AN: Can we all appreciate this speedy update? I was going to hold off until the end of the week (while, my week, which is currently centered on Wednesdays I believe) but I just couldn't. So I'm sorry if I missed anything massive whilst editing.
On another note, thank you all so much for the kind words and encouragement you sent my way. I try to reply to reviews, so if you have any burning questions/comments/criticisms, please don't be afraid to talk to me :) And thank you too, to all of you who started following this story/me. It's a big morale booster!
Without further ado, chapter two~
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The first thing Kagome saw was ogres. Big, hulking ogres, and a little man sitting behind a very large desk.
Somehow, this was not how she had envisioned it.
"Out!" The man shouted - although, wait, was that a baby? - shooing away the ogres closest to him. "I have the team coming in."
As if on cue, the man-child, who Kagome figured must be Koenma, spotted the four of them, fresh out of the portal. He waved them over.
"There you guys are! Come in, come in. This lot is just. leaving."
With a few last grumbles, most of the large creatures filed past them, grumbling under their breaths. As the last one left, with an odd looking pout on his face, Yusuke walked her into the room. Kagome was pleased to note that both of her legs seemed to be working now.
He helped her over to the one chair that was situated in the center of the room, directly in front of Koenma and his intimidatingly large desk. She gulped deeply, but sat up straight, settling her hands in her lap.
"Greetings Miss Kagome, my name is Prince Koenma."
She smiled hesitantly. He didn't seem awful or overbearing. "Hello there sir. It's nice to meet you."
Not that she had much of a choice in the matter, but somehow it was interesting to be here. She supposed the delayed fear response was due to the day she was having.
Koenma nodded, as if she had something he needed to agree to, and just stared at her for a moment. There was something familiar about that look, and with a start, Kagome realized he was trying to place her from somewhere. Had they met before?
She heard Yusuke shift impatiently behind her. "Yo, toddler, just get on with it. You're wasting time here."
"Yusuke! At least try to keep up appearances here, I am your boss."
He scowled, glancing down at the still bleeding woman in front of him. "Why bother, when ya look like that?"
Koenma glanced down, as if just realizing he was still in his infant form. He glared at Yusuke with a reproaching look but said nothing, and with a quick poof there was suddenly a teenager in his place. With a pacifier in his mouth.
Kagome had to work really hard to not let the laughter she felt in her throat peel out.
He shifted in his seat, then turned his angry gaze to look behind Kagome. "Botan! Explain this situation to me."
Botan bounced forward so that she was standing slightly beside Kagome. "Sure thing sir! Kurama and Yusuke took out the demon no problem-o, but they found this young lady in the park suffering heavy wounds. I can't seem to treat her however, and she already appears to know about the existence of demons! She also claims to be a priestess."
Kagome growled under her breath. "And she doesn't like being talked about as if she isn't here." Honestly, what was the point of dragging her into this little meeting if they weren't going to talk to her?
Koenma turned to her, his face slack with surprise. Was her being a priestess that big of deal? "You're right. I'm afraid my detective," he gestured to Yusuke "did not fully explain the situation to me in the field."
Kagome was not certain when Yusuke had found the time even to notify his boss, but nodded. "That's alright. But you can just ask me what you want to know."
"How is it you already know of the existence of demons? I don't have on your record here that you've encountered them...although you do live on a very potent spiritual shrine."
She could feel several gazes burrow onto the back of her skull. "Uhm...okay, is there anyway we can skip that question?"
Koenma frowned. "No, it's necessary information for me to have."
There was something about this woman in front of him...she looked so dreadfully familiar, yet from reading her history Koenma knew he had not met her. From the way the bruise on her face was clearing up however, she clearly was not just the typical teenage girl that her file would have him believe. And for her to be a priestess at that...it was extraordinary.
"I can't sir. Not without knowing I can return home safely." It was the only thing she could think to ask at the moment, still uncertain exactly what powers and authority the people in this world held. Still finding it difficult to believe what she had been told so far, not that that was much.
He looked put out, but not yet angry at her. "I can't guarantee anything, but we are not the bad guys here Miss Kagome." She frowned. Like he could assume good and bad existed in pure forms, rather than on a spectrum of good and bad decisions made by people. "I just need to know how you found out, so that I may control the breach of information. Like I mentioned, there isn't anything here on your file that suggests you should have knowledge of demons."
