A New Pack

A Faithful Family

It's been two and a half months since they defeated Kaira. Kagome's pack helped destroy demons that were terrorizing villages. The villagers were friendly towards them afterwards. But there were some villages that glared at Kagome and her friends. She could tell that the villagers were confused of why she was traveling with demons. She knew that they would never understand.

Tomoe knew that villagers were not comfortable with her and her comrades. She could sense the fear and hatred coming from them. She already experienced it. But she was luckily at the last village they were at, the children didn't mind her of being a hanyō. The little girls wanted to touch her ears. Her comrades were glad of that. Tomoe was familiar with the village they had just walked into. The reason why is because someone she knew lived here.

"Tomoe, where are we going?" Akinobu (Shippo) asked.

"An old friend of mine." Tomoe said.

"Old friend?" Akari asked, "Who lives in a human village?"

"Hai, my old friend is a human." Tomoe said, "The first human who befriended me."

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They arrived at a grave that sat near an oak tree. The grave read 'Sakae' on it. There was a little of moss caked on it. They were curious about this 'Sakae' that Tomoe knew. Was she the old friend that Tomoe mentioned? Tomoe placed the flowers she had gathered near the grave and placed her hands together to pray. Her friends did the same. They saw that her hands were still clasped together after they finished their prayer. Then they saw a couple walking towards the grave. The man had short black hair while wearing a pine green kimono and dark brown hakama. The woman wore a light blue kimono with a dark blue obi wrapped around her waist. They could see the woman was carrying a bundle in her arms. The couple froze at the sight of Tomoe. Then they started to smile.

"Tomoe!" The couple said as they ran towards her.

"Shino! Ayane!" Tomoe said as she got up and ran towards the man named Shino. He picked her up and started twirling her around with him.

"Tomoe, it's been almost forever since we last saw you!" Shino said, hugging her close.

"Hai, it has been." Tomoe said, hugging him back.

"Tomoe, how do you know this couple?" Akinobu asked.

"Oh, everyone. I would like you to meet Shino and his wife, Ayane." Tomoe said.

"Hello, I'm Reina and the little one on my shoulder is Akinobu." Kagome said.

"Hi." Shippo said, giving a small wave.

"I'm Masahiro and this is my brother, Hansuke." Masahiro said.

"It's pleasure to meet you. Oh and this is Akari." Hansuke said.

"Hello." Akari said.

"It's nice to meet all of you." Shino said. Then they heard a mumble from the bundle that Ayane was carrying. Ayane removed the flap of the bundle and everyone gasped. It was a beautiful baby.

"Tomoe, I would like you to meet our first daughter, Fukiko." Ayane said. The little girl stared at Tomoe when she caught sight of her. She was stretching her hands out towards her. Shino helped set down Tomoe on her feet and Ayane held Fukiko to Tomoe. She was a little bit nervous about holding a baby. Tomoe gently held her to her chest. Fukiko giggled when Tomoe smiled at her. Then she started to reach up to touch Tomoe's ears. Even though Tomoe didn't like it when someone would touch her ears, but she decided that she would make an acceptation as Fukiko was pulling on her ears.