Due to a popular vote, I have decided to more chapters to this story, though I was planning on keeping it a one-shot. Oh well. Not that I care.

Chapter Two of Shiori, Daughter of Kagome

By LizzieHanyou

The Picnic

…

School always was a bother. Now that his mother and brother knew the truth, things got a little more hectic. It all started on the day of the school picnic.

"Mom," said Kurama as he entered the house, flyer in hand, "My school is having a picnic to celebrate the coming of spring. It says to bring all available family members, and it is on the same day that Suichi gets off for the end of his semester."

"Let me see that," Shiori said as she scanned it, "I guess we can go, and maybe this would be a great time for you to meet your grandmother!" she exclaimed as she thought aloud.

Kurama sweat dropped, "You don't have to do that," he said, "I just wanted you to know about the picnic so we could just go there with Suichi and Kazuya, like most people."

"Nonsense. Besides, your grandmother looks young enough to be my niece, as well as Kira, and Inuyasha can be, well he is, Kagome's husband. You haven't met them, but they really are young looking."

"Ok," Kurama said, not wanting to argue with his mother, "They can come, but I don't want to see my secret scattered to the four winds, Ok?"

"Your secret is my secret."

Had Kurama really thought about it, he would have kept his mouth shut about the ordeal, but seeing as he never kept secrets from his mother anymore, he just had to tell her.

The picnic was two weeks away, and the two weeks went by very slowly. Spirit World was in chaos as three hardened demon criminals ran amuck through the Human World. Even Jin and Touya were on the job to catch the group. By the end of the first week, only one remained free, but between all of them, 145 humans lay dead, while another 232 were injured, and 25 humans were in mental institutions to get over the trauma of the demons.

The three had a plan that may have worked well had Kurama not been able to figure it out. They would hide in the shadows at night and find someone who looked like they had something worthwhile to steal. Then, one of the demons would follow them home, spying on the family while at it. Another in the group would sneak into the house as the family would sit down to dinner, stealing whatever he could, then the last one would burn the house down when the second was done getting the goods. The three would stash their goods in a hole in the park, and if someone saw them, they would bury the living mortal with the jewels and money.

After each haul, they would switch places, so that they didn't have the same part in the mission as they did in the last. Their targets were mostly apartments, which killed the most people in the least amount of time.

Had the majority of society known that the culprits were demons, they might have stayed in their houses or visited distant relatives for a while, but seeing as few lived to tell of their experiences—those in the mental hospitals—no one paid any heed to the terrorists as they continued on their normal lives.

Even Shiori had a hard time believing that her son figured out the strategy and knew how to catch them. She had almost refused to let him leave, but since it was his job, she allowed him to go. Getting the first demon was not a challenge, neither was getting the second, but the last was another story.

His arm was bleeding profusely as he trudged home a few hours before the sun would rise over the horizon. Luckily, few people were out at that hour, and those who were didn't care about anything more than how to get home after their wild partying habits.

Kurama slowly opened the door to his home, careful not to make a sound, and then climbed the stairs to the bathroom. 'Darn,' he thought as he looked at his disheveled appearance in the bathroom mirror, 'I look worse than I feel.' It was true. Though his arm and chest looked as though he had been attacked by a grizzly bear, he felt little pain at all. He opened the medicine cabinet, grabbing a roll of bandages. He used his powers to create a medicine for his cuts, then applied it and the bandages.

'At least I got the demon,' he thought as he headed to his room, sneaking into bed as though nothing had happened.

The next day at school was boring, as was the rest of the week. The only thing that could have constituted as entertaining was listening to the endless drabbles about the group of vigilantes who defeated the mass murderers. Kurama had a few good chuckles as he listened to how people thought the vigilantes attacked them.

"I bet they were brothers who lost their sister to one of their attacks, and they wanted to avenge their death," said one girl.

"No way," another protested, "the leader must have lost his girlfriend to the attacks. It is so romantic!"

"I disagree," said one of the jocks, "I think that the group of losers just wanted to make a name for themselves, so they hired the criminals to attack people, then they just took the credit for the catching of the criminals."

Unfortunately, the talk about the vigilantes still hadn't worn off by the time of the picnic. Kagome and Inuyasha were there, as well as Kira. They had taken Shiori's advice, and acted as young as they looked—all about twenty to twenty-two.

