Chapter 4: The Truth

Yuki came over to Kira's house that afternoon, so that they could all look through the guest book and see who was coming. Kira was to have two different parties. She was allowed to miss school on her birthday, which was a Thursday, so that she could have a family friend party. Then, on Friday she could have her friends come over after school and have a sleepover.

Her "cousin" was also helping out, and the three were very busy.

"Why do I have to know of these people are coming or not? Who in the world is Koga? Why do I care about his wife Ayame? Why should I know about his son, Hitari? Who is Totosai? Why should I care about any of these people?"

"I'm sure there is a reason to them coming. You should just learn to respect the judgments of Grandpa. He is known for organization skills."

"Hey, I just thought of something. How old is Uncle? He must be old, because he raised your mom. But, then my dad would have to have been old, too. How old was my mom?"

"Kira, why do you see it necessary to ask questions about everything?"

"I need to know!"

"If you must know, then I'll tell you one of these days," came the cold voice from the doorway.

"But, I want to know their ages NOW!" she whined.

"Fine…I'll tell you this much now, your mother was 18, going on 19 when you were born."

"How old was my dad?" she asked, now afraid to hear the answer, 'what if he was old? What if…'

"You need not know that. He was old enough, but was not that much older than her, technically. As for my age compared to my brother's, I am the much older brother. Don't fret over your