Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Paradox ❯ Koenma ( Chapter 6 )

Title: Paradox

Author: Somnambulicious

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer:
I don't own either
Inuyasha or YuYu;
Somebody else does.

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Chapter 6: Koenma

Back in his Tokyo apartment, Kurama was getting a headache. 'What the hell?'

'My sentiments exactly,' agreed Youko.

They had been pondering the puzzle of Kagome for an hour and still couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation for what they had learned from Jinenji. The possibilities included:

1. Jinenji was mistaken, and the miko's name had, in fact, been Kikyou. But where did he come up with the name 'Kagome?'

2. By coincidence, Jinenji had known another miko by the name of Kagome. But how did Kagome know Jinenji? Or was that a coincidence as well? Perhaps her Jinenji was, in fact, human.

3. Kagome had been passing through the barrier and visiting Jinenji in Makai. In his old age, Jinenji had mixed up the girls' names.

4. Kagome was over five hundred years old. It wasn't unheard of for spiritually powerful humans to live for hundreds of years; 'Remember the stories about Pai Mei, over on the continent?' Youko reminded Kurama. But even the most powerful of humans would have aged in that time, and Kagome didn't look a day older than eighteen. And why would a 500-year-old human choose to go to high school?

5. The world was going to hell in a handbasket.

Kurama was leaning toward explanation number five at the moment. None of those possibilities explained how Kagome was learning a form of martial arts that was lost over three hundred years ago, or what was going on with Hiei. And where did the saimyoushou fit in? If she had been going to Makai, surely she would have encountered much larger, more dangerous youkai than the saimyoushou. Why would they terrify her so?

'Maybe she's a time traveler,' suggested Youko.

Kurama snorted. 'You've been alive for what, four hundred years? Have you ever heard a credible tale of time travel?'

'No.'

'If it was even possible, don't you think you'd have encountered it by now?' asked Kurama.

'There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies,' Youko sagely advised.

Kurama rolled his eyes. 'I should never have let you read Shakespeare.' Tomorrow night, he was going to get some answers from a certain taijiya and a certain fire apparition. One way or another.

******************************************

After a nice homemade meal, Kagome went upstairs to her bedroom and changed into her pajamas. Then she opened the window and leaned out, hoping to see Hiei there. He'd pulled his disappearing act again once they'd reached the modern era, so she hadn't had a chance to ask him how is trip was. To her surprise and delight, Hiei suddenly appeared on her windowsill, munching on some suspiciously familiar strawberry pocky.

"Hey! You're the one who's been stealing my pocky!" Kagome cried.

"Ch." If she didn't want him to steal it, why didn't she keep it under lock and key? Not that it would make a difference...

"So what did you think? Where were you all that time?" Kagome asked, sitting down on her bed. Hiei shrugged.

"Around."

"Did you have fun?"

You have no idea, Hiei thought. "I will be returning with you next weekend."

"Oh, really?" Kagome considered how she thought about that. He hadn't caused any trouble for her or the village, so she supposed it wouldn't be a big deal. But still, how long would this strange situation continue? After all I've been through, I guess it's not that strange.

"I killed a bandit this weekend," Kagome blurted out suddenly, unaware that Hiei had seen the whole thing. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Hiei was confused. He'd seen what the bandit had planned to do to her, and in his opinion, she had let him off easy. "Why?" he asked.

"I've never killed a human before. It was always youkai, strong ones, and then only the ones we had to kill. When Inuyasha killed all those bandits who followed Gatenmaru, we were all upset with him. And he refused to kill the hell-painter because he was human, even though he was a murderer. Inuyasha wasn't supposed to kill humans, only youkai." Kagome frowned. "But I'm not sure why that was. Are youkai really that different from humans? Why is it okay for us to kill them, and not humans?"

Hiei didn't have an answer for that. He had no such moral qualms.

"That man who attacked me, he was as evil as any of the youkai I've killed. If I hadn't killed him, how many people would he have gone on to kill? To rape?" She shook her head. "Which is worse to have hanging over my head: the death of one evil man by my sword, or the deaths and suffering of many more, because I refused to kill?" she asked, her voice hardening. "I wasn't going to let him rape me. Did I do the right thing?"

She's asking me? Hiei wondered. No one had ever asked him about doing the "right thing," whatever that was. But still, she was looking to him for comfort, and he felt a strange urge to give her an answer.

"You did what you had to do. You have a natural right to survive and to protect yourself," Hiei finally said. It was the most he'd ever said to her.

Kagome smiled at him. "Thank you, Hiei. That means a lot to me. So, how many youkai did you kill this weekend?" Hiei kicked up an eyebrow at her insight. "What? You think I don't know? I'm not stupid, Hiei. I know you're a killer, and there obviously aren't a lot of youkai to kill around Tokyo. I'd be surprised if you hadn't killed a few youkai over the weekend."

"Eight and a youkai worm swarm," he answered truthfully.

"And humans?" Kagome asked, hoping the answer would be 'zero.'

