No matter how many times Kagome told herself that the man on the train was not InuYasha and that she should not return to the station on the following Sunday, she would not listen. No matter how many times she told herself to forget him and to focus on her studies, her friends, building her life, she would not listen. There was something about the man who looked like InuYasha. Whenever she saw him, neither of them had to say a word. It was all there. And something like hope built up inside her in that silence. Maybe, just maybe, InuYasha had found her like he promised. Maybe this was her chance—their chance—to start over again. She knew it was a fragile hope, but it was the only thing that kept her smiling, albeit a tad weakly, for the next six days.

It would crush her heart if he wasn't what she hoped, but Kagome was willing to face that pain if it happened. In the meantime, she could only think of those golden eyes she thought she had left so far behind. She hoped, she prayed, that it was InuYasha and that she was not so traitorously abandoning his memory for the first person who caught her interest. But when she imagined the man from the train, she could see InuYasha there in his expression, flitting behind his familiar eyes.

There was something more to this than she knew and Kagome was determined to find out exactly what it was.

"I'm not a traitor," she said to her empty room on Sunday morning. Her bare feet were cold when they touched the floor and she recoiled from the chilly temperature. "I'm not a traitor at all." With more confidence, she placed her feet upon the floor and dressed, wondering where that day's train would take her. She quietly walked down the stairs while the house was still asleep, sliding open the back door.

"I'm leaving now," Kagome whispered over her shoulder, after she had tied up her boots and put on her coat. Then she closed the door and stepped out into the crisp, morning air. The stones on the ground were dazzling, coated in a fine layer of frost and the rooftops of their shrine, their torii gate had the most surreal glimmer to them in the November sunshine. As she walked with care over the twinkling ground, her shadow cast a long silhouette in front of her. She stopped and stared at it, realizing that the tip of her head touched the base of the Goshinbuku. It stood tall and majestic before her in the weak, golden light. Even from where she was, she could see the smallest indent upon the tree, where InuYasha had been pinned for fifty long years.

She could not move, staring at that place, where everything had started. Kagome remembered when she was only fifteen and had fallen through the well back in time. From there, everything had moved so quickly, but she had kept up with the pace. She had her friends by her side and InuYasha's unwavering devotion to support her. And now, where was she?

Alone.

The well house behind her weighed heavily on her mind as she left the shrine in her wake. She walked again to the station, keeping her head down and gazed fixed upon the shadow that moved slowly counterclockwise. Numb with cold, Kagome bought herself a hot coffee from a nearby vending machine and then stood before the map, searching for the line she wanted to take that day. None of them looked particularly long, but that truly did not matter. It was just the journey the train took, where she could be still while everyone else moved, but she didn't have to.

Ten minutes or so later, Kagome was joined in front of the board by the familiar stranger. He did not greet her and she did not greet him either. Chancing a look at him, she saw that he wore a wool hat: black, like his coat, his pants, and his shoes. Or at least one of them. The only true color on him was that striking red Converse. However, Kagome was in no position to judge, as she was in a matching shade of sable. It was mourning, she supposed, that made her choose such a color. But it was memory that made her choose the train for that day.

"I'm going to Nagoya," Kagome told him. He didn't say anything in return, but she watched as his head moved slightly, following the bright red line on the map. The crimson shoe tapped on the floor as he did this. It was the same as the color of the line on the board, the vermillion color of InuYasha's haori wrapped around her shoulders in a symbol of warmth and safety.

She did not want to think that it was also the color that had covered her hands, pressing against his chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding. It was the same color that had trickled from his lips as he said I…love you, Kagome…I'll find you again, I promise…

"Nagoya is nice," he conceded, after a moment of studying the map. She was gripping her aluminum can of coffee so tightly that Kagome thought she might pierce it through with her nails. But the sound of his voice calmed her tense nerves, bringing her back to the present with long, calming breaths. "It's only a few hours." He pointed at the last stop on the red line and she watched as his fingertip followed a yellow line that went further north. Kagome could tell that he was looking at her for approval and so, she nodded in assent. Without saying another word, they went to get their tickets from the machine and then found the correct train before boarding. He sat on the right side and she on the left. They were quiet as they watched the scenery go by, observing the people around them when there were small crowds of them, and when there was nothing much else to look at beyond the gray, Kagome spoke.

"Why do you ride the trains?" she asked.

"Why do you ride the trains?" he asked in reply. She actually smiled a little, reminded of the game she and InuYasha would knowingly play, where she would ask him a question and he would turn it right back to her. From there it was like a game of tennis to see who would give in first. After a while, it became less competitive and more along the lines of terms of endearment between the two of them. Outsiders looking in wouldn't understand, but they had, and that was enough.

"I asked you first," she pointed out. The corners of his lips picked up a bit, but nothing more.

"I don't really know," he admitted after a moment, looking off to the side. His fingernails scratched at the peeling gray paint on the seat idly. She could almost see the wheels working in his mind, searching for an answer. "See…the trains are all going somewhere. In comparison, I'm going absolutely nowhere. I guess…I just want a destination, like everyone else." She nodded in understanding, but did not press it any further. Her eyes moved from his face to beyond, staring at the power lines that dipped and rose in gentle waves in the distance.

"Why do you ride the trains, then?" he asked, when the silence had stretched between them for a while. She looked up at him, watching as a weak slant of sunlight broke through the clouds, casting itself across his face. It lit up his eyes in the most peculiar way, making them almost glow in the gray compartment.

"Because they take me away from everything else," she said simply. Kagome didn't want to divulge what it was she wanted to be taken away from, knowing too clearly exactly what it was that she was running from. What she wanted to forget, but what she wanted so desperately to remember. "For just one day… I feel like I'm free." The sun settled behind the clouds again, leaving them in a dull absence of color. Even his eyes had lost their vibrancy, darkened with what Kagome could only describe as empathy. He gave a short nod to her reply and said:

"That's a good reason."

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Word Count: 1,408