Chapter Eleven: Winter's Search (Part One)
The Edo Period, In the years before the Manor burned
Toru bent down to study a patch of mushrooms that were clinging in a cluster to the moss laden bark of a fallen tree. They were a creamy brown color, a little bit shiny, with tiny umbrella caps that were all tightly packed and climbing over one another, as if each one were vying to be on the top of the pile. He really couldn't say much else about them; the young Hawkling didn't know all that much about the food they gathered, he always just let Rin lead the way. She was the real expert among them.
He was about to call the young Inu over to confirm whether or not his find was edible when he felt something touch one of his wings. On reflex, he jumped and spun, putting himself nose to nose with the horned Mazoku mask that Kagami never seemed to take off. Too close. Startled again, the slightly taller boy stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over his fungi riddled log.
A flap of his wings helped him to regain his balance before he met the dirt for dinner.
The quieter of the two Shadow Beast orphans stared at him—or more so, stared over his shoulder, still at him but focused on his feathered appendages rather than his face. At least, that's where it felt like he was looking. It was hard to tell with those black, pupil-less eyes and that mask that obscured all but a glimpse of that blackness.
"Your wings are getting bigger." Kagami said in that straightforward voice of his that made him sound like he was stating sterile facts instead of trying to start or hold a conversation. "but they are still not functional. Will you always be an earthbound bird?"
That was a question that Toru had been asking himself and his mother for quite sometime, and the insecurity he felt about the subject made him flush. He had to look away from the quizzical darkness of Kagami's reflective eyes. Demons who were born with wings or who grew them in the early years of their development normally would have been flying at half of his current size and maturity. Yet for whatever reason, his own refused to give him lift. He could glide short distances, but that was it.
Sometimes he would watch the songbirds with envy. Even his own mother was a daily reminder of his shortcomings, what with her tall, elegant wings that could carry her as high as she dared. For her it was so effortless.
Toru didn't realize that he was stuttering until someone cleared their throat.
"You shouldn't ask questions like that, Kagami." Said Hansha, the older of the two Kagemono, as she came to the Hawk's rescue. "It's rude." She was gently cradling a collection of berries and green herbs, and her own noh mask was hanging loosely around her neck. As black as her eyes were and despite the lack of hair anywhere on her head or face, she was still quite expressive as she pinned her little packmate with a reproachful look. That button nose of hers crinkled in a way that was actually kind of cute.
Kagami seemed to shrink under her stare. He picked absently at a thread in one of his sleeves.
"I was curious." The little boy replied, looking anywhere but her gaze. "I've met Tengu that could fly as toddlers. But he is much older than that. His wings aren't broken, they simply refuse to work. Do you think it is still a matter of growing into them, or will he be mostly grounded like a brush quail?" He pulled a feather from his sleeve then and studied its tawny freckles. It was much too small to be one of Toru's. He must have found it on the forest floor. "I wanted to know. They look similar."
Toru gawked at the feather. His eyebrows pinched together and rose as bafflement met mortification.
A quail?
Again, another feminine voice swooped in to the rescue.
"Toru's a Hawk, not a quail. He's a strong and proud bird of prey. Right Toru?" Rin said, carrying a basket in her arms. She lowered it for Hansha to deposit her harvest before looking back over to the boys. Her eyes brightened when she saw Toru's log. "Oh! Nameko mushrooms! Great find!" She explained before kneeling to pick them. As she was gently separating stems from rotting bark, the Pup said to Kagami, "Toru will be able to fly someday soon. He just needs to find his wings first."
The Bird dropped beside her to help.
"But his wings are there." Kagami spoke again, gesturing to the speckled black and brown feathers on the older boy's back. "Why would he need to look for them?"
"She means it metaphorically. Not everyone can be a prodigy like you, Kagami." Hansha scolded him, swatting away his outstretched hand before the smaller Kagemono could touch Toru's wings again. Toru was grateful for that. He didn't like them touched. "You've never had to learn how your powers worked, they've always just come to you. But it's not like that for most. Some beings need years and years to learn their abilities."
"I'm still learning mine." Rin admitted chipperly. Even though she was nearly into her adolescence without knowing most her powers, Rin never seemed to let it bother her much. He didn't know how it had affected her in the beginning, before her pack included him, but from what Toru saw, she was more than happy to allow her abilities to come to the surface slowly. Each new discovery was something she was able to further investigate with her father and the other adults. It was a constant adventure for her. Shippo knew his powers better even though he was younger, sure, but that couldn't be helped since Rin had been human and powerless before.
Not that the Shadow Beast kids knew that.
"Me too." Hansha added. "I was a bit of a late bloomer for my family. But even still, many Kagemono don't get their shapeshifting abilities until they hit puberty. You were an odd one, Kagami."
The little boy frowned. Or, at least, Toru thought that he might have frowned. It seemed appropriate, given the context and the way he looked away.
Something wet landed on the hawk's hand as he placed the last of his mushrooms into Rin's basket and they stood. He looked up at the sky. Compared to the canines, his sense of smell wasn't all that great, but he didn't need to be a Fox or a Dog to know that a storm was rolling in. The air had been angry and threatening all morning. The clouds in the sky a blanket of heavy and ominous grey fluff. Leaves showing their bellies. Soon after he felt the first droplet, another landed on his shoulder. Then another on the top of his head.
And then it was drizzling.
"We should probably head back." Rin suggested.
All Toru could do was nod demurely, glad that the attention was no longer on him.
