In Time, Death
By Alesyira
No Goodbye, No Hello
- 1988 -
No error message!
She dropped her pouch in sheer disbelief, then scrambled to scoop up the contents that had scattered across the floor.
She had been checking its screen every night before bed, and she was certain she'd imagined what she'd just seen. She clutched her belongings to her lap and sat in a mild state of shock, holding the vesper with numb fingers. After a few days of seeing that error message, she'd started to suspect that she might be stuck here for a long time. Whatever had overheated had obviously been something important.
But now, the error message was gone.
In its place, the simple screen glowed dimly with a few colorful icons, just like the first day she'd seen it. She'd been a little terrified of messing something up since then, and after having inadvertently broken it during her last trip…
She scowled in irritation. She hadn't even wanted to come here, let alone leave at the moment she'd been unexpectedly whisked away.
She bit her lip and gently tapped the screen, painfully aware of the potential for further mistakes and it breaking once more. Should she go home now that it was an option? Should she stay the night so she could at least have a chance to rest, dress for the day, and say thank you and goodbye?
She felt a wealth of gratitude toward the two that had trusted her enough to let her stay. She'd been a stranger and a potential enemy, even a possible danger to their students, yet they'd given up a week of their time to teach her what they could.
She eyed the bear thoughtfully. Angara said she couldn't take it with her, but if she left now and returned with it later that night, it would technically still be available for the next students to use. She sighed and shook her head against that idea. It might break, get lost, or even interfere with her time jumps by doing something unexpected with her magic.
Oh, but still she could go home. She could go home for a whole day (or week!), then come back to this evening and continue training like she'd never left!
Her excitement waned as she glanced out of the window, spotting a few stars sparkling in the night sky. Maybe she'd leave and never have the chance to return. She couldn't know what her future held. It could end up being a terrible mistake to go before she'd learned everything she could from these people.
She absently rubbed at a tickle on the tip of her nose as she considered her options, carefully repacking the contents of her pouch. She'd cleaned and put away her bodysuit after that first day of training had left it with a hole through the shoulder. Folded beneath it was her miko attire. She hadn't needed to wear a seal in days, and she stuffed a few loose slips back into their pocket. It had been a little bit of a relief to have that freedom, but when she left the bear behind, she'd have to go back to wearing them again.
One of her gloves had fallen out of a side pocket, and she tucked it back into place, wondering how often she might need to make use of those. It had gotten ridiculously easy to reach for Gatai while she'd practiced. It had been a little too nice to have that balance and harmony of magic, and she might be tempted to do the same with others when she shouldn't, just for her ease of mind and the simplicity of control.
She'd probably need to wear them. Often. To avoid… incidents.
She couldn't wait to get home to tell Shippo where she had ended up!
Her weariness from the day's efforts melted away as she remembered the last thing she'd done before leaving.
Her face burned. Her thoughts raced. What had she been thinking?
She and Hiei had… and then in the elevator…
She breathed a long sigh. Shippo probably hadn't meant anything by the affectionate nose bump, but his mouth had been so close, and it had felt so natural to just tilt her face up and…
She pressed a hand to her eyes, willing her thoughts away from the gutter.
They needed to talk. All three of them.
Whatever tasks the vesper had on the schedule for her could wait. She wanted and needed to go home first.
She tucked her pouch against her chest and put her heels on the edge of her chair, curling into herself. She propped her chin on her knees and swiped through the colorful images on her vesper, tapping the little pictures and moving icons around on the screen.
She smiled as rainbow notifications shimmered into view above the glass. So cool. Her nose itched again and she rubbed in irritation, feeling a bit like…
Achoo!
She sneezed hard, accidentally smacking the device into her face with the unexpected force. Her eyes watering from the sudden onset of some foreign irritation in her sinuses, she blinked blearily and rubbed at the sore spot on her forehead. The device beeped right before she sneezed again, and then all she saw was light as the device reached into her and yanked.
- 1660 -
Koenma dropped his head into his hands, his palms conveniently muffling a drawn-out groan of frustration.
The last month had been a never-ending string of Very Bad Days (and Nights). A growing number of humans had died under mysterious circumstances, and only a few could give them any clues about what had happened. There had been a few telling details, like one spirit's final memory of kissing an unearthly beautiful creature, or another reporting the gaping maw of a horrendous monster as being the last thing they'd seen.
These sorts of sightings shouldn't have been possible an entire decade after the realms had been divided, and yet here they were.
He had started to suspect that the deaths had probably been humans finding ways into the magical realm. It made sense that there might be weak points along the divide, but the detail that worried him the most was that those unexplained deaths had been steadily increasing in frequency, from a few outliers a year ago to where they were now: three dozen had perished just that week.
