As you guys can probably tell, I'm slowing down the updates of this story… which is due to the fact that my classes are starting and I spend most of my time studying.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Prince of Tennis or any of its characters.

New Beginnings
[10] Powers from the Heart

"Hey, I'm going out, can you tell mom for me?"

Sango looked up from her desk and stared in the familiar brown eyes of her brother. She frowned.

"Sango-nee?"

His eyes were familiar… but not. It was the same shape and color and everything else but it didn't belong to the Kohaku she was used to. It wasn't sparkling with childish warmth like Kohaku's was before Naraku and it wasn't flat or haunted like it was after Naraku. This was Kohaku, she knew. Her brother… but not.

She wondered if this was what Kagome felt before she and Miroku regained their memories.

"Uh?" Kohaku blinked. "Sango? You okay there?"

Sango swallowed and forced a smile. "I'm fine," she assured. "Come here and give nee-chan a hug." She opened her arms.

Kohaku stared at her.

And stared.

He shook his head.

"You're crazy."

Sango watched as he left and then sighed again. When she had first remembered, it was the demon-slayer Sango that had seem like a dream. But right now… right now she felt as if she was the demon-slayer Sango and was now currently living a dream. Since when has my life been so complicated?

She sighed again and opened her drawer, pulling out an old photo album.

Running her fingers across the smooth cover, Sango sucked in a deep breath. "Okay," she whispered to herself. "I can do this."

She squeezed her eyes shut and threw the cover open. Counting to three, Sango slowly open one eye and looked at the page, almost sighing in relief. Nothing. She flipped the page and smiled. Aw! I was so cute back then!

Another page. Look at itsy-bitsy Kohaku!

Another page. Is that Chiharo from elementary school?

Another page.

Sango gasped.

Well. Shit.

She traced the outline of the child figure with a finger. Sesshomaru had said that Kagome was back in her time to bring balance to the world or something. And they were here most likely to help her with her job. It made sense.

It also made sense that they, Sango and Miroku had memories of Kagome when they were younger. It was so that they could be linked to the young priestess. It made finding Kagome so much easier. So of course it made sense that she had memories of something that possibly never happened. It made sense! She understood it. So why, why, why, why did she have physical evidence of Kagome-chan (not Kagome-sama, according to Miroku) in her photo album.

Sango sighed and squinted at the picture. A young Sango and Kagome (was it even her?) were holding hands and smiling at the camera. I hope this doesn't complicate things, she prayed. She couldn't help but wonder if physical evidence of the existence of Kagome-chan meant anything. Knowing the direction her life was currently going… it probably did. At least, this means I'm not mentally insane, she thought humorlessly.

She slipped her fingers into the transparent sheet and wiggled the picture out, knowing that she would need to bring this subject up with her friends. And Sesshomaru.

Sango turned the page.

And gasped.

Then blinked.

"Well, well, well," she murmured amusingly.

"A two-tailed cat demon?" He blinked.

Kagome blinked back. Then exploded. "I just told you my entire life's story from what Sesshomaru—a demon—believes since I've been born, to me falling down the Bone Eater's Well to my time traveling adventures, to what I believe is going on in the world right now and you just concentrate on a cat with two tails? A demon cat with two tails?"

Ryoma looked over at Karupin. He tilted his head. "Does its big form have two tails too?"

"Ryoma!" Kagome screeched. She breathed deeply, attempting to get her emotions back under wraps. "Or did you already find things out from Souta?"

He shook his head slowly.

Kagome's fingers twitched and she actually had to force her hand down and away from her cousin's neck. "That's not even weird," she groaned. "There's two-tailed cats in the…" Her hand fluttered up and down. "…the normal world. Siamese twins or whatever. There's even cats with two heads! Why are you freaking out about that?"

"I'm not freaking out," he pointed out.

"Exactly! Why?"

Ryoma shrugged. "It's not like your story doesn't match up with what has been going on."

"And what exactly has been going on?"

Ryoma blinked. Huh, as if she didn't know. "Your pink light—"

"My priestess powers," Kagome insisted.

"Sesshomaru."

Kagome leaned closer. "And what about Sesshomaru?"

