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Sandman	By : YoursAlways Category: InuYasha Crossovers > Het - Male/Female Views: 2262 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor YuYu Hakusho and make no money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Sandman

Chapter Seven

"No!" Kagome screamed. She couldn't see past the light that had filled her room, but she could hear the demon's body connect with the wall across from her bed. As her vision began to clear, she felt around for anything that she could use as a weapon. Her eyes widened when her fingertips brushed against smooth metal and she realized that Hiei had dropped his sword on her bed.

Kagome gripped the blade, wincing when it bit into the flesh of her hand, and began to wiggle and thrash until she was able to sit up. Taking the hilt of the sword into her uninjured hand, she pushed as much of her energy as she could into the weapon.

When the demon stood, Kagome could see that that she had managed to burn him badly and he was missing part of one arm. The two stared at each other in a tense stand-off before the demon cursed and leapt through the window to escape into the night.

It was only after the demon was gone that Kagome realized that Souta was banging against the door and yelling for her to open it. She still hadn't managed to find her voice when he finally broke the lock and busted the door open. Souta took one look around and yelled, "What in the hell just happened?"

Hiei's sword suddenly felt unbearably heavy and Kagome’s shaking hand allowed it to fall to the floor with a clatter. "Demon attack," she mumbled in shock. Kagome had never sensed a demon in her time until she had met Kurama and his friends, and their presence had lulled her into a false sense of security. She had ignored the fact that their presence meant that there were still plenty of dangerous demons out there. Looking down at Hiei as he lay motionless across her lap, Kagome's mind whirled back into action. "Souta!" She called snapping out of her daze. "He's hurt. Help me get him on his back!"

Souta ran over and helped his sister roll Hiei over. The demon grunted in pain but otherwise didn't respond.

Kagome wiggled her legs out from under her protector and leaned over him to examine his wounds.

"Kagome!" Risa called out as she reached the top of the stairs. "What happened? Are you okay?"

There was shock and worry written all over her mother’s face, and for the first time Kagome looked down at herself and realized that she had Hiei's blood smeared all over her. "I'm fine," she answered. "None of it is mine. But call Kurama! I need help and he needs to know what happened. Tell him he needs to get here as soon as he can." When Risa nodded and left the room, Kagome turned her attention back to Hiei.

Opening the cloak that he wore, Kagome frowned. She now knew why the snake demon had been so quick to leave. After he had stabbed Hiei with his dagger, the blade had become lodged in Hiei's side. Being injured and without a weapon in hand, he’d fled rather than fight a priestess. "There's too much blood," Kagome spoke her thoughts aloud.

"What?" Souta asked as he fidgeted. He’d seen Kagome beaten up and injured a few times, but that was always after she had been treated and bandaged up. He had never seen anything like this. "Kagome, tell me how to help! None of us know what to do. You're the only one that has experience with this kind of stuff!"

Kagome untucked Hiei's shirt and began to rip upwards from the hem. "Something is wrong," she explained. "There's too much blood here for a stab wound that still has the blade in it." When she reached the area of the wound, she gasped. The blade had entered the front of Hiei’s abdomen but had cut outwards and become lodged in his side. "Souta, I need lots of towels, bandages, anything you can find to stop the bleeding!"

"I'm on it!" The boy yelled as he ran out of the room.

"Why aren't you waking up?" Kagome whispered. She had seen demons take worse damage than this and retain consciousness. Trying to examine the wound more closely, she saw something strange. She gathered as much of her sheets as she could and pressed them to the wound to stem the bleeding as she used the hem of her shirt to wipe away some of the blood from Hiei’s skin. Kagome frowned when she saw little black lines spreading away from the wound. Moving to look at the skin around the dagger, she cleaned what she could and saw the same black lines only longer and more pronounced. ‘Poison!’ Her mind screamed.

Gripping the dagger’s handle, she tried to pull the blade free, but it remained in Hiei’s side. Tears began to gather in Kagome’s eyes as she let go of the sheets she had been holding in place and used both hands to pull the dagger free. More blood began to flow without the dagger to stop it, and Kagome was forced the toss the blade aside and gather more of her sheets. The white cotton was quickly turning crimson when Souta ran back into the room.

“Sorry,” he apologized as he deposited the towels on the foot of the bed. “I couldn’t find the bandages.”

“That’s okay, we just have to try to stop the bleeding,” Kagome told him as she grabbed a clean towel and traded it for the soiled sheets.

