Chapter 1: Go Fish
It was a good day. Everyone had gotten up in a good mood. Miroku had gotten a good feel thanks to Sango. Sango got to practice her right hook thanks, or no thanks, to Miroku. Inuyasha got his shard-detector for a few days longer than expected and Shippo got his daily dose of sugar (in the form of candy). As for Kagome—she was the paradigm of contentment. She walked alongside Kirara, carrying Shippo on her shoulder, every once in a while patting the front pocket of her backpack (in an act of seeming self-reassurance).
"So what'd you find in your bag yesterday, Kagome?" asked Shippo. The travelers had stopped for a late lunch after defeating a rather weak rabbit demon that had gotten its paws on a sliver of the jewel. With one more thing to be grateful about, the group's mood was further heightened.
Turning back to Shippo after retrieving said object, Kagome showed him. "It's a deck of cards." When she was greeted with still expectant eyes she opted to elaborate, "It's just something you can pass the time with. You can play games, gamble, entertain, do tricks, and tell fortunes with it."
"Wow! Really?!"
"Yup, they're really common in my era." She began pulling them out of the box, "Do you want me to show you how to play one of the games?" She laughed at how quickly and vigorously he nodded his head. "You guys can play too," Kagome said turning to Sango and Miroku. "I tried teaching Inuyasha once, he just got upset and ripped them up. Needless to say, he's not invited to play" she said childishly sticking her tongue out at Inuyasha.
"Keh, who needs your stupid game anyway?"
In an attempt to stop the impending fight Miroku piped up, "I for one, Kagome-san, am quite interested in your game. As I am sure Sango-san is as well." Sango nodded, "we would be more than happy to learn your game."
Pleased that most of them seemed eager to learn Kagome began shuffling the deck of cards. "This one is going to be fairly simple," she explained "It's a children's game from my times, so I figure I can teach it first, since it's for Shippo," she instructed as she handed out seven cards to each player. "There are more complicated games of course…although I don't think it would be best for me to teach you some of them," with a quick glance at Miroku, "like strip poker…" she mumbled a little too loudly under her breath.
At the word "strip" Miroku's attention was piqued and he instantly turned his gaze to Kagome, "is there truly such a game, Kagome-san? And it can be played with these…cards?" He looked expectantly at her, as though he was Shippo and Kagome had candy.
"Can it Houshi," Sango came to the rescue of the girl, "Do not taint Kagome's game with your lecherous thoughts."
"You wound me, Sango-sama." He feigned hurt, altering her honorific.
"So how do we play, Kagome?" Shippo asked, having finished his candy and lost interest the conversation.
Laughing amusedly, she set the remaining cards in the middle of the four players. "The deck of cards has 52 cards, 4 suits—meaning hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs or clovers," she said showing each respective suit to the three other players. "Each set of suits has a card from Ace to King. For this game, all you really need to know is that there are 4 of each card in the deck. The point of the game is to get as many pairs as you can and lose your cards first. So the person with the most cards at the end of the game loses and the person who loses all their cards first wins."
"Your explanation seems simple enough," Miroku said, "What type of actions can we take to win?"
Almost surprised by his intuitiveness, Kagome continued explaining, "First off, if you have any pairs already in your hand, you can put them down," she demonstrated, putting her set of cards face down on the ground. She watched and waited as her companions did similarly. Sango put down two pairs, Shippo put down one pair, Miroku looked slightly put out and did not place any cards down.
Chucking to herself Kagome continued, "I'll start since I was the dealer. I'm going to ask if anyone has a card that I need. 'Miroku, do you have any nines?' and if you do, Miroku, you have to give it to me. Do you?" reluctantly Miroku handed over his nine. "Yay!" Kagome exclaimed with a mini-fist-pump. "Now, since I asked right, I get to go again, and can ask anyone for a card. 'Shippo, do you have any threes?'"
And so the young miko taught her friends the finer arts of Go Fish. It served to keep them entertained for quite a while and all parties were reluctant to head back on the road. But common sense won out and they all knew they should be going. So the game was ended and the cards packed away in their little red and white, diamond littered box.
Kagome opted to carry the cards instead of placing them back in her bag. So as the group continued their silent walk she tossed the box, up and down, catching it and throwing it, humming a happy little tune. Today had been a good day. The group walked toward the setting sun, back dropped on a red sky.
A good day…
I actually think that's a really POOR way to end a chapter, but I'm new and not good at this, which really should be no excuse but I'm gonna use it as one anyway. haha.
right now, I'm just trying to get my ideas across. this is mostly just a filler chapter, if you couldn't tell.