by IronRaven
editorial assistance by Lachesis-chan
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company aren't mine. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi-sama. Although I wouldn't mind being Miroku- good job, lots of fresh air and exercise, cool threads, and Sango beats him. ;)
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Where to start this?
How about with introductions. You are my journal, my diary. All the psychologists say you should keep one, to help clean out your mind. At least, that is what the height of head doctoring is saying in the early 1980s.
Me? I'm a doctor, and have been for some time, and have studied both traditional and modern medicines. I am also a man with a cause, to protect someone I love very much. I am Kitsumori Hoono.
I am a fox demon who is over five hundred years old. I have protected and shielded mankind. The main part of my, well, "mission" is about to begin. The woman I came to think of as my second mother will be born soon, and I will do every thing in my power to make sure she is ready for her destiny. And to keep her alive. Partially to become my okaa-san, and partially so that she can be happy. And partially so that she will survive her destiny, which is to save the world.
My real name, that only five other living people know, is Shippou.
Perhaps it would be better to start this at the beginning. It was just before the Portuguese landed here in Japan. Kagome, my charge, was a very strange girl. She was a miko from the future, as you may have gathered from what I said earlier. She and the hanyou Inuyasha were on a quest to gather the shards of the Shikon no Tama, which demons were hunting to gain power. With us were Sango and Miroku, the most beautiful and loving couple it has ever been my joy to know. Though they showed it differently than most people would have, they were meant for each other. Everyone who knew them knew it to, even through they told everyone that they didn't feel that way. Undoubtedly to protect the other.
Our quest was nearly over. Only a few shards remained. Inuyasha had even beaten Kouga, the wolf demon, into submission to gain his shards. Of course, we had to wait for Kagome to go home for a test for that to happen. It would be years before I learned from Kouga how it happened.
Only those of Naraku remained. They would be the hardest to gather. With his army of youkai minions, he was a hard foe. His most powerful weapons were all demons we knew from previous fights. And the resurrection of Kohaku, Sango's little brother. He had died, and his soul was being bound to his body by a shard. Until Kohaku had the chance to rest, Sango would never be able to not doubt herself in battle. I came up with the idea of how to deal with that myself, actually. All it would take was a little help from Inuyasha's brother, Sesshomaru, and his half of the Inu-daisho, the Tensaiga. It took all of Inuyasha's pride to try to make peace with Sessho...
---the past:
"Inuyasha, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I just haven't been here in a long time, not since my okaa died." Pausing in his tracks, the dog boy raised his arm, pointing to where a small spring leapt from between boulders on the side of a hill looking over the valley. "I buried her there. I was alone. The few retainers who survived the night they came for my father were with Sesshomaru and Myouga, finding Inutaisho's bones. She used to go up there and sit for hours at a time, staring down at the path to the gates."
Taking his hand in her's, Kagome gently pulled his arm down by his side. "Did you want to..."
"No." Scowling at his feet, the hanyou breathed deeply. "She's gone, I've said my good byes."
"OK.... You are worried, aren't you?"
"Feh! He only wants to kill me. At least Miroku and Sango had the sense to stay behind, where we set camp. I wish some other people did!" Resuming his walking, Inuyasha gently pulled at her hand, but did not release it. With the free hand, he softly bonked me on the head when they caught up with me. I know that Kagome didn't like it, but over time, it had become his show of affection to me, and I think she knew it. Even if he rarely said anything, I knew that Inuyasha considered me something of a cross between brother and son.
I think he kept it even from her; I know he tried.
As we walked closer to the gates of Sesshomaru's fortress, the flowers became more frequent. Every so often, Inuyasha would run his claws along a blossom, or stroke a stem with the back of hand, his eyes wide as his childhood memories came back to him.
Standing at the gate, two inu youkai in full armour blocked our way with crossed naginata. "Step aside, assholes, I've business with his great vanity, Sesshomaru."
One stood there, rooted in his spot by the blasphemous word, while the other chuckled low in his throat. "It is good to see you, young master. I see your humor has not changed. It has been too long," came a throaty rasp. Inuyasha's eyes widened as he drank in the scents around him.
"Kotou?! You are still alive? I figured you would dead by by now."
"No, young master, but it has been close. I have tended your mother's gardens as if she was still here. Sesshomaru-sama hasn't always approved, but she has softened him. You'll see. Raise your blade, Tachi." The grizzled warrior raised his staff, and stepped back, clearing our path. "Young master, announce your return to your father's home, you are expected."
Grumbling, cursing under his breath, the hanyou straightened himself, pausing to receive a wink from Kagome, and a smile from me. Although it had been hard to convince him the flea was right, Myouga had coached him on how to do this. Lifting his head, my friend's voice called through the gate, and into the courtyard beyond. "I, Inuyasha, second son of the Great Demon Lord Inutaisho, bearer of the fang-made-sword, Tessaiga, and protector of Inutaisho's tomb, return to my father's home. Allow me to enter, so that I may treat with my brother, Sesshomaru, Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands."
---
Author's notes:
This is A/U. I have no idea how Naraku will meet justice in the series. This version of Shippou exists in a pocket universe caused by Keade's death from influenza (see my piece Time Enough, which is still be worked on, shoudl wrap up soon). In this order of probability, Inuyasha and Kagome did not take Kaede forward into time, or at least not soon enough, and Kaede died. When they did, and Shippou saved her life, time changed. As a result, of all of my pieces, only Winter's Chill, and any that I may place before it, apply to these tales. Those, and the the Guardian tales, White Dog and Komainu, becuase given the temporal loops involved, the do take place before this, even though they haven't happened yet for Hoono. Hunter's Heart, Oh My, First Falls, they didn't happen in this timeline, at least not as I have written them, so this Hoono/Shippou doesn't know about them. Don't worry, a headache is normal with temporal mechanics.
Daisho: A matched set of swords, usually a katana and wakazashi, but not always. In this case, the Inu-daisho consists of Tessaiga and Tensaiga.
Naginata: Described as a kind of halberd, it sorta is and it sorta isn't. Without getting into an ancient academic debate, it's basically a sword blade on the end of a staff, and damned effective.
Kitsumori: Sounds like Kitsune, doesn't it? Kitsu means healthy or correct; mori means forest. Foxes and other small predators are an indicator to an ecosystem's health, so a balanced and sustainable fox population would be a sign of a healthy and correct forest. Forests are also very much a place of birth and growth, along with sanctuary. (And if you ask my editor, I pulled it out of my ass, but my subconscious tells me it's a left over from a past life. *shrugs*)
Hoono: Blaze, flame. I know, Healthy Forest Blaze sounds like a contradiction to most people, but a forest fire is a cycle of rebirth and renewal. Of cleansing and strengthening. The kid has been in the fires of hell, and survived. He's earned the name. And YES, this is the same Kitsumori Hoono from Time Enough and Komainu. :) He was developed for TE, and the thought of recording's Shippou's life was too enticing to pass up.