Tsubasa Kya and I have decided that the lack of barely any Mugen Spiral fanfiction is a crime against humanity and it is our civic duty to correct this. While I do have an idea to do a purely MS fanfic, this ended up being a crossover between Mugen Spiral and Inuyasha. Tsubasa posted first, but I have more written (over 16,000 words!) I decided I'd just make this a normal-sized chapter, though, because otherwise it would be too much at once.

If anyone hasn't read Mugen Spiral, it's only two volumes long (unfortunately) and is one of my favorite manga. I highly recommend it. I've tried to explain a bit about Mugen Spiral in it, and will go into it farther later.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Mugen Spiral-I'd finish it. I wish I owned Inuyasha-I'd make it shorter. Unfortunately, I've resigned myself to writing fanfiction, because I own neither.

Demons&Shrines

Chapter 1

Kagome was outside practicing her shooting. Ever since she'd completed the jewel, things seemed so, well, boring. She wasn't able to return to the feudal era, though some of her youkai friends were still alive. However, they'd changed a great deal over the years. Inuyasha had gotten, well, old. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, had been married who knows how many times, and had had even more children who'd grown and moved away. It wasn't bad, per say, but it was just he was older now, more responsible, and had had time to recover from Naraku, had had other things happen, and was just-different. Kouga was a recluse. Wolves had been pretty much hunted out through the years. The few remaining wolves and wolf youkai stayed away from humans at all cost, staying high in the mountains and only coming down occasionally for food. She hadn't even seen him at all, and didn't really want to. In some ways, she felt guilty-she should have remembered and warned him about that. Kirara had died a couple of centuries ago, and Shippou…Shippou only knew her through stories. He'd been so young when he'd meet her that he barely remembered her. Having felt almost like a mother to him, that was almost the hardest blow of all.

Yet another arrow flew and landed with a solid thunk. Souta, who was trying to cross the yard, peeked around the corner before stepping out. He walked over to the tree and tried to pull out the arrow without success. Kagome rolled her eyes and walked across the courtyard to remove the arrows from the target.

"Kagome, you sure stuck these arrows in good, but your aim sucks," Souta said, in an attempt to regain dignity.

Kagome stopped and surveyed her handiwork from a bit closer, then walked the last few yards. "Not only are you still a shrimp at fifteen, you can't read too?" she said.

"Hey!" Souta protested, before moving a little further away. He looked at the word spelled onto the target. He swallowed. "What did the target ever do to you?"

Kagome shrugged and started pulling out the arrows, which spelled die, as Souta decided it might be the better part of valor to retreat. She firmly yanked each arrow out, making sure they weren't damaged before returning them to her quiver. Now what? She was completely out of ideas. Two years and a half years of traveling around, killing youkai, and a year of cramming through the last of her high school material so that she could pass her high school exams didn't exactly give her options. Her grandfather took care of the shrine, her mother kept house and edited books to keep herself occupied as well put some extra money in the family coffers, and Souta, of course, was still in high school. Kagome knew her mother really didn't have the money to put her through college, and besides, what would she do? Working inside was pretty much out of the question-going to school for tests and to turn in work had been painful. At home, she could spend most of her time outside, only going inside when she had to. She'd never used to be like that, but after everything that had happened, she couldn't really feel comfortable. Kagome shivered, unpleasant memories surfacing, and decided she needed a walk.

Kagome strolled along the streets mindlessly, steering around people and objects in her path without really paying attention to them. Much later, maybe around three hours or so, she stopped, and realized she wasn't quite sure where in Tokyo she was. She shrugged-it had been happening more and more often lately. She stuck her hands in her pockets and was about to turn around when she felt something that was wrong-a demonic presence, yes, but different from the normal youkai she felt, and she could tell it felt angry.

