Tapestry ch1: First Impressions
Alt text: Featuring agnsty teen Izayoi!
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"Izayoi, this is not company you are welcome in. Hide your face and leave us."
Indignant rolling eyes were soon covered by a lifted sleeve shading her face as commanded. She would get scolded later for her lack of thinking and disrespect, but Izayoi was desperately bored and feeling especially apathetic about the world today.
She had worn one of her more elaborate jūnihitoe in mourning for her mood. It was a darker confection, the ornate outside a night sky blue and lily pad green pattern of silk dragonflies. The insects had overtaken her view as she brought her wrist before her forehead. She didn't linger to ponder the pattern instead casting her eyes down to watch her feet as she shuffled away from the tight group of middle aged men.
Why her father would ever think she would want to spend time with such miserable company was beyond her. The drab group was a little more exciting today, though. Two strangers were with the familiar bore of men her father usually familiarized with. They were foreign looking and dressed in very strange garb for visiting. From what she had glimpsed, the two appeared as if they had walked right off the battle field, in barbaric armor.
The murmuring from the pod of men grew louder. The noise alerted Izayoi to the figure peaking around her sleeve to glimpse at her face.
Her eyes met the brilliant shimmer of gold, sliced through with onyx.
She gasped—startled—and jerked back, pressing her arm against her face, suddenly shy.
Those eyes hadn't been human.
"I claim to be no expert on the mortal concept of beauty, but your face would be a welcome sight to human and yōukia alike. It's a shame you hide it." His voice was very low.
The pink that colored her pale cheeks deepened to scarlet. Her other hand reach up to also cover her face. She opened her mouth only to then shut it before repeating the process, at a loss of how to respond.
'You flatter me,' perhaps—or 'vanity is unbecoming of a lady,' She thought, but both responses died before escaping her throat.
"It's rude for a Lady to show her face to a stranger." She eventually blubbered.
The heavy footfalls of the other men (including her father, she was sure) raced toward her accompanied by voiced protest condemning either party.
The stranger gave a low chuckle.
"For some, perhaps, but in your case I'd say the crime is in keeping the pleasing view to yourself."
The color of her face must have become unsightly.
"H-how rude…" she stammered.
Her father's whiskery voice broke into the conversation
"General, please stop harassing my daughter. I apologize for her rudeness-" Her father 's blubbering was suddenly cut off and Izayoi heard a soft gasp.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she nervously peeked over her sleeve.
The group had become unnervingly silent. Her site revealed the second stranger of the group, obvious companion to this man with inhuman eyes, holding a wicked looking blade to the neck of her father. The golden eyed man was turned slightly to look at the situation but his expression was hidden and both he and his companion remained motionless.
Her face grew suddenly pale as moments past, her arms completely falling from her face.
An inaudible "no" left her lips.
The inhuman eyed man turned toward her as if he had caught the breath and his gaze demanded hers.
Jagged lines the deep purple of an old bruise tore along his cheekbones on either side of his face. Thick silver hair was messily pulled back high on his head, with dangerously pointed ears poking from the falling bangs. His face was blank but his eyes were fierce. The gold of them seemed molten and their illusions of movement both captivated and terrified her.
A demon.
A breath didn't pass through her, held by his gaze.
"Stand down, Futoshi." His voice finally rumbled, addressing his threatening companion.
The man pulled a face but stepped back from her father, huffing off a ways from the group with an unpleasant look on his face.
"You misinterpret me." The inhuman eyed man said. "I'm not simply interested in estate, history, and custom," it took a moment for Izayoi to realize that he was addressing her gasping father though his gaze was on her.
"Women, family, these also can be valuable." He stepped forward, the motion effortless, to examine her more closely. She was a bug pinned to the display board by his stare.
"Human breeding confuses me. You call her daughter and your scents confirm this, but there is little resemblance." His eyes seemed to spark and he finally pulled away from her, turning back to her father.
"Y-yes…" her father and leader of the Hayashi family stuttered the words, rubbing his neck where a moment before the deathly chill of a knife had sat. "Takes after her mother…" he mumbled.
A moment of awkward silence settled among the group. Izayoi considered retreating.
"Lord General, you humor these humans too much." Spat the second companion, now removed from the group.
"And you, to me, not enough." The inhuman man replied, a low growl to his voice. He turned with a swish of his garb to face his companion, fixing him with a stare. A tense moment later Futoshi turned his head, bowing away from the demanding gaze. The golden eyed man seemed satisfied with this, turning back to address Izayoi's father and friends.
"I'll take my leave, but will return. Thank you for your hospitality." He inclined his head toward them—a gesture of recognition rather than a bow of gratitude.
"N-not at all! We are you humble servants, Lord General." Her father stuttered back, bowing lowly at the waist.
The General stepped out to stand with his companion in the ceilingless courtyard. He turned back to meet the eyes of each man before finally capturing Izayoi's. She clasped her arms against her chest.
"Until we meet again." He farwelled before leaping clear out of the court, followed closely by his comrade.
A moment passed before she heard her father release a deep breath he had been holding. The men around him burst into chatter, a dozen conversations springing in media res. She turned to her father, the only silence in the group. He hung his head, dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief of some sort.
She demanded his attention.
"Father, who was the man, what was he doing here?" she pulled forward placing herself directly in front of him. Her father sighed again, speaking her name in a placating tone, but she continued, cutting him off. "He nearly got you killed! He wasn't human, he was-he was…!"
"A demon." He finished for her, his eyes unexpectedly dark as he finally matched hers. "The first-born," he spoke the word like an oath, "of the Inugami clan. This visit marks our branding. Our lives are bound, damned and freed, with his will."
He took a deep breath.
"Demon Lord of the Western lands, Inu no Taishō."
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Hello reader! Welcome to Tapestry, an Inuyasha fanfiction.
I started writing this perhaps 3 or 4 years ago. I, like many Inuyasha fans, am fascinated with Inu no Taishō and Izayoi. On how on earth they came about, and how on earth a weak noble lady of her times raised a halfbreed child in the Sengoku period. It started with my fanfiction First Breath and continued on to this.
I have a bad habit of not finishing my stories. I've made a huge effort to not continue this tradition by writing around 7,000 words of a buffer for myself. The only problem is that I haven't written linearly and think it unlikely I'll do so with any consistency in the future. Some pieces are long, some pieces are short, and some pieces don't make a lick of sense because I haven't filled in the gaps in-between. This will probably eventually read like a collection of one-shorts, or sections of a tapestry. Some are pre Inuyasha's birth, some are post Inu no Taishō death, and all are sitting in Word,
staring at me.
So I'm posting. Cuz If one thing can get me writing, it's people TELLING me to write more.
So please REVIEW! I'll post soon.
