"Hey, you, we're closed for the day."
The man isn't anyone she is familiar with; not from recent memories. His voice is grainy, tired, and his shrine clothes are rumpled. The knot on his hakama is badly done, his kimono too big for his body. When she looks at him, Kagome feels robbed of another life, of love and affection.
Her father had always been a vague memory, clouded with misery and what-ifs. Kagome lost him to a car incident along with her grandma and her first home. He's a ghost, a photograph next to his own mother's resting on their little shrine at home. Her memories of him are filled with incense and prayers, offerings and good wishes. He's dead to her, a comforting presence that never really existed outside of her Mama's memories.
Yet, here he stands. Kagome faces her father with barely restrained pain, lips trembling with cold and holding back a sob. The man blinks, takes a step back when faced with her. Soft rain falls over them, soaking through clothes and wetting hair that should've shared the same color as hers.
Kagome is freezing. Two days camping in this city, heading out and searching for this place until she found it and spent the entire day by the sacred tree, have tired her out. There's no stream to take a quick bath in, no game to hunt. She has no weapons, not much beyond the things in her bag. She could survive more easily in the forest, should probably leave the city by now. It's difficult to cut her ties to this place though, especially with this man living, breathing, existing.
He looks her up and down, a grimace on his features. "You've been loitering around here for a few hours now," would he kick her out now? Maybe that's what she'd need. "You should just go to your hotel or house or wherever you live, girl," Maybe coming back will set her on the right path. Would that strange man's tales set her on the path to find answers or to doctor appointments and worried whispers behind her back?
"Can I see the Bone-Eater's Well?" It's what she says instead. His face twitches into a deadpan, arms crossing as he stares her down.
"I just told you," he narrows his eyes, annoyance creeping through. "We're closed."
"Show me just once," she offers, desperate to try. "You'll never see me around again." He cringes, and Kagome remembers how empty the place is. She spent the entire day here, and she had been the only visitor.
"Oi, kid, don't be so dramatic, please." He gulps, looking around before slouching in defeat. "You're the only one who visited this trashy shrine this week, anyway." Her papa turns, gesturing for her to follow. Kagome does, teeth clattering. "Be quick though, I ain't got time to stand in that old shed."
His back is familiar, it's all that she can think about. Where had she seen it before? The thought is soon forgotten when he opens the old door leading to the well.
"Here it is, our great dry hol—hey!" She passes him without hesitating, running to the well. One hand grips the edge just as she always did, hoisting her body in the air with the same agility she became used to. Kagome falls, and she reaches the ground with a grunt.
Her feet ache, but she ignores the familiar throb to look up. There's no sky above her, no setting sun or pure air. There's no loud cicadas or the song of the trees dancing to the wind. Kagome is glued to the present, to this reality she had been sent to. All she sees above her is the frantic face of the man she'd call father in another life, a better life.
"OI! Kid! Are you alright? Fuck! Did you get hurt? Hold on, I'm gonna get the ladder!" He disappears from her view.
Kagome allows herself to fall on her knees, face turned up towards the heavens as her wide eyes looked on without seeing. The stale air ate at her, devours what is left of her. She trembles, fear and loss finally, finally, sinking in.
There's no going back.
•••
Miroku, she thinks later, sitting under his kotatsu, wearing borrowed warm clothes. He reminds me of Miroku. His attitude is very much like Sango's, but that's just wishful thinking from her part. She appreciates it anyway since it keeps her warm in more ways than just a blanket can.
"—Higurashi, what's yours?" Kagome blinks at the steaming teacup put in front go her. She looks up at him, with his dark hair and sharp dark eyes. It takes a lot more strength than she'd expected to give this man her name. Maybe it's because it's incomplete — a lie by omission. She's Kagome Higurashi, but he would never believe her truth.
"…Kagome," she whispers, looking into his eyes and seeing only mild curiosity. This man does not know her name or her face. You are not my father. "My name is Kagome."
"Kagome, eh?" He lifts one eyebrow, falling to his seat beside her without care. "That's the name of that hafu girl who runaway this Sunday," he points at her, a clear judgment in his eyes. "Her family is all over the media, asking for her to come back." Kagome's lips press into a hard line, a frown cracking her blank face.
