Babe, Do You Want Me To Wear Your Coat??? 😭

Can I offer you more Kagome Higurashi in this trying time?

HI GUYS! LONG POST, MAKING A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT OVER HERE! I WILL BE ACCEPTING WRITING COMMISSIONS FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS, DUE TO THE FACT THAT I LIVE IN EXTREME POVERTY… PLEASE REBLOG!!

Here are my commision prices:

1$-2$ —> an SMAU (depends on length)

5$ —> a drabble (around 500 words)

10$ —> a oneshot (around 1000 words)

20$ or more—> a ficlet (2000-4000 words or more)

What fandoms I’m willing to write for (the ones in bold are the ones I’m best at and hyperfixating on):

Attack on Titan

Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice

My Hero Academia

Haikyuu!!

Jujutsu Kaisen

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Moriarty the Patriot

Tokyo Revengers

One Piece

Bungou Stray Dogs

Kuroko no Basket

Ikemen Sengoku

Ikemen Vampire

Ikemen Revolution

Ikemen Prince

Love and Deepspace (my current fav)

How do I request a commission?

Either contact me via my DMs here, or on my Ko-Fi! I’ll be linking my account at the bottom of this post.

What’s the commission format?

Tell me your name or your OC’s name, their gender & pronouns, describe them to me both physically and in terms of personality, then tell me which character you want me to write them with. I’ll be writing “character x reader” or “character x OC” fics, so I need to know what I’m working with! Any extra details will help a lot. Of course, we will discuss everything concerning your commission privately.

If you want to check out my previous works to have a rough idea of how things will look like, be sure to check out my masterlist, which is my pinned post! Of course, my writing improves over time, so it may not be precisely as it is there.

How do I pay you?

You can pay me via my Ko-Fi account, which is linked to my PayPal! Here’s the link to my Ko-Fi.

Ko-fi

Buy Maya’s Ink a Coffee. ko-fi.com/mayasink

I’m an aspiring fandom writer and artist! Mostly obsessed with anime (particularly One Piece and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, hehe) and fiction

Please consider helping me out, whether by requesting a commission, or by sharing this post and my links as much as possible!! I’m trying my best to do all I can now that I haven’t got many options left.

As some of you might already know, I’m a dentist, but still at uni. Sadly, studying dentistry is extremely expensive, and I can’t rely on my parents to pay my fees for me for a few reasons.

The first being that my dad is a heart patient, and can’t work anymore. The pension he receives is literally less than the equivalent of 90 dollars. Of course, that doesn’t provide anything in terms of food and living (we usually can only afford a meal or two a day) except for some of his meds—not even all of them. His health is steadily declining.

My mother is extremely narcissistic and very, very abusive. I’ve gone through hell living with her because I have to, but even she can’t even afford to take care of us because no one wants to hire her at her old age, and she’s used up all her savings on my dad.

I’m also physically disabled, and can’t move around often. I also have to have surgeries every now and then because of the chronic illness I have.

I am in serious, dire need of money, both for my tuition fees, and hopefully to be able to live. I have to keep us afloat until I can get married in a couple of years, since I can’t live alone. Besides, my dad doesn’t deserve to suffer with his heart problems.

I tried working with dentistry last year, and that worked for a while, but this year no one’s hiring due to the terrible state of our economy. I have no skills aside from my writing, so that’s what I’ll have to work with. I’m getting seriously desperate, so I hope you guys understand why I’m doing this, and hopefully feel inclined to offer any support you can—even if not financial, but just by reblogging this post!

Love and Meowspace 🐾

blessing your timeline with these kitties

they're giving me cuteness aggression 😭

He's so baby gorl

||| MDNI |||

Hot take:

Dawnbreaker is a sub for MC

One sentence I wrote for him has stayed in my mind for a while now: "I would surrender to you"

He's just happy he's able to touch her, and every touch fills him with such unbelievable joy that his pleasure, his needs are not even something that comes to mind

All he wants is to make her happy

Whatever she wants him to do, he'd do it

And if MC wants him to be more dom, he'd have a hard time doing the things she wants him to do but he'd do it

If it makes her happy

Even if it does leave him feeling guilty afterwards

But he draws the line at degradation. He can't say the things she wants him to say. Even though they both know it's all just a fantasy, the words evaporate on his trembling lips

"Please... Don't make me say that. You mean too much to me. I can't... I can't..."