Where once Kagome might have gripped about the fact she couldn't have a normal life and maybe even ignored it because it wasn't her business, she felt not only obligated but excited, and followed the direction her senses were tugging her towards. Another twenty minutes later and she was in a slightly dilapidated neighborhood, one that maybe five or six years ago had been nice, but now was a bit rundown. The sensation was coming from a house at the end of the street that looked like it had been abandoned. As she got closer she could hear moans of pain and she started to run, hoping she wasn't too late. The door was open and she hurried through the hallways until she reached the room she felt the evil coming from. She didn't have her arrows with her, but nowadays those were more for working out frustrations or for using in casting more permanent spells, nothing she needed for killing a youkai. The youkai, who looked almost completely human, at least from the back, except for the years which were sharply pointed and stuck out more sideways then Shippou's or Sesshoumaru's had. He was bent over a crying girl who was maybe twelve or thirteen, and looked like she'd been living on the streets before everything had happened. Now she was bleeding from various places from cuts and looked like she was had long ago passed from really being completely conscious of what was happening.

"Like little girls do you?" Kagome asked sternly, guessing that her voice and presence would distract the youkai from the girl, which, of course, it did. It was a male youkai, who looked different from any other youkai she'd seen before. The youkai looked exquisitely beautiful, like many youkai, with black hair and blue eyes, but was dressed in something that looked like something a cosplayer might wear and had a short horn sticking out from the middle of his forehead. He was grinning rather savagely as he looked her over in a rather lecherous, almost hungry manner. Kagome's lip curled slightly in disgust.

"Little girls are quite nice, thank you, but you do look delicious," the youkai said, and with a twist of his fingers, Kagome found herself slowly sinking into the wood beneath her.

Kagome didn't scream however, much to the youkai's obvious surprise. She only gave a bored sigh, directed a bit of purification energy to the wood around her ankles to negate the youkai's power over the wood and stepped out. The youkai gapped at her in shock before a grin suddenly broke out across his face. "A spiritualist! How delightful! And you seem so powerful; I couldn't even sense your abilities! What a boon! When I take your power, I'll be able to beat any contender for the throne!" He gestured again, and vines of wood burst towards her.

Unfortunately for him, these reminded her of Naraku's tentacles a little too much, and Kagome, acting on instinct, let out a burst of purity that purified not only his weapons of wood, but the youkai as well.

"Drat," Kagome said, heaving a sigh, "I wanted to know what sort of youkai that was. He looked and felt so odd…oh well. At least I can get this girl some treatment." She walked over to the girl who'd finally passed out, and using her tearing up her t-shirt to use as bandages, started to tie up the worst of her injuries. After she was finished, she picked the girl up in her arms and ended outside to get the girl to a hospital. Kagome, as had become her habit, was wearing a sports bra underneath, so she didn't feel too uncomfortable going outside in only her bra, though maybe it might have been better if she wasn't covered in the girl's blood. She received some odd and others concerned looks as she walked through the streets, but she looked so off putting and remote that no one disturbed her. Once she was out of the run down area, she picked out a man in a business suit who was sipping some tea while he read a newspaper at a café nearby, and walked over to him and cleared her throat.

The man looked up, startled, and gulped slightly. Her hair was wind-blown from the running she'd done, her face a bit fierce and stern, her bra and hands were bloody, she was holding someone who not only was wounded but had to weigh at least 95 to maybe 110 pounds as if she was carrying something light like a cat, and presented an altogether disturbing sight. He stammered slightly when he asked, "C-c-can I h-help you?"

"In which direction is the nearest hospital?" she asked.

"I-I can call an ambulance," the man nervously offered, wondering if the woman was a gang member whose friend had been shot or stabbed in a fight.

Kagome considered this, since she'd planned on making sure the girl was brought to the hospital herself, but she needed to call Inuyasha and ask which policeman she should talk to about the fact a youkai had been attacking a girl and she'd purified it, so that they could close off the scene while the scent was fresh. Plus to see if there were any legalities involved in purifying a youkai. "That will be fine. I'll leave her here with you," she said, and carefully sat the girl down in the chair opposite the man and walked off. The man gapped as at her back before scrambling to get his phone out to place the call.