“I called Kurama,” Risa said as she came back to her daughter’s room. “He’s taking a cab and should be here in just a few minutes.” Looking at the blood and unconscious Hiei, she asked again, “What happened?”

“There was a demon attack,” Kagome said as she pressed another towel tightly on top of the one she already had on Hiei’s wound. “Hiei protected me.”

“Is there anything that I can do?” Risa asked. “Your grandfather can’t get up and down the stairs very fast, but he’s downstairs and wants to help as well.”

Just then a small pop was heard and everyone turned to see Botan standing in the middle of the room. Her eyes went wide seeing all the mess and blood. “Kurama called and said I needed to get here immediately. What happened?” She asked as she ran to the bed and moved Souta out of the way so that she could examine Hiei.

As frazzled as her nerves were, Kagome was getting very tired of that question. “A demon attacked,” Kagome answered. “Hiei protected me and I think he was poisoned by the weapon.”

“Let me see,” Botan said as she gently moved some of the towels out of the way. “Yes, it does appear the he was poisoned,” she confirmed. “But Kurama knows more about toxins than I do. We’ll have to wait for him to get here, but in the meantime I can try to close the wound before he loses too much blood.”

“You can do that?” Kagome asked hopefully.

With a strained smile, Botan nodded. “I have some healing abilities,” she said as she moved the towels out of the way. “But I need to see what I’m doing.”

Kagome nodded and sat back in silence to watch. Her heart was pounding and she could feel her entire body trembling. She was beginning to feel a little light headed now that someone had taken over caring for Hiei. Lifting her hand, she tried to bring her powers to the surface but nothing happened. Her hand tightened into a weak fist. She was so angry with herself. Her powers had diminished while her disease took its toll, and she hadn’t been training them back up properly during her recovery. Now a demon had attacked and she was tapped after one attack and what probably amounted to a small light show with Hiei’s sword.

Turning her attention back to Botan’s work, Kagome could see the blood flow slowing and Hiei’s skin slowly stitching itself back together. She only vaguely registered her grandfather calling something up the stairs until her mother told them, “Grandpa says that Kurama just arrived.”

Kagome was eager to speak with the redhead about what had happened and quickly leapt to her feet. But almost as soon as she was standing, it felt like a great weight had been placed on her. Her vision blurred around the edges and eventually went completely black. She only made it a couple of steps before she passed out and fell to her bedroom floor.

As the fog lifted from Kagome’s mind, she could hear a light tapping sound. It only took a few seconds for the events that lead to her passing out to come rushing back. Her eyes snapped open as she quickly sat up to see what had happened. The first thing that her eyes landed on was her bed. The bloody sheets and towels had been taken away, but it looked as though some of the blood had soaked through and into the mattress. “Hiei…” She whispered.

“He’s fine,” Kurama’s voice came from behind her. “He’s right beside you, actually.”

Looking to her left, Kagome saw that Hiei was indeed lying on a futon in the floor beside her. He was still unconscious though and appeared to be in pain judging by the expression on his face. His shirt had been removed and he wore a bandage around his abdomen. Kagome noticed that the white gauze was tinged pink in a few places and turned around to face Kurama. “Is he really okay?” She asked.

Kurama turned the desk chair so that he could face her fully before answering, “He’s as okay as he can be for now. Botan did what she could and was able to close the wound for the most part. A cut is still there, but it’s not as deep as it was. Botan also healed the cut on your hand and helped your mother clean you up and change your clothes.”

“What about the black?” Kagome questioned ignoring what he had said about her own injuries. “When I looked at the gash, there were these little black lines coming away from it. It looked like he’d been poisoned.”

“That’s because he was,” Kurama sighed. “It’s difficult to tell what kind of poison it was, so I couldn’t neutralize it completely. But I was to give him something that will at least help him fight its effects. I was also able to mix a salve to apply to what’s left of his injury. The cut should be gone sometime tomorrow, but I’m not sure how long it will take for the poison to run its course and leave his body.”

“This is all my fault,” Kagome said softly as she turned to watch Hiei sleep.

“No, it’s not,” Kurama told her. “Hiei woke up briefly while you were out and told us what he remembered. He said that there was an assassin, a snake demon, that had been hired to kill him and had tracked him here. But apparently the assassin turned his sights on you.”

“Me?” Kagome asked.

