KOTODAMA
"The soul that resides within words"
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Chapter XXI
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Kagome had been waiting almost half an hour for InuYasha. She had come down a bit early from the agreed time; eleven in the morning, just in case he arrived first. Despite the time passed, however, there wasn't a hair of him. The thought of, given what had happened last night, when he was about to leave, had made him reconsider coming for her, crossed her mind. Kagome brought a hand to her stomach, trying to contain the restlessness she was feeling in the form of an emptiness that little had to do with her lack of breakfast.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. Her gaze became fixed on a couple then, approaching from one side of the street, and she stared at them in a way that was on the verge of being rude. The two, a boy and a girl, were walking close to each other, and at times, their hands would brush in the way only those romantically bound, do. She couldn't help but yearn for that, and averted her gaze when she realized how wrong she was to invade their privacy with her insistence. That did not deter her, however, from casting a glance towards them when they turned their backs to her.
The girl, around her age, grazed the boy's arm with her shoulder, and he looked at her with a smile in response. That gesture, one she admired and envied in equal measure, was full of sweetness, she noted.
"Something interesting?"
Kagome jumped, upon hearing InuYasha's voce, so lost in thought she had been she didn't notice his approach.
"When did you arrive?" The question sounded akin to a complain, given her tone; however, she saw InuYasha giving her a soft smile.
"But an instant ago," he answered, amused, and Kagome felt annoyed after realizing she had been busted.
"I've been waiting half an hour, you know," she complained, more to heal her slightly injured pride than anything else.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't get here in time." It was an honest apology, yet his smile was a stark contrast to his quite real remorse.
"Are you really sorry?" Kagome looked at him, inquisitive. She was trying to appear stern, somewhat, yet her attempt crumbled when his gazed rested, ever so briefly, on her lips.
"Yes." The answer was a sigh that slid beneath her skin, making her body tremble. "Shall we go?" InuYasha wondered, seeking his own peace of mind.
Kagome nodded, unable to utter a word.
InuYasha led the way, and as they walked, the tension between them eased up.
"Are you going to tell me where are we going?" Kagome wondered.
"First, to the station," he replied, referring to the subway.
Kagome practically rolled her eyes in a gesture of clear exhaustion.
"Could you be more specific?" She insisted.
"To the subway station," he added, mockingly.
Kagome halted her steps, hands on her waist, ready to face him.
"How funny you are today," she said, "And since I don't understand your humor, it may be best if I go back to my apartment."
Kagome turned to leave, but she didn't get to take two steps before InuYasha held her by her upper arm.
"Don't leave, I'm sorry," he apologized, yet her gaze stared at his hand for a moment, before he gently let go.
"Where are we going?" She looked at his eyes now, and waited.
InuYasha smiled.
"I want you to meet Myoga," he told her, his voice soft in a way Kagome managed to recognize as when a heart starts to open, and show its emotions.
Her tension eased up then, and she nodded.
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The time it took them to reach their destination, served them to comment some things, like how late InuYasha had arrived at the place he lived with Shippo in, only to find out the boy wasn't home.
"He probably thought I wouldn't arrive," He had mentioned to Kagome, who immediately began to string ideas in her head.
"Was he with his girlfriend?" She had asked, to which InuYasha had nodded, then explained how he had taxed the boy, so to speak, with a day of social work.
Kagome understood that phrase as soon as they neared the place InuYasha led her to, her gaze soon finding a thin teenager, wearing clothes that seemed two sizes bigger than him, as he picked up a box from the ground and carried inside a house, his red ponytail only further identifying him as Shippo.
"There he is," Kagome voiced her discovery.
"Yes, and probably not very happy," InuYasha admitted.
"I guess that's normal; you've punished him, in a way." Kagome realized she was surprised, before the thought of Inuyasha being in charge of someone else's education. He was far too young, just a few years older than her. "I've never asked you how old you are," she pointed out.
"If I answer, you'll find out I'm an old man," he mocked.
"InuYasha!" They heard Shippo's voice, as soon as he noted they were approaching the house. Kagome had the impression the boy had scrunched inward upon seeing her.
"Hi," Shippo's greeting was shy, yet despite its briefness, his tone of voice changed through its length as if trying to sound more confident, something Kagome noted.
