Amusements of divinity
After six months of constant traveling, Kagome had enough. The next time they stopped at Kaede's village, Kagome argued her point. "If Naraku is collecting the shikon shards, then he may collect them. We currently have five shards, so sooner or later he has to come and collect them. I don't know why you seem to think I am a competent miko, but I'm really not. I will ask Kaede to teach me so I may be an asset instead of a hindrance. So either you go out and search for them on your own, risking Tessaiga not working because I'm not there, or you stay here with me and train!" said Kagome.
That decision turned out to be the best one ever made, as, after Naraku had completed the jewel as best as he could, he came after the last five shards Kagome held personally. In the six months it took, Kagome got back her soul piece stolen and stuffed into a clay doll to reanimate Kikyo, got to the point where she had complete control over her spiritual powers and learned all the other useful stuff a miko had to know. And she finally learned how to properly fire an arrow from her bow and hit her target! Kagome was now secretly the most powerful fighter power wise, but more or less a glass canon, as while she could dish out massive damage, she couldn't take a hit, though Sango did teach her how to fight in hand to hand. Kagome was barely an adept, and even that was with one eye closed.
Inuyasha and Naraku fought a long and hard battle, even Sesshomaru joined in. In the end, Naraku proved himself stronger than the two half brothers combined. Then Kagome shot a very powerful arrow at a distracted Naraku, purifying him and the jewel in one strike. The two brothers were to stunned to do anything, as Kagome walked calmly up to the jewel and combined her shards with the jewel. Kagome smiled sadly at her group, then spoke up: "My wish upon the jewel is, that it be purified of any demonic taint and Midoriko's soul may move on to the afterlife." said Kagome clearly. Everyone was stunned. It never occurred to them, that it would be so easy to cleanse the jewel.
The jewel turned white, then glowed with power. It dissolved and a woman formed. She looked regal and glowed a nearly blinding white. "Thank you." She spoke. "You have finally freed me of my battle. Before I move on, as per your wish, I grant you my powers and titles. You will be the heir to my powers as a minor goddess. I never fully developed them, so it is up to you, what you want to rule. I do give you my minor time and space affinity. Good luck and have fun." with that, the form dissolved into light, surging through Kagome, leaving the light in Kagome, then Kagome felt the soul leave her body, moving on to the afterlife.
Then Kagome started fading. "My role here in the past is complete, I guess, so I'm being returned home. When I master the time aspect, I'll come visit. Until then!" said Kagome, crying a single tear. She could hear her friends crying out for her to not leave them. Kagome just smiled a sad smile at them, then disappeared.
Kagome found herself on the bottom of the well. Judging by her uniform and smaller body, she was back to the day she started her adventures. Reaching for her powers, Kagome paused. She now had four different energy sources in her body. The largest was her spiritual miko powers, the second source was her divine powers, making her a goddess, the third was time while the fourth was space. Taking a drop from her miko powers, she pushed it into her leg muscles and jumped experimentally, just to get a feeling of how much they grew. She nearly jumped into the ceiling! Just gripping the beams, she swung around and angled her fall to land next to the well. Letting her powers recede, her mother came bursting in. "Kagome! ... Oh, thank the gods, Shota came running into the house, saying you fell into the well." she seemed relived.
"Oh, I fell down alright, but I fell lucky and nothing hurt, so I climbed out." said Kagome. Then remembered she never was this flippant about anything really before that.
"Well, if you are sure..." Hana, Kagome's mother, trailed of.
"Yes, I'm sure! Now I have to hurry or I'll be late to school!" with that Kagome rushed to the door. There she halted, turned around, then looked back at her mother. "Good bye, 'till later!" then she rushed to school.
On her way, Kagome examined her powers more closely. She noticed, that her time and space energies were connected to her divine powers. Kagome realized, that Midoriko must have utilized her divine powers in a special way, that had her developing her time and space abilities. With use and experience she should be able to increase their power.
Two years went by, Kagome was now officially seventeen and in her last year of high school, and Kagome had mastered her powers. She even developed several different powers from her divine powers. She now had time, space, ice, fire, nature, air, transformations, barriers and healing. As such, she could only use her divine powers for pure energy blast, powering her sub powers when they ran out of juice or to develop a new power, though she had practiced that and got a new power, blasts, and had increased that power that way. Her miko powers had also doubled, as she used them to disguise her other powers. She could now, quite literally, destroy any weak to middle class demon she came across by simply letting her aura loose a bit. Kagome found herself quite confident in her powers and arrow shooting skills. No, what definitely needed improvement was her ability to take a hit. Seriously, she was very vulnerable if anyone ever came through her barriers or she couldn't obliterate her enemy from a distance. A glass canon as it were. Only one much better protected, but a glass canon none the less.
Kagome became a delinquent in order to become a bit more tough.
Kagome started an all female gang. They were usually in the poorer districts, searching for a good fight, but otherwise normal teen girls. The best so far were from individuals. Kagome had a sort of friend and rival in one Yusuke Urameshi, a delinquent like her. Only, she was one in secret, while he was one openly. Then he died.
