Chapter 23: Family Secrets
"What do you mean that she's my cousin?" Kagome angrily asks her mom. "I had no choice but to keep it that way, Kagome. It's for your own good." Ai retorts back to her daughter. Kagome crosses her arms. "What more are you and dad hiding from me and Sota? Being deceived by our new neighbor is bad enough. But being deceived by my own flesh and blood has crossed the line. And you know fully well about how I feel about this." Kagome keeps her expression in an upset state.
Ai sighs, "Look Kagome. I didn't want to do this to you either. I really wanted you to meet her despite for what happened 8 years ago." She tells. "So this happened before Sota was born?" Kagome asks her. "Sota doesn't even know anything about the incident." Ai tells her more.
Flashback 8 Years ago
Ai is at the church waiting for her sister Miyuki to get married. Ai and Miyuki have a shady relationship due to the fact that one is the better of the two. As soon as the rest of the guests of friends and family arrived and sit in their spots in the church, the music swells romantically to alert the room that the bride is coming down the aisle with their father. Slowly but surely, everything went great without a hitch, the vows presented between the bride and groom, to the reception at a lovely restaurant that the groom knows personally. Everyone is having a great time. "Are you enjoying yourself, Ai?" Miyuki asks her as she sits next to her at the table. "I am. I'm happy that you found someone that will look after you. If you know what I mean." Ai smiles back to her.
Miyuki was disappointed that Kagome couldn't come to the wedding because she was sick at the time. "It's a shame Kikyo couldn't meet Kagome. They practically look like twins." Miyuki frowns at that topic. "Yeah. Kagome is quite lonely. Being an only child is making her feel isolated and lonely. She has no one to talk to at her age." Ai frowns back for a just a second. "I hope it doesn't stay that way though." Miyuki comments gently to her sister. Ai just smiles. "She won't be an only child anymore for another 8 months." Miyuki blinks her eyes. "Are you saying…" She couldn't finish the question until Ai covers her mouth to silence. "Not yet. This is your day, not mine." Ai smiles. Miyuki gets where this is going. "Ok. Sorry, I didn't know that. Congrats though." Miyuki whispers that great news. Ai nods back. "What about Kikyo. Does she have a step sister close to her age?" Ai decides to switch the topic to her sister's daughter. "She does. Her name is Kaede, she's sweet though I could never replace her mother. And that's the same way for Kikyo since Kaori will never replace Shiro. I just want to be there for her." Miyuki smiles sadly despite. She lost her husband about a year ago. Everything else was hard for her until Kaori came into the picture.
"Hey mom." Kikyo's voice called out to her. Kikyo is dressed up in a pretty pink floor length dress in her hair in a bun. "What is sweetie?" Miyuki asks her with a smile. "Is it true that Kaede is going to be my new step sister?" Miyuki nods. "Yes, of course sweetie. Why is that?" That's when something unexpected came out of Kikyo. "Good, then I don't have to go see that cousin of mine. She's nothing but a copycat." Ai is alarmed by that. Miyuki takes her daughter's hand in a quick grip. "Kikyo, we do not talk about family members like that. Ever." Ai never expected this from Kikyo. She knows that Kikyo always had a stubborn personality when it came to appearances. When Ai showed Kikyo a picture of Kagome on her phone, Miyuki smiles to see her, but Kikyo was not happy to see someone who look like her at all. "Excuse me." Ai stands up from her seat and leaves the reception.
End of Flashback
"That was the last time I spoke to Miyuki. I could never see her in the eye every again." Ai tells the story's end. "All because of Kikyo's rudeness?" Kagome asks her. Ai nods. "Kagome, I didn't know what came to Kikyo's mind. I would never have her to say something so mean about you. Even when I came back, Miyuki wanted to apologize for her daughter's behavior, but it was just too much for me. I couldn't bring it up." Kagome sits onto a lounge of the patio. "That it's too late to let Kikyo know about me." Ai feels so guilty. "Kagome, I know this is something I shouldn't kept from you and you have every right to know more about her. And I think I know somewhere who has that." Ai sits across from her holding onto her shoulders. "Who?" Kagome looks up to her. Ai turns her gaze to Inuyasha. "Him."
Kagome is shocked. "You know what she lives?" She Inuyasha immediately. Inuyasha nods, "Yeah. But the mother is not very fond of me at the least. I can take you there but you have to be careful. Not just that, but we have to wait till we're sixteen to drive." Inuyasha offers the help against his wishes. He doesn't want to go to that house ever again. Knowing this, Ai can tell that the boy is very reluctant to help her daughter. But it's the only option they have at this point.
When the meeting ended, Kagome decides to go home. Not just that, but also Sango and Miroku went home seeing that this is only a family topic and they had no place to be involved. "Inuyasha, please do this for me. I may be able to forgive my sister, but it should be my sister to apologize to my daughter." Ai tries to persuade him. Inuyasha looks towards the house. "I don't know, Mrs. Higurashi. I just to feel comfortable to go there. When the word got out about Kikyo's death. They forbidden me to ever approach them." He tells her in wary. Ai understands where this is going. "I see. But do you have the address of the house that Kikyo lived?" Ai asks him. Inuyasha can tell that this woman will do anything to get to the bottom of this. "Fine. Let me get a pencil and paper."
When Inuyasha gave Ai the address, Ai frowns at it. "Are you sure this is the address that Kikyo lives?" She asks him to be sure. "This is the last known address I can remember." Inuyasha replies to her. "Ok. I'll give this Kagome." Ai smiles and leaves the house. When Ai comes into the house, she spots Kagome getting something to drink. "What do you have planned for the rest of the week?" Ai asks her. "Nothing but school stuff why?" Kagome answers her mother. "If you have a moment to do something for me, could you do it?" Ai asks her as she gets something to drink as well. "Sure, what it?" Kagome casually replies to her. Ai smiles. "That's good to hear. Here's the address." Ai hands the piece of paper that Inuyasha wrote the address on. Kagome opens up the piece to see the address. "Where is this anyway?" Kagome looks up to see her mother gone. "What is she up to?" She asks herself.
Ever since Kagome got the address she looked up the internet to locate it. Shockingly it's on the other side of the town. Now the she knows where it is, she decides to hold the task until she and Sango turn sixteen. For now, she's going to focus on her schoolwork until that time comes. Even asking Inuyasha about it isn't helping her either. That means that Inuyasha is hiding something from her as well. "I'm getting so sick of people hiding things from me." She mumbles as she gets her things from her locker. "What seems to be the problem, Kagome?" Sango asks her as she sees Kagome so conflicted. "Sango, what would you do if you were tasked to do something but you couldn't do it though?" Kagome asks as she closes the locker door.
Sango has no idea on how to answer that. "What kind of task do you have to do?" She asks Kagome as they begin to walk to class. "My mom gave me this address of where my aunt lives. Even though I never got to meet her personally." Kagome digs into her purse to pull out the paper that has the address on it. Sango looks at it. "This is Inuyasha's handwriting." She points out to her. Kagome nods back. "Yeah, I know. I think my mom had to ask him in order to locate it. You know that Kikyo's my cousin which I wasn't aware of until then." Sango nods back. "Inuyasha is not someone who wants to share personal business unless it's family ties." She explains to him. Kagome agrees with that for sure. "For now, let's wait till we have our own cars. I feel that this can be taken care of at a later date.
