InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ Everything Changes - 13 - Debrief ( Chapter 52 )

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: the Reikai surely has an entire list of questions for our intrepid heroine...

Chapter Rating: T

-o-

Arc 5 - Everything Changes 13 - Debrief

"Anyways, now that you are done with your tasks here, we need to get back to Reikai for debrief."

"And then I can go home?" Kagome asked, frowning at the blue-haired ferry girl.

Botan shrugged. "You'll have to talk to Koenma-sama first. There's some paperwork we'll have to do, and I also need to complete my report on that mess surrounding your death," she glared briefly at Shippo before turning back to Kagome. "You're not like the usual human the team rescues from Makai, so you can probably skip the memory-erasure that is part of the normal protocol."

'They can get rid of people's memories…?' she wondered. Thinking back to her experiences, she could imagine an ordinary human would probably be thankful to forget any of that had ever happened.

"I have a colleague coming to help if you want to do any of the final rights," Botan said, giving Shippo a sympathetic smile.

Shippo frowned at her, his mood somber once more. "Yeah, that'll be good. I… I don't really know what I'll…" he trailed off, looking down at the cooling remains. "No, I know exactly what I'll do." He knelt and touched a fingertip to the entwined bodies. They poofed out of existence with a small curl of grey smoke, leaving a small wooden box which Shippo collected with care. "I'm going to take them home."

He smiled sadly down at the tiny container before he glanced back at Kagome. "I'll come see you pretty soon. Please try to avoid getting into any more trouble before I get back, ok?"

She glared at him. "You say that like I haven't been able to stay perfectly safe and sound for the last year without your assistance."

He gave her a look.

"Fine. Extra precautions." She crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes.

Shippo blew her a kiss and vanished in a fancy swirl of sparkling leaves.

Botan gave Kagome a surprised look. "You're friends with that kitsune?" Kagome nodded. "This case keeps getting weirder and weirder. Come on, the office is in a tizzy because of all the magic being thrown around here."

Yusuke chuckled. "Man, Botan… you have no idea."

Ten minutes later, they were standing in a well-lit office, a portal closing behind them as Kagome ruefully shook her head. She got a few funny looks from the others. "I'm just thinking, if I could have gotten to my destination this fast… things would have been so much simpler."

"Yeah, well, be thankful you aren't getting shuttled around to every godforsaken place on earth for stupid missions at least once per week."

Kagome pressed her lips together. 'Ohhh, if I'd been shuttled anywhere instead of walking across the entirety of Japan…' She closed her eyes, took a breath, and exhaled. The grass was always greener on the other side. His complaints weren't any less valid just because she'd had a different experience that he knew nothing about.

"Alright, if you can press your palm here, we'll do a scan and get your file started," Botan waved at a terminal.

"My file?" Kagome was immediately suspicious.

"Yep, it's much faster doing it this way. The machine grabs data from various agencies and takes some small samples and records measurements. Saves us weeks of manual work."

She wasn't sure why, but she glanced past the blue-haired girl at Hiei standing just behind her. Hiei glared at the back of Botan's head before he briefly met Kagome's eyes, and she got the strong impression that he was advising her against touching any of the Reikai's machines. She smiled brightly at the expectant girl. "I'll … pass right now. No offense, but I don't know any of you and I'm not feeling super trustworthy of a bureaucratic system I'm only just now learning about."

The reaper huffed in irritation and muttered something about ungrateful humans that enjoy making their lives more difficult.

"Hey wait, what kind of measurements?" Yusuke asked, peering closely at the terminal.

Botan shrugged. "Energy levels, blood type, immunities and allergies, that sort of stuff."

Yusuke pressed his hand to the reader and the rest looked on with interest as his hair rebelled against the gel slicking it into place and poofed outwards as though he'd touched a power outlet with a fork. Yusuke laughed and watched the measurements disappear off the scaling system.

"Yusuke, stop, you're gonna break it! It's not meant for crazies like you! This is just meant for our new cases!"

Kuwabara pushed Yusuke out of the way and stuck his hand to the pad, and the two crowded the monitor to see his spiritual measurements flashing red as the system couldn't find an appropriate matching level.

Yusuke laughed and glanced over at the glaring reaper. "Botan, your machine sucks! You need to make sure it can pick up shit like this, because not everyone that comes through here is gonna be a weakling!"

He paused and squinted at some tiny text on the screen. "Hey wait, this says you're allergic to cats!" He eyed Kuwabara in suspicion. "Is their machine wacky or are you really?"

Kuwabara sniffed and looked away. "No allergy can keep me from the things I love."

"Man, that ain't no answer. You're dumb."

Kagome couldn't hold back her quiet laugh.

Botan sighed, finding her patience wearing thin. "Fine, right. We'll have it calibrated again." She waved at the waiting room outside of Koenma's office. "Can you guys please just wait in here? I need to go fetch our expert."

