#(i met the girl he was dating at the time on a tokyo mew mew roleplaying forum and then i met him)

[fakemagicjaye]

GUYS. listen to this right now :v

[maleyanderecafe]

Hero Yandere VS Villain Yandere

Hello again! Today we’re going to be talking about a Hero yandere vs a Villainous one. I think this topic has been discussed before, but I mean we can always discuss it again! I’ll be taking note of @thatyanderecritic‘s posts on Selfless Yanderes Vs. Selfless Yanderes and the discussion of yanderes from @violetosprey  and @thatyanderecritic’s Redeemable Yanderes, so if you haven’t read that, you might wanna at least skim it so you know what I’m talking about during certain points.

Before I go on, I want to clarify what I mean by a Hero and a Villain yandere. A “Hero” yandere is not necessarily a protagonist character and a “villain” yandere isn’t necessarily the antagonist.  In general, a hero yandere is one that the story wants you to root for while a villain yandere is one that the story wants you to be against. For instance, a hero yandere is a character like Onyu from Metronome or a character like  Satō Matsuzaka from Sugar Life. In general, these are characters, who, while definitely not the most moral of characters, are ones that we root for. Meanwhile, a villian yandere is a character like Mandarin Kim from Cherry Boy, That Girl or Kish from Tokyo Mew Mew. Of course, it doesn’t mean that villian yanderes can’t be rooted for, it just means that they are rooted against in the story. 

So first, let’s talk about Hero Yanderes. According to u/Thenamesevan Writing Yandere Characters: Part Three - Heroic/Romantic Yanderes, “A heroic/romantic yandere stands a pretty good chance of having a legitimately happy ending with their beloved.” and “A crucial part of writing a heroic yandere is that, unlike the other two mentioned, there must be a greater threat to our protagonist than this character.” I think both of these tend to be pretty true if you’re writing a yandere that is the hero of the story. Unless the yandere either sacrifices themselves for their loved one or somehow dies suddenly in the story, the yandere hero tends to have a good ending with their loved one. 

The second part deserves its own paragraph because I’m going to talk about this a lot more. If you think back to a lot of the different types of hero yanderes, the reason why we root for them is because the yandere is the best case scenario for the s/o. While the s/o may not like being with the yandere, as compared to possible other outcomes for the s/o, being with the yandere is the best case of survival.  For instance in the case of Onyu and Satō, the greater threat for Onyu is the “curse” that is on Yuna and for Satō the outside world (mainly people who might take away Shio) from Shio. For Onyu’s case, the threat of this “curse” means that Yuna would die, and because Yuna is our main protagonist, plus the fact that the other people who are trying to get Yuna would most likely hurt her either physically or mentally (from what I can remember), thus we will root for him. In the case of Satō, while we could possibly be rooting for another character in the series, we root for her because in this scenario Satō is the best case scenario for Shio, in that she gives her a lot of love and provides a good household for her. The reason why a lot of cases tend to be “yandere vs outside forces” is because generally yanderes aren’t built to be heroic characters. Yanderes are written usually to characters that are two-faced and malicious and have a one track mind for their s/o. Usually the term “love-sick” isn’t one that you would correlate to a heroic type. So to make them a more “heroic” character, usually you’d have to have something worse that you would have to fight against. Usually in this case, the s/o has to deal with really terrible circumstances and the only way they can come out alive is if they team up with the yandere. Sometimes the s/o doesn’t even know that the character they team up with is a yandere, like in the case of Worldend: Debugger, where the s/o doesn’t know that the yandere is a yandere, yet we still root for the both of them because of the scenario they are in.

Now, of course a heroic yandere doesn’t necessarily have to team up with the s/o. In some cases, we would root for the yandere and not for their s/o to win. For instance if the s/o were a extremely evil person, like a mafia member or serial killer and the yandere wants to keep the s/o for themselves by locking them up in their house. While both of these actions are evil, if the yandere is written correctly, we could make the yandere a more heroic yandere type. For instance, if the s/o was a sort of demon that brought humans into an apocalyptic downfall. The yandere, for one reason or another, wishes to stay with the s/o forever by caging them underground so they would be with them forever. Along the way, the yandere is met with human resistance who want to bring the world back to what is was. Meanwhile, the s/o demon wishes to snuff out every last human so that they can take over the world. This scenario also encompasses the “best case scenario” as I’ve put it before. While the yandere is in the wrong for wanting to kidnap their s/o forever against their will, the s/o is a much worse scenario, especially if they completely wipe out the human race and cause the world into ruin. We would root for the yandere in this scenario because they are the “better case” as compared to what would happen if they didn’t. 