Ryoma sighed. It looks as if he didn't have a choice, Kagome was going to get him to talk no matter what. And well… she had taken the time to tell him everything, he might as well do the same. "When we—" he frowned. "When I was younger, Sesshomaru always had… his… demonic physical appearance."

She blinked and then waved a hand over her face. "You mean markings and all?"

Ryoma stared at Kagome, confused for a moment. He gave his head a quick shake as he remembered. "No. No markings."

"What about the pointy ears? The fangs? Claws?"

He shook his head again. Really. One would think that those things would have been dead giveaways. But then again… with the technology these days…

It was strange to know that she had been freaking out the past few days wondering how the hell she was going to tell Ryoma her situation and his reaction wasn't even what she had expected. She sighed and then went back to think over the situation again. "It might be because Tezuka forced you to run all those laps," she said finally. "You were tired, so your powers are probably exhausted."

"Heeh."

"You said my hand tingled," Kagome reminded and pulled Ryoma's warm hand into her own. She couldn't feel the tingle herself but it was either because she already hung out with Miroku too much or Ryoma's powers weren't really there yet. "In a good way," she added. "Which means, your powers are more similar to my own than that of a demons."

He stared at her and then scowled. "No."

She responded with a flat look. "I hate to say it… but there are other things to worry about than the color of your purification powers."

"I'm not worried about the color," Ryoma responded stubbornly.

"Oh really?" Kagome sighed. "Anyway, we are related so your powers might not even be related to what's going on."

His lips quirked up slightly. "You are what's going on."

"That's not something I want to be reminded of," Kagome mumbled. She buried herself in her self-pity for a moment before brightening up. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "At least you're going to be with me from now on, huh?"

Ryoma scoffed. "I have tennis."

"What?" Kagome gasped. "Ryoma!"

He smiled lightly but didn't say anything. Instead he allow himself a moment to think about his life since Kagome moved in. As much as he liked his cousin, he had completely called the fact that his life would never be the same again. Of course, it wasn't what he imagined either. She was reuniting with her friends, yes but also bringing with her a whole lot of supernatural issues.

"Show me?" he asked.

Kagome looked up from her own thoughts. "Huh?"

"Your powers."

She frowned. "Haven't you already seen them?"

"No."

She eyed him for a moment, debating with herself whether or not she was going to do as he said. "Alright," Kagome finally agreed. She stood up and stretched, pushing her arms upwards. "Come on."

He stared at her.

"Where are we going?"

"Sesshomaru's house."

Ryoma paused at her words.

Kagome smiled at his expression and reached into her pocket, pulling out a keycard. "See this?"

He stared.

"It's Sesshomaru's."

Ryoma frowned. He had a suspicion.

Kagome gave the keycard a smile, her eyes twinkling in excitement. "When I left his house the other day, he said that since I'll probably be saving the world again, I'll need to sharpen up my powers. I can stop by his house and use his practice hall whenever."

"He said that?" Ryoma asked.

Kagome frowned. "Okay… I paraphrased."

Truthfully, what Sesshomaru actually had said was, "I can feel that your powers has weakened, priestess. Pathetic, really. It has only been a year for you, yes?" And when he handed her the keycard: "You'll need it." His words were accompanied by a sneer.

He sighed, lips twitching in an attempt to hold back a smile and stood up.

They took a cab to Sesshomaru's house since Ryoma's parents were out. The car ride, much to Ryoma's disgust took almost an hour, being stuck in traffic for almost twenty of those minutes. He wondered if he should have just told Kagome that it would probably be better if she just showed him in his backyard. Less trouble… but also more public, now that he thought about it.

The cab slowed down upon reaching the outer gates that would lead them to Sesshomaru's house.

"Can you press that button?" Kagome asked the driver politely, nodding at the video intercom to the driver's left.

He rolled down the windows and did as she said and then pressed it again when no one answered.

"Hello," Sesshomaru's driver / butler (Kagome reminded herself that she needed to get his name) greeted. She watched as he leaned closer to the screen. "Excuse me, uh… are we expecting you?"

Kagome squeezed herself between the two front seats. "Hi!"

"Ah! Lady… Lady Kagome!"

"Uh… yes, just… just Kagome is fine."

"I'll open the gates for you right away."

Kagome grinned, and leaned back into her seat. It took another five seconds for them to go from the front gates to the front entrance, making Kagome realize exactly how big Sesshomaru's property was. Which, she thought, is rather exciting because that meant that the training hall should be big too.

