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Part Four
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Kagome glanced behind her as she was enveloped in the blue that meant she was travelling between the worlds, to see if anyone had followed yet. Yes, Kurama was just a little way above, looking about him with interest. His eyes met hers and he smiled, and then she hit the ground with a bump, lost her balance, and started to fall backward, precisely where Kurama ended up standing. "Ah! Gomen," she gasped, righting herself and blushing furiously.
"Are we here?" he asked.
"Hai!" She grabbed hold of a few vines and tugged to make sure they were sturdy, and began her climb. "We have to get out before the others come or there won't be enough room," she called over her shoulder, suddenly realizing with a flush that from above like this, her uniform's short skirt didn't leave much to the imagination. Not that Kurama would be using his imagination in that way, she scolded herself. They were on a mission, after all.
Kurama noticed the same thing when he looked up to see how high the well was. He decided he better get her out of there before Kuwabara and Yuusuke got there, since they weren't the most tactful and polite of boys. He bent his knees and jumped straight into the air, and as he passed Kagome, he caught her around the waist and pulled her out of the well with him.
They landed on a grassy green slope that looked like there had recently been some kind of highly localized hurricane. "Hmm," murmered Kurama. "What went on here?"
Hiei shot out of the well and from inside there were shouted curses from Kuwabara, who was having trouble maneouvering the vines.
"Hiei, doesn't this look odd?" Kurama gestured at the broken branches and other debris littering the ground.
"I suppose, if you consider a mess to be odd," was the fire demon's response.
"You guys? Uh, you guys?" Kuwabara's voice came from out of the well doubtfully. Kagome peered over the edge.
"Just pull yourself up, Kuwabara-kun, it's not hard, I do it all the time!" she called. "Hi Urameshi-kun!" she added as Yuusuke appeared next to Kuwabara.
"Just look at the pattern of all the debris," Kurama insisted. "It's like it was all being pulled toward something, rather than being blown away from something."
Hiei shrugged. "Maybe there's a youkai with wind powers or something around here." His eyes lit up. "Let's find it and fight it!"
"It was probably Miroku-sama's kazaana," Kagome said, paying attention suddenly. "He's not a youkai, he's ningen, but he has a curse. You shouldn't fight him, he's on our side," she admonished Hiei with a wag of her finger.
"I'm not on anyone's side," Hiei glowered. "Baka ningen."
"Hmph. Stuck up, aren't you?" Kagome turned back to the well, and Kurama set a restraining hand on Hiei's shoulder.
Yuusuke crawled out of the well, to Kuwabara's protests of "Hey, Urameshi! Wait for me, dammit!"
"Where's Inuyasha?" Kagome sighed. "He's slowing us down." Turning suddenly on Yuusuke, she demanded "You two didn't get into a fight, did you? Because I would be very angry if-"
Inuyasha leapt out of the well and perched on the edge of it. "Are you serious, Kagome? You don't think this guy could beat me, do you? I can't believe it!"
Before Yuusuke could respond, Kuwabara sprawled onto the ground beside the well, looking very dirty and grubby for his trouble.
"You could have given him a lift, Inuyasha," Kagome admonished.
"I don't need any help!" Kuwabara insisted.
"Let's get going," Hiei interupted, itching for a battle.
Kagome turned to Inuyasha. "Can you smell which way it went?"
He sniffed the air and grimaced. The smell was really unpleasant. "Towards the village," he said definately.
"Oh no!" Kagome climbed onto his back and they took off at a run. "Come on," she called to the others. "We've got to get there to help!"
Kurama and Hiei kept up Inuyasha's pace easily, but the two human boys, even running full out, fell behind very rapidly. 'I hope this village isn't very far,' Yuusuke thought to himself. 'I hate running.'
"Kaede-bochan!" Kagome called out as soon as they were close enough to see the houses. "Miroku-sama!"
In the middle of the village, they found Sango, Kirara, and Shippo. "Kagome-chan! Inuyasha!" Sango called. "I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow morning!"
"We've had an emergency change in plans," Kagome explained, picking up Shippo as he hopped into her arms. Looking around her, she recognized the signs that the village had been through some sort of battle.
"We were attacked - a giant bird youkai came out of the well," Sango explained.
"We ran into it on the other side, too," said Inuyasha.
"It was really bad," Shippo announced, rubbing his face against Kagome's shoulder. "A little girl got hurt."
"Is she ok?"