"Almost one. But someone else got there first."

It took a moment for Kagome to realize what he was implying. "You saw him? And you didn't do anything?"

"You handled it," said Hiei, reaching into his pocket for another pocky.

Then something else occurred to Kagome. "Hey! You saw him almost-- And you didn't do anything!" Hiei just gave her a blank stare. It wasn't like anything had actually happened. "You jerk!" she cried, and Hiei was so surprised at her action that he didn't think to dodge the slap that left a bright red mark on his right cheek. But his stupor didn't last for long.

In the blink of an eye, Kagome was lying on the floor with Hiei's weight pinning her down, his katana pressed to her throat once again. He glared at her in his fury.

"Don't ever strike me again."

Kagome was in shock. She thought they'd progressed past the "threatening to kill" stage, but apparently she was wrong. A single tear spilled down her cheek, disappearing into the hair at her temple.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "Please."

The fear and sadness radiating off of her was threatening to choke Hiei. This wasn't what he wanted. He wasn't sure exactly what he wanted with the girl, but he knew this wasn't it. Idiot. He quickly rolled off of her and sheathed his sword, and then he did something completely uncharacteristic of him:

He offered her a hand to help her stand.

Kagome knew that small gesture was meaningful, coming from the stoic and (quite possibly) sociopathic youkai, and it somewhat eased the hurt that his actions had caused. Kagome sniffled and took Hiei's hand, but she refused to look at him as he pulled her up off of the floor. A long day spent stirring poison paste over an open fire...very nearly being raped and murdered by a thief...killing a man...and now this. Suddenly, the events of the day overwhelmed Kagome, and she sank to the bed with her face in her hands, sobbing.

Hiei didn't know what to do. Did he really hurt her that much? As far as he could tell, he hadn't even broken the skin. So why was the girl crying? He was confused. Should he just leave? Not for the first time, he cursed his inability to read her mind.

"Girl? Are you hurt?" he asked gruffly.

"No," she sobbed.

"Why are you crying?"

"If you can't figure it out, I'm not going to tell you," she said between sniffles.

Hiei rolled his eyes in exasperation. Humans. He settled back in the open window, his back against the side of the frame, and gazed out at the shrine grounds.

Kagome looked up and sniffed. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Keeping watch," he said brusquely. "You are tired. You should sleep."

He's staying...He's staying so I can sleep? Kagome wondered. She shuffled out of bed to turn off the lights, and then curled up on top of the duvet, not even bothering to turn down the sheets. So tired... she thought. Maybe everything will seem better in the morning. With that thought, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

******************************************

Hiei was nowhere to be seen when Kagome awoke to the buzzing of the alarm clock the next morning. She stretched and lay in bed for a moment, feeling surprisingly refreshed after one of the best nights of sleep she'd had in a long time. With Hiei there to dispel the threat of the saimyoushou showing up and spying on her family, she'd slept more deeply than she had in a week.

She thought back to the night before as she showered and prepared for school. She still felt justified in slapping him -- after all, he had been spying on her, and didn't help her, right? -- but she could understand his instinctive reaction to the insult. He probably isn't used to anyone touching him at all, let alone hitting him. I wonder how long it's been since anyone got close enough to slap him? she wondered, and was strangely sad at the thought.

Kagome realized that she'd made a mistake in treating Hiei like he was Inuyasha. It worked on some points -- the smiles, the kindnesses, the friendliness to a friendless one -- but she'd been reminded last night of just how different the two were. Inuyasha was alone, for sure, and had been for his entire life, but that was still only sixty-seven years, seventeen of which he was awake. Who knows how long Hiei had been alone? Was he the only youkai left alive? It was obvious to Kagome that Hiei took isolation to a whole new level. Inuyasha had Kikyou to break the ice before Kagome met him. Who did Hiei have? Anyone at all?

The school day flew by in a daze for Kagome, and before she knew it, she was stretching on the floor of the dojo once more, waiting for class to begin. From the other students' chatter, Kagome gathered that Minamino had been absent for the past two classes, and Kurabara had filled in for him. She was a bit surprised when Kurabara and Yuusuke both entered the dojo and went to speak with Minamino before class. For some reason, she got the feeling that her sifu was staring at her.

"Koenma wants answers," Yuusuke said as he approached Kurama. "He wants to see us all when the class is over."

"I don't have anything else to report," said Kurama. It wasn't exactly a lie. He wasn't sure what the information from Jinenji meant yet.

"Where's Hiei?" asked Kurabara. "Does he know anything?"

Kurama shook his head. "I don't know," he answered truthfully. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"Really? I thought you two were joined at the hip or something," said Kurabara. Yuusuke snickered at that mental image, and Kurama glared at him.

"Botan will have to find him," said Yuusuke. "Koenma is getting on my ass about this, and I'm not taking the heat by myself."

"Wait until after the private lesson," said Kurama. "I hope to get some answers from the girl tonight." Whether he would share those answers remained to be seen.

