I do not own InuYasha or Magic Knight Rayearth in any way, shape or form!
Speech Key:
"The" – Oral/Normal Speech
'The' – Thoughts
-Ages-
Satoru: 25
Masaru: 19
Kakeru, Kagome: 17
Hikaru, Umi, Fuu: 14
PLEASE READ BEFORE BEGINNING CHAPTER! Seriously, read it!
AN: This chapter turned out longer than the first, much to my surprise, but I suppose it turned out well enough in the end. Anyway, I'm going to point out again that my writing is going sound pretty awkward since I'm just getting back into writing full chapters, so please don't mind it very much!
Anyway, I hope you all like this and please remember to review, but if you've nothing polite to say then don't bother saying anything at all!
~A Match of Two Souls~
oO-She's Coming Here?! -Oo
"Tadaima!" a young girl of fourteen called out cheerfully as she toed off her outdoor shoes and traded them in for a pair of slippers.
"Okaeri, Hikaru," a tall russet-haired man greeted the teen. Dark chocolate eyes softened at the sight of the bubbly scarlet-haired girl who greeted him with a bright smile. "Satoru-niisama, Tadaima!"
"Okaeri Hikaru!" a pair of voices sounded off in tandem before the thudding of feet rapidly approached the fourteen-year old.
Before Hikaru knew what had hit her, she was caught up in a tight embrace between her other two older brothers, Shidou Masaru and Shidou Kakeru. Both borther shared the same chocolate eyes as the eldest Shidou, though only the latter of the two had aurburn hair as opposed to the russet shade the other two males had.
"Tadaima, Masaru-niisan, Kakeru-niisan!" Hikaru laughed.
"How was school today?" Satoru asked once everyone was inside and all the greetings were through.
"Great!" Hikaru chirped.
"Oh!" She perked up, remembering something. The scarlet-haired girl rummaged through her bag and brought out a piece of paper. "This is a permission form for a field trip to Tokyo Tower in two weeks! Please can I go?" She pleaded as she handed the slip to her eldest brother.
(AN: Not really what the normal procedure is for field trips in Japan and no matter where I looked, whatever information they had was about the types of field trips and why those kind of places rather than the process…)
"Tokyo Tower, huh?" Masaru looked at the form. "Not a very original idea for a field trip…I wonder how came up with that idea?"
"But it's safe!" Kakeru pointed out. "She'll be with the rest of her classmates and since it's an all girls school she'll be perfectly fine!"
"Except that guys are always lurking around there!" Masaru muttered in shock. "Tokyo Tower's open to the public so those dogs could get in no problem and get our cute little Hikaru!"
Kakeru looked stricken at the thought.
Shaking his head amusingly at his younger brothers' antics, Satoru gave a nod to his sister. "You can go, Hikaru."
"Arigato, Satoru-niisama!" Hikaru pounced and wrapped her arms around her eldest brother's waist. If you looked closely, you could swear a pair of cat ears were twitching wildly on her head a long feline-like tail wagged cheerfully behind her.
The teen let go of her brother and trotted of happily to her room to get her homework done, her long scarlet braid dancing along after her.
~AMatchofTwoSouls~
"Tadaima, Hikari!" Hikaru called out as she slid open the shoji door at the back of her room that lead into the backyard.
The ginger and white Shikoku's ear pricked when he heard his mistress' voice. He got up and ran towards her, greeting her with a flurry licks to her face. "I missed you, too, Hikari!"
Hikaru giggled, rubbing her dog's head gently, "I have to go and get my homework done now, so be good and don't cause any trouble, okay?" ruby eyes looked sternly at the dog.
Hikari sat straight and gave a short bark.
"I mean it, Hikari," Hikaru told her dog, "be good and I'll give you a treat after dinner tonight!"
Hikari only barked once more as the scarlet-haired girl padded into her room.
~AMatchofTwoSouls~
"Hikaru, dinner's ready!" Kakeru called out as he set the last of the dishes on the table.
"Coming!" Hikaru called back, finishing the last of her essay. Once the last few words were etched onto her paper, she quickly left her room for the dining area where her brothers waited for her.
