In The Blood
By: Ryu Katanna
Beta:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Fifteen
Kagome had woken before dawn to make her run to where the flowers grew for a fresh bouquet to place at Raizen's grave. She smiled as she returned after her daily visit to find that Hiei had arrived and stood alone watching the morning training session of the soldiers. He glanced at her front the corners of his eyes as she came to stand next to him.
"Good morning, Hiei. I am pleased you decided to visit." Kagome greeted him softly as she looked out over the guard as several paused from their drills to acknowledge her with a short bow before continuing what they were doing.
"Hn." Was the apparition's only response as he looked away from her.
Kagome couldn't help the small giggle at this. He really did remind her of how Sesshomaru had been when she had first met him. She had thought them to be similar in attitude when Yusuke had told her about him. She didn't know much about him aside from what Yusuke had told her, but she did hope to get to know him for herself.
"Unfortunately, I will need to leave for a short time tomorrow. A meeting has been arranged with the Prince of Rekai. Kurama is visiting now as well and will be acting as my escort. We had wondered if you might be interested." Kagome told him before her brow knit and a dagger appeared embedded on the ground in front of two yokai who has started fighting for real instead of sparing.
"What seems to be the issue today?" Kagome's voice was smooth as silk and her tone even as she turned her attention away from the fire apparition.
Hiei's brow raised as every soldier froze at her words. The two that had been stopped as their spar become more violent than was warranted for training, an earth apparition and a hawk, looked up at her with some trepidation. It was this reaction that would have told Hiei that there was more to this girl if he'd had any doubts before. The two demons bowed as their attention shifted from each other to her.
"M-My Lady, we apologize. It was a minor dispute. It will not happen again." The hawk said in the sudden silence.
"Oh? What was it about?" Kagome asked as she folded her hands in front of her.
"Nothing of importance, my lady. Our tempers merely got the best of us for a minute." The earth apparition said before going quiet again.
Hiei watched as Kagome's eyes slowly slid shut before taking a breath and opening them again as she stepped forward. Her eyes had softened as had her posture. When she spoke, her voice was understanding, though firm.
"I know that several of you are hungry. This situation is affecting many across the territories. You are not alone in this. I am working with King Enki, Lady Mukuro and the Council to find a way around interference from Rekai. Please. Just be patient with us." Kagome told them, and Hiei could see that several of them smiled a bit as all of them relaxed at the news.
"Even so, I will not tolerate any infighting. You are all loyal soldiers who chose to remain when given the option of freedom from your duty. We currently have Lady Mukuro's as well as Lord Yomi's seconds withing our walls. Any dispute will be taken to the training arena, as is protocol. Am I understood?" Every soldier nodded in agreement.
"You two will report to Jun for meditation every morning until the issue is resolved starting now. That goes for any other who is having a difficult time controlling themselves. You may return to your drills." Kagome said before watching as the two demons and several others followed her orders and moved off to find Jun while the rest continued with their training.
Hiei could see the lines of tension that wouldn't be visible to most in her body language. While she gave off the image of complete composure, he could tell that she was tired. It seemed the situation was slowly getting to her. Kagome had more responsibilities than the other Lords or Ladies with leading two of the three territories, and so he didn't doubt that she had been working She took a few steadying breaths before turning back to look at Hiei.
"I apologize for that display. I can only hope the meeting with Prince Koenma goes well." Kagome said as she looked up at the blood-red of the sky.
"If it doesn't? What will you do?" Hiei's gaze was intense when Kagome looked at him at the question.
"I will do what I must." Was her short answer before she turned away to walk toward the main tower, and Hiei followed her.
"You would fight the Rekai? For demons?" His tone was almost incredulous, and Kagome could understand why.
He knew Yusuke well. Yusuke, who had yet to truly accept that demons were not like humans. Yusuke, who didn't yet realize that he wasn't a human anymore. That he would never really belong with them anymore. Yusuke, who had more connections with Rekai and Ningenkai than he did to Makai. Yusuke, who had refused to cut the ties holding him to Ningenkai and Rekai while he would have torn away with everything that would hold him to Makai.
