Lucky Penny (Revised)
Summary: Playing a game of poker with Fate and Destiny can be a dangerous task, especially when they control the hands. Two souls, thrown into a world of twists and turns, take their chance in this game against the gods. With so many out to kill the young and talented duo, childhood friends Kagome and Kurama must fight their way through the trials in hopes of making it out alive.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha/Yu Yu Hakusho
Rated: M for Mature Content
Pairing: Kagome/Kurama
Disclaimer: Do you really have to ask? No, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or InuYasha.
A/N: This is one of the few stories that I have that are finished, so I decided to revise and edit it. Then, only when I finished revising and editing, posting. So, if you are reading this...it's done. You will not be waiting long for updates. I will update every other day. There were many things in this story that needed to be fixed, the intelligence level of a five-year-old Kagome is only one among many on the list of corrections needed to be made. I hope this version is better and easier to read.
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Chapter One
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Eons ago, a prophecy was made that foretold the future of a single soul.
A female immortal would be placed among the human world, memories erased, and body remade until the time of her rebirth.
And so, the prophecy goes,
Into the grotto of the
Spring of the peach blossom
Invite the Immortal one.
She who is born on the night of the Beast
Will be tested for the right of her Immortal name,
Redemption
6.6.6
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"Oh!" a pained gasp followed the sudden outcry, "Dad~!" Shoulder length black hair and doe brown eyes turned to the stairs. "Dad!" She called again.
A little girl of five sat on the floor with toys scattered carelessly around her. Her eyes were a deep blue turning to the panting woman who was leaning against the wall. "Mama?"
"It's okay, Kagome. Your brother is just letting mama know that he's ready to come out," she smiled through her contractions. Waddling to the stairs, she yelled louder, "DAD!"
"Rai?" A voice from the furthest room upstairs came floating down in a croaky old voice. Footsteps sounded from above before an old man appeared at the top of the staircase. "Rai, what's all the yelling for?"
"Dad, the baby is coming," she said, taking a deep and calming breath as she looked at her father. When he didn't make any move that he'd heard her, she rolled her eyes and yelled, "he's coming now!"
"Right! I'll grab your bag!"
"Kagome, go get your shoes and jacket on."
Kagome looked at her pajamas with a frown. She never left the house in her sleep clothes. "My bed clothes," she pulled at her sleeve and her mother shook her head and sat down on the nearest seat to her.
"It's okay, sweetie. You just need your shoes and jacket."
Not arguing any further, Kagome stood up and stepped over her toys before running upstairs and into her room. She pushed her step stool closer to her closet and climbed up so that she could reach her jacket. Tugging at it, she scrunched her face up when it didn't release the hanger that it was holding tight to. "Let go!" she said, pulling it harder, shaking it, and finally twisting it about. The hanger gave, twisting up and falling from the bar it had once been hooked over. Barreling back down the steps of the stairs, she raised the jacket up to her mother who gave in to a pained laugh as she took the hanger and pulled it from the jacket for her daughter. Kagome let her mother put the jacket on her before she moved to the front door and grabbed her Velcro shoes and socks. "Mama, these are good?" She asked from around the corner.
Rai sighed, she couldn't see her daughter or the shoes that she was putting on, "yes, those are good." If she had shoes on, she didn't really care which ones she wore. Taking her cellphone from the counter beside her, she dialed a familiar number and listened while taking deep breaths. The ringing sounded a few times before a click and voice followed.
"Shiori speaking,"
"Shiori, it's Rai. The baby is coming!" She said in a bout of pain as she felt her knees buckle a bit, thankful that she was sitting down. "We are about to leave now,"
"Have you called an ambulance to come get you yet? Would you like me to pick you up? I'm not too far, I can be there by the time you make it down the steps."
"I-ah! No, I'll call the ambulance."
"I'll call the ambulance, you just focus on breathing, Rai. I'll meet you at the Hospital."
Rai nodded her head, then shook it when she realized her friend couldn't see the motion, "alright, I'll see y-you then." She strained a bit before hanging up. Her dad came down dressed and with her baby bag. Kagome was waiting by the front door, bouncing on her light up shoes while waiting for her mom and grandfather. "Kagome, come here." She held her hand out for her daughter and gripped the girls' hand before letting her father help her out of the house. The old man guided her carefully own the tower of steps. From halfway down, they could see the ambulance arriving, a few men climbed out and made their way to meet Rai. They took over helping her down the steps to the vehicle.
