Kagome is teaching Inuyasha about her time, starting off with his new favorite thing. RAMEN!! The boy loves his Ramen noodles, and asks why Kagome isn't eating. She points out that they're in a battlefield, and starts to chew him out, but Myouga breaks it up by asking questions about her time. She starts to explain to them about space and rockets, but Inuyasha's too busy eating to care.
Then, the sky grows dark, and a swirling mass of blue flames appears, along with a childish voice, demanding the piece of the Shikon jewel they had. Then the flames all form a small ball, from which comes a large pink balloon with eyes! It basically just bites Inuyasha's head, saying that if they don't hand over the jewel, he'll kill them.
Inuyasha taps it a few times, then smacks the crap out of it, sending it flying like any regular balloon that's been popped. Finally, the bubble bursts to reveal a little kid, with red hair, green eyes, and a cream-colored, fluffy tail!
He starts to yell at Inuyasha, but runs scared when the hanyou comes after him. Inuyasha holds him up by the tail, saying he looks like a squirrel or badger, annoying the fox-demon. Kagome asks to play with the kid, but then Inuyasha's hands are pinned down by a statue while Shippou (the fox-demon) goes digging through Kagome's stuff, finding and disappearing with the jewel.
Or at least, they THOUGHT he disappeared. Then they heard one of the skulls moving around on the ground behind them, only to turn and see a fleeing skull with a fluffy tail. Inuyasha gets a good punch in, leaving the fox with a nice bump on the head. While Kagome's trying to soothe the bump, though, Shippou explains that he wanted the jewel to avenge his father. Inuyasha says he was too weak to do it without the jewel shards, and pulls them from inside his haori (the jacket part).
Well, while Shippou's insisting he's not weak, Kagome and Inuyasha get into a fight over who gets to carry the jewel shards. Finally, Shippou yells to get their attention.
He tells them how two demons took out 2 armies made up of hundreds of men easily, using thunder and lightning attacks. We see the demons both have jewel shards, 3 in the human-looking one's forehead, and 2 in the other one's forehead, who happens to be basically bald, whom we hear called "Manten". Manten also has a fur pelt around his waist, that we see is a fox pelt, almost the same color as Shippou's hair. We get the point that THIS is Shippou's father than he wanted to avenge.
Shippou calls those two the Thunder Brothers, and explains it's a nickname due to their attacks. Inuyasha asks Myouga if he's heard about them, and Myouga says that their names are Hiten and Manten, and that they are extremely evil. ("evil incarnate")
Inuyasha says all he has to do is defeat them, and he can walk away with their shards. "Yeah, and one day man will walk on the moon!" (Actually, Shippou...) The fox-kid continues to insult Inuyasha for being a hanyou (half-demon), saying that the fight is between demons, and for him to stay out of it. "I can SMELL the human in you."
When Kagome tries to reprimand Shippou, Inuyasha jumps down and starts hitting him in the head, only stopping long enough to hear "I'm sorry, please forgive me, I'm sorry". But then, Shippou pins Inuyasha's hands to the ground again with the statue, only this time he puts a seal on it, too, saying that the seal has to come off before the statue will move. And it's true, Inuyasha tries and fails.
With that, Shippou steals the jewel shards and runs, followed closely by Kagome, who grabbed her bow and arrow before taking off after him, leaving Inuyasha on the side of the road, next to her bike.
Nearby, Manten is admiring his reflection in a lake, wishing for more hair, only to be interrupted when Shippou comes running through, too focused on Kagome to notice the Thunder Brother. But Manten steps right in front of him, making Shippou notice him and the fur pelt around his waist. His father.
When Manten starts to laugh, Shippou jumps at him, only to be knocked away easily. When he lands, though, the jar containing the jewel shards falls out, and Manten notices it. Shippou tries to hide it, but Manten steps on his tail, demanding for the pieces of the jewel.
He's about to attack Shippou, but is shot in the nose by Kagome, who tells Shippou to run to her, and to bring the jewel shards with her. When he does, Manten chases after him, only to have Kagome fire another arrow, which she wanted to knock out the jewel shards in his forehead, but only succeeds in removing two of the three hairs on Manten's head. Now Manten's mad. (While this is going on, Inuyasha's begging a passing villager for help, only to have him run off, scared, leaving our favorite hanyou alone, again.)
He goes to blast lightning from his mouth, and Shippou and Kagome try to hurry back to Inuyasha. Unfortunately, they don't run fast enough, and barely avoids the blow, although the impact knocks Kagome unconscious. Shippou tries to wake her up, but when he hears Manten coming, he hides in the tall grass.
Manten sees Kagome, and decides that she's lovely, and looks "good enough to eat". When Shippou finally hears thunder to signify Manten's departure, he sees the cloud with the Thunder Brother on it, carrying a still-passed-out Kagome!
He starts to chase after them, feeling the need to help the girl who saved him, then realizes he can't. And so, he goes to the one person who could help, who is currently having Myouga try and fail at peeling off the spell-scroll.
