Chapter 13
It's finally Halloween, As soon as Sota woke up he runs down to the kitchen and is thrilled that Kaoru is having his coffee. "Dad!" He hugs him eagerly. Kaoru laughs and ruffles his hair. "Happy Halloween, Sota." Kaoru said to his son. "You won't believe what I'm going to be for Halloween this year." Sota smiles brightly. "Really? What are you going to be?" Kaoru asks him curiously. "I'm going to be Inuyasha." Sota keeps his smile. Kaoru never expected that. Then again he never saw his son in any Halloween costumes until now. "You ok?" Sota asks seeing that Kaoru is thinking of something. "It's nothing to worry." He ruffles the boy's head. "You ready to go to school?" He asks afterwards.
"I still have to have my breakfast and get dressed." Sota had to stop him from leaving the kitchen table. He begins his plate of eggs that Ai prepared for him. "Where's Kagome?" Kaoru asks his wife. "She hasn't come down yet. I wonder why that is?" Ai replies. "I'll go get her." She offers to go upstairs to check up on her. She is about to knock on the door until a voice stops her. "Sango, I need to give Sota that chance. He has never once given dad that one moment. It's the least I should do." Ai opens up the door to see Kagome about to get her backpack. "Did I come at a bad time?" She asks the girls. "No." Kagome replies back to her and heads out of the run in a rush. Ai turns to see Sango with a concerned look. "Did something happen?" She asks the demon slayer. "I just got a word from Inuyasha about what he and Miroku found out." Sango starts off. But then the window opens up to have Inuyasha jumping in. "Where's Kagome?" He looks around the room. "She just left." Ai points out the door. Inuyasha can see that Sango is about to tell the mother about something bad. "Found out about what? What's going on?" Ai demands gently.
Kagome comes into the kitchen to see her father and brother about to leave. 'Should I tell them?' She asks in her head. "Is something wrong, Kagome?" Kaoru asks her. "No it's nothing." Kagome replies as she is about to sit down while Kaoru and Sota leave the kitchen. "I'll be taking Sota to school now." Kaoru tells her as the boys leave the house. Kagome is still uncertain on what to do at this point. 'If what they tell me is true, I just don't want to believe it.' She fiddles around her eggs. "Kagome, what's wrong?" Ai asks her as she comes into the kitchen seeing that Kagome doesn't have an appetite. "I bet Sango told you, didn't she?" Kagome asks her instead.
Ai sighs, knowing that this isn't going to be easy. "For now, head off to school. And when you get back, we'll discuss about Sango told me when you left your room." She suggests to her daughter. Kagome can tell that right now is not the time. "Okay mom." Kagome agrees with her terms and decides to head off. When she comes out, Inuyasha comes to her from the roof. "Are you here to escort me to school or tell me what you and Miroku found out about last night?" Kagome is not in the mood to talk about that subject. "Escort is the answer." Inuyasha spoke instead as he gets Kagome onto his back and head off to her school.
Throughout the day, Miroku, Shippo and Sango help finishing up the decorations for tonight. From the orange and purple lights to hang around, to the inflated pumpkins, dead zombies. "Why not be part of the set?" Grandpa Higurashi suggested the group. "What do you mean by that?" Shippo asks him. "I'm saying that you and Kirara should do some fun things to give the trick-or-treaters a thrill of the night." Grandpa Higurashi explains to them.
"I would, but I'm going trick-or-treating with Sota. I have many disguises that I can pull off one after another." Shippo declines the offer. "But I bet Kirara can help you out though." Grandpa can see how excited the fox demon kid is about the evening. "I see. Very well." He leaves the group alone. As soon as the elder goes into the house, Miroku and Sango come to Shippo. "Shippo. There's something you need to know about Kagome's father." Miroku spoke first. "What is it? Did something happen?" Shippo looks up to him. "The thing is that Kaoru is just a puppet." Miroku tells him immediately. "It's not one of Naraku's puppets. Is it?" Shippo is now worried. "No. It's not one of Naraku's. It's a spirit who controls the dead like a puppet. When I was patrolling the shrine, I sensed something unsettling and I had it forced out. But little did I know that force was the spirit who was controlling Kagome's father the moment he stepped foot here." Miroku explains the situation so.
"Does the family know about this?" Shippo asks the monk. "Only Ai knows about it so far. When I told Kagome about it, she didn't want to believe it. As such I only told her mother and ask her not to mention any of it to the rest of the family." Sango takes the chance to answer the question. Shippo looks towards the city. "I wonder what Kagome is thinking about?" Sango picks him up and have him perch onto her shoulder. "I don't know. I just hope that it doesn't bother her today."
The final bell rings to alert the students that it's time to go home. "I'll see you guys later." Kagome waves goodbye to her three friends and heads to the roof of the school building, where Inuyasha patiently waits for her. "Ready to go home?" Inuyasha asks her first. "Yes, I just want to make sure that whatever you told me wasn't true about my father." She climbs onto the hanyou's back and they leap towards Sota's school.
When Inuyasha and Kagome get to the block where Sota's school. They decide to stay from the gate from a safe distance. "Kagome, I can't lie about what Miroku and I found out about your father. I don't want to get you so worked up about this. For now, we just need to keep a close eye on your father." Inuyasha takes hold of girl's shoulder to calm her shaking form. Kagome could only nod to give him her answer. "I just want Sota to have this one night with dad and nothing more." That's all she could say to him. When they hear the school bell ring, Kagome and Inuyasha see Kaoru waiting patiently for Sota. Halloween night is something that no one will ever forget.