"We don't know," said Sango. "She's in Kaede-sama's house being treated." She suddenly noticed the two youkai boys who were behind Kagome. Shippo too caught sight of them and poked his head over Kagome's shoulder to stare at them.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so rude," Kagome shook her head. "This is Kurama-kun and Hiei-san. They're... what are you called? Reikai tantei?"
"That's right," Kurama assured her. "We're after that youkai," he clarified for Sango. Hiei was silent.
"There are two ningen boys with them, too," Kagome added. "We must have run too fast for them."
"Didn't see YOU doing any running," Inuyasha muttered. "So where's the youkai?"
"It left," sighed Sango. "I would have followed it, but we're not strong enough to do more than chase it away. Now that you're back, though..."
Yuusuke and Kuwabara jogged up, panting from their run. "Well? Where is it?"
"Been and gone," said Hiei.
"But with astoundingly few casualties, as I understand," Kurama added. "The people of this village must be remarkable."
"It was mostly Sango!" Shippo chirped. "She and Kirara were wonderful!"
Miroku came up to them. "It's good you've come back. You've brought reinforcements?"
Kagome sped through the introductions as quickly as she could, and everyone got up to speed. "How's the little girl?" she asked.
Miroku's face grew dark. "She did not survive."
Kagome's eyes grew wet. She knew most of the people in the small village by name, and all of them by sight, and the thought that perhaps if she'd just come a little earlier... "Only a great evil would attack and kill a small child," she said. "We must stop it."
Miroku held out her bow. "Kaede-sama knew you were back. We should start moving as soon as possible."
Kagome lifted the full quiver onto her back, and slung her bow over it. "I think we're all ready now. Let's go."
They made an unusual caravan, heading out of the village. Inuyasha took the lead, his nose in the air, searching for a clue. Tracking a flying beast by scent was difficult, almost impossible, but he was determined to try, anyway. Besides, the farther away from that Yuusuke guy, the better. Not to mention the damn pretty-boy who kept flirting with Kagome. And her! Blushing and giggling like she'd never met a boy before in her life. It was disgusting. It was worse than watching her with Kouga. At least he felt reasonably confident that she'd never pick some stupid kidnapping wolf over him. Not like Kagome was his wife or anything, she could go flirt with any stupid boy she wanted to, hell, she could MARRY the guy, it was all the same to him. Stupid girl.
Kuwabara went next, using his psychic strengths to feel out the trail the bird had left, and wishing someone had warned him he might have to travel through time like this.
Miroku and Sango were behind Kuwabara, with Kirara perched on Sango's shoulders. They alternated between talking, groping/slapping, and stony silence. Yuusuke was walking just behind them, lost in his own thoughts, but occasionally he took a moment to give them an appraising look and wonder what the hell was up with them. When Sango slapped Miroku after the monk attempted something that Yuusuke hadn't caught, he couldn't help but think of Keiko and grin. 'So THAT's how it is,' he thought. Miroku rubbed his cheek mournfully and noticed Yuusuke watching him with amusement. "Women," the monk sighed. Sango glared and stomped a few steps ahead.
Behind Yuusuke came Kagome with Kurama beside her, and Shippo sometimes perched on her shoulder, sometimes running along on all fours beside her. When he rode, he spent most of his time peering at Kurama with curiosity. "Ne, Kagome," the kitsune whispered. "He's strange, isn't he?"
Kurama had heard him and smiled warmly at the small fox child. "Am I?"
Shippo leaned over and smelled him quickly. "Well," he said slowly, "you smell sort of like fox, but also not. Like a fox, but like a human, too." He cocked his head and lifted his tail. "Are you a hanyou?"
"Something like that."
Curiosity satisfied for the time being, Shippo turned around and faced backwards. "What's wrong with your friend?"
He was talking about Hiei, who was bringing up the rear and rather far away from them. Hiei was irritated. He'd come here because Kurama had promised him there'd be fighting to do, and instead he was wasting time hanging around with a bunch of ningen and their cuddly youkai sidekicks. A two tailed cat and a baby kitsune? And he was supposed to take them seriously? He really doubted that young woman and her cat could actually have driven the bird away from the village, as the kitsune had insisted. She didn't look like she could have taken Kuwabara in a fight. And now he was stuck going at a slow ningen pace. They'd never catch up to it at this rate.
"Nothing's wrong with him," Kurama assured Shippo.
"So he's always like that?"
"Shippo-chan, that's rude," laughed Kagome.