“He could feel the jewel that you have,” Kurama explained. “We can all feel it. Those of us with demon blood, anyway. But we didn’t think that it would be that much of a danger. You had the jewel without knowing about it for fifteen years, and you hadn’t been attacked since you returned here after completing it again. There haven’t even been any escaped demons registered as making it this far into the city in a very long time. We were careless, and for that I apologize.”

Kagome was quiet as she watched Hiei. “The assassin escaped,” she eventually said.

“We know,” Kurama said. “The scent of burned flesh is leading away from the shrine. It appears as though he was able to make it back to Demon World alive. But this presents another problem.”

“What now?” Kagome asked tiredly.

“There are legends of the jewel’s power all throughout Demon World, but up until now it was simply a lost treasure,” Kurama spoke. “But now there’s someone out there who knows its location.”

“What can we do?” Kagome asked as she subconsciously pressed a hand over the jewel’s resting place.

“For now Yusuke, Kuwabara, and myself will be staying at the shrine to help protect you,” Kurama told her. “Your mother was concerned for your grandfather since he would be an easy target if there was an attack. We assured her that you would be safe with us, so she decided that she and your grandfather would stay at a relative’s house until things are sorted out.”

“What about Souta?” Kagome continued to question.

Kurama smiled a little as he answered, “Souta actually insisted on staying here with you. I believe he’s outside with Yusuke and Kuwabara.”

“And you really think that we’ll be safe here if demons decide to attack?” She asked skeptically.

“It would be foolish for any demons to attack blindly,” Kurama told her. “And with all of our team here, we hope that it will be enough of a deterrent, at least for a while. If it becomes absolutely necessary, there’s a temple compound in the mountains that we can retreat to. But it would be best not to move Hiei until he recovers.”

Kagome nodded as she slipped into her thoughts. She lifted her hand and tried to manifest her powers only to be met with the same results as earlier. “I’m so weak,” she laughed bitterly.

“Why do you say that?” Kurama asked.

“One attack used all of my energy. That’s what made me pass out when I stood up! I should have spent the last couple of months training, not trying to get my figure back,” she ground out. Kagome had to clench her eyes shut as angry tears began to fall.

“Hey,” Kurama consoled gently as he kneeled down in the floor next to Kagome. “You’ve been trying to become healthy again. Even if you had been training your powers, it wouldn’t have done you much good if your body couldn’t handle them.”

Kagome nodded but the tears continued to fall. “I just feel so stupid!”

“It may not mean much coming from me, but you shouldn’t feel stupid. There was no way that you could have seen this coming,” Kurama argued.

Kagome looked up at Kurama before harshly wiping away her tears. “Maybe not,” she said. “But I’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Kurama was startled when Kagome scrambled to her feet and stumbled a little before running out of the room. “Where are you going?” He called after her but received no reply. Glancing back to Hiei, Kurama stood and followed after Kagome. He found her in the kitchen rummaging through drawers. “Kagome, what are you doing?”

“Looking for a flashlight,” she answered absently before finding what she’d been searching for. Checking to make sure that the batteries were still good, she ran outside.

Again, Kurama followed her. “It’s too cold out here,” he told her. “You need a jacket. Or better yet, you should wait until morning to do whatever it is that you’re doing.”

“I’m not waiting,” Kagome called to him without stopping. They passed by Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Souta as they walked across the courtyard.

“What’s going on?” Souta asked concerned.

“I don’t know,” Kurama told him.

The men and teen followed Kagome all the way to the shrine’s storage room. Souta followed her inside and stood behind her as she opened boxes and searched shelves. “Kagome,” he said quietly. “What are you looking for?”

“My old target,” Kagome mumbled around the small flashlight she was holding in her mouth.

“Why?” Souta asked.

Pulling the flashlight from her mouth, Kagome rounded on her brother. “Because I have to be ready for next time!” She shouted. “And quit talking to me like I’m some traumatized victim! You have no idea what I’ve been through! That,” she said forcefully as she pointed towards their home. “That is nothing. I’m not broken, Souta. I’m angry! I’m angry at the jewel and I’m angry at that demon and I’m angry at myself!”

“Kagome…” Souta tried to speak but was cut off.

“Don’t you understand? I could have stopped that,” she continued. “But I was selfish and I was only thinking about myself. I wasn’t thinking about my duty and look what happened. These are the consequences of not being prepared! The people around me, the people that I care about, get hurt!” Frustrated and tired, Kagome sat down hard on one of the boxes near her and buried her face in her hands.

