"Kagome-sama, do you have someone in your life? Like a boyfriend, maybe?"
Kagome tore the packet of fish food and sprinkled it into the koi pond. Both she and Amari were kneeling at its edge, feeding the koi and checking on its water quality as part of their shrine duties.
The horde of fishes swarmed forward and started jostling for the pellets floating on the surface, their gaping mouths gobbling as much food as they could muster. A pair of golden koi swam at a quieter part of the pond, eating whatever had drifted to them. They were the largest and the oldest fish in the lot, and had always been paired up with each other for as long as she remembered.
"Boyfriend?" Kagome spoke, addressing Amari's earlier question. She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Is there even someone who's interested in me?"
Amari sprinkled more of the fish food. "There's no need to be humble about it you know."
Kagome cringed inwardly as she thought of her dating history. She had even tried to hook up with Hojo a few years ago, but he had turned out to be a pompous law graduate who could not stop discussing on politics.
"Well, I have been seeing a couple of guys for the last few years, but it doesn't seem to work out at the end of the day. So I've just decided to remain single and happy for the time being. Maybe I'm just better off that way, you know."
Yeah right, her thoughts prodded her. Isn't getting a new boyfriend like your constant new-year resolution?
Amari peered at her with her large eyes. "I'm not trying to be a busy-body or anything. I'm just asking because…well…"
"What, Amari-chan?"
"Well I have an older brother who's been single for a long time, and our parents have been really pushing him to get married…"
"Woah, hold on. And you think I'm a good candidate?"
Amari laughed. "Why not? You're like a sister to me. Of course I would want someone like you as my sister-in-law!"
Kagome waved her hands in horror. It was not the idea of being related to Amari that scared her, but having to be match-made with a guy who had to get married—that was something else entirely. She was not that desperate to tie the knot anytime soon.
"Oh you're a real kidder, aren't you! How about you, Amari-chan? Surely someone cute as you must be attached."
Amari's forlorn reflection casted on the rippling green water.
"There's someone I like, but he doesn't even look twice my way."
"Ah, that's sad. Unrequited love is always sad."
"Have you ever been in that horrible situation before, Kagome-sama?"
"Horrible situation?" a voice coarser than a grater spoke behind them, interrupting their outpouring of woes. "What horrible situation?"
Amari and Kagome stiffened at the sudden male presence. They peeked over their shoulders only to meet the sharp, hawk-like gaze of the head priest. Why? Why was he always barging in when they were taking a quick break?
"J-J-Jyohaku-sama!" Amari-chan squeaked, her hands fluttering like a pair of birds each time she bumped into him—or was it the other way round?
"Well?" Jyohaku pressed. "I heard there was a horrible situation. If something's happening within the shrine, then I must know—"
"Not within the shrine," Kagome mumbled. "But within our love lives."
Jyohaku glared at her, then turned to Amari whose shoulders were shaking in silence.
"I'm not surprised if it's Higurashi having problems, what with her many unpleasant ways, but surely not you too, Kirihata?"
Amari gaped at him. Why would Jyohaku suddenly be interested to know about her personal life? The head priest never took any concern with her and…
Jyohaku's eyebrows lowered, making his grim face even darker. "Why is your face all beet red? Are you having an allergic reaction to something?"
"It's red?" Amari was flustering now, her arms flailing to cover her face. "Like I'm blushing? Ah—but I'm not really blushing, and I'm only allergic to cats—"
Kagome made a mental note. One's a bundle of nerves, and the other's as thick as a brick.
Her line of sight absent-mindedly strayed to the hedged fence built around Yukino-jingu's premises. There was a shuffle of white against the green leaves, as though a person was peering in from outside. Kagome squinted in half-disbelief, hoping she was wrong, that perhaps it was her imagination—she did not want to deal with any funny business at this time of the day—and then she saw his golden eyes poking through the holes in the fence, and her heart lurched.
"Holy macaroni with pepperoni!" she shouted. "Guys, I just remembered, I have a really horrible situation at home and I so gotta go right now—"
"Higurashi! " Jyohaku bellowed after her. But she had disappeared, scrambling out of the shrine as fast as her legs could carry her until she caught up to him.
Sesshoumaru. Standing outside in broad daylight. He looked as surprised as her, and her eyes flicked to the small urn tucked under his arm.
"Sesshoumaru!" she hissed. "What thehell is this? Why are you doing out here?"
