Prologue
Makai, They found her in the trash. Luck was on the boys' side; the rats hadn't gotten to her yet. Two of the vermin had already climbed onto the top of the covered picnic basket and were franticly clawing at the wicker, while three others were tearing at the sides with their razor sharp teeth. The rat youkai were in a frenzy, for they smelled milk and tender, sweet- scented flesh. The ally was the gang's home. Three of the four boys were sound asleep in their make-do beds of converted wooden crates lined with old straw. They'd put in a full night's work of thieving and conning and fighting. They were simply too exhausted to hear the cries of the infant. Yusuke was to be her savior. His raven black hair was pulled into a messy pony tail and his sharp brown eyes scanned the area. The fourth member of the gang was taking his turn doing sentry duty at the narrow mouth of the ally. He'd been watching a dark-cloaked woman for quite some time now. When she came hurrying toward the opening with the basket in her arms, he warned the other gang members of possible trouble with a soft, low-pitched whistle, then retreated into his hiding place behind a stack of old whiskey barrels. The woman paused in the archway, gave a furtive glance back over her shoulder toward the street, then ran into the very center of the ally. She stopped so suddenly her skirts flew out around her ankles. Grabbing the basket by the handle she swung her arm back as far as it would go and threw the basket into a pyramid of garbage piled high against the opposite wall. It landed on it's side, near the top. The woman was muttering under her breath all the while. Yusuke couldn't make out any of the words because the sound she made was muffled by another noise coming from the basket. It sounded like a baby's cry. He wasn't given time to mull over a possible answer, for the woman suddenly started running back to the street. When she was almost to the corner, Yusuke gave another whistle. This one was loud, shrill. The oldest of the gang members, a runaway youkai named Kurama, leapt to his feet with the agility and speed of a predator. His crimson hair fell to his shoulder blades and his emerald eyes were calculating. Yusuke's whistle had alerted him meaning there was a risk of danger or someone in danger. Yusuke pointed to the basket, and then took off in pursuit of the woman using his youkai speed to help him. Kurama watched Yusuke leave then turned to get the basket. It wasn't an easy task. The rat youkai didn't want to give up their bounty. Reaching into his long crimson locks, he pulled out a rose transforming it into a deadly vine, most commonly known as his Rose Whip. When he was certain they were all dead he lifted the basket out of the garbage and carried it to the bed of crates where the other members still slept. He almost dropped the basket when he heard faint sounds coming from inside, and it wasn't quiet that's for sure.
"Shippo, Hiei, wake up. Yusuke found something." Kurama continued past the beds and went to the dead end of the ally. He sat down, folded his legs in front of him, and put the basket on the ground. He leaned back against the brick wall and waited for the other two boys to join him, still in his youkai form, for he didn't know what lay in the basket itself. Hiei, sat down on Kurama's right side, and Shippo, yawning loudly, hunkered down on his other side. Shippo's auburn hair sticking up in odd directions and his forest green eyes pinned on Kurama. His bushy, tan tail twitched a bit when a particularly loud, shrill scream emitted from the basket. Hiei's crimson gaze turned to the basket, his black hair seemed to want nothing to do with gravity and had a white starburst in the middle.
"What'd you find boss?" Shippo asked his voice thick with sleep. He'd asked Kurama the question. The other three gang members had elevated the runaway demon to the position of leader one month ago. They'd used both reason and emotion to come to their decision. Kurama was the oldest of the boys, almost fourteen now, and logic suggested he, therefore, lead the others. Also, he was the most intelligent of the four. While those were two sound reasons, there was yet another more compelling one. Kurama had risked his own life to save each one from certain death, and when two of them were very skilled and tended to avoid death most of the time, that's saying a lot. "Boss?" Shippo whispered. Kurama snapped out of his daze.
"Not certain," he replied. He cautiously lifted the lid, and then they let out a collective gasp. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, a baby as perfect as an angel from above was sleeping soundly in the basket. Kurama was the first to recover from the surprise. "Dear lord in heaven how could anyone deliberately throw away something this precious?" Kurama whispered.
"I don't know, but it's not right," Shippo said sadly. He was abandoned as a young child by his parents, that's when the others found him and took him in accepting him as one of them. "So what are we going to do with her?" he asked.
"Well she ain't sticking with us. I don wanna girl fussing all the time," said Yusuke who just seemingly just got back.
"Well we ain't throwing her away!" Kurama said loudly. The baby was awake and the two of the boys noticed that she wasn't crying it seemed like she was waiting till they were finished with their quarrel. But when they didn't stop Hiei and Shippo swore that they saw an exasperated look on her face before she let out a shrill scream.
"OUCH!" yelled Kurama, Yusuke, Hiei, and Shippo simultaneously. She stopped after they shut up.
"Well there ain't anything wrong with her lungs that's for sure," Yusuke grumbled then sighed obviously giving up. "Fine, I won't object to her staying…but if she turns my hair pink," he motioned to his messy raven black hair. "She's out of here," he joked. Shippo laughed at Yusuke momentarily. The image he now had was rather entertaining.
"You wouldn't look that bad…" Shippo smirked earning a glare from the older boy.
"Well," Yusuke started plopping down on the ground, directing his chocolate gaze to the others. "what should we name her?" Shippo smiled when the little baby took a hold of his finger, his hand looked so much larger compared to her own. Not even thinking about it, he blurted out a name.
"Kagome." the other three turned to Shippo, who looked at them in surprise. "What?" he asked.
"That's perfect," Kurama smiled. Yusuke laced his hands behind his head and leaned against the wall nodding his agreement.
"We can't have her growing up here, she's a nigen. It would only attract other youkai to her presence, we have enough trouble as it stands," Hiei pointed out.
"Then maybe the Ningenkai would be a better place to raise her," Kurama said.
"Yeah, that'd be a good idea," Yusuke agreed. It had been decided, young Kagome would grow up in the Ningenkai with the four gang members.
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Tijiya: It has been forever since I had done anything with this story! For a long time I had writers block with everything and I was mainly concentrating on 'Inner Demons'. But now, I am going to update my other stories as often as I can! I hope you all enjoy the new, revised version of 'For the Roses'. Please review!
Kaze mai:–holds up a blue piece of paper-
I, Tijiya, hereby state no claim to the following anime:
Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi
Yu Yu Hakusho © Yoshihiro Togashi
I only borrow them to amuse myself and my readers.