It was all Kagome could do to keep herself from passing out. She could feel herself being moved but her eyes couldn't concentrate and voices swam together in her ears. She thought she caught a flash of blue and pink and a woman's voice and then the darkness of the night was erased and replaced with a bright noisy area.

Her unfocused vision went black for a few seconds before something bitter was shoved into her mouth and she was suddenly and painfully aware of her surroundings. She slammed her shoulders away from her captor who released her easily. Her knees buckled and she fell to all fours on a cool tile floor as her head danced with dizziness and nausea rolled through her stomach.

Her insides threatened to heave and she rested her overheated forehead against the soothing tile where she panted as she took stock of her situation. She reached up to her injured collar-bone only for her fingertips to encounter some kind of sticky sap. At least she wasn't bleeding anymore. Large hands moved to hook over one of her arms and she jerked away and shook the stranger off before forcing herself to her feet and stumbling against a wall where she continued to pant and tremble.

"Welcome to spirit world." A voice drew her gaze to what appeared to be a toddler behind a desk full of paperwork. "I had wished to meet you under better circumstances." He leveled a stern look at the men that stood beside and behind her. There was a beat of silence before her duffel bag was tossed onto the toddler's desk.

She took half a step forward before her vision swam and she clutched the wall for dear life again. Perhaps it was lucky, since she missed the way the strangers jerked forward as if to intercept her.

"T-those are mine." She winced at the softness of her voice. She may not have said anything, for the toddler still unzipped the bag and pulled out the priestess' outfit before his eyebrows hit his hairline when he pulled out the familiar red robes and the sword wrapped within. Anger pulsed in her chest and she opened her mouth to try and yell but he spoke first.

"Tell me, miss Kagome. How is it that you came across such articles?" The question hung in the air as the priestess gathered her strength and pushed off from the wall. She held out one hand and did her best to channel a certain daiyoukai.

"Give those back, or I won't say a thing." Her voice was steady, though perhaps not as intimidating as she had hoped. The kid held the items out and she stumbled forward and gathered them into her arms as if they were a sleeping babe. She put the robes to her nose and took a deep breath, the faded scent of Inuyasha that stilll clung to them and the brush of Tessaiga's youkai over her senses fortified her and a sigh shivered out of her lungs.

What should she tell them? What could she tell them? Her eyes glanced nervously around the office to the impatient and impassive faces of the men she had faced and lost to in the alley. 'Gomen...I wasn't strong enough.' She silently apologized to her friends. Finally she steeled herself and spoke.

"These belonged to a friend." She started as a soft smile touched her lips. Her throat and eyes burned as tears threatened but she swallowed them back and decided to jump right into the deep end. "Someone I met five hundred years ago while collecting shards of the shattered Shikon No Tama." The silence almost hurt her ears and she dared not look up from where she had nearly buried her face into the fire rat robes.

"Bullshit." Her eyes were drawn to a boy in a muscle shirt and green pants with shiny black hair.

"I don't care if you believe it." Her eyes and voice were suddenly steely as she glared daggers at the youth. Anger was easier to stomach than fear and she was prepared to grip it with both hands.

"No need for that." The toddler interrupted, "I may know your name, miss Kagome, but allow me to introduce myself. I am lord Koenma, and these are my spirit detectives. Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama." He pointed to each of them respectively. "I, for one, believe your story." He let the statement hang in the air and Kagome's anger started to dissipate.

"I believe your story because there are record that allude to a girl of your description with your name from that time." Koenma eyed her over his steepled fingers as if judging her reaction. "It was chaotic back then and nobody could investigate the situation at the time. I'm glad to find the source of the discrepancy."

"She's lookin' pretty good for five hundred." Yusuke was suddenly next to her and she nearly fell backwards in surprise.

"I'm not five hundred!" She sputtered, indignant, though she didn't know why. "I was pulled through a well and ended up back then."

Koenma waved the building argument away. "In any case let's get down to the meat of the situation. These demon attacks are getting out of control, especially around your part of town." His eyes narrowed over his hands at her. "Any idea why? A certain jewel, perhaps?"

"The Shikon is gone." She said quietly, "I wished it away after we got rid of Naraku." Koenma let out a disappointed sigh, he had hoped that would be the reason behind the attacks. It would have made the case a hell of a lot simpler.

"Alright, toddler, I've got a question." Yusuke interrupted the silence, "just what the hell is she?" He jerked his thumb towards the woman in question.

"I'm right here ya know." Kagome muttered with a deadpan look.

"It's simple, Yusuke." Kurama surprised everyone when he spoke up. "I've suspected it for awhile, but upon seeing her garments there," he gestured to the miko clothes lying forgotten on the desk, "I feel safe to say that she is, in fact, a priestess." His emerald eyes cut to the one in question. "Isn't that right, Higarashi-san?

She felt her face heat at his intense look, though she couldn't say why, and nodded once before gathering Inuyasha's robes to her face and almost hiding behind them.

Look how shy she is Shuichi, Yoko purred from his mind, Pure as her name implies.

