buckle in kiddies! in this fic every loophole you thought "oh no, that can't happen, that's too sad" happens.
enjoy!
(i do not own inuyasha)
When Kagome is eighteen and you are two-hundred-and-three, she removes your subjugation beads. "I don't control you, Inuyasha."
When she is twenty and you are two-hundred-and-five, Kaede retires and offers up the mantle of village priestess to Kagome, and she grabs it with two trembling hands. Kagome is well trained in all herbal medication, emergency wound care, purification, and demonology. She does not feel unprepared. But she says, "Life is so important, and now I take care of it," and you think she's being ridiculous because Kagome can do anything she sets her mind too, why is she worried about failing these people? Two months later, she feels more confident about her skills. Then a toddler, a baby boy, falls ill and he dies in the night with Kagome gripping his hand. She wakes you and cries and cries until you have to you tell her, "Sometimes, people just die, Kagome. Nothing you could've done would've saved that boy." She babbles something incoherent about ant-bye-ought-icks, but you don't know what that means, so you just hold her. She stops crying, eventually.
When the old man dies three weeks later, she doesn't cry as long. The pregnant woman, child safely delivered, two children left orphaned, she doesn't cry at all. "Sometimes, people just die," she tells the oldest little boy. "There isn't always a reason."
When she is twenty-two and you are two-hundred-and-seven, you get married. It is simple and traditional, "Just the way Jii-chan would've liked it". You summon the spirits, you are purified (it only hurts a little), you offer your oaths of fidelity, you bow, you clap, you drink, and at the end, you give Kagome a ring. This is not traditional, and she is surprised to see it. "You said that you did it different there, right," You say, only a little nervous. A lot nervous. "Rings? Vows? All that?" Her tears wipe the white paint off her face as she nods and you put it on her chalky finger. Shippo yells at you for making his mom cry and Miroku tells you that you will never truly know the hearts of women. At the reception, Kagome changes into a black and red iro-uchikake, wipes off all her face paint, and lets her hair flow free. She asks you to dance with her and the answer is hell no, so she dances with Shippo and Taro and Sango. It causes a minor scandal with the reigning priest, but a glare from the husband, all golden eyes and sharp teeth, shuts him up. You are happy to lean against the God Tree and watch. You can't keep your eyes off the gold band on your finger.
When she is twenty-two and you are two-hundred-and-seven, you build her a house. It looks like the one she had at home, a "modern architectural marvel smack-dab in the middle of the warring states era," and you carry her across the entry way like she asks although you have no idea why.
When she is twenty-three and you are two-hundred-and-eight, Rin leaves to live with Sesshomaru to the end of her days. You ask Sesshomaru if the relationship between him and Rin is romantic, and he sends you an icy, disgusted glare. When they leave on Ah-un, Rin calls him Chichi-ue.
When she is twenty-five and you are two-hundred-and-ten, you discover you are infertile. "Inuyasha, this is normal," she tells you when you admit to her, through clenched teeth, that she deserve the life of a normal woman with a normal husband with children and a full house, if she will have it. She does not deserve a lowly hanyou with no wealth, no land, no father or mother to call her own, and now, no sons or daughters to give her. "Hybrids between two species are often infertile," she says as she kisses your forehead. "I don't even know what that means!" You cry desperately. "It means that maybe we won't have kids, maybe there won't be a great Higurashi line, you dope, but we have each other and that's enough for me! Shippo is a handful, anyway," she tells you with a giggle.
When she is twenty-six and you are two-hundred-and-eleven, Kaede dies. Kagome led her well into the afterlife, and she died with honor as an old woman at the age of eighty-six. She is cremated and buried next to Kikyou. Now you give three graves bouquets.
When she is twenty-seven and you are two-hundred-and-twelve, you find an abandoned litter of inu-hanyou pups on an excursion to the west coast of Japan. She looks at you, you look at her, and you take them. They don't look like the inu youkai you are familiar with. They all have brown hair, varying in-between mahogany and fawn and bright gold eyes. The oldest is a girl, who is chubbier but spryer than the other two with dark brown hair and electric yellow eyes. You name her Nishi, from the west. The middle child is also a girl, nearly blonde, who is less active than the other two but her eyes are bright and quick. You name her Kaede, after Kagome's recently departed mentor. The runt of the litter is the only boy, who has dark-brown, nearly black hair. He is small and frail, and you think he won't last the night, but he does. You name him Raiden, lightning and thunder. They all have matching little ears on their heads, which Kagome adores.
"Are inu youkai pups usually born in litters?" Kagome asks, days later, in your home as she bounces a fussy Raiden.
"I think so? Haha-ue was weak and frail so I was the only one, and I'm convinced Sesshomaru ate any siblings of his in the bitc— ow ow ow, Kaede, stop fucking pulling on oyaji's ears!"
When she is thirty and you are two-hundred-and-fifteen, Kohaku dies. The life of a demon-slayer is rarely a peaceful one, but you all cry over his cremation bier. He died defending a village from a demon, and after being eaten, he made the ultimate sacrifice and poisoned it and himself. He left behind a son and a widow. They moved in with Sango and Miroku. Within months, the son is training alongside Hatuski, Hatsuko and Taro as a demon slayer.
