Okay here is another Fan Fiction story by the one and only NONAME!!!! (I don't know if Stage Hands helped her though)
Disclaimer: we do not own any of the characters made by Rumiko Takahashi! But we do own Kai!!! Yay I love him!squeal !
Prologue:
"Mom, why does this tree have a dent in it?" asked Kai pointing to the Gishonboku (spelling?). The tree had a width of a car and the height that extended the shrines roof.
The young boy, Kai, walked around the papered rope engirdling the wide and great tree. He was eight years old, dressed in his school outfit with shaggy black hair that fell to his shoulders and bangs that nearly covered his golden eyes.
"Be careful Kai, you'll trip!" said a woman at his side. She was in her late twenties. Her once wild, wavy hair was now sleek and straight, falling to her shoulders and down to her waist. Her face was beautiful, now like a lovely woman's rather then a blooming girl's. Her eyes were softer then they once were a velvety hazel as she looked down on her son, her clothing against the wind molded into her slim body and shape. 9 years had greatly shaped Kagome Higurashi.
"Why's there a hole in the tree, mom?" asked Kai, grabbing his mothers long skirt.
His mother touched his soft, young hand and said in a soft voice, "in legend, a young priestess shot an arrow through a half-demon and into that tree hundreds of years back."
"Why?" asked Kai curiously "What happened?"
"Well" Kagome thought and paused. The thought of this tale, this past brought open a flood of memory that spilled out over her.
"Mom?" Kai urged her, tugging once again on her skirt.
"Hundreds of years ago a village existed here, as did this tree." Kagome started stroking Kai's dark hair. "In this village a miko protected the sacred Shikon Jewel. She had…..befriended." Kagome chose her word carefully "a half-demon who often tried to steal the jewel. Soon they were very close….but one day both were tricked by a demon and betrayed one another, the priestess shooting the demon she thought her friend and soon dying afterwards to follow him."
"Why?" asked Kai.
"She shot him because he had betrayed the village and stolen the jewel."
"No, no, no, not that. Why did she follow him?" asked Kai curiously "Why did she die?"
"Oh" said Kagome, and said, somewhat slowly, "Because she loved him and wanted to be with him."
"That's stupid" said Kai, sounding matter-of-factly.
"I suppose to a child you would think it is." Kagome chuckled "But I am sure the Miko wasn't"
Kai stared at her questioningly and, as the wind kicked in, he began to hold his mothers leg.
"Come on" said Kagome, urging him towards the house. "You'll get cold. Lets come inside"
"And we can have leftover cake!" Said Kai, and pulling on his mothers' skirt, and hurried inside. Half of a cake sat on the table, candles lopsidedly sticking on it. The room was light. A young man sat in the room on the floor, legs crossed as a fork stuck out of his mouth and glasses a centimeter away from his newspaper.
"Uncle Souta!" Kai exclaimed and before Souta noticed, Kai leaping onto him, wrestling him to the floor.
"Kai…I-Its nice t-to see…you too!" Souta gasped, tearing the weight of this Eight-year-old against his twenty-two-year-old body. "b-but you're gonna suffocate me!"
"Kai, your cutting years off of your uncles life, you'd better get off him so he can at least live till he is 40." Said Kagome pouring herself some tea.
Kai reluctantly got off his uncle and soon began to spear his cake with chopsticks. Souta joined him as he doubled the chocolate frosting.
"So now your already 8" said Souta to Kai. "You're almost as old as I am."
"Then I'd be really old" said Kai and Souta ruffled his hair.
"At least I am not as old as your mom." Said Souta and then yelling "OUCH! What was that for!?" as Kagome landed her heel on his head.
"I heard that!" she said fiercely, "and now I am going to take 100 years off your young life!"
"Wait…sis, calm down, I was just –ow- kidding!" said Souta as she stomped his head.
"Well don't kid when your life is at stake!" Kagome advised, ceasing to use his head as a foot rest.
"How old are you mom?" asked Kai, his voice still light despite his uncles bumps and bruises.
"Oh me?" Said Kagome "I'm 29 and as radiant as always."
"Radiant my a—"Souta begun.
"Souta lets learn from our sister shall we?" as Kagome launched her foot at the back of Souta's head and hit. Falling flat on the ground, Souta lay with bumps protruding from his head on the tatomi mats.
"So I was born when mom was…" Kai counted off his fingers, whispering the numbers until he exclaimed, "20! Mommy was 20 when she had me!"
