"Kagome?"
Kimiko tiptoed over to the schoolgirl curled into a ball against the tree gingerly, not wanting to startle her. Kagome did not acknowledge her presence at all.
"Hey…" Kimiko sat down beside her on the damp grass and put a hand on her shoulder. "Um, you alright?"
Great. I don't even know what to say to make her feel better.
"I'm fine," Kagome managed to choke out, her voice shakey and soft. She remained in her position, head buried in her folded arms. Kimiko withdrew her hand, but stayed close to her, staring into the night sky littered with clusters of celestial objects. There was a vast difference between this sky and the one back in their time. It was clearer and the constellations could be made out easily, unlike the skies in the urban areas, where there was only an occasional one or two twinkling diamonds in the distance.
"He wants to be with her," Kagome's usually high-pitched and peppy voice barely sliced through the silence of the night.
"Yeah, so I heard," was Kimiko's immediate response. 'Shit. I didn't mean to say that! What's wrong with me?!'
Kagome managed to force a weak guffaw, and looked up as well.
They were at the outskirts of the forest, leaning against a big and sturdy tree, providing shelter with its leaves, but not enough to obstruct the view of the celestial sphere.
"That girl…"
"Kikyo," Kagome finished her sentence for her. "Yes, she was the priestess guarding the Sacred Jewel."
"I thought she was dead?"
Kagome shook her head, her expression unreadable. "Nah, she was resurrected by a witch, her body made of clay, bones and burial soil. The witch found that she had no soul when she resurrected her, and she tried to take mine." She paused. "Because we share the same soul," she said in a barely audible voice.
'So that's why they look so much like each other.'
"Anyway, she was unable to contain my soul because somehow, my body managed to force it to return to me. That's why she's living off souls. Yeah, those glowing spheres are actually people's souls."
Kimiko suddenly felt a little sick in the stomach.
"He's not over her," Kagome did not look at her in the eye.
"Oh…"
Kagome's face was serene, but her eyes told otherwise. It was always the eyes, weren't they? The windows to one's soul. They were brimmed with sadness; tinted with grief. It made Kimiko feel sad.
'And she loves him too.'
Suddenly, Kagome stood up and extended a hand, a small grin forming on her face.
"Let's go back. I still have a job to do."
Unsure of how to respond except take her hand, Kimiko did so.
…
Inuyasha returned at dawn and was startled to find Kagome slumped at a corner of the hut. Not surprised that she had slept in that position and not in a sleeping bag, but at by her presence. Kimiko took her place in the sleeping bag instead.
The night air was cold, and Kagome may have long sleeves on her uniform, but her skirt was far from long, which was why she had sat on them and tried to cover them with what she had. Her head cocked off to one side, the faint scent of tears still clinging on to her.
Without a moment's hesitation, Inuyasha pulled his haori off and draped it over her small frame. He then lowered his head in guilt. The image of the tears collecting at the bottom of her eyelids was still vivid in his mind, and no matter how hard he tried, he just could not forget it.
'Dammit…'he cursed himself.
He had lost count of the number of times this had happened already.
But this time was different.
She had stayed.
To an outsider, it may have seemed like a good thing. Perhaps she had decided to forget it and live and let live. But Inuyasha wasn't an outsider, and he didn't just meet her yesterday.
It was a sign of retaliation now.
It wasn't to spite him or anything; it was more of trying to show him that she could still go on without him, rather than run back to her time like the baby she was. She was trying to move on already.
She was giving up.
The sudden epiphany sent a wave of dread over Inuyasha.
'I've done it this time…' he bit his lower lip in frustration.
'I took her for granted. Because she had forgiven me the first few times, it just became natural for me not to care about her for the moment. Not to care about her feelings, at least. I…'
He looked at the sleeping girl.
'The least I could do is apologise…'
