Chapter Text
Let's Party, Miroku and Sango:
Sango and Miroku managed to pass through the well portal with ease, having left Kirara with Kaede for the village’s safety, and knew not to freak out when they landed on the other side. Which stank to even their human noses.
InuYasha picked up Kagome and Shippo, who was already wearing his amulet and nasal strip, and leapt clear from the well. He audibly set Kagome on her feet before turning around, leaning over the well lip, and reaching down to haul the slayer and the monk up by their hands.
With everyone out of the well, Kagome and Shippo led the way from the now crowded wellhouse and to the Higurashi home where Missus Higurashi held the door open, “Welcome to Tokyo, and Higurashi Shrine, dears.”
“Thank you, Missus Higurashi,” Miroku and Sango chorused with a bow each.
Missus Higurashi chuckled and waved them in, stopping InuYasha and asking worriedly, “Where’s Imari?”
He chuckled low, “Sleep over with grandparents. Dad heard about our plans tonight and kidnapped her.”
Missus Higurashi smiled, nodding, and let him in.
Kagome ushered everyone upstairs, with InuYasha and Miroku heading into Souta’s room while the girls went to Kagome’s. Shippo remained downstairs as he wasn’t going out with the adults and was instead learning about video games from Souta.
Kagome dug around in her closet before pulling out a shopping bag and a box. She had an almost manic gleam in her eyes as, for the next hour, Sango became indistinguishable from the hordes of Tokyo girls also going out for a night of fun. Though Kagome had gone more…conservative for her friend’s outfit.
Still, Sango had doubts as she tugged at her shirt, “Kagome, are you sure—I mean, the fabric is so thin?”
“You’re fine, Sango,” Kagome reassured as she dressed similarly, “the bra hides everything. Besides, what we’re wearing could be considered, well, frumpy. For a night out anyways.”
She took her friend by the shoulder and steered her from the room, “Just stick with me or InuYasha and you’ll be fine…Looking good, Miroku!”
Miroku had of course been forced to leave his monk’s robes behind and dress as a modern young man. He was wearing a glove on his curse-cured hand, thick enough to hide the scars but snug enough not to fall off.
The group reconvened in the living room, InuYasha already wearing his amulet, and Kagome spoke, “Remember, you live around the hospital I go to for my illnesses. Sango, you work in the family business of pest control. We met when they asked your father to fumigate a room. Miroku, you’re her boyfriend. You were training to be a monk but gave it up for Sango. We met because you volunteered your services at the hospital. InuYasha has a rare blood syndrome and has agreed to see if his blood can help me. I’m on experimental medicine right now, we don’t know all the side-effects yet. Shippo is InuYasha’s orphaned cousin we adopted because he has a similar blood syndrome. He’s home with my mom. That’s actually the truth.”
Everyone nodded and memorized their cover stories, while Kagome specifically warned Miroku, “Keep your hands off anyone not Sango. You can get in serious trouble for touching girls, and I’m not just talking about angry boyfriends! The law can get involved, you will be at least jailed for the night.”
“Yes, Kagome,” Miroku’s eyes were wide at the prospect of being jailed—jailed!—for his wandering hand. And Kagome had already told them the town guards—called police now—were much more competent than in their time.
“Sango, do not take drinks from strangers,” Kagome warned her friend tiredly, “and always have a hand on your drink if not eyes. If you have to leave your drink unattended then you get a new one.”
“You worry about poison?” Sango questioned.
“Of a type. There’s this drug, poison, that can make you—you could be raped while under the effects and not be able to fight back.”
“Gods. Is there no antidote?”
“Yes, and it doesn’t kill…unless you have a really bad reaction or allergy. You can usually sleep it off. But it will take all your strength and wits from you.”
Kagome looked to both her Feudal Age friends, “We watch each other’s backs out there, okay? Now, we’re going to meet up with Ayumi and a couple more friends. Those friends don’t know what I really do. Hence the cover story. They think you’re from a very rural prefecture. Ayumi, at least, will watch out for you. Follow her cues. Follow my cues. Hells, follow InuYasha’s cues. Just try not to panic.”
Sango and Miroku nodded and, with goodbyes to the Higurashis staying home, ventured forth into the modern world of Tokyo.
At the bottom of the stairs out, sat a van. Ayumi had just gotten her driver’s license and Missus Higurashi had rented a van instead of having her daughter’s visiting friends make the journey on foot or by train.
Three girls Kagome’s age were waiting outside the van and squealed at the sight of her, thankfully missing InuYasha’s scrunched up face of discomfort as he still had his advanced hearing even while under the amulet, before rushing to hug her.
“Kagome! You look so healthy!” one said breathlessly.