She came to his funeral and saw his spirit hanging around. Kagome blinked, then looked at him, until Yusuke noticed her. He floated to the side, Kagome let her gaze follow him. Then she rolled her eyes and made a motion with her head. When Kagome walked out of the room without saying anything to the closed coffin, she could hear many mutter a rude word or two at her.
After finding a desolate place five minutes later, she turned around to see Yusuke floating behind her. "So, why are you still here? My understanding about spirits is, that the ferry girls usually take anyone dead to the other side." Kagome asked pleasantly. Yusuke shuddered. She was only ever pleasant before giving a thorough beating.
"Um, I wasn't supposed to die and now I'm being given a chance to be revived. I have this spirit beast egg thingy. When it hatches, I'm either going to be devoured by it or being put back in my body." he said. Kagome nodded thoughtfully.
"If it hatches and is a monster, I will personally stop it from devouring you, just so I can beat you to second death, revive you and do it again for causing me so much trouble. Rouge spirit beasts are no fun to deal with." she said, then made a shooing motion with her hand. "Go back to your funeral. It is not often one can see ones own funeral." with that, Kagome turned on her heel, then walked back to her home.
A few days later, Yusuke found her. "Hey, I was wondering if you could help me. My chance to go back via spirit beast is shot, I had to sacrifice it in order to rescue Keiko, but I was granted another chance for it. Thing is, I need someone to kiss my body, giving it some life force for it to restart its functions." Yusuke mumbled. Kagome narrowed her eyes at that.
"So, let me see if I understood you correctly. Something happened to make you sacrifice your spirit egg, your then only chance at getting your life back for someone named Keiko. In return, someone told you that you could get your life back, because obviously you are not such a bad guy after all. Now you need some life force to restart your body and thought I might be willing to donate some?" she asked. Yusuke looked a bit frightened, but nodded anyway. "Well, you will have to ask, if miko energy will be a good enough substitute. I will not kiss you. My first kiss will be special." said Kagome firmly. "Find me when it starts, if it is a viable replacement. I have stuff to do!" said Kagome, then went on her way, she had her gang to find.
The next day, during school, Yusuke showed up. "It's today. Koenma said it is okay, if enough is given." Kagome nodded slightly, then wrote something in pencil on a paper.
'Is after school soon enough? Today we get our marks posted.' said the neat script. Yusuke seemed to think about it, then nodded. He stayed, seemingly curious. Much to Yusuke's obvious surprise, Kagome was a very good student, polite and intelligent. After school, on her way to the score board, Kagome was asked out at least seven different times. On the board itself, Kagome was number three. After Kagome nodded to Yusuke, signaling him she was ready, he showed her the way to his substitute home.
After entering and evading Yusuke's mother with surprising ease (Kagome used a few simple illusions, not that she told Yusuke), Kagome entered the room Yusuke lay on a bed, glowing a soft, golden color. So Kagome walked up to Yusuke's body, placed one hand on his forehead, the other on his lower stomach, roughly above his belly button, and started channeling a small bit of her miko energy out of one hand and to her other hand through the eight gates in Yusuke's body. She let the body absorb what it needed, but got back half of what she had used. Kagome frowned, surely she didn't get so strong she didn't even realize what others though much was but half a drop to her. Well, Yusuke's spirit was pulled back into his body. A nice side effect was, that Yusuke's body was healed completely.
"Well, that was anticlimactic." said Kagome. "Give me a call if you have something supernatural going on. I would like to stay in the loop." And with that, not even giving Yusuke time to voice his thanks, Kagome went as unnoticed as she came.
A few weeks later, Yusuke turned up at her shrine. Kagome was on shrine duty today, so she wore miko garb. Yusuke started laughing. "If you have come just to laugh, then I will be forced to throw you out, literally." she said with a pleasant smile. Predictably, Yusuke stopped.
"I've come here to ask for your assistance. I've become a spirit detective for the spirit world. There is a sort of tournament by this psychic named Genkai. She wants to determine her successor or something like that. Anyway, there is this bad guy that wants her technique or something as that and I have to stop him. Only, I need some help and thought: why not the girl who made beating me look easy when everyone else couldn't do that." he said. Kagome looked thoughtful. Then she noticed a ferry girl descending from the sky.
"There you are! We have to hurry!" she jelled at him. Kagome nodded.
"Count me in. So, lets hurry, when a ferry girl says it's urgent, it's urgent and you better hurry up." she smiled at the two stunned persons in front of her. Kagome liked shocking other people. It was fun! When she walked up to the entrance, after placing her broom down and sticking a note to it, the two shook their heads and followed her. "So, where are we going?" asked Kagome. Yusuke nearly face faulted at that.
"I'll show the way!" and with that the ferry girl took of down the street. Kagome jogged casually down the street, pulling her hair into a messy but firm bun at the back of her head.