This doesn’t really have to be a life or death situation either. This can also be shown in a shoujo manga for example. Hananoi kun to koi no yamai’s Hananoi, Miniamaru Kareshi’s Kusakabe and even Koharu no hibi’s Koharu. In many of these cases, the “yandere” in question is considered good, even if they are strange or obsessive. While generally it can be difficult to have a male yandere “heroic” character in a shojou (since shojous tends to be focused on more slice of life activities and romantic aspects, and hopefully murdering people isn’t part of your normal day activities), that again, doesn’t mean its impossible. However, we might still need to consider the “best case scenario” if you want to keep some of the darker actions of a yandere. For instance, a shoujo about a girl who has a really bad time with dating since all of the people she dates suddenly break up with them. She always gets comforted by a friend who always has the best interest in mind for her. As it turns out this friend is the cause of all of the break ups. However, the reason why the friend forces breakup on all of the guys she dates isn’t simply because he’s in love with the girl, but also because all of the guys she dates want to use her for money or other things. It becomes this friend’s goal get rid of all the people she dates as none of them want an actual relationship with her. In this case, we would root for this yandere as he is a “heroic type” and is trying to get rid of the people she dates to help her in her well being. 

Or perhaps we can turn to redeemed yanderes. See, told you that link on top was semi important! Anyways, redeemed yanderes are basically yanderes that give up their yandere ways, either by having a loving healthy relationship with their loved ones or giving them up so they can be happy. Generally, this is also another case of a “heroic yandere”. In this case, it really is the best scenario as in this case they’ve “outgrown” their yandere phase and will have a happy (or relatively happy) relationship with their s/o. Usually this means that the yandere has a redemption arc and probably has done something bad before having this redemption. In general, these tend to be more difficult to write, but have better characterizations than, say, a yandere from a oneshot. I’m not going to go super deep into them right now, since that’s a topic that other people have gone through already and it would make this way more longer than it already is ( perhaps a future post) but I will say that it can be and is probably is the best kind of heroic yandere. 

Now that I’ve had my long discussion on heroic yanderes, we’re going to turn to the villianous ones instead. Now again, villianous yanderes are ones that the story wants us to be against. Now, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t well written or sympathetic. For instance, Madarin Kim, while not redeemable nor agreeable in his actions, has understandable reasons why he is like the way he is. His clinginess and obsessiveness of Strawberry come from his neglect from his parents, and leaves him extremely scared of people trying to leave him. In many cases,  villain yanderes are considered villains because they go against the s/o, and often they tend to be extremely selfish and manipulative. In a lot of cases, these characters tend to be morally in the wrong, and if they are one shot yandere villains, either reform or die in the part that they were in.  Villain yanderes tend to not have much character development, and their motives and reasons for falling in love with the s/o tend to be misplaced. Usually the reason they’re attached to their s/o is related to their past, usually neglect tends to be the main reason, but it can also be other things like being reborn, having a condition, really a lot of things. Their actions for trying to be with their s/o are often pretty malicious. If it’s not something like murdering people, they might do something such as brainwashing, manipulating blackmailing or really any other kind of means to get with their s/o.In many cases, these yanderes tend to be very two faced, having a softer/ other personality and then their yandere one. In many instances, the s/o and even the audience doesn’t know that these yanderes are villains until later on in the story. A yandere’s characterization is usually aligned with a villainous character anyways, thus it makes perfect sense that yanderes end up in villain like role in one way or another.  

However, the villain yandere might not be really considered a “villain” at all. The only real requirement of a villain yandere is one that the story wants you to root against or the s/o is trying to go against. This means that morally, the villain yandere might not be much of a villain and may resemble more of a hero. This can be a bit difficult to pull off as like I’ve said before, yanderes tend to end up in a villain like role and are usually more malicious than good. But in this kind of situation, it usually means that the s/o would be more morally in the wrong. If you mix this up with a good premise/ goal, then this story would work. 

