Koenma's Choice

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Koenma smacked Yusuke along the back of his head.


"Ow!" Yusuke clenched a fist and yelled at the spirit ruler. "What was that for!? Don't you have better things to do than torture innocent humans?"


"Idiot," Koenma pouted at his desk. He buried his head in his hands and moaned in misery.


"I just wanted to know of you had heard anything. There is no need for you to take your temper out on me!" Yusuke kept his perch with his hip pressed against the warn side of the large wooden desk that dominated the room and glared convincingly at the floor. "I've jumped every time that you have yelled 'Demon" and all I want in return is to be kept updated! They are my friends too!"


Koenma raised his head from his desk and sighed. "That's fair," he agreed. "Here's the update...ah-hem, I have heard nothing."


Yusuke blinked and rubbed the back of his head where Koenma had left a decent sized bruise for such a little guy. "Why doesn't that surprise me? When have you ever been informed?" he ignored the heated glare his boss was giving him. "So now what?"


"Did you find our phantom dog yet?"


"Slipped his chain again, has he?" Yusuke grinned. "That demon has been across the barrier four or five times now in the past month and hasn't caused any harm. Maybe he's a good guy."


Koenma snorted without humor. "How many demons do you know fit that description?"


Yusuke counted carefully on his fingers before dropping his hands back into his lap. "Good point."


"Hey!" George objected form behind Koenma's chair. "What about Kurama and Hiei? Don't they count?"


"The greatest thief to ever plague the Makai and our very favorite bloodthirsty forbidden child?" Koenma asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.


"Uh...yeah," George sniffed and retreated.


"They aren't that bad..." Yusuke frowned thoughtfully. "In fact, they almost seem tamed to me."


Koenma choked on whatever strange demonic food he had been stuffing in his face. "Tamed?!" he repeated and worried about what illness his prize detective must have caught to come up with such a stupid comment. He pressed a pudgy hand to Yusuke's forehead, smearing sauce across the human's skin and into the carefully gelled hair.


Yusuke snarled and smacked the hand away and tried to right the damage with his own grubby fists. Koenma ignored the resulting ranting coming from the human's equally dirty mouth.


"Yusuke!" Koenma finally lifted his head to stare at the boy after a particularly foul curse was aimed at his princely person. "What would Keiko say!"


"Damned Toddler..."Yusuke grunted and huffed, tired from yelling every obscenity that he could remember at the cherubic face of his boss. It was obvious that Koenma wasn't into arguing with him today, which was strange. "Any other demons loose?" he finally asked.


"None that you haven't already taken care of..."Koenma absently pointed out.


The door banged open at those words and the two just watched the five struggling ogres fighting to be the first to push through the crowded doorway and get to the Spirit Ruler. Choruses of "Koenma-sir!" echoed in the still room.


"That was just too good to last."


"What was it this time, George?" Koenma asked offhand.


"Uh, thirteen minutes, sir."


Damn. They are breaking through every thirteen minutes now...What am I supposed to do?


"Oy," Yusuke sighed. "That's my cue to get back to work, I guess."


Koenma sighed and grabbed the various files the ogres where waving in his face and scanned the contents quickly. "Wait, Yusuke."


I hate to be the one to make this decision...but what else can I do? What am I supposed to do to fix this? Even dad doesn't have a clue...he's trying to take care of the bigger issues and I'm stuck here. Stumped. I have no choice...Koenma thought to himself.


"Eh?" Yusuke prodded him. "Did something interesting get out this time?"


"Kami-sama, no!" Koenma glared at the boy for wishing for a catastrophe just to ease his boredom. "I don't want you to go after them this time."


"What?!" Yusuke and George squeaked at the same time. "You want me to let them run loose all over the Ningenkai?!"


"Yes." Koenma calmly sucked on his pacifier and waited for the explosion that was sure to follow this pronouncement. He wasn't disappointed.


"WHAT DRUGS HAVE YOU BEEN SNORTING?!" the disillusioned teen screamed in outrage.


"Yusuke, think about this. These little small fry cases are only going to tire you out after a while. I need you in top shape for the mess we ARE going to be in when the barrier does fall and all the big bad guys DO get free." he rubbed his temples tiredly and closed his eyes in frustration. "I don't like it either, but things are going to get very bad very quick. Please, I really need you to listen to me on this."


"But to let those demons run loose..."


