Chapter Twenty-three: The Shikigami café

"I spy with my little eye…" Rin began as she looked out the window. "Something that's green."

"The grass?" Shippo guessed, even though the grass looked more a sickly brown color with winter fast approaching.

"No," Rin grinned at him cheekily.

"How about the leaves?" Shippo guessed again, but instead of green, the few leaves that were still on the trees were now in deep bronze, brown, and reds.

"No."

"The traffic light?" he guessed just as Kagome drove through the green light.

"Nope!"

"Ok, I give up," Shippo said annoyed, and Kagome could see with the overhead mirror that he was sitting back in his seat with his arms folded. "What is it?"

"A frog," Rin said happily.

"A Frog!" Shippo demanded as he looked around at the traffic filled highway. "What frog? Where's a frog? We aren't anywhere near a pond!"

"I know," she answered sweetly. "I'm thinking about that pet frog I used to have. Jaken… you remember?"

"You're supposed to be seeing something right now!" Shippo yelled at her. "I can't see anything in your mind!"

"Well good thing for me," she said.

"Kids, please," Kagome groaned from the front seat, suddenly having a good idea how her mother must've felt when she and Sota argued in the back seat on long car rides. "I've got a great idea. How about we all play the quiet game? Ok, starting now."

"But…" Rin began but Shippo cried out, "I WIN! YOU TALKED!"

"I was just asking a question!"

"Yeah, but you still talked."

"Have either of you ever played the quiet game?" Kagome asked wearily. Really, she didn't know why her mom wanted grandkids so badly. If this was how it was going to be, Kagome knew she was quickly going to lose her mind.

"Funny enough, Inuyasha and the others like us to play that game a lot," Shippo offered helpfully.

"I can't imagine why," Kagome said trying to sound upbeat and politely puzzled, though it was hard through her gritted teeth. She was forced to count to ten in her head to calm herself down enough before she tried a different approach.

"Ok, so why don't you both tell me a little more about your coven?" she asked. "I mean, what do you guys like to do?"

"Oh, lots of stuff," Shippo chirped up. "We can do anything Humans do, and better."

'I see that includes modesty,' Kagome thought to herself. "Ok, why don't you name a few?"

"Well, we have to be careful not to go out when the sun is out," Rin said. "We mostly do things at night. Or on a cloudy day like today."

"Like?"

"Running, games…" Shippo named. "But we also have to hunt a lot."

It sounded strange hearing about kids having to hunt for their food… especially since she knew that it wasn't the meat that they needed.

"Ok," she said. "But why does Inuyasha suddenly want us to meet them at the café?"

"It's tiring to only be able to talk to you at night," Shippo said.

That suddenly made sense to Kagome and nodded thoughtfully.

"And besides, we like it there," Shippo said before he looked to Rin and asked, "What is it that Miroku calls it?"

"It has a good atmosphere," she answered. "Reminds us of home."

They arrived at the café just 5 minutes later. And as the kids jumped out the car, Kagome took their hands and all went up to the front doors of a tall wooden building with the name of the café over the entrance. Kagome had never noticed it before but she had to admit that they had a good point. While outside the café, it looked like any one of the other buildings in the shopping district, but inside it…

As soon as they walked through the doors, it was like stepping back through time to the caste of an Japanese lord's castle. The floor seemed to be made of soft bamboo, and there were swords and Japanese scrolls on the dark wooden walls. The form of a large dragon with a snake-like body, wrapping itself around mountains like smoke was painted on the far wall and there was the smell of tea in the air.

They entered the café and looked around. To Kagome's surprise, Sango and Kirara sitting at one of the tables, waiting for them. Sango smiled and waved them over—the kids ran straight to her with big smiles and hugs all around.

Kagome followed close behind. "You're alright?" she asked in worry.

"I've been better," Sango admitted and Kagome noticed that she had several large bruises on the side of her neck and arms. "Oh, don't worry about these," she laughed when she noticed that Kagome was staring at her. "I've had worse injuries believe me. There were just more vampires last night than I thought there would be."

"What about everyone else?" Kagome asked as she drew up a chair right next to her. "Kohaku and the others? Inuyasha came to tell us to meet you guys here, but he didn't really give us too many details."

"Nothing too eventful," Kirara said softly as she pushed her undrunk cup of tea around with the spoon. "We were ambushed and fought an all-out war with Naraku's servants in the cemetery. It was a short, but fierce battle." She looked to Shippo and said, "Thanks to your early warning, we were more than ready for them."