Yuusuke and Kurabara lounged in a couple of chairs near the entrance to the dojo while Kurama lead the class through the day's lesson. By the time class was over, Kagome was certain that Minamino had been giving her odd looks throughout the hour, and she grew nervous as the rest of the students left.

Kurama was growing impatient with Kurabara and Yuusuke. They didn't leave when the rest of the students did, and he didn't want to interrogate Kagome with them around. He wanted to know what she had to say before he gave them any information, and he also didn't think she'd be very forthcoming with the two of them hanging around.

'Offer to take her to coffee after the lesson,' Youko suggested. Kurama agreed; it was the best plan he could come up with at the moment, and he had to have answers tonight. Little did he know that the answers would come crashing down on him, and in a big way.

Kurama was showing Kagome a technique for dealing with two opponents when it happened. He'd asked Kurabara to help him demonstrate, and the two of them were launching a mock attack on Kagome when all hell broke loose. One minute, he was preparing to deliver a carefully placed sidekick...

...and the next thing Kurama knew, he was on the floor, staring up the length of an incredibly large sword at one pissed-off inu-hanyou.

To the rest of the people in the room, everything happened in the blink of an eye. A red blur shot in through the front door of the dojo, and suddenly Kurama was on the floor, being held at swordpoint by a young man wearing the strangest red clothes, his long silver hair accented by-- Wait, were those cat ears?

A second, black blur crossed the dojo floor an instant later, and Hiei materialized seemingly out of nowhere with his own katana pressed against the inu-hanyou's neck. All of this left the occupants of the dojo in shock, but what happened next blew their minds.

"Inuyasha! Hiei! Stop!" came a feminine cry. Everyone except Hiei turned to stare at the girl who was wringing her hands in frustration. When the youkai and the hanyou didn't back down, Kagome yelled, "Freeze! Sit!"

The hanyou came crashing down to the floor, and Hiei didn't move a muscle. He and Kagome were the only ones who knew what her command had done to him, and he was suddenly thankful that he didn't have to suffer the embarrassment that Inuyasha did.

"Oi! Wench! What did you do that for?" Inuyasha yelled from his place on the floor.

"Inuyasha no baka! Do you remember when I told you I was taking kung fu classes?" Kagome asked, her eyes lit up with anger.

"Uh...yeah?"

"That," she said, pointing at the redhead just now getting up from the floor, "is my instructor! Sit!" Inuyasha had been trying to stand when she activated the spell again, reacquainting him with the hardwood floor.

"And you!" she said, whirling on Hiei. "You knew he was just trying to protect me!"

"Yeah," said Inuyasha. "I thought they were attacking you!"

"Sit!" BAM! "I took care of that armed thief just fine yesterday! You don't think I can handle myself with two unarmed humans?"

"That," Inuyasha said, pointing at Kurama, "is not a human." Kurama sighed. He was getting tired of being referred to as 'that.'

"What do you mean?" asked Kagome.

"Uh, guys, sorry to interrupt here, but WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" shouted Yuusuke. He pointed an accusing finger at Kagome. "You know them? Both of them?"

Kagome sighed and nodded. This is so not good. "They're...going to a costume party?" she said brightly, doubting that anyone would buy it.

Hiei snickered, and it was like something snapped. Suddenly Kurabara and Yuusuke were both nearly falling down laughing at the girl's pathetic attempt at an excuse. Inuyasha looked around in confusion.

"Wait, Kagome. How do you know him?" Inuyasha asked, pointing at Hiei.

"Well...it's a long story," she said, adopting Hiei's abruptness for the moment.

Yuusuke frowned. "We're going to have to sort this all out. I especially want answers from you," he said, glaring at Hiei, "even if I have to beat them out of you."

"Ch."

"Leave him alone!" Once again, Kagome managed to surprise everyone in the room when she came to the fire apparition's defense. "He's done nothing wrong!"

Kurama stared at Hiei in confusion. What's going on, Hiei? Why is she defending you? How does she know you? Hiei simply smirked in response.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was cracking his knuckles and glaring at Yuusuke. "Why should I give you any answers, human?" he snarled.

Whatever Yuusuke was about to say was cut off when the door to the dojo suddenly flew open and a fierce wind whirled around them, forcing the humans to shield their eyes from the onslaught. When the wind settled, a lone, stooped figure stood in the doorway.

"Yo. Am I interrupting something?" The mocking feminine voice was familiar to Kagome and Inuyasha, but the aged woman standing in the doorway wasn't. Except for those eyes. Kagome could've sworn she'd seen those eyes somewhere before... She gasped.

"Kagura?"

Kagura smirked and gave a mock bow. "In the flesh, my dear miko. Have you missed me?"

"Like hell," said Inuyasha, drawing the Tessaiga. "What are you doing here? What the fuck happened to you?" The wind sorceress had aged since they'd last seen her, appearing now as a stooped and wrinkled old woman.

Kagura narrowed her eyes. "If you knew what I've been through to get to this point, you wouldn't ask such questions. I came to speak to the miko."

