Face Of A Miracle
By Shigure-san
This idea has been distracting me from other fics for a while now, so putting it to paper (or computer actually) is the only way I can get it out of my mind, which lets face it, is a bit restricted for space, what with Inuyasha himself making up 99.9% of my brain and everything else cramped into the 0.1% that's left! Any-who, this fic is a 'what if' scenario. Inu-no-Taishou and Izayoi are alive, Sesshõmaru and Inuyasha get along, and Kagome is from Inuyasha's time. Actually, it might interest you to know that yet again, this is based on one of my dreams, (yes I know, I'm sad, but Inuyasha's presence in my dreams is the only reason I go to sleep at all - I'm a caffeine nut).
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all it's trademarks belong to Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ, not me. (Dag-nabbit!) But the title and chapters titles, plot, and the characters that have been made up solely for this fic, not featured in the anime or manga are mine.
Enjoy!
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The New Law And The Uprising
One
Inuyasha yawned wide as the even began to give way into night. The gathering at the castle had succeeded their expectations, but the half-demon was bored, from the start he'd stood loyally next to his mother and father, and older brother, nodding his head and smiling when people spoke to him, but not really listening, nor paying attention to who they even were. The gathering was to celebrate the new law that Lord Inu-no-Taishou had set for the Western Lands, that abolished the old laws and put an end to the feud between humans and demons once and for all, they hoped…
"Can I go yet?' asked Inuyasha lazily as he yawned again, looking around him with boredom. "It's not like they came to see me anyways. What's this got to do with me?" Inu-no-Taishou looked at Inuyasha scoldingly, but said nothing. Izayoi smiled at her son.
"You'd be surprised how much this has to do with you," she said.
"Yeah? Surprise me." Inu-no-Taishou finally turned back to his younger son after finishing a conversation with a guest.
"This law has been passed so that half-demons, like you don't have to be outcast." Inuyasha said nothing.
"But there's nothing to do," he whined, "if I have to smile anymore my jaw will drop off." Izayoi rolled her eyes and followed her mate through the crowds as he left his sons' side.
Inuyasha scanned the crowd, looking for where his parents had disappeared to, but he couldn't see them anywhere. "Can't we just slip away?" asked the half-demon to his older brother. Sesshōmaru smiled.
"Not if you don't want father to thump you one." Inuyasha sighed. "I tell you what Sesshōmaru, you'd better not dare die someday and leave me to do all this boring crap!"
"Of course not," he assured him with a sly smile twitching at the sides if his mouth.
"Yeah, right…you'll die just to piss me off!"
"Well how about this then? I promise to not die on purpose?" Inuyasha said nothing to his brother's bad sense of humour.
"Don't elope with some random girl either," he added with a smirk. Sesshōmaru snorted.
"I can't really see myself giving up Father's empire for something as futile, as love of all things." Inuyasha watched him silently for a moment. How can he say something like that? he thought, looking lazily to the door as he heard two groups announced, but he didn't quite catch what they were.
Suddenly Inuyasha's eyes widened, in awe as his golden orbs caught a glimpse of a face in the crowd that had just entered. He had to smile as he watched her tuck her silken, ebony hair nervously back behind her ear, looking around at the crowd timidly. Just as his eyes scanned her form carefully, from her chest, to waistline, to hips, to her legs, he spent endless time soaking up her appearance, drowning in her resplendence, and then he heard someone clear their throat behind him. Sesshōmaru stepped down next to Inuyasha. "See something you like, brother?' Inuyasha nodded, nearly salivating as he noted how the pale kimono clung to her curves. Then he nearly choked as she sensed his gaze weighing on her, and met his eyes. The girl blushed as he looked into her hazel orbs and for a moment the whole room seemed to stop only for them.
"Sesshōmaru?' asked Inuyasha, and his brother leant down from the step he stood on. "Who is that girl?' Sesshōmaru looked at her, and shrugged.
"No idea, but she's human though, no doubt about it…maybe another reformed demon slayer." Inuyasha didn't say anything, but it was hard to imagine her being a demon slayer. "Why? Like the look of her do you?' Inuyasha flushed.
"Shut up!"
Inuyasha turned back to the crowd, seeing his nameless obsession wavering by the entrance to the gardens, looking very overcome, before she disappeared through the archways and into the evening.
"Go on," said Sesshōmaru with a slight smile. "Stop fluttering about like a woman and go after her." Inuyasha smiled nervously.
"What about father?"
"I'll tell him the truth of course. That you've gone hounding after some poor girl." Inuyasha grinned, before leaping down from the steps and slipping through the crowds after the girl.
Inuyasha breathed in deeply as he stepped out into the evening air. The night blooming blossoms where everywhere as he walked slowly through the gardens, checking for where she could have gone. However he found the gardens empty.
Walking over to where he knew the water fountain was, knowing that he could sit there in peace for a while. As he found it however, someone was already sitting there. He tried to hold back a smile as he saw her sitting on the side of the fountain, trailing her fingertips through the reflection of the full moon slowly, the water rippling under her fingertips. Watching her closely, Inuyasha couldn't help but think she looked slightly sad.
"Ummm…excuse me," he said quietly. She shot round suddenly, jumping as she saw him there.
