Disclaimers: Well, the agents strike again! Just when I think I'm finally getting what I want, they have to call up and say that the Inu-tachi wants another day with Takahashi-sensei. Okay, so that means a one-day delay…
A/N: I'm so sorry! I haven't had time to update because of school and idiotic computer problems and signing up for new classes and... (breaks into hysteric sobs) Sorry! I'll skip the reader responses and get right to the chapter!
Ai no Sakura Part 1
Sesshoumaru never expected InuYasha to recover. No one had expected Kikyou to be able to take control of Kagome. Sesshoumaru and Kouga were markedly (no pun intended) interested in the workings of the new mating bond between hanyou and miko. Kagome felt like she had eloped, and now had to face the parents.
The wealthy, high-ranking parents that look nothing like me, Kagome thought. Well, I guess Kouga and I have the same hair color...
InuYasha was again fully clothed, much to Kagome's dismay. He wasn't clothed in his usual fire-rat haori, though. That had been crusted with too much blood and torn too many times for him to wear comfortably. Instead he covered himself with a silk kimono that Miroku had bought off a traveling salesman just a week past. His motives were still unclear, but InuYasha had to wear it anyway, since there were no village men his size. The kimono consisted of a deep blue hakama that seemed to have a vortex of patterns embroidered onto it, and a yukata that was a shimmering black. Everyone suspected that the high-quality clothing would not last the day, but Miroku seemed hell-bent on squandering his money.
"In other words, she cheated," Sesshoumaru remarked, pointedly not looking at Kagome. InuYasha felt his anger rising.
"You can't exactly call it cheating if she's not a youkai," he contested. Kagome felt strange, having InuYasha defend her verbally for a change, but couldn't help feeling insulted while they talked about her almost as if she wasn't there. "Besides, other than the initial mark, nothing is set in stone about how the return mark is made."
"It's practically an unwritten law that it be returned the same way it was given," Kouga growled. Something in his tone made it seem like he was on InuYasha's side, but his words defied that implication. Sango was suddenly wishing he'd make sense.
While the youkai and hanyou continued to bicker, Sango sat by Kagome. After watching Miroku get dragged out of the hut that grey morning, she'd been worried for his well-being. She had painstakingly made her way to Kaede's hut, though she made sure that the pain on her face was gone by the time she entered. She was lucky to have found a walking stick on the outside of the house she slept in, otherwise the strain on her right leg would have crippled her.
Either that or she would have had to hop down the lane on one foot, and that hardly seemed like something a dignified taiji-ya would do.
"I think," Kaede interjected, entering the hut, "that it is because the Shikon no Tama is not whole that Kikyou has her own presence in Kagome's mind."
"Right now it seems that InuYasha is suppressing Kikyou through the mark," Miroku stated. Everyone's attention turned to him. "I can sense it," he grinned sheepishly, realizing that he would have to explain himself. "I can sense InuYasha's aura surrounding Kagome's, focused around the mark. The... feel of Kikyou in Kagome is suppressed because of it."
There was a long stretch of silence. Kagome fidgeted under the awkward quiet.
"Well," Miroku burst loudly with an outstretching of his uninjured arm. "Why are we letting this get us down? InuYasha should be able to continue to be able to suppress Kikyou as long as he doesn't fight anyone or anything, and we have a well-earned break ahead of us! Why don't we just relax and enjoy the festival?"
There was a perfect beat of silence.
"Festival?"
.: xXx :.
It was Sango's mission to get Kagome to wear the kimono Miroku bought. It was apparent now that his intentions behind InuYasha's kimono were to give him no excuse to back out of the festival. Since Sango was injured, a committee of village girls helped Sango push Kagome into the hut that was decorated with cherry and plum blossoms around the mat that served as a door. While two girls pulled Kagome along, another, more patient girl helped Sango to the hut.
Once inside, Sango found a surprise waiting for her. She knew of the kimono Miroku had bought for Kagome. She'd seen him finishing his bartering with the merchant, but had assumed that it was the only one he bought. It seemed reasonable, since Kagome was the only one without the proper attire for the era.
There were two kimonos set out, one that she had seen before and one she hadn't. The girl that she was leaning on was leading her over to the second kimono.
.: xXx :.
Shippo was a fireball of russet energy, bouncing up and down and playing with the other village children. He delighted in the fact that his heritage was overlooked, and so had fun teaching the others how to properly spin a top. He pointedly ignored InuYasha, who was sulking just outside the hut because he'd been separated from Kagome. Somehow he managed to look completely disgruntled, and sit in a position that would wrinkle such a nice kimono. Yet, when he stood up, the kimono was perfectly intact. It was something to wonder at, but Shippo didn't let it spoil his fun with the children.
