*This chapter is dedicated to all the writers out there who reviewed. I updated early just for you guys!*

Curiosity - Chapter 11 - "Must Come Down"

The two miko's inside the hut stared at the figure standing in Kaede's doorway. Neither of the parties spoke a word for a great while. And finally, Kagome had enough of the deafening silence,

"What do you mean I can't leave yet?"

The mysterious figure gave Kagome a cold stare, "Why must you ask such redundant questions? Are you so naive that you can't understand a simple statement? I mean that you cannot leave stupid girl."

A gasp answered the figure in the sentences wake. She was shocked that this person would stoop so low as to insult her intelligence.

While Kagome was still in shock, the person strolled past the shocked girl and took a seat close to the elder miko. (Uninvited of course) The person looked expectedly to Kaede, whom had already started to prepare tea for her "guest". "Child, why don't ye sit down so that you may be able to go home quicker?"

Snapped out of her shock by Kaede's voice, she hesitantly slipped her shoes back off and went to take a seat near the fire again, making sure to keep her distance from the this person. Yet another long silence began as the three occupants drank their tea. Kaede had had enough of it so she finally spoke up.

"What is it that ye want sister?"

Kikyo took another long sip of her tea before setting it down and focusing on Kagome. "I have a few questions that I need to ask my reincarnation."

Kagome got a puzzled look across her face, "What do you want to know? I mean, what would you ever want to know about me?"

"Humph, you ask too many questions girl. What I need to know involves certain things in your life."

The young priestess was starting to get mad at Kikyo for acting so Sesshomaru like. Plus she was getting annoyed at the was she kept staring at her. "Oh if looks could kill I'd be dead by now. Wait, is that what she's trying to do? No, that can't be. Looks can't kill... can they? After all this is the Feudal Era."

"I know you say I ask too many questions, but what in the world could you ever want to know about my life? And would you please stop looking at me like that? You are starting to give me the creeps."

Kikyo looked down at her hands with a sly grin while answering, "First of all, I will look at you however I wish. And you'll find out what I wish to know if you would just stop asking unnecessary." A pause was added after that for effect, and also to make Kagome upset. "Now, my first question is why do I feel your presence and then I don't. How are you hiding your presence from me?"

"I don't hide my presence from anything. I simply go home." The young miko replied confusedly.

"You're lying! Your presence can't simply disappear by just 'going home' as you put it. That's impossible!"

It was then that Kaede decided that she had had enough of her elder sister interrogating Kagome. "Ye are wrong sister, young Kagome speaks the truth."

"And I do not believe either of you!" Kikyo angrily spat back.

Another awkward silence entered the hut and lasted for quite a while. Finally, Kagome had had enough of it, "Well, if that's all you wanted then I really need to be getting home."

Kagome started to get up and leave when Kikyo began again. "I want for you to speak the truth. Why do you wear such revealing clothes?" She said incredulously why eyeing Kagome's school uniform. "That is not the way a priestess should dress. It is undignified."

Kagome eyed Kikyo as she was eyeing her mini skirt. "Maybe that's why she keeps looking at me like that." "Well, since you have a problem with the way I dress let me just fix that for you." She spoke as she took some clothes out of her bag and made her way out of Kaede's hut so that she could walk into the woods and change.

Meanwhile, Kaede starting giving her sister what would be called in the future "the third degree."

"What is it ye wish to know about Kagome?"

"I wish to know why her presence leaves this world and then Inuyasha's a few days later. You wouldn't happen to know why do you?" Kikyo said as she eyed her now elderly sister.

A soft smile made its way across Kaede's face as she answered, "Aye, I know why. But I don't believe it is my place to tell ye anything."

Kikyo gave Kaede a smug look then turned to look at the entrance of her sister's hut where Kagome now stood. She was now wearing a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt that had her name written across the front of it. It also happened to be tight fitting, which made her show off her curves. This, of course, miffed Kikyo off again.

"How can that girl wear such things in front of her elders?" She looked at Kaede to gauge her reaction to this new clothing and only got miffed even more. Not only did her younger sister look like she didn't care, but she wasn't even paying attention to Kagome's clothing. Kaede just sat there sipping her tea. "Kaede isn't even offended by a priestess wearing such clothing. But, then again, my reincarnation isn't much of a priestess to begin with."

"So, is this any better for you?" Kagome asked as she made her way back to her bag to put her uniform away.

"Yes, it is better. But why does your... um... top have your name written on it?" She decided not to ask Kagome where she had gotten these strange clothes, since the ones from before (uniform) were even stranger.

Kagome thought for a moment of how to answer Kikyo's question. "Ha, I've got it! That's perfect, and maybe it will even lighten up the atmosphere of the conversation. If one would call it that."

Before she answered, Kagome took her seat back beside the fire. "Well my dear Kikyo," she said with a straight face while thinking 'not really' in the back of her mind. "My name is on my 'top', as you call it, that in case something happens to where I loose my memory I can simply look into a mirror or a river and read the word on my shirt backwards and know what my name is." Then she put a thoughtful looked on her face as she winked at Kaede to let her know that she was joking. "But then again, if I loose my memory I will most likely forget how to read, especially backwards. So I guess that would be a moot point now wouldn't it?" She looked at Kikyo with a look of amusement on her face, while Kikyo's face clearly stated 'I don't think that was funny.'

But on the bright side, Kagome did earn a chuckle out of Kaede. "Well, at least you thought it was funny." Kagome laughed out.

Kikyo shot Kagome a dirty look and continued on with her questioning. "Why is it that Inuyasha's presence leaves a few days after yours? And why do you both disappear around the area of the well?"

Suddenly, Kagome became very interested in her hands as she replied, "He tries to come and get me a day before I said that I would come back because he wants to hurry up and complete the jewel and destroy Naraku. As for your second question, that is because I live near the well."

Sips of tea were taken by all as Kikyo considered her next question. "Where exactly do you live? And give me a straight answer!" She demanded.

"Well technically I live by the well, with my family at a shrine."

"You're lying; there is no shrine around that well. Now I won't ask you again, where do you live?"

Kikyo was really starting to get mad at her copy. Why wouldn't she just answer the questions? What has she got to hide? "If only she knew how much I actually do know about her. All I want is for her to admit it."

Kagome was already nervous, but she steeled herself as she looked to Kaede, and then to her former self. "I won't tell you." She said firmly.

"Why not?"

"How do I know that you won't tell Naraku afterwards? I mean you did give him the whole half of the jewel we had AFTER you stole it from me."

This intrigued Kaede, "What do ye mean Kagome?" She didn't understand what Kagome had meant by her last accusation.

"Kikyo tried to kill me around the time that Sango joined, but before she tried she took the half of the jewel we had collected. She gave it to Naraku to 'supposedly' help in his demise. So how do I know that if I tell her where I live that she won't just go tell Naraku and then he would destroy the... my home." Kagome chose her last words carefully, not wanting to reveal her secret about the well.

Kaede then looked at her sister, "Is this true?"

"Yes and giving Naraku the jewel WILL help." Kikyo practically yelled.

Kagome had gotten tired of this; she really needed to go study. "Yeah right. Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to get home. See you later Kaede." She spoke as she grabbed her bag once again and headed towards the door.

She was leaving in such a huff that she didn't notice Kikyo muttering something under her breath, nor the sudden glimmer at the side of Kaede's door. But Kaede did notice and knew exactly what Kikyo was doing.

"Child don't!" She yelled, but it was to late.