Shippo stuck his chest out proudly as Sango went on, "Anyway, Naraku only sent his servants after us; he didn't bother coming himself. If only we can figure out where he's hiding… We could take him down if only we knew where he is."

"But that still doesn't explain what this has to do with me," Kagome said desperately, finally asking the question that had been bothering her the most. Everyone kept saying that she could help them, but how can she, a human girl, help a whole coven of powerful vampires? Why had they deceived themselves into thinking that she could help them?

"Because you're a priestess," Sango said calmly as if it was obvious.

Out of all the answers that Kagome had been expecting… it wasn't that. Kagome felt her jaw drop as she stared at Sango, worried for her sanity. "Yeah, that's funny, really funny," she said with a laugh, sure that it was a joke. But then she realized that Sango and Kirara weren't smiling as they looked at her. Their eyes shone nothing but certainty. "You're not serious are you?" she asked softly. "Me? A priestess? I mean, sure I dressed as one for Halloween, but a real-life priestess?"

"Why do you think you were drawn to that costume in the first place?" Kirara asked her. "Inuyasha told us that you looked so natural in that outfit, he said that it was almost as if he was back in time. You were born to wear that outfit. That's why you were drawn to that clothing in the first place."

"Look," Kagome said rolling her eyes, trying to get them to see reason. "I'm sure that a lot of girls look like they were born to wear witch and devil costumes, but that doesn't mean that they're actually witches and devils are they?"

"The fact that you looked so natural in those clothes was only one of many signs," Kirara explained.

"You come from a long line of priests don't you?" Sango asked. "We did a little research on your background as well. And we found out that your ancestors were shrine-keepers. You must know this? So is it really so difficult for you to believe that you have the power of a priestess as well?"

"Yes!" Kagome yelled causing several people to look over and stare at her. 'Sorry,' she mouthed at them before she turned back to Shippo and the girls and whispered. "I don't know why you think I can help you."

"You make the wish and we'll be human again," Rin offered helpfully. "Only a priestess can use the jewel and make our wish. Your sacred powers can purify the jewel and…"

"But I don't have any powers," she hissed to them. "Don't you think that I would know about them if I did?"

"You don't know about them because they aren't fully awakened yet," Sango explained calmly and slowly. "You've never had any training, and there was never any need for you to use them before now seeing how there aren't any more demons around. But we can sense them deep in you. You have the same kind of power that the priestess Kikyo had."

"Kikyo?" Kagome questioned. "You mean the girl who wished for the jewel to disappear?"

"We know this might sound crazy," Kirara said quickly.

"You got that right," Kagome said before she could stop herself, but Kirara went on as if she hadn't heard her, "But you have to believe us when we tell you… we think that you just might… you might be her reincarnation."

Stunned silence.

Kagome's jaw dropped again. This was a joke; this had to be a very bad joke. A priestess? Her? And apparently not just any priestess… but the reincarnation of the girl who had wished for the jewel that they're all looking for to disappear? It was official… these vampires were crazy. Maybe after centuries of hopeless searching had finally taken their toll on them? "You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh, no we aren't," Sango said firmly standing up and holding out a hand to her. "We have every reason to believe that you're her reincarnation. And it's not just because you look like her. You have the same sacred aura that she had. That alone is proof enough."

"This is crazy," Kagome told them shaking her head, and actually backing away from them, for the first time—feeling fear creep up her spine. "You actually think that I'm just some dead priestess that's come back to life?"

"Kagome," Sango said softly. "We know that you aren't really Kikyo. And I know it's difficult to believe. But you have to trust us on this. You don't have the same senses that we do. We just know that you have a part of her in you. We just know."

Kagome had many thoughts and feelings running through her mind, but before she could say anything else, Kirara stood up as well and said, "We can prove it to you. Come with us."

(I know that you all must hate me for keeping you waiting so long and have such a short chapter. But let me explain, I've had viruses attacking my computer and I had no choice but to delete most of my stories from my documents. And recently I've had to take the whole computer over to Geek Squad to fix the damage that those viruses did. So I've only recently managed to get everything up and running again. Again, sorry, and hopefully the next chapter will be longer. And I can promise you all a little more Inuyasha and Kagome romance next chapter as well.)