InuYasha Fan Fiction / Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Death Is Only The Beginning ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Bleach nor any of their characters. Those belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Tite Kubo, respectively. I only own any original characters that may appear.

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Death Is Only The Beginning

Chapter Nine

“Sesshoumaru?” Kagome asked almost unable to believe that it truly was the Western Lord standing before her.

“Indeed,” he answered matter-of-factly as he began to walk a slow circle around her and inspect her with a critical eye. “I knew that there was something familiar about you when I first saw you with Kurosaki and his group. Though, I must admit, it took some time before I recognized the soul within the body. Despite your unique energy signature, it has been five hundred and some-odd years,” Sesshoumaru stated as he came to stand before her once more. “You make unnecessary movements when you fight,” he critiqued. “You're still as reckless as you once were. I wonder if a god of death can die,” he mused more to himself than the girl sitting in front of him.

“You know, I wondered the same thing,” Kagome said before a different thought struck her. “Wait…I'm not in my body. How can you even see me?” She asked.

Sesshoumaru raised a delicate brow as if to say `are you kidding?' before he spoke, “Girl, you forget to whom you speak. I have knowledge of magics you cannot comprehend and am able to raise the recently deceased. Do you think that I cannot see spirits?” He smirked when Kagome averted her gaze from him. “Though, I must say that this is the first time that I have personally seen a shinigami. How did one such as yourself come into the business of soul reaping?”

Kagome looked back to the disguised demon lord, she answered, “When I died I was taken to the next world. I was there for a while before the Captain-Commander—he's pretty much in charge—brought me to his office and said I had the potential to be a shinigami. I've been studying and training ever since and this trip to the living world was supposed to be my first big mission on my own.”

“Captain-Commander?” He questioned as he watched for her reactions. “The shinigami are organized as militia?” His father had been the Great Dog General, so Sesshoumaru was intrigued by the thought.

Thinking it over, Kagome nodded. “I guess,” she answered. “I'm a member of the Eighth Division, but I'm not a seated officer or anything.” Kagome was quiet for a moment as she watched Sesshoumaru mull over what she had told him thus far. Seeing Sesshoumaru, alive and well, brought only one thought to Kagome's mind. The question burned on the tip of her tongue, but she found that she was actually afraid to ask in case the answer wasn't what she hoped it would be. “Sesshoumaru,” she began softly to bring his attention back to her. When their eyes met, she took a deep breath before asking, “If you're here, does that mean that the others survived to this time, too?”

Kagome held her breath when Sesshoumaru didn't speak right away. They simply stared at each other before his eyes flickered over to her faux body standing far to the side. Finally, he said, “Get into your body, girl. There is somewhere that I wish to take you.”

It wasn't an answer to her question, and his avoidance only served to tie her stomach in knots. Where could he possibly want to take her? But when Sesshoumaru only continued to silently wait for her to comply with his order, Kagome pushed herself to her feet once more and winced at the pain in her back. She easily slipped back into her body and heaved a sigh of relief when the pain of her injuries began to numb. When Sesshoumaru began to climb the steps built into the embankment, Kagome followed as quickly as she was able.

They walked through the streets of Karakura Town without a word to one another. Kagome noticed that her back was gradually feeling better as healing properties of her faux body kicked in. She had no idea where they were going, but Sesshoumaru's steps were practiced and measured. `He must walk this route often,' she thought and that only further piqued her curiosity. Kagome couldn't imagine what kind of places Sesshoumaru would frequent.

They had entered a quiet little neighborhood and Kagome could see a small restaurant up ahead. The front door was open allowing the soft glow from inside to light a small area of the sidewalk and street. As they drew closer, she could see that two floors of living quarters were above the eatery, but the windows were darkened.

Kagome was a little surprised when Sesshoumaru stopped outside the doors to stand within the soft light. She was about to ask what they were doing at a restaurant this late in the evening when she felt him place his large hand on her back and gently push her into the building. She wasn't shocked that it was fairly empty given the hour—there was only one couple sitting at a table in the corner—but the atmosphere was pleasant and welcoming. The kitchen was open and one could sit at a counter and watch the chef as he worked. Said chef currently had his back to them, and Kagome could see the long hair that he kept pulled into a low ponytail. A red bandana was wrapped around the top of his head to keep his hair back and out of his face. Kagome noted that he was easily taller than she was, but he still wasn't as tall as Sesshoumaru.