The little Inu scurried forward, pulling Hansha along with her. The two girls laughed as the rain began to beat down a little harder, and then their laughter turned to squealed of delight when the sky's spigot was turned and suddenly the spontaneous drops had become a torrential downpour. It was that season, after all. They had all worn an extra layer to cover their clothing, just in case. Rin utilized the extra length of her sleeve to shield the basket of their harvest.
The Hawkling smiled at the girls walking ahead of them on the trail, the two huddled close. Rin's hair was already soaked through and sticking to her dimpling cheeks. Hansha's bare skin shined slick like a pebble in a stream. They were content just holding onto each other's arm, as if that could protect them from getting even more drenched.
A couple quick strides allowed Toru to catch up to them. With a ruffle from over his shoulder and a flex of muscle, he extended a wing overhead. When the rain suddenly stopped hitting her head, Hansha looked up to see the tawny feathers. As oversized as It was on his person, the appendage made for a perfect shelter for two little travelers.
She giggled.
In response, Toru averted his eyes. He looked back to where Kagami was sulking along behind them, frayed sleeves drenched through and mask dripping.
He extended his second wing with an unspoken invitation.
Kagami stared up at it before dropping his black gaze down to study Toru. Onyx met obsidian. Deep, boundless, hungry obsidian. Wary. Confused. Innocent. The little bird felt his face grow warm. He turned back to focus on the trail ahead of him, but didn't recoil his offer. After a while, he was afraid that the Kagemono wasn't going to accept the shelter. Embarrassment began to itch little moth holes in his belly.
Then Kagami fell in line beside him, quiet as a cat. The tips of his pointed ears were stained a beat red.
The two continued without speaking, rain drowning out the whispered conversation of the girls on the other side. When they made it back to the manor clearing, Rin had nudged Hansha and dared her to race back to the house in the rain. They laughed as they ran across the soggy grass, wet fabrics swinging about without a care. Kagome appeared on the deck, drying rags in hand and a scowl on her face.
"I guess they're not entirely useless." Toru heard Kagami speak quietly beside him as they made their way much slower across the courtyard. "They can still serve a purpose. They're good wings."
The little bird looked down at his smaller companion. The Shadow Beast wasn't looking at him. It wasn't a terribly large compliment, but Kagami wasn't one to use his words superficially. He might as well have just given Toru a congratulatory metal of recognition.
Toru beamed.
He would fly someday. And when he did, he would fly stronger and taller than anyone else.
Genkai's Temple, Present Day
The others were gathered in Genkai's sparsely furnished living room. They crowded around the coffee table. The new-leather scented sofa should have comfortably fit three, but was a bit tight with Kuwabara's larger frame taking up the better half of it. It was a similar gathering to when she had woken up in that temple the first time, Kagome realized when Shunjun opened the door for her and Kurama from the porch, back when she was a pseudo prisoner and potential threat. It felt strange, like walking in on a distant dream that'd been out of reach for so long.
Except it wasn't the same. Shizuru was working, Yukina was missing, and Hiei was standing—avoiding eye contact—instead of destroying the arms of the couch.
To them, everything that had happened was still fresh in their minds. Barely a month had passed since that first encounter, setting the whole thing in motion. Barely a month. And she'd been the puppet master behind the whole ordeal.
It took a puppet master to fight a puppet master, which was exactly what Kagami had become.
Kurama allowed Kagome to enter the room first. Not for show of chivalry, but because Kuwabara had stood the moment the door opened and the Vixen seemed intent to meet him halfway.
Granted more space, Yusuke readjusted his leg that had been casually draped over Keiko's lap. He turned up to count the wood panels of the ceiling in a show of giving Kagome and Kuwabara some privacy. The human girl half beneath him looked down into her hands. Hiei hovered somewhere between the cough and the wall, not quite in the circle yet not far enough away to lean against the window, excluding himself as he usually did. Unlike the others, he didn't show any polite restraint from staring. The apparition tried to meet her eye, to share with her a snotty smirk, but she ignored him to focus singly on the young man before her.
Kagome stepped to confront her friend as if he were an opponent in a boxing match, the coffee table between them the sole referee. Kuwabara stared her down. His lips pinched tight. His hackles rose.
"Five hundred years?" He spoke up when it became apparent that Kagome wasn't going to be the one to speak first. His voice cracked like a fissure in the silence that surrounded them.
"Yeah." The Kitsune woman responded quietly, so not to shatter the glass that they were treading on. It seemed Yusuke completed the job of filling Kuwabara in, but whether or not he was going to accept the news was still up in the air. She just hoped that he'd calmed down enough to hear it from her directly.
"That's a long time." He said carefully.
"It was." She replied.
The room held its breath. It was difficult to tell whether the Guardian of the Realms and the boy who broke the barrier were staring each other down like feral cats, one waiting for the other to pounce, or if they were acting more like children, each waiting for the other to ask them out to the school dace. Nobody knew if that conversation was going to end in another fight or a hug.
Either way, it was tense.
"So... do you even remember us all that well?" Kuwabara asked only after Yusuke grew impatient and cleared his throat. "You only knew us for a tiny bit, right? And five hundred years is—I mean, It's five hundred years."
Kagome blinked but didn't let her guard drop. Cautiously she took a step forward, brushing her shins up against the coffee table. Then she found herself quoting the words that had been spoken to her so long ago by the same Rin she knew now. "Of course I remember you, Kazuma. I remember everything as if it were yesterday. Even more, because I've lived through it twice." She started to smile. "I've always been here for you, watching over you. I just couldn't tell—"
He interrupted her with a harsh growl. "And you still let Yukina be kidnapped!? Even though you knew it was going to happen?"