Kurama lifted his face to study the sky, searching for signs of their quarry, and Kagome turned her head slightly to watch him out of the corner of her eye. She really couldn't believe that someone so handsome was walking along next to her as if they were old friends. Embarassed, she looked ahead to Inuyasha, and felt a little guilty. Well, she wasn't really doing anything wrong, she told herself. There was no rule against admiring a cute boy just because you happened to be sort-of involved with a different one. Right? She crossed her arms defiantly. It wasn't like she had actually done anything. Or that she would. Glancing at Kurama's face again, she wondered what she would do if he ever tried to kiss her. Of course she would stop him. Although just a little kiss couldn't possibly be so bad, sure, if Inuyasha loved her back it would be wrong, but he didn't. She'd be doing herself a favor if she got over him and dated a guy like Kurama, right? He lowered his eyes and smiled in her direction, and she felt her face instantly go bright red. He'd seen her staring! He'd probably guessed everything she'd been thinking!
"Kagome, why is your face so red?" Shippo asked, hopping down to run for a bit.
"It's not!" she insisted, blushing furiously and speeding up. "Sango-chan!" she called. "Matteo!" She absolutely couldn't stay next to Kurama after that.
"This is stupid." Hiei's voice came from where Kagome had been a moment earlier. "We're wasting time with humans."
"I'm not a human!" Shippo piped up. Hiei stared at him with blazing eyes and Shippo shrieked with fear and scampered ahead. "Kowai, kowai!"
"You're slowing us all down so you can flirt with some ningen girl," Hiei continued with disgust. "Don't you have enough admirerers as it is?"
"Jealous?" Kurama asked archly, knowing his friend wouldn't bother justifying the accusation with a response. "Anyway, this isn't about Kagome, Hiei. You should know me better than that. She and her friends know this area, and probably a lot of the inhabitants. There's no sense getting ourselves into any more trouble than we have to while we're here, you know."
"Hmph."
"Talk to Yuusuke if you're so upset, but you know he and Kuwabara are human too. And even I can't move as fast as you. Not in this body, anyway. Try to relax. We'll get it."
"Don't you know this area? You said before that you were alive during this time."
"Five hundred years is a pretty long time, Hiei. I wouldn't rely on Youko Kurama's memories to get around. And besides, I didn't really spend a lot of time around here. Other than the Shikon no Tama, there just isn't much worth stealing."
"Shikon no Tama," murmered Hiei. "What can you tell me about it?"
Kurama shrugged. "It can increase a youkai's powers tenfold, easily. Ningen can use it too, but I'm not sure how or what for. I don't know much about it, actually. Rumors, mostly, and what Botan and Koenma told us earlier. I suspect that Kagome and her friends know quite a bit more about it that we do, but somehow I don't think they'd share that information with you."
"Oh?"
"You don't exactly inspire them with trust."
"That's because I don't waste my time trying to impress human girls."
"While we were walking, I noticed something interesting."
Hiei raised an eyebrow.
"Kagome's wearing a piece of the jewel around her neck."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't know what else it could be. It's not a very large piece, but it definately seemed... special."
"Why would she be carrying it?"
"Supposedly the jewel was often entrusted to the care of a miko who could protect it and purify it..."
"That girl is NOT a miko. She's a junior high student."
"She lives at a Shinto temple."
"What kind of a priestess wears a skirt that short?"
"Since when do you pay attention to skirt lengths, Hiei?" Yuusuke had dropped back to eavesdrop on them. "Don't go all girl crazy on me. I don't want to be the only sane member of the team."
"I was only making a point," Hiei muttered.
"Yeah, about Kagome's legs, I bet. You're going to get worse than Kuwabara around Yuki-" An intense glare shut Yuusuke up before he finished saying the name. "Hey, never mind! Nobody's got a thing for your sister! Who said that?"
"Someday, Urameshi, I am going to kill you." Hiei squeezed his fingers as though he were closing them around Yuusuke's throat.
"Looking forward to it, pal," Yuusuke said, good naturedly. He knew Hiei didn't mean it, even if he seemed deadly serious. "But you know, you do have a point. Wish I'd gone to HER school in junior high. I would have gone more often, that's for sure." He laughed long and loud. "Hey, maybe when we get done here, we bring her round to the girls and she'll give Keiko some fashion advice." He rubbed his palms together wickedly.
"Why does he get to be the leader, again?" Hiei asked Kurama.
"We'll ask Koenma when we get home."