"Kagome?" Yuusuke asked, turning to the girl in question, who was fidgeting nervously with the hem of her shirt. "Do you know this youkai, too?" It was all just too much.

"Um, yeah," she said sheepishly. I sure am popular tonight, she thought.

"What do you have to say?" asked Inuyasha, keeping his sword poised to attack in case Kagura made a move to attack them. Her motives were unclear. He knew she didn't like being under Naraku's control, but she hadn't exactly endeared herself to him or his friends.

"I said I came to speak to the girl. Alone," the wind youkai answered.

"Like hell you will!" shouted Inuyasha, but he stilled when Kagome placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Stay here, Inuyasha. I'm going to speak with Kagura," she said, and she walked toward the door.

"What? No!" cried Inuyasha.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled Yuusuke. "She's youkai!"

Kagome scoffed at him. "Haven't you figured out that I know that by now?" she asked.

"I don't think it would be wise to go alone with her," said Kurama smoothly. "You don't know what she's capable of."

"On the contrary, I am intimately familiar with what Kagura can do. If she was here to kill me or steal the shards, she'd have plenty of opportunity while I was at school or asleep at home. I need to hear what she has to say," Kagome said, leaving no room in her tone for argument. "It could be important."

"Then at least take a weapon," Inuyasha begged. He knew that once she had her mind set, there was no arguing with her.

Suddenly, Hiei was at Kagome's side with her bag in hand. Kagome gave him a startled look and then pulled her wakizashi out of the backpack. Kagome unsheathed it and let her miko powers flow into the blade, in a not-so-subtle warning to Kagura should she try anything devious.

Kurama's eyes narrowed at the sudden surge of holy energy, and he slowly backed away from Kagome. 'Holy shit,' whispered Youko. 'She's the real thing.'

"I won't be long," Kagome said to the roomful of confused onlookers. "Don't follow me, or Kagura will sense you," she added, giving Hiei a pointed look. He nodded, understanding what she wanted him to do.

"Smart girl," said Kagura. "Come with me." She and Kagome stepped outside, and Kagura produced her feather boat. She flew them to the top of a nearby building.

Back in the dojo, Inuyasha snarled in frustration and sheathed the Tessaiga. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Kagome to return, ignoring the curious looks he was getting from the others. Kurabara's confused voice broke the tension.

"Hey, where did Hiei go?"

******************************************

"He's here, isn't he?" Kagome asked once they were settled on the rooftop. Kagura nodded, gazing out over the cityscape. "Did he come through the well?"

"The well? No, but he tried. He sent Kanna first, once he discovered that you were from the future. Then he tried the saimyoushou, and Kohaku, but none of them could get through."

"Where has he been? We haven't seen or heard anything about him for a year now," said Kagome. Kagura sighed, trying to remember. It had been so very long for her.

"After he expelled and then reabsorbed Musou, Naraku was incredibly weakened. He didn't have the power to maintain the barrier around the castle, so he fled Japan for two years, traveling up and down the continent," Kagura said, referring to continental Asia. "When he returned after two years, you had vanished, all of you. Even the little kitsune brat was gone."

Kagome frowned at that bit of information, but she determined not to think about the consequences of it until later. Two years later, a year from now...something happened between now and then, she thought. Kagome was still confused, though.

"If you didn't come through the well, then how are you here now?" Kagome asked. Kagura snorted.

"Isn't it obvious?" she snapped. "The bastard waited."

He...waited? thought Kagome. Then the full meaning of what Kagura was telling her finally sunk in. Oh, shit. He waited five hundred years for me, and now he's planning to take the remaining shards. She backed away from Kagura.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kagome asked, holding her wakizashi in front of her in a protective stance.

"Look at me," said Kagura. "Take a good look at what Naraku has done to me. I've been absorbed and detached so many times over the centuries that I've lost count. That bastard plays with my heart -- my actual heart -- like it's a toy. I'm tired of being his favorite scapegoat, but the bastard won't even let me have peace in death. He won't let me die. So I came to warn you."

Kagome's eyes widened. This was all too much information for her to process. "Warn me about what?" she asked.

"Naraku has been watching you. He's waiting for you to find what he believes to be the final shards. Soon, you will return to the Sengoku Jidai and retrieve the shards from the ookami's legs, and that is when Naraku will attack. In this world."

Kagome's mind was reeling. In this world? Oh, no. My family... "What if I don't take the shards from Kouga?" Kagome asked.

"You will. You already did. You just don't know it yet," said Kagura. "And if you don't do it when Naraku knows you were supposed to, he'll just take your family hostage and torture them until you do."

So Kouga had the last of the shards, him and Kohaku. Oh, my god, Kohaku!

"Kagura, what about Kohaku?" Kagome asked quickly.

"What about him?"

"When did-- I mean, how did--"

"He die?" asked Kagura, raising an eyebrow at the question. Kagome nodded. "He didn't."

Kagome gasped. "What do you mean, he didn't?"