“New medicine, we’re hoping this’s the one,” Kagome lied easily.
“It must be working!” said another.
“Not having to worry about school also helps,” Kagome said truthfully before redirecting them, “girls, I want you to meet my friends, Miroku and Sango. Guys, this’s Eri and Yuka.”
Eri and Yuka gushed about meeting Kagome’s other friends, asking about their lives and gauging their personalities as everyone clambered into the vehicle.
“Where’s Imari?” Ayumi questioned InuYasha near silently. Imari was still a secret from Eri and Yuka after all. Until she was old enough to safely wear an amulet of her own.
“With my parents,” InuYasha whispered from the corner of his mouth.
Ayumi nodded very slightly to show that she heard.
So they started their trip further into the city.
“We picked a family friendly club,” Yuka enthused to Kagome before explaining to her rural friends, “that means it serves all ages. No alcohol. No very loud music—Kagome says InuYasha has ear problems due to his blood thingy—Kagome, did you have to dress them like that?”
“They still wear yukatas and jinbei out by the hospital,” Kagome argued, “I wasn’t giving them culture shock! Have you seen what some girls wear to clubs?”
“Point,” Eri conceded, nodding, “did you tell Sango about—”
“Yeah. She knows. We’re watching out for them right, girls?”
“Oh, yes!” Yuka and Eri chorused, Ayumi lagging a little as she drove, with Eri adding, “Just stick with us and you’ll be okay!”
They meandered, for a van anyway, through the streets of Tokyo. It was not a huge shock, the modern world Kagome came from, because of the tent but Sango and Miroku had to hold in gasps at the crowded buildings, the giant “screens” blaring “advertisements” for goods beyond their imaginations. At how populated the city must be for even so many people to be out near sundown and beyond.
“Are you sure this is safe, Kagome?” Miroku asked, playing up the naïve former monk-in-training idea instead of looking stupid or out of place.
“Stay with the group and it is,” Eri answered, “no wandering off, okay? You could get lost in Tokyo easily. In fact, we’ll use the buddy system. Miroku, you’ll be my buddy. Sango, you’ll stick with Yuka. That way Kagome and InuYasha don’t have to worry about looking out for you two.”
“And no using your self-defense training unless you really think someone’s in danger, Sango,” Kagome chirped suddenly, “I know you’re going to be a little jumpy tonight but follow Yuka’s cues.”
“Yes, Kagome,” Sango replied.
“You have self-dense training?” Yuka asked curiously.
“Yes, Father w—is very sure that one day I may need to protect myself, so he made me study the martial arts along with my schooling.” Sango only lied a little, “He has made me a little…paranoid.”
“That’s so cool!” enthused Eri, “And Miroku you were going to be a monk, right?”
“Ah, yes. My mother abandoned me to my father,” Miroku spoke truthfully, “as she did not want a child. Father raised me with the help of an old friend, Master Mushin. Master Mushin is a monk. Father died while I was young and I had no other family so Master Mushin took me into his temple,” Miroku thought for a second or two but continued, “Master Mushin is a wonderful monk though he has some bad habits he passed down…please, if I touch you inappropriately, report to my dearest Sango and she’ll set me straight. Things are a little different in the city, Kagome informed us.”
“Oooh, okay. We’ll tell you to stop too,” Eri promised, “but you gave all that monk stuff up for Sango? How romantic!”
Miroku smiled warmly at Sango, “I would give up many things for Sango. While the Buddha asks his most devoted followers to give up much, I have to believe he also knows True Love must be acted upon.”
“Why are you wearing that glove?” Yuka asked suddenly.
“Terrible scar from a youthful accident,” Miroku lied smoothly, “it is quite distracting and tends to itch. To stop me from scratching and thus bleeding and causing infections, Kagome suggested a glove of some type.”
“That’s our smart Kagome,” Yuka crowed softly.
“We’re here,” Ayumi cut through the conversation as the van slowed and pulled into a parking lot.
Everyone unbelted when the car parked and got out, Sango noticeably nervous. Miroku took her hand consolingly and also because he was a little nervous as they began walking towards the venue.
It was pulsating with colored lights and they could barely hear music of some sort as they joined the line for entrance. The two Feudal people were a little relieved to see there were indeed younger and older people waiting for entrance.
The guard pressed some sort of stamp to the back of their hands after Kagome had paid a fee of some sort.
“It shows you’ve already paid, so you can go in and out,” Eri showed off the stamp on her hand, “the color means we’re not allowed to buy alcohol if they served any because we can’t legally drink.”
Ah, that made sense so Sango and Miroku let themselves be escorted inside by their buddies for the night.
“Too loud?” Kagome asked InuYasha who shrugged.