His large hands balled into fists, all ten knuckles going a bloodless white. Yusuke behind him sat up alert but didn't stand.
Ah. There it was. That was the very conclusion that Kagome feared he was going to come to.
As much as the rest of the team liked to pick on their carrot topped boy for his shortcomings, he had a good head on his shoulders and was the most emotionally receptive of the bunch. He couldn't care less about thinking through any danger that he put himself in, but when it came to his friends' safety, few events and potential outcomes missed his notice.
He was smart; he'd be starting college soon after all. He was the only one of the boys to pursue higher education and if he studied hard he was going to go far with it. So, while she'd hoped that particular nugget would fly over his head, deep down she knew that it wouldn't.
"Yes" Kagome replied bluntly, without any sugar to soften the blow of what she needed to say. "I let Yukina be kidnapped."
As the words left her mouth she glanced at Hiei who instantly went stiff. Unlike Kuwabara, he had not come to that realization yet—he was more focused on getting his sister back than on events that had already transpired. But for Kagome, it had transpired twice, and she had in fact been more than capable of preventing it on her second playthrough.
But she didn't.
"I let Yukina be kidnapped, both times." The Priestess added for good measure before her eyes settled back to the boiling human. He needed more than that to fully understand. "Just like how I allowed Keiko to be kidnapped by Hiei. How I allowed Eikichi to fall into the hands of Jaki. How I allowed Genkai to die at the Dark Tournament. How I allowed Yusuke to die not only once, but twice. How I allowed Kurama to be hunted, and how I allowed Hiei to fall from a floating block of ice and placed him in the hands of the worst possible beings to ever raise a child."
A movement from Hiei cut through her peripheral vision, but she didn't allow him to distract her focus, even as he hissed, "You what?"
"Even the stupid cat?" Yusuke piped up, talking over the fire apparition's outburst.
"The point I'm trying to make is that I've allowed a lot of things to happen under my watch, Kazuma." She spoke slowly, not allowing her voice to rise. Everything was kept level and smooth; calm waters and ocean blues to temper his lava chambers before he could erupt. "And yes, that includes watching from a distance as Yukina was kidnapped from Genkai's temple. When Tarukane had taken her, the only things I could do were give Koenma an address, Hiei a videotape, and hope for the best."
"That explains your suspicion that led to me playing the tape for you." Kurama's voice snuck from behind her and aimed at the Fire demon. He sounded cool and, as usual, unaffected by the revelations.
Hiei's teeth clicked shut; Kagome heard the tell-tale sound of his hand moving to grip the hilt of his sword. "I didn't recognize the reaper that gave it to me. She didn't have an aura."
"Since we're all alive, I take it everything went according to plan." Genkai said from the doorway of the kitchen where she was carrying in a fresh kettle of tea.
"I stood back, because it was what I needed to do." Kagome continued to Kuwabara. "These events, no matter how bad, are all a part of your history. They're what made you who you are today. Time needed to flow the same way that it had the first time; except it was up to me to push it down the right path. That was my job as the Guardian of the Realms from then until now; to steer events, not change them."
After saying that, Kagome looked at each one of her companions in turn. They were all hung on her words and paying attention now, even Yusuke, because they were significant. She really had been there, watching and pushing pawns behind the scenes. Their entire lives and fates had been intertwined since before most of them were born, and that single Priestess was the one to make it unfold. She wasn't there to deny that, and as much as she didn't want them to look at her as any different from the Kagome that they had gotten to know before, she was different, and it was important that they realized that.
Despite looking so much like the friend they'd made, she was now a being of power and significant position. And yeah, that was just as weird for her to admit to herself as it was to admit to them, which was why she kept that exact admission unspoken.
"The moment my younger self went through the well, time caught up with me. That means that from here on out, I no longer know what's going to happen; I don't have any more secret guides or cheat sheets to show me what pieces need to be moved. That also means that I'm not confined to taking the backseat anymore, either. My job as Guardian remains and I'll be relying on my past experience to fulfill my responsibilities, to protect the realms, but now I'll be doing it on the frontlines." She turned her attention then back to Kuwabara, who was staring at her so fiercely that she would have withered under its intensity had she been made of anything less than finely tempered mom-steel. "I'll also be relying on all of you to aid me on missions when there are things that I need help setting straight—starting with rescuing Yukina. Her place is here, with you, and I won't let her absence continue any longer than it needs to. Kagami's defenses won't stand a chance against us, if we all work together. I get that you're angry, and I'm not asking for your forgiveness, Kazuma. But I need to know if you're going to stand with me, or if you'd rather go off on your own. This time I'm giving you the choice."
They all looked to Kuwabara for his response.
He took a moment to let her words sink in. In the meantime his hands relaxed, only to be crossed over his chest, and he raised his chin to look down his nose at her in a menacing way that managed to take aback even the ever critical Hiei. Finally he said, "You've already got a plan."
It was a statement, not a question.
Kagome's tall ears that had been trained straight throughout her entire monologue began to flatten ever so slightly under the glare. Still, she nodded.
Then silently, and oh so severely, Kuwabara sat back down into his place on the couch. He steepled his hands on his knees, ignored the belligerent stares of his friends, and waited for the Fox to continue. "Okay." He said when she didn't. "What's the plan, then?"
It wasn't a perfectly patched friendship, Kagome knew. Far from it. But cooperation was a really good place to start.
So Kagome let out the breath she'd been holding, smiled, and began to lay down her plan of attack against the Shadow Beast that had haunted her steps for so many years.
