As she tied the bow on her back, she pondered the situation she was stepping into. Her mother had been a little strange on the phone. It was weird, even though Inuyasha was still there at the shrine, it was as though she was no longer concerned about the grandchildren thing. Sota and his wife were making a visit. This was also quite unusual. They did not live around here, and were not the spontaneous type. Kagome thought she would have heard if they were planning a visit.
She hadn't heard as much from Inuyasha as she had figured she would. Perhaps he really was going to become a big star and forget all about her. That would be fair... it really would. He was a wonderfully nice guy, and modern day Tokyo might be just the place for him. What if he were really into it? What if liked those slutty female wrestlers... she certainly couldn't compete with them. No. Inuyasha was not like that at all... he could have changed, she supposed... but... she refused to believe that.
Kagome had to dig all the way to the bottom of her closet to find some casual looking sandals. "Roman sandals" they were called... 'How old are these?' she thought as she eyed them skeptically before putting them on anyway.
"There! Playful!" She declared to herself before stepping in front of a full length mirror and instantly retracting the statement.
She was still a prude in a pink dress. She grimaced... she needed to do something else... nothing crazy... but she would NOT let Sota be right! She would not let her little brother be right about the fact that she was no fun...
She let her hair out of its stuffy bun. It fell down limply around her back and shoulders. It seemed very unnatural.
Okay, Sota could be right... but he would not get to know about it! She vowed to herself as she put it into a ponytail halfway down her back.
To her dismay, she realized she looked a hell of a lot like Kikyo. She had not thought about Kikyo in literally decades. Why now? She did not need this kind of stress! That was quite possibly the last thing she wanted, to look like Kikyo!
That was it, she had to make herself look very different from Kikyo!
Kagome settled upon wearing pink lipstick and gave up on all of those thoughts... her mother was going to be making oden... so it couldn't be a total loss.
"Momma, I'm here! Where's Inuya-" Kagome called as she entered the shrine.
"Shh!" Mrs. Higurashi cut her off, "Keep the noise down... Inuyasha hurt his ears..."
"Oh no..." Kagome breathed.
"Go ahead and sit down in the living room with Inuyasha... your brother and sister-in-law will be here momentarily... hey isn't that a new look for you?"
"Yes, but don't breathe a word of that to Sota."
Mrs. Higurashi shrugged and returned to the kitchen. Kagome entered the living room. Sure enough, Inuyasha was there... but he seemed very wilty. He had one ear down and one ear out to the side. Inuyasha had a constant headache. He kept both of his eyes closed, and he would have had both ears down, but his right ear (which had been nearer to the stereo) actually felt like something pointy inside were poking out strangely, keeping him from moving it freely or even wanting to touch it.
When Kagome entered the room, Inuyasha opened an eye and said... "hey Kagome..." fairly weakly.
"hi..." she responded quietly, sitting down.
For fifteen minutes more, Kagome and Inuyasha sat together in the living room, in total silence, fifteen feet apart.
The doorbell rang and Kagome sprinted to get it. Still, Kagome's mother beat her to it.
"Sota, Aiko! So good to see you both." Mrs. Higurashi declared as she threw a tight hug over each one of them.
"I hear Inuyasha is in town, does that mean you're gonna marry him this time, sis?" Sota asked in a teasing voice of Kagome (who was standing by the door).
"So, what are you two doing here anyway?" Kagome asked, trying to move away from that question.
"Geez, I know you aren't a detective, Kagome, but come on!" said Aiko, who had a strange relationship with Kagome. She took the role of sister-in-law very seriously and insisted upon tormenting her as a sister would.
Kagome scowled.
"Okay, work with me here, finish my sentences. Sota and I are both..."
Continuing to glare Kagome said, "doctors."
"Uh huh... and your friend Inuyasha is..."
"under the weather...?"
"Okay, I'll accept that... and what else?"
"half dog-demon..." Kagome responded, already seeing where this was going.
"Good girl, Kagome. So you solved the riddle. Your mom didn't want to take him to a real hospital about his ears because that would definitely reveal to the world that he wasn't human..."
"Aiko, that's enough." Sota stopped her. "Sorry Kagome, Aiko had a terrible train ride so she's cranky. There was a kid kicking the back of her seat for two-hundred miles." This was especially bad for Aiko, who had no liking of children whatsoever.
"Oh, Kagome said, realizing that even on the bullet train that was still a long way, "well, thank you for coming." She took their coats and hung them up.
"So, where's Inuyasha hiding out?" Sota asked, looking forward to seeing him again.
"He's in the living room," Mrs. Higurashi announced to him rather encouragingly.
Sota ran off to the living room and found him immediately.
"Hey there, Inuyasha!" Sota could not contain his excitement.
"Hi there... who are you?"
"Sota! Silly!"
"No way... you're tall." He said gruffly.
"Yeah, I know..." Sota laughed in embarrassment. "Oh, and this is Aiko, my wife." he introduced her, seeing that they had all followed him into the living room.
"Hello," Aiko said, bowing. "I'm going to take a look at your ear, if that's okay..."
"Yeah, sure..." Inuyasha said uncomfortably.
Aiko took a penlight out of her pocket and looked inside his ear. "ooh, you busted it..." she said sympathetically.
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "How does one 'bust' their ear?"
"You busted your eardrum. Were you around some really loud noise, Inuyasha?"
"Well, yes..." he conceeded.
"Yeah, thought so..." Aiko said as she began rifling through her bag she pulled out a few metal instruments and some gauze.
Inuyasha looked over at her uneasily.
"Oh don't worry, it's not really going to hurt..." Aiko reassured him.
"I was not worried." Inuyasha defended his honor.
Taking the plastic off of a pair of forceps, she gently stuck them in his ear.
"What are you doing... Aiko?"
"Well you see, your eardrum burst with such extreme force that fragments of it became lodged in your ear wall... the inside of your ear that is."
"Okay, guys... you can stop gawking at them." Sota pushed his mother and Kagome into the kitchen. "We'll meet up with you guys in a little while." He called to his wife and his childhood hero.
Aiko nodded in agreement without looking at him.
When they were all in the kitchen, Kagome asked her brother why he hadn't done it. He then explained that it would just be too weird. He would have done it if it came to that... but hey, it would not be weird for his wife, who was not only a perfect stranger to Inuyasha, but also a whole lot less shy than he was.
It occurred to Kagome, that her sister-in-law was perfectly content being married to her brother. Even though Aiko liked to tease, she really was a nice lady. She would not steer Kagome wrong.
They caught up for a little while, and then Inuyasha and Aiko entered the kitchen, so they all sat down to have some oden.
"So, Inuyasha, I heard you were a big famous wrestler now. When's your next match, so I can get tickets?"
Inuyasha blushed hotly and laughed... "Next week... I don't have another match until next week." He had perked up considerably since Kagome had last seen him.
"So, Inuyasha..." Kagome was about to ask a question that had been bothering her.
He gave her his full attention, which made her choke on her words a bit. "How exactly... did you hurt your ears... what was so loud? Was it at the match?"
"Um... no..." This was a sticky situation. It had been a secret meeting with Amy... about Kagome... and even though he was mad at her, he would not rat Amy out to her boss.
"I uh... went to meet a friend at a place... and it was really noisy, I didn't stay long..."
There was a bit of a lull for a moment and the sense that it might really be fruitless became overwhelming.
"Um... guys... I think I may go back to the sengoku jidai... you haven't beaten me yet, Kagome... but... you know... it's quiet there so..."
"My apartment is quiet." Kagome piped up anxiously.
It was all her mother could do to keep from clapping her hands with glee.