(I will see what I can do about my other stories-- deciding on if I will continue or discontinue them, or redo them all together. I know of a few that I will be remaking because while the idea was there, I executed the story poorly. But for this story, I may be a bit slow as I need to rewatch episodes. The first chapter took some artistic liberties since Kagome's entrance allows for me to kind of do as I please. But I will strive to keep the story close to the anime while not butchering it completely. If I don't get all the lines, please don't come at me with KFC sporks! Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe!)

Chapter 2: Comparisons Drawn

To say Kagome was surprised by the sudden and violent reaction towards her would be completely and utterly wrong. She knew that Hiei was simply defending himself from a known threat and Kurama had been injured by her purity when they were shaking hands so his humanity appeared to be only skin-deep. But still...

"Would you knock it off?" she snapped with narrowed blue eyes that radiated with her pink energy. "I wouldn't have hurt him if YOU hadn't tried to invade my mind like a creep! I have a pretty good handle on my powers now unless someone does something that could hurt me..." She ran a hand through her hair and huffed. If it hadn't been for Naraku and all her past enemies, she wouldn't have such high defenses for any sort of invasion on her person or soul. But like Hell she would even consider thanking the mere memory of him.

Hiei continued to attack her pink crackling bubble of energy and didn't seem to be letting up so she directed her attention to Kurama, who held his hand protectively to his side. However, she could still smell the charred flesh and could only grimace in sympathy. "I am sorry... I mean, it's still his fault but my energy did hurt you. If you could get him to stop, I could probably heal you--"

"Shut up, wench! Your kind cannot heal demons!"

"Sit boy!" Kagome snarled, a portion of her energy shooting out in the shape of an arrow and plunged itself into the anonymous offending demon's heart, disintegrating him into a puff of ash. The sudden assault and the unusual words that spouted from the angered miko's lips caused the entire ship to freeze. Only the squawks of the gulls flying above them made any sounds.

She seemed to snap out of it and, as Hiei was no longer attacking her, the energy shield disappeared. She looked around and tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

The pirate captain apparently had had enough and shouted, "Alright, ye scallywags!! Time ta get these preliminaries on the way!" The boat seemed to split in half and Kuwabara almost fell in, scrambling up before the rising fighting-ring could crush him like a couple unfortunate demons who were caught between the ring and the deck that moved to support the platform. "There be sixteen teams here, including our special guest team. One fighter from every team goes into the ring in a battle royale until one fighter wins. That team will join the fifteenth currently on Hang Neck Island and participate in the Dark Tournament. Make yer choice!"

As the other teams chose their representative fighters, Kurama and Hiei turned to Kuwabara. "Kagome is only our replacement fighter so she should not fight... Earlier, you were quite eager to display how much you have improved. So I suppose you will fight for our team?" Kurama was injured at the moment so he was not a wise choice and Hiei had little interest in fighting these weaklings.

The carrot top had been about to accept when three very large, particularly blood thirsty demons stomped passed the human boy and he immediately turned to volunteer their team leader. "This IS Team URAMESHI, y'know... So get up there, Urameshi!" A soft snore was his only answer and he grabbed the punk, intent on shaking him awake. "I can't believe you're sleeping at a time like this!!"

A soft pale hand touched his, drawing his attention to blue eyes that looked into his own small brown orbs. "He won't be able to wake up right now. Grandma went pretty hard on him the last couple of months and he was too focused on training than sleeping... He'd pass out almost anywhere and she'd attack him after an hour or two of rest... less if he already had the nap." Her frown showed how much she disapproved of his lack of a good night's sleep. She moved away from him and stood up with a smirk. "Besides, the masked fighter is already on the job..."

Kuwabara wasn't sure about whether the little guy could be trusted with such an important task-- if they lost here, it was all over! But when he brought up his concerns, Hiei replied, "It doesn't matter. If he loses, we'll just defeat every single demon on this ship. Then there will be no one to say that we are not the sixteenth team." His normally stoic face gave way to a dark smirk, large crimson eyes narrowed dangerously as he watched the fifteen demons and one human situated themselves in the ring.

"You didn't have many friends as a kid, huh?" Kuwabara asked, expression deadpanned. Hiei's smirk faded. Kagome watched as the demons in the ring decided to attack the masked fighter first and then battle amongst themselves. But that plan was moot-- the demons who had rushed the human were shoved out of the ring, all alive but clearly, they all lost and the captain announced the 'human' team as the winner.

However, none of the losers were going to stand for that. Instead, they all decided to do a battle-royale on the boat, gaining Hiei's ire. "I believe they stole my idea..." he growled, placing a hand on the hilt of his sword. Heads were going to roll...

Kurama licked at his still injured hand and chuckled. "Only because you said it out loud, I'm sure..." He withdrew his rose from his hair, preparing for the inevitable fight ahead of them. He turned to look at Kagome with a more serious look. "I would leave this fight to us if I were you. You have more than proven your deadly prowess so I doubt any would come after you. Nonetheless, I wouldn't drop your guard too much..." And with that said, the fight was on.

