Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Jewel of the Chaotic Souls ❯ Maybe Just a Little Scared ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter Thirteen

Maybe Just a Little Scared

Recap of Last time: Kaneko had just been released from Kagome's body and is now free in the world. The story continues with a bit of a lapse in time since the last chapter.

--- -- ---

"Souta."

The flurry of shadows rippled, before the seemingly older figure of Souta Higurashi appeared. His red eyes glowed in the dimmed darkness of the room as he bowed to his master. "Yes, Lady Kaneko?" he intoned, a strange voice without any feelings what-so ever.

How did he truly feel, this slip of a boy in a teenager's clothing? How did this boy truly think, as he laid in sub-ordinance to his master? Or is it that he no longer had feelings and thoughts? Is he stilled allowed to think as he did before? Was he even as he was before?

Their Lady stood from her seat in the room. The hotel room was, in actuality, ironically normal compared to the personnel residing in this oh-so-ordinary room. The drapes were drawn close, not allowing a slip of sunlight to breech the room. The décor had been darkened-dimmed-by the shadows that hung so comfortably on the walls.

Her long dark hair swirled behind her, as she walked over to the kneeling boy. "Come, Souta," she murmured, slowly tracing her death-white hands over his chin. Drawing his face up to meet hers, she smirked down at the ruby red windows. "You're about to have your first assignment."

How did he feel, this Souta Higurashi? Where had his heart gone? Is the innocent ten-year-old from before still residing somewhere, dormant? Or is he gone?

------

The sunlight is just barely above the horizon now. The first twinkling light of the star appeared in the ever-darkening sky. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Kurama walked out of the school gates, waving goodbye to the rest of the art club members. He continued on until the darkened area appeared before his eyes, and his ki flared in answer.

Stopping before the once great shrine, Kurama could only stare at the ruins. The entire area had been roped off, preventing passerby's entrance the once sacred shrine. Police cars still parked before the holy place, trying to find out how such a thing could have happen. The entire family house had collapsed, but the rest of this place-the well house, the God Tree, everything else is unaffected.

"Shuuichi-kun?"

Kurama blinked. Swirling on his feet, the teen stared at the girl behind him. "Ami-san, hello. Didn't you go home after art club?"

Ami shook her head, her dark eyes staring at the ruins of her friend's home. Ami's highlighted brown hair billowed to the winds, as her dark brown eyes stared. Gingerly, she touched the rope, gentle fingers tracing the coarse material.

"Where is Kagome-chan?"

Where is Kagome-chan? Where is their Ancient?

Kurama sighed and stared out as the last ray of sunshine disappeared. Ever since the incident with Kaneko, Kagome had been residing in Makai with Sesshoumaru. Everyone is in Makai with her but her kitsune son, Shippo. While the kitsune youkai dealt with the complicated situation of the collapsed shrine and the rebuilding of the area, he hasn't seen a wink of Kagome since. Kurama longed to pass the Realms and head towards Makai. But, as he has no such powers, it's impossible for him to do any such thing.

"I don't know," Kurama replied at last, seeing that Ami was starting to stare. "Believe me, Ami-san."

-----

"Gaah!!"

The loud, desperate cries of the servants of Makai rang clearly throughout the humid air. Youkai all scattered in various directions, as they tried to find a way to salvation. Another crack of lightning bolt stopped all movement, and prohibited escape. One single figure, whimpering from exasperated fear, slowly walked up to the figure that had caused all the chaos and havoc.

"My Lady!" Jaken cried, exhaustion clear in his voice. "We surrender...!"

Kagome slowly smiled. Blue white electric sparks danced all around her skin, jumping from her hands to her arms, to her shoulders, down her body and back. Her blue-gray eyes danced momentarily, as she called her ki back into her body. "Good, I was hoping you guys would catch on eventually." Plucking the last of her energies from the air, she stalked out of her chamber and towards Sesshoumaru's rooms again.

