The Tale of the Princess of the Crescent Moon

Birth

"Inuyasha...it's time."

"Keh. What's it 'time' for this time?"

Two months ago, Kagome had proclaimed that she was not going to have her baby in the feudal era, that they were going to remain in the modern era until well after the child was born, and that Inuyasha would under no circumstances be leaving her side to go gallivanting back to the past by himself.

Those two months had easily been the longest of Inuyasha's life. He sorely missed the daily excitement of adventures in his own era, and the day-to-day humdrum domesticity of an expectant family—dealing with a mother-to-be's backaches and cravings, endlessly rearranging the baby's room—drove him nearly mad with boredom. Mama and Souta had tried to find ways to keep him busy around the temple, but he always required careful supervision; if Inuyasha was left by himself for too long, he could quickly become disastrously over-enthusiastic.

Inuyasha soon proved himself useless at anything that required patience or self-control—but he surprised everyone with his talent for clearing overgrown brush, felling trees, and turning unwanted boulders into gravel. And since Inuyasha had been stuck in the modern era, the temple grounds had never looked better. The entire property had been cleared of centuries of unkempt growth, and the land behind the family residence (which had been too rough and rocky to landscape since Inuyasha's era) had been completely renovated, thanks to Inuyasha's superhuman earthmoving abilities and Souta and Mama's skills as gardeners. What was once a rough and overgrown hillside was now an exquisite private garden, lush, verdant, and redolent with sweet-smelling flowers. Kagome especially loved the new garden—she called it "Inuyasha's Glade," much to his annoyance—and she often rested there in a rocking chair that Mama had gotten for her, warming herself in the sun, singing softly to her unborn child.

But she was not singing or sunning herself today. "It's time, " Kagome repeated, leaning heavily on Inuyasha. "Inuyasha..." she said with an effort, "The baby...is coming."

Inuyasha was playing with the cat (the only thing in the modern era that managed to hold his interest for more than a few minutes at a time) and didn't even look up at her. "The baby's been 'coming' for most of this year," he said testily. "When's it going to get here, already?"

Kagome seized his shoulder with a vise-like grip. That got his attention; he spun towards her, and he saw that her brow was furrowed in pain, and her other hand was clutching her belly. "The baby's coming now," she said through clenched teeth. "If you don't want to deliver it yourself, right here, get me to the doctor—NOW."

Inuyasha stared at her dumbly for a moment; then, his eyes suddenly widened with understanding—and he sprang into action, faster than sight could follow. He scooped up Kagome and bounded away as fast as he could run, a red and white blur.

Souta and Mama were in the kitchen preparing lunch when they felt the wind of Inuyasha's passing. All they saw was a flash of red and white, and Kagome's bewildered expression as she was whisked away in his arms. Mama knew immediately what had happened, and she ran after them, calling "Inu-chan! Wait! You forgot Kagome's bag..." She called after them for a few moments, then she shrugged and laughed. "Oh dear," she said to Souta, "Your father was just like this when Kagome was born. No matter: we'll catch up to them at the hospital."

For several minutes, Inuyasha bounded through the city at high speed, leaping from building to building; then he stopped to sniff the air. Kagome had been resting her head on his chest with her eyes closed, taking comfort from the strength of his arms and the smell of his hair, but when he suddenly stopped she opened her eyes and looked around. They were on the top of one of the city's tallest buildings; the panorama was lovely, but it was not at all what she had been hoping to see.

"Inuyasha...where are we? Why did you stop here?" she asked.

He turned bright red. "Um...Kagome," he stuttered, "I... don't know... exactly where I'm supposed to take you."

"Inuyasha, you idiot." She smacked him in the chest and laughed, but then she grimaced and grabbed her belly again. When the pain passed, she looked about the city, then pointed. "There. That blue building with the white cross—that's the hospital. Take me there." She grimaced again; then closing her eyes, she rested her head on his chest and said through gritted teeth, "Quickly."

Inuyasha nodded and soared into the air, and when he landed he ran as he had never run before; and the wind roared in Kagome's ears as they rushed towards their destination.

At the hospital, Inuyasha burst through the main doors and thrust Kagome towards the first person he saw in a white coat. "You—help her!" he growled. Fortunately, Kagome was not the first pregnant woman, nor Inuyasha the first nervous father, that this doctor had ever seen. He very calmly settled Kagome into a wheelchair and assured Inuyasha that everything would be fine; then he wheeled Kagome away, leaving Inuyasha bewildered and alone in the reception area, with no idea what to do next.

