12

Umm hello… thank you to every one who reviewed, and also to all the people who are still reading this story. I decided to draw out my cliff hanger from the last chapter by making this chapter a little longer than usual, however my chapters are slightly short to begin with so in the future I'm hoping to make all my chapters close to this length. Oh yeah and one more thing! This chapter takes place the next day, the attack on Kurama happened the night before. Just in case any of you are getting confused with me jumping from one caricature to the other in my chapters… ah hell! Whatever it should all make sense in chapter seven… or at least by the end of chapter seven… or something like that. Uhhh sooo read and enjoy?

Chapter 6: Too Trusting

Hiei hated the way the air tasted in the human world. After being stuck there for a few years Hiei figured he'd get used to it, and to an extent he did, but he could never completely get over how stale and impure the air was in the human world. He sighed in exasperation at the disgusting, broken little world his friends insisted on taking residence in. If it wasn't for the fox he would never bother coming to this ridiculous place. It was too noisy, too polluted. He couldn't stand it. The only place he could put up with was the park. Back when he was forced to stay by Koenma, he took up residence in the leafy branches of the big oak trees. It reminded him of Makai, except the trees in Makai were much bigger, and they blanketed the landscape for hundreds of miles.

Hiei sighed and wondered when Kurama would be getting out of that human school he insisted on going to. He settled himself into a more comfortable position on the branch he was sitting in, and adjusted his katana. He crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes, deciding to get in some rest since he had so much time to kill. He was just about to doze off when he heard someone passing his tree.

'Stupid noisy humans.' Hiei concluded.

He opened his eyes and looked for the source of the sound. It was a teenage girl, probably on her way too school. She had long, wavy black hair, and a round somber face. She was wearing a green and white sailor suit style school uniform, complete with a short green skirt. She was carrying a big black zip up case of some sort over her shoulder and on top of it she was carrying a big yellow back pack.

The girl suddenly stopped and seemed to stare off in to space for a second before dropping her back pack and stepping into what looked like some sort of defensive stance.

'That human doesn't sense me, dose she?' Hiei wondered. 'No that's impossible. Even if she did have the ability to sense demonic auras, there's no way she could sense my aura when I'm concealing it.'

The girl dropped quickly into a kneeling position and unzipped the black case and pulled out a long bow. She quickly strung her bow and pulled out a single arrow.

'That's impossible!' Hiei hissed. 'How could she know I'm here!'

The girl notched the arrow and drew it back.

'I feel stupid now…' Hiei thought.

The girl wasn't aiming at him; she was aiming in the opposite direction from where he was sitting in fact. The tip of the arrow glowed pink with purifying energy and flew straight towards its mark: a mid level mole demon. The mole exploded in a flash of pink light, and soon there was nothing left but purified mole chunks.

'So she is a miko?' Hiei wondered, feeling even more stupid for being too distracted by this human girl to notice the intruding demon.

Kagome took one last look around, clearing her mind and searching for that other aura. She was positive she had sensed two demons, not just one. Or was that just some sort of weird eco of the first. Kagome closed her eyes and focused on the energy in the park. No there was definitely another demon around some where, but she couldn't figure out where it was. She sighed and unstrung her bow, putting it back in its case and slinging the case back over her shoulder. She reached for her back pack and put it on over the case that contained her bow.

'What ever it is it probably saw me obliterate that mole demon, my guess it's too afraid to attack me now.' Kagome surmised.

She headed towards the other side of the park but stopped when she felt the odd aura begin to follow her. She turned around and scanned the trees, hoping to catch sight of the demon. When she finally decided this was a futile effort she turned and headed for school, trying to ignore the feeling in the back of her mind that said she was being followed.

'This is not good. I can not have a demon following me to school.' Kagome thought desperately as she tried to sneak peeks at it over her shoulder. She huffed in annoyance when she was unable to find any sign of her stocker.

