Mobius
by
Anaphalis
Rating: R/M

Summary: Kagome's got a horny kitsune, an invisible 'friend' and a kamikaze quest with a five hundred year deadline. Oh yeah, and she's disguised as a boy. But when did that ever get in the way of "twue wuv? Let's just not answer that... Rurouni Kenshin X Inuyasha crossover. Drama/Romance.

Chapter Summary: Would a wish on the jewel ever really go well? Well, unless you�re into pain that is.
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Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Shonen Jump. Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Watsuki Nobuhiro and Jump. Brushes on this page courtesy of Pure Anodyne.

A/N: This chapter could be taken as containing spoilers for the recent Inuyasha manga chapters. For those who are interested and not familiar with the manga SPOILER:

Kikyou returned to the exterminator village and Midoriko�s petrified remains and took in Midoriko�s soul the same way she has taken in souls of other dead women. She seems to have a much stronger connection to Midoriko�s soul than the other women though�.
Chapter 4: Tragedies

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it.
-Oscar Wilde
July 26, 1993. Tokyo.

This is definitely not what I want to see first thing in the morning.

"We need to talk."

Aw fuck.

"You know, Midoriko, Kikyo, Midikyo, Kiriko or whatever the hell it is you want to be called today, absence really
does make the heart grow fonder."

"Stop being childish. You are endangering the quest with your behavior. You will stop this stalking and tell your companion that you will not be renting the apartment."

"No rest for the wicked, eh? And the stalking... Weren't you the one who told me to keep on eye on her in the first place? And while we're on the subject, why do you insist on hiding from everyone except me? This would be a hell of a lot easier if you'd just show yourself to Shi once in a while."

Of course I've asked her that last question at least once a week for the last five hundred years. At this point it's just another tactic to piss her off. Plus, if I can delay and distract her long enough maybe
this time Shi will wake up in time to see her and sic his vines on her.

I'm not bitter.

Really.

I can practically see the smoke rising from her head- pretty impressive since she's basically transparent. It's purely academic curiosity that makes me decide to add fuel to the flames. Not because I'm evil and bitter.

"So what's changed since yesterday? I thought we'd agreed to disagree. I mean it's not like me watching out for her is interfering with the other missions."

"This is not a game! Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do. You can't change what is meant to happen or it will destroy everything! There isn't some secret that you'll be able to find by watching her that will allow you to prevent this from happening!"

Wow.

Strangely enough, I honestly didn't think that she'd be able to pull her head out of her ass long enough to figure out what I was doing.

Well I guess if she was smart enough to get me into this mess in the first place, she's probably smart enough to figure out when I'm trying to get out of it.

I guess she figures she's made her point because she's gone again, leaving only that stupid floral scent behind. How the hell does a ghost/hallucination leave a scent?

There's no point in getting upset- I spent ten years trying to live up to her when she still had a body. I refuse to do it when she's only a nagging voice in my head.

I wonder if she ever regrets what she's done to me. I wonder if she feels as guilty for tricking me into doing this as I do for holding onto Shi. Both actions are a little like squashing an ant with a boulder. Hey- I never claimed to be bright and I was a hell of a lot more naive then- sunshine and flowers and all that shit.

We had ten years together, our little family.

Five years to complete the jewel and defeat Naraku, only to discover that the well stayed closed, even with the jewel in hand.

Five more years to debate what to do with the jewel, watch Sango and Miroku start a family and wake up every morning to a mouthful of silver hair.

Five minutes to destroy everything.

I miss them.

She did give me a choice. It wasn't as though she forced me to make that wish. Manipulated, coerced and took advantage of my naivety- yes. Forced- no.

It's always a matter of choice in the end. We can claim fate, destiny whatever makes us happier, but in the end it's still our hands on the sword hilt.

And I won't think about that. Self-pity is only amusing in small doses.

But even looking back now, knowing what I know now, I still can't see myself making a different choice. So maybe it wasn't really manipulation.

What do you do when you're offered the choice between the love of your life's soul and your own? Especially when you answer and forget that you're holding a very powerful, very quirky artifact that decides that 'I'll take over his promises! I want to give my soul in place of his!' counts as an unselfish wish.

Yeah.

