Author Notes: First of all: Yeeeey! My beta reader answered me and she's willing to continue helping me! X3 Also I received a PM from another person who will also try to help me too ^^ thank you! =) ok, on the story today we'll learn who is the person living at this place, but I think you already discovered that hehehe and also we'll know what happened in the past thanks to Totousai. I must say this scene was originally in the next chapter, but when I wrote it I made a mistake in the timeline, so here's corrected. I hope you enjoy it ^^

Also we'll visit (that's why this chapter's title is named for) to someone from two years ago. This chapter was written at November 2 of 2010, Day of the Dead here at my country where we have a tradition of make honor to all the death and loved ones who passed away. I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry for not update last Wednesday and Friday. I got flu ~_~U I swear this fanfic has a curse or something, always something is happening that prevents me to translate the chapters on schedule, if while being healthy I have troubles with English, imagine my poor brain while having flu ~_~U

Disclaimer: Besides the plot line, I don't own anything. Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and Yomiuri TV Corporation. I'm not getting any profit from this story; this was just made for fun.

Warning: Maybe there is bad language? I'm not so sure what you consider bad language... ^^U

Thanks to: My beta reader, PandaStarz, for her wonderful work on this chapter.

Slavery.

Author: MikoAucarod

Chapter 18: Visits.

"Oh, my!Israel! Long time no see!" They heard an older woman's voice which made all of them jump from the surprise and turn towards the house, with their nerves about to crack.

Professor Kaede was standing at the door leading towards a dinning room, smiling sadly, but with relief.

"Lady Kaede? What are you doing here?" Kagome asked while walking towards her. In return, she hugged the young girl.

"Well, my child… I live here." Kaede let go of Kagome and went towards Mrs. Higurashi, hugging her also. Shippo, who was sitting on her shoulders, was kind of surprised at seeing Kagome's teacher in a place like this. "You have no idea how worried I've been for you. And I'm so sorry too. I just saw the news. The police sirens, firefighters and ambulances didn't stop ringing all night."

After saying this she approached Kikyo, who was in extreme shock, and repeated the gesture with her, too. The young girl was confused while returning Kaede's embrace. What was her teacher doing at this very rich neighborhood?

"When I saw that the building that had been destroyed was the one of the apartments where you lived I- oh my boys, for a moment I thought that all of you had died." Then she hugged Inuyasha, who only managed to put his hands on her shoulders.

"Well… we're all fine, old Kaede," said the hanyou, when she let him go. Myoga was standing behind him and was signaled by Inuyasha. "Fortunately, the only ones living there were us and other two people, we all got out of there without any problems." He didn't want to trouble the old woman with the whole story of what had happened.

"Thank heavens…" Finally, Kaede looked at Myoga and bowing, with a smile, she introduced herself. "It's a pleasure, sir, my name is Kaede, and I'm this beautiful young lady's teacher."

"The pleasure is all mine, miss." The old man bowed the same way Kaede did and smiled calmly. "I'm Myoga; I was the neighbor of this good family."

"Miss?" Shippo whispered at Mrs. Higurashi. "But she's already so old…"

"My love, no matter the age, if a woman remains single, she continues to be called 'miss'," explained Kagome's mother, with a smile on her face. Oh, Shippo and the things he says!

"Now I understand. You're right; you made the right decision to let everyone else to return to their homes," spoke Kaede, a few hours later. They were all in her living room, drinking some tea that Inuyasha had made when Kaede said that she would prepare something to drink. Old habits die hard.

Lady Kaede insisted that they should stay with her at her house. After all she lived alone and the only times she went out was to go to the school and teach her students, so having them stay there wasn't a problem. Despite the warnings that everyone else had given her, mostly from Kikyo, telling her that it wouldn't be safe if someone discovered they lived with her, the old woman had given them a clear 'no' when they suggested searching for another place to live. Finally, gratefully, they accepted the stay there.

"You are at great risk and if you go out and attract more people's attention it will not stop this madman from coming after you. Actually, it was also on the news, Naraku's escape. Apparently there was an explosion and a part of the state prison collapsed. In the middle of the tumult, Naraku and other prisoners managed to escape.

"Somehow he managed to contact someone from the outside and that way Bankotsu and his men went to get him out."

