GiGi - Woohoo! I have passes 25 reviews! That calls for a celebration! Inuyasha plushies for all!!!!!!

Inuyasha - (wearing a party hat) ¬.¬ Great….

Kagome - (holding party favour) ¬.¬ Party….?

Shippo - (munching on Pocky) .

Totosai - (walks in and takes Shippo's Pocky away, sits in corner and eats it all)

Myoga - (happily sucking blood from Inuyasha's nose) I'm a happy flea!

Inuyasha - ¬.¬ SQUISH

Myoga - XP

Miroku - (playing pin the tail on the donkey) Hmmmmmm…. (drops tail and hands 'accidentally' find their way around Sango's butt) =D

Sango - O.O Hentai! (whacks Miroku with her boomerang)

Miroku - XP

Kagome - . I didn't think even you'd stoop to that….

Sango - (shoves Miroku's unconscious form back to the game)

GiGi - Okay there…. ¬.¬'' Sue me if you think I own Inuyasha and The Mediator series. But you have been warned…. I only have a quarter and two nickels to my name.

PS. For all the reviewers who guessed about the identity of the 'mysterious ghost' in Kagome's bedroom… time to find out who it is!

Chapter 5

Living Meets Dead

"Hi, I'm home…. " I sighed as I opened the front door. I stomped off my shoes and dragged myself to the kitchen. I had just passed Grandpa in the front yard trying to exorcise a 'demon' pigeon with ofuda scrolls, he had found perched on one of the tree branches, so that means he has settled into Osaki fine. He claims he senses many demons here with bad auras and was told to banish them to the spirit world by the mighty gods in the form of a dream. Yeah….

"Hi (achoo) Kagome (achoo)." Sota said between sneezes.

"Kagome Kagome Kagome! Want some cookies Dad and I just made?" Shippo ran up to me, wearing a small apron with happy faces on it and matching oven mitts. My stomach growled and I gave the kid a sheepish grin. Shippo got the message and ran to the oven and came back after a few seconds with a plate of right-out-of-the-oven cookies. Then, being the quirky kid he is, ran off to get me a cup of milk as well.

"Kagome, how was your day?" Suikotsu asked me as he sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy the cookies with his kids.

"Fine." I lied. I really had no desire to tell my stepfather about Yuka.

"Good. And did you have a nice time with your friends?" He also wanted to know. Sango and Miroku had asked me to go to Wac Donalds with them so I had called Suikotsu to tell him that I didn't need the ride home. "Yup, we went to Wac Donalds and just talked for an hour." I replied.

"That's great-… Shippo! Which kind of milk did you give your brother?" Suikotsu asked in alarm as Sota started to turn a violent shade of purple.

"The one that with the words 'Sota's milk' on the jug." Shippo replied back in fear, afraid he would be the cause of his brother's allergic reactions.

"That's not possible…. This shouldn't be happening then-…. Great Gods! We must have accidentally put the wrong milk in the cookies!" Suikotsu realized.

Suikotsu told me to go upstairs to get a hypodermic syringe from Sota's medicine cabinet in washroom. I rushed back down with the needle in hand and gave it to Suikotsu who quickly inserted it in Sota's right arm. After a minute or so of deep breathing for Sota, praying for Suikotsu and carrying Shippo in my lap for me, Sota began to regain his natural skin tone.

Sota was whisked away to his room by his worried father and I was left to tidy up the kitchen with Shippo who was actually quite helpful. With a spare apron on and cleaning supplies at my dispense, I was ready for anything!

After an hour or so, I had everything spick and span. Mr. Clean would have been proud. Suikotsu came down with Sota and complimented our cleaning abilities. Looking at the time, I realized it was not only almost dinnertime, but also I had a lot of homework to finish. I hiked my tired body upstairs to my room. Back aching from the weight of my book bag. First day of school and I already had a report on cell division, to read pgs. 5 - 25 and answer questions for Science and a ton of math worksheets. But homework would have to be put on hold. Because guess what I saw when I opened the door?

"Eek!" I jumped when I opened the door. Apparently I wasn't alone in my room. That's right. 'He' was back. But this time it wasn't just a head. I got the whole package exactly where I saw it last time. The whole person was sitting on my seat.