“Just a little but I’ll be fine,” he answered, “I’ve been under worse…Ember concerts are not fun on my ears…”
“Why did Kagome pay?” Miroku asked Eri who took him to the side where a bartender tended his collection.
“So, the club needs money to work,” Eri explained, “so you can either pay just to get in and then pay more for drinks, food, entertainment, stuff like that, or you can pay more to cover everything. So we just pooled our money to cover everything for the night. That way you and Sango just have to show your stamp—shape says we paid for everything—and you won’t have to pay.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Miroku complimented.
Eri shrugged, “InuYasha actually paid most of it; apparently his dad is rich? He lives with Kagome now but he had an apartment in another city.”
They made it to the bar and started ordering drinks.
Yuka had also taken Sango aside, Ayumi with them, to take a seat at a larger table. She had explained much the same thing as Eri and then waved down a waiter to begin ordering food.
“I—I don’t know what half this stuff is,” Sango admitted, before explaining, “we eat very traditionally around the hospital. Kagome and InuYasha have brought some food from the city but…”
Yuka nodded in sympathetic understanding, “It must be shocking, the city? Okay, let’s just get a little of everything. Can we do that? Some sort of sample platter for her?” she asked the waiter, “She’s not from the city, she’s visiting.”
The waiter smiled, “I’ll see what can be done; anything for you girls?”
Yuka and Ayumi ordered appetizers and the waiter swept away to the kitchen as Eir and Miroku joined them, bearing platters of drinks.
“We’re starting Sango and Miroku on water,” Eri explained as they passed out the drinks, “I got some lemon and cucumber slices if you want some…where are…?”
“Out on the dance floor,” Yuka nodded to her left.
She was right; there InuYasha and Kagome were, dancing and laughing.
“Good for them!” Eri declared as she sat down.
“You should’ve seen how sick Kagome was while we were in school,” Yuka confided in Miroku and Sango, “girl looked like a zombie on the days she actually showed up.”
“Oh, yeah,” Eri agreed, “at first, we blamed InuYasha—because we hadn’t met him or seen how he fretted over her. He must’ve been doing something. It did start the same time she started dating him.”
“Rumor was she was strung out on drugs,” Yuka continued, “but we checked her, no needle marks. Didn’t mean she wasn’t doing anything but…then we found out how sick she was, how the doctors had to call up InuYasha and ask for his help. We thought she was going to die, guys. She got stronger because of the physical therapy but she was still so sick! It was one thing after another for the poor girl! Every new symptom meant a new drug meant she got better then sicker!”
Miroku and Sango nodded attentively.
“InuYasha looked after her so closely when she came home,” Eri picked up, “we could tell they were already in love, but he was in school in a different city so he couldn’t always be with her. We weren’t surprised when they married, were we girls?”
Ayumi and Yuka shook their heads as the waiter returned with the appetizers and, yes, a sample platter for Sango and Miroku to try.
“Or when they officially adopted Shippo,” Ayumi added, “poor boy deserves parents that look him and we know Kagome and InuYasha do.”
“Let’s just hope Kagome doesn’t die on him. Losing three parents might be too much for the kid.” Yuka said sadly.
“Even when Kagome’s in the hospital she does her best to mother Shippo,” Sango assured, picking at an odd food like it might attack but willing to try it, “and when she can’t she arranges playdates with the village children while she is treated. The village has taken them as our own. We look after Shippo while InuYasha’s with her.”
“That’s amazing.” Eri exclaimed.
“What’s amazing?” asked Kagome as she led InuYasha to the table and they took seats.
“That the villagers around the hospital have accepted Shippo,” Yuka replied.
“Oh, yeah, they have,” Kagome smiled warmly as she thought about how the villagers by the well had taken to Shippo, allowing their children to play unattended with the kitsune kit. But what really warmed her heart was their acceptance of hanyou, though the groundwork had been laid in Kikyo’s time; InuYasha was a well-respected man in the village and none of the other mothers had second thoughts about looking after Imari for a few minutes when needed. Hanyou weren’t hated or even distrusted based on their blood alone in their village. And even Sesshomaru, Jaken, and A-Un found wary respect when they brought Rin to the village for whatever reason. The inuyoukai lord certainly had found no fault in the girl’s treatment yet as she was always excited to see her uncle and his pack and was always returned in the same condition as she was left.
For the rest of the night the group had fun as any young adults did, even Sango and Miroku loosened up and took turns on the dance floor.
They were home by midnight as previously agreed and the demon slayer and monk said grateful goodbyes to their new friends as they had to leave for their village the next morning.
That night’s plans were a success and their cover still intact so Kagome and InuYasha counted it as a win.