life in moderation
chapter 17: happenstance/discordance
AN: I apologize for the wait. Exams among other things have begun to eat me alive. I still adore you guys and your reviews mean a lot; you motivate me to keep going with this! It should be coming to a close within the next few months (if all goes according to schedule, which it probably won't).
I hope you enjoy this chapter! Much love,
Ebony
Usual disclaimers apply.
o
One arm hangs down from the couch so her fingertips brush the beige-coloured carpet below, the other resting over her stomach and partially covering the book (my book) sitting open there. Kagura fell asleep there about a half hour ago while trying to read it. To be frank, it does make me slightly nervous to have her read it and that feeling makes me even more uneasy, as I have never really had such a thing infect me as such any time previously. I suppose if my parents were alive I would be rather anxious on what they would think of it, but with parents, things are always different…
I do suppose I am rather pleased with it, though. I know for a fact Jaken is, after slaving over it to make sure every little detail was perfect before printing out the final draft. He's rather useful in his devotion, I must say.
Kagura's thumb is caught between pages 32 and 33. I'm actually surprised she got that far without falling asleep first, despite her declarations of not being tired out in the least. She's had quite a long day, and that is an understatement entirely. I may not be an expert on the subject, but coming home to find assassins in your home who had claimed to be your friends is not exactly that most relaxing series of events.
It was somewhat odd, actually. After we had worked everything out with them (Bankotsu, Jakotsu, Suikotsu and Renkotsu, if I recall correctly), they up and left, and we had dinner in silence as if nothing had happened. Kagura's the type to do that though, and I've become angry with her for it before… It's a habit she's picked up when things got rough to try to keep herself balanced, and as long as it's keeping her from slipping over the edge, I suppose I can tolerate small amounts of it for the time being.
Again, I find myself worrying over her much more than I ever thought I would…
She shifts in her sleep, mumbling quietly to herself, incoherent and almost inaudible. I watch her from the couch, looking for a sign of the nightmares that had plagued her so often before. So far, there is none. Hair mussed, make-up smudged, soft-lipped and peaceful she continues slumbering. Part of me wants to join her there on the couch; I've had a stressful week as well and my body lusts for rest in a bed that doesn't smell like cleaning supplies like the ones at the hotel. However, I doubt I could squeeze in there without waking her up, which I really don't want to do (she needs it more than me), but I don't want to go to the bedroom and sleep there while she remains out here…
Ah well. I'll be fine here a while longer. Some part of me knows I won't sleep very well anyways. My mind won't let me. I keep thinking, over and over, why it could be that Naraku wants her back now? Just what have I gotten myself into through her?
She smiles in her sleep, sorrowfully.
o
Just like the photograph on my desk, every time I read the letter from Kikyou, it is the same. I found it on my desk when I arrived home two weeks ago, after the whole confrontation in Kagura's apartment with Bankotsu and all them. It's unbelievably relieving to know they won't kill her (my other side snorts bitterly at this), but what we have planned now is just as worrying. From what I've heard of this Naraku person, he's dangerous and it's a bad idea to cross him. Even when you are a group of skilled but slightly less-than-sane ex-assassins. We really don't have a choice though. The only other way would be for Kagura to be turned over to him and they complete the job…
Yes, I think I prefer this way much more.
But as big an issue as that is, my mind keeps wandering to the other matter on hand, and despite myself, I unfold the piece of paper in my lap and begin reading it again.
Dear Suikotsu,
Thank you for your letter.
The amount of time I've been in here has been surprising, hasn't it? I suppose I was rather stubborn at the beginning, sticking with my story and refusing to participate in group therapy. They didn't believe me, of course, so I had to give in and pretend to admit to trying to kill myself with an overdose and such. It's been painful, but the doctor has finally pronounced me 'cured'. They're quite proud of it, so it seems, but that's not the point of the letter.
If I'm able to convince them, you should be receiving a phone call some time after you receive this letter. Since they're letting me go but I'm still a minor, they've taken them upon myself to try and find me a home. Needless to say, I don't want to be placed just anywhere with anyone. I asked them if you could become my legal guardian. They have their doubts about this, but please try to convince them. I've missed you, and missed the clinic… It would mean a lot if I could come back. I don't want to be here any longer. Besides, I've got quite a few stories to tell you, that's for sure.