Souta approached his sister and crouched down beside her. “Kagome,” he spoke quietly. “I know I don’t understand, but I do know that none of this is your fault. You can’t stop every bad thing from happening to people you care about, and you shouldn’t try. If you want to start training again, that’s fine. But let’s start in the morning. It’ll be sunrise in a few hours. I’ll even help you find your old stuff and set it up. But for now, let’s go back inside so that you can rest. It’s been a long night.”

Kagome looked up and was about to argue when she saw the three men standing behind her brother. She knew that they all agreed and could easily force her back inside if they wanted to. “Do you promise?” Kagome eventually asked as she looked at Souta.

Smiling, Souta stuck out his pinky finger. “Pinky promise,” he offered.

Linking her little finger with her brother’s, Kagome nodded with a sad smile. “Okay then,” she agreed. With that, the three men followed the siblings back into the house.

The next morning, Kurama knocked lightly against Kagome’s bedroom door before gently pushing it open. Looking down at the broken lock and door jamb, he commented, “I think Yusuke is going to try to fix your door today.” When he saw Kagome shrug, he frowned. She had her back to him and was sitting at her desk working on something. Kurama looked at the dirty mattress and chose a clean place to sit before he continued, “Did you get any sleep last night?” Kagome shook her head to answer a negative. “Did Hiei wake up at all?” Again she shook her head, but she seemed to stop what she was working on.

Swiveling her chair around to face Kurama, Kagome said, “He has a fever. I tried to check on him, but I can barely even touch him.”

Kurama leaned down and hovered a hand above the bare skin on Hiei’s arm. Sure enough, intense heat was radiating off of him. “His body must be trying to burn the poison out of his system,” Kurama mused. Looking up at Kagome, he asked, “Do you have any thick blankets?”

“Yeah, I think so,” she answered as she stood and moved to her closet. After rummaging around the top shelf for a moment, she withdrew three old quilts that her grandmother had given her when she was younger.

“Help me cover him with them,” Kurama said as he stood.

“Why?” Kagome asked even though she was already unfolding the first blanket.

“A body naturally knows how to heal itself. If Hiei’s body is trying to burn out whatever he was poisoned with, we should help,” he explained.

“What if he gets too hot?” Kagome questioned as they began to layer the second blanket on top of the first.

Kurama smiled a little as he said, “Don’t worry, Hiei’s body can withstand a lot more heat than this.”

“Because he’s part fire demon?” Kagome asked.

Pausing in his movements, Kurama looked at Kagome. “Did Hiei tell you that?” He asked her. When Kagome nodded, Kurama smiled and gave a surprised hum before resuming his actions.

“What?” Kagome prodded.

“I’m just surprised that he shared something about himself, that’s all,” Kurama told her. As they finished tucking the third and last blanket around Hiei’s body, Kurama spoke, “The original reason that I came up here was to tell you that Souta and Kuwabara found your archery target and have it set up in the courtyard.”

“Good,” Kagome said as she quickly crossed to her dresser to pull out a change of clothes. She trotted to the bathroom and came out a couple of minutes later in her clean clothes and with her hair pulled up. Going back into her room, she quickly pulled on her socks and sneakers.

“What are you trying to do, Kagome?” Kurama asked as she pulled a hoodie out of her closet and made her way downstairs.

“I’m going to see how rusty I am,” Kagome answered. She was glad when Kurama didn’t follow her outside. She was tired of talking. It was time to take action.

When she spotted Souta and Kuwabara, she smiled. Souta had also pulled out her bow and quiver of arrows. “Souta,” she called to grab his attention. Wordlessly, she held out her hand for her bow.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Kagome?” He asked as he handed over what she wanted. “You haven’t practiced in a really long time.”

“All the more reason to start now,” Kagome answered. She walked up to the target before she turned around and counted out several measured paces. Pulling out her first arrow, she notched it and attempted to pull the bowstring back. She was only able to move it back a few inches. Frowning, she gripped it tighter and pulled back with all of her strength. When she let go, the arrow only went a few feet and never made it anywhere near the target. Kagome’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.

“Kagome,” Souta said as he approached her. He watched as she grabbed another arrow and tried again with the same results. “Kagome, it’s called muscle atrophy. You lost a lot of muscle mass when you were sick and haven’t been able to train your muscles back to where they used to be.”

