Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and co…

*--*--*

Chapter 27: The Problem With A Restless Soul

Kagome's smiled faded as she pointed to the dim golden light forming on top of her head. There floated a golden ring.

"Your…still dead?" Inuyasha asked.

"I am…my soul could not rest in peace as my duty as a miko and a Shikon no Tama searcher…person is not completed. I almost destroyed the outlands." She said sadly. "They basically kicked me out. Ah-choo!" she sneezed.

"How did you catch a cold?" he asked.

"Well…"

*Flashback*

The water was cold. Very cold. Kagome opened her eyes to look up. There was a thick cover of ice over her head. She closed her eyes calmly and looked up again. She swam up and pushed her hands to the icy cold lid. There was a cracking sound but instead of the ice cracking her hands burst into flame.

"A-a barrier?" she whispered as she rubbed her hands against her white kimono.

Feeling her throat it had a multitude of deep gashes but her throat was completely inflated again and back in her body for that matter.

"Come here, everyone! I think I saw a spark!" called a velvety voice.

Kagome's eyes closed slowly again but she struggled to keep herself conscious and breathing as she looked up through the icy thickness of glasslike frozenness. She took in shaky gulps of water and tried to breathe even though everyone knows you can't breathe under water.

"Over here, everyone!" the beautiful voice called.

There was a blast of fire and the ice above Kagome's freezing body completely melted. The temperature changed so quickly it sent a chill up Kagome's spine.

The woman who had freed her pulled Kagome's freezing body out of the water. She lied her down on the warm, fluffy grass.

"What were you doing in there, Miko-sama?" her velvety voice asked as she lifted Kagome's head up and poured a warm drink down her throat. It tasted lightly of sake but Kagome drank thankfully and panted as she opened her eyes.

Wincing at the bright light of the sun she closed them again.

"That pool is for the most important of people…"

"So I'm…not…important?" Kagome panted.

"…who have died." The woman finished with a smile.

"I see." Kagome whispered.

"You must have been dead at some point. When I passed here I saw a multitude (my favorite word this week!) of bright lights trying to break through Deaths Barrier. It must've been your soul. You are restless and I can see your body will not let you die." The woman said.

*End Flashback*

"So you were inn a pond filled with dead people?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yes." Kagome nodded. She looked up at the sky. "Then I had to undergo a training session."

*Continuation from where I left off/Flashback 2*

Kagome slowly opened her eyes and looked to the woman.

The woman had…purple hair?!

Kagome shot up. "What…the hell…are you?" she squeaked through her still injured throat.

"No need to get all jumpy, Miko-sama." The woman said. She was sitting on her legs and kneeling in the grass with the most elegant kimono like dress on. It had about 5 different layers on. It was spread out around her and beautifully displayed its many colorful layers. The top blue cover with yellow stars on it was just over her shoulders as a red ribbon wrapped around her back and floated above her shoulders. Her long purple hair which was tied with a red ribbon covered the back of the kimono/robe. The next layer was a purple and blue squared kimono/wrap/cover. The rest of the kimono/robes were normal solid colors and the main kimono was a cream color (if you've seen the cover of Lum Urusei Yatsura vol 13 of the anime then that's her kimono whatever.).

 She stood and the colorful wraps followed her. She held the covers in front of her elegantly and smiled as her long hair blew in the wind.

"I am the Chinese Miko of Death." She said softly. "Known as Pyrasuuke."

"I am…Kagome…" Kagome whispered.

"I know that, silly!" Pyrasuuke said happily as she flapped a hand at Kagome. "Everyone knows who you are in the other world." she said. She opened a fan and flapped it at Kagome.

Kagome was instantly dry and wearing the same thing as the other miko only her colors were more Shinto, red white, and some blue.

Her hair was tied in the miko style with a red ribbon. "Thank you." She said as she stood up wearily.

*--*--*

"Miko-sama. It is nice to see you back." A man in a very fancy men's kimono said to her. He gasped as eh saw Kagome pass. "Kagome-sama." He knelt and bowed before her. "I am amazed to see you—oof!" eh grunted as his wife kicked him.

"Miko-sama. We are grateful you are well and alive." she bowed respectfully and dragged her husband into her room.

