InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Inu-yasha: The Modern Adventures ❯ Mrs. Higurashi ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 2 Mrs. Higurashi

Authors' note: I will be using the name Kimiko for Kagome's
mother's name. (Mrs. H is an abbreviation for Mrs. Higurashi and
I will use that as well.)

_____________________________________________



As Kagome appears in the blue star stream of the Time Rip in the
Well, she bares her teeth in pain. The stars are NOT streaming by
her like they should, but are twirling about her in a very
chaotic pattern. ‘No!' She thinks, ‘I will not panic! I will see
my family again!'

Bands of swirling white/pinkish power erupt from Kagome. The
bands of power merge with the well's power and grab the stars.
The stars stabilize and begin to flow past her like they should.


Kagome lands heavily at the bottom of the well. She leans against
the cold stone wall of the well panting. She places her hands
across her stomach and purses her lips, then a massive obnoxious
belch spews from her lips.

"Gods . . . that was embarrassing. I sounded like Inu-yasha that
time when Miroku and him got drunk and had a belching contest."
She says in a low voice as she whimpers. "It's a good thing that
we were so busy repairing the well that I didn't eat breakfast."
She covers her mouth with her hand, "I would have been mortified
if I threw up down here. Cleaning it up would have been a task."

She looks up, she the roof of the well house and smiles. ‘I'm
home.' She thinks. She reaches out for the rope ladder and slowly
climbs it. Just before the top of the well, she stops and glances
over it. "Good. Noone's in here."

A small blush appears on her face as she remembers an incident
last spring. Someone left the door to the Well house unlocked and
as she was about to climb out of the well, she noticed that a
couple was kissing and fondling each other near the door. Luckily
she wasn't yelling at Inu-yasha when she appeared, and he didn't
follow her, so her appearance was quiet, not that the couple
would have noticed, even if she and Inu-yasha were going full
blast at each other, though, as they were very much engaged with
each other.

The blush deepens as she remembers that instead of going back
down the well and waiting for them to leave. She stayed at the
top of the well and watched as the couple, a pair of teenagers, a
boy and a girl, masturbated each other, with their fingers in
each other's clothes, to a climax, before they left the building.
(They were part of a school tour from another high school, one
that was visiting area shrines, so she does not know who they
were. They were just a boy with a pigtail hairdo and a red shirt
and girl with short hair wearing a traditional school uniform)

Since then, Kagome has tried to be more careful about the
security of the well house and how she and Inu-yasha use it.

Kagome climbs out of the Well and looks back down it. "Do I go
ahead and go back? I did leave my bag, Inu-yasha should be
trapped by now, and I'm going to need the books that are in it."
She bites her lips and looks in the direction of her house. "That
was a rough trip though. Will the well work going the other way?"

She shakes her head and thinks, ‘No. I'm going to see if
anybody's home. If they are, I'll explain what's happening, then
go back. IF not, then I'll leave a note.' She pauses, then
whispers, "just in case."

She spins around, goes to the well house door, cracks it open,
glances around to make sure that no one is looking, then quickly
leaves the well house, closing the door behind her.

‘It looks like rain.' She thinks as she walks to the door of her
house. Her shoulders slump a little, ‘and it rained most of the
time on the other side of the well to. Sigh. I was hoping for a
couple of nice days on this side of the well.'

Kagome is about to touch the door knob of the front door, when
she stops, narrows her eyes and steps back away from the door.
‘Sadness? Grief? Anger? Confusion? Why I'm I feeling that from my
house?' she thinks. "Something is wrong." She whispers.

She quickly opens the door and enters the house. "Mother?" She
asks in a trembly voice.


Even with most of the lights on, the house feels empty.

There is a lingering smell of cigarets near the door. She sees
her mother sitting of the sofa in the living room. She is wearing
her traditional house frock.


A book, it looks like one of the families photo albums' is
clenched against her chest. On the low table in front of her is a
half-empty glass of water and an unorganized pile of papers.