"Oh…" she said, "I…I'm sorry I didn't…Am I not supposed to be here?" Inuyasha's eyes widened, the moonlight reflecting in the water was shimmering over her face, and she looked so beautiful right then, that Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat. "If…if I'm not supposed to be here…I'll go if I'm being a nuisance." Inuyasha shook his head.
"No, that's not it, I…I was just…looking for you." She smiled.
"You know me?"
"Well, no but I – I saw you, and I just…Do you know me then?" She giggled.
"Yes, you're Lord Inuyasha." Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck under the mass of silver silk, fighting a blush; he didn't want her to call him that. "You're the younger son of Lord Inu-no-Taishou." Inuyasha smiled.
"You forgot the half-demon son part, that's how most of them name me." The girl cocked her head slightly. After a moment of silence, she spoke again.
"I'm the Priestess from the Demon Slayer's village," she smiled as she thought about her sentence, "well, that's what I am, my name is-"
The girl was cut off as a commotion was heard inside, and they both jumped with the suddenness of the noise. Then the half-demon heard his mother calling for him.
"Sorry, can we finish this later?" She nodded, and he took off through the gardens and rushed into the hall once more. As he skidded into the hall, he saw what was wrong. A horde of demon slayers allied with demons, what his father and the demons supporting the new law called Revolutionaries. Pulling his sword from its' sheath, Inuyasha leapt forwards, battling the demons away from a cluster of humans who had got caught up in the middle of it all.
"Inuyasha!" shouted a voice, and Inuyasha turned to see his father fighting alongside his brother. "Get your mother out of here!" Inuyasha nodded, scanning the crowd for her. Catching sight of her, he surged through the masses, and slammed into her, knocking her out of the way of the oncoming blow her attacker was about to deal her.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, and she nodded slowly, wincing.
"What do they want?" Inuyasha sneered at the battle commencing around them.
"They're rebelling against us, for setting the new law. They're rebelling against having to treat humans and half-demons as equals." Suddenly the attacker lunged at them, and Inuyasha blocked the swing from the sword with his own, sending the demon hurtling backwards. As the demon pinned Inuyasha to the ground with the sword, the half-demon struggled to keep the blade off his throat. "Mom, get – away from here!' he choked, and she shook her head slightly. "GET AWAY FROM HERE!" He shouted, kicking the demon off him. Hesitantly she made her way through the battle, and Inuyasha watched her until he knew she was safe, and tried to battle his way to his father's side.
He halted in the midst of combat, seeing something out of the corner of his eye. The girl stood in the thick of it, bow in hand, shooting down demons at every strike. As she pulled the arrow tight back into the bowstring, the arrow glowed with a fuchsia light, speeding through the air and piercing the flesh of another revolutionary. Inuyasha screamed as he was smashed in the back of the head, swinging round in anger and beheading his attacker. Spitting the blood out of his mouth and onto the floor, Inuyasha turned to see his father's captain, Katsura, advancing towards the priestess. "NO!" yelled Inuyasha as he dived in front of the attack, shoving Katsura away from her. The girl turned, surprised at his protection, and Katsura looked at the half-demon with confusion.
"Sorry my Lord, but…exactly what side are you on?"
"What?"
"She's a demon slayer!" replied Katsura.
Suddenly it all stopped. Inu-no-Taishou's voice carried throughout the hall, and then Inuyasha realised, that the battle was over. Inuyasha rushed over to his father's side, the demon out of breath, an even gash down the side of his face, across the triangular marks on his cheeks.
"Are you okay?" Inuyasha nodded his reply. "Gather the enemy, I want all of them alive!" his father ordered, and the guards heaved the defeated enemy off the ground, escorting them out of the hall, bound in chains. But what they didn't notice was the few who'd managed to escape the battle, and who crept silently out of the castle, evading arrest.
Sesshōmaru wiped off the trail of blood dripping from his mouth, and thumped Inuyasha on the back affectionately.
"What a rush, haven't had a fight like that for months."
"Sesshōmaru!"
"Sorry, Father," replied Sesshōmaru half-heartedly, and Inuyasha looked about, trying to find the girl again, but not seeing her. Then he found her, and his eyes widened. She was being bound up alongside the revolutionaries. Inuyasha walked towards her, and Katsura saw his movement.
"My Lord?" the demon asked, as Inuyasha tried to make the girl look at him, but she just avoided his eyes, looking at the ground.
"Why is she tied up?"
"Sir, she is…she was fighting with them."
"But I saw her slaying the enemy!"
"Yes, my Lord but, she also killed many of our own…" Inuyasha couldn't believe it.
"What?"
"Ueda, Nakao, Kaji, Kappei…she killed them all." Inuyasha looked at her, still not meeting his eyes, and he watched sorrowfully as they dragged her away with the others.
"Inuyasha?" asked his father, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Leave me alone!"' he snapped, pulling away from his father and storming put of the hall.
He didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. He felt so utterly pathetic as he threw himself down on the fountain edge, looking at his reflection in the water. Seeing the puppy ears drooping slightly atop his silver hair, his golden eyes reflected in the water, Inuyasha frowned angrily. He smacked the water where his reflection lay, turning away from it angrily. Why did she have to be one of them, he thought. He sat there a while, his head aching from such deep thoughts.
~TBC