It gets especially fun when you discover that a) an unselfish wish means that the jewel "disappears" alright- disappears and leaves your body to try and contain the four souls and b) the actual wish means that your soul is now bound to the Kikyo/Midoriko mess granting you temporary immortality until you finish a little five hundred year quest for their "protection".

And then you go to hell.

Oh yeah, and if you want your friends to survive the monster that you've now become (because you really don't have any control over those demon souls that are currently playing merry hell with your miko powers) and you don't want the wish to be reversed you need to leave Right. Now. Without saying good-bye.

And if Shi hadn't been following me and insisted on coming with me, I would never have seen any of them again.

I never did see the others again.

Of course it was all a lot more complicated than I first thought and I'm not really mad at the conjoined soul Drama Queen for pulling that stunt. Other things- yes. Making me make the wish- not so much. I still can't imagine knowingly condemning Inuyasha to hell. And the whole "preserving the continuity of history" thing sounded pretty important the first few times she explained it.

Frankly it's still not obvious to me how I've ended up in the center of a time loop that requires me to infect my fifteen-year old self with a re-formed Shikon no Tama.

The DQ was a little shifty on that part. And then she threw the kicker- that I was just lucky that I was able to preserve the world that had me come back rather than the mess that existed before

And that kicker gave me a faint shot of hope. Although she tried to hide it, what the DQ meant was that at
some point before this fucking loop, Higurashi Kagome never had the jewel and therefore never went through the well. And from a few things she let drop, in that world Inuyasha was released by a traveling monk who joined forces with him and a vengeful demon exterminator to take out the half-demon Naraku.

I guess some things never change.

But there would be some big differences. No puppet Kohaku. No detachments. No resurrected Kikyo. No dead puppet wolves. A significantly weaker Naraku. And Shippou's father alive and well. Sounds like a pretty good trade-off to me.

Despite what the DQ keeps telling me, this isn't the world that was meant to be. The jewel should be resting in the afterworld. Higurashi Kagome was never meant to carry the Shikon no Tama and I will do everything in my power to find a way to prevent it.

"You always look so noble and angsty first thing in the morning."

"Fucking morning-person kitsune."

"Hey, hey watch the language. And as you well know, I'm an 'anytime' kitsune."

It should be illegal to be able to waggle your eyebrows like that.

"My 'friend' doesn't want us to get the apartment."

"Your 'friend' can go play with explosives. You need a break, Kage, and I know that you're going to love the apartment. If she didn't give you a specific, mission-related reason that you can't stay there, you don't have to listen to her. Honestly I think she just likes trying to make you miserable."

"Good thing that we're too warped to care. With even half the stuff we do, it's pretty obvious that we're masochistic."

"Speak for yourself. I'm a giver
and a taker."

"Shi- I haven't even had my coffee yet. I really don't need to think about your sex life."

Shi pouts. It is far too cute for a full-grown man.

"What sex life? I'm the most boring kitsune in the long history of my species."

"There. there. Now that we have an actual apartment you can start bringing the girls and guys home to Mom."

I'm almost scared by the sudden intensity in his eyes.

"You are many things, Kage, but you will never be my mother."

And I don't know what to say.

"That's good- I don't have any baby pictures to show them anyways."

Yes I'm avoiding it.

Yes I'm a coward.

So why am I disappointed when he just smiles and finishes packing the bags?

"Come on. You need to see our new place- I think you'll like the living-room set and the bedroom looks like a bordello."

"You've already FURNISHED it? What were you planning to do if I said 'No'?"

"We both know that you can't resist me. 'Sides you're as tired of living out of a suitcase as I am."

"You know, I hate it when you're right- Wait a sec, you said 'bedroom'. Without an 's.'"

Shi looks thoroughly unrepentant. Damn cocky bastard.

"We've been sharing a bed or a futon for five hundred years. Honestly I don't know if I could sleep without your rhythmic drooling."

Now as much as I'd like to comment on his nasal whine of a snore, there are more important issues at stake here.

"So what happens if you want to bring someone home?"

Shi pauses in the doorway.

"I'll take them somewhere else. The apartment's ours."

Well, I've finally gotten him to admit that he's looking, if only for a one-night stand.

So if I've won, why do I feel like I've lost?
Chapter 3                                                                                                                                                        Chapter 5
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