Chapter 2: Neighborhood Tradition

Kagome is still leaning against the door that she slammed shut when she saw the girl saying hi to her earlier. "Kagome, what was that?" Hige asks her from the room he leans out of. "Nothing." She spoke back before going upstairs. Hige knows for sure how frightened Kagome gets whenever she meets people. But that wasn't that way. Kagome comes into the one bedroom she wonders into. It's quite big. Bigger than her old bedroom her old house had. From the massive walk in closet she can store all of her clothes in, to the nice window that faces to another window to the house next door. Carpeted floors all over. All that's left are her stuff such as her bed, dresser, desk, and night stand. "Kagome." Ai calls into the room. Kagome turns around to see her mother seeing her with a few movers bringing her things. "Oh." She nods as she gets out of the way for the movers to put wherever Kagome prefers them to be in.

As soon as the movers put the furniture where Kagome wanted them to be, the movers bring in her possessions. "You know what to do." One of them spoke as he leaves. Kagome sighs as she digs through her boxes, and bags of clothes. She might as well put her clothes away since she has to go to school first thing in the morning. As she grabs the hangers and hangs up them onto the rods. But then something sparkling gets her attention. She sees and picks up what turns out to be a locket of some sort. It was a big as her hand as she holds it. She comes out the closet to see it better. The chain is gold, with the locket in an oval shape also in gold. She then turns it to the side to see the latch to open it. She uses her one fingernail to open it up to see what's inside. Once open, it begins to play a tune. From the sounds of it, it's very nice. Just hearing it just made her very relaxed from it. As the tune continues on, it somehow stops.

In the next house over, Inuyasha groans until something is playing from close by. "That tune." He weakly pushes himself up to get off of his bed. He turns to the window that's facing Kagome's bedroom window. He flexes his ears to pinpoint to the tune that's being played. As he looks into the room, he sees a girl in there. "Kikyo?" He murmurs is shock. But getting a better look at the girl. "No. She dumped me." He realizes that she's not Kikyo. "Inuyasha?" Izayoi catches him staring out of the window. Inuyasha blushes in embarrassment. "You should know better, son." Izayoi crosses her arms in disappointment. "Sorry. I thought I heard Kikyo next door." Inuyasha said to her as he gets back into his bed. Izayoi shakes her head. "That's not her. Besides that girl is part of the family who just moved in next door." She explains to him.

Inuyasha blinks his eyes. "Oh. I heard a familiar tune coming from over there." He tells her. Izayoi remains calm until she realized what her son meant by that. "Now get some rest. Your father should be home soon." She brings him her mug. "Ugh mom." Inuyasha plugs his nose. "Oh come on, Inuyasha, you know the drill." Izayoi smirks as she hands it over. Inuyasha nods as he gulps down the medicine. Once the mug is empty Izayoi gladly takes it. "Now rest." She tells him as she also takes the melted ice pack and leaves the room. When the door closes, Inuyasha turns to the window that faces Kagome's window.

As the tune stops inside the locket, Kagome puts it onto her nightstand to examine it later. For now she could get her bed made. As she does the job a knock on her doorframe alerts her. "Kagome." Ai said to her. "Oh hi." Kagome looks up to her as she resumes making her bed. "I just wanted you to meet the neighbors around here." She suggests to her daughter. "But mom…" Kagome groans, but Ai raises her hand to stop her. "Kagome, the first thing about moving to a new neighborhood is not to be rude to them. And that means that you can't stay in this house forever." She sternly tells her. All Kagome does is groan again. "I want you to meet me in the kitchen." Ai leaves the girl alone. Kagome looks to the locket and puts it in the drawer of her night stand. "Might as well." She sighs as heads to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Hige and Sota are putting are some of the dishes into the cabinets. "So when are we having dinner? I'm starving." Sota asks his dad as he's trying his back to help out with the dishes are getting too heavy. Hige takes some of them from Sota's hands. "It should be here pretty soon." He assures the kid. Sota nods as he goes into any of the other boxes to see what else that needs to be put away. "Hey guys." Kagome greets them as she sees the boys doing their part. "Oh good, you're here. I need you to help your brother put away the kitchenware." Hige smiles to see Kagome. "Really dad? I just worked my butt off getting my room the way I wanted it to be so far. I'm worn." Kagome explains to excuse herself.