Something he had said earlier suddenly clicked. "Wait, did you say my file?"
Koenma nodded. "Yes, your file."
She turned around, albeit a bit painfully, to shoot Yusuke a disbelieving look. "My file?"
Yusuke laughed a little, amused. "Yeah, this place keeps tabs on all living beings."
"Think of it like the administrative portion of life! We need to keep track on all potential threats, otherwise it'd be a nuthouse out there!" Botan piped up, a large smile on her face.
Kagome nodded slowly, as if any of this was making sense to her. She turned back to Koenma. "Alright, I can tell you what you want to know. But I need assurances first that you won't close off my uhm...breach of information. Given that it does not cause harm to anyone."
She looked at him with big, trusting eyes, the ones she gave Inuyasha when she wanted to go home earlier than planned. Koenma wavered, not used to getting such imploring looks. Most of his staff just threatened him outright.
"As long as it is not harmful, I can promise you we won't do anything unnecesary." It was a bit of a stretch of the truth, for Koenma could do little should his father decree otherwise, but it was the best he could come up with.
Kagome mulled it over for a moment. She was in a strange place with people she didn't know, and on top of it all she was still far too injured to fight them off. She was certain that both Kurama and Yusuke were stronger than they let on, and although she could theoretically purify them both, she neither had the strength nor will to do such a thing. They had been only nice thus far, and no one had really threatened her...plus, she was in a whole other world, if what they were saying was true. Where would she go, even if she could escape? Besides, Kagome had always been the type to trust first and figure out the complications later. There was not really a lot to decide.
"Alright, thank you sir."
Koenma beamed, happy she should choose to comply. He was not fond of using other means to get folks to give him what he needed.
"Perfect! Then, please, proceed."
It was actually a difficult question for Kagome to answer, since there was not a clear place to start. At least, not without staying here far longer than necessary. "You want to know how I came to learn about demons, correct?"
He nodded.
"When I was fifteen a centipede demon attacked me. I had been trying to find my cat, which is a bit comical when you think of what happened, in the shrine's old well house. We never really had much reason to go in there, so it was quite dim and dusty and it took me a moment to realize I was even being attacked at first. But then she came out of the well and started screaming at me and biting at my hip." Kagome rested a hand gently on the old scar, reminiscent. She had not thought of the beginning in quite some time.
"A centipede demon?" Yusuke asked, his face scrunched up in confusion. "Wouldn't they be sorta...er, tiny?"
Kagome laughed, thinking in this moment of Myouga. She shook her head, not bothering to turn around to look at him as she answered. "I would have to guess she was about the size of a semi-truck, maybe a bit longer? It's been so long now that the details are a bit hazy."
Koenma was stroking his non-existent beard, thinking. "Well, there has not been a full sized centipede demon in many hundreds of years, at least, none on record."
Hmm, go figure. "No, that makes sense. See, Mistress Centipede, she wasn't from her. Or rather, she was not from now."
She sighed, making a prompt decision- it really was not an easy story to tell quickly. She turned to Botan. "Can you travel back to uhm...Ningenkai was it?"
Botan looked from Kagome to Koenma, then back again. "It is not a problem for me to do...why?"
She had not wanted to involved him without having the chance to explain it herself first, but sometimes things worked out differently than planned. "My friend, the one I mentioned earlier, is probably at my house right now. He'll cause a scene if I'm not home by sunset, and I think this story is going to take a bit longer than that."
Koenma nodded at Botan's inquisitive look. "Go ahead, you can tell him to wait."
Kagome shook her head at this. "Uh, that won't work either. He is a big part of this story, and if you could bring him here that would probably be best."
Inuyasha was most certainly not going to make this easy on her, but she knew that if she was going to be telling their story to strangers, he'd like to be there. So that he could at least yell at her a couple of times and make a scene of resisting her decision. Also, not that she felt unsafe here, but having Inuyasha with her always strengthened her resolve.
Koenma, who had suddenly come to realize that this was not going to be a problem with an easy fix, settled into his seat a little more. "Alright, Botan, go bring back Miss Kagome's friend."
"Sure thing sir! Just at your shrine then?" She asked Kagome.
"Yeah, he said he would wait for me at the house. But first..." Kagome looked down, as if something would suddenly pop out at her and make this easy, but all she could come up with was her shirt. And she had liked it too. She found a tear easily enough, the thing was practically shredded as it was, and tore off a piece of her top. "Take this with you? It has my scent on it and Inuyasha will come along easier if he knows I'm here."
Kurama was more detail-oriented and had to ask. "Inuyasha? Dog demon?"
She looked over her shoulder at the red head. "Yeah. Like I said, he is a big part of this story."
Botan took the scrap hesitently. "Oh dear. Dog demon's are terribly possesive."
Kagome laughed. Minor understatement. "He won't do anything to you Botan, do not worry. I would go myself, but I have a feeling that isn't allowed."
Before anyone had a chance to solidify her thoughts about her imprisonment, Botan nodded. "Alrighty! I'll be back in a quick second! Don't go giving away any good stories while I'm gone."
This time the portal was a lot quicker to make, and before Kagome could really see it, Botan had hopped through and was gone. The ensuing silence was a bit deafening, but she had nothing to say until Inuyasha was back.
Oh dear, this was quite a mess, wasn't it?
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While they had waited for Botan to reappear, Koenma had sent one of the ogres for some more chairs, and a new shirt for Kagome since hers was basically in shambles. Luckily her wounds had mostly healed, and with the new top on - a rather sensible black shirt that Kagome did not think to ask about - it was barely discernable that she had been in a fight in the first place. Well, less of a fight and more of an ambush.
In the meantime Koenma had called in the rest of his detective group and begun to explain a little bit about what it was they did. Apparently keeping the three worlds seperate and a secret from regular ol' humans was a big deal and a lot of work. Kagome had then been introduced to a small and brusque demon by the name of Hiei, and an overly cheerful Kuwarbara. It was a lot to take in, so Kagome was just practicing the art of 'fake-it-til-you-make-it' and was going along with everything spectacularly.
She was just putting her hair back up for the fifth time, the quiet really getting to her, and watching Yusuke resettle into his chair, when a portal popped up to her left. She heard the two enter before she saw them.
"You bitch! Whatever you've done to Kagome I swear to gods-"
"Oh shut it, I told you, she is fine and she was the one asking for you."
A growl, and then, "as fucking if she is fine, I can smell her blood."
Kagome smiled embarassingly at the wide grin Yusuke was sending her way. She turned to the side and watched Inuyasha walk through the gateway. "I'm here Inuyasha, don't give Botan grief."
A white blur strode into the room and over to her. "Kagome, what's wrong, what happened?"
He did look awful intimidating, she decided with a smile, with the Tessaiga and flaming red robes, and streaming silver hair. She looked at him affectionately, laying a gentle hand on his forearm. "I'm okay. I'm okay." She repeated, catching his eye. "Everything is okay now."
"Feh," he looked over her with worried eyes, running a hand over her cheek "doesn't seem like it.".
She tuned out the curious looks she was getting and just focused on her friend. "I was attacked earlier by a demon but you know how it works now, I'm safe and healthy and everything is good." She soothed.
She knew he worried about her, particularly whenever she was injured without him there. Despite having had started learning how to properly defend herself many months ago, Inuyasha still fretted whenever they entered battled together. If he had his way he would be strong enough to protect the group all on his own, but they knew realistically that that would never work. Still, he must have been sitting impatiently at her shrine for while, judging by his antsy look, and Kagome sympathised with the feelings that must be running through him.
"I don't like you getting attacked at all."
She smiled. "I know. But you couldn't have known it would happen, not here."
He nodded, finally accepting what she had said. He straightened up, sniffing the air experimentally and looking around. "Where the fuck are we?"
They had rearranged the room a little while Botan was gone, bringing in several seats and shifting them around so that they were arranged semi-circular around Koenma's desk. Yusuke was lounging on the sofa to the far right, where Botan had walked over to and perched on the arm, and Kurama was on the opposite side of the room, sitting in an arm chair much like Kagome's. Hiei was leaning against the wall impassively, although his eyes never left Inuyasha's, and Kuwabara was sitting stiff-backed next to Yusuke, on the opposite side of the grim reaper. Kagome was still mainly in the center of the room, but at least now she felt a little less put on the spot.
She shuffled to the side of the rather large seat and gestured for Inuyasha to sit down, sending him her best reassuring face. He huffed a little and perched on the arm, much as Botan was doing, and glanced around the room, not sure who exactly to glare at first.