══════ With Reason ══════
Hiei draped his hand over his knee and stared over the heads of his teammates from where he'd perched along the back of the couch for a bird's eye view shortly after Kagome started laying out her battle plans. They were all huddled around the coffee table that had become her war room, with the exception of Keiko, who'd excused herself to take care of the tea.
"And what makes you think this is really going to work?" Yusuke asked skeptically. He balanced once of the chess pieces they'd been using as markers on its edge, but stopped his fiddling when it slipped from his forefinger and tumbled over.
"Kagami has added to his collection of powers since I saw him last, so even I'm not completely sure what we're going to be up against. He keeps himself well hidden." Kagome admitted. "But the one thing that I know for certain is that he can't physically be in two places at once. His life-force manipulation was stolen from one of the Shinobi Youkai about fifty years ago, and that requires full concentration to maintain. Without it, his back door will be left wide open for us to walk right in."
"That's fine and all, but how can you be so sure that we'll be able to distract him? Why wouldn't he just stay hidden and send puppets after both of us like he did the last time?"
Hiei scoffed from behind the Detective. "And we all remember how well that turned out."
The Black Fox ignored his outburst. "Last time he had the element of surprise on his side and one of our fighters wasn't combat ready. He sent out one high-class demon and a horde of low level monsters, which are easier to control but also easier to kill. I'm running on the assumption that he doesn't have the ability to control two of the more powerful demons at once, which means he'll be likely to use the same tactic again."
"Yeah, and he'll send the flock my way this round." Yusuke replied in a sour tone. "You said that, but how do you know that? How do you know he'll pick us over you guys for the social call?"
"I don't." She replied bluntly, and the air in the room fell still. "I'm just guessing. We can only predict that he'll want to prevent you from helping me more than he wants to keep Yukina secured under his control. She was a message, after all, not the goal."
Not a single being in that room liked that they were talking about their little Ice Maiden friend as if she were a meaningless pawn in a greater game, but at the same time, none of them spoke out to deny it either. She was, after all, only kidnapped for the sake of getting Kagome's attention, right? For that, Hiei despised the Kitsune woman before them. He despised her and respected her and wanted her thrown under a buss, but only after she fulfilled her end of their bargain and fixed her mess by getting Yukina back.
Only after that was he going to decide where he actually stood with the Priestess.
Until then, he would follow along with her little plan.
Yusuke chuckled, the sound breathy and halfhearted. "Alright, cool." He said after a moment. "So we're on the same page, then. I don't know shit either. Glad we can be honest now. So what is the goal then, you think?"
"Kagome's life." The red haired Kurama spoke up from where he hovered behind her. "He told us as much in his letter. That particular element is not up for question."
"Riiight." Yusuke drew out the vowel of the words to an uncomfortable length, as though he could have possibly forgotten that. Or maybe the Detective had forgotten. He'd been so preoccupied with Keiko and dealing his runaround with Kumiko that that little factoid very well may have slipped his mind.
It wasn't as though he was known for his strong attention span to begin with.
Still, Hiei followed Kagome's reaction. She looked away, turning to pick up the chess pieces that were scattered across the table. There was guilt hiding behind her eyes, but only for a heartbeat.
She placed the pieces back in their box and handed it off to Genkai who put it on a shelf.
"Final call them." Kagome said as she slowly lifted herself to her feet. The tail behind her swayed to straighten the pleats of her skirt before resting tame and still. "Is everybody alright with their assignment? Their teams?"
"I can't complain." Yusuke shrugged flippantly. "Kuwabara on the other hand…"
The tall oaf lifted his head for the first time during that entire session to shoot a scalding look at his best friend. "It's whatever. As long as he stays out from under my feet." He replied harshly, not at all seeming 'whatever' about his partnership. Then his beady dark eyes shifted to glare at Hiei. If that look had come from anybody other than Kuwabara, the little fire apparition might have actually been intimidated. But this was Kuwabara, and Kuwabara was ridiculous in his eyes, no matter what. "You hear that, half-pint? You get in the way or mess this up somehow, and I'll have yer hide on a spit."
"Forgive me if I'm not shaking in my boots." Hiei shot back without missing a beat. "Instead of focusing on me, why don't you worry about your own two feet? We wouldn't want you tripping over the plan and getting yourself hurt in the process. Your face is ugly enough as it is without adding to the damage."
He waited for the less than witty retort that was sure to follow so that he could continue one of his favorite little games, but Yusuke joyfully beat them to the punch.
"Kids, please!" The atavism chastised as he rose from the couch and put hands on hips. "Save your lover's quarrel for after work, yeah? We've got a deranged Shadow-Kurama to fight, and I for one am really not looking forward to being on the receiving end of those freaky as fuck plants of his—on top of whatever else he'd got hiding up his sleeves. No offense, man, but you make a hell of a better ally than an enemy."
Hiei caught the darkness hiding in Kurama's grin.
"None taken."
"Then, if everyone's ready, let's head out." Kagome said and didn't wait long for the rest of them to stand before she started making her way out of that central room. Hiei couldn't help but notice the extra effort that Kurama put in to avoid contact with the Demonness by a fraction of a hair as she brushed past.
"Wait, already?" Yusuke piped up and he practically skipped across the room. "Shouldn't we have a warm-up session first, at least?"
Genkai snorted beside him. "What? Are you scared this Kagami is going to toast your ass while you're still room temperature?"
"Take the joke, old lady. You and I both know that stretching's for pansies and yoga moms."
"And yet you wonder why you're sore all the time." Keiko chided from the other side of the room.
His grin was devilish. "Only you make me sore, baby."
The elderly martial arts master smacked his shoulder, since his girlfriend was too far away to do it herself.
