Tokyo Summer

So, here's my little story of love and loss; woes and such that everyone would be familiar with. I really hope that you enjoy this story, because I've enjoyed writing it for myself, for you, and for anyone who has gone through losing something valuable. Whether it be a loved one, a home, a life that you had once wanted, we've all experienced what it's like to hold onto a dream at the end of a kite string and watch it drift away.
Please read and review to help me improve and to give your opinions. Thank you for reading.
InuYasha and all affliated characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, Shogakukan, and Yomiuri distributions.
~ love Oh Jiru/Your KrauserDeluxe, &Ji-kun. (Had to cover a lot of bases there!)
Chapter Von.
OKAY. I double checked this chapter and realized that, somehow, there was a lot of content missing, so I updated it with the proper and complete chapter.
Sorry if it starts off a bit slow, I'm not great at the intial introduction!~

Loose Lips;

A blanket of heat swept across the Kanto region of Nippon with the force of a thousand ovens. Sounds pretty ridiculous to those who didn't experience the beginning of summer. It was so abrupt that year that the natives seemed to be restless and weary of the seasons to come.
Spring was but a short lived blip on the radar as the summer crept in. All of the flourishing green leaves and sakura had withered to a drier version of their former glory. The rainy season would start any day, and Kagome, of all people, was sure that it would match the mood she had held since winter.
Of all the people in Tokyo, the nineteen year old was soured by the love affairs that the fall had brought all of her friends. Each one had someone to hold, to snuggle up to as the snow fell and relish as the sun kissed their tanned skin on the beach.
She, much like her twin sister, had been forced to stay behind and tend to the family business while their friends played in the surf - somewhere, she'd heard, around Niigata. While it wasn't a bustling prospect, it was extra money to be earned for her eventual migration to the University...and for a pair of Vivienne Westwood shoes she'd been dying for.

Kikyo had told her to keep her mouth shut and just accept the business. But, unlike her mirror image, she felt more alive, more caged by the defeat of running a cleaning service. Day in and day out that's what the girls did - clean. Clean, clean, and clean some more. It wasn't like they were doing anything miraculous.
She'd spent so much time studying and cleaning that she barely new who she was anymore. Kikyo had been smarter, a little prettier, handier for sure... She had someone to love her, even if he was odd and a bit old for Kagome's tastes.

Kikyo's real job was an accountant position at a local law firm, and Kagome had to admit, it made her seethe with jealously. She had filled in for her one day, and they immediately noted the size of her wait was slightly larger than Kikyo's.

It had made her day fizzle before it began.

Men were such lechers, Kagome thought idly as she finished cleaning their own house. It was small and older, so there wasn't much to worry about. Little shanty style homes on the shore was something that she had envied.


They were lucky enough to grow up in a shrine house. But, like all good things, they had lost their home in a fire and relocated to a flower shop owners house. Their mother, Ume, had kept all of the pink and green wallpaper, ornate with roses, unfortunately.
The girls felt like dolls standing against it and took their pictures against the plastered walls. Kikyo was slightly taller and her hair was a bit longer and straighter. Kagome always thought that she would make a man happy one day and be a nice trophy.

Not something nice to assume, since she looked so similar. Kagome never thought of herself that way. She was oval faced, gray eyed, and dark headed. There was something about her mouth and the way she smiled that made people fall at her feet.
It was just her own selfish notion of being in love - the perfect love - that she had such trouble finding someone she felt was appropriate. Well, that and the fact that she was so picky she'd run off several men before the second date.

There was one, though, that she had been close with ever since. He was just caught up in his own world, and such a womanizer that it made her stomach hurt. Miroku was one of her best friends and tried and tried to help him break through that horrendous habit of his.
Kagome knew it was about time to pay him a visit. They had things to discuss about a trip they had planned since they were in high school. Kikyo still didn't know about it, and she knew that her head was going to pop off when she found out.

Ume hadn't left them their without supervision for a summer for nothing! No one would know if she slipped away for a few days. Kikyo was going to stay with her boyfriend and do those debaucherous things that you'd read about in romance novels.
Hell, Sesshomaru looked like he belonged in one. He was a good looking man in his early thirties with a young daughter. His wife, Kagome thought her name had been Kagura, had passed away in an accident some years ago.

Whenever he met Kikyo, it was almost sickening how well they melded to one another and thier strict habits. The first time that Kagome had met him, he had come over for dinner - all dressed in his finest business suit, with his long gray hair bound so tightly, you would have never noticed it.
Their mother had fallen in love with the stoic man, herself. But, as soon as she had gone to bed, Kagome had the misfortune of walking in on her sister on the washing machine, getting fucked. There had been no nice way to put it.

It atleast gave her an idea what she would look like and made notes to change some of those awful faces.
"God, gotta stop thinking about things like that." Kagome said with a stout shake of her head. She loved Kikyo, but not enough to ever see that again.

"Got to stop thinking about what?" Kikyo asked, putting a handful of clothes into her designer travel bag. It had obviously been a gift she'd hidden.

Kagome stuffed the cleaner back into a small bucket and put it under their yellow kitchen sink, "Nothing. Just stupid things really." She lied, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"Oh." Kikyo quipped, "So, I assume that we don't have anything else to do today?" She looked so antsy Kagome could barely stand to look at her. No matter what she did, she always looked like she was in a hurry. It was usually never the case, though.

"You know we don't. How long are you going to be gone?" Kagome said, firmly looking at her sister as though she was scolding her for bailing.

Kikyo bit her lip and pressed the wrinkles out of her white sundress. "I was thinking I'd be gone for a couple of days. Sesshomaru and I were going to take Rin to see the lanterns in Gion at the festival in Kyoto..." Her thick voice trailed off leaving Kagome a bit excited that she was going to jet off like that.

"Are you going to cancel all of the -" Kagome started.

"I already did. I figured that you'd want to do something fun for the weekend. It couldn't hurt to go see your friends once in a while." Kikyo interjected, batting her dark eyes. "Don't worry I won't tell Mama when she calls."

Kagome never trusted what that girl said. As close as they were, she was still closer to their mother. Kikyo was incredibly mischevious when it came to her lovers.

"Are you sure?" Kagome asked, grabbing her orange juice off of the table. "You tell on me all the time. I'm sure that if she gets back from visiting Daddy that I'll never be allowed out of the house again, because you always tell her that you're here when she and Sota are gone."

Kikyo rolled her eyes and pattered through the small hallway to the foyer and slipped on a pair of wedged sandals. She turned around to look at her sister with a soft grin.

"Sometimes we do things that we regret, and sometimes we do things that will make us grow as people. I just hope that you stop being a baby and go do something while you have the chance. School break doesn't last forever, Kagome." Kikyo said as-a-matter-of-factly.
Kagome looked down at her empty Hello Kitty mug and sighed. She felt repressed for her young age and made every effort to be the better person. It wasn't like she was going far away. She and Miroku were only headed to Tsukiji-mura and down the coastline.

Looking up, she brushed her bangs aside and smiled. "Be safe and call me from time to time. I'll let you know what I'm doing as soon as I figure it out. I just don't want Mama to know that I didn't do anything around here or at 'work'." She quoted with her fingers delicately as she waved to her sister.
As soon as the warped brown door shut, and the smell of her flowery perfume faded, Kagome felt relieved. There was a silence that laid heavily on her, but it was for the best that she stop acting a forty year old house wife and like the sneaky child she still was.

Maybe, she realized, that was why she had been alone. The closest she had ever been to having a real relationship was with a young man she met at high school. He had moved away and taken her virginity with him.
With a sigh, she looked around at the small kitchen and felt smothered. "Gotta get out of here..." She sang to herself as she scampered childishly down the hall to her room. Kikyo had moved out into the larger room across the hall, leaving her with plenty of space to slap full of knick-knacks and clutter.

Kagome stepped through her mess of books and clothing on the floor and opened her sliding closet. Clothes flew to her bed and were swiftly packed into her bag. She frequented the streets and posed for pictures in all of her fantastical garb.
At point, she had been a positively talked about artist, but lost her inspiration after the fire had taken away a part of her. She wondered about what her life would have been like had she been to pursue that dream, as she slipped into Kikyo's room. Her nimble hands shoved her sister's designer shoes and dresses into her bag as swiftly as she walked in.
Thinking about the past was not an option anymore. Today was the day that the wind hit her hair and the dirt hit her shoes. Well, Kikyo's shoes and it was painfully obvious that Kikyo would notice, she always did. That didn't matter in the long run, though. Kagome was already rushing through the small house like a mouse after daylight.