The demon seemed to hang back once Kagome reached her school and she finally heaved a sigh of relief, guessing it wasn't going to cause her any trouble till she was at least out of school. She walked to her first class, advanced history, and took her seat by the window near the back of the classroom. Kagome didn't bother listening to the teacher; she had already lived through the subject he was trying to teach and she didn't need to listen to him lecture about it. The true bloodshed and chaos of the feudal era was not nearly as nice as the words popular historians write in high school textbooks. Hell, half the things this guy was teaching were wrong anyway. Kagome had not necessarily personally witnessed everything her teacher was lecturing about, and she never actually got to meet Nabunaga Oda, (much to her disappointment) however news traveled fast in the feudal era. She frequently caught word of distant battles while stopping in towns and villages for rest, and to stock up on supplies. Inuyasha had little interest in human wars and politics, but Sango and Miroku filled Kagome in on recent history.

Kagome was staring off into space when she felt the faint aura of her stocker. 'Damn it! I thought the damn thing left when I got here.' She thought.

She frowned and focused on the energy, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She looked out the window and studied the landscape wondering if this demon might be a threat to her school. There was a concrete path leading up to the side entrance to the school, with steps leading down to another building full of classrooms. Close to the main building there were several picnic tables, and in between the two buildings was a large grass quad. There were three or four small trees growing close to the other building and a large dogwood tree off to the left, close to the front of the school and away from both buildings. Kagome felt a pull at her senses as her eyes landed on the lone tree.

'So that's where it's hiding then.' Kagome watched the tree intently from where she sat. A girl around Kagome's age walked past the tree, she had a messenger bag backpack slung bandolier style across her chest and she was chatting happily on her cell phone. Kagome's heart almost stopped in her chest as she watched as the girl walked under the tree and momentarily disappeared from view behind the foliage. She stared in horror at the tree for several seconds until finally the girl appeared on the other side, unharmed. Kagome uttered an audible sigh of relief at which she received several questioning glances from her classmates and an angry glare from her frustrated teacher.

'That demons just sitting there waiting peacefully for me to get out of school… it probably doesn't want to cause a scene in front of a whole bunch of people, so it's probably going to try to corner me once I'm alone. Not that I care so long as it isn't going to hurt any of the other kids.' Kagome reasoned. She focused all her attention on the demons aura for the rest of the class period, and through all of the next class, but the demon never moved from its spot in the tree. As Kagome was walking to her third period class she was cornered in the hallway she was cornered by a few of her old friends.

"Kagome where were you yesterday?" asked the first girl.

"Were you sick?" asked a second.

"No I wasn't sick, I just over slept." Kagome answered. Three months ago the well refused to allow Kagome return to her family back in the feudal era, and ever since then Kagome had made a startling recovery of several known deadly illnesses as well as some unknown ones. Her school was shocked by her show of good health, something Kagome Higurashi, the notoriously sick girl, was not known for.

A third girl sighed audibly and shook her head. "Kagome you were too busy sleeping the day away and you completely missed it!"

"Missed what?" Kagome asked cautiously.

"The most gorgeous guy of all time just transferred to our school." The second girl replied.

"He's so hot, it's like staring at the Sun." the third girl added.

"But he didn't show up for school today, you completely missed him Kagome." The first girl continued.

"I heard his name was Suuichi Minamino." The third girl supplied.

Kagome tried to keep a fake smile plastered to her face; however over the years she had become less and less immune to the endless babble that her friends called "girl talk". She looked from one girl to the next trying to decide if they were going to be leaving any time soon or if she would have to find a way to escape their ignorant chatter on her own. Fortunately the three girls decided it was time to go to their classes and they finally left Kagome in peace

'Just two more classes till lunch time.' Kagome thought.