Things went on very well as Kurama got to know his grandparents and aunt. Contrary to the way most grandparents acted, they were very easy-going, acting about as young as they looked. All of Kurama's school friends—most of which he didn't know, but they just pretended to be best friends—though that they were the coolest 'cousins' around.

All went well, until one oblivious student asked the inevitable question, "Have you all heard about the vigilante that caught those criminals?"

Of course, Shiori was the only one who knew. Kagome, Inuyasha, Kazuya, and Suichi were completely oblivious to the fact that it was Kurama, but Kira had a big hunch that it indeed was him. Just to watch him squirm a little bit she played a little trick on him.

"Why do you think that the vigilante did it?" Kira asked, looking for something to use against Kurama.

"I heard that he did it for revenge for his girlfriend," the teenage girl replied.

"Revenge, eh?" Kira asked, "I was told that he was an assassin who had them on his list already. It just so happened that they were out in the open at the time."

"No way!" said the girl, forming ways it would work, "That would mean that there is a killer out on the streets who wants to kill us all!"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Kira said, stealing a glance at Kurama as she continued, "Even if the group of vigilantes was a group of assassins, there always is the fact that assassins work for someone else. So, their boss would have to be the one to give the order for your death."

"Still, that's scary! How do I know that I'm not the next person on that list?" the girl pleaded.

Kurama couldn't stand the fear in the girl's eyes, so he entered the conversation to calm her fears, "I do not believe that the boss would have them kill for nothing. The only people on that list may just be criminals that the police have not captured."

"And how would you know that, Suichi?" asked Kira, acting innocent.

"Oh, I just am thinking out loud," he lied, "Besides, that is probably the only way that it would work. There has to be some sort of pattern behind the vigilantes, because not even an evil warlord would dare attack truly random innocents. Attacks like that must be planned out to hide their tracks, and if the tracks weren't hidden, then the police or another group could track them down," he explained.

"My, my, Suichi, you know a lot about the evil mind, don't you?" Kira asked, subconsciously goading him into a debate.

"What can I say, I read a lot of books," he stated.

"Sure you do, but on a side note, I took a few courses on criminal justice a while ago, and I learned a lot. But, I don't tell people that I know those types of things. Maybe, no that couldn't be…" Kira trailed off in deep thought.

"What?" asked the teenage girl, who had been watching the two debate.

"Oh, it's nothing, forget I even said anything."

"Tell me," the girl said.

"Fine, I was just thinking that maybe Suichi over there was one of the vigilantes, but I know that can't be true. He would have been too busy studying for school or something like that. Besides, have your seen that poor boy try to fight? It is embarrassing!"

"Keh," Inuyasha spoke for one of the first times since they arrived, "Kira, don't push it," he said after coming to the conclusion with the facts that he knew about Kurama that he was indeed one of the vigilantes.

"Yes, Da- I mean Inuyasha," Kira corrected herself.

"How about we all just finish the picnic in peace?" asked Shiori, not wanting the conversation to go on any longer. "We will finish this at home."

"Finish what at home?" asked the oblivious girl, but no one answered her.

"Oh, nothing," said Shiori, "Why don't we just agree not to argue?"

Her question was answered with a few nods as they started up a conversation about nothing in particular. Or, so they wished.

Two minutes into their new conversation, a loud ringing was heard. Kurama, recognizing it as his "phone" excused himself from the conversation. He hid behind a tree to answer it, so no one would see him.

"What is it, Koenma?" he asked the toddler-like ruler.

"There have been rumors that a gang of demons has your school on their list of terrorist acts! You have to protect your school! We don't know who or when, but keep your eyes and ears open!" Koenma yelled at him.

"Is that all?" Kurama asked.

"Yes, so go out there and try to figure out what is going on!" Koenma said as Kurama closed the compact and headed back out to the picnic.

"That was just my boss. He said that I have to work overtime later because he has a special job for me later," he lied as he rejoined the conversation.

Meanwhile: on the edge of the park:

A shadowy figure sat there, waiting for his time to seek his revenge on the school. If he can't have an education, then no one can…

END CHAPTER

And so, the plot thickens a little bit. Remember, this is going to be a rather short story. I will have no more than five chapters if I work it the way I want it to, and if not, then I will work it to less than ten chapters. Really, I wanted to end it with this chapter, but there were too many things that I could do with the plot, and I don't want to have duplicate stories up with similar plots just so I can use other ideas.

Remember, I will not update until I get at least 3 reviews! How much is that to ask?