Feet pattering in a thick-thick-thick pattern and a slamming door echoed through the empty house as she snuck off. The heat was almost painful to walk into; slapping her in the stomach like a stomach flu.
Miroku probably would be upset with her if she didn't make it on time. She had been lucky she didn't have to lie to go. Kikyo better hold her word. The last thing that Kagome needed was an angry wrench thrown into the works. Her mother would have been furious that they were leaving town.

The damp streets didn't mind the girls clodding on them as they dispersed in their separate directions. They belonged to the wandering summer that held onto their hearts like magnets and sang a siren song to their ears.
Growing up was going to be one of the hardest things that they both had to do. And, as Kagome slipped her bag into the basket on her bicycle, she realized that independence was calling to her. This was the first time she had left home.
If all went well, maybe she wouldn't bother coming back.

A couple of hours had passed, and Kagome was livid. Apparently, no one liked to tell her that they were going out of town ahead of time. It was always that just in case clause that you never seem to read in the fine print.
Miroku's small apartment door had a note taped to it, telling her that he would be in Tsukiji dropping off his sister Yura's little girl. It had been a fact of life that Yura had a severe cocaine addiction and couldn't take care of Mayu.

Kagome always felt bad for her, but Miroku did his best to be a steady parental figure to her and took her to their grandparents. It was better that way anyway, it gave her more time to prepare and get her affairs in order.
Shinjuku was pretty busy this time of day, and it made sense. All of the teens were out blowing their money on gadgets and clothes galore. Kagome usually did the same, so she had no room to complain when she cycled through the busy crosswalks.
The heat was waning as she sped off through the myriad of colorfully clad pedestrians and businessmen on their way around town. Sango, a close friend, lived down the street from the main drag. It was a small alley that looked almost decrepit. If you didn't know any better, you'd assume the worst of the people that lived there.

However, Sango was a savvy twenty-three year old with university under her belt. She was very methodical, and a bit shy. It seemed odd to her that she was as shy as she was. Sango was one of those people that never shut up when you talked to her.
Kagome supposed it was just the aftershock of her horrible relationship. She had been with this guy for about two years and he did nothing but abuse her. It had been long enough for her to get her studies done and get a job teaching French at a local business trade center.
The girls met at the shop Kagome had worked at when she was in high school. She sold vintage clothing and knick-knacks at Milk.

She always thought fondly of Sango, and now creeping through the tiny street, she spied her sitting on her balcony. Her favorite activity seemed to be sitting in her neon-orange plastic chair and eating soy-ice cream.
Sango always had her headphones on, and they were lumpy from the looks of it. Kagome's face was flushed when she made eye contact with the lanky girl.

"Oi, what are you doing today, Kagome-channn?" Sango called, leaning over her balcony.

Kagome huffed as she picked her bag out of the basket and rolled her bike to the side of the cement building. "Trying to get out of here," she said with a strain.
Her bag hadn't felt that heavy when she left the house, she scowled on her way up a small set of stairs. Sango swung her metal gate open and pulled her headphones down around her neck.

"You alright?" She asked, pulling her long brown hair into a pony tail. Kagome envied how pretty she was.

"Yeah," Kagome said, "I'm just getting exhausted. I can only stay for a few minutes, I just wanted to see if you knew of a train that went to Tsukiji."

Sango nodded and plopped back down her gaudy chair. "Take Shinbashi." Her face lit up with a smile as Kagome inspected her loose band shirt and short shorts.

Sango was way too attractive to wear things like that, Kagome thought. "Have you seen or heard from Miroku?"

The other girl shook her head, "No. If he took Mayu down to Tsukiji, he may not be back until later, or he may have left you here." She said with a perk of her brows.

"No matter what I do for him, he still thinks with this dick, doesn't he?" Kagome said with a sigh. Her skin felt like it was so wet it was going to fall off from the heat.

"It's sad that he has to be that way, I think that if he wasn't so atrocious, he'd be a good guy to have a relationship with. I mean, I know you have before, but I'm just stating the obvious, I suppose." Sango rambled, reaching over and grabbing her carton of ice cream from her iron table.

"I'm about to take him up on any offer he has for me." Kagome said. "I'm to the point that I'm so lonely, I don't even want to exist. I can't believe that everyone that I've dated as either left me for someone else, or left me without any explaination."

"Well, Kikyo's been holding onto Sesshomaru," Sango pointed it out everytime they talked about this kind of stuff. She was a little evil from time to time. "So, there's a possibility that you're doing something wrong."

