work. What will Inuyasha do when Sess makes him go to school like a normal kid? And what will happen when he meets a shy, nerdy girl named Kagome... who just happens to be his brother's biggest fan?" Her eyes widened. "Wow. Even the summary is out of character."

"And that's not even the worst of it." Kerry scrolled down. "Check this one out... it's from yesterday."

"I'm afraid to," said Jessie. "The Pervert and the Princess, by GCPwnzU042. Miroku is the lecherous captain of the basketball team, who brags that he can get into bed with any girl in school... but he'll be in for a challenge when his friends bet him that he can't seduce Sango, the richest, prettiest – and most prudish – girl around!" Jessie thought for a moment. "Wasn't that the plot of some movie a few years back?"

"I think so." Kerry rolled her eyes. "Don't ask me which one, they're all exactly alike. Ohhh, and look at this..."

"Wait," interrupted Jessie. "Are these all high school AU's?"

"Most of 'em," said Kerry. "Although there's a Harry Potter crossover in here somewhere. Oh, and one with A Knight's Tale. Wanna see Inuyasha go jousting?"

Jessie shuddered. "No."

"Here, dig this one." Kerry highlighted another summary. "I don't know why the author even bothers calling it Inuyasha fanfiction."

By now, Jessie had seen more than enough, but she found her eyes inexorably drawn to the screen. It was like a train wreck, she thought, or that 'badger, badger, badger' animation: no matter how badly she might want to, it was impossible to look away. "Wrong Side of the Tracks, by MaDiSoN. After Kouga runs away from his abusive father, he drops out of school and it looks like his life is headed nowhere fast. But things start to look up when he meets a girl who makes him think there might be something worth living for after all. Kouga/Nazuna." She paused a moment to let that sink in. "Nazuna?"

"The girl from the spider episode," Kerry confirmed.

Jessie considered it. "Kouga/Nazuna. That could work..."

"Yeah. Except," Kerry held up a finger, "that judging from the illustrations the author wants me to put up with it, this is Hot Topic-Nazuna. And she always seems to be carrying a guitar."

If it hadn't been for the plate of macaroni and cheese in the way, Jessie would have let her head drop onto the table. "Do you want to know what's really scary?" she asked. "Remember in chat a while back, what Grobanite81 said about possible universes?"

Kerry thought about it. "That was when it was three AM where she is and she was going on about quantum, right?"

"Yeah," said Jessie. "We were talking about that fic where the writer typed out pretty much the exact text of this romance novel and just changed all the names, remember? And Grobie said that if there are infinite universes, then there's one where Inuyasha really is a bodice-ripper romance. And there's one in which it happens at Hogwarts, and one in which Sesshoumaru is a rock star..."

"I really don't want to think about that," groaned Kerry.

"So if you subscribe to her theory, then somewhere out there is an alternate universe in which the characters go to high school together, and all these stupid Jennifer Love Hewitt movie plots are all happening," Jessie concluded.

Kerry snorted. "What happened to Jennifer Love Hewitt anyway?"

"I have no idea," said Jessie.

In another universe, Meimou smiled.