Super Priestess Team

Note: I was deep into another angsty "I'm Kikyo's reincarnation and everything is horrible and depressing" fanfiction binge, resurfaced to write this (in self defense, probably), dove back in and immediately forgot I wrote this. Here it is, a year later! Yay!

I

"It's just a little silly," Kagome said with a much dignity as she could muster.

"That you seem determined to repeat my mistakes?" Kikyo rejoined coolly from her spot a few feet away, hidden from view and apparently perfectly content to sit back and enjoy the Kagome Kidnapping Show.

Kagome eyeballed her and tried not to dwell on the way Kikyo's hair seemed to float in the breeze. She refused to think of it as elegant but- it was elegant, dammit! Kagome's hair was always tangled within ten minutes of waking up in the morning and she knew- knew!- that never would have happened to Kikyo.

Just like she just knew that everyone standing in front of her current abductor was getting an eyeful of her blue panties. Nope, Kikyo wouldn't be caught dead in this situation, she thought glumly. Then: yikes, phrasing.

"Or," Kikyo continued after waiting out a politely timed interval for Kagome to respond, "are you perhaps referring to your current position draped over the shoulder of your bull demon?"

"No, I- it's not mine-!"

"I suppose you're right," the elder priestess interrupted, eyes flashing with gleeful malice, "this likely doesn't count as silly, given how frequently this sort of thing happens to you."

"Why you- hey, let me down!" Kagome shouted, turning her ire (and fists!) on the demon holding her captive, "I need to commit violence-"

Kikyo watched the girl struggle fruitlessly for a few minutes, before turning her attention to the red-clad figure hollering obscenities from several yards away. Inuyasha. Kikyo's lips tilted down, and she glanced back at a red-faced, seething Kagome.

"Your hero has finally arrived."

Startled out of her ineffectual physical assault on the demon's back, Kagome tried to crane her neck to see what Kikyo was talking about. Oh. Inuyasha. Turning away from the half demon, who was now gesticulating wildly and making some extremely inappropriate suggestions on how the demon could proceed with its life and personal goals, Kagome huffed angrily.

"That's what I mean!" she snapped, turning back to Kikyo and jabbing a finger back in the general direction she thought Inuyasha might be. "That's what's silly!"

Helpfully, Kikyo reached forward and nudged Kagome's wavering arm so that the finger was pointing in the correct direction.

Incensed, Kagome reached out-

"HAH! Got you!" she crowed triumphantly, giving the lock of Feudal Era priestess hair she had seized a vicious yank.

Kikyo did not shriek, that would have been exceedingly undignified and she was never undignified, but-

"Ha-hah! Anyway, no, I mean this whole tragic love triangle thing is ridiculous," Kagome carried on, as if she hadn't just committed an unforgivable transgression against Kikyo's person.

"Like, Inuyasha is probably my best friend, but do you know how long it takes us to get anything done? He refuses to cooperate with anyone and I have to subjugate him into compliance with anything the team suggests and he's so hot-headed and still wants to be a demon! I mean granted you're not doing like- super great yourself in the decisions department, but I think you just need the right incentive! And like, practice. At being good," Kagome clarified, likely seeing the bewilderment that Kikyo could not entirely keep off her face.

Suddenly faced with the full and formidable force of Kagome's focused enthusiasm, Kikyo let her hand drift down from where it had been rubbing her abused scalp tenderly. Surely she does not mean to-

"What foolishness are you suggesting now?" Kikyo asked, finally.

Kagome summoned the most serious expression she could, and reached out for Kikyo's slim hands. At a loss, Kikyo found her hands floating into Kagome's grasp.

Clasping Kikyo's fingers earnestly between her own, Kagome looked directly into her eyes and called upon all the sincerity her soul (partial soul!) could muster.

"Dude," Kagome said fervently, "let's run away together."

"I beg your pardon-" Kikyo snapped, snatching her hands out of Kagome's grasp.

Befuddled, and then immediately amused, Kagome began laughing. "No, not like that! I mean like we should be the Super Priestess Team! Very Cool Priestesses Versus Naraku! Lovely and Effective Shard Hunters R Us!"

Kikyo stared at her, finding herself in the unusual and untenable position of being rendered speechless.

"C'mon," Kagome whined, letting her face fall into the most compelling pout she was capable of, "you know we'd get it done faster if it was just us two! And there'd be so much less drama, and we could pull double-duty purification, and we won't have to worry about idiots wishing on the stupid thing to become a full demon."

How can she even suggest that I- "I will not relinquish my desire for revenge against Inuyasha," Kikyo reminded her stiffly, as if by rote.