She turned a questioning look up to the tall demon beside her. She honestly couldn't figure out why he had brought her here. But her heart seemed to stop in her chest when Sesshoumaru turned his attention to the chef and call out, “Inuyasha.”

The man at the cooking range tensed visibly at Sesshoumaru's voice, but he turned just enough to look over his shoulder while practiced hands continued to work the food in front of him. “Yeah, what do you want—” but the chef's words seemed to catch in his throat when his eyes met Kagome's. As the two openly stared at each other, one of his hands fumbled and he swore at the angry burn on his hand. He quickly turned back to the food before removing it from the heat and packing it into take-out containers. Bagging everything up, he took the food to the waiting couple and explained in a tight voice that something had come up and he needed to close the shop but that their meal was on the house. Once the humans had walked into the night and the doors were locked behind them, the man Sesshoumaru had addressed as Inuyasha came to stand in front of Kagome.

His eyes took in every feature—the familiar and the new—before amber finally stopped to meet cobalt. When Inuyasha finally found what he was looking for within the eyes that he'd once known well, he grabbed Kagome's small frame and crushed her to him in a fierce hug. He held her tightly as he turned his face into her hair and closed his eyes. She didn't smell quite the same, but enough traces of her scent were present for him to confirm her identity. “You little idiot,” he said softly with none of his usual brashness. “Why didn't you get out of the way?”

As she was held against him, Kagome could hear Inuyasha's heart pounding within his chest, and she couldn't hold back any longer. A dam broke within her and tears began to run down her face as she let out a choked sob and hugged the half-demon in return. Her arms wrapped around him and her hands fisted into the fabric covering his shoulder blades. She buried her face in his chest and cried out all of her relief and sadness and joy. Neither noticed as Sesshoumaru walked past them and ascended the stairs to the home above them.

After several moments Kagome was able to get herself under control once more and she pulled back just enough to look into Inuyasha's face. “I can't believe you!” She said with a watery laugh. “I could never get you to cook in the past. Your food better taste horrible or I'm going to be so mad.”

Inuyasha couldn't stop the warm smile that took over his features; he hadn't needed his tough exterior defense in quite some time. He wiped the tears away from one eye with the pad of his thumb before Kagome took over and tried to clear away the moisture with the heels of her hands. He loosened his hold on her before taking her hand and giving it a light tug. “Come on,” he said as he noticed that Sesshoumaru was no longer with them. “Let's get upstairs so that I can make sure Sesshoumaru isn't going through my stuff again. He's turned out to be a nosy bastard.” He smiled at Kagome's laughter. He had missed that sound so much in the last five hundred years. As they walked side-by-side he thought, `It's really her. I don't know how Sesshoumaru did it, but I don't give a damn. She's really back.'

Kagome followed Inuyasha into his living room and plopped down on a plush grey couch when he motioned towards it. She watched as he sat next to her and glared over at Sesshoumaru who sat in a chair across from them. The demon lord seemed to be leafing through one of several magazines Inuyasha had on a small coffee table. As the younger brother glared and the other brother flatly ignored his sibling, Kagome could feel tension building in the air between them. “Do you guys still not get along?” She asked.

Inuyasha grunted before turning his attention back to the woman at his side. “Not even close,” he answered. Seeing Kagome's puzzled expression, he explained, “There aren't as many of us as there used to be. Mr. High-and-Mighty over there finally decided that he couldn't be as picky about his allies and who he kept company with, so he came and found me. We agreed not to kill each other out of mutual benefit.”

“So now you both try to blend in with humans and live normal lives?” Kagome expected nothing less from Inuyasha, but as she glanced over at Sesshoumaru she had to admit that he had really surprised her. `I never thought he was the type to try to blend into a crowd,' she thought.

Inuyasha shrugged and said, “Pretty much. We can't exactly let everyone know what we are so we try to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible.

“And now you're a cook?” She asked as she pointed to Inuyasha and he nodded. Kagome turned towards Sesshoumaru who still seemed to be ignoring the conversation. “So what do you do, Sesshoumaru?”

