Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Par Tout Autre Nom ❯ Full Speed Backward ( Chapter 22 )

Disclaimers: Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho belong respectively to Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi.

A/N: Ugh… technology is a beautiful thing until it decides to commit mechanical suicide. -makes a face- I'm sorry if I'd gotten anyone worried about up and dying or anything of the sort (you know who you are ^__~), especially after my admittedly predictable presence online, but I was without my computer when it decided to have an obstinate moment and flip me a series of rude gestures. Or as close to making gestures as a fingerless chunk of metal and plastic can manage. -shakes fist at computer before composing self-

Anyhow, this one really almost got chopped in half because it started to get disgustingly long, but at the same time I realized it's been a while since I tossed my junkies a fix and I decided to just let it be. To all my lovely and patient reviewers, you already know you're fabulous, but I feel like saying it again and since this is my space, I will. I simply adore hearing what you're thinking, and I've been getting such detailed reviews that I can't help but get excited when I see another. But! Enough of me being long winded…

~*~*~*~

By Any Other Name

~Full Speed Backward~

"You weren't supposed to be involved," Koenma wearily rubbed his head, stepping back until he could sit down on his desk, tucking one knee up to his chest and regarding them with weary irritation. "And I should extend your sentences for stealing confidential documents off my desk that weren't mine."

"Desperate times," Hiei smirked coldly, shifting his stance to show Koenma he was willing to stand in that one position as long as it took to get the answers he wanted. He's mad at us for that woman being angry with him.

`Then he should have told us what we wanted in the first place,' Youko replied airily.

"We were right, weren't we?" Yuusuke's lips thinned with his souring expression, eyebrow twitching as he fought his desire to shake the deity the same way that Sango had been doing when they entered. "We're the ones with youkai blood. We ain't good enough to hear about what's going on in your eyes."

"It's not a matter of being good enough or not, Yuusuke, it's a matter of not causing any of you unnecessary temptation," he admitted grudgingly, scooting back farther on his desk to put more space between them as he smoothed out his clothes and checked his body for any lasting damage. "The legends we allowed to slip into obscurity are there for the protection of the creatures that exist in this era, even youkai such as yourself. And your family."

"You're going to stick to that story?" Yuusuke's eyebrow arched, now obviously trying to restrain himself from all out blowing up in favor of getting real responses for once. "With all the shit that you've forced us to do over the years, now you're going to claim you're hiding information for our protection?"

Koenma heaved a sigh, rubbing a hand over his stomach with a faint wince from Sango's attentions before he twisted around to get back on his side of the desk to reclaim his more confident position in his chair, "My father told me that the Shikon-no-Tama's potential is not something to be taken lightly. Even if we don't have everything we need to know about it, and can't ask."

Kurama frowned sharply at the wistful note in his voice, "What do you mean you can't ask?"

"It all happened before the separations," he gestured expansively, trying to soothe his agitation behind the familiar task of sorting and stamping the files that remained perpetually stacked on the edge of his desk. "There are very few in our levels who know the story behind the legends firsthand, and since they had died and ascended for their merits before we decided on a hierarchy system, they don't have any obligations to answer to us."

Hiei and Kurama blinked in surprise while Yuusuke watched the faint blush rising on the demi-god's face with a sort of disturbed fascination, "Don't have any-? Someone managed to outmaneuver you in politics? In that bureaucracy bullshit you love holding over our heads so much?"

The blush deepened and he hunched his shoulders defensively, "It isn't our fault! He's a very disarming person! He just… he always seems to be so calm and endearing, and my father didn't realize he'd been talked into a corner until it was already over and done with!"

That's a disturbing thought, Hiei remarked, unable to contain his curiosity over such a phenomenon. What kind of a person could accomplish such a thing against a god who enjoys all that pointless idiocy as much as Koenma?

This legend seems to be protected by a number of people with incredible powers of redirection and distraction, Kurama made a sound of mild disgust just loud enough for Hiei to hear. We've never seen this kind of defense for a legend.

`It's not an ordinary legend,' Youko shrugged, unconcerned by all the `whys' at the moment and just wanting to get past it to the real important parts of the story they were all protecting from them. `Poke at him. Find out who these ascended spirits are and where they've settled so we can speak with them ourselves… they'll probably be more receptive to us since we're much more interesting people.'

Sango has to be one of them, Kurama turned to glance back at the closed door the woman had slammed such a short time ago. She said those were her husband's records… so that must mean he's the "monk present at the vanishing of the jewel." But why are they so secretive about names? They just use titles in all their work, and that's hardly the way one would write their own history.

"They had already said their goodbyes and left by the time we realized we'd been conned out of getting them to agree to answer to our authority," Koenma switched his pacifier from one side of his mouth the other, the action more than a little strange in his older body. "My father had to go back over the discussion three times before he figured out he'd been tricked into giving out an exemption for their entire family lines."

`Now that is my kind of human,' Youko declared proudly. `Someone intelligent enough to trick these bastards so much that they're even now inconvenienced by his actions... Get his name, I want to meet him and see how good he is against a real professional.'

"Sango-sama is the only one who can keep him under control, but she unexpectedly helped him trick us for that purpose," he continued to lament as they stared at him, almost matching frowns gracing their expressions under his attempts to stall their inquisition. "It's not fair if they work together to-"

"We ain't buying it, brat, so start talking something that makes sense," Yuusuke cut him off, taking advantage of the temporary ruler's current place to slam his fist down on the desk for emphasis. "We read the same legend you did, you sent us after some guy with an obsession for the most disturbing corpse I've ever seen of a miko hidden in Makai, and you have Kurabara investigating some guy named Sesshoumaru who's apparently bad-ass enough to make Youko act seriously!"

`I'm going to strangle him for being so insulting,' Youko's eyes narrowed on his back, unable to withhold a faint growl at the insinuation he couldn't hold his own against the taiyoukai. `How many times do I have to tell him that I'm not afraid of Sesshoumaru the way he wants to think I am? He will be an exceptional opponent, nothing more.'

Calm down, Fox, look at how big Koenma's eyes just got, Hiei's voice held no small amount of satisfaction at the alarmed expression that had just wiped that face clear of any distracting retort he might have planned to make. I think we just gave him a name he didn't want to hear.

"Sesshoumaru?" Koenma repeated in a horrified stammer.

"The Western Lord?" Hiei nudged with sadistic amusement when his face paled. "Ring any bells?"

"But that can't be! He hasn't left the Makai since he agreed to remove himself, I know he hasn't!" Koenma shot to his feet, pacing back and forth in a frantic burst of energy. "He had far too much power to remain in a realm filled with humans, and he never liked them much to begin with. Kurabara is investigating the descendants of Sango-sama and her husband, not the Western Lord!"