Hiei did not know her, and so could only judge her on what he knew of her brother.
Kagome was not Yusuke, however. She had experienced a time where humans and demons coexisted. Where the difference between human and demon was clear. She knew what those differences were.
"I am not a human, Hiei. Even when I was human I knew the difference between the two species. I know the beast that now lurks under my skin. What we all are at our base." Kagome said before turning to look at him, and Hiei froze at the depth of Knowing that shone through her eyes.
"Instinct. Savagery. Power. Hunger. Bloodlust." Brown eyes closed as Hiei watched her clawed fingers twitch.
"Do not be fooled to think me some ignorant little girl. We are all beasts. Yusuke has not truly understood that yet, but I know what I am. I had spent too much time with demons before my change not to know what I have become. The things I have seen and lived through have not left me ignorant. Yusuke is oblivious to what is under the surface more than half the time. We may have been born twins, but do not make the mistake to think we have lived the same lives." Kagome said; knowing there was more truth in that statement than any other.
She loved her brother, but they were such different people.
Yusuke had grown up wanted by the mother who had borne him. While she had not been a very good mother, Atsuko had loved him. He had grown up having to learn how to survive on his own. He'd had to toughen up. Without the guidance of a parental figure, he had taken to skipping school and fighting.
He had come back from death the first time with expectations placed on him by Koenma. He fought to protect the human world. He'd fought everything and everyone Koenma had sent him up against until he had died for the second time. He'd awoken from his second death as a demon.
Yusuke had come to Makai with a single-minded focus. He had wanted to defeat their father. He had never once in all those months thought to stay after Raizen's death. He had not stopped thinking of himself as a human. A human boy with the human girl he loved waiting for him in the human world.
Kagome had been given to family members on the day of her birth. Rejected by the one who had borne her. Raised by her Aunt and Uncle out of family obligation. They had grown to care for her and wished to raise her to be a better person than Atsuko had turned out to be.
It had been the sense of duty that had been instilled in her that had made her return to the feudal era after shattering the Shikon. She had come to know a time in which humans and demons coexisted. It was not in harmony, but a balance of light and dark. She had come to know demons with different sets of values. Some who didn't mind humans, others who despised them, and a few that just didn't care one way or the other.
She had been trained by a human taijiya, an inu demon lord, a human monk, and a human priestess. All the while, the line between what a human was and what a demon was had been clear. She had accepted her friends as they were; be they demon or human. She had adopted a kitsune kit as her own.
She had died fighting to end the suffering of both humans and demons that had been caused by both Naraku and the jewel. She had become one with the Shikon No Tama as a consequence of her selfish desire for the world to be kept from its influence. All of those experiences, as well as the knowledge contained within the Shikon since it's creation, had changed her significantly from the girl she had been.
It was with all this knowledge and understanding that she had been returned to her own time. A time when most humans were ignorant of the existence of demons.
She had known she didn't belong anymore. Had felt it down to the very core of her being.
Her attention never strayed from the apparition even as she saw his eyes take on an edge. The conflicting sides of his aura drew her attention once again. Finally, it clicked. She knew why it had shifted violently at the mention of the differences between Yusuke and herself.
"I apologize for that last statement. You know just as well as I the differences between those born together and yet raised differently." Kagome said with a grim smile, and Hiei's eyes narrowed as his stance shifted to better draw his blade within a second.
"There is no need to threaten me, Hiei. I have no intention of telling her. Just as I have no intention of fighting you. I will only say one thing. Waiting can be painful in itself. Try not to hurt the both of you for too long. You never know when it may be too late." Kagome said as she sensed Kurama approach from behind her.
"What would you know about it?" Hiei asked only to watch as Kagome's eyes lose focus as she stared into the sky sadly.
Kurama, seeing the look on Kagome's face, knew who she was thinking of at that question. He had heard what they were talking about since he had gotten close enough. He gently squeezed her shoulder and pulled her out of her thoughts. Turning to look at Hiei, Kagome decided then that she would tell him. Yukina had been good to her during her time at the temple. If she could help her brother to come forward then it would be worth it.