*--*--*

"The pond you were inhabiting is the pond of the 'Pond of the Deceased' or the 'Pond of Death' the 'Pond of Importance' the 'Lake of Frozen Death' uh…there's also 'Death's Barrier' and--."

"Okay!" Kagome stopped Pyrasuuke. "I get it." she said.

"Right…anyway," Pyrasuuke said as she scratched her head. "The pond is filled with the bodies of the dead. It homes the strongest human's to have ever lived. In a time long ago there was a well also but…time's changed and a living miko stumbled upon our establishment. He certainly could not bring the well with us because it was deep down in the ground. We moved to this more secluded area in 'Molacotsura's Forest'."

"The well…the…youkai well? The one that, when you throw the remains of a youkai in the well it disappears days after?" Kagome asked seriously as she looked at Pyrasuuke's understanding face.

"You have seen it?" she asked.

"I've been in it!" Kagome said.

"Alright, that's a little…odd." Pyrasuuke scooted away.

"It led us to a different time all together!" Kagome said.

Pyrasuuke put a finger to her lip in thought. "I see…I see…I see…"

"You see what?" Kagome asked as she leaned forward.

"The well…Okay, this is hurting my brain!" Pyrasuuke cried as she grabbed her head.

Kagome laughed. "You do not think much do you?" she asked.

"This is too logical. Anyway, how did you die?" she asked.

"Well…" Kagome put a finger to her own lip and thought. "When three of my friends were in trouble…I jumped in front of the snake that was about to kill them and it bit my neck out…throat out."

"Love?" Pyrasuuke asked slyly.

"Shut up." Kagome growled as she blushed and looked away.

Pyrasuuke sighed. "I am bound to the land of the youkai. Mostly youkai make it out of the gate of the living to actually get here. I'm quite tired and I wish for an adventure. 'Moloacotsura' protects me." She preyed.

"I would've taken you with us…if I was still alive." Kagome said in a frustrated tone. "I cannot stay here! I have a mission and my duty as the protector of the Shikon no Tama is not completed. I was not supposed to die at the hands…erm…snakes of Naraku."

"Naraku?" Pyrasuuke asked. She leaned on her palms so her face was a few inches from Kagome's "Did you say…'Naraku'?" she asked.

"Yes. He is the plague of the Midoriko blood line." Kagome said hotly.

"Midoriko?" Pyrasuuke asked. "Rysuuka!" she yelled.

"Yeah sis?" a girl with short bluish black hair came out. She'd look like a boy if you couldn't see the sarashi around her chest.

"Get…Midoriko-sama." She said.

"Midoriko…is here?" Kagome asked.

"She will help you receive your halo. It will allow you to walk the earth with your soul and spirit and body and all that good stuff. It also tells people that you are capable to become one of the living by the proper ritual." Pyrasuuke explained as she stood up elegantly and held the many layers over her hands.

Kagome stood in much the same fashion, being that she had grown up as a noble she was used to such manners and thus was happy to return to her type of lifestyle.

"You called or me, Pyrasuuke?" a light voice asked as a woman, roughly about 20, stepped out from a room in the back.

"Midoriko-sama!" Pyrasuuke embraced Midoriko and turned to Kagome.

Kagome bowed. "It is nice to see you…uh…well?" Kagome said.

Midoriko looked at her for a second then laughed. "I am well…as well as a dead miko can be." She said in her soft voice.

She walked over to Kagome, wearing her miko outfit, her armor, and her blade at her side. "It is nice to meet you." She pushed her long black hair off her shoulders as she put out a hand to Kagome.

Kagome reached out to shake it when she was pulled into a very powerfully strong and painfully tight hug.

"Ow." she whispered.

"It's so…wonderful…to meet my reincarnation…wait." she pulled back. "This is weird….How could I still be walking when…my soul is inside you?" she asked herself.

"Your will, spirit? You still have a little bit of the soul in you, your body lie's to walk, you don't feel like sleeping for and eternity, your--."

"Maybe," Pyrasuuke interrupted Kagome's ramblings. "You're will is so strong, like Kagome-sama said."