In a worst-case scenario, the spell was failing and all their efforts to rebuild would end up going to waste.
He wearily rubbed his eyes, chastising himself for immediately jumping to the worst conclusion. It was possible there were just a few weaknesses that needed to be fixed.
No big deal.
No big deal.
He peeked through his fingers at the chunk of polished wood hovering a few inches from his nose. Rubbing his eyes again with an irritated sigh, he waved at the approval stamp. It slammed with a bit of extra force into the top sheet of a stack of papers. Paper was stacked everywhere, taking over nearly every free spot on his table. He was getting behind again.
He puffed out his cheeks with a lengthy sigh before he waved the stamp away to peek at the results. A word appeared in bright blue ink: Reincarnation.
He pushed the paper off to the side where it vanished in a tiny puff, then stamped the next one. Valhalla. He blinked down at the unexpected result and shook his head. It must have been a traveler. Most of the souls that came through his office were locals with a handful of common afterlife options. It had been at least a century since he'd seen his last Valhalla.
The paper vanished with another puff and he rubbed a hand down his face. He would make a solid effort to hurry through this stack and then he'd stop for tea. And a bath. And a vacation.
He was pretty sure he hadn't left this room for the last two hundred hours.
And fifteen minutes.
And forty seconds.
(He wasn't counting.)
An unexpected flash of blinding light shattered his already failing concentration. Immediately understanding what must be happening—because who else popped in and out unexpectedly from his life?—he didn't hesitate.
When Kagome had left them a decade ago, he'd seen her destination and knew that would be his awkward first meeting with her. He'd regretted being caught so off-guard by her arrival during the gathering in Reikai, and had spent a considerable amount of time since then daydreaming about what he'd do differently the next time they might meet.
They were no longer strangers, and he'd heard more than enough stories of fair maidens and the heroes that had saved them from dangerous monsters and loneliness. He was old enough to know better, but it was one of those things he really hoped held a grain of truth.
And so, he stood and rounded the table piled with missives to scoop the temporarily blinded girl into his arms for a thorough kiss.
She jerked in his grip, then pressed frantic hands against his chest. Later, he might blame his slow reaction on his weariness or his own loneliness, but he didn't realize she'd meant for him to let go until she violently sneezed in his face. Pain exploded in his mouth as her head snapped forward and split his lower lip.
Ow.
He released her immediately in favor of covering his bleeding mouth, the shock of what had just happened wiping away his exhaustion as he looked down at her in surprise.
"Um," she muttered, blinking the stars from her sight as she rubbed at the sharp ache in her brow.
He pulled his hand away from the injury and grimaced at the wide smear of blood. "Are you okay?" he asked, carefully reaching for her with his clean hand.
She waved him away with a nod.
Painfully aware of the blood dribbling down his chin, he leaned past her to pick up a soft cloth from the table and pressed it to his lip to staunch the flow.
She squinted up at him with pink cheeks. "Sorry for sneezing on you, but you can't do things like that."
"Lesson learned." Probably. He propped a hip against the table as he tried to hold the cloth against his face while wiping the blood from his hand. His mouth was throbbing, but the bleeding had stopped. He tossed the cloth to the floor with a weary sigh. "I'm sorry, too. I'm supposed to wait for the first date."
She glanced away from him. "No, it's not just that." She looked back at him, and the unhappy twist of her lips was a clear indication that he was getting scolded. "You really shouldn't just kiss someone without invitation. You didn't even say hello. And aren't you seeing someone?"
He carded the fingers of both hands through his hair, ruffling the strands until they stuck out in odd directions. "Was. Broke it off. Too busy. Too much to do and not enough personal time."
She frowned at his frazzled appearance, tapping her fingertips on her hip. "I see."
"So, I'm free again. Have been for a few years." He turned to her with a hopeful smile and reached out for one of her hands. "Let's go on a date."
She blinked. "Oh, we…" she trailed off, turning pink again. "We had a date, or I should say we will? In the future. But… I'm seeing someone." She peeked at him with an apologetic smile. "Right now. That's not you."
He sighed and rubbed at his eyes with his free hand. "Okay, fine. Can you please just get me out of here for a day? Record numbers of humans are dying in the Makai and I'm going to lose my mind or re-murder the next soul that comes in whining about being eaten by something big and scary."
She frowned and gently patted his back. "If you leave for a day, you'll just have a whole extra day of work you'll have to do when you return."
Koenma wilted.
She chuckled briefly at his reaction, considering what they could do. "Does all of your work have to be done here?"
He nodded. "Pretty much. The stamp only seems to work in this room." He waved at the small, squarish thing hovering over the table behind him. Kagome turned to look at it and jumped in surprise by the door sliding open with a loud bang.
