This story includes multiple flashbacks and point of views.
Everyone is human.
History is not accurate, I've manipulated it to fit the timeline.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Otōto-Kuīn
Inuyasha has been in jail for 22 years.
The Republic of China is re-opening the old cases of Japanese prisoners.
Sango is given her first case.
Chapter One
Inuyasha's P.O.V.
I was standing in the mountains, the wind flowing through my long black hair. The sun was quickly moving down to meet the horizon while illuminating everything in sight. I heard singing. Looking around I saw a girl in the distance. She was wearing bright festive clothes. With every step I could hear the jingle in her bangles and the chime in her anklets, it echoed through the field. Her dark raven hair was being thrown around at the mercy of the wind, she brushed it back with her fingertips as she met my gaze.
It was her! I felt my feet begin to move and soon began running, then sprinting.
I have to get to her!
The distance between us was closing quickly, and BAM! There was a loud noise and everything stopped. She stopped singing and fell to her knees. Her eyes closing as she raised one of her hands towards me desperately.
I was still running towards her while the sun was quickly retreating into the horizon and my feet began slowly down by themselves. I couldn't go any faster. The sun was gone and the scene before me was swallowed in by darkness. I couldn't see her anymore. She's gone.
I woke up with a start. There were drops of sweat on my forehead and my breath was short. I looked around myself in panic. The cell I stayed in was like any other, good behavior provided me with a barred window. The light from outside slowly poured in.
It was still better than my nightmare.
Slowly getting up I grabbed the thick shawl off the floor and wrapped it around my shoulders. I looked around and saw that all the other prisoners were still sound asleep. Turning around I peered out my tiny barred window to see the sun rising over the city of Beijing.
A man could be heard in the distance singing an old prayer. I stretched out my muscles. Though I had not gotten fat from staying cooped up in my cell I had grown quite weak. I sat down in my previous spot on the floor, let my head fall back onto the wall and I closed my eyes once more, dreaming of her.
Sango's P.O.V.
It was an early spring morning while I visited my Father's grave, my ankles were getting cold and wet as I walked through the dew. I dropped a basket filled to the brim with flowers at the base of his grave and started spreading them around slow.y All the flowers were done and I sat down in front of the grave and lit some incense.
Taking a deep breath, I folded my hands together and put my head down and started to speak.
Father, today your dream is coming true. Today is my first case.
You devoted your whole life to fighting for justice, and it was an inspiration to me. Today I am taking my first step into the same battlefield. And as always, I take your faith and blessings with me. Please give me the strength to win my first case Father. I hope I'll make you proud.
I bowed my head once again and got up. Making my way to Sing-Sing Prison.
At the jail..
I saw down across from a small man with big round black eyes, his skin color was very swampy- almost green. Probably because his tie was so tight. I was finishing the last of the paperwork he had given me before I was able to visit my client. I passed him the clipboard while he continued to frown at me.
As he looked over the paperwork he started speaking to a guard in the room.
"Oy! Hojo! You know how to cook?" he asked, quickly glancing towards me.
The guard replied. "No sir! The wife cooks for me at home."
"Well you better learn soon. Now women have started doing men's jobs. Who knows, you may be left with an empty stomach soon."
Why that dirty little toad. I held in my anger and took a breath while I held his eyes. He put the clipboard down.
"May I see that Japanese prisoner now, Jaken?" I asked.
"Of course you may Madam Lawyer! It is now within your rights."
We walked out of the air-conditioned room and turned the corner. I passed through a large gate and started down a hallway of prison cells. Jaken fiddled with his large ring of keys and started speaking once more.
"If I may say so Madam Lawyer, you are wasting your time. This man has been here for twenty-two years and no one knows anything about him. You may as well just give up your case." He said. "I think he is very happy here. He never fights or argues. Helps out the other prisoners when he can. We think he wants to be here. He doesn't seem to want his freedom."
"Freedom is every man's born right. It is my job to see that he gains his freedom. You do your duties and let me do mine." I responded.
We finally stopped at a cell and I saw a prisoner with long black hair sitting against the back wall looking down.
"Oy!" yelled Jaken. He knocked on the bars of the cell with his police stick. "Prisoner 689! Look who is here to see you!"
689?
There was no response from the man inside the cell. He was holding something in his left hand and moving it around slowly while looking at it.
"You ungrateful dog! She is a lawyer and here to help you! The state of Beijing has decided to open the cases of some Japanese prisoners! You better take this opportunity to spill out your guts. Find your hidden voice and say whatever you can while you have the chance!" yelled Jaken once more.
There was still no response from the prisoner.
Jaken stepped away from the cell and looked at me. "See what I told you?" he said.
"Open the cell." I said. "I wish to talk to him in private."
Jaken looked up towards me in shock and then shrugged his shoulders. "Madam, you signed the papers so it doesn't matter to me."
He opened the cell and I slowly walked into it.
Jaken yelled down towards the guard. "Kenta, keep an eye from there!"
The door shut and locked behind me. I threw a glance backwards.
"I have done my part, Madam Lawyer. Now the rest is up to you, and your Buddha." He said. With that he walked away.
