"Mama, do we have to go?" Kagome asked barely above a whisper as she undecidedly packed her luggage, trying to stuff more clothes than necessary into it. She sadly looked around her room until her gaze found itself on a small glass vial containing little shards radiating power from what used to be a powerful jewel.
Huffing, her mother gave one final push on the suitcase as she closed it before turning towards her daughter and gently said "Now Kagome, I believe it is about time we visit your grandmother, we don't know how long she will last now a days. As much as I'm not particularly fond of my mother-in-law, I do believe we owe her as much… Besides honey, it has been five months already, I don't believe the honekui well will let you pass any other day more than it did for you yesterday." Kagome winced slightly as she subconsciously rubbed her bandaged leg.
"Well, I know, it's just that if it does work then Inuyasha would want me to come…" Tears began welling up in her eyes as she looked down at her fidgeting hands in her lap as she unceremoniously plopped down on her bed, sighing as she went. "I find it ironic to know that I used to be craving a normal life without having Inuyasha hounding me to find the jewel shards. Now that I can't go back for some reason, I miss searching for the shards, I miss my friends… I miss Sengoku Jidai…"
Hesitantly sitting down on the bed besides her daughter and brought her into her lap. Looking down helplessly at the silently crying girl in her arms, Kun-Loon said, "Oh dear, I never wanted it to end like this. Kagome, as much as it might hurt, you must move on. You can't wallow in self-pity like this forever; you need to let them go… You're a beautiful 16 year old girl; you should be doing fun things with your friends in this beautiful summer weather instead of staying in this house all day. That's another reason as to why we should go, visiting your grandmother might help take your mind off a few things."
Slowly getting up Kun-Loon lightly stroked her daughter's cheek in a loving caress, wiping away the traces of tears with her thumb as she looked her daughter straight in the eye and softly said, "Now Kagome dear, I'm going to check on Souta and Jii-san. I want you to finish packing and remember no more tears, okay?" Smiling slightly she let her hand drop from its position on Kagome's cheek as she exited the room to make sure everything else was set.
Sighing, Kagome slowly leaned back onto her bed as she stared up at the ceiling while twiddling her thumbs.'What can it hurt? I mean it's only three weeks, it's nothing compared to how long I stood in the feudal era. Besides, mama's right. I really do need to move on again…'
"Hey Old Hag, long time no see." Yusuke shouted as he and the others –meaning Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, although the later was in the trees- climbed the last steps. He smirked as the shoji door opened, revealing an irritated old woman. "What do you want dimwit?"
Walking forward slightly, Yusuke mockingly frowned and said, "What? Can't I visit you for any reason other than wanting to see you?"
Genkai's scowl increased as she raised one of her eyebrows at the toushin, "No." was her simple answer before she turned to the others saying, "You may as well come in than just standing there stupidly at the top of the steps." Turning around and heading back into the room while the guys just looked between themselves with hidden mirth in their eyes that Genkai still had her spirit even as she was getting older.
Once inside the boys looked between each other and then Kurama began, "So master Genkai, how have you been doing lately?" Gracefully bringing the tea cup to her mouth before drinking slowly, Genkai then put the cup back down on the ground with her eyes closed as she asked "So that's why, you're afraid I'm going to die any minute on you aren't you? Well I still have a few more years on these old bones so you don't need to come all the way over here to check on me, Yukina's here remember? Which reminds me, my daughter-in-law and grandchildren are coming here later today and I don't need any questions as to why there are bursts of light tearing down the forest."
"You have a daughter-in-law and grandchildren Genkai-san?" Kurama asked unbelievingly yet curiously as he too sipped some of the tea Yukina made. Genkai turned her gaze back to him and said annoyed "Isn't that what I just said?"
"Wait, you never told us? How old are they?" Kuwabara asked as Genkai said, "My eldest is about your age, maybe a year or so younger, and the other is roughly nine or ten." Yusuke then snorted, saying "Yeah well I bet you I can kick his butt when he comes." Genkai merely smirked at Yusuke's misunderstanding.
