"So, let me get this right. Your ex that you thought was dead turned out to be alive and showed up at your door with flowers. And then proceeded to complain about how you should have waited longer?" Yakeru arranges his shelf of imp hands and feet. They decorated the store with fake skulls - at least, she hopes they are fake. One can never be too sure with Yakeru. Not surprisingly, Yakeru opted to not hang up any fake spiders or webs. Even though he doesn't talk about it, Kagome is sure that Yumi's death still affects him.
"Pretty much, yeah," Kagome says, from her spot behind the counter. Tongue out, she muses on what kind of charms to write on the parchment. Probably something small and doesn't take too much energy from her. "I don't know what got into him. InuYasha has always been brash, but last night he was downright hateful. Luckily, Toru didn't overhear any of the conversation or I'm sure there would have been a fight." She places the charms into a plastic wrapper and seals it.
"Yes, well. Gojo is a sorcerer. Control over his emotions should be relatively easy for him." Yakeru walks over to her, flicks his ponytail back, and picks up the stack of charms. "Ooh, these will sell nicely. You know you didn't have to actually add any power to them?"
"If I'm going to be packaging protective charms, then they need to work." Kagome grabs another sheet of parchment and hunkers down. To be honest, she still doesn't completely understand how the jujutsu world works. Just that normal people have cursed energy that leaks out and any negative thoughts eventually create curses. "So, sorcerers have to control their emotions, but demons don't?"
"Technically, no one has to do anything they don't want to do," Yakeru replies. He arranges the charms on the shelf across from the front desk. "But with sorcerers being in the whole curse business, naturally they don't want any other curses showing up because of them."
"If they have control over their output, though why does it matter if they get angry or jealous?" Is she missing something? Toru always made it seem like sorcerers are all unhinged and surely that would lead to them experiencing a lot of negative emotions.
"Because, darling, when one gets irrationally upset, the last thing going through their mind would be to control how much cursed energy they are leaking out. In the case of Gojo. He is the strongest. There is a level of peace that comes with being strong. Not having to worry about anyone being on your level and such. However, if Gojo were to lose control over his emotions and continued to dwell on them, then it could lead to the birth of a curse. And trust me, the last thing this world needs is a curse born from Gojo." Yakeru glances up at the clock and hums.
"But what about demons? They don't have to control their emotions?"
"Why would we?" Yakeru blinks. His green eyes widen making him look far more innocent than he actually is. It must be second nature to him to turn on such a charm, even though they both know such things do not work on her. She's dealt with Shippo and the kits at the fox academy.
"So you don't create any curses?" Out loud, that sounds silly to her own ears. Why would the demons care about such things?
"Curses are inferior to us." He half shrugs and turns on the open sign. "We may strengthen them with our energy, but we do not create curses. They are born from humans and seen as a tool." Yakeru admires his nails.
Kagome glances at the door. "So, when you said that, a lot of vengeful spirits?" At his nod, she continues, "A lot of vengeful spirits messed around with demons. Were the demons using them as tools, too?"
"Probably. I cannot truly speak about such relationships that I was not privy to." A customer walks in, halting their conversation. "Good morning, you must have been waiting for us to open," Yakeru says cheerfully. The fox gets so happy whenever a customer comes in. Must be a fox thing. To want all the money. "Is there anything, in particular, you are looking for?"
"I'm just browsing," the man replies. Kagome flints her gaze over and stiffens. Her body feels as though it's gonna go into shock, like someone has dunked her into a pool of water in the middle of winter. She can't put a finger on it, but something about that man is not right. Is it Naraku? He's been lying low. Yakeru doesn't seem to notice anything weird about the man. Instead, he just steps away and lets the man wander about the store.
"Hey," Kagome whisper-shouts, "come here." Yakeru raises a brow, but trots over to her and leans against the counter. "There's something not right about him," she says, cupping her hand around his ear.
"He walked in here. I could have told you that," Yakeru jokes. Though she doesn't miss the way his eyes narrow in on the man in the monk like clothing with a baseball cap on his head. It's such an odd combination. But she's not one to judge someone's fashion sense. After all, she's made some fashion blunders in her day, like wearing her school uniform in the Feudal era.
"Excuse me," the man interrupts. "These charms. Do they, by any chance, work?" He lifts one up–a love charm.
"Of course, you just have to have faith that they will," Yakeru says. "Would you like to buy a couple? With Halloween just a couple of days away, everyone has been on edge. You know, with all the things that go bump in the night."
The man hums, sorting through the different charms and then glances back at her. "Are you the one that makes these?"