"Great math!" Souta mumbled as he clutched the back of his throbbing head.
Kai looked of fro a while, pausing until he said softly, almost a whisper, "I wonder how old my dad was then."
"Kagome, Souta," Mrs. Higurashi interrupted, appearing from the kitchen, "I need you for a moment. Dad, can you watch over Kai?" said Mrs. Higurashi into the kitchen.
"Of course," said Jii-chan, coming out and greeting and being by Kai, "Go, you can talk"
Kagome and Souta entered the kitchen, the door closing behind them and Jii-chan beginning to rattle on to Kai. Kai was unusually interested into Jii-chan's myths, but since he was getting older, he tended to fall asleep in the middle of his tales. So Kai just idly listened and usually eavesdropped on the other adults. At school he was reprimanded for the skill of listening into the teachers conversations, but eventually became well enough not to be noticed. Plus his tapered ears that sharpened his hearing couldn't hurt. Kai listened to Jii-chan's talk of sprites before he fell asleep, then he quietly crept over to the kitchen door. There he pressed his ear against the door and listened carefully; the adults could say almost anything in front of Kai but confidential stuff they talked in private. Soon he heard voices and then clear words and sentences.
"Kagome," said Mrs. Higurashi in a patient voice, "He's now eight years old. Its been nine ears since you have been pregnant with him and I never, ever approved of that, but now I love him like my son."
"What do you mean?" Kagome's voice came quietly.
"He's been alive for nine years" said Mrs. Higurashi "And he still doesn't know the man who is his father, and I know he has asked me more then a couple of times."
"Me too," Souta added.
"I know you have been telling him he died when he was way too young to remember –"
"He did die!" Kagome interrupted her mother. Her eyes narrowed, she clenched the cloth of her skirt in her tightening fist, and she said in a soft voice, "He is dead to me."
Kai listened in silence, his body unmoving but his mind racing. His father was still alive? He was still out there? Could he be? Who was his father?
Souta waited for a while before saying, "But we don't know if InuYasha IS dead"
"I am sure Kai wonders more and more who his father is everyday," said Mrs. Higurashi gently, "because move and more he resembles him. He is unique…with half-demon blood flowing through him."
"But he doesn't need to know." Said Kagome firmly.
"But doesn't he want to? But doesn't he want to know why he can jump as high as a car or why he has pointed ears and golden eyes?"
"He is still young and doesn't need to know yet" Kagome said assuring.
"But when will you tell him?" said Souta facing his sister, "when will he need to know?"
'Now,' thought Kai 'I need to know now!'
"I'll tell him when he's older," said Kagome, standing up, "when the time is right"
"When the time is right for him?" said Souta, his voice beginning to rise, "after 8 more years? When will he have the ti –"
"No" said Kagome standing firmly and her eyes intently on the floor. "Not only when the time is right for him, when the time is right for me as well."
Kai heard footsteps approaching the door. Hurrying he leapt onto the floor by Jii-chan's feet, curled up in a ball, and feigning sleep. The kitchen door opened and Kagome looked at her sleeping son. She knelt by him, kissed his cheek, and went outside, her jacket tightened over her.
Ka-chak. The door was shut with Souta and Mrs. Higurashi in the kitchen. Kai lay, thinking. His father's short patience and acting without thinking was one thing he hadn't inherited his mother had told him. Kai was fairly intelligent for an 8-year-old. Something he also hadn't inherited from her, she had muttered. His wits were also what made him dangerous, something the adults did not overlook.
Kai had caught a few words. Half… was it half-demon they had said? The one word though, Kai remembered clearly was InuYasha. He turned, beginning to fall asleep.
Was that…his father's name?
"Jii-chan, what's a half-demon?"
"What's that you say?" asked Jii-chan, awakening from his nap.
"Half demon, Jii-chan, half-demon" Kai repeated eagerly "What are they?"
"Where'd you hear of half-demons?" Jii-chan curiously asked
"At…at school" Kai wildly invented "What are they?"
"Well," Jii-chan proudly puffing out his chest and taking a deep breath as if he was going to recite a 7-foot scroll, "Half-demon existed hundreds of years ago back in feudal Japan. They of off springs of humans and full demon's, hated by humans for being half demon and hated by demons for being half human." Jii-chan sighed, somewhat sympathetically "they live a hard life, half-demons. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just curious" said Kai
"Good for you" said Jii-chan, ruffling Kai's hair proudly. Then he waggled his old finger at Kai saying huffily, "Your mother was never interested in Japans mythical heritage, you know. She would used to give my gifts to her to Bouyo at play with," Jii-chan said the last sentence self pityingly and continued, "But she became interested eventually."
