-Feudal Japan-
Kagome Higurashi couldn't sleep. No matter how she
tossed and turned, drowsiness just would not come. She sighed restlessly,
unzipping her
sleeping bag.
'I never thought you could get jet lag from time travel,' she thought wryly. Suddenly she shivered, the chilling night breezes permeating her skin.
Wrapping a nearby blanket around her, she stared up at the clear, starry night sky.
I wanted to look just like Father, too...
I don't care what you look like! you are still my only precious
little brother!
Thank you, Hiten...I used to wish that I could be a caterpillar
in my next life...on with hair all over it...but not any more...Next time
I'm born again, even if I don't have any hair...I wanna be Hiten's little
brother again...You don't mind, do you?
Kagome straightened surprisedly. 'Why do the memories of that fight remain with me? I mean...Hiten and Manten were our enemies. They were trying to kill us.' Unconsciously the 9th-grader's hands brushed the spot on her neck where Manten's hands once were, slowly suffocating her. 'They were misusing the Shikon shards, and nearly killed all of us. Of course Inu-Yasha had to kill them.'
'But,' another part of her mind argued, 'They were still brothers. They loved each other; you saw that for yourself when Manten died. Imagine how you would feel if someone killed Sota.'
The girl shuddered in spite of herself. 'I'd kill them,' she vowed before she clapped her hands over her mouth, realizing what she'd just thought.
'Exactly,' pointed out the other side of her. 'And Hiten and Manten felt the same way. It doesn't matter if you're human or demon. The bond between siblings remains the same.'
Kagome nodded, silently agreeing with herself. 'Manten, Hiten...I hope you find peace.'
With that, she returned to her sleeping bag, where sleep overtook her instantly.
"Kagome, where are we going?" Shippo asked for the fiftieth time. "Are we looking for another shard?"
"Idiot," Inu-Yasha snorted at the much younger fox-demon. "She must've told you a hundred times by now."
"Mm," Kagome murmured.
"What's wrong with her?" Shippo whispered to the
half-demon walking next to him. "She's been out of it ever since we fought
the Thunder
Brothers."
"You mean when I fought the Thunder Brothers," the silver-haired boy corrected.
"Oh, you wish!" Shippo exclaimed. "Without Kagome and me, you'd've been sliced like sashimi by those guys."
"Oh, really?" Inu-Yasha asked dangerously, looming over the smaller boy.
"Yeah, really! We're the whole reason you won!"
"You mean you're the whole reason I got into that mess."
"I don't think so! If we hadn't been there, right now you'd be a blood speck on one of their weapons!"
"They have names, guys," Kagome interrupted out of the blue. "Hiten and Manten were their names."
The arguing duo stopped as suddenly as if a boulder had just fallen on them.
"What's she defending them for?!" Shippo asked incredulously.
Inu-Yasha simply glared at her. "Stupid girl," he muttered under his breath before he continued walking. "Stupid."
"I've never been in a town this noisy," Shippo commented as the traveling companions made their way through a particularly busy marketplace. "Is it a festival?"
"No, moron, only a marketplace," Inu-Yasha replied crossly. He was getting sick of people continually bumping into him, and he said so.
"You're not the only one who's having that problem, so don't whine," Kagome said, uttering the longest phrase of words she'd ever said that day. Unfortunately, in doing so, she forgot to look where she was going.
*bump*
"Ohmigosh!! I'm really sorry, ma'am!" Kagome apologized, making sure the woman she'd bumped into was all right.
"It's fine," the woman replied. "Really, I'm all
right...oh no! Hush, baby, it's okay." she soothed, rocking one of the
two babies that she held.
"Mommy's here, you're fine, shh." It was to no avail, though; the tiny
child kept crying.
"Um...may I?" Kagome offered, holding out her arms.
"Sure, you can try," the woman replied, depositing the baby into Kagome's proffered embrace.
The fifteen-year-old hummed a lullaby as she slowly rocked the child from side to side. After about two minutes, the wailing faded away, and the little one relaxed enough to tug on Kagome's hair.
"Ba!" he insisted, his deep brown eyes sparkling at Kagome. She blinked; she'd seen those eyes before...
'It couldn't be...is it?'
"Manten?" she whispered disbelievingly.
"Wow, good guess!" the mother beamed. "He's called Mahen, and this here's Hito." She motioned toward the baby she herself held.
Kagome did a double-take, looking from Mahen to Hito to Mahen again. They were nearly identical, aside from their hair. Hito already had a thick ebony swatch on his head, while Mahen couldn't have had more than three strands.
"Twins?" the girl asked.
"Yup. Hito's just a bit older, though. Mahen's the baby of the family."
Next time I'm born again, even if I don't have any hair...I wanna be Hiten's little brother again....
Kagome smiled, sudden tears blurring her vision as she handed Mahen back to his mother and thanked her. A single tear streaked down her face as she watched the family walk away, but it wasn't because she was sad.
'Manten...I'm so glad that your wish came true.'