"That's right,Israel, I also think that's what happened."

"What a mess…" whispered Kikyo, with her head resting on top of her hands. "I wish this could just end right now."

"Easy, Kikyo. We'll fix this and we'll get out of all this, you'll see." Kagome assured her, placing her arm around the girl's shoulder. At the contact, Kikyo let her head rest on her cousin's shoulder.

After more chat, Kaede showed them the rest of the house. Indeed it was a mansion, lots of rooms, corridors and doors were everywhere and Kagome couldn't help but wonder how she managed to live by herself at this house. It had at least 6 floors and the more they walked, the more she felt she could get lost. Kaede told them that the land was an old one and before hers it was from her parents, who inherited in the late 20's and before that from her grandparents, and so on. Kagome did not have words to describe the magnificence of the house. It could be an apartment complex itself!

Inuyasha was now in his own room, the same one that had been his for over 60 years. He was contemplating from the fourth floor the view in front of him. Before, he had never appreciated it because he had been sealed in his own world of suffering. The view towards the mountain was beautiful and if they were indeed farther away than before, it wasn't so much. The forest, just a couple of hundred meters away from them and the lights of the city far beyond the horizon, made a great view.

"It's a nice landscape, right?" Kagome asked, quietly approaching the boy, who only managed to nod.

"It is. In all those years I spent living in here, I never appreciated this place. It was another prison to me in the beginning… after all, Kaede's father had bought us as Slaves for her. And even when she was an angel to us we were so hurt… it hasn't been long enough for the four of us to really feel accustomed to the situation of being Slaves."

"When we got here, you looked so nervous…"

"Yeah. I never liked this place. I was the one who always had to clean and arrange the garden when Kaede's family was living. Her mother was a very vain woman and her father was addicted to his job… they had all the money in the world, as you can see by looking at this house. Kaede lives in a very rich neighborhood but all those material goods, money and toys that they bought for her every day… they were only because neither her father or her mother were really there for her. They bought her affection with those objects."

Kagome observed how Inuyasha kept his gaze fixed at some point of the garden so she looked too. There was a tree surrounded by many rose bushes, all in bloom, thanks to the zone's climate.

"When I saw the garden it brought back lots of memories, from when I spent whole days fixing it. It was hell. Gardening is good, but it isn't when you had that woman ordering you to do everything at least four or five times until she was satisfied… yet…"

They heard a noise and both of them looked to their left. Lady Kaede was walking calmly, speaking with Old Myoga, wandering around the garden. For both of them that peaceful scent between the plants and flowers should be healthy, even more for the poor old man who had just lived through so many bad experiences.

"… Whenever I saw 'Little Kaede' running among the plants, asking me to give her a bouquet of the most beautiful roses and flowers that I could find or just thanking me for always keeping everything so pretty so that she could play… I think that made her mother's craziness worth it," finished the half demon, smiling tenderly towards the old lady, who after feeling that she was being watched, looked up and saw them, smiling then and waving her hand to proceed later with her walk.

"None of the guys helped you?" asked Kagome after a moment, wondering what kind of people could Kaede's parents have been and staring amazed at how her kind and lovely teacher hadn't become rotten like them.

"They had to clean the interior of the house. I guess that since I'm the one with a bigger animal resemblance, Kaede's mother commanded me to clean outside."

"You're not an animal, Inuyasha."

"She didn't think that way." Inuyasha smiled, making her understand that it didn't matter to him what that woman had ever thought. "Kouga used to say that if it weren't for us, Kaede would be worse than her parents right now, because of all that materialism… but no, Kaede grew up always being simple and humble, so to speak. She's also very sentimental and she lives in this enormous house and with all her luxurious furniture and extravagant gardens not because she likes it, neither because she feels important for having it… it's just that this-"

"…This is the only thing her parents could give her as a proof of their love for her," Kagome interrupted, understanding everything.

"A love that they never learned how to express, but yeah. It's exactly that." Inuyasha observed the girl beside him and then hugged her, noticing how her aura had suddenly become sad and full of pity. "They didn't hate her. It's just that they didn't know better. They never managed to understand and live the adventure of having a family."

They spent a couple of minutes that way, looking at the sunset and the old lady talking with Myoga about her garden, some rare plants that grew up there and other stuff. It was clear that they would be really good friends.

