Chapter Twenty-One: Holy Missiles

"Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real."

-Iris Murdoch

Kagome was back at school, looking at the clock as she waited for the final bell to ring. She didn't care too much if she was in class or at home, she'd been fairly numb since the battle with Naraku had taken place five days before. She'd started school again yesterday after they'd returned from the feudal era. The well was still open and the group with her had come up with the excuse of being a supernatural interest club so they could come to the shrine once a week and spend time around there. They wanted to learn more about the gateway and said she still required protection with Rufus and who knew how many others that would be interested in her.

Which lead her to the larger issue, she needed to pick someone she loved for the rest to be released from this curse she was under, but that was easier said than done. How could she pick a single person from a half dozen? Not to mention, how could she pick any of them if they only wanted her because of a spell? That seemed unfair on too many levels for her to count. How could she possibly decide and ever think love was real after this? But if she didn't…would she leave all the rest suffering forever?

It was a cruel cryptic circle Kagome was caught in, only made more complicated by her loss of Inuyasha. Certainly, they'd never openly admitted their feelings, but she had loved him, and even if he hadn't loved her fully he cared about her. She couldn't responsibly just choose someone after that…she needed time to grieve and think without this spell influencing her but the rest of the group wouldn't let her out of their sight. Instead she had to settle for talking to them as little as possible and hiding out at her house…which was easy enough to explain to most of them…

Ishida and Kaiba though weren't aware of what she was or what she was capable of, and she couldn't just stop eating lunch with people or cancel her tutoring with Ishida after asking him to help her. Though that was still limited it wasn't as separated as she would like.

"Hey, are you all right Kagome, are you going home?" The voice drew her from her thoughts, it was Winry. She didn't talk to the girl too often, but they only had a couple classes together. The blonde looked obviously concerned; likely she'd heard from someone what had happened.

"Yeah I'm good, thanks; I wanted to hit the library so I wasn't in a hurry." Kagome offered a fake smile as she lied. Kagome had been so distracted with her thoughts that she hadn't noticed or thought about the bell even though she'd been watching the clock.

Her friends were worried about her. Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi could always come up with something. They had decided Kagome's quiet must be a result of Albel's actions in gym recently and were at least not taking it further than that. They were usually busy with clubs so Kagome could walk to the library, at least that way she wasn't too much of a liar, and she should check out a book for a report that would be due at the end of the semester. There was a small list to choose from, Kagome was just going to get whatever was left.

She had to search for a while to get a book on the list that wasn't already taken, there was only one left, it seemed like the world wanted to add insult to injury. She ended up checking out A Midsummer Night's Dream, involving many of the things she didn't want to think about, more or less read about. A long sigh of resignation followed her putting the book in her backpack.

It was later than she realized when she left the school, it had taken a while to go through the whole list and she noticed the librarian was quick to close the library behind her. She wouldn't have another train to catch at this stop for an hour and a half, and it would take that long just to walk. So she pulled the yellow straps of her backpack over her arms and headed along the road, she'd rather have the quiet of a walk anyway. It seemed like if she had an eternity it wouldn't be enough time to contemplate a way out of this situation.

Surely there had to be some other way to reverse this curse? Surely they'd managed to get the kami to alter it, but perhaps there could be something else? They would benefit as much as she would if they could somehow cancel out this spell. Though, she wasn't too sure of that, not after some of what had been said. It would take a god or power equivalent to one as far as she could tell from what they'd said. They were all so powerful themselves; if they couldn't do it she was doubtful they'd find someone else capable of it.

Kagome was back to fretting and thinking herself in circles when she was literally shoved back to reality, a blonde woman in a dark suit had slammed into her and knocked her into a nearby brick wall. Though the woman fell down herself Kagome didn't get the chance to ask if she was okay. Kagome was pushed back into the wall by a second pair of hands, a blade across her neck that made her eyes widen. She'd assumed when they said they were watching her that it meant all the time, she should have let someone know she was going to walk without just leaving on her own.

"Elena…you shouldn't trip when you are tackling a target." The red haired man holding her she recognized after a moment. He'd been at the apartment with Sephiroth, him and the bald man that had come around a corner to help the blonde stand. "Kagome, you need to come with us. The president still wants to know what's going on with you."