For instance, an example would be a story about a delinquent girl in a gang and a yandere police officer trying to stop her. The delinquent girl and her gang are constantly beating up people to a pulp and destroying property and the police officer is trying to stop her. Perhaps the officer is trying to convince the delinquent girl to live with him and become reformed in the hopes that she will date him. He could have yandere tendencies like attempting to stalk her so she doesn’t get hurt or arresting/shooting people that might destroy her future or might hurt her and are considered dangerous criminals. The delinquent girl then perhaps doesn’t want to be with the police officer because perhaps she doesn’t believe in the police force and is trying to reform it, or perhaps must find a younger sister or a special item that can only be created through violence. In this scenario, we would see the police officer isn’t morally in the wrong after all, he is still doing justice for the city, but we would also see why we would be against the police officer, as it would mean that the delinquent might not achieve her goals. We could also make the delinquent more sympathetic and the police officer more morally gray if we wanted to round their characters out more. For instance if the delinquent made a promise with their parents to take care of her sister and the police officers goal of “getting rid of crime in the city” was based off of something in their past that they couldn’t go against and were willing to become more violent and ruthless to get rid of them, thus them trying to turn the delinquent into a more harmless person.

Anyways, I hope you like this post! If you have anything else you’d like me to analyze for yanderes please tell me.

[ninja-librarian]

Commission for @craftingandcats, featuring Zakuro and Ryou!

For info about commissions, click here!

From where she lay on her back on top of a picnic blanket, Ryou’s hand in hers, Zakuro closed her eyes and smiled.

The summer night was warm but not oppressively so. There were fireflies bobbing around them and crickets chirping and stars twinkling above them. A picnic basket full of the debris from their dinner sat by Ryou’s bare foot. Cellphones were turned not only on silent but in the picnic basket as well. Neither of them spoke, but they didn’t need words to fill the silence, only were content with the company they had.

Zakuro couldn’t remember the last time she felt so distinctly happy, her heart so full.

“The stars are beautiful tonight,” Ryou said softly. Zakuro opened her eyes and gazed up at the dark sky, the stars shiny. There were worlds in that sky, suns and stars and planets and galaxies and nebulas. Of all the things that could have possibly happened in this wide expanse of universe, of time, of life and loss and wonder, she was here. And she was happy. She was so happy, lying on that small picnic blanket on an island on the third planet from the sun in this galaxy.

The universe was so vast, and fate was so finicky, but both still put her with Ryou, the other half of her heart, right here and now in this moment.

“Yeah,” Zakuro whispered. “They are.”

“You know what else is beautiful?”

“What?” Zakuro asked, still contemplating the vastness of the universe and fate.

“You.”

Zakuro blinked, then turned her head towards a grinning Ryou, comprehending what he said.

Then, with a laugh, she let go of his hand, putting both of hers over her face. “You did not just meme me!”

“You kind of walked into it, babe,” Ryou said, pushing himself up onto one elbow, running his fingertips on her arm. She felt goose bumps rise where his fingers had been, even in the heat. “But I meant it,” He whispered. “I meant it.”

Zakuro peeked at him from between her fingers and her smile grew shy. “I know you did. You huge dork.”

“I’m your huge dork, though.”

“That is most definitely the truth.”

Ryou laughed and gestured for her to come close to him. She did, shifting, head resting on his chest, Ryou’s arms around her. She gently rested her hand on his stomach, feeling the rise and fall of his breaths, listening to the thud thud thud of his heart. She wondered if her heartbeat was aligned with his, if her heart beat at the same time his did.

It must be, she thought.

Before Ryou, before Tokyo Mew Mew, before aliens and cakes and wolf ears, she turned her nose up at the idea of soul mates. They couldn’t exist. It wasn’t possible. Souls couldn’t possibly have a mate. It was just a romantic thought—literally and figuratively—that teenage girls used when squealing about their boyfriends only to break up a month later. The thing that adults said that their last disastrous date wasn’t. That thing that overly in love married couples sighed to each other as a term of endearment.