"Inuyasha would you ever…"

"What's the matter, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, after a moment of silence when he noticed that she didn't finished her sentence.

"No. It's nothing, Inuyasha."

"What's wrong?" The young Slave wanted to know what had upset her. For a moment she had radiated an aura of… longing? But then it had turned into one of sadness and… fearfulness. He didn't like that.

"No, nothing's wrong, Inuyasha. I'll go downstairs to see if I can help make dinner."

And without allowing him to object on the subject, Kagome ran out of the room.

"All right. Speak," Sesshomaru ordered, observing the old man in front of him. They were now at Kagura's parent's house. Fortunately, nothing had happened to them since they had left the cave. They could go out of the house and do their activities without the feeling of being followed or threatened.

For the first time he had to admit that Inuyasha was right when he said that Naraku's objective was only Kikyo, if not her entire family.

"Sesshomaru, the ages of hostility ended a couple of centuries ago…" Totousai answered, sitting in the living room with a hot tea cup between his hands.

"Where's Rin?" was the direct question of the former Lord. Totousai noted with surprise the desperate note hidden in the taiyoukai's eyes.

"Well she… it's a long story but-"

"I have waited over 500 years to hear anything from her. I have all the time of the world"

With shame, Totousai looked down and then, after a long sigh he began his story.

"After that night when Jaken, Ah-un and Rin – a very depressed Rin – came to my home in the mountains I knew that something terrible had happened. Jaken told me what had happened at the palace and both of us were afraid that you could be dead. But since your order had been to meet us at Ryukotsei's and the priority was to protect Rin, we went towards his valley."

It was Sesshomaru's turn to stare at the floor. He had never managed to get into that valley…

"Lord Jaken, it's been so many days, why isn't my father coming for me?" The little girl asked, for a countless time that day.

"Maybe something is keeping him busy, young Rin" was the answer of the old youkai, who was staring at the landscape from the cave where they were hiding.

It was then that some sort of giant sea dragon appeared in front of the entrance to the small cave, which was hundreds of feet above the ground, hidden in the mountains.

"There's still no trace, Jaken," spoke Ryukotsei, letting them see his human face over the big dragon's one. Totousai, who was sitting at his back, was staring at the horizon.

"I'm beginning to fear that he didn't make it" was the old man's comment, making Jaken indignant.

"We're speaking of the Great Lord Sesshomaru! Lord of the East Lands! He can't be defeated by just a couple of humans!"

"They weren't only a few… they were thousands of them."

Jaken fell silent then, looking at Rin who had finally fallen asleep.

"The only thing we can do is wait. We must protect Rin until Sesshomaru returns," spoke Ryukotsei, getting ready to mount guard in that dangerous era.

Totousai stared at his cup of tea and then observed towards Sesshomaru, who had his eyes fixed on the chimney of the living room.

"A year passed since then… and you never showed up," the old youkai stared at Sesshomaru's neck, where he wore the shackle. The stone inside of it was a crystal blue color. "We assumed you had died but when Jaken and I went to investigate, while we left Rin under Ryukotsei's protection, we never found your body or Kouga's. The other corpses had already a year and a half rotting when we finally went to look for you."

"Just…" Sesshomaru closed his eyes, tired. He didn't want to know what had happened to anybody else, he wasn't interested in knowing who else had died on that fateful day… he just… "Just talk me about Rin… what happened to her?"

"You speak as if you believed that you can still find her, Sesshom-"

"Don't play with me!" The taiyoukai finally exclaimed, standing up and hitting the coffee table with his fists. His eyes flashed red which wasn't a good thing. "I'm very well aware that she was just a human! With luck she could have lived until her 50s or 60s in that era. I trusted that by being protected by you she could manage to survive until her 80 years old. For a fucking moment I thought that if there was a God somewhere and he was benevolent, he would allow her to live 100 years for me to find her! But I never could! So now all I want to know is what the hell happened to her! What happened to my only daughter?"