After half an hour, they reached the outskirts of the city and a very long staircase. Yusuke and Kagome raced it up, though Yusuke was lagging behind at about the halfway mark. Shrugging, Kagome slowed down a bit, so they reached the top at about the same time. On top they had to draw lots. Only Kagome's turned blue. When she asked Genkai on her way in, Genkai sent her a shrewd look: "It should only turn blue when someone of my level or above holds it. What, exactly, are you doing here?" Kagome shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm following a sort of friend here. Besides, I want to test out if my constitution has improved. I was a rather painfully obvious glass canon before. All dishing out and no taking if you catch my drift." Kagome replied a bit embarrassed. Genkai nodded sagely, then sent her on her way. Yusuke had, thankfully, waited for Kagome to catch up.
After clearing the games, Kagome looked at the forest with the stink eye. When Genkai asked if they had questions, Kagome spoke up. "My powers are... lets say harmful to demons. Would it be a shame if I... purified some that cross my path?" When Genkai shook her head, Kagome purred out a thank you and gained a predatory look while smiling serenely. She also noticed the small monk shudder.
After having her fun in zapping any demons she came across for half an hour, Kagome jogged to her destination. On her way she zapped any that crossed her path. When she came across Yusuke, she let her aura loose just the barest of margins. It... purified the lesser demons for around a kilometer and weakened the lower demons. The rest could withstand it relatively unharmed. It did help Yusuke, though and that was her goal. Never having really stopped jogging, Kagome made it barely under the time limit. She left that bit of her aura free for a bit longer. It felt... uncomfortable to always restrain herself.
Yusuke came a bit to late but Genkai allowed him to continue on the grounds of having beaten the strongest opponent in the forest.
In next round of fighting Kagome got some looser who fought with a sword and gloated about it being easy to defeat her, she practically screamed her position out to the heavens. Kagome narrowed her eyes, then smiled dangerously. She manipulated her aura into placing her in another place and moving away. A real aura adept would see right through it, but this oaf didn't notice a thing and ran right head along into a wall, then it was easy to knock him out. Pathetically easy to be exact.
Dragging him by the back of his shirt back into the light with a highly annoyed look on her face, Yusuke winced and subtly moved away. "I don't want to know." said Yusuke. Kagome nodded and looked vindicated.
After this round was over, they were led by Genkai to an old battlefield. Kagome winced. That were a lot of spirits. She quickly pulled her aura back in, no need to upset them.
The first fight were Kagome and this strange fake monk. Kagome was officially and thoroughly pissed of. He made a mockery of priests and priestesses as well as monks and mikos from all times that had any real power. "You are not surviving this one, demon spawn. I will not let you!" said Kagome fiercely.
"Oh, and what makes you say that?" asked the demon.
"I am a miko trained in the old ways. A powerful miko." declared Kagome. The demon in disguise just grinned. That was wiped away, when Kagome unleashed a tiny bit more power than before. The guy was a normal class demon (C-Rank), as he was not instantly purified, but the spirits got rather forcefully exorcised. Genkai's eyes widened along with the other guys who had managed to stay until this round. Yusuke remained oblivious as he had no trained senses.
Needles to say, the demon found a messy end, when Kagome manipulated her aura into a purifying sword and chopped him into bits. Yusuke was a bit apprehensive of her after that. "Look on the bright side: Your mission is now completed. You can now focus on winning!" said Kagome brightly. Yusuke looked at her as if she had grown another head. "My part here is done! I don't exactly need training in my powers. What I need is combat experience, not energy control. Lets make a bet. If you beat this guy without your spirit gun, I will fight you in pure, undiluted hand to hand combat. No spiritual powers from my side except for barriers. What do you say?" Yusuke thought it over for all of one second, then nodded.
Yusuke managed to beat the guy without his cannon. Then Kagome had some fun with her miko barriers, then let herself be knocked 'unconscious' by Yusuke. Kagome heard Genkai snorted about lucky brats and unreasonably strong girl brats. When Genkai declared Yusuke the winner, Kagome 'woke up again'. After congratulating Yusuke on winning, Kagome tried to slink of. Before she could do that, however, Genkai called her over.
"Yes, Genkai-sama?" asked Kagome innocently. The old woman gave a heartfelt snort.
"Why did you let the brat win?" Kagome could appreciate the bluntness of the woman.
"As I said earlier, I have power and control in spades, but I lack physical toughness. It is not something someone can just bestow on someone, I need to work myself to the bone for that. And despite being a good student, I can't miss six months of school. It would ruin my perfect attendance." said Kagome wistfully. Genkai nodded and let anything else slide. The little old woman did manage to get Kagome to promise swinging by every once in a while. Kagome agreed readily.
In the six months Genkai trained Yusuke, Kagome swung by every second or third weekend and just sparred with Yusuke and sometimes Genkai. In those fights, they used pure physical toughness, something both had in more spades than Kagome, though she did throw mean punches and kicks, making every single one of her hits count double.
Kagome and Yusuke developed in leaps and bounds, Yusuke by becoming spiritually more powerful and Kagome by becoming tougher.
After the six months, Yusuke was ordered onto a case and Kagome decided to follow him. She did leave a protection amulet or two behind for Botan, the ferry girl, that would keep the demon insects away, though.