Her mother is crying, softly . . .

"Mom?" Kagome asks, again, in a louder voice, "What's wrong?"

Kagome's mother looks at Kagome, her red tear filled eyes widen.
"Kagome?" She cries. She drops the album, it lands face-up on the
sofa table, scrambles to her feet, and trips over Buyo, who was
curled up around her ankles.

Kagome rushes over and grabs her mother before she hits the
floor. "uff. Mom?"

"You're home." Mrs. H tightly hugs her daughter. "You're safe."
She breathes in Kagome's ear.

Kagome hugs her mother back. "Mother?"

"Just hold me." Mrs. h whispers. Kagome clutches her mother
tight. "I was so worried."

"Why?"

A pause.

"You're my little princess." Mrs. Higurashi whispers. "And you're
living a fairy tale."

"Yes, mother." Kagome whispers back to her.

Kagome's memory flashes back to a conversion between her and her
mother that happened after she returned from the battle with Yura
of the hair.

"Kagome, I'm not going to interfere with . . . with whatever is
happening with the Well and that, that cute dog-eared boy."

"Inu-yasha. His name is Inu-yasha, mom."

"Inu-yasha." A pause. Giggle.

A shared giggle.

"Anyway. You're my princess, so. Kagome, it's like you are part
of a magical fairy tale, now. And I'm not going to be the Evil
Mother, So . . . " A grin. "Tell me when your handsome prince
comes to sweep you off your feet, marry you, and ravish you."

A blush, a deep red blush. "Mom!"

"Remember, the ravish part comes last." Short pause. "Unless he's
really handsome."

"MOM!" down to her toes beet red blush . . .


"Kagome." Her mother voice cracks as Mrs. H speaks, her voice
shaking with emotions, bringing Kagome out of her memory
flashback. "You are going to have a live happily ever after
ending, like in western fairy tales, aren't you?"

A startled Kagome replies, instantly, "yes."

"Good." Her mother sighs and relaxes in Kagome's arms. "I was so
afraid that you'd have a Japanese fairy tale ending."

Kagome blinks in surprise. Her mother has never expressed
anything but positive comments about her adventures, even after
that time when she collapsed, due to injuries, in her arms.


Flashback; (loosely based on my story ‘When friends find out'
basically what is in that story, but without the presence of
Kagome's three girlfriends.)

Kagome thinks: After that horrible fight with Inu-yasha, then
that forty kilometers run to the well, then that final massive
fight with him at the well, she made it through the well, and
then collapsed at the front door in front of her mother.

While she was healing up, and after seeing how worried her mother
was, she decided to open up and tells her mother more about her
adventures. (Before this she tried to leave the details out of
the stories.) She does tell her mother the truth, mostly, about
the physical aspects of her adventures, although, even now she
doesn't tell her mother everything about the emotional stress her
adventure's causes.

End flashback

‘What could have brought her to think that?' she thinks.

Kagome bites her lips, a pensive look appears on her face as she
thinks, ‘I want a happily ever after ending. I've read Japanese
fairy tales, and I don't want that type of an ending.'

‘How many Japanese fairy tales that I've read, end with the
young, handsome, and in some cases rude, hero dying in one last
glorious battle, trapped by fate and honor, leaving his wife or
lover to raise his child? That is NOT going to happen with Inu-
yasha. I'll save that idiot from himself, if that's the last
thing I do.' Raw determination colors her thoughts.

Kagome, still hugging her mother, moves them and manages to get
them both seated on the sofa. She, then, breaks the hug, grabs
her mother's chin, and looking into her eyes, Kagome asks,
"mother, I need to know what's happened. Is it Souta?
Grandfather? Tell me, please?"

Her mother's arm sweeps to the low sofa table and points to the
open photo album.

