Planned Parenthood

Summary: Leaving memories, and life after death.

There was a certain sense of freedom that Hiei felt nowadays, as he crossed the barrier—border, rather—between Ningenkai and Makai. It wasn't gained simply by the fact that it was legal to do so. It was gained, as Kurama put it, by the moment of whimsy in which a youkai wondered where they would end up depending on where they crossed the border. No longer were they restricted by fixed points, always ending up in the same places in Ningenkai—most often Yusuke's home town.

Even knowing he could cross the border anywhere, at any time, Hiei usually stepped out of his way to cross at the same few points, leading to his sister or his allies. But today, too restless to just sit and watch whatever antics the others were up to, he decided to indulge himself, picked a spot at random, and ran through.

It wasn't often that Hiei ventured into shrines—And by "shrine", he meant the proper "demon be gone" shrines that were filled with fanatic priests in the rural areas and less fanatic, but still suspicious priests that lay in the cities. Genkai's temple didn't count.

There was a time when he used to purposely tread on sacred ground with malice, just to test himself against the strength of the land and, if he was lucky, the shrine keepers there. But those were days long past; it was rare now to find a shrine keeper with any measurable amount of power, and he was not in the habit of testing himself against the weak, not unless they picked the fight.

And yet, as he crossed the border, finding himself in a forest, he felt it, that power of long ago, as if the land around him breathed it in and out, sharing in a cycle with the miko of legends. The forest pulsed with the life that burst forth from it, and he followed the pulses to their source, through the forest and across the shrine grounds, to a young woman leaning against a tree, looking through a window of a house on the edge of the complex.

His feelings were mixed when, upon further inspection, he saw that she was indeed a miko, and she was definitely dead.

Even though the shade of the tree obscured the lack of shadow, the wind did not affect her hair or clothing, and she lacked the pulse of life's blood that he could sense even without the Jagan. For all that she and the land around her exchanged life between them in an endless cycle, she had no body to contain it.

Curious and straightforward, he walked up to her. She noticed him, but ignored him, a common response of ghosts who were used to being ignored. So her surprise was of no surprise to him when he addressed her.

"Haven't the ferry girls come to fetch you yet?"

She looked him over, confused, but finally replied, "Ferry girls? Oh, the ones on the oars you must mean. They came, but, well…I guess they're just not quite sure what to do with me just yet."

When Hiei raised a questioning brow, she motioned her head to the pair in the living room, beckoning him to look closer.

"That's my husband, and my son and daughter."

"Hanyou."

"Yes." She smiled softly. "They found out I was a miko mated to a hanyou and there's nothing in the rule book on where to put me. And in the trouble of thinking of a solution, they just forgot about me. Not that I mind," she said, looking into the window again.

Without much desire to continue the conversation, but curious about the stranded miko, he peered in at the scene again, studying it closer. This time, he noticed that the three in the room, the hanyou hugging his children tight, were staring at the television screen. Looking out at them, speaking to them, was the miko. She was older, yes, and had a scarf tucked around her head, but it was her.

He turned to her, the unspoken question obvious.

"I knew I was going to die. Inuyasha didn't want to believe there was something this era couldn't cure, but I knew. I remembered my father dying when I was so young…and I didn't want my children to forget me." She smiled wryly. "I suppose you could say I got a bit obsessed. There are boxes of videos, of advice, of things I liked, of me just talking to them. And there are letters, and birthday cards, and tapes so they could hear me read to them. Inuyasha decides when they're ready. And there are some things for him as well, because I don't want him to forget me either, but I don't want him to mourn me for the rest of his life."

He was glad this appeared to be an old wound for her, something that was still painful but didn't cause tears to fall.

"How did you die?"

"Painfully," was her quick reply. "Cancer," she said second. "It's strange…For so long, all I wanted was to be free from pain, to be healthy again, but now that I'm years younger, I long for the body that caused me pain, because that is who I will always be for them. I was always more of a wife and mother in that body that I ever dreamed of being in this one."

Hiei nodded. "The soul returns to the state it had been in when it began to die. For many, it's sudden and they remain the same. For others…"

"I suspected something like that," she responded with a sigh.

They were quiet for a while longer, until the video had stopped.

"Is this what you do all day then? Watch them? If so, you should take your own advice."

"It's not all my eternity is made of, but I'd rather be alone with my family than alone anywhere else." At Hiei's quirked eyebrow, she continued. "All the ghosts I've met are soon gone—taken by the Ferry girls, I assume, and few humans or youkai have enough spiritual awareness to even sense me. Why," she asked jokingly, "Are you offering to be my afterlife tour guide?"

"Perhaps." And he realized that was the truth.

"Well, perhaps I should know the name of my guide before I go gallivanting off with him."

"Hn. Hiei."

She smiled, apparently used to youkai with gruff exteriors. "Hello, Hiei, my name is Higurashi Kagome."

Years later, Hiei crossed the border into the forest just beyond the shrine grounds. Her children had grown and moved away, and her husband had eventually moved on—and Hiei loved the irony of two hanyou and their offspring caring for a shrine—but Kagome remained. On occasion, she would visit her children, look in on their lives, but she always returned to the shrine.

The beginning is the end is the beginning.

In that first meeting, he had held his hand out to her and, on impulse, pulled her into the Makai. Since then, she had called their time together "adventures", be it hunting criminals in the Makai or exploring a nearby city. It was…nice, having her by his side; she breathed new life into the same dull places he'd visited and lived in time and again. He genuinely liked her, a like that went beyond respect, but it would never go further than that. She was well and truly dead; it would never work out.

In the solitude of his mind, he called her friend.

Aloud, she did the same.

She was in her usual spot by the Goshinboku when he arrived. She looked on fondly at Inuyasha's children playing in the shade of the tree; he knew she loved them as if they were her own. When she saw him, her face lit up with a brilliant smile and she ran to meet him.

"Where is our adventure taking place today, Hiei?"

He flicked a mischievous look her way, grabbing her hand, and they were gone.

AN: This was inspired by a piece I saw on World News with Brian Williams a few years ago, a follow-up of this video a few years later: http:/ www. msnbc. msn. com/id/8618766/ ns/health-cancer/t /dying-mom-shares-lifes-lessons/#. TxPdoflAIxQ . In sum, a woman who was dying of cancer left behind videos/cards/letters for her child and husband, to leave something of herself after she was gone. Looking around for the link, I know she's not the only one. I just thought it was so touching, and wanted to share that, and the spirit of it.