“I’ll be gone for a few days.”

He’d announced this gruffly, in front of the whole group, but as if in some unspoken understanding, she felt the weight of everyone’s eyes turn upon her.

Suppressing a sigh of exasperation, Kagome glanced up from the hearth. “Okay, Inuyasha. We’ll be here.”

With a terse nod, the hanyou turned upon his heel and left the shared room of their lodging. As the cheap painted screen snapped shut behind him, Kagome dished out ramen to Miroku, Sango, and Shippou. For a while, the four of them and Kirara sat together in a tense, awkward silence, broken only by the occasional tap of chopsticks and clink of china.

Unable to bear it any longer, Kagome set down her bowl on the tray before her and addressed the elephant in the room. “I know he’s going to see Kikyou,” she said. “We all do. So we don’t have to act like he’s not.”

As Miroku continued to look askance, Sango lowered her bowl with a frown.

“Doesn’t it bother you, Kagome-chan?” the taijiya asked softly, clearly bothered herself.

Kagome shrugged. “I can’t say it doesn’t. But what difference does it make? If he wants to run off to her, he’s going to, whether I want him to or not.”

“Yeah, well, he could be more discreet about it,” Shippou grumbled, stuffing his arms into his sleeves.

“True,” Kagome said, smiling slightly as Kirara mewed in assent. “But honestly, I think I’d rather have it all out in the open. The idea of him sneaking around behind my back just seems even more pathetic…”

Trailing off, she flushed in embarrassment as she fully realized what she’d said. As Miroku and Sango shared a brief anxious glance, Shippou shifted uncomfortably, and Kirara feigned a cat nap. Letting out the weary sigh that seemed to have been building in her chest, Kagome shook her head.

“Anyway, it’s fine. Let’s just talk about something else.”

~

After a night spent tossing and turning, Kagome was the first to wake. With nothing else to do, she quietly gathered up her week’s worth of laundry and tiptoed toward the door. The place they were staying at was an actual inn for a change, and there was a washroom down the hall.

Despite the earliness of the hour, there were already a few village women there, chatting and laughing as they sloshed linens around in great steaming tubs. Part-time employees of the lodge, Kagome figured. Smiling a little, she hesitated in the entryway, not wanting to intrude—until a stout, round-cheeked woman waved her heartily over.

“Ojou-san! You’re an early-riser—come in, come in! Is that washing you have? Give it here—the girls and I will see to it!”

“Thank you, Obasan,” Kagome replied as she entered, bowing her head politely, “but if it’s all right with you, I’d like to join you all instead. I didn’t sleep much last night, and I’m feeling a bit restless. I think some old-fashioned manual labor would do me a world of good.”

The three women blinked.

Laughing a little, Kagome tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “What I mean is, I could really use the distraction.”

“Of course, of course—well that’s quite all right, dear!” the stout woman said, shooing the other two aside like a mother hen so Kagome could have presumably the ‘best’ wash bucket at her disposal. As the four of them settled down to the task, this merry Obasan gave the miko beside her a long, and rather pointed, once-over. “Love troubles, I take it?”

Kagome stiffened, the clothes bundled in her arms hitting the water with a splash. “H-how…how did you know?”

The worldly woman chuckled, pushing her pinned sleeves up a little higher. “What else keeps a young lady awake at night?”

As the other two tittered in agreement, Kagome blushed, dropping her eyes. The older woman’s look was so shrewd it was piercing.

“He’s a rascal, isn’t he?” she surmised, pursing her lips. “Messing around with another woman, I’ll wager.”

The miko’s jaw dropped. Was this Obasan a psychic?

With a huff, the portly woman glanced knowingly toward the others. “It’s the same story all over again, isn’t it, girls? A man goes sniffing around, even when he’s got a fine woman waiting for him. Doesn’t matter if she’s a beauty—I was something of one myself, if you can believe it! Ha ha! But it doesn’t matter—some men will go off chasing anyway, and what are we womenfolk to do about it?”

“Well, it is a full moon tonight,” one of the two younger women offered slyly.

As the other shushed her, the Obasan’s thin brows rose so high they almost disappeared into her hairline. “So it is! Now there’s a thought…”

“I’m sorry,” Kagome said, her own brows knitting together in confusion, “I don’t quite follow.”

“There’s a legend in our village, Ojou-san,” the matron began, her voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper, “that years ago, on a night when the moon was full, a heart-broken young woman hid herself away in a cave not far from here. As she was crying her eyes out over the man who’d betrayed her, a benevolent spirit appeared to ease her loneliness.” Her dark eyes glittered, a furtive grin curving her plump red lips. “She never saw his face, but by the time he was through with her, she’d forgotten all about that rascal she’d been pining over and found herself a better man—ha ha!”

Kagome smiled weakly. “Ah…”

“In fact,” one of the other women blurted, “if you so much as turn to look at him, he’ll disappear in an instant—a-according to the legend.”

The last woman, little older than Kagome herself, nodded fervently. “And the cave is easy to miss, but it is only half a mile due west, over the bridge and past the dead tree that resembles a pitchfork,” she said all in a rush, adding breathlessly, “o-or so they say.”

Kagome stared. “You three,” she asked slowly, wonderingly, “…you’ve all done this before, haven’t you?”

The trio of women blushed fiercely—even the bawdy matron’s round cheeks going ruddy, as she pretended to busy herself with the washing and scrubbing.

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

I know, I know. Lol. But this is just a little mini-series I needed to get outta my system – shouldn’t be any more than 4 parts or so.

<3

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