Kagome, in the meantime, found a pay phone and called Inuyasha's number (he'd left it in case anything happened that she needed help with, more for old time's sake then anything else).

"Hello? Inuyasha? This is Kagome. I've had a bit of a situation and was wondering how it should be handled," Kagome said, trying to keep things mostly professional.

"What sort of problem?" Inuyasha asked, sounding somewhere between impersonal and worried.

"I was out for a walk, and sensed a really pissed off youkai. He was torturing a girl, looked to be a street kid maybe eleven or twelve, and it looked like it had been cutting on her for some time, maybe even a day or two. He had control over wood, I believe, and after trying to suck me down into the floor, he sent his tentacles after me. I sort of reacted before I found out more information from him. It reminded me of Naraku's tentacles. There was one weird thing, though. He didn't look like a normal demon. His ears were pointy, but they stuck out more, and he had a horn sticking out of his forehead," Kagome explained.

"Damn," Inuyasha swore, "I'll make a couple of calls and be down there with a friend of mine as soon as possible. Where are you? And what did you do with the girl?"

Kagome's face flushed red in embarrassment. "The girl's being taken to the hospital right now," she said, as she watched an ambulance go by, "I let someone use his cell phone to make the call and kept an eye on him while I called you-I figured I needed to get someone down here as quickly as possible. As to where I am…" Kagome tried to find a street sign, and couldn't, "Um…just a second," and ignoring the muffled "The hell?" coming from the line she went over to someone and asked where she was.

"I'm on Tetsuna Lane," Kagome said, "but the actual place it happened was four or five blocks away.

"Tell me later," Inuyasha said with a sigh, "I'll be there in twenty minutes or so."

Kagome stared at the phone, and hung up. She never thought that she'd miss the Inuyasha who would have called her an idiot and gripped at her. She was friends with that Inuyasha though.

She was left to consider things for over fifteen minutes longer then Inuyasha had promised before Inuyasha had pulled up in a green car that looked like it was a few years old. In the passenger seat was someone with black hair that she couldn't quite see from the angle she was at. The window rolled down and Inuyasha yelled out, "You're sticking out like a frickin' sore thumb! Get in!"

Kagome obediently opened the back door and slipped in. "You standing there covered in blood, plus you're not even wearing a shirt. Have you no sense?" Inuyasha asked, "I'm not even going to go into the fact you had no idea where you were. Can you even tell us how to get to the where everything happened?"

He was scolding her like she was one of his kids. She restrained herself from arguing with him and simply said, "You told me to wait here until you got here. I didn't have any other clothes on me, and I used my shirt to bind the girl's wounds. My clothes don't spontaneously repair or clean themselves. I didn't have many options."

"She has a point, Inuyasha," the man said, "By the way, Ms. Higurashi, I'm Detective Hiroshi. Could you please give you an idea of how everything happened in detail?"

"First she needs to give me the directions," Inuyasha pointed out.

"You're going in the right direction. Another block. Okay, it's that abandoned house at the end of this block," Kagome said, directing while Inuyasha drove at a pace slightly faster then was probably legal.

Inuyasha parked the car, and the three of them walked into the house. Kagome took a deep breath as they left the car, grateful to be out of the small space, and not looking forward to returning to the scene of the crime. It was one thing to charge into a house when someone was being attacked, and something completely different to do so when there wasn't an emergency. However, she didn't want to give up in front of Inuyasha, so she gritted her teeth and went in.

Inuyasha's face was more controlled then it had been centuries ago, but Kagome could still tell by the slight wrinkling of the nose, that Inuyasha was quite disgusted by the smell. Detective Hiroshi, who now that she could see him, had a pretty standard looking Japanese face and wore a slightly shabby blue suit, had a frown on his face. Kagome wondered what he looked like normally, but she thought it was sort of rude to ask him to take his illusion off, or "peek" using her abilities. Kagome brought them to the room and shrugged. Other then a prevalence of blood and a lingering of a demonic presence mixed with pain, suffering, and a savage glee, she couldn't really tell much.