When she is thirty-one and you are two-hundred-and-sixteen, she makes you stop referring to yourself as oyaji before the kids catch on. It's too late. Nishi's first word was oyaji.
When she is thirty-two and you are two-hundred-and-seventeen, the village headman dies, and to your surprise (but evidently not Kagomes), you are made headman. "You already protect the village," she tells you as she wrings out laundry at the river. "I don't know why you're so surprised. You were practically the headman in everything but name."
"Because I'm a fuckin' hanyou, 'Gome!"
"Don't say hanyou like that around the kids, they'll think something is wrong with it."
"Right, right. Raiden, there is nothing wrong with bein' a hanyou."
"Anyway, Inuyasha, no one cares who your parents are. You've saved half of these parents' kids at least twice, and half of these kids' parents at least four times. You solve every dispute I can't get to, you've ripped more weapons out of drunk men's hands than I can count, and you practically do harvest by yourself. Half of the village trading contracts are because of you. Don't be so surprised."
"Humans are just so useless, I have to clean up after their messes all the damn time."
"Language."
"Kagome!"
Six months after that, things have steamrolled. Before you know it, you have been raising your sword in defense of at least sixteen outlying villages, not including your own, and you are granted headman again and again and again and again. Then the Hojo clan pays visit to your village and demands to see this "Demon Headman that has possessed my people!" Then you step out with Kagome and it goes like this:
"Akitoki?"
"Kagome?"
"Aki-who? That Hojo fool from years ago?"
"Inuyasha, don't disrespect the Daimyo!"
"Daimyo? Daimyo? This idiot is the Daimyo?"
"Nice to see you again, too, Inuyasha."
"Tch."
"Lady Kagome, you have hardly aged a day! How beautiful you are!"
"Er. Yes, thank you Hojo-sama."
"Hojo-sama? You realize who this is, right? This idiot nearly got you killed! Twice!"
"The Daimyo tried to kill momma?"
"No, Kaede, the Daimyo didn't try to kill momma."
"Momma? Lady Kagome, you're a mother?"
"Er. Yes?"
"But you are… The priestess of this village, yes?"
"Yeah, she fuckin' is. Do you have a problem with my wife or my children?"
"No, no, not at all. Um. Inuyasha-san, are you the man who has been taking my land?"
"Taking? I haven't taken shit. Kagome, tell him I haven't taken jack shit."
"Inuyasha, you've claimed seventeen village lands by becoming headman. You kind of own a large amount of the Hojo Daimyo."
"What the fuck? I just helped the stupid mortals. Not my fault Akiloki or whatever is terrible at his job."
"Hey! I resent that!"
"Dad, what's an Akiloki?"
"I don't know, Nishi, his name? I don't remember it."
"Akitoki! My name is Akitoki!"
"Inuyasha, please."
"Kagome, thank you."
Somehow, Sesshomaru gets called in from the West to settle dispute, ("T-there will be war, you ruffians!" "Yeah, yeah. Go hide behind your daddy, runt." Your half-brother is not happy, and you end up Daimyo with minimal bloodshed. Suddenly, you are a hanyou with riches, fortune, honor to his name, a sprawling home for your children, and worth. This confuses you.
When she is thirty-four and you are two-hundred-and-nineteen, your children, as a unit, humbly request (as humbly as the brats can get) if they may train under instructors of their choice. They're nine now, and you honestly expected them to ask sooner. Already they shadow you whenever you go out to "sharpen" your claws, and you started training in combat much earlier when you were young.
Kagome, who is standing at the open paper door overlooking their herb garden, looks offended at the very notion. Before you can say, "Sure, whatever," Kagome goes, "Absolutely not." You look at your wife, and your wife looks at you, and your children look at you, and you look at your children, and you say, "We'll think about it. Leave."
"Inuyasha, they're only nine," Kagome tells you reproachingly the moment the triplets close the door. You can tell, without a doubt, that the three of them are crouched on the other side, ears pressed to the paper, but you don't call them out for it because maybe it is best that they knew how their mother feels on this. You weren't sure if they knew where her true land of birth was. You or Kagome never told them, because that was the past and it was over, but you never danced around the subject. It wasn't a secret. The triplets were always looking for trouble, so it was likely they asked around to see if Kagome really was a runaway princess like Miroku told them. They probably already stumbled into the truth of when their adoptive-mother was born.
"You were only fifteen or somethin' when you came to Sengoku Jidai through the dry well," you say, reclining back onto the tatami. You prop your head up on your palm, cross one leg over another, and let all the tension melt out of your muscles. You never really liked to stand on ceremony anyway.
"Yeah, but it was out of necessity and that doesn't particularly mean it was good. I had nightmares, Inuyasha," Kagome explains, preferring not to stand on ceremony either. You can't imagine her calling you "honorable husband" anyway. She has much more choice names for you. Like jerk and idiot and oh, do that again, Inuyasha.
She resumes what she was doing before the children interrupted, which was getting undressed. She stripped off her heavy outer kimono, pulled off her hakama, and went to sit beside you, white shirt reaching her mid thighs. There is grass stains all over her hands and paper cuts from wrapping the herbs for shipping. You are Daimyo now, and you have resituated your capital to The Village of the Dry Well. The village has become a lively trade center, demons and humans alike bustling in and out, obedient under your eye. Hanyou become more numerous here than anywhere else. You have received your share of threats from neighboring Daimyos, and the Shoguns, as well. Some of them even tried to act upon them, but there was a reason your territory was undisputed. Even with all this security and wealth, Kagome continued to tend to the people as a "Doct-urr" and a "Crown-sell-ur". You didn't argue, as she was a pacifying power in this town of yours, but she worked so hard and she didn't have too. That bothered you. That bothered you a lot.
