Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lost Her Marbles ❯ Lost Her Marbles ( Chapter 1 )

Lost Her Marbles

Summary: Kagome loses her marbles, and enlists the help of a reluctant Hiei to find them.

The only reason he'd even agreed to guard the miko was because it happened to be the lesser of two evils at the time. When Koenma had called them in, without there having been spikes of youkai energy in the area lately (and he would know—Hiei had been looking for trouble for weeks) curiosity had gotten to him. Koenma needed the team for two separate duties. The mission for one volunteer of the four was simple: shadow a miko, recently sensed by the Reikai scanners, who was known to be guarding an important artifact. What artifact, none of them could begin to guess, but judging by the way the brat kept eyeballing him and Kurama, it was obviously something he didn't want any demon getting their hands on. After hearing the option of guarding this miko, but not the second option, he delved into Koenma's mind only to find that Reikai was slated to undergo some serious remodeling and thus needed some muscle.

He quickly stepped forward to cover the miko-guarding. In Hiei's mind, "guarding" implied that there was something to guard the woman from—the "something" being dangerous; an S-class youkai would be too much to hope for to go after a miko whose power was so low to not be sensed by Reikai until now, but a hoard of low-class, mindless youkai would do just as well. A bloodthirsty smirk of anticipation had been permanent for the first few days of his duties, especially when he imagined the others being forced to move boxes around Reikai.

However, as he soon found out, what Koenma had failed to mention was that the girl needed more guarding from her own temper and clumsiness than killers—youkai or human. Heck, she hadn't even been the victim of random violence, or pickpockets! He was beginning to think he would be forced to drag her into Makai just to get some action.

Tonight, his so-called guard duty had reached an all-time low. After following her from her workplace—some hospital downtown—to her house, she'd run out of her house and off the shrine grounds in a hurry, heading towards a thickly wooded area.

She was searching for something at night, in the woods, while mumbling to herself. Something about dogs, and trees, and marbles.

Great.

**

Kagome let out yet another noise through gritted, grinding teeth as she tripped over the third tree root she'd encountered in the dark forest in the two minutes following the expiration of her flashlight batteries and the minute she spent jiggling and hitting the flashlight in the hopes that the abuse would prolong the battery life. She cursed her luck. It was a full moon tonight, so given her practice in the feudal era, she would have had no problem navigating the area. Except the darn dog had to run through the only park in Tokyo with trees big enough to block out the natural light! Stupid dogs, always having to make things more difficult…

She knew her chances of finding that small bag at night, without even natural light, was next to nil, and it would be wiser to come back the next day, but if it fell into the wrong hands, the entire city (and if her luck turned for the worse, Japan, or the world) would be in grave danger. This thought—the thought of a second Naraku—pushed her onward.

The bag itself was normal enough—a small, worn, green canvas bag with a drawstring—but she had designed the seal on the bag so that it—and the Shikon jewel inside it—was practically invisible to most senses. She had applauded herself on the design three years ago. Without a proper instructor in this era, she had drawn from the lessons receieved from Kaede and Miroku on wards. Unfortunately, on the issue of how to make it so that she could sense the jewel but not youkai, she had drawn a blank and, having no youkai that she could trust without a doubt to help test any theories on hand, she had chosen to make it so all would be spiritually blind to the bag holding the Shikon. It turned out that an interesting side effect of this seal was that it was made somehow partially invisible to the eye—unless a person knew what they were looking for, they tended not to notice the bag. Touching it would give no indication that the bag was special, or that it held an object of immense power. To any but her, it just looked like a bag of marbles. Hidden in plain sight. Only if the Shikon fell from the bag could it be sensed. Not that that was likely. She carried the bag around with her, making sure it was always on her person or in the same building as her—after all, it would be quite a hassle to carry around a bag of marbles in an emergency room.

And so far, these protections had held—for three years now. Three glorious years of peace, of not having to wonder how many youkai would attack her the next day, or how difficult their guts would be to wash off, though she did continue to be vigilant. Then today she had discovered that her protections weren't fool-proof. Or rather, they weren't Souta-proof.

