Complete the Circle
Chapter Twenty-Four: A Music Box
Kagome sat in the classroom, nervously tapping her fingers against the desk, waiting for Miroku and Inuyasha to show up. She had seen Miroku enter someone's house yesterday, but hadn't really known whose home it had been. He seemed to be in good hands, so she had left for her own house, still slightly worried about him. He wasn't exactly the cheery monk that she had met in the Sengoku Jidai.
Suddenly the door to the classroom swung open, admitting two boys into the room. Inuyasha and Miroku quickly went to their seats just as the bell rang. Kagome wondered what had kept them today; Inuyasha hadn't walked to school with her like the previous two days.
"Hey, why is Miroku and Musashino wearing prayer beads on their right hands?" Kagome heard one of her friends whisper to another.
"Probably a new fashion that they cooked up," her friend whispered back. Kagome took a peek at Inuyasha's hand and discovered that he too was wearing prayer beads on his hand. She wondered why. She didn't have time to question him, for soon the teacher arrived and class started.
Kagome met up with Miroku and Inuyasha during lunch. Sango was still in the hospital, so she would have no one to talk to during lunch except her friends, and she really couldn't talk to them about defeating Naraku and completing the Shikon no Tama.
"Hey, Inuyasha, Miroku," Kagome greeted, swallowing the "-sama" that she usually attached to Miroku's name. "Would you mind if I sat with you guys?"
"Go right ahead," Inuyasha said, moving his stuff to allow her space to sit with them. "But why aren't you sitting with your other friends?"
"Ah, well," Kagome stuttered, unsure of how to reply him without giving too much away.
"She probably just wants to appreciate how handsome we are," Miroku said, smiling innocently at her. She turned beet red, but was glad that at least Miroku wasn't acting as depressed as he was yesterday.
"Idiot," Inuyasha muttered, but Miroku ignored him. "Oi, Kagome, I saw you on the news yesterday."
"What?" asked Kagome, surprised. "When?"
"It was on the ten o' clock news," Inuyasha said, the beads on his right hand clicking together as he opened his lunch. "You were really tiny in the picture, though."
"What picture?" asked Kagome, wondering if the whole world saw her shooting the youkai yesterday.
"The picture with that scorpion youkai that was wrecking the shrine," Inuyasha said calmly as if it were an everyday thing.
"It seems that the people who were taking pictures of the youkai yesterday turned it in to the news station," Miroku said, sipping his drink. "The news reporters are having a field day over what happened yesterday. It's actually kind of funny. The scientists are busy trying to come up with a logical explanation as to what happened whereas the religious people are running around saying it's the end of the world."
Kagome paled. What was she going to do if a reporter should come and question her?
"Don't worry," Miroku said, seeming to read her mind. "No one was saying anything about how the youkai disappeared. No one suspects you, Sango, or I to have anything to do with the youkai at all. We were just innocent bystanders. There were enough people injured yesterday that we've just become another one of them. No special importance has been attached to us."
Kagome sighed in relief, then realized that Inuyasha had been there the whole time, listening to Miroku's conversation. She opened her mouth to question if Inuyasha knew yet, but Miroku beat her to it.
"Inuyasha knows everything that happened yesterday," he said, giving Kagome a hard look. She wondered for a moment what that look was supposed to stand for, and understood immediately when Miroku gestured discreetly, pointing to him then her, and shaking his head. So, Inuyasha didn't know that his friend had just remembered his past life. Kagome wondered if that was a good or bad thing.
"Inuyasha, why don't you go get my textbooks for me?" asked Miroku.
"Why the hell, erm, why should I?" Inuyasha asked, omitting the vulgar word just as a teacher walked by.
"Because my hand hurts. Now go get it," Miroku said without batting an eye. Kagome expected Inuyasha to beat Miroku into a pulp for such a statement, but was surprised when Inuyasha got up and complied with Miroku's request.
"Did Inuyasha just do you a favor?" asked Kagome, looking confused at Inuyasha's retreating back.
"He's different in this life," Miroku said in a low voice. Kagome turned to him, her full attention on him. "He did not go through the hardships that he did in his past life. That is why he is… I suppose, kinder." He looked at her straight in the eye, his gaze unwavering. "As his best friend in this life, I am not sure if it is to his benefit for him to remember everything that happened then." Kagome fidgeted nervously.
"I think we should discuss this with Sango," Kagome said uncomfortably. Miroku's gaze was creeping her out. She had seen him look this way at Naraku, but never at her.
