Chapter 31: Kaede's Choice

Kagome waits patiently for Kaede to meet her at the door where they entered the school. "Aren't you supposed to be home by now?" Inuyasha asks her as he is about to leave. "Usually I am by now, but I haven't seen Kaede since noon." Kagome replies as she looks back inside. "Ok, I'm heading off." Inuyasha waves and heads to his car to go home. Kagome is about to go back inside, "Kagome." Kaede's voice shouts out from behind. Kagome turns around to see Kaede run up to her. "Where were you? We agreed to meet here by the end of the day." Kagome takes hold of her cousin's shoulders. Kaede nods. "Yes, I know. But something stopped me by the end of my last class." Kaede explains herself. Kagome can tell that Kaede is truly exhausted from her first day at school. "Alright. Let's go home." Kagome tells her as they head off to Kagome's car and head on home.

That evening, Kaede is working on her homework in the dinning room. "Do you need anything, Kaede?" Ai asks her as she gets herself a glass of water. "No, I'm good." Kaede only spoke as she tries to stay focus on her homework assignment. Ai can tell that Kaede is conflicted about something. "I can tell that something is bothering you, dear." Ai sits across from her niece. Kaede looks up to her. "How can you tell?" She asks her aunt.

Ai smiles, "Let's just say that it's instinctual." Kaede seems a bit confused about that. "What do you mean by that?" She asks curiously. Ai keeps her smile. "What I mean is that whenever my kids are facing issues it's my duty as a mother to get to the bottom of the problem so it won't happen again." Ai spoke so wisely. Even though Kaede gets it, it doesn't mean that she's through with it. Not yet at least. "What if it's a problem that I have to deal with alone without anyone to help?" Kaede asks Ai with uncertainty.

Ai has seen this before. "Kagome was always like that. I was able to tell when she had her heart broken after her break up with Koga." Kaede didn't see that coming. "Really? I never knew that Kagome was in a break up." She comments in shock. "Yes. You see, Kagome really thought that Koga was the one who would be there for her. But sadly, Kagome was too naïve to notice about his backstory." Ai tells Kaede. "Backstory?" Kaede asks her. Ai nods back. "You see. Before Kagome met him, Koga was one of those boys who is actually a player. You know a boy who goes out with a lot of other girls." Ai explains the term of a player. 'It's no wonder Kagome is secretly suffering from that.' Kaede thought to herself.

"Kaede if there's anything you want to tell me, I'm here." Ai stands up and comforts her niece's shoulder before leaving the kitchen. 'Should I really tell her about what I found out?' Kaede asks herself. She just moved here, her mother is in the hospital, and now Tsubaki is after her. So much pressure that she doesn't know what to do at this point. Feeling that she has enough with her issue, Kaede manages to finish her homework and calls it a night.

Kaede makes it into her bedroom and changes into her pajamas. As she throws her clothes into the hamper, she realized that the device that she used to record Tsubaki's conversations was inside her pants' pocket. She pulls it out to charge it up to see if she can find out more about Tsubaki's secrets. For what she found out so far is enough for her to know that it was Tsubaki who poisoned her mother. But then if she poisoned the food, how come she wasn't poisoned. She still needs to know more about how it happened. This is just the beginning.

Meanwhile Kagome is in her room doing her homework. "What could've gotten Kaede so worked up?" She asks herself. Her cell phone dings to alert that a text arrived. She opens the screen to see it's from Inuyasha. "You okay?" The text asks her. She knows that Inuyasha would text her is something is bothering her. She presses the call button instead of texting back. "You prefer to call?" Inuyasha spoke on the other line. Kagome has it on speaker so that she can continue on with her homework. "It's better this way. What's up?" Kagome asks him.

"When I was about to leave the parking lot, I saw Kaede coming out of the school through the back door of the school. I guess something must've happened to her." Inuyasha gives his thoughts. Kagome thought back when she is about to go back in to go find her, Kaede was behind her. "Really? I told her to meet me at the doors when we arrived." Kagome spoke as she focuses on her homework. "Kaede just arrived at our school and now she's having an issue about something." A pause made an awkward silence. "Something must've happened. We just don't know what it was." Inuyasha said first. Kagome knows that Inuyasha is right about it. "I just don't know if I should ask Kaede about it?" she said back to him. "That's up to you. I believe that you are the only one who's closest to. When she wants to talk, she'll talk. For now, let's leave her alone until she's ready." Inuyasha suggests to her. Kagome agrees. "I'll wait till she's ready." She said. "Ok see ya tomorrow." Inuyasha said before hanging up. Kagome shakes her head and finishes her homework and head to bed.

It's around midnight and Kaede isn't getting any sleep at all. Well more like she's dreaming about something that is not good on her. She tosses and turns, moaning in fear.

Dream

"Kaede." A voice calls out to her. Kaede is looking around, trying to find out who is calling. "Kaede." It calls out again. "Where are you?" Kaede shouts back to the voice. "Kaede." All of a sudden, her surroundings turn into a scene. She sees flashing blue and red lights. She turns towards it and gasps. There was a group of paramedics carrying a stretcher. "Kikyo." Kaede runs up to her sister trying to grab her hand. But her hand went through her sister's hand. "You can't save her." A voice tells her from behind. Kaede turns around and see it's a member of the paramedics telling Inuyasha who arrived at the scene. "That's my girlfriend. I have to save her." He angrily tells the member. "Follow us to the hospital." He gestures Inuyasha the directions to the destination. Inuyasha gets into his car and goes after the group.

"How sad." Another voice spoke from somewhere else. Kaede turns to see Tsubaki coming out of the house that was close by to the accident. Kaede looks carefully at Tsubaki's expression. From the looks of it, it shows that it's sympathy. However Kaede discovers something else other than the expression. She looks to see her hands are dirty from something. "I know what you're seeing, Kaede." Tsubaki spoke to her. "Don't be a fool, you know fully well that I can see you. If you want to know who caused the accident, it was…"

End of Dream

Kaede sits up quickly panting. She holds her head from a headache. "It can't be." She murmurs to herself. But if she's right she has to keep this to herself. "It's best that I take care of this myself." She decides before going back to sleep.