"I mean just that, girl. Naraku has a certain need for a human servant at times, someone to cross into this world without raising suspicions, and Kohaku serves that purpose. The shard in his back has preserved his life, such as it is, for all these years."

"What do you mean, cross into this world?" asked Kagome.

Kagura laughed. "So you don't know, do you? You should ask those new friends of yours. They know all about it," Kagura said. "I have to get back now, before he realizes that I'm gone. I'm sure you can find your way down from here, miko."

"Wait, does he know about Hiei?" asked Kagome before the wind sorceress could leave.

"He knows about the investigators," Kagura replied cryptically before taking to the skies in her feather boat, before Kagome could ask her what she meant by that. Kagome dropped her sword and sank to her knees, overcome by the enormity of what she'd just learned. Naraku. Naraku is here. Naraku is here in my time, and he's coming for me, she thought.

Kagome slowly stood and stumbled toward the fire escape that would lead her down to the street, but she suddenly found herself flying through the air, landing gently at the door to the dojo. She turned to find Hiei grasping her arm. He released her with a scowl.

"Humans are slow," he said by way of explanation.

"Why are you still here?" asked Kagome. "Yuusuke said he was going to beat you up!"

Hiei snorted and strolled into the dojo. Yuusuke and Kurabara quickly stood when they saw Hiei and Kagome enter. Inuyasha rushed up to Kagome.

"Well? What did she want?" he demanded. Kagome shook her head.

"I don't think this is the place to discuss it," she replied, looking at each of the dojo's occupants in turn. Yuusuke frowned and stepped forward.

"How did you get through the Kekkai barriers without us detecting you?" he asked Inuyasha. Inuyasha crossed his arms and glared at Yuusuke.

"Keh. Even if I knew what you were talking about, what makes you think I'd tell you?" he asked, cracking his knuckles. Kurama and Kurabara circled around behind the hanyou.

"You and the girl are going to have to come with us," said Yuusuke grimly. "Koenma wants answers."

"Wait!" cried Kagome. "What are you talking about? We don't know anything about any barriers. And who is Koenma?"

Yuusuke frowned. Was she lying? It was possible that she didn't know anything about Makai or the barriers, but the hanyou had to know.

"We're not going anywhere with you," said Inuyasha, inching his way to the right so he could stand protectively in front of Kagome. "If you know what's good for you, you'll call off your thugs and back the hell off."

'Thugs?' Youko snorted. 'We are not "thugs."'

Kurama decided to take control of the situation. Inuyasha obviously wasn't the one to reason with, so he turned to Kagome.

"Kagome, it must be obvious to you by now that I and my friends know about youkai. We need to know how you know Inuyasha and Hiei," Kurama coaxed.

Kagome desperately tried to grasp what was happening here. The men seemed intent on trapping her and Inuyasha, but they strangely ignored Hiei's presence. That didn't make sense, unless...

"Hiei," she said, suddenly turning to the silent fire apparition, "do you know these guys?"

Yuusuke looked sharply at Hiei. "What, you didn't tell her?" he asked.

Hiei folded his arms. "Ch."

Kagome's mind raced. She looked to Inuyasha, whose confusion was written all over his face. He didn't know what was going on either. She glanced back at Kurama, whose face was set in grim determination. He obviously wasn't what she thought he was, if Inuyasha was right about him not being human. Yuusuke and Kurabara, she barely knew those two. That left Hiei. Hiei, who apparently knew these guys and also knew all about her life. It was obvious that he hadn't told them anything about her. She turned to him with desperation in her eyes.

"Hiei? Can I trust them?" she asked. She still wasn't sure she could completely trust the dark youkai, but he was the only one she could turn to at the moment. Hiei's eyes flicked to Yuusuke, Kurabara, and Kurama, and back to Kagome. He stared at her, and Kagome felt a strong nudge in the back of her mind. She relaxed her mental defenses a bit, and heard Hiei's emotionless voice in her mind.

'They do not work for Naraku. They do not know about the jewel.'

'Will they hurt me? Or Inuyasha?' she asked, assuming he could hear her thoughts.

'Not you. Inuyasha, perhaps,' he answered truthfully.

Kagome raised her mental defenses again before turning to Yuusuke. "You have to promise not to hurt Inuyasha," she said.

"What the hell? Like that human could hurt me!" scoffed Inuyasha, but Kagome shushed him.

"There's more to them than meets the eye," said Kagome, looking over the men who surrounded her and Inuyasha. "If they are as powerful as I suspect, we're going to need their help."

"What are you talking about? We've done just fine with Sango and Miroku until now!"

"You don't know what Kagura told me, Inuyasha," she said, shaking her head. "It changes everything." She turned to Yuusuke again. "So do I have your word not to harm or detain Inuyasha in any way?"

"I can't promise that," said Yuusuke, and Inuyasha drew the Tessaiga again. Yuusuke and Kurabara backed away when the sword transformed once more.

"Get behind me, Kagome," said Inuyasha, never taking his eyes from his opponents. "I'll blast our way out of here if I have to." Kagome turned pleading eyes toward Hiei, who signed in exasperation.

