Long ago, when the earth was young and humans were finding their first words, its two creators had a disagreement. Unfortunately, the disagreement became a spat, which became something of an all-out conflict. Sides were chosen and a split occurred. One side went up, and began calling themselves 'heaven', and the other side went down, and began calling themselves 'hell.'
It was a messy divorce.
Midoriko, supreme goddess of the celestial, keeper of keys and order, ascended. Her domain would be where those who followed the rules of the world would come, ready to sing and dance and worship in a well-regulated manner, their souls able to give up all attachments and will, to live in the bliss of an unending routine. And the souls that found themselves in that place adored its steadiness, delighting in the predictable and comfortable eternity.
Kikyō relished in it, too. She always did take more after her mother than her father. All things in their place and a place for all things. It gave her a sense of serenity. So up she went, the deputy of heaven, the shepherd of souls who had chosen an eternity of bliss and order.
Naraku, the supreme lord of the underworld, punisher of the damned and king of chaos, descended. His domain would serve as the consequence to a life richly lived. He thrived in the production of chaos and uncertainty, and believed fully and truly, that a person should write their own destiny. The souls in his realm followed their own paths. Some lived in eternal damnation for the sins of their lives, and some in the hedonistic bliss of no regrets. Hell was both a party and a dungeon, and the fate of the damned laid entirely in their own hands.
Kagome always was one to believe that we chose our own destiny, and off she went to live with her father instead of her mother. She enjoyed dropping a stone into a pond and watching it ripple, one choice cascading into the next and the next and the next. How self-determined all of it could seem, even when it originated from the flutter of a butterfly's wings from across the continent (oftentimes Kagome was that butterfly). When Dad asked her to become the deputy of hell, it was due to these credentials (and also why Kagome answered with an enthusiastic yes!).
So it was: two houses both alike in dignity, on Earth, is where we lay our scene. The souls of humans and demons would be claimed by heaven or hell, depending on the way that the mortals lived their lives. True, more demons than not went to hell (demons did not like rules), and true, more spiritual humans than not went to heaven. Still, both upstairs and downstairs had a diverse mix of characters drawn from all swaths of the population; order and chaos were not as cut and dry as good and evil, after all.
But on Earth, something peculiar had happened. As if choice had surrendered to fate, because more and more, souls decided which they would live by as soon as they could speak their first word. Those that adored rules and repentance, ordering their lives around the good deeds they had done and the bad that they had avoided seemed to live their entire lives by those tenets, making heaven their destination. Others, who shirked the rules, running wild through their lives and howling with joy at the spontaneity of it all were assigned to hell without a second thought. This consistency was well and good, but… it certainly had made the lives of the heads of heaven and hell a bit boring.
Where was the fun in tempting a soul to go up or down if they all seemed so predetermined? Souls would follow the rules, or they would shirk them. They would live by the book, readying themselves for the great reward of the afterlife, or they would stomp their feet and declare that they were arbiters of their own fate.
It left so little for Kikyō and Kagome to do.
Perhaps that was why the estranged sisters now spent more time on Earth than in their respective homes, scouring for souls that were sitting on the proverbial fence: unsure of which mantra to adopt. Or maybe it was because as the daughters of both heaven and hell, Kikyō and Kagome had preferences for their dwellings and loyalties, but neither really felt at home. And both, if they were completely honest, preferred the company of each other to the company of mom and dad.
That was one of the reasons that they were at the little cafe that day, enjoying the rare Seattle sunshine.
The other reason, though, was far more interesting.
It seemed, for the first time in over a century, there was purpose to their roles.
There was a soul on the fence, not predestined one way or the other.
A soul that could be swayed.
The previous one had been an overly amorous monk, who spent his time saving lives and sleeping with women. Kagome had been certain that she would come away with the victory, but then the man met a virtuous woman, and returned to his religion like a good prodigal son. Kikyō had not let Kagome hear the end of it.
This time, Kagome had vowed, would be different. This time, the soul of Inuyasha Taisho would be hers.
"Remind me again what the count is?" Kikyō's smugness always did grate on Kagome's last nerve.
"100 souls," Kagome growled; living in hell had given her a lot of practice. "To—"
"101!" Kikyō chirped, not letting Kagome finish the damn sentence.
"Just show me the damn file." Kagome grabbed the manila folder away from her far-too-smug sister. "And since when did heaven get all the rights to these?"
"Because mom was always the organized one," Kikyō answered, her tone still far too cheerful.
"I'm sure that all those happy singing souls are just lining up to be heaven's favorite file clerks," Kagome deadpanned.
"You don't think that these files would make for interesting reading?" Kikyō challenged.
"Wouldn't it break the rules for people to sneak peeks they weren't supposed to have?" Kagome did love cornering her sister.
"Dad would have set them all on fire, and just had us going out and choosing souls at random," Kikyō huffed, "and besides. It's my job to keep them organized. So… it only makes sense for me to know their contents."
"You rebel!" Kagome called, then took a sip of her cappuccino. "You keep that up and you're going to find yourself banished to Earth!"
There had only been one time each in recorded history that such a threat had been made to Kikyō and Kagome. The first was when Kagome deliberately ignored Saint Francis's bargain. He needed structure and rules, and Dad was way too obsessed with the idea of sneering at Mom over a deified saint being in hell. Kagome thought it was dumb and childish, and so she… didn't accept. Naraku got himself nearly angry enough to cast Kagome out, but luckily thought better of it when he'd had a nip to eat.
