InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ Everything Changes 12 - Audacity ( Chapter 51 )

The Blue Anshan

By Alesyira

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I made a few OCs to fill in my gaps.

Summary: two special cases and a pretty mystery

Chapter Rating: t for tame lol

Author's Note: wrote this one a while back. happy to finally be able to share it.

-o-

Arc 5 - Everything Changes 12 - audacity

In the aftermath, Yusuke flipped open his communicator to request a portal home. They were done. Human no longer in danger. Fires put out. Tree safe again.

Botan arrived to get them back home and glanced around in surprise. "My word! How many people did you guys have to kill?"

Yusuke waved his hands in swift denial. "None of these are our handiwork. They killed each other."

She made a small sound of disbelief and gave him a long look of suspicion before she nodded. Her attention was caught by something only she could see over the bodies of Hananoki and Youganryuu. She tsked in dismay. "Those two must be special cases to be sticking around. Do you mind if I do this before we go?" She asked Yusuke, who shrugged in response.

She pushed back her sleeves to get to work, but was interrupted by a gentle hand on her shoulder. "These two are mine."

Shippo spotted a vague flicker of blue through his bleary gaze as Kagome tried to help him sit up after his unfortunately familiar ordeal, quietly cursing the luck of having that happen to him in front of these people.

He gasped in sudden recognition. Kagome turned to look over her shoulder and spotted the tall, broad-shouldered spirit helping two other spirits to their feet. "Let's go home," he said in a kind voice, smiling between the two of them. The fire elemental seemed confused.

Hananoki looked up in surprise and growing delight. "Kasei, you found us."

"I did," he grinned. "You two mucked things up a little," he smirked down at them in chagrined amusement before tossing an arm around both of their shoulders. "We'll get everything right the next time around." He smiled, pulling them with him into the clearing. Kasei winked down at his son as they passed, and his mother gave an excited wave before they vanished into the great trunk of Goshinboku. It glowed briefly before settling back into quiet peace.

Kagome's lip wobbled as she pressed a hand to her heart and clutched Shippo's sleeve. He helped her stand and they exchanged a glance.

The silence that had descended upon the clearing was suddenly broken by a shocked gasp.

"YOU!" The people gathered around the clearing turned as one to look at the incensed reaper. She stared at Kagome with flames in her eyes. Kagome, bewildered, looked behind her at Shippo in confusion, thinking that she must be freaking out about him. "After ALL THIS TIME! I can't BELIEVE you had the AUDACITY."

Kagome turned back toward the blue-haired stranger standing in their midst to see she was indeed shouting at her. "I… what did I do?" She racked her brain for anything she might have done to anger more random people in this realm.

Botan glanced around at the others briefly before she spotted Shippo behind Kagome, and her expression became even more comical. "OH MY F-" she choked off what seemed to be an upcoming expletive. Yusuke's jaw dropped open. "You're here too?!" She exclaimed, her voice rising even further in pitch.

Shippo easily read Kagome's mystified expression as authentic. "Miss, I don't think either of us know who you are…"

"Gods," she growled, whipping out a tiny notebook from her sleeve, "it must have been centuries ago!" Its well-worn cover was black, and the hundreds of flimsy-looking pages within seemed packed with angry red scrawl. It fell open in her hand to a section that had been opened so many times that it wore a crease into the binding. "275D 4688BCY. Tuesday, 8:28pm. Kitsune male, deceased. Extreme disembowelment. Spirit refuses to leave body. Attempts to override spirit's wishes results in what appears to be a second spirit-" her voice rose in pitch as her agitation increased, and she paused here to calm herself and then stared daggers at Kagome, "-that has locked the male to his corpse and refuses to relinquish rights. Second spirit cannot be overridden nor properly identified due to inconsistencies with timeline."

She snapped the booklet shut and waved it in Kagome's face. "WHAT DID YOU DO? It was my FIRST WEEK on the JOB and I almost GOT FIRED for failure to properly process souls! It took us YEARS to figure out what the holdup was with this one," she gestured angrily at Shippo, "And then when we thought we had it figured out, we came back to collect him and he was GONE!"

Kagome gaped at her in disbelief as she tried to process the very strange report. Her right eye twitched and she whirled on Shippo in sudden anger, "You DIED?"

He flinched and looked really uncomfortable as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Some friends tried to tell me I did, and that's why they'd buried me, but I didn't really believe them." He sighed before muttering, "I guess they were right." He looked down at the ground, his face turning pink. "Man, I thought they were idiots for years."

Kagome shook her head at the horrible thought, incredibly thankful he was somehow still amongst the living. "That wasn't me, though, was it?" She turned to look back at the reaper, who seemed slightly less angry. "I couldn't have been around - when did you say?"

Botan glanced at her recorded date and did some quick mental math. "480 years ago."

It didn't take long for her to do math of her own to account for the time she'd been in the past taking care of the jewel mess. "That couldn't possibly have been me!"

Shippo coughed. "Well, maybe not you specifically…" Kagome glanced back at him in question. He shrugged.

Botan opened the notebook again to look at some of the notes scrawled in the margins, then peered over Kagome as though she was looking through her. "In my notes we only had a vague description of you, but I recognize your spirit. You feel the exact same as the one that wouldn't let him go." She tapped the corner of the notebook on her lip, narrowing her eyes. "You're human, so you must be a reincarnation, but that doesn't make sense because if you came through for reincarnation you should have flagged our system as an individual wanted for questioning."

She looked between the two of them with a frustrated expression. "Whatever. It doesn't matter now. You're obviously not dead anymore, which is surprising and yet not very surprising, considering the tricks you kitsune come up with." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I'd like to hear your story soon so we can close out our records on that case."

Kagome turned to glared at him with the same expectations for some answers.

His expression turned warm and he cocked an eyebrow at the reaper. "Maybe over dinner?" Her mouth fell open in surprise and her cheeks turned pink. She hadn't forgotten her pretty mystery even after all those years.

Kagome elbowed him. "This isn't the time to be picking up girls!" she hissed.

He laughed and threw an arm around her shoulders. "Kagome, any time is a good time to be picking up girls." He wagged his eyebrows at her and leaned close to whisper in her ear, "You wanna lock my spirit up a little bit more later on tonight?"

Kagome gaped at him in shock. He tweaked her cheek and leapt away from her with a chuckle before she could elbow him again. "Don't make me put a necklace on you!" she threatened, but the inside joke wasn't taken the way she'd expected it to be.

"You can threaten me with jewelry any day of the week," Kurama chimed in with a heart-melting smile.

"Yeah, he'd probably enjoy something like that," Shippo muttered with a smirk, crossing his arms. Kagome pressed a hand to her forehead and whispered, "Osuwari."