Hiei lounged lazily on a branch of a large tree, silently puzzling over the mysterious miko that he had followed from the park. He could have sworn that the girl had known he was fallowing her, but that was impossible. No human could ever have senses strong enough to track him when he was concealing his energy. Not even Kuwabara could do that, hell not many demons could manage it either. He vaguely wondered if miko powers could allow a human to find demon auras that were skillfully suppressed or masked like his was. He honestly did not know, however he did not like the idea. He had never come across a miko in his life time, they were quite rare, and he was beginning to realize he did not know anything about them. He had no way of knowing what they were capable of, or how to deal with them.

'Stupid humans.' Hiei growled to himself. This simple human had managed to thoroughly vex him to the point of muttering curses to himself in several different languages, about half of them only spoken in distant regions of Makai.

Hiei listened quietly as a human girl walked under his tree, talking cheerfully on a cell phone. "Oh of course not!" the girl said. "Yeah, I know it's such a shame that he dumped her. Oh! But since we're on the subject of boy's, the most beautiful guy I have ever seen in my entire life just transferred to my school yesterday." The girl continued, oblivious to Hiei's presence.

'This is beginning to sound suspiciously familiar…' Hiei thought absently.

"His name is Suuichi Minamino. From what I hear he's a straight A student. Apparently he had some kind of fan club back at his old school, I bet it won't be long before some of girls at this school follow suit. The best part of all is that he is totally and blessedly single!" the girl giggled stupidly.

'So this is the school that stupid fox switched to. He doesn't seem to be here however. I wonder what came up; Kurama never avoided that stupid human school of his unless something having to do with demon world was involved.' Hiei reflected. 'The fox can take care of himself. This miko girl is far more interesting.' He decided.

The girl with the cell phone walked into one of the big buildings and disappeared, leaving Hiei once again alone outside the school. He listened as the bell signaled for all the students to leave their classes and move on to their next ones. An hour or so later another bell sounded, and the students mechanically followed its command. Hiei was used to waiting outside Kurama's old school, and he was accustomed to the workings of ningen schools, however they never ceased to irritate his logic. What exactly was the point of moving from one cramped little classroom to the next six times a day on a daily basis? Anything a person needed to know they could learn for themselves out on the road. The stupid ningen teachers had knowledge, (useless and incomplete knowledge but knowledge none the less) however those teachers had no experience. The only things they knew they had learned about in books, but never seen for themselves. Hiei could not understand why Kurama obediently subjected himself to the foolish human schools. The fox probably knew more about his subjects than all his teachers combined.

After a couple hours a bell rang and students left their fourth period classes and went to lunch. Many kids piled into the quad and ate their lunches in the grass, or at the picnic tables. Most of the humans sat in groups of five or ten, talking loudly amongst themselves. Some of the groups were identifiable by the color of their clothing, but with some of the groups it was more difficult to find what similarities the teens had that made them sit together. At one time Hiei had gotten so board waiting to deliver a message to Kurama that he had used his jagon eye to try to figure out what made these humans keep such close nit circles. Human social patterns were particularly irritating to Hiei who had discovered by observation that they stayed in their designated packs for the most ridiculous of reasons.

Finally the girl Hiei had been waiting for stepped out of the main building with her backpack slung over shoulder along side the case that contained her bow. She walked casually past the picnic tables, pausing to talk to a boy and his friends before resuming her march toward Hiei, to his absolute horror. He waited for her to stop or change directions, but she did neither. She walked straight up to the tree he was lounging in and sat at the base of the trunk.

'Coincidence?' Hiei wondered when the girl proceeded to dig through her back pack, removing her lunch and a big Language Arts text book. He silently moved down till he was on a branch right above the girl, and tried to get a better look at her. The black case was set harmlessly off to the side, and her attention seemed to be on the book.

"Why are you stalking me?" the girl asked as she turned a page, frowned at whatever she had been reading, and finally pulled a notebook out of her back pack and wrote down a few notes.