'The hanyou did not escape from Makai,' he told Kurama.

'What do you mean? How did he escape Reikai's notice if he's been here all this time?' Kurama asked in surprise.

'Give the girl what she wants, and she will tell you,' Hiei said.

Kurama frowned. Hiei obviously knew what was going on with Kagome and Inuyasha, and while he didn't like being left in the dark -- no, not at all -- he'd either have to trust Hiei or the situation would escalate. He eyed the hanyou with the oversized sword. 'No doubt he could do some serious damage with that thing,' he thought.

'You have no idea,' said Hiei, who had witnessed Inuyasha's practice with the Kaze no Kizu while he was in the Sengoku Jidai.

Kurama sighed and nodded to Kagome. "He will not be harmed or detained. I give you my word," he said, much to Yuusuke's consternation.

"You can't do that!" he yelled.

Kurama glared at the spirit detective. "Do you really want him to level a few buildings with that thing?" he asked, gesturing at the sword. "And don't forget that the girl is a miko. I don't relish the thought of being purified. Do you?"

Yuusuke scowled. He had to admit that the kitsune's logic was sound, but since when did they start giving in to such demands? He shook his head slowly. This was not going well. Maybe if he explained things a bit, the girl and the hanyou would be more cooperative. He could at least gauge their reaction to see whether they were up to no good.

"We -- Kurabara, Kurama, Hiei, and I -- are employed by Reikai to track down youkai who cause trouble or escape into Ningenkai. Our boss, Koenma, will have to see you to determine what Inuyasha is doing here and what to do about it."

Kagome was confused. Spirit World? Human World? What is he talking about? she wondered. If he's telling the truth, they might prove to be valuable allies. She lowered her mental barrier again and looked at Hiei.

'Is he telling the truth?' she asked, hoping the mental connection went both ways.

'Yes,' Hiei replied.

'Will they hurt Inuyasha, or send him away?' she asked.

'I do not know. Perhaps not, in light of the information Kagura gave you,' Hiei replied. Kagome nodded and turned to Yuusuke.

"If you find out that Inuyasha isn't up to any trouble, and that it's very important to the welfare of this world that he remain free, will you let him go?" she asked.

Yuusuke considered this. Something big is going on here, he thought. Finally, he nodded to Kagome. "You have my word," he said.

"All right, then. Where do we meet this Koenma?" Kagome asked.

While Yuusuke pulled out a communicator to summon Botan, Inuyasha turned his wrath on Kagome.

"Kagome! You can't agree to that! We don't know these people!" yelled Inuyasha. Kagome glared at him.

"Inuyasha no baka!" she yelled, stomping her foot. "If you hadn't come barging in her like that, none of this would have happened! Why are you here anyway?"

Inuyasha sheathed the Tessaiga and crossed his arms. "Feh. That wimpy wolf showed up in the village today. He says he won't leave until he talks to you."

******************************************

"Yuusuke!" Botan chirped merrily as she popped into the dojo on her floating oar. "You're ready to give your report to..." She trailed off when she saw two unexpected faces in the dojo. "Who are they?" she asked Yuusuke.

"The miko Kagome and the hanyou Inuyasha," Yuusuke said, gesturing to the curious girl and the impatient hanyou. "We're taking them to see Koenma."

"What are you?" Inuyasha asked the blue-haired girl rudely. She didn't smell like a youkai, but with that blue hair, and the floating...

"I'm Botan!" she said merrily, as though that explained everything.

"She's death," explained Yuusuke, only furthering Inuyasha and Kagome's confusion.

"Now, Yuusuke," said Botan, shaking a finger at him, "don't scare them like that!" She turned to the girl and the hanyou. "I ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife," she explained. Kagome and Inuyasha nodded, both thinking, Well, I've seen stranger things.

"If you'll step right this way," Botan said, opening a portal to Reikai, "we'll go and see Koenma-sama!" Kurabara went through first, and Inuyasha and Kagome hesitated for a moment before following him. Botan and the remaining Reikai Tantei went through behind them, and the portal closed.

Whatever Inuyasha and Kagome were expecting Reikai to be like, this wasn't it. The room they entered reminded Kagome of a doctor's waiting room. Upholstered wooden chairs lined the walls, and a couple of magazine racks displayed pamphlets with titles such as, "So You're Dead. Now What?" and "Reincarnation and You: What You Need to Know." Something that sounded suspiciously like Muzak was being piped into the room, and there was a water cooler in the corner. Kagome sat down in one of the chairs and started to leaf through a magazine called Spirit Digest: What's Worth Reading in the Three Worlds.

"When did this happen?" Yuusuke asked Botan, referring to the waiting room. Botan shrugged.

"Some doctor who was processed for reincarnation last week suggested Koenma needed a waiting room after she had to stand in the hall for an hour while Koenma yelled at an ogre for losing some paperwork," she explained.