"I met Yukina when Yusuke took me to Genkai's temple over a year ago. She really is a good person. We have a lot in common. Just as she is searching for her brother; I am searching for my son." Kagome admitted only to smile a bit as his eyes widened in surprise at the information.
"Are you sure, Kagome?" Kurama asked knowing that if she was going tell him about Shippo then she would have to explain how she had adopted a kitsune kit while she had supposedly been a human in Ningenkai.
"I am. I have been thinking of this for a while now. I have to be able to trust others with at least as much as I told you that night if I am to have a better chance of finding him. It has been three years since I came to Makai. I have had my people searching Tourin and Gandara. Still, they have found nothing." Kagome said sadly as she admitted to yet another thing that had been weighing on her for years now.
"What about the risk of Rekai finding out?" Kurama asked in concern only to nod when he saw the resolve in her eyes.
"Hiei." Kagome said as she looked at him with a resolve neither had seen from her in their time around her before.
"Hn."
"You asked me what I am. Do you still wish to know?" Kagome asked and seeing the interest in his eyes she continued.
"Kurama and Yusuke both trust you. I will choose to trust you as well. You may tell Lady Mukuro if you wish. It will soon become more widely known at any rate. I know it can not stay a secret for much longer. Sooner or later the knowledge will spread." Kagome conceded knowing that it was the truth.
Raizen had guarded her existence, but he was gone. She had known as soon as she had appeared in front of Yomi that day in Gandara that it would only be a matter of time before others started questioning what was known of her. There was only one secret that she wouldn't allow anyone outside of Shippo or Sesshomaru to know. As much as she might want to trust someone else, it still remained that Sesshomaru, Shippo and herself were the only ones alive now who had lived it. They had seen what the Shikon's existence had led to.
She would never risk the appearance of another like Naraku.
"More than that, if you come with us tomorrow, you will learn how I came to be what I am. You and the others will know more than I have told anyone until now, except my father. Maybe then you will understand just how different Yusuke and I really are." Kagome admitted knowing after talking to Kurama the day before that she would have to tell Koenma exactly who she was.
"In return, I ask for only one thing."
"What?" Hiei asked knowing that his curiosity had been bothering him for the last weeks, and now she was willing to part with the information.
"My son is the most important person to me. I ask that you look for him with your Jagan." Kurama's eyes widened as he understood why she would do this.
Kagome had been working for years now to improve the lives of everyone in Makai. She had been too busy to look for Shippo herself, and everyone she had sent to find any information had come up empty. Hiei had the Jagan. He was one of very few who could tell her if her kit was alive or dead, and find him if alive. She had nothing else to bargain with the demon other than the information of what she was. For her kit, she was willing to do this.
"Why look for him now if you had already abandoned him?" Hiei asked and Kurama winced as he quickly jumped away from Kagome's side at the abrupt rise in her power level.
"I did not abandon him! I would never have left my kit! I was forced from his side, and couldn't return! I have been looking for him ever since!" The Mark of the Mazoku seemed to glow on her skin as her youki blasted outward with the rage that Hiei's careless words had invoked in the demoness.
The soldiers who had been running drills a ways off fled as the blast spread and tore apart the ground underneath them. Kagome's long hair whipped around her as the tie that held it snapped from the blast of pure youki. Kujou appeared quickly, and ignoring Kurama's shout of caution, ran until he came to stand in front of Kagome. Hiei watched on with red eyes wide in unexpected fascination as Kujou shouted over the maelstrom of powerful youki.
"Kagome! Kagome! Damn it! Calm down! You're gonna kill someone!" Kujou shouted and it looked like those words started to get through to her as she looked at him and her power faded as she drew it back under her skin.
"What happened?" Kujou asked once she had calmed enough to realized they were standing in the middle of a large crater in the ground.
"He insinuated that I had abandoned Shippo." Kagome said as a tear fell to slide slowly down her cheek.