"Hi; I'm glad to see you well," was her answer, to which she added depth with a bit more information, "InuYasha told me about your arm. It's healed, from what I can gather."
Shippo made a strange gesture with his eyebrows. He seemed about to furrow them, but he didn't, in the end.
"InuYasha speaks too much," he complained, but didn't seem that bothered by it.
"Maybe," the party in question added, "I also told her you weren't home last night, when I arrived."
Shippo pressed his lips together, his cheeks flushing red from anger. Kagome noted how guarded the boy was about his privacy; it didn't surprise her, since InuYasha was his role model.
"Myoga is waiting for you," Shippo mentioned, his voice expressing quite clearly his annoyance. After that, he went back to the task he had at hand.
A few kids ran out of the building then, almost bumping into Shippo, who made a small pirouette with the box he was carrying, to evade them. He threw a complaint at them almost immediately after, and one of the kids stopped to turn around, and bowed to him in apology. It was then when Kagome noted the entrance to the house, had a small wooden bench with many pots with plants, and some painted wooden toys of many colors.
"A nursery?" She inquired.
"Not exactly," InuYasha answered, then invited her to go inside.
Kagome went forward, thanking InuYasha for lifting the noren that had the name of the place: Ichidō. It could mean "path" or "ray of hope", but soon Kagome would understand it was more akin to the second.
"Myoga," InuYasha called out, once they were inside.
Kagome took in the place, that was the size of an average apartment's living room. It had three tables that could tend to six or seven people at the same time. And beyond, on the other end, there was a frame without door, leading to the kitchen, most probably, given the scent coming from it and filling the room.
"A community kitchen?" She asked InuYasha, her voice low as she observed a group of kids having fun with a tabletop game.
"That too," he conceded. Kagome became surprised at the joy in his words. "Come," he asked her then, starting towards the doorstep on the other end, "Myoga, are you there?"
Kagome got to walk half the room, when a small elderly man appeared, with his head covered by a kitchen hat and wearing an apron with clear hints as to what activity he had been doing.
"Boy, you are late," were the greetings he gave.
"I had to go pick up Kagome," InuYasha explained, and in that moment, the elderly man turned to her.
"Good day," she greeted him, bowing in a manner befitting the moment and the man's age.
"So, you are Miss Kagome," Myoga answered, bowing back, "Shippo mentioned you."
Kagome felt strange, by being welcomed like that, in a place she didn't even know existed.
"Come in," the man said, "I've got rice in the pot."
InuYasha's gaze followed Kagome for a moment, as if evaluating her opinion of the place. She gave him a soft smile that did not reach joy; something normal, he reasoned, for the center was unknown to her but until a moment ago, after all.
He decided then, to show her all that he could about it.
"Come," he voiced, then reached out with his hand with the intention of touching her, yet stopped mid-way, "Follow me."
He was keenly aware of the way he had said his good-byes the previous night, and could still notice the faint warmth of her lips on his, every time he recalled it, only to feel his heart racing soon after, as if he were a teenager all over again. He didn't want to, however, to spare too much time for day-dreaming, for he knew desires like those would often only fade and leave emptiness behind instead. He preferred to cast that moment in a place of yearning, yearning for something that would never be, and that way keep his expectations under control.
"The kitchen is through here," he indicated, as soon as they were past the doorstep through which Myoga had previously disappeared.
Kagome observed the kitchen which, despite not being overly large, was perfectly organized with efficiency in mind.
"These are Myoga's grounds," InuYasha voiced.
Kagome simply nodded.
"As you see, Miss, there isn't much mystery here," Myoga added.
"Please, call me Kagome," she requested, trying to lighten the heavy politeness that meant for a man of Myoga's age, to speak to her with such care.
The elderly man smiled, then returned his gaze to InuYasha as he prepared to address him.
"I like your girl," he said.
They looked at each other.
Oh, no, she is not my girl.
No, no; I'm not his girl.
They voiced, together.
Kagome flushed furiously, as InuYasha sought a way to hide his own surprise.
"Oh, I'm sorry; it was Shippo who told me. He said you'd come with your girl," Myoga gesture to the doorstep, with the wooden spoon he was using. Shippo appeared through it soon after, carrying one of the boxes he was helping get inside.
"What's wrong?" He wondered out loud, ignorant of what had just happened.