"Only a few," Kagome replies, looking everywhere but at the strange man. She can't help it. Something about him just gives her the jeebies. His cursed energy is all twisted up like it's being held together with a prayer.
No, she shouldn't be like this. Just because his cursed energy is off doesn't mean that he's a bad guy.
"She only recently started here," Yakeru intervenes. "So, what will it be?" He walks over to the man and bends at the waist. "A charm of good luck, or perhaps one for healing?"
"Protection." The man grabs a couple of charms and places them on the counter. "It's a shame," he says, looking at Kagome's hand. "I was hoping you were single."
Awkward. What part of their conversation gave him any idea that she wanted him?
Kagome smiles but does not give him a response. Instead, she focuses on ringing him up. The faster he goes away, the better. The door chimes. Yakeru makes no move to greet the customers. He waves at them with a dazzling smile on his face.
"Apologies," the man says, taking his bag. "I did not intend to make you uncomfortable. You see, I have a temple not too far from here."
"Are you trying to steal my employee?" Yakeru questions. The man smiles, but it feels more sinister than the peaceful vibe he's going for. Maybe he does need the protection charm, she thinks. If his energy is so messed up, then maybe something else is going on with him. Though there aren't any curses clinging to him. Could he have gotten hit with something instead?
"Not at all. I was merely thinking of how wonderful it is to meet another spiritual person. The world is lacking in true monks and priestesses. It would be an honor if you could stop by the temple and bless us."
"I'm not really a priestess. I just have pretty handwriting for the charms," she replies. How odd that he assumed she was a priestess when nothing about her attire suggests such. Either way, she doesn't like it or him.
"At any rate. It would be an honor if you could stop by sometime." He pulls out a card with an address to the temple. Their fingers touch and the man jerks back. He smooths his face into a pleasant one and looks at Yakeru from the corner of his eye.
Something isn't quite right with that guy. A curse user, perhaps? Why else would her powers react so strongly like that? And his reaction, too. No way, she'll be visiting his temple. It's probably a cult or something crazy.
"Have a nice day, sir." Kagome promptly dismisses him. The man dips his head and leaves with the bag of charms clasped tightly in his hands. Kagome exhales. All the tension leaves her body and slumps forward on the counter. Jeez, she thought he would never leave.
"That was odd. I thought for sure he'd bring up you being Gojo's," Yakeru quips. He scratches his head, staring at the door.
"You knew?"
"Hmm? Yeah, that was Geto. Surprised to see him still alive, though. Could have sworn Gojo killed him. Maybe even Gojo has a hard time separating personal feelings and work. Learned something new today."
Killed? Geto? Kagome frowns. Satoru has never mentioned anyone by the name of Geto... or maybe he has, and she just wasn't listening. "I meant he was obviously a part of the jujutsu world and his cursed energy was all twisted up. The heck are you talking about?" Yakeru opens his mouth and shuts it as the door chimes with new customers.
"Excuse me, could you help us?" The customers ask. They both giggle, playing with the ends of their hair. Kagome sighs and goes back to working on more charms. It'll be hard to talk to Yakeru with the shop being open. She'll just ask Satoru when she gets home. If he left that man alive, then surely, he's a good person. Satoru isn't the kind of person to let someone terrible just go free.
Great, now she feels bad. Geto must have needed her help, and she completely shut him down because his energy freaked her out. She picks up the card. Shibuya, huh? Maybe she should stop by tomorrow with Shippo or Sesshomaru. Kagome squints. The words, come alone, are barely legible.
On second thought... She should call Satoru now. Better safe than sorry. Kagome fishes out her phone and waves bye to the young men.
"Hey Gome-chan, I can't really speak right now," Satoru says. There's some commotion on the other side. "Is everything okay?"
Kagome pouts. This is the first time he's been too busy for her call, but it's fine. "Yep, everything's fine. Just missed your voice." She cradles the phone between her shoulder and ear as she checks out the customers who both have overflowing baskets with stuff, she knows Yakeru talked them into. "Just uh, come get me when you get off work. I'm gonna stay here with Yakeru until you get done."
The women continue to chat with Yakeru even after they take their bags.
"Alrighty, I'll see you when I get off." He ends the call. She waves goodbye to the customers, though they ignore her and only wave goodbye to Yakeru. Whatever. Kagome frowns at her phone. He didn't even say bye. Work must be bad today. She'll just wait and share the news with him later.
If Geto wanted to do something, surely, he would have done something earlier.
A/N: Thank you everyone for all of your support! I hope that you are staying happy and safe. Until next time~