"He's going by Takeharuka, in disguise, and he threatened Kurama for taking an interest in a little human miko," Yuusuke gestured back over his shoulder at the kitsune, missing the sudden scowl on his face for giving away information he didn't necessarily want the Rekai prince to have about his personal life. "He seemed to like her just fine."

"Sesshoumaru-sama tolerates humanity so long as they don't interfere with his life or ambitions," Koenma struggled to make them understand how cataclysmic such a youkai being released on the general populace could be. "Even in the Makai, he doesn't `lower' himself to interacting with the other youkai."

"How do you know he's even there then?" Kurama challenged the previous claim with open suspicion. "If he doesn't interact with them, how can you be certain he hasn't left the Makai?"

"Just because he doesn't talk to them, it doesn't mean he isn't seen," Koenma rolled his eyes, gesturing expansively with one hand. "He guards his lands with the same ruthless possessiveness he was known for before agreeing to leave the Ningenkai, and trust me, no one can mistake that description for anyone but Sesshoumaru-sama. It's just not possible."

I'm not sure I believe that, Hiei tilted his head slightly to one side as he teased around the edges of Koenma's mind, absently drumming his fingers on his forearm when he caught the verification that the demi-god believed his own words. Takeharuka didn't give off the air of an imposter, and that empty sensation seems to suggest he's hiding himself consciously. Without Rekai's knowledge, apparently…

But that still leaves the problem of how he's passing through undetected, Kurama raked a hand through his hair, pausing and letting his eyes flash when he felt a shiver of awareness seep into his ki.

Kurama? Hiei turned his attention more to his friend than to the uninformative rambling Yuusuke's snarled arguments were drawing out of Koenma. What is it?

`She got our present,' Youko purred in satisfaction, curling their fingers in front of his mouth to hide the almost malicious smirk teasing their expression, touching the tip of one finger to his tongue when the rose sent him impressions of the very pissed off investigator kitsune with a chunk taken out of his arm. `And she's letting it hold onto her.'

Hiei scoffed at that, She probably just doesn't realize she could reject it by telling it to go away.

`Details,' he internally made a dismissive gesture. `She's not rejecting it, and that means that she's receptive to my pursuit. No matter what that puffed up inu said.'

Like that made a difference to you, the hybrid gave him a flat look behind the cover of Yuusuke's back to show he wasn't buying the misleading implication that such an action would have changed his mind. I've seen how serious both sides of you are about getting this miko for yourself.

I like her, Kurama defended Youko's actions for once, making his kitsune side preen with almost staggering arrogance. She'll make a good girlfriend, and I don't have to hide Youko from her, so that's one problem off my plate. It's more than I could have hoped for, finding a girl at random in this era whom is accepting towards youkai.

`She is also a damn fine kisser with a very nice body,' Youko added with a lascivious grin, his imagination running wild for a moment with all the things he intended to do to their lover before Kurama reigned him in through preservationist instincts alone. `Anyone that responsive is well worth the chase to have them all to yourself in the end.'

You're a shallow little bastard, Hiei observed with a roll of his eyes and turned his attention back to the escalating shouts in front of them. And you're lucky she's not a very good miko, or your ass would probably be scorched beyond recognition right about now for being so hands-on with her.

She's too sweet for that, Kurama shrugged off that threat, wincing when the volume of Koenma's voice finally passed the comfortable decibels.

`Hell, Kurama, I'm telling you, she's a killer like us,' Youko shook his head in irritation. `Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. Her hands-`

Enough about your obsession with her hands for the moment, Hiei cut him off and cleared his throat to put a stop to the posturing before it degenerated out of control. "What is the Shikon-no-Tama, Koenma?" his voice cut through the noise and convinced Yuusuke to break off mid-sentence, much more interested in the answer to that question.

In the space of a minute, the Rekai prince underwent a drastic alteration, his expression turning grave and somber while his eyes shuttered, and his voice changed pitch to a more mellow, bland tone than they'd ever heard from him, "A disaster… that damn jewel…"

Yuusuke leaned back, blinking and glancing back to see how his two friends were taking the uncharacteristic behavior, brows drawn low as he prodded, "A disaster for what?"

He sighed and recollected his thoughts before he tried again, "It was created to protect the world from a creature that was more evil than anything that had existed before, and it wasn't until Midoriko sacrificed her soul to contain it that it was even slightly defeated."

"Suggesting it wasn't actually defeated," Kurama finished when he fell silent, grateful Youko had stopped putting sexual fantasies in his head to listen more attentively.

Koenma shook his head, "Not even Midoriko could kill it completely, just trapped it in the jewel with her actions. Sango-sama is from the village where the Shikon-no-Tama was created, where the miko entrusted her remains. She tells me after generations of fighting to protect it, the jewel was given to another miko to be purified out of existence, but that the corrupted souls within it managed to fill another with enough poison to restart the same cycle."

That doesn't make much sense, Hiei glanced behind him and leaned back to brace himself up on the wall in a more casual stance. She told him more bits of information without piecing them together to show how they fit with the entire story.

Her husband obviously isn't the only clever one in their relationship, Kurama couldn't help but feel a curl of respect for the unfamiliar deity at the continued proof that she and her husband seemed to love screwing with the `higher ups' of Rekai just as much as they did. Obviously the legend was written in a confusing way on purpose.

"So this miko killed herself to fix it too?" Yuusuke rubbed his head and made a disgusted sound. "I didn't know mikos were so suicidal-"

"Don't be dense, Yuusuke, mikos value life above all else," Koenma corrected him sharply, rising to smack him upside the head before he settled back as though he'd never moved.

"Unless it's a youkai," Hiei muttered in disgust.

"Do you want to know what I know or do you want to spend a week chasing rumors in Makai?" he threatened in frustration, rubbing his aching head until they subsided. "And for your information, she was attacked by a hanyou and tried to destroy the jewel to protect it when she passed away from the injuries. Except the jewel wasn't finished with its existence and reformed itself to return fifty years later where the evil that was calling itself Naraku came to hunt it out."

An artifact that won't allow itself to "die?" Sounds annoying, Hiei arched an eyebrow at the continuing twists in the story.

I'm sure you can find people who would agree with you, Kurama absently shushed him, automatically picking out the holes in information to file away and re-ask when they tracked down Sango and her monk husband.

"This time the jewel was shattered to prevent from being taken in by a master it didn't choose, sending itself all over feudal Japan to find the souls it wanted and draw them together," Koenma recited, brow furrowed in concentration. "The difference was the jewel had an appointed keeper with its reformation, and used her to gather its strength together and annihilate Naraku completely."

"Somehow I get the sense that isn't the end of the story," Hiei murmured dryly into the following lull after they had paused to digest what they'd heard. Aside from how bizarre this suggestion is that the jewel was sentient and held a grudge against this Naraku for hunting it.