"What the hell is this damn festival supposed to be about, anyway?" InuYasha demanded as Miroku exited the hut he had used to change. It took him a while because of his arm, but he managed on his own.
"It is a festival of new beginnings," he explained. "There are dances that are used as a sort of fortune-telling, and lanterns sent down a river to signify the goodbye of past worries and problems."
Giggling masses of girls were walking through the village. InuYasha detected Kagome's scent behind them, and grew curious as to why the village women were hiding her. Sango was with them, too.
The women parted, revealing Sango and Kagome. InuYasha blinked.
Kagome wore a silk kimono of a shimmering white shade, tied with an obi as blue as InuYasha's hakama. There were delicate patterns of cherry blossoms embroidered into the sleeves, which traced up her shoulders and around her neck. The kimono was edged with a ribbon of pink silk. The same shade of pink silk was used to tie back her hair on one side. The overall effect left him gaping like a fool. While he missed the amount of skin her skirt revealed, he decided it was worth it for a while.
While InuYasha stared at Kagome, Miroku smiled pleasantly at the vision of beauty that was Sango. Even though she was injured and bandaged, the bright pink and pale purples of her kimono put a healthy glow to her tanned skin. The sleeves were long enough that they hid the bandages on her hand, and with the swish of the silk around her ankles, her limp didn't seem so much of a limp but a sway. Her obi was purple, pink patterns of vines etched along the edges. Purple and pink blossoms were pressed boldly against the white of her sleeves. Without the large boomerang on her back, she looked supremely feminine, and he supposed it was just that he was being too foolish before to ever really appreciate just how feminine she was and could be clad in gentle colors. She wore her hair down in a silken wave that reached her waist.
He supposed he looked absolutely atrocious, what with his arm in a sling and his head bandaged up like it was. Even the royal purple yukata and hakama couldn't do anything to improve his image, he was sure. He supposed, though, that compared to his horrible image, he could at least make Sango look all the better.
"You ladies look as lovely as ever," Miroku smiled. Sango blushed, shifting her weight to her uninjured leg. Kagome smiled nervously, uncertain about how to maintain such fine clothes.
"Miroku," the giggling village women beamed, "you have to come help lady Kaede with lighting the lanterns."
"It's still early morning," InuYasha scoffed, recovering his eyes as he stood.
One of the girls pouted at him. "It's going to be so dark and dreary today, and there are supposed to be lanterns set out to brighten the village," she explained.
Sango moved to help with the lanterns, but had to shift her weight gingerly on her injured leg. Miroku walked up alongside her, and offered her his staff. "Please, my dear Sango," he said, "don't push yourself too hard today. Sit down when you get tired instead of pushing through it. No one would be able to blame you." Sango almost expected a hand to descend upon her rear, but Miroku was walking away without a single pass. She blinked, realizing that she held his staff in her hands.
"Sango, Sango, Sango!" Shippo was jumping up and down in front of the Taiji-ya in an attempt to get her attention. "Come look at the pretty papers!" An over-enthusiastic kit was soon pulling Sango along, to show her whatever it was that had caught his attention and held it so raptly.
When she arrived at the sight where Shippo saw the papers, she realized he meant origami cranes, all done in light paper and hanging from between four posts set up in the village square. It was set up in a mobile, and the slightest breeze sent the cranes and other animals gently swaying. Children were jumping up and down under the mobile, blowing at them as if their breath could make them move.
"There's a ball hanging from the middle, Sango!" Shippo exclaimed. There are a whole bunch of braided ribbons coming from it, too! It's supposed to be filled with fruit blossoms!"
"How can you tell that?" Sango asked.
Shippo grinned. "I can smell it."
'Mission completed,' Shippo thought. 'Now maybe InuYasha and Kagome can have some time alone.'
.: xXx :.
With the festival, celebratory foods were being made and handed out to everyone. The smell of warm rice-cakes proved too powerful for either miko or hanyou, and the two found themselves with a basket of rice cakes, fruit, pickles, and strips of beef. They chose to occupy a tree that overlooked the square, where they could see the excited people milling about.
Kagome handed InuYasha a rice-cake, which he accepted with a mutter of thanks. Kagome sighed, bringing her knees up to her chin and watching the horizon. She hoped for some sunlight for the afternoon, but the dead grey light of morning was still upon them, and was none too promising about lifting. InuYasha, while eating another rice-cake, looked up into the tree branches, wondering at why fruit blossoms would be a cause for a festival.