"Wow!" ruby eyes sparkled as she gazed at the dish before her. "Sukiyaki! Did something good happen today?" Hikaru eyed her brothers suspiciously.
"No special occasion, Hikaru. I just thought it might be nice to have something other than fish tonight," Masaru grinned.
"It looks great!" the teen smiled at her older brother.
"Itadakimasu!" the Shidou siblings said before picking up their bowls and chopsticks.
"Oh," Satoru said after swallowing his tofu, "I forgot to tell you three, Kagome is coming to stay with us."
"Kagome-neechan?" Hikaru perked up.
"Kagome?" Masaru and Kakeru chorused.
"When?" Kakeru quickly asked his brother.
"Why?" Masaru inquired.
"She should be arriving on either Friday or Saturday," Satoru answered. "Unless something comes up, the lastest she'll be here is Sunday afternoon."
"And what do you mean 'why'?" Kakeru eyed the middle Shidou brother. "Don't you like Kagome?"
"I don't mean it like that, baka!" Masaru shot back. "I mean, did something happen to make her move here?"
"Ojii-chan isn't doing too well," the russet-haired man answered, "She decided that getting away from Tokyo would be best for him, but Kagome didn't want to leave. So when she called to ask, I told her it wouldn't be any trouble for her to stay with us."
"That makes sense at least," Kakeru nodded. "Poor Ojii-chan, though… Do they know what's wrong with him?"
"It's nothing dangerous," Satoru assured the youngest Shidou male. "Obasan told me that it's only stress; they're moving to Ise so he's not around so much activity. He's not getting very much younger, no matter how much he may act like it." The russet-haired man thought back to the elder man's borderline-senile-like antics.
"Yay!" Hikaru jumped up from her seat, having finished her dinner as her brother spoke. "I can't wait for Kagome-neechan to get here! I have to go tell Hikari!"
The eldest Shidou watched Hikaru run out of the room, a small smile on his face.
"There was another reason, wasn't there?" Masaru asked after a few moments. "Why you said yes to Kagome coming here? I know we all love her just as much as we do Hikaru, but that's not all there was to it, right?"
Satoru nodded with a sigh. "I did it for Hikaru; she's getting older, we can't deny that. An all-girl's school only gives her an education, it can't substitute for a female's influence in her life. We won't always be able to help her."
Masaru and Kakeru looked at one another, their faces solemn. Paternal figures were always a sore spot for the Shidou siblings, though Hikaru bore it with a smile.
Their mother, Shidou Mayumi died just days after giving birth to Hikaru; complications from the pregnancy and delivery made it next to impossible for her to recover. Although their father, Shidou Hayato, had never gotten over the death of his wife, he managed to pull himself together to raise his children and run the family Kendo Dojo.
Unfortunately, the little realm of peace they had wasn't to last. Little Hikaru, who'd only been five years old at the time, had defeated their father in the very art he'd been teaching and practicing for years.
His defeat by way of a young girl that had only begun nursery school a few days before, his own daughter no less, left him shaken. Hayato packed his things and left within a fortnight of his loss. With no letter, no call, not even a word of goodbye or reason why, the family and the dojo were left in Satoru's care.
But at the time, they weren't legally allowed to live on their own and so they were sent to live with Kagome's family at the Nichibotsu-jinja. Having just lost her husband only a few months prior, Satomi was grateful for the distraction the Shidou siblings provided.
But despite Satomi's presence, Hikaru had bonded almost immediately to Kagome. It had baffled everyone how much the youngest Shidou took to the ravenette, but they couldn't complain. Not when they could see how happy it made Hikaru.
That had been nine years ago and not a word had been heard from Shidou Hayato since.
"As far as I'm concerned, Kagome is the closest thing to a mother Hikaru has," the eldest brother told his siblings, "It would be good for her to have Kagome here."
~AMatchofTwoSouls~
"Guess what, Hikari?" Hikaru burst into her room where the canine had been dozing. "Kagome-neechan's coming to live with us! Isn't that great?"
Hikari barked excitedly in response.
Adieu,
TsukiyoTenshi
