Chapter Text
Chapter 1, Who is Watching?
Kagome hefted the heavy yellow backpack securely on her shoulders and grabbed a thick vine to help herself out of the well. By the time she exited the dry well she was panting for breath. No matter how many times she did this the extra weight and bulk of the bag always made it difficult to drag herself out of the well. Kagome took a look around at her surroundings and was only mildly surprised to see no irate hanyou waiting for her impatiently.
For the first two years of their adventures Inuyasha had always been here when Kagome appeared on this side of the well, but now well into their third year Inuyasha no longer acted quite so protective. Kagome was still widely untrained, but Sango had taught her the basics of hand-to-hand combat and a little weapon training with a knife, so Kagome was no longer completely helpless against stray humans. That coupled with Kaede's training on how to purify demons she was touching meant Kagome wasn't as helpless as she used to be. She of course had her bow as well.
Kagome still felt uncomfortable in this era without her protector, but Inuyasha’s forest was usually safe enough.
Kagome dressed in her normal white and green school uniform with its too short green skirt and almost a third of the shikon no tama around her neck counted silently in her head and closed her eyes waiting for what was bound to come her way now that she was on this side of the well.
'One...two...three…' a crash was heard in the distance, 'four... five...' then the noise got closer and Kagome opened her eyes to a speeding hanyou skidding to a stop right in front of her. He then tried to look composed in front of her while panting for breath. Kagome just laughed silently at Inuyasha's antics. Yeah, he wasn't AS overprotective as he used to be, but that didn't mean he would ever admit that she wasn't just a weak human.
For a moment a smile graced her lips, happy that the half demon had come to meet her, that it was a sign he cared. The smile disappeared as soon as he opened his mouth.
"Oy wench did you bring the ramen?" Inuyasha asked irritatingly while grabbing the bag off of her arm. "I still don't see why you have to spend so much time over there, you should just grab the ramen and then you can go back to shard detecting."
Inuyasha should have known better. He should have seen the signs. The darkening of the features the silence for too long, the glaring, but alas Inuyasha was still just as dense as always. Inuyasha missed all of the warnings and so he was completely unaware of what was happening until he heard the first syllable and by then it was much too late.
"Inuyasha sit boy!" She cried.
Inuyasha thudded into the dirt hard.
"My name is Kagome, Ka-Go-Me not wench, you would think with ears as big as yours you would be able to hear me. Second off..." Kagome glowered as she watched Inuyasha start to pick himself off the ground.
"Sit!"
Another loud crash as dog hits earth.
"I am not a shard detector and you better get it right or next time I will make sure you hit dirt until the hole you make is so deep it could be a new well." Kagome screamed at the rude hanyou.
That is how her friends found them. Inuyasha face down and Kagome glaring at him. The group said nothing and indeed hardly noticed the everyday occurrence. Shippo took one look and ran to Kagome bouncing on top of Inuyasha on the way before jumping into Kagome's arms.
"KAGOME! I missed you I missed you I missed you! Did you miss me? Did you have fun in your home? Did you bring me anything back?" Shippo then paused and ran to the bag after stepping on Inuyasha yet again, eliciting a yelp from the hanyou, to see if there was anything for him. Kagome simply laughed at the antics of the excitable kit, her anger at Inuyasha completely gone after seeing her beloved kit so happy.
"It is a pleasure to see you again lady Kagome. I trust you had a nice trip home?" Inquired a certain hentai monk.
Kagome nodded. "Yep, I forgot how nice it is to sleep in a real bed again and I think I want to marry my shower," Kagome stated while making a face of pure bliss. She neatly sidestepped the hand that was reaching for her backside as she spoke moving out of range.
"Well you should tell us all about it in the village." Stated Sango, glaring at the monk who had casually moved said hand as if it had not done anything wrong.
With that, all four walked away heading towards the village, a certain dog demon completely forgotten. None of them were aware of the golden eyes of a certain silver-haired youkai following their every move. His malicious eyes especially followed the miko who currently had a young kit on the shoulder. His thoughts were of pain and torture and overwhelming maddening anger. She would pay dearly for what she had done to his family...