The stranger stared at me, yet he didn't seem to acknowledge my presence, then turned back to looking out the window. This got me annoyed. God damn it, I really hated being ignored. And if a ghost ignored me, that was just sad. After all ghosts being dead and not being to talk to people usually made them very talkative. But if they'd rather stare out windows, this ticked me off.

"Hey you." I called out; eyes focused on the ghost in front of me. The ghost turned around, clearly to see who was trying to communicate. He looked at me, really seeing me for the first time in my oh so 'beautiful' school clothes and pointed to himself, trying to make sure he had heard correct. "Yeah you." I sat down on my bed, pulling on my bedspread, trying to flatten out the wrinkles while my eyes continued to look at the ghost in front of me.

"H-h-h-how can you see me? I mean…. You're alive…. And I'm…. I'm-.…" the silver haired ghost started, frustration and shock flooding across his face.

"Dead? Yeah. Can you get out of my room?" I asked as gently as my frustrated brain allowed me too.

"It's my room." The ghost fought back.

"No. Mine."

"Mine."

"I live here!"

"I died here! "

"Oh…. Sorry…." I apologized sincerely.

"They built this stupid house on top of my graveyard." The ghost shrugged and sat down.

"So… how long have you delayed the big trip to Ol' Kingdom Come?" I asked, leaning back on the overstuffed pillows I had set aside to prop my head up.

"Kingdom Come what?" he responded, eyebrows knitted together in thought.

"Kingdom Come…. The Big Cloud In The Sky…. The Great Beyond…. " I tried to give him every name I could think of. But when the blank expressions continued, I gave up. "You know…. Heaven."

"Oh…. Heaven…. I guess it has been a while…."

"A while?" I snorted, looking down at his wardrobe. A simple red haori, a sword around his waist, rosary beads around his neck and he was barefoot, "Looks like you haven't taken a breath in half a millennium."

The ghost glared at me as he got up from the bay window seat and came up to look me in the face.

"Sorry," I cringed. "That was rude of me. Look can't we just talk? Sit down and-…."

For some reason, the second I had uttered the "Sit" word, he fell down, face-first onto the hardware floor.

"Ehr…. Why did you do that?" I asked. Is this guy on drugs or something?

Even though he has still face-first to the floor, his snarling could still be heard echoing the walls of the house. Well, not technically, since I was the only person able to hear him.

"Grrrrr…." He growled, still lying on the floor. "DO NOT say the s-word again, stupid!"

"You just did say a s-word." I rolled my eyes. This guy really needed to think before speaking.

"Not that s-word!" He finally got up and panted, fangs exposed-…. Wait. Fangs? This guy had fangs? What was this ghost? Oh well, once I figure out the s-word, he won't be able to hurt me. Now what was it…..? What exactly did I say? Speaking out loud for my benefit, rather than his, I started to recall what I had said. "Let's see…. Ummmm….. Sorry?" I looked at the ghost who looked back at me. Okay. Not that s-word. "Uh….. That was rude of me. Look can't we just….. Umm…. Talk? Sit down-…." The ghost face-vaulted into the floor again.

"Oh, so the word is sit!" I quoted myself, but then realized what I had just said. Uh oh. I looked down in time to see the ghost face-vault deeper into the floor, if possible. Thanks god, this was a ghost, or Suikotsu would have been up in an instant wondering what I was doing to his beloved house.

While lost in thought, it seemed as the ghost had regained his voice. "Will you STOP doing that?" He snapped.

"Sorry." I gave him a sheepish grin and tried to help him up. Well, until he pushed me back onto the bed. "I don't need help from a stupid girl."

This ticked me off. Note to self: if this ghost comes back, 'Sit' him many times. "Well so sorry that this 'stupid girl' is all you have. If you know any other mediators, then feel free to leave. But I highly doubt you do."

"You're the mediator?" He exclaimed in disgust. Well actually disgust mixed with shock.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you too." I snorted and rolled my eyes as I sat down at my desk to start my homework. I got as far as question 2 on my algebra homework before the ghost stood next to me. "What's your name?"

"Kagome." I told him, mind still focused on what 5q-2z³=15q was.

"Oh," he replied. He sounded a little sorry that I had answered his question.

"O-namae wa?" I asked him back, referring to my handy Japanese dictionary. [Translation: What's your name.]