As Kuwabara left in search for Yukina –with Hiei probably discreetly following, obviously not trusting 'the buffoon' as he dubbed him-, Kurama and Yusuke started walking around the shrine, talking as they went before Kurama stopped for a moment and looked out of the corner of his eye at the forest surrounding them. "Yusuke, have you by chance noticed the weird energy levels coming from the forest in the direction of Shikoku?" Yusuke then turned his head and said, "Yeah, I have. You think we should check it out or something, Kurama?"
"Maybe, but first we should probably just monitor it for a bit. It might just be temporarily." Yusuke nodded before continuing walking; there was a momentary silence before Yusuke absentmindedly said, "Hey Kurama… How long do you think she will last?" Kurama, perfectly knowing who 'she' is, looked up at the sky with his hands in his pockets as he said, "Well, you can never be too sure Yusuke, Genkai is a very strong woman and with her stubborn personality we can only hope for the best."
"Yeah but how long is it? How long do we have until she's gone?!" Yusuke anxious whispering gradually turned into yelling as he punched a hole in one of the closest trees, to which Kurama frowned upon.
"Yusuke, it is not worth it to constantly spend moments being miserable worrying about 'how long' instead of treasuring the moments now and then feeling miserable after." Kurama wisely advised as Yusuke curtly nodded, obviously still distressed. "Yeah, what the hell am I doing worrying about that old bat… You know, I can't wait to beat the shit out of her grandson, if he's about our age then the she must've trained him by now."
"Come on Souta! It's easy, we're already half way up!" Kagome yelled as she encouraged her brother whom was lagging behind, panting as he tried to climb all of those steps while carrying his and her luggage. "Yeah, it's easier said than done! You aren't even carrying anything, why can't you carry your own luggage!?" Souta yelled from his position of ten or so steps below his sister as he slowly took one step at a time.
"Well, for one, you're the guy; you need experience for when you have to carry some girl's books for her. Two, since you must want to make obaa-san proud that you carried it all the way up, right? So actually, you should be thanking me." Souta merely groaned in response as he took another step before looking up to see the next seventy or so that he had left. Whining, Souta trudged along with Kagome snickering at misfortune as she practically ran up the rest of the stairs.
Looking back down, Kagome saw Souta still struggling with the last ten or so steps before she turned around and started wandering around her grandmother's shrine. After five or so minutes, Kagome decided she better go inside so she turned on her heel to suddenly bang into a hard chest. Looking up she saw honey brown eyes looking down at her with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "Who are you and what are you doing here, this is private property." The brown eyed boy with his gelled up hair asked as she turned her head to see another boy with vivid forest green eyes along with long crimson hair staring at her… How could she not have sensed them? These boys felt… different… Their presence was a bit overwhelming at first, putting you on the edge, before you started to get use to it slowly.
"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? This is my grandmother's shrine; I believe I have a right to be here. Who are you?" Kagome, still feeling uneasy from their powers answered annoyingly. The boy with red hair then turned towards her and said, "I'm sorry miss, we seemed to have had a misunderstanding. My friend Yusuke here, is a bit rude to people he doesn't know. I am Shuichi by the way; we are merely visiting Genkai-san. It is a pleasure to meet her granddaughter, miss…" Kurama trailed off in the usual gentlemanly way, waiting for her to introduce herself.
"My name is Kagome, and as I already told you I'm her granddaughter. Sorry to leave you guys like this but I'm going to go inside." Kagome then left the two boys outside as Yusuke mumbled under his breathe, "Well so much for kicking 'his' butt… The girl is probably too fragile, she probably wasn't even trained if she couldn't sense us; Genkai would kick my butt if I lay a hand on her…" Kurama of course look amused at his friend's ramblings as he looked back at the girl who was walking farther and farther away from them before opening the shoji door and stepping back for a second as if in shock prior to slipping away from view.
When Kagome opened the door she instantly felt a portion of her grandmother's power, it was as if opening the door and heading out into a snowing day from the nice warmth of the indoors. Looking towards her grandmother –whom was also staring into her eyes with slight suspicion- Kagome, began wondering how she didn't notice it before. But then again, she hadn't seen her grandmother since a year or two before her travels. She hadn't harnessed her bare minimum of miko energy yet, even though she wasn't the strongest miko, -let alone a good one in her opinion- she was able to at least sense youki along with inhumanly ki. And her grandmother was radiating a lot of it.
