A/N: Small note: I haven't seen all of Yu Yu Hakusho, only what I can watch on television and even then, I've missed a few and it's been awhile since I've seen some. Therefore, some of my facts might be off. Same goes for Inuyasha. Also, if you hadn't noticed already, I'm ignoring all facts concerning the Makai Tournament and after it, so therefore assume it didn't happen.
Disclaimer: Woah, woah, woah. I realized that I haven't done one of these for this fic yet. But quite obviously: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha!
Fragmentation
Chapter Six- Old Friend
Kagome let out a small yelp as her hair snagged on a tree branch. She began fumbling with it, her heart beating quickly in her chest with nervousness and dread running through her. What was happening? Were any of her friends hurt? Had Yusuke and his friends harmed them or the other way around? She bit her lip, not liking the sound of it either way, as her fingers tried more frantically to free herself.
In the end Shippo had to jump onto her shoulder to untangle her, then finally a few seconds that seemed like minutes passed and she was free. Then, not seconds after that, she was running through the trees once more, taking off so fast that Shippo almost flew off her shoulder, his sudden grip on her neck the only thing keeping him on.
I just hope I'm not too late, Kagome thought worriedly.
Miroku jumped back as Kuwabara attacked, swinging his spirit sword around somewhat clumsily. He attacked again but Miroku stepped to the side to avoid it before using his staff to take Kuwabara's feet out from under him. Falling with a loud "oomph", he tried to get up but Miroku stopped him quickly by using one of his wards to paralyze him.
Hiei glanced over at him, muttering, "fool," while Miroku looked to Sango.
Sango nodded her head toward the half-demon currently engaged in combat with the two other men. "Go, help Inuyasha. I can handle myself here."
Miroku hesitated before finally giving her a nod and heading toward Inuyasha. She watched him leave, failing to notice Hiei's sudden attack until it was too late. He sliced at her stomach, ripping the fabric of her shirt as a warning since he could do a lot worse.
"Pay attention," he snapped at her.
She looked at her shirt, then back up at him. "What is with you and ruining my clothes?"
"Hn." He leapt forward, sword flashing, but she brought her sword up and blocked. "You're lucky that's all I did."
She took a step to the left, as did he and they began circling each other, searching for an opening to attack. He was limiting himself, she could tell, otherwise she'd be dead with his speed against her. Still he seemed to attack with everything he had strength and skill-wise, just not use his advantage over her. It annoyed her a bit, but it did give her a fair shot and she'd use that.
"I'd hate to have to kill you," Sango admitted with a sudden attack, "I'm actually beginning to like you, but you're trying to attacking my friends so…"
Hiei blocked her sword easily. "Hn, can't say the same about you," he told her coldly, "and friends are for the weak. They get in the way."
"Friends," she corrected as they're blades locked, "give you strength." She pushed him back, and he jumped backward, surprised by her sudden burst of strength. "I fight for my friends and they make me stronger," she told him, "what do you fight for?"
He met her eyes. "To live." Fighting… fighting was the only thing that had meaning to him. The only thing that made his life worth living. He had… nothing else.
Sango's eyes held a question, but she didn't ask him, knowing he wouldn't tell her. They were enemies after all. Out loud, she asked, "and not for your friends over there?" She nodded her head to where her friends were fighting his allies.
He didn't even glance at them, keeping his eyes on Sango. "I told you, I don't have friends."
"So if I attacked that…" she quickly scanned over the people with her eyes, "…that redhead over there, you would do nothing to stop me?"
"He can take care of himself and could cut you down easily."
Sango watched him closely. He didn't seem to be liking her questioning much, his annoyance clear on his face. "But what if he was nearly unconscious on the ground, wounded and unable to fight. Would you help him then?"
"Hn," he said before attacking her quickly, multiple times.
Sango threw up her Hiraikotsu to block the attacks, her feet sliding back with the force of each hit. They passed Kirara as they slid back, still content playing with her catnip, making Sango nearly roll her eyes.
He stopped the attacks and jumped back, his sword held defensively, expecting her to rush in and attack. Instead, she held her boomerang-like weapon up before throwing it through the air. Hiei watched as it went wide.
"Is that the best you can do?" he mocked, taking a step forward.