Yusuke folded his arms across his chest and waited a total of thirty seconds before blurting, "Fuck that, I have places I would rather be than standing around here." He barged into the office without knocking. "Yo, can we wrap this shit up? We've been on this case long enough."

The demigod was hunched over a pile of paperwork on his desk, tapping at a device with his left hand as he scrawled in the margins of a yellow form. He set his pen down and sighed, pressing a palm to his forehead. "Yusuke, would it kill you to-" Koenma glanced up at the group of them, and he blinked at the dark-haired girl in their midst.

And then he abruptly stood, rubbed his eyes and looked again before asking in disbelief, "Kagome-sama?"

Kagome was momentarily taken aback. "Um…yes?" She was pretty sure she didn't recognize him, but he was staring at her like he'd seen a ghost. "Have we…met?"

Koenma cleared his throat nervously. He really needed to finish development on that pause-time prototype so he could occasionally have a few extra moments to mentally process the crazy he constantly dealt with.

He plopped back into his chair, feeling a bit numb. If he'd allowed trouble to befall such an important figure due to their neglect… He swept his fingertips underneath the fabric suddenly clinging to his neck, frantically thinking back to what she had told him—was it a century ago, now? Or five? "Er, excuse me one moment…" It was in her file!

He rapidly thumbed through his device to find her entry and tapped on the [DON'T FORGET] link. The very top line, in bold red, said: One day in the future, I will not recognize you. I haven't met you yet. No spoilers, please. He hadn't really believed her, and her wording was weird, but he'd made notes nonetheless. 'Shit. It makes perfect sense now. Ha, no spoilers.'

"Er… no. No, we haven't met. I just…" He scrambled for a quick excuse. "Hisako told us your story! I've…heard all about you…" His voice trailed off. His cheeks turned pink as he stared at her.

She glanced around at the others, noting a few looks of confusion but quite a few more expressions of thinly-veiled suspicion at the demigod's flimsy explanation. "Oh." She bit her lip in concern. 'Hisako? Who the heck is Hisako… and if they know my story already, then… am I in trouble?'

Koenma cleared his throat again and glanced between the team members he'd sent to go save some random human from the dangers of Makai, at a loss for what he should say. This was not some random human.

Yusuke scowled at the strangely quiet demigod, wondering if his brain needed a kick of belligerence to get back into gear. "So, she's rescued. Day has been saved once again. Mission complete. We're leaving, now." He turned to walk out of the office.

Koenma blinked again as they all turned to follow him. "Wait! Uh, here, you'll be needing one of these…" He withdrew a new communicator device from his desk drawer.

Even more confused as he was stared at her with the shiny thing held out, Kagome extended her palm to take the small silver object. It looked like a smartphone, and its display showed the date and time with a tiny text indicator of their current location, Reikai Corporate Offices.

"Does it come with a manual?" she murmured, poking at its screen to see what it would do.

"Hey wait, why does she get one of those? And an upgraded model, too? Mine's a piece of shit!" Yusuke took his antiquated folding compact from his pocket and shook it at Koenma.

"Yours is due for an upgrade in two months, Yusuke. Try not to break it before then. That's all, you're dismissed."

"What the heck? We just went through the craziest shit and you aren't even gonna ask questions about what happened or make ridiculous demands?"

"Er, no. I just needed to see you all to…uh…thank you for a job well done and…" he stared at the paperwork on his desk. "I have all the info I need here, so no further questions."

Hiei appeared at his elbow and peered down at the top sheets. "Those look like tax forms related to the last party you hosted over the holidays."

Koenma gasped and shoved the paperwork into a stack. "Not all of it is related to…" he floundered, "I don't need anything else from you. Unless you wanted another mission? I can find something…"

Hiei stared down at the flustered demigod for a moment longer before he shrugged and walked back around to stand with the others.

Yusuke gave him an irritated look of disbelief but decided it wasn't worth the trouble to demand further explanations. He was ready to get the heck out of there. "Right. Later, toddler."

"Toddler?" Kagome asked him in confusion as they left the office.

Koenma scrambled from behind his desk and snagged the door before it closed. "Uh, also, Kagome-sama… er, Kagome, if you have any questions or need something, my number is programmed in your contact list. It should work at any time you try to reach me."

Her mouth fell open at his offer.

Yusuke stared at him in amazement and laughed, "Damn, I didn't think you had it in you!"

He blushed as he realized how it had sounded to everyone. "I mean, not like that, but… Uh…" Wow, his brain had broken. "Even if you needed to reach me yesterday." That didn't help things, either. Now he likely sounded crazy or desperate to someone who wasn't in on her colorful past. He happened to lock gazes with Hiei, and he had a nagging suspicion that the youkai's carefully neutral expression was more worrisome than the usual scowl or smirk of derision when he'd caught the demigod behaving like an idiot.

Kagome froze and stared at him. 'Surely he's not suggesting…' She glanced down at the device in her hand and then back at the team's weird boss. "Okay?" Kami, what else was she supposed to say? She looked down at the device again. She couldn't go back. She'd tried so many times. Her grip tightened around it before she stuffed it into a pocket.