Sesshoumaru didn't answer for a moment but finally said, “I teach history to your friend Kurosaki and his group.”

She was taken aback for a moment. The once fearsome Lord of the West who had openly proclaimed his distaste for the human race now taught human children in school. `Though I suppose it does make some sense,' Kagome thought. `Who better to teach history than someone who lived through most of it?' Smiling at the thought of Sesshoumaru in front of a blackboard with a textbook in hand, she continued on with her questioning. “And you've been here all this time? What about any of the others?”

“We move about once every decade,” Inuyasha corrected. “We can't stay in one place for too long or people start to notice that we don't seem to age. There are cities all over the world with high spiritual energies, so we try to stay in those areas so that we don't stand out much against the weird things those people are already used to. As for the others,” Inuyasha tilted his head back to look at the ceiling as he thought. “I think Kouga and his pack went to the States. They found a new territory in some northern mountain range, last I heard. When we're living in Japan we still see Shippo from time to time,” Inuyasha stopped when he saw Kagome's eyes light up at the mention of the small fox that she had known. He really didn't want to tell her the rest of that story.

Kagome noticed Inuyasha's hesitancy to talk about the younger demon and felt her heart leap into her throat a little. “Inuyasha,” she began slowly, “what about Shippo?”

Closing his eyes with a deep sigh, the half-demon turned to face Kagome fully. He'd just gotten her back and didn't want to be the one to make her sad. He'd done that far too often in the past. “Kagome…you can't get your hopes up about him. He just wasn't the same after you died. He only stayed in Kaede's village until he had grown enough to fight on his own and take care of himself. One night he just disappeared and I didn't see him again for decades.” He could see Kagome's heart breaking for the young fox. “He lives by himself up in the mountains now. He's quiet now and very angry at everything. The last time I saw him was a few years ago when he needed some help with a territory dispute.”

Kagome had to blink away her tears. She felt terrible that she'd played a part in taking the light away from the energetic little boy she had once known. “You don't have any way to get in touch with him? You can't let him know that I'm okay?”

Inuyasha shook his head. “He's rejected most of the modern world. It would take a while to track him down. He's damn hard to find if he doesn't want to be found.” He watched Kagome's frown deepen and decided to change the subject. “So what happened to you? Don't get me wrong, I can't tell you how great it is to see you again, but how are you here? By your time, you died less than two years ago. That's not enough time for you to be reincarnated and grown.”

Pulled away from her thoughts of Shippo for the moment, Kagome narrowed her eyes and leveled Inuyasha with a look of warning. “Inuyasha, were you waiting for me to be reincarnated again? Because I think we all know how that turned out last time.”

Blushing and looking rather sheepish, Inuyasha looked anywhere but at Kagome as he mumbled, “No…I was just saying.”

As she watched her friend pout, Kagome couldn't help but smile. He seemed to have changed a fair amount with time, but the Inuyasha she had known was still very much alive. “Good,” she said as her smile widened. Propping her elbow on the back of the couch and resting her head on her hand, Kagome looked between the two brothers as Inuyasha finally reached out and tried to take Sesshoumaru's magazine. `I think this might be what I've been missing,' she thought as she laughed when Sesshoumaru easily thwarted his brother's attempts.

Kagome sat on the couch and listened to some of the amazing stories that the brothers had to tell. They had seen and done a lot in five hundred years, and she knew that she'd barely even heard a fraction of their experiences. Inuyasha spoke animatedly as he told most of the stories, and Sesshoumaru usually only provided commentary when Inuyasha would begin to exaggerate what had actually happen. It was well after midnight what the three heard a series of loud bangs coming from downstairs.

“What the hell?” Inuyasha questioned as he quickly got to his feet. “I know that I put up the `closed' sign when I locked the door, and people in this neighborhood don't stay out this late. He began his descent to the small restaurant below and Kagome followed close behind curiously. The banging continued until Inuyasha finally reached the door at the storefront. Flinging open the door as his irritation rose, he harshly ground out, “What?” But the scene outside of his shop gave him pause that quickly gave way to confusion.