"So, I found out a lot today that might be a bit hard to accept." She prefaced, deciding that caution was the best idea.
Inuyasha turned his glare to her. "Okay?"
"This here is Rekai, where spirits reside?" She looked over at Yusuke, who nodded encouragingly. "There are three worlds, one for humans, one for demons, and one for spirits. That's why we've never really encountered demons in my time."
Kurama sat up a little straighter as he listened to her explain the situation to her friend. Her time? He was piecing things together from the way she was talking and how her hanyou friend was dressed, but surely that could not be possible...
Inuyasha furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding any of this fully. "But you got attacked."
She nodded. "I believe that wasn't supposed to happen." She had to assume so at least, since she had not seen any for the last three years.
Koenma spoke up. "That was a breach. Normally Ningenkai is purely human."
Inuyasha turned to stare at the young ruler, his eyes narrowed. "Well ya fucked that up dipshit."
He had leaned into Kagome a little, his entire stance warning the Spirit Detective group that he was prepared to defend her at a moment's notice. Really, he took the whole protective thing a touch too far.
"Inuyasha, it was a mistake, they happen. Anyway," she continued at his dubious expression "Kurama and Yusuke found me." She gestured to the two as she said their names. "They helped me here and explained a couple of things about their work. They're Spirit Detectives, and they work for Koenma." She then pointed over to the ruler, smiling at him as she did so.
She really had wanted to be able to explain this all to him without anyone else here, since she knew he would not ask as many questions under the presence of so many, and finding out this way must feel like an ambush. She knew she would have to re-explain everything to the group once she went back, so it was only necessary that he go along with telling their story for now.
She could see that he was tense, but was trying his hardest to trust her. "Why couldn't you come and tell me all of this at home?"
"Well, Koenma is the ruler of Reikai, and he needs to make sure that the three worlds stay separate. So, in order to do that, he needs to have my information about how I know about demons."
Which, given that her best friend was a half-demon, was pretty clear.
"Fuck that, we're leaving. No damned Spirit whatevers are going to threaten us."
He stood up, moving to pull out the Tessaiga as he strided over to Koenma, eyes blazing. The young ruler shrunk back in his seat, able to feel the raw power flowing off of Inuyasha. Kagome followed him, pulling on his arm and keeping him from causing more damage than good. "No, Inuyasha, stop! They haven't threatened me."
Well, there was the reaction she was expecting. It did take him longer than usual to rush to attack, so he must've been pretty concerned about her.
He turned an incredulous look back on her. "Wench, have you just been giving away our secrets for free?!"
She hated sometimes that he picked up on her idioms. She sighed, feeling the wounds on her chest stretch, and shook her head exasperatedly. "No, that is why I had Botan go and get you."
"Well they ain't getting anything from me."
"Inuyasha, they just need the information. They don't want to attack us, they are not the enemy."
This was only a half truth as Kagome had no idea if they wanted to attack her or not. Particularly since she had yet to drop the big news on Koenma. But from what she had seen this group was nothing but kind to her, if not a little strict, and it wasn't as if telling them the whole story was going to do anything. They couldn't even take the shards from her if she had wanted to give them up, and Inuyasha knew that.
She looked at him beseechingly. "There is no harm in telling them Inuyasha. Just enough so that they can rest easy that we aren't endangering innocent lives."
"How do you know that you idiot, they could be lying to you and you'd just believe them!"
He did however take his hand off his sword and turn his body more towards her. She shifted a little, trying to find a comfortable position to stand in, and reached forward once more to grasp his shoulder reassuringly. "Maybe. But I don't think they are, and in the meantime we have nothing to lose. Attacking them now or attacking them a couple of hours later makes no difference. Please, Inuyasha, you know I would not make this decision lightly."
He growled at her, but didn't argue. "I don't trust them."
"I know. But you trust me, hmm?" She said it as more of a question, asking him once again for his approval. The group's safety always came first, and her and Inuyasha were the only ones here to make this choice. She wouldn't do anything that disrupted their mission or risked their lives.
He sighed. "Feh, dunno why." She continued to stare up at him, and he sighed again, this time resignedly. "Okay, fine."
She smiled, relieved. "Good. It's your story too you know."
He didn't say anything about it, suddently noticing her stiff stance. "Are you still hurt?"
Even as he asked, he was moving her back to their earlier seat. As she sat down with a wince, she nodded. "Just a little bit. This isn't any worse than training with Sango."
