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 relief, these fears of hers had been totally unfounded. On the long-distance call she’d placed, even soft-spoken Ayumi had voiced nothing but staunch support for her, and glad relief that those ‘ridiculous’ charges against her had finally been dropped. Kagome didn’t voice her opinion on the charges either way. But she would’ve loved to meet up with Ayumi too, except that she was completing her master’s degree abroad, and so their reunion would have to wait.

But that was all right—after all, Kagome was a free woman now, like Inuyasha had said. Free to come and go in this era as she pleased.

The surrealness of this wasn’t lost on Kagome. Just riding with Shin on the train, she could hardly believe that the avenues of the modern world were open to her once again. It was wondrously freeing to her, simply to have the choice.

Even in their posh suits and high heels, Eri and Yuka tackled Kagome in a great teary bear-hug on the sidewalk the moment they saw her. They gushed and cooed over Shin as well, who beamed back up at them from his stroller, clearly reveling in all the attention and praise from these two lovely ladies.

“Oooh,” Yuka said, clasping her hands together before her, “he’s so cute, Kagome-chan, I could just die!”

“Such pretty eyes,” Eri added, peering closer. “Wait, are they blue or are they green?”

“Eh heh, depends on the the light, I think,” Kagome said with a blithe smile, scratching behind her ear.

Arm in arm together they went into the izakaya pub, and it was just like old times at Wacdonalds again, dishing on the latest news in their lives and catching up on the highlights of the past. Kagome was just as eager to hear about her friends’ modern adventures as they were to hear about her own ‘off-the-grid’ lifestyle—or as much as she could practically tell of it, anyway. Eventually, though, or perhaps inevitably, they circled back to the circumstances that had caused her ‘to make herself scarce,’ as Yuka put it.

“Well, of course, we never believed one word of those bullshit allegations—”

“Yuka-chan!” Eri said, glancing pointedly at Shin in his bassinet.

“Sorry,” Yuka said with an abashed smile. “What I mean to say is, we never believed one word of what all those horrible people trumped up about you, Kagome-chan. We know you better than that.”

Eri nodded, clasping Kagome’s hand. “We’re just so glad that it’s all blown over, and you’re here with us again.”

“I have to say, though,” Yuka said darkly, “that when I saw Hojo talking to those scumbag reporters, I couldn’t help myself. I walked right up to him and socked him square in the jaw.”

Touching a hand to her brow, Eri shook her head. “She did. That was a shitshow in itself.”

As Eri smiled apologetically at Shin for her language, Yuka said stoutly, “Yeah, and I’d do it all over again. It was worth the trouble, just to lay that phony out flat on his ass. I can’t believe I ever endorsed him as a potential boyfriend for you, Kagome-chan. Talk about being two-faced, Hojo takes the cake.”

Through her stinging eyes, Kagome mustered a smile. Hojo’s true colors aside, she felt she didn’t deserve friends as loyal as these. There would be time for her to confess her own sins and shortcomings—and she would, but not today. Today was a day for good tidings, pure and simple.

And so after an overlong lunch hour that put both Eri and Yuka in jeopardy of being reprimanded by their respective employers, Kagome hugged her best friends goodbye and went on her way. She still had some time to kill before dinner, and so she strolled with Shin along the bustling streets of the prefecture. They popped in at a toy store, where with some mad money her grandpa had given her, she bought a stuffed frog which Shin took a shining to, growling and chomping at it in pure delight.

As she was turning back toward the train station, she happened to glimpse a middle-aged man outside a ramen shop, wearing an apron and clearly on his smoke break. Something about him caught Kagome’s attention, even before he glanced toward her and met her blue eye with his. Kagome’s breath escaped her.

“Dad?” she said.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Unedited – will clean up asap! Also, for those of you who are subscribers, it seems like post notifications aren’t going out this week – apologies for that. Could be a transient issue with the server, but if not, will be looking into fixes shortly. Thanks! <3