But it's Kagome. So she's going to do whatever the hell she feels like.
"Yeah, well, we're not throwin' them into the thick o' it with Naraku, ok, we're teachin' them how to hold a sword and not hurt themselves." She lumbered over to you and sank to the floor beside you with a groan.
"I don't want them to ever have to know that hardship, that's all. I don't want them to have to look at someone and immediately think about killing them. It's savage." She adds with a vicious side-glance, her worn fingers crawling down to her lower back to try to knead out a stiff knot. "Gee, thanks," You croon as you reach over and press against it with your knuckles. You feel it recede, and Kagome thanks you in a sigh.
"Are you sayin' you regret coming here or somethin'?" You continue with a snap, a sharp hand resting on her thigh. You stroked it self-consciously with a claw. You were a rich man now, an honorable one, with land and money and three healthy children, but you could never truly afford her the luxuries of protection and comfort that the modern era gave her. She never complained, but sometimes you found her gazing down the dry well, and you didn't need her to tell you what she is missing.
"Oh, cut that out. I came here by choice," Kagome says, not without bite, but also not without sympathy, and she covers your hand with hers. "I just don't want them to ever feel hardship, Inuyasha, is that so much to ask?" You let out a noncommittal grunt. "Remember when Kaede was four, and you couldn't ever tell her no to anything, so she was a spoiled monster for three years? Because you said she would never go without," Kagome goads again.
"Yes," You grumble. More like she never lets you forget it.
"I want them all to go without this," Kagome finishes with a sincere tone in your voice.
"Fine, fine, I get you, fuck," You reply as you yank your hand out of hers. "But it's not realistic, Kagome. Already Nishi and Kaede have gotten proposals from stupid daimyo sons, not the mention ones who don' think much of the word consent and I can only be so many fuckin' places at once." Truthfully, Kaede and Nishi could more than handle themselves. They're tiny, but they can easily tear a man to pieces with their claws and teeth. They've attacked Miroku and Taro on more than one account, and although they kept it hushed up, Kaede and Nishi never forgot what they could do. Kagome knows it, too, but this is a moot point.
"And they deserve to punch the little assholes themselves, anyway," You lay a hand on her thigh again as soft as you can manage. You squeeze it gently in a half-assed attempt to be tender. "Raiden already wants to be like Sesshomaru, for whatever damned reason. Ruler of the useless clods or whatever." Kagome let out a giggle. "Now where did he learn the word 'clod'?"
"That's not important, but it was from Taro. Anyway, he wants me to rip out one of my fuckin' canines and use it to defend people like I use Pop's to defend you."
"That's… kind of sweet."
"Hell yeah it is!"
Your wife let out a sigh that showed, for once, you were winning the argument. You! Winning an argument!
"The girls want to succeed. They want to raise a sword in defense of what's dear to them, too," You hammer the final nail in the coffin. Kagome lets out another chest-heaving sigh.
"Whaddya say? Can they, can they, can they?"
"Fine, fine! Tell them in the morning that they can go wave around a sword for all I care!" You let out a rumbling snicker, all teeth, and kiss her thigh.
"I knew you'd see the light. Now get down here."
When she is thirty-four and you are two-hundred-and-nineteen, Nishi, Kaede, and Raiden begin their formal combat training along with their usual schooling. Within the first week, Nishi, the laziest, complains about how her arms are sore. Within the first month, she is marveling at her newfound muscles, and she stops wearing long-sleeved kimono so she can show off her "guns". Kaede can outrun most adults, and Raiden will constantly come into his parent's room and challenge you to a wrestling match. You win every time but that doesn't stop him.
When she is forty and you are two-hundred-and-twenty-five, you travel to Totosai to get the three respective swords made for your children. To your surprise, you do not travel alone. Shippo, an adult kitsune now with nearly six tails, accompanies you. The night before, the child you had once viewed as a pseudo-pack mate appears at your door, demanding he go too. Shippo came and went as he pleased; between his frivolous dating, fox demon exams, and Official Fox Demon Business, you and Kagome saw him once a month, if that. It broke Kagome's heart that her first "son" was all grown up, but when he came back with more achievements under his belt, you couldn't be angry. Okay, you couldn't be very angry. You were still annoyed.
So when he appears at your door at eleven at night, an ungodly hour, a mere week after his last visit, demanding to "Be a part of the sword stuff, too!", Raiden lets him in, dazed.
"What sword stuff, Dad?" He asks suspiciously as he closes the door behind his older brother.
"There's no sword stuff," You snap, and then drag Shippo away.
"Runt, they don't know I'm getting them a sword." You tell him the moment you're behind rice doors.
"Well, that's useless. Shouldn't they be doing like, spiritual exercises in preparation or something?" Shippo replies as he fluffs his rumpled overcoat. He licks his hand, smooths down his bangs, combs through his long pony-tail with a clawed hand, smooths his eyebrow, and checks his reflection in the shiny surface of a decorative Katana you leave hanging.