“I didn’t think I had gotten this weak, though,” she lamented. “I can barely even pull back my bowstring. I learned archery through necessity. I have no idea how to actually train up from nothing.”

“Urameshi could probably help with that,” Kuwabara offered. “He knows all about how to do strength training.”

“Do you know where he is?” Kagome asked as she removed her quiver.

“I think he’s in the storage building looking for some tools,” Souta answered.

“Thanks,” Kagome said as she placed her bow and quiver with her target and headed for the storage building. When she arrived at the building, she spotted Yusuke looking through some old boxes. “Yusuke?” She called as she entered the room.

“Yeah?” He asked as he turned around. “How are you doing, Kagome?”

“Okay,” she answered as she fidgeted a little.

“Need something?” He asked her.

“I was wondering,” she trailed off and paused before looking up at him. She needed help, but she hated asking for it. But if Yusuke was her best chance for retraining her body, she knew that she would just need to suck it up. Steeling her resolve, Kagome blurted out, “Will you help me train?”

“Train what?” Yusuke asked as he stood up and walked closer to her.

“Me,” she answered. “Firing an arrow used to be no problem for me, but now I can barely pull back the string. Kuwabara said that you might be able to help me.”

Yusuke hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said. “The only regiments I’ve ever known have been pretty harsh. I don’t really know how to go easy on someone.”

“I don’t care,” Kagome told him seriously. “Train me as hard as you can. I can’t stay like this. I have to get stronger and the sooner the better.”

Yusuke studied Kagome closely. Her body was trembling slightly, but her eyes were filled with a fire and a seriousness that he couldn’t ignore. A smile broke out across his face as he nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll help. When do you want to start?”

“Now,” Kagome answered.

--------------------

When Hiei woke up, the first thing he noticed was that his side hurt like hell. The second thing he noticed was that he was underneath several pounds of blankets. Frowning, he pushed the blankets off of his body and eased into a sitting position. He looked around the room and saw that he was alone. When he tried to stand, he felt a sharp pain in his side and looked down. There was a rough scar left where he had been stabbed. Hiei sneered before grabbing his sheathed sword and using it as leverage to stand.

He was careful of the pain in his side as he made his way downstairs and through the empty house. When he finally found someone, it was Kurama washing dishes in the kitchen. “How long was I down?” He asked as he sat at the table.

“Ah, you’re finally up,” Kurama said as he glanced over his shoulder. “You’ve been out cold for a little more than two weeks.”

“Where’s Kagome?” Hiei questioned.

“She’s outside training with Yusuke and Kuwabara,” Kurama answered as he finished washing the last dish and set it aside to dry.

“Training?” Hiei asked skeptically. “With Yusuke?”

“You’d be surprised,” Kurama smiled. “When she puts her mind to something, she’s apparently very dedicated...and resilient. Come see.”

Hiei used his sword again to stand and followed his friend outside. “Has she been sleeping?” He asked.

“Barely,” Kurama told him. “It appears that she will indeed relapse if your sessions with her stop. For the most part she spends her days training with Yusuke and her nights meditating to build up her spiritual powers again. She gets an hour or so of sleep here and there when I make her inhale the pollen from the flower, but she can’t stay asleep on her own.”

Changing the subject, Hiei inquired, “Resilient or not, how is she able to train with Yusuke?”

Kurama looked away as he answered, “She refused to stop training and give her muscles time to heal, so I used a few of my plants to mix up a solution for her. She takes it before she meditates and it works to speed up her healing processes.” When Hiei glared at him, he defended himself, “I warned her that it was best to take the natural route, but there was no talking her out of it.”

“You shouldn’t have offered it to her in the first place,” Hiei told him.

“Even so,” Kurama said as he guided Hiei over to the shrine’s staircase. “Her progress has been impressive. It seems that Yusuke has been using a similar regimen to the one Genkai first used on him, though I suspect that it’s much less intense.”

Hiei looked to the other side of the steps and saw Souta sitting on the top step. “Hey!” Souta greeted. “Good to see you up.” Hiei nodded and looked down the stairs. He could see Kagome, Yusuke, and Kuwabara all making their way up the steps at a brisk pace. “This is like their tenth time up the stairs this morning,” Souta said.

“Why don’t you join them?” Kurama teased lightly.