"When? Why?" asked Kai
Jii-chan fingered his beard thoughtfully as he patted Kai's head, then saying, "Well, I think it was about…14 years ago, I think? When Kagome traveled down the we –"
Jii-chan stopped, looking frantically surprised that the words had popped out of his mouth.
Kai's
curiosity as a young child eagerly asked, "Well? Did you say
'well'? Traveled down a well?"
"That's…" Jii-chan
began, "That's not what I meant to say."
Jii-chan's frantic voice betrayed his words.
"But that's not what you said Jii-chan!" Kai exclaimed.
"No, that's not what I said," Jii-chan firmly insisted. "I meant to say when you mother was not well. She wanted to hear my storied when she was not well."
"How did mommy travel down the well?!" asked Kai excitedly "What happened to her?! Why hasn't she told –"
"I didn't say anything about Kagome traveling down a well!" Jii-chan declared.
"Yes, yes you did, you did!" said Kai
"No, I didn't" said Jii-chan
"Yes, you did!"
"No, I didn't!"
"You did too!"
"I did not!"
"You did!"
"I didn't!"
"But, "said Kai desperately, "you- you said she traveled down the-"
"You shouldn't listen to me I am senile!" Jii-chan announced loudly
"Is the well in the shrine?" Kai asked, "The boarded up well in the shrine."
"There is no well in the shrine!" said Jii-chan firmly
"But I saw it!" said Kai "I saw it yester –"
"Ah yah, Ah yah, Ah yah, Ah, yah!" Jii-chan shouted with his hands over his ears and eyes closed. "I'm not listening."
"But Jii-chan" Kai exclaimed over his grandfathers Ah yah's.
"I hear no evil, I hear no evil!" Jii-chan shout-chanted, "I am deft, I hear no evil!"
Kai frustratedly shouted. "Fine, ill go find out myself if you wont tell me!" and left the room, hearing his grandfathers echoing 'Ah yah's' and 'I hear no evil'
Kagome was in the shrine. The well had been boarded up for 13 years now, ever since she was trapped in present day. She sat on it, remembering when she used to go down it and end up in the past.
'The past' she thought with a sigh.
She had left junior high and graduated high school and, because she had to be in the past most of the time, she hadn't attended collage. (Much to her mother's great displeasure.)
When she thought of the past, it felt like a dream, like it never really happened. But Kagome knew it was all too real. She had too much reminders of the past such as –
"Bouyo!" Kagome exclaimed as she looked at the old cat approaching her.
Bouyo was fatter and flabbier then he once was before, 14 years back. Bouyo wasn't as active as he was before as well (Meaning he was basically a living pillow) due to old age and arthritis.
Kagome grabbed Bouyo from his underside and put him on her lap. When she thought about it, it was Bouyo's doing that she ended up in the past.
Kagome looked at the fat cat. When she had first entered the past, she had been a young lively junior high school girl and when she had former left it, she had been a slightly more mature younger woman expecting mother. Then she had lived the next nine years of her life in the present, raising her young son with the help of her mother, Jii-chan, and her brother Souta. She loved her son so dearly and the sight of him filled her with two very different emotions; Happiness and joy at his smiling face and painful reminiscence at his very being.
Painful reminiscence filled her whenever she thought of her time in the past. Sometimes she wondered whether she would like to remember it at all, bad and good times, or wish it never happened and forget it all.
Kagome lifted Bouyo before her, an inch away from his face and asked the cat,
"Was there a reason you sent me to the past?"
As Kagome left the shrine she wondered vaguely if she had seen the old cat nod.
Kai hadn't asked anybody else about Kagome and the well since his Jii-chan (And Jii-chan wasn't very good at lying about this either) He had approached Mrs. Higurashi a half an hour back, but didn't have the will to ask.
Kai tucked his jacket over him tightly and walked outside. He was almost certain that Sot and Mrs. Higurashi would deny him his answer like Jii-chan had (after all, Jii-chan was willing to admit anything to Kai, even at the point when the adults had to slap their hands over his mouth.) Kai planned to ask someone who would know the answer for sure:
Kagome Higurashi
He had know that his mother had left to clean the shrine (she did so every autumn) But Kai didn't know if his mother would tell him the answer or not. What if she was even more persistent then Jii-chan?