After watching a botanic oriented redhead called Kurama whip the first beast into submission, Kagome felt all fired up and wanted a go at the next beast. The fire demon called Hiei snorted, but the rest let her have her way. They were shocked, when a single punch was enough to destroy the beasts summoned by the second creature. Then Kagome summoned a sword from her miko powers and shoved it down the beasts throat, ultimately purifying it.
The two demons on the team shuddered. They definitely didn't want to piss Kagome of now. Satisfied, Kagome nodded, then they went on.
After Hiei had his fight with the ice 'master', they came to a labyrinth. Yusuke looked to Kagome expectantly and she shrugged, then proceeded to summon a hammer from her energy and started to bash a straight path into the walls, whenever they seemed to be in her way. Another shudder went through the demons, this time joined by Yusuke.
After reaching a sort of plain, where apparently pot people were grown out of plants, Kagome looked at Hiei. "You are a fire demon, correct?" she asked. When he nodded, Kagome asked a question that had him nearly hitting himself for not noticing something so obvious. "Then why don't you set them all on fire? They are, after all, essentially plants and not humans." With that, Hiei proceeded to burn down all the pod people unceremoniously.
After reaching the final beast, Kagome spoke up. "I vote Yusuke gets this guy, we all had our fight already, after all." They nodded, but then the last beast showed them a live video feed of Keiko and Botan. Lets say he didn't expect them to have talismans effective enough to not let any infected get into a radius of ten meters.
Without the threat of Keiko getting to bodily harm, Yusuke didn't fight as well as he could, so Kagome decided to give him an incentive. "If you don't win this fight, I will revive you, spar with you without holding back my spiritual powers, let Keiko rant at you until the evening, kill you, revive you and repeat it the next day." she said with a tone of utter confidence that told everyone she believed she could carry out said threat. It made it all the more threatening.
Needless to say, Yusuke won that fight very quickly, even if he needed another bit of energy to keep him going. Kagome happily gave him some from her miko powers, letting Yusuke's own energy settle and replenish at its own pace.
After a few days Hiei asked her if she was any good with a sword. Kagome laughed. "I don't need to be good with a sword, just good enough to nick my opponent. That is all it takes, as my power is, strangely enough, purifying for demons." said Kagome freely.
"I bet you couldn't beat me in a straight up sword fight!" said Hiei. Kagome hummed and thought it over.
"What if I win?" asked Kagome. If she she showed any skill, she wanted something out of it.
"Choose something. If I win, you are going to take your sword training more seriously and you owe me ice cream." he said. Kagome made the best home made ice cream he had ever tried and he tried a lot of different flavors.
Kagome hummed thoughtfully. "You will be my taste tester of a week for anything I want to try out. Nothing to extreme, but I want a second opinion. And you don't kill the guys who kidnapped your sister if they are human. I don't care about severely maiming, but no killing." said Kagome. Hiei's eyes narrowed, but he conceded.
After the spar, Hiei lay defeated on his back. "How?" he asked.
"I may not be able to really take a beating and stand back up after it right as rain, but I have enough raw power and speed to make a demon king green with envy. I just rarely find a reason to use it. I also have inherited the weapon skills of a female warrior, who almost exclusively used a sword, but was not a bad shot with an arrow either if she ever had to." explained Kagome patiently. Then she strong armed Hiei into coming with her to her place, where he had to taste several dishes she made. It was not all bad, they were all really good, but he didn't know why she felt the need to make them in the first place. Kagome just smiled mysteriously and said nothing.
Then Hiei found out where his sister was held. Luckily, Kagome was near by and reminded Hiei about his promise regarding the captors of his sister if they were human. Hiei scoffed and took of, but kept the promise.
His sister Yukina was the sweetest thing ever. Kagome took to teaching her about energy healing and helped her develop different defensive techniques. Kurama contributed by teaching both Yukina and Kagome about the properties of plants, both poison and medicinal.
A few days later, Kagome got an invitation to the dark tournament. She thought about it. If she didn't go, they would hunt her and her family until they were dead, on the other hand, she would have to sacrifice her precious perfect attendance.
It was a no brainer, really. She was just sad, because it had never happened before. So, fabricating a reason of why she had to go away for a month, her mother and grandfather supported her.
Meeting up with Hiei and Kurama, they waited for Yusuke and their mysterious fifth teammate.
When they arrived, Kagome had to suppress a chuckle. She would recognize Genkai anywhere. The tough little woman had an unique flavor to her her aura that defined her as... well, her. Any properly powerful fighter had a distinctive flavor to their energy signature.
The first round of the tournament was boring, as where the following ones. The only time she took an interest was the one who controlled humans. She freed the poor humans as soon as she could.
Then Puu appeared. The creature was very sweet, always staying with her, even when it should have stayed with Keiko. Kagome was the only one who realized what that meant. The little creature was, after all, an extension of Yusuke's soul.
Yusuke was nearly inconsolable when Genkai died. Kagome cheered him up, when she told him Koenma could revive her when they won the tournament.