Sango smiled slowly, and it was then that he heard a whoosh through the air before her weapon hit the fire demon from behind on its return path. Hiei grunted as he fell to the ground, her weapon falling on top of him.
She walked over to him cautiously to retrieve her weapon, not knowing how long he'd stay down, but she didn't think it'd be long. As she took it, she spoke.
"The good thing about my weapon? It always come back."
"He's really gotta learn to look out for those returning attacks," Yusuke muttered as he saw Hiei get hit. He had beaten Hiei the first time they met like that.
He shifted his attention back to the hanyou he was fighting. Kurama was keeping the man busy, leaving him to deal with the half-demon on his own. Not that he minded; he'd rather have it this way, a nice one on one fight. Minus the nice part.
Yusuke dodged when the sword was swung at him, making the blade strike the ground instead, leaving a large indent. Inuyasha pulled out the sword once more, similar splits in the ground all around the two.
"I'm going to ask you one last time before I lose my patience and just decide to kill you," Inuyasha growled, swinging his sword, "where's Kagome?"
"She's safe and away from you," Yusuke responded.
He had had about enough. Yusuke pointed his index finger at the half-demon with his thumb upward in a gun-like position. Inuyasha sneered at him, not knowing the damage the Spirit Detective could inflict with just his index finger. However, his ears flattened on his head when he felt the power begin to rise within his enemy.
"No, don't!" they heard someone yell.
Kagome arrived on the scene just as Yusuke's finger began glowing a light blue color. Feeling the power in the air rising, she yelled and ran to Inuyasha. She wasn't sure what she was thinking at the time when she ran in front of him—maybe that she would shield him, she didn't know—but Yusuke had already fired his attack, unable to stop it as Kagome ran.
She reached Inuyasha just as the attack hit, the ground splitting around them, crumbling at the force of it. Then, there was only clouds of debris and dirt, blocking the view.
It cleared slowly, drifting away, and all Yusuke could see at first was the destroyed ground. Yusuke cursed silently, his heart suddenly beating faster than usually. If he'd hurt her…
But the smoke finally disappeared entirely and standing in the center of all the ruin was Kagome, leaning back against the hanyou with a small kitsune on her shoulder, the three standing on the only piece of ground that was still intact around them. Around them was a swirling pink barrier of power that had protected them, dissipating Yusuke's attack. And the pink light was coming from… Kagome.
"She… she shielded against my attack," Yusuke said with wide, disbelieving eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had done that, even demons. Then again, the demons he had been fighting lately weren't the strongest of those he'd fought in his lifetime, but still… how could she have that kind of power?
The rest of the fighters had stopped to watch as Yusuke attacked Inuyasha and Kagome with a strong spirit blast, Yusuke's allies more or less shocked by the human girl's power. During their confusion, Inuyasha took the time to move Kagome behind him as the barrier around them disappeared. He held out his sword, ready to attack as it gathered the energy, the blade covered in it.
Hiei, who had long since gotten back up, snapped, "you fools, take the sword from the hanyou. That's his power."
In a blink of an eye he was gone from sight and reappeared in front of Inuyasha. His hand reached for the hilt and he would have been able to take it from him with his fluid movements if the sword had not repelled his touch. He was flung backwards, falling to his back on the ground, the energy from the Tetsusaiga assaulting him.
Inuyasha smirked and jumped forward, intending on attacking the momentarily hurt demon.
Sango took a step forward, crying out, "No!" before she could stop herself.
Without hesitation, Kagome yelled, "sit boy!"
Inuyasha crashed to the ground mid-leap, making a nice Inuyasha-shaped indentation in the ground. Yusuke took a step toward Inuyasha, but Kagome moved in front of him, her arms spread wide to block the Spirit Detective. "I won't let you hurt him," she informed him. And slightly, very slightly, her body began humming with the pink colored power unknown to her, but Yusuke could feel it.
"Yeah!" Shippo chipped in, encouragingly.
The wind howling was the only thing heard as Kagome and Yusuke locked eyes, neither moving. Neither really wanted to hurt the other, but they both had jobs to do as well. And if those jobs put them against each other…
Botan arrived on her oar, hopping, to the ground before going to Yusuke's side. "Koenma wants to see you," the blue-haired deity declared, "he wants you to pull out."
