Ch27Remembrance
Kagome went ahead and finished high school, but instead of going to college she simply moved away. Souta kept tabs on her popping in from time to time; however, his sister always appeared the same. The only word he could describe her with was…broken. Years passed, but nothing changed.
When Kagome hit her mid-thirties, the well came under attack. Developers offered to buy her family's property to turn the land into something useless. Since Kagome's mother live there alone she couldn't exactly turn down the developers offer. Kagome was infuriated when she found out from her little brother.
Souta started filtering some money to their mother but it was nowhere near enough to save the well. The bad news just kept seeping in with every time that Souta came to see her. Souta's bad news now was that he was falling into debt with his college. Kagome had ordered him to stop sending money home and pay off his debts as Souta apologized for not being able to save her well. Kagome told him not to worry about it anymore. Souta had a feeling that if the well was destroyed, his sister would be as well and that scared him.
Things began to turn around in the months that followed. Money came rolling in. When Souta asked where the money was coming from, his mother answered, "Kagome's been sending it." Souta was absolutely awestruck by amount on the checks; he was starting to wonder where she got the money.
As long as her family was paying the developers to go away the well was safe. Knowing that she had protected a little piece of her past, Kagome went back to moping. It wasn't that she liked moping around; it was that it didn't feel right to do anything else especially not happily. That was when Kagome began to shut out the world.
She was staying in the upper level of an old tavern. People were always coming and going and they always reminded her of her past: tall lanky guys with pleasant attitudes, down to earth women with long dark hair, even some strong brutish men. Her biggest problem was that they all wanted to talk to her.
She had timed her time in the tavern with the fewest number of people. Most of the time she could eat at night with no one there. She snuck downstairs and sat at her corner both. The old woman running the tavern with her husband brought the girl the same thing as always, a bowl of ramen. The old woman didn't understand the girl's obsession for it but she wouldn't accept anything else.
In the door walked a man. Kagome made a mental note of his appearance while ignoring him. He was average height, muscular, with dark hair. In the second it took her to look, she could no longer eat her ramen. He resembled someone from her past.