His whole life he was rejected, called a freak, blamed for every single bad happening in the village. When somebody so much as stubbed their toe, they cursed "Jinenji!" It was his birth right as a half demon, or so he felt. Even among half breeds such as himself, he was disgusting. Nobody would want a mate, lover, life partner like that. He accepted that, and he knew that one day his mother would die and he would probably be murdered shortly after. He accepted that, it was the fate he was assigned.
But hope had other plans. Half demons can turn essentially full demon at times, but they can also turn human from time to time. His time of weakness occurred during the solstices and equinoxes- the days where the seasons change. To him, he was finally normal like the other villagers. To his mother, he was at even greater risk. Being human is being vulnerable, and while she was tough skinned enough for the both of them, she knew in her heart that the villagers would take advantage of his weakness if they had stumbled upon this truth . On this night, he would be but a mortal, and yet she knew they would string him up just as they had attempted to do to her so many times before.
This, of course, did not stop the kind yet sad Jinenji. On nights like these, he added extra herbs to the soup to make sure his ever vigilant mother passed out cold. While he felt guilty, he just wanted to be around the villagers. She started to doze off this particular night when the transformation came. He shrank down to 5'9" which was still fairly tall but not enough to make people ask questions. In broad daylight such a small town would notice he was out of place, but the night was his safety blanket. He wandered quietly to the edge of town and just took a walk, glimpsing every human moment, every interaction that he could. His big blue eyes shone as he finally felt like part of a community. His hair, that went down just past his neck but still in a pony tail, felt so much softer than the hay feeling he usually got from his raven locks. If one didn't know who he was, and nobody did, they would probably consider him to be quite handsome.
This rose the first problem of doing this in years. He was noticed. She was fairly young, but old enough to have a curiousity about the opposite sex. She had spotted his eyes almost glowing in her peripheral vision during a festival of the winter solstice. Slowly she walked over.
"Hi, my name is Hana. Is this your first winter festival? I don't think I've seen you before." she beamed up at him, not the slightest bit afraid of the stranger who hid on the outskirts.
She has caught him off guard.
"No, I come every year, just to observe. I come to all the solstices. It's special for me. I'm... Jin, by the way." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, blushing at his quick thinking.
"Well this year you should participate!" She grabbed his hand and lead him through the entertainment and festivities. He had always treasured these nights, but actually participating made this one extra special. If his mother found out, however, he was toast. The night came to an end and he promised to see her at the spring equinox. She smiled up and him and then kissed him on the chest. He turned so red that she giggled but chalked up most of his strange behaviour as shyness. She wasn't about to let that stop her. As he left her at her hut, he stealthily returned to his. He still had quite a few hours until the sun came up and he would take on his true form again, so he was mostly just trying to not be seen entering his own house by anyone.
Luckily, nobody saw him and his mother was still out cold. He breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed her and slid down the wall to think.
In the morning, as usual, his mother woke up horrified at herself and apologized profusely for not "guarding" him all night.
This carried on throughout the seasons. It became harder and harder to not let it slip that he was under Jinenji, not just Jin. She didn't pry at his obvious secrets. She was starting to have strong feelings for her quarterly friend, and she held his hand at every opportunity she got. He happily held on just as tight. Her mother worried when there was no interest with the local boys and grew co corned when she found out about this secret boy. There were too many things she couldn't find out about him, and not knowing was dangerous. Sometimes girls just disappeared and this mother was not naïve enough to just blame Jinenji. No, she figured these girls were probably captured by disgusting men to be used as they pleased. Hana was forbidden from seeing her friend, and he grew sad at the loss of company. Going out for the festivals was no longer enough; they just made him sad, eventually he stopped going all together and stopped drugging his own mother to do it. If she noticed that at those times compared to the usual, she never said anything and probably just chalked it up to loneliness or transformation anxiety.
Women were now going missing much more frequently, and Jinenji's life was in far more trouble as he was assigned blame. Even Hana's mother was starting to question her kidnapping narrative in favour of the common belief.
At this point, a girl named Kagome came around with her own special half demon friend, Inuyasha. Where Inuyasha was hard on him, Kagome was soft. He told Kagome she was the nicest to him, he did not include his secret Hana, who would probably despise him if she only knew the truth.
It was a demon doing the attacking and Kagome was in trouble. In his mind, he saw Hana in her. The kind and loving Hana. His Hana. A girl who sorely missed him and often cried herself to sleep because she could not see him during the rare chances she could have had. He did not take vengeance of the humans once his power came out to save them all, to save Kagome, to save Hana. Deep in his heart he held out a new hope that perhaps Hana could love him the way he knew Kagome could love Inuyasha, something he knew they would deny despite traveling alone together.
When the men helped rebuild his home after the fight, Kagome and her friend took off, but shortly after the women came to do their part. In this village, women didn't help build, but they came with food.
While all sitting together as a village, Jinenji once again felt joy. It wasn't until a young woman passed him a loaf of bread that his day was truly made.
"You remind me of someone," she stated warmly. "He has the same blue eyes as you." She did not flinch or look away in disgust, she was simply happy to see a reminder of her almost-lover, even if it only teased her.
Without meaning to, the words simply came. "Hana." But how would a guy like him know a girl like her's name. She looked up at him with wide eyes and realization struck.
"Jin...enji." After several seconds that made the world fall into an anxious silence, she launched herself into his arms. "It as you, it was always you. That's why you couldn't see me all the time." She held on tight as if she was never going to let go and she simply cried. Her mother did not look impressed, but in recent turn of events and with how miserable her child had been, she knew she couldn't deny the little lady.
Perhaps the most shocked of all was Jinenji's mom who shot him a toothy smile. She was clever and had known for years that he had been sneaking out and knew she couldn't stop him so she simply feigned ignorance. He only had one life and she let him live it the best he could given the circumstances. She had a chuckle. I guess he doesn't just have a face only a mother could love.