"Probably. Can't just sit on my as…uh…butt all eternity, right?" Midoriko smiled. "Now…I was sent here why?" she asked Pyrasuuke.

"You will help Kagome earn her halo." Pyrasuuke said as she looked to the window at all the young women training in martial arts. "Why martial arts was the test, I'll never know." She sighed and shook her head. "This is the women sprites of 'Moloacotsura Forest'."

"That's why there are only women here." Kagome said as she looked out the window as well.

There was a banging against the door.

Midoriko walked over to it, wretched the wooden door open. "You little brats! Quit it!" she yelled.

Kagome's eyes widened. "Midoriko is different from what I would imagine." She whispered to Pyrasuuke.

"She is so much like you…your like sisters." Pyrasuuke muttered back.

*--*--*

"Now…to receive your halo all you really have to do is be able to control the power in your body. Obviously you are able to do that. Let's take the test now." Midoriko said as she and Kagome walked across the lushus green grass in their similar Miko outfits.

They stood in front of a wooden dummy. "Just punch him?" Kagome asked.

"No…electrocute him." Midoriko said as she put her arms in her sleeves and sat Indian style against a tree. It growled and she jumped elbowed it.

Kagome shrugged as she put her hands to its shoulders. It jumped into life and hugged her.

"What the hell?!" Kagome cried.

"It…love's you." Midoriko blinked.

Kagome growled as she closed her eyes tightly and did and upward punch under its wooden chin making it burst with blue lightening and fly away into the sky.

Kagome panted angrily as she held this position.

Midoriko stared and blinked for a few seconds before smiling and clapped. "First try and you already had the golden ring haze." She pointed.

Kagome put her hand onto top of her head and moved up until she passed through a somewhat thick cloudlike thing. "Cool!" she squealed.

"Next test…"

She stopped in front of a sapling. "Now…make this tree grow." she said.

"Ri-i-ght." Kagome said skeptically.

"Do it…C'mon." Midoriko took up her usual position against a moaning tree.

Kagome sat at its base and put her hands to its flimsy trunk. She let go the power that was just waiting to leave her body and the tree burst into growth, growing on top of Kagome's legs as the roots held her in a sort of cage.

"Ahh!" she cried. "It's eating me! No!"

Midoriko chuckled as she pulled the humorous miko out from under the roots.

"Great job." she rubbed the trunk. "It's healthy."

"Next test, I'm smokin'." Kagome said as she rubbed her hands together.

"This is the last one." Midoriko walked over to a box. It jumped a few times. She pulled the lid off and flipped it upside down. Pulling off the box and tossing it she took refuge in the shade of a large oak tree. "Defeat this…alligator."

Kagome swallowed. "Bad memories?" Pyrasuuke asked as eh put a hand on Kagome's shoulder.

"Naw. I can do this."

"Aren't we cocky?" Pyrasuuke chuckled.

"I've never really killed any animal's that haven't done anything to—Alright that things gonna die!" she yelled as it bit her leg.

She kicked it off, tackled it and stared biting at its arms and legs and head and such. When it was bleeding madly with scratch marks, bit marks, and hole from her feet and hands in it Midoriko and Pyrasuuke clapped and both all but tackled Kagome as they felt her halo.

"It's solid as gold!" Pyrasuuke squealed. "Wonderful!"

"You did it, Kag-chan!" Midoriko said a she hugged her reincarnation again.

Pyrasuuke gasped.

"What?" Kagome asked.

"I can…come with you!" she cried.

"Why you?! Why can't I come?!" Midoriko asked.

"Because…you don't have your soul anymore. Plus you're allowed to travel around all the other worlds. Me…I'm bound by the youkai to live here. But if Kagome-sama steals my halo for me then…I can come with her and her friends!" she said happily.

"Right!" Midoriko said as he hugged her friend. "Say hi to the living for me."

"I will." Pyrasuuke stood up and tugged Kagome by the hand. "It's in the  castle safe. If you can just blow it up…I'll have my powers again and I can come with you! Wouldn't that be great?" she asked.

"Cool! Another ally!" Kagome squealed happily as she and Pyrasuuke jumped for joy. "Midoriko, thank you ever so much. Now I get to see Inuyasha again. And Shippo and Miroku. And Sango and Tastunai. Thank you ever so much." She said as hes hugged her incarnation again.