"I suppose we should," he sighed. Inuyasha soon returned with Miroku's books.
"Don't know why you wanted me to get them," he grumbled as he sat down next to Miroku. "It's not like you're going to study during lunch or anything."
"How do you know?" asked Miroku. Inuyasha snorted. Kagome heard the sounds of beads clicking as he moved the prayer beads on his hand.
"That's right, why do you have prayer beads on your hand?" asked Kagome. Inuyasha couldn't have gotten an air rip too, could he?
"Oh, these?" asked Inuyasha. "Just so Miroku won't feel lonely."
"I do not feel lonely!" said Miroku in annoyance.
"Yeah, whatever," Inuyasha replied. "To tell you the truth, it's so Miroku's prayer beads won't be as obvious. If both of us are wearing it, people will think it's one of those 'best friends' type of thing, and disregard the beads."
"Oh," Kagome said. "I take it you already know about Miroku's air rip?"
"Yeah." Kagome felt awkward talking to Inuyasha about something that he should have already known.
"Listen, I'm going to visit Sango in the hospital this afternoon, so do any of you guys want to come with me?" asked Kagome.
"Can't. I have to pick up Rin and then head to my grandfather's," Inuyasha said, poking at his food with his chopsticks.
"I will be more than happy to accompany you on your journey," Miroku said, getting two very suspicious glares from his friends.
"Right," Inuyasha said, turning to his food again.
"What?!" asked Miroku, still trying to act as innocent as ever.
Miroku, Kagome and Inuyasha exited the gates of the school, Miroku and Kagome heading one direction, and Inuyasha heading the other. Suddenly Kagome stopped and ran back towards Inuyasha.
"Sorry, Miroku-sam-err-san," Kagome said, correcting herself. "I have to ask Inuyasha to take my brother and Shippou home, too. I'll catch up with you later." Miroku saw her run off towards Inuyasha who was already across the crosswalk. It would take Kagome some time before she could join up with him again, so he decided to go visit Sango first.
He walked the streets, absentmindedly looking in at shop windows. Suddenly he saw something that caught his eye. It was a tiny music box about as big as the length of his thumb. Tiny jewels and pearls decorated the top, and the inside was lined with red velvet. He walked into the shop, listening to the bell ringing from somewhere in the depths of the small store.
A woman with black hair and wise, intelligent eyes walked out, greeting him with a smile. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that this person was a young version of Kaede-sama. She was probably around her late twenties.
"Welcome, sir, and how may I help you?" she asked in a smooth voice.
"I would like to know how much the music box in the display window costs," Miroku said, taking out his wallet.
"Oh, that old thing? It's been sitting there for ages and no one has even taken the slightest interest in it," the woman said, walking to the window and taking the music box. "Though I don't know why. You will notice that the box is decorated with real jewels, not made of plastic or glass," she said, turning the music box around. "And if you look carefully enough, you can see small carvings all over the box. A masterpiece, really, so I can't offer it to you for less than 2,400 yen."
Miroku looked into his wallet, taking care to not let the salesperson see the amount he had in it. He only had 1,800 yen.
"Aw man," he said out loud, his business mind starting to whirl into motion. "I only have 1,200." He saw the salesperson look shrewdly at him, but the expression was replaced with a smile.
"I can lower the price to 1,900, but that's as low as I can go," she said.
"Well, I only have 1,200, so I still can't buy it at all," Miroku said in false despair. "Oh well. I'll just go now." He walked to the door slowly. Three, two, one…
"Wait!" the woman cried out, running to him.
"Yes?" he questioned innocently.
"1,200, right?" she asked, relenting her earlier price. "I can sell it for at least that."
"Oh goody!" Miroku said happily, and waited patiently as the woman wrapped up the music box.
He walked down the hallway, looking for Sango's room. Even with his little detour, Kagome would still not have arrived yet, which gave him a few moments alone with Sango. He was thankful of his present life for this small comfort. Back in the Sengoku Jidai, they were always off slaying youkai, or chasing after Naraku or a rumored shard so that they never really did have a few peaceful moments together. Well, now that he was presented the moment, he was going to use it. He hadn't been lying to Kagome when he said that it would be his pleasure to visit Sango.
He found the door to her room and entered carefully, tiptoeing so as not to disturb her rest. He shut the door quietly behind him.
