Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feelings for a Fox ❯ Chapter 4

Thanks for reviews goes to: Miko_Snow Godess_Me, Artemis The Goddess, Jayde Katt, Amethyst, Youkai_Hime, YugiohNicole, Egyptian_love, tessa3, black kaze kitsune, The Youkai Nightmare, ScottishFae, ladyofthedragons1, The Black Kat, nyczbabigrl, karo, lyerial(x2), Cold-Hearted NightFox, star kitty, DemonLady1(2), sparky-the dumbass, anonymousey226273, Keala-Chick, FantasyFreak, Sora Moto, Sara, Ivan's Kitsune, Izedragn, Lady Kagome-Fluffy's gurl, Miko Megami, bloodbunny, kawaiikitsunes, DarknessGuardian, badluck-fangrrl, k, Lord Sesshomaru, hiei is mine forever, and k.

~

{/…/= Youko's "talking"}

{*…*= Kurama's "talking"}

Kurama's POV

~~~Chapter 4~~~

I had been summoned, along with the rest of the Reikai Tantei to Spirit World. When I arrived at the child ruler's office my partner, Hiei, was already there. The fire demon was leaning against the wall, glaring sullenly at nothing in particular, or perhaps everything in general. You can never be certain with the diminutive Jaganshi. Yusuke and Kuwabara were not there yet, the most probable reason for Koenma sitting at his desk sucking impatiently on his ever present pacifier. I took up a position against the wall across from Hiei so that I would be able to observe the proceedings as soon as the rest of our companions decided to show up.

I didn't have to wait long. Yusuke and Kuwabara burst in a short while later arguing over who would've won the video game had they not been called away. This lead to the typical method of solving the issue and a brief scuffle ensued.

Twitching is not allowed… twitching is a sign of annoyance… annoyance is an emotion… mustn't… show… Damn!

I twitched.

/Heh heh heh! Couldn't resist it could you human?/

*Shut up you!*

"Yo toddler, what's the problem this time?" Yusuke demanded with his usual charm, preventing another argument from breaking out, although this one would've been an internal between me, myself, and us.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! Now pay attention, this isn't going to be like your other missions. A long time ago, before the barrier was created to protect the worlds, um Spirit World wasn't exactly what you'd call organized. You see whenever a hanyou came through, they didn't know how to deal with it so they would judge it as a human. The problem with this is, even though the hanyou may be born again as a human, there will still be traces of you-ki attached to its soul."

/That doesn't sound good./

*What do you mean Youko?*

"Yeah, yeah get to the point already," the insolent teen muttered. Kuwabara glanced at him and Hiei ignored all of us. Koenma paused to glare, a silent reprimand that was wasted on the gel haired boy who wasn't even looking at him.

/I mean what if when you die, I just get reborn into a human again? Or what if your body dies and I take my rightful form but your soul is still attached with my you-ki?/

*…You mean to tell me you didn't KNOW for sure what would happen when you merged with me?!*

/Well, actually… no…/

"Alright fine! A demon's spirit escaped from confinement in Spirit World shortly after the Dark Tournament, although we only just discovered that it was missing, and quite frankly we don't even know for sure what spirit it was that got out. We believe that the demon took refuge in the Ningenkai and we're afraid of him because there are any number of humans whom we really don't want regaining their past memories."

*Youko if you weren't a part of me right now I would KILL you!!*

/Kill me? Hah! You couldn't kill a fly without my you-ki coursing through you! You'd be a weak human. And more to the point you'd be a weak SISSY one at THAT!/

"There's another part to the problem though. The old records were so disorganized there's no telling what hanyous got reincarnated where."

*Oh please! If it hadn't been for you, I would be normal. And just for the record, the only reason anyone thinks we're a sissy is because of YOUR thing for flowers. Not that I object to them, but if you weren't around I would never have even looked at plants, let alone sat around coaxing them to grow, so back off!*

"So, lemme get this straight. We have to find some demon, we don't know which one, hidden inside a human, and we don't know which one?" Kuwabara asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Er, pretty much," Koenma agreed.

"Ch."

"Do you have any idea of how we can find him, or any idea of where he might be hiding?" I asked, ignoring Youko for the moment, who was clamoring in the background. Really where did he learn such language?

"Simple, I will use my Jagan to find him."

"Actually," Koenma began, ignoring Hiei's particularly murderous glare, "that's the rest of the problem. We're think we might know who it is, and if we're right about the escaped demon then he knows a way to disguise his you-ki. Not even the Jagan would be capable of tracking it."

"Hn."

"So who do you think it is?" Yusuke demanded in exasperation.

"I'm not telling you that until it's been confirmed. Now your task is to go back to the Ningenkai and if you see any guys who seem odd or are acting differently then let me know."

"So that's it? That's our big assignment?!" our fearless leader demanded of our child boss.

"Perhaps we should focus our search at the school. I felt a flash of unusual energy the other day, but I couldn't figure out where it was from," I cut in before the two could get into the argument that was brewing between them, if the mutinous looks on their faces were any indication.

"Ugh! Fine! We'll go and keep an eye out for any 'scary guys' at school for you," Yusuke rolled his eyes.

"Look at it this way Yusuke. If you're going to school for an assignment then Keiko won't be able to beat you up for not showing up.," Kuwabara supplied… helpfully.