"Okay, now that we're here, why don't you give me the whole story," Detective Hiroshi asked.

"Yeah, like why the heck you say you were on a walk but you're almost eighteen miles away from your shrine," Inuyasha said.

Kagome glared at him slightly then turned her attention to Detective Hiroshi. "I go for long walks sometimes, for my own reasons," she said, before turning another brief glare towards Inuyasha, "and I was about to turn around and head home when I sensed an odd demonic presence that seemed overly aggressive and malicious. I was worried that there was a rogue demon that might have decided to snack on a human or something, or maybe that a couple of demons had gotten into a fight. I wasn't sure what it might be, but I figured I should check it out."

"You didn't call for back up why?" Inuyasha asked.

"I couldn't be sure it was anything important. For all I could know at that point, it could have be a domestic fight. So anyways, I followed that presence here. As I got close to the house, I could hear moans and some crying, and the house looked like it was abandoned so I went in. I found a youkai with black hair and ears that are a bit bigger with ears that point out more then normal leaning over the girl I found. She appeared to have retreated into her mind, still suffering, still moaning and crying, but not really paying attention to what was around her. I got the youkai's attention. He turned around. He had a pretty boy face like many youkai and had blue eyes, but the odd thing to me was the small horn sticking out the top of his forehead, sort of in his hair. He didn't say what his name was, but he did say he was going to be more then happy to add me to his meal plan, basically. He then demonstrated his control over the wood in this house by making it sort of melt around where I was standing. I sent out a bit of purification power to stop his control of the wood and stepped out. That was here, the weird indent in the floor. I hadn't yet purified him because I was going to ask some questions, like why he felt different from other youkai, and maybe try and capture him alive. He got all excited for some reason about the fact that I was a "spiritualist" as he called me and had the crazy idea he could steal my powers. He sent tentacles of wood towards me. That startled me, and I sent out a wave of purification which not only destroyed the tentacles but him as well. I think that that small pile of dust right there is probably him, though it's sort of hard to tell in all this mess. I then went over to the girl, bandaged her wounds, and carried her away from this district and had someone call an ambulance. After that I called Inuyasha. That's pretty much all that happened. Is there anything I need to know about, or any paperwork I need to fill out, or any procedures I should know in case something like this happens again?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha groaned while Detective Hiroshi chuckled. "Well, we'd prefer it if you'd wait to purify until we can ask questions, and if he was a registered youkai there would be paperwork you'd need to fill out and a lot more headaches all around, but from your description even then you'd probably be okay. Luckily for you, he's what we call a demon. From what we can tell, the demons all share the odd ears and single horns, but we really don't know much about them. The stupid idiots usually have to be killed because they won't stop fighting or they disappear, and they won't listen to us when we try to explain the rules. Most of the time there aren't many around and we just deal with the ones we find, but for some reason, the past few months the numbers of them have increased in a ridiculous rate. We've never identified demons on Japan that actually really live here-most of them just pop up and get themselves killed or disappear again. Nor have we been able to discover from counterparts around the world any location that demons are suspected to live on earth. We believe that there is possibly another dimension they come from, and that they can hop from one to the other. Unfortunately, until we catch one alive that doesn't disappear or die, that's as much as we know."

"Wow," Kagome said.

"That pretty much sums it up. If something like this happens again, you can try to catch the demon without killing it, and if it's a normal youkai with a human form, definitely try to not kill it. Lesser demons, however, have so little intelligence that if you manage to find one, you can take care of it," Detective Hiroshi said, "I do understand, though, that it can sometimes be hard to control your purification powers if you're in trouble. If it's a choice between you or it, then go through with it."

"Better yet, report the fact that something's happening and get the hell out of there. You are not a policewoman and you don't know the rules, so stay out of it," Inuyasha said, once more in the same tone of voice someone's father might use when his child stepped out of line.