"I know. What else can I do? Do you have any bright ideas?"


Yusuke considered this carefully. It was, after all, a situation that called for the utmost seriousness. And though he could still act like a rebellious adolescent, Yusuke was growing up and the maturity that came with heavy responsibility was making it's mark on the young man.

"We have to stop the demons from entering the Ningenkai. To do that, we need a barrier. The current barrier is falling apart for unknown reasons. So," he said casually, "we have two choices. We have to fix the existing barrier....or create a new one."


Koenma rolled his eyes. "Brilliant," he said drily.


Yusuke scowled at the child ruler and ignored that obvious jab at his deduction skills. "I'm thinking out loud here, so shut your mouth."


George raised his brow at the disrespectful spirit detective and sighed, wondering why Yusuke got away with that when he got cleaning duty in the lowest pits of Hell.


"Okay," Yusuke continued, "so, have you figured out what is wrong with the existing barrier?"

Koenma shook his head and waited for the detective to continue. "Do you know how the barrier was made, yet?" Again, the negative shake of the head. "Do you have a way to create a new barrier of equal strength with an new power source? No? Damn it, Koenma! What DO you know?"


"The barrier is falling." he thumped his head back on the desk.


"You must have SOME theory about all this!" Yusuke insisted.


"Yeah, I do...but I have to wait until Kagome returns before I can test out that theory and unfortunately, she is currently in the clutches of the very powerful and equally evil, Naraku."


"Not any more she's not!" Botan swept into the room from the portal above their heads. Her cheery voice lightened the room and the oppressive atmosphere to a more tolerable level. "Hi!" she greeted them brightly.


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Shippo jumped from Sesshoumaru's shoulder to Youko's shoulder and back again until the two adults threatened to tie him up by his tail and hang him from the tallest tree in Sesshoumaru's garden. So now, he sulked under Kagome's bed while they discussed this and that, and argued proudly, waiting for Kagome to wake up. They had arrived at Sesshoumaru's home a few hours ago where an ecstatic Rin had been awaiting them.


Soon after their arrival, they had found themselves hovering in concern over Kagome's pale form. Shippo could easily see that the two demons were doing everything in their power to upstage the other without losing their dignity and submitting to the other. He pouted in his fox form and kept his two tails rigidly straight in indignation. In his opinion they were both being stupid for the same bloody reason. The both wanted to help Kagome, but pride kept them from allowing the other to be the one to do so.


"No," Youko said smoothly.


"I have complete control, Fox. No harm would come to her." Sesshoumaru pointed out blandly.


"There is no way you are pointing any type of sword at my mate."


The two demons stared at each other with equal amounts of pride and disdain for the other's healing methods.


"Nor will I allow you to place obviously poisonous plants upon her wounds."


The staring continued long into the resulting silence. Shippo sighed from his position under the bed and glared at the toes of both adults. Selfish idiots, he thought, I can't believe that they are placing their pride above her heath!


"She will heal faster."


"No." Sesshoumaru stood his ground as Taiyoukai in his own home. "Her wounds would simply disappear."


"No." Youko countered, exercising his right as mate.


Shippo snarled, he had had enough. Before he could think better of it, he darted out and nipped both ankles from each demon hard enough to draw blood. "You're being stupid!" he barked and jumped onto the bed to curl protectively against Kagome's stomach, being careful to avoid the mirror shooting waves of magic on the other side of her still figure.


Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at the presumptuous kit and took a menacing step forward.


Shippo glared at the Inu Youkai right back. If Kagome had taught him anything, it was how to glare. He had seen her practice it enough on Inuyasha, he was a regular pro.


"I agree," Youko crossed his arms snobbishly and stuck his nose in the air.


"Baka! I was referring to BOTH of you!" he barked harshly at them.


Now two pairs of golden eyes were narrowed intently on his tiny form. He forced himself to stand his ground and did not give an inch to either of the more powerful demons.


He jumped up onto his four paws and stood stiff legged on the elevated bed in front of his mother figure. "You are supposed to be helping her! Not arguing over who can heal her better while she wastes away! I can't believe either of you would put your pride above her life! I am ashamed that you call yourself her friend and then ignore the obvious solution because of your stupid territorial rivalry. Put your animal instincts aside and focus on my Momma, like you should have been doing to begin with!"