He nodded but continued to stare at her worriedly. He had sat back down on the arm of the chair, and Kagome leaned into him, resting her side on his body. The constant contact was the only way she could think to reassure him. She turned her gaze back to Koenma, tuning the rest of the world in. The demi-god was staring at her wide eyed, but quitely, waiting for the danger to pass.
"Sorry about that sir. It is a lot for us to catch up on."
He nodded slowly. "It's okay I guess. Although I have to say, I really need to hear the full story now."
Internally, Koenma was panicking. A dog demon? In Ningenkai? A dog demon with enough power to rattle his detectives - he had felt Yusuke's powers rising in challange to Inuyasha's. His father was going to have his head for this. It was going to be such a mess to clean up.
To her left Kagome heard Botan huff. "Yeah, so do I. I had to deal with that abrasive jerk."
"Please, do not insult my friend." She warned. It was fine to accept that he was difficult to deal with, but the ferry girl did not know Inuyasha at all, or understand where he was coming from. Kagome placed her hand on her friend's knee, gripping it reassuringly.
Botan turned a sheepish face to Kagome. "Sorry."
Kuwabara let out a shaky laugh. "Wow, that was intense. What are you two, warriors or something? Y'er so serious."
She laughed off Kuwabara's question. "I wouldn't call us that. Like I said earlier, I'm a priestess, and Inuyasha here is a dog-demon."
Inuyasha growled threateningly. Hey, he had never promised to play nice, just to play along.
Kurama was looking at Inuyasha's robes with a calculating look in his eyes. "You are a demon living in Ningenkai then?"
"Keh."
Kagome smiled at him, but spoke to Koenma. " As I was saying, three years ago I was attacked, but it wasn't by a demon from this time. I was pulled down my well-house and into the past, five hundred years before any of this had ever happened."
She saw him tense, and straightened up herself. It was going to be a long evening.
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Yusuke was not the smartest detective to ever grace the ranks of Reikai. Sometimes it took him a bit longer to grasp the curious aspects of the three worlds, particularly when all of that physics stuff started getting involved. Still, he did not consider himself dumb, just slower to process.
But time travel? C'mon, that was just unfair.
Kagome had just begun explaining her most recent battle in the past, something about their arch nemesis attacking the village she had come to call home. Her entire story was just plain unbelievable, if not for the incredulous looks on all beings in the room over the age of two hundred. Once Kagome had mentioned this jewel business, Koenma had gone all slack jawed and goo-goo eyed, and fuck, Kurama had said more this evening than any other debriefing.
Even Hiei appeared interested, although if you didn't know the guy like Yusuke did, it was hard to tell.
It had been several hours since the caustic dog demon had settled down and Kagome had started her story. And what a story it was. Travelling to the past, fighting hordes and hordes of demons for some sort of magical jewel with unprecedented powers. Yusuke had nothing but respect for the young priestess, put in a situation that many would have run screaming from.
Still. Time. Travel. He simple could not get over the fact that it even existed.
"It wasn't a puppet this time," Kagome was saying, clearing her throat as she thought back to the latest fight against Naraku "it was really him. He was relentless and strong and we weren't ready."
Inuyasha's gaze was downcast during this particular part of the story. He was still angry with himself over what came next.
"We just weren't ready." She repeated to herself, her eyes glazing over. "One of his tentacles shot forward and...it caught me. I am the weakest link in our group, and an easy target with the jewel shards. I was dying before I even knew I had been hit."
Koenma was leaning over his desk, eager to hear the story but absolute agahst at what had happened. "And...?"
She shrugged, focusing back on him. "It was bad. I could feel his poison in my body and around the shards, and I could feel myself getting faint. It was hard to focus on much of anything."
It had been awful. All she had been able to feel was Naraku, everywhere around her, and in that moment she had lost all hope. She had lost the jewel shards and her friends, her past and her future, but worst of all she had lost her responsibility in thsi world and she had felt utterly destroyed. She did not relay this all to the group however, and she did not want Inuyasha to dwell on it more than necessary. He blamed himself for not getting to her sooner. But it had been him that had brought her back.
"I heard Inuyasha's voice then. He was screaming at me." She smiled up at the hanyou fondly. "And it sort of woke me up. It gave me that little piece of light I needed to purify Narakua and his appendege. Apparently it worked well enough to send him scrambling back to whatever lair he hides in to recuperate."