Kagome closed her eyes briefly. That really hurt. She took a deep breath and let it out, then opened her eyes and looked at Inuyasha, her eyes hard. "Inuyasha, I understand that it's been five centuries for you, and you now consider me little more then an idiotic teenager. I can understand if you don't want anything to do with me any more. However, I am not one of your children. I am now legally adult, and I am a miko. You cannot expect me to stand around while someone's being tortured waiting for the police when I am perfectly capable of facing a demon and dealing with it. Not only is that against what being a miko stands for, but it's something I would never do. I'm sorry that I lost my friend five centuries ago. He was my best friend, and I'll miss him, because even when he considered me an idiot and he didn't like the fact that I was constantly doing things contrary to what he thought was best, he trusted me, and I'd like to think he was proud to fight alongside me. Goodbye, Inuyasha. Detective Hiroshi, if anything comes up, I'll be sure to contact you. Thanks for coming here."

Kagome's voice was definitely trembling a bit towards the end, and Kagome turned to leave before she started to cry in front of Inuyasha.

* * * * *

Ura was in his human form, wearing a black t-shirt and army green cargo pants as he followed behind Yayoi. "Why do we have to go to some old woman's house again?" he grumbled, his arms folded in front of him.

"We don't have to go anywhere," Yayoi said with a sigh, "I'm not making you follow me."

"Right," Ura drawled, "Like I'm stupid enough to let you get out of my sight so some other demon could gobble you up. I don't know how you managed to live as long as you did."

"I am not defenseless, as I'm quite sure you remember," Yayoi said with the slightest hint of threat to her voice.

"So why do I have to keep saving your ass?" Ura asked, watching the afore-mentioned body part as it swayed in front of him. He couldn't help himself. It was a rather cute one.

"You want to arrive as a cat?" Yayoi asked.

Ura decided that he'd won that argument decisively she'd had to threaten him with the thrice-damned rosary, and changed the subject.

"Seriously, though, the old woman's just paranoid. All she has to go on is hearing a few ghost moans and groans from the abandoned house next to her. Just because someone died in it doesn't mean that it's going to be haunted. Besides, didn't the old geezer that lived in that house die almost a year ago? If it was a ghost, wouldn't he show up right away?" Ura stated, trying to enforce his point.

"It's not like it's a long walk, and it doesn't hurt to check it out," Yayoi said, "It's my job, you know, not dealing with demons."

Ura sighed again, and followed after her. Everything had become so complicated. It had always seemed so simple before, but then his father became ill. Even then, he'd tried to make a simple plan. It had been a simple plan. Go to the human world, find a strong spiritualist, steal his or her powers, return to the demon world, heal his father, and figure out something to do for his little brother.

Obviously, things didn't quite work out that way. He'd felt he'd been winning the fight (though now he wondered why Yayoi hadn't called up some more of her spirits-Gaimei was pretty freaky, and while Ura didn't consider himself evil, certainly wasn't a saint either) until Yayoi used the thing on him and turned him into the cat. It just started going down hill from there. She had to unseal a crap load of beads before he was fully unsealed, and she wasn't inclined to do that, especially in the beginning. He'd started to admire her, in an odd way, because after all, she had beaten him. And she was a great cook. The more he saw, the more he wanted to know about her, because not only was she different from all the stories he'd heard about humans, she was different from anyone he'd ever met. Then Hakuyo'd shown up. That was a headache and a half. Hakuyo was a great person, of course, smart, a good fighter, and loyal to him. They'd been friends for pretty much forever. Didn't mean he wasn't a pain in the ass.

And just to show that bad things all seem to happen at once (he couldn't say three's 'cause he was already past THAT point) Ouga showed up. Normally, that wasn't a bad thing. Ouga had always been a pretty good younger brother, if a bit mopey and depressing, but Ouga was his brother. He'd gone crazy though, which was exactly why he'd wanted Ouga to stay the hell away from the dark powers! Idiot! He didn't care if Ouga was a bit weak compared to the rest of the family without them, at least he would have remained sane.