Before the finals, she stepped up. "Will you have me a bit of fun? I haven't fought for real yet." she said. Everyone on her team let out an involuntary shudder. They mutter something along the lines of the first fight would be hers.
So, Kagome stepped up. Team Toguro looked confusedly at her, then the elder Toguro stepped up, clearly trying to be intimidating even though he only reached to about Kagome's knee. It was a brutal and fast paced fight with Kagome dominating her opponent. She used her energy sword and kept Toguro from forming any attack because of the pure speed and precision of her sword strikes. After fifteen minutes Kagome became bored of toying with her opponent. She jumped back to the other side of the arena and let Toguro catch his breath. Then she shot a very tiny piece of her aura at Toguro from her palm... it was as big as her... as a radius. Kagome sweat dropped. It hit Toguro and disintegrated him completely.
After Kagome was back with her teammates, they congratulated her on her win and to remind them to never make her angry at them. Kagome just smiled at her teammates. And discretely took her power back from Yusuke, as his spirit was now properly bonded with his body again and didn't need her energy to bridge the gap. On the contrary, keeping her energy any longer would harm him. Kagome frowned, then a look of glee filled her face for a second, before Yusuke took the stage. And proceeded to beat his opponent from here to Sunday and back. It was a Monday, so it was especially hurtful. Then Yusuke managed to rip the skull clean of. Kagome was proud.
The last fight was more of a formality. Hiei beat this guy using explosions. Badly. Well, Kagome demanded the money in cash and now, the tournament officials complied reluctantly. It would, after all, be a terrible shame should they die. After the cash was split evenly, Koenma came down, congratulated them and then took them all to his office, from where they were sent home. Except Kagome, apparently Koenma wanted to speak with her privately.
After the door closed behind Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama and a newly revived Genkai, Kagome threw up a sound and visibility barrier. A soft golden shimmering barrier erected itself around the two. "What did you do?" asked Koenma confusedly.
"I threw up a barrier to block out sound and visibility, so we can't be overheard. Isn't that what you wanted?" asked Kagome back, using the same tone.
"Uh, yes. Thank you. Ahem, I wanted to ask you what you are." stated Koenma.
"You may." answered Kagome mischievously. A short pause followed, then Koenma face palmed. Loudly. Kagome snickered slightly.
"Let me rephrase that. Who or what are you?" asked Koenma.
"Well, to who I must say I'm Kagome Higurashi, to what, well I'm both a miko and a goddess. I use my miko powers to hide my divine ones." explained Kagome.
"You won't make it easy for me, right?" Koenma looked like he wanted to cry. Kagome snickered into her hand, then turned serious.
"I'm Kagome Higurashi, junior goddess of the miko with sub-specialties in barriers, healing and armed combat. I have recently come into possession of a sliver of demonic youki and fully plan to analyze it to the best of my possibilities. I plan no harm to earth or any of its sub-dimensions like spirit world or the world into which demons were sealed. I ask for an alliance between myself and current acting spirit world ruler Koenma." said Kagome, then smiled at Koenma charmingly. "That better?" she added cheekily. Koenma looked stunned. Then shook himself out of his daze.
"Wait, alliance with me personally, not the spirit world ruler?" he asked tentatively.
"Why yes, if I made an alliance with spirit world with you as current proxy, then I would be bound to honor it even if you no longer represent spirit world. If I make an alliance with you..." Kagome trailed of and a look of understanding made his appearance on Koenma's face.
"I like that idea. So, what do you want to give and what do you expect in return?" he asked curiously.
"Well, I would be willing to provide housing to any and all detectives you have running around provided they don't number over four requesting sanctum at the same time and help with advise, sometimes action in any cases they might find. I also offer advice and shield to you if you want or need it. In return, I want one Yusuke Urameshi under my protection, along with the criminal records of Kurama and Hiei purged effective immediately. If I ever need shelter, I want it provided. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just something until I get back on my feet. And I want a spirit beast. Anything else you might want to add?" Kagome asked Koenma. It was only polite. Koenma looked thoughtful.
"Nothing now, but I would like to add a possibility to offer and ask for other services, compensation will be talked over on a case by case basis. Is that acceptable for you?" he asked and Kagome nodded, then made a divine contract appear, stating the same conditions as stated. It was binding to both parties, after they singed it. "Oh drat, more paperwork!" exclaimed Koenma. Kagome giggled a bit at that.
After they had both signed, Kagome left the contract with Koenma. It was indestructible until they both agreed it null and anything that went against the contract would be forced to stop. Meaning: if requested, Kagome had to give honest advise or act as a shield. Such was the nature of a divine contract. Kagome got handed a spirit egg as proof.
Then, after bidding Koenma good bye, she took her barrier down and smiled at the ogres standing around holding stacks of paperwork. After walking out the door, Yusuke looked anxiously at her. "What did he want?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing special. We just made a divine alliance. I told him about my true nature. Nothing important." said Kagome dismissively, greatly enjoying seeing Hiei and Kurama blanch and Yusuke blanching in response to his his friends blanching, fearing for the worst.