"That's not me," is all she says. It's the same voice she'd used with all those others who'd confounded her with Kikyou. It leaves no room for doubts. They trade hard looks in a second dragged too long where Kagome refuses to give up. She's made her choice, and she refuses to be poked by doctors, to put up a mask of someone she isn't for the sake of this reality.
He is the one to look away first, scoffing with a smirk and a shake of his head. "She's blonde anyway."
Her eyelashes still are glaringly fair, as well as her eyebrows, but the man looks away and pretends. She is grateful, though confused. The right thing to do would be to give her away. To get the phone and call the authorities. Kagome chooses to remain silent though, sipping quietly to her tea.
Higurashi slaps his hand on the table, startling her enough to spill some of her warm drink. "What's so special about that tree anyways?!" He leans forward, squinting his eyes and pointing at her again. "You brat spent so long here and you didn't even buy a souvenir!"
"You tell me," she narrows her own eyes at him, putting the drink down. "It's your shrine."
"Tsk," his eyebrow twitches and he turns away from her. "When you visit a shrine, you pay your respects and help us shrine keepers by buying something, you know?" he grumbles, getting her teacup and walking into the kitchen.
Kagome feels bad for a second. The place is obviously struggling. It's on the way its keeper is so tired, on how the grounds are badly taken care of. The roof was falling down to pieces, and Kagome could hear the distant sound of water drops coming from the kitchen. The little shop, she remembers, is pitiful, with barely any new items and many empty shelves.
This Higurashi shrine would be a shame to her grandpa. Kagome wonders why his son let it get to this state.
"Well, whatever, that tree is a Sacred tree, ya know? Very old, very powerful, but just a tree," He comes back but goes into a storage closet by the entrance. "There's a legend, about love and tragedy, yada, yada, yada, but it's just a tree." A futon is thrown at her and Kagome yelps as it hits her face. "This is a shrine though, so I'll help you as my good deed of the year."
"The year?"
"I'm not a good samaritan or some good old wise shrine keeper helping every lost soul that shows up on my yard, kid." He waits for her to lay out the futon before turning out the lights. Moonlight poured from the window between them, like a physical manifestation of the division between their worlds. You're not my father, she thinks, sadly, mournfully, with the stranger's face from the apartment at the forefront of her mind. She doesn't know to whom she thinks this, the stranger with an unfamiliar face who calls himself her papa or the stranger with her father's face and name. "You'll be gone tomorrow, right?"
Kagome doesn't answer, laying down with slight reluctance and facing away from him. Higurashi doesn't leave. She can sense him behind her, feels his glare despite the dark.
"Family is important, Kagome," the way he says her name gives her chills, makes her think of another time and place, where her name was uttered with utmost devotion and love. Now, it is only a warning with barely restrained contempt. "You shouldn't let them go," it comes out of experience, she just knows. It's in the way disgust rolls out of his tongue, how the pain comes with each word. It's in the way there's only him in this shrine and no pictures of his family. How everything is bare and empty with him at its center.
The contempt is not aimed at her but at himself.
"They're not my family," is all she says. Higurashi is quiet as he turns away.
•••
In the morning, she wakes up to see him standing by the kitchen, staring at his phone screen. She holds her breath, knowing exactly what he is thinking about doing. She'll disappear in a heartbeat, even if it hurts to move away from the only place that is close enough to home. The well is her anchor now, giving her security of staying in the same place — she is drowning, though, and there's this terrible thought that she needs to let it go —, a familiar place.
"Higurashi-san," she whispers, catching his attention. He stares at her with dead eyes that know her fear too well. He shakes his head, a sad little smile on his thin lips before turning away and entering the kitchen.
Kagome wonders what stops him from calling and if hasn't already. She is quick to fix the futon and get her clothes on the clothesline line outside. Higurashi observes her curiously when she passes through the kitchen, coming back with her bundle of clothes. She kneels next to her backpack, taking out a dress, leggings, and underwear and storing the newly dried ones.
When she gets out of the bathroom, borrowed clothes a neat pile in her arms, Higurashi is sitting by the kotatsu, arms folded and eyes closed. Breakfast is already put on the table, simple rice, natto, and eggs.
Kagome sits and gets to eat as quickly as she can. Higurashi watches her with a narrowed gaze. Eventually, she has enough of his staring and slams her rice empty dish on the table. He doesn't even flinch.