"That's the problem," Koenma blew out a sigh, folding his arms behind his head and leaning back. "That's really all they'll tell us. Sango-sama refuses to say more than the jewel was finally restored after a terrible accident that nearly killed her husband's second wife. But that she still never recovered from it and died soon after giving birth to their second child."

"What's that wife's name?" Yuusuke prodded curiously.

"They won't say," he shook his head. "I can't find any files that pertain to her, and there's no sign she was ever processed, but I can't be sure without a name and no one is talking."

"She's probably been reincarnated by now," Kurama observed, trying to fathom why they would be so close-lipped about a cherished member of their family, but passed it off as just another way to irritate the diminutive ruler. I would use it after all, and this monk seems too intelligent to pass up the chance. "If it was so long ago and she was taken before her time due to an event that led to humans ranking ascension, she would have been high in line to be given another try at-" he broke off and made a slow sound of understanding as he shared a look of dawning comprehension with Hiei.

Yuusuke rocked back on his heels slightly, too familiar with this side of the process not to have caught the undertones, "That's it, isn't it? She was reincarnated already."

"And you recently approved reincarnation for the soul of a man directly involved in her death," Kurama added the accusation.

"Possibly the target of his obsession in the first place," Hiei's eyebrow kicked up in his bland superiority that never failed to convey how beneath him he felt such a mistake was. "Since you mentioned that was the issue, wasn't it?"

`The first wife is defensive, angry, condemning… and by the dialogue, her husband has been willing to turn over documents pertaining to events in the past that haven't been shown for some time,' Youko ticked off points they knew on mental fingers as they watched the demi-god curl in on himself self-consciously. `Koenma's nervous and sending us after the only youkai attachment he knows is left over from Naraku and alive in Makai. It makes sense.'

They think Koenma's going to get the other wife of their family killed again through his mistake, Hiei smirked at the discomfiture on Koenma's face. Or worse, that she'll be taken by this thing and not be returned to them when she finishes her new life.

Maybe worse than that, Kurama's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he pondered the way he continued to fidget under their attention. "What happened to the Shikon-no-Tama, Koenma?"

He flinched and ducked his head to busy himself looking at his paperwork rather than look at the piercing emerald eyes, "No one knows. The only information we have is that the accident changed everything, but they won't tell us how or why."

Can't imagine why, Hiei snorted.

"So there's a chance it still exists and if this psycho thinks that girl knows about where it is, or that she's the same one he killed over the Shikon thing in the first place, he'll probably go after her to pick up where he left off," Yuusuke's jaw set, grinding his teeth together hard against the sudden urge to demand what the hell he was thinking. "And in this lifetime, she won't know anything about it or him, and she won't know how to defend herself or have her family to protect her."

"That's a… distinct possibility," Koenma admitted in a quiet voice.

`Well shit, no wonder that Sango girl was pissed off!' Youko was well beyond ready to throw his hands up in his air and start proclaiming what idiots occupied the upper levels, muttering in self-directed disgust over how lazy he had to have gotten if he was actually caught stealing from them. `She obviously loved that other wife if she's that protective. Mutual decision to have…Ooh, she probably picked her out herself, I think humans did that back then-!'

Focus, Youko, Kurama prodded him back to attention. We'll think about it later, but right now we need to get more about what he does know about this mess.

"And you were planning to tell us when?" Yuusuke demanded in a shout that had both Hiei and Kurama wincing. "When this guy showed up and kidnapped this girl and tried to use her to recreate all the shit the legend talks about? All that shit that Sango woman talked about? Would you have waited until she was dead again? Or worse?"

"The side effects of the Shikon-no-Tama were specifically geared to youkai and in extreme cases, humans with dreams of grandeur that could tap into the evil souls trapped inside," Koenma pressed his palms flat on the table and yelled right back in his face. "All it took was one touch to drive a lesser youkai insane, needing and craving its power. But the ones strong enough to hold off that effect used the jewel to increase their strength a hundred times over!"

The unspoken end to that revelation hanging in the air was easy to decipher.

"And we… are strong youkai," Hiei murmured quietly, folding his arms with a slow precision that made Koenma set his jaw.

`Why that presumptuous little prick,' Kurama could feel Youko's gaze darken, grinding their teeth together at the sudden need to grab Koenma and beat him back into his infantile state. `He was trying to handle it without us because he thought we'd take the jewel and destroy the world, or something overly-dramatic and ridiculous like that. He's been making our lives miserable just because he's a paranoid little fuck.

And putting an innocent human girl at risk of losing her soul forever, Kurama held back his other side with effort, thoughts racing madly at the implications.

"I'm sorry, but we couldn't take the chance that you would be tempted," Koenma's stubborn expression suddenly crumbled as he slumped back down, propping one elbow on his desk to brace the weight oh his head wearily in his palm. "It's a discussion I've had to have with Sango-sama many times… but even if it comes to the destruction of this person's soul, we cannot allow the Shikon-no-Tama to fall into youkai hands again. If the stories are even half true-"

"You already decided to let her get killed?" Yuusuke scowled and leaned over the desk again. "Dammit, Koenma, what the fuck are we working for you for if you won't trust us with this kind of thing?! Sure, we ain't pansy angels or anything, but we've got no reason to take over the world because of a stupid jewel!"

Less eloquent than I would have preferred, but at least he's getting the point across, Kurama almost smiled at the indignation radiating off their leader, biting it back to indulge at a less tension-ridden moment.

`It's damn insulting to think we'd need any sort of artifact to increase our power,' Youko spat out, his skin crawling with distaste at the idea that anyone would ever think such a thing of him. `I might steal it for the hell of it, but I've never needed enhancements. I should break his desk in half over his head for suggesting it-`

Your ego is running away with your intelligence, Hiei interrupted when he saw Kurama's hands clench and unclench with the need to vent his anger. Refocus… what do you think that empty miko has to do with all of this?

Kurama went still, his eyes widening fractionally at the sudden idea of all the ways that the girl he and Youko had finally agreed on could be linked with this disgustingly tangled mess of history, Kagome.

`Whatever it is, she's ours now,' Youko replied without missing a beat, the absolute finality in the tone of his voice making it seem as though he thought that should have been understood. `But the timing is right… with the company she keeps, we have to assume she knows something important. Maybe it's something with her family that ties in.'

Which would make the over-protectiveness of the youkai around her even more understandable, Kurama turned the possibilities over in his head with a frown. With the suggestion they have been alive so long, perhaps they were present when the events of this legend were happening?

"Anyone with ties to that jewel know that it's more important to protect it, even if the methods used aren't completely on the white side of the line or cause a few deaths," Koenma protested in his own defense. "And don't look so surprised, you two. You were caught stealing from us once already, and we're not stupid enough to think you wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat for the right prize."

Hiei shrugged, neither agreeing with nor denying the accusation.

