Chapter 1: The Facts
She wasn't at all surprised with the small turn out for the funeral. Not many knew Krane Higurashi, Demon leader of the Western coast of America, that well. The few that did were there standing beside her as she shed the last of her tears for her father.
A man over seven thousand years old, didn't even look a day over thirty-five, but here they stood on December 17, three days after his death, burying him into the spot that would serve as his final resting place. His death was caused by a combination of stress, age, and heart failure, of all things; one of the most powerful demons in history killed by his own heart.
After four years of being home and living with him. Racing on the streets of California, for two of those four years, she was the queen of the California street circuit. Two years of hard work and being the better car and racer, she was now on her way to another country to start all over at the bottom.
She sighed. ‘Dad, why did you have to go and die on me?’ She thought sadly as she gazed out of the plane window down at the water beneath her flight.
As of now she was a resident of Tokyo, Japan with her mother, step-father and little brother Shippo. Her love had to be shipped over by boat, but she could not rule the roads of Tokyo without it. Her cousin, Naraku, was asked to start looking around and put his ear to the ground for signs of street races on the down low.
Her baby, as she called it, had over ten grand put into it, and it showed when she raced. She had shown that the money daddy, unknowingly, put into her car was money well spent. Her car reached 0-60 in three seconds flat.
Her mustang arrived a week after her so all the races she would have raced in, she had to pass on for a week. Shippo, her half-brother through her mom and step-dad, knew of her favorite sport, if you wanted to call it that, and he supported her all the way. The couple of times when he was in America he had sneaked out to watch her race and he thought she was great.
She always killed the competition and came home with the prize money which was usually in the thousands. She placed most of it into an account and let it sit, so she didn’t have to worry about money ever. Her father didn’t really know where she got the money from. Half of the things she bought, he never questioned her about it. When she asked he had given her money, but it was not often that she asked.
Kouga, her brother, whom was adopted when he was young by Krane, had known all along where she got her money and he would assure her father that she was not a prostitute or selling drugs.
Kagome was a good girl and she knew where her boundaries were when it came to those kinds of things, and she stayed clear of it. Some would call her a wild child, but the phrase never quite fit. She was a saint compared to the other teens her age. She had heard the stories of wild parties and who did who or what there and now their significant other was mad because they unknowingly cheated. Drunken crack-induced orgies and whatever else stupid high school students did these days.
She had been racing since she was sixteen when she first got her license. Her father bought her first car much to her ever-lasting excitement. Kouga and Shippo helped her fix it up to be the winner it was now. Of course it had taken a while, so naturally she wasn’t a winner at first but, as they slowly bought better parts her reputation grew and got better. Face it, not even Kagome could not just walk up ask her father for ten grand and not expect to have to explain why she needed it without him thinking the worst like she needed an abortion or some god awful thing like that.
If the truth were to be told, even though she had plenty of guys following her around, it didn’t mean that she was loose. Nope, Kagome Higurashi was not a whore. Nope, she was still a virgin. Sure, she had boyfriends, but none ever made it past second base. Not even the few youkai she dated could force her to submit. Her aura flared up around her protecting her from their forceful advances.
As if! What most didn’t know was that for the first fourteen years of her life she was shipped off along with her twin brother, Souta. She went to their grandfathers’ temple in the mountains and was taught to control every aspect of her power. Being born a powerful priestess does not mean that one automatically knew what to do with that power.
She learned the basics within the first couple of years: barriers, arrows, swords, purification rituals, and purification energy blasts. Later she learned harder stuff like energy manipulation, mind control, premonition, levitation, and all sorts of spells and potions, some even to stop death. She advanced through all of it and even became powerful enough to take on an apprentice. Her training was long and hard, but she could do a lot more than the average Miko and most middle class demons, her skill level rivalled high classed demons and according to a worldwide census she was one of the strongest Miko’s alive today. Only two others were in her power range and that was an elder Miko named Kaede, and a girl her age, named Kikyo.
They were the only level five Miko’s in the world and that was saying something. Normally the average women who possessed Miko powers only reached the beginning of level three.
There were five levels to being a Miko. Two or three was the normal level to top out at. Being born like Kagome and Kikyo at a level three automatically guaranteed that you would make it rather high with training. Most Miko's continue to gather strength. However, without intense training the growth is very slow. The only way a Miko stops growing is if she becomes sexually active without mating or marriage. The plus side is that once they do settle down with a mate they will again begin to gather power, regrettably, it is at a much slower rate.
Every three years Miko's can test and see if they gained enough power to reach the next level. Most, however; do not. All Miko after reaching level three must register themselves. At that point and time they are considered lethal to most demons and the Youkai in charge of the regions want to keep tabs on them. No one wanted an insane Miko running amuck and killing Demons.
The Demon regions were normally one demon in charge per country. For countries with higher population there were normally two or four demons in charge for the corners. This ensured that they were better able to rule fairly and pay closer attention to those under themselves. These individuals in the Demon Government worked hand in hand with the Human Governments. When a demon leader fell, the next in line, usually an heir or closest blood kin, took over, therefore ensuring that the next heir was raised to know how to rule. Assuring that the next one to rule would know how to properly take care of those under them.