She didn't notice the bag of marbles was missing until, exhausted after her double-shift, she trudged to the small locker where she kept her belongings and noticed it wasn't there. In fact, she didn't remember bringing it with her to the hospital. She rushed home, not even bothering to change out of her scrubs—thank goodness they weren't covered in vomit or blood today—and practically ransacked her room before her brother found her and explained that he had borrowed the marbles for the kids at the shelter he volunteered at on the weekends.

"But on the way back, I was tossing the bag from hand to hand and this dog—must have been a stray, I didn't see a collar—just jumped up, caught the bag, and ran away. But I gathered up the ones that fell out." His rambling finally ended as he deposited a few brightly colored marbles on her desk, confirming what she knew. The only one she cared about wasn't there.

"Where was the mutt headed?" she asked, barely containing her anger. He told her before making a quick departure.

And that was how she ended up here, most likely lost, in the middle of what may as well have been a forest, with a dead flashlight.

I sure wish Inuyasha were here right now. He could sniff out that bag a mile away.

But there was no Inuyasha to help her on this side of the well. The final battle was…Well, there was nothing she could say that would recount it accurately. Flashes of images still haunted her, and there were no words to put to them. But the emotions…

Sadness and anger and relief and despair and helplessness and triumph and disbelief…

They had survived. Her group of friends, the seekers of the Shikon, had succeeded, had lived past the battle. She was fairly sure of that. She didn't recall any of her friends having any major injuries. But in a flurry of activity following the battle, after the cursed jewel had been completed, when she knew her task had been fulfilled, she had simply vanished from the past, reappearing at her family's shrine. The well didn't work anymore. She'd tried it enough to be absolutely certain of that fact.

With the prospect of a normal life ahead of her for the first time in years, she reviewed her options before falling into nursing. She had spent enough time fixing holes in Inuyasha and more normal injuries in the others, combining feudal and modern methods, that she knew she enjoyed healing people. But without the grades and money to be a doctor she had decided to be a nurse, and now worked at the busy emergency room and operating rooms of Tokyo General, where she was looking forward to a promotion to head nurse in the next couple years, once the ageless Chizue retired. The small increase in her salary would be a relief—her grandfather was getting on in years and the double shifts she'd been working lately to help pay for increasing medical bills were exhausting her to the point where she was having to draw a bit off her miko ki, dropping her barriers for brief periods of time. But it was better than having Mama working extra to support all of them, especially with Souta now in college.

She loved her job, and her coworkers, many of whom she was great friends with, but so many times at night, on the border of sleep, she would think of the past and just wish…

Miroku and Sango were human, so she would never see them again, but she imagined them happy and long-lived with many children. She knew Inuyasha would have survived long past the battle. He was nothing if not stubborn, and there had been no Kikyou around at the time of the final battle to drag him to hell. But whether Inuyasha still lived in this time, half a millennium since she first met him…She knew nothing of hanyou life spans. In fact, the only others she could recall meeting were Jinenji, the gentle gardener, and Shiori, the shy bat hanyou. She got the impression that even hanyou that made it through their first few years didn't live much longer without luck, or love.

Shippou and Kirara…She'd been hoping that Shippou would contact her. Heck, she would be happy seeing Sesshoumaru at this point. But there was nothing. So far.

"Kagome, you need to snap out of this!" She patted her cheeks to shake her out of her moping mood. "I'll just take a minute to relax, think this through." And so she felt around for a spot without a century's worth of tree roots sticking out of the ground.

She sorted through her options: she could keep going as she was—and probably be here all night; she could come back in the morning—but risk the Shikon falling into the wrong hands. Or she could seek the help of the youkai that had been following her for the past month. And is probably laughing his head off above me.

She of course chose Plan C.

"Hey, you! In the tree! Get down here!"

A full minute of nagging later, a very disgruntled youkai (who was dangerously attractive in those black pants and muscle shirt—and how did he get his hair to do that?) jumped out of the tree. Or rather, just appeared below the tree.

Wow, he's fast.

"What, miko?"

And will probably be difficult.

"Hello, my name is Kagome Higurashi." She bowed.

"Hn."

"It's customary to introduce yourself when someone gives you your name." There was no answer. Feeling vindictive, she continued. "Very well, then I will assign you a name. Fluffy-sama is already taken, but there's so many more to choose from," she said in the sweetest voice possible. "How about—"

"Hiei."

