Author's Note – January 2015: I have edited some things of this story, mostly for the purposes of it remaining consistent with its "sequels." I have left the majority of the content and general ideas intact and just tweaked things here and there. However I have kept the overall style that I had written it in originally because I want it to remain as proof of my improvement over the years (if that makes sense). If you may bear with me and read on, I promise you I did get better. At least I hope I did. Thank you.

*Ante Iam= "Before Now" (in Latin)

• Italicized= thoughts • ^^ within these=flashback ^^ • Otō-sama= very respectful term for "father"

Sesshōmaru Ante Iam- Chapter 1~Puppy

Inu no Taishō (Great Dog General) and Sesshōmaru's Mother are expecting a child. They believe that it will be another 20-25 days until the child is due. Unfortunately, Taishō had to take care of some General-business and had to leave. Sesshōmaru's Mother figures, that since it will be another month until the child is born, that it would be alright to visit her parents who lived further up north. She leaves and it takes less than a day for her to travel there in her true, demon form without taking a break.

Five days pass and then – labor – the child is due!

All the attendants rush to her aid; push! push! Oh, I can see the head! Push! . . . . . crying . . . . .

The grandparents go to their daughter's bedside to see their new grandchild, a boy.

Grandma, "What a shame that his father wasn't here for the birth."

Sesshōmaru's Mom holds her son in her arms. His eyes are closed and he squirms a little.

Grandpa, "Then to make up for his absence, have him name the boy."

Sesshōmaru's Mother nods.

She stays and rests for six days before she returns to Honshu. She does so in her demon form with the baby inside a sack hanging from her mouth. It takes two days for her to arrive due to feeding, changing, sleeping, etc. Before she arrives, she thinks to herself- His eyes will open soon. It takes 7-12 days for an inu-yōkai (dog demon) child to open them.

~~Meanwhile, at the manor that's in the sky, which Sesshōmau will visit in 100s of years for info on Tenseiga~~

Taishō, not wearing any of his armor, is impatiently pacing outside the estate with Myōga the flea on his shoulder attempting to reassure him.

"Master, I'm sure milady's fine. Look, I know your worried about the well-being of your child, but -"

Taishō picks up on his mate's presence and looks up. She reverts to humanoid form, lands in front of him, with a squirming bundle in her arms.

He goes over to her, grabs her shoulders, and delivers a loving kiss to his mate. The puppy whines causing Taishō to look down. He smiles with such warmth.

"It's a boy. Hold him."

Taishō takes the squirming bundle into his arms and sees a small head topped by silver hair.

In the north the snow was beginning to fall but it was still autumn at the estate so the trees were with red, orange, and yellow foliage.

"You can name him."

Taishō continues to look at his little boy when he notices that things are becoming darker even though it's the afternoon. His mate and he squint up to the sky and Myōga states that it's a solar eclipse.

Taishō again looks down at his puppy when two memories cross his mind

^^ "I would like the older boy to have the kanji for 'kill' in his name and… for it to be three kanji long too." ^^

Yes… that's what you wanted…

^^ Taishō was a small child when he saw his first solar eclipse.

"Otō-sama! Wh-what's going on with the sun?"

"Ah-hah~ it's being swallowed up by the moon."

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know."

"You don't!?"

"Hnph. Did you know that 'maru' is an idiom for the 'circle of life'?"

"Hm? No. Why are you telling me now?"

"Well I thought perhaps you should know, so that you may say bye-bye to it because that circle will come to a halt if the sun isn't spit back out."

He ran over to his father and embraced him tightly, "I, I love you Daddy! I'm gonna miss you and everyone else!"

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too, but, my child, it's not the end of the world… I think…"

"You 'think'?"

He embraced his son, "I'm here. There, there. Look, it's over."

He looked up with a squint and the sun was back to normal.

"And so the destruction of the circle of life fails again."^^

Taishō looks at his son, then the sky; it's lighting up. He notices that the puppy is trying to open his eyes, "Look. He's opening them."

The puppy closes them. "Come on, puppy, open them."

He tries again, blinking multiple times as he does so, until he opens them fully. The eclipse ends showering his father's silver hair in light making it shine and revealing his warm loving expression, "Hello there… Ses-shō-ma-ru~"

Myōga, "That's what you're going to name him master? It's rather… severe."

"Yes. Ses-shō-ma-ru," he has his left hand hover over Sesshōmaru who tries to grab his father's pointing finger with his little hand. He giggles as he stares at his father.

This is my little boy… My son. Hmph, it seems that Father was right when he said that the only real 'love at first sight' that exists is when you hold your child for the first time… And hadn't he said something else? what was it? Ah that's right: 'when a baby grabs his father's finger for that very first time, it has already trapped him for eternity.'

As he holds his little boy the wind blows a red leaf toward Sesshōmaru's little body landing on him. He lets go of his father's finger and stares at the strange new thing-y. He tries to push it away with his itty-bitty hands and during his attempts pushes it up above him. His father catches it, "Oh, is this for me?"

"Nh…"

He chuckles, "Sesshōmaru, thank you!"

Sesshōmaru makes a baby noise and cuddles into his father; he yawns, closes his eyes and proceeds to fall asleep. Taishō cradles him.

The very first person who Sesshōmaru ever saw with his shiny gold eyes was his father.

The first two kanji in Sesshōmaru's name are 殺生 which break down to "kill/murder" and "life" respectively. Sesshō translates as "killer," "destruction of life," "a cruelty," "a brutality."
Maru 丸 is a common suffix to boys' names (think about all the anime characters' names that end in 'maru') but it can also translate to "circle" or "perfect" or as mentioned can be an idiom for the "circle of life."
Altogether it can translate to "Killer of life/the circle of life,"
"Perfect destruction of life/the circle of life,"
"Perfect killer of life/the circle of life,"
"Perfect killer," or "Killing Perfection"

To be continued...

Ch. 2- Milestones