"Your popular." Midoriko said.

"I have a lot of enemies too and gender switching men and Naraku after me and—."

"Naraku?" Pyrasuuke said.

"Yeah. Why?"

"He…he came through her and…killed half of the women training here…again." She said in horror.

"Well…now you can avenge them." Kagome said.

"Your right!" Pyrasuuke said as eh smiled at the two girls, the reincarnation and the incarnate. "You two look a like, the differences are uncanny though. Kagome…your bangs need a trim. You look like a Neanderthal." Pyrasuuke nagged.

"Thanks." Kagome said dryly.

*--*--*

After getter her bangs attacked but well cut with that longer piece falling ot her nose making her look kind of like a murderer but none the less beautiful once more Kagome, Pyrasuuke, and Midoriko set off for the Castle of Moloacotsura.

"Who the heck is this Moloacotsura?" Kagome asked as they walked.

"He was like a god to the youkai of the worlds. He was the only youkai, though, who was considerate to human's, hanyou's, and tai-youkai together. The youkai looked up to him but," Midoriko paused as she looked up at the sky, "there was a riot and he gave his life much the same way that I did to save the other worlds as will as the living world."

"Wow…"

"Name!" someone bellowed.

"AHHH!" Kagome jumped so high she was up a tree.

"Name!" he yelled again.

"Shut up!" Kagome yelled as she threw a walnut at his head.

"NAME!" he yelled louder.

"Midoriko." Said Midoriko as she rubbed the lump on the man's head. "Midoriko, Pyrasuuke, and Kagome."

"Kagome-sama?!" he looked around almost knocking Midoriko over.

"Yes?" she jumped down and pulled twigs out of her hair.

He hugged her tightly.

"AHH! It's touching me!" Kagome cried.

Midoriko elbowed his head. "Jerk…" she muttered as she, Pyrasuuke, and a shaken Kagome climbed the hill toward the sort of eerie castle ahead.

*--*--*

"In here?" Kagome whispered as they came ot a wonderfully decorated door.

"Yes." Pyrasuuke and Midoriko followed Kagome as she kicked open the door unceremoniously and jumped in, standing in a fighting stance and looking around. "Hm. No one in here. Dumb asses." She muttered the last part.

She ran over to the large green safe in the bag. Put her eyes to the lock hole and jammed her finger in the hole. It blew up loudly. She pulled the golden ring out and ran from the room, Pyrasuuke, who was amazingly very fast considering the very heavy and elegant clothing she had on, and Midoriko who was blowing up vases as she threw arrows at them on the way.

*--*--*

"You go back first. This is the spell to bring me there and where done." Pyrasuuke said as she handed Kagome a beautiful scroll. "Yuuatra!" she yelled.

"Yes, sister." A girl with long back hair asked as she walked over to her sister.

"How many siblings?" Kagome asked.

"Ten." Midoriko replied.

"Geez."

"Bring Kagome a new kimono." She ordered.

"Hai, onee-sama." She bowed and came back with a folded white kimono.

After Kagome was done changing they whisked her off.

*--*--*

"Through this gate you'll be in the living world. It's as easy as that. It has a reader type thing and when they see you with a halo it let's you through." Midoriko instructed. "Remember Pyrasuuke and dot he spell thing. Can't wait to see if works." she smiled at her reincarnation and pushed her through.

"Bye!" Kagome waved and walked through.

*End Flashback*

"And now I'm back. And I'm a totally glad to be able to see you again. It was really really really perfect in the other world." She said and smiled at him. Shaking her self out she flung herself at him and hugged him tightly. "And you couldn't know how much I missed you."

"I probably missed you more." He whispered and wrapped his arms around her as well.

"Ah-chooo!"

*--*--*--*--*

Grr….I was told not ot update too fast but…I can't stand to stay away from this story so…the next chapter will be up fast as well. I don't know about the rest. You'll just have to wait and see.

I'm almost there! 100+ here I come! I'm happy to my faithful reviewers! I'm sorry I'm going so quickly. Tell me if you want the updates a little slower.

Next chapter:

Chapter 28: Pyrasuuke's Fame