Inuyasha could feel the hair on his arms standing on end. He didn't like this place, not one bit. It felt...off, and it smelled like...well, like nothing. He stood protectively in front of Kagome's chair until she nudged him out of the way with her foot, and then he paced the room. Kurabara and Kurama both sat down to wait, while Yuusuke and Hiei both stood.

"Does he know we're here?" Yuusuke snapped at Botan after half an hour had passed.

"He had an important visitor before I left, someone from Makai," Botan told him. "He's probably still in there with him." Another half hour passed, and Kagome was caught up in an article about Makai politics when the door to Koenma's office burst open and a harried-looking blue ogre stepped into the waiting room.

"Koenma-sama will see you now," the ogre said, and Kagome took a deep breath before standing and following the guys into Koenma's office.

Kagome and Inuyasha were surprised to see what looked like a teenaged boy sitting behind a desk when they entered the room. He didn't look up when they entered, as he was searching through a drawer in his desk, muttering something about youkai with too much power for their own good. Kurama coughed politely to get the prince's attention, and he stood when he saw the two unfamiliar faces.

"Yuusuke? Is this the taijiya girl?" Koenma asked. Inuyasha snorted and Kagome glared at him.

"This is Kagome," Yuusuke said, and Kagome bowed deeply. Yuusuke jerked his thumb toward the hanyou. "His name is Inuyasha. Apparently these two know each other, but I didn't get anything else out of them."

"Inuyasha, you say?" Koenma asked, giving the hanyou an appraising look. "Your father was quite a troublemaker back in the times before the barrier. I wasn't aware that you had survived to enter Makai."

Inuyasha didn't understand what the guy was talking about, so he settled for a "Keh!" in reply.

"Hiei says that Inuyasha isn't from Makai," said Kurama, earning a surprised gasp from Botan and a curious look from Koenma.

"Then you've been in Ningenkai all these years? That will not do at all," said Koenma, frowning.

"You're not sending me anywhere I don't want to go," replied Inuyasha, growling.

"Then what are you doing in Ningenkai? And how does the girl know the art of the taijiya?" Koenma asked.

'He won't get any answers from the inu,' Hiei told Kurama. 'He needs to ask the girl.' Kurama was surprised at Hiei's sudden helpfulness, but he decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I believe that questioning the girl would be more fortuitous," Kurama told Koenma smoothly. The prince turned his attention to the nervous-looking girl. She bowed toward him again.

"I'll tell you my story, Koenma-sama," she said politely, "but I beg you, don't hurt Inuyasha or send him away." During her wait earlier, she'd gathered from the magazine she'd read that youkai had been banished to another, separate realm centuries ago, and that they weren't supposed to cross into the human realm. If Inuyasha was sent to Makai, her mission would be doomed.

Koenma started to refuse her request when Yuusuke spoke up. "Listen to the girl's story," he said. "Something tells me it's very important."

"I'll refrain from making a decision until I've heard your story," Koenma told Kagome.

"Could I have a chair, if you please? It's a long story," she said. Koenma yelled for the ogre, George, to bring in a few chairs from the waiting room. Once they were all settled, with Hiei still standing and Inuyasha looking very uncomfortable in his chair, Kagome began.

"It all started on my fifteenth birthday. My brother Souta was in the wellhouse at our shrine..." She gave them a shorter version of her story than she'd told Hiei, keeping the details to a minimum. She told them about Kikyou, Naraku, and Inuyasha; about Shippou, Miroku, and Sango. Even with the shortened version, Kagome's tale took a couple of hours to tell, and by the time she finished telling them about Musou, she was quite thirsty.

"Wow," said Yuusuke in awe when she stopped talking after the Musou story.

'You already knew all of this,' Kurama accused Hiei.

'Ch.'

"There's more," Kagome said, "but could I please have something to drink first? I'm pretty thirsty." The ogre brought her a cup of water from the cooler in the waiting room, and as she sipped, Yuusuke remembered that she'd already known Hiei.

"How do you know Hiei?" Yuusuke suddenly asked, and Kagome sent the dark youkai a panicked look. She got the feeling that he wasn't supposed to have contacted her. Hiei didn't look at her, instead staring blankly across the room.

"He found me when I came out of the well about a week ago," she answered truthfully.

"And?" prompted Yuusuke.

"He wanted to know where the portal went, so I told him."

"You told him everything?" asked Yuusuke incredulously. Hiei wasn't known for his 'people skills,' and Yuusuke had a hard time believing that the girl, who'd been so tight-lipped, had opened up to the broody fire apparition.

"Yes," said Kagome, nodding.

"How did he know who Inuyasha was?" asked Kurama. Back in the dojo, Kagome had indicated that Hiei knew the hanyou, but Inuyasha hadn't seemed to recognize Hiei. Since Hiei wasn't answering any of Kurama's questions about it, he decided to ask the girl.

"Um, well, I kinda took him through the well with me this weekend," Kagome said sheepishly.