"Divine contract?" asked Kurama, while Hiei asked: "True nature?" at the same time. Yusuke seemed to get the point and looked pointedly at Kagome.
"A divine contract is a contract used by gods. It binds so completely, you are compelled to act accordingly to it. It has to be signed by all participating parties. In this case, we offer each other shelter when in need, I offer also advise and a shield to him, also if any detective finds themselves in need of shelter, I can provide up to four people sanctuary. In return Yusuke is under my protection, not that of Koenma and Kurama's and Hiei's criminal record is purged, no questions asked. And I got my own spirit beast egg." said Kagome with a serene smile. All three took a few seconds to process that, then they thanked her. Even though Yusuke didn't seem to understand why it was important, that he was placed under Kagome's protection. And they were surprised, that she got a spirit beast egg. They were, after all, extremely rare.
"True nature?" prompted Hiei again.
"Ah, not here. Let's find Botan, then we can discuss things more clearly back home. I don't want any eavesdroppers. That is a secret I don't want found out quite yet." said Kagome.
Once everyone was back in human world, they had forgotten about her true nature, as intended by Kagome. They said good bye and went home. Kagome raised the shields around her shrine: no one walks in or out without her knowing and no demonic beings she didn't key in are allowed in. Then, Kagome releases her aura. It strengthens the barriers around the shrine while at the same time said barriers also prevent her aura from leaking. It also let her spirit beast hatch quicker. Her aura builds up and soon, the few a bit spiritually aware people flee the shrine. As while loving and protective, her aura is oppressive by simple density and power.
Two weeks later, Kagome's spirit beast hatched. Kagome got a tick mark when she saw it. Thankfully it was night and she was just taking a stroll through a deserted park. Her spirit beast was, after all, a massive, four winged wyvern dragon. With the ability to become a small wyvern dragon, just big enough to fit into her hand.
Kagome took that as a sign, that while she suppressed her powers, the wyvern dragon could either represent her full powers or her power output. As she put next to no power out, the wyvern dragon was very small.
Months passed, and Kagome and her mother and grandpa took in three brats with psychic powers. Kagome had raised the barriers again, this time to also keep the brats in and people wanting them for something out.
Later on the same week, she had multiple people try to infiltrate her barrier, all with the purpose of abducting the brats. Well, two could play that game. The next day was Sunday, so Kagome stayed home and started teaching the brats in their powers. The next time someone tried to infiltrate, she let them through. Only to be surprised to notice it were two. One demon of close to S-rank power, the other a human who is close to death. She told the brats to keep practicing, she would soon be back, then went to confront the two intruders.
"Who are you?" she asked them coldly. The two men whirled around. "why are you after the brats under my protection?" she continued. "And last, why didn't you come earlier for healing? It may be proclaimed faith healing, but I am quite proficient in manipulating my energy to heal. Something as simple as what he has is nothing for me." the last thing shocked them the most. "Well? Explain yourselves!" demanded Kagome.
After a few hours of debating ethics and human nature with the two, they promised to keep their heads down, abandon their project of tearing down the barrier between human and demon world and Kagome healed the man in return. All sealed nicely with a divine contract.
They were thankful enough to provide Kagome with a name, face and address of the one who asked for their help in this whole ordeal. It turned out to be the one rich guy who was the sponsor for team Toguro in the dark tournament. Kagome beat the poor, unsuspecting demon to a bloody pulp for annoying her.
Kagome nodded to herself, then set herself the project to create the sub-category portals with her barrier and space powers, both miko and divine. She got curious about this barrier separating the two worlds.
After a few weeks, Kagome had finished with her project, then searched out Yusuke. It just so happened to be easiest to catch him after school. So, deciding to skip her classes for once, as this is much more important and she will inherit the shrine as she is the one with miko powers and not her brother anyway, so no pressure to do good in school to get maybe admitted to a good university.
So, waiting at the front of the school in her school uniform, she waits for Yusuke to arrive. To her delight she doesn't have to wait long. He comes out, bickering with some orange haired punk. Then he sees her, punches the punk down and jogs over.
"Hey, you didn't wait long, did you?" he asked her curiously.
"Naw, just decided it is time you get an upgrade. Come with me, at home I have strong enough barriers handy." she said, smiling when a few of Yusuke's school mates misunderstood that to meaning she wanted to upgrade their relationship and they would have sex.
At the shrine, she told him to wait in the back, while she prepared everything. In truth, she just changed into her miko garbs, then went back out. "Okay, I want you to breathe in and out deeply. What I will do will hurt at first, but you will feel amazing afterward, okay?" Yusuke nodded, so Kagome shaped a bit of her energy into a sword, then stabbed Yusuke through the heart, then raised the barriers around the shrine, making them divine in a single second. Yusuke looked at her with betrayal. "I'm sorry, but you will understand in a few minutes." apologized Kagome sadly.
Yusuke fell unconscious, dead to the world, as his body started changing slowly.