**

Hiei couldn't believe it. First the girl had spotted him, forced his name out of him, and now she expected him to help her.

"I've lost my marbles!"

Though he had little experience dealing with females, Hiei had observed enough socially inept men in situations like this that he knew better than to reply with "Darn right you have," and so settled for, "Hn."

Which didn't appear to be a whole lot better.

"'Hn'? That's all you have to say—'Hn'?" Hiei didn't like how her arms were waving about, or the miko ki that had begun to glow around her hands, but was confident that he was fast enough to dodge if necessary—and knew that was a definite possibility after watching her for several weeks. He realized she wasn't finished yet. "That's even worse than 'feh' or 'keh' or whatever Inuyasha used to say. At least with him I could tell his mood, or get a general translation. But 'hn'? What's that even mean? It's like the ultimate noncommittal—"

"Miko." She stopped, surprised out of her rant. "What do you want?"

She ignored the fact that he refused her name; there were more important things to take care of. "I already told you!" she exclaimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I lost my marbles! Well," she continued, calming slightly and sounding a bit guilty and panicked at the same time, "technically, it's only one marble—the most important one! The others don't really matter…Though I do think I'll miss the one with the blue flower in the middle…" she trailed off.

Hiei kept a straight face, doing an admirable job of keeping his left eye from twitching, a nervous tick—or rather, a "frustration tick"—that he'd not been able to cure himself of, for all the decades he had tried. The mind behind the poker face was trying to figure out how to get himself off guard duty without being put on the spring cleaning crew. A good threat might do the trick. Although, when he thought about it, even remodeling had to be better than dealing with some unstable, emotional human with an unnatural attachment to some stupid bauble.

**

Noticing that the Hiei was no longer paying attention, Kagome realized that she should probably calm down, explain things in a logical manner, and hope that he was a good youkai since his aura of frustration was so strong, it was difficult to sense anything else. But he hadn't tried to kill her at all in the month she'd been sensing him shadowing her, so she decided to remain positive.

And if he didn't agree at first, she would just have to bribe him.

She tried her best to look as calm as possible and be as vague as possible. After all, she may be asking him for help, but she knew better than to trust a youkai she had just met, despite all evidence to the contrary. "Please, this…marble…is something that a lot of, um…people…have tried to steal in the past and might try to use for evil purposes!" He raised an eyebrow. Sounding calm still made her seem crazy. Great, Kagome, what evil can a marble be used for? Bruising? Breaking mirrors? "They'll sell it for thousands on the black market to marble enthusiasts!"

Kagome froze in disbelief. I can't believe I just said that!

Apparently, he couldn't either. His eyes narrowed just a fraction—and did his left eye just twitch?—before he turned stiffly and began to walk away, the tails of the white cloth around his forehead fluttering in the wind behind him.

"Wait!" she called, and in desperation, she offered him the one thing she hadn't known any youkai (those she was on friendly terms with) to resist: "I'll cook for you! Whatever you want—but not humans! For…for an entire week!"

She smiled in relief when he stopped. He was considering her deal! Or whether her life was worth his frustration. She really hoped it was the former.

He turned to face her and glared at her, menacingly. She planted her feet and stood tall, trying to exude confidence she didn't have.

"One month."

"Excuse me?"

"Miko, if I help you find this marble, you will cook for me, for one month, whatever I choose."

"Within reason," she insisted. "I'm not cooking any humans or slimy swamp creatures you kill."

The following "Hn" sounded like a mix between disgust and agreement. She was glad they were on the same page.

"Deal!" Then she rushed up to him and offered her arm, though not in the position of a handshake. She put her forearm right in front of his face and looked up at him expectantly.

He glared at her again, but she was starting to get used to it. She was, after all, used to dealing with stoic, homicidal youkai. She smiled in return. His face is gonna get stuck that way if he doesn't stop.

"Remove your appendage from my face or I will do it for you."

That certainly got an immediate response. She put both her hands behind her back. "But you need to get my scent to sniff out the bag!"

Kagome didn't think it was possible, but somehow the glare intensified.

"I am no dog, miko."

**

In the end, Hiei was forced to use his nose to find the bag, though he would die before ever admitting it.