~~~~~

That had been a couple of months ago. We hadn't found any traces of an unfamiliar youkai, or any human who had been acting particularly unusual. Actually there was one human who seemed a bit odd, but she was new and Koenma had mentioned that the demon had been loose since the Dark Tournament. I couldn't quite figure her out, but then the only one of us who had any number of classes with her was Keiko and she mentioned that this Kagome girl was the 'sick girl' from another school, and insisted that we leave her alone.

Speaking of Keiko, she was the one who started it all. The girl, Kagome, was alone today with her friend gone, and Keiko insisted on asking her over at lunch. I didn't mind though since she apparently wasn't one of those fan girls, and I was quite frankly curious about her. My only concern was how Youko would behave around her. After all I remember how he had responded the last time I had been in contact with her.

/She has curves under that hideous uniform she wears, and in all the right places too. Who wouldn't RESPOND to contact like that? You rather enjoyed it too, if I remember correctly./

*She tripped and fell on us! How can you possibly even think of taking advantage of a female under those circumstances?*

/Easy. Like this…/ And Youko sent a number of images rushing to my head, that caused me to choke on my food. I consider myself fortunate because choking gave me a good reason to have a flushed face.

*Stop that right this instant! Behave, I mean it!*

/She's coming this way, human. You'd better pull yourself together./ And with that my youkai counterpart faded into the background, just as she reached our table.

And that seemed to be the beginning of all my troubles that day. Oh sure, lunch was fine, right up until she spontaneously started bleeding all over everything. Then before we could find out what was wrong, we, meaning Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and myself, were called away on another assignment, although not before I could feel a large amount of spirit energy being channeled from the bathroom where Kagome was.

This was the first assignment we've been given since being ordered to be on guard. As it turned out a number of fairly high level demons had escaped through the barrier together. Rather odd, as we were only capable of finding two when we went searching for them.

That battle was surprisingly short. Yusuke and Kuwabara took the smaller demon, while Hiei and I circled in on the large one. It was a giant humanoid demon with twisted rams horns that curved along it's cheeks, the tips coming out in front of it's mouth like two deadly fangs. Its claws were glistening, almost a sure sign that whatever was coating the tips was poisonous, acidic, or otherwise generally nasty.

Almost as soon as we closed in it had charged us, lowering it's head to try to impale one or maybe the both of us in one blow. Hiei shifted to the side ducking his head slightly, and drew his blade, slashing the strange demon as it sped past. I grabbed a seed from my hair before jumping into the air. As soon as I landed on the other side of the lumbering beast I transformed my rose.

"Rose whip!"

I had wrapped the strands of my whip around his legs tripping him, causing him to collide with the ground in a satisfying thud. I retracted my whip, allowing it to curl in my palm as I waited for the demon to recover. As soon as it had regained its feet, Hiei closed in, cutting the demon with quick strikes that were almost too fast for even myself to follow. I followed up, striking at it with tightly controlled flicks of my wrist. It was very stupid despite its power and it didn't stand a chance against us. We defeated our enemy in time to see Yusuke and Kuwabara had finished up their demon and were complaining that it hadn't put up a satisfying fight.

"Aww, that sucked! I can't believe it! First demon attacking in months and it's over in minutes! There's gotta be more around here! Didn't the baby say there were a bunch of them?" Yusuke turned around in a circle, obviously searching for other traces of youkai.

"Gee I thought that's what he said, Urameshi," Kuwabara's eyes unfocused as he joined the search for any other demons any where nearby. I also opened my senses and found exactly what my companions had found if the disappointment on their faces was anything to go by. Hiei had even gone so far as to actually use his Jagan to look, but he apparently wasn't having any better luck than the rest of us. So we decided to call it a night after contacting Botan on a communicator to let her know what had transpired.

Then when I got home, guess who I found curled up on my couch? Yep. It was Kagome. She was laying there practically swimming in a sea of blankets. Every once in a while she would mutter something too softly for me to make out before subsiding back into a peaceful repose. I found the note from my mother explaining how Keiko had brought her by and not to bother her since she just needed to rest for a bit. Okaaay…

So I fixed myself a quick snack and sat down on a chair where I, or rather we could observe her.

My eyes trailed over the girl's softened features. High sweeping cheek bones, with full soft lips. Her hair is falling around her in a soft curtain of midnight colored silk. The combination of her features created a rather pretty face. Pretty, not beautiful, but fairly attractive. And that is the impression that you would get from seeing her as she is now. But then she would open those eyes… There was just something about her soft blue eyes that made her rather normal face appear absolutely exquisite. Remembering the relaxed intensity in her animated face I can't help but feel drawn toward her.

Is that odd? The fact that when I say 'I' I speak of my body and yet I am unsure whether I consider myself Youko wearing this human body, or Shuuichi borrowing Youko's strength. It gets confusing sometimes, wondering which I am and where exactly I fit into this world. Yet at other times, such as right now, we are completely one and it matters not whether I am human or demon, I am simply me, a composite of both Youko and Shuuichi. At that instant I am purely Kurama, and there is no internal battle for dominance in my mind.

But all this is not what I wish to dwell on at the moment. Right now I wish to understand this curiosity, this puzzle that is Kagome Higurashi. How can you blame me after all?

We simply love the challenge of a good puzzle.