Half way through the transformation Yusuke was undergoing, Kagome removed her sword and allowed Puu entrance to the shrine grounds. Thankfully, the spirit beast didn't attack her.
After another few minutes, Yusuke released a pulse of his power and sat back up. "Wow, you didn't actually kill me." said Yusuke in wonder.
"Of course not. Now, if you were still under Koenma's protection, his father would have ordered his SDF to annihilate you. Now, he may have also done this, but they can't touch you because you are not under spirit world protection, but mine." explained Kagome. Yusuke's eyes widened. Then he gave her a thankful nod. "now I have some SDF guys to beat up because they are encroaching on my territory without any permission. You want to watch?" Yusuke nodded eagerly.
And so Kagome approached the nearest side of the barrier, Yusuke following behind her. On the count of three, a full team consisting of over forty men appeared on the other side. "Good day. What can I do for you?" Kagome asked pleasantly.
"Hand over that abomination, wench!" said the apparent leader.
"Wrong move." muttered Yusuke. Kagome's face took on the look of anger.
"Look here you oblivious moron. I wanted to be nice and settle this civilly, which you just ruined with your attempt at looking superior. Which also failed spectacularly I might add. No, no, no, you let me finish! Now, if you had asked Koenma, he would have told you Yusuke was of limits, because I already laid claim on him prior to you guys showing up, meaning I have previous claim. I also am a goddess, meaning I have higher claim. And lastly, I awakened him, meaning he is my responsibility! Now, tell me, what claim do you guys think you have." exclaimed and demanded Kagome. The SDF looked stunned. Yusuke also looked stunned.
"Lord Enma sent us to apprehend and eliminate the individual known as Yusuke Urameshi who awakened as a Mazoko." said the guy weakly.
"As I thought. As a being on the same level as your king Enma, I have superior claim, because I laid claim earlier. He may work as a spirit detective, but Koenma, acting king of the spirit world, gave me his right of him being under my protection through a divine contract. And none I intent to release soon." said Kagome. The SDF leader looked like Kagome slapped him silly with a fish. "Now leave, this shrine is mine!" and with a snap, all the SDF was gone. They apparently realized just how bad a move it was to anger a goddess on her own territory.
"Wow, never saw you rip someone a new hole with only words." said Yusuke.
"In this case, if I had attacked first, Enma could have potentially seen it as declaration of war. Now on to more important matters. I have to settle you in with your ancestor to get you training in your demonic powers." said Kagome.
"Wait!" yelped Yusuke. "What do you mean?" and so Kagome explained to him about him awakening demon blood was only possible if he had a powerful demon as an ancestor, so chances were good the said ancestor still lived, ergo could give him training in his powers. Yusuke agreed to let her search for him or her while he packed some things and bid good bye to his mother. He once thought he fancied a human girl called Keiko, but it came out she wasn't the one for him, so he didn't feel to bad about not telling her. She had become abusive after that damned dark tournament!
Later that afternoon, Yusuke came back with only a backpack. "I met Kurama and Hiei. They said they got an invitation from some demon big shots and had their family threatened, so they have to go. Kurama to some guy called Yomi and Hiei to Mukuro." Kagome nodded to herself.
"It gets even funnier. Your ancestor is Raizen, the third big shot in demon world. So, you ready to go?" asked Kagome and got a nod in return. So, Kagome proceeded to open a portal, which would deposit them right in front of Raizen's castle. Using her freshly developed porta sub-powers. Then, the goddess in disguise proceeded to drag Yusuke right through it, then closed it behind them to prevent the boy from bolting. Oh, and Puu had somehow managed to tag along. The wyvern dragon, which she had named Ryu in an amazing display of creative energy, notice the sarcasm, rode on her right shoulder.
Kagome smiled at the guards. "Presenting: Yusuke Urameshi, descendant of king Raizen, his spirit beast Puu and the humble miko Kagome Higurashi, friend of Yusuke Urameshi along with her spirit beast Ryu." she said simply. The reaction was not. Uproar would be understating it. Chaos was still to mild.
They were ushered in. When Kagome refused to let Yusuke go up and meet the king alone, the king was asked, then she was allowed to accompany him. Puu of course was allowed to tag along. Ryu was conveniently forgotten about. He still rode on Kagome's shoulder, but had gone to sleep.
"So, you are my ancestor?" asked Yusuke bluntly. It earned him a laugh. When he did this pressure wave through finger flick trick, Kagome raised a barrier which easily absorbed it, then dismissed it again.
"Indeed I am. I must admit to being curios. Why did you bring a human women, even if she is a miko, with you?" asked Raizen.
"The miko can hear you." said Kagome, but didn't interfere otherwise. She scratched Ryu on his little, scaled head. The dragon sighed, content.
"Dude, you might be my ancestor and a big fish in the pool, but I won't face Kagome when she is annoyed or, may the gods help me, when she is angry." exclaimed Yusuke horrified.
"Granted." said Kagome blandly. "Only if I'm pissed of, promise." she added. Yusuke looked even more horrified. Then Raizen laughed. "I am, after all, a goddess. And your honor guard." Then Kagome looked at Raizen. "And my first order of business is to get king Raizen healthy again. The easiest way is to get him to start eating again." with that, Raizen fell silent.