Yusuke looked over to the paralyzed Kuwabara and then to Hiei, who was just getting up after the sword had drained his energy. He looked like he might have liked to attack the hanyou again, but seemed think better of it. Hiei looked to Yusuke and seeing the message in it, let out an annoyed "hn" before disappearing. He didn't like the fact that he had been bested. Revenge later on would be in order.
Yusuke looked back to meet Kagome's eyes and knew she'd let them go. She'd make sure her friends wouldn't stop them. Why, he didn't know. What surprised him more was he wanted to go. He didn't want to fight her, not yet at least. Besides the odds were against them and he wasn't sure what other surprises the other team had up their sleeves.
"We'll settle this later," he informed her.
Kagome paused before nodding.
Then Yusuke and Kurama gathered their teammate and left.
"Looks like we're confined to the room for now," Kagome declared.
She flopped down on the couch in their apartment, tired from a very long and somewhat confusing night. When she heard something tumble and fall she glanced over at Shippo in the kitchen, who was more or less inside the cupboard, eating what should have been a year's supply of candy and junk food all in one sitting. She laughed, seeing the chocolate mess around his mouth.
"What?" he said, "You said I could have all the candy I wanted! I did save you after all." He puffed out his chest proudly, which only made Kagome laugh more.
"You're going to get fat, eating all of that junk," Sango informed him as she passed by him before plopping down next to Kagome. "And then we'll have to roll you around the house." She then looked to the miko next to her. "What's this about us being confined?" she inquired as Kirara jumped up into Sango's lap. She still had the catnip with her since she refused to leave it behind, carrying it around with her in her mouth.
"Inuyasha doesn't want us leaving the apartment unless we're all together. He doesn't trust that other team not to sneak up on us. Not that I blame him since that's how they captured me," Kagome confessed.
She remembered Inuyasha's grumbling as they had left the field, saying things like, "you should've let me finish them off when they were weak" and such. But she wanted to talk with them, not fight. If they wanted to destroy Inuyasha because they thought he was evil… then they were probably on the same side. Probably.
She couldn't just talk to them when Inuyasha was around though, he wouldn't listen. He'd rather fight then reason with the "enemy" and she already knew she wouldn't be able to convince him they might not be the enemy. Their actions toward her and her friends weren't exactly the best evidence either.
If she could just be alone with someone that would listen. Yusuke or maybe the red-haired one...
"Fine by me," Sango said, but her words weren't entirely convincing. She shifted on the couch and winced at the pain it caused.
Noticing her grimace, Kagome inquired, worriedly, "what's wrong?" Ignoring Sango's protest of "it's nothing," she got a look at Sango's ankle before she could hide it from view. "What happened?" she asked, alarmed, seeing her puffy, red ankle.
As Kagome rushed into the kitchen to get ice, Sango explained dryly, "my new friend, the fast little demon twisted it. It doesn't hurt too bad, I was walking fine before."
"No you weren't," Kagome accused from the kitchen, "I thought I saw you limping." She hurried back into the room and had Sango put her leg up on the table as she put the ice on the swelling. Then she smiled. "If you'd told Miroku I'm sure you could have gotten a free piggyback ride back to the apartment."
Sango leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes. "You know what? I'm too tired to even make a decent scolding response to that remark."
Kagome shook her head, still smiling as she stood up. "Alright, I've had a long night. I think I'll just turn in." And maybe later she'd sneak out to try and talk to someone from the other group…
Sango nodded and watched Kagome leave, taking a stuffed little kitsune with her as he protested the whole way, still wanting more snacks. The bedroom door closed quietly and Sango was left in silence. She glanced down at the sleeping cat demon on her lap, curled around her prize, worn completely out by all the playing she did that night.
Nice to know that when dangers afoot, Kirara will choose cat nip over helping me, Sango thought wryly. Though she knew if she had been in a real jam, the cat demon would have stepped in and helped. It was as though she could sense the demon Sango fought hadn't been a real threat to her. And why was that?
Sango slumped even more against the couch. She was tired and even tried to sleep, but was restless. Her body itched to fight something, her body still running on adrenaline from the fight that night, more coursing through her at just the thought.