A group of out-of-breath teenagers were panting just outside the door, and a tall boy with orange hair said between breaths, “Where in the…hell is…Kagome?”

Inuyasha's defenses were up in an instant. He wasn't about to let someone take Kagome away after he'd just gotten her back. “Why do you want to know?” He growled as his eyes narrowed at the perceived threat. But he easily moved when he felt a pair of small hands start to gently push him to the side.

Kagome couldn't stop the small laugh that escaped her when she saw her new group of friends still trying to catch their breaths. They looked like they had just run a marathon. “What are you guys doing here?” She asked.

“What are we doing here?” Ichigo asked incredulously. “What are you doing here?” He finally stood to his full height as he stepped closer to Kagome. “Orihime called and said you went out for a short walk then never came back! I had just gotten to her house when that Hollow appeared down by the river. By the time we got there everything was soaking wet, neither you nor the Hollow were there, and there was blood all over the place!” Ichigo pushed his hand into his hair and took a breath before he continued. “We went to get Chad and Ishida to help look for you. Eventually Ishida was able to find your spirit ribbon thing and that's how we were able to track you down to here!”

Inuyasha stepped between Kagome and the new boy as he glared and stated in a tight voice, “Don't yell at her, boy.”

Kagome thought that she was going to have to intervene before Inuyasha did something rash. She knew that both males currently facing off could be stubborn and short-tempered, and she really didn't want one of them to start throwing punches. Thankfully, she received help in the form of Sesshoumaru coming down the stairs and saying, “Stop making a scene, both of you. If you wish to fight, do so in the store and not in the street.” When he reached the bottom step he set his stare on Ichigo and said, “Kurosaki, you have an assignment due in the morning. If it is not on my desk by the time the bell rings, rest assured that I will tack on a paper on the most obscure topic I can think of. Now come inside and sit down.”

“Mr. Wangetsu? Why are you—?” Ichigo trailed off before looking towards a smiling Kagome. “How do you know my teacher?”

Kagome reached past Inuyasha to gently place a hand on Ichigo's arm. “You really should come in. This might take a while to explain,” she said as she ushered the group over to one of the tables.

When Ichigo and his friends were seated at the table and Kagome, Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru were seated on stools at the counter, Ichigo spoke again. “The three things I really want to know right now are what happened at the river, why are you here, and how do you know our teacher.”

Thinking for a moment, Kagome started with Ichigo's first question. “Like you said, there was a Hollow down by the river. I was in the area when it appeared and I took care of it. I was injured—hence the blood you found—but I'm okay now. And the reason I'm here and how I know your teacher are basically the same answers. This restaurant belongs to your teacher's half-brother,” she explained as she pointed to her left where Inuyasha sat beside her. “And I knew both of them when I was still alive.”

Ichigo sat in stunned silence for a moment before the information finally sank in and his mind went into overdrive. “What?” He yelled. “You can't contact people you knew before you died, Kagome! Humans aren't supposed to know about this stuff, and telling them is breaking Soul Society law. Do you want to be arrested?” He asked before his train of though took a different direction. “And I'm the one who's supposed to be looking after you. We're both probably in trouble. If you're arrested, I have no idea what they'll do to me since I'm still alive.”

“Ichigo, calm down,” Kagome interjected. “I really don't think it will be a problem. There are two very good reasons that we didn't break the law,” she said in an attempt to calm the boy. “I know that normal humans aren't supposed to find out about us, but these guys already knew about the spiritual realm and aren't exactly `normal' either.”

All four of the high school students had their attention focused on the young female shinigami. “What do you mean they're not `normal' and already know about all of this?” Ichigo spoke slowly.

Kagome heard Inuyasha's hand smack his forehead and turned to see him dragging it down his face. “Well,” he said as he stood from his stool. “Since we're obviously going to be here for a while, I'm going to need a drink.” He walked behind his counter and pulled out a small bottle of sake. Looking up at the four occupying one of his tables he forced a smile and asked, “You kids hungry?” When he only received blank stares in answer, Inuyasha's smile disappeared and he rolled his eyes as he turned towards his walk-in freezer. If he made something now, he wouldn't have to be bothered with it later.

Ichigo turned back towards a fidgeting Kagome and asked again, “How did they already know about this?”

