Sesshoumaru and the Hanyou Child: The First Encounter
(This story happens in InuYasha's childhood – his appearance is of an eight years old boy. Sesshoumaru is younger than seen in the manga/anime, but looks almost the same. I always wondered how Sesshoumaru and Inu had first met, and there's why this fic was born)
Many days had passed since his last fight, and once more Sesshoumaru was bored. That weak youkai wasn't really difficult to kill, but it was at least a better pastime than human swordsmen or other inferior beings.
He was now reclined onto the rocks around the shore of a large river, enlightened by the radiance of sunrise, wondering wheather he would ever find a taiyoukai as powerful as his own father.
"Pathetic," he thought, for the hundredth time. "Dying to protect the likes of a human female and her hanyou child."
At that moment, a thought crossed through his mind. Since the death of Inutaisho, Sesshoumaru had never again seen the Steel Fang – Tessaiga, or even known about it. Although many were his efforts to find it, he failed to think of a very obvious place where his father could have placed the weapon: the homestead of that woman and her half-breed son. He had never, of course, cared to meet his half-brother, who was certainly unworthy of his noble lineage!
Awaken by the thought, he rose up at once. Unworthy though those two could be, there was a possibility that his father's powerful sword, his rightful inheritance, had been under their possession all this time.
On the other riverside not so far, Inuyasha-chan looked watchful into the clean water while his mother collected flowers, distant only a few paces from him. The fish was steady and he eyed it avidly, ready to catch it. He ducked his head close to the earth, eyes fixed upon his prey, and quickly reached towards the water. The fish, however, slithered quickly out of way, the rapid movement getting him out of balance.
"Careful, Inu-chan!", said Izayoi, warningly. "The stream is not really strong at this point of the river, but it could be dangerous to get yourself fallen into it."
"I can swim alright, mum" he answered, slightly bothered. His mother insisted on treating him like a baby, although he was clearly taller than most of the shrubs around. Izayoi smiled.
He peered again into the water looking for some other fish he could catch, but as they all seemed to have gone far way from him he simply sat dully on the ground. He could smell small animals and was keen to hunt them down, but the mother would never let him go all by himself for fearing that the village hunters could do any harm to him.
They had been living on that same village for 15 years by then, although the inhabitants never got used to their presence. Whenever he tried playing with other kids, their parents would not let them and took them back home, pointing at Inuyasha's ears and calling him a hanyou. He was never able to understand really well what a hanyou was or what was wrong in being a hanyou, but all the times he asked his mother he saw her eyes water with sadness, so he decided to avoid the subject when talking to Izayoi.
Most of the older children he had known had already grown up and became nearly men or women, and they too became used to the habit of threatening or cursing him, making references to his "demon father", what he failed to understand as well. The mother told him Inutaisho was a very courageous and kind person, and that he was not to bother by the villagers' twisted comments, but the isolation they were forced into eventually got to the point of preventing them from buying any food, for they all refused to sell it to the "demon family". They were most unwelcome at the village.
Nevertheless, although their children grew old faster than he did, he was certainly much stronger than all. He could go and hunt anything for him and his mother. They would all see it.
"Let's go, Inuyasha-chan!" said Izayoi, getting closer. Inuyasha turned his face.
"You may go, mum, I wanna stay here and play a bit more."
"Alright, but be carefull and stay around!"
Their home was very close to this place, a very cosy and well-cared house left to them by his father. All servants who cared for it had long before left Izayoi and the house, but they had managed to live well anyway, just the two of them.
Inuyasha remained sat beside the river, watching the water flow until his mother got far enough, then he stood up. A group of small birds flied towards the forest, and he wondered which one of them would be tastier after tempered and broiled.
Smartly sat over a high branch of the forest tree, Sesshoumaru observed the hanyou kid and his mother, apparently unninterested. Two hours had passed already when the woman went back with her flowery basket and the boy started rushing towards the forest.
"Keh, I'll catch ya!", yelled him, excited. "It's no use flying higher, I'll get ya, give up!"
A side viewer of the scene would smile sympathetically or laugh out loud, for the small boy couldn't even jump over the higher branches of trees, although he already counted his animal victims before even reaching them.
The hanyou boy stopped breathless at the forest boundaries, trying to smell the birds he had been pursuing. It was quite difficult - their scent seemed to be spread all around, and another scent was mixed to it. A different one he couldn't recognize. Looking up to the high trees, he finally found something rather larger than a common bird.
He was much different from any man Inuyasha had ever met in his life. He had a tall, stoic figure that evoked the eminence of a prince; he was smartly dressed in noble fabrics and a very particular armor. The hair was long and silver like his own, and his eyes were closed on a calm manner - he seemed to be sleeping.
He then sat on the ground next to that tree, watching attentive for all details of that man, and forgetting completely the reason why he got there.