I'm sorry for the shortness of this letter, but I want to get it to you as soon as possible. I'm doing quite well and hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,
Kikyou
I've been in the waiting room for ten minutes or so, flipping through various magazines and such before giving up and just staring at the wall nervously while my hands play with the pile of papers on my lap. Of course, they haven't been able to make me her legal guardian in only two weeks, but the process has been started and I've filled out the necessary and very tedious paperwork. After several phone interviews, an inspection of my living spaces done by a very small and nosy man who didn't seem to like me but gave the okay anyways, they've given me the okay.
It's amazing how lucky I've been lately, between this and the incident with Kagura. If all goes well today, Kikyou will be coming home with me today. My heart feels as if it's been keeping up this rapid pace since I heard the news, always thudding away rhythmically within my chest.
Finally, the secretary (a rather tall young woman in a black skirt and jacket with an eerie look about her) calls my name, and I stand a little too quickly.
"Y-yes?"
Here we go. This is it. No time for voices in my head or other worries, I just have to keep my head level with this and everything will be okay.
"Come this way, Eisei-san," she says curtly, and begins off down the hall
I protest: "That's alright, I-I'm sure I can find it my-"
She shakes her head, pausing to look over her shoulder at me over the top rims of her glasses. "We don't want you to get lost, now do we?" And then with a little smirk, "Besides, you don't know what some of our young female inmates might do if they get their hands on a catch like you…"
Women scare me sometimes…
I can tell why Kikyou would hate it here. For starters, the walls aren't white but a pale blue that seems to burn at your retinas if you stare at them for too long. The halls are quite wide and lined with doors, numbers and residents listed beside each one. Uniform and equipped with winding hallways, this place could probably make someone like go insane if they weren't already (which is likely, in my case). It's unfortunate as well; there's nothing to distract me as my eyes wander the bland hallway to distract myself from my jitteriness. My God, I'm acting like a boy in junior high going on his first date!
I can't help it though. I'm ridiculously nervous about seeing her again. Places like this change people, for better and worse… for all I know, she could be a different person entirely. Who knows if they'll even let me take her?
We stop beside door number 75 – the door of the room the meeting is in, and the door that Kikyou is currently behind. I think the secretary senses my nervousness because she pauses and gives me a little smile.
"Just go in when you're ready," she tells me and motions to the door before turning sharply to leave. The clacking of her high-heels trails off into the distance, and I use the staccato pace as a metronome to regulate my uneven breaths with, rolling my neck and shoulders in a last-minute attempt to get the knots out.
It's only when I notice the silence that I figure I'll be all right to go in.
I open the door, cold metal under my sweaty palms, gathering myself-
And there she is.
At the sound of the door closing behind me she looks up, and our eyes lock. She looks so much like I remember her, if a little thinner, and paler in the face. Her hair is cut short now (to her shoulders, I would guess, which is a pity. It used to be to her waist and Ruri and Hari adored playing with it.) and held back in a small, inky ponytail that hangs about her elegant neck. Even in the plain white T-shirt and black sweatpants she wears, she looks somehow regal and graceful, gazing up at me with a welcoming smile. Her eyes, though… her eyes look older, and harder, I suppose. Just seeing her though, after so long – alive and well though not as vibrant as she once was – just that is enough to overthrow any doubt in my mind about any of this and replace it with determination.
"Eisei Suikotsu, I presume?" the doctor sitting across from Kikyou says. Dumbfounded, I glance over at him.
He smiles, and gives me a little wink. How long have I been staring? I wonder in embarrassment.
"Please. Take a seat."
The meeting goes by in a dizzying blur, like I'm on a carousel that's moving way too fast. We answer questions in the fashion well-disciplined schoolchildren, regurgitating the information they want to hear with dashes of personality and determination to please thrown in. Kikyou does it too, I notice, though she's much less talkative than I am. The hardest questions are the ones regarding our relationship, though I've gone through them all before over. It feels like we're lying a little, you know? It's a grey area – we aren't really lying to them, but the whole truth is not there either. I try to keep my eyes on the two men and on the many documents being passed between us, but they keep wandering over to Kikyou, sweeping her steady jaw line, the strong form of her arms and her hands resting delicately in her lap-
Stop, stop, just stop!
Her eyes meander over to me as well sometimes, and the reaction produced the second our glances stumble and catch feels electric.
No, really, stop it.
Somehow, through this stupor, I manage to answer all the questions correctly, and the next thing I'm hearing is, "It's glad to know Kikyou has someone willing to take her in, Eisei-san. Her luggage has already been moved down to the lobby, so you two can go. It was good to meet you."
