A/N: Well, Inu-Yasha and Izayoi's relationship came to mind while watching Sweeney Todd and hearing this one line. Enjoy, it's just looking into their relationship. Beware: There are some graphic bloody things, don't read if you are disturbed by this. Knowledge of the musical, Sweeney Todd, is not needed. Reviews are welcome.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the song line of "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around." Or anything, for that matter, from the musical Sweeney Todd. (Sondheim does) I also do not own the series of Inu-Yasha or the manga. (Takahashi does)
Nothing's Gonna Harm You...
His mother always hummed the same tune while walking through the home. The same rich melody that Inu-Yasha could sing and remember perfectly until the day his heart stopped beating. The melody that he would find comfort in during the scariest of times. It was just one simple line long, but she'd whisper it into his ear until he fell asleep. How he needed that song...
"Mother?" The young half-demon ran quickly to his home. Despite his demonic abilities, he could still not out run grown men. "Mother?!" His cry came more high pitched as tears pricked his eyes painfully. He was close to his home, he knew the path well. However, a taller man stepped out in front of him, cutting off his escape. The young boy squeaked in surprise and fell to the ground, his hand being skinned slightly. He held his hand to his chest and clenched his eyes closed. His sensitive ears heard a man's arm raise up to strike him.
Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around...
"Lady Izayoi!" Inu-Yasha's golden orbs looked up to see his mother, holding the man's wrist. His heart was pounding hard against his chest.
"Sosuke-san, you will do well to leave my son alone." She said in a stern voice.
"Yes, my Lady. I apologize."
"And the rest of you as well. Do you take pride in striking an innocent child? Be gone, all of you!" She made a shooing motion, taking her hand back from the wrist of the other man. The village people all followed after the leader known as Sosuke, all making no attempt to avoid stepping on the young boy. Inu-Yasha held his bleeding hand to his chest, his eyes pressed tightly closed. "Inu-Yasha? Did you hurt your hand? Let Mother see." She said soothingly while petting the hair back in between his ears. Leaping into his mother's chest, Inu-Yasha cried quietly. Izayoi wrapped her arms securely around him.
"Let's go home, my love. You'll be okay, I promise." Inu-Yasha nodded while keeping a hold on her kimono in his fist. His sobs lightened as she sang lovingly into his ear while kissing him. "Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around..." She continued to sing this until reaching the home and set him down. She grabbed his little hand in hers and walked him to the wash room while dipping his hand in the wooden bowl full of water. "This might sting, but you're a brave boy. You'll be fine." Izayoi poured medicinal herbs into the bowl, Inu-Yasha began to cringe. Izayoi dried his hand that was already scabbing over.
"Mother, why do those men hate me so much." He asked her. "I don't get why being a half-demon is such a bad thing." He said looking at his silver mane that fell over his shoulders.
"I don't either, love, but it doesn't matter. I love you, and I always will love you. Half-demon or not you're still my darling, sweet, Inu-Yasha." She smiled at him causing his face to light up.
It was dark outside by this time, however the two walked in the courtyard of the palace around the small pond entrapped within the center. Inu-Yasha ran through the white rocks to the water and crouched down to it, staring at his reflection. His mother followed slowly behind him and sat down by the water too.
"Do you know what my favorite thing to do with water is?" Izayoi asked her son. He shook his head while putting both hands on her leg and eagerly looking at her with shining golden orbs. "I love to make ripples like this." She stuck her pointer finger just below the surface of the water and allowed it to stay there for Inu-Yasha to observe. The pond came to life, rings coming from Izayoi's finger traveled to the other side of the bank. "It's amazing how one person can affect all this, isn't it?" She asked him pulling out her finger. As the pond calmed down Inu-Yasha pointed.
"Can I try it?" He asked. Izayoi nodded while Inu-Yasha poked the water gingerly. He watched in facination as the same affect took place. He looked at their reflections that were distorted in the water.
"See, Inu-Yasha? You can do it too. I know one day you're going to be powerful enough to make ripples in the world." She said soothingly wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him into her lap.
"Really?" He asked.
"Of course, my love." She replied standing and shifting him over her shoulder. "You'll grow up to be a handsome, wonderful man like your father."
"Sesshomaru doesn't think so." Inu-Yasha replied gripping his mother's kimono once again.
"Sesshomaru-Sama is just very protective of his title, Inu-Yasha, don't take his words to heart." She said gently while reentering their quiet home. Darkness painted the corridors that the two moved down, the only sounds were that of Izayoi as she hummed quietly. She stopped in front of Inu-Yasha's room door, his little voice tugging at her ear.
"Can I stay in your room tonight?" He waited until he felt his mother start to walk again and sighed in relief. The gentle motion of the foot steps began to lull him to sleep as Izayoi reached her room and laid him down next to her, holding him in her arms protectively.
"I promise, the men of the village will not hurt you anymore." She said. Inu-Yasha nodded into his mother's chest while his breathing became regular. He fell asleep, soundly.
Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around.
Inu-Yasha woke with a jolt, a figure that did not feel like his mother had grabbed him.
"Here's the little half breed. Disgusting." The man threw Inu-Yasha to the far corner of the room as he heard other men in the room. Their scents made his stomach turn as he got himself up to look to where they were, his little amber orbs flew open. They were around his mother. Two men held her up to another man; one that wore a despicable look of anger on his face.