"I…" Sesshoumaru started but she cut into his words before he could explain himself.
"You're not supposed to leave the house. You even carried that thing all the way here."
"It contains the soil of my origins. I cannot part from it."
"I know, Sesshoumaru. I know. God!"
He frowned at her outburst, his nose flaring slightly in an indignant manner. "The black box is not working. There is nothing else of interest in the house."
"I yanked the cable out because the electricity bill went up the roof!"
"There is nothing wrong with the roof. Wait. Is there?"
"I'm sending you home straight-away. You're riding pillion on my bike, got that?"
Sesshoumaru sat gingerly at the back of her bicycle. He studied the two-wheeled contraption with interest, then wobbled with his life when she started to move. "Grab on to me," she ordered, but he curtly declined. The memories of getting zapped with reiki were still fresh in his mind. Instead his hand caught on the handlebar behind his seat.
"What did you come here anyway?" she asked before she stepped on her pedal.
"I was curious to see you fare in your work environment."
"You mean to say you were stalking me."
When they got back home, the first thing Kagome did was to switch the television back on. She returned the urn to its proper place, placing it back on the altar.
He can leave the house now. It means he's gained strength.
Kagome bit her finger, trying to muster a deep breath to compose herself. She glanced at Sesshoumaru in the living room, sitting motionless before the slapstick comedy playing on-screen.
What if he tries to leave the house again? He knows nothing about how the world works. And the public eyes won't take to him kindly either.
"I'm going back to the shrine," she told him after she had smoothened down her clothes. "Please don't leave the house again without my permission." Kagome paused. She was starting to sound like a domineering mother.
Sesshoumaru said nothing. He had not spoken a word since the trip home.
Back in the shrine, Kagome fingered the empty amulets in the souvenir store that were yet to be filled and blessed. They took the shape of a small empty vial, looped with a long cord. She pocketed one in her pants, tossing a coin into the cashier register.
"So what was the emergency back home, Kagome-sama?" Amari asked while they were closing the gates later that day. "I've never seen you in such a panic before."
"I uh, left the sink running."
"Oh dear!"
"Please sweep the floors faster, ladies!" Jyohaku barked near them. "Dusk is falling!"
Later that night, Sesshoumaru carefully inspected the amulet that Kagome had placed in his palm.
"I put a bit of soil from the urn inside it," she explained. "This means you don't need to bring that urn around when you go out. Pretty neat, huh? Here, let me put it on for you—"
Sesshoumaru backed away, a gesture now born from reflex, and one that was starting to irk her.
"I noticed it for some time now," she remarked. "It's like you have some sort of aversion when it comes to being touched. Don't want my grubby human fingers on you, is that it?"
"I will keep this safe." Sesshoumaru grasped the amulet. "How far can this sustain me?"
"I don't think you can go around too far with that amulet. And besides I won't allow it. It's a dangerous world out there, Sesshoumaru."
Something in his eyes shifted. "Is there anything more dangerous than a daiyoukai who seeks to attain knowledge?"
Kagome blinked in surprise. She wanted to tell him that in the twenty-first century a daiyoukai was nothing but a figment of folklore, but decided he would learn this himself.
She sat down on the tatami mat, accompanying him through another episode of Ripley's, something about a washed-up mermaid's skeleton.
"Give me time. I'll make further arrangements for you," she said after a while.
"Elaborate, miko."
She looked at him. "Further arrangements like sorting out your face. And getting new clothes. I was just thinking about it. I can't possibly keep you locked up in here forever. Everyone's entitled to their own freedom. And naturally you'll be curious about what's outside."
She hugged her knees and lowered her head. "I must have overlooked this part when I performed the after-ritual. I guess not only must I identify you as a proper person now, but one with proper needs, just that they differ from us humans."
Food, freedom, what else do you need, Sesshoumaru?
Minutes later, as if having ascertained something, she straightened her legs and stood up. "Well, that's that. I'm going to bed now. So goodnight."
"Thank you."
Kagome stopped. Back then being a powerful daiyoukai meant being polite was never one of his stronger points. Ah, why was she still thinking about who he used to be? It was clear that the Sesshoumaru then was not the same Sesshoumaru now.
"A brand new person." That was what she had told him that day. Otherwise she would not have been able to nag and hassle at him, would she? And he would never have assumed his new docile trait. Although sometimes, that old arrogant streak of his remained as strong.
"Anytime."
To be continued!