Kagome thanked the driver, and in her excitement, quickly pulled Ryoma out of the cab and handed money to the driver at the same time. Without another word, she pulled Ryoma up the steps leading to door.

"Would you calm down?" Ryoma managed to grunt out. If this continued, his left arm would be useless in tennis tomorrow.

The door opened just as they reached it. "Good evening," he greeted again.

Kagome smiled. "This is my cousin, Ryoma," she introduced. Then blushed. "I'm sorry, I never got your name last time."

"Tatsuki," he answered. "I'm guessing you're here for the training hall?"

"Yes!" Kagome bowed politely. "Thank you Tatsuki-san."

He smiled, directing his arm towards the left. "This way, Kagome-sama."

They made their way towards the training hall in relative silence. Kagome finally decided to put her cousin out of his misery and dropped her hold on his arm. She looked at Tatsuki out of the corner of her eyes and took in his appearance. She had no doubt in her mind that she was looking at a demon, but whatever illusion he had wrapped himself in was strong enough that her powers was not able to allow her to see what hid underneath it all.

Which, she realized shakily, was either because he was strong enough (like Sesshomaru) where she would be forced to consciously bring her powers out or he was some human that Sesshomaru trusted with his past.

"You have green eyes," she noted softly.

"Eh?" He turned towards her, green eyes flashing. "Ah… yes." He then stopped and pulled open two large double doors. "Well, here we are."

Kagome stepped in and literally stopped breathing as she saw how vast the room really was. Not to mention, it was well armed with… well, just about everything including… Oh my god, she thought. Is that Hirakotsu?

"You needn't to be afraid of destroying anything," Tatsuki said. "The room and everything in here is reinforced by barriers." He gave her a bright smile. "I'll leave you to it." Tatsuki stepped out of the room, closing the heavy doors behind him.

Kagome managed a late smile, still taking her time to take everything in.

"Kagome?"

"Huh?" she asked, head snapping around towards her cousin.

He stared at her.

"Oh right," Kagome said, making her way towards a set of bows. Her fingers trailed up their smooth wood and she smiled lightly. One of them tingled under her touch, making her tilt her head in confusion. Upon closer look, Kagome realized that the bow was hers, from almost five hundred years ago, reinforced with a rather strong barrier. She swallowed hard, her throat tight, not believing that Sesshomaru had kept it all these years.

She picked it, along with a quiver of bows up, knowing that no matter how old the wood of the bow was, it would be able to hold together. If it could survive through the destruction of Naraku, it could survive through anything. Kagome hummed under her breath as she made her way out of the weapon corner and towards one end of the vast training hall. She turned to face the target at the end of the other side of the room.

"You're going to shoot from here?"

Kagome looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Aren't you able to hit the target with a tennis ball from this distance?"

"Hmph."

"It's the same thing," Kagome said with a roll of her eyes.

Ryoma stayed silent, waiting patiently.

Kagome took a deep breath, closing her eyes so she could concentrate of on getting the feel of her unused powers. She took another breath. Here we go, she thought. Nimble fingers pulled an arrow out of the quiver slung over her back. She notched it into her bow, leveled it and pulled back the string.

Ryoma stared, hairs on the back of his neck standing up and he could feel a slight breeze despite being indoors. He was surprised to see that despite the fact that he had seen Kagome shoot with her powers before, this time was nothing like the first time she had done it in front of him. Last time, he only saw the flash when the arrow struck the target, but this time, he could see waves of Kagome's unique pink energy expanding out from her hands and surrounding the arrow.

"Let's see how well your barrier can hold up," Kagome mumbled and then released.

With sharp eyes, Ryoma saw the hit the red bull's eye perfectly in the middle but instead of sinking into said target, the contact point crackled with pink and blue energy. He blinked and then turned his attention back towards Kagome, wondering if she was behind all of this.

His cousin had her eyes trained on her arrow, narrowed in concentration.

He turned again.

With a final crackle, the arrow flew away from the target reminding Ryoma of the time when Kagome was hit with the Jack Knife. It must be the barrier, he realized. That's where the blue energy came from.

"Damn," Kagome breathed. "Sesshomaru is right. I am rusty."