Anyways, that had turned out horribly as well. Yayoi'd been kidnapped and brought to demon world and he'd had to follow and rescue her and try not to kill his brother. That hadn't worked, and he'd had to get serious with his little brother, because he couldn't do anything else, and his brother almost died then when Yayoi, the person who'd just been kidnapped and almost killed, decides to try and pull him out.

Of course, that couldn't be the end of that. Some freak showed up and stolen Ouga away, and Ura could feel so much frickin' dark power coming from him it made Ouga look like a small fry. They go back home, and the by now usual things happened, like Yayoi getting into trouble, and Ura having to save her cute butt. Then the unthinkable had happened. Ura had been possessed, and Yayoi, the idiot, had offered to let him take his powers just so he could survive with his own free will.

He would swear to the fact (at least privately to himself-this fact wasn't going public) that his heart pretty much stopped for an instant there. That was what really gave him the motivation to gain control over that fucking spirit. How could she…

And THEN he found out that Yayoi had kept the fact that she had a wound from fighting Ouga that was the same sort of wound that was killing his father, the fucking king of all demons! That she'd been dying for half the time he'd known her because of him-because of him coming into her life. Ouga would have never targeted her otherwise. It was a miracle they'd managed to fix that problem, because Ura was still fucking confused about the entire situation. Yayoi was just…and he didn't know how to act around her. It was fun when he'd discovered her weakness, but on some level that he wasn't sure he wanted to admit to himself, he was glad for the opportunities it gave him. Touching her, almost kissing her or kissing her on some less controversial spot then her lips, testing his limits, testing his feelings-it was an enormous, dangerous game he was playing, and he wasn't sure what he considered winning was. He knew that sometimes the only thing stopping him from making it more then a game was the expression on her face when she felt flustered. She was so strong, confident, relentless, beautiful, and the last sort of person who should feel nervous about guys, but she was, and somehow that only made her more perfect, more her, and yet he couldn't help but laugh at how incongruous to the rest of her it was.

He had to do something. Hanging around Yayoi was dangerous-it was addictive, and he wasn't sure even if he managed to make sure his father was cured that he'd be able to leave Yayoi.

Ura sighed, depressed now. He needed to think about something else. He almost hoped there was something there when they arrived, preferably a demon that he could beat up as compared to a ghost that was Yayoi's specialty.

He noticed that Yayoi had moved farther ahead while he'd been slowly walking, thinking of things, and jogged a bit to catch up. He was about to complain again when he noticed the expression on her face and straightened slightly. "What is it?" he asked.

Yayoi shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not quite sure. It's odd. For a few moments, I could literally taste the pain, terror, hatred, and evil in the air. Then suddenly it's almost completely gone. I know I'm not going in the wrong direction, because it was growing stronger as I headed towards the address we were supposed to go. It's almost as if another spiritualist has been here, but different. I know what my mom's powers felt like, and I've meet a few other's in my life, but this is just…different. It's strange. And the presence before wasn't a spiritual presence like a malevolent ghost; it felt more demonic. I can't do that. I can't get rid of a demonic aura, only a spiritual one."

Ura's eyebrows pulled together. "That's odd. Maybe the old lady might be able to tell us something, since she's apparently so nosy. How much farther?"

Yayoi double-checked the address she'd written down; then pointed towards a house that was right besides the abandoned house that was at the end of the street opposite them. A woman was walking down the street, and she looked rather odd, as if she'd rubbed streaks of reddish clay or something across her, and she wasn't wearing a shirt. Ura shrugged and ignored the woman walking away, and headed for the house the old lady lived in. Yayoi had stopped walking, though, and was staring at the woman. Ura rolled his eyes. "Idiot, I'm pretty sure that ain't the old lady. Aren't you supposed to be a professional or something? Let's get going on the job."

Yayoi shook her head slightly and turned her attention back to him. "I'm not an idiot. I just think I used to know her."