Part Four
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Kagome glanced behind her as she was enveloped in the blue that meant she was travelling between the worlds, to see if anyone had followed yet. Yes, Kurama was just a little way above, looking about him with interest. His eyes met hers and he smiled, and then she hit the ground with a bump, lost her balance, and started to fall backward, precisely where Kurama ended up standing. "Ah! Gomen," she gasped, righting herself and blushing furiously.
"Are we here?" he asked.
"Hai!" She grabbed hold of a few vines and tugged to make sure they were sturdy, and began her climb. "We have to get out before the others come or there won't be enough room," she called over her shoulder, suddenly realizing with a flush that from above like this, her uniform's short skirt didn't leave much to the imagination. Not that Kurama would be using his imagination in that way, she scolded herself. They were on a mission, after all.
Kurama noticed the same thing when he looked up to see how high the well was. He decided he better get her out of there before Kuwabara and Yuusuke got there, since they weren't the most tactful and polite of boys. He bent his knees and jumped straight into the air, and as he passed Kagome, he caught her around the waist and pulled her out of the well with him.
They landed on a grassy green slope that looked like there had recently been some kind of highly localized hurricane. "Hmm," murmered Kurama. "What went on here?"
Hiei shot out of the well and from inside there were shouted curses from Kuwabara, who was having trouble maneouvering the vines.
"Hiei, doesn't this look odd?" Kurama gestured at the broken branches and other debris littering the ground.
"I suppose, if you consider a mess to be odd," was the fire demon's response.
"You guys? Uh, you guys?" Kuwabara's voice came from out of the well doubtfully. Kagome peered over the edge.
"Just pull yourself up, Kuwabara-kun, it's not hard, I do it all the time!" she called. "Hi Urameshi-kun!" she added as Yuusuke appeared next to Kuwabara.
"Just look at the pattern of all the debris," Kurama insisted. "It's like it was all being pulled toward something, rather than being blown away from something."
Hiei shrugged. "Maybe there's a youkai with wind powers or something around here." His eyes lit up. "Let's find it and fight it!"
"It was probably Miroku-sama's kazaana," Kagome said, paying attention suddenly. "He's not a youkai, he's ningen, but he has a curse. You shouldn't fight him, he's on our side," she admonished Hiei with a wag of her finger.
"I'm not on anyone's side," Hiei glowered. "Baka ningen."
"Hmph. Stuck up, aren't you?" Kagome turned back to the well, and Kurama set a restraining hand on Hiei's shoulder.
Yuusuke crawled out of the well, to Kuwabara's protests of "Hey, Urameshi! Wait for me, dammit!"
"Where's Inuyasha?" Kagome sighed. "He's slowing us down." Turning suddenly on Yuusuke, she demanded "You two didn't get into a fight, did you? Because I would be very angry if-"
Inuyasha leapt out of the well and perched on the edge of it. "Are you serious, Kagome? You don't think this guy could beat me, do you? I can't believe it!"
Before Yuusuke could respond, Kuwabara sprawled onto the ground beside the well, looking very dirty and grubby for his trouble.
"You could have given him a lift, Inuyasha," Kagome admonished.
"I don't need any help!" Kuwabara insisted.
"Let's get going," Hiei interupted, itching for a battle.
Kagome turned to Inuyasha. "Can you smell which way it went?"
He sniffed the air and grimaced. The smell was really unpleasant. "Towards the village," he said definately.
"Oh no!" Kagome climbed onto his back and they took off at a run. "Come on," she called to the others. "We've got to get there to help!"
Kurama and Hiei kept up Inuyasha's pace easily, but the two human boys, even running full out, fell behind very rapidly. 'I hope this village isn't very far,' Yuusuke thought to himself. 'I hate running.'
"Kaede-bochan!" Kagome called out as soon as they were close enough to see the houses. "Miroku-sama!"
In the middle of the village, they found Sango, Kirara, and Shippo. "Kagome-chan! Inuyasha!" Sango called. "I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow morning!"
"We've had an emergency change in plans," Kagome explained, picking up Shippo as he hopped into her arms. Looking around her, she recognized the signs that the village had been through some sort of battle.
"We were attacked - a giant bird youkai came out of the well," Sango explained.
"We ran into it on the other side, too," said Inuyasha.
"It was really bad," Shippo announced, rubbing his face against Kagome's shoulder. "A little girl got hurt."
"Is she ok?"