Botan appeared around a corner and saw them leaving the office. She sighed. Of course they hadn't waited for her to return. "Come on. I'll get you guys back home."

A brown-haired girl hurried by their group, headed toward Koenma's office with a stack of paperwork. She glanced at Kagome and gasped as she nearly dropped her armload, her eyes lighting up with a strange mix of joy and surprise. "Oh my gosh, Kagome-sama! So glad to see you again!"

"Hisako!" Koenma's strangled voice shouted from his office. "I need to speak to you right away!"

"Oh, um," she seemed torn between going to see what her boss needed and the interaction she sorely wanted to continue. "Maybe I'll see you later!" She dashed into the demigod's office and the door slammed shut behind her.

"Not to look a gift horse in the mouth because I'd really like to get home already, but what the fuck is going on around here?" Yusuke crossed his arms and stared between Botan and Kagome's confused expressions.

Botan scowled, "Apparently, I just work here and nobody tells me nothin'." She puffed her cheeks out in frustration.

Kagome shrugged. "Who is Hisako?"

Kurama leaned over slightly so that the flash of his red hair in her peripheral would catch her attention, and she glanced up at him. "Please forgive my earlier behavior. It seems my manners take a backseat when lives are at stake."

Yusuke laughed. "No kidding! Gotta admit though, normally when shit's hitting the fan, you're a lot more ruthless than that!"

Kurama closed his eyes and touched a fingertip to the bridge of his nose, pausing for five seconds before he continued. "I really can be a gentleman under normal circumstances, if you'd allow me a chance to redeem myself, I'd like to escort you to lunch or anywhere of your choosing."

She bit her lip with indecision. He'd angled himself facing slightly away from her to appear less confrontational with his head tilted just far enough so that a lock of his bangs obscured part of his face. She had the strangest urge to tuck the hair back into place so he could see clearly again.

"It doesn't even have to be a date. You can bring friends along and we can make it a group outing. I'd just like to make up for my earlier behavior and get to know you better."

She relaxed marginally with his additional offer. "That sounds okay."

Yusuke chimed in, "Yes! This is a great idea. Come back to the noodle shop. Keiko was worried about one of her customers being kidnapped," he shot a glare at Kurama which was wholly ignored, "and I'll win a few points if I bring back a customer. She totally blamed me for you leaving before she could do her whole hostess routine."

Kagome perked up. "Ooh, I would love to go back and actually eat lunch next time." Her stomach growled right on cue.

A very short, very colorful office worker appeared at her elbow and held out a paper plate stacked with a few goodies. "Here Kagome-sama, the break room had some sweet cakes set out." She blinked down at the short male and nodded her thanks, gingerly taking the offered snacks.

"Okay, that's like the third time someone has called you by an honorific like you're well known around here. You look just as confused as the rest of us. What the heck are we missing?"

Kagome shrugged and took a bite of something pink that looked extremely sweet. (It was.) She closed her eyes and savored the texture as she chewed thoughtfully. She swallowed and eyed the other items with interest. "I don't even care anymore. I just want to get home, throw everything in the laundry, and nap for a week. And maybe eat a few more of these on the way."

Hiei was not surprised about the honorific after hearing what a few older employees had on their minds once the rumor started traveling through the office about just who had shown up. "Let's get out of here," he muttered, nodding at Botan to get a move on with whatever she was doing.

Kagome didn't think it would help very much, but she requested to be taken home after the others had gone. She suspected that the Reikai probably knew where she lived if they all knew who she was, but at least she could expect one day without a ridiculously handsome kitsune showing up at her door to ask for a lunchdate.

He swiped a notepad off a nearby desk and swept his neat print quickly across its surface. "My number. Promise you'll call for lunch?" He held it out with two fingers so she could take it without touching him.

She nodded, pink creeping into her cheeks. He might be giving her space now, but she wouldn't soon forget exactly how he'd… She cleared her throat and glanced quickly away, pocketing the number before the memory of her first kisses got any clearer in her thoughts. "Yes. I'll call. We'll all get together. For lunch. As a group." She peeked at him through her bangs. He had his attention turned toward Botan as she opened their passage home, but he briefly glanced back at her with a smirk before he stepped through the swirl of color to vanish from sight.

"See ya later, Kagome!" Yusuke said with a wave.

"It was very nice meeting all of you. Let's get together soon!" she replied.

Kuwabara grinned broadly at her. "I wanna compare notes with you sometime, you've got some crazy bright colors going on there!"

Kagome cocked an eyebrow at the tall male. "Sure?" she agreed as the two stepped together out of sight. Hiei had vanished without a word, cloak back in his possession.

She stepped through last and found herself behind a bus stop a safe distance from her home. The bright morning sunshine peeked through a few scattered clouds and sparkled against the remaining droplets of dew that had collected over the night.

Kagome smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.