Kagome looks at the album. ‘That is the friends of the family
photo album. That a picture of Tenrousei Gina and her family.
Mom's best friend.' She thinks. The picture is of three person
family. A nice looking woman of her mother's age, a handsome, if
bald, older man and a beautiful young daughter. They are smiling
and happy.

"Yokio was kidnaped yesterday." Her mother says in a flat,
toneless voice.

Kagome closes her eyes in pain. ‘Yokio. Mom's best friends only
daughter.'

Kagome mind instantly catalogs what she knows: Yokio is a couple
of years younger than Kagome. Both her mother and Yokio's mother
tried to push them together, to be best friends, like their
parents are, but that never happened. Still, Yokio IS one of her
friends. Not in the same category as Yuka, Eri, Ayumi, and
defiantly not in Sango's class, but still a good friend, someone
she played an older sister to, as they were growing up.

A pulse of guilt courses through Kagome. She thinks, ‘a good
friend, yeah. Like when was the last time, I've done more than
say, ‘hi' to her in the last couple of years. I'm such a good
friend. Right . . . '


Her breath catches, as Kagome continues to think, ‘Even the
birthday and other cards I've, no, mom, has sent her and most of
my other friends are fakeish.'

Early in her adventures with Inu-yasha, Kagome and her mother
bought a huge stack of various greeting cards, birthday, get
well, Christmas cards, etc. Kagome, then, signed most of them. If
Kagome is home, she finishes them and sends them out as
appropriate, but if she's not home, her mother finishes them and
sends them out. It keeps up the appearance that Kagome is home
and still active, even if due to illness, she's confined to her
bed.


Mrs. Higurashi whispers. "A grayish or white van pulled up beside
her as she and her friends were walking home from school. The
doors of the van opened, somebody wearing dark clothing and a ski
mask, grabbed her, threw her into the van and the van sped off."

A pause. "Nothing else?" Kagome asks in a quiet voice.

"No phone calls, no ransom notes. Nothing." Her mother's voice
breaks as she speaks. She begins to cry again. Kagome wraps her
arms around her mother's shoulder and hugs her.

‘Now is NOT the time to mention about the potential problem with
the well, or any other problem.' Kagome concentrates and forces
those thoughts into the corner of her mind, where she can ignore
them until she's helped her mother.

Kagome thinks, ‘yesterdays and today's stress . . . I'm sure
that talking to the police about a missing person brought up
memories of the day that father vanished. And that must have
brought out mom's doubts about my adventures on the other side of
the well.' She grimaces, ‘I'm sure that if this never happened,
mom would never have revealed any doubts about my adventures. She
always approved of them.'

"The police were just here, asking questions." Mrs. h whispers.
"You missed them by fifteen, maybe thirty minutes."

‘Well, that explains the cigaret smell.' Kagome mind flashes.

Kagome frowns. ‘Where is Souta, anyway? Where is Grandfather?
They should be here.'

Kagome's mind reaches out, trying to locate their aura's. ‘I
should know them well enough to detect them. Grandfather is at
the tourist shop. I think. I hope that's him, anyway.' She
thinks.

"Where is grandfather?"

"At the gift shop. A tour bus is due today and he wanted to make
sure that everything was ready." A hint of steel shines through
the tears as her mother speaks.

A flash of guilt hits Kagome. ‘If I had been here, he'd be up
here, with his daughter, not hiding in the store.' She squeezes
her mother's shoulder tight.


‘Souta. I can't find him. He must be too far away.'

"Where's Souta?" Kagome asks.

A pause.

"After the police finished with him, he left to visit his
friends. It is a Saturday, after all." Her mother replies through
the tears, her voice full of hurt.

"He should be here." Kagome states angrily through clenched
teeth.

"I. . . I'm failing him." Her mother cries as she clutches her
daughter. "He and I . . . "

Kagome opens her mouth to say something, then closes it. Her
memory brings up various comments Souta has said to her over the
past year or so. One comment, though, speaks loudest to her.