Hiei sat in silent shock for a few seconds. He had gone over the possibility that she knew he was there several times, but he had not actually though that it could be true. Suddenly he felt a blow to his pride; not only did this human girl know he had been following her, she had approached him on her own accord, and was now sitting underneath him without any weapon that she could reach fast enough to defend herself with, and she was doing her homework! Hardly paying him any attention. The girl was clearly not afraid of him. He finally opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Instead he used his mental powers to speak directly into her mind. 'I was waiting for someone else who goes to this school, but I saw you destroy that low level demon and decided you were more interesting.' Hiei almost growled when the girl did not seem the least bit intimidated by the voice in her head, that was one of his tricks that he found was grunted to scare the shit out of any human. It did not seem to be working this time. 'He dose not seem to be here today anyway.'

"And you have nothing better to do than antagonize a mere mortal such as my self?" The girl asked sarcastically, jotting down more notes before taking a huge bite out of the salami sandwich she had brought for lunch.

'Hn.' Hiei replied.

The girl laughed, amused by his one word response.

'Do you mock me girl?' Hiei growled.

She laughed even harder at the irritation in his tone. "You remind me of someone I used to know, that's all." She finally choked out, trying to repress her uncontrolled laughter.

'Hn.' Hiei muttered.

The girl finally looked up from her text book and tried to get a look at her stocker but Hiei was too fast, darting up to a higher branch and disappearing into the foliage before she could see anything other than a brief flash of black.

"Damn it! I already know where you are, so why won't you let me look at you?" the girl hissed, finally irritated. "It's impolite to hide yourself and talk to someone who can't see you."

'Hn. I was following you this morning, what makes you think I'm going to show you my face?' Hiei answered; slightly amused that he had finally gotten the girl to loose her temper.

"There's a difference between following and stocking you know! Following is when you follow someone around without trying to hide the fact that you're following them, when they can see where you are. Stocking is when you hide in the shadows and follow someone around. If you had been following me I wouldn't have minded, but I really hate stockers!" the girl yelled. She set her book down next to her backpack and stood up with a huff. She eyed the tree for a moment before grabbing on to the lowest limb with both hands and pulling herself up. She straddled the limb for a second, trying to work up her courage. Finally she crawled closer to the trunk and used it for balance as she stood up on the limb and reached for the next one.

Hiei stared wide eyed as the girl slowly climbed up the tree. It was not something he had thought a human would be completely incapable of doing, but he had certainly thought that this particular human lacked the strength and balance to do. And he had certainly not been expecting her to try. There was no point to her attempting to scale the tree, didn't she see that? Even if she could climb all the way to where Hiei was comfortably perched he could move to somewhere else long before she could catch a glimpse of him. She moved up the tree at a snails pace, struggling to stay balanced the entire time. Hiei watched as she stood on her tip toes, with one hand bracing her self against the trunk and the other reaching up for another branch. Just watching her made Hiei want to cringe, witch was in itself odd since cringing was not something he did on a regular basis. She was going to fall; it was only a matter of time. She had already come pretty close to plummeting to the ground, but the girl stubbornly continued her climb. She was now high enough off the ground that a fall would definitely mean serious injury on her part, if she did not manage to snap her neck and die first.

Hiei winced as the girls foot slipped off the branch she was standing on leaving her hanging from the branch above her by one hand. Undaunted, she grabbed the branch with her other hand and pulled herself up. She used her momentum to try to slip her knee over the branch, but she didn't get it far enough over the branch and she slipped down again, loosing her grip on the branch and falling. Hiei moved as fast as his demonic speed would allow, not even bothering to think about what he was doing. He darted to one of the lower branches and caught the girl under the arms before she could fall too far. He held her pressed to his chest, with both arms wrapped around her waist. "Stupid human." He growled, finally speaking out loud.

The girl looked up at his face and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that." She replied.

"Hn." Hiei answered, as he leapt agilely to the ground and put her down. He rolled his eyes and jumped back onto the branch above her sitting against the trunk with his arms crossed across his chest.

