Tomboy101: hello all! I know this is a little different than my usual stories and I know I need to update Remember and The Nightingale's Song but both of those stories have new chapters that are in the works so bear with me, please. The plot puppies-yes, puppies, not bunnies-have been beggin me to write this story for a while now, roughly since I was a sophomore or junior in high school making it abou2-3 years. There have been a lot of false starts and revisions and editing but I think what I've got right now is pretty good, probably as good as it's ever going to get which is why I finally broke down and am posting it to FanFiction.
As ever, I am not Rumiko Takahashi and therefore do not own InuYasha or any of the characters mentioned or appearing in the manga. I do, however, own any characters that you do no recognize from InuYasha or any other publicised work. Please enjoy Lost Sister and reviews are always appreciated. Thank you!
There was a time, many years ago, when I was happy. My Haha-ue—my mother—may have been dead but I had my family, my truly wondrous brothers. I am a girl, daughter of the Great Inu-Youkai General of the West. Growing up was hard, I am an inu-hanyō—a dog half-demon—after all. The ningen—humans—despised us and youkai society shunned us. When my Haha-ue was alive she would often cry, she knew how hard our life would be. I do not remember my father; he died soon after we were born, protecting us. But it does not matter, we had another protector: my aniki—eldest brother—really my half-brother but that never mattered.
He kept the lesser youkai that believed us easy prey away from the shrine where we lived. Sometimes he would allow us to find him while he patrolled the forest around our home. To others he might seem cold and distant, possibly even hateful, but I know better. When I sensed him I would sneak away from the village by myself and find him. He would allow me to sit with him for hours, talking to him, really more like at him. Occasionally he would respond, but never with more than three words at a time
It wasn't until Haha-ue died that life became harder. The villagers kicked us out, my brother and I. We had no place else to go. We were young in youkai years; hell, we were young in ningen years, barely ten and only looking like we were five. Once we left the safety of the village the lower youkai, who had come to understand that our village was not to be touched on pain of death, attacked us. Our aniki had not visited us in some time. We were on our own.
We managed to survive, barely. For a very long time I believed Aniki had forgotten us or worse, no longer cared. It wasn't until years later that I found out that our aniki had not abandoned us, that he had decimated the village for daring to think they had the right to exile us, and then, the village destroyed, had set out to find us. He did eventually find us in our new home.
We settled in a village far from our old home. Again we lived in a shrine. The miko—priestesses—who lived there took us in, taught us to read and write, to care for and defend ourselves. We lived with them for twenty years, until we had the appearance of being fifteen in human years. In that time Aniki had found us again. He was not pleased that we had left without informing him of our actions. He is like that and sometimes it irritates me to no end but deep down I know he only worries for us.
On our twentieth birthday, with the appearance of being fifteen-years-old, I chose to leave my beloved brother to travel with our aniki. I traveled the Japanese countryside with him for ten years, often visiting my other brother, who had again moved to another village not too far from the border to the Western Lands, the domain ruled by our aniki and our Chichi-ue— our father—before him.
It was while going to visit him that my world changed.
I was almost to my brother's village, only one day's walk. I could have gotten there faster but I had refused my personal vassal's offer of a ride. I had wanted to take my time, enjoy myself. Oh what a mistake that had been.
There I was, minding my own business, walking through the forest, not paying attention to what was around me and I paid the price. I stumbled upon slave traders.
The leader—a disgusting neko-youkai—took one look at me and I knew I was in trouble. I fought for my life but it was no use. They were less powerful than my aniki, who had taught me to defend myself, but they outnumbered me twenty-to-one. I would strike one down but two more would grab me. Eventually they smothered me, restrained me, put me in youkai-proof chains and threw me into the jail cart.
That was over fifty years ago.
The slave traders took me to the mainland and sold me. I went for a high price; I was a female, pure, a powerful hanyō, educated. The man who bought me was not kind, not to his wife, not to the children he wanted me to teach, not to me. He was ningen. He thought owning a lowly hanyō would show the world how powerful he was. He should have known better than to cage me. Desperate creatures do not make good pets. Soon I became too much trouble to keep.