She rolled her shoulders, stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. They were so close to the end of her story thus far, and with it Kagome could feel the familiar sense of apprehension settle in on her. What were they going to do, next time when Naraku confronted them? He was sure to stabalize and become stronger, to come up with a new plan and more catastrophic ways of hurting her family in the past.
She could only focus though on what problem was presented in front of her, and continued with a shaky breath. "I was still dying however. We humans don't take to stab wounds terribly well, unfortunately. That was when the jewel shards that I had did something incredible."
She lay a hand atop her heart, where as sure as her heart was beating there lay something extra. "The chunk that we had - and it couldn't have been larger than a quarter of it - shot into me. Right into the wound. I was healed before I knew it and you couldn't even tell that I had been hurt in the first place. All of my pain was gone."
Inuyasha talked, for the first time in quite some while. "You shouldn't have had to feel it in the first place."
She leaned into him. "I am a willing part of this battle Inuyasha. That means accepting the good and the bad bits."
He shrugged, but she could tell he didn't agree. At least, not deep down. She raised her gaze back to Koenma's, who had been looking all star struck since she had first mentioned the jewel. He had not said anything though as to why that was. "So that's really it. That was about a month ago, and so far we haven't heard from Naraku. As far as these shards go, whenever we get a new one they just join the old ones in my chest. It appears to be the theme. They keep me from dying...at least, that's our theory."
Yusuke's eyebrows drew together, contemplative. "So...does this jewel thing want to be in you? You said it was in your hip when you were first attacked."
Kagome shook her head. "I don't know. I'm their protector though, and I think the jewel is better complete than it is in fragments. For all I know, Naraku's shards are doing the same thing for him - it does not matter if it is tainted or not."
Kurama finally spoke up. "The Shikon Jewel is alive, there are souls constantly enagaged in battle within it. Even in the fragments. Or so legend goes."
Kagome shot him a curious look. "Legend?"
Koenma nodded hurriedly, deciding that he had waited long enough. "Botan, pull up the images."
As Botan, just as oddly eager as Koenma had been during this whole story-time thing, jumped up and began working on some magical imaging device - Kagome had begun naming things here that she did not want to ask about - Koenma kept talking. "There is this legend that has been told for centuries in all three worlds, about a group of travellers pulled together by circumstances, who defeated a terrible evil and saved everyone from falling victim to a tained shikon jewel. The jewel itself has it's own legend, which I'm sure you've heard," Kagome nodded as the demi-god paused here "but the legend about the the shard hunting group is just fantastical."
Kagome blinked slowly as an image appeared on the screen. It was copied from some sort of scroll, the paint faded and discoloured, yet the faces were remarkably accurate. "Oh my."
Her face was decidely more fierce than Kagome ever thought she could pull off, but the similarities were uncanny. Inuyasha grinned, staring at his part of the portrait.
Yusuke squinted at the screen. "That's you."
She nodded. "I suppose it is."
"You're in a legend?"
She turned wide eyes to him. "It's the first I've heard of it."
Inuyasha started laughing. "Hey, look, even the runt is here." He was pointing to Shippo, who was encased in flaming fox fire next to Kagome.
She shot him a dirty look. "Inuyasha." She warned. But upon closer inspection she could not resist her own giggle. "Ginta and Haku are on here."
"Feh, as if those wolves would ever be useful."
"Well clearly they are, or they would not have made it on to the page."
Koenma agreed. "The wolf tribe was there, as was Lord Sesshomaru. But this group here," and at this, he circled the central six figures which Kagome knew to be her travelling companions "were the most critical."
He sighed, staring at the image with awe on his face. "An incredibly powerful half-demon who protected any innocent life that came his way, a deadly demon-slayer who fought for justice, a dangerous monk with a wind tunnel in his hand, a cat demon who graced the skies in flame, a fox demon who had been born a fighter, and one of the most magnificent priestesses of her her time to keep the jewel pure and safe from the evils that sought it. The legend speaks highly of you all."
Kagome stared at the portrait wordlessly for a few more moments before turning to Koenma. "So does this mean we win?"
He shook his head almost immediatly. "I'm afraid the timelines are more confusing than that. Right now you have indeed won, at least according to a myth that has been passed on for five hundred years. Not much is known in way of accurate detailing. However, even a minor change in the past can alter the events without changing the story. You could defeat him but you may die while doing so, or perhaps another group vanquishes Naraku much later in time."