"I know you're there, Houshi-sama, so don't bother trying to hide your presence," Sango said.
"Ah, Sango, what a pleasure it is to see you," Miroku said, smiling. Sango regarded him warily, wondering what was going through that mind of his.
"What are you doing here?" Sango asked, trying to appear nonchalant about his visit.
"Why, to visit you, Sango," he said, taking a seat near her. He could feel her senses go on alert against him. Ah, why must people always assume the worst of me?
He felt around his coat pocket for the package, and took it out and gave it to Sango. The salesperson had done a good job wrapping it.
"A little get well present, shall we say?" said Miroku as he watched Sango unwrap the gift carefully. He heard her gasp softly as she saw the tiny music box.
"It's so pretty," Sango breathed as she opened the box and listened to the soft tune playing. He saw her holding the gift carefully, almost as if she were afraid it would break. Did she care about him that much to treat his gifts with such tenderness?
He saw her finger the bottom of the box and look puzzled, closing the box and turning it over. He saw Sango blush right as Kagome entered the room. He wondered why.
"Sango-chan, do you feel better?" asked Kagome, dragging up another chair to sit next to her friend.
"Much better. Hayashi-sensei visited me earlier today and gave me some weird herbs," Sango said, putting the music box on the table next to her. "He said that they were pretty rare and speeded up the healing process, so I'll probably be out soon."
"That's great," Kagome said in relief. The three of them sat in silence, none of them really wanting to bring up the immediate problem. But finally, Miroku spoke.
"I think we should discuss the problem at hand," he said calmly, his mask slipping into place.
"Yeah. Does anyone have any idea of what's going on?" asked Kagome.
"I went to Inuyasha's house yesterday and talked to his parents," Miroku said. "There are some things we discussed that I thought might be of interest. One is that Inuyasha's mother mentioned that youkai nowadays cannot sense the Shikon no Tama, which would mean that the attack last night was planned. I think we all have our own suspicions as to who planned the attack."
"Naraku," Sango said, her eyes narrowing in anger.
"The other is that youkai can't just recklessly attack other youkai, especially in a youkai's home," Miroku said. "That means that there are at least some safe grounds that we can take shelter in."
"But can humans attack youkai anywhere?" asked Kagome.
"I don't know. Probably," Miroku said. "But if we don't get more help, our power alone is not sufficient to defeat Naraku."
"So let's get some youkai's help," Sango said, stating the obvious. Miroku shifted uncomfortably.
"Who are we supposed to ask? Inuyasha's family?" asked Kagome.
"It will be difficult to get the adults involved," Miroku said. "Inuyasha's father told me that in order to kill a youkai, you need to register for a permit, and those take a long time to process."
"So that means that if an adult youkai gets caught in our plan to defeat Naraku, they may get punished for it?" asked Kagome, frowning.
"Exactly," said Miroku.
"That means that the only youkai we can get on our side are Shippou and Inuyasha, since they're probably still minors in youkai law, so won't be punished as severely, if at all," Sango said thoughtfully. She frowned. "I don't know about you, but I think something is wrong with Inuyasha…"
"That's what we really wanted to discuss with you," Kagome said. "I don't know if Inuyasha will be of much help to us because frankly, he doesn't even have any youkai powers."
"No wonder he feels so…human, I guess, while his grandfather is practically shouting 'youkai!'" Sango said.
"And there lies our problem," Kagome said. "Should we include Inuyasha in our plans?" The group fell silent, each weighing the pros and cons of leaving or keeping Inuyasha.
"If he remembers, then maybe his powers will return also," Sango said slowly, testing the waters on this situation. She could tell that Miroku didn't exactly like the idea.
"Is it worth the price of victory to let him live as he was?" asked Miroku quietly. I don't know about Inuyasha, but knowing what happened in my past life has brought me nothing but grief, and my personality's almost the same as the one in the past. It's different with Inuyasha. In his past life he had no one, but in this life, he is flocked by his family members. His personality is drastically different, so if he remembered how he was in the past, how would he act from then on? Would he act as he did back then, or would he act as he is now?
"We don't have to get him to remember," said Sango. "All we have to do is just tell him what happened in our past lives and allow him to decide whether or not he wants to join us."
"But what are we supposed to say to him?" asked Miroku. "Hello, Inuyasha. Did you know that you used to be in a group that was bent on destroying Naraku? Oh, by the way, I used to be a monk, and Sango here used to be the best youkai exterminator, and did I mention that Kagome used to be a powerful miko that wants to kill you for betraying her?"