I looked down at the prisoner, Hhs gaze still focused on the floor. I walked over to him and knelled down so that I was at eye level.
"Let's begin with names." I said. "My name is Sango Shashou. And you are?" I reached forward to shake his hand. His gaze had not shifted off the floor and I got no response. A few moments passed by and I started talking again
"Would you prefer that I call you Prisoner Number 689 like the others? I can't imagine that your name is so bad that you'd prefer a number to it."
Still no response.
"Inuyasha Takahashi." I addressed him with the name that had claimed to have that had been given to me within his files. His eyes slowly looked up towards me and his head straightened out. He didn't look like he was about to speak but I certainly had his attention.
"It's been ages since you've heard your own name, hasn't it?" I asked. He looked away from me again.
"Please. Talk to me Inuyasha, I'm here to help you." I pleaded. "Twenty-two years ago you were silent and no one could defend you. Today Buddha is giving you another chance. Talk to me, I promise you I will get you back to Japan. Please talk to me, please?" I waited for any signs that he might respond before I continued.
"Maybe you don't want your freedom.. but I want you to know why your freedom is important for me and all the other girls in my country." His head was now turned in my direction but he still wasn't looking at me.
"My Father fought his entire life for women's empowerment in China. But he wasn't able to accomplish everything he had set out to do. Today, after years of hard work, I've earned my first case. But everyone knows it's impossible to win this case. They want me to lose.. so that no woman will tread into this male domain again." I spoke.
"But I won't lose. I will not let my Father's dream die. And I won't let down all the women in my country. I just need your help. Talk to me, please talk to me Inuyasha Takahashi."
Inuyasha removed his gaze from the floor and looked towards me for the first time. Looking into my eyes he briefly looked away. There were a few tears in my eyes. I had waited to long to be in this position. And this person, this Inuyasha would not talk to me.
I waited a few seconds and stood up smoothing my clothes out and wiping my tears away. I turned around and started walking towards the door of the cell when I heard a plane flying by loudly outside, its sound echoed through the prison. I grabbed the closed cells door and was about to call a guard.
I guess that's that.
"That is an F-16 flying at the speed of 1200mph." a hoarse voice said. I turned around and saw that Inuyasha's head was turned to look out the window on the opposite side of his cell. "When a plane tears through the skies, and plays with the clouds.. no one but a pilot can understand that feeling." He said.
I quickly fumbled around in my purse and grabbed out my tape recorder. I turned it on and hurried next to join him on the floor. Waiting to hear more from him.
"I can still feel my hands throbbing and the blood rushing and the winds lashing. When I used to I used to take my helicopter into the mountains."
Flashback
Inuyasha's P.O.V.
It was a cold day up in the mountains. Shippo and I were flying overhead many plains looking for the victims. After flying past a large hill we could see two people stranded in the snow waving for help.
"Let's go get them." I told Shippo. He nodded and dropped the altitude of our helicopter.
Shippo kept the helicopter in place as I was slowly lowered down from the plane onto the ground to get the two victims. Once down I grabbed the younger man and attached him securely onto the harness. I signaled Shippo to pull me up with the man attached to me. We flew higher up into the air before I left the helicopter once more to get the other victim. My heart swole with pride and adrenaline.
End Flashback
Inuyasha's P.O.V.
I looked towards the young girl who called herself Sango. Her eyes damp from crying, she was brave. It had been years since I spoke more than a few sentences to anyone. My voice was dry and slow, bits of my story were coming back to me. It had also been years since anyone had used my real name and believed in my innocence. It would be wrong to ignore her. I continued.
"That was my job, and I loved it. Squad Leader Inuyasha Takahashi, a rescue pilot in the Japanese Air Force. Flying was my childhood dream and rescuing people was my Father's legacy. He was an Army Officer who gave his life for the country. I took great pride in my work." I told her. Sango nodded her head as she took everything in. Her tape recorder was circling around and around.
"I was alone and I was free. I lived every moment like it would be my last." I said. "I didn't know that three days later my life would change because of a girl. A girl who at that time was sound asleep at her home in China."
Flashback
Kagome's P.O.V.
"Wake up Lady Kagome! It's now seven o'clock!"
I groaned as I heard Rin's voice and turned onto my right side, peeking outside the windows. She had opened the drapes and put all the lights in my room on, I grabbed a pillow and threw in on my face as I talked into it.
"It's still not light out! I've never woken up this early! What makes you think I'll start now?" I yelled.
"Yesterday your marriage got fixed Lady Kagome, now you are a guest here for some time. Soon you'll have to go to your husband's house! Your days of sleeping in are numbers" she said. I groaned as she continued.
"Your Mother wants you to change some of your ways! You shall wake up early every day. And then make your bed yourself and come down and learn some cooking from Chef Miyoga!" she said.
I could feel her getting up off the bed so I quickly threw the pillow off my face and pulled at her wrist.
"Go and tell them all I'll do none of that! I've been this way my whole life and I'm not going to change today- not ever for anyone!" I let go of her wrist and slammed back into my bed.
"Aw Lady Kagome, your cool attitude will no longer work with everyone." She said.