"The president?" Kagome asked, furrowing her brow.

"Rufus." Reno replied with a shrug. "I don't see what all the fuss is about."

"Let's just go." Rude commented, he was eyeing the area from behind those sunglasses of his. Obviously he was aware she was normally being watched, they were probably waiting for a chance like this.

What none of them were expecting was the bright azure missile that cut through the air and forced Reno back away from Kagome, the edge of it cutting his sleeve as it flew past into the distance. The energy she sensed a moment before it happened, she was getting better at noticing such disturbances, but what surprised her most was the holy energy around it. For a moment she thought it was Kikyo.

"Hardly fair odds, three against one," Her surprises didn't end with the holy energy, Ishida was standing a little up the street, a short bow with dark blue marks in his right hand. "Is there some reason you are attacking a lady walking alone?"

"Well, that's not one I expected…Rude, get rid of him." Reno commented, he went to reach for Kagome again and several more holy arrows shot from Ishida's direction, more than Kagome could easily follow. The group of shots hitting all three of the suited individuals after her was enough to let her run up the road toward the blue haired young man. So many random things were happening to her. Ishida having holy arrows shouldn't have been a shock, yet she found herself staring as he shot several more arrows past her to cover her retreat. She was about to pause but he grabbed her wrist and tore down a side alley at such a pace that her legs didn't get a break for a few minutes.

When they finally stopped she wasn't the only one with her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. She had years of running in the feudal era that kept her from the need to fall over.

"What…what was that?" Kagome asked, her eyes moving to his right hand where the bow had been, though she couldn't see it now. He must have dropped it somewhere on the run. "You…those were holy arrows."

"Holy arrows?" It was Ishida's turn to be surprised. That wasn't the expected response to his rescue of her, he nodded up the alley, continuing along the street. "I think I'm going to have many questions about you as well. Do you know why those people were after you?"

"It's complicated." Kagome said with a chuckle at the skeptical glance she received. "I ah…a lot of people are after me, people that aren't that normal; until today I thought you were normal Ishida."

"I'm a Quincy." Ishida answered, pausing to look up either side of the street they came to before moving again. "What are you?"

"I'm a miko." Kagome replied, shrugged at the second uncertain glance he gave her. "I know it sounds strange but I am. I can use holy arrows, but I'm not good at it. Nothing like how you were back there. You shouldn't have dropped your bow."

"I didn't." Ishida replied; then continued without explaining that statement. "Real miko's died out years ago, what are the ones after you then? I didn't sense anything strange about them; unlike some of the other members of your school."

"I don't know." Kagome shrugged. "And I guess you're wrong, if you had a bow for me I'd show you. Where are we going?"

"My house is near here. We can have a cab pick us up from there." Ishida explained, still barely watching her and instead keeping an eye out, it seemed as though he'd done something like this before.

Kagome wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't normal, but he wasn't with the group at her school and she didn't want to give away any secrets. Instead she decided to focus on what was at hand. "Uh…thank you, for saving me back there."

"I just did what anyone should." Ishida replied. "I couldn't really stand by and let a bunch of thugs kidnap you."

He didn't add that he'd noticed her when he was volunteering at her school walking off alone and that he'd been following her for several blocks. The whole reason he'd agree to help some of the students at her school was in the hope of running into her more often, this wasn't quite what he had in mind.

"Well, still, a lot of people would just look the other way." Kagome smiled at him. "As for the rest, we can figure it out. What's a Quincy?"

"If you don't know, you're better off not having extra details." Ishida commented with a shake of his head. "I shouldn't have said anything; I was thrown off by your spiritual signature. I thought that you might be something else, miko wasn't on my list of possibilities."

"Well, what did you think I would be?" Kagome asked, frowning at how unhelpful he was being. He wasn't usually so disagreeable when they were working together. "Sorry if you think I was lying to you, I just…"

"Thought maybe I had one boy that was cute and liked me that was normal in the world." Kagome thought dejectedly.

