He was spending another late night in his study, pouring over many old books filled newspaper clippings of articles and the like. Not once did he ever look up from his work as he heard the door to his room open and shut; nor did the shuffling of feet making their way closer disturb him either.

"So they were telling the truth. You are keeping yourself holed up in here."

Finally the hanyou realized someone else was in the room. Looking up, he came to see the adult that a certain kitsune kit had become.

"What do you want runt?" Inuyasha asked gazing back down at his books.

Shippo didn't answer for a few moments, simply observing what his friend was reading over, catching a few words here and there of an article but never fully understanding what was happening. Of course he had some idea of what was going on in the home due to the grilling he'd gotten from Tadao regarding Kagome and the relationship shared between her and his father. The kitsune figured the teenager had been exaggerating from the way he'd been talking but seeing Inuyasha like this, barely even aware of the world around him; he knew that something was wrong.

It was awkward, trying to start a conversation about someone so attached to the both of them. It had to be done though, it just had too.

"I, I heard about Kagome. I'm so sorry."

How were two men supposed to talk about something like this?

"You don't need to go through all that bullshit. Did you not think I wouldn't hear that conversation you had with my son?"

Inuyasha turned his gaze to the red headed man before him, a wry grin crossing his face.

"I know what the family been thinking concerning all of this, well, mystery surrounding Kagome and my studying of it. It's just that I can't seem to stop reading her journals she left behind for any amount of time. I have to know what happened to her, to Souta, and everything in her life that mattered until the end."

"You think that since you missed out on so much that you need to discover all that was missed. Figure out what made her tick for all these years." Shippo finished for him.

A resounding hum was his only answer as he went right back to his clippings. It began to get uncomfortable just standing there so Shippo pulled up a chair and scooted up as close as he could so that he too could read the articles, whatever they were.

"I realized from the last entry from something that Kagome mentioned that I knew nothing about her father." Inuyasha answered the unspoken question.

"Figured it would be interesting to find out what her old man was like and who he was. Turns out he was quite popular around here at one time. Used to be an Olympic swimmer before quitting and settling down and building a family. Guess we now know the answer to where Kagome's love of water came from huh?"

Both men continued to read for hours after that; firstly going through the articles about "Heroic Higurashi" (as Kagome's father was once called) and then turning once again to the wooden trunk full of journals. There was one thing that the kit did notice throughout the entire time though and that was the sadness in the hanyou's eyes. Was his assumption right about Inuyasha blaming himself over… well, whatever it was he was blaming himself for? Did he not understand that it wasn't his fault that the year of Kagome's return through the well had been mistaken?

Did he blame himself for an innocent death that had happened almost thirty years ago?

Shippo had gotten his answer when the hanyou lovingly grazed his hand over a photo of their lost miko and witnessed a teardrop leave a trail down his cheek.