Stand By
Chapter One
A decade ago when I was fifteen-years-old, something extraordinary happened.
I fell in love.
Perhaps at the time I didn't know that I had, but I did. From the moment I stumbled upon his forlorn body, which was pinned to the Goshinboku by Kikyou's purified arrow, and grabbed his ears to see if they were real, I was hooked.
It wasn't the classical love at first sight, because I really don't believe in that type of thing. It wasn't Prince Charming sweeping me off my feet either; that very first day he had tried to kill me. Me of all people! He wanted the jewel and was ready to get it on any cost; after fifty years of being impaled to a tree did nothing to him apparently.
I think that he wouldn't have killed me. Inuyasha doesn't kill humans, at least he was completely adamant when it came to slaughtering that half of his parental line when I knew him.
He still doesn't like to kill humans. He'll gladly pick up his sword and go off for a week or so to destroy some pesky demon, but he would never kill a human, even if the human deserves to die. So I firmly believe that Inuyasha really did never try to kill me, just frighten me enough so that I would hand over the Shikon no Tama or drop it.
He didn't know me very well… Well, I guess I didn't know myself very well at the beginning either. I was sort of a whining brat and I complained a lot. But after spending sometime with him and the rest of our group, after seeing countless bodies and deaths right before my own eyes, I guess somewhere in my teenage mind it registered that not everything was about me.
Which brings me back to my point, about how I fell in love. I could have had anyone else if I set my mind to it; Kouga, Houjou, maybe even Miroku. But instead, I chose, or rather my heart hand selected, Inuyasha, the rude, brash, arrogant, and sometimes idiotic half demon.
Why I chose him, maybe I'll never know. I have my pet peeves about him, like the way he always seems to inhale his food instead of just plain eat it, the way that he picks his nails when he's bored, or the way that he seems to glare at anyone who he doesn't know, or won't bother to get to know.
He swears and spits and fights. He's an all-round badass; I remember in middle school how my friends would always marvel at him and think about how my "mystery boyfriend" must be in some sort of gang, do drugs, and shave his eyebrows. When they finally met him after half a year (or maybe it was more than that), they took one look at him, asked him a few questions, and instantly approved. They still were a little hesitant because he was a two-timer, but Eri threatened to shave off all of his long, silver hair and poke out his amber-gold eyes if he ever did anything to hurt me. I love my friends.
There were some things that I had to get straight about Inuyasha; he wasn't some weak and helpless puppy just because of some relationship gone sour. He wasn't a knight in shining armor, no matter how many demons he killed for the good of everyone else. He wasn't an idiot just because he couldn't feel how others where feeling without it smacking him in the face.
But he was still, and always will be, Inuyasha.
I guess I should get to the point if you don't want your ears to be talked off. Right now I'm heading toward the village, the one that I consider my own home. I live in both the past and the future; the Bone-Gobbler's Well is miraculously still operating even though I don't have any Shikon shards. (Kaede told me once that she thought it might be because some of the Shikon no Tama's power had been absorbed into my being itself; after all, it had been inside of me for about fifteen years.)
In the future I earn my living as a writer. Believe it or not, the adventures that I had for over that one year is sparking the interest of the literate world; two movies have come about and I'm already writing down the battles between us and the Shichinin-tai. With the money I've earned I've restored the shrine, sent my little brother off to college, and have been able to live in my own flat.
Yet I'm hardly ever in the future. I'm always here, always away from the polluted city of Tokyo, away from responsibilities. Not to say that I don't have any here, either. I'm the miko, the priestess/healer, for this place ever since Kaede died two years ago.
Shippou's still young. He's only seemed to age a year, into a ten-year-old, but Inuyasha tells me that's because youkai and humans don't age equally. He always grins when he says that and tells me that Sesshoumaru would be an old man if they did. I laugh at the thought of Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's older half-brother, being wrinkly. He's just always so stoic and cold that it's amazing to even see a now pregnant Rin bouncing at his side. Rin's grown up so well, and Sesshoumaru's just as bad with the poor girl as Inuyasha was with me. If any male so much as shot a glance at Rin, the dog demon would be there in an instant to tear their throat out.