Inuyasha starts to threaten the little fox, only to have Shippou appear, saying he'll remove the scroll, but only on the condition that Inuyasha promises not to hit Shippou. Inuyasha asks where Kagome is, and Shippou demands the promise. He promises, but as soon as the spell's removed, Shippou's on the ground with a bunch of new lumps on his head. Then, Inuyasha holds him upside down and shakes him till the jewel shards fall out. While he's relaxing because he found them, Shippou yells at him to hurry, because the Thunder Brothers now have Kagome.
"Huh? The same two brothers who killed your father, abducted Kagome? You let 'em get away?! Hm. You're not exactly reeking with the scent of victory. What'd you do, conceal yourself in the bushes while they made off with her?" "Why do you pin all the blame on me?! She's your woman! You should do at least some of the rescuing!"
After forcibly reminding Shippou that Kagome "Ain't my woman", he tells him that he'll rescue Kagome IF Shippou apologizes. Myouga tells Shippou to just do it, and Shippou knows he can't rescue Kagome on his own, so he drops to his knees and apologizes. (I think in the Japanese version, he was supposed to beg for Inuyasha's help, but like I said, my site is based on the American version.) Immediately, Inuyasha lifts up Kagome's bike on his shoulder, pack and all, and tells Shippou to come on, then walks off. Shippou's surprised, since he was probably expecting a rude remark or another blow to the head. "Well. That was fairly painless."
In the mountains, though, Manten is mixing up some purple potion when Kagome wakes up. He tells her that he's going to boil her down as a pair potion, since the blood and flesh of young maidens is said to do wonders for hair re-growth. She yells at him that she'd rather be dead than turned into a hair concoction, only to have Manten try to get her to quiet down, saying that if Hiten heard her, she'd probably get her wish.
Needless to say, Hiten arrives on the scene by breaking through the door, standing there with a woman with red eyes, and only a snake around her shoulders to cover her breasts. Manten declares that Kagome is his, but Hiten just says that he has the woman by him, so he doesn't care. Kagome's thinking that perhaps the more human-looking one, would be the more human-acting one. But when Hiten finds out that Manten let Shippou escape with the jewel, he gets angry and destroys the woman at his side with a lightning blast from his hand, leaving nothing but her charred remains. Kagome decides that perhaps she's in a no-win situation.
Hiten starts to walk off, saying he and Manten are going to find Shippou and take the shards from him, but Manten sees Kagome trying to escape, and tells her he had to kill her before they go, since he doesn't want her escaping. Kagome tells him that he can't kill her, because she knows where Shippou and the jewel shards are. That makes both brothers pause, and she decides she has to try and convince the elder brother, too.
She asks if they've heard of Inuyasha, and Hiten says that he's a weak half-breed. Kagome insists he's strong, and has most of the jewel shards. Hiten sits next to her, and she tells him and Manten that Inuyasha also happens to be in love with her, and that if they offered her to Inuyasha in exchange for the jewel shards, he'd gladly hand them over.
Manten says she's lying, but Hiten believes her, and warns her that if she is, in fact, lying, he'll burn her to a crisp like he did the other woman.
Shippou, on the other hand, is being carted around in Kagome's basket on her bike, which is currently residing on Inuyasha's shoulder as he leaps from place to place. Inuyasha teases him for being scared, but Shippou insists he's not. He warns Inuyasha about the jewel shards in the Thunder Brothers' foreheads, and Inuyasha stops to laugh. Myouga tells them that they must hurry before the evil brothers do something horrible to Kagome, since he was told that they like to eat pretty young women.
After that, and argument begins on whether or not Kagome could be called "pretty", Inuyasha saying she's not, and Shippou and Myouga saying she is.
They're finally interrupted, though, when the rock Inuyasha's standing on explodes, broken apart by lightning. And there, of course, if Hiten. Shippou demands to know where Kagome is, and Manten appears, holding Kagome hostage on his cloud. Inuyasha yells out to Kagome, and Hiten says that apparently Kagome was telling the truth. Then Hiten says the wrong thing. He tells Inuyasha to give him the jewel shards, or else he will never see his "Lover" again.
"*'See my lover'?!?!* Um... There must be some misunderstanding! (to Kagome) Lemme get this straight. You and I are supposed to be lovers?"
Of course, then they get into ANOTHER argument, this time when Inuyasha yells at her, asking if she really thought he'd hand over the jewel shards for her. Oh. Wrong thing to say. She tells him that he had BETTER pick her over some stupid jewel shards, and they're interrupted again, this time by Hiten.
Hiten says that while the girl was lying about the lovers part, she was obviously telling the truth about the jewel shards, and that he means to take them by force, if need be. Inuyasha draws Tetsusaiga, ready for a fight. Hiten attacks, lightning coming from his thunder-pike (like a spear with an odd blade), and says that no one can withstand his attacks for long. Inuyasha throws him off, earning him the comment, "You do have some power, but no style." from Hiten. "This should be an interesting battle."