"Mom never lets me have any fun. Not like you and Inu-yasha. I
have to tell her where I'm going and when I'll be back. You. You,
big sister, you get to do anything." Bitterness oozes in Souta's
voice.

‘I thought', Kagome's mind reels, ‘I thought he was just going
through a phase, something normal, if stupid. But, if he vanishes
on Mother during a time like this, something is really wrong.'

A huge swath of guilt slashes through Kagome, like inu-yasha
swinging Tetsusaiga through her chest. ‘I should have paid more
attention. Even when I'm here, I'm so busy with school . . .
I've lost touch with my family.'

Kagome begins to cry. "I'm sorry mother. I'm so sorry. I wasn't
here." Her voice crackles with pain.

Both Mrs. Higurashi and her daughter cry into each other's
shoulder.

Soon, though, Kagome begins to rock her mother back and forth
gently and she begins to hum, a deep burring hum in her throat.
Her right hand frees itself from hugging her mother and begins to
stroke her mother's hair.

Her mother relaxes into Kagome's grip.

Kagome blinks, she stops humming for a second, then continues to
hum. ‘I treating my mother like I treat Shippo after one of his
nightmares.'

Her mind flashes to a night a couple of days after Shippo joined
them.

"Look you stupid human bitch. He's a kitsune! Not a human pup!"
Inu-yasha yells at Kagome, as she is trying to calm a
hysterically crying Shippo, late at night, with the only light a
low fire to show what's happening.

"Then, you all-mighty, all-knowing, idiot, tell me what to do!"
Kagome screams back at him.

Inu-yasha flashes his fangs at Kagome. "Purr, dammit."

"Purr?"

He grimaces and forces out from between tightly clenched teeth,
"like this, purr . . . "

"brrr . . . "

"Try again. And stroke his hair. Grooming calms young kitsune's."

A few minutes later, as Shippo, finally, is calming down.

"Why?" Kagome asks quietly.

"Why, What? Bitch."

"Why did you help me? Do you care about him?"

Something flashes in Inu-yasha's eyes. "I need you to get a full
night sleep. You need to be rested to locate the Shards."

Kagome glares at Inu-yasha and hisses. "Since he's asleep, I'm
not going to yell at you, Inu-yasha. Good night." She finishes in
a huff.

Kagome shakes her head, dispelling her memory of that night.

She frowns and looks at the kitchen/dining area. Souta's favorite
cereal is on the counter, not up in the cabinets like it should
be. And it looks like there are some dirty dishes near the sink.
‘Souta and grandfather ate, but didn't clean up.'

"mom? When was the last time you ate anything?" she asks in a
soft voice.

"aaaa . . . Lunch, yesterday." Her mother replies after a pause.
"I tried to eat something last night, after I got home from
visiting Gina, but I couldn't keep it down."

"How much sleep did you get?" she asks, as she still holds her
mother against her chest.

"ahhhh. Most of the night."

"Try again, mom." Kagome replies in a dry voice.

"Four hours."

"Mother." Steel appears in Kagome's tone.

"Two hours. And that is the combined total of a bunch of ten,
fifteen minutes catnaps."

Kagome, after a couple of deep breaths, breaks the hold on her
mother, catches her mother's chin and looks her mother in the
face. "Ok, Mother. I'm going to get some towels, and clean your
face."

"You're pretty splotchy yourself." Her mother states.

"Our faces, then. Then I'm going to fix you some brunch."

Mrs. Higurashi's eyebrow raises and she starts to speak. Kagome
places her finger on her mother's lips. "Today, for the next few
hours, at least, mom, let me mother you." She whispers. Love and
caring are shining from Kagome's eyes.

Kagome's mother's eyes tear up, but she nods.

"Then you're going to take a nap. I'll wake you up in a few
hours. Then we, and that includes Grandfather and Souta, even if
I have to hogtie them and drag them over there myself, are going
over to the Tenrousei house and we are going to be there in their
time of need." Kagome tone is the one she perfected against Inu-
yasha. Her, ‘this is the law, disobey and earn my wrath', tone.