This time, no one tried to make her stay in bed.

"Sesshoumaru!" She called, entering without knocking as usual. Her best friend turned in his seat, golden eyes gleaming almost white from the three suns that covered the skies of Makai.

"I'd prefer it if you don't destroy my castle, Kagome, the next time you wish to get out of bed," he remarked, his voice drier than usual. His voice and face was as impassive as ever, one could almost mistake him to be unconcerned about the welfare of his friend. Look deeper into his aura, however, will show the turmoil of having her on her feet so quickly.

"Humph. Well, if you would train your servants to be more obedient." Kagome huffed, settling herself onto his desk. She picked up a pile of paperwork placed so neatly by his desk and skimmed the number of demons to be sent towards Reikai. Scanning the document towards the end, she poofed out a breath of air, before replacing it back onto his desk.

"You want to go back to Nigenkai," he stated before Kagome could speak.

The Nigenkai Ancient scowled. "Reading my mind is prohibited, Sess-kun!"

He raised a brow of his in that smug, signature look that had her boiling even further. "I didn't peek, Kagome. All I did was look into your aura."

"Hmph."

"What of your family?"

Humor vanished at the question of her family. "I want them here, for the time being." Her eyes closed, as she remembered when Kaneko erupted from her body. "The shrine has to be rebuilt and there is much to take care of. Momma and Jii-san was never too keen on staying at my place."

"If you're able to convince your mother to leave your side." Sesshoumaru stared at her. "You know that she's been in a state for a while now."

"I know it's going to be a bother to you, Sess." Kagome frowned, as she thought of a way of convincing her family to stay. "But I just have a bad feeling about the Nigenkai. Kaneko is still there and I have no idea what she's planning."

"She can cross Realms as easily as you can, Kagome."

"I know. But still."

------

The passage through the Realms was quick this time without the pain of Kaneko in her body. The lighting from the end foretold the ending of the infinite space. Stepping out of the hole in the airway, she dropped a few yards down onto the ground with a quiet thump. Immediately, the ki of the Realm honed into her body, humming through her senses. She vaguely felt her alerted kitsune's resigned sigh, as he released the final energies over to her. Accepting it into her body, the Nigenkai Ancient purified the air of the new tainted pollutants.

Re-opening her eyes, she stared at the mansion that is her home until she could have the shrine rebuilt. The entire compound is spelled so that the normal humans would see it as a well kept, rather comely mansion. If a more curious human is to come up and try to sneak pass it's boundaries, they'd suddenly recall an urgent meeting for which they must go away. No such thing happened to Kagome. She opened the gateway to her mansion and stepped through it, breathing in the first breath of completely untainted and clean air.

Two servants awaited her behind the opened door. Both bowed to their lady as they quickly shut the door. "No need for formalities Hana, Yori. Send the Saipeina siblings to my chambers immediately."

"Hai, my Ladyship."

Everything was in a flurry of movements the moment she stepped through the second gate. Unlike Sesshoumaru's and Enma's palaces, which consisted of the natural comforts of the Forest Lands and the traditional niceties of history, Kagome's place is full of modern technology and furnishings. She stepped unerringly past the lasers, noted and denoted the dummy traps, and passed through the rest of the attacks and tricks without missing a beat.

"Great job, Tappy-kun!" Kagome smiled, her cheeks all flushed from the exercise. "Not a single glitch in the system!"

Tappy, nicknamed for his habit of tapping his chin whenever he thinks, blushed at the compliment. Tappy was a living human soul. He'd been killed in World War II when the Americans bombed Japan with the atomic bombs. His mother, who had been a self-proclaimed witch refused to allow his sixteen-year-old son die. As a result of a mixed up of spells, she called her son's soul back from Reikai, but was not able to bring his body physically back to life. As a result, he became forever caught in a rift of neither the living nor the dead.

"Well, there's been time," Tappy replied, his white-blue eyes glimmering from the compliment.