Stir-crazy. That was it. Yusuke had gone stir-crazy, not being able to confide in them while he was working on Kumiko's secret mission. Now he was taking every opportunity he could to speak his mind. It wasn't much different than the way he acted before, only now he was a bit more annoyingly enthusiastic about it.
Hiei was suddenly glad that he'd gotten paired with the brooding Kuwabara. Even if that was also annoying, in its own way.
Before they all made it to the hallway leading to the emptier reception room, a shout came from outside. One of the patrolling guards yelled warning. The sound made every single one of them leap to attention. Kagome was the first out the door, since she was already well in the lead, but Hiei and Kurama met her as close seconds on the deck.
"Stand down!" Kagome was yelling at Shunjun as the rest of their party filtered through the door to the commotion. Hiei held himself back from traveling much farther forward than the temple steps—it was for strategic purposes and not at all because he felt a cold rush of fear down his spine at the bite in her voice.
Like a lightning storm released from hell, she thundered forward.
"You're not supposed to be here."
It didn't even sound like her.
"Well that's too bad, because here I am."
That one belonged to the demon standing just beyond the lowered sight of Shunjun's glowing palm.
"Qui vole à l'aube?" Kagome demanded in a human language Hiei didn't recognize.
Rolling his eyes, the stranger gave her a snarky answer. "My mother."
"This isn't a joke, Toru. Answer the question." Her demeanor had flipped like a switch when she saw him, but when Kagome lowered herself into a more suitable stance for fighting, so too did the guards and fighters that surrounded them. Even Hiei felt himself compelled to follow suit by pulling his sword from its scabbard. An aura of command filled the air. Then she repeated the question. "Qui vole à l'aube? Who flies at dawn?"
From behind the young man's back, enormous wings unfurled to bare their downy undersides. The primary feathers that framed them splayed as if they were hairs standing on end. With one hearty flap that coated the leader of the Spirit Defense Force in a layer of sawdust, and they lay smooth once more. He said something under his breath before dutifully reciting his response to their practiced rote. "Le Moineau qui court avec les chiens." Then again, in English, "The Sparrow who runs with the dogs."
With a breath, Kagome's posture relaxed, and suddenly the invisible cloud of power that surrounded her was gone. One by one, everyone else did the same. However, Hiei was of a more skeptical sort, so he refused to put away his weapon until he learned more about the tall hawk and why he was there in the first place.
"You're not supposed to be here." Kagome repeated.
No shit. Hiei thought.
"Are you going to make me go back?"
She crossed her arms. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."
"Because they were my friends too." The Bird responded bitterly. "Or did you forget that?"
For as strong as her display had made her seem only a moment before, that response made the Priestess wince is if it had bit her. She took a step forwards. "Of course I didn't—"
The young man, Toru, she had called him, held up a hand.
"You never wanted us to get involved because you felt responsible. Hansha died under your watch. Kagami left because he was scared of you. Koga died protecting you. But we were all affected. Me, Rin, Shippo, all of the wolves. You don't get the monopoly on this. I have just as much of a right to see this through to the end as you do."
Kagome looked fierce and ready to argue, but the Tori was solid in his stance; it was apparent that no amount of force, be it verbal, physical, or psychic, was going to get him to budge from his position on the playing field. The guy was stubborn.
Hiei sheathed his sword.
Kagome didn't respond for a long time. Instead she stared at him. In the silence between them, she shared a soliloquy with her body language. She was angry with him. She was disappointed in him. But underneath is all, she was scared for him. It was her tail that said this, as it curled securely around her thigh.
Her voice had grown impassive by the time she had come to her final decision on his presence there.
"If you think you're ready for this—to face him as your enemy and not as your friend—then I won't stop you." She said quietly, just for Toru. Hiei practically had to strain to eavesdrop. He doubted Kurama was facing the same issue, the Fox-eared bastard. "He's not the same Kagami you knew. He'd been warped by centuries of hatred and resentment. You're going to want to reason with him. And when you can't? Will you be able to accept that?'
Stiffly, Toru nodded.
With a deep sigh, the Demoness turned her back on the boy that she'd helped to raise and faced the temple where they were all waiting for her next move.
"Everybody," She addressed them all and gestured less than enthusiastically to the speckled Hawk behind her. "This is Toru. He is the son of my Friend Shizume and a member of my pack. He's a good sentry, but an even better bladesman. He was supposed to leave this to me, but since he can't seem to leave well enough alone, he's going to make himself useful, instead. So Yusuke, he's on your team."
Turning again, Kagome then walked out towards the open space of the further courtyard where she would be opening her portals, but not before adding, "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
Stuffing his hands deep within his pockets, Yusuke gave the newest teammate he never asked for a a quick one over and said, "Greaat. I always wanted a cockatiel." Toru's resulting glare showed all of them just how happy he was to be under the Detective's command, but Yusuke ignored it. Instead, ready to get the show on the road, the Mazoku hafling leapt from the deck and followed after Kagome, asking about whether or not they were going to be getting cool code phrases too.
Hiei stood as the last remaining fighter on the deck—not including Genkai, because she wasn't going to be joining them on that mission—and he watched as Kuwabara stopped beside Toru to analyze just how useful the Bird would be to them in that battle to win back the love of his life. There was an odd contrast between the two. They were nearly the same height, if you excluded the human's hair, but unlike Kuwabara, Toru was slender and lithe; the bulk of his muscles seemed to reside in the thick appendages on his back, though his arms were toned with a familiarity with a sword. Where Kuwabara's hair was a fluff of upward curling orange, Toru's was a shock of long, downward spiking feathers.
"Nice wings." The human commented dryly.
