AN: I haven't written fan fiction for years but I recently got back into anime and this idea struck me. These two series are so old, I don't know if there would be any interest in this kind of crossover anymore. Review and let me know if you'd like to read more. Enjoy!

Soul Magic

Prologue: A Jewel Forgotten

A soft, low twanging melody that sounded like warm, sultry rain on fresh blossoms, sun-warmed spongey moss beneath bare feet, sounded across the cave to him. She knelt on a cushion near the stove, the shamisen resting on her lap as her small hands moved expertly over the strings. Her usually lively expression was calm, grey-blue eyes half-hooded under coal black lashes, the warm orange glow of the stove reflected in them. He enjoyed the music, and even more the time it afforded him to observe her face when it wasn't talking back or glaring at him.

She was very good and had improved greatly over the years. She said she had lessons as a child. A look around the room would reveal more of her interests. She was a prolific, if not particularly skilled artist. Hundreds of her sketches and paintings littered the walls. She also had a fairly extensive library of scrolls and books, ranging in subject from poetry, mythology, and romantic fiction to modern science, mathematics, literature, and even fashion. She had a chalkboard, one of his most recent finds, covered in math equations. She claimed to hate math, but she said it would be a shame to have learned all that stuff and not retain it so she still practiced regularly. He'd never met a human woman so well educated. The humans at that time liked to keep their females dumb and subordinate. She was anything but. She would argue at the drop of a hat with anyone she disagreed with, even a much stronger opponent who anyone with a sense of self-preservation would have left alone. She loved to argue with him. That's not to say she was confrontational, she just wasn't afraid to speak up and she had a quick temper. She was foolishly brave.

He supposed he kept her because she was a puzzle.

The melody turned melancholy and trailed off into a discordant series of notes. The echoes of the last note faded. He sipped some rice wine and watched her set down the shamisen and bachi carefully on the low table in front of her.

Rain cloud eyes, big and luminous with every emotion she ever felt, stared into the darkest corner of the cave. "How could you forget me?" Her eyes met his. "How could you forget me?" she asked more fervently this time. She rose quickly from her cushion, her gown fluttering angrily with her movements, wove her way deftly around the furniture and before he could blink she was leaning over him with her tearstained face close to his. She screamed, "How could you forget me?!"

Kurama's green eyes shot open in the dark as he came awake with a start. For a tense moment, a scream echoed in his ears and he gripped the sheets. The hum of the fan in the corner brought him back to his bedroom. The shaft of light on the ceiling told him it was daylight. Desperately, he tried to remember the details of this horrible dream but they slipped through his fingers like sand. This was the sixth time in three weeks this enchanting but frightening woman had visited him in his sleep. The dreams were unlike any he'd had before, as vivid and detailed as a memory but elusive the following morning. Throwing the sheet off of himself, he sat up and put his feet on the ground, running his fingers through his hair to work out the knots and wondering not for the first time why this dream was haunting him so. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was time to get ready for work.

Later that evening, he found himself lost in thought as he walked home from his office. When he moved out of his parents' house a couple of years ago he had found an apartment only a couple blocks away from his stepfather's company. The nearby park was also a bonus. His feet turned down a side street and he soon found himself in the shade of the green trees that lined the path in the city park. This late in the evening there wasn't anyone else here. Branches seemed to reach towards him and flowers turned their happy faces in his direction as he walked by. He stopped on the path suddenly and smiled. "When did you get back?" he asked the quiet night.

The night answered, "Today."

Hiei dropped from the tree above to land in front of Kurama. His hands were tucked into his pockets and there was the ever present frown. However, the old fox got the feeling, as he often did since Hiei had returned to the Makai with a purpose, that it was just a facade. His fiery friend seemed calmer and more at ease than when he had first met him 7 years ago. "How is Makai?" It had been several months since he'd visited the other world himself. Hiei fell in step next to the taller youkai and they made their way through the quiet park, the only sounds the chirp of insects and the distant rumble of cars on the street.

"Quiet," the little apparition answered. "Patrol is uneventful at best. I'm bored."

Kurama nodded, tucking a strand of his long red hair behind his ear. "I have also felt restless as of late," he conceded. "You've been training for the tournament?"

His companion snorted. "Of course. This will be my last year of border patrol," he vowed bitterly.

"I have as well. I will be happy if I can only defeat Yomi. Yusuke says Yomi's son has grown exponentially as well. He may have a good chance this year."