This desperate, fragile man who would crumble to pieces if MC was ever displeased with him...

All he wants is to hold her, to love her, to show her how much he cares about her

Maybe after living together for a few years, he'd be able to fulfill all of her fantasies

But after finally getting the chance to touch her, all he wants...

Is to be loved by her

My sense of humor is so broken. Zayne in just a towel working diligently while an epic BGM is playing and man is unfazed....

How Important Contact is to Kagome & Inuyasha’s Relationship

Some may recall that a good time back I did a post called “Inuyasha and Human Contact” which was largely focused on how Inuyasha grew up and how overtime, his time around Kagome allows him to get his humanity back. I’ve been asked to do something of a chronological rundown of his contact with Kagome over the course of the series.

Now remember this is only covering physical contact, hand holding and the like. I am also going to be skipping some of the things that happened in the beginning that involve this, don’t think anything before the point where he tells Kagome to climb on his back while pursuing Lord Frog technically count since most of that is more because things need to be done, not him wanting to do thing.

I’m also not going to cover every instance of them being next to one another or Kagome holding onto Inuyasha’s arm… instances of that become numerous enough, so numerous in fact that there isn’t much of a need for the “big moments”, it’s established so much by that point that’s it’s just kind of a natural thing for them, by then these two are always next to one another.

In the beginning it’s actually Inuyasha that initiates a lot of the contact between the two of them, it takes Kagome a little while to reciprocate that contact, before they both reciprocate it back and forth to one another.

Chapter #19: This marks the first time that he willingly asks Kagome to get onto his back to get over the castle wall. He’s more than happy to have Kagome there by this point, and makes it a point of argument when Nobunaga tries to follow.

Chapter #22: Marks the first time they actually are sitting next to one another, before this they’re always kept at a distance from one another, but here they are both sitting on the blanket Kagome laid out.

Chapter #34: Inuyasha panics when he realizes that Kagome may be dead and that her spirit is talking to him before she leaves, he lunges out and tries to grab her hand, and actually does. It takes him a moment to realize that she hasn’t gone anywhere. This marks the first time these two actually held hands, even Kagome is taken aback by him doing it, naturally he immediately moves his hand away after he realizes he’s holding her hand, but not before a noticeable blush forms on his cheeks.

Chapter #37: I skipped an instance like this at the beginning, his reason for grabbing Kagome and putting her on his back was to race off after the Carrion Crow, or when they raced off to fight Yura. In those instances he had a reason, in this instance, he doesn’t, he doesn’t want to get involved in the situation one way or another, but when he realizes that Kagome’s worried and she will not stop until she saves Mayu he changes his mind, grabs her and races off trying to help her.

Chapter #40: Some might wonder why I am including him giving Kagome, Tessaiga and why I didn’t include him giving her the Robe of the Fire Rat during the Yura arc. I consider that latter more of a necessity (and he also had not yet called her by her real name), in this case it’s still kind of necessity but he’s trusting her with his sword to protect her and Nazuna.

Chapter #42: Inuyasha asks her if he can lay his head on his lap. By far the closets the two have gotten thus far, and it’s actually Inuyasha asking for that closeness. The confessions he makes after this only adds to the scene.

Chapter #45: Marks the closest the two of them have been to one another, when Kagome sits down besides Inuyasha. Second time that Inuyasha grabs onto her hand when Kagome questions him about the similarities to Kikyo, she believes he hates her because of that, he’s even leaned in a little closer to her when he tries to explain that, that isn’t the case.

Chapter #52: After Miroku runs off with Kagome’s bike and the shards, Kagome sits down beside him and apologizes to him. He leans a little away in surprise and tries to play off his worry to be about the shards, not Kagome herself. Inadvertently admitting that he was more worried about Kagome than the jewel, the flustered blush only adds to the scene. By this point, Kagome on his back is kind of commonplace for him.