Should we ask him or should we wait and ask Sango? Kurama was mostly ignoring the excuses tumbling from Koenma's lips as he argued the merits of his decision. If Kagome is involved, and he didn't know about her already, he might try to snap her up himself and keep her in Rekai until he figures it out.

`Good point,' Youko frowned at the idea, but openly acknowledged that it was definitely Rekai's style. `We can't let them find her then, not until we know more about what's really going on here.'

I would be more impressed by that decision if I didn't know it was motivated by the desire to initiate a relationship to satisfy your depraved withdrawls, Hiei interjected blandly, lips quirked faintly at the scowls he could feel press in on his mind.

Are you really in a rush to have her locked in a vault for Koenma's leisurely interrogation before you figure out how she feels the way she feels? Kurama taunted, tossing his head in victory when the hybrid went silent and refused to look his way. Satisfied, he decided to turn the conversation around before Yuusuke inadvertently gave away the miko they'd all met so very recently, "Why did you send Kurabara in as a spy to Takeharuka if you think he's human?"

"That's simple," Koenma smiled slightly, delighted at the redirection for his own reasons. "The descendants of the bloodlines involved in the past are all closely tied to the Takeharuka empire, so the best way to keep an eye on them and look for any clues to if the jewel is still around or not was to plant him at the heart of their family. It really has grown quite sizable since its near destruction in Sengoku Jidai."

"And your method seems to have worked wonders so far," Hiei remarked in sardonic amusement.

The smile turned into a scowl of annoyance, "Just because they don't have any information related to the Shikon-no-Tama beyond what we have, it doesn't make it a complete failure. They've carried on the tradition of their ancestors, passing down the training of the taijiya lines and the powerful holy skills from their origins."

`Holy-?'

"What do you mean holy?" Kurama finished when Youko trailed of in surprise.

"Did I forget to mention that Sango-sama's husband was a monk of remarkable power and skill?" Koenma's eyebrow arched as he watched the varying expressions around him. "She never refers to him as anything but `Houshi-sama,' though… it's very frustrating for us."

"And there are no records with any names?" Yuusuke demanded in disbelief.

"They were either confiscated or misplaced."

"Misplaced," he set a fist on his hip and repeated.

This is getting ridiculous, Kurama readjusted his arms, keeping one folded across his abdomen to make a prop for the other elbow as he dropped his head into the upturned palm and rubbed his temples. "Who confiscated the records, Koenma?" he asked in a tired voice when the minutes ticked by in the current staring match.

"Sango-sama's husband walked in one day, went sorting through the files just as calm as if he owned my office and left with an armload of folders without a word," he raked a hand through his hair, spreading out a stack of papers with absent, and -by now-practiced efficiency.

"Part of his exemption?" Hiei wasn't quite sure if he was impressed or pissed off at the nameless, and currently faceless monk.

"Anything pertaining to his family is untouchable without his permission," Koenma ground out reluctantly, more than embarrassed to admit they'd been tricked to such an extent. "Including lifetime files… given his position, he even has the power to collect souls himself when they're scheduled to pass along. He doesn't need anything we do when it comes to his own."

`Sonofabitch… that's a crafty fucking human,' Youko spoke through his delighted laughter, unable to deny that he felt the discomfort on Koenma's face was well worth any sorts of impediment this monk's interference happened to cause their own investigation.

Especially for a holy man, Hiei snorted.

`My tail he is… that's a con-artist, pure and simple, even if he is a supposed monk,' Youko answered before Kurama had even collected his thoughts enough to make the effort to come up with his own opinion.

It's not like you to be so defensive to a total stranger, Kurama's brow furrowed slightly as they watched Koenma slap at Yuusuke when the latter started laughing at him openly.

`We recognize our own,' Youko nodded and gave him his most matter-of-fact tone.

Thieves.

`Of course.'

Who managed to find two wives and father two children that we know of in his human lifetime, Hiei drawled out in the exact same tone.

A low growl answered this time.

A miko and a taijiya, he continued to dig in deeper, losing interest in his torment of the demi-god now that he had a new avenue of taunting open to him. Strong enough on their own to be involved with the potential "end of the world" and make it out alive. Maybe he can give you advice on how to get Kagome to say yes to you when she has a taiyoukai and his followers surrounding her so familiarly?

`We're going to tear you apart very slowly, Hiei,' Youko fought to get control of their hands, swearing in frustration when Kurama kept him firmly reigned in. `Dammit, Kurama, let go! I'm going to snap that tiny little spine of his in half and use it to make a bedpost so he can spend eternity watching us have wild, violent-`

Enough! Kurama rushed to cut him off before he could finish that, horrified at what he could possibly say to compliment the crude images flashing through his head. Stop it, Hiei, I've seen her twice, and it's not like I could have just picked her up and dragged her away at Yuusuke's house.

`Actually, we could have just-`

Your opinion of that matter doesn't count, Youko, Kurama blew out a sigh and gave up on getting anything more serious out of their meeting now that Hiei had decided to tune it out in favor of tormenting him on his on-going difficulties. Besides, you don't really want to kidnap her, you want her to come to us on her own… And you were the one who said you wanted to steal her heart and soul, so don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.

"I don't have time to stand around listening to your insults, Yuusuke!" Koenma's infuriated snarl drew them back to the less entertaining argument playing out practically on cue. "This is a serious matter."

Here it comes, Hiei rolled his eyes.

"Get out of my office until you can show me the respect my station deserves!" he slapped his hand down hard on the surface of his desk, scowling at Yuusuke the entire time. "I have too many important things to worry about without standing around and wasting my time in such a way!"

Unfortunately there is still a certain predictability to their pattern, Kurama acknowledged, taking a habitual step back while Yuusuke started with the insults until he had expertly worked the prince into a fine fury.

Dinner after this? Hiei was already turning to leave.

Go on without me… I have something I have to do first, Kurama's voice took on a distracted quality as Youko finally stopped his ranting in favor of a slow smile of pure kitsune glee at that remark.

Hiei paused and turned back with a suspicious light in his eyes, Something?

Nothing for you to be concerned with, Kurama assured him, angling his body to keep Koenma from seeing the wicked twist to his lips before he schooled it back to his "usual" serene expression.

Just what was your "gift" to her, Fox? Hiei frowned sharply, certain there was something he'd missed now while he was fighting Shippou and distracted with his need for answers. Stepping back when Yuusuke abruptly turned on his heel and stalked for the door with the demi-god shouting over his desk that he wasn't finished yelling at him for being so disruptive, he made sure to give him a heavily weighted stare, What did you do that you didn't tell me about?

Youko tsked in disapproval, `Are you accusing us of using underhanded tactics when we were given specific instructions from Sesshoumaru himself to be on our best behavior?'

What is it humans say? About lightning striking? Hiei snorted, shaking his head as he moved to follow their team leader away from the sound of Koenma's voice. Granted it wasn't as abrasive to the senses now that he'd matured into his older body permanently -or at least until he screwed up badly enough to have to re-grow it again- but the noise was still grating enough after a point, You keep trying to pass that shit off at me, and it's only a matter of time before we find out if that's true.

Kurama and Youko chuckled in unison, waiting until the door had slammed closed behind them before sliding a hand through his hair with deceptive casualness, opening his palm just enough for Hiei to catch a glimpse of the seed just beginning to sprout under their direction, The humans have another saying that I find myself more inclined to follow at the moment.

What's that?

All's fair in love and war.

~*~*~*~

Kagome took up a stance across from Shippou, smiling in helpless amusement when he winked and formed the two wakizashis that he seemed to have grown so fond of and held them up in a guarding position, "You've been dying to do this, haven't you, brat?"

"You kidding? Like Sesshoumaru says, if you can fight a miko as strong as you, you can fight anything," he chirped back brightly. "Besides, I was too little to help you train with anything but stupid little illusions before."

The rings of her shakujou jingled against each other as she blew out a centering breath and felt the length of the staff warm and fortify under her direction, frowning slightly when the first spatter of rain hit her hand, "Shippou-"

"I'm not that elemental," he defended, turning his nose up at the accusation that he'd tamper with the environment for their first real fight. "Besides, it's just rain. Perfectly normal for this time of year and all that."

True, she almost rolled her eyes, but stopped herself and focused on the sound of her foot against the grass as she slid one out wider for more even balance. "This means you can't whine about being muddy," she pointed out.

Shippou giggled, "I changed out of my good clothes. Besides, I really only do that to annoy Sesshoumaru. C'mon, Nee-san, I'm ready whenever you are!"

Kagome shook her head with an affectionate laugh, rolling her shoulders once more as her soul heated with the focused rise of ki before she pushed off with her leading foot and swung the shakujou with enough force that the startled kitsune slid back a few paces across the dampening grass.

He blinked and blinked again, readjusting his grip before his lips split in a dazzling grin and he darted in at her much more confidently, "So you really are holding back whenever you're fighting with Shinju and Souta."

Kagome let her mind retreat back into the lessons that had been drilled into her on a daily basis, and the experiences that had tempered them for so many years as she swung the staff to meet and deflect the rapid attacks. Still, she was laughing again as she answered him, "You knew that, you little idiot. We fight differently than they do." If I can help it, we always will.

"Yeah well, it's still not something you expect to feel from a human, you know?" he flipped over her head and puffed up proudly when she dropped under the swing with ease and rolled without a single thought for the condition of her clothes. He would have been slightly less pleased if he hadn't convinced her to change, but it was good to know she still had her priorities straight in threatening situations. Sesshoumaru's right… we'd never be able to take away the killer instinct she learned with us in the past. She really can't be a normal human any more than we can.

Kagome nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a blast of music, pausing with the shakujou holding down Shippou's crossed swords and looking around until she saw a portable stereo plugged into an outlet on the porch. "What the hell?" she cocked her head to one side, trying to make sense of what she was seeing and hearing.

"Can't have a fight without a soundtrack," Shippou answered her look matter-of-factly before he leaned forward and kissed her on the nose, following up with a kick to her stomach that sent her crashing to the ground with an "oomph!" of surprise.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kagome muttered, rolling out of the way before he could come down on top of her and bringing her elbow hard enough against the side of his knee that it buckled and would have shattered if he were anything but youkai. A familiar tune started as she rolled to her feet and shot him a disbelieving look, "You did not-! Shippou, is this Souta's video game soundtracks?"

Shippou shot her an innocent look, "Maybe?"

"You really are a freak," she shook her head and grinned at him with a sort of taunting affection, brushing mud off her cheek with her shoulder as the rain picked up and added weight to clothes and hair.

"But I'm a very cute freak," he pointed out loftily, sinking the blades into the grass as he reached up and unbuttoned his top shirt to toss it back towards their piled belongings on the safety of the porch. "And I'm going to kick your ass, Nee-san, so don't underestimate the power of my soundtrack!"

Kagome burst out laughing, setting the staff in front of her as her hand glowed very briefly to hold it erect while she yanked her own shirt up over her head and cast it aside as well before bending to rid herself of socks and shoes while Shippou preened in front of her and made sure his sienna hair was perfectly smoothed into its topknot.

"See? Aren't you glad I told you to change?" Shippou wheedled when her shoes had gone the way of her shirt and the legs of her pants rolled up to keep from tripping her up. "Preparing for the unpredictability of weather… plus it's a lot sexier to fight in the rain when it can hit skin directly."

"Sesshoumaru told me to have a talk with you about your openly perverted nature, you know," Kagome arched an eyebrow over that offered remark and sighed, absently checking her own ponytail before gripping the shakujou again and flexing her feet to soak in the natural living feel of their surroundings.

"I'm knowledgeable, Kagome, not perverted," he corrected with a scolding shake of one finger as he reached down to pull the wakizashis free of the earth, perfectly clean despite the rising pressure of the rain as the ground obediently released them to his hands.

"And now you sound just like Miroku," Kagome pointed out, twisting to pivot on one foot and side-step him when he rushed her again, blocking the first strike and adjusting the staff to catch the second blade inside the ring. A clean snap of the wrist had jerked it out of his hand while the following kick was avoided in a neat hop backwards, "How many times do I have to tell you not to repeat anything he taught you?"

"He really should have been a kitsune, you know," Shippou defended, holding up a hand to summon back the lost weapon and sink down into a crouch, eyes glowing richly in soundless praise for the flawless execution of that maneuver. He'd wanted so badly to do this, every time he watched from the sidelines as Sango and Miroku taught her what they knew, then later watching her instructions with Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru.

The taiyoukai had naturally been the most difficult opponent short of Naraku himself, and as such, he'd been her most demanding instructor, forcing her to develop her uncertain skills before they had the chance to overwhelm and control her.

Those had been the fights that were the most fun to watch.

He felt the pulse over his sternum, smirking slightly as they parried blows again while he absently let his mind recall his childish jealousy at being the only one who hadn't understood what had happened. There had been so many long nights where he'd lain awake, straining to hear the low discussions between the young miko and the other members of the group, even more after Inuyasha's deadly brother had been drawn in to their altered situation, but they'd always seen through his attempts.

It had been a complete accident when he finally did find out what all the secrecy had been about, and an even bigger shock.

Shippou would never admit it, of course, but that had been the day he decided that regardless of their past history, Sesshoumaru would always have his respect and admiration for being the one who saved both him and the miko he adored from a fate worse than death. He'd also come into a new, if somewhat awkward sort of camaraderie with Inuyasha for unintentionally stumbling into the very situation the elegant taiyoukai had been forced to "fix" in the first place.