Kagome smiled affectionately and ruffled his orange hair. "Any strange activities in Nigenkai since I've been gone?"

Tappy checked his garnet ring. It produced several clicking sounds a few times, before projecting the image of the world. Ki waves echoed around the translucent globe with no immediate changes. "None, my Lady. Master Shippo has been keeping a very keen eye on things."

Kagome nodded, her thoughts already elsewhere. Her chambers came into view. It automatically opened when she stepped within two feet of the door. The sensors around the room picked up her ki signature and allowed her immediate passage through to her private office. While Tappy immediately began checking and clicking away in his handheld laptop, she settled onto her chair and waited for her desktop to load.

The moment she logged on, a message signified that she's received messages from Reikai and Makai alike, plus a number of documents that required her signature. Frowning slightly, she skimmed through the documents. Deeming it could wait a bit longer, she clicked onto the messages from Enma and Sesshoumaru. A few messages came from other members of the Council, but all they wished to know was information on the current status of Kaneko.

Enma's been busy since we last chatted, Kagome thought, as she just received yet another message to her system. The beeping at her door interrupted her thoughts and she immediately looked up when an image of a male and female appeared in midair.

"Enter." Kagome named one of the command codes that allow people other than herself to allow access without turning into a shish kabob.

The Saipeina siblings were two of her best agents. Hisaku was inhumanly beautiful with her long blue-black hair and clear green eyes. Hikoi, twin brother of Hisaki, was just as gorgeous but with such a charming charisma about him it allowed him to connect with anyone he meets. Both bowed when they saw Kagome.

"Welcome back, my Ladyship." Hisaku greeted, her voice quiet and demure.

Hikoi, not as refined as his sister, grinned good naturally at her. "Hope you're all better, my Lady?"

The Ancient grinned. "Hisaku-chan, Hikoi-kun! Hi! I'm feeling great, thanks. Would I have left if I'm not better?"

"Yes." Both replied, rather insubordinately. The slight coughing from Tappy reverted Kagome's previous glare over to the meta-human rather than at the two siblings.

"Oh, please, please!" Tappy cried, opening his eyes wide in mock horror. "Not the Glare of Doom!"

Kagome narrowed her eyes further, as though to make it all the more frightening. Unfortunately, choked gurgling noises kept escaping from her throat, efficiently negating the effects of her frightening glare. Finally, making a rather loud "hump!" noise, she coughed into her hands and tried to stop her laughter from escaping fully. Sighing, she turned serious eyes over to her two servants. If anyone thought the sudden change in mood strange, they didn't comment. "Onto a more important note. I'd like the two of you to please head onto Makai, Hisaku and Hikoi, and please bodyguard my mother and grandfather at all times. Naturally, Sesshoumaru's people will be there as well. But, all the same. I'd feel better if the two of you are keeping an eye on things."

"Of course, my ladyship." Hisaku bowed low, her blue black hair flowing gracefully through the air. "We'll keep my Lady and Lord Higurashi safe, most definitely."

"Thank you," Kagome smiled.

Recognizing the dismissal, both bowed once more before exiting the room. Once gone, Kagome turned her attentions to the various documents that had littered her inbox since she's last checked it. Her eyes stopped when she caught the emails from her friends from school. Clicking onto the first mail, she smiled at the wails of Ami. The second letter consisted random thoughts and strange insights from Toya. He'd invited her to his pool party next Saturday and to the "Weird Duckies All Night Sun" chatroom at eight tonight. The final letter was from Kurama. He didn't say much, except that there's no news. And that Teach Misa finally got the ceramic clay issue resolved.

Smiling, she quickly typed back to them, telling them that she'll be back to school tomorrow. Her eyes stopped momentarily at Kurama's email, once again recalling how he'd saved her that day. So many times already. Both he and the other demon, Hiei, had saved her life so many times in the wakes of Kaneko. How many times more, she wonder. And just how much longer can they stay up against Kaneko?

