Together, Kagome and Yoichiro set out for the forested ridge that lay to the north of Edo village. A swift icy creek ran through the pass, sheer and deep at the mouth, making a direct approach from the south too treacherous. Fortunately, Yoichiro knew a shortcut to where the ground leveled out that she didn’t. Still, it was far from easy going. The frozen, flinty terrain was a chore to traverse, shifting under every step. The trees were skeletal but thick. Their cold spiny limbs snagged at the travelers without ceasing, as if they had a literal bone to pick.

More than once, Kagome had to pause to catch her breath. By the third time, she didn’t even need to say anything. At the first sign of her flagging, Yoichiro stopped beside an outcrop of rock. Picking out a few twigs from her hair, Kagome gave him a tepid smile of thanks. Heavily, she sat down on the slab beside him. Her panting breath smoked out before her, as if every gear in her were on the brink of burning out.

Kagome closed her eyes. Within her, the baby’s youki glowed bright and steady, in seeming counterpoint to how frazzled she felt. His aura was so glaring to her senses that little jolts of pain zinged behind her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Yoichiro looking at her—at her round belly, rather.

“You’re going to have a baby soon, aren’t you, Miko-sama?”

“Not so soon I hope,” Kagome said dryly. “But yes. I am.”

“Haha-ue is too. Any day now, she says.” The boy puffed out his chest. “That’s why I set out on my own, even though she didn’t want me to. I told her not to worry, that I’d bring help back soon. I’m the man of the house now that Chichi-ue and Ani-ue are ill, so I have to take care of her and my little sister, and the baby too.”

Kagome smiled. As she looked at this cute, tough-talking kid, it hit her that her own child would one day be his age. Not just a glow in her belly, but a fully-featured person, with his own thoughts and aspirations. It was a surreal thing to consider.

“That’s very manly of you,” she said to Yoichiro. “If my son turns out as brave and handsome as you, I’ll be lucky.”

The boy’s cheeks went red as he ducked his head. Rising from her seat, Kagome gave her stiff lower back a stretch, and they set off again.

After a while, Yoichiro asked her, a little shyly, “Your baby, how do you know he’s a boy?”

“A flying dog told me,” she said.

She thought Yoichiro would exclaim at this, but he just nodded sagely instead, as if a miko’s word must be revered as a matter of course. Such a serious kid! Kagome bit the inside of her cheek not to laugh.

“What does your father do,” she asked him once she’d composed herself, “besides hack off the heads of demon wasps?”

“He’s a woodsman,” Yoichiro said proudly. “Everyone says how I take after him. He can hunt and track anything. When he was younger, he was a mercenary, but he doesn’t like to talk about it.” He glanced to her. “Is your husband also a shrine-keeper?”

“No,” Kagome answered, her mouth twisting as she thought how best to approximate Inuyasha’s ‘occupation’. “He’s a warrior.”

Yoichiro’s eyes lit up with admiration. “I’ll bet your son will be one too.”

Kagome nodded back to him, though her smile was tight. No matter the truth of her son’s paternity, that much was likely to be the case.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Revised 2/10/23