"What is the meaning of this?" She demanded. She received no answer, just a slap to the face from the man who stood in front of her. The squeak of pain that she let out was enough for Inu-Yasha's ears to lay flat against his scull.
"You have betrayed this village by being with a demon and even bearing him a son. For years now this child has done nothing but plague us with his presence. You're the one who has done this deed to this place! And I'm sorry to say that you have no business left in this village, my Lady!" The title he spoke held nothing but malicious intent as he slapped her hard enough to fall out of the other two men's grip. She screamed out again while patting her bloodied lip. Inu-Yasha ran to her immediately.
"Mother!" He hugged onto her neck.
"Inu-Yasha, no! You must leave here!" She said pulling him off of her before one of the smaller men kicked her in the side. She let out another scream as Inu-Yasha sat in a fetal position covering his ears. Tears sprang to his eyes as the time went on. He fell to his side and curled into a bawl, his tears spilling over his cheeks and onto the floor. Before long, everything was silent except for his crying and the men's foot steps in the room.
"What about the half breed?" One asked.
"Leave him. He can come face to face with what HE did to his mother." The other one answered as the foot steps grew fainter. Inu-Yasha opened an eye to see his mother laying on the floor, completely still, her head resting in a pool of blood.
"I... Inu-Yasha..." She called out quietly. Inu-Yasha crawled over to his mother, more tears streaming down his face. "Shhhh do-don't cry, my love." She said putting a hand up to stop his tears.
"M-mother..." He cried harder into her hand. "This is my fault..."
"Inu-Yasha, don't be silly." She said smiling up at him. His tears did not stop, Izayoi sang. "N-nothing's gonna harm you... Not w-while I'm around..." Her voice was becoming airy and even as a young child, Inu-Yasha knew his mother did not have much time. He clung to her neck one again, blood staining through his haori onto his skin. "Nothing's... gonna harm you... Not while I'm... around."
"Mother! Don't leave me..."
"N-nothing's gonna... h-harm you... Not while... I'm..."
Inu-Yasha waited for the last word for what seemed like hours. It never came to meet his ears. He collapsed next to her in tears, whimpers escaping his lips as he shook his mother for any sign of an answer and receiving none. His whimpers attracted the attention of some of the village guards as they walked through the house and into the room.
"Did he kill his mother?" One of the guards asked. Inu-Yasha's ears perked up.
"Why would I kill her?!" He screamed at them. As he sat up, the gaurds looked at the blood that covered him and back to the lifeless woman on the floor.
"Get out of here, you've done enough!" The second commanded. Inu-Yasha stayed where he was, growling through his tears at the men.
"I didn't kill her!"
"Everyone, the half breed has killed his mother!!" The first of the guards called.
"I didn't kill her!!" His cry came more desperately as he heard the approaching voices and footsteps.
"How could he have killed his own mother?"
"Does a half-demon really have no morals?"
"I feel sorry for the poor woman. Bringing that thing into this world and receiving nothing but death by it."
"I DIDN'T KILL HER!!" He picked himself up and ran out the door, the men of the village taking chase after him. "I didn't kill her! I didn't kill her!" He said to himself as he darted into the woods as fast as his small legs would take him. The men didn't give up, they kept after the poor boy. Thorns, rocks, and branches bit into his skin as he ran blindly from the men behind him.
Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around...
He ducked under bushes and low branches. He dodged rocks and cliff sides that would have dropped him to his doom.
Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around...
"Nothing's gonna ham you..." He began to sing to himself as he ran. "Not while I'm around." The calls of the men began to fade into the distance as Inu-Yasha began to take a lead. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around. Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around." His voice began to come as a pant as his body told him to stop. He ran until he reached a tree in a small clearing, it called to him as he sat at it's roots, still singing the song to himself. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around..." His voice dissipated into sobs as he curled up into the roots of the tree, covering his face in his tiny hands.
XxXxXxX
Inu-Yasha sat on his knees, feeling the cool spring breeze blow through his hair. The water gave off a calming sound from behind him as he placed fresh flowers on the grave in front of him. He pulled out the weeds that were growing taller by the stone, then dusted off the carved inscription of "Izayoi" with his fingers. Sitting back and looking at his work, he sighed until a voice startled him out of his thoughts.
"Inu-Yasha, here you are. Miroku, Sango, and I had no idea where you were." Kagome said with her hands behind her innocently. Inu-Yasha looked to her then to the stone.
"Sorry."
"It's okay, I just wanted to know you were all right." She said walking around to sit next to him in the grass. "Such beautiful flowers."
"Yeah.." His quietness scared her a bit. She looked from him to the stone, a little bit above the flowers, a line was inscribed.
"Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around?" She asked him.
"That's just something my Mother used to sing to me when I was little." He said while standing up. "We should get back."
"Yeah, we should." Kagome said while smiling. The two began to walk back, however as Inu-Yasha passed by the stone, he placed his hand on the top and smiled a bit to himself while letting his hand come back to his side. He felt a tug at the same hand and looked up to Kagome who wore a smile. His smile widened a bit as he came to walk next to her, looking back one more time at the stone in the afternoon light.
XxXxXxX
A/N: A bit dark, but this is how I imagine what happened to Izayoi. Sad, no? Well, please let me know how it was, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking time to read.
A Friend In Words,
--KB ((KyosBeads13))