You snatch the katana off the wall.
"For fuck's sake, can you keep your eyes off yourself for one damned minute? What do you mean 'be a part' of the sword stuff?"
"Well, that was rude. And I mean I want to give a fang, too!"
"What the fuck, you can't do that. I'm the dad."
"Yeah, and I'm the older brother! Besides, a tooth from two very powerful demons would make it three very powerful swords. Don't you see the appeal?"
"I hadn't considered it. You're gone all the fucking time, how was I supposed to know you'd want to help?"
"That hurts. It really does."
"It's not my fault you're gone all the time! Kagome's worried sick. No letters, no –," You continue. Shippo gears down for a lecture, shoulders deflating and eyes rolling. "Inuyasha, will you cut that out? He's a full grown man," someone interrupts. It's your wife. Of course it is. She never takes your side.
"And where have you been?" You ask her, instead of replying to her painful jab. You were still older than Shippo, therefore, he had to listen to you.
"At Sango's and Miroku's. They had some questions about parenting."
"Parenting?"
"Taro isn't Taro. You remember how they ran off to Kyoto to pursue Noh Theater?"
"Yeahhhh? It was sort of a big dramafest."
"Turns out Taro is Naoko and she wasn't doing Noh just for the culture."
"I— what?"
"Whatever, I'll explain later. Shippo, what are you doing back?"
Shippo beams and stands akimbo. "I'm donating a fang for the swords!"
"Oh, that'd be awesome, Shippo!"
And then, before you know it, you and Shippo are backpacking across the nation to the reclusive lair of Totosai and you didn't even get a word in edgewise about it. It takes longer to make these swords, as there is three, and it takes you and Shippo a while to grow back a fang for the third, but within a week and a half, you are on the busy road heading into your hometown before you know it.
Kagome greets you in the street, Sango at her side. Sango has aged some, with laugh lines around her mouth and stress lines on her brow. Sango is in battle gear. In age, she has gained some weight from a good life, and it shows, but the blood splattered across her face and her Hiraikotsu shows she has not done the worse for it. Kagome has her bow strapped across her back, and although there is no blood on her, there's the certain wind-swept look that shows she just got out of battle, too. After a few words, you find that yes, it was a minor demon, no, it wasn't a resident of the village, and yes, Inuyasha, I'm fine, will you stop hovering over me like some old crone?
"Can I see these swords of yours?" Sango interrupts, looking tired. Right. She's old. She's what? Fourty-one now?
Wait. Shit. Kagome is fourty.
Shit.
"Uh, yeah," You answer distractedly as you pull the three swords from your belt, wondering how the time went by so fast. You could swear that you two were in the grass, holding hands, and deciding to get married only yesterday.
Sango comments on the craftsmanship on the swords, Kagome boasts about it, the two talk, but all you can do is stare at the relatively unchanged reflection of yourself in the shiny surface of the unsheathed katana.
When did it all slip past you?
Later that day, you present the swords to the bowed bodies of your children, the only ones likely to not outlive you. Raiken cries like a baby, Kaede rubs his back, and Nishi is gone to swing it around before you can even blink.
When Kagome is forty and you are two-hundred-and-twenty-five, you go to war. The Takeda daimyo next to you got fed up with something you were doing and one morning, there are hundreds of samurai at your doorstep. They weren't welcome and wouldn't listen to reason. You change for battle, into red rat-hide that you hadn't worn in what seemed like centuries, and you unsheathe your sword, and you fight. You try not to kill the humans, but sometimes people die and you can't always stop it. Kagome refuses to participate, and although she is not mad at you, you feel dirtier after all is said and done. Only after the dust has settled did you realize that your daughter was missing.
Kaede was gone. Snatched up while you and Kagome were busy, most likely. She was gentle, she wouldn't've fought back. And now she was gone.
The desperate race to the Takeda castle is full of blood-pounding travel, blurred trees, and Kagome's hot breath on your neck. You tried to make Nishi and Raiden stay behind, but they wouldn't listen. It's hard for the two adolescents to keep up with you, but they manage, and you all skid to a stop in front of the sprawling Takeda estate. The guards at the entrance are easy, nothing more than annoying flies. The demons in the hall, however, take more time.
When you in the throne room, you find your gentle, sweet Kaede standing over a bleeding human husk. There's fresh blood on her sword, blood all over the floor, her beautiful summer yukata that her mother worked so hard on torn at the shoulder from the strength of her swing, ragged breathing tearing from her chapped lips, eyes racing in disbelief around in disbelief, locking onto yours in fear, chest heaving, tears leaking and mixing with the blood on her cheek. Kagome drops her bow and envelops her in a tight embrace, and Raiden and Nishi are quick to follow suit. You stand at the entryway, staring down at the corpse of the Daimyo, wishing that Kaede could've gone without this, too.
There is nothing glorious or sweet about this.
When Kagome is forty-two and you are two-hundred-and-twenty-seven, you notice Kagome's grey hairs for the first time. You point it out off-handedly during a walk around the town, and her hand flies up to her temple. "Oh no! Really?"
"Yeah, really."
"Does it look bad?"
"What? No. You look like a proper inu-youkai's wife now."
Kagome snorts and punches your arm. It hurts a little, and you tell her through a snicker, but the weight of those silver strands follow you into sleep.
When Kagome is forty-five and you are two-hundred-and-thirty, Shippo surprises you by arriving at the doorway with a young human at his side and a tiny fox kit, barely three weeks out of the womb. Their smiles are wide and flushed, like they ran all the way here. The humans name is Kaiya, and they have just been married two days ago on the way. The little hanyou's name is Daiki, Shippo explains with a grand gesture to the god tree at the center of town.
When Kagome is forty-six and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-one, Nishi bows to you with the greatest amount of respect the troublemaker can make and tells you that she is leaving. "I'm twenty now, Mom, Dad," she explains, head still to the floor. "There has to be something out there for me. I am going to leave with or without your blessing."
She leaves with it, the fire-rat on her back, her sword, and her word.
Two months later, Raiden leaves for his uncles' court. His going is full of tears and promises, and he looks a lot like his father when he leaves, brown ears perking out of his mop of hair, face turned towards the setting sun.
You wait for Kaede to leave, too, but she doesn't, not for a while. She's never forgotten the man she skilled. She's told you, (and only you, you think with a hint of pride), that she was scared and didn't mean too and it was just throbbing blood and then there was blood on her sword and she didn't know from where. "You've sheltered me so well, Dad," she says, looking down at her clawed hands. "I had no idea I would ever," Her voice grows weak and snaps like brittle wood, and she clenches her fists hard enough for the sharp nails to pierce into her skin. You place another clawed hand over hers, and her grip eases up. Her blood mixes onto your palm.
"I," you start, unsure on how to comfort her because when you were young and full of regrets, no one comforted you or gave you words for this, "I didn't have any idea I would, either." Is what you finish with, and it's poorly stated, but Kaede understands.
When she does leave, it is farther than you expected. "I'm going to the mainland," she explains with a rucksack over her shoulder. "I've always been curious. Maybe something interesting will be there!"
Suddenly, there is no one in your home but you and Kagome. All the space seems unnecessary.
When Kagome is forty-seven and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-one, you get the first letter from Kaede. It reads:
Honorable Chichi-ue and Haha-ue,
China is not what I expected. Did you know they have a great wall in the North and West to keep out their enemies? No self-respecting demon will be kept out by a simple wall. I have met a friend. He is a Yaogaui, which is what they call Youkai here. He is a Tiger Yaogaui, which are revered here. Demons! Revered! He is grumpy and tough but is curious about Japan and is very confused on how I, a half-demon, has come to be. Yaogaui do not usually interact like that with humans. His name is Yat-sen and he is entertaining.
Commoners speak of a great land beyond the mountains to the west. It is snowy and hard to traverse, but they are mortal and limited. Yat-sen and I are going to go beyond there. He doesn't talk much but he loves travel! Unsure if I will be able to write from there. If not, then… Wish me luck!
Your Honorable Daughter,
Kaede
Kagome rereads the letter while you rave. "Immediately, a tiger-youkai! I've met some and they are no good, Kagome, no good. No better than baboon youkai, and you know how I feel about those teat-sucking—,"
"West, huh? If my memory serves me well, they're heading to India," she mumbles thoughtfully. "There's some mountains there, but that shouldn't prove a problem for Kaede, and from there it's too… the Middle East, I think? And then Europe. Right?"
"India? What's that? Wait, you know where she's going?"
You are distracted from the letter by your wife drawing a map in the dirt and explaining what India is, and then Asia, and Russia, and the Middle East, and Europe, and the Americas and then Marco Polo and then why the Portugese are currently in the port of Kyoto, trading, and what colo-nee-nation is.
When Kagome is forty-nine and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-three, Nishi returns to you. She is scarred and thinner than before, like she had no had enough to eat for the past three years. You can still see the familiar rat-hide on her, but the chest plate and greaves and all those scars on her body is new. When she kneels onto one knee, you can see that her right arm is missing from the elbow-down. Your heart lurches at the sight of the ragged scars. Bile raises to your throat when you think of how that must've felt to been taken off. Nishi's sword, Chokyoshi, the Tamer, still lies at her hip. It's scratched up and the hilt looks different but it's Chokyoshi all the same. Your eldest daughter, pride of your life, bows to your surprised wife and then you, and without preamble, escapes to the back patio to sit and smoke a pipe. She didn't even greet you. You follow on her trail.
"Well, didya find what you were lookin' for out there?" You demand, leaning against the yellowed doorway. Her hair's gotten longer since she's been gone. Where did that rat-hide come from?
"Maybe," she answers as she leans into the palm of her hand. You snort and leave her to her own devices. An hour later, when Kagome goes out to talk to her, she's sound asleep sitting up like she hasn't slept in years.
The next morning, you ask her how she managed to lose half an arm. "A girl I met," she replies with a far-off look in her eyes.
When Kagome is fifty-one and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-five, Kagome asks you what you think about death.
"Do you believe in the afterlife?" She whispers one morning before Nishi has woken to start whatever Nishi did during the day. The aches of her arm keep her up during the night, so she doesn't get much sleep. One softened finger draws shapes on your bare chest.
You sigh. "I've walked the road to it, so I sure as hell hope I believe in it."
"I don't mean the underworld, you dope. I mean the afterlife. Like, a life after death? Heaven? Seventy-two virgins?"
"What would I do with seventy-two virgins? I got you."
"Flattering, but you're avoiding the question."
"I don't know, Kagome. I haven't thought about it much, okay?"
"I haven't either, but I've been thinking. I don't care what it is as long as it isn't nothing."
"'Gome, you're always thinking depressin' shit. Go back to sleep."
"Hmph. Fine."
When Kagome is fifty-two and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-six, after seven years of absence, Kaede sends you a letter that says that she is at the docks of Northern Japan, Yat-sen is with her, and she's coming home. Home. You missed Kaede. The thought of her in your house again fills you with a filling much like a cold cup being filled with hot tea. Kagome squeaks and, for the first time in several years, throws open the doors of her middle daughter's bedroom. Before long, she's roped you into dusting and cleaning it as well. So, handkerchief around your nose, sleeves rolled up, you clean. Nishi, who had been sleeping, awakens from the ruckus and emerges from her den, hair sticking up every which way.
"Wassat? What put the fire under our asses?"
"Kaede is returning from the mainland or somethin'. She'll be here either late today or early tomorrow," you reply as you lean out the room to fetch a bowl of hot water.
"Oh, yeah?" Nishi hums thoughtfully as she scratches her back. She nods sleepily, twice, and then crawls back into her room. She reemerges fully dressed, chest plate on and sword at her hip. As she stands there, she wiggles into one shoe and tames her hair with one hand. "And where, exactly, are you going?" You accuse, akimbo, as she walks out the door.
"To get Raiken? That twit should be here for this."
"Raiken? He's all the way to the West! That's over 500 clicks away. You won't get back in time."
"Wanna bet on that, old man?" With a derisive snort and the morning's rice bowl in hand she leaves, a clear wake of dust on her trail. True to her word, she comes back in time. Nishi returns six hours later with a heaving Raiken in tow, his face beet red from exhaustion. Well, maybe not all of Raiden made it. He is all trussed up in the colorful, ceremonial junk that Sesshomaru wears around. As representative for the Higurashi Daimyo, you suppose you can't fault him for it. He looks good in green, anyway, but it's just so… pretentious. The runt of the litter leans over on his knees, heaving and huffing, completely out of sorts while you and Kagome watch from the entryway, disenchanted.
"She— she runs— runs so fast!" Raiken offers up as explanation, as he falls on his ass, exhausted. Nishi shrugs from his side.
The missing daughter arrives the next morning, friend in tow.
Yat-sen isn't what you expected. He had long hair, braided all the way down his back, the forehead completely shaved. His hair was a sort of diluted black that looked like it might've been a different color at one point, and awful burn marks striped his face. He looks stubbornly off to the side, down-right refusing to make eye contact with you. His brows were furrowed into two little arrows right over his yellow eyes. You examined him over your Kaede's shoulder as she tried her best octopus impression. "Yat-sen or somethin' like that, right?" You venture, going for civility, like Kagome made you swear.
"Inutrasha or something like that, right?" He snaps back. Suddenly, the babble of a reunited family goes silent. Kaede, who had left to hug her mother, turns and stares at Yat-sen with her mouth forming a perfect little O.
"Who are you calling trash, shitlord?"
"Who are you calling a shitlord, dogmeat?"
"It's Kouga all over again," Kagome moans in distress. Nishi hits her hand with her fist like she just remembered something. "Oh, about Kouga Haha-ue—,"
"WHO'RE YA CALLIN DOGMEAT, YOU OVERGROWN HOUSECAT?"
"OVERGROWN HOUSECAT? I'LL SHOW YOU AN OVERGROWN HOUSECAT YOU BITCH-IN-HEAT!"
At that moment, Shippo wanders around the corner, little Daiki holding onto one of thumbs. "Hey, I heard Kaede was back— holy shit."
When Kagome is fifty-two and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-six, you learn four things about your children. One, Kaede has terrible taste in friends. Two, Raiken is completely detached from all of the chaos his siblings cause, and three, Nishi is bisexual and has an on-again off-again thing with Kouga's elder daughter. Four, this eldest daughter is the person who took off her arm and somehow, Nishi still dated her.
"Amaterasu's kind of weird, I guess, not really what you'd expect from the heir of an entire species, but, you know," Nishi explains to her family over dinner that night. Yat-sen sits at Kaede's elbow, all puffed up like an estranged housecat. He flickers golden eyes to Nishi disbelievingly and then back to his food. "She's mine," Nishi finished with a shrug. Your eyes never left the tiger-Yaogaui after Yat-sen's particularly judgemental glance.
"Cat-food," you call out from your place at the head of the room. "Do you have some sort of fuckin' problem with my daughter?" Kagome had given you a good tongue lashing after the fight earlier, but this time, she just watched you with clear eyes. She saw the look, too.
Yat-sen's eyes flickered up to look at you, in surprise, before he lowered them to his food obediently again. Kaede gave him a tongue lashing, too. "No," he mumbles. "I just can't understand why you would still talk to someone who cut off your arm. Must be a dog thing," he finished. Raiken, who had his nose in his rice bowl, snort-choked.
"A dog thing, he says," Your youngest snickered. "Yeah, let's go with that." You saw the tell-tale jerk of Kaede and the flinch of Raiken that showed she just kicked him particularly hard under the table. You turned a blind eye to it, and Kagome turned a blind eye to you turning a blind eye to it.