"He... Could he be a hanyou like me?", thought the child Inuyasha. He had not yet found out what the word meant, but that man looked just like himself and he knew he was different. "His ears are different..."
"Given up running pathetically after birds?", he heard the figure say, eyes still closed. The voice seemed as majestic as his owner, but the comment wasn't quite noble.
Inuyasha didn't answer, but stood up immediately. Suddenly, the reclined figure opened his eyelids, glaring at the boy from the corner of the eye
"You're as noisy as a thunderstorm when hunting. Even the sound of your respiration could be heard by those birds."
That glare of his brought him discomfort, but Inuyasha-chan forced himself to stand still. Would he be another villager trying to mistreat him again?
"Who are you?", he said, the childish voice trying to force a defying tone.
"Huh..." choked Sesshoumaru on a dignified tone. "I shall not give my name to someone who has not given his own to me. I would have thought your human mother had teached you manners."
That senteced appeared not only rude, but also quite strange. Why did he call her mother "human"? As to make his mother justice, he agreed and told his name.
"I am Inuyasha, and my mother is Izayoi," he said, the voice quieter now. "What do you mean by that? You are human, ain't you?"
He had barely ended the sentence and felt his feet leaving the ground. That strange man had jumped from the tree top and grasped his neck on the blink of an eye, as if he was a living lightning bolt. He was now getting him hold at an arm's distance.
"That is an insult... Sesshoumaru is no mere human."
His face showed no hatred or despise, but certainly pride.
"I... Getoffme!", struggled Inuyasha-chan, trying to breath. "not an... insult! WHAT are you?"
The expression upon the face of he who called himself Sesshoumaru suffered a very tiny change, as if a glimpse of doubt had flickered through his eyes.
"You know not what I am?" doubted him, getting his face closer to the boy, relaxing the grip. "Could it be possible that your mother never told you what you are, hanyou? Never told you of Inutaisho?"
"You don't go backtalking him! GET OFF ME!", yelled Inuyasha, nearly hitting the youkai's face with his claws and forcing him to evade. Sesshoumaru threw him to the ground briskly, glaring in despise.
"Huh... You think to have the abilities to fight me, despicable half-breed?" he thundered, merely stepping aside to evase Inuyasha's next attempt to hit him, which made him fall to the floor once more.
"Stop messing up! My father was a brave samurai!", he cried, standing up again.
Sesshoumaru showed no sign of satisfaction for his younger brother's ridiculous situation, but seemed bothered by the last word he spoke.
"Samurai? That foolish unworthy woman told you he was a pityful samurai?"
Inuyasha hesitated, in thought. His mother had never used the word samurai, yet he had understood so.
"She... didn't... but -"
Could his father be more than a samurai?
"But you can't talk about her like this! Shut up!" The boy Inuyasha tried to reach the youkai again with his small fist, but the opponent avoided it easily and hanged him from the clothing to the closest tree-branch.
"You are ridiculous. There's only one thing I shall hear before I slice you apart with my claws, hanyou. The sword of my father, the taiyoukay Inutaisho. Is it in that woman's house?"
Inuyasha froze by that question. Had he really said "my father"? That person in front of him was his brother?
"I don't know of this sword and we don't need any! I can protect my mother myself"
"If you're lying, she'll will be dying a miserable death", warned Sesshoumaru, his claws menacinly exposed.
Hanged to that branch by the fire-rat clothing, his arms and legs struggling for freedom, Inuyasha-chan seemed defenseless but still, in his small figure, he sounded immensely courageous.
"I'm not lying and I don't fear you!"
Unable to get his clothes disentangled, Inuyasha-chan thought of workaround, slipping to the ground quickly and leaving the clothing attached to the branches.
Sesshoumaru looked down at his half-brother, looking amused and apparently taken aback by this reaction.
"He's not very fast or strong", thought he, "but I must admit he's brave for defying Sesshoumaru. It will be amusing to let him live now and fight with him someday."
Inuyasha-chan looked him in the eyes and calculated an escape plan, but the sound of his thoughts was pierced by a distant voice calling his name. Izayoi. She had certainly come to check on him and realized he wasn't there.
Sesshoumaru turned his face to the direction where the feminine voice had come and remained silent for an instant, thinking. It was a tense pause, in which the brothers stared into each others' eyes, calculating their next moves.
"If the sword is not here," Sesshoumaru finally said, turning his back at Inuyasha. "There is no need to stay here." And he went on, walking withy pride.
Watching that annoyingly mysterious figure go away without answers, Inuyasha felt the urge to call him back. But a moment before he opened his mouth, his youkai brother turned his face back, glaring from the corner of his eye once more.
"I'll be back when you become able to attack more than birds, with better techniques than these half-grown claws which can barely scratch dust."
And we walked into the forest, his hair swaying gently with the wind.