"This way, sir." A bored and bespectacled young man in a rumpled jacket approached Inuyasha. "Congratulations on your new family." The young man was not uncourteous, but he clearly wasn't fully awake, because he didn't notice Inuyasha's ears, hair, or sword. He led Inuyasha to his desk, then sat down behind the desk and began pecking at a computer terminal. "So, you're going to be a father," the young man said unenthusiastically. He yawned and clutched at his head. "Please forgive me. I was up, er, working, late last night," he said apologetically. "Now: your name?"

"Huh?" grunted Inuyasha. He had never been inside a hospital before; the riot of odors was making his head spin and his stomach churn, and all he could think about was Kagome.

"Name, sir," repeated the young man. He took off his glasses, rubbed his brow, fished some pills out of his pocket, and swallowed them, dry, with difficulty. "I'm never going out with those guys from Surgery again," he muttered to himself, "They're out of control." He continued tapping at the keyboard and said testily, "Now: what's your name?"

"Inuyasha," said Inuyasha, still not paying much attention to the young man, his ears twitching in search of Kagome's voice.

"Inu... Yasha," the man tapped into his computer. "OK, Mr. Yasha," said the young man absently, "and what's your wife's name?"

"Kagome," said Inuyasha, just as absently.

"Kagome... Yasha," said the young man as he pecked at his keyboard. "Now, Mr. Yasha, do you have any..."

But the young man never had a chance to finish his question; as he turned away from his computer, he was startled to find Inuyasha crouching on his desk, Inuyasha's face nose-to-nose with his. Inuyasha growled, "Where's Kagome?"

The man sputtered for a moment. He hadn't paid much attention to Inuyasha until that moment; but now he saw exactly who and what he was dealing with. Inuyasha's golden eyes were burning, narrowed with suspicion and fury; his ears were laid back, his fur was bristling, and his fangs glinted eerily in the hospital's artificial light. "Where's KAGOME?" Inuyasha snarled, and he grabbed the poor man by the lapels and lifted him high into the air.

The poor man raised a trembling hand and pointed towards the double doors that led into the hospital. With a growl, Inuyasha tossed him away impatiently and burst through the doors, calling, "Kagome! Kagome!" All heads in the waiting room turned at the shouting, but everyone quickly ran for cover at the sounds of breaking glass and screams of surprise and terror as Inuyasha ran headlong through the hospital's corridors, oblivious to everything but the search for his beloved.

"It won't be long now, Ms. Higurashi," the doctor said as he finished his exam and removed his gloves. "Everything looks fine, the baby's doing great, you're coming along extremely well, and you'll be ready for the final stretch in just a few minutes. So...Where's the father?"

Kagome blinked a couple of times, then looked quizzically about the room. "I...don't know," she mused. She had expected that Inuyasha would just naturally be there by her side, and she didn't know what had happened to him. "I hope he's not lost... aaaaaaOOOWW!" She cried out in pain and clutched at the rails at the side of the bed.

"Kagome!" Kagome heard Inuyasha's voice, coming from somewhere within the depths of the hospital.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called out to him. "I'm here, Inuyasha! I'm here!"

Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" and a rattle that shook the building. "Kagome!" Inuyasha's voice rang out, slightly closer this time; then there was another explosion and another, more violent shaking.

"Kagome!" came the shout again, much closer this time; then there was a cry of "Sankontessou!" Golden fire coursed down one wall of the delivery room, and the building shook furiously as the wall shattered with a deafening explosion. Into the room bounded Inuyasha, his demon aspect fully upon him: his eyes blazing and wild, his long hair streaming about him in a flaming white nimbus. "WHERE'S KAGOME?" he roared, and Tessaiga suddenly leapt forth in his hand, a deadly golden vortex forming around its blade.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shrieked. "Osuwa...aaaaaarrrrrgh!" The pain struck her again, and she clutched at her belly and moaned.

"Ah...excuse me." A nurse calmly walked up to Inuyasha; she was barely half his height, and her expression was perfectly calm. She held out a green medical gown. "She really needs your support right now. If you'd put that down and put this on...we could use your help."

Inuyasha stopped cold in his tracks. He looked towards Kagome, apparently seeing her for the first time since he entered the room; then he looked at the nurse; and then, to everyone's surprise (and relief), he said simply, "Okay. Let's go." His demonic fury evaporated in the blink of an eye—he sheathed his sword, and began putting on the offered gown.