"We don't know," said Sango. "She's in Kaede-sama's house being treated." She suddenly noticed the two youkai boys who were behind Kagome. Shippo too caught sight of them and poked his head over Kagome's shoulder to stare at them.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so rude," Kagome shook her head. "This is Kurama-kun and Hiei-san. They're... what are you called? Reikai tantei?"
"That's right," Kurama assured her. "We're after that youkai," he clarified for Sango. Hiei was silent.
"There are two ningen boys with them, too," Kagome added. "We must have run too fast for them."
"Didn't see YOU doing any running," Inuyasha muttered. "So where's the youkai?"
"It left," sighed Sango. "I would have followed it, but we're not strong enough to do more than chase it away. Now that you're back, though..."
Yuusuke and Kuwabara jogged up, panting from their run. "Well? Where is it?"
"Been and gone," said Hiei.
"But with astoundingly few casualties, as I understand," Kurama added. "The people of this village must be remarkable."
"It was mostly Sango!" Shippo chirped. "She and Kirara were wonderful!"
Miroku came up to them. "It's good you've come back. You've brought reinforcements?"
Kagome sped through the introductions as quickly as she could, and everyone got up to speed. "How's the little girl?" she asked.
Miroku's face grew dark. "She did not survive."
Kagome's eyes grew wet. She knew most of the people in the small village by name, and all of them by sight, and the thought that perhaps if she'd just come a little earlier... "Only a great evil would attack and kill a small child," she said. "We must stop it."
Miroku held out her bow. "Kaede-sama knew you were back. We should start moving as soon as possible."
Kagome lifted the full quiver onto her back, and slung her bow over it. "I think we're all ready now. Let's go."
They made an unusual caravan, heading out of the village. Inuyasha took the lead, his nose in the air, searching for a clue. Tracking a flying beast by scent was difficult, almost impossible, but he was determined to try, anyway. Besides, the farther away from that Yuusuke guy, the better. Not to mention the damn pretty-boy who kept flirting with Kagome. And her! Blushing and giggling like she'd never met a boy before in her life. It was disgusting. It was worse than watching her with Kouga. At least he felt reasonably confident that she'd never pick some stupid kidnapping wolf over him. Not like Kagome was his wife or anything, she could go flirt with any stupid boy she wanted to, hell, she could MARRY the guy, it was all the same to him. Stupid girl.
Kuwabara went next, using his psychic strengths to feel out the trail the bird had left, and wishing someone had warned him he might have to travel through time like this.
Miroku and Sango were behind Kuwabara, with Kirara perched on Sango's shoulders. They alternated between talking, groping/slapping, and stony silence. Yuusuke was walking just behind them, lost in his own thoughts, but occasionally he took a moment to give them an appraising look and wonder what the hell was up with them. When Sango slapped Miroku after the monk attempted something that Yuusuke hadn't caught, he couldn't help but think of Keiko and grin. 'So THAT's how it is,' he thought. Miroku rubbed his cheek mournfully and noticed Yuusuke watching him with amusement. "Women," the monk sighed. Sango glared and stomped a few steps ahead.
Behind Yuusuke came Kagome with Kurama beside her, and Shippo sometimes perched on her shoulder, sometimes running along on all fours beside her. When he rode, he spent most of his time peering at Kurama with curiosity. "Ne, Kagome," the kitsune whispered. "He's strange, isn't he?"
Kurama had heard him and smiled warmly at the small fox child. "Am I?"
Shippo leaned over and smelled him quickly. "Well," he said slowly, "you smell sort of like fox, but also not. Like a fox, but like a human, too." He cocked his head and lifted his tail. "Are you a hanyou?"
"Something like that."
Curiosity satisfied for the time being, Shippo turned around and faced backwards. "What's wrong with your friend?"
He was talking about Hiei, who was bringing up the rear and rather far away from them. Hiei was irritated. He'd come here because Kurama had promised him there'd be fighting to do, and instead he was wasting time hanging around with a bunch of ningen and their cuddly youkai sidekicks. A two tailed cat and a baby kitsune? And he was supposed to take them seriously? He really doubted that young woman and her cat could actually have driven the bird away from the village, as the kitsune had insisted. She didn't look like she could have taken Kuwabara in a fight. And now he was stuck going at a slow ningen pace. They'd never catch up to it at this rate.
"Nothing's wrong with him," Kurama assured Shippo.
"So he's always like that?"
"Shippo-chan, that's rude," laughed Kagome.
