InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Wish I May ❯ Familiar Faces ( Chapter 6 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

A/N: OK, I am really sorry for the obnoxious briefness of that last chapter, but I just wanted to get that posted and see if it would get the creative juices flowing. Let me know if this one's OK.


Chapter 6

Kagome awoke the next morning to the sight of Shippo's big bright eyes startlingly close to her face.

"Ahh, Shippo, don't do that!"

"Kai-sama just called, Obaasan said to let you know."

Kagome groaned and rolled over, anticipating the headache that the day was sure to bring. Glancing at the clock, Kagome decided it was indeed time to face whatever fecal matter the day had to toss her way.

'Why am I sleeping so much? It's 10:00 already!' Kagome wandered to herself. She had been accustomed to getting up much earlier for shard-hunting. It had been to the point that she would wake up automatically. Even though she would stay curled in a ball until InuYasha finally shouted for them all to get moving.

"Okay, Shippo. Are you all bathed and ready do go to Kai's?"

"Hai!" Shippo grinned up at her, she swore she could see the energy balling up inside of him. He wanted something to do.

"Good! You go downstairs and tell your Obaasan that I will be down in a few minutes."

"Hai!" Shippo turned and headed back downstairs to Kagomes okaasan.

Kagome laid out a fresh set of clothing and climbed into the shower. Closing her eyes, she focused on the feel of the water, thousands of tiny streams of water running down her body. Breathing deeply, she let her stressful thoughts surface. Thoughts of Yusuke and his rude behavior so similar to InuYasha, thoughts of this Koenma she was supposed to see, and thoughts of Yusuke's gorgeous redheaded friend and the exhaustion that Shippo caused her. She took all those thoughts and let them flow down with the water, swirling down the drain and through the pipes, away from her.

She felt calm.

She felt peaceful.

She felt-

"Okaasan!!" Shippo called as he pawed at the bathroom door.

Groaning with renewed frustration, she quickly shampooed and conditioned her hair and scrubbed her body.

"I'm coming, Shippo."

A few minutes later Kagome emerged from her room fully clothed and as ready to face the day as she would ever be.

"Come on Shippo, Kai said he was inviting other youkai for you to play with today." The kit leapt into her arms and snuggled up against her as she started toward Kai's shrine.

As she approached the shrine steps, she glared suspiciously at a sleeping Shippo. This was the second time that she had to carry him up the stairs now. Sighing, she shrugged it off and started up the daunting shrine stairs. 'I'm keeping in shape.' She told herself.

Kai waited for her at the top of the stairs, he looked tired too, and judging from the commotion she heard coming from behind him, he was having similar problems with energetic young youkai as she was.

"Ohayou-gozaimasu, Kai-sama." Kagome greeted him.

"No need for formalities, if anything, it should be me using them!" He ushered her inside

Shippo was suddenly awake and squirming in her arms.

"There are some other youkai out back in the courtyard, Shippo. I told them all about you and they would love to play with you!" Kai said and Kagome opened her arms to unleash him on the unsuspecting youaki children outside.

"You should make him walk with you and stay on his own feet. He would give you less trouble then." Kai took up a place next to her as they walked outside together. "He is a young kitsune, he is brimming with so much energy he could probably walk for days and not be tired at all. He takes advantage of you as his taxicab though." He chided her, grinning.

When they emerged into the courtyard behind the shrine she stopped dead in alarm. Before her, in the middle of the lush, colourful, carefully maintained garden sat a very familiar silver-haired youkai. He was surrounded by youkai children of varying ages, and he seemed... happy. No, it was a trick. She spun on Kai, keeping the silver-haired youkai in her vision.

"What sort of a trick is this?" She demanded of Kai, as the youkai looked to her.

"Miko."

Kagome gasped and turned to see the youkai, graceful as she remembered him, rise to his feet, scattering the children around him as they tumbled from his lap.

"S-s-sesshoumaru-sama," She stuttered, caught between anger and fear. She remembered the last time she saw him he... he took the shards from her. 'But he gave you the rest of the ones from Naraku. He helped you complete the Jewel. Baka. He is on your side!' Her mind reminded her. Still, he was a powerful youkai. He had 500 years to change his mind about her.

"Good to see you remember me, miko." His narrowed eyes softened, and a grin tickled his lips.

'Sesshoumaru is... smiling?' Her mind was whirling. Sesshoumaru would never smile. 'Damn him, after 500 years he still hasn't bothered to find out my name!'

"My name is Kagome."

His eyes sparkled with amusement.

'There is no way this is Sesshoumaru.' She thought to herself. 'This is definitely an impostor.'

Kai came up beside her.

"Kagome, I invited Sesshoumaru-sama to bring his daughter, Chinatsu, and her friends along to play with Shippo today." Kagome's eyes flashed between the two, still trying to sort things out.

"I expect a full explanation." Kagome stated.
A low rumbling sounded in Sesshoumaru's throat. He was laughing at her. 'The nerve of him!'

"Start with explaining what has happened to Sesshoumaru. Then I want to know what all this talk is about Reikai and Koenma is."

Kai seemed surprised when she mentioned Reiaki and Koenma's name. Kai glanced at Sesshoumaru, who nodded back at him.

Then Sesshoumaru began to speak. She was stunned at first, Sesshoumaru never spoke so freely when she knew him in the Sengoku Jidai. He told her how he had grown even more powerful and ruled his father's lands for many years, and then the barriers came. He ruled in Maikai for many years then, keeping order in the chaos where his section of the Western Lands would have been there. He was as feared and respected as he was 500 years ago. Finally, it was decided that he was to become a deity- 'Humph, must have inflated that great ego of his to new and unimaginable heights' Kagome thought to herself- and help rule the realms. Though he tended to keep to his home in Maikai, he still was called upon on occasion for help with problems arising with certain demons or if there were problems with the barriers.

"Wow." Kagome said. "But how did you get a daughter?"

Sesshoumaru smiled to himself. It appeared as just a faint upturning at the corners of his mouth, but for Sesshoumaru-sama, it was a great, heartwarming smile.

"It was not too long ago that I met Aya, Chinatsu's okaasan. We were mated... and I do not believe that I need explain to you the details of how Chinatsu came about."

Kagome's cheeks reddened as she looked away. Shippo was tumbling about with the other children, so happy to play freely with other youaki.

"So how is it that you heard of Reikai and Koenma, Kagome-sama?" Kai asked her.

"Just Kagome, please." she reminded him. "Well, I was out to dinner with my friend Keiko, and she invited her boyfriend and some of his friends along. And then all of a sudden this redhead was asking about my kit. And it all exploded from there."

Kai looked thoughtful. "What were their names?"

"Keiko's boyfriend is Yusuke. And the redhead's name was Suichi, but he asked me to call him Kurama, and-"

Sesshoumaru cut her off. "Koenma's imps." He curled his lip in disgust. "They are all indebted to him in one way or another, he sends them to nose about in Ningenkai for him. He calls them his Reikai Tentai." Sesshoumaru snorted in a sort of mocking laugh.

"Well, Kagome." Kai interjected, diverting their attention from the subject. "How about that training you were wanting?"

It was the last time Kagome would ever be so excited for a day training with Kai.