Kagome stood beside Kurama, watching the fight between Team Toguro and Team Garinja. Hiei had left to build another bonfire and train, but Kagome and Kurama had both wanted to study their opponents. Kuwabara was keeping an eye on the unconscious Yusuke, and Kagome knew that Genkai had gone to see the Toguro absent from the fight that they were now watching.
"Kagome, did you see how Karasu did that?" Kurama asked. "I can only guess he sends his energy directly into his opponent and then causes it to explode from the inside."
"Yes, I can see, and no, that isn't what he does. He creates explosive devices with his energy," Kagome answered, a look of confusion apparent in the furrowing of her brow. "You can't see them because of your human restrictions?" she asked, worried. She could see fine because of her skills as a miko and that she had always been human. Kurama on the other hand, had suffered a dent to his powers since he became human.
"No, I cannot. My power is greatly restricted as Shuichi," Kurama admitted.
~oOo~
"You're the only ones who watched?" Karasu asked them in the hallway. He and Bui stood side by side, blocking the hall Kagome and Kurama had been walking down in silence, both thinking deeply on what they were up against. "You team must be very confident."
"Or in denial," Kurama answered.
"Yes," Karasu agreed pleasantly. "Accepting the truth would be easier. The finals will come, and the five of you will die. Your sixth dies even as we speak."
"We know that. That is Master Genkai's own decision," Kagome said, laying a hand on Kurama's arm, trying to keep him calm in the face of their foe.
Bui struck the wall sharply, causing both Kurama's and Kagome's eyes to dart to the point of impact in surprise. When they looked back, Karasu was no longer before them.
Kurama almost panicked at how quickly the demon had moved, and that he couldn't sense him at all. Kagome's hand on his sleeve tightened as pair of hands slipped onto Kurama's shoulders.
"Your hair is a bit damaged Kurama," Karasu whispered from behind. "Human bodies are so frail. I know you fear what my touch could do to you and yet, maybe you also want to know it?"
"And I know that you're afraid of what touching me could do to you," Kagome hissed at the demon behind them, "which is why you try to intimidate Kurama. Let go of him before we are fighting an under-manned team in the finals."
"No need to get upset, it's just a game," Karasu said, disappearing around them until he was before them again. "As a fighter, I like you best Kurama. And when I like something, I like to take it away. It gives me a certain feeling, like pondering unanswerable questions. You don't get the result you want, and so you're swept with an empty despair that makes you feel alive," Karasu seemed eager to impress this upon them, but turned then just before saying to Kurama, "Save your fight for me, okay?"
"He sounds like a member of your fanclub, only even more insane," Kagome said, shuddering. "He is definitely dangerous."
"I can't fight him as I am," Kurama said, frightened and angry at the same time. A dangerous mix in anybody.
"No," Kagome agreed, moving around him so that she was in front of him, taking his face in her hands and forcing him to look her in the eye. "Which is why you aren't going to," she insisted almost desperately. "You can let me fight him, or let Hiei fight him, because both of us will be able to see what he does and avoid it. Please Kurama, don't let him get to you. You don't have to fight him."
Kurama lay one of his hands over Kagome's, breathing deeply and closing his eyes for a moment, pretending that they were standing in the park between his home and hers, putting on an act for his fangirls. He smiled and opened his eyes again. "Thank you Kagome," he said. "I will step down and let Hiei fight him. I think our skills will be best put to use fighting against the elder Toguro brother."
Kagome nodded in allowance and drew her hands back to her sides. "Joy, one of us gets to kill another Naraku. Come on, I want to see if we can catch the last of Master Genkai's fight."
~oOo~
Kagome left Kurama's side when Toguro punched Yusuke halfway through the entire forest, intent on finding the boy and making sure he didn't do anything too stupid. Kurama went to find Hiei, to talk about the slip of a plan that they had made about the upcoming finals in two days time.
By the time she found him, Yusuke was sitting in front of the cave that she knew Master Genkai had chosen for him to receive her spirit orb. Kagome herself remembered seeking out the old woman and asking for the story of it here while Yusuke was still trying to figure out if he could kill Genkai for the power or not.
"Hey, Slacker," Kagome said kindly, sitting down next to him.
"Don't call me that. You have no right to call me that," Yusuke grumbled.
"I thought you might appreciate having someone call you slacker anyway," Kagome answered, unruffled. "After all, you still are her favourite slacker, aren't you? Oh hey, question," she said, standing up and pushing back her sleeves. "Did she put these cuff-things on you as well?"
"What? What the hell are you doing with those?" Yusuke demanded, jumping up and pointing at her like she had grown an extra set of hands out of her elbows.
