She groaned as she lugged the bags up the shrine steps with her brother in tow. "Shouldn't you be the one doing this?" She asked through gritted teeth as she turned to see the teenager with the seven year old boy running up and down the stairs next to him. "Isn't it like, a code of a decent gentleman to help out a woman and carry her packages?"
He scooped up the boy next to him. "Oh look, I got one of them for you."
She rolled her eyes, but chuckled nonetheless. "Whatever, Souta."
Her brother held tighter as the boy wiggled around, black hair shaking back and forth and legs kicking like he was swimming through water. "Uncle Souta! C'mon! Let me go!"
Souta laughed. "Kid, you're in Tokyo right now. Try using Japanese."
A growl erupted from the child, and he pushed onto his relative's chest, springing forward and landing perfectly on the shrine steps a few paces up, then leaning over and sticking his tongue out.
"Hiroshi! Stop it right now!" his mother called from behind him as she reached the last step. Her own mother stood at the doorway with a broom, putting her hand to her mouth to cover the knowing smile.
The boy bounded up the steps toward his grandmother. "Obaa-san!" He had rarely seen this woman, and the last he could remember was three years ago outside of the airport. However, this was his own blood, and his mom spoke nothing but kind words about her, so he felt he could trust her.
Son and mother sat beneath the god tree with a blanket, staring out at the stone of the courtyard. The leaves of the Goshinboku rustled as the moonlight played against Hiroshi's dark hair, and Kagome fought the urge to constantly run her fingers through it. A breeze rolled through, and she wrapped the large comforter around them tighter.
"Why does this city smell so bad?" Hiroshi asked, turning to look at his mother from her lap. "There's pee and poop and it smells like when I walk behind the school bus but constantly!" He seemed to be in contemplation for a moment as Kagome thought of a way to answer that. "And I haven't seen any animal besides cats and dogs. How did Obaa-san make chicken tonight if there aren't any around us?"
Kagome sighed. He sounded so much like Inuyasha right now. She finally gave in and ruffled his hair. "You have no idea how lucky you are, Hiro. Most people here rarely see chickens or farm animals on actual farms. They just go to the grocery store like we do when Uncle Jim comes over and we want to make him a really nice meal."
"But where do they get the food, then?" His eyes were bright, almost cyan, and Kagome could see the concealment spell starting to fade.
"Hiro, give me your necklace."
The boy nodded, lowering his head and taking off the necklace with a 5 yen coin attached to it. When he lifted his head up, Kagome ran a finger across the stripe adorning each cheek. "Was it starting to show?"
She hugged him close, knowing that this had become a nightly ritual, and that he had rarely seen what he actually looked like. After all the parenting books she had read, he knew this was most likely extremely detrimental to his sense of self-worth. "I love you no matter what you look like, and Uncle Souta and Obaa-san do, too. Some people are just weird about people that don't look like them."
Hiro had learned enough about this by merely being Japanese and the way older people looked strangely at him when he spoke Japanese with his mother. "But then how did my dad look like this? Didn't he have four stripes?"
Kagome clamped her hand around the coin while hugging her son, infusing her reiki into it. She could feel the flood of suppressed youki begin to rise from the boy as he snuggled closer.
"He did, but it was a different time. He probably has to do this, too. I'm sure that if I saw him today, I wouldn't even be able to recognize him."
If he wasn't already dead.
Kagome perused the bookstore, looking for a book on traditional Japanese farming. She had seen it up close, but never really asked the details of it. However, as someone with degrees in both history and environmental sustainability, and a co-owner of a small farm in the Northwestern United States, she had been slowly building up the idea of looking thoroughly into eastern farming techniques and incorporating them to gain a higher crop yield.
She took a step back and onto someone's foot.
"Oh no!" she cried. "I'm so sorry!"
The man stared at her for a moment, as if in shock, inhaled, then recomposed himself. "It's fine. Don't worry about it." He turned, and she saw a tag on his jacket- a card obviously for security clearance.
Samezuka Ichiro.
"Although," his mouth twitched into a smirk. "You could make it up to me by allowing me to take you to coffee after you find what you're looking for."
Kagome took in his appearance, wondering if she should just have a short date with this man or not. He had very angular bone structure, and would appear almost elfin like if not for the square jaw he sported. His hair was dark, leaning toward black, and long enough that all but his bangs were pulled into a short ponytail. His eyes twinkled and came out as an almost golds brown, but what took her was his almost eager face, as if he was trying to hide the emotion and failing terribly.
She somehow couldn't say no to that face. She smiled back at the man, realizing they might even be the same age. She hadn't gone out with someone as young as her since junior high.
Samezuka was brilliant, and they talked about their interests for so long that thee fading light was the only thing that had told her so much time had passed.
"Higurashi-san, may I have your number?" he asked, a slight blush tinting his cheeks at how forward he felt he was being. "You said you have a month, and with a city this large, I don't want to leave it up to fate to-"
He was interrupted by a laugh. "You can call me Kagome, Samezuka-san." She pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I hope you have international, or this may cost some money."
The man wanted to bite back what he was saying, but found he couldn't. "You would be worth it, Kagome-san"
She smiled, this time feeling her own cheeks begin to blush. "Then how would dinner tomorrow night sound?"
He opened his mouth to agree, then hesitated. "Actually, my uncle is in town, and he and I are spending the day going over plans for moving his company from Tokyo to Kyoto."
She nodded in understanding, and he looked to be scrambling for words. "But if you don't mind becoming my interruption so that I can leave, I would gladly go with you to whatever restaurant you would want."
"Oh, so you want to use me as a distraction?" she asked, and if not for the mischievous glint to her eyes, he would have felt he had hurt her feelings.
"I'll be distracted all day by my uncle when it comes to thinking about you, so I feel he can take the repercussions."
She laughed again, and the sound made Ichiro yearn for more. "I'll gladly help you, then," she stated, already happy to have met this man.
Thank you guys for the reviews and favs and follows! I'm honestly so grateful I almost cried. And if you're really confused, it's been 8ish years since Kagome went through the well, so I'll explain what happened between then and now soon!