"Good boy," said the nurse, and she patted him kindly on the back. "This your first child?" she asked as she helped him into the gown and stuffed his long hair into a cap, and he nodded. "I thought so. Everyone's a little nervous the first time. We'll get her through it—don't you worry."

The nurse turned to the doctor, and asked, "Now, doctor...ah, doctor—are you alright?"

"Ah ... abba ... he ... ah ..." stammered the doctor, and pointed with a shaking hand towards Inuyasha.

The nurse chuckled. "This is your first year out of medical school, first year in a big hospital—isn't it?" The doctor nodded mutely. "I thought so," the nurse laughed. "Now, I'll admit, you don't see this sort of thing every day," she said, rolling her eyes towards the hole that Inuyasha had torn in the wall, "but the longer you're here, the more crazy things you'll see. Oh, I could tell you some stories! But the first thing you need to learn is that no matter what sort of wild stuff they're wearing or what shape they are... people are all the same, and they're all just worried about their loved ones. Look at him now." Inuyasha was holding Kagome's hand and was tenderly wiping her brow with a cool cloth, totally focused on her, completely oblivious to the rest of the world. "Gentle as a lamb, now that he knows that she's OK."

The nurse laughed again, and began, "Of course, this doesn't even begin to compare to what happened here last New Year's Eve..." Kagome interrupted her with a sharp cry of pain. "But that'll have to wait," the nurse said, spinning the doctor and pushing him gently towards Kagome. "...because I don't think the baby will. You're on, doctor."

Like so many fathers before him, Inuyasha had no idea what the birth process involved, much less the strain it would put on Kagome. "Kagome," he whispered concernedly as he wiped the sweat from her brow, "You're not going to... you're going to be OK, aren't you?"

"Don't worry—I'll be fine," she said soothingly, and she reached her hand towards him and gently stroked his cheek. "Inuyasha," she asked softly, "Can you hold me up...just a little while?"

"You know I can," he said with a smile, and he put his arms around her shoulders and braced her against the coming struggle. "You've always been there for me," he said gently, "and I'll always be here for you."

It had always been Kagome who had supported Inuyasha, time after time, when he fought with sword and strength to save all of their lives. Now it was Inuyasha who supported his beloved Kagome, as she fought with all the strength of her heart and the valor of her body to bring a single new life into the world. And soon the room resounded with the raucous clamor of new life: the exhausted, ecstatic sobs of a mother triumphant at the end of her labor, and the defiant cries of a newborn child drawing its first breath.

"It's a girl!" The doctor proclaimed triumphantly. "Congratulations!"

"Congratulations! Oh, congratulations, my dears!" said the nurse cheerily. "Well, she's definitely her father's child," she laughed as she gently but expertly dried the child's full head of long white hair, cleaned her canine ears, bundled her into a warm blanket, and presented her to Kagome. "What's her name?"

"Well..." said Kagome thoughtfully, pressing a finger to her lips, "We've talked about it..." In fact, she had attempted to broach the subject many times, but Inuyasha had been puzzlingly reluctant to join in any discussion of the child's name. "...but we haven't really decided yet," she finished diplomatically.

"Izayoi," said Inuyasha quietly. "The child's name is Izayoi." He hung his head for a moment, then he turned his face to the window and looked into the golden afternoon sunlight. Gently, almost meekly, he whispered, "It was...my mother's name."

Kagome felt tears welling anew in her eyes. She reached for Inuyasha's hand, and drew it to her own heart. "Yes," she said simply, "Her name is Izayoi." She smiled warmly at her daughter. "My precious Izayoi."

"Would you like to hold her?" said the nurse to Inuyasha. She gently took little Izayoi from Kagome, then she laid the child in Inuyasha's arms, arranging his hands to support her properly.

Inuyasha was speechless. For a long time he stared wordlessly at the tiny child in his arms, stroking her silky white hair. Finally, he said quietly, "My dad...he gave me my name, my sword, and my mother's life...but he never held me like this..." and he suddenly turned his back to the others in the room and faced the window. He sniffed quietly for a few moments, and Kagome could see his shoulders quivering, ever so slightly; then he visibly gathered himself and turned back to Kagome, tears of joy still running down his face. "Kagome," he said, his face glowing with happiness and pride, "she's beautiful."

They were startled out of their reverie by the click and flash of a camera. "Is that the new baby?" came a happy shout. "Way to go, sis! Way to go, Inu-ni-chan!"

Standing within the hole that Inuyasha had torn in the wall were Souta and Mama. Souta was gleefully dancing about and madly snapping pictures, and Mama was smiling demurely as ever. "We hope you don't mind our intrusion," said Mama, bowing politely and nodding at the opening in the wall, "but the door was open."