I was sold again after being a slave for five years, this time to a youkai. The first time I made trouble the punishment was lighter than I had expected, but each time I took even the smallest step out of line the punishments became more and more severe and the tasks given to me more and more demeaning. Originally I had been bought to serve as the lady-in-waiting to the youkai's despicably spoiled daughter. By the time I had been enslaved to them for twenty years I was a mere field hand, working in the fields harvesting the youkai's land with ningen farmers.
I had been a slave for twenty-five years when I made my first escape attempt. It did not go well. I was caught and beaten till I, even with my youkai heritage, could barely move. The youkai—I refuse to call him my owner, I belong to no one—decided that because I wanted leave him so badly he would grant my wish. I was sold again soon after that.
In total I have been sold eight times. After the first two times I barely stayed in one household for more than five years and I always try to escape.
After over fifty years I am starting to lose hope of ever going home. Using the Seeing Gift all female youkai have for their family I watched with a pained heart as my brothers grew to hate each other, each blaming the other for my disappearance. I want so desperately to tell them not to blame each other, that it is my fault I had been taken. I Saw my brother betrayed by the woman he loved and pinned to the Goshinboku, the God Tree; I Saw my oldest brother become even colder and more distant. It broke my heart.
A young girl, ningen, dressed strangely for this day and age, climbed out of the ancient Bone Eater's Well. She was pretty, blue-eyed and black haired. She looked around, her face showing a mixture of fright and confusion. Suddenly the well seemed to erupt behind her. A large shape reared from the depths of the well. The girl whirled around and screamed.
Mistress Centipede smiled sadistically down at the girl. "Give me the jewel," she hissed.
The girl tried to turn and run but it was too late, Mistress Centipede lunged for the girl but managed to miss. The girl fell to the ground. Mistress Centipede rushed at the girl again.
The girl shrieked and threw her hands out to protect herself. There was a blinding flash of light as the girl's reiki lashed out at the attacking youkai. Mistress Centipede screamed, one of her arms falling to the ground, and drew back.
This gave the girl enough time to get up and start running again. The girl kept running until she reached a clearing, and not just any clearing, the Goshinboku—the God Tree clearing. There, on the far side of the clearing, pinned to the ancient God Tree by an arrow in his chest, was a boy with silver hair and soft looking puppy dog ears perched atop his head. The girl moved forward till she was standing directly in front of the trapped boy, having climbed up the Goshinboku's roots so she was at his eye level. The boy appeared to be asleep.
The girl reached up to touch one of the boy's dog ears—Mistress Centipede burst into the clearing and swiped at the girl, sending her flying and wounding her in the process. From the wound in the girl's side a beautiful jewel fell. It was the size of a large marble and glowed with its own light.
The jewel landed several feet from where the girl had fallen, her blood staining the grass at her side. The girl's fear showed clearly in her eyes.
"Hello Kikyo. Playing with bugs now, are we?"
The girl turned and stared up at the boy pinned to the tree in disbelief. Slowly she stood, still staring at the boy pinned to the tree. "You're alive?"
"Why are you taking so long to kill it? Just do her like you did me. You look pretty dumb there, Kikyo. The Kikyo I know wouldn't waste her time." The boy looked disdainfully down at the girl from his place pinned to the Goshinboku.
Anger replaced fear in the girl's eyes. "That does it!" the girl yelled, stomping her foot. "Kikyo, whoever she is, is not me because my name is—"
"You're pathetic Kikyo," the boy scoffed, a sneer on his face.
"I'm not Kikyo!" The girl glared at the hanyō boy. "Look, I'm telling you, I'm not her," the girl began to angrily climb up the roots of the Goshinboku, "whoever she is!"
"And I'm saying you gotta be her 'cause if you're not there's no way you could smell so—" the boy looked at the girl's face closely and sniffed "—you're not her."
"I know!" the girl yelled, mere inches from his face now. "My name is Kagome, Ka-go-me."
The hanyō looked away from her and muttered, "You're right. Kikyo was cuter, much cuter."
A look of outrage settled on the Kagome girl's face but before she could say anything Mistress Centipede laughed, a goosebumps-raising sound, and wrapped herself around the tree and the girl, pulling her long grotesque body tight, suffocating the poor ningen.
"At last!" Mistress Centipede laughed and bent down to the grass where the Shikon no Tama had fallen.
