Disclaimer: Would I be here if I owned Inu Yasha or Yu Yu Hakusho? I do not think so either.
Chapter One
By Torticolis
"Yes, alright! I know, I know: three days, no more, no less. I get it! Happy? May I go now?" Asked an irate young miko.
"Feh. You better not be late wench!" Shouted a just as irate hanyou, as the girl dropped herself into the old dried up well she had been sitting on moments ago.
Thud.
Kagome opened her eyes, her head tipped back, glancing upwards.
A roof.
Home.
She sighed happily. It's been two months since she last came back and she really needed the break. She'll finally be able to have a nice decent bath; a luxury she could not afford back in the feudal era. And after that maybe she could go to the amusement park or the movie theater with some friends. But first things first, she desperately needed to catch up at school. Her grades were rapidly dwindling. She was worried, if this continued she would never even be able to graduate high school, much less enter an acceptable university. Failing Math she understood, failing English she understood, but History –History– that, she could not understand. For Kami's sake, she was living it! Alas, she soon found out that the feudal era was not the only era to have existed in Japan, many others preceded it and many others followed it. Even with her superior knowledge of Japanese folklore and legends she had only managed to scrap by.
Slowly, she climbed the ladder her mother had thoughtfully placed within the well. When she reached the top, she cautiously opened the latch to the well house door, discreetly peeking out. After all it would not do to scare ignorant tourists half to death. And it certainly would not do to have said tourists report to the papers that their shrine was haunted. Kagome knew from experience.
When no human presence were detected, the raven-haired girl happily skipped toward the house's main entrance, humming a joyful little tune along the way.
"Hellooo! I'm back!" She called out in a singsong voice.
"Oh! Hello dear!" Exclaimed her mother, head popping out from the kitchen. "Have you eaten yet? No? All right, go and take a nice bubble bath. Dinner will be ready in an hour."
'Ah... A bubble bath,' daydreamed Kagome cheerfully.
Not contesting, she hurriedly did as she was told to. Dear Kami did she miss modern appliances!
When she was done with her bath, cheeks rosy from the steam, she came out of the bathroom only to be greeted by the delicious scent of oden.
'Mmm...'
Yes, Kagome was home.
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The next morning, she took advantage of her situation by rising later than she usually did in Inu yasha's presence. As she finally awoke from a deliciously uninterrupted slumber, she hurried down the stairs, swallowed her breakfast in a gulp and ran to school as fast her legs could carry her.
The day was awful, the words coming out of her teachers' mouth seemed nothing more but pure gibberish to her. Even with Eri, Yuka and Ayumi's helpfully provided notes all she could understand in the teachers' speech were the conjunctions such as and, but, so, if etc. which only served to further confuse her.
When school had at last ended, she was grateful for the reprieve, feeling unexplainably lucky as she realized that Hojo had not come to try and ask her out yet. She did not feel like dealing with guilty feelings for having to yet again either lie to him or stand him up.
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Another day went by and still no signs of Hojo. 'What's going on?' Wondered Kagome. Not that she wanted him to come and see her, oh no.
Ok. Maybe a little.
But it's quite understandable seeing as how Inu yasha kept undermining her; she needed an ego boost, and that was exactly what Hojo provided. He was the only sign the gods have bestowed her to remind her that no matter what, she was still a pretty enough girl who could actually get asked out on a date.
Anyhow, back to the point. It was abnormal; Hojo would usually have come to see her by now. Two days is fairly enough for the news of her return to reach him. Worried, Kagome eventually asked Eri if she knew of his whereabouts.
"Hojo?" The girl asked before screeching out, "Kagome! You've finally decided to give the guy a chance? I'm so happy for you!"
Her squealing had unwittingly caught the attention of both Yuka and Ayumi and, let's face it, the whole hallway of students (who, thankfully only shrugged their shoulders, made a crazy gesture with their hand to their companions, and went on ignoring them).
"Really Kagome?" Asked Yuka. "What about your boyfriend?"
"Did you break up with him? He was pretty hot!" Piped Ayumi. (AN: I do not know about the Anime, but I follow the manga and at one point Kagome's friends had actually met and approved of Inu yasha.)
"Eh? No! I was just wondering if Hojo was alright. He usually comes see me after class, whenever I come to school." Explained Kagome.
A loud collective gasp went around the group.
"You've been cheating on Inu yasha with Hojo?" They queried with identical aghast looks upon their faces.
"No! We just... talk about stuff is all."
"Right." Again, similar looks of disbelief were etched upon their faces. 'What are they? Siamese triplets?' Thought Kagome irritably.
Growing impatient, Kagome repeated her original question more forcefully. "Do. You. Know. Where. He. Is?"
