Friendly Persuasion
My Other Half
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Life would be so cruel as to do this to her.
much trust in as Inu-Yasha or the others, had betrayed her.
“But why?” Kagome thought for the umpteenth time, “Why
would Leota lie about who she was? And
why did she say that she had never hoped to meet me again?
“Because she knew you’d blow everything out of proportion
like you’re doing now.” Came a male
voice from the lowest branch of the God Tree where Kagome had chosen to run to.
Kagome stood up, clenching her fists at her side, “Who are
you?”
“It’s me, .
couldn’t have forgotten me so easily.”
Relaxing just a little, Kagome watched as Tora jumped down
from the tree and stood in front of her.
The look he had on his face was the most serious she’d ever seen on him.
“No, of course I didn’t, but what are you doing here?”
“Watching over you.”
Kagome was taken aback, “Why?” She squeaked.
Tora shrugged, “Sama-sama told me to watch over you if ever
‘he’ was unable.”
“That’s right,” Kagome thought, “Leota betrayed
Tora, too.”
Tora startled Kagome by smiling, “Just because Sama-sama
happens to be a girl, doesn’t mean I respect her any less.
Kagome-san. I’d prefer it if you used
the word ‘fooled’ or ‘tricked’.”
“How can you read my thoughts?”
“Not your thoughts, Kagome-san, just your face and your eyes
are enough to tell me what you’re thinking.
That’s one of the things Sama-sama hates about me.”
“Just ‘one of’? What
else does she hate about you?”
“My optimism,” Tora nodded with a smile on his face, “she
absolutely hates it.”
Deciding this subject was not important, Kagome prompted the
more important subject, “Well if she ‘tricked’ you too, then why aren’t you
angry? I mean, she’s been lying
to you about herself!”
Tora shrugged, “It doesn’t bother me because I know that no
matter what she looks like or whatever form she takes, Sama-sama will always be
Sama-sama. There’s still the wolf-like
part of her that cannot be ignored. She
will forever be her. That personality
sticks to her like white on rice.”
“But she lied!”
“Oh and you’ve never lied, Kagome-san?
This opened Kagome’s eyes, “You?
Tora’s eyes flashed with knowledge long buried, “Lots of
stuff. Hell, I could be a serial killer
for all you know, playing with you to my heart’s content.
Kagome’s eyes were the size of dinner plates, “What?!”
Tora looked so serious, but the illusion was broken when a
smile cracked his stoic mask and hearty laughter spilled from his lips, “I
can’t believe you bought it!
Don’t worry, Kagome, I’m not gay! Not like you’d be affected if I were.”
Kagome was still shocked at Tora’s statement, and there was
something tugging at her mind, but she couldn’t remember it, because Tora now
had his arm around her shoulder and was leading her back to Kaede’s hut.
“Hey, wait a minute, Tora?”
“What?”
“I don’t want to talk to her just yet.”
“Why not? You two are
practically sisters, K-chan. Though
friendship can be torn apart by distance and time, that is not the case with
family, K-chan. It’ll take more than this
to dissuade Ookami-sama from being your sister.”
Kagome was about to push the issue further, but a soothing
feeling was creeping into her mind like mist over a lake in the morning hours.
At Kaede’s hut...
“I can’t believe it,” Sango said, standing up, “how can you
have this on your back without having seen it?
Or even heard of it?”
Her look alike shrugged as she drew the kimono back over her
shoulders, “If I knew, I would tell you, Sango-san, but all I know is that I
take the exact appearance of the one I am to imitate.”
“And voice.” Kaede
added.
“Yes, that, too.”
“I still find it hard to believe.”
“That’s understandable, Sango-san, believe me.
and still be shocked when I saw my brother’s face looking back at
me. Almost six years I had been
in his likeness, and even after all that time, I was still surprised to see him
looking at me.” Leota admitted, pulling
down the right side of her kimono.
“What are you doing?”
Sango asked.
Smiling, Leota said, “Becoming me again, of course.”
Leota licked the index finger of her left hand and smeared
the symbol that was slightly lighter than the rest of her skin.
wiped away easily. Soon Leota stood
before them once again, the smile still on her face.
All traces of that smile vanished, however, when Tora came
into the hut, Kagome trailing nervously behind him with her head down.
Tora nodded his head to Kaede, Sango, and Leota.
was more probable to Sango to believe he had gotten ‘distracted’ as he usually
did on such searches.
Inu-Yasha stepped into the hut then, a surprised look on his
face when he saw that Kagome had gotten there before him.
“Gees, even the Tetsusaiga couldn’t cut through the
tension in here.” He thought,
taking a seat a little ways away from everyone else.
Leota’s face was void of all emn, an, and only in her eyes
could one see what she truly felt. A
feeling they had all known at some time or another:
Guilt.
“Kagome I...”
“Don’t,” Kagome interrupted, seeing the pleading look in
Leota’s eyes become sadness at not being able to speak, “bother to apologize to
me, Leota. It’s my fault for thinking
what you had done was to betray me. It
was you all along, just in a different form.
I should have realized that the personality was the same as it had been
all those ten years ago. That same ‘I
don’t care what anyone else says’ personality.