One after another, they shake my hand, almost as if I've won the lottery. The wire-haired doctor old-aged first, smiling brashly, and the other man (I guess he was a lawyer or involved with the law in someway; see, I really wasn't paying attention, stupid me!), all business suit and expensive looking tie second. We all exited the small room, and then it was just Kikyou and me alone in the silence of the hall. Above, I can hear footsteps pacing and the buzzing of fluorescent lights.
I'm coming out of my daze now, full of relief and worry still, but I remain frozen in my spot. Damn. Which way was it to the lobby again…?
It's Kikyou who moves first.
"Come on," she says softly, smiling warmly and gently. "We have to go this way." In her real voice too; the one I'm used to hearing. Back in the room it felt robotic, rehearsed…
It's still sinking in. Kikyou is coming home. With me. To live with me.
Kikyou is okay.
Kikyou is real.
I realize that last statements sounds a little strange, but in her absence I sometimes started thinking that maybe she was just someone I had made up. I do that a lot with the memories of the things I've been through, maybe to try and make the acceptance easier, maybe just because I'm odd. We are only made of our memories, after all. That is how we know who we are. How can someone go through life without questioning that?
I follow shortly behind her, taking short note of the long stride she uses; comfortable and confident. She's not afraid of this place.
We don't talk at all, and I can't think of anything to say. Maybe my brain is still scrambling to catch up to everything happening. We reach the waiting room and walk right through to the lobby, empty save the two security guards standing by the door with metal detectors beside them like quiet allies and the black suitcase leaning against one wall. Kikyou quickly reaches for it, but I beat her to it.
"Let me take it," I say, and watch her withdraw.
"Alright…"
The ordeal with the guards is short. They seem to know her as they smile and joke a little. It's just a quick explanation, here are our papers, good luck and good bye; then we're out and walking over hard concrete as we head towards the car I rented for the day to come down here. The air feels much richer out here, even if it is most likely filled with toxic fumes of some sort.
Kikyou winces, dropping her eyes to her feet.
"It's been a while," she mumbles in explanation, "since I've seen sunlight like this."
I nod. "You're lucky; today's been the first sunny day in a while. It's still pretty cold though… oh. Here."
She looks slightly surprised as I take off my jacket and drape it over her shoulders. I'm tempted to zip it up for her, but don't.
"But you-"
I cut her off. "You shouldn't be out here in just a T-shirt. Jeez, I'm failing at this whole legal guardian thing already …"
In response, she just smiles, but even that is more than enough. And as I open the car door for her, I feel her supple palm brush against my elbow, eyes to the ground as she whispers, "thank you."
For the majority of the time I'm putting her luggage in the rink (which, I admit, I prolonged) I try to temper the intense burst of warmth taking control of my body in stuttered words and flushed cheeks. I keep trying to tell myself that Kikyou is like a younger sister to me, but… she's not. She means something more to me, or at least she did. Maybe. I don't know.
We'll get to that eventually, I guess.
I hop into the front seat and start the rental car, Kikyou is fiddling with a thin thread hanging from the hem of her T-shirt.
"When we get home," I say as I turn on the heater, "I'm sure Ruri and Hari will want to take you shopping down at that old thrift store you like."
She nods, presumably settling into that quiet she keeps once again. It's hard to pinpoint just what's going on with her right now, and I wonder if I should talk to her or not. There's definitely a lot going on inside her head right now; more than I could imagine. Her expression is steady as she stares out the window with her stony grey eyes, and I find myself having to force myself to watch the road instead of her. Her body betrays nothing, leaving all the decisions up to me.
"I-I'm sorry if this is too soon," I say eventually, "but there are some things I need to talk to you about…"
"Go ahead," she responds.
"If you're sure-"
"I'm fine," she says. "Believe me. Being in there was… well, unnerving sometime, but I'm ready to be here; to start working again, and to go back there, and be around you. I want to act as if nothing happened, but I know that is impossible, so I'd prefer to just clear up any mystery or misunderstanding and get on with life. There really was no reason for me to be there in the first place, though sometimes…in there… I really did feel like I was not right of mind. Maybe what they thought I'd done was real… I didn't know for a small period of time there…"
"I don't think you're like that; not right of mind," I tell her quickly. It's true; if anything, she's much saner than I ever will be. "But it was those things that happened before that I wanted to ask you about, actually."
"Oh?"