To make matters worse, Kagome had forgiven them so easily that he still had moments of guilt, but still… deep in the most hidden part of his mind he was grateful for the connection that they had yet to find a reversal for. It was worth the minor inconveniences to be able to find Kagome wherever she might be taken, or to provide her with a safe haven temporarily if she needed it in an emergency and Sesshoumaru wasn't close enough to deliver.

His mind jolted abruptly back to the present when he felt the crack of the staff against the outside of his ankle, following through to knock him flat on his back as the sharpened edge of the shakujou's crown came within a breath of his throat.

Shippou swallowed and looked up the motionless length of the staff to Kagome's face, connecting with glassy blue set into a perfectly grave expression as she informed him softly, "Wandering minds make for sloppy hands, Shippou-chan. Don't ever make yourself an easy kill by thinking past the battle in front of you."

For a long moment they stared at each other with only the sounds of the rain pouring around them to mingle with their accelerated breaths, his face full of a soft sort of surprise as he watched the way the faded pupils mingled in with the deeper shade of her own irises until the emotions roiling just below the surface broke free. Shippou could feel the muscles in his body going slack as a bolt of understanding rocked through him, tilting his view of the world on its axis for that frozen space of time when he recognized the raw edge to the pain and memories making her eyes shift and sparkle so very intensely.

Five hundred years was a long time to reflect… to be able to sort out memories and slowly come to grips with things and feelings that he'd had no control over. Five hundred years to soften the blow of hard-won battles and family long-gone to the inescapable flow of time; even against the nightmares of enemies and uncertainties that had haunted his every waking moment in his childhood.

Not to mention his buffer of actually being little more than a child so long ago. The harsh realities of life in Sengoku Jidai was something that he was intimately familiar with, but despite that, he knew that without Kagome, and Inuyasha, and all of them, they would have been much, much worse. He'd been mostly free of the doubt that his adult mind could look back on and see plaguing his adopted family, letting himself be consoled and reassured with loving touches and false confidence that had blurred around the edges with the passage of that time.

Five hundred years ago, he never would have been allowed to see the emotions coloring Kagome's eyes that indigo-blue of fathomless knowledge and pain.

It brought her forward, Shippou could feel his eyes softening, taking in the way the rain plastered her hair to her pale skin in stark contrast, the rigid way she held her body, and the ease of precision that kept the deadly ring of the shakujou resting just above his skin. We had time- I had time… to think, and to heal…

A ripple of energy seemed to dance down her skin, the warming feel plucking at the back of his mind as he recognized the sensation, the push against her senses for an outlet to what had mostly become an exercise for the youkai of this era. He could still remember it, especially since it was so common to feel from Sesshoumaru and any other youkai old enough to have the violent instincts to survive at all costs deeply ingrained into the very essence that created their soul, but humans had long since forgotten. In this time there was simply no need to be ready to kill at a second's notice or find yourself at an abrupt end.

But then… She isn't any more from this time than she was from ours in the past when she first came. Kagome… Kagome traded being misplaced in one time for being misplaced in this one that was supposed to be her home, all because of… because of us. Because of what she had to become to stay with us. And she remembers it all as if it had only just happened- To her it did only just happen.

The sheer enormity of that realization had Shippou's brows drawing in against a sharp stab of regret, mouth opening for a moment before it closed on whatever words had been trying to make their way from his head to his lips. What could you say to someone who had done what she did? Hell, how did she handle it in such a way that it had taken him so long to actually recognize it for himself? Shippou prided himself on his observational skills, seeing things that anyone else would pass over in a heartbeat.

So why had this taken him so long to see?

"Holy shit!!"

Shippou was jerked out of his thoughts, twisting in unison with Kagome to stare at the widened eyes of her brother, inwardly noting that with their positions, there was only one thing he could have seen to encourage that type of reaction. The flinch was so subtle that if they hadn't been so close to each other he probably would have missed it, but his reaction was instantaneous.

He rolled out from under the deadly edge, rising to his feet with all the fluid grace his centuries had given him and flicking a hand to conjure up a shirt before stepping to her side and dragging it over her shoulders with a warning scowl in the boy's direction.

Whether he saw it and chose to ignore it, or completely missed that frown in his distraction, Shippou didn't know, but whatever it was, Souta was bounding off the porch to skid across the grass in front of them with a look of concerned fear and shocked curiosity warring to gain control of his features, "Kagome! What the-? What in-? What the fuck happened?!"

The uncharacteristic language had one of Shippou's eyebrows kicking up before he could stop it, protectively hovering at Kagome's side as she slowly straightened and turned to look from her brother to the porch where Shinju stood as placid and stable a presence as ever even as he bent to stop the music from playing, "He called you?"

Shinju nodded a single time, holding up his arm to show the towels draped over it while his eyes slanting to the way brother and sister were staring at each other, quietly looking for answers in the other's eyes until Shippou swore under his breath and grabbed Kagome by the waist to lift her off her feet and carry her up out of the rain.

"Oi! Dammit, Shippou, how many times do I have to remind you guys she's my sister and technically I've known her a lot longer than you have!" Souta hurried to follow, setting his jaw and glaring at the kitsune when the latter turned a superior look back at him. "And stop looking at me like that! I have a right to know what happened to make those marks!"

"Shippou," Kagome's voice took on a warning note that had him backing down as she gratefully took a dark towel from Shinju's outstretched hand, dabbing at the water running down her skin rather than look at either of them until she could manage to get her racing thoughts under control. "Don't be an ass."

Shinju chuckled softly, shaking his head at the crestfallen expression that crossed the kitsune's face at being scolded like a child, but giving her the time she seemed to need before she could answer her brother, "There is… a great deal that must be concealed under the circumstances, Souta. Kagome's passage through the time rift is not something that Sesshoumaru-sama wishes other creatures to know."

"Those didn't come from the well," Souta folded his arms stubbornly over his chest, unable to completely conceal the hurt in his eyes when Kagome finally turned enough to meet his gaze. "You said you would tell me eventually, Nee-san! What happened?"

Kagome blew out a heavy sigh, craning her neck back to look out over the yard through the rain before she closed her eyes and seemed to come to some sort of decision, "I was… in the way. When Inuyasha and Naraku were fighting over the jewel, after we had collected everything. There was a fight."

"There was always a fight," Shippou muttered in a subdued tone, fidgeting as he tried to think of any way he could possibly buffer her against the memories that were still so unforgivingly fresh to her mind.

A humorless smile touched her lips as she nodded and agreed even softer, "That's true…"

The tension settled around them as heavily as the rain, unvoiced questions hanging stagnant in the air until Shippou nudged her and added in a teasing pitch, "And Inuyasha said you were always in the way."

This time Kagome's smile was genuine, eyes brightening as she chuckled at the more pleasant memories that brought her and shook her head, straightening her spine and lightly elbowing Shippou in the stomach, "That's also true."

