August 20

I've felt so off today. Ever since I woke up, I've been feeling kinda tired and frustrated. My back was sore again from the baby growing. I thought about staying in bed for several more hours but I was supposed to be delivering herbs to a few people in the village today so I decided I'd better go take care of that despite how I was feeling. I even became a little teary-eyed after I said goodbye to Inuyasha when I left the house. I didn't know what was wrong with me today.

On top of that, weird things were happening as I was walking through the village. For one thing, I tripped over a stick and almost fell but I could have sworn it wasn't there a second ago. I continued on and something knocked my basket of herbs out of my hand. As I bent down to pick them up, I didn't see anyone around.

Great, not only am I tired but I'm also losing my mind, I thought.

"Hey Kagome," Shippo said as he came by.

"Hi, Shippo, what's up?"

"I was just at Kaede's. She gave me and Rin some candy."

I laughed a bit. Shippo had always had a sweet tooth. "I know you're happy."

"It made me think of all those sweets you used to bring from your era. The lollipops were my favorite."

"I wish I could bring you more."

"Ow!" he exclaimed. Then we noticed a rock on the ground behind him. "Someone threw this at me!"

"Who would do such a thing?" I said with annoyance as we looked around. Unfortunately, we didn't see anyone.

"Maybe it's Kento playing a trick on me," Shippo said. "Weird stuff has been happening to me today."

"You too?"

"Maybe it's a ghost."

"Anything seems possible around here. Well, I'm going to drop off these herbs. I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Kagome."

At least now I knew I wasn't the only one experiencing weird things but I was still annoyed by it.

When I got home, all I wanted to do was take a nap. Unfortunately, it was way too hot in the house to get comfortable. For the millionth time over these past two summers, I desperately wished we had air conditioning.

Then I heard a tapping sound on the window. I went over to see what it was but nothing was there. The ghost Shippo was talking about was really out to get me today.

As I walked back over to the bed I paused in front of the mirror. I had gained weight over the course of my pregnancy. It was supposed to happen, of course, but I wasn't used to it. I had always been very thin my whole life. And I still had three months of pregnancy left so I was bound to gain more. Tears formed in my eyes again. I was going to end up getting so fat, there was no way Inuyasha would still think I'm beautiful.

Inuyasha must have just gotten back home because I heard the bedroom door open. He came over to me and held me in his arms as I cried. "Why are you crying, Kagome?"

"Because...because I'm so fat now. I've gained so much weight. And you'll never think I'm beautiful again."

"You're being ridiculous."

I glared at him. "No, I'm not."

He pressed a kiss to my lips and dried my tears. "First of all, you haven't gained that much weight. Second, you're absolutely beautiful and you always will be."

I found myself starting to smile. "You really think so?"

"Of course I do, you silly woman. Anyway, you have a baby inside of you so of course you're going to gain weight and that's okay. I'll always love you regardless."

I hugged him and kissed him again. "You're the best. I don't know why I was so upset."

"Well, you didn't seem like yourself this morning either."

"Maybe it was another mood swing."

There was another tapping sound on the window. Inuyasha went over to see what it was this time but also didn't see anything. "That's weird."

"That happened earlier today."

"Probably some kids just playing tricks," he said with a shrug. "Would going for a walk make you feel better?"

"Sure."

"Good. It's hot as hell in here anyway."

So we started on our walk but we didn't get very far before Inuyasha stumbled.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He looked around confused. "I swear I just tripped over something."

"Weird stuff like that was happening to me this morning." All of a sudden I jumped as I felt something pinch me in the back. "Ah!"

"What happened?"

"Something pinched me!"

"I smell something around here. Whatever you are, show yourself," Inuyasha said as he punched around trying to catch it. His first finally collided with something and a small red fox demon appeared.

"Why did you hit me?" it said.

"Why did you trip me?" Inuyasha said angrily.

"Have you been tormenting our village?" I asked.

The demon nodded. "Yeah, so what?"

"So stop it!" Inuyasha said.

"The things you've been doing aren't nice," I asked calmly. "You really need to stop bothering people."

The demon crossed its arms and shook its head. "I don't wanna."

Before I could say anything else Inuyasha kicked it, sending it soaring through the air out of the village.

"What did you do that for?" I asked.

"Maybe now it'll learn its lesson."

I sighed. Leave it to Inuyasha to take the more extreme route. Even still, I held his hand and we continued on our walk. Now that our little "ghost" was gone, I felt much more relaxed for the rest of the day.