Finally not able to take it any longer, she moved the sleeping Kirara off her, the demon never so much as twitching as she was relocated to the couch, meaning she must have been even more exhausted then Sango thought. Standing up, she was immediately assaulted with jabs of pain from her ankle, but forced herself to put it at the back of her mind. She grabbed her sword and took a coat to conceal it, then was off.
She was certain there was some demon out there that needed killing. There always were since Naraku started making mischief in the present. Only Naraku himself had been mysteriously absent for awhile…
Sango headed to wherever her feet wanted to take her and, to no surprise to her, she ended up in the same park she had been in two or three hours before. Half of her wanted to meet up with the demon from before; the other half was just looking for a fight to relieve her of the feeling of anxiousness that surrounded her.
The demon she met, however, wasn't about to relieve her of anything.
The demon dropped in front of her and red eyes stared at her, but not the red eyes she'd wanted to see.
"Sango, is it? So nice to see you again," the demon said with a smirk as she opened her fan.
Her eyes widened. "K-Kagura!"
"'It's time to play… Wheel of Misfortune!" the announcer declared as the audience cheered.
"Game shows scare me sometimes," Kuwabara mumbled as he passed by while Yusuke switched the channel. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the person's view, Kuwabara was talking and walking around again. None of the others had been able to remove the ward the man had placed on him except Botan, being a deity, so he was no longer paralyzed.
Remind me again why that's a good thing? Yusuke thought.
Yusuke glared at him as he momentarily blocking his view of the television before sneering at his comment. "All the things we've seen and game shows scare you? That's sad," he mocked, "we'll have to make sure the demons don't find out about your weakness. Or Hiei."
Kuwabara contemplated whether or not to throw the pocky in his hand at Yusuke, but in the end decided he'd rather eat it. Taking a bite out of it he tried to think of a witty comeback, though ended up just saying the traditional, "shut up, Urameshi." Searching for more, he said, "What I don't get is if those humans follow the demon blindly, praise him or whatever they do, how come the girl could control the hanyou? That doesn't seem right."
Yusuke changed the channel again, though his mind he was remembering how the half-demon had fallen into the ground by her command. He replied, "Kurama did say it was possible the girl might be the one pulling the strings."
An image of the girl Kagome pulling the strings on a little puppet of the hanyou while laughing evilly came to mind, but Kuwabara shook it off. "We've seen weirder things," he said, shaking his head.
Kuwabara disappeared into his room and not five minutes later, Kuwabara was fast asleep, Yusuke could tell by the loud snoring. The rest of the group had dissipated that night, each going their separate ways, though beforehand Kurama had caught Botan in her lie, knowing Koenma hadn't actually called for them.
"Well, I had to get you away from them and that's the only way you'd leave, Yusuke. I wasn't even sure if you'd leave if I said that," Botan had said, "we still don't know enough about those people, creatures, or whatever they are to go up against them. You underestimated them tonight."
Yusuke shut off the television and threw the remote to the ground, almost violently. "I underestimated her," he corrected in a mutter. How had she escaped anyway? Last he saw her, she was still trapped in that room they'd put her in. That girl was crafty and powerful. And to think, a day ago he thought she was normal.
She hadn't seemed like the type that would have minions that were hell-bent on killing humans and possible trying to destroy or take over the world (their pick), but, hey, who did these days? Alright, bad question, there were plenty of humans who probably might want to, he'd met one or two (or seven), but Kagome had seemed innocent. She was either a very good actress or…
The phone rang, derailing his train of thought and he got up to grab it to stop its annoying ringing. "What do you want?" he asked crossly before he even knew who it was. He paused as he listened to his friend talk. "Hey, Kurama. Nah, I've been up." Pause. "He what?" he asked, slight amusement in his voice. "Yeah, I'll be right over."
He grabbed his coat and was about to leave, then thought better of it. Turning back, he went into Kuwabara's room, planning on waking him up.
"There's a sight I did not want to see," Yusuke said, seeing Kuwabara sprawled across his bed in only boxers and only half the blanket on him, a bit of drool seeping out of his mouth. "Kuwabara." No response. "Kuwabara!" The soft ticking of the clock was the only sound. "KUWABARA!" Fed up, he sent a small spirit blast over his head, knocking down the headboard so that it fell on him.