The girl glanced up and looked at Hiei curiously, and he decided that there would be no point in moving since she already got a look at his face, unless he was interested in watching her try to kill herself again that is. "Thanks for saving me." She chirped happily.

Hiei just shrugged silently in reply, choosing to stare off into space.

"So what's your name anyway?" the girl pressed.

Hiei looked at her for a long moment trying to decide weather or not to answer the question. "Hiei." He wasn't quite sure why he had indulged her question; he finally shrugged and went back to staring at the sky.

"My name is Higurashi Kagome; it's nice to meet you Hiei." Hiei snorted in response to her polite greeting but Kagome did not seem to notice.

After a while the bell rang and Kagome gathered up her things, saying a polite goodbye to Hiei as she headed to her next class. Kagome paid even less attention in her class than usual, her mind too busy puzzling over the unusual fire demon. He reminded her of a cross between Inuyasha and Sesshomeru… or maybe Sango. Regardless, it was a scary thought. Kagome giggled as she thought of what Hiei would say if he knew he was being compared to ether of the dog demons. Her teacher raised an eyebrow at her, but finally shrugged and continued his lecture about the cell structures of plants. Kagome was happy to have found a demon in her time that didn't seem to be completely homicidal, even if he was a little anti social.

The clock ticked by and finally the bell rang, signaling the end of school. Kagome focused her senses once she stepped out into the front of the school but Hiei seemed to be gone. She was slightly disappointed but she figured he had better things to do than follow a human girl around all day. She was walking down a small deserted street when she felt the familiar demonic aura following her at a distance, flicking from tree to tree at incredible speeds.

"Hiei your stalking me again." Kagome yelled over her shoulder. 'Ok so maybe he doesn't have anything better to do than follow a human girl around all day.' Kagome thought. Hiei appeared instantly at her side, walking at a human pace. He had his hands in his pockets, and walked silently alongside Kagome.

Kagome laughed and offered him a smile. "Now, was that so hard?" she asked innocently.

Hiei rolled his eyes and kept silent. Where ever Kurama was he would probably be home before Shiori, his human mother. That would mean that if Hiei went looking for him at his house he would likely find him after six o' clock. Hiei had four hours to kill, and this miko girl was the only remotely interesting thing he had encountered all day.

Kagome smiled and continued to walk in silence, the feel of Hieis dark aura reminding her of the feudal era. They wound their way down a few streets until they finally stood in front of the shrine steps. Kagome climbed up the steps absent mindedly, still lost in the past. She was to caught in her memories to notice that someone was charging at her, until it was too late.

"SOTA GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Kagome yelled. Her younger brother had successfully tackled her to the ground and was now sitting on top of her, grinning manically.

"Who's your friend? He has weird energy." Hiei nearly died of shock at Sota's innocent question.

'How the hell can this kid sense my aura?' Hiei telepathically asked Kagome.

'He's my younger brother. I taught him to sense demonic energy.' Kagome answered with a shrug.

'That's not the point! No human should be able to sense me, so how-' Hiei's rant was cut off as Kagome ignored him in favor of answering her brother.

"This is Hiei, he's a fire demon." Kagome said, ignoring the fire demons low growl.

Sota's eyes grew impossibly round as he looked at Hiei. "That's so cool!" It was quite clear who Sota's new hero was going to be.

Hiei arched an eyebrow but chose not to respond.

Kagome pushed her brother off and rolled to her feet, dusting the dirt off her clothes and sighing in exasperation. She made her way to the house, deliberately looking at her feet as they passed the goshinboku tree. Her mother appeared at the door way and smiled when her eyes landed on Hiei.

"Who is our guest Kagome?" she asked kindly.

"His name is Hiei. Hiei's a fire demon." Hiei nearly tripped as Sota answered his mother's question a little too thoroughly. The woman did not seem to mind that Hiei had just been identified by her son as a demon, and he figured that she simply figured Sota had been joking.