She deflated against her seat. "Oh, I see. I figured it would not be that easy."
"But still," Botan said, her eyes alight upon both Kagome and Inuyasha "what you have accomplished even so far is incredulous, you're heroes."
Inuyasha puffed up a little at the praise, but Kagome found she couldn't find the same pride in the statement. She was still stuck not knowing anything, whether or not her friends lived, if she could stay in the past or continue travelling back and forth, if Naraku had a weakness they could exploit or even if they would finish this battle at all. She had destroyed the jewel and caused such mayhem. There was nothing to celebrate, not yet.
She glanced at Koenma. "So you understand then, sir, how important it is that Inuyasha and I be allowed to continue on as we have. There is still a lot we must do."
He agreed in a heartbeat. "Of course, anything for your group."
She smiled brightly. "Oh thank you sir, very much."
Koenma beamed right back at her. The shikon priestess, sitting here in front of him. And she was so kind and respectful! Nothing like his Spirit Detectives.
Speaking of which...
He turned to Yusuke, who was staring off into space. He was trying to comprehend this whole situation, but to Koenma it merely looked as if he was glossing over. "Yusuke! Come now, show some respect! I have a new mission for you."
Kagome glanced over at the youth. "Oh no don't have any respect. At least, not because of this legend nonsense."
Yusuke just waved off her concern, long accustomed to dealing with the toddler's annoyances. "What mission?"
"Your team is to protect Miss Kagome during her time spent in this era. It would not bode well for something to happen to her whilst she is here, especially if today is anything to go by."
Yusuke just shrugged, unconcerned about what it was Koenma sent him to do. "Sure, sounds good."
Kagome was much less complacent. "No, Koenma sir, that's too much. I have been doing just fine so far and you don't need to worry your detectives over me. Now that I know I need to be cautious, today's events won't repeat themselves."
"I'm protection enough." Inuyasha grumbled from his perch beside her. Kagome shot him an angry look, knowing he was well aware of her issues on being treated like a child. It was the very reason that she had pulled Sango aside those many months ago to ask to start her own training, and the reason that she could handle herself in a battle now. She was not useless.
Koenma waved off their complaints. "Nonsense. I am not letting you go unprotected for even a moment in our time. Plus you'll need to keep us updated on your travels! You know, for administrative purposes and all."
Personally, Kagome suspected that the godling just wanted to be kept abreast of the living legends, but she couldn't find a way to call him out on it. She would just have to figure it out later; she was positively exhausted as it was.
He sent looks to the rest of his detectives. "We will go over details later, but I assume you are all fine with this new assignment."
Hiei let out a typical sound of noncommittal, Kuwabara agreed with gusto, and Kurama nodded silently, quite content to have an opportunity to study the latest development. Overall, Kagome did not see an easy way out, and she sighed deeply into Inuyasha's side.
Guards on this side of the well, guards on the other side of the well. She was the best damn protected teenager in all of Japan, surely.
"Can we go now?" She mumbled into his shirt, closing her eyes. "I think everything just hit me."
He wrapped an arm around her upper torso, leaning down to do so, and pulled her tight against his chest. He looked up at Botan. "Oi, you. Get us home. We've played along for long enough."
All of the ferry girl's earlier annoyance with the dog demon was gone in light of recent events. She smiled chipperly. "Why it is certainly getting to be quite late! I'll get on that then, if that's okay Koenma sir?" She looked at her boss first, for despite her awe at the beings in front of her, there was always protocol to follow.
Koenma nodded. "Sounds fine. Just make sure to give Kagome a way to get in touch with us when she returns."
She smiled. "Can do sir! I'll just pass along Yusuke's number then."
The detective stood up. "Hey! How do you even have my number?"
She grinned but did not say anything on the matter. "I will back in a quick sec to bring the rest of you home." She began spinning a portal, gesturing for Inuyasha and Kagome to follow her. With a quick poof and a disappearing trio, they were gone.
It was quiet in Koenma's office, each individual heavy in their own thoughts. Suddenly Kuwabara spoke up. "So wait, they're the same people in this picture?"
Koenma sighed deeply and Yusuke grinned to himself. See, he wasn't the dimmest bulb in all of Reikai.
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