When Kagome is fifty-three and you are two-hundred-and-thirty-seven, you meet Amaterasu. It's typical for Kouga to name his children after the gods. He's that big-headed. You didn't even know Kouga's eldest was a girl, though. The two of you had never had particularly close connections, even after you ascended to power and it would be wise to be on your good side. You don't know how many children he has, where he is, or what he's doing. You don't really care.
Well. You didn't. Until you had one of his pups at your door.
You don't know what you expected, but she is exactly that. Amaterasu's tall with not much in the way of fat or soft curves on her, covered in lean muscle, a face-splitting rambunctious smile on her face, red hair braided back into an elaborate bun with a tail kept in place with long demon fangs, blue eyes trussed up in red eyeliner like she's a geisha, and an attitude like she's never been challenged or told different in her entire life. She pulls her the tail of her bun over her shoulder and bows, slightly, eyes never off you when she arrives. To your relief, Kouga does not come with her and neither does Ayame.
"Haha-ue and Chichi-ue are," she paused for thought, "Otherwise occupied, yes?"
She spoke diplomatically and with an edge of flare. When she and Nishi meet, her eyes fade to something gentler than the fire that had been there previously, and she touched the nub where Nishi's arm used to be.
"Has it been hurting?" She asks, gently and with an edge of guilt, and you decide you like this Amaterasu.
When Kagome is fifty-six and you are two-hundred-and-forty, Yat-sen and Kaede get married, which is actually a surprise. Yat-sen doesn't ask for your blessing, and he doesn't ask for Kagome's either. You hadn't even known the two were together romantically. One day, a shriveled, hunched Miroku shows up at your door and asks you why you weren't at the wedding. You, sleepy and only in your hakama, answer, "What wedding? Did one of your brats get married?"
"No, one of my 'brats' did not get married, Inuyasha. Yours did."
Raiden, who was over for the weekend, snorted from the entryway. That snort grew into a laugh that left him on the floor, Nishi and Amaterasu emerging grumpily from their room, and Kagome coming in covered in dirt from the herb garden. "What's up, greased lightning?" Amaterasu asks Raiden grumpily. Raiken shakes his head, laughing hysterically into his hand, mouth stretched tight across his features.
You did a quick headcount. Nishi and Amaterasu, check. Raiden was never going to get married, what are you thinking. That leaves…
"KAEDE!"
As it turns out, there hadn't been anything inherently romantic between Yat-sen and Kaede anyway. It was stuck in the permanent tender stage like you and Kagome had once been. You asked Yat-sen if he loved her, and his answer was a bewildered look and a curt reply: "Of course I do. Why do you think I would bind myself to her for eternity?"
But you never saw them kiss. Not once. Rarely you saw them even hold hands. "I don't get it, Kagome. Are they friends? Are they lovers? What the fuck is up?"
"I don't know, but I think it's not for us to define. Focus on the letter to Sesshomaru, Inuyasha."
When Kagome is sixty-one and you are two-hundred-and-fourty-five, you get a visit from Kouga. "So, here's where Amaterasu's been, huh," He says when you open the door to his ugly mug. "Lady Kagome! Looking beautiful. Kouga has come to fetch you, finally."
You close the door.
When Kagome is sixty-five and you are two-hundred-and-fourty-five, you catch her sitting on the edge of the Dry Well. She hasn't done this for years.
"Kagome?"
"I'm fine, Inuyasha. Just wishing that Mom could see her grandchildren."
"She would be proud of the little pups, Kagome. They're a lot to be proud of."
"I know. I'm proud of them."
"She'd be proud of you too, ya know. No need to act so down."
When Kagome is sixty-six and you are two-hundred-and-fifty, all of the dark hair from her head disappears. Her hair is completely silver now. "You look just like 'Yasha!" Daichi calls, but you can see Shippo's worried look.
When Kagome is sixty-eight and you are two-hundred-and-fifty-two, you step down as Daimyo and appoint Nishi. Amaterasu had passed on the kingdom to her younger brother, because there was no way that Amaterasu, a lesbian, would produce heirs. But you didn't mind that there wouldn't be heirs, so Nishi got the throne with minimal groaning and you were able to "retire".
When Kagome is seventy-four and you are two-hundred-and-fifty-eight, she breaks her hip going down a hill. When she was twenty, this would've been practically in-and-out, in bed for four weeks, herbal medication, and then back on her feet. But she's seventy-four now and it's not that simple. Priestesses from the next town come and give her herbs, they chant, they set her bones, but at the end of the day, they all emerge from the room shaking their head. "I'm sorry, milord," they all say. "Milady is just old."
You stop welcoming them into your house.
When Kagome is sixty-nine and you are two-hundred-and-fifty-three, her broken hip becomes infected. You stay up with her for nights, holding her fevered hand, watching the sweat drip down her brow. Your children and friends crowd outside.
"Kagome is strong, she'll pull through," Sango says, and Shippo 'hmms' in agreement.
"She is, but she's… older than she used to be. Older than we used to be," Miroku replies.
"Should we—?" Kaede asks quietly.
"No, that's too risky. We don't know if she's going to…. Not yet." Nishi replies.
You can hear them and they should know that. You rip open the door so fast that the paper tears under your claws. "SHUT UP!" You roar. "Kagome ain't goin' any-fuckin'-where, you got it!"