**

The Jagan, even uncovered, could not sense the residual aura of the miko that should be on the bag, frustrating him to no end. And the miko's reaction to his third eye was not expected. Or wanted.

The Jagan was not "cute".

All this frustration for a bag of marbles—scratch that: a bag with a single marble. Though on second thought, now that he'd gotten a closer look, there was something about it...

A seal.

Kagome watched anxiously as Hiei bent down to retrieve the green bag from the abandoned rabbit hole. "I'll take that," she said, holding her hand out to accept the enchanted pouch.

Hiei's eyes traveled from the bag, to her hand, to the bag again.

Then the bag burst into flames for a brief second before he tipped his hand over hers, transferring the ashes, but keeping the jewel. All she could do was stare, openmouthed.

And prepare.

**

So this was what the miko had been guarding. What Koenma didn't want him and Kurama to have. Even after so many years, the Shikon no Tama was coveted among youkai, though many now assumed it was a myth. Yet here it was, lying innocently on his hand.

The jewel was small—the size of a marble, as she had claimed it to be—and translucent pink; though it did look a smidgen darker than when he'd first taken it from the bag, but since the color didn't change any further, he took it as a trick of the light. But there was something else about the jewel…a feeling of power, capable of luring youkai to seek it out, who would use it as a crutch to their miniscule strength and to further their ambitions. He could tell the miko was nervous to see him with it, though her anger was also on the menu.

"What'd you do that for? Give it to me. We had a deal."

"Hn."

She tried a different tactic; he could feel her miko-ki beginning to build. A barrier formed around her, fitting her form and nearly transparent, a slight glow the only visible trace. More ki gathered as she readied to attack. She was much more powerful than he had thought. Shielding. Unknowingly avoiding detection by Reikai. Hn. Mikos like this just weren't born any more. "I swore to protect the Shikon with my life, Hiei, and if you don't hand it over right now, I will purify you. I won't let any others be harmed by that marble."

She sounded pained, but determined. Funny, he'd never met a miko who didn't hate youkai. From what he'd seen thus far, she had likely placed the wards to avoid all detection so she wouldn't have to fight. But where she saw danger and destruction, he saw opportunity. A seemingly powerless woman, in possession of a powerful jewel that could attract youkai, perhaps even past the barrier. How perfect! As her ki continued to build, he reached into his pocket where he kept a drawstring pouch, connected to a long cord. It had once held Yukina's hiroseki stone, but since he found her, it had lost its value to him, though he continued to keep it safe in his treasure hoard in Makai. He didn't know why he still kept the bag. Habit, he supposed. At least now he had a use for it.

**

Without any production, he put the jewel inside the bag, drew the string tight and knotted it, then threw it to her. Amazingly, she caught it before it hit her in the forehead. She stared down at the little pouch in amazement and when she looked up, he was less than a foot away.

She blushed. With his aura feeling so…victorious?...she wasn't so distracted or tense by his negativity and was left feeling like a teenager looking at the fine specimen in front of her; specifically, his chest. She looked up, hoping his ever-present glare would bring her out of her age regression, but it wasn't there and she was left thinking how he would look bathed in moonlight.

I'd already know if we were anywhere else.

"You will no longer ward the jewel, miko."

Whoa. That brought her out of her thoughts. "Tough luck, mister. I may be a lot stronger than I used to be, but I have a job, a family, friends, and there's no way in hell I'm gonna endanger any of them by walking around with a powerful jewel that might as well be a neon sign saying 'Come get me, youkai' just because you say so! Five years was way too long the first time around, and that was with help."

"You will cease, and I will kill all who seek the jewel." Kagome couldn't help but notice he sounded strangely happy as he said this. "If you continue to ward the jewel, I will use…extreme measures."

She had no desire to find out how he defined 'extreme measures'. "So…Is that some weird, roundabout way of saying you'll protect me?"

"Hn."

And without another word, he left, and Kagome didn't attempt to stop him. She knew she'd see him soon. Filled with curiosity over the new youkai in her life, the next evening couldn't come soon enough for Kagome. She placed the long cord connected to the small leather pouch around her neck and began to stumble towards what she hoped was the border of the woods.

Maybe losing my marbles wasn't such a bad thing after all…