"You did WHAT?" Inuyasha yelled, jumping out of his chair. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"He didn't cause any trouble," Kagome mumbled, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"Bitch, you are in so much trouble," Inuyasha said, practically shaking with rage. How could she hide something like this from him? It wasn't like Kagome at all.

Everyone was surprised at the low growl coming from Hiei, but he quickly quieted himself after drawing everyone's attention. Why do I care what the hanyou calls her? he thought. And why isn't she telling them that I threatened her?

Koenma pounded his fist on his desk, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "You went through an unregistered portal without my permission, Hiei? What were you thinking?"

Hiei glared at Koenma. He hated it when he had to answer questions that required more than a one-word answer. "You told me to follow her." He was unprepared for Kagome's hurt expression at his words, but he tried to shrug it off.

"I will deal with you later," said Koenma. "For now, Kagome, you said you had more to say?"

Kagome nodded and set her cup on the floor beside her. "The youkai who spoke with me tonight was the same Kagura I told you about, the detachment of Naraku. She came to warn me that Naraku is here, in my time, and that he plans to attack me in Tokyo once I've found the last of the shards in the Sengoku Jidai. He's been waiting five hundred years for this, probably growing in strength and gathering more followers," she speculated.

Inuyasha was floored. So that's why she looked so old, he thought.

Kagome continued. "She said that Kohaku was still alive, serving Naraku when he needs a human to cross into Ningenkai. I assume that means that Naraku is hiding somewhere in Makai."

"Why would he wait five hundred years to take the shards from you?" Koenma asked.

"She said that after he reabsorbed Musou, Naraku was weakened, so he fled Japan for the continent, and when they returned two years later, we were all gone." She looked sadly at Inuyasha. "Everyone."

"It's been a year since you last saw Naraku in the Sengoku Jidai, correct?" asked Kurama.

"Yes," said Kagome. "That means that something happened, or will happen, to make myself and my friends disappear from the past in the next year."

"What if we brought everyone to your era to fight Naraku?" asked Inuyasha hopefully.

"But that doesn't make sense, does it? We were gone from the past when Naraku returned because we left to fight his future self, who didn't take the shards from us in the past because we weren't there?"

"Time travel paradoxes are complex," said Koenma. "That's why we destroyed all of the known portals and quashed all knowledge of time travel centuries ago. How the well at your shrine escaped our attention is beyond me."

"Oh, no!" Kagome cried suddenly, turning to Inuyasha. "If Naraku didn't die in the past, that means that Miroku-- Miroku--"

Inuyasha patted the distraught girl on the back. "It's okay, Kagome. We'll bring Miroku and the others to your era with us, and just defeat Naraku here."

"Ahem," said Koenma. "Not without a permit, you won't. This unsupervised time travel has gone on too long as it is. Who knows what kind of disruptions your actions have caused in the timelines? But if you'd fill out the proper paperwork," he said, motioning to a two-meter-tall stack of papers that suddenly appeared on his desk, "then I can have someone do a risk analysis, and maybe then I'd permit your friends to pass through."

Kagome clasped her hands and lowered her eyes. "Koenma-sama, please, you've got to understand. I can't go forward in my quest without my companions."

Koenma frowned. If push came to shove, he'd have a hard time denying this girl anything; after all, occasions where he was offered the respect he so clearly deserved were precious and few. "There are rules," he said quietly. "I can't go around making an exception every time the whim strikes me. The rules are in place for a reason."

"And I'm asking you nicely to make an exception, just this once. Without my friends, I can't go forward; I won't."

Koenma's frown deepened. "Don't bluff with me. If what you're saying is true, you'd be throwing all of Ningenkai at the mercy of this Naraku."

"For my friends, Koenma-sama, I would sacrifice everything." Koenma shivered at the hard look on Kagome's face. Would she really refuse to help us? "Besides," Kagome continued, "the time portal's very existence is a problem created by Reikai, and it's up to Reikai to set things right. Without the portal, the jewel never would have landed back in the Sengoku Jidai, and Sango, Miroku, and Shippou wouldn't be in this mess."

"All right, all right. I'll grant a one-time exception for your three friends. But no more!" Koenma's statement drew a delighted squeal from Kagome, and he found himself on the receiving end of a very enthusiastic hug from the girl.

"Thank you so much, Koenma-sama! I knew you were a good guy!" The Reikai Tantei rolled their eyes at that statement. Koenma was such a pushover.

"Do you really think they'll want to come back here with us, Kagome?" asked Inuyasha.

"I think so. Miroku will die if Naraku lives, and Sango would give anything for her brother. And Shippou...I don't want to think about what he'd do without us."

"Now that that's settled," said Koenma, "we have much to do. Kagome, you said that Naraku would come for you when you'd collected the last shards. Do you know where they are?"

"Yes," she said softly. "Kouga has the last of the shards. He's waiting for me in the village."

"You'll have to wait until we've got a plan put in place before you go back to retrieve them. If Naraku attacks you at the shrine as soon as you return, too many innocent lives will be at stake."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" said Inuyasha. "Let's get planning."

Edited 17 May 2005