Not taking kindly to all the extra attention and still chewing on Yusuke's avian insult, the spiteful Bird snapped at him. "Unlike your face, they're both functional and flattering." And without waiting for a retort, he coolly made to join his pack alpha and newly appointed babysitter where he could get caught up to speed on the plan.
Sputtering and pissed at the backhanded comment from the complete stranger, Kuwabara turned a new and unhealthy shade of red before shouting, "What was that, you little bird brain!?" And just like that he snapped to a slightly more normal state of Kuwabara and started mouthing off at Toru who, much to Hiei's delight, delivered the treatment right back with a frigid sass and spite.
He wasn't sure exactly what it was about the new guy that rubbed him the right way, but Hiei had a feeling that wasn't going to totally hate the guy.
In fact, they might even get along just fine, provided Toru was as good a fighter as Kagome claimed.
Finally, after all of that was said and done, Hiei stepped down from the deck to join them, more ready than ever to jump through a strange portal and fight whatever mysteries awaited them on the other side.
For the sake of Yukina.
══ Inuyasha X Yu Yu Hakusho ══
Bonus Scenes
Before The Dark Tournament
Sesshoumaru's Manor, The Rogue Lands
She heard them trotting down the covered deck well before the door to her bedroom swung open.
Shippo had a skip in the third beat of his step, as he usually did when he was excited, and the heels of Toru's feet were dragging, which meant that the Red Fox was pulling him along. The two had been waiting patiently for that day ever since it had been announced just who the human representatives would be on the Guest team in the Dark Tournament that year—about as patient as a gelding waiting to be let out to pasture after a long winter.
The no-so-little Kit had been chomping at the bit for weeks. And with reason—it was the first time he'd be able to see Kuwabara, Kurama, and the others in over five hundred years. From a distance, at least.
"Okay!" He yipped in lieu of a greeting. "How ugly are we!?"
Kumiko set down her mug and looked up from the plastic protected papers she'd been picking through. She couched out the little iced tea she'd yet to swallow when she saw the forms that Shippo had disguised the pair in. It was a good thing the book was laminated.
"That good?"
"Oh, Toru, I'm so sorry." The Wolf who wasn't really a Wolf wiped her mouth before hiding a smile behind her hand. "But at least you're going to fit right in."
The taller of the two scowled and shook the spiked green monstrosities that were hiding his scruffy but meticulously maintained speckled feathers, His scaly green skin was mostly covered by swaths of ripped black fabric and dangling chains, The plumed hair on his head had been replaced by downward curved horns that jutted in much the same way as his original pointed locks, only much pointier.
Beside him the Fox was even less recognizable.
Shippo's disguise looked like the grotesque love child of an adder and a deep sea angler fish. His sickeningly pale skin was covered in a spiked armor, sharp and seemingly poisonous with each mound tipped with black. His face was broad and flat, with razor sharp teeth and a fuzzy forked tongue that couldn't quite fit in his mouth. To make up for the lack of a nose, Shippo had bejeweled his forehead with dozens of beady little eyes that all seemed to be looking in different directions and a single, protruding appendage that could have been a lure but could have also been an antenna.
Lower level demons would never notice as they infiltrated their ranks in the stadium seats. With their auras hidden the boys were completely indistinguishable from the far weaker classes that liked to go bump in the night.
The Fox-fish-snake-thing strutted in a circle, wearing nothing but a pair of cut off shorts to display his handiwork. The shorts were radiating a foul stench that was only made worse by the Makal summer's heat.
"I know, right?" He snickered at Kumiko's grimace. "I let a fish rot out back for the finishing touch. Don't worry! It wasn't one of the pond fish! Rin would have killed me if I touched one of her pretties. I found it in the kitchen like a week ago."
"You're throwing those away before you get home."
"Whaaat?" He drew out the word like a petulant child. "But I like these pants." With a flourish, Shippo pointed his toe and ran his fingers up his gnarly leg in a sultry manner. "They flatter my figure."
Kumiko rolled her eyes despite the laughter threatening to spill from her pursed lips and pushed up from her desk. "Get out." She shooed them back towards the threshold. "I don't want that smell to linger."
Toru was already halfway down the deck by the time the Kitsune let himself be shoved from the room by the woman that matched him in height, but not quite in brute strength. What the woman lacked in bulk, she certainly made up in delicate finesse and skill. He hadn't even seen how she managed to close the door behind them without taking her hands off his shoulders.
When he was thoroughly kicked out and deposited well enough away so that the fishiness could not cling to her linens, Shippo turned to face the Wolf. His silly grin fell brittle.
How many years had it been since he'd seen the demoness' true face?
How long would she be forced to remain in hiding?
Surely the detectives' appearance in the tournament was a good sign that the end was drawing near. If he had the vulpine ears on the top of his head as most of the other members of his race had, they would have drooped just a smidge before perking straight to attention once more. Or not, since they would have been hidden by his Glamour.
"Are you sure you don't wanna come, Ma?" He asked. "We managed to scrounge up another ticket from the scalper for pretty cheap."
Over his shoulder he heard Toru quip. "Shippo punched the guy in the face."
The pale skin of Shippo's Glamour turned a vibrant purple. "Only because you pissed the guy off! It was self-defense! I had no problem paying the original price, but you couldn't keep your mouth shut! The guy nearly bit me."
Kumiko stopped him before he could go into detail about the slimy lizard-men—both the one that sold him the arena seats and the one he'd turned the hawk into out of spite.