She hadn’t thought it was real. But now she knew differently. Because Ryou wasn’t just her soul mate. He was the other half of her heart, her rock, her shoulder to lean on, her partner in life. She was his and he was hers.

There was no doubt in her mind that her heart was synched with his.

“What are you thinking about?” Ryou asked quietly.

“Us,” Zakuro answered.

Ryou chuckled. “Really?”

“Yes,” Zakuro said, a bit defensively. “Why do you think that’s funny?”

“Because I was thinking about the exact same thing,” Ryou said, kissing the top of her head. “I was just thinking that, I want this to be forever. I want to wake up like this every day and end every night like this for the rest of my life.”

To say that Zakuro was surprised was an understatement. She shifted against him, looking up to meet his eyes. “You do? You mean that?”

“I don’t say anything I don’t mean.”

“Ninety-five percent of your fights with Ichigo beg to differ.”

“I don’t say anything to you that I don’t mean,” Ryou amended. He glanced away from her for a moment and asked, “Um, did I say too much and make things awkward?”

“No,” Zakuro told him. “No. Not at all. I was just surprised. Because I was thinking the same thing. That I want you to be in my future.”

They had never discussed the future before; it was definitely something they hadn’t even talked about discussing before. But here it was, the perfect time and place.

“I want to marry you,” Ryou said. “Someday. When we’re both ready.”

“I want to marry you, too,” Zakuro told him. “But I don’t know when I will be ready.”

“That’s good because I don’t either,” Ryou said with a small, almost nervous laugh. “So, um, what do you think about kids?”

It was Zakuro’s turn to laugh as she teased, “What? Is this your way of telling me you’re pregnant?”

Ryou burst out laughing at that. “No, we’ll let that continue to be Vanilla and Yuzu’s thing.” He said, referring to their Cyniclon friends whom they met through the Ikisatashis.

Zakuro grinned, staring up at the sky. “Yeah. I want kids. Again, someday. When we’re both ready.”

“I’m still too new at this adulting thing to even think about adding in a parenting thing any time soon, so we’re good.” Ryou said. “How many would you want, though?”

“Three max,” Zakuro said. “No preferences regarding gender. As long as they are happy and healthy.”

“Three, huh? Well, we’d probably want to find a house for them. Three kids in an apartment would be a nightmare.”

“Most definitely agree.”

She could picture it all so clearly, babies with perfectly picked out names and what her kitchen would look like. The sacrifices they would each make to ensure each other’s happiness, while still reaching for their own goals. A future built upon love and respect and pride for each other and wishing the best. Children who are loved and happy and hugged and kissed each and every day. Giving their children the childhood that Zakuro never had, and the childhood that had ended too soon for Ryou.

She wanted it to be perfect, but knew that was asking for too much. Soul-mate or not, perfection wasn’t possible. There’d be good days and bad days, arguments and frustration and sad times.

And, yet, every day they were together was perfect. Because she knew he had her back, and he knew that she had his.

A thought hit her. This would be her future, yes, but she could make the future become the present a little sooner.

“Um, I know this is kind of sudden, but, would you like to go house hunting sooner rather than later?” Zakuro asked.

Ryou was quiet, then he said, “Uh, is that your way of telling me you’re pregnant?”

Zakuro laughed, diffusing the tension. “No. But my lease is up in a few months. I was planning on just signing a new lease but, if we’re serious about this, and we just confirmed we are… then what do you think about moving in together?”

Ryou’s arms tightened around her. “I think we should do it.”

Zakuro beamed up at him, loving how the stars twinkled in his blue eyes. She pressed her lips to his, the kiss long and slow. There was no frantic rush, no wasted time, no regrets.

