Diane Kinsman
AU Fan fiction
Unlikely Allies
Chapter 2 - Black is a great color!
Botan stared down at the food suspiciously. She looked up at the girl who had cooked it, then down again at the food. She looked over to the blue-eyed girl across the table.
"Kagome, I know you love your sister, so maybe this is ok for you, but do you really have to have the rest of us eat her cooking?"
Kikyou frowned. There was nothing wrong with her cooking. Ok, so maybe it was a little too...blackened. But black was a great color. 'I never complain about her cooking.'
Kikyou slid into her seat gracefully watching as Kagome rolled her eyes. "Botan, I said we would take shifts. No one is forcing you to eat."
Three of the girls were presently seating down at the table set outside the kitchen part of the ship. Not a large kitchen, and neither was the space the table was in. Kagome and Botan sat opposite each other, and Kikyou sat on the left side of the table, now frowning across from her, where Sango should have been.
"I suppose she dislikes my cooking to," Kikyou said, her eyes hardening a bit. If Kagome didn't know her sister any better, she would have sworn that Kikyou was pouting.
"No, I just went to bed late. Wanted to be there when the moon was first in sight. Most people don't get to see Europa. Not many humans anyway, outside of people like us. Has nothing to do with who was cooking breakfast." Sango came in, talking through a yawn and sitting down to mechanically eat the food in front of her.
"You have to wonder how they did it. One of the things we lost when the barrier fell. The way to terra form the planets and moon," Kagome said.
Botan shrugged, waving one hand towards the window where Jupiter and its moon were. "Well, they simply made Jupiter a bit more like a low mass sun, that's all. I don't know how, but they did tell us that, remember? I believe in History class, they explained that the theory was that our ancestors from before the Barrier fell made Jupiter into a star. Or almost into one. It doesn't have enough of a pull to misplace the other planets, but it did warm up it's own moon, and then they terra formed it. Still has an atmospheric bubble just incase though."
As Botan finished up, two open mouth stares and one startled on were directed her way. "What? I can't pay attention? I liked History!"
"Probably because you were better at it than everyone else." Kikyou said, slightly angry that she had not remembered that.
"Or maybe she was better at it because she liked it, not the other way around." Kagome smiled at Botan.
"Sometimes it was like I had actually been there, and had seen in. Silly me, but I have the weirdest daydreams." Botan giggled, Kagome joining in, glancing out the window to see how close they were. And immediately jumped up.
"Oops! Time to get ready girls, by the look out the window we'll be landing in about five minutes. Be thankful it's on autopilot. Makes the whole trip a lot easier. Come on, time to load up our hovercraft."
Kagome ran out of the room, the other three girls staring blankly out the window for a moment.
"I see. I believe that translates to 'We're here'." Kikyou stood up, walking briskly after Kagome. Botan and Sango exchanged confused glances, then as one looked out the window to see the fast approaching clouds of Europa. There was a sudden scramble for the door as their still sleepy brains stirred, telling them why the two sisters were gone.
The round vehicle slowly lowered to the ground as the four girls turned it off, scrambling out and looking around. "There's no one here."
Botan looked disappointed. "I wanted to see if any of them were cute. Four boys, at least one is bound to be cute, right?"
Kagome turned away from Botan, pretending to study the clearing they were in as she rolled her eyes. "They're probably just late. Let's set up our base camp. It looks pretty clear. Except for the two rather large demon energy signatures and one small one. Kitsune I believe. I guess we should clear them out, huh?" She gave a bright smile, unpacking her weapons from the back half of the hover car.
Sango rolled her eyes as the miko sisters took out their bows, Kikyou's was old fashioned and having none of the perks the modern bows did. Kagome's 'folded' as some said, into a more pack able package, which was about as far into getting a high tech bow the younger miko would get. Both refused to get the auto-targeting bows, insisting it was cheating.
Not that Sango could talk; her weapon was in the true tradition of her family, made from a demon's bone. It was why her family had the last name they did, because it was what they had once been, even before the barrier fell. What they still were.
Sango pulled out her giant boomerang, strapping it to her back, and flipping Botan's katana to her. The blue-haired girl grimaced. "I don't see why you three insist I have this along. I'll stick with our guns thank you very much. They're good enough for me."
Sango gritted her teeth. Were they always going to have this argument? "It's always good to have a back up. We know you aren't as good a fighter as the rest of us; you're more the healer of the group, just like I'm mainly the fighter. Can we not have this argument again?"
Sango ended on an annoyed note, causing the other three to exchange glances. She usually didn't get this annoyed. Kikyou frowned, then sighed. 'They would not pair us with another team if they didn't think it was necessary you know. Teams with both men and women are rare lately, so the others will be strong enough to hold their own."