Kagome floundered for a moment, “They…well, they…Sesshoumaru?” She turned towards the quiet demon in hopes of receiving some help, but frowned when all she received was the shrug of a single shoulder. She wasn't sure how others would react to her story. Kagome had heard tales that Soul Society had attempted exterminations of certain lines in the past—such as the Bount and the Quincy—and the last thing she wanted to do was call attention to the presence of demons. What if her friends were deemed too dangerous as well? She was trying to come up with an alternative when Inuyasha spoke up.

“Oh, to hell with it, Kagome,” He said from behind his counter where he was cutting something to go on a small platter. The nervous signals coming from Kagome were beginning to rub him the wrong way. “Just tell them the damn truth. How bad could it be? Sesshoumaru and I are all the proof you'll need to back up the story.”

“I guess there's not much else that I can do, is there?” Kagome said with a small smile. Turning back to her new friends, Kagome took a deep breath as she began, “When I was fifteen I was pulled down a magical well on my family's shrine in Tokyo. The well was a gateway to five hundred years into the past. That's where I met Inuyasha…” She watched as Inuyasha walked over to place a platter of snacks on the table before she continued. Kagome's tale lasted for the better part of two hours and finally ended with her death—though she left out some of the details of that. A silence fell over the room as Ichigo and his friends looked between one another as they debated on whether or not they believed what they had been told.

Ichigo was the first to voice his thoughts. “Magic jewels, demons, and time-traveling through an old well? That sounds like it came out of a kid's bedtime story. Sorry, but I'm calling bullshit.”

“I think what Kurosaki is trying to say,” Ishida clarified while shooting his friend a look, “is that even with all that we have done, the story is still a little far-fetched.”

Kagome wasn't completely surprised that they had their doubts. She knew exactly how her story sounded. “I promise that I'm telling you the truth,” she said. She looked over to Inuyasha for some help.

Sighing at the look Kagome was giving him, Inuyasha stood and stretched before saying, “You kids can't tell anyone about this, got it?” Without waiting for a response he turned towards his brother and said, “C'mon, Sesshoumaru, drop the illusion.” Each brother reached behind their head and tugged the hair band from their ponytails to place them on the counter's smooth surface.

Kagome watched as dark hair melted away into shining silver and two sets of honey eyes brightened into gold and amber. Ears shifted and pointed, and Sesshoumaru's familiar markings streaked across his pale skin. “I had wondered how you two managed to look human,” Kagome said as she smiled brightly at seeing Inuyasha's familiar dog ears.

Inuyasha smirked a little when he saw where Kagome was looking and turned back to the four students to say, “Don't say something doesn't exist until you know for sure, kid.” He turned back to Kagome as he explained, “We needed something to anchor the illusion spell to and figured that hair bands would work best since we both have to use them.”

Kagome reached out to take a small lock of silver hair in her hand and watched the strands run smoothly over her fingers. “I missed this,” she admitted.

Averting his eyes from Kagome as a blush stained his cheeks, Inuyasha saw the varying stages of disbelief on the faces of Sesshoumaru's students. “That right, we're demons,” he smirked again. “And there are more of us out there, but most like to stay hidden or blend in.” He saw that the questions were about to start flowing and decided to get the most obvious answers out of the way first, “Before you ask, yes; we're faster, stronger, and our bodies are much more resilient than humans. Sesshoumaru and I are dog demons so we can smell and hear things that you could only dream of.”

Speaking up for the first time in a while, Sesshoumaru easily corrected, “I am a dog demon, brother. You are a Halfling.”

Kagome and Inuyasha both glared at Sesshoumaru as Orihime questioned innocently, “Halfling?”

“My mother was a human,” Inuyasha grudgingly explained. “Sesshoumaru and I share a father. I'm a half-demon.”

Ichigo stared openly at his teacher. “So you can hear me when I ask Orihime what the reading was the night before? Is that why you conveniently seem to give quizzes that I didn't study for?” He asked. The only answer he received was a slight upturn at the corner of Sesshoumaru's mouth. Ichigo was left speechless.

“What time is it?” Orihime asked as she tried to cover a yawn.