The car jolts as we go over a bump in the road. My hands are sweaty but cold against the wheel, the joints almost sore from the numbness.
"Yes, it… well, I kind of wanted to let you settle in a bit before we started to talk; I have enough money to rent an apartment now, where we'll stay. It is a little urgent, though."
At this, she looks towards me intently. "Urgent?"
Shit. I've gone and messed this all up already.
"What do you need to know?" she asks rather solemnly.
"Well, it's not-"
"Suikotsu."
I sigh. "That name I heard you mention; it's about that person. Naraku."
Kagura's father. That awful man…
The look in Kikyou's eyes darkens as I quickly glance over, and again regret saturates my thoughts. I'm really not good about gong about these things you see; I'm usually alright with conversation, but when it comes to personal confrontation involving me, and especially when it involves Kikyou, that's when my tongue starts to slip and I can hardly control the words as they spin from my mouth. The information Kikyou may have about Naraku might be useful to us. There's a lot of uncertainty about it, but right now we're looking for all the help we can get. Sesshou-maru is accompanying Kagura just about everywhere. Bankotsu and Jakotsu are keeping up the act as normal. Even so, we're all on our toes constantly, or at least I am. This damn paranoia follows my every move like a close-clinging shadow.
"Y-you know, Kikyou," I start choking out as those second doubts pop up beside my worry of hurting her accidentally by bringing it up. "You don't need to talk right this instant. It's alright if you need some time or you-"
"Stop Suikotsu," she interjects again. "You don't have to act like this."
Even now, it's surprising how old she often seems in her demeanour and way of speech. In her lap, her fingers intertwine with each other as she watches the woman in the car next to us for a moment; blonde hair, pink lipstick, chatting animatedly on her cell-phone. An impractically small dog yaps at her in the back seat and she leans over her shoulder to shush it, swerving dangerously over to the side. The scenery continues to blur by as the woman speeds past us and Kikyou settles back into her seat to speak.
"Sometimes," she murmurs, "I think it would have been easier if I had just tried to kill myself."
"What do you mean?" I ask in alarm, again having to force myself to stay concentrated on driving. I got my licence, but when you live in the city its much more practical to walk as opposed to sitting in traffic and wasting gas. The car jolts again.
"I was planning on telling you anyways," says Kikyou firmly. "The only way to know if to know the whole story…"
Her face transforms suddenly, becoming almost overcome with emotion, as if the mask cracked and she finally let a little bit of what's inside her seep out. It's painful to watch and not to know. Sunlight accents some parts of her face and leaves others dark, silhouetting the thick hair pulled back into her ponytail. I watch her compose herself from the corner of my eye, waiting, not knowing what to say.
I wish I did. I wish things could be different…
"A while ago – last March or February, I think – I was doing a few chores at the temple when I came across a man. He was just lying there in the back alley. His body was burned all over, badly, all blisters and charred skin; completely disfigured, especially his face. There were rats on him too… I thought he was dead until he moved a little and looked at me."
Leering through bloodied slits…
"Since he was alive, I told him I was going to call an ambulance. It looked as if that he protested, but I just chased the rats off him and ran to the nearest phone I could find. I couldn't just leave him there…" She shudders slightly, wrapping her arms over her abdomen a little tighter. "I went to the hospital the next day, since I felt bad for him and wanted to know if he had lived or died. It frightened me to know that I controlled his fate in a way; if I had stumbled across him a little earlier, maybe he would've had a better chance of living, and if later, a better chance of dying.
"He was alive, though. They put him in intensive care, but told me he would probably have scars all his life, and the cartilage in his nose was gone, only repairable through plastic surgery. His hair follicles had all melted off too…" She stops here a moment. I give her time; I'll give her as much as she wants.
I've seen burn victims before; it's never pretty, and extremely painful. Think about how much it hurts just to burn your finger on a stove. Imagine that all over your body!
"I went back to the hospital a few times after that," Kikyou continues. She's begun playing with the thread on her shirt again, wrapping it around and around her finger.
"You never told me about any of this…" I say.
She turns her face away from mine a little. "It seemed unimportant at the time."
"Well, obviously it was," I mutter, acting on my bitterness. I'm embarrassed for myself; Kikyou acts older than I do. "You should've told me anyways."
"I'm sorry," she responds under her breath. The sounds of traffic fill our pause beneath the sounds of the heater.
"Continue. Please."
My other side is laughing at me again.
"He told me his name was Onigumo. I don't know if that was his real name or not, because the nurse kept calling him Sakumi-san. He healed quickly; a lot faster than they thought he would… it was around the time he was going home that things started getting bad… no, that's not the right way to put it." She lets the thread unravel, the tone of her skin evening out as the blood began to flow again.
"Inuyasha," she pauses. "You remember him, I presume. He didn't like the fact that I was still visiting Onigumo on occasion, so…"
He knew, but I didn't? Well of course he knew, after all, he was her…
Ugh, this isn't the time for such things. What's wrong with me today?
"…we got in an argument of sorts," Kikyou goes on, voice dwindling slightly. "I guess he was worried for the right reasons but he has an odd way of showing it. He thought Onigumo wanted to take advantage of me, but I thought nothing of it at the time. Maybe he was right."
That grin, gleefully malicious, thinking delicious thoughts.
About her.
It's all I can do not to slam my foot down on the brake. "What?"
"He didn't do anything to me," Kikyou reassures me, reverting back to that soft in-control voice of hers, "but… thinking of it now, he probably did. He stopped by the temple a few times, but I was only there once. He talked a little, asked me to go somewhere with him… I couldn't, I told him. All I could do was look at my feet and say no; it was too painful to look at his face. He still wore bandages and a lot of it had healed but… it was so grotesque. I still don't know what he wanted, and I'd prefer not to think about it. Could you turn down the heat a little?"
It takes me a second to respond.
"Oh, sure…"
"Thank you." She begins picking at the thread again. "The next time I came across him was when he died. Another episode of fate, I guess. I heard something in that same back alley behind the temple and forced myself to look. He was there, Onigumo, and the man I assume was Naraku, as that was what Onigumo called him. They were arguing, loudly. From what I got from it, Onigumo was working for Naraku, and while doing some sort of 'job' he had gotten burned. Some sort of deal had gone wrong. They continued fighting…"
"A-and then?" I ask, anxious.
"The only thing I remember for sure," she pulls the thread tight, "is that Naraku put a gun to Onigumo's head and shot him straight through."
A gunshot ringing, her ears burning…
The blood.
"I ran, hoping he wouldn't see me. It didn't seem like he followed me, so I thought I was safe. At first I thought it had been a hallucination or a dream, but it didn't feel like one at all. I decided I would tell the police; it was the only thing to do. Unfortunately…"
Realization strikes viciously, like a snakebite, and the feeling echoes a while afterwards (venom shooting up through the veins). It was all just by pure happenstance that she came upon them, that she ended up…
When I look over at me she's smiling, but not in a happy sort of way. My other half is laughing even harder now; he finds this all very amusing. The sound is muffled, however, since I took 50mg extra today. Just in case.
The thread on her shirt has snapped by this time, and she's begun tying it in knots with her deft fingertips. "You understand then."
"I think so. But how did he-"
"I don't know either," Kikyou tells me. "It was early; there weren't many people on the street, and it was fast… Someone grabbed me. I blacked out. They must've set it up as a suicide attempt to cover everything up, and somehow gotten into the clinic to put me there… Of course, that's all in theory. Maybe I am insane; maybe I did that to myself."
I shake my head. "That's absurd."
"Is it?"
I choose not to give her an answer, if she did actually want one. "Thank you telling me that, Kikyou. I guess… the important thing is that you're here, and safe. We should be home in a bit, and you can rest. It'll be… it'll be good to have you back. I missed you."
She smiles again, and this time looks like she means it.
"I missed you too."
The words mean so much more when I hear them, rather than when read from paper.
Sound I grasp, and cling to.
o
"Hey."
Sesshou-maru looks up as he walks into the kitchen. His hair is damp from the shower, hanging in long strands down his back. A little bit of shaving cream lingers right near his ear, but I choose not to say anything.
"Who was on the phone?" he asks as he sits down, knocking a waterlogged piece of hair from his face. The mental image of him shaking like a dog pops up, and I take a second to control my snigger before answering.
"Mieko-chan. We talked about school and then girl-talked for a while. Nothing you'd be interested in." I answer.
"There was another call, wasn't there?"
Can he actually hear the phone ringing in the freaking shower?
I point at the sandwich on the plate in front of him. "Start eating and I'll tell you."
Eyebrows twisted in amusement and confusion, he picks up the sandwich (the bread burnt from the toaster, brown by not yet black). Crumbs sprinkle onto the plate quietly as he takes a small bite of the lunch I made. I sit down beside him, hoping the food is decent (or at least edible). I'm not the greatest cook, unless you like your food overdone or from a can, and would never make a good housewife. Unless of course you're talking about the ones from that TV show. Now those sure aren't your average cardboard cut-out housewives.