"What is it?" She doesn't want to waste time anymore. She doesn't want to go, but if she stays too long…
"You're leaving," it's what he says, deadpan and leaning into her space. Kagome leans back, looking away from his prodding gaze.
"I've got my answers, and I don't want to intrude," and you will call the cops on me, is left unsaid.
"Yeah, you jumped into an old well," he scoffs at her. Higurashi doesn't believe in the supernatural? No, not even her grandpa would've considered the well to be magical. He just doesn't understand. "And stared at a tree. Big answers there, girly." He moves away from her, leaning back on his arms. He tilts his chin up, facing away while keeping his eyes on her.
It makes her itch, so she looks down, into her empty bowl.
"You know what? I don't even care." He gets up slowly, hands on his hips and a pained face. "I have omamori to make and leaves to sweep, get your teenage drama and leave for all that I care." He doesn't really mean it, Kagome knows. This man is kind, and Kagome thinks the moment she leaves he will either search for her or call the authorities, but bitterness and sorrow falls over him like a blanket. He suffers from problems much more real than hers, much more grounded. Kagome asks herself what happened to him that led to this.
"Do you need help?" The offer is done with no real thought behind, impulsive and reckless. But maybe she can still find answers, maybe she can try again at the end of the day. Higurashi looks back at her, one eyebrow raised. "You don't need to pay me."
He sighs, rolling his eyes so hard they might as well fall off. "Lemme guess, you want shelter and food?" She offers a smile that was intended to be cheeky but comes out shaky and uncertain. It's been far too long since she last smiled. Higurashi sighs deeply, staring hard at her for a moment before nodding. "Come on, my calligraphy is shit anyways. Let's see if you can do better."
•••
"This won't sell, girly."
They end up at the office, which is empty of any Shikon Jewel paraphernalia. It's as soothing as it's a slap to her face. Kagome is writing protection charms, authentic ones that she plans to infuse with her own energy later. It's what makes his words hurtful. Even though she is no Kaede or Miroku, her talismans should do enough to fulfill their promised words.
"Why not?" She frowns at the paper, seeing nothing wrong with it.
"'Cause people want money and love, not a pure life free of sins and temptation," His words are mocking as he snatches her small pile of charms and throws it in the trashcan. "They want love stories and their names on billboards, and then they put their trust in a small piece of paper so they won't have to work for it."
"That's not exactly how omamori works, truly," she says, bending down and fishing out the papers. She pats it lightly, putting it beside her.
"Eh?" He grins, looking just like perv Miroku talking about his machinations. "I'll have you know that Higurashi shrine sells the best love omamori, and the only ones that can snatch you anyone else's man!" And he strikes a pose, holding his chin with one hand and chest puffed out like it's something to be proud of. Kagome stares at him in disgust, wondering how could this man be her — but he isn't — father.
"That's definitely not how omamori should work."
"Well, it's what sells," he shrugs, getting some paper for himself and a brush. "Most shrines don't usually do these specific—"
"Disgusting."
"—specific charms." He stares pointedly at her, and she stares right back. Omamori should protect oneself and attract luck, not steal from others. "After I took over the shrine, business dimmed down too much for me to keep up the usual orders," he purses his lips and Kagome feels like looking away like she's listening to something far too intimate and not for her ears. "These days, it's hard to buy even those little bags," he glares at her as if she offended him somehow. "So I make do with my imagination."
"By making evil charms," she says, putting one final detail before setting the one she finished aside for the ink to dry.
"They are not evil!"
•••
She's sweeping the grounds when a lonely group of high schoolers passes through the worn Torii gate. Kagome looks down when they walk past her, facing away from them and focusing on the leaves spread on the ground around the Sacred Tree.
When they leave, each carrying a little bag while giggling, Higurashi leaves the Office to stand beside her.
"They bought those so they could date some rich idol or whatever. He married recently so, here they were," he says, not looking at her. She can picture his face, so similar to the Miroku she remembers, looking out at them with the setting sun illuminating their features and casting their shadows behind. "People want things that belong to others, they're just afraid to admit to themselves."
"They clearly weren't."
"Kids, people, are often like this."
"I am not," Kagome says, something burning in her gut as the girls disappear down the stairs. They look about her age. "I could never do that to someone I love, even if…even if they love somebody else."
He doesn't say anything when she turns away and heads inside, but she can feel his eyes on her back.
•••
Kagome wakes up before the sun goes out. She waits to see the sunrise and then heads to the well house. She stares down into the dark depths for a long time before jumping down.
