Chapter 3 (of 4): InuYasha

It's been nearly a year since she's left. Kikyo moved to a village a while away, last I heard she was getting married to a nobleman there. A smile reaches my lips at the thought. She would finally be a wife and mother, free to live the life she deserved, with the person she wanted to.

"What are you smiling about?" Miroku asks as he places the firewood down beside me. I shrug my shoulders.

"Keh, wouldn't you like to know." I bite back. He smiles and pats my shoulder before a tiny cry comes from the crib in the corner. He moves toward the crying infant who sets off a chain reaction to her twin sister. As he picks up one twin, Sango rounds the door, moving over to the other.

"Shhh shhh, sweet baby girl." She whispers and places kisses across her face. I stand up and move towards her, picking up the baby.

"I got her." I say, letting Sango go back to the work she was finishing. She smiles up at me and kisses my cheek.

"Thank you, InuYasha." She says as she leaves. I look over to Miroku who is bouncing his other twin daughter in his arms. I let out a laugh then. He looks over with a raised eyebrow.

"Remember when we used to fight demons? Now here we are, trying to keep your daughters from crying." He laughs then, amused by the way our lives have turned out.

"Hey, we still fight demons when we're called upon! I haven't lost my touch, isn't that right Kin'u!" He places kisses on his daughters cheeks. As the twins quiet down, and as we set them back to sleep, I am overcome with a sense of pride.

Look how far I've come, a half demon outcast, now with a family of his own, of sorts.

"Are you going to the well again today?" Sango asks as she comes back in and spreads out our dinner. We sit down surrounding the fire, and I nod my head as I cram as much rice as I can into one bite.

"Yup." I confirm. They look at me then, a sort of sympathy I once would have yelled at them for. Instead, now, I just swallow my food, shrugging my shoulders.

"InuYasha, after all this time, don't you think maybe you should…move on? Kagome's been gone so long, and she doesn't know about what transpired between you and Kikyo, she doesn't know you both ended things and became friends. She can't come back through the well." I can see it pains Miroku to give me the reality check they've been avoiding for a while.

I wonder then, what it must be like for them, to watch me be on my own, visiting the well every three days and wondering if I'm happy. A part of my heart can't help but soften at their care.

"We just…we don't want you to be lonely, InuYasha." Sango offered, pausing her meal to give me a gentle smile.

I don't say anything for a while, the crackling of the fire between us soothing me.

"Most days, I have you guys and the twins, I have demons to fight, I visit Shippou at his school. I've visited Kikyo a few times, too. Most days I am filled with so much to do that I can't believe how much time has passed." I answer honestly.

"But some days, yes. I miss Kagome. Some days I think I smell her scent again, and I run to the well only to see what I know – she's gone. It's been nearly 2 years now. Her life is hers to live, it was never mine to ask for."

Sango shakes her head.

"InuYasha. I love you, you are my brother, and I could not imagine our family without you – but I need you to understand, it was never a sacrifice to ask her to stay. You were never a burden to her." She stops then, because I know she knows the guilt and regret I have felt every day since Kagome left.

Of all the mistakes I've made in my life, not choosing to love Kagome freely, was my biggest.

"I'm sorry, that- I didn't mean." She starts. I shake my head, smiling at her. Sango is the sister I never had, a true force of a woman who has taught me each day what it means to live with guilt and regret, and yet live it gracefully. I follow in her steps, every day.

"Don't be sorry, Sango. You're only being honest, and as much as it hurts, I know you're right. If I had just had the courage I have now, then, to have made the right choice, maybe she would still be here."

"We just want you to be happy. You're important to us." Miroku finishes. He pats me on the shoulder and I am overwhelmed with the love from these two.

I can't let the loneliness of a life without Kagome keep me from living now. I have a family, people to protect and take care of. I know what it feels to trust and to love openly now. Everything that happened after Kagome only made me stronger, made me happier.

From that day when I met her at the goshinboku til the day I die, I will always be grateful for my time with her.


"You've been here every three days still, haven't you." I hear the much deeper voice of my favourite fox demon. Looking up from my spot laying beside the well, I see him walking over. He's taller now, thinned out into a young teen. He's smiling widely at me, swinging his bushy tail from side to side before sitting next to me.

We both let ourselves fall onto our backs, arms behind our heads as we watch the clouds passing over us.

"How was training?" I ask and he rambles on about the last few weeks, about the challenges and struggles of learning new fox magic, about the girl he likes in his shapeshifting class, about the guys he's become friends with and about which teachers are his favourite.