Shippou preened at being able to draw her smile out, puffing up his chest and taking the towel away before he motioned for her to turn her back to him, "C'mon, Nee-san. I'll get you cleaned up while you talk."

Souta intercepted the towel and tilted his chin up to answer the challenge in the kitsune's eyes when they snapped around disapprovingly, "I want to see it."

Kagome reached up and grasped Shippou's wrist when he opened his mouth to press the issue, shaking her head and murmuring in a softer, cajoling tone, "It's all right. He's being included with all this, it wouldn't be right not to show him."

Souta's shoulders relaxed, half formed doubts and fears melting away at hearing his sister defend him to the kitsune who'd known her in a time before he was born and was never allowed to enter. His hand tightened on the towel when Shippou dropped it and stepped back, head dipping in a silent show of acquiescing with her wishes when she shrugged her shoulders and let the shirt slide down to her elbows, baring the length of her back.

Shippou stood with his arms folded, only the flick of his tail back and forth betraying his unease with the situation as Kagome reached up to catch her ponytail and drag it over her shoulder, eyes trained down to hide the emotions holding her tense the moment Souta's breath sucked in harshly.

He couldn't stop the faint growl that rose in his throat when the boy took a step forward, hand extended to touch her before his courage seemed to falter and his palm simply hovered over the disrupted surface of the skin. One hand lifted self-consciously, pressing his palm over the much smaller copy burned into his own flesh when Souta made the connection and turned those stunned eyes to him.

"Nee-san…" Souta whispered, glanced back at Shinju's grim expression before he finally let his hand tentatively rest in the center of the main circle, eyes darting over the symbols and writings that looked as though the had been burned with great precision between her shoulder blades.

"Don't touch it long," Shippou advised with that same quietness that had overtaken the porch, even the rain falling in a more muted pattern, as though showing respect to the miko sitting so still for the "examination."

"Why?" he couldn't stop himself from asking even as he lifted his hand, brows furrowing when he realized there was an entire starburst of irregular tiny lines that seemed to originate from the center of that mark. It… something… exploded on her back? But…?

"Humans don't seem to like the way it feels," Shippou shrugged it aside with a nonchalance he was far from feeling, reaching out to set his hand on Kagome's shoulder and squeeze as he bent down to look at her face. "Kagome?"

"I'm all right," she offered him a reassuring half-smile, blowing out a heavy breath and stubbornly turning her gaze up to the grey sky. "It was a long time ago, Souta… But it did take me longer to heal."

The shirt slipped lower and Souta felt his hands clench at the sight of the bottom half of the macabre design, the perfectly symmetrical lines starting just beside her spine within the lowest edge of the circle, losing sight of them under the fabric of her sports bra, only to see the lines undisturbed past the material and dragging down at an angle along her ribs. As though something had hooked the bones and ridden them down before being removed from her flesh, "Who did this to you?" My gods… she-! She could have died! Did this happen after she stopped returning? We would have noticed if she came home with these wounds, I'm sure we would have! But how-?

"An accident."

"This is one hell of an accident!" he exploded, gripping her shoulder and pulling her around to face him, completely oblivious to how much like a child he sounded when he yelled at her. "You could have died!"

Shippou instinctively reached up to steady her despite her own change in stance to balance after the unexpected motion, glaring over the top of her head and hissing out, "We wouldn't have let her die! Not while any of us were alive!"

"You could have all died!" Souta shot back at him, gesturing back so expansively that Shinju had to duck or be hit in the face. "But that's not the point right now! I want to know who cut that into my sister, and I want to know now!"

"I broke the jewel a second time," Kagome stepped forward, clapping a hand over his mouth and forcing him to catch her eyes when he seemed about to go into full-blown hysterics. "Inuyasha and Naraku were fighting for it after it was completed… I didn't know I was standing in the way until it was too late, and not even Naraku had thought that it would shatter when it hit me."

"That's what the little scars are from… the lines," he grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand down enough to talk. "There were shards in your back?"

She nodded once, murmuring a quick thanks to Shippou when she felt his drag the shirt back up to cover her, "That's what I meant by being in the way. If I hadn't been standing where I was, it would have missed me." Maybe…

Shippou gave her a look that clearly said he didn't believe that for an instant, but let it slide to reassure the slowly calming human in front of them. He busied himself by taking back the towel and pulling her hair away from her body to squeeze out the excess moisture before carefully working at drying the rest, determined to turn his own mind away from the nightmare memories he still carried from that day.

"Naraku ran away again after that with the shards that had managed to get free, but I didn't know," Kagome reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes, lightly cupping his chin and pleading with him not to ask questions she didn't want to answer yet. "Miroku-sama said that the marking on my back were an ancient language… spells and charms that had been dead for a long time, but we don't know who made them."

"And the others?" Souta gritted his teeth, expression earnestly pleading for the truth. "What made them?"

"That happened later," Kagome's eyes slanted away from his guiltily, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the chill that had nothing to do with the air around them. "Nothing could have stopped it, but… I was being restrained. I got them when Sesshoumaru decided to help us."

"Claws, Souta," Shippou clarified when the boy had opened his mouth again, turning Kagome and splaying his own fingers over those scars to illustrate the way she'd been held, and then tracing them out to clarify how the pattern was made. "A youkai didn't want to let her go and Big Dog just dragged her out of it backwards. But don't puff up and think badly of him… there just wasn't any other way to get her out. We'd been trying."

Kagome swatted him over the head, rolling her eyes and muttering about high-handed tactics while Shinju hid a faint chuckle behind his hand. At least until Souta rounded on him accusingly, "Dammit, why aren't you shocked?"

"Miroku-sama kept very clear records," Shinju shrugged, gripping his sleeve and pulling it up until he could show the blues lines of the identical image decorating his shoulder. "It was recorded and preserved in Sesshoumaru-sama's library for us to read after he taught us our history."

Souta looked at him like he'd just lost his mind, "And you just up and tattooed it on your arm."

"I meditated a great deal on the possibility," he returned with a sage nod that had Shippou snickering behind Kagome's back. Coming in such a blasé tone of voice for a topic like that was just too close to the monk they had known and loved in the first place, "Then I drank sake with Kaze until it seemed like the proper solution to my ponderings."

Souta blinked in disbelief and finally looked back to where Kagome was obviously trying her hardest not to burst out laughing, Shippou just shaking his head while his uncle maintained that same peaceful expression, "You… are so strange sometimes, Shinju-sensei."

"Please, Souta!" he held up one hand, two fingers in front of his lips while the others curled loosely towards his palm. "I am but a humble servant of Buddha. To accuse me of such eccentricities-ah!"

Kagome smiled affectionately and kissed him on the forehead once she'd dragged his head down low enough with her hold on the little ponytail at his nape, "Go help with dinner, Shinju."