Can you ever forgive me?”
The impassive mask remained on Leota’s face as she spoke, “I
don’t know if you remember, Kagome-san, but before I left you at the age of ten
while you were only eight, I asked something of you. I asked you, ‘K-chan, whatever happens to me, will you still love
me as much as you do now no matter what?’
And you answered to me, clear as day, ‘No matter what, Ota-chan, I
promise.’ Ever since that day, seven
years ago, I’ve been keeping you to your word, Kagome-san.”
Kagome swallowed.
This wasn’t going well. There
hadn’t been one flicker of emotion on Leota’s face or even in her eyes as she
spoke. She was like ice, and Kagome
might as well have been picking at it with a straw for all the breaking through
she was doing.
Tears welled up in Kagome’s eyes, threatening to fall at any
second, “Please, Leota, please forgive me.
I never meant to break that promise, really! With all the stuff that’s been going on over in this time, betrayal
is about as common as snow in winter!
I’m so sorry for jumping to conclusions like I did!
An icy glare was cast her way, “For one thing, Higurashi
Kagome-san, tears will get you nowhere.
Another thing, blaming your actions on past events will also get you
nowhere. And third, Kagome-san, give me
one good reason why I have to forgive you.”
Kagome didn’t care about the tears anymore, she let them
fall. She also didn’t care who was in
the room at that moment. It might as
well have been just her and Leota.
“You’re my sister, that’s why! My ane-chan! Distance,
time, they don’t matter to me! For not
even they can ruin the feelings of sisters!spanspan>Friendships can ebb away with ten years between them without even
a letter or a phone call, but family can never be destroyed by
the two harshest elements known to human beings! You are my other half Leota-san, without you, I would have died
so many times!”
Without warning, Leota took two steps, which brought her mere
inches away from Kagome’s face.
Leota’s green eyes seemed to be searching for something, and she must
have found it, for she backed away slightly.
Leota took Kagome’s hands into her own, her eyes softening
and her face relaxing to its normal look, “If ever I was given the choice of
you or Kyo-kun to be my sibling, Kagome-san, I would choose you.
That said, Leota tugged on Kagome’s hands and wrapped her own
arms around Kagome’s shoulders, giving her one of the fiercest hugs Kagome had
ever received. It could only compare to
the hug Inu-Yasha had given her before stealing the Shikon Jewel, pushing her
down the well, and then shoving a tree inside to ensure she would never
return... a plan of his that ended up backfiring since Kagome did
return.
“Forever together.”
Kagome whispered.
“Together forever.”
Leota replied.
“For all eternity.”
They both finished with childlike smiles on their faces.
An hour later...
“Well, I think I’m going to bed.” Kagome announced.
“Me too.” Leota said,
stretching her arms over her head.
The girls had been talking nonstop for what seemed like
forever, much to everyone’s delight.
Inu-Yasha had left five minutes into their conversation, claiming to be
going out. In actuality, he was lying
on the roof of Kaede’s hut, listening for anything out of the ordinary.
So far there were only the sounds of crickets and two girls
talking at an alarming rate of probably seventy-two words a minute for the past
hour.
“Goodnight Lady Kagome, Lady Leota.”
s and and a nod.
“Goodnight girls.”
Kaede smiled warmly, glad the two seemed to be on the right foot once
more.
“G’night all!” Leota
smiled, tugging Kagome after.
“Night!” Kagome said,
beginning to giggle at something Leota whispered.
“Night girls!” Tora
called after the giggling pair.
“Night Tora-kun!” They giggled out from behind the curtain that had been left up so
the girls could change without fear of a certain lecherous monk watching them.
Shippo went to scamper after them, but was stopped when Tora
put a hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t think you wanna sleep with them tonight,
Shippo-chan,” Tora warned, “they’re gonna be talkin’ ’bout girly stuff.”
Shippo’s nose wrinkled at the thought, “Okay.
of you, then?”
“Of course it is, who do think I am, Chan-chan?
A confused look replaced the look of disgust on Shippo’s
face, “Who’s that?”
Tora laughed, “It’s a story the grown-ups back home tell
their children to scare them into behaving.
Maybe I should threaten you with an angry Ookami-sama instead, huh?”
“I heard that!” Came
Leota’s aggravated voice as she threw a shoe at Tora’s head.
forehead if he hadn’t ducked just in time.
Tora picked up the shoe and looked at it, “I didn’t think you
wore shoes, Ookami-sama.”
“That’s because it’s mine!”
Kagome laughed.
“Okay, seriously, we’re going to bed.
Nervous shifting could be heard from the roof.
laughter, but could do nothing to suppress their smiles.
As Kagome slipped into her sleeping bag and Leota covered
herself with the blankets she had been given earlier to keep her warm, both
smiled at each other.
“Regardless of anything, Leota-san, I swear I’ll love you
just as much as I do now.”
“Kagome-san?”
“Hm?”
“It’s Ota-chan. Just
Ota-chan.”
“Then I’m K-chan.”
“Goodnight then, K-chan.”
“Goodnight, Ota-chan.”
Grins still plastered onto their faces, both of them fell
asleep.