Kujou cursed as he shot a glare at the fire apparition before focusing back on his friend. This had been a tender subject for Kagome for a long time. No one had dared to insinuate that she was abandoning her son by focusing on her duty to Tourin and Gandara. Kujou, Seitei, Natsume and their friends had all been looking for information once they had found out she had an adopted son. They had hoped to make things easier on her, but Kujou had heard her crying at night when there had been no news.
"You didn't abandon him. You were taken from him, remember? There was nothing you could have done. He will be found and returned to you, Kagome. Come on. Just calm down." Kujou said as he tried to bring her spirits up.
They had known it would only be a matter of time before the stress got to Kagome. She was Raizen's daughter, and a Mazoku, after all. The Mazoku Clan were beasts born for war. She had been trying so hard to incite change in Makai that she had not had enough time to satisfy her own instincts. There was only so long that they could be suppressed.
She had planned to visit Lord Sesshomaru for this reason as he could have given her the outlet she needed. Yet, she had been dealing with the current food issue in two territories and been called upon by the council o act as a representative. When the meeting with Rekai had been called so quickly, Kagome had not had a choice but to put it off again. She would have to continue to keep control until after tomorrow.
"Hn. You have an agreement." Hiei's voice came unexpectedly and Kurama looked over at her old friend to see his red eyes looking on Kagome with a more approving gaze.
It clicked for Kurama then. Hiei had asked that question to see an honest reaction. He had been abandoned as an infant for being a forbidden child. As much as Hiei wanted to know what Kagome was, he would not have helped her if he knew she did not really care for her son. Her son would have been better off without being found by a mother who had abandoned him once already.
Kurama smiled as he understood that Hiei also wanted to get a feel for how strong Kagome really was. She had made herself a mystery to many in Makai. Where Yusuke had competed in the tournament and showed his strength to everyone, Kagome had not. It had made many wonder just how powerful the High Lady of Tourin really was, and if they could challenge her for her rights as a Lady. Now they would know, but Kurama had a feeling that blast wasn't much in reality. He knew she was a Miko as well. She was capable of so much more. That had only been a warning.
He didn't doubt that she would have been able to succeed her father as the Queen of Tourin if Yusuke hadn't come up with the tournament and just returned to Ningenkai.
"You will have your answers tomorrow. Kujou, be sure he is shown to a room for tonight. We depart early." Kagome's voice was short as she turned and left without saying any more.
"I hope you are satisfied with yourself." Kujou growled as he watched her leave.
"Hn." Hiei ignored the other demon.
"I will have To-Oh show you to a room. Do not seek Kagome out again today. The way she is now; she may just kill you." Kujou shook his head before leading them in the opposite direction of Raizen's grave knowing that was where Kagome had gone.
"She would try." Hiei stated only for Kujou to laugh.
"You know nothing of female Mazoku. She is her father's daughter. Females are just as dangerous as males when angered. Kagome is still young, and already she could probably rival her father in raw power. It is best not to tempt her after upsetting her." Kujou informed them as he waved to get To-Oh's attention when he spotted him.
"Kagome seemed calmer when she left. Do you really think she would kill him? She just asked him to find her son." Kurama asked curiously.
"She would regret it later."
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It has been such a long time! I am so sorry. I was so busy with everything, and then I just had no inspiration for this story. I have had so many ideas for others. Finally, I sat down and worked through this one. The entire story has been edited. I hope most of you reread through it after so long as there are things that have been changed and added throughout the story. The main events have stayed the same though so don't worry if you didn't! It is mostly just fleshing out details and information again.
Kagome has come to a few decisions about how to deal with both Rekai and on how to find Shippo. She has changed in many ways from canon, but she is still Kagome. All that stress had to get to her at some point. She's a demon; faults and all.
I hope you liked this chapter. I honestly don't know when the next one will be out after this. I have been distracted by other stories and saving to buy a house, but I am still working on In the Blood. I promise this story is NOT going to be abandoned.
~Ryu
