TSUNAGARI

01.01

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Conscience

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Hi, are you there?

…

…

…

A long time had to pass before Kagome was able to look at her phone, and see the message her friend InuYasha had left her.

She though about sending him one back, but given she was on her break at the moment, and how much she liked to see him on the screen, she felt like calling instead, even if the connection wasn't the best.

They had met a few months ago, time during which they became quite close, so close Kagome was coming to realize she was starting to fall in love with him.

The problem was… what about her friend?

The question wasn't easy to answer, even less given the distance between them. She lived in Tokyo, while InuYasha did in a place hundreds of kilometers away. At some point, they had joked about getting on a train, and meet at a station mid-way, yet due to their unavoidable responsibilities, such a thing had never come to pass. Many times, however, Kagome thought such obstacles were nothing but fear, in its purest state.

She looked around her, checking if there was anybody who could listen to a moment alone with him, her mind poking the idea of, maybe, telling him that she liked him. She shook her head then, thinking it may be best to let the friendship last for a while more, and wait for him to confess. The very musings brought a smile to her lips, feeling immersed in a romance like a teenager, while she made the call as her fingers played with one of her dark curls of hair.

A moment later, InuYasha appeared on the screen, and the very sight of his silvery mane and golden eyes, watching her, almost stole her heart. Her next breath came in with slightly more force, through her mouth as if she were trying to soothe her last hurried heartbeat.

"Hi, how are you?" She heard him ask in his usual polite tone.

"I'm doing well, what about you?" Again, nothing new in their greeting, only the wall that she was seeing behind InuYasha. Usually, it was of a whiteish color, with a bookshelf and a couple of collectible figurines; now, she found wood painted green. "Are you outside your home?"

His normal routine was to be in his house at that hour, to Kagome's understanding.

"Oh. No. No… I'm." A connection issue seemed to cut his voice, and the video. "… I'm home."

The wall suddenly was white again.

She became speechless.

"Tell me, how was your day?" He began the conversation.

"InuYasha, where are you?" She insisted, however.

"Same pl… same… always… place…"

KAGOME!

Her name was pronounced by a metal sound, like some sort of interference from behind InuYasha's words that made her hair stand on end. Next, the video on the screen stopped, divided into various pixels before the call was cut.

InuYasha disappeared.

She tried to contact him again, immediately, and often times throughout the next days, receiving a voice message saying the phone number she was calling didn't exist. She couldn't wrap her mind around it, racking her brains fruitlessly, seeking an answer that she didn't receive until one day, as she crossed the street, she caught sight of the news on a big screen at one side of a building.

"… Harshly sanctioned the social media platform. The users who discovered the creation of profiles managed by an AI, protest against their deletion, believing the programs were really their friends, and had a conscience."

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A/N

TSUNAGARI

Human-like connection

This idea was born in a strange manner, like many others really, and since it didn't fit any of my other drabble series, I had to create a new one.

A story with hints of Halloween

I hope you've enjoyed it, and thank you for reading and leaving comments.

Anyara.

This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart