Chapter 37: Finally Caught up In Life Back at the Higurashi shrine, Kagome and Inuyasha sit against the Sacred Tree. Kagome is nervous about to talk about her father in front of Inuyasha. "Inuyasha, you know fully well how shocked I was to see my father again?" She breaks the silence between. Inuyasha looks down to her. He can see how upset she is to talk more about him. Thinking over what Kagome said made him think. He should've criticized Kagome's family so insensitive. "I would've feel the same way when you saw your father for a moment, but you didn't want to say anything to him before he disappeared." She said to him. After all she had a point. For just one chance to speak to a decease parent before that opportunity slips away and no way to get that again, it wouldn't been a great moment in someone's life. "I wasn't thinking right in the first place." Inuyasha finally responds to her statement. "I was just so eager to protect you from another male. I was just to rash and hasty." He honestly said to her. Kagome brings her knees up and places her chin onto it. "I had no idea that my dad would come back to me out of the nowhere. Inuyasha…" She turns to him. Inuyasha turns back to her to see Kagome in a depressing look. "He was everything to me before he passed away." She murmurs with tears exposed right in front in him. "He was on his way to the hospital to meet my little brother but a drunk driver killed him a block away." She closes her eyes, spilling the tears down her face. "Sota has never got to meet his father for 10 years and now here he is like he's back from the dead." She hides her face in her arms. Inuyasha can't bear Kagome crying, right in front of him. Kicking into his instincts, he wraps his arm around her. From what he has learned from the Soul Academy, whenever a person dies, their memories are taken away. But this time her own father has all of his own. Something must've gone wrong. Inuyasha can't think anything to say but to comfort the distraught Kagome in his arms. Inside the Higurashi house Mrs. Higurashi had talked to her husband about the continuity of their life ever since Hige passed away. "You guys might have gone thought a lot apparently." Hige comments the ending of Ai's story. "But what I don't get is how Kagome is a reincarnated priestess." Hige still can't understand that part. "Well when Kagome was born, there was shine from deep within. I had no idea that later on in life, that thing was actually a mystic gem called the sacred jewel." Ai explains that. "As in the Shikon No Tama?" Hige asks her. Ai nods, "Yes it turns out that the Sacred Jewel contained a soul of a priestess who was the previous guardian until she and Inuyasha were tricked into betraying each other, costing her life after she sealed him to the Sacred Tree which still exist in our time." Ai explains the tale of the Shrine's history. Hige thinks deep in thought while holding his chin. 'Who knew Kagome could be the chosen one in the family?' He asks in his mind. "Kagome made some decisions while she was there as well." Ai gets him out of his mind. Hige looks back to his wife. "What do you mean?" He asks her immediately. "Well ever since Kagome was dragged into the well, she made a discovery that her travels 500 years into the past was like her second home there. You see she met other individuals who lost their parents and they kind of made themselves into a surrogate family." Hige looks surprised and interested. "For who is like what in this 'surrogate' family?" He tilts his head like a child. "Well for starters there's an elderly priestess named Kaede who is the younger sister of Kikyo. She's more like a grandmother to the group. Then there's Shippo. He's just a kid just a bit younger than Sota and somehow Kagome thinks that's he like either another little brother or just an adoptive son, because his parents were killed for a shard of the Sacred Jewel." Ai starts off with the two people in the group from the past. Hige can already imagine the group so far. "Anyone else?" Ai chuckles as she continues on. "Then there's the monk Miroku. Miroku is more like an older brother to Kagome though he's quite a pervert whenever a pretty girl catches his sight." Hearing that made Hige jump to his feet. "Did he made any contact on Kagome when they first met." He semi-yelled at her. Ai waves her to make him sit. "Don't worry, It was just once and Inuyasha knocks him out cold for doing something inappropriate." Ai calms him down. "Sango is a demon slayer and her village is where the jewel was originally created by the power priestess Midoriko way back then. She has a feline demon named Kirara. She's like a sister to Kagome just a year older than her. But they all have one thing in common. They're after a vile demon named Naraku." Ai finished the story. Hige doesn't think that the story is actually completed. "I believe Inuyasha is part of the family." He said to her. Ai nods, "Yes Inuyasha is the leader in the group when they travel in hopes of finding the shards. You see, Inuyasha is like a bodyguard to Kagome. He'd protect her from anything that could hurt her physically, but not emotional." Hige widens his eyes. "What do you mean emotionally?" Ai sighs, "Inuyasha is in the middle of a love triangle. He was in love with Kikyo that he willingly give up his demonic powers to become human in hopes of living a normal life with her so that she would be free from her duty. But there was someone who tricked them into thinking they betrayed each other." Ai was about to continue on but Hige intervenes. "Kikyo was able to seal Inuyasha to the Sacred Tree and died shortly after him. And she was able to take the jewel with her to the netherworld." Ai was in shocked just to hear that from her own husband. "And then 550 years later when Kagome was born that's when the Sacred Jewel was born within her without us knowing it." Hige finishes the actually from his point of view. Ai who is still shock managed to speak. "But then how is it that you know all of that?" She asks with a bit of confusion in her voice. Hige sighs, "While I was working with the Soul Society, I was on a mission to know the history of the Warring States Era. That's how I was able to find out most of the information that involved Kagome. It turns out that Head-Captain Yamamoto was very precautious about the power from within the jewel and since Naraku has it in his possession, and going to Hueco Mundo, he decided to assigned me here to this very place in case those Espadas came here to kidnapped Kagome." He explains his reason to be here. Ai nods her head, showing that she completely understands him. But she is still worried. "And what if that we to happen? I would be devastated for what might happen to her if she we to be kidnapped right in front of me?" She asks calmly, making sure she doesn't have a nervous breakdown. Hige holds his hand, "The important thing about our place is that it has been sent somewhere else, leaving a fake one so the Espadas wouldn't even know for sure Kagome would be here thanks to Captain Kurotsuchi." He said confidently. Ai nods again and yet still worried, probably paranoid. Who could blame her? She would be like any other mother who would be informed about her daughter or son gone missing for a few days and yet maybe they're still alive or have been killed when it's too late to stop either themselves from doing it in a suicidal set or has been murdered by someone else?. "The fact is that since I'm here along with Inuyasha here, Kagome is safe and sound here and there's nothing to worry about. You have my word." Hige gets her attention. Ai takes a few deep breaths before returning to her old self again. "I trust you honey to protect this family, along with Inuyasha's assistance." She takes his hand. Hige smiles down to her. "And for that, I'll talk to Inuyasha about this as well so that we know what we need to know when the time comes." He finishes off.