Kagome choked on her breath and looked at the girl with contempt. "You are such a bad friend sometimes. You don't have to point out my flaws like that. I can get someone decent to date me, I suppose."

"Can't call me a bad friend when you can throw a suppose in there." Sango pointed her spoon at Kagome's nose and looked away. "Besides, I'm happy to say that I've been seeing someone recently."

Kagome's stomach knotted up and she felt almost like she was going to be sick. Everyone had someone. What the hell was wrong with her? "Seriously," She said with a huff, "I hope things are going good for you, but I sincerely hate that that's why you've barely spoken to me."
Sango shrugged her shoulder and reached for a glass of lemonade. "You should think of it this way," she swallowed and tilted her head, "...at least it's not you that's the problem."

"I don't know why I like you." Kagome said teasingly.

Sango inspected her friends face. She thought Kagome was beautiful, a little awkward, but with some work could be made into a fine woman one day. She'd already made herself into one, and the challenge of shoving Kagome into the world was something she enjoyed doing.

"The only things that matters is that you do." Sango said standing up. "Now, you can either go to the market and mura alone, or stay with me tonight and leave tomorrow. You knew that Miroku was going to be a d-bag about it. He flakely."

Kagome watched her friend, slide her door open and slip inside. "As long as I'm not left alone in my mother's house, I think that I'll be fine staying here. I need to do a few more things anyway, I just can't believe that he left me again."
"I still think that if Hojo hadn't run off to China with that girl he met when he was on vacation in Russia that you wouldn't be in the situation." Sango said blantantly, turning into her kitchen, that was really more like a kitchenette.

She always kept it dimly lit and cool. It was more like a cave than an apartment. She had one big room and the tiny kitchen and bathroom...and everything was yellow.
Kagome cringed a little every time she went there. It wasn't only her friend's sharp tongue, but her choice in decor, as well. "I'd really like to not talk about that again. It's unwanted reminders of how assy people really are." She said with distain.

"Oh, speaking of asses," Sango chirped, turning her attention from her sink to look Kagome directly in the eye. "You're going to meet my guy if you stay here."
Kagome arched a brow and sat her bag down on the little brown counter. "Really? That's his name?" She asked precariously, taking it upon herself to dig through Sango's unusually stocked refrigerator. "Never knew someone's name was 'my guy'?"

The taller girl nodded as Kagome looked over her shoulder at her. "I'm really hoping that I can keep him for a while. I need to get this energy out from time to time." Sango twirled around, rustling her jean shorts together.
Kagome let out a heavy sigh and ran her hand through her dark hair. She felt sticky, and almost grossed out by herself. Sango's words hadn't gone by unnoticed, they just weren't on the forefront of her brain right now.

"You know, even with all of this food, you still don't have anything to eat." Kagome sat as she helf her stomach pitifully. "I'm goingt to run to the market and pick something to eat." She said, as she peeked into her bag on the counter.
Sango slapped some money down next to her as Kagome pulled out a turquoise jumper she had stolen from Kikyo. "What do you want?" Kagome asked.

"Call me when you get there and we'll figure it out. I need to take a shower. If you're going to change, you better do it now." The older woman said, pulling her shirt off to reveal her white bra and piano tattoo down her side.
Kagome was always leary of getting tattoos and modifications. Her mother would have killed her. She scowled all the way to the bathroom and threw to change. It wasn't really far enough to scowl, but she tried as she slipped in the miniscule room.

Sango a long mirror propped up in the corner, and Kagome always inspected herself there. It was like every freckle on her skin was accounted for when she was scrutinizing herself. Kikyo was a little thinner, a little taller, a little more everything.
And, in comparision to Sango, she was no raving beauty. She did have to say, as she slipped into the romper, that she had a nice little figure. Her legs were as long as poles and her skin was just about as soft as silk.
The hazy light made her tired as she pulled her hair out of its bind. She ran her fingers through her bangs that fell to just above her eyes.

And, staring into those silvery pools, she felt the emptiness that Kikyo had overcome. It felt heavy, daunting as she looked away and burst from the room. Meeting new people was exciting, but whenever she met Sango's better half's it always seemed to go ary.
You could play a sixties themed montage of the jerks she'd dated. That actually made Kagome smile as she switched places with Sango. Who, must to Kagome's dismay, was in a frantic state as she scooped up the money and headed out the door.
There were somethings that Kagome wasn't good at, and that was extinguishing hot nerves.