"Could you have broken it?"

Kagome frowned. "Mm… maybe. I used to be able to break Naraku's… with the Shikon's influence so I don't know why I wouldn't be able to break Sesshomaru's." She shuddered at her next words. "Unless, of course, Sesshomaru's just that powerful." She sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if he is."

He looked over at the arrow again, which was, unsurprisingly, smoking. "What else can you do?"

"Huh?"

"Besides shoot arrows."

"Shoot purification arrows," Kagome corrected. She wrinkled her nose in thought. "I can create barriers, sense the jewel—which isn't important anymore, sense demons, purify demons and that's about it." She paused. "Oh! I can still sit Inuyasha!" Of course it wasn't exactly one of her priestess powers but she still had the ability to sit the older man and deemed it important enough to mention.

He stared at her.

"I might show you when we see him again," she said with a grin. Ah, she missed that.

He blinked.

"Anyway," Kagome said. "Do you think I'll be able to see Tezuka play a serious match? I kind of want to observe him."

"No."

"No?"

He frowned. "Buchou always plays seriously but he barely plays full-out."

Kagome raised her eyebrows. "And… you can't get him to do it?"

Ryoma scowled, which was all the answer Kagome needed.

"So… why don't you?"

"Buchou doesn't play serious personal matches. Especially since we have official matches every three days or so."

Kagome wasn't fazed. "Ask him for a tennis date, I'm sure he'll agree."

"A… date?"

Kagome nodded. "Yea."

"A date," Ryoma repeated flatly, giving her the familiar are-you-stupid look.

"Look," Kagome said, pointing a finger at his short pockets holding his cellphone. "The call and text exchanges between the two of you aren't what one would all "average". You guys are already dating material."

Her words made Ryoma scowl harder. "I told you that's—"

She held up a hand to stop him. "Ambush him! Tell him beforehand that his silence means yes and ask him on a tennis date. You'll shock him into silence with your question and you'll have your tennis date and I'll have my… uh… lab rat."

"Or you could just have another physics assignment."

"Yea." Kagome shook her head. "I don't think he's going to fall for that again."

He huffed. "Buchou can't play long anyway."

Kagome blinked. "I'm not asking for a long game."

"If you want Buchou to play seriously… it's usually a long game."

"Oh." Kagome frowned and thought back to the last time she watched an actual tennis match… a couple years ago and it was an old recording of her uncle. Didn't it last a couple hours? She paled. "So, uh, why can't he play long?"

"His arm gives him trouble," Ryoma mumbled.

"Left?" Kagome asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ryoma looked at her. He knew he never brought up the issue with Kagome and when she had watched the practice match between Fuji and Tezuka, he was playing with his right hand so… "How?"

Kagome shrugged. "That time he was playing… that Fuji guy… sometimes when he used both hands to hit the ball, his left one would flare up."

Flare up? Ryoma frowned. "It should have healed years ago."

Kagome shook her head. "It doesn't have anything to do with his body's condition. I meant, flare up with demonic energy."

He stared.

"His arm pain is most likely because his demonic energy and his overpowering human aura—and dear gods, he has a strong one!—is battling in his arm for dominance."

Ryoma blinked. And blinked again. "Can you heal it?"

She shook her head. "I could probably do something… but if the energy battle does end up physically hurting him in some way, I wouldn't be able to do anything." She gave her cousin a sad look. "I'm not god, Ryoma. I can't heal physical wounds."

"Can you… purify the demonic energy?"

"See," Kagome said, looking down at her hands. "That's the problem. I can purify demon energy. I can purify and cleanse someone who's being possessed which is probably quite similar to what's going on with Tezuka and Momoshiro but I don't know exactly where all that demonic energy is coming from." She sighed. "I know I can purify the demonic energy inside them—Tezuka—but because of the unknown factor, I wouldn't be surprise if I end up purifying Tezuka's arm right off."

Ryoma's mouth opened slightly in horror at the mental image.

"And no," Kagome emphasized. "I am not joking."

Ryoma closed his eyes, giving himself a moment to recover before snapping them back open again. "Could you… check?"

Kagome stared at him. "Why?"

"I want to play tennis with buchou."

To tell you guys the truth, I actually wanted Ryoma to freak out… but I think it would have been too out of character if he did. So… yea.