"I didn't say anything about the other team, now did I?" Sango asked, turning her face away. Kagome shook her head; she knew what was going on now.
"Don't worry Sango, he's not on the team, you won't have to deal with him. He actually has a less risky job than we do. Takes information and messages that can't be sent over the channels. He's a courier." A second later the other girls rounded on her.
"Kagome, how would you know? You didn't hack into the database again did you?" Botan asked, disappointment with her friend running across her face. Kagome squirmed with guilt and embarrassment.
"Sorry! I couldn't help it. It was mocking me!" Kagome blushed, realizing how stupid that sounded as the others exchanged amused glances.
"All right, enough picking on Kagome, if we all have our weapons, let's go have a little warm up fight while we wait for the other half of our team," Kagome said, her expression changing from the carefree blush and open expression to a firmer, more commanding look.
Hanging in a holster by their sides, along with their other weapons, each had a strange looking gun. The trigger was a simple button that could only be activated when demons were in the area. The gun itself was smooth and silver, the traditional right angle connecting the barrel to the grip. Besides the strange smoothness and the button trigger, the gun didn't look like anything special.
The two mikos led the way, heading into a wooded area around the camp. Kagome suddenly stiffened as they got closer and began running. "Kagome? What's wrong?" Sango started running to catch up, her expression clearly worried.
"The kitsune demon... I can sense it now, that kitsune's only a child!" Kagome's pace sped up, her bow unfolding into her hands, and she notched one arrow as they came to where the demon were standing. Well, actually, one was curled up in a little ball, and the other two were floating in the air. Before the other three had even arrived the arrow was let loose, heading towards the ugly one of the two, a fat demon who only had three strands of hair.
The unexpected arrow hit the demon in its forehead, causing it to topple to the ground. The other demon's glowing red eyes focused on the threat, and Kagome was slightly startled. 'Damn it, why are so many demons cute? I thought they both would've been ugly!'
Sango arrived to see the body of the first demon hitting the ground. Well, it looked pretty dead to her. 'Kagome must have been pretty mad to kill it so quickly.'
The curled up demon lifted its head, and Kagome gasped, seeing bright green eyes from underneath messy red hair. "How adorable!" she shouted, forgetting the angry black-haired, red-eyed demon that looked ready to kill her. The small child demon looked surprised as he was gathered into the arms of the teenager he had just seen kill one of his tormenters.
"Huh?" Was the child's clever question. Kikyou and Botan arrived on the scene, Kikyou also having an arrow notched. The demon growled at his four opponents, glancing down at his dead companion.
"You bitch! You killed my brother Manten. Now I, Hiten, will take revenge and destroy you, that kit, and all of your companions!" The demon gave a roar, lifting up his weapon and aiming it towards the ground. Kikyou lifted her bow and pulled back the string, narrowing her eyes in concentration. Hiten sneered.
"You think I don't know how to dodge? You're little piece of wood will do nothing to me. Your murdering companion had a lucky shot." His weapon began to glow as Sango drew her boomerang back to throw and Botan's gun came up, pointing at the demon. As one, all three let their weapons fly. Or shoot in the case of Botan, whose gun shot out a bright stream of gold energy.
Hiten could indeed dodge, and swooped underneath the three weapons, chuckling as they flew over him. He stopped chuckling when Sango's boomerang came flying back, clipping the top of his head. He was stunned briefly and fell to the ground with a look of surprise.
Kagome quickly put the child demon down, wincing at her stupidity. After all her training she had still turned her back to the enemy. Another arrow was let loose towards the demon at the same time as Kikyou shot. Hiten managed to dodge them, snarling as he tried to shake himself out of his stupor. He shot at them with his weapon, attempting to distract them. The fiery wheels began taking to the air again when a stream of energy hit his chest at the same time as a boomerang crushed his body.
The girls were silent as Kikyou approached the demon, touching him with one hand. "He's dead. The clip on the back of his head was deeper than I thought. Interesting. I wonder what kind of demon he is?"
"Thunder and Lightning." Sango and the demon child said at the same time. "He's one of the famous Thunder Brothers. I can't believe you defeated them so easily. I wanted revenge. They- they killed my father." He began sobbing, and both Botan and Kagome gave little gasps of surprise.
Kagome swept him back into her arms, trying her best to comfort him. The other three approached and Kikyou frowned in disapproval. "Are you sure you should be doing that Kagome? He is a demon."
Botan studied the demon, as did Sango, and Botan shook her head. "He's a kitsune Kikyou. Trickster's to be sure, but most of the time they're one of the more peaceful types of demons. They do fight back however, and some of the most amusing punishments have come from their tricks." Botan winced as she spoke, most of her weight resting on one leg.
