Crossover Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ You Lose, Miko! ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no ownership interest in Inuyasha or any of the characters in this fanfic. Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Yu Yu Hakusho is owned by Togashi and to whichever companies they have sold or licensed the rights. I make no money from this fanfic and appreciate Ms. Takahashi's and Mr. Togashi's willingness to overlook my playing in their universes.

 

This was written for the contest “In Harmony” at The Deadliest Sin, a Kagome/Hiei Board at http://thedeadliestsin . proboards55 . com

 

It won first place, which is absolutely thrilling.

 

This is going to be my first fic posted in several chapters. I expect it to be about 6 or 7 chapters when it is all posted. Everything is being edited again. The later chapters should be somewhat expanded from the version I submitted for the contest, and there will be a lengthy epilogue I hadn't had time to write before the deadline.

 

 

 

YOU LOSE, MIKO

 

 

Kagome was going soft. She knew it. Of course, she also knew some people would say she was soft from the beginning, but as she grew older she realized her strength came from her miko powers. The problem was she had little idea what to do with them. After she came back from the Sengoku Jidai and the well closed, she focused for a time strictly on high school to prove to everyone that it wasn't just a fluke and a little charity that got her admitted to the school.

 

Her teachers were all thrilled with her. She always did her homework, she focused in class and even when she didn't understand something, she asked about it. Many high school students didn't ask questions simply because they were too confused and then too embarrassed to admit they didn't understand something. Most took the attitude that it was much better to keep quiet and hope someone else asked the question. The teacher's lounge was often the scene of discussion and speculation about why a girl who studied so hard and acted so mature for her age had barely squeaked by admission.

 

The gym teacher was particularly pleased, and had asked her to go out for long distance running. Kagome did it as a way to avoid the archery team. She had tried out for the archery team and done really well until she concentrated a little too hard and burned part of a target with a purified arrow. Everyone thought it was just some fluke of the sun flashing off the arrow, but Kagome didn't want to take another chance. Clearly, it would not be wise to shoot arrows in public. She had spent too long learning to instinctively throw her miko energy into the arrow and it would be almost impossible to change that now.

 

She knew she was in good shape physically, but she still felt flabby, at odds and unkempt. It was her inability to use her miko powers in this century. She meditated and practiced making barriers. She kept up her target practice at home at the shrine when it was unlikely that a visitor would come by; but she knew it wasn't enough. She just felt flabby and that was all there was to it.

 

Kagome sighed.

 

“What's wrong now, missy?” Grandpa asked her at dinner one night. “You've been doing nothing but sighing tonight. I will tell you, you do not make a good dinner companion.”

 

Kagome gave him a sour look, then sighed again and poked her rice. “I just need something to do. I miss everyone from the Sengoku Jidai, and as strange as it sounds, I miss the fighting and using my miko powers. Meditating quietly just isn't the same. I feel as though I got my full powers from the Shikon back only to lose them to lack of exercise.”

 

“I thought you meditated, and practiced that barrier thing and your archery,” Souta pointed out.

 

“I do, but it just isn't the same. I need someone to test me, to push me and to tell me what I'm doing wrong. I learned in the Sengoku Jidai that the harder we're pushed, the more we're able to do. I often got annoyed at Inuyasha for telling us to keep going because he thought it was too soon to rest; but honestly, if he hadn't pushed us, we wouldn't have accomplished nearly as much as quickly as we did and Naraku might have completed the jewel sooner. If we had had to fight Naraku before Sesshoumaru developed his new sword and before Inuyasha got the meidou zangetsuha ability for Tessaiga, it might have been disastrous for us.”

 

“I don't think Inuyasha would be much help in training you with your miko powers,” Mama said with a smile.

“Well, no, but Kaede was showing me things. I learned the barrier from her and I've been practicing it here but don't know how strong it is since I don't have any way to test it.”

 

Mama thought Kagome was bored. She wasn't a fool. She knew her daughter had changed and she knew she had been told a simplified and carefully expurgated version of events. Mama Higurashi read between the lines though. She knew that no one could go through the experiences Kagome had gone through and then quietly settle back into a modern day high school life of books, hair and boys. Inuyasha had also been a font of information when Kagome was not around. Everything was normal to him and he didn't think about deleting the really bad and dangerous situations from the stories he told Mama. You can't go home again, Mama thought sadly, and you can't recover your innocence. Her child was a woman, even at the tender age of 17. Kagome had been in a war.

 

Suddenly Grandpa snapped his fingers. “The nasty old woman!”

 

“What?” “Huh?” “Grandpa, what do you mean?” Everyone spoke up.

 

“I'm talking about the old woman who lives at that temple way out in the forest out of town, the one who is always rude and insults my ofudas when there is a gathering of shrine priests and priestesses. Now what's her name? Ginkei? Kenki? Genkei? No, it's Genkai. That's it. Genkai. Now there's someone who thinks highly of herself. That one's always insulting other people's spiritual energy. I'll have you know our family's ofudas have been famous for years, and she just insults them as of no worth at all. You should go there and demand training. She is always going on about how she'd only train someone with a high spiritual energy. Humph, I doubt she'd really know spiritual energy if it bit her on. . .”

 

“Grandpa!” Mama said sharply.

 

Souta and Kagome looked at each other. “Eh, grandpa, I'm not sure that's such a good idea.” Privately, Kagome thought that anyone her grandfather knew could not possibly be a good candidate for a teacher, but she refrained from pointing this out to him.

 

“It's an excellent idea. I'll send her a note that you'll come by next Saturday, after your half day of school.”

 

“Why don't you call her, grandpa?” Souta asked.

 

“The old biddy doesn't have a phone.”

 

Souta leaned over to Kagome. “Perhaps she just didn't want to get a phone call from Grandpa,” he said quietly, and Kagome giggled.

 

“I heard that, young man. Who taught you your manners,” Grandpa scolded, but Mama and Kagome laughed.

 

“You did.” Grandpa sputtered at Souta's comment, and everyone laughed again, even Grandpa.

 

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Chapter two: Genkai meets Higurashi's granddaughter; Kagome meets Yukina and Hiei meets a threat which needs eradication.