They get it.
When Kagome is sixty-nine and you are two-hundred-and-fifty-three, she recovers from the infection. It's nearly 3 am when the fever breaks, and no one is around to see you cradle your wife and shed a tear.
She can't walk nearly as well, and her limp is pronounced, but she walks regardless. You force her to step down from the role of village priestess and let an apprentice she had been training, Aiko, to take over. She fights you the whole way for it, but you know it is the best idea when she crumples getting up one morning. "I'm fine, Inuyasha, I'm fine, stop fussing, you're acting like my mom!"
"Tch. Say that to me when you can get up in the morning without falling all over yourself."
When Kagome is seventy-seven and you are two-hundred-and-sixty-one, she wakes you up at the asscrack of dawn to whisper, almost like she had never known before, "Inuyasha! I'm old and wrinkly!"
You open one eye to look at her. "Only a little."
"How can you stand the sight of me?"
Ugh. This means you really gotta wake up. You roll over, yawn, stretch, and open your arms to her. She falls into them without a second thought. "You're still as beautiful as the day I met you," you tell her, and you aren't lying.
When Kagome is eighty-one, you are two-hundred-and-sixty-five, and Miroku is eighty-two, he dies. He's old and tired. Everyone in the village lived much longer lives than the usual expectancy; superstition said it was the work of the youkai-lord and his human wife, who spiritual energy sustains them, but the truth is, Kagome had enforced a law of cleanliness and food storage that cut down deaths by infection and sickness by more than half. But even the youkai-lord and his human wife can't stop the sands of time.
Kagome, Raiken, Shippo, Daiki, Mitsuko, and Naoko all cry when the fire is lit. You turn your face aside and allow one tear to slip, and you can hear Nishi retreating into the embrace of her lover later that night. Sango, though, doesn't cry. You suspect that she'll join him soon.
When Kagome is eighty-three, you are two-hundred-and-sixty-seven, and Sango is eighty-five, she dies in her sleep. "It was only a matter of time," You tell Kagome after you buried her ashes with Miroku's. "Sango couldn't be bothered to stay against her will."
When Kagome is eighty-six and you are two-hundred-and-seventy, your children approach you while Kagome is tending to the graves of her friends and mentors.
"Chichi-ue, have you ever considered… extending, Haha-ue's life, somehow?" Nishi asks, cautiously.
You, who had been chopping wood, stops for a brief: "No." then you tear the log to pieces.
"Chichi-ue, what—," Raiden continues.
"Kagome wouldn't want that."
"What about what we want?"
You turn on them, a whirlwind of hair and claws and anger. "We already got what we wanted! She gave us more than she should've and you should be GRATEFUL!" With a final roar, you toss the axe off into the wood behind your house. It disappears into the dimness of the forest with your name. Your children stare at you, dumbstruck, as you suddenly wrestle with this rock that appeared in your throat. Your chest heaves and you try to focus on that.
"I—," Kaede starts, her voice trembling. Yat-sen grabs her arm. "Kaede, let it lie," he mumbles as he pulls her away. Raiden follows them, throwing you bitter glares all the way, but Nishi stays behind.
"Chichi-ue, are you— are you okay?" She whispers.
You whip back around, unwilling to let your daughter see you lose control like this. You can feel the distinct burns where your demon-markings are coming through, and you take deep breaths like Kagome taught you.
Finally, you reply. "Sometimes, people just…People just fucking die, Nishi, and nothing you can do can stop it."
When Kagome is ninety-two and you are two-hundred-and-seventy-eight, she dies in her sleep. You could smell it coming, the slow decrease of her vitality, the way her scent just… tapers off into nothing throughout the day. You bolt awake in the middle of the night, your arm around your wife, and to your horror, you don't smell her fresh-rain-and-grass smell anymore. You bolt up, eyes adjusting easily in the dark, to stare down at your Kagome.
She is still. So still.
It is no surprise, you have been awaiting it, in fact, but it still hurts.
You wake up your household. Raiden is at court again, but with one look, Nishi is untangling herself from her pseudo-wife, dressing, and disappearing out the door. You suspect they'll be back in about four hours. Kaede stands next to your door, arms wrapped around herself. Yat-sen emerges, looking tired and confused. One look at your hallowed face and Kaede's trembling figure makes all the more sense, however.
You pick up Kagome's body and begin preparing her for her cremation.
At sunset, you set her body on fire and an hour after, you bury her next to your mother. You visit her every three days with a fresh bouquet.
When you are six-hundred-and-fifty-six, it is 2005 and you are at the door of the Higurashi shrine. You could've come sooner, but you couldn't work up the guts. Whenever you thought of this place, being at it again yourself, a typhoon raged where courage once rested. The baseball cap over your head feels tight and uncomfortable, but familiar. You could be disguised as a normal Japanese man, but you aren't. You want them to recognize you as the two-hundred-year-old that their daughter fell in love with, not the demon with wrinkles on his brow and scruff on his chin. There is a scroll in your hand, written by Kagome's own hand and entrusted to you in her final years detailing her entire life. You didn't bring Nishi, Raiden, or Kaede with you. You didn't want to crowd her. You swallow your fear and open the door.
"Miss Kagome's Mom? It's me. Inuyasha. I have something I want to give you."