"Please tell me you're not going to want to catch up with her and have a girly chat about the good ole days, are you?" Ura asked. He'd tried to limit meeting more human girls after going to Yayoi's school. He still kept an eye on her often, camping out as a cat in a tree outside her school sometimes, but he refused to enter that hell hole again unless it was a life or death situation.

Yayoi sighed, but turned her attention back to the task at hand. "I'm going," she said, and ushered Ura on.

Soon they were at the front door, and Yayoi was knocking. Ura only hoped that the woman wouldn't be as bad as her younger counterparts. An older woman (Ura didn't know how old 'cause he sucked at telling how old a human was-if she'd been a demon, he'd guess a bazillion years old, but maybe since she was human maybe she was only 233 or something) answered the door. She had brittle white hair tied back into a bun and was wearing an old-fashioned dress. At least it looked different from the sort of thing Yayoi and any other females he generally saw wore.

Yayoi bowed and introduced herself and him, though the old pervert was eyeing him with obvious approval. He hid a shudder and scowled instead, only to have Yayoi elbow him.

"Well, come in, come in then," the older lady said, and ushered them in, "You're a bit late though. Everything's already happened."

"Happened? What do you mean?" Yayoi asked as she sat down on the sofa. Ura perched himself on the armrest besides her crossed one leg so that his left foot was resting on his right knee, and sighed dramatically, so that Yayoi would know what a sacrifice he was making for her.

"Well, about an hour ago a young woman dress in a t-shirt, exercise pants, and tennis shoes went running past my house like the wind almost an hour ago now. She went straight to the house, and didn't hesitate but went right in. I heard some weird noises then, and then silence. I almost called the police, I was so worried about the young woman, but after about twenty minutes she came out, shirtless and carrying a young girl who was maybe almost a teenager in her arms. It looked like she was covered in blood from the girl she was carrying, and that she'd used her t-shirt to bind the wounds the girl had. Then, about thirty-five, maybe forty minutes after that she comes back, but in a car with two men. One man looked like a city official or someone important-he was in a suit, and the other man, the man driving, was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jeans. They went in, and about ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, the girl leaves, just walking away. I hope she's okay, walking home like that in just a bloody bra. It's supposed to get cold tonight. Those men looked nice-I wonder why they didn't offer her a ride home. You suppose they had an argument?" she asked anxiously.

Ura looked out the window-he had seen a green car earlier, but it was gone now. He swore silently to himself then realized that Yayoi thought she recognized the girl. Maybe they could catch up with her that way. He was interested in learning what kind of spiritualist could use spells that apparently counter-acted a demon's aura, and finding out if she was a threat or not, though she might not be too bad if she ran in to rescue someone she didn't even know.

Ura thought about that for a second, and then looked over at Yayoi. Sounded like something she would do. Maybe that wasn't such a good sign. Two Yayoi's would be a headache.

Yayoi looked puzzled. "You're sure it was that girl who just left when we were walking up?" she asked.

"Oh yes, quite sure," the woman assured, "it was her all right."

Yayoi appeared to consider this for a moment. Ura wondered what she was thinking, but gave it up for a lost cause. Figuring out her thought process gave him a headache sometimes-this was one of those times. Finally she nodded, and then smiled at the old lady. "Well, I'm glad it was fixed. If anything happens again, just let me know."

"I'm sorry for making you come all the way out here for nothing," the old lady apologized. Frankly, Ura didn't believe her. She seemed to relish getting to share the gossip.

"It's all right," Yayoi said politely. Ura didn't think it was all right, and was about to say so when Yayoi stepped on his foot. Damn the woman! He bit his lip and contemplated revenge. "We'll just be going now. You have a nice day."

"Well," the woman was obviously disappointed they were leaving, "You're more then welcome to stay for tea."

That was more like it! Ura opened his mouth again, and Yayoi shook her head. Ura snarled slightly, and Yayoi rolled her eyes slightly and mouthed the words, "I'll fix something later." That shut him up. Maybe he'd get lucky and be able to pick something out. Seemed like all they were having was pudding lately. Damn Hakuyo for being so good at getting his way.