"He hasn't come to school for two days now." Answered Yuka, her eyes shooting in every which way nervously.
Their little circle suddenly became even smaller.
"We aren't supposed to know this, but I've heard that he was reported missing." Provided Ayumi in a hushed tone of voice while casting nervous glancing around them.
"Yeah, there's talk that he has been kidnapped" Added Eri just as quietly. "They say the police think it's the same person who committed the other six abductions in this area."
"A serial kidnapper around here? Creepy." Commented Ayumi.
"And the criminal could be anyone." Whispered Eri.
"Your neighbor, the mailman, the taxi driver, that nice lady who walks her dog in the park every morning, one of the teachers, or even one of the students." Supplied Yuka, adding to the drama. All three looked at each other and shuddered.
"Now wait a minute." Exclaimed Kagome, breaking the spooked atmosphere. "What on earth are you guys –well, girls actually –talking about?"
Another concerted gasp issued from their mouths. "You mean you don't know?"
'If I did I wouldn't be asking you, now would I?' Thought Kagome dryly. "No. I don't know."
"It's been going on for two weeks now, everyone has been talking about it. Six teenagers, seven if we count Hojo, have disappeared. Apparently kidnapped by an expert. He has not left a single trace or clue of his identity as of yet. The police do not have any trails to follow, but there were some definite signs of struggle on the scenes, like a few drops of the victims blood or a fingernail or so on and so forth. And coincidentally, all seven of the victims were from this sector of the city." Related Ayumi ominously.
Kagome suppressed her urge to gulp. Although she has had her number of encounters with demons before, Ayumi sure knew how to tell a story. Goosebumps had started appearing on her arms and she could feel the hair on her neck rising.
"It's a shame though, Kagome." Stated Yuka blithely. "You should've asked Hojo out earlier. Now, it's too late."
The others voiced their agreements, and with that, the conversation turned to lighter subjects such as boys, clothes, boys, jewelry, and, of course, boys. Nevertheless, Kagome still could not get over the sudden feeling of chills running down her spine or the sense of being watched, after hearing the story.
That day, she made her way home with a nervous gait, jumping in fright at the slightest unexpected noise. Thankfully, no one popped out of the shadows and no one tried to snatch her away.
Yet.
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At long last, the last day she had for this little holiday of hers had come, and it was blessedly a Saturday. 'No school!' A miniature Naraku could be seen doing the jig in her mind. She shook her head, quickly eliminating the image from her head. 'Now that was scary.'
After a good night's sleep on a soft modern bed, she had completely forgotten about the mysterious kidnapper.
The day passed joyfully as she made the best of what little time she had left. Smiling, she bought some new camping accessories, poky, cat food, dog food, ramen, chips, and whatever other junk food she chanced upon in the convenience store. 'I wonder if they have any wolf food at the pet shop, or for that matter, fox food.' She giggled stupidly at the absurd thought before skipping toward the cashier.
And so the day went on.
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Skip.
Jump.
Twirl.
Skip.
Jump.
Twirl.
Kagome was a happy miko. She had finished shopping, packing, and had re-sewn her ripped sleeping bag. She was now spending her time dancing around in the park. This was the best day ever.
Alright, so maybe some parents had ushered their children away as they glanced at her uncertainly, and a dog had peed on her this morning, and a stray cat had scratched her when she had tried to pet it, and there was now an annoyingly big youkai overshadowing her, but it had all together been a-
Wait.
Youkai?
'Nope. I did not just gulp. That was not a gulp. That was the sound of me swallowing a rather large amount of saliva. Nothing to worry about. I'm not scared. I can handle this. Yep.'
Slowly, she turned around.
And there it stood. It had what looked like the body of a bear while it's fore and hind paws were actually human arms and legs. What looked like a grin appeared on its fur covered face and a look of deep malice coupled with intelligence resided in its beady eyes.
She was never going to look at Souta's stuffed bear in the same way ever again.
But it did not scare her! It was just another piece of shit! She could so beat it dead before it could utter the word ugly! It probably wasn't even smart enough to say the word! Hah ugly and stupid, her easiest opponent yet!
Insulting the creature in her mind seemed to have helped her get a grip on herself and calmed her down a bit. Well she had been somewhat calm, until she saw it open it's great jaws and...
"Ugly." It said in a low rumbling growl.
'What? Oh. OH NO!'
"Oopsies, did I say all that out loud? Eheheh..."
It lunged.
'Shit'
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"What is it this time, toddler?" Thundered Yusuke, as he stepped out of the portal and slammed his fist upon Koenma's desk, causing the stacks of paper to flutter about in disarray.