Kuwabara shot out of bed and yelled at Yusuke, but he ignored it. Yusuke explained what was going on quickly and told him to meet him at Kurama's. Then he was off and out the door into the night.
This night was turning out to be a very interesting one.
"What, but you…? How did…?" Sango began, but couldn't form a coherent sentence.
Kagura, it could be no one else, stood in front of her, a single poisonous bee fluttering behind her, watching with its little beady eyes. It was most definitely her, right down to the little details, such as her fan and the feathers she had.
The well had been sealed and, besides their group, Naraku had been the only being to pass through into present before it closed. That meant… Kagura had been alive for the past five hundred years?
"That's right. It's been five hundred years, though you haven't aged a bit," Kagura mentioned as though curious about that fact.
"Funny, you look older. Your face shows it, especially around the eyes," Sango told her. In actuality she appeared the same, but maybe it was the pain in her ankle because she wasn't in a good mood. Kagura looked angry then and used her fan to send a blade of wind at her, causing Sango to jump out of the way to dodge. "Alright, no jokes then," she murmured to herself.
"For five hundred years I was free. Free from Naraku, mostly living in Makai," the demon said.
"Makai?" Sango asked, interrupting.
"The demon world. Demons were becoming too powerful so another world was created and the demons were forced into it, keeping them out of this human world so the humans could live in peace—though some escaped or managed to avoid going through," Kagura informed her. Well, that explained why there weren't too many demons running around and definitely most not being as powerful as before. Kagura continued, "I didn't mind being in the demon world, as long as I was free. But then for no reason, Naraku shows back up five centuries later and I'm his once more." Her voice sounded bitter. "And you know what he asked me to do now?"
"I could take a good guess," Sango responded, readying her sword.
"Yes, destroy your little group," she said, "and I'll start with you!"
With a flick of her wrist, multiple blades of wind were sent her way and Sango somersaulted out of the way to avoid them, though the trees behind her got a bad beating, one of the smaller falling completely over. Getting to her feet, Sango ran forward and swung at Kagura a few times but the demon only jumped backward and away.
The wind sorceress sent a few tornado-looking attacks of wind at her that Sango scrambled to avoid as they tore up the area around them. Once they had dissipated, Sango leap forward for another attack, surprising Kagura with the sudden burst of speed. What could she say? She had been fighting a fast demon all night, some of it must have rubbed off on her. Sango would have landed the attack, however, had she not landed on her bad foot before she could swing.
Sango cried out as her ankle gave way, causing her to crash to the ground, her ankle throbbing. As she sat on the grass, blades came at her, slicing through her clothes to get at skin, breaking it and causing blood to flow. She threw up her arms to cover her face, biting her lip to distract her from the other pain. More blades still came, never stopping as Sango slowly got to feet. With a cry, she shot forward and swung blindly, one arm still covering her face. A hiss of pain met her ears.
Kagura kicked the demon slayer in the stomach in rage and Sango doubled over, falling once more to the ground on her back. She glanced up to see Kagura holding a wounded arm, the arm that held her fan. Blood spurted out and dripped down her arm even with the pressure Kagura tried to put on it.
The demon looked like she might still attack again, when her attention was diverted. There was strong energy moving around nearby… and fast. She looked into the dark woods, muttering, "something powerful is coming." She looked down at the demon slayer. "You were lucky this time. Or…" She signaled and Naraku's bee suddenly shot forward before the slayer could blink, stinging her in the arm, "maybe not."
Kagura took a feather and let it fall to the ground where it enlarged before she got on and quickly sped away, making her exit. Sango felt her head becoming heavy and she let it drop to the grass, looking upward toward the sky, though she could only see parts of it because of the trees blocking the way.
She closed her eyes for a few moments and when she opened them, she found red eyes staring down at her. Four of them.
Sango blinked until the two short demons she saw above her turned back into one, trying to get her vision to stop from doubling. It didn't work for long, her vision not working that well.
"You. Don't…" she said, her words slow. She tried to move away, but her body wasn't listening.
His lips moved, but she heard no sound. Spots began appearing in her vision so she closed her eyes and when she opened them again, what she thought was only a second later, he was beside her, kneeling instead of standing.
The last thing she remembered seeing were red crimson eyes.
Then there was only darkness.
Next Chapter: Chapter Seven- Unlikely Compromise