She gently brushed a finger pad against the screen where Kurama had signed his name. I hope, Kurama, that after this mess, nothing would happen to you-or your friends.

------

Kagome stepped out of her mansion balcony that night. She'd worked up until Tappy had literally almost dragged her out of her office. Still, she'd managed to get most of the documents over to Reikai. The number of people that had died today had to be recorded and sent forth to Enma and his son. Each and every single document required her signature.

"Jeez," Kagome sighed and asked Nature to please bestow a cooling wind around her. She sighed in pleasure as a breeze ruffled through her a second later. "Maybe I should get a secretary-like Enma and Sess does. It certainly would get a lot of this paperwork out of my way." Then again, thinking of the pile of paperwork on Sess's desk earlier that morning, she wondered just how much a secretary is able to do for a person.

Huffing a little, she blew a thank you to the wind spirits, before she rose and moved to jump off her balcony. The quiet confidence that radiated off of her as she moved through the air proved to any onlooker that this occurrence-the jumping off of a balcony-is a rather normal affair. The air currents moved to slow her fall, allowing her to touch the streets quietly. The cement beneath her feel rumbled with pleasure with her touch, as though it realized that it's their Ancient above them. The earth spirits wanted to rise out of the ground and greet her. Kagome had to quickly stop them before they caused an earthquake.

Kagome thanked each and every spirit for their love, before resuming her walk towards the school playground that is near where the shrine once was. The children's park was deserted, what with it being so late at night. The light of the moon gleamed brightly down at the slides with its yellow hand bars. The swings squeaked before moving to the will of the winds that pushed it. Walking over to the swings, she sat down onto the metal seats.

All around this park, memories of her brother rushed through in every slide, every monkey bar and swing. Every bench tells the tale of when he'd trampled through it in his chase after the soccer ball. The single tree in the center of the park remembers the time when he'd been stuck at one of the branches, too scared to climb back down. Slides, swings, even the floor mat itself told a heartwarming story.

"So why?" Kagome asked, pushing the swings a bit higher. "Why can't I feel your presence here anymore?"

The wind pushed her even higher, driving the continuous movements of the swings to be all the more smooth and effective. Hair flew over her eyes, as the swings moved back, and streamed behind her as it flew forward. The moon gleamed down at her, as she turned her eyes towards the sky. The second time she reached the pinnacle again...

"Miss me?" Souta asked, his glossy eyes staring down at her. A smirk lighted on his lips. As Kagome jumped off the swing, automatically preparing her ki, Souta remained on the top bar of the swing, seemingly uncaring of his sister's sudden manifestation of power.

The night's darkness seems to seep into his skin, making him all the more dark. His oversized black sweatshirt wrapped around him much like smoke wrap around air. A single chained belt hung around his waist with baggy midnight pants. He'd kept the skull earring.

He dropped gracefully into a sitting position, swinging the ends of the chain around in circles as he contemplated his sister. "Why are you so quiet, Kagome?"

"Maybe I'm afraid that you'll decide to run the moment I speak-like a ghost in the night." Kagome murmured, allowing the winds to carry her voice over to him.

"Maybe you're afraid of me."

Kagome couldn't reply to this. Afraid of him? Of course, she's not afraid of him. He's Souta.

Souta smirked. "Don't worry. I didn't receive orders to fight you."

"Then why are you here, Souta?" Kagome asked, gritting her teeth. Why did you come to the place of your childhood? Are you still in there? Are you still you? Souta...

Her brother did not answer her immediately, but only sat there, swinging his chain. Finally, "Maybe I wanted to scare you." He said, as the night swallowed him into darkness.

She didn't move for a while, but only stared at the spot where Souta had been a moment ago. The night has really just arrived and dawn is over infinity and a day away. The chill of the evening seems to burn her to her bones.

Maybe I wanted to scare you...