Kai tried not to think about this. He was certain his mother would tell him, she never refused him things before, unless he asked about his father. But this wasn't related to that, was it?
"Mom!" Kai shouted as Kai approached. Kagome's long traditional skirt wrapped around her, as did her long waist length hair. Kai hurried to his mother open arms.
"What are you doing out here honey?" Kagome asked Kai as she stroked his hair.
"I came out to ask you a question." Said Kai, eagerly tugging his mother's skirt.
Kagome looked kindly at her son and said, "What is it?"
Kai looked up at his mom and asked, "Did you ever travel down the well?"
Kagome looked down; her expression changed "Where…where did you hear that from?"
"From Jii-chan!" said Kai, not noticing his mother's expression of surprise. ""Is it true?"
Kagome was silent for a moment, not looking at her son but at the shrine.
"Mommy?" Kai asked "Mommy is it true?"
Kai tugged at her skirt and repeated, "Mom? Mommy, did you really travel down the well?Kagome muttered something, but Kai didn't hear.
"Mom?" Kai repeated more loudly "Mom, did you travel down the well?"
"No," said Kagome in a low whisper.
"What?" said Kai.
"No!" Kagome suddenly shouted.
"B-but mom," said Kai surprised by the anger in his mother's voice "but Jii-chan –"
"No, I never traveled down the well!" Kagome shouted.
"But, but…" Kai began, hurt by how his mother was yelling at him.
"No, and I don't want to hear you ask that again!"
"But" said Kai his voice now tearful "But why?"
"Because I don't ever want to hear it!" Said Kagome her voice raised.
"But I don't…" Kai began, tears welling in his eyes, "I don't understand."
"You don't need to understand" Said Kagome, her voice falling in decibels.
Kai didn't say anything more his face turned down and his shoulders shaky. His whipped his face at his mother, tears beginning to stream down his face.
Kagome was surprised at her son's tears and shut her mouth silently.
"Why…," Kai said, his voice trembling, "why don't you tell me these things!?"
Tears fell down his face… Kagome watched helplessly as her son cried.
"Like y-you never t-t-tell me about my father or a-about anything?!" Kai cried.
"Kai," Kagome began in a soft voice. She immediately regretted that she yelled at him, "That's not it…"
"Yes it is!" said Kai shaking his head and spraying his tears on his clothing. "Why don't y-you tell me anything!? I thought I-I was your son!"
"Honey, honey" Kagome knelt down and touched her sons face, "Please don't…"
Kai shook away his mothers hand and leapt, shouting, crying, "I thought you c-could tell me anything!"
"Kai, please I am sorry…" Kagome began helplessly
"No, your n-not!" Kai cried. He sniffled, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand and saying, his voice still shaky, "I thought you loved me."
Kagome froze after this sentence, it hurt. She reached out for her son with her hand and saying softly, "I do love you."
"Then why do you have to hide?" Kai said and then turned around and began to run away from his mother.
"Kai!" Kagome yelled as she began to run after him. Kagome could not catch up with him, though, because when his emotions were high, his demon blood kicked in. He ran fast as he sped to the only place he knew he would find his answers: the well in the shrine. To blind by his emotions, he didn't care what happened, what could happen or what did happen, except that he was away from his mother. Kai made his was to the shrine with his mother still running after him inside. He looked around; he couldn't remember where it was but it had to be here. Then with sudden realization he found it: the well. He raced to it as soon as Kagome entered the shrine.
The well had a thick wooden board over it, with paper charms over it that's power had long worn away.
Kagome knew what her son was planning, "Kai, wait, don't go in the well!"
Kai didn't listen and amazingly pushed the thick cover off the well. It fell to the ground with a deep clatter and, before Kagome could reach him, Kai leapt into the old well. He couldn't see the bottom, it was too dark, but he jumped in anyway. Kagome, clambering onto the side of the well, jumped in afterwards and fell to the base with a thump after seeing cob webs, ivy and moss on the wells walls. Kagome landed on her feet and tumbled to her knees, her hands on the dirt.
"Ow…" she muttered, her knees and hands throbbing "Kai, don't you ever do that aga…"
Kagome stopped; her heart skipped a beat as she looked around her. If she talked no one would hear her, for she was alone at the bottom of the well.