Inuyasha glanced at a clock on the back wall of the restaurant and answered, “About ten-till-four in the morning.”

“You guys should probably get home,” Kagome suggested as the four friends stood and stretched. “I'd like to stay and catch up with Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru a little more though,” she added looking towards Inuyasha for confirmation.

“Yeah, you can crash upstairs,” he said as he opened the door for the high school students to leave.

As Ichigo and his friends were exiting the building their shoulders slumped a little more when they heard Sesshoumaru's voice call out, “I expect all of you to be in class on time and with your assignments ready to turn in.”

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Inuyasha hadn't been happy when he found out that Kagome only had four days before she had to return to Soul Society, but he decided to make the best of the time that was left. He closed his restaurant for the rest of the week and they spent their days together. Inuyasha told Kagome about how her human friends had lived the rest of their lives and was happy to hear that Sango and Miroku had ended up having a large family and many years together. She was happy to tell Inuyasha about her afterlife and all of the shinigami training that she'd been going through.

Upon hearing that she'd taken up swordsmanship, Inuyasha suggest that they go to a secluded area of the river where Sesshoumaru had found her and test her skills. During their sessions at the river Inuyasha had helped Kagome learn more about how to call upon and utilize the power of her unsealed zanpakutou. They had come to find that her sword gave her an amount of control over water, much like the moon. Through trial and error they had discovered that during the day she had to be near a water source for attacks to work, but during the night the blade was able to draw moisture from the air. While she had to use the sword itself for large-scale water attacks, Kagome had been thrilled to find that she could command small amounts of water using only hand directions.

Kagome was a little disappointed that she hadn't been able to see or talk to the spirit within her zanpakutou since the night of the Hollow attack, but she was sure that it would reveal itself again. When she had mentioned the spirit to Inuyasha he had been a little jealous that it had taken the form of a wolf, but Kagome assured him that she would always be a dog person.

She was excited about telling her captain about achieving a shikai, but it would be bitter-sweet. Kagome would be able to learn much more about her swords abilities with the proper guidance that she received at the academy or within her division, but she would be leaving behind old friends whom she had missed dearly.

Inuyasha had decided to cook a special dinner for Kagome's last night with them, and it was to be just her, Inuyasha, and Sesshoumaru. Kagome set the table and Inuyasha worked in the kitchen as they waited on Sesshoumaru to arrive. Inuyasha continued talking to Kagome while they each went about their tasks. “So tell me more about those kids you said you take care of. You never could resist taking in strays, could you?” Inuyasha teased as he chuckled to himself.

Kagome's hand faltered as she was setting down a plate and it hit the table harder than she had intended. “There were so many of them. Some were adopted into nice families, so there seemed to be a constant stream in and out of my home,” she said as she remembered those days with a wistful smile. “But there's just Aya now.”

Inuyasha could hear the sadness in Kagome's voice as he set aside what he was doing to stand in the kitchen doorway and look at her directly. “What do you mean? What happened to the rest of them?”

“They,” Kagome began before choking on the next words. Old guilt washed over her in a fresh wave. “They were killed in an attack. Three large Hollows attacked the area that I used to live in. The house was crushed while they were still inside.” She felt Inuyasha by her side in an instant and took a small amount of comfort in the gentle hand that he placed on her shoulder. “When I get back to the Court I'm supposed to have a meeting about the attack with Captain-Commander Yamamoto,” she said softly.

“Why?” Inuyasha asked slightly confused. “From what you've told me, that doesn't sound like the kind of thing that the shinigami would keep an interest in after it happened.”

Kagome turned to look Inuyasha in the eye and bit her lip. She knew that he was going to be mad that she hadn't mentioned it earlier. “Inuyasha,” she said before pausing. “Underneath the wreckage of my old home, we found a white baboon pelt.” She could feel Inuyasha stiffen instantly as his hand tightened on her shoulder. “I think that Naraku planned for that attack to happen as a way to get my attention.”

“But that's not possible,” Inuyasha argued slowly. “He's gone. I saw him disappear with my own eyes the day of the battle.”

