Mr. Higurashi held out his hands to her, beseeching. “Can I hold him?” Kagome wanted to say ‘no,’ but she couldn’t. Defeated, she held Shin out to him instead. Mr. Higurashi lifted her son easily out of her hands and smiled. Blue-eyed and human once more, Shin smiled back. “Jiijii,” he burbled, and Mr. Higurashi’s

“Since I left,” Kagome’s father answered, at last. She nodded.  “But I never betrayed your mother.” Kagome turned her face away. He stepped toward her. “That was why I left like I did,” he said, his voice torn. “Because when I fell in love with Reiko, there was no turning back. I thought I’d be

The man turned fully toward her, and now Kagome knew for sure. They both did. His cigarette dangled forgotten in his hand. “Kagome,” Mr. Higurashi said, stepping toward her slowly, as if in a dream.  As if in a dream, Kagome pushed forward with Shin to meet him, and it was like wading through quicksand.

With another day left before Inuyasha would be expecting her back home in Edo, Kagome arranged to meet up with her old school friends, Eri and Yuka, who’d been thrilled to hear from her even after years of radio silence. Kagome feared that in her prolonged absence, they’d assumed the worst. But to her vast

The corner grocery store was a whole new world of wonders to Shin. His eyes went so comically wide at all the lights and colors, scents and sounds, that his dilated pupils practically swallowed his bright irises up. Whether he was human in the moment or not, this was probably for the best, since his

Standing on that weedy pavement in the baking sun, Kagome stared at this unlikely place where her life in the Modern Era had changed forever.  Having learned from her mother the name of the medicine she’d need to save Rin, Kagome had come here, to buy it illegally from Tachiyama-san, a pharmacist and old family

Even a day later, as Kagome touched down on the other side of the Bone-Eater’s Well, she still couldn’t believe it— She was no longer an outlaw in her own time. With Shin loping along at her side, she crossed over from the shrine to the house and tumbled into her mother’s waiting arms. Tearfully,

While the children frolicked in the meadow nearby, Sango and Kagome gathered flowers for Miroku’s grave. The late summer sun beat down upon their bowed heads and bent backs. The pink and white blossoms strained up against the unforgiving heat. Their delicate, wilting petals curled faintly at the edges. Their soft, bursting stems stained the