You and Me After All
Chapter 23: Harbour Town
The ship finally docked. Kagome and Sesshōmaru disembarked the vessel and strolled down the gangplank to join the crowd at the harbour.
Kagome was more than happy — and thankful — to have her feet on solid ground again. When she looked around, the nausea that had assailed her throughout the journey was momentarily forgotten, replaced by a sense of awe and wonderment for all the things she witnessed.
It was a busy town, as it was a harbour town. Judging from the row of ships that docked there, it garnered many visitors, and perhaps welcomed many merchants — which meant the economy of the town itself must be flourishing from the constant flux of trade.
Sesshōmaru led her down the main street lined with shops, stalls, and merchant buildings. Kagome could not cease looking up, down, and all around. It was all so… beautiful. So sophisticated. All the buildings were architectural marvels, and so wonderfully colourful and ornate.
The town exuded abundance, even luxury. The ground beneath her was not packed dirt, but paved with cobblestones. Profusions of flowers trailed from the second-floor balconies of the merchant houses lining the streets onto the pavements below, all meticulously maintained as though by unseen magic. Or some type of yōkai, one in possession of exceedingly green thumbs.
Now she understood why Sesshōmaru walked around Edo and the Plains of Musashi with permanent disdain on his face. If she had been in his shoes, and she had to leave this to go to that, she would have the exact same expression.
Yōkai of all kinds walked the streets, shopped at the stalls or haggled with the vendors. She sensed some humans amongst them too, and no one seemed to pay any special attention to her for being a different species than the majority. Perhaps, because it was also a town that lay closest to border of the two realms, the presence of a human was not considered an oddity, but something of a norm.
There were large decorated banners everywhere, embroidered with gold threads to spell out "Welcome to the Empire of Kin".
She stared at Sesshōmaru's back as he walked ahead of her, leading the way, wondering if he was a citizen of the Kin Empire, and perhaps even one of the lords who governed its nation.
He suddenly stopped in front of a three-story building, turned around, and regarded her.
"We will spend the night at an inn," he said.