"The thing is… I don't really know what happened to her…" That phrase made Sesshomaru freeze in his place and stare at Totousai with shock. It was frightening to see that. "There was a time when we were moving to another hiding spot – you know how dangerous it was to be at the same place for a long time – and three years after you had vanished, when she was eight years old, we were ambushed. It was group of hungry youkai. I stayed behind to protect Jaken and Rin so they could escape, but I couldn't stop them all. Some of them managed to pass me and went behind them. Ryukotsei wasn't with us at that moment, he traveled from the very deep forests of the mountains – it wasn't easy to hide him, if you ask me – and, when I finished the fight and went to look after them, I found Jaken, dead."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened with surprise and stared more intently towards the old youkai. He was still standing and could feel his knees almost begin to shake. Almost.

"Then… Rin was also-?"

"Don't know. I never could find her scent or her body. If she wasn't eaten by those youkai, she probably managed to escape. There was a river near the area. I still hope that she had used it to hide her scent from them. After all, she was a very smart girl… but, as you said, it's impossible that she survived longer than 100 years. I kept looking for her always but I couldn't find her. I searched everywhere, the forests, the mountains, clans and even some human villages… whatever happened to her at that moment, I have no idea. But Rin is no longer in this world."

It was then they heard sobs at the other side of the door leading to the dinning room. Sesshomaru walked towards it and opened it. At the other side, Kagura was kneeling, hugging her mother and crying as silently as she could, but he could tell she was devastated.

"You heard everything" was the statement of the taiyoukai. Abi simply nodded and smiled with shame.

"We were coming to bring you some snacks but… well… that's how things are," the woman answered, comforting her daughter.

Sesshomaru looked behind him and, after a soft whisper of "Thank you" to Totousai, he went out of the room after placing his hand over Kagura's head for a moment, who kept crying and hugging her mother.

Since then, their lives returned to a relatively normal course. It seemed that Naraku really believed that they were dead.

Kaede, Myoga and Mrs. Higurashi got along pretty well and they were always seen together having tea or chatting at the living room or walking around the gardens.

Because of the risks that were still present no matter what, Kaede spoke about it at their old school and now she was responsible for tutoring both Kikyo and Kagome at home so they could continue with their studies. They had managed to graduate from middle school and high school was just about to start, they couldn't get behind their other classmates.

Shippo was happy to have those huge gardens and it was common to see him running from one place to another, arranging flowers and sometimes cleaning some of the water fountains of the place. That kid definitely loved the fresh air that they could breathe around the mansion.

At first, Inuyasha had been apprehensive about returning to that place… he never really could call it home because of Kaede's parents. But he had to accept in the end that when they had died and Kaede had been named the owner of the entire property, things had improved very well. It was only a matter of time of becoming accustomed again to their new home.

And so, things went like that for a while.

Before Inuyasha could realize, it was already November. They had gone through Halloween – or, as he liked to call it: 'Another date to spend money and be capitalist' - without major problems and that day was the 'Day of the Dead', a celebration that had a very curious tradition in American countries, more specifically, if he could recall right, inMexico. Lady Kaede and Kagome's family turned out to like that tradition, in which you honored your dead ones with altars, sugar skulls, traditional sweets and other curious things that were always very respectful. It wasn't a game.

Personally, he preferred that date than the Halloween one – even though it was fun dressing as a vampire or something like that and scaring children by showing them his fangs, claws and ears – but at least this holiday had some air of unity and familiarity.

He just hoped that this date would never turn into a marketing one, too.

"Hurry up, Inuyasha, Kagome. We can't lose so much time."

"Almost done here, mom!" could be heard from one of the rooms.

"Aw! Kagome, be more careful! That needle almost pierced my head!"

"I already told you this is not a needle, Inuyasha. They're hair clips and if you could just sit still I could place this wig on you without problems."

"Keh! I don't even know why do we have to wear these stupid clothes…"

"Do I look stupid to you?"

Kagome was wearing a red and curly wig that fell halfway to her shoulders. She wore a simple black dress and had makeup to make her skin look a little paler than usual. It was the perfect disguise. If not for her scent, Inuyasha would never have guessed it was her if he had seen her walking around the streets.

"You don't look stupid…" he finally admitted, sighing irritably. "But this isn't you." He concluded, furrowing while looking at the dark haired wig that she was trying to adjust over his previously combed and braided hair without hurting his ears. That day, again, he had to pretend to be an ordinary human and Kaede had to buy him a new shirt with a turtleneck.