"Well, you don't have to put it that way," Sango muttered.
"And what's the point of telling him this when he doesn't even have any youkai powers that can help us?" continued Miroku. "You said so yourself. He needs his powers in order for us to even stand a chance against Naraku, and for that to even have a slight chance of happening, he needs to have his memories back."
"So maybe we should try to get him to remember," Kagome said. Miroku noted that she sounded slightly guilty. He figured it was because she had an inkling that he wasn't exactly happy to have received his memories back.
"Kagome, how would you feel if you were just living your merry life one day and boom! Suddenly you hate Inuyasha with all your guts because he's the one that caused you to die?" asked Miroku, a stony expression on his face.
"Well…I…"
"Not exactly comforting, is it?" asked Miroku scathingly. "And how will Inuyasha feel? Can't you see he's happy as he is? Do you want him to remember what happened to his past? He may have never told us of those years he spent alone, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that those years weren't exactly his 'golden years!'"
"What would you have us do?" asked Sango, getting slightly angry with the monk's statements. "You know the longer we wait to tell Inuyasha, the more danger he might be in. We made that mistake with you, and it gave you the hole you have in your hand. If we don't tell Inuyasha, who knows what might happen? What if Naraku gets to him first?"
The two of them sat in silence, glaring at each other. If looks could kill, they would both be a pile of ash by now.
"So the question is whether to sacrifice Inuyasha's happiness for his safety, or to let him live in contentment, but in danger," Kagome said, interrupting Sango and Miroku's glaring contest.
"That's obvious," Sango said, turning away from Miroku. "His safety is most important."
"What is the use of being alive if you can't be happy?" asked Miroku, crossing his arms stubbornly. Silence elapsed for a few minutes before Miroku turned to Kagome. "Kagome-sama, what do you think we should decide to do?"
"I'm not really in the position to say anything," Kagome said nervously. Both Sango and Miroku raised their eyebrows at her statement.
"What do you mean?" asked Sango.
"Well…" Kagome started. "If you were me, what would you do? Inuyasha's my friend, and to get him to remember the past would be like bringing the dead back to life." She started to play with the corner of the sheet on Sango's bed. "And heaven knows how much I want him back," she said. "But… If I bring the old Inuyasha back, where will the new one go? To force two personalities that are so different to be in one person is like putting fire and water together. One will have to douse the other. One of Inuyasha's personalities will have to leave, and am I really in a position to choose who gets to live and who gets to die? Can I make an opinion that is not influenced by my emotions? Can I really say that one personality is better than the other?"
"I see," Miroku stated. Silence descended upon them again.
"Maybe we should wait," Kagome started, but Sango cut her off.
"We can't wait. That's what we did with Miroku, and look what he has to show for it," Sango said reasonably, though in a hard, firm voice. "We have no idea where Naraku is, and in this new era, we really don't know what he's capable of. He's had the last five hundred years to cook up a nice, tasty plan to get all our gooses cooked, while we've only had a couple of weeks!"
"We've never really known what Naraku's up to, and we still survived, err, in a sense, that is," Miroku said, realizing that he had fumbled up his words.
"You know…" Kagome started, but then paused, thinking. "You said that youkai can't sense the Shikon no Tama anymore, right?" Miroku nodded his head. "Well, we know that Naraku is probably still after the Shikon no Tama, but he can't sense it like he used to, which means that all we have to do is keep the Shikon shards hidden until we can figure something out."
"Naraku probably has spies everywhere," Sango said.
"No, he doesn't," Miroku said. "He can't put spies around here because this isn't his territory."
"What are you talking about?" asked Sango and Kagome simultaneously.
"Oh, I forgot you didn't know," Miroku said, smiling sheepishly. "The Naraku that we all just love has become more than a false human lord now; he's become a real youkai lord."
"Meaning?" asked Sango.
"He controls some lands, too," Miroku said. "Just like Inuyasha's grandfather controls the lands in this city, Naraku controls some lands elsewhere. You see, after there was no Lord of the Western Lands, the people who served under the lord divided the land up among themselves, each ruling their own territory until someone claims to be the new Lord."
"Wait a minute," interrupted Kagome. "Wasn't Inuyasha's father the Lord of the Western Lands? Wouldn't that make Sesshoumaru the…?"
"New lord?" finished Miroku. "Yes it would, if Sesshoumaru actually accepted the position."