Kurama lifted his face to study the sky, searching for signs of their quarry, and Kagome turned her head slightly to watch him out of the corner of her eye. She really couldn't believe that someone so handsome was walking along next to her as if they were old friends. Embarassed, she looked ahead to Inuyasha, and felt a little guilty. Well, she wasn't really doing anything wrong, she told herself. There was no rule against admiring a cute boy just because you happened to be sort-of involved with a different one. Right? She crossed her arms defiantly. It wasn't like she had actually done anything. Or that she would. Glancing at Kurama's face again, she wondered what she would do if he ever tried to kiss her. Of course she would stop him. Although just a little kiss couldn't possibly be so bad, sure, if Inuyasha loved her back it would be wrong, but he didn't. She'd be doing herself a favor if she got over him and dated a guy like Kurama, right? He lowered his eyes and smiled in her direction, and she felt her face instantly go bright red. He'd seen her staring! He'd probably guessed everything she'd been thinking!
"Kagome, why is your face so red?" Shippo asked, hopping down to run for a bit.
"It's not!" she insisted, blushing furiously and speeding up. "Sango-chan!" she called. "Matteo!" She absolutely couldn't stay next to Kurama after that.
"This is stupid." Hiei's voice came from where Kagome had been a moment earlier. "We're wasting time with humans."
"I'm not a human!" Shippo piped up. Hiei stared at him with blazing eyes and Shippo shrieked with fear and scampered ahead. "Kowai, kowai!"
"You're slowing us all down so you can flirt with some ningen girl," Hiei continued with disgust. "Don't you have enough admirerers as it is?"
"Jealous?" Kurama asked archly, knowing his friend wouldn't bother justifying the accusation with a response. "Anyway, this isn't about Kagome, Hiei. You should know me better than that. She and her friends know this area, and probably a lot of the inhabitants. There's no sense getting ourselves into any more trouble than we have to while we're here, you know."
"Hmph."
"Talk to Yuusuke if you're so upset, but you know he and Kuwabara are human too. And even I can't move as fast as you. Not in this body, anyway. Try to relax. We'll get it."
"Don't you know this area? You said before that you were alive during this time."
"Five hundred years is a pretty long time, Hiei. I wouldn't rely on Youko Kurama's memories to get around. And besides, I didn't really spend a lot of time around here. Other than the Shikon no Tama, there just isn't much worth stealing."
"Shikon no Tama," murmered Hiei. "What can you tell me about it?"
Kurama shrugged. "It can increase a youkai's powers tenfold, easily. Ningen can use it too, but I'm not sure how or what for. I don't know much about it, actually. Rumors, mostly, and what Botan and Koenma told us earlier. I suspect that Kagome and her friends know quite a bit more about it that we do, but somehow I don't think they'd share that information with you."
"Oh?"
"You don't exactly inspire them with trust."
"That's because I don't waste my time trying to impress human girls."
"While we were walking, I noticed something interesting."
Hiei raised an eyebrow.
"Kagome's wearing a piece of the jewel around her neck."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't know what else it could be. It's not a very large piece, but it definately seemed... special."
"Why would she be carrying it?"
"Supposedly the jewel was often entrusted to the care of a miko who could protect it and purify it..."
"That girl is NOT a miko. She's a junior high student."
"She lives at a Shinto temple."
"What kind of a priestess wears a skirt that short?"
"Since when do you pay attention to skirt lengths, Hiei?" Yuusuke had dropped back to eavesdrop on them. "Don't go all girl crazy on me. I don't want to be the only sane member of the team."
"I was only making a point," Hiei muttered.
"Yeah, about Kagome's legs, I bet. You're going to get worse than Kuwabara around Yuki-" An intense glare shut Yuusuke up before he finished saying the name. "Hey, never mind! Nobody's got a thing for your sister! Who said that?"
"Someday, Urameshi, I am going to kill you." Hiei squeezed his fingers as though he were closing them around Yuusuke's throat.
"Looking forward to it, pal," Yuusuke said, good naturedly. He knew Hiei didn't mean it, even if he seemed deadly serious. "But you know, you do have a point. Wish I'd gone to HER school in junior high. I would have gone more often, that's for sure." He laughed long and loud. "Hey, maybe when we get done here, we bring her round to the girls and she'll give Keiko some fashion advice." He rubbed his palms together wickedly.
"Why does he get to be the leader, again?" Hiei asked Kurama.
"We'll ask Koenma when we get home."