"That's the point, Inuyasha," said Kagome, resuming her work. "If we want to go out, nobody can recognize us, we don't know if Naraku has spies around the city, what if he discovers that we're still alive? We'll pretend to be Lady Kaede's nephews and nieces and we will be able to go to the cemetery without any problems… Mom may be overreacting with all this but it never hurts. Now, stay still."

"All right, all right." And Inuyasha had to endure that uncomfortable position – sitting hunched – for a few more minutes.

"There you are, finally. Was it so hard to dress yourselves?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. She wore a brown wig that reached to her shoulders and her arms were holding Shippo who, after several failed attempts to know what to do with his tail, had being dressed as a baby. His tail would pass as a stuffed animal or a pillow.

"Well, more like it was Inuyasha who complained about all this, but I managed to finish his costume."

"Are you ready? Lady Kaede looks a little anxious to leave," asked Kikyo, peering through the door of the hall. Contrary to Kagome, she wore a wig that barely reached the back of her neck. It was curly and that helped to hide the long braids that she had to do with her hair to hide her black hair inside of it. Her wig had an ebony color.

"We can go now," Mrs. Higurashi announced. She prayed internally that everything went well.

They climbed into the car that Lady Kaede had bought not so long ago – at this, Inuyasha was truly surprised. She had never wanted to have a car – and they headed towards the city. After a couple of hours travelling they finally reached their destination. It was a cemetery that wasn't so large but it was full of people who came that day to honor their dead ones.

"I don't understand why we came with the old lady to visit her parents grave if it's none of our concern…" Inuyasha asked Kagome, while walking among the crowd.

Kagome, who had bought a flower bouquet, gently shook her head.

"It's not because of her that we came here, Inuyasha."

"It isn't? Then why-?" The young half demon cut his sentence when he noticed that Mrs. Higurashi was walking in front of them, guiding Kikyo towards one direction while Kaede took another path completely different. Myoga stood in front of them and smiled gently.

"All right, young ones. I'll accompany Miss Kaede to visit her parent's grave. We will meet you at the entrance later."

"Sure, be careful, Mister Myoga," spoke Kagome, walking then behind her mother. Inuyasha followed her, a little confused.

Finally, they stopped in front of a grave, which received a shadow thanks to one of the trees in the area. Compared to the other ones that had decorations, roofs, or were really elaborate, this was humble, simple, with a curved stone and two vases at both sides, made of stone too.

The tombstone read:

Here lies Souji Higurashi.

"Loving husband, friend, confidant and father."

Inuyasha looked with confusion at the tombstone for a few seconds and then his eyes widened with surprise.

"His remains…" was the only thing he could whisper. Mrs. Higurashi observed him and then, smiling, gently took his hand, which caused him to jump, having been taken out of this thoughts and memories so suddenly.

"If it wasn't for you, Inuyasha, we couldn't ever have this place where we finally could leave his body to rest without any disturbance. Thanks to you he's now at peace. I'm grateful to you for that."

At those words, Inuyasha could only stare the grave before him.

He didn't know how time passed, neither did he know how long the Higurashi family and Shippo prayed. He didn't even notice when Kagome had cleaned the grave and placed some flowers there. He was just conscious of the noise of the wind around him and the vision of the tomb in front of him.

Souji... so that was Kagome's father's name. That was the name of the person that had begged him to help him die.

"He's already fine, Inuyasha," he heard Kagome's whisper. She took his hand and placed her head against his chest. "You did great, he's already calm. He's resting in peace."

Inuyasha nodded, still feeling a bit strange. Was he sad? No, he wasn't. It was a weird sensation… it was… relief? He was relieved knowing that his remains hadn't been entirely abandoned at that filthy alley. He was relieved because, if only his corpse, his family had been able to see him one last time. He was relieved because they had managed to say goodbye to him.

"Are you all right, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, afraid that maybe bringing him there could have been too much for him. Thankfully, the young man squeezed her hand and smiled at her, calmly.

"Everything's all right, Kagome," he whispered, hugging her and then kissing her forehead, as he used to do when he felt the need to protecting her. He was making a promise at that moment to her father. He would protect Kagome from anything that could happen to them from now on.

But at least, for the time being…

Everything was all right.