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Except for very rare circumstances, there are no mixed species yokai. This is not because different species do not mate. They absolutely do, and frequently enough.
Generally, when a yokai fetus is developing the blood of whichever parent is dominant takes over and destroys the weaker blood, resulting in a pure blooded baby. For example if a cat and dog demon mated their baby would be either cat or dog depending on which of the two were stronger. This also holds true if a silver wolf demon and a brown wolf demon mate. You do not get a silver brown wolf but either one or the other. The circumstances under which this is not true are when dealing with complete opposites, a few lessor demon horrors or hanyou but well we all know what happens there.
Shippo's parents were both forest kitsunes as was his aunt. His cousin on the other hand was a silver kitsune because his aunt’s mate had been a silver. Shippo had never met his aunt as she had died along with her mate long before his birth, but he did have one fuzzy memory as a very tiny kit meeting his cousin. His memory was of seeing a fully grown fuzzy silvery shape try to explain to him how he could be his cousin even though he wasn't a forest youkai and looked so different.
Shippo dubbed that this yokai as "Uncle Yoko" even though the fuzzy silver shape kept trying to tell him he was his cousin. The young kit decided since he was so much older, he couldn't be his cousin and so ‘uncle’ it was. Shippo hadn't thought of Yoko for a very long time, after all he was very young when they met. He would not be able to recognize his cousin now even if he were to walk right up to him.
This was not the same for the older silver who's memory was so much better. Shippo was family and kitsune have very strong protective feelings towards their family, especially the young.
As Yoko Kurama, the infamous and very powerful thief stalked the shard hunters and his cousin he thought on the events that had taken place in the years he had been gone to China.
When he returned from his trip, he had gone to visit his uncle and young cousin, but when he checked their den it had been abandoned. He could still smell the remnants of his uncles dried blood in such quantities that it was clear he had died. The forest kitsune were not very strong and had always been far too interested in play and tricks instead of training.
At first Yoko's reaction was a rage so fierce that he had killed all the yokai that had come anywhere close in proximity to the cave for days. Finally, his rage dissipated as a new thought came to mind, revenge on whomever did this. As Yoko had reinspected the cave for clues on the killer, he finally noticed that something was missing. There was no sign of his little cousin. Yoko is a very rational demon and knew his cousin might have simply been eaten, after all his cousin would still be small and even if he did survive the attack no one would take in a youkai kit that was not family in dangerous times such as these. Still a small seed of hope grew in Yoko's heart.
Yoko’s search had taken him months but he had finally found the ones who had taken his cousin. It only made sense that they had been the ones to kill his uncle. It was not unheard of for humans to steal youkai children as pets or slaves. Yoko had all the proof he needed when his eyes landed on the firecat youkai with them that seemed to be a pet.
Yoko stared at the cruel miko as she subdued the unlucky dog hanyou and knew she must have been the one to do it. She killed Shippo's father and then when the kit was helpless she lied to him gaining his trust and loyalty. Shippo, the poor kit was probably completely unaware that the shoulder he stood on belonged to the murderer of his father.
Yoko stared with hate in his eyes at the cold-hearted murderer of his uncle. Yes, this miko would pay dearly. Yoko Kurama would wait and watch and when his chance came he would take it. This miko would suffer for what she did to his family she would die slowly.
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A/N Well here we go. I have finally decided to finish this story that has been haunting me for *winces* 15 years? Yikes. I figure I wrote two other long fanfics successfully this year. I have felt bad about leaving an incomplete story all this time. I think I have improved in writing after the last two stories, but the fandoms of this one are no longer as fresh in my mind and when I started and planned this story InuYasha wasn’t even complete. I never watched the InuYasha sequel and don’t think it’s going to be relevant as this will be Kagome/Kurama. I was checking the wiki and they spell ‘Yoko’ instead of “Youko” so I will be updating to that spelling to that.