"Nothing, boy," InuYasha said," Myoga needs help the next week too," He gave Shippo a smile then, one the teenager knew already, and its meaning.
"That's not entirely true, is it, Myoga?" He sought to double-check.
InuYasha crossed his arms, and Kagome thought that the gesture alone made him taller.
"Not entirely true," Myoga began, but was soon interrupted by a vociferous Shippo.
"SEE!?" The boy looked at InuYasha in clear defiance, yet Myoga soon added.
"But neither is that Kagome is his girl," the elderly man turned again to his pot, and began to remove its content with his wooden spoon.
"Oops," was all that Shippo could add. He left the box with the others, then left in silence.
InuYasha had little else to say, and Kagome seemed to be the same.
"Show Kagome the rest of the place," Myoga intervened.
"Sure," InuYasha accepted, finally reacting, "come," he told Kagome.
"But do come back for some onigiri, will you?" The elderly man added.
Kagome made a thankful gesture with her head, then followed the path pointed by InuYasha. It was a narrow and short corridor leading to a door, whose upper half was made of wood and crystal. InuYasha opened it, leaving barely any room for Kagome to pass by him without brushing against him.
"Thank you," she said, appreciating his gesture.
That was just one of the many details she had come to notice about InuYasha. He seemed an educated person, beyond his circumstances, ones she could only guess about. Since she met him, she had seen him wearing the same clothes, or almost, albeit always clean. His hair was bright, the same as his teeth, and those kinds of details showed the care he put into what he considered that mattered. Kagome thought that maybe, those were lessons he had received from his mother, and then she wondered if said mother was still alive.
There was much she didn't know about InuYasha.
She cast a furtive glance towards him, right before her attention was pulled towards a park at the back of the place, where she was able to see some children playing; some of them, gliding down a slide, while three others kicked a ball, trying to make it enter through a small, wooden arc.
"Myoga takes care of them? Do they not have a family?" Kagome voiced her questions as they came to mind, not really considering if was right to even ask them.
It surprised her, to see that smile in InuYasha's features as he answered, "Myoga doesn't run an orphanage, if that's your question. These kids have families. He receives them, and feeds them with what their tutors and some other people donate. He takes care of them, and allows them to be here while their parents work, or are otherwise busy and can't do so themselves," was his explanation.
"I understand," Kagome sought to show empathy, yet it soon overwhelmed her," It's sad," she added.
InuYasha observed her, for a moment; he seemed to be trying to discern how was the world structured in Kagome's mind. He knew, by the environment she usually moved in, that she wasn't really familiar with the reality other persons lived. He didn't feel offended by it, despite the fact that his life had been quite worse than these kid's, who had a family and a home to go back to at the end of the day. However, he soon recalled how much he disliked to be pitied, and to his mind came the memory of a time when a woman had seen him eating a piece of bread, and had left him a coin as a result. The gaze of that woman, how painful it felt when cast on him; in her, there was a grim dismay, as if thinking him lost, like a stray animal one gives some crumbs and that leaves one's thoughts once one turns the next corner. InuYasha could not forget how, when he had taken the coin and had tried to give it back, the woman had taken a step back and had almost fallen, afraid of him touching her. Even today, he would get mad upon remembering it.
Maybe it was such a thought, that led him to speak far more passionately than he would normally.
"Kagome, try for a moment to put yourself in the shoes of those who find out that the world they should belong to, does not receive them. Can you imagine what is like for these kids to know they are not considered valuable enough to be noticed, or for their needs to be met? They may not be orphans, but almost. They have parents who don't know how, or don't care enough to take care of them. That makes them faulty in society's eyes, and so they need to put ten times the effort someone in optimal circumstances would, so that someone may look, and find them worthy. They are not some poor kids; they are brave kids who can still smile, as to not forget that life has to be felt."
Kagome could not stop looking at InuYasha, as he wielded those words as if they were a sort of a shield, that she was just getting to know.
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To be continued.
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A/N
I really wanted to get to this part, as to continue from here. I needed to further clarify InuYasha's life and principles. Now, I just need to keep going.
Thank you for reading, and leaving a comment. I hope you are enjoying the story, as much as I'm enjoying writing it.
Kisses,
Anyara
This text is possible thanks to the translation of: Dezart