Higurashi finds her a few hours later, frantic.
•••
He doesn't ask, but Kagome can feel his questions, can feel his rising worry. When they head back to the house at the end of the day, Kagome sees that the well house's door is now bolted.
She moves her gaze forward, at Higurashi's back, and she can't keep the first genuine smile from appearing on her lips.
It's exactly what grandpa would do.
•••
"If you want to stay, you better don't go jumping every hole you see," he says grumpily over lunch, slurping loudly on his instant ramen and not looking her way.
"Hm," is her only answer. She decides to put down her own bowl so she can watch him for a moment. He is fidgeting, keeping his face tilted away from her. There's relentless energy in him, nervous and unsure about how to proceed.
"An' I mean it," He uses his chopsticks to point at her, thrusting them so close to her face she's sure her eyes are crossed. "No hole jumping in this house, are we clear? Let's go further by totally killi—eh, ceasing jumping from any places, ok?"
There's definitely a double meaning to his words, but Kagome decides to simply not bother.
The well won't open. It shouldn't, really. If the Jewel doesn't exist here, why would it?
But then, Kagome thinks, watching he turn to the small telly. Why am I here?
•••
The next morning, Friday, is the one week anniversary of the New York invasion. It's been one week and three days since Kagome woke up in this reality. On the Twelfth day of May, Kagome confesses something to Higurashi while they watch the horrific replay of the New York Invasion documentary.
The first of many.
"I was there," she says, and he looks at her with a confused frown. "I saw them."
"You were here literally the next day," he says, disdain dripping from his words. Kagome purses her lips, her gaze fixed on the telly.
"Three days after, actually, and they weren't alive," she says instead. He scoffs at her, turning and grabbing another chip from the kotatsu.
"Yeah, just like your problems got solved by a well and how pieces of paper grant wishes."
She doesn't reply, knowing that'd he scoff at anything supernatural-related she says. He won't believe her like grandpa and mama and Souta did. What does he know of the legends? What does he know of his own shrine? It's like he never really lived here like he doesn't know why someone would ever have faith. He questions it and the supernatural, and yet he's the shrine keeper. He's so essentially different from his own father, from what Kagome knows his father to be like.
"They really weren't. They…they were connected. Controlled." He just sighs, nodding. "When Stark went through the portal," the image plays on the telly. Iron Man bravely directs a missile into the portal, barely passing through before the portal — the redhead woman and the old man with a fractured mind were there, they closed it — closes. The creatures drop like flies, like marionettes with their strings cut. "He destroyed their…their power source. Whatever kept them moving, it was destroyed. Someone else sent them here, someone who controlled their energy source." It's strange, how the realization comes so easily. The god, Loki, he had been controlled too. Not completely, not fully, but undoubtedly directed here. Just a pawn.
Whoever sent him here, they were connected to the cube and the scepter.
And, somehow, she is connected to them.
What could they want with this planet? Kagome gets up, plucking the chip bag from the kotatsu and ignoring the man's "Oi!". She goes out into the night, looking up at the sky for a brief moment before heading to the Sacred Tree. The well's house is ignored as she passes by it, bringing her coat closer to her body as the breeze touches her gently with chilling fingers.
They sing to her, the stars above and the earth beneath her feet. Kagome stands in front of the tree that started it all, her eyes are glued to the same spot they had for days now. InuYasha's arrow never touched the bark of this lonely god-tree, never cradled his sleeping body within its protection through half a century.
Her presence here makes no sense, makes absolutely no sense. And yet, these artifacts she stumbled across her dreams, they affect her somehow. Her mind still throbs, she still feels awfully out of space. It's like her existence is tilted sideways, not quite right into her own place.
Whoever sent those creatures is connected to them.
Kagome looks away from the tree, looking up at the passing clouds as she breathes out slowly. Her breath manifests as mist, warming the cold air for a brief moment as it rises up to the stars.
Maybe that's exactly where she should go, Kagome muses, biting on a chip.
•••
She's sorting through his new stash of charms, putting each respective one into their respective little bags and storing the ones that were left without one. It's a Saturday, and it's her birthday. Kagome is now a sixteen-year-old teen, she's not into a high school and the Jewel is out of the picture.
It's nothing like she had expected to be like when they completed their journey. There's no romancing with InuYasha, she can't watch the love blooming between Sango and Miroku, she can't watch as Shippo grows. There's no new school for her to go. It's not her life. She had no end or new beginning; just…It's not her own life. This world, this body, the family that so desperately searched for her; it isn't hers.
It's not the life she wished for, not the one she imagined and far beyond the one she dreaded. Still, here, in this fake copy of her home, with this stranger that should be her father, Kagome finds respite from the pain. Sometimes, she can pretend that she's home. Sometimes, she can pretend the little charms she is storing are the Shikon Jewel ones her grandpa was so proud of. Sometimes she can swear the soft hoodie she has tied around her waist is Buyo, snuggling against her hip while she works.
Sometimes, she can pretend.
It's an illusion of security that is broken by the front desk phone chiming.
"Higurashi Shrine, how can I help you?" Kagome smiles softly as Higurashi bursts into the office, hair in disarray and wide eyes fixed on the phone.
"Good afternoon, this is Officer Takamura. I wish to speak with Higurashi-san regarding our visit last week," Breathing ceases. Her chest tightens, like a plastic bottle crumbling into itself as air is taken from it. "It's about the Kagome girl?" Their eyes met as her smile leaves her lips and Kagome knows he knows exactly who is talking on the phone. It's in the guilty in his face.
How, her eyes questions silently. She tastes vinegar in her mouth, horribly acid-like as she replies with a quick "A moment, please, I'll call my boss," and offers the phone to him. She doesn't dare to look away from him, moving from behind the front desk and heading to the office door as he steps up to the phone.
"Don't leave," Higurashi whispers as she passes by him. He brings the phone to his ear, wide eyes glued to her, begging silently. "Hello, yes, Officer. No, she—" Kagome looks away, eyes glued ahead as she opens the door and steps out.
The door slams closed behind her.
•••
Leave, her minds tells her. It's the only logical thing left to do. She can't trust this man. She couldn't go back. They'd take her to a mental institution. She would be prodded and questioned and gods knew what more.
She runs into the house, takes her bag — ready to go, ready to leave, ready to escape — turns and heads to the exit.
She would've made it. She would've made it out and into the streets, away from the man and the shrine and the twisted remnants of her past.
But the well.
It's scarily difficult to tear out the wood blocking her passage. The nails fall to the floor along with her blood. Her nails are broken and fingertips torn from the effort, but her powers activate mindlessly, healing the broken skin. Kagome enters the well house and stops near the well. She takes a full breath and stares down into the darkness.
Her hands, small and callused and shining pink as they heal, grasp at the edge. It's tempting.
Jump.
She does.
•••
"You didn't leave."
Huddled against the wall, embraced by the oppressive darkness in the very bottom of the well that once was her portal home, Kagome closes her eyes. There's pain. Pain in knowing and dreading what follows this man. Police, questions, faces that don't match her memories. A life that isn't hers to live.
"No," she whispers, perhaps afraid that if she spoke too loudly someone else would hear.
Silence reigns too heavy between. Kagome hates it. She wishes he'd be done with it, just throw the ladder down and take her outside to the police officers and the suffering family of a girl that isn't her. It makes her look up, barely seeing his silhouette looming above her, awfully calm. A contrast to what happened the last time.
"I didn't go home."
He doesn't understand and Kagome doesn't expect him to. To him, she's a runaway girl, jumping into wells and speaking of visions and aliens and souls. She's a crazy girl that maybe wishes for death, that doesn't discern what is real or not. A girl with her head in the clouds and wishing to be six feet under.
But she just wants to go home.
"They came the day you came here, you know", Kagome doesn't. "You were sitting by the tree, the whole day but your hair," It's dark, as it should be. But she can't hide it for much longer. The roots are so light, even if they grew so little. "It made you pass them unnoticed." Triumph, small as it is, is good. Not enough though, as she can see now. "You googled this place before you came here," There's a laughing tune to his words like he finds her terribly amusing. And stupid, Kagome thinks. "And you didn't even bother to clean up your search history."
It strikes something in her, the disbelief in his voice. It brings shame and judgment and…he has no right. "And how could you do better?" She gets up and glares up at him, clenched and baring her teeth in a snarl. "You make up terrible charms and judges the people who buy it! You barely know about your own history, not even your own shrine's! You don't care about how what you do makes your family name look like! You don't care about what it does to the shrine! You don't care about anything other than money! You barely shower or eat or do anything other than sleep! You don't even care to clean this place! You're falling apart and taking everything your family built with you! You think yourself so capable? You're pathetic!"