Kikyō's only brush with banishment had come when she had given Brutus the idea that if enough people stabbed Caesar, then no one would be held culpable for the assassination. Kikyō explained that it brought down a brutal dictatorship before it got out of control. No one had ever seen Midoriko so angry. It had all worked out in the end, since exactly zero of the conspirators were ever going to be heading up instead of down anyway (and neither was Caesar, for that matter).
"Ha ha ha," Kikyō mocked, "just read the file… please."
"Inuyasha Taisho. Half-demon—ohh, those are rare—raised by a single mother. Dad died when Inuyasha was young. By lightning strike. (Not one of ours.)" Kagome eyed the silver-haired, dog-eared man in the file. He was handsome (Kagome always did have a thing for the children of two worlds).
"College graduate. No extracurriculars, save for solo hiking." Kikyō leaned over the file with Kagome, "Likes to be alone." (Loner meant point for Kagome.)
"A computer programmer," Kagome frowned. Programmer meant rule follower (point for Kikyō).
"Not many friends. And no relationships." Kagome felt sorry for the guy. "Fiercely protective of his mother."
"Mom died a few years back," Kikyō read. "He paid off her medical bills, and then proceeded to hack the hospital systems and erase all outstanding debts. Never caught."
"Not just a computer programmer, a hacker," Kagome sneered. (Hacker meant point for Kagome.)
"Looks like the reason we were called in was that he cursed out both of us." Kikyō had turned to the last page of the file. "Praying that his mother had reunited with his father. And cursing both heaven and hell out for taking his father so young that his mother lived a human widow's life with a half-demon son."
"A little selfless, a little selfish," Kagome smirked. "I like this guy."
"Of course you do." Kikyō rolled her eyes.
And unfortunately, Kagome did. She liked the way that his dog-like ears projected his mood. She liked that he wore a scowl as a smile. She liked that even though every single thing in the file said that Inuyasha hated being around people, there was a footnote with only a single word on it—Shiori—that caught her attention. Like all the rest of the unclaimed souls, Inuyasha was interesting in that way that heated Kagome's blood, that got the gears of her mind working, that made it as much about claiming the man's soul as about getting one over on her sister, and tying their score once more.
"Now, we need to set up ground rules. To make sure that it's fair not only to us, but also to him." Kikyō was such a spoil-sport.
"Question." Kagome reverted back to deadpan. "Are these the same rules that have been in place for thousands of years? Or did you get frisky and decide to change them up?"
"They're the same," Kikyō huffed, "but you never followed them all those times, so I figured that giving you a little reminder made sense."
Kagome had exactly zero intention of following the rules laid out by her mother all those years ago. That was the point, after all: they were tempting the soul, cajoling it into deciding its destiny. And Kagome had found, in her experience, that if a soul was bound for hell, tricks were not necessary to get it there. And if a soul were bound for heaven, a set of rules was not going to be the determiner.
"First rule… we explain to Inuyasha what each afterlife would be like—" Kikyō had started the drone that meant Kagome would have some time to daydream.
Of the 'rules of engagement', the only one that Kagome actually followed was telling someone where their dead relatives were. Because it was often not as simple as everyone seemed to think. Saintly mothers were partying in the fire pits and truly monstrous grandfathers were singing in perfect harmony from the clouds. Souls had a way of forgetting the terrestrial when they entered the afterlife, so people asking 'will I get to see my wife again?' had a rude awakening coming.
Please let mom and dad be reunited.
That was one of Inuyasha's prayers. And that was one Kagome was not going to answer.
"You're not listening…" Kikyō usually sounded irritated when she caught Kagome, but this time, she sounded worried.
"They're the same rules, Kikyō!" Kagome grumbled. "We're going to do the same thing we've always done. We are going to meet the soul and we are going to help him figure out where he belongs."
"Yes. They are the same rules." Kikyō almost looked hurt at Kagome's reaction. "But for once, I wish you would just listen to them! And for once, maybe I could enjoy time with my sister without being ignored!"
"We don't have to start this all today," Kagome deflected; she had been caught off-guard by Kikyō's admission of wanting to spend time with her. "How about… we grab some lunch, grab another coffee, and just take the rest of the day to catch up? It's been, what—"
"79 years," Kikyō finished Kagome's sentence, "since the last time."
"Seattle is a beautiful city. Let's explore all the stuff they've done with it," Kagome smiled, pleased to see Kikyō's face light with a matching smile.
"It would be good to catch up," Kikyō agreed.
"Then lunch is on me," Kagome guffawed, and signaled for the waiter to come to their table and take their orders: a cobb salad for Kikyō and a nicoise salad for Kagome.
After lunch, they explored, walking along the waterfront and taking in the sculpture park (most artists, Kagome noted, were dancing with dad; Kikyō merely scoffed). Kagome really did like catching up with her sister. Kikyō was the most interesting person in heaven by a longshot, and although the gossip was never as juicy as the goings-on of hell, there were usually tidbits here and there that sparked Kagome's interest.
The two sisters said goodnight that night, each headed to their hotel rooms. Kikyō had given Kagome a duplicate copy of Inuyasha Taisho's file to study overnight, having agreed that they would begin their games the following day.
"Inuyasha Taisho," Kagome smirked, her eyes fixed on the dog-ears, "it will be my pleasure to make you my 101st soul."