A/N: I am not new to fan-fiction; I have tried my hand at it years ago when I was younger. Needless to say, I had trouble in weaving a good story together as well as having it flow properly from one chapter to the next. It was at a time when I was also more limited in terms of my vocabulary and had to focus more on my school work so that I could graduate with good grades. Unfortunately, I wound up leaving my old works, which I think have probably long since been lost and forgotten regardless. So, I decided that I will start fresh and try my hand at writing fiction now that I am not as busy and have learned more in terms of sentence structuring and grammatical ruling; but hey, I am not perfect, so there are bound to be errors on my behalf. Feel free to point them out, as I can learn from it.
Anyways, I noticed that there was not as much fan-fiction for Kouga as there was for the other characters, and as he happens to be my favourite from the series (do not worry, I still fan-girl over Sessy and some of the others as well), I decided that this should be rectified. Yes, I know, there are quite a few that include Ayame in them… but in my personal opinion, she does not count as she only exists in the anime and not the manga. I could not go with Kagome of course because I want to try to stick as close to canon as I can… thus I have made up an original character to bring into play. I cannot guarantee that she will not be a Mary Sue in any sort of way, but I will try to see to it that she is a normal girl without glaringly obvious faults and without being too perfect.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor any of the characters besides my own original one. That honour belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and her alone. After all, if I owned Inuyasha, I would not be writing fan-fiction. The story is my own and I ask that you do not replicate it or post it anywhere else without my expressed permission.
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It is funny how so many believe that strength is purely physical. If you have the muscle; if you can lift so much in terms of weight; if you can essentially wrestle a bear and come out the victor, then you are strong, right? They could not be more wrong.
There are, I believe, three parts to strength. Perhaps you lean more toward one over the others; or, and I do congratulate you if you have managed to accomplish this, you have balanced all three. Regardless, they are always present; Body, Mind and Soul.
Body is exactly as it sounds. It is your physical strengths; your stamina and your ability to push yourself to your limits and beyond. It is your constitution; your overall health. You can exercise and eat well, yet have an underlying medical condition; thus, you would have a weakness of body even though you make sure to care for yourself. I, myself, am not even sure if it is possible to be perfect in terms of Body as everyone has their own physical flaws that can become the cause of weaknesses.
Mind is a bit more complex. It is how you think; how you are able to analyze a problem and deduce a solution for it. It is your intellect, knowledge and wisdom. After all, while one might be physically weaker than their opponent, if you are capable of out-thinking them, to determine their weaknesses and thus how to exploit them, then through that you may be able to defeat them. Though, while one might be intelligent, they might not be knowledgeable or wise. Intelligence is the power of the brain that allows you to comprehend, analyze and use reasoning in face of a situation. Meanwhile, knowledge is simply a storage of information. When you learn something it is then processed into that living computer known as your brain; ready to be accessed should that information be required again. While intelligence allows you to think and use reason; while knowledge provides you with the information you might need; it is wisdom, perhaps, that is the most important. It is wisdom, with it's insight and good sense, that tells you when and how to apply yourself. It is what tells you whether a plan will provide the desired results or whether you should think of a different solution to use. Unfortunately, wisdom is not so easily attained. It is gained with age and experience. Mind… it is a very powerful thing indeed.
Lastly, you have Soul; perhaps the most important of the three. It is your heart; the very essence that makes you, you. It is emotions; compassion, love, hate… they are all part of your Soul. Without love, you cannot hate; without compassion, you cannot feel; without joy, there is no sorrow. It is all held within a balance, like yin and yang.
While a perfect balance of these three might not be so easily attained, it is still important to acknowledge them all to some degree. Although I, unfortunately, do not practice what I preach; though I know that I should. I care for my body by exercising and eating healthy, though I do not possess the stamina that I wish I could. I keep my mind sharp by partaking in various mental activities; be it problem solving, puzzles of varying sorts or reading. Sadly, it is soul in which I am lacking. I have since closed my heart off behind an impenetrable wall. After all, if I do not care; if I do not feel, then I cannot be hurt. Though I have chosen this course, it does not mean that I am completely blind to workings of the soul. I am capable of understanding emotions and when to be tactful; I can still see the good and bad of the world. Rather than experience this for myself, I instead step back and analyze as to how I am expected to react and then act accordingly; because of this, I am thought cold and heartless. Perhaps they are right. In truth, they simply do not understand.
When I see the world, I see it through unclouded and unbiased eyes. I see the selfishness that exists; when those younger and healthier will not give up their seat to a frail and elderly woman on a moving bus, simply because they found it too bothersome. I have also seen selflessness; when a man will run into a burning building to save a child of which he has no relation and has never met before, merely to preserve that precious life. The latter, unfortunately, I do not see as often. In this era, a majority of society chooses to see only that which immediately concerns them. Thus, chivalry is slowly fading from this world; where people no longer stop to greet one another with friendly and kind words; where a helping hand is less often offered to those who need it. Perhaps this is why I so enjoy my novels. In a book you can find the noble samurai that would give his life without regret to protect his people; in a book you can find the compassionate lord who slaves hard over his city and works to create a safe haven for those escaping the wars. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that there are not kind and caring people out there that are willing to see beyond just themselves and to extend a hand out to others. I just… do not see it as often.
Selfishness, greed, hate… it is because of such things that I closed myself off to spare myself the pains they caused. Were it not for such negativities, I would not have been hurt the way I was. Yet, even though I have hardened my heart, I know it is still fragile inside. Perhaps this is why I was thrust into that unbelievable adventure as I was. Perhaps it was to teach me to let go of those memories that pained me so; to allow myself to dare to love and care, for surely I would be better off for it than being mostly emotionless as I was. Even though it seems like it should be easy to do, it really is not so. After all, even as beautiful as crystal can be when it is moulded and shaped, if hit in the wrong place it will shatter so completely that you will be left forever with millions of irreparable pieces.