"Thank you, but we've got to get going! Can't leave the temple unattended for too long," Yayoi said.

"Ah, well. Feel free to stop by any time!" the woman offered.

"Thank you. Goodbye!" Yayoi said, and they left.

After they were a couple minutes away Ura felt inclined to point out that, "Hakuyo is at the shrine. That isn't unattended."

Yayoi looked at him for a moment, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Right," Ura said, remembering that Hakuyo probably wasn't paying any attention to if anyone was at the shrine or not, "What do you think about everything that happened? You think it was a demon?"

"I'm pretty positive," Yayoi said, "I've gotten pretty good at telling when a demon's been nearby with all the practice I've been getting lately. It's just the odd thing is that if that was who I think it was, it's really weird."

"What do you mean?" Ura asked.

"It's just that while Kagome grew up on a shrine, she never really believed in demons or ghosts. It was like she was the ultimate unspiritual person. Don't get me wrong, she was always really nice, but I could never feel the slightest amount of spiritual energy from her. You see, our families both went to meetings and conventions for shrine-keepers, and we were the only girls around our ages, even though she's about two years older then me. I always admired her, though I wished that she could see spirits too. When she got older, she stopped coming, and I didn't see her again. That was when I was about thirteen, and she was fifteen. I just figured she felt like she was too old, but maybe something happened. Maybe I just mistook her for someone else, and it's not really Kagome. I don't know, it's weird, like I said," Yayoi was sounding frustrated and a bit sad.

"You were really good friends with her, weren't you?" he asked finally.

"Yeah," Yayoi admitted after a moment.

"Why didn't you ever go ask her what happened?" he said, "You're not the sort of person to just give up."

"You don't know her," Yayoi said, "She was just…so nice. She was beautiful, and everyone loved her. I never understood why she let someone two years younger then her hang out with her. She was just so…perfect. Even my mom loved her, and you know what she was like."

Unspoken was Ura could tell she thought: "I didn't think I was good enough to be her friend. I was always waiting for her to realize that and leave, and then she did."

Ura thought that was shit, but she was telling him things he never knew about her, so he'd rephrase it a little nicer. "You were the one with powers though. If that wasn't her, that just means she was and still is ordinary. You were born into the Suzuka family, wielders of the Spirit Wheel Key for centuries. Shouldn't she be the one who wants to be friends with you?"

Yayoi sighed. "You don't know how often I sometimes wished I was normal like her."

Ura stared at her, and she shook her head. "You were born a prince. Didn't you ever wish that your father was just another demon, that there weren't expectations you had to live up to? That every move you made wasn't watched by everyone, that you weren't always judged, that demons weren't always looking at you and wondering if you'd make a good king? Wondered if there hadn't been all that pressure; that Ouga wouldn't have felt forced to resort to darker methods?"

Ura blinked. She fucking did it again! How did she fucking read his mind like that?!

"What are you going to do?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.

"I don't know. I suppose I could go to her shrine and see if it was her. If it wasn't, there's not much we can really do, but if it is, I want to make sure she knows as a spiritualist that demons might be coming after her," Yayoi said.

"Uh, who'd want to go after her? She hasn't sealed the Prince of Demons," Ura said.

Yayoi rolled her eyes. "Maybe they just don't want to have to put up with you. I can't blame them-you're a headache."

Ura nodded sagely. "Very true. I wouldn't want to have to fight me either."

End of Chapter 1

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed. In a couple chapters or so, I'll probably be moving this over to the Mugen Spiral section, since that section needs all the help it can get. I also probably have the next couple of chapters pretty much ready to go, as soon as I feel like it.

Everyone: If you haven't yet read it, seriously, go check out Mugen Spiral. The series is well-written, it has great characters, a great story line, and loads of hilarious moments. And it has demons. Who can resist demons?