"Master Genkai put these on me almost the instant she began my training," Kagome answered, pulling her sleeves back down.
"And how long ago was that?"
"The day after the makai insects made their cameo appearance in the city," she said with a shudder, remembering the bugs. She hated bugs.
"Seriously? You picked up her training practically the day after I left?" Yusuke asked, dumbfounded. "And you've been wearing those the whole time?"
Kagome nodded. "In every single one of the fights so far, and for several months of training before that. So, have you figured out what Master Genkai was telling you yet?"
"No, I think I need a little more time to think about it," Yusuke answered softly.
"Just remember that time doesn't stand still for anybody Yusuke. It drags us all along with it eventually, whether we are willing or not. We have to face the finals in two days, don't make someone have to come and find you because you still haven't finished grieving," Kagome said, then turned and walked back to the hotel. She passed Koenma on her way, knowing he'd say something that would piss Yusuke off, but that he really needed to hear.
~oOo~
When Kagome entered the hotel room, Kurama was pouring a drink for himself from a rather strange looking container.
"Hey," she said. "Master Genkai's death and Yusuke's immersion in denial are both confirmed. What's that?"
"Hopefully, a way for me to return to my demon form. The -" he coughed, "-'beautiful' Suzuka just gave it to me before I got back to the hotel, I'm testing it while I have time," Kurama answered.
Kagome flooded the rooms they had been given with her energy, creating a barrier. "Good idea, but try not to let on to anybody that you have any access to that power. They are staying in the same building as us," she pointed out.
Kurama blushed. "Ah, yes, I should really have thought of that."
"It's alright. No one will be able to feel your energy at all now if you don't leave the barrier I just set up," Kagome answered. "And to think it was you who taught me about this all those centuries ago," she added with a slight tease in her voice.
Kurama chuckled. "Yes, the barrier to hide our energy signature when we infiltrated Naraku's castle was your part of the job, while Shippo's illusions hid our physical forms. Such fond times," he recalled pleasantly.
The two friends reminisced for a while, both with half an eye on the clock, waiting to see how long it would take before the drug became effective. Kagome watched as Kurama's energy swirled around him suddenly, changing texture and glowing around him before shifting slightly once more, leaving the great Yoko in all his silvery glory once more.
"Five minutes," Kagome observed, tilting her head to the side and resting it on her hand. "And you still look handsome."
Kurama chuckled. "I believe we said something about you washing my hair again in five hundred years when we parted at the well?"
"You also said you might let me wash your tail too," Kagome answered, getting up from the couch and heading for the bathroom.
"Kagome," Kurama said, grabbing her wrist gently and turning her to face him. "You haven't forgotten what it means to a fox to let another touch their tail have you?"
"To be touched only by the owner of the tail, and their mates," Kagome answered, a gentle smile on her face. "I remember. I also said 'might.' I understand if you don't want me to."
"Kagome, you're a miko," Kurama said, releasing her wrist to set both of his hands on her shoulders and make her look at him. "Miko can't marry, their duty is to purify demons, they must remain chaste all of their days."
Kagome stared up into Kurama's golden eyes, searching them for what she could feel him trying to hide from her.
"You really ought to know your first and last points are myths. Miko's have married, and had kids, and still had full access to their powers. As for the demon purification stuff, you know that I'm not a traditional miko," she told him.
"What about the purity of the jewel?" Kurama asked, fingering the chain it hung from, but not touching the gem itself.
"It still looks fine to me," Kagome observed, looking down at it. "Kikyo and InuYasha wanted to use the jewel for their own happiness before I met them. Their intentions and intended union never tainted the jewel when Kikyo held it. Still, if you like we'll wait until after the Tournament to talk about whether or not you will ever let me wash your tail, and if I go from being your cover and escape from your fanclub to something more real."
Kurama smiled and nodded his agreement.
"So, I'll wash your hair now?" Kagome said.
"Yes, please."
A few hours later, Kagome and Kurama, no longer silver, observed Yusuke's spirit gun rocket into the sky like a firework that forgot to pop. Not long after that, Kuwabara started yelling at Yusuke's window that he'd got a new weapon.
"Time to go and meet up with everybody then," Kagome said, heading for the door.
Yusuke was channelling his energy just a short way from the hotel, and the two friends silently followed Kuwabara's noisy descent over the first cliff edge.
"You're not going to ruin my day, cause I got a new bad-guy slicing and dicing weapon! My new totally bad-ass super sword!" Kuwabara announced to Yusuke, brandishing his hilt happily.