Speaking of pregnant women, Sango is having her third child! I knew it would happen ever since Miroku and the female demon exterminator decided to get married (which was three seconds right after the defeat of Naraku and the completion of the Shikon no Tama).
Miroku has given up his so-called priesthood. I remember the day when Miroku took the golden hoops off of his staff and threw them into the river. He never goes anywhere without the staff and I think it's still painful for him as a priest-turned-blacksmith to not have it around. It's a reminder of what his father and grandfather were, he told Sango and I. It's always there to remind him of himself, if he should ever need it.
I mentioned the defeat of Naraku. Well, it took us long enough to actually figure out how to kill him, and then it took almost twice as long to really kill him. You see, Naraku was a dead thing. His soul was trapped somewhere in Limbo; that is, his human soul, Onigumo's soul. He must have had some connection to it to keep his humanity, and all those demon souls, in check. We eventually figured out that his connection was that tiny child, the cast-off Naraku disguised as a baby with lavender hair and crystal eyes.
To kill Naraku, someone who was dead, meant that we couldn't kill him with regular weapons, or extraordinary ones, like Inuyasha's sword, the Tetsusaiga. It would take a sword, per say, like Sesshoumaru's sword, Tenseiga.
Inuyasha couldn't believe that he wouldn't be the one to kill Naraku, nor could anyone else. I think deep down in our heart of hearts we always believed that Inuyasha would be the one to destroy the demon of hell.
Sesshoumaru nearly died in that battle nine years ago. Inuyasha ended up playing a major role by destroying the baby cast-off, severing Naraku's connection. The demon literally went insane and was easily killed since he no longer had any wits about him.
Miroku's Kazaana, the void in his right palm that was so close to swallowing him up, disappeared. He was afraid to take off the rosary before Sango hit him and ripped it off his arm, revealing that there was nothing to be afraid of. The romantic ending for Sango and Miroku was sealed with a kiss and then the burial of Kohaku, Sango's younger brother who had been killed and then put into servitude by Naraku.
It was good, for a while. I managed to coax the wolf demon Kouga, into giving us his shards so we could complete the Shikon no Tama and purify it. Let's just say Inuyasha wasn't too happy with the terms of getting those shards off of Kouga's legs.
After the kiss, Kouga stopped bothering me. It turns out that he had finally gotten it through his thick skull that I did in fact not want to be "his woman" and mated (as Inuyasha bluntly put it) with his childhood friend Ayame, joining the two wolf clans together forever.
I was allowed to go back home twice every week, if and only if I stayed for one day each time. This was a nice change since I spent one day doing all my tests and the other studying to get into a good high school, which I managed to do. I passed through high school and did not go onto college, simply because I did not need to for my writing career.
It's a nice day today; I wish you could see it. It's late spring, past the rains and the cherry blossoms, but the sun is shining and the sky has fluffy white clouds drifting lazily around in its endless blue. The trees are all very green and the village looks happy and clean from where I stand above it on the hill, leaning against the Goshinboku, the tree Inuyasha spent fifty years pinned to. I look up at the scar and let out a small smile.
Remember when I said that I fell in love? I still am in love, and I've still got it bad as my friends would say. All my waking thoughts are of Inuyasha and I want nothing more than to hold him close all day and listen to his heart beat in my ear.
I know I'm being wistful because it simply can't be done. Besides, Inuyasha can't sit still for five minutes let alone twenty-four hours.
Adjusting the yellow pack on my shoulder, I strut down to the village. My school uniform which once consisted of a green mini-skirt and a red and green sailor top has long since been replaced by comfortable jeans and cutesy tee-shirts, most of them ones with merchandise from my "stories" printed across them. It's just something I like.
I think I can hear Shippou coming. He's stopped running into me and making me bowl over, for which I am grateful. I'm not as young as I used to be. (I know, I know, stop bitching. You're only twenty-five; that's not old at all.)