Mrs. Higurashi licks her lips and nods.

Kagome cups her mother's check and whispers. "Mother. Your best
friend needs someone strong to help her. Be that person."

Kagome's eyes and Her mother's eye lock.

Mrs. H takes a deep breath and nods. "I will." She shakes her
head slightly. "I just."

Kagome places her finger on her mother's lips, again, stopping
her mother's explanation. "Shhh. No blame. No excuses." A pause.
"Are you ready?"

A nod, a strong, decisive nod.

Kagome smiles, one of those bright happy smiles that turns Inu-
yasha into a drooling puppy. "Thank you, mother."


Kagome stands up and after a glance back at her mother, leaves
the room.

Kimiko Higurashi looks at her daughters back. She sits up
straight and adjusts her clothes, removing the creases. ‘I was so
distracted this morning, I put on my normal house dress, instead
of something special, even though I knew that the police would
visit, today.'

She thinks, ‘my daughter has grown up.' Tears well up in her
eyes. ‘How could I have missed that?'

"Only a bad parent could miss something like that." She whispers.

In the bathroom.


Kagome looks into the mirror of the bathroom above the sink, and
above the drawer where the face-towels are keep. She pulls out a
couple of hand towels and wets them in the sink. She thinks,
‘what else can I do?' her eyes flash.

"No" she whispers, "I didn't just think that did I? Inu-yasha's
idea of a rescue would destroy a couple of city blocks."

‘If that happens, the authorities will investigate and they'll
discover him. They'll try to take him away, experiment on him.
He'll escape, destroying more city blocks.' Kagome's mind races,
as she thinks of about what might happen in the future. ‘He'll go
through the well. They'll find out about it. And seal it off and
study it. They'll find out about me. They'll experiment on me, to
find out about my Miko powers.' A shiver runs up and down her
spine.

Kagome whispers, "We won't be able to complete the Jewel and
Naraku will run amok. Or they'll discover how to operate the
well, go back through time and change history."

She stares at her eyes and says in a harsh tone. "If they change
history, then the entire time/space/history of the world changes,
and maybe destroyed."

"I can't risk that." She says harshly to herself. "Not for one
person, no matter who that person is."

‘Souta's given me too many time-travel science-fiction manga
stories to read. His stupid, if well-intentioned, attempt to try
to help me understand the Well.' Kagome thinks. She blushes. ‘In
addition he gives me romance manga's, to help Inu-yasha and me .
. . stop thinking about that, Kagome! Still time-travel
paradoxes, I can't escape them.'

She turns to leave, but, stops turns back to the mirror and
touches the image of her check in the mirror. "I can't. I really,
really can't." She hisses to herself.

‘But,' She thinks, ‘how can I look myself in the mirror tomorrow,
if I don't, at least, ask inu-yasha to help find Yokio.'

She closes her eyes and leans her forehead against the mirror.

Time stops.


"I'll ask him. I've got no choice." She whispers. "Hopefully
he'll say no. yes. Yes, that's the ticket, I'll ask, he'll say no
and my conscience will be clear."


end chapter 2

preview chapter 3

"Shippo!" Kagome screams as she climbs out of the well.

"Kagome!" Shippo twists around, each finger a different color,
they a bright red, blue, green mix.

"I come back to get Inu-yasha." Kagome states through clenched
teeth, obviously angry. "I need him to help me in my time, and I
need him in a good mood, and you're painting his face!"

"But! Kagome!" Shippo hides his hands behind his back.

"No buts, Shippo!" Kagome hisses. "This time you're going to be
punished."

Inu-yasha, behind the scroll on his mouth, grins, evilly.

Shippo has written ‘IDIOT' all over his face, in multiple colors
. . .


Thank you for reading
jeff shelton