“I've thought about that,” Kagome said in a soft voice hoping to keep the half-demon as calm as possible. “When I made the wish that got rid of Naraku, I wished for him to disappear from this world. And I think that he would have made him self known before he did if he was in Soul Society.” She trailed off as she watched Inuyasha's reaction to what she was telling him.

“Then where is he?” Inuyasha ground out. He had thought that Naraku was gone. He had put that part of his life behind him. The bastard wasn't supposed to show up again five hundred years later.

Kagome took a deep breath before saying, “I think that he's in Hueco Mundo; the Hollow world. I told my captain that I thought that Naraku was able to manipulate and control Hollows the same way he used to do with those demons, so a team was sent there to see if they could find any sign of him there. They hadn't returned when I left though. That's what my meeting with the Captain-Commander is about.”

“What have you told them about Naraku?” Inuyasha asked. There wasn't much that scared him, but he still had nightmares involving Naraku. “Do they know about everything that he did?”

“No,” Kagome said as she shook her head. “I only told them that he was very evil and that I fought against him when I was alive. I told them that he liked to control weaker creatures, but that's it. I really don't know how they would react to being told everything.”

Inuyasha put both hands on Kagome's shoulders and turned her so that she faced him fully. “You have to tell them. You have to tell them everything about him. If they don't know what's out there they may not take him as seriously as they should.”

“Inuyasha, I'm afraid,” she admitted.

“Of what?” Inuyasha asked. “We've faced Naraku before and we can do it again,” he said confidently.

“Not of Naraku. It's Soul Society,” she said. “They have a history of getting rid of people that they consider a danger to the balance of the worlds. If I tell them about Naraku I'll have to tell them about demons. I don't want anything to happen to you or Sesshoumaru or Shippo or Kouga or anyone else.”

Inuyasha laughed. “That's all? Kagome, we can take care of ourselves. You don't have to worry about us,” he said with a small smirk. “But you need to tell them about Naraku as soon as you can. As much as I want you to stay here forever, you have to go back as soon as you can. Is there any way to go back tonight?”

“I would have to ask Urahara,” she said thoughtfully. “He's sort of my contact point in this world.”

“Then we'll leave now,” Inuyasha said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. He went to the kitchen to turn off everything that could cause a fire. He considered leaving a note for Sesshoumaru but decided not to if for no other reason than to annoy his half-brother. Opening the window in the living room, Inuyasha crouched down slightly and said, “Get on. We'll get where we need to go quicker this way.”

Kagome wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's shoulders before his large hands hooked underneath her knees and pulled her the rest of the way onto his back. He bounced her once so that he could adjust and slide his hands farther up her thighs and she would fit closer to his back. Both paused for a moment and let themselves be wrapped in the familiarity of the position before they were out the window with a strong leap.

Kagome took a deep breath as the wind whipped through her hair. She had missed the feeling of flying she got when she was seated securely on Inuyasha's back. When she felt a gentle squeeze on one leg, she looked down to see Inuyasha looking at her expectantly. “Oh! Directions, right,” she said with an embarrassed laugh and proceeded to direct him towards the Urahara Shop.

When they reached their destination and Kagome slid off of Inuyasha's back and pulled him into the shop with her. “Urahara?” She called out as she stepped into the front portion of the store. “Urahara, are you here? I need to talk to you.”

“In the back,” answered a voice muffled by the walls.

Kagome opened the door into the main seating room and found Urahara seated with a book and some tea. “Is there any way that you can get me back to Soul Society tonight? The sooner the better,” she said.

“Hello, Kagome,” Kisuke greeted as he marked his spot in his book. “And why would you want…to…oh my,” he trailed off once his eyes landed on Inuyasha sans his disguising spell. “Who is your friend, Kagome? And more importantly, what is he?” Kisuke was off of the floor in an instant as he inspected the dog-eared young man. His interest was only further piqued when the young man elicited a rumbling growl.

Kagome rolled her eyes as she stepped between the scientist and his potential research project to gain his attention once more. “Something important has come up and I need to go back to Soul Society as soon as possible. I was supposed to have a meeting with the Captain-Commander tomorrow, but I don't think that it can wait anymore.”

Kisuke looked at her seriously for a moment, but upon seeing the determination in her eyes he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Fine, fine, but it's going to take a moment for me to get in touch with them and open a gate. Go downstairs and wait there. I have Senkaimon of my own that should work.” He walked off to another room once Kagome nodded and walked over to the strange hatch door.