"In any case, we've no reason to hold you so you can go back home. We will be placing you under surveillance, however." Koenma's gaze fell on Hiei whom had been standing off to the side acting as if he had no interest in the goings-on around him and Kurama who bowed his head in acquiescence.

"What? No!" Kagome gasped, "I don't need babysitters!" She stomped her foot as her face flushed with anger.

"It's just a precaution, and it would help greatly with our investigation as the demons seem to be congregating around your home." The miko grit her teeth but stayed silent. At her grudging acceptance Koenma waved them off. On her way out she nearly ran headfirst into a blue-haired woman.

"Its so good to meet you, my name is Botan!" Kagome blinked in surprise at the bubbly girl but she couldn't help the warm smile the grim reaper inspired.

"Kagome, Higarashi." She shook the other girls hand, "You can call me Kagome." The pink-clad female grinned with delight and moved aside to open up a portal that lead just outside her house. "Wow! Amazing!" She gushed as she reached a hand through the swirling portal and brought it back to inspect it.

She noticed the looks she was getting from the spirit detectives and she sobered a bit and took a step through the portal.


The vapor of her breath puffed before her like a disembodied spirit as she jogged through the woods behind her shrine. She hadn't been for one of her morning runs since this entire debacle started, and it felt good to stretch her legs again. She could feel Hiei's signature aura nearby, but now that she knew they meant her no harm she breathed easy enough to leave the barrier and take up her normal routine once again.

Her mind danced with the questions that had been answered yesterday during her brief visit to 'Spirit World' but new questions bit at the heels of her answers. Why were they so surprised that she was a priestess? She thought it would have been obvious. She lived on a shrine, she used a bow and arrows, and she had holy powers. She'd never run into a lack of miko in the feudal era.

What was with Hiei's aura? It was almost abrasive against her senses, and she was more than a little frightened of the demon. Her hand moved to rub against the smooth skin that had been sliced by said demon last night. Whatever that sticky stuff was it had healed her overnight. She wondered who had slathered it on her. Kagome came to a stop under a large tree where she could feel the rough waves of Hiei's aura and she smiled up at the dark branches, completely unable to see anything.

She blinked up at the darkness then her eyes moved to roam over the few stars that she could see in the pre-dawn sky over the city. She felt bad about attacking the spirit detectives, but really they could have handled the situation better. How was she to know which demons were good and bad? Guilt pinged against her chest. She really hadn't given them the opportunity to explain, either, and Shuichi, or Kurama as the case may be, had at least tried to meet her halfway with his offer of speaking after school.

"I'll forget the cut, if you forget the burns?" She asked hopefully to the darkness. The small smile faded a little as only silence answered. 'Well, he didn't seem like the forgiving type anyway, but it never hurts to try.' Kagome turned towards the shrine steps and walked the rest of the way back home.

The aura of her nocturnal watcher faded with the sunrise and Kagome felt a tension she hadn't even been aware of leave her shoulders.

Kagome ran her finger over one of the sutras on the Torii gate as she left later that morning. The barrier was still going strong, but she put just a pinch more energy into the sutra to fortify it further. She may trust the spirit detectives to an extent but she wasn't about to leave her family unguarded with all the demonic activity, especially since said activity seemed to converge on her house if what that boy Koenma said was true.

The priestess glanced over her shoulder at the beautiful pink bubble that encompassed her family with a small smile. At least she was able to do that much for her family. Kagome came up short as a familiar red-head waited at the bottom of the stairs.

"I take it you've got the day shift?" She asked with good humor, despite the irritation that lanced through her at the thought of being under constant watch.

"Guilty." He fell into step beside her as they walked to school together. The pair didn't speak, and the bustle of the city filled the silence. When the university came into sight Kagome groaned and stopped suddenly. "Something wrong?"

"Well..." She was suddenly nervous "we're practically here, and there's no other demons around. Maybe we should go in separate?"

"Ashamed to be seen with a demon?" His tone was light but he could feel Yoko's annoyance and couldn't help but feel a little offended himself.

"No, of course not!" Kagome's voice was softer, "it's just...your fanclub...I really don't want them to see me with you and get the wrong idea?" The avatar couldn't help the laugh that escaped him.

"You're afraid of a few overexcited girls?" The thought was amusing to both of his personalities. The pair entered the grounds and the infamous fan-club members turned to regard the girl that dared approach their idol. As their glares burned into her Kagome could only think of one thing.

"I'd rather fight a whole horde of demons..."

A/N:

This chapter gave me some trouble, hopefully the next one will be funner to write! As I said before I don't have much experience with YYH(I watched it when I was a kid and remembered liking it) but the timing would be after Yusuke discovers his demon blood but before he trains in the Makai for a year.

Sesshomaru will be making an appearance (hopefully soon) but I want to try to stay true to his character and have a couple ideas of how to introduce him.

thanks to all those who review! You have no idea how much I appreciate the feedback!

To answer foxgloves' question I do not have the chapters written in advance, it usually takes me anywhere from 2-8 hours to get a chapter written depending on how my creative juices flow that day. That being said I am about halfway done with the next chapter (and working on Sesshomaru's much more interesting intro scene just have to figure out where it will fit).