"You do now I promised to never eat a human again, right?" he asked tentatively. He noticed the little wyvern dragon. It spoke volumes about her tendencies. Like being overprotective of anything considered friendly, family and treasure. And their casual disregard of enemy suffering or pain.
"Why, yes I know. You didn't keep up with human advancement, did you? It was found out, which chemicals humans are made from and therefore it is easy to find a few foods for you, that only contain those stuffs. As a matter of fact, any meat is the same, only the composition changes. So you could eat chicken and beef and pork and would only taste the difference, but not notice it in terms of body nutrition." said Kagome with a flat tone and look. "Naturally, after abstaining from eating anything for so long, your stomach is bound to have shrunk, so eating anything would hurt at first."
Raizen contemplated that, then looked at her in wonder. She did have an otherworldly / godly beauty to her when ever she scolded someone. Or generally got a bit careless about conceiling it. Yusuke noticed it, Kurama noticed it, heck even Hiei and now Raizen noticed it. It was her divine powers shining through. And if people observed her, it also shone through a bit.
In the end, Raizen agreed to try out the new diet of lots of different meats and some side dishes like things called blood pudding (of course no real blood, but having all the chemicals found in real blood) and other such stuff and to train Yusuke. He especially liked the meat pie.
Kagome also convinced the old man to throw a tournament, the winner would get total rule over his territory. If the other two leaders also joined in, their territory would also get put into the grand prize. Matter of fact, any demon owning land that participated put down their own land as prize and payed no entrance fee. Then Kagome came around and said, in no uncertain terms, the winner would get a special prize from her, if they wished. The prize was a wish and Kagome would grant anything possible for her to do.
Well, Yusuke threw himself into training and even asked Kagome to give him a pair of spirit cuffs, like the one Genkai had given him for the dark tournament. Kagome agreed. What she didn't tell him, was that her cuffs also tried to purify any demonic power they were attached to. Because of their low potency, no worries for Yusuke, but it did make his powers grow stronger even faster.
When the six months were over and the tournament was around the corner, Kagome opened the tournament. "Hello everyone! My name is Kagome Higurashi! Some of you may have seen my last performance in the dark tournament finals, some of you may not. To everyone here: I'm actually a goddess and I will grant the winner one wish, any wish if it is at all possible for me! Also, because all three demon kings are participating the actual prize rises to become king or queen of the whole demon world! Now, I want everyone to give a healthy applause to our favorite announcer: Koto!" and everyone did give loud applause.
Koto took over, explained the rules and then every participant got to draw a number. The first fights were hardly note worthy. The participants got taken out one by one and Koto did a fabulous job of commenting. Thanks to a little tweaking from Kagome, the participants actually fought in a separate dimension, with a full recording of video and audio being shown and heard. Such was the advantage of having a space and portal affinity.
Only the big wigs remained after the preliminaries. It dwindled down, until only Raizen and Yusuke remained in the final. After a short fight, Yusuke released his spirit cuffs and everyone was surprised. None more so than Puu, who suddenly doubled in size.
"Wow, that was a serious power up. Wonder how he did it." said Koto.
"Well, he asked me to place spirit cuffs on him some six months ago. Thanks to his now partial demon heritage and my naturally demon purifying powers, his cuffs didn't just restrict his movement, but also continued to try and purify him on a low level. His youki responded by growing exponentially." answered Kagome serenely. Koto whistled appreciatively.
They both focused back on the fight, which got more intense then ever. Raizen not wanting to be beaten and Yusuke trying to desperately win for some reason. They punched and kicked and used their spiritual attacks and then went back over it all again and again.
In the end, Yusuke's determination won out and he won. He was crowned king and appeared a bit bewildered about that, to be honest. "So, what do you want to do wish for?" asked Kagome curiously. "I mean, after you were so determined to win so I didn't have to fulfill any bad wish? Or maybe you have need of a wish yourself?" asked Kagome slyly.
"Yeah, I wish for you to become my bride." said Yusuke. Kagome blushed lightly.
Raizen nearly face faulted. He should have seen this coming. His 'son' was, after all, madly in love with this girl. Only, he didn't have to protect her, so it didn't show as much, but what he could, in fact, protect, was the girls heart. Which he apparently possessed, if her blushing at his wish but not protesting was anything to go about.
In three years, another tournament would be happening, as it would be from now on every three years. Yusuke will not participate in that one though, he got the best prize ever: his newly wed wife, Kagome Higurashi. The goddess, had, shyly, asked if Yusuke wanted to be soul bound. The half demon and temporary demon king agreed and so the two never parted for long. Yusuke was now wearing stronger spirit cuffs, helping him get stronger.
He hoped that one day he would be about equal with Kagome and she could release her aura in full without hurting him. Well, that would be for another century. Hopefully Ryu and Puu would continue to get along so well. They were, after all, representations of their souls. So long as they got along great, they were in no danger to fall out of love.