They had forever, after all, and ‘forever’ was what they spent the rest of the night talking about

[jewelincarnate-blog]

Another Year Without You

Kagome laid awake next to the campfire, staring up at the stars. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to fall asleep, and it was driving her insane. If she wasn't going to be able to get any sleep, she was going to be a pain in the morning, and she knew that was just going to cause problems. Her brow furrowed as she wrapped her arms around herself, burrowing deeper into her sleeping bag. Her tongue poked out as she licked her bottom lip before her canines bit down on it. She didn't have any upcoming exams because she just got back from taking a big one. There weren't any major homework assignments due. It wasn't because of her "monthly curse," as she liked to call it because it was a way for Inuyasha to understand the severity of it. Was there any important dates coming up? Kagome brought a hand out of the comforts of the sleeping bag to reach up and rub her nose, her mind pulling up the most recent memory she had of looking at a calendar. She tried her best to memorize any important events coming up and the date she left on. It was easy enough to count the days from there. (However, she did have a small little calendar book in her bag with everything written down in case she forgot anything.) Once her nose was satisfied with the rubbing, she brought her hand back into the sleeping bag. 'It isn't mom's birthday. Or Sōta and Gramps'. So what am I missing?' Kagome thought to herself as she continued to stare up at the night sky. And that's when it hit her. Kagome bolted up in an upright position, Shippō rolling off of her. "Sorry!" She said in a hushed whisper, carefully picking the small demon up and placing him back on her lap. It was the anniversary of her father's passing. But that couldn't be, could it? Another year had already passed? Reaching over for her yellow bag, Kagome pulled it closer to her. She unbuckled the flap and began rummaging inside, looking for the small little calendar book. She'd occasionally stop and look up, making sure she didn't wake anyone. Especially a certain silver-haired hanyō. If she was right on the day, she didn't want him to know. Family wasn't something he understood and she couldn't bring herself to argue with him on it anymore. "Aha!" She exclaimed a little too loud, a hand coming up to cover her mouth. Once her eyes scanned over the sleeping group, she opened the book up to the date only to see her neat handwriting confirming her original thought. Well, this just wasn't going to do. She had made it a tradition to visit her father's grave every year. She liked to tell herself it was to keep his memory alive, but the truth of it was that she still missed him. Nine years after the accident and it still broke her heart that she'd never get to see him again. To hear him laugh or talk. She'd even take being scolded by him if it meant she got to see his face. Kagome closed the book and held it to her chest, tears forming in her eyes. His face, along with everything else, was something that had long been forgotten. However, it wasn't by choice. She was very young when he passed, leaving her with little time to remember him in the first place. Feeling a tear roll down her cheek, Kagome swiped it again before putting the book back in her bag. She was going to keep up her tradition and there was nothing Inuyasha could say or do to stop her. Everyone in the group would back her up if she wanted— Her thoughts were interrupted by one lingering issue: while she knew a lot about her companions, they hardly knew about her family life, and she didn't know if she could explain it all before she left. She couldn't linger on it any longer. There was a lot she was willing to give up to help in the search for the shards of the jewel, but this was not one of them. Kagome shook her head and pushed her book bag away once everything was closed and buckled. She carefully wiggled back down into her sleeping bag, her arms reaching out to grab Shippō and bring him under the cover. Now that she figured out what was keeping her up, Kagome was able to fall asleep almost immediately. Or it was because of how exhausted she was both from the previous day's activities and the inability to sleep. ❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉ Come morning, Kagome was one of the first people up—the first one being Inuyasha who was impatiently waiting for everyone else to get up so they could carry on with their search. Boy was he going to be mad with what she was about to say and do. Kagome silently packed everything up, keeping the sleeping bag out as Shippō was still bundled up and asleep. She noticed the curious glances from the hanyō but brushed them off as she pulled out her brush and began running it through her dark locks. In her mind, she was running through a script of sorts on how she was going to tell Inuyasha that she was going home for the day. It was just a day, but she knew that he would throw a fit about it. Finally, she let out a sigh and laid the brush down on her lap. Her brown eyes landed on Inuyasha, who was sitting up in a tree. He said it was so he could keep a better watch, but she felt it was because he didn't want to get too close to everyone. He was still so adamant about being a "lone wolf." "Inuyasha. I'm going home today," She stopped to gauge his reaction, which was an ear twitch and a raise of the eyebrow. "You're 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱?" "I'm going home. Just for today. There's something important I 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 