Kagome watched the masked fighter take on attacking demons with only their feet, hands held behind their back to display the ease of the feat. But admittedly, the miko wasn't really watching the shortest member of the team. No, she kept her eyes on her new teammates. Kuwabara sliced at his opponents with a rather impressive energy sword but his technique was lacking in finesse and skill. Really, it resembled a kid swatting at flies with a conveniently sharp flyswatter. But his control over his energy was pretty good.

Kurama had transformed his rose into a large thorny whip and when he wasn't just flicking it through his enemies, he was using the thorned whip as a catalyst for his energy, swinging it around him to create rings that swept into the assailants and cut them into bits. Overall, not bad...but the whip looked bulky compared to the poison whip Sesshomaru utilized 500 years ago. As far as elegance went, the poison whip was as dangerously beautiful as the Western Lord was. However, the rose whip had shed its petals during the transformation and made the air smell very lovely. So it got points for that.

Yusuke had been passed out but when a dishonorable demon chose to attack him, that was when his training had taken affect. Two months of being violently woken up after an hour or two of sleep conditioned him to strike out at the living-nightmare his semi-conscious body was used to, knocking the demon out with volley punches before collapsing to the ground, sleeping as he sat up. Kagome couldn't resist her giggles at the strange but heartwarming sight before turning her attention to Hiei.

The fight had ended by then but she had seen more than enough. The 4'10" demon with the 6'2" attitude was fast and he had made very quick work of his own opponents, so quick that it seemed they just fell to pieces the instant he appeared near them. But...

"Is that it?"

All eyes turned to look at the human miko as she got out of her bubble to approach Hiei with a curious look on her face. He did not look too thrilled but decided to snap a question back at her. "What on Earth are you talking about, miko?"

"Kagome." She said it with very little heat as though it was a common occurrence. Kurama wondered how many other people had called her 'miko' or something else entirely. But he refocused on her words. "I was just wondering if it transformed or did anything other than cut people. The demon blades I've seen either transformed like the Tetsuaiga or brought people to life like Tensaiga. Although I guess Bakusaiga was pretty destructive too though it didn'thave another form... oh, but we are on a boat. If your sword had such power, it would make sense to reign in that kind of power--"

"This isn't a demonic sword."

Kagome blinked at the abrupt words, surprised he said anything at all. And the temperamental youkai was looking at her a little differently than the complete nuisance and potential threat. But it was far from any semblance of respect or tolerance. Really, he was looking at her kinda like Inuyasha did those first few months of traveling.

Kurama cleared his throat. "Hiei isn't allowed to wield a demonic blade. But how do you know so much about those particular swords? They have been efficiently erased from human history and only the barest information about them are renowned as myths and fairytales..."

The dark-haired female jolted at the suspicion in the redhead's tone and swore she saw a flash of gold in his emerald gaze but answered his inquiry. "I grew up on a shrine and my grandfather told me the stories. I guess with that and my grandmother Genkai, I didn't see any sense in deciding they were myths. Besides, Hiei's a demon with a sword-- I guess with those stories, I was just... disappointed? No, maybe I was... expecting more. But if the blade isn't demonic, there's no way it would be as flashy as Kuwabara's sword."

"Hah! Ya hear that, ya punk--OW!" The tallest member of the team was bashed over the head by the now fuming Hiei who refused to listen to the girl blather on for one more second. As if a stupid human could measure up to his skills with a sword, not to mention his elemental youki. Ridiculous!

Kurama understood Hiei's temper and did his best to do damage-control. "That isn't really a fair comparison. Kuwabara's sword is a manifestation of his spirit energy. Hiei's sword was forged in the Makai but did not involve materials that were demonic by nature. Although I will say that the steel used to forge his blade is many times stronger than the typical human sword."

Kagome smiled with a nod. So it wasn't just some pawn shop blade. And even if it hadn't been forged using a fang, there was a possibility for him to infuse his energy into the sword and make a 'super attack'. Speaking of super attacks... she thought as she looked around for the rose petals only to find none of them available.

"And you use a rose whip? And used your youki to slice your enemies that weren't in your radius?" At his nod, she grinned. "Well, that's a new one... but I guess after the sword prohibition, demons needed to keep their weapons close but concealed." She sighed a bit. Honestly, she missed the past on the other end of the Bone Eater's Well. The fresh air, the co-mingling of humans and demons, her friends... Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she looked away to try to contain her grief.

Seriously, girl. How long are you going to cry when you think of them? Sango and Miroku are dead, they were human...but they didn't die in the battle. They lived a long life or as long as they could in Sengoku Jidai. Inuyasha chose to go to Hell with Kikyo after the final battle... Sesshomaru and Shippo are probably alive but how to be sure? Can I trust these guys to tell me the truth or will they call me a liar? Maybe a bit of both since no human can be alive now and 500 years in the past... Grandma didn't think I was crazy. She believed me. Will they?

The miko sighed and looked behind her, watching the group. The masked fighter opened his eyes and looked right into her blue orbs, communicating everything that needed to be said without a single word. She sighed again, this time with relief. She would tell them her story and let the pieces fall as they may. With them all going to a demon tournament, she had a feeling that time-travel wasn't going to hit their top 10 of weird occurances.

Yusuke's abrupt snore had her chuckling, shaking her head. But she would wait until the whole team was concious. No sense in telling the story more than once.