"What?" he asked, seeming to mock my lack of Japanese.

"It seemed like a good chance to practice, tomodachi." [Translation: Friend]

"Give it a rest. You suck, okay? Get it through your thick head."

"You're worse than my Japanese teacher." I pouted, pounding him on the head with my fists. Ha! Whoever thought being dead meant no beatings from the living was as sure as hell wrong!

"Hey! Ow! Stop it!" He fought back, revealing a pair of cute doggy ears.

"Awwwwww!" I squealed, throwing our fight behind me, I sat back on the bed and started rubbing them. "Awwww!"

The ghost, who by the way still hasn't given his name, started to twitch uncomfortably and he gave a sour face, like he was constipated or something. "Maybe he died while he was on the toilet." I thought to myself as I continued to play with his ears. They were really soft and smooth. Too bad they were dead.

After moments of me playing with his ears and moments of constipated expressions for him, he cleared his throat. "It's Inuyasha."

I was in my own little world at the time so I nodded and smiled, eyes unfocused. Apparently he didn't like being ignored because he started to poke me. "What?" I whined, trying to recall how many hot fudge sundaes I was trying to eat before. 10? No…. 9? No…. Was I eating 8? Oh god no…. Think of the calories! 7? No-…. Ow!

"It's Inuyasha." He repeated.

"What's Inuyasha?" I pouted, still trying to remember the taste of the hot fudge.

"I'm Inuyasha!" he snapped.

"What?" I asked, slowly waking up from my dream.

"Me! I'm Inuyasha! My name is Inuyasha!" Huffed a very irritated ghost.

"Oh….. Hi." I answered in a monotone.

Inuyasha growled, retreated from my pettings and started to pace my bedroom. I just stared Inuyasha, I mean what else could I have done? 'Sit' him for walking? Well it was tempting….. But I do have self-control you know.

"Are you okay? Hellooooooo?" I waved my hands in from of him, trying to get his attention. I'd say it worked.

"Leave me alone Kikyo!" he snapped, his golden eyes filled with thoughts. Seeing but not really seeing. Yeah, I got that from Grandpa's Banishing Ghosts For Dummies book.

"Kikyo? Who's Kikyo? I'm Kagome. Ka-Go-Me!" I reminded the forgetful ghost.

"Oh please! You gotta be her! Because there's no way that you could smell so-…." A few sniffs told him the truth. "You….. you're not her." To tell you the truth, I wasn't too happy about getting sniffed. I still hadn't taken a bath so I must have smelled of sweat and Yuka. Both equally as bad.

"I could have told you that…." I snorted as I crossed my arms around my chest, waiting for his response.

Inuyasha snapped out of his daze and glared at me. "Go away!" And with that, he dematerialized into thin air.

"What's his problem?"

Inuyasha - (appears)

GiGi - O.O Constipated ghost!!!!!!!

Inuyasha - (looking very unamused) Ha…. Ha…. Ha…. Boo.

Kaede - Inuyasha?

Inuyasha - Yeah? What?

Kaede - That was pathetic.

Inuyasha - (face vaults) I'm a demon, not a comedian!

GiGi - That's for sure….

Inuyasha - Grrrrrrrrrrrrr….

GiGi - -.-; I'm just gonna go and hide now.

Inuyasha - Good!

GiGi - (muttering while climbing into gopher hole) Stupid ghost…. Thinks he can scare me….

Inuyasha - I heard that!!!!!

GiGi - (pops back up) Good! That means I don't have to repeat myself! (gets hit by a flying backpack) 3.b

Kagome - Was that my backpack you just threw?

Inuyasha - Uh…. Ehr… W-w-well you seeeee…. Yes! Okay! Yes! I admit it!

Kagome - ¬.¬ Okay…. Someone needs help….

Totosai - The goblin has had way too much of this Pocky….

Inuyasha - .# That was you, you old geezer! You're the one who ate all of it!

Totosai - Did I really? (looks around, trying to hide leftover Pocky in his pockets) Hmmmm….Where am I again?

Shippo - He (sniff) ate (sniff) all my Pocky! Wahhhhhh!

Kagome - Okay….. send GiGi a review…. Send Pocky to Shippo…. And send me a new backpack….