"Not likely, Kagome. Only the movers brought in the heavy stuff into your room. Whatever was left is your task." Sota reminds her. Kagome twitches her one eye. "Says you, you had your entire stuff brought in and you didn't have to do a thing." She stares at him. "Enough, Kagome." Hige steps in to stop the fight. "You need to understand Sota is just a kid and he can't manage that amount of weight on his shoulders. For now, he's only helping out the more simpler tasks." Kagome just groans and turns around with her arms crossed.

The doorbell rings. "I'll get it." Hige said as he goes to the front door. He opens up to see a woman about his wife's age. "Hello?" He greets her first. "Hi, I'm Izayoi Takahashi from next door." Izayoi introduces herself. "Oh, I'm Hige Higurashi." Hige offers his hand to her. "It's nice to meet you. My husband is on his way home with dinner." Izayoi tells him. Hige blinks his eyes. "Excuse me?" He's confused. "Oh my bad. It's a tradition for one of the families to buy the new family dinner from the local pizzeria in town." She explains the topic. "Honey, who's at the door?" Ai asks him from upstairs. "We have a guest, Ai." Hige shouts out to her. Ai comes from the stairs to see the guest. "I'm Ai." She introduces herself to Izayoi. "Izayoi." She shakes back. "You said your husband is bringing food for us?" Ai asks her. Izayoi nods, "Yes, I just hope you guys are not either lactose intolerant, vegans, or prefer gluten free." She said to them worriedly. "None of the above." Ai assures her.

Ai and Hige welcomes Izayoi into the house. "All we have to do is wait for my husband to pull in." Izayoi tells the couple. When Izayoi comes into the kitchen she spots the their two kids. "Kagome, Sota." Ai calls to them. Kagome and Sota look up to see the new visitor. "I would like you to meet Izayoi from next door." Ai gestures. Kagome smiles, "Nice to meet you." Sota comes up to her. "Same here." Izayoi kneels down to his level. "Oh my, you do remind me off my son, but he's 16. And sadly he's down with a cold, so he won't be here to join us." She ruffles his head. Kagome found out about one thing about this woman's son. But she's only a few months younger than him. She has no idea when his birthday though.

Soon enough, Izayoi sees a very nice car pulling up to the driveway. "Oh that must be him." She smiles as she goes outside to help him bring in the food. Ai comes up to Kagome. "Did you hear that, Kagome." Kagome is confused. "Hear what?" She looks up to her mother. "Mrs. Takahashi has a son your age." Kagome just runs upstairs. "Maybe mentioning that was not the best idea, Ai." Hige comes up to her. Ai nods. "I just got a bit too excited about it." She agrees with him.

"Ok I got dinner." Izayoi shouts as she brings in a box full of food and sets it onto the counter. Behind her is a man. But unlike Izayoi, his hair is silvery white. But it's long like Izayoi's hair length. His eyes are golden with thick eyebrows. His hands have claws but at a good length as well. He's wearing his business suit since he had to pick up the food after work. "Ai, Hige, this is my husband Inutaishou." Izayoi introduces them. "Nice to meet you."' Hige offers his hand. "My pleasure." Inutaishou smiles back at him after placing the pizza box next to the box Izayoi set down. Sota is amazed by the new man. "This here is my son Sota." Hige gestures him. Inutaishou. "Hey there little man." Inutaishou kneels down to him. "Hi there." Sota bows to him. "Hey, where's Kagome?" Izayoi looks around the kitchen, not seeing the daughter. "Oh she went upstairs. I'll go get her." Ai said back as she goes to the staircase.