Kagome noticed the favoring of one leg, and glanced over to where Botan had been standing, seeing a small dent in the ground where Hiten had hit with his energy. She frowned at Botan. "How badly are you hurt?"
Botan sighed, drat that observant girl. "Just my leg. We know how to dodge better than an untrained demon like him. He had a lot of energy, but no control over it." She glanced at the kitsune who was staring at them all with wide nervous eyes. "What's your name?"
"My name's Shippo. Who are you people? Are you from one of the fighting groups?"
Kagome grinned, petting at his tail as he snuggled into her arms. "Actually we are. We're the team sent to protect the Shikon no Tama."
"Why did we let him have the map?"
"Hey! I didn't here you complaining about it earlier!" Inuyasha growled out at Yusuke's question. It wasn't like he'd meant them to get lost!
"I didn't know you were holding the map upside down! We're never going to get on with our mission if we can't even find the other team!" Behind them, Kurama rolled his eyes. Those two never stopped fighting.
"Demons nearby," Hiei stated, turning the attention towards him. Hiei simply stared at them for a moment, before all of them began looking past him. He smirked at them, knowing they had finally felt the gathering energy.
"There is also some diminishing energy towards where our campsite should be, but I fear these new demons will reach us before we can get there." Kurama nodded in another direction, where they hoped the camp was.
"Well, that other team is probably taking care of it. I wonder where they're from?" Briefly forgetting about the impending demon menace, Inuyasha actually looked thoughtful. Hiei smirked knowingly. Yusuke eyed him with suspicion.
"I guarantee they are not what you will be expecting." That confirmed it, Hiei knew something they didn't.
"Hiei, you weren't going through the school records again were you? Damnit, at least share with the rest of us." Yusuke clenched his fists at the mocking smirk on Hiei's face.
"Maybe later human. We have some demons to fight. Resurga's I believe." With that Hiei had his sword out, just as the first of the demons came out.
Scaly things they were, what you might expect when someone said the word 'demon'. Glassy black eyes were placed in narrow lizard like heads. They stood a little shorter than Hiei, and there were only a few hundred of them.
"Well, I suppose we have to fight then. I wonder if Resurga sent them after us personally, or just sent them to look for the Shikon no Tama. It is rumored to be here after all. I'm sure the Congress weren't the only ones to here about it. Rose Whip!" As Kurama spoke he drew a rose out of his hair, calmly activating it with two simple words and a burst of spirit energy.
"Who knows? Who cares? Lets fight!" Inuyasha jumped into a group of the strange lizard demons, not even bothering to take out Tetsusaiga.
"Hn." Hiei smirked at their leader before swiftly disappearing, reappearing alongside the bodies of a few demons.
"Oh fine, you bunch of show offs." Yusuke grumbled to himself, throwing a few punches filled with spirit energy, swiftly taking care of a half dozen demons.
The demons were briefly taken aback by the fighting skills their opponents were showing, and then used the one tactic that was likely to work. They rushed them. When one was killed, two more would be there, trying to kill the team of boys. So far, it seemed it might even work.
Yusuke was falling back constantly, more on defense than offense now. He couldn't even take his eyes of the horde of demons to check up on his friends. Yusuke was too busy trying not to get himself killed. "Shotgun!" rang through the air, the multiple energy bullets giving him a brief reprieve as the demons stared down at the number of their now dead-comrades.
The reprieve was broken with a roar of rage as the demons scrambled over each other trying to get their claws into him. "Oh Shit!" was all Yusuke had time for before he was struggling to survive. Apparently the demons didn't like what he had just done. He could hear Inuyasha swearing up a storm, and felt briefly relieved to know he was still alive and kicking.
Then Yusuke stumbled, feeling the energy in his body waning. The demons lunged, but before they could take advantage of his weakness, pink light flew in front of him, decimating the demons immediately in front of him, and landing in the dirt in front of his feet. A glowing shield briefly went up in front of him, and Yusuke turned around, prepared to face a new threat if necessary.
A girl stood in front of him, black hair flowing freely down her back as she stood grinning with a bow in hand. Shocked, he realized the 'glowing pink light' had been an arrow.
"What?" Yusuke blinked, and began to try again, hoping to form a more coherent sentence as she began speaking.
"Hi. You must be Yusuke Urameshi. I read your file, or the part of it in our database. I'm Kagome Higurashi. We're the other half of your team. And by the way, you're late."
kitsune - a multi tailed fox.
miko - a pure priestess, a priestess who specializes in purifying demons.