"It wouldn't be a good idea for me to go. I'm not sure I'd be able to hold myself back from interfering if I go in person." There was a sadness in her eyes. The Priestess always hated the tournament; watching the human team be massacred by bloodthirsty hellions for an inch of fame and glory made her sick. But that year wasn't one she was going to miss, because it would be the first time in about fifty years that the humans actually won. That and the BlackBlack Club would all be killed over the course of the week, leaving the tournament committee without the funding to host another in the future, making it the last Dark Tournament. But Shippo didn't know that. "Don't worry, though, I'm still going to watch. I've got a date."
Shippo chuckled. "With the TV?"
Kumiko hadn't been out on a real date with anyone since Koga died—whatever it was she was to Sesshoumaru didn't count as dating in the grown kit's book. He doubted that was going to change so close to her original timeline and impending reunions.
The Ookami shrugged. "The broadcast hasn't been as terrible as it used to be since that crazy little Blond Fox took over announcing." She didn't confirm or deny his statement. "Take Tomo with you, instead. I'm sure they would love to go. And be safe."
He rolled his eyes and responded, "I'm always safe."
It was a little bit of a bummer that she wasn't going to experience the wilds of the Spirit Detectives in person, but he hadn't actually expected her to agree to attend. She was always so strict when it came to her Spirit World business and, as far as he knew, she never once meddled. At least not out in the open where she could be identified.
It was Koenma's job to be the face of the operation.
Kumiko smiled warmly. It was nice, but man did he miss seeing Kagome's real smile.
Smelling the disappointment on him, his secret mom squeezed his shoulder. "Have fun at the tournament, but not too much fun. I don't want to hear that you got beat up because you were rooting too much for the Human team."
"I would never! Humans are gross! Why would I root for humans!? Arrg!" He postured, but unfortunately Shippo wasn't nearly as good an actor as Kagome—Kumiko. Kagomiko.
Kumiko hesitated, as if suddenly realizing that letting her boy off to frolic in a stadium of thousands of barely mindful and aggressive lesser demons to watch as people he loved got bloodied and battered in the arena below might not be such a great idea. "On second thought. Don't root for Yusuke. Like, at all."
He grimaced. "Trust me. I won't be." Why would he root for the one detective that never showed him an ounce of kindness? Or even given him the time of day?
For a second he thought that his mother's expression faltered. But no, it must have just been a trick of the light shining through the deck's eaves.
"Get me one of those souvenir daggers, would you?"
"You got it."
"Be safe?"
"Ma!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She held up her hands in defense. "Go on, before I change my mind."
The grin found its way back onto Shippo's face. "I'm an adult, Ma. I don't think you're allowed to change your mind." Cutting off any arguments that Kumiko might have had to that, the Fish Beast grappled forward to pull her into a hug. She gasped and pushed him back.
"I'm not hugging you with that fish in her pocket." She scolded at arms' length.
Shippo wiggled his fingers threateningly, but didn't push himself past her comfort zone.
"You know you love me."
"You're lucky I love you."
Satisfied with her admission of love, Shippo backed off and started down the deck where Toru had already disappeared into the main building. "I'll see you next week!" He called back to her, tossing a wave behind him.
"Shippo, wait!" He paused and looked back at the woman who raised him. Concern colored her forest eyes. "Steer clear of rows 157 through 212, you hear me? And swear to me that you'll leave before the final match starts."
Beneath the Glamour, his tail twitched. "That bad?"
"Yeah. That bad."
His jagged smile stretched uncomfortably from ear to ear. "Sweet." He said, but he quickly retracted it when Kumiko crossed her arms and pinned him with a serious look. "I'll be careful." Shippo assured her. Then he pointed to his face. "I'm all eyes."
His mother snorted at the pun and he reveled in the relieved dimpling of her cheeks. "Just go." She waved him off. Satisfied, Shippo continued across the deck to where Toru was waiting impatiently and, without turning back for fear of her retracting her decision to let them go, they disappeared into the main building.
Kumiko bit her lip when they were out of sight. She really hoped that he took her words to heart and left before the beginning of the final match between team Urameshi and team Toguro. It wasn't the destruction of the arena or the wild flailing attacks that she was worried about—Shippo and Toru were smart enough to get out of that unscathed—better she didn't want him to see the death of Kuwabara. Fake as it would be, the young Fox was quick to act on emotion and they didn't need him screwing anything up in a fit of rage. If Shippo stepped forward to fight Toguro, he might be able to take him on. But then Yusuke wouldn't win the match and gain the energy boost that he would need to be able to revive and beat Sensui in the near future.
She couldn't control her son's free will, the Priestess knew that, she could only trust that he would heed her warnings and preserve the timeline.
So she let him go to the Dark Tournament unsupervised.
═══════ Tsarashi ══════════
Cheers erupted in the grand hall of Koenma's office. Their hollers bounced off of the vaulted ceilings, overpowering the gasps and heckles from the audience displayed on the large monitor. "Did you see that!?" One of the ogres crowding the desk exclaimed from the back. "There isn't anything left of him but a smudge on the wall!" Another cried. The smallest of the ogre interns sitting clustered beside Kumiko on the mahogany desktop, a green boy with three horns, cradled his bucket of popcorn close with a shudder. "I'm sure glad he's on our team." He gulped. "That attack is something else."
Kumiko agreed with a nod and took a kernel from his bucket. In the Spirit Realm, the Priestess had switched into wearing her humanoid Kumiko form, with its rounded ears and missing tail, and a formal blue kimono. Like that she passed off as just another Ferry Girl, and she visited often enough that the workers there had accepted her without question. The only ones who knew any different were Koenma, Jorge, and the since retired Kal.