"From what I hear, girly, so are you." He spits out with as much anger as her. Their resemblance, hers and his, is clear in the wake of their fury. "You're rich, and pretty, and a damn hafu in the golden age of idols and shit. And then aliens invade and you fucking runaway? Because what? You had a vision?" He chuckles but there's no amusement in it. It's dry and forced. "And you're so spoiled you don't even do it right?!"
"And how would you know what's the right way?!"
"BECAUSE I DID IT!" It's heartbreaking. His voice is like thunder that echoes in her ears, scares away all of the anger and frustration and fear, leaving only surprise behind. "I ran, and I only came back when my family was dead."
Kagome is too stunned to reply and he uses her silence to throw down the ladder without so much as a grunt for a warning. Her back hits the wall behind her again, and she blinks and coughs as the dust rises with the ladder hitting the ground.
"Now do us a favor and get the hell into the house. I didn't warn them about ya," his head disappears from the edge and his voice is distant. "But I'll change my fucking mind the moment you step out." When she manages to go back up, he's long gone.
•••
"Show me your hands," he says, standing on the kitchen with his hands on his hips and a heavy frown on his face. Kagome tucks her hands away from sight and gives him a hard glare. He sighs. "I saw the blood. On the wood and the ground. Show me your fucking hands." Awfully potty today.
"They're fine."
"Gimme your fuckin' hands."
"I'm fine!"
He steps up to her and tries to grab her arms, but she ducks right under him to escape. They scramble around each other but he eventually catches one of her hands and pulls her to face him. Being grabbed by people for the thousandth time is no less different from her first, so Kagome struggles against his hold as he grabs her other hand and brings them close to his eyes.
They are scratch free, Kagome knows. But there's blood and dirt covering them. Higurashi uses his thump to wipe away the dry blood, seeing only intact skin underneath. Kagome sees the confusion overthrow all previous thoughts. He blinks once, twice, and then wipes all the dirt on her hands with his own shirt.
"What…?"
Smooth pale skin shows underneath.
He slowly looks up at her, a question on the tip of his tongue. Kagome won't prove anything to him, she refuses to show him her powers. To him, she won't ever say a thing about the supernatural again. She slaps his hands from her, crossing her arms and looking away from him.
"I'm fine."
He shakes his head, eyes narrowing on her. "But how…?" Kagome doesn't bother to answer him, pursing her lips and turning away. He doesn't speak, doesn't ask anything. When she hears him moving, she flinches and immediately he stops. Again, it's like every time they are near each other, silence fills the air and presses over them, threatening to crush. "Kagome, they won't come for you."
"How can you be so sure?" She turns to face him, and she wishes she hadn't. His whole face is tired, sad. It's like he's turning grey with death, like his soul is in shambles and barely enough to fill him.
"I told them you never appeared," he continues, softly. You don't scare me, she wishes to say, even as she steps back. "That I hadn't seen you anywhere near here, how could I? They were looking for a blond girl and all I'd seen was a normal Japanese one who liked to stare at a tree." He comes closer and this time Kagome looks down, avoiding intense eyes that once stared back at her on every reflection. "They looked around once and moved on, gave me their numbers and asked for mine. That day, I was gonna turn you in."
She snaps back at him, "then why didn't you?!" and the moment her eyes meet his, she deflates. All the anger, all the bitterness and fear and confusion draws back at the sadness in his eyes.
"Because I thought you looked a lot like myself, when I was your age."
And how breathtakingly sorrowful is it to hear those words coming from her own father?
•••
The water falls on her, and it's the only soothing sensation Kagome experienced in a damn while.
("You stay here, work for me until you can go back and I won't turn you in, deal?")
It's lukewarm, falling heavily over her body. Liquid travels down her skin like she pictures a lover's caress would.
("Why are you doing this?")
Could InuYasha love her in such a way? Could they have lived long enough to try? Will they ever meet again to fall in love again and share such intimacies in times of peace? Would she be stuck in the past, if she came back? Would she be stuck in her time?
Which one would she prefer?
("The alternative isn't kind, girly.")