Kagome waved her hand airily, as if brushing away a trivial concern. "Of course you can!" she said exasperatedly. "You can, because literally only an idiot would still blame Inuyasha for all of that after all this time, and after all you know about Naraku by this point. I mean- like, really Kikyo? You're a smart, sensible, independent modern priestess and even though you know like… as a fact that Naraku played you both, you're going to just roll with your planned revenge exactly like the dude who's actually responsible wants? Only an idiot would do that, and you're not an idiot, right?"

Kikyo turned away from the other woman sharply, and Kagome worried suddenly at her bottom lip, wondering if she had misjudged the other woman, the situation, or the plot in general. Or all of the above. The set of the other priestess' shoulders was tense, her spine ramrod straight.

There was a sudden lull in the activity behind them, and Kagome heard someone- Miroku?- comment about what a lovely blue color something was-

"Sango!" Kagome shrieked, screwing her eyes shut in absolute mortification.

Distantly, she heard the sweet sound of "Hiraikotsu!", followed by the unmistakable crash of the bone weapon and subsequent pained groan of a properly punished pervert.

"Love you, Sango," Kagome whispered devotedly under her breath. "Girl power!"

Suddenly she heard the distinct creak of a notched bow- looking up, she found herself staring down the shaft of Kikyo's arrow. The elder woman's eyes were narrowed at her, and there was no hint of amusement or softness in her expression.

You know, of course I'd get myself murdered trying to make friends. That's both very annoying and very on-brand. Oh god, if she's my past self does this in some weird way count as suicide? Kagome wondered somewhat hysterically.

"You," Kikyo said frostily, "are a menace."

And then she angled the arrow ever so slightly upward and let it fly-

There was a blinding flash of pink light as the arrow buried itself deeply into the bull demon's back, and then suddenly Kagome was flat on her stomach with the wind knocked out of her, laying in a pile of vaporized demon.

Kagome had just enough time to process this incredible change in circumstances, and then Inuyasha was crouching in front of her, gold eyes crinkled in concern.

"You okay?" he demanded gruffly. "Why didn't ya purify him sooner if you were gonna do it anyway?"

"Wha-?" Kagome began, startled. She leaned to the left to peek past him, and then heaved a gusty sigh. Kikyo was nowhere to be seen.

Later that night, after a largely silent, exhausted dinner, everyone was asleep around the embers of the night's fire. Shippo was curled up in the sleeping bag with her, dead to the world, but she just- couldn't- sleep! Shifting restlessly, she flopped onto her back and stared up at the dark canopy of trees. She could see starlight glimmering just beyond the foliage, so much brighter and clearer than anything she'd ever seen in her time.

Unexpectedly, she felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, and she gripped the fabric of her sleeping bag in frustration. She just wanted to help her friends. She wanted to keep Miroku from using that stupid hand of his, she wanted to protect Sango from fighting her own brother, she wanted to keep Inuyasha from making a stupid, selfish wish. She wanted to save this whole, stupid world and she really felt like the best way to do that was with Kikyo, and- ugh- there was no reason to get mopey about it and good God was she about to start her period or something?

Feeling rather like indulging her own despondent mood, she gave an experimental sniffle.

"How… emotional," came a cool, quiet voice from the darkness beyond the campsite, the epithet delivered as if it was the worst of insults.

Of-fucking-course, Kagome thought to herself as she tried to convince one of the tears hanging precariously on her lashes to pack it in, go home, calm down, be cool-!

"Uhm," Kagome mumbled into the pillow she voluntold to help soak up the tears that she definitely never let fall.

Kikyo stepped into the light cast by the dying embers, and looked down at her critically. Kagome removed the pillow from her face and glared straight back up at her defiantly. She'd said what she needed to say to the elder woman, and she wasn't going to beg her. As far as Kagome was concerned, the ball was in Kikyo's court now.

Unbidden, a mental image of the coolly regal Kikyo playing volleyball in her high school gym class flashed across her mind, and Kagome desperately tried to suffocate the sudden, hysterical laughter that suddenly bubbled up.

"Can I help you?" Kagome asked in what she very much hoped was an unaffected whisper, and not the trembling, not-quite-giggle she felt like it might have actually been.

Kikyo was quiet for a long moment, and then let an infinitesimally small and wholly uncharacteristic smirk disrupt the usual solemnity of her face. "It occurred to me," she began, "that "Super Priestess Team" implies that there is more than one "Super Priestess," and I cannot help but think that is not the case."

Kagome blinked- once, twice- then: "Hey, don't be down on yourself Kikyo, I'm sure we can get you up to speed in no time!"

Affronted, Kikyo opened her mouth to deliver a scathing retort, and then simply rolled her eyes instead, stepping back into the shadows. "You are tiresome. I will be waiting near a village three days north of here. If I do not see you within a weeks' time, I will assume that you have thought better of this asinine proposal." A pause. "Or I have."

And then she was gone. Exhilaration racing through her and unable to repress the jubilant smile spreading across her face, Kagome snuggled back into her pillow with a happy sigh. This was going to be wild.