Chapter #54: When Miroku, does what he does, reaching out and rubbing Kagome’s butt, Inuyasha immediately moves his hand around Kagome and pulls her towards him. Kagome would turn and hug up close to him. When Miroku makes the proposal to Kagome to have his child, Inuyasha immediately puts distance between the two of them, moving Kagome behind him and away from Miroku.

Chapter #56: When they realize that the Hell Painter is closeby, Miroku runs off with Kagome’s bike, Kagome is prepared to run after him before Inuyasha grabs her and races off with her on his back. It’s becoming a bit of a habit by this point.

Chapter #62: After Kagome is knocked out when Sesshomaru throws Inuyasha in her direction, Inuyasha moves his hand to the side of her face and cradles her cheek, right before he turns and gives Sesshomaru a death-glare for what he’s done.

Chapter #64: Inuyasha again reaches out and grabs onto her hand, this turns into a hug next to the well together. This is followed by him making the decision that being around him is far too dangerous for her.

Chapter #70: Kagome runs over to Inuyasha after she gets through the well and hugs him. He’s taken aback a little. This is actually the first time that Kagome initiates the contact.

Chapter #73: By far and large the closest they have been up to this point, Kagome leans up against Inuyasha. Inuyasha freezes in places not expecting her to be so close to him. Asking the reason why, only leads to him revealing that he was thinking that something more was going on than just Kagome being scared. It’s actually incredible how rigid he actually seems to get from the mere fact that she’s leaning up close to him, he’s completely rattled and flustered. When the princess their watching raises up Kagome immediately clings to Inuyasha wrapping her arms around him.

Chapter #78: Sitting close to one another while they’re talking about what Inuyasha said to Kagome and what he said to Kikyo. This is the moment where he tells Kagome that he wants to be around her and that he feels relaxed when she is around him, but cannot forgot about Kikyo and has to find a way to make up for what happened between the two of them. This scene shifts from them starting out side-to-side, with Kagome having her back to him, and Inuyasha sitting upright facing forward, this turns into them leaning back to back against one another.

Chapter #111: After Kagome blasts Naraku to shreds at his castle, Kagome explains the reason she got angry, was due to how Naraku was mocking Sango, and Inuyasha, a flustered and blushing Inuyasha walks over and casually sits down right next to her (at this point he’s just used to being next to her), trying to play it off as a dumb reason, but pretty obviously happy to hear that.

Chapter #112: The first time that Inuyasha just casually falls asleep while riding around on the back of her bike, this is a rarity seeing him so relaxed in the Feudal Era, being next to and alone with Kagome likely helps that fact.

Chapter #124: Inuyasha grabs onto Kagome’s hand when she questions his reason for being there. He’s taken aback by her asking about Kikyo, when the whole reason he was there was because he remembered her. He’s scared, not only because he almost lost her and himself, but he also believes that Kagome has lost faith in him. After the experience with the Illusionary Death, realizing that the day that Kikyo and himself turned on one another that he lost his humanity, faith and heart, only to regain them all when he met Kagome, has him in a very heightened state of mind.

Chapter #135: Think this one tends to get looked over. Koga tries to play the protector throughout all of this (despite him being the reason that Kagome is there to begin with), despite the fact that the wolves keep her safe, nothing stops Kagome from running over to Inuyasha and hugging him when she sees him. We’d get a repeat of this scene later during the Band of 7 arc, but it’s amazing to watch it happen right around the time that Koga and Inuyasha started fighting over her, up until the point where I believe even Koga didn’t want to admit he’d lost later.

Chapter #140: After the fight, and the back and forth of the two of them debating whether they should go back or not, Kagome decides to when she realizes that Inuyasha came to her time to see her. They reconcile after a few moments before Kagome leans up against Inuyasha (and it’s by far the furthest one yet, her head is fully resting on his shoulder), Inuyasha, who is blushing, doesn’t seem to mind this one bit.

Chapter #157: Kagome hugs him after she returns him back to his normal self, the move flusters him and leaves him blushing.

Chapter #158: In a moment under the stars they sit close to one another and share drinks, they both have a moment where they talk about how Inuyasha was in his demon form, Inuyasha promises her that no matter what happen he will never forgot her. (A nice connection to the Illusionary Death I might add.)

Chapter #164: When Koga arrives, Inuyasha naturally steps between Koga and Kagome. While they are sitting down and talking with Koga, Inuyasha and Kagome are extremely close to one another as well, Kagome is almost leaning on him.

Chapter #171: Not technically human contact, but he sits next to the well looking into it wondering what Kagome is doing in her time. This is more wanting her around him, than physical contacting. Cheating? Eh maybe, but the end result is going to be the same.

Chapter #176: Kagome is the one to initiate the hand-holding, Inuyasha returns it, this marks the first time that they both hold onto one another’s hand rather than just one of them grabbing the others.

Chapter #182: Inuyasha draps his arm around Kagome’s shoulders and pulls her in closer to him. He also admits that he actually worried about what could have happened to her and apologizes for him not being there for her.

Chapter #187: Kagome draps her arms around Inuyasha’s neck leaning up against his back as she does so and hugging him, Inuyasha in turn brings his hand up and gripping his hand onto hers. It’s a pretty close mirror to what happened previously, Kagome supporting Inuyasha in a moment of pain.

Chapter #195: After the arrow misses, Kagome falls down, and we see Inuyasha instinctively wrapping his arms around Kagome in a hug to support her.

Chapter #198: After the battle with Tsubaki, Inuyasha carries Kagome away on his back, this is where Inuyasha again apologizes for him always getting her into trouble, and how she is stuck with him, but is shocked when he hears Kagome brush that off and tell him that she’s with him because she wants to be with him.

Chapter #224: Ah, the scene where Inuyasha falls asleep on Kagome’s bed. Also marks the first time (and as far as we see only time) he spent the night over at Kagome’s house too.

Chapter #225: Koga appears, naturally Inuyasha makes sure to put distance between the two, standing between Koga and Kagome.

Chapter #229: Can I count him hiding behind Kagome for protection from Sango? Believe it counts.

Chapter #233: Kagome stays outside with Inuyasha (who has the giant boulder sealed to his hand), not wanting him to feel lonely. Naturally he tells her she doesn’t have to stay with him, and of course when she gets up to leave, believing she is bothering him, he quickly tells her she’s not and she stays.

Chapter #244: Inuyasha cries and clutches Kagome to his chest when he believes that Kagome has died. Marking the first time he’s cried in the series (or if we go by what Myoga says, never, at least as far as he’s known Inuyasha).

Chapter #245: Koga appears, Inuyasha literally swipes Koga’s hands away from Kagome. I’d also further point out that even as Koga is trying to scold Inuyasha for putting Kagome in danger, you can see Kagome’s hand on Inuyasha’s arm, she’s also very close to his side when they stand up.

Chapter #249: Inuyasha notices that Kagome isn’t on his back as they’re traveling, it bothers him so much that he stops the entire group to find out what happened. At this point to him it’s kind of how things are supposed to be, and when she’s not around it bothers him.

Chapter #265: Believing Inuyasha to be dead, Kagome lunges over at Inuyasha when he’s revealed to be alive, crying and hugging him. A nice connection to when Inuyasha cried and hugged her before, and this more or less was the scene where Koga lost (though he wasn’t willing to admit that). Inuyasha returns the hug and apologizes for making her worry.

Chapter #285: After Kagome’s revelation that she loves Inuyasha and breaks free from the control of the baby, she falls back into Inuyasha’s arms who clutches her closely to him.

Chapter #286: After a discussion where Kagome tells Inuyasha that she understands he has a duty to protect Kikyo, she leans in and snuggles up to him.

Chapter #287: Not really actual contact, but he does admit that he came to see her because he wanted to see her. It’s hard to actually pin-point when it started, but this is largely where Kagome starts to hold onto Inuyasha’s arm when she is standing next to him.

Chapter #332: This is another technicality, but here Inuyasha pretty much makes it clear that she doesn’t need her bicycle (he didn’t like it anyway), he’s more than happy to carry her around (not that he hasn’t and already doesn’t mind carrying her around up to this point).

Chapter #339: Koga appears, and Inuyasha moves Kagome away from Koga and behind him. Of course this time things don’t work out as he intended…

Chapter #355: Inuyasha loses control of his demon side inside of the demon’s belly, while fusing the shards into the Tessaiga. Kagome lunges forward and grabs onto him in a tight hug, stabilizing and purifying the evil in the shards for him to get off the attack needed to free them.

Chapter #356: After escaping the belly of the demon they spend a long moment in a tree together, Inuyasha worries about the injuries she sustained caused by the demon’s stomach acid, she assures him that they’re fine and they are all safe because of him, they both lean up against one another as they look at the scenery in front of them.

Chapter #380: Koga appears, and Inuyasha moves Kagome away from Koga and behind him.

Chapter #382: Koga appears, and Inuyasha moves Kagome away from Koga and behind him. Haha.

Chapter #392: Inuyasha once more takes a nap in Kagome’s bed.

Chapter #411: Carrying a tired ot Kagome who recently failed a small test because of her absences, he tries to cheer her up and tells her “I’ll always be with you.” Naturally it works.

Chapter #439: Koga hugs Kagome goodbye and Inuyasha tries to hit him with Tessaiga before he runs off.

Chapter #452: Koga grabs onto Kagome’s hands, naturally that’s not happening and he once again tries to attack Koga with the Tessaiga.

Chapter #520: I could pretty much put down this entire chapter to be perfectly honest. It being the last instance (at least full-chapter instance of the modern era) of Kagome and Inuyasha together. The almost-kiss being the biggest factor.

Chapter #556: “You’re wrong! That is not the reason Kagome was born! Kagome taught me how to smile, how to trust people. It’s because of Kagome that I have friends. Relying on my companions. Shedding tears for other people. True strength and kindness. Kagome taught me them all. Kagome was born so that she could meet me and I, too, for Kagome’s sake.

“Say it Back”

How I imagine the LADS Men would react if you didn’t say “I love you” back

Zayne

Zayne: I’m departing for an early shift I’ll see you tonight. I love you.

MC: Have a good day

Zayne: …

MC: …

Zayne: Let me try again you must not have heard me. I love you…

MC: and I said have a good day

Zayne: ….

MC: ….

Zayne: *starts walking towards MC*

MC: OKAY OKAY OKAY I LOVE YOU

Rafayel

Rafayel: I guess I’ll go to this boring exhibit alone since you have to work. I love youuu

MC: Try to make the best of it and be nice.

Rafayel: …..

MC: ….

Rafayel: ….

MC: ….what?

Rafayel: ….. I didn’t realize you hated me. When did we break up? Who is he? How many positions did he have you in? When did you decide you were leaving me?? Please say it back I’m gonna throw up

MC: I LOVE YOU RAFAYEL STOP

Rafayel: I don’t think I’m gonna make it to the exhibit now

Xavier

Xavier: I have to leave for important business I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you my little star.

MC: Okay be safe

Xavier: if you want me to die on this mission you can just say that

MC: What are you even talking about

Xavier: it’s fine don’t worry even if you don’t love me

MC: Xavier I love you shut up

Xavier: You could say it nicer

MC: I love you Xavier come back to me in one piece

Xavier: That’s better

Sylus

Sylus: I’m taking the twins to the meeting with me I’ll leave Mephisto here to keep an eye on you.

MC: I don’t need a bird watching me

Sylus: I’m sure you don’t but he likes to tell on you

MC: *rolls eyes*

Sylus: I love you Princess I’ll be back soon.

MC: Okay come back in one piece

Sylus: ….

MC: ….

Sylus: Don’t provoke me

MC: …..I love you Sylus

Sylus: There we go

Me

*thinks about inuyasha *

I think you or someone else discussed how Inuyasha is most likely demisexual because of his lack of interest in nudity until he formed an emotional bond. I was just thinking how the anti’s claimed Inuyasha settled for Kagome, but all evidence points to him loving her *despite* her resemblance to Kikyo. Not hating on Kikyo, just pointing out how Inuyasha kept saying it’s his fault she died because he didn’t trust her, even though trust has to go both ways but whatever, so if he was settling then Kagome would be a daily reminder that he failed Kikyo. Which would sound like hell considering his repeated claims of his fault.

But clearly in the past discussion of Inuyasha being demisexual, we all know he isn’t shallow or ”settling”.

I might have mentioned Inuyasha being demisexual once or twice, but I don't remember posting something that specific. Maybe someone else did and I reblogged it?

I'm glad you brought up the "Inuyasha settled for Kagome" terrible take, though, because you make great points and boy do I have something to say about it.

First, I love that you mentioned trust has to go both ways despite Inuyasha blaming Kikyo's death solely on his lack of trust on her. It always bothered me how quickily and sincerely he owned up to the role he played on her fate when there was zero reciprocity from Kikyo.

He went as far as taking responsability for things that have never really happened and that would be completely out of his control if they had, such as Kikyo "dying to follow after him" even though he didn't ask for it and never would.

The irony is that, between the two of them, Kikyo was actually the one more equipped to realize they were being played and yet, not only she falls for the same trap, but never really acknowledges that her lack of trust on Inuyasha was just as detrimental to their downfall.

Naraku's entire plan was based on both of them doubting each other. If either one had been more trusting, it'd have failed. Inuyasha recognizes this and regrets not trusting Kikyo, immediately treating her like the victim that she is and never once blaming her.

But he is a victim himself and she never extends the same courtesy to him, still thinking her actions were justified because he should have trusted her — not the other way around — and so she never bothers easing his guilt. On the contrary, she purposely adds to it.

The thing about the love triangle — for lack of a better term — is that Inuyasha and Kagome are constantly pushing their feelings aside to empathize with each other's and Kikyo's pain, while Kikyo acts like she's the only one who's hurting.

Which is to be expected at first because she is the one who died and was brought back against her will, but as the story progressed, I kept waiting for Kikyo to see a little bit of herself on the ordinary girl who was entrusted the weight of the world upon her shoulders, had her shoes to fill and the mess she left behind to clean up.

I kept waiting for her to show some sympathy for the boy who lost fifty years of his life because she misjudged him and was willing to die for a debt she manipulated and guilt-tripped him into thinking he had, a boy she supposedly loves.

None of it came, at least not in a way that felt organic or satisfying. That's my main issue with how Kikyo was written. You can't paint her as a complex character and then gloss over her flaws. You can't sell her as gray character and then pretend the bad things she did never happened.

Takahashi wanted her to reap all of the rewards that come with a redemption arc without really bothering to make her go through one, because that would mean having Kikyo face her mistakes for what they were — including her distrust on Inuyasha — and then apologizing or making up for it, a feat that rarely happened in canon, if at all.

Instead, she abruptly stops acting as vicious, so everything can be conveniently forgiven and forgotten because "she isn't like that anymore." The lack of explanation about what motivated this change makes harder for the audience to connect with her and results in many plot inconsistencies.

And the lack of accountability regarding Kikyo's actions keeps her from growing and reaching her full potential as a character, indirectly regressing or preventing the development of the characters around her as well, which I believe is a huge part of why the story feels repetitive and stagnant at times.

Now, you're definitely onto something when you argue that all evidence actually points to Inuyasha falling in love with Kagome despite her resemblance to Kikyo. I've actually talked about it here and here.

While it's true that Inuyasha mistook Kagome for Kikyo when they first met, it would've been unreasonable to expect anything different. Their looks and scents are similar, he had just woken up from a fifty years long spell and up until then he had no reason to believe otherwise, but Inuyasha actually caught up in a decent amount of time.

After that, as much as he still refused to call Kagome by name, he was also very aware she wasn't Kikyo, to the point that it took seeing her with complete priestess attire on for him to even make that correlation again.

And yet, Inuyasha still doesn't go back into thinking they're the same person, but rather that Kagome's a girl who resembles Kikyo. Only ebentually, even this starts to change the more time they spend together and suddenly, when Inuyasha has a nightmare about Kikyo, is Kagome he sees first.

Mind you, he has only seen Kagome in priestess clothes once. Kikyo wore those her entire life. It'd be understandable for him to confuse Kagome for Kikyo and yet Kagome was his first thought here when, by logic, she shouldn't have been. From them on, he doesn't even see any resemblance between the two girls at all anymore.

Which makes sense, because even if Inuyasha had tried to use Kagome as a replacement — something he never did — he couldn't possibly have succeded, since both girls are polar opposites — a creative choice that was done completely on purpose — and Kagome wasn't slightly interested on being anyone but herself, making her into the worst Kikyo replacement ever.

That's why it got easier for Inuyasha to distinguish one girl from the other with time. Their distinct personalities make up for completely different dynamics and bring completely different feelings out of Inuyasha, because they represent completely different things to him and, again: this is done absolutely on purpose.

In the manga, this is better illustrated by two very specific panels. In the first one, Kikyo is smiling sadly but genuinely at Inuyasha — which we don't see her do often — and he admitted later on that the exchange made him feel guilty, like he had done something wrong, since he had just been rude to her.

In the second one, Kagome is smiling brightly at Inuyasha, which she does constantly, then we immediately see him blush and think to himself how relieved he is to see that smile

Of course those are very different contexts, but they pretty much set the tone for both relationships and if the arrangement of those panels wasn't a conscious choice — which I doubt — then Takahashi is insanely lucky. It's also worth noting that Inuyasha felt relieved to see Kagome smiling because it was farther confirmation that even after Kikyo's resurrection, she was still Kagome.

So I think it's safe to say the physical resemblance actually slowed the romantic process down, considering that the staged betrayal made Inuyasha build his walls even taller than they were when he met Kikyo. This becomes even more clear when you compare their respective first "amicable" conversations.

With Kikyo, even though he was reluctant about her approach and suspicious of her intentions, there was still a part of him that obviously wanted it to be true, so he was at least open to what she had to say.

With Kagome, he was visibly more aggressive and closed off because he has been burned before and she was the reincarnation of the woman who did the burning, which makes her managing to get his trust so quickly that much more remarkable, since she apparently did in less time and in worse circumstances, what Kikyo couldn't.

And Kagome did it precisely because she never acted like Kikyo. She actually took the time to know Inuyasha, to give him her trust and to earn his, to build a solid relationship, based on honesty and real acceptance.

I like to think that, while Kikyo found a crack on Inuyasha's defense she could slip in, Kagome slowly smashed his walls to the ground, therefore leaving an ever lasting impact on him that she couldn't have made by being anyone but herself.

When Inuyasha starts to pursue Kagome romantically, he does so after concluding that there's absolutely no resemblance between the two girls at all and after going through an entire arc where Kagome cried for his sake and trusted him blindly, none of which has anything to do with Kikyo.

People argue that Inuyasha was actually trying to kiss Kikyo here, but why would he do that when he still thinks she betrayed him? And if this was really the case, then why has he never willingly kissed or tried to kiss Kikyo until their final goodbye, Sunrise additions excluded?

At this point, it makes more sense to me that he was avoiding to look at Kagome not because she looks like Kikyo — he has been looking at her just fine before —, but because he has started to catch feelings for her despite his efforts not to and doesn't know how to act. In fact, when he had the chance to kiss Kikyo soon after, this is what we got instead:

And then he hugs her — something the anime cut out — but the important thing is that Inuyasha had this and many other opportunities to rekindle his relationship with Kikyo and simply didn't.

In this particular occasion, he even go as far as to ask Kikyo to return the piece of soul that keeps her "alive" to Kagome knowing full well what the consequences were.

Why would Inuyasha settle for a "replacement" when he could have the real thing instead? Even if you believe resurrected Kikyo to be nothing more than a malicious replica of the original, she's still more Kikyo than kagome could or would ever be.

I dislike this notion because if it's true and there's not an ounce of Kikyo there, why should the audience or the characters care if she "lives" or "dies"? If she gets a redemption arc or not? It feels like a cop out to only consider her the real Kikyo when she does good things.

That being said, save for maybe one scene at the beginning where Inuyasha shoved a bow and some arrows at Kagome because Kikyo was a master archer, he never expected her to behave like Kikyo, never tried to change her so she would and never acted frustrated or disappointed at the fact that she was her own person.

Inuyasha has his flaws — as any good main character should — but he always respected the inviduality of both girls, which is more than I can say about the people who insist on this baseless take.

To wrongly paint Inuyasha as someone who settled for Kagome because she looks like Kikyo gets especially icky when even Naraku, the villain who was obsessed with her, never redirected said obsession to Kagome.

It's such a common trope that I was actually expecting it, but I'm glad it didn't happen because it's a subtle and yet effective way of sedimenting both girls as separate individuals instead of going for the cheapest option.

And ironically, the only character who treated Kagome as if she was Kikyo was Kikyo herself, but even that was very early on and she only seemed to do it as a way of belittling Kagome, because while mentioning her to other people — or by the end of the story — Kikyo had no trouble referring to Kagome as a different being.

Sunrise's adaptation made very questionable choices but something they were pretty consistent on was making clear Kagome and Kikyo aren't the same.

Besides, something fundamentally wrong with this argument is that Inuyasha comes off as shallow and Kikyo as disposeable. Shallow because it suggests physical appearance is all that matters — which goes against everything his character stands for in canon — and the soul is just a seal of approval.

Disposeable because it hints Kikyo's personality is so forgettable and unimportant that it played absolutely no part on sparkling Inuyasha's interest. She's so easily replaceable that even someone who had opposite world views, thoughts, feelings, temperament and mannerisms could do the trick. The memories they made are so generic that it wouldn't have make a difference if any other character was in her place.

Why do people even like those characters, why do they even ship them together if they truly believe that? That's why I don't buy that they actually do.

You see, considering how huge Kagome's soul is, Kikyo technically has got to be someone else's reincarnation too, but I've never seen anyone making the case that she is anyone but herself or that her predecessor is also the love of Inuyasha's life.

The reason they try to do this with Kagome is so that they can pretend Inuyasha and Kikyo somehow ended up together to cope with the fact that they didn't. And that's the exact same reason they pretend he setled for Kagome as well.

Which is funny because what exactly was Inuyasha settling for? Like, in the great scheem of things, what was Kikyo able to give him that he couldn't get a thousand times better from Kagome with no strings and just had to make his peace with it?

It seems to me like it was the other way around: Kagome managed to accomplish everything Kikyo failed to do, so if anything Inuyasha was settling for Kikyo, resigned to spend the rest of his life as human — something he hated to be — just to get "accepted" or to die for something he didn't do just to appease her.

Finally, to say inuyasha settled implies he had no other choice but to marry Kagome. He had: staying single, because now that he has friends and wasn't alone anymore, he doesn't need a lover to fill that empty space in his life if he doesn't want one.

Plus, Kagome wasn't entitled to his love. She jumped trought that well knowing that three years is a long time, that people and feelings change and that what waited foe her on the other side was a mystery, but she did it anyway because all she ever wanted from him was to stay by his side and for him to be honest with her.

Kagome would've been fine with a platonic relationship because even though she obviously wanted more, she was ready to accept whatever Inuyasha was willing to give her, but he wanted her to return so he could give her everything, which he couldn't before because he felt in debt with Kikyo. That's the whole point.

Inuyasha was the one who iniciated every romantic moment they had early on: the first hug, both almost kisses, etc. And it was clear that the things Kagome made him feel, such as that sense of peace, of belonging, of unadultered happiness, were very new to him, so the idea that Inuyasha was settling for her is laughable when this is the character in question:

I know a lot of those scenes were deleted or changed by Sunrise but I watched the anime without reading the manga beforehand and reached the exact same conclusions, so I'm still of the opinion that the people who convinced themselves Kagome was a consolation prize either didn't pay attention or have an agenda of their own that won't change by reading the original material.

TLDR; one does not simply "settle" for their soulmate. They come home to them.