When Koenma was out of the office, she took the liberty of sneaking in and spying on her charges from the gigantic water mirror screen—with his consent, of course, not that the ogres knew that. Often times the ogres joined her; they loved any excuse to relax from their stressful jobs and knew that the rebellious and fun-loving Spirit Guide Kumi wouldn't rat them out for slacking. And in return, they didn't question it whenever she brought along a friend. They didn't question much of anything when the boss was away and they were free to play.
As the colorful men continued to whoop and cheer, the huge doors to the office cracked open. Instantly they all froze in place, thinking their revelry in watching the Dark Tournament had been discovered. When it turned out to be a false alarm, the entire room relaxed and went back to their excited chatter.
Rin quietly pressed shut the door with her elbow and distributed around the fresh batch of popcorn. "What did I miss?" She asked when she handed Kumi the final bag and reclaimed her seat on the other side of the woman.
"Hiei just won his match against Zeru." Kumi told the young lady, who was also disguised to be humanoid. It was Rin's favorite Glamour, the one with brown eyes and razor straightened bangs that made her look like a porcelain geisha doll, especially wearing that gold embroidered floral kimono.
"It's over already? But I only left for a minute!"
"You shoulda seen it!" One of the ogres started, tripping over his words in his excitement. "It was a blast of hell fire! I didn't know that little guy had it in 'ern!"
"He used a technique called the Dragon of the Darkness flame." The older woman corrected him. When they realized that she knew something about the technique, the ogres closest to her leaned in to listen. Kumi tapped her forearm as she explained. "The Darkness Flame is an attack where the wielder uses his soul as a lure to summon a hell dragon from the deepest levels of the Demon Realm. He must have done extensive research and training to be able to handle the dragon as much as he did, because every other being who's ever summoned that dragon has been killed by it. Take a look at his arm. He sacrificed it to pacify the dragon's bloodlust. I wouldn't be surprised if that was only a fraction of the dragon's strength, since he only offered such a small piece of himself in return. We should keep an eye on him, because that arm of his will probably be a handicap for the rest of the tournament."
Rin's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Why would he give himself such a handicap in the first match of the tournament? Couldn't he have defeated Zeru on his own?"
"Yeah." One of the bigger red ogres added. "He wasn't touched by Zeru's fire attack. Hiei should have been able to take him out without a problem, don't you think?"
"He did it to show off, without a doubt." Kumi said with an exasperated shrug that told them all what she thought about the younger demon's brash display. The boy had power and potential, but his head was hotter than a Carolina reaper at times, "No one in that stadium has been taking their team seriously until this moment. They were only seeing them as the weakling human team. And with Yusuke out cold and Kuwabara's loss, they were starting to look like a joke. Hiei pretty much just flipped off the entire bracket board by saying 'look at what I can do. Now I'll beat the rest of you with my hand tied behind my back.'
"He'll probably pay the price for his decision later, but for now he achieved his goal. Look in the stadium. Look at the announcer. The Guest team just became a competitor on the board and nobody was expecting that."
Kumi's little audience ooed and awed, eating up her observations and began to share their own opinions towards Hiei's decision. Then one of the senior ogres standing in the pack behind the desk, the pack that was more focused on the TV than the pretend Reaper's analysis, pushed through their bubble and pointed at the screen: "That guy just killed his teammates!" He announced with horror to redirect their attention.
Sure enough, the camera was focused on a man dragging the other two members of the opposing team from the tunnel where they'd run from the arena. There was blood oozing from where he'd cracked their heads together. Without much care, the demon dropped the bodies in a heap and addressed the announcer. They watched as he wobbled to the stage, a metal flask in his hand. He didn't make it onto the stage on his first try.
"That man is totally drunk." Rin noted with disgust. "Is he honestly going to fight like that? What a mess. Oh no," She placed her hand over her mouth in secondhand embarrassment. "He's got the mic."
The ogres burst out laughing when the demon spoke in his thick accent, declaring his heartfelt distain for the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and flirting with Koto, the little Kitsune announcer. They joked about the screwball who'd seemingly come in from off the streets, until someone from behind Rin's head mentioned that Yusuke had woken up. Once more the room erupted in cheers, quite the opposite of the raucous jeers and hoots exploding from the broadcast.
When the two started bickering, the blue violet-blue haired drunkard and their darling delinquent detective, the room rooted for Yusuke. Then suddenly the two fighters started grinning, and all of the onlookers were baffled. Unfortunately for the spectators of the Dark Tournament, none of the contestants were miked, so they, were left guessing when Yusuke and Chu's conversation took a complete one-eighty. The ogres didn't let their confusion put a damper on their excitement, though, and they continued roaring for their team.
From the corner of her eye, among the energetic pack of blue, red, and green skinned Spirit World office workers, Rin saw Kumiko sitting quietly, watching the boys' transition with an almost giddy anticipation, as if she were watching one of her favorite scenes in a book be animated for the first time. There was a sparkle in her green eyes. And then she began to smile.
Although she didn't want to disrupt Kagome from her trance—the woman was very much Kagome in that moment—Rin placed her hand on the older demoness' knee and asked, "Friend or foe?"
The Kitsune who was disguised as a Wolf and then disguised again as a Spirt Guide glanced down to the girl's hand, pictured the exact page from her relic of a Guide Book that she'd refreshed on earlier that morning, and then smiled warmly back at the screen.
"Friend." She said without hesitation. "Definitely friend."
And with that, the two demonesses settled in for a friendly knife edge death match alongside their team's best and brawniest cheerleaders.
═════ 犬夜叉 X 幽遊白書 ════
Chapter Eleven: End