Chapter 3: Cosplaying

By Leoncia

Shippou gagged immediately, covering his face with his free hand. He staggered back into Kagome, "It freakin' STINKS. What the HELL is that SMELL? It burns! I can't take this! Help me, Kagome, please! I feel like my nose is about to fall off…"

Kagome stifled a giggle, only to receive a glare from the fox demon. He grabbed Kagome and stood behind her, burying his face into her hair. "Lead the way. I can't stand this anymore! Take me away!"

Kagome fully laughed and began walking towards her house, listening to Shippou gripe and complain the entire way. "Yeah, InuYasha had the same reaction and he's a half-demon. I can't imagine what you're picking up."

She heard Shippou snort, whether in disdain or simply just trying to get the offense smell out of his nose, she wasn't for sure. Kagome grinned as she walked and saw her mother's surprised face through the window in the kitchen, then disappear. The door flew open and out rushed her mother, her arms held out wide.

She bypassed Kagome, who had a shocked look on her face, as she hugged Shippou tightly. "He is as cute as you mentioned Kagome! He's so adorable!" her mother giggled out.

Shippou looked surprised at being suddenly twisted and pulled around by an older looking Kagome, until he realized this was the mother she had always been speaking of. So, in a way, it was as if he was meeting his grandmother for the first time.

There was a suddenly bustle of activity behind them and Kagome turned to see Souta and to her horror, a couple of his friends, come flying out of the house.

"Whoa, does he have a tail?"

"Look at his feet! They're paws!"

"Why's your sister dressed like that, Souta?"

As horrified as Kagome was it was reflected back at her from Souta. She wasn't supposed to be back for another month! Kagome started laughing nervously, her hand going to twirl a lock of her hair—a habit that she had during times of stress that almost cost her a bald spot – and she started trying to make up excuses in her head.

Souta intercepted the questions with ease once his shock was over, "They're cosplaying! You see, this is a kid that my sister baby sits and he has an obsession with anime. That's why she was gone this week, you see! She was taking him to a convention, just she came back early!" He tried, quickly, to explain.

He saw doubt on their faces as they looked Shippou up and down, then Kagome. One of them suddenly nodded, "Makes sense, I guess. It's amazing what they could do with make-up…" he said as he took one last, long look at Shippou.

Souta was suddenly behind his friends and pushing towards the Shrine's steps. "Okay, let's go! We're going to miss the movie!" He continued shoving when they started protesting. He gave a final glance back to Kagome, a look of horror still on his face and mouthed "You owe me", before he disappeared down the steps.

Kagome sighed with relief and slumped to the ground, "That was a little too close. If they were any older, I'm afraid you'd be shipping off to have tests and stuff done to now, Shippou."

The fox demon looked confused as she crouched down next to her, "Kagome, what's cos-…cos-…cosplaying?"

Kagome laughed at his question, but it was her mother who answered for her. "It's when people dress up like those they admire, or want to be. It's pretty common in Japan lately…" her voice trailed off as she helped Kagome up from the ground.

Her mother smiled to them and ushered them inside the house before someone else came along. "Care to tell me what's going on, now? I thought only you and InuYasha could pass through the well."

Shutting the door behind her, Kagome's mother giggled as Shippou finally began to take in his surroundings. His face was the perfect picture of awe and curiosity. She moved the stupefied boy to a chair and had him sit down in it. Once she was satisfied she began preparing tea for them.

Kagome sat down as well and started retelling the same story Shippou had to Kaede, and added in her and Shippou's decision to go find Sesshoumaru. By the time Kagome was done speaking, the tea was finished and Shippou and her mother were slowly sipping at it. Her mother had a look of thought about her before she finally spoke.

"Isn't Sesshoumaru the half-brother of InuYasha, who has tried to kill you on multiple occasions?"

Kagome nodded slowly, "Yes… but he's the only one I can ask in this situation… He has an uncanny ability to find InuYasha where ever he is."

Her mother leaned back, closed her eyes, and sighed. "I'm not comfortable with it, but you know that era better than I do as well as the people in it. Do what your heart tells you, Kagome."

Kagome smiled brightly at her mother, silently thanking her for the trust.

After their tea, Kagome set about preparing for the journey. It took the rest of the day to finish gathering and buying everything she needed. Shippou was left at the house, much to his protest, but he didn't seem to mind it once her mother brought out cookies and other sweets. If Shippou had been more used to her world Kagome would have easily taken him with her. His fox magic had increased over the years and she knew he could hide his demonic features.

On the way back to the Shrine, bags in hand, Kagome passed a shop that piqued her interest (even if she almost missed it and had to back track).

It was the oddest shop she had ever seen in modern day Tokyo. It was like an antiques store filled with ancient weaponry, armor, scrolls and other such objects. She expected to be filled with old furniture or something like that but she couldn't spot a single thing of that nature as she slowly entered the shop, a bell signaling her entrance.

"Just a minute!" filtered a warm, feminine voice from the back of the shop.

Kagome waited patiently at the door, taking in fully what she could before a red-headed woman walked between the stacks of old scrolls and piles of armor. She wiped her hands on the apron wrapped around her and beamed a smile at Kagome. "How can I help you? It's not often I get visitors your age in here" she said kindly.

"Ah… I just thought I'd drop in. I've never been in here before, and I've walked by this way a lot in my life. I just wanted to see what was in here," Kagome spoke with respect in her voice.

The woman smiled again and nodded, "I can imagine it would be a surprise then. Would you like to look around?"

"May I?"

"Of course!" she said in a sing-song voice as she began leading Kagome through the shop.

As they maneuvered around various things the woman threw the question over her shoulder, "Anything you're interested in? I can tell by the way you're moving right now that you've had some sort of combat training. I have weapons and the like in the back, if you want to see them?"

Kagome nodded quickly, "Yes, please!"

They reached the back and Kagome was amazed at the amount of weapons lined along the wall. Her eyes landed on a gorgeous spear. The wood was a deep red-brown mixture, the accents gold as well as the grip located roughly around the middle of the shaft of the weapon. The spearhead was a gleaming, sharp, along with dangerous, piece of metal that had looked like it had seen a lot of battles. Nothing could take away from the battle-worn look of the spear, even if it had been taken care of and treated properly.

The woman next to her noticed her gaze as she smiled to herself. She stepped forward and grabbed the haft and butt of the spear, lowering it from the wall. After tossing it in her hands a bit she handed the spear to Kagome, who set her bags down and took it carefully.

As soon as she touched it she could feel something coursing through the wood of the spear. It caused her eyes to widen as she felt the hum of a spell, or something akin to it. The woman grinned next to her and patted Kagome on the back.

"I've never seen it react that way to a person before," she said with a strange tone to her voice, as if she knew something that Kagome didn't. Kagome took the bait, "React to a person?"

She nodded, "I'm Chizuru, by the way."

Kagome was thrown off by her sudden introduction, but nonetheless returned it with her own. "I'm Kagome Higurashi; it's nice to meet you." There was a bit of a questioning tone to her voice.

Chizuru's grin never left her face, "Nice to meet you too, Kagome. And what I mean by react to a person is just that. That spear is a sentient weapon."

Seeing the confusion on Kagome's face, she continued. "It means that a person has attached their soul to the weapon. Whoever's soul that is, the spear was probably their own and on their death they felt such a longing to remain alive for a specific reason that their soul was transferred to the spear."

Kagome took in her explanation and thought it over. She had seen weirder things in the past six years, but it was still slightly hard to accept.

"So, your name is Kagome?" she heard a definitely male and extremely sexy sounding voice echo in her head and she let go of the spear as if it burned her.