to do." Kagome bit her lip as she waited for him to explode, which he immediately did. "Oh no you're not. You just went home a couple of days ago," He continued to talk as he hopped down from his perch and walked over to Kagome, his hands in his sleeves. "I don't care about these stupid exam demons of yours. We've got jewel shards to find and every day we ain't lookin', Naraku finds more." At this point, the others were waking up due to the commotion. Kagome refused to back down from this. Once the hanyō was in front of her, she took a deep breath and met his stern, amber gaze with one of her own. "I wasn't 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔. I'm going. I'll be back by sunset. And you're just going to have to deal with it!" Unintentionally, her voice began to rise, causing the still waking up fox demon to move from the sleeping bag over to where Kirara and Sango were situated. Kagome looked away, but only to roll up the sleeping bag. "No, you ain't. You're staying here because you're the one who can see the damned shards," Inuyasha said, a hint of a growl in his voice. She knew she was in trouble but didn't care. She tucked the sleeping bag into the yellow book bag before closing everything up. Quickly standing, Kagome had slung the bag onto her shoulders and was now looking the hanyō in the eyes. "Sango, would it be all right if I borrowed Kirara for the day?" Her brown eyes didn't leave Inuyasha's face as she blatantly went against his wishes and asked their companion for a way out. "Uh... Not at all." "What?! You're just going to let her go!?" Inuyasha's head snapped to the side as he looked towards Sango in time to see Kirara mew and scamper off towards Kagome. "Thanks, Sango. I really owe you. C'mon, Kirara; let's go!" Both Kagome and Kirara took off running, the latter transforming into her larger and more powerful self, allowing the school girl to hop onto her back before they took off into the sky. "Hey! Get back here! KAGOME—" "SIT BOY!" Kagome's command was met with a loud CRASH and a pained groan. She'd find a way to make it up to him but not now. ❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉⋮❉ Kagome and Kirara managed to make great time as it was only midday when Kagome finally stepped back into her own time. She didn't even take time to stop in to say "hi" to her mom and Gramps as she was on a timer. Inuyasha was bound to come looking for her once he let his anger build enough. If she ran fast enough, she might be able to meet him back at the well before he crossed over. Little did she know he wasn't too far behind her... Kagome ran across the Higurashi property and down the stairs that led in the busyness that was residential Tokyo. She took a few seconds to look around, getting herself reacquainted with the area before taking off down the street. She had to make a small stop before heading off to the graveyard. It wasn't ever anything extravagant. When she was younger, it was usually whatever she could find on her way to the graveyard. Fortunately she still had a small amount of her allowance left over so she could buy a small little bouquet of flowers. At the first flower stand she saw, she stopped to purchase said flowers. She made small talk with the seller, awkwardly responding to the questions about her "ailments." 'Reminder to kick Gramps' butt for continuing to say I've got old peoples' illnesses.' Kagome inwardly sighed as she was finally handed the small bouquet and payed the seller. Before the seller had time to count out the change, Kagome was gone. 'Gotta go, gotta go!' She kept thinking to herself as she ran. She was grateful for all the walking and running she had to do in the feudal era because this was nothing for her now. She remembered how she used to have to walk most of the way because she was too out of shape to run it all. After a few more blocks of running, Kagome took a turn down another street, running for a few more blocks before she arrived at the entrance of the graveyard. She stood at the entrance, breathing heavy as she tried to collect herself. She looked over the flowers to make sure that they were okay before slowly walking down the pathway. She lowered her head a little as she walked, having memorized the route to the family grave after nine years. She counted her steps as she went, her voice low as it was more to herself. Turn after turn, Kagome eventually reached the family grave and raised her head enough to read her father's name. Slowly she let the bag slip from her shoulders before she placed her next to her. And just as slowly, she sunk to her knees. She blamed it on the running, but knew it wasn't that. It was something she did every time she arrived here. She took a deep breath as she looked down at her lap, her eyes desperately trying to focus on the flowers, but they were finding it difficult as she was suddenly hit with a wave of emotions. Would he be proud of her for what she was doing? Would he be as lenient as her mother was with her coming and going? What about Sōta? How close would they have been? Off in the distance, a certain red-clad hanyō watched as the girl placed the flowers in their respective spot. He noted that her hands were shaking as she did so. His ear twitched as he picked up bits and pieces of what she was saying, but what caught his attention was the mention of "dad." Inuyasha watched for a few more seconds before heading back to the Higurashi residence. In all the time he had known Kagome, he had never thought to ask about her father although he had assumed the worst—just as it was in his case. He'd let her have this day. It clearly meant a lot to her.