"Is there something wrong Kagome?" Genkai asked as she stared intently into Kagome's eyes. Kagome was the first to break free from the trance as she looked away slightly before returning her gaze to her grandmother whom was still staring intently at her which unnerved her a bit. "Um, no, why do you ask obaa-san?" Genkai just looked at her skeptically before returning her gaze towards her daughter-in-law. "Kun-Loon, I trust you had a safe journey here."
Kun-Loon merely looked at Genkai tensely before forcibly saying, "Why yes, we did, there is no need to worry." Genkai then grouchily said, "Good, because I wasn't."
Kagome had noticed the tension before between the two but now it seemed absolutely unbearable, so she said, "Obaa-san, mama, how about I make us some tea." So as she got up and left the room she instantly felt relieved at the decrease in tension and made her way to the kitchen.
Once she had finished with the 'soothing' –she had added some calming herbs into it- tea, she placed several cups onto the tray and as she was making her way back to the room she stumbled upon a blue haired girl with red eyes listening to a tall red head with thin brown eyes. They seemed to be kind enough so she walked towards them and said "Hello, would you like some tea? By the way, I'm Kagome, Genkai-san's granddaughter."
Yukina looked absolutely delighted that she was finally able to meet another girl her age –or at least in appearances since Yukina being a youkai was far older than her- at the temple besides Keiko, Botan and Shizuru every now and then. "Hello Kagome-san, and why yes, I'd love to have some tea and I'm sure Kazuma would also. Right, Kazuma?" Kagome smiled as the boy whom seemed to be around her age grinned and said, "Why yes Yukina, I want whatever you want!" so as she was about to pour Yukina and Kazuma some tea she suddenly remembered, "Oh my! I'm sorry; I can't give you some of this tea. I had forgotten that I had added some sedatives into the tea. You see, my mama and obaa don't get along very well, so… I decided there was enough tension and I may as well try something. Well, you're free to have but warning you not to drink much if you don't want to fall asleep." Kagome prattled hastily as the youkai within the tree said, "Onna, we don't need to hear you nonsense babble, just go back to the old woman already."
Kagome was about to say something witty back in response when the boy 'Kazuma' stepped up and said, "Hiei, don't talk to a woman disrespectfully! Honor the code!" He was about to say more before Yukina lightly squeezed his hand, silently asking for him to stop. "Of course Yukina, I would do anything for you." To which Yukina giggled lightly and Hiei tried to glare holes through Kuwabara's head.
Silently slipping out of area, Kagome then returned to the room in which not only were her mother and grandmother in but also the two boys she met earlier so she said, "Here's the tea." First handing out to her obaa and okaa as a sign of respect, she then handed the red head, Shuichi, and 'gel-boy', Yusuke, a cup, silently warning them of the contents of the drink with body signals. Once she had handed one cup to each person and they drank, well some faked, and as soon as they knew it, the two older women were out cold. "Now, why-" Yusuke was cut off in his question when suddenly a vast amount of youki was released accompanied by a piercing scream which echoed throughout the forest…
The trio ran outside not only did they notice that it was getting dark not only from the hour of the day but also the lazy forbidding storm clouds hovered above, thunder and lightning came about every now and then as the wind steadily began to pick up, softly howling in their ears. They also noticed that they weren't alone for Yukina, Kuwabara and Hiei were outside as well, but what they saw next had disturbed them thoughly. One the ground which was written in blood, fresh blood to be exact.
'Beware'
They could have sworn they heard someone within the wind whisper it as well as the storm's effects were starting to be known as the rain was pouring down in buckets. Yet still they stood as if rooted to the ground, watching as the anonymous warning slowly washed away as it sunk into the cold ground. Appearing as if it was never truly there... or was it?
How do you like it so far? Not much horror yet but its coming! (hopefully) And please keep in mind this is my first attempt at horror or suspense but well im trying. I also know that yes, i have a bunch of other stories out and no im not discontinuing them. Anyways, any reviews please? Tell me your opinion so far!