"You mean he declined?" asked Sango incredulously. "For what reason?"
"Nobody except Sesshoumaru himself knows," answered Miroku.
"Okay, back to the original topic," said Kagome, steering them back on track. "You said Naraku doesn't have spies here, right?"
"Correct, and it would be very unwise of him to attack anywhere in this city because of Inuyasha's grandfather," Miroku said. "It's a political thing between youkai."
"Right," Kagome and Sango replied.
"So we're safe, for now," Miroku said. He could feel that Sango and Kagome were going to drop their previous discussion about Inuyasha. Even though the problem was far from resolved, none of them really felt like getting into a fight over the issue.
"Oh! Sango-chan, I almost forgot," said Kagome as she dug through her backpack for something. "Here's today's assignments from school."
"Oh, thanks," said Sango.
"Here, I'll tell you what you're supposed to do," said Kagome as she started instructing Sango on the assignments. Miroku looked over to the table next to Sango and spotted the music box again. He lifted the box up and looked on the bottom, wondering what it was that Sango had seen.
The words: "To the one I love forever" were carved on the bottom. He turned as red as a tomato, wondering why he had never noticed those words before. Not that he was denying or complaining about them, but still…he had wished that he had known beforehand.
He looked over to Sango and mentally let out a sigh as he saw her beautiful long hair fall across her shoulders as she spoke with Kagome. Even if he had known the words were on the bottom of the music box, he still would have given it to Sango. After all, those words expressed what he couldn't bring himself to say to Sango.
He decided to leave before the girls could notice his red face and berate him for his sighing. They would probably misunderstand him again. Honestly, he wasn't always filled with perverted thoughts. He got up and pushed the chair back.
"I'll be going now," he said quickly, and headed towards the door before the girls to see his face. He could still feel the heat radiating off his cheeks, although he didn't understand why. He had done more forward things than giving a music box that declared one's love to another, so why was he getting embarrassed over this? Sometimes, he couldn't figure himself out.
"See you later, Miroku-sama," Kagome said out of habit.
"Thank you…" Sango said, at first quietly, then a bit louder. "Thank you for the present…Miroku."
He could feel himself blushing like crazy. Why am I even blushing? It's not like she said anything important… Only that she stopped calling me "Houshi-sama." But that doesn't even mean anything, right? But he couldn't fool himself. Sango had called him by his name, which meant that at least one barrier between them had fallen.
She didn't understand why her master was so interested in this boy. He didn't even have any youki. He was just like the other humans, as far as she was concerned, but her master thought differently.
She saw her target ahead, walking with a little girl. Probably his sister. She walked quickly past the boy, "accidentally" knocking him down onto the ground.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she heard him shout. But she paid him no heed. She had gotten what she had wanted.
Author's Note: I think that one US dollar is equal to 120 yen, so the music box's original price was $20 and Miroku only had $15, but he only paid $10 for it. Yeah, I think my math is right.
For some reason the chapters get longer and longer… But oh well. Up next: "Possession." The title's pretty obvious, isn't it?
I saw the English version of Inuyasha! The translation was good, considering that they have to make the meaning near the same and still appeal to English audiences. Some things they translated differently were: 1.) "Sankon Tetsusou" has become "soul stealer" I think and 2.) "Shikon no Tama" has become the "sacred jewel." I think they mentioned the name "Shikon no Tama" once in the English version. Richard Cox (voice of Inuyasha) is very good (of course Japanese is always better, but this time, he really IS good). The worst voice actor there was Kaede. She sounded like she was just taking a walk in the park throughout the serious parts. Kagome and Kikyo were bearable, but not the best. They both don't have enough emotions packed into their voices, but it was okay. Thing that really annoyed me was how they pronounced their names. "Ka-go-may," "Ki-ki-o" and "Ka-ay-day" were just a bit weird to my ears. But seriously, if I didn't watch the Japanese version, I would find Inuyasha to be very enjoyable. (By the way, they didn't change the opening and ending themes.) Did I mention that the centipede lady is flat in the English version?
So, if you watched the English version, tell me what you think! I found it to be very good. They didn't mangle it as bad as I had originally thought!
(My sister hates the English version, though. Can't imagine why. The only person she tolerates is Inuyasha, which must mean that Inuyasha is GOOD!)
(Oh yeah, she just said Sesshoumaru better be good or she'll kill someone.)
See ya!