Forged Dreams by Aimee Blue

The Crescent Moon

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

"Kagome-neesan!”

Pausing in her dutiful sweeping of the entranceway to the sword smith’s, Kagome brought up a hand to shield her eyes from the last rays of the setting sun as she squinted out at the distant orange speck that was Chouko -chan.

“Slow down, Chouko,” she cajoled, setting the broom against the wall, “you’ll trip and hurt yourself.”

Chouko, who had picked up the hem of her kimono and brought it about her knees in a highly unladylike fashion so that she could run unimpeded, laughed at the suggestion. Her bright orange shorts were clearly visible due to the wardrobe adjustment and Kagome rolled her eyes. As much as Chouko liked dressing in the chequered kimono that Kagome had given her, she always wore her shorts underneath.

“Look,” she said, holding out the hem and exposing the wares that had been nestled inside, “they were selling raspberries at the convenience store!”

Kagome frowned, though an indulgent smile played on her lips, “And the soy sauce I sent you for?”

Chouko’s eyes grew wide. “Oops, I forgot.”

“Hm,” Kagome pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips, “I suppose that at least it was raspberries and not chocolate you bought.”

Chouko’s little face blossomed into a hopeful smile and Kagome tussled the girl’s hair mussing her sloppy side ponytail.

“Chouko-kun!” a boy from her class skidded to a halt on his bike next to them and grinned hugely, “Come and play.”

Chouko sent a hopeful look Kagome’s way and the older girl just about melted under the force of those puppy dog eyes.

“Fine,” Kagome sighed, “but change out of your kimono first, I don’t need you to ruin another one!”

Chouko grinned cheekily and made quick work of her obi and kimono, revealing her t-shirt and shorts that had been stowing away underneath the more formal garments. Kagome caught the kimono and obi as they fluttered towards her with a nostalgic sigh.

“I remember when I was as carefree as Chouko -chan,” she murmured to the figure reclining against the wall of the sword smith’s.

Beneath the shadow that his sugegasa provided, a fanged smirk played at his lips. “Feeling the urge to go climb a tree?”

Kagome grinned and swatted at his legs with her broom, though he dodged her ‘attack’ easily. “Climb a tree, ride a Hanyou’s back as he raced through the country side, watch a pink bubble-kitsune fly away into the sunset...” she relayed, a nostalgic lilt to her voice as she watched the little dot that was Chouko riding on her friends bike disappear into the distance.

The man groaned. “I keep telling you to stop bringing that up! It was all I could do back then!”

Blue eyes slanted mischievously in his direction. “Oh? All you could do? I seem to remember you used to do a pretty good albatross... with a very pretty turquoise bow!”

Standing abruptly at the teasing, Shippo pouted, turquoise eyes twinkling as he tipped back his sugegasa to look down his nose at her.

Bopping his sugegasa off his head so that it hung around his neck on its silk ribbon, Kagome scolded. “Don’t you look down your nose at me, Shippo-kun!”

Now an adult Kitsune by anyone’s standards, Shippo dwarfed Kagome easily. His hair had grown longer, his tails had multiplied to five and he wielded dual dao swords with great precision and a slight hint of cockiness.

“It’s kind of easy, Kagome-chan,” he grinned foxily, “when you’re so little.” He patted her head condescendingly.

Rolling up her sleeves in a dangerous manner she hefted the broom over her head and chased him back into the house.

Shippo, laughing heartily at her pursuit that reminded him of the past, escaped Kagome by ducking into the little garden and, turning around mid-sprint, poked his tongue out at her.

“Shippo, watch out!” she squeaked, wincing at the Kitsune tripped over an unfortunately placed rock, her helping hand meant that she got dragged down with him.

They skidded a short distance like that, Kagome sprawled across Shippo’s chest, until they ground to a halt just before they reached the shishi odoshi, that made a timely clank.

“You tripped on purpose,” she accused suspiciously, well aware of the Yokai’s superior balance and agility.

Shippo grinned sheepishly and she growled at him. “You’re such a child!”

“Sorry, Kagome,” he murmured as she rolled off the sprawled Kitsune to sit beside him on the grass.

“Chouko will be pleased at your visit,” Kagome opined tracing a pattern in the grass with her littlest finger.

Shippo grinned, exposing razor sharp canines. “Cute kid,” he acknowledged, “she’s always had a thing for my spinning top magic.” Shrewd eyes slanted in Kagome’s direction. “You continuously pick up orphans, huh?”

Kagome wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. “It’s not like that... they just need me is all.”

“Don’t you think Chouko looks a lot like—”

“Yes,” Kagome interrupted quickly, “but I look after Chouko because she is Chouko.”