Souta made a noise in the back of his throat before he said, “No, thank you. She’s training for a potential fight. What do I need to train for?”

“You should always be ready for a fight, Souta,” Kagome panted as she neared the top step. “Besides, don’t you have soccer tryouts in the spring?” Souta didn’t say a word as he pointed behind her. When Kagome turned to see what her brother was looking at, she almost squealed. “Hiei!” She cried as she ran to the demon. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. It was only when she heard him grunt uncomfortably that she released him. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She told him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he brushed off her concern. He had to glare at his teammates who began to snicker at him. They knew that Kagome’s hug had made him uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to upset the woman when she was already worried about him.

“Oh! You have to come see,” Kagome said enthusiastically as she tugged him across the courtyard. “Two weeks ago, I could barely pull back my bowstring and my powers had faded to almost nothing. Now watch,” she told him as she picked up her bow and grabbed an arrow. Checking to make sure that he was watching, she pulled back her arrow before letting it fly. There was an impressive show of lights as the arrow made its way to the bullseye. “It’s all thanks to Yusuke’s training and those drinks that Kurama makes for me,” she chirped.

When she turned to look at him, Hiei wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t usually one to give praise, but she looked so hopeful. “Well done, Kagome,” Kurama took over for him. “You’ve come a long way in only a couple of weeks.”

Kagome kept her smile, but her face fell a little. “Thanks,” she said.

“Well, Hiei really should rest some more,” Kurama said as he motioned for Hiei to head back to the house. “With the way he’s moving, I’d say not all of the poison is out of his system yet.”

“Of course,” Kagome agreed. “I’m sorry, I just got so excited when I saw him awake.”

Kurama nodded his understanding before he pushed Hiei to being walking. Back inside the house, the two went back up to Kagome’s bedroom. Hiei walked to stand beside the window and watch Kagome and the others in the courtyard. They had already resumed training and were doing push-ups.

“I think she’s doing a lot of this for you,” Kurama told him from the doorway.

“Me?” Hiei questioned with a quirked brow.

“The night that everything happened, after she woke up and we explained what had happened, she was very upset that she wasn’t able to do more to help,” Kurama explained. “She specifically mentioned the people that she cared about getting hurt because she hadn’t been prepared.”

“It was a generalization,” Hiei dismissed.

“Perhaps,” Kurama replied with doubt in his tone.

“She’s tired,” Hiei observed. The dark rings under Kagome’s eyes hadn’t escaped his notice.

“We know,” Kurama told him. “But there isn’t much that any of us can do about it.”

“Any word on the assassin?” Hiei asked.

“No,” Kurama sighed. “I’ve spoken with Koenma, and there hasn’t been any word on who might have hired him. They also don’t know exactly who he was or where he is now.”

“He came prepared,” Hiei commented. “He used a poison intended to be strong enough to kill me.”

“And it likely would have killed you if Kagome hadn’t removed the dagger when she did,” Kurama told him.

Changing the topic, Hiei asked, “Have they decided what to do with the jewel if she dies?”

“When she dies, Hiei,” Kurama corrected seriously. When Hiei cast him a dark look, he responded, “No matter what’s done, it’s only a matter of time. She is human, after all.” Kurama paused, unsure of his next words, but continued, “I don’t know what your feelings towards her are, but it would be best not to grow too attached to her, Hiei. I’m aware of how protective you can be, but her mortality isn’t something that you can protect her from.”

“Answer my question,” Hiei growled.

Kurama frowned at his friend’s response, but answered, “Right now, the hope is that they’ll be able to remove her soul from the reincarnation cycle and take the jewel with it. But that’s requiring them to check the fates of every reincarnation that she might have had. They don’t want to disrupt any more futures than they have to. But checking all of the possibilities is going to take some time. We’ll just have to protect her until they’re done and decide if it’s even possible.”

The room was silent as Hiei watched Kagome. “Leave,” he eventually ordered. “I need to rest.” Kurama didn’t say anything else as he left Hiei alone, and Hiei continued to watch Kagome for several more minutes before lying back down on his futon. Kurama may have been one of the smartest beings that he’d ever met, but he could be very wrong at times. Kagome continually impressed him with her drive and willingness to push herself. She had caught his attention and gradually earned his respect.

Kurama was wrong when he said that there was no protecting her from her mortality. Hiei had always been a firm believer in the phrase “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” and if there was one thing that he had, it was an iron will.
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Sandman