She gave him a push back towards the house, glancing up at Shippou and motioning with her head, "Give us a minute?"

Shippou pursed his lips, not liking the request one bit, but finally relenting with another nod, "Call me if you need me, Nee-san. And come inside before the sun finishes setting so you can change your clothes."

"I was taking care of myself before you were," she shooed him off with her hands, waiting for him to disappear through the shoji before her eyes scanned the grass for the shakujou, flicking her wrist to bring it back to her and walking to the railing with a sigh.

"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt that badly?" Souta slowly walked up beside her, folding his arms on the rail and leaning over to sneak a look up at her profile. "Why didn't you tell me it almost killed you?"

"Because it almost killed me a lot of times, Souta," Kagome smiled gently, reaching out to wrap her arm around her brother's shoulders and tug him closer until their sides touched. "You were young, and I didn't want you to be worried when I left. Mama knew why I did it."

"Did this happen before you couldn't come home?" he asked after he'd taken a minute to digest the affirmation that she'd shielded them from more than he'd thought. I guess… it's my fault too. The stories she'd tell me; it was like a manga or something. The characters don't get scarred or killed if they're important enough. And Kagome- he glanced at her face when she leaned out, catching the rain with her eyes closed, she was supposed to be important enough.

Kagome was shaking her head as she pulled herself back under the cover of the porch, wiping the water off her face with her hand, "No, it didn't. I'd already had Kazenatsu when we fought that battle. It wasn't easy, Souta, it never was. But sometimes it's worth it."

"Almost dying?" his brows lifted, making her heart wrench ever so slightly at the innocence in his eyes, the untainted belief that there weren't really things in the world so evil as to measure up to the stories she told.

"When you love something and someone enough, Souta, you'd do anything to protect them," she tried to explain, leaning her head on the nearest support for the porch roof as she sorted for the right words. "If we let Naraku win, this world… this time… it would never have existed. Everyone I loved in the past would have been killed, and even if I had managed to survive, he would have hunted me forever. The past would have changed the future, and I couldn't take that risk." Even if it killed me.

Souta continued to stare at her in silent contemplation while the rain alternately poured and drizzled around them, shadows lengthening across the bamboo boards until he murmured, "You're so old now."

Kagome snorted at that and turned to glare at him, but her mouth just wouldn't hold the stern look, "I'm not that old!"

He laughed and spread his hands out, holding off the `wrath of the insulted female' long enough to try and clarify that, "Well sometimes you are and sometimes you aren't. When you're just yourself with us, you're… ah, you. But then we have these talks or the way you fight, and you change. Your eyes look like the youkai you've introduced me to, the old ones, like Sesshoumaru. Where you know they're sizing you up and counting the ways they could kill you before you've even said hello."

"It's a survival instinct, Souta," she rolled her eyes, but had to chuckle at the accurate description of Sesshoumaru's typical welcoming stare. "If you're caught off-guard, something bigger and smarter will eventually get the better of you. That's how it was done."

"I think he's trying to develop telekinetic powers and cause the instant spontaneous combustion of anyone who irritates him," Souta folded his arms, trying to lift her mood before she could get gloomy and withdrawn. "Either that or he's near-sighted."

"Souta!" Kagome gasped out in a scandalized voice, but completely ruined it by laughing at the very thought that the great taiyoukai would even allow himself to have such a flaw.

"Can't you imagine the visit to the optometrist?" Souta pressed, completely relaxing as he shoved aside his own darker thoughts and fears for a past that was already survived in favor of seeing her smile so widely.

"Stop! You're killing me!" Kagome clutched her stomach and fought off the images she could see so clearly in her head until she finally managed to wind down to giggles and straighten back up. She had opened her mouth to scold him half-heartedly again when she felt a little tug on her leg and dropped her gaze to the vine curling around her ankle, "Back, hn? I wondered where you ran off to."

Souta followed her line of sight down, his mind going blank when the thing twining around his sister's ankle grinned slithered up her exposed calf like some sort of weird, leafy serpent, "That's a plant."

"Yes, it's a plant."

"With teeth."

"A lot of them, actually, Shippou can show you the bite pattern if you're curious," she offered in her most cheerful voice, biting her lip to hide the snicker when he blanched and shot her a highly disturbed look.

"Why is it smiling at you?" he demanded, clearly torn between yanking it off her in alarm and trying to get a closer look through sheer morbid curiosity.

"Shippou says it likes me," she shrugged and bent over, holding out her hand and swearing under her breath when it detached from her ankle in favor of climbing her wrist with a squeak that she had come to associate as its "happy" sound. I've lost my mind to be encouraging it, but… it's just so… cute, although, Kagome shied away from the implication to her potentially degenerating sanity over that way of thinking.

"He gave it to you?" Souta reached out in disbelief, hand hovering over the closed bloom as though offering it to a stray dog as it twisted around and seemed to consider him, tilting from one side to the other.

"Another kitsune," her cheeks turned pink despite her best efforts and Souta's brows lifted at the sight just before settling down in his smug expression.

"Oooooh, I see," he pretended to look back at it just as seriously before he finally folded his arms and prepared to make a run for it. "A boy kitsune?"

"Yes, a boy kitsune," Kagome glared at him in an effort to stop him before he really startled to tease, but that just made him smile wider.

"And here I thought you were strictly a dog person," Souta managed to make his face almost totally innocent.

"Souta-" she started in a growl.

"At least you're sticking with the weird animal-youkai obsession thing you seemed to have picked up… Who would have ever thought my sister would turn into such a kinky person," he took off the instant the words left his mouth, just barely dodging the butt end of the shakujou as she took a swing at him.

"Yeah, you'd better run, you little brat!" Kagome shouted after him, shaking her fist before she turned away from the porch and gave chase, following the sound of his laughter down the hall. "When I get my hands on you, you're going to wish you'd never hit puberty to think of such disrespectful things!"

"So he does have a tail?" Souta called back, letting out an "eep" when the shakujou ended up embedded in the wall over his head. "Guess that's a no, hn? How `bout the ears?"

"You are so unbelievably dead."

"No?"

"If that's as fast as you can run, you'd better start brushing up on your prayers, Souta," Kagome hissed out at him, barely missing running smack into Shippou when the kitsune stepped around the corner carrying a tray of dishes.

Shippou blinked and turned to watch them turn another corner, smiling when he heard the crash and the shriek that clearly indicated that was indeed as fast as the little human could run, "Think they hit the vase or the painting?"

Shinju gave him a surprised look as he maneuvered around him towards the dining room, "I heard nothing."

Catching on, Shippou winked and nodded, deciding it would be worth the look on Jaken's face when he finally returned to the unclaimed destruction, "Right, right… Must have been that over-active kitsune imagination."