Instead she said. "I guess I thought the same thing, it'd just be better the less you knew. I can't explain to most people, they would just act like I'm crazy."

His expression softened slightly at that admission and he nodded a little, as though he understood where she was coming from. Walking up some stairs to the gate of a nice building, it was surrounded by a wall and within she could see a large house further along.

"If neither of us thinks the other would be safe, then perhaps we shouldn't trade information." Ishida said wisely. He was curious, but he wasn't about to push her or tell her anything that would put her in danger. As it was his father wouldn't approve of his interference – not that his father ever approved of anything.

Light enveloped his arm as he summoned back his bow, left hand rising to draw an arrow from spiritual energy. He felt the approach of something sinister moments before Lezard stepped from a shadow, the second of her admirers that wore glasses deflecting the arrow with a gloved hand to the ground. Lezard's amythyst eyes were slightly aglow as he eyed the blue haired man up and down in distaste.

"This Rufus' doesn't exactly send the most gifted assailants." Lezard commented, his voice having parts of that dark tone he'd held before he'd killed the infant that served as Naraku's heart. Kagome stepped between them before it got worse.

"Stop! Ishida helped me when other people tried to kidnap me for Rufus'." Kagome held up her hand to Lezard as she interjected. The more she saw of him lately the more nervous the young man made her. He had a lot of power for someone his age, and he was often pitiless when she'd seen him use it. Then she'd also seen a softer side, as well as a more passionate side of him, so as usual in her life lately she was confused as to what to feel.

Ishida was frowning as he looked over the other young man, he hadn't seen his arrows deflected too often, and the man had an aura that reminded him of the arrancar, only more malevolent.

"Albel lost track of you because he'd gone to smoke a cigarette while you were in the library. He'd assumed you went home but when he got there you weren't there." Lezard said, his eyes on Kagome. Lezard had relaxed into his easy smile when he was assured Ishida hadn't threatened her. "Unsurprising given he's a fool, though I'm surprised you would try to walk home. Finding a friend that's not even registered no less."

"Ishida is at a different school than ours." Kagome commented, not understanding the underlying meaning of Lezard's words.

"Indeed, he definitely is." Lezard observed with a bit of a grin at Kagome's comment. "Would you like me to return you to your house?"

"I will be escorting Kagome back to her home." Ishida broke in before she could answer and she groaned mentally. Of course they would start fighting…but then Ishida had helped her, and he wasn't aware of what was happening. She figured at least he deserved some sort of explanation from her.

Before things could devolve further she nodded to what Ishida said. "Yes, I'm going to study for a while with Ishida before I come back. I'll return with him."

Ishida was smart enough to pick up and just not comment to her half-truth to Lezard. Though he canted his head as he looked between him, he too seemed smart enough to read right through her subterfuge. Instead he just nodded. "All right, though if you ever need help just feel free to ask Kagome. I'm the top of our class after all. Be careful."

Lezard vanished as the shadows curled around him, as if they reached out to pull him out of reality, Kagome shivered despite herself and then offered a light smile to Ishida when he put a hand on her shoulder.

"I think I should explain some things Ishida." Kagome said as she mirrored the smile. "Do you mind?"

End Chapter

Yay, some Ishida. I had to bring in his supernatural aspect sometime. Damn Rufus and the Turks never give up do they!

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Dragons redemption – As of yet unknown.

Random Tigerz of Lily – Albel is, albeit in a much more bloodthirsty way.

Rukarai207 – Took a while but it's up!

LovelyLadyMarMar – Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Shirahime Jade Silverstone – LOL, I love Lezard. He's such a prick and yet awesome. I'm the writer and I dunno yet who(if any/all) she'll choose yet.

Silverwolf654 – Updated!

Kakashixangela – I actually don't know yet. I'm sure it'll work itself out someday, I have ideas of other things to have go on in the meantime.

Kuroneko388 – Thanks, and I like Kagome/Albel, but I pretty much like all the guys, so it's hard to pick one. It's unlikely she'll end up with any of the guys I'm already writing other fictions for though.

Sin of the Fallen – Not a bad idea, they might yet.

Angel – Thanks, and hey Uryuu got a chapter!