"The other person," I tell him, "was Bankotsu."
He perks up immediately, but with his cheeks full of sandwich, he can't interrupt. He looks kind of like a chipmunk like that…
"They spoke with Naraku this morning," I continue, "They told him that it's taking a bit longer than they expected and all that. He's getting impatient though. Jakotsu asked how much 'damage' they were allowed to do to me, and he said they can do as much as they want to my body as long as my mind is intact."
"He wants something you know." Sesshou-maru murmurs.
I smirk. "Thank you Captain Obvious. Now I just have to figure out what it is…"
"Kagura," he says sternly, setting the sandwich down. Uh oh, I'm in for a lecture. "You can't just act however you want and hope things will turn out like you usually do. You know what your father is capable of, and we still need to be cautious."
"I know."
He gives me a look.
"No, really!" I say. "I'm just trying not to let it consume me, so I don't get overly paranoid and do something stupid like I probably would. Besides, when you're trying to remember things, people say you should just stop thinking about it for a while and it'll come to you."
Sesshou-maru still looks uneasy. "I still think you should be a little more careful."
I swallow my brash recklessness whole, feeling it scrape down painfully. He's more than probably right and I know it.
"Okay," I respond. "I'll be more careful. I mean it. I promise."
Leaning forwards, I rest my head on his dampened shoulder and inhale the enduring fragrance of scented soap from the supermarket, and underneath I can smell him… Memories rise like soft bubbles in my head. Maybe, something will remind me of that thing Naraku wants to know. I've sifted through my memories, but can't find anything yet.
"Kagura?" Sesshou-maru asks again.
"Yeah?" I ask, not lifting my head.
He sighs, and wraps an arm around me. "Nothing."
"Well then, I've got an idea," I tell him, the fine hairs of his neck moving as my breath sweeps over them. "How about you promise me to be careful as well?"
I feel him kiss the top of my head. "Promise."
o
Kagome's voice is infectious, piercing through my ratty toque and right into my ears. Goddamn squawking. I wonder if she's even realized I'm not really listening anymore, and if she has, why the Hell is she still talking?
Ugh, my head… I've got a huge bitch of a headache, and every little noise makes it worse. It feels like something died in my brain while trying to eat it and then vomited, or something.
"Inuyasha? Inuyasha?" Kagome asks, and I turn to look at her angrily.
"What do you want?"
She looks frightened for a moment, before that turns to anger. "You don't need to snap at me like that!"
"Keh. I'll do whatever I want…" I turn and continue walking, realizing suddenly that I haven't been down to this part of the city in a while. It looks different than it usually does, with a fresh blanket of snow covering the garbage littering the sidewalk and the general rundown-ness of it. Why did she follow me? Places like this aren't for people like Kagome…
"I was asking you if you were hungry," she grumbles. "Are you?"
"Not really."
"Well, when was the last time you ate?"
I don't even remember…
This place looks far too familiar now. I turn right down a wider street that probably heads back into a bigger part of the city, Kagome still at my heels. I'll get her to somewhere she knows and then ditch her; she can get home by herself. I just don't feel like putting up with anyone today; it's not just her. I don't like today in general. It just feels bad. Some people are like that; you can just tell with one glance that you're going to hate them. Days are the same.
"Hey! Hey! Are you even listening to me?"
And then I see her.
My feet stop, and I feel Kagome's forehead knock into my shoulder. She curses loudly (probably picked that up from me), but the rest of what she says I don't hear. I can hear wind, whistling through the maze of channels that are streets between tall buildings, but even that is muted by just the sight of her.
Kikyou.
She's standing by a car parked in a small driveway, bundled up inside a man's jacket and dark sweatpants. Her mouth moves, talking to a man standing near her (I've seen him before, but I dunno where). He smiles and laughs, taking a suitcase from the trunk.
I glance around quickly. Now I know why I recognized this place…
"My God, what's with you today Inuyasha?" Kagome yells aggressively. I glance down to her, and then back to Kikyou. Unlike before, I don't see the things they share but the ones they don't.
Kikyou must've heard Kagome's yell, because she looks over and meets my eye. Any of the stupid doubts I had weighing me down are gone, instantly.
She's back.
Kikyou is back.
ende chapter 17