Behind Mama and Souta, Inuyasha and Kagome could also see the other holes that Inuyasha had torn on his way to the delivery room. Heads were poking into each of the gaps in the walls, as curious hospital staff strained to see what was going on. When the onlookers realized that Kagome and Inuyasha were staring at them, they all said "Congratulations!" with embarrassed smiles, then hastily disappeared.

After introductions all around (the nurse who had been so helpful was named Aiko, and Kagome and Mama thanked her quite profusely for her assistance and her wisdom), much adoration of the new baby, and of course many pictures snapped by an enthusiastic Souta, mother and child were bundled up for the trip home. The doctor had pronounced Kagome "unbelievably healthy" and said that there was no need for her to stay in the hospital if she wanted to go home—and Kagome, quite wisely, decided that getting Inuyasha out of there as quickly as possible would be best for everyone.

As an orderly pushed Kagome's wheelchair carefully through the debris in the hallway towards the exit, Mama's attention was drawn to a commotion at the opposite end of the hall: the young man that Inuyasha had rather roughly tossed aside earlier was having an animated conversation with a group of large and well-armed hospital security officers, and he was gesturing in her direction with one hand and nursing an ugly bump on his head with the other. The officers nodded and began making their way towards Inuyasha and Kagome.

As the officers reached the pile of rubble outside the delivery room, Mama and Nurse Aiko intercepted them, and each took one arm of the sergeant in charge. "What a wonderful day it is today," Mama said charmingly, a beautiful smile warming her gentle face. "It's my first granddaughter—I'm so happy!" She giggled and demurely covered her mouth; as she did so, she caught the sergeant's eye and whispered earnestly, "There's no power on heaven or earth that can keep those two apart. I've seen him fight for her. If you even try to get between them...well, God help you, because no one else can."

"Now what are you boys on about now?" laughed Nurse Aiko, swinging merrily from the other arm of the puzzled sergeant. "Oh, the stories you hear in hospitals...boy, I could sure tell you a few myself!" She guffawed raucously, then she looked the man square in the eye, and said quietly, "He took three walls down with his bare hands. He went through them like they were paper. He would have torn this whole building apart to find her. Do you really want to get between them?"

One of the other officers was on his knees, inspecting the remains of a wall that Inuyasha had torn through. With difficulty, he lifted a large chunk of the wall, and held it up for the others to see. "Sarge," he said cautiously, "are those claw marks?"

Another pointed to some dark slag on the surface. "Are those burns? And...that, right there, looks like the concrete boiled... it's ...melted..." he shuddered and backed away quickly.

The sergeant looked carefully at the remains of the wall and the marks that Inuyasha's attack had left, then he looked down the hall to see Inuyasha at Kagome's side as she was being wheeled to the door. Inuyasha seemed quite innocuous in his surgical garb (which Nurse Aiko had wisely neglected to tell him to remove): a green medical cap covered his long hair and ears, and the gown hid his sword. But then, the sergeant saw Inuyasha give the orderly pushing Kagome's chair a friendly pat on the back, and he clearly saw Inuyasha's claws, glinting under the fluorescent lights.

The sergeant scratched his chin a moment, then took the claw-marked chunk of wall from his assistant and carefully dropped it onto the floor; it fell with a loud thud, breaking in half and obliterating the evidence of Inuyasha's attack. "Electrical fire?" he said, looking significantly at his men.

"Electrical fire," they all nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, they just don't build 'em like they used to," said the sergeant chummily to Nurse Aiko and Mama. "Rampaging madmen tearing holes in walls... hah! The things people think they see around here! I'm getting too old for this job." Then he muttered earnestly, "Just keep things quiet until she goes home, OK?"

"Oh, it'll be no problem at all," said Nurse Aiko, patting the sergeant's hand reassuringly. "First-time fathers are nothing but trouble. They're just like little boys, out of control...you know what I mean, don't you?" she said significantly to Mama, who laughed as she watched Souta madly snapping pictures of Kagome's progress down the hallway. "They've just got too much energy, and nothing to do with it. Once you give them something to do, they're no trouble at all."

Then Nurse Aiko took Mama's hand, and she said warmly, "But from the looks of the little one, she's her father's daughter...and I'm sure that from now on, he'll always have plenty to do."

Mama giggled. "If she's anything like her father...we'll all have plenty to do. Oh, my poor Kagome..." Mama dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief, and the hall rang with her laughter: "What will you do with two of them?"