End Chapter

Vocabulary

Ki: energy

Makai: Demonic Realm

Youkai: Demon

Reikai: Spirit Realm

Nigenkai: Human Realm

Jii-san: Grandfather

Kitsune: fox

Hai: yes

Author's Corner

Yay! I finally found a way to revive this story!! I was blocked on it for a so long, I forgot all about this story!!! Repression in effect, maybe??

Did anyone catch anything about the two greeting girl's names...?

Fanfiction

Wake-Robin: Ahh...that is such a guilty review. Seriously, wow. Can't believe it was THAT long ago...haha...

Jinenji: Lol! Thanks for the review. School and work has been horrible...That, and the fact that I kinda forgot that I have to update this fic, hee hee.

Ruby Raze: Thanks so much for understanding (and apology for the loooong delay). Hopefully, you enjoyed this chapter!!!

IndecisiveFreak: Awww...for that totally sweet review, I give you a cookie!!!! Thank you for your encouraging words and for understanding that writers have a life!!!!!

AnimeAngelz: Thanks for the review!

Inudemoness247: Thanks so much!!! As to your question....

Gopher2806: Lol! Don't worry, it's a common mistake. Mainly, I think, it's because people write about her when she's in her teen years. Anyhow, thanks for reviewing!

Korokochan16: Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed!

Tenshi Youkai no Yugure: Lol! Thanks for the review!!

Whyamialive17: Haha!! It's OK, I'm prone to hyperness all the time! (And get high on the strangest things...no drugs, or any such things, mind you...) Thanks for reviewing, and soo glad you enjoyed!

Silvermoonyoukai: (sighs) It's viewers like you that makes me want to weep for joy. Aww, that was so sweet and understanding!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!

SunStar Kitsune: Thank you for reviewing! Glad you enjoyed the last chap, and hope that you'll continue to enjoy this story until it's end!!

Nunofyorbiz: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!! As to the making out, I can't have that inputed as of yet. They're still in the "friend" stage at the moment.

Bluespark: oO Wow, that's such a high compliment. I'm flattered. Really. Thank you!

Addicted-to-Inu: Thanks!! I'm so happy that you liked!!

MizuiroSnow: I love it when you guys analyze everything....or predict what will happen next!! To find out if you're correct or not, please continue on reading!!!!!!

Mediaminer

Nyslor: Ah. Please forgive me for the delay in updating!!

SapphireGemz: Thanks for reviewing! Happy you liked!

The Sorceress: Lol! Thanks for the advise! As for Kurama's age, yes he was born when Kagome met his mother. Ashita had been injured because she had been trying to protect Youko. I'll definitely continue on with the art classes, no worries!!! Thanks for reviewing!!!! (and for making sure that it showed, and all.)

InsaneAUTHORESS: Thanks a bunch!! Glad you liked, and that you seem to like the chaotic souls!!

Ryuko: Lol! Glad to know that you liked, and hope you'll continue stumbling upon other great fics out there!!!! Thanks for reading and reviewing!!

Tori Chan: Hee, I bet each of us has an evil twin out there somewhere(or inside us somewhere) !! Glad you liked, and thanks for the review!!

Kizuna4me: Aww!! I glomp you in return!!! And I assure you, the suspense that you feel at the end of each chapter is all accidental...*cough*...But, really glad that you liked, and soo totally melted when I read your review!! Thanks!

Ravensflight: Thanks so much!! I'm glad that I was able to keep them IC!! Thank you for the review, and hope to see you in all future chapters!!!

DarkGoddessAluthri: Ah, it's ok!! I'm sorry for the slow update!! And ohhh!!! Thanks!! I was kind of worried that people would be confused!!!

Anime_fan141: Thanks for letting me know, and for the encouragements!!

End

Thank you to everyone who reviewed!!! And hope you'll continue to read and review!! Your encouragements are the greatest!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Lots of greets,

Yukisora and Hachigatsu

Edited by: Wake-Robin

Last Checked: December 31, 2004