Jorge barreled into the room without knocking. "Sir, Sir! We think we have—" he paused and stared at Kagome in confusion. "Who is this? How did she get in here? Do I need to remove her?"
Koenma shook his head and slumped against the table. "No, this is Kagome-sama. She's allowed to go wherever she likes, but…" He paused for a second, glanced at her sideways, and snapped his mouth shut.
"Just Kagome," she quickly corrected, though she was confused what more he might have had to say.
Jorge slowly bobbed his head, glancing between the two of them and taking note of Koenma's split lip. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his boss with any kind of injury. Had that girl retaliated against bad behavior? "Sir, should we speak privately elsewhere? This is about the… uh… problems."
Koenma perked up. "No, no, here is fine." He pulled a seat close to the table for Kagome and then waved at Jorge to continue as he took his normal spot.
Jorge rubbed the back of his neck, then shrugged in resignation. "There's a pattern to the accidents. There might have been a…" He paused and glanced around before lowering his voice to a whisper, "problem during the casting of the spell."
Kagome's eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"Go on," Koenma waved impatiently.
"We've identified eight spots where the breaches have happened most often, and they're equally spaced around a nearly perfect circle."
Koenma nodded thoughtfully, his gaze on the ceiling.
"Two of the generals suggested setting up patrolling groups, but to cover the entire circle where these occurrences are expected to continue will be a pretty big drain on resources we do not currently have available."
"Hmm," Koenma leaned back and laced his fingers together over his chest as he glanced at Kagome, an idea quickly forming. "How would you feel about a little field action?"
Kagome glanced up and met his eyes. When she realized he was talking to her, she slumped in mild defeat.
Koenma laughed. "It won't be too much time or action. But with you here…" Koenma stood, his mind made up. "Jorge! Kagome-sama and I will be going on a top-secret mission to take a look at and maybe put an end to these surprise pass-throughs."
Kagome wagged her finger at him. "Now hang on one second. You won't ever be able to put an end to those trespasses, at least as far as I know."
Jorge's expression shifted into comical disbelief. Not only was this girl telling off his boss, but she also seemed to know about what was going on. Who the heck was she?
Koenma deflated a little, but immediately perked back up. "But that's why you're here!" He turned to Jorge again. "Jorge, I need you to wait here in my room or somewhere private with a listing of the problem spots. Kagome and I are going to take a look at one location. If we find something worth doing, be ready to send us to the next spot."
Jorge sputtered, "B-but how will I know when you're ready to go somewhere else?"
Koenma fought to hold back his growing amusement. "Kagome will use some magic to let you know," he glanced away, using the twinge of pain in his lip to help discourage the smile from growing any wider. He couldn't imagine how shocked poor Jorge might be once he saw their faces just pop up like a couple of broken spirits. "You can set up the portals from here. Understood?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling more bewildered by the minute. "Sure, boss."
"Geez, I arrived less than five minutes ago and I've already been assigned a new quest," she muttered. "Look, if we're going places where people have been dying, I'm going to need some supplies."
Koenma stood with a quick nod. "We should also go in disguise!"
Kagome quirked an eyebrow.
He glanced at her outfit. "Well, whatever you're wearing right now doesn't seem very travel-worthy."
She looked down and gasped in embarrassment. She'd forgotten she was wearing her pajamas, and it felt like dozens of cute little fox cartoons were laughing at her expense.
As she changed out of her pajamas to don her bodysuit and a simple outfit that made the two of them look like a middle-class traveling couple, she wondered what new troubles they might find. She fought back a yawn as she pulled on a pair of soft leather boots and slung her pouch over a shoulder. Koenma thought the miko outfit might draw the wrong kinds of attention. She kept her fingers crossed that there wouldn't be any surprises, but she was beginning to feel like surprises was her middle name.
Armed with a replacement bow and quiver—because hers had been left behind in an elevator with Shippo what seemed like forever ago—Jorge called up the first portal. Koenma looped a sheathe with a short blade over his back and then cheerfully stuck out his elbow to escort her through the gateway.
She rolled her eyes at his excitement to get away. Out of the frying pan, into the fire, she thought. He might not want another 'vacation' ever again if this went like she suspected it would.
"Safe travels!" Jorge waved as they stepped out of sight.
"I don't get why we are going," she said as they emerged in a warm patch of sunlight.
"Simple!" Koenma beamed. "I needed a break from the work. You seem to show up when things are happening. Whatever reason you're here for, I figure we'll know pretty soon if it's related to this."
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Because I happened to appear during your last crisis with a suggestion to fix things?"
He nodded with overenthusiastic excitement. "Coincidence? I think not."
She grimaced. He had a point.