Following the detective's rather violent entrance came a calm and perfectly composed redhead who went to stand immobile in front of the small reikai prince's desk. His arrival was trailed by that of Kuwabara's, easily recognizable by his bright orange Elvis styled hair, and Hiei, who simply crossed his arms and leaned on the wall with his custom flat look carved on his stony face.
Koenma massaged his temples tiredly, "There's been another breaching of the barrier again. This one's powerful; he's somehow managed to block off our Reiki detectors. He's also smart, staying hidden and preying only on the minimum of humans he needs to sustain himself. Thankfully he is not familiar with Ningenkai and so had assumed that, like the Makai, a few humans gone missing would go unnoticed. We have been notified that there have been unusual disappearances in this limited area. You will have to find him yourself." Here a screen appeared, showing a map on which a red circle had been drawn around a district of Shimizu City. "We are not aware of his level of strength, therefore you are to go on this mission together, in case he is an upper S class. Kill him if absolutely necessary, but it would be preferable if you brought him back alive for questioning." The screen went blank again as the small prince sighed.
"That would be all."
With that said, he waved his hand toward Botan, who happily chattered away as she created a portal, allowing them to pass through. Yusuke grudgingly stepped in, followed by the rest of the Reikai Tantei.
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In her moment of panic, all the minute details could be seen to Kagome as time seemed to have frozen.
The bear-like thing had its arms outstretched, what seemed like claws appeared to have replaced the nails on his human-looking hands. The youkai's plump body was launched into the air by a set of extremely muscled legs. And, most pressing of all; there was only a few centimeters' distance before its claws would reach her smooth unblemished flesh.
No Inuyasha was coming this time. No bow or arrows were at her disposal. Hell, she didn't even have a small purse or bag to whack it with! Instinct took over as her arms raised themselves, shielding her head from the oncoming attack.
Contact.
That thing had just made contact with her.
It touched her arms! Her poor arms! Eww!
Feeling disgusted, she forcefully pushed it away with all her might, desperate to end the touch. And then, something occurred, something that had only transpired once before, long ago, the day she had first fell into the well.
A burst of light.
And its arms fell. Detaching themselves from the youkai's torso, they landed on the grass with a low dull sound. The legs came next. Leaving the upper body without any means to move about.
Well Kagome certainly was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she hurriedly ran away, knowing that it might have the ability to regenerate itself. A bit cowardly an act, yes. But hey! One has got to do what one has got to do for survival's sake. And it's not like the police wouldn't be able to handle a handicapped bear on the loose, right? Right.
She hurried towards the well, grabbing the huge yellow bag she had left beside it and jumping into the blue light that slowly lulled her fear away.
'At least, Inuyasha's going to be happy. I'm early for once.'
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As the four teammates split up and each searched independently for the trouble causing youkai to accelerate the hunt. They suddenly felt a light burst of power emanating from the east side of the city. It was small, almost undetectable, but since they had been expressly looking for the slightest of unnatural energy manifestations, they had noticed it. In spite of that, this was not the type of energy they had been expecting, it was unusual and unlike any youkai or high leveled spiritually aware human aura. In fact, if the thought weren't preposterous, they would have said that it held the same quality as the Sei Kou Ki Sensui had once used against Koenma, but that would require a fearful amount of energy and even then it was very hard to mold or use. Putting that bit of information aside to muse over later, they all ran towards the environs in which they had sensed the blast, knowing that their companions were most likely headed that way as well.
Hiei, due to his speed, arrived first. The fire apparition quickly analyzed the scene before walking away searching for a comfortable tree to lean on while he waited for the others to arrive.
'Hiei. What was that?' Kurama's voice echoed in his mind, sounding undeniably curious.
'Hn. You are already on your way here, find out for yourself.' Replied the seemingly bored Jaganshi, before he shut Youko's indignant cries out. Truth be told, he himself still did not know what 'that' was. However, the day he admitted a fact like this to the fox would be the day he died.
His eyes narrowed, this looked suspicious. Was it a trap? After all, the youkai had been able to mask his presence from them for hours, and then, he unexpectedly gives them just enough of a power burst to be noticed. Arriving on the lieux, they find him to be a lump of defenseless, moving fur, with its appendages cut off. If this wasn't a ruse then what was?
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AN: Well, here you go! My first Iy/Yyh crossover and my second fanfic! I had originally intended for this chapter to be longer, but 2 thousand 7 hundred something words is a bit long for a first chapter do not you think? Yeah, so I cut it off here.
I want you all to be straightforward and blunt. Flame me, insult me, praise me; it's all welcome as long as you point out the faults you've found in the fic. It could be anything. Plot holes, OOC-ness, poor writing style, wrong information: A-NY-THING.
Thanks for reading!