Kagome and Inuyasha both looked into the hole in the floor before Inuyasha wrapped his arm around Kagome's waist and jumped through the door. Kagome tried to stifle the initial scream that wanted to come forth as they freefell and her stomach dropped. She hadn't done anything like this in quite a while. Softening the landing on the first tall rock that they came to, Inuyasha continued to jump from rock to rock until they were safely on the ground.

When he didn't immediately let her go, Kagome looked up at Inuyasha questioningly. “Kagome,” he began in a low voice. “I never got the chance to say goodbye to you. And when you left last time I had so many regrets. I know that I always took you for granted. You were always by my side no matter what I did or said, and I started to assume that you really would always be there. But,” he had to pause and search for the right words. “When you were gone, I realized how stupid I was.”

Kagome's breath hitched as his free hand came up to brush her cheek before he pushed his fingers into her hair.

“I missed you so much,” he said as his eyes roamed her face. “Five hundred years is a lot of time to think about all of your mistakes.”

Kagome watched as he looked into her eyes, and she could see a pain there that he'd kept hidden during their last few days together. She swore that he was about to speak again until a familiar voice called from several feet away, “Alright, the Court has agreed to patch a gateway between their Senkaimon and mine. It should come up in a moment, so follow me,” Kisuke said as he swung his cane leisurely and pretended as though he hadn't just interrupted a personal moment.

Inuyasha took Kagome's hand and pulled her after her strange shinigami contact. But as Kagome looked down at their joined hands, she noticed a small but telling difference in the way Inuyasha was touching her. It wasn't the firm grip that he usually used, but he held her hand much more gently. She looked back up to what she could see of his face and, though he was scowling slightly, she could see a light blush covering his cheeks.

They reached the large Senkaimon just as the gateway began to glow and a black butterfly fluttered out to circle around Kagome's head. “Whenever you're ready,” Kisuke said.

As Kagome made to step away from Inuyasha, he pulled her back to look at her one more time. “I told you that I had my regrets and plenty of time to think about my mistakes,” he spoke before swallowing his nervousness. “But I'm fixing all of that right now.”

Kagome was shocked when Inuyasha leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers. He pulled her to him tightly and buried one hand deeply in her hair. She stopped breathing for a moment before she responded just the way she had always imagined she would in the situation. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she tilted her face so that their lips fit perfectly together. It was gentle and loving, but not aggressive in any way. When Inuyasha eventually pulled away, Kagome took a deep breath and looked into golden eyes. “Go,” he said as he gave her a gentle push to get her on her way.

Kisuke gave Kagome a knowing look as she stopped just short of the gate. “Well I wasn't expecting that,” he said with a smile. As Kagome blushed deeply, he added, “And just one more thing, Kagome.” With that he used the bottom of his cane to push Kagome out of her faux body before he caught his limp creation. “I should probably keep this with me for the next time that you're here.”

Kagome nodded at the blond man before taking one last look at the half-demon behind her. She smiled softly at him before following after the butterfly with a small wave.

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AN: Okay, so holy shit. Things could not have gone much worse while I was writing this chapter. Both hinges on my laptop screen broke and the damn thing wouldn't stay open on its own anymore! Luckily, my dad works for IBM and has a metric shit-ton of spare computer parts lying around. He'll hopefully have that back to me in a couple of days. But that meant that I had to finish this chapter on my fiancé's old super-crappy laptop that he doesn't use anymore. Now I know why he stopped using it. This thing seriously sucks. *sigh* Anyway! I know that this chapter ended a little earlier than before, but that's for good reason. This chapter, as-is, currently stands at fourteen pages. That is four pages and more than 2,000 words longer than the original. I planned on extending the final scene of the original Chapter Nine, but it would have made this ridiculously long. So now the original last scene is going to be moved to the beginning of the next chapter. It'll be longer, better, and explain more. I'm super happy that I get to post all of these now! Thank you so much for re-reading this (or reading it for the first time if you're just finding it)! I hope you've enjoyed what I have so far, and don't forget to tell me what you think so far!