"Hn. Not if he hasn't greatly improved his speed." Hiei grinned remembering how he had beaten Shura two and a half years ago. The kid was tough, no doubt about it. He hoped he got paired against him again this year.

Kurama nodded in agreement and the conversation fell off into a comfortable silence. After a while, Hiei said "You are troubled. Is sitting at a desk all day getting to be too much for you?" he asked teasingly.

The red head smiled indulgently. "Not quite."

Hiei realized he wasn't going to go into further detail and lost interest. He flickered into a branch overhead and looked down to give his friend a farewell. "Next week, we spar. I want to see if you've improved."

Kurama nodded in agreement and the fire apparition swiftly disappeared. After wandering around the park for more than an hour he finally decided to go home. At least he was off work for the next two days, and he smiled to himself as he thought about the weekend training session he had planned with Yusuke.

The shower was hot but it did nothing to alleviate the niggling anxiety he still had in the back of his mind about the dreams he couldn't quite remember. Blue gray eyes, tears, screaming. It was only a dream, but the suspicion that it meant something more creeped over his skin like a chill. It felt like an ice cold wave was hanging over his head, poised to break over him at any moment. Distractedly, he stroked each waiting plant with a touch of his youki as he moved out of the bathroom and through his apartment to the kitchen. He had vegetables and rice for a late dinner and sat out on his balcony for a few minutes enjoying the warm summer night air and the quiet of the small residential district after dark.

Somewhere in one of the apartments above him he could hear the notes of a shamisen drifting through an open window. He listened for a while. Something tickled just beyond his memory. What was it about that sound…?

Shaking his head, he entered his apartment again and shut the sliding door behind him, leaving it unlocked as he usually did for Hiei who liked to drop in unannounced occasionally. He shut out all the lights and settled down into bed.

Long, wavy tresses the color of wet ink poured over his hands as he lifted them away from her thin shoulders. The orange lamp light lit her milky collar through the sheer fabric of her robe, casting her flesh in warm highlights that melted into shadow down the slope of her chest. This was as close as she ever let him get. He knew she must be a virgin still to have been with him for so many years and not given in to his seduction attempts. His fingers brushed the green vine that rested around her neck most of the time and he sent a little jolt of youki into it in a message to move aside. It was a sentient little plant, very protective, and he had gifted it to her for company centuries ago. The vine obeyed and he was left with an unobstructed view of her neck. He watched her pulse in the place where her neck met her shoulder. He leaned in and inhaled her sweet, unique scent where it was so warm and concentrated in the place where the hot blood ran so close to the skin. He felt a soft hand push against his forehead and he moved away.

She looked at him over her shoulder with those gray eyes, hot with irritation at the moment. "When has that ever worked for you, Youko? Back off."

He put up his hands in a placating gesture and put a couple of feet between them. He felt cold from losing the warmth of her body and hair against him.

A wicked idea occurred to him and he mulled it over in his mind for a moment. He grinned devilishly. "I'll make you a deal. If you give in, I'll let you go."

A cold silence settled over the cave and the woman turned the iciest glare on him he had ever seen on her sweet young face. "That is cruel, even for you."

He ignored the sudden tightness in his stomach as he brushed off the stare with a wave of his clawed white hand. "Suit yourself, princess." He started to walk to the entrance.

She put down the book she had been reading and leaned forward. "You're leaving already?" Despite herself, she couldn't quite keep the pleading out of her voice.

He shrugged and examined his claws nonchalantly. "I have things to do."

She swallowed her pride. "When will you be back?"

Another shrug. "When it pleases me."

His noncommittal answers made her want to rip his silver ears off and stuff them in his mouth. She gritted her teeth and put her eyes back down on her book, trying not let him see that he had gotten to her.

As he left down the dank corridor that led out of the cave system he thought he heard a whisper in the dark, "Don't forget me."

In response his mouth formed a single word, a name whispered in the darkness he was leaving behind. Kagome.

Kurama gasped as he came awake in his bed.

He remembered. He remembered the girl. Kagome.

"Kagome," he said aloud, testing the name out. It came easily, as though his lips had never forgotten it even if he had. He had said that name so many times. How could he forget?

And when those three little syllables met his own ears again a wave of emotion came crashing down over him, stealing his breath away.

How? How could he have forgotten?