He's not running; in fact, he's laughing, walking hand in hand with an eight-year-old girl. She's bound to be beautiful when she grows up. Her large violet eyes are just like Inuyasha's and her hair is just as midnight black. Her skin is pale though, just the same shade as mine, and she seems to have a carbon copy of my lips. Her manner is just like mine too; nice until you get her angry. Then she's after your hide and wants someone to pay. Her temper is just as short as Inuyasha's.
I run up them and pick both of them up, twirling them around. It doesn't take much effort; I'm still very strong from my travels. Occasionally I'll accompany Inuyasha on one of his demon hunts. They both laugh and giggle; I love them both with all my heart. Michiko hugs my neck and the commotion causes villagers to look at us. They notice me and wave. I wave happily back until someone catches me around the waist after I put the children down, flings me up into the air, and then catches me again.
Inuyasha. I hug him tightly. "Missed you."
He laughs and ruffles my hair. "It's only been three days."
"It seems like three years." I sigh, remembering times when it used to be Inuyasha who complained that three days spanned across forever. "My editor kept on asking me where I keep going all the time."
"Do you want me to go and shove a stick up his ass so that he'll stop bugging you, love?" He gestures to a nearby tree.
"No," I answer, laughing. "Then he'll really have something to complain about." I step out of Inuyasha's embrace, missing the feel of his arms already. "Where's my little boy?"
"He's out back in the gardens, Kagome." Inuyasha says. He's changed in the past ten years. Grown up and matured into someone everybody respects and loves. So different from what he once was, yet still himself. "Seems to have picked up the miko thing and is tending to the herbs."
I grin. It's wonderful to watch Inuyasha and see him smile and laugh. A long time ago, we had one of our worst fights ever. I seriously doubted ever being able to go back to the Sengoku Jidai, where Inuyasha the others waited. Where my duties as a seeker of the Shikon shards and miko reigned.
That's when I had realized that I loved Inuyasha with all my being. It hurt to see him with Kikyou, every time he mentioned her name or looked at her making my heart break just a little more.
I realized I was being unfair. Inuyasha had loved Kikyou first and I couldn't help his feelings. So I decided then and there that if I truly loved him, then I would love him. Nothing would stop me. But he was his own person and just as I couldn't control my feelings, he couldn't control his.
The Shikon no Tama had been purified when Inuyasha was given it by vote of the group. Nobody had any other need for it and since all this mess had started when he had sought it out we, Sango, Miroku, Kaede, myself, and even Shippou, had decided that since he started it, he would finish it.
He brought Kikyou back to life and became human.
I'll admit it hurt like hell watching Kikyou become human once again. The piece of my soul that was buried within her suddenly became hers once again and she developed a heartbeat and a flush across her cheeks. Then Inuyasha's ears, the furry, cat-like ears, one his greatest attributes in my opinion, had disappeared forever and he became human.
I had cried that night. Cried as hard as though Inuyasha, the hanyou, was dead. He was, in a sense. But after that night I had never cried again.
Never. Not once. Not even in happiness or anger.
Walking to the garden, Inuyasha behind me while Shippou and Michiko ran into the house, I saw Souta (yes, he was named after my little brother) bending over some green-sprigged plant. I grinned and walked up behind him, grabbing him around the waist and tickling him so that he screeched with laughter.
"How's my little boy?!" I laugh, watching as tears stream down from his eyes and his mussed hair shake.
"I'm so happy you're back!" He hugs me around the knees; he is still very small for being six-years-old. I look up at Inuyasha and wasn't prepared to see the somewhat sad, wistful look across his face. I raise an eyebrow but shrug it off, pulling Souta's hair back up into the tidy ponytail it once was. Inuyasha often gets those kinds of looks on his face.
"Kagome!"
I look over my shoulder and smile. I know that voice. The owner rushes over to me from the other side of the garden and hugs me around my shoulders. Her brown eyes sparkle with a happy light and her hair is pulled back into its usual ponytail.
Inuyasha unconsciously places an arm around Kikyou, his wife, looking down at their son who has his arm wrapped my legs, while the shrieks of laughter from Shippou and his only daughter can be heard from inside the house.