The ringing of the phone snapped them from their impromptu conversation and Shippo watched with concerned eyes as Kagome scurried into the house to answer it.

It had been a long time since their misadventures in the past, five hundred years about; enough that Kagome had been able to contact her mother again, though she’d never moved back to the family shrine.

They had thought that the final battle with Naraku would be the end of their turmoil. But apparently it had been the beginning of their problems. A flighty Inuyasha had meant that Kagome’s dreams of a happily ever after had eroded away like a cliff face against the ocean and then an even more troublesome problem had happened upon them.

It had snuck up upon them slowly at first, but then they had all been led to believe with absolute certainty that something was wrong with Kagome. She wasn’t aging.

Whether it was the time travelling or the shikon jewel or some act of kami, no one knew. Hypotheses could be made but it hadn’t helped the apparently immortal Miko one whit. She’d hung around the village longer than Inuyasha had, enough time to see three generations of Miroku and Sango’s children grow up. But then she’d relocated.

In her own words ‘watching death whilst being unable to live is too painful’. Kagome had somehow ended up living with and working for Totosai, for reasons that escaped Shippo. He’d found them years later, Totosai had even adjusted to making normal human swords in order to deal with the rapid decline in the demonic population.

Now, in twenty-first century Japan, they existed in one of the less densely populated villages still operating under the guise of a human sword smith’s though their clientele had become fewer in number, people were willing to pay a pretty penny for the best made katana in Japan. Totosai remained as elusive as ever, often leaving their traditional little Japanese home to bask in the mountains with Momo. Not that he had been the front man of his business for a long time; people much preferred Kagome’s smiles to Totosai’s obscurities.

Picking himself up off the grass, Shippo brushed clinging blades of grass from his black hakama and made his way into the house. Kagome sat in seiza in one corner, holding the phone to her ear.

“Yes, mama, I know,” she murmured, absently flicking Shippo a shrewd glance over her shoulder, accompanied by a small shooing motion of her wrist.

Shippo waited patiently until Kagome had hung up, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. “Your mother?”

Kagome rubbed her temples with her fingers, eyes closed as if that might help her escape from the world. “Yeah, she wanted me to come home...”

“She always wants you to come home, she’s your mother, she loves you,” Shippo murmured, brows furrowed in concern.

One eye opened to peer at him. “My place is here now,” she told him sternly, “I go to visit all the time... but this is my home.”

Deciding not to press the matter, Shippo cast around for another topic and landed upon the convenient one of Totosai. “Where is the old coot?”

Kagome smiled at the mention of the sword smith and shrugged blithely. “Somewhere in the mountains probably, apparently Momo likes it there.”

“What about this place?” he asked, gesturing at the shop front that cloaked the front of the large traditional home.

“I run it whilst he’d not here,” she explained, “I have four hundred years of experience... you and Totosai have always been ones for wandering off randomly.”

Shippo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m a fox, Kagome, I roam.”

“You also womanise,” Kagome scolded, pointing an accusing finger at the Kitsune, “Sango and I predicted that Miroku had rubbed off on you when you were tiny.”

Shippo scoffed, lowering himself to sprawl on his side on the tatami matting. “I have more finesse than him.”

Kagome giggled helplessly. “That much is a given.”

0-0-0

Late that night, Kagome carefully arranged a blanket around the sleeping Chouko who had curled up to Shippo’s side. They might quite a pair, sleeping off the affects of an afternoon spent spinning tops and showcasing Kitsune magic.

Switching off the television that the pair had left on, she backed out of the room quietly, slippers shuffling against the tatami mats. In her sleeping yukata, she made her way along the corridor, glancing outside at the crescent moon that basked in the sky, she caught the gaze of a crow, sat atop one of the trees in the garden.

“Ne, Karasu-san, are you an ill omen?” she asked softly.

The crow blinked at her, once, twice, and then spread its wings and departed from the garden. She smiled softly as she shuffled down the corridor to her room. An ill omen? She was thinking too much about a random animal. It didn’t mean anything.

The crescent moon lit her way as she entered her room, and she shut the sliding door on the moon, and the unbidden memories it brought with it.

If I can survive, then surely Sesshoumaru-sama did too...

Shaking that errant thought away quickly, she climbed onto her futon.

Why on earth am I thinking of Sesshoumaru? She couldn’t remember the last time the stoic demon lord had occupied her thoughts.

Downstairs, a pile of unopened mail sat on a little table in the hallway. Beneath the little pile of mail hid a small envelope.

An envelope that was sealed...

With a crescent moon.

A/N: Written for Nisou Tenshi's Fourteen symbols challenge, prompt: Crow. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!