We talk for hours under the open sky, watching as the clouds dissipate and stars slowly start to appear before us. He's leaning against the well now, whistling into the quiet dusk. A star shoots across the sky and he points at it frantically.

"Make a wish, InuYasha!" And I wish as I always have, that one day she will come back.

"What did you wish for?" He asks, I shake my head.

"You know that's not how that works, squirt." I pat his fluffy red hair. He glares and shakes his head, immediately fixing his hair.

"That's just a stupid superstition!" He barks back. I feel the corner of my lips tug into a smile.

"Well, what did you wish for then?" I ask him as we start our journey back to the village so he can say hi to everyone.

"I wished for Kagome to come back." He says casually. I watch him walk ahead of me, hearing the grumbling of his belly pushing him to walk faster. I think about the young pup we found all those years ago, I think about all the places we've travelled together, the training we taught him. I think about the times we've visited the grave we set up for his father and mother. I think about how he naturally became my kid. I think about the nights he cried after Kagome left, feeling abandoned once again, by his family.

I think about how much it broke Kagome's heart to say goodbye, to let go of the closest thing she ever had to a child herself. I think about the times Shippou was mad and angry, and how those times faded into a sadness that faded into an understanding.

I think about his love for her, and about how he may be the only other person who really understood what it was like to lose Kagome. To lose your entire heart and family.

"Do you still think of her often?" I ask, already knowing the answer. Shippou looks back at me, bright green eyes and a smile on his face.

"Every day. I think of her every day." He stops and turns to fully face me.

"For a long time, I thought it was your fault she left." A sting settles in my chest, more painful than the sacred arrow that pinned me to the tree. I wince at his accusation, knowing therein lies the truth. I cast my eyes down, my ears twitching as he continues.

"But I realize now, what I wish I understood then, it wasn't your fault." I look back up at him, a gentle smile still on his face. "You were fulfilling a promise to Kikyo, even though it meant giving up your life with Kagome. And she was stepping aside to allow you to, because at the end of the day, you guys loved each other more than you could bare. And that love made you treat each other with the greatest kindness we could ever give, even though it breaks our hearts." He shrugs his shoulders then, looking up at the moon and stars.

I remember when Shippou was just a runt of a thing, carried around in Kagome's arms. And now, look at him, a teenager growing into a man. When had it happened? When had he suddenly grown to be this person?

I watch him there, standing taller than before, with broader shoulders and freckles scattered across his face. His green eyes still bright and full of mischief, his heart full of love.

"You both taught me how to be strong and kind. I am the person I am today because you are the people you are. I still wish for Kagome to come home every day, and everyday, we get a little closer to that." He says. I am filled to the brim with a sense of pride. This kitsune I raised, this gentle and strong young man. He is my son, and I will never be able to repay him for changing my life.

"Come on! Time to eat!" He says, smirking as he tries to race me back to Sango and Miroku's hut.


Three years. Three years to the day that Kagome had left.

I wonder what she's doing now, if she's still studying for all those tests or whatever they were back in her time. I wonder if she's still in choir, if she's still helping with plays again. I wonder if her friends take care of her like we did. I wonder if Sota's gotten taller, if her mom still makes the best lunches, if her grandpa still makes sutras that don't work.

I smile at that.

I wasn't the only person Kagome was important to, I know. So it's nice to remember that wherever she is, she will be loved and cared for.

I miss her a lot. Sometimes I dream of her. I dream of her coming up through the well, a smile of her face, her yellow backpack filled to the hilt with snacks.

"Sorry I took so long!" She would say.

Maybe they were just memories.

I find myself at the goshiboku today, as I usually do when I think of Kagome. I look at the patch of bark worn down by my body from when I was pinned to the tree. I think of waking up to find Kagome staring up at me. I think of her touching my ears and how annoyed I had been then, but how much I had wished she was still here to do that again.

I smile at the memories. It was almost an entire lifetime with Kagome, it felt like. Like time didn't exist with her and I was just happy.

I reach my hand out and touch the bark.

"Kagome…" I whisper.

"Come back to me…" I ask. I stand there for a while, breathing in the scent of wild flowers and earth. I watch the day start to fade away again, as it always does. As I decide to head home, I am reminded of her scent – a scent so familiar and so strong, I am almost certain she's there.

Wait a minute.

I stop in my tracks.

It's too strong. It can't be my imagination. I turn and run to the well. Standing at the lip of the well, I reach my hand in, my heart filling with a hope I had thought to be lost to time, and I feel a hand grab my own.