With one last snort of disdain, he flounced back over to nestle in the cloud of dark hair spread over the pillows. He wanted to be as close to her as possible so that he could be the one to greet her when she woke. He sniffed her cheek and growled at the traces of Naraku lingering there and set about obliterating them by grooming her. Careful of her bruises and scrapes, he began to wash her off with a small pick tongue and ignore the strangely silent pair behind him.


Youko was stricken by the kit's words and swallowed hard. The child was right and it bothered him that he had so little control over his instinct to dominate this other male in his mate's life. He felt ashamed and unworthy, but he was also determined to fix the problem. He glanced up at he Taiyoukai that had offered his home for his mates temporary care and gritted his fangs together while he tried to master his pride.


Sesshoumaru blinked in surprise, but let no other emotion show on his stoic features. That the kit was right was irksome, but it was his own inability to conquer his instinct to dominate in his own territory that seemed to overcome his cold logic. He raised his eyes to the silver fox in an attempt to determine the next course of action and was surprised to see the fox assessing him in the same manner. He raised his brow in a calculated move that made it seem that it was his intentions to cooperate all along, and waited for the fox to make the next move.


Youko smirked, "It has been my experience that the wisdom of a child often comes from the purest source."


"Indeed." Sesshoumaru agreed and a tiny smile appeared on his face.


"'Bout time!" Shippo huffed and paused in his cleaning of Kagome's face. "Now, Youko, you put your plant stuff on her. Then, Sesshoumaru can use Tenseiga and if the plants are poisonous, it will heal her anyway." He ignored the stares. "Well?" he prodded and moved down to start washing a pale arm.


Youko barked a quick laugh at the kit's royal tone and felt firmly put into his place, but gracefully gave in and began to prepare his herbal remedies.


Sesshoumaru kept his expression neutral, but he was obviously amused by the pup's audacity. "You will have your hands full with that one. He must have learned such disrespect from my brother."


"Nope," Youko happily snickered. "That was Kagome's influence all the way."


Shippo sighed in exasperation at the two full grown demons before secretly grinning when he knew they couldn't see him. As far as he could tell, this was the beginning of a long and lasting friendship...just what one sly fox was intending all along. After all, it just wouldn't do to have Kagome's mate in jealous fit over her friends, would it? With one last quick swipe of the tongue, he tucked his nose under his tails and waited for them to finish their job and fix his mother.


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Naraku hissed in anger at the woman kneeling before him. "What do you mean she got away?" he demanded softly of his detachment.


Kagura was terrified inside, but her eyes were calm and resentful when she met Naraku's piercing glare. After a day away, he had hurried back only half healed because of some hint he received that things where not going as he expected. She dropped her eyes and scowled at her clenched hands and waited for his next words. She hated waiting, serving his every whim, degrading herself by painstakingly carrying out his every order...


"What part did you play in this?" he leaned forward until she met his eyes again. "How did you release her?"


Kagura knew that one thing she could not do was lie to her "father" and narrowed her eyes in anger. "I didn't."


"Who did?" he purred intently.


"I don't know. There was two, maybe more..." she answered evasively, but truthfully. She saw the multiple forms of the Silver fox and Human boy blend but wasn't sure if there had been more then those two inside the demon skin.


"And where were you?" Naraku lashed out and gripped the wind user by her neck to drag her closer. "What were you doing."


"Taking care of your intruder," She snarled back.


"Ah, yes. The youkai with the long silver hair. Show me what became of him..." he reached into her mind and started to read her memories.


Kagura gasped at the intrusion and hastily repressed the memories of anything that happened after the fox stepped into the barrier. Naraku saw the crazy fox walk straight into the barrier wall and came up with the same assumption that the fox was fried, just as sure as she had been at the time that the barrier had cooked the youkai for his stupidity. That assumption saved her life as Naraku released her, not interested in anything further. If he had held on any longer, he would have found out that the Kitsune had survived the barrier and was led to the Miko by none other than his grudgingly obedient servant. He would have crushed her heart right in front of her for that one...


"Go," he snarled at her.


She escaped the room and breathed a sigh of relief. That couldn't have gone much better. He was still ignorant, the Miko was free, Kanna could no longer spy for Naraku, no new jewel shards had increased his strength, and she was still alive,...though still a slave.


But it couldn't all happen at once....no, she still had to wait. But now, she had something she had been missing before. Kagura had hope.


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What do you think? There is more to come...next chapter up: Take Me Home