How cruel is she for knowing that in the end, it all came back to what she so selfishly wishes for? That she needs to choose between her loving family or a past that could kill her in so many ways but had her selfish loves?
Her family loved her so effortlessly, protected her without a doubt. They were her shield and sword and spells all in one. A security that was but fragile in the past, yet one she built by herself by sweat and blood and tears. For any kind of ending, Kagome would need to choose her love, would have to decide which one she preferred over the other. Which one she could live without.
Love is selfish, Kagome knows.
("…deal.")
It made her choose to stay here, with this man, in this fake home of hers, instead of fighting for her way home.
•••
"Here," he throws something at her face.
Kagome falls back on her futon as the object hits her, arms fumbling uselessly to catch it and failing miserably.
"Wha—"
"You mentioned something about your birthday yesterday, right?" He's scowling for absolutely no reason, shifting his weight from one leg to the other as he looks at everything around her newly assigned room but her. "So that's your fucking gift. It's an old one I had that is shit as fuck, but should be useful." And he slams the door closed with a huff.
She blinks, completely baffled by his sudden behavior. Such a tsundere, she thinks while unwrapping the…toilet paper wrapping.
How rude, and she can feel the twitching on her eyelid from the cheer careless and stupid gift wrapping paper choice. It's soon gone as her eyes widen and stare down at the simple black device in her hand. Kagome fiddles with it for a moment before discovering that it opens up with a flip. It's a cellphone! But much more modern than any she's seen on her own time. Nothing like the sleek ones people use on the street, or Higurashi's current one, but foreign all the same.
A gift, huh? Her thumb caresses the worn keys with fondness she couldn't ever properly show him.
"Thank you," she says to the empty room.
The door slams open, "so you like it?"
"DON'T SPY ON ME, MIROKU YOU PERVERT!"
"Who the fuck is Miroku?! Did you just call me a pervert?!"
•••
"What's that." It sounds more like a sentence than a question when he asks with such a dead-like voice.
"Dinner," she puts all the good she bought on the kitchen table. Something other than rice, canned food, and instant ramen. "And breakfast. For a few days, at least."
"I will pretend I didn't hear that you went to do groceries and wasted a fortune on vegetables and actual meat instead of getting, uh, cheap stuff."
"…I did. With my money, though."
He looks at her with suspicious eyes she kind of understands. She isn't supposed to actually have money.
"Ok," he sighs. "The pan is—" but he stops it because Kagome walks directly to the cabinets and takes out everything she needs. Everything is precisely where she is used to, just a few missing pieces and some added modernities. Still, it breaks her heart all the same as it brings a smile to her lips. She doesn't notice the way he watches her until she turns back to the table to get the needed items she just bought.
Kagome blinks at his dumbfounded look. "Is there a problem?"
He looks at her, mouth hanging open, hands on his hips and a heavy frown. It's then that realizes that she had never entered the kitchen to cook since she came here. She snaps her mouth shut, looks away, and gets to cook.
After a few more minutes, he leaves.
•••
A/N: I've decided to chop chapters in half so you get weekly content! :v
On a more serious note, I never really delved in the behind the scenes for the first chapter. I'll do my best to point out how I created stuff.
First off: all dates and hours and climate on the first chapter and this one are as accurate as I can make them. From the day Loki arrives on earth to the invasion. Even in this chapter and all the future ones, I'm still using the official MCU dates and timeline along with real-world climate and facts or whatever I can find without giving me a headache. So, the hardest part of the first chapter was to connect everything as perfectly as I could with the Japanese timezone as things happened in the USA. It fitted very handsomely too; Loki's entrance on earth in the Mojave desert was right on the school hours in Tokyo, so it fits very well. Lots of things lined up very well.
Like Kagome's birthday in this chapter! It's so soon after the invasion and her running away from her family. There are a few more fun facts about her birthday that will show up on the next chapter~ I wonder if you guys will understand? :)
Higurashi shrine in Ito is an actual real place. Unfortunately, I couldn't get as much information as I'd like from it other than an obscure youtube video lol. At least, I couldn't get enough on English. Still, I mixed it with InuYasha canon and still fits nicely. For what I know, it's not a rundown place like I depictured here. This version of Higurashi shrine is purely for this story's sake.
We'll learn more about Papa H in the future (he literally showed up out of nowhere in this story. Things just escalated quickly lol).
Thank you all for the reviews, favorites and follows.
~Mari