"You're lucky that they agreed for a wedding based on your beauty." Said Rin. "If they saw the spoiled Princess you really are they'd break it off, and you'll die an old maid."
I tossed my head to the side and sat up on my bed. Jumping on to my feet I jumped on Rin's back and pulled both of us back onto the bed. She struggled as my legs tied around her stomach.
"You don't really mean that do you?" I asked.
"Yes! I do!" she yelled. I loosened the grip of my legs and started tickling her. I made it so that I was on top of her. "Take it back!" I yelled while still tickling her.
"Alright! I take it back Lady Kagome!" I let go of Rin and laid back down on my huge bed next to her. She was trying to catch her breath.
"It's time for your bath Lady Kagome." She said.
"Yeah yeah I know. It's the same everyday Rin. And how many times have I told you to call me 'Kagome' when no one is around?"
"Oh, sorry Lad- I mean Kagome!" I turned to look over at her and she was smiling at me.
Rin was my best friend, my only friend. Even if she was my lady's maid I never truly treated her like one. We always went out into town together on our bikes. She had been in this house growing up with me. I couldn't imagine my life without her. She was like a sister.
The rest of the day was a blur- just like every other day. We took our time getting ready and left the house around noon. Rin and I stopped on our way into town and ate rice balls that one of the vendors was making diligently. Once we were done there we made our daily route to the temple to pray and leave offerings. I got some holy water from the Head Monk that day for my Nanny, Kaede. I loved my Mother very much, but Granny Kaede has raised me. Rin had to go back to the mansion to finish up some chores. I decided to stay in the town for a while and have lunch. I took my lunch on top of the hill right before my house and sat under a cherry blossom tree. I watched the town from above as the sky turned grey.
It was starting to drizzle lightly so I quickly got on my bike and rode towards the mansion, deciding to take the back entrance where the servant's quarter was. Granny Kaede lived there in her own room, along with everyone else who worked at the house. As I walked towards the quarters under the awnings on the side of our house I saw my Mother talking to our on-call Doctor.
I didn't know there was a house call today
The rain now pouring loudly so no one saw me approaching. I stood at a distance while they talked, their backs in front of me.
My Mother was looking at the Doctor with a worried expression. "When will the ambulance be here?" she asked.
The Doctor sighed and took his glasses off. "The rain may be slowing them down. She keeps asking for Kagome."
"Where is Kagome?" My Mother asked Rin. "She was out getting lunch Madam, she should be back soon." Said Rin.
Mother put her hands on her waist and looked towards Rin and the Doctor. "I will break the news to Kagome, no one else will tell her anything understood?"
The rain felt like it was slowly down as I walked up to everyone. I felt a lump building in my throat.
Everyone turned around, noting my presence. "Where is she?" I asked.
I entered the room where Kaede's bedroom. She was elevated on the bed with a couple of pillows behind her head and her eyes were closed. She was holding onto the blue marble prayer beads I had given her when I was eleven.
I knelt down by her bedside and grabbed her free hand. It was ice cold.
"Kaede?" I asked. She moved a little.
"Kagome is that ye?" she said. Her voice soft and weak. Her right eye opened to look at me. She was blind in her other eye and it was covered over by a bandana.
"Yes it's me, Kaede!" I stayed happy to try and pick up any tension that was in the room. "Look at what the head Monk sent for you, special Holy Water from Japan!" I took the silver pot that was in my hands, which held the Holy Water and presented it to her.
"Thank you Kagome, but no Holy Water is going to save me now child." She said. I felt a rush of sadness and anger. "Look Granny Kaede-"
She cut me off. "Since you were a child Kagome ye have kept talking nonstop. And I've always listened. But today I will speak and ye will listen, do ye understand?"
I quietly lifted her hand up to my lips and kissed it lightly. I held back my tears and nodded my head at her.
"I've been in this country for a long time Kagome, most of my life. There were many wars going on in Japan at the time of my youth. I was 14 years old when I lost my parents. I left Japan with other refugees to come and settle here in China." She took a brief rest while talking so that she could catch her breath.
She began talking once more. "Your family, this country had given me lots of good memories and I've taken them in with all my heart. But today I have one last wish, will you fulfill it for me Kagome?"
Tears were rolling down my face and I nodded at her.
"Immerse my ashes in my home country of Japan, dear child." I loosened my grip on her hands as I absorbed what she was saying. "I may be an orphan but I am from Japan, that's my identity. I have told you about Lake Kawaguchi haven't I? That's a very important pilgrimage for me. All my ancestors are there. Just leave me there. I shall get my refuge. Ye shall do this for me, won't ye?"
I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked right at her. "No." I said. I stood up and walked over to the desk to pour the Holy Water into a glass.
"There will be no need for me to do any such thing, Granny Kaede. Our Visa's are ready to go to Japan. You just have to get well soon and we will both go to Lake Kawaguchi together." I said. "You can pray there to your heart's content. Now drink this Holy Water." I took the glass and held my hand out to her on the bed. Her eyes were closed.
"Granny Kaede?" I said. She wasn't responding to me anymore.
"Kaede?" I said once more. I dropped the Holy Water. "Kaede!"
End of Chapter One
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