"Come on Kagome, we're going to follow Mama in a taxi,"
Kagome looked towards the brightly lit up ambulance and then back to her grandfather. She wanted to go with her mom. When her grandfather called for her again, she ran up to him and took his hand as he hailed a taxi. Looking at her shoes, she stomped her foot and watched the pink and blue lights sparkle against the pavement. She felt a tug and followed her grandfather into the taxi. He buckled her, she tried to make herself taller as she peered out the window at the passing scenery and the moving vehicles around them. Looking around the seat in front of her, she could see the ambulance further ahead of them. She pointed, "that's mama!" Her voice called as she watched the lights glitter in the darkness of the night.
"That's right, mama is going to give birth to Kagome's baby brother,"
She smiled and watched the vehicle with astute eyes. She didn't dare look away. She didn't want to lose her mom for even a moment.
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"Shiori!"
Kagome looked up at her grandfather.
"Oh! They just took Rai into the Delivery Ward."
A woman said, her long black hair and friendly brown eyes had Kagome bringing a hand up to her skirt. The woman crouched down and smiled as she took Kagome into her arms and lifted her. "Hello Kagome, do you recognize me?"
She shook her head, "no."
"I'm your mommy's best friend. We went to school together, played together...we even had kids around the same time. Oh, but this is probably the first time you've met my son. He met you when you were just a baby though."
"Who?" She asked, tilting her head curiously at the woman. Her grandfather had left to talk to the nurse and was no longer in her line of sight.
Shiori smiled, walking towards another room, she opened the door where a boy with vibrant red hair and green eyes sat flipping through a magazine of geographical content. "Shuichi," she called, the boy glanced up and she smiled when he placed the magazine down and walked up to her. "Shuichi, this is Kagome. You probably don't remember, but you were there when she was born, and then again when we went to visit Rai a few years back."
Kagome laid her head on Shiori's shoulder, her eyes leveling the boy on the ground curiously before she pulled back and wiggled to get down. Shiori placed the girl down and smiled when she walked past the boy and moved towards the blocks on a table nearby.
"Shuichi, could you play with Kagome while we wait for her mom?"
He gave a silent nod, the look in his eyes one of disinterest, but her nodded all the same.
Shiori sighed, feeling a bit disheartened by her son's emotional detachment. She shook her head and left the playroom to see to her friends' father and wait for the delivery of her nephew.
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Kagome glanced up from her blocks, the boy was sitting down again and looking at the book in his lap. It had pictures in it. She wanted to see them too. She looked down at her blocks and continued stacking them sloppily before she stood up and walked to the chair beside his. Her feet kicking back and forth as she looked at her shoes before her eyes traveled to the book. She couldn't see all that well from where she was. She leaned forward so that her head rested on the arm of the chair. Her eyes took in the picture of the mountains and the water around it. She looked at the clouds in the picture and in the corner of the page was a yellow and orange ball. "That's the sun," she pointed at the picture.
"It is," he said softly, his eyes reading the passage on the other page.
"Where is that," she asked, pointing at the mountains.
He followed her finger and noted the location in the title below the photo. "It's Lake Eibsee in Bevaria, Germany. Those are the Alps in the background."
"..."
"It's in Europe."
She frowned, "are there pictures from here?"
He turned back a few pages, "this is Mount Hiei, it's to the northeast of Kyoto, located in the Honshu, Shiga Prefecture."
"That's here?" She lived in Kyoto but didn't recall seeing any mountains around her home.
"Kyoto is really big, so it's no surprise that you've never seen the mountain. You live on a Shrine though, so even you should be able to see it from your home."
He continued to show her pictures and the two talked. Kagome would point occasionally at another picture and Shuichi would talk about it with her. She smiled, laughed, and somehow, she ended up in the same seat that he was in. He had to move over to give her room as he placed the magazine between them and continued to point at the pictures and read about the different places to her.
As hours passed, Kagome became sleepy and found herself leaning against the boy beside her. Her eyes heavy with the late hours shadowing her. She shook her head and peeled herself off the boy as she turned the page again, "how old is Shui-chan?"
"...I'm six, and you are five?"
"Mm, yeah."
Shuichi watched as Kagome's eyelids drooped again before turning his eyes back to the magazine, "Kagome, if you're tired, then you should sleep."
"…"
He glanced back at her, his eyes taking in the sleeping girl beside him. He looked back at the magazine before lifting a hand and giving her sleeve a slight tug and letting her fall into his shoulder where she lay sleeping until his mother and her grandfather came to get them. For however many hours later that was.
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Me: So already, there is a huge change in the story. I reread the whole thing and cringed the entire way through. I finally decided that it needed a HUGE facelift. Hope this is a bit more satisfying.