"It's nice to meet you Hiei." The woman said kindly.

Hiei nodded blankly, not quite sure how to respond, he was not used to people saying that it was nice to meet him and he had heard the polite greeting twice in one day. He was simply having a niceness overload. It was never nice to meet Hiei, the Jaganshi.

'Stupid humans.' Hiei thought for probably the millionth time that day.

The woman smiled at the slightly confused look on her face. "Would you kids like me to bring you some tea?" Kagomes mom asked cheerfully.

"Sure mom." Sota replied.

"Yeah mom, thanks." Kagome added.

The woman smiled and disappeared inside the house as Kagome and Sota sat on the front steps, and Hiei leaned against the house. She appeared at the door a few minutes later with three glasses of iced tea, handing the first one to Hiei.

He blinked in surprise before answering. "Hn…Thank you." Kagomes mom laughed, completely used to yukai behavior.

"He reminds me of Inuyasha" she said as she handed Kagome her drink. "except Inuyasha was never that polite." Kagome laughed at her moms comment and nodded her agreement.

Hiei just stared at mother and daughter in confusion, before shrugging and staring at the sky, disinterested.

"Grandpa is asleep, but we should probably try to keep it down if you don't want him to harass your friend." Kagome's mom added once she finally got control over her laughter.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Kagome said. "Grandpa wouldn't have any way of knowing Hiei's not human. The only reason why he could tell with Inuyasha was because the furry dog ears, the silver hair, and the yellow eyes kinda made it blatantly obvious. He doesn't know how to sense demonic energy… or any energy for that matter."

"What would..." Hiei began, not knowing quite how to phrase his question.

"My father is a little over zealous when it comes to attempting to banish demons. It took him a while to get used to Kagome's other friend, Inuyasha." Kagome's mother explained.

"If grandpa found out you were a demon he would probably chase you around the house sticking useless ofuda on you and muttering spells that don't work. He's completely senile." Sota continued.

Hiei wasn't quite sure what to make of that information. So all of these people knew demons existed, but only Kagome and her brother seemed to know how to identify demonic energy. On top of that Kagome's mother did not seem to have the slightest problem with her bringing home demons after school. In fact it sounded like she had brought home a dog demon named Inuyasha on previous occasions.

'These people are insane.' Hiei finally concluded, taking a sip of his tea.

Kagome's mom eventually went back inside to finish the ironing, leaving the three outside to themselves.

"Do you bring home every demon you meet?" Hiei asked.

Kagome laughed at Hiei's irritated tone of voice. "I didn't bring home that mole demon from this morning. Figured he wouldn't make good company." She said.

Hiei rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't bring strangers home, especially demons, it's dangerous."

"You followed me home remember?"

Hiei didn't exactly have an answer to that so he kept his mouth shut, preferring to cross his arms over his chest and look at the floor.

Kagome was used to Hiei's silent tactic by now, and smiled knowing she had won their little argument.

"Kagome, when are you going to teach me how to use spiritual powers?" Sota asked, giving Kagome his best puppy dog eyes.

"When you stop bugging me about it." Kagome replied with a laugh.

Hiei arched an eyebrow at the phrase "spiritual powers" but decided not to ask. Those kinds of powers were rare, and the boy was suggesting that he was capable of the same kind of power that his sister had.

'Perhaps it runs in the family.' Hiei thought. 'They are shrine keepers after all.' He shrugged and finished his tea, handing the glass to Kagome. "Thank you for your hospitality, but I should be leaving." He said, as he turned to go.

"Umm…yeah no problem." Kagome replied, slightly dumbfounded at hearing Hiei say a complete sentence, not to mention a polite sentence. She couldn't imagine Inuyasha saying the word "hospitality"

"Bye Hiei!" Sota shouted happily as Hiei used his demonic speed and darted away.