"Do you think it's possible that you could shut up?" Hiei demanded of Kuwabara, appearing around the corner.
"Hey Hiei," Yusuke acknowledged.
"You really shouldn't sneak up on someone who's holding the world's most powerful sword!" Kuwabara protested, only to scream when he noticed Hiei's right arm. "Ew! Ew! What the heck happened to your arm?"
Hiei raised his arm and stared at it. "It wouldn't obey when I gave it a specific command, so I decided it needed to be punished," he answered.
"Way too much information for me," Kuwabara said, laughing nervously.
"Not enough for me," Kagome said, growling slightly as she stepped forward. "What command and punished how?" she demanded, marching up to Hiei and shoving him down to sit while she healed his arm.
"Don't know where she came from, but that means that everyone's here except for Kurama," the carrot-top said.
"Kuwabara, I've been standing right here for some time now," Kurama said, announcing his presence.
~oOo~
Kagome changed the bandages on Hiei's arm, adding extra wards since he had clearly kept going through the night with his extra training and had managed only to increase the strength of his attack, while not actually improving his control very much, then went to join the rest of the team for breakfast.
"Kuwabara, there's something I want to ask you," Kagome said seriously as she sat down across from him.
"Sure, what's up?"
"I know you're very excited about your new weapon, but I want to ask you not to fight today."
"Say what!"
"I also wanted to ask Yusuke to have his fight with Toguro first. This whole Tournament has been whoever is pulling his strings getting Yusuke ready to fight him. The rest of us are extras. Every single one of us. Important extras, but Toguro wants to fight Yusuke, and that's all that it comes down to," Kagome explained.
"As much as I hate to admit it, that sounds about right," Yusuke ground out. He was still bitter about, and in denial of, Genkai's death. So far though, he hadn't had to really face it. "Alright, I'll take the fight to Toguro right off the bat." His statement was uncharacteristically unenthusiastic.
Kagome nodded, and continued with the plan she had been mulling over for the fight ahead of them. "Karasu has singled out Kurama as the one that he wants to fight. We're going to upset him by not giving him what he wants."
"I will be fighting Karasu," Hiei said. "I am the one best able to see his attacks," he added as explanation, his Jagan glowing briefly beneath his warded headband for emphasis.
"What about the older Toguro brother? And the guy with all the armour?" Kuwabara asked. "I could fight one of them, couldn't I?"
"You want to fight a demon who carries a weapon three times as large as himself, and that he wields as easily as though it were a toothpick?" Kagome demanded.
"Uh, no I guess not," Kuwabara said, shrinking back in embarrassment. "But that still leaves the other Toguro! I could fight him, couldn't I?"
"I don't recommend it," Kagome answered with a shake of her head. "Kuwabara, you are a normal kid with a normal life and a paranormal awareness. Yusuke is officially Koenma's spirit detective – he's never going to have a completely normal life ever again. Hiei is a demon, so is Kurama. I live on shrine grounds with ancient and dangerous artefacts, many of which have some relationship to demonic history. You're the only one capable of having a completely normal human life after this is over."
"Nice speech," Hiei said as the boy walked back to his room, a determined set to his chin.
"I didn't mean to make a speech," Kagome said with a sigh.
Kuwabara emerged from his room not long after in a change of clothes that Kagome found embarrassing, but then again, she was more used to traditional Japanese and Chinese clothing, rather than the wannabe-American-biker-in-white look. He was gripping his new sword-hilt in his hand as well. Apparently, he didn't want to listen to Kagome's advice this time around.
~oOo~
"According to the Tournament rule book, each of the ten players must participate in a one-on-one match assuming five matches are necessary. The first team to win three matches will be the champions," Juri read from the book she was holding up with her tail. "Sorry about that, but since this is the final and neither side has used their substitution, you must have five members or your team will forfeit," she said, pointing her tail at Team Toguro, of which only four members were standing present. "Team Toguro must find a fifth fighter soon, 'cause if you don't I'll be forced to disqualify you and forfeit the match and that's not good!"
"That's all you had to say," Toguro answered. "Our reserve team member is always happy to join us when required."
"Him," Kagome said to Kuwabara as the man walked out of the gates to stand with Toguro, "him you may fight. Yusuke, time to step up."
"Yeah," he said with a nod. "I know everybody was expecting this fight to wait a bit, but frankly I'd rather just get it the hell over with," Yusuke declared at the demons of the stadium all let out surprised murmurs.
"Hn. So eager to die, Yusuke Urameshi?" Toguro asked, stepping up himself.
"Not really, but I've got this burning desire to kick your ass."
~oOo~