A/N: part two of seasonal scenes!
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21.
Winter
It was after a long day catching coastal fish with Takamaru that Kagome noticed that once more the previously low supply of rice had refilled to capacity, even though at this time of the year no one would have sold rice to strangers; let alone that the nearest village was half a day away by yokai foot.
Kagome had not been oblivious to the fact that the two cranes seemed to have an unending supply of money and rice on their hands and curiously asked about it.
The cranes shared a look before Takamaru replied that it had been a gift to his great-grandfather. Lifting the pouch that Koyuki usually never let leave her waist he demonstrated by putting a stone inside, saying the number three, and lifted three stones out.
"This pouch will create copies of whatever I put in it, but only three times a day and only a number no higher than one-hundred. So long as those two limitations are met this pouch will copy anything. Like say ten grains of rice, copy them by ten, and we will have one-hundred rice grains. Mind you they are copied exactly as they were, so if you tried to copy rice that was old and molding you would have old and molding rice instead of fresh rice."
Kagome clapped her hands in awe. "You don't find such items everyday Takamaru-san. Your Grandfather must have done something impressive to earn such a gift." Takamaru blushed at that and Koyuki giggled. Kagome and Shippo looked at her curiously.
"More like he flirted with the previous owner so well that she created it for him 'to always remember me by'." Kagome goggled.
"Created?"
"Indeed, yokai can travel greater distances than humans. His great-grandfather traveled to a land so far into the west once that he met gods and goddesses of lands near a great ocean. That was where he met and learned from one of their fertility goddesses, the creator of that pouch." Koyuki giggled, giving her mate an indulgent eye.
Takamaru merely blushed more.
22.
Spring
Koyuki hummed gently as Kagome cried her heart out, thanking the kami that the boys had gone out to teach Shippo better trapping methods; giving the women some much needed privacy.
Koyuki had noticed for days that Kagome had become depressed and had no real explanation as to why. Takamaru and Shippo had also noticed before long and had silently agreed to let Koyuki, the only other woman in the group, handle it.
Koyuki would not deny that this was somewhat new ground for her, as most yokai species did not have such emotional outbursts, but humans she learned were another story.
Which is why it was only a little startling when Koyuki had simply sat next to her and asked why she had been feeling so depressed, only for her mistress to burst into tears and cling to her.
She had no idea the cause of the outburst, but she would be a proper friend and let her charge and mistress cry her heart out.
Sometime later, Kagome was able to chokingly sob that at this time of the year she would be with her family out celebrating the coming of spring. There would have been games, laughter, feasting, and simply being with each other.
Koyuki's heart hurt. She and her mate knew somewhat that her mistress and Shippo had not been in that cave long ago by choice, though the details or their origins were rarely spoken of. The one main, and unspoken, detail they understood was that they had left family and friends behind that they could never see again.
'Both of you have great strength Kagome-sama, to keep that pained longing bottled up for so long. But it is alright to let go. When you finally let go, you can finally start to heal.' Koyuki soothed gently, rocking her little chick with low bird songs.
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Kagome, who had finally allowed herself to have a breakdown and cry her eyes out on Koyuki's shoulder, was able to accept that she was never returning to either the feudal era or the modern era. This was only made bearable by the presence of Shippo and the two cranes.
With acceptance of her new life she delved right into the lessons the cranes were teaching her, ready to learn and thus thrive in her new world.
With her weapons lessons it turned out that Kagome, thanks in no small part to watching Kagura's dances during the many battles, had been able to breeze through lessons with the tessen. She had no formal school of movement, but it was elegant enough that anyone watching her would not suspect that she was only a novice. She even became proficient enough to seriously wound a few unsuspecting lesser yokai when they thought they could sneak up on the group.
Her work with the naginata was not going as well as she had wanted, but considering what little staff lessons she had remembered from before the Final battle Kagome had gone from 'randomly-swinging-hoping-it-hits' phase to 'worse-than-a-rookie-student'.
It was progress.
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Next Chapter: two new additions to the family