The boy looked down at Mistress Centipede. A look of angry desperation crossed his face as he saw what the creature was leaning over. "Give me the jewel!" the boy yelled, struggling against his bonds.
"I heard some hanyō spawn was after the Sacred Jewel. It's you, isn't it!" Mistress Centipede cackled even more. "You are InuYasha!"
"Half's all the youkai I need to kick your scaly hide. Anymore than that would be a waste of my time," the boy shot back.
"Listen, you talk big but can you back it up?" Kagome asked, looking intently up at the hanyō. The boy stared at her in surprise. "Can you or not?" Kagome demanded.
"What can he do, pinned there like that, or you for that matter? You are powerless to stop me," Mistress Centipede hissed, still laughing at her prey. "You're helpless, the both of you."
"Don't you dare!" the hanyō cried, but it was too late.
The grotesque demon's tongue snaked out, wrapping around the jewel and bringing it up to her mouth, swallowing the iridescent orb whole.
With the power of the Shikon no Tama Mistress Centipede began to glow. "Look," Kagome whispered, "it's re-arming itself." And it was. The arm Kagome's reiki had severed was reattaching itself.
Mistress Centipede wrapped herself even more tightly around the Goshinboku and her captives, squeezing till Kagome yelled in pain, "It's crushing me!"
"Hey," the hanyō said quietly, not looking away from Mistress Centipede, "can you pull out this arrow?"
"Huh?" Kagome looked at the hanyō in confusion.
"Look, can you pull it out this arrow or not?" the hanyō growled.
"I-" Kagome reached for the arrow but Mistress Centipede squeezed her tighter, "I don't know."
"Are you ready to die yet?"
Kagome reached for the arrow, grasping it in one hand."I choose to," with as much strength as the girl could muster she pulled on the arrow, "live!"
A blinding pink light engulfed her. The arrow disintegrated.
The hanyō boy's power pulsed.
"InuYasha?" the girl whispered.
I blinked back to my reality. I was sitting on the floor in the servant's quarters with my legs crossed and my back up against a wall. Several ningen onna—human women—sat at one end of the long, low room but they did not even acknowledge my existence. This suited me just fine. Slowly I stood, the stiffness in my legs sending sharp pains up my thighs but I did not react. I had learned over the past fifty years to never, ever show weakness to anyone.
I left the servant's quarters quietly, mulling over my most recent vision of my twin brother. So he had finally been freed from the miko's spell. From the clarity of the images I knew this one had already come to pass. That was an interesting change of events. I let my feet take over as I turned my thoughts inward.
I had often dreamed of the day InuYasha would be free of the Goshinboku, but I also dreaded it. It had almost killed me to be unable to free myself of this wretched existence I now lived. But then, I had never really had the right incentive when it came to my freedom. For a while I had believed that freedom itself would have been reward enough but as the years passed I become more and more unsure. I continued with my escape attempts—I would always make escape attempts—but they had become half-hearted and feeble.
Now, with the release of my brother, an emotion I had not felt in quite some time and one that I had become all too familiar with swelled in my chest: pride and shame. I was proud of my brother and ashamed of myself. InuYasha had persevered, had overcome the obstacles set before him and had triumphed. I had not.
When we were younger I had always been determined to do everything my older twin had done, even when he said I couldn't because I was a girl. Well, that determination was slowly but surely making itself known again. I glanced up at the sky. It was nearing dawn. Soon all of the servants and slaves would finish their meal and return to the servant's quarters, accompanied by guards and overseers. If I wanted to go I had to go now.
I tossed my sheet of long silver hair over my shoulder and tied it back in a low ponytail with a leather thong. The current Master of the Household was stupid and lazy. He believed that because I had been a slave for over fifty years that I had learned my place. It was a foolish assumption for him to make.
There were no guards on the back wall of the manor. I leaped it easily. On the other side of my prison walls a vast forest stretched before me. A wind brushed past me and on it I could barely smell the scent of salt and brine. My home was east, towards the rising sun, and across the ocean. A strength I had not felt in quite some time filled me. A sense of purpose and determination rose in my chest. If I followed the sun at a reasonable pace I would reach the coast at dusk the next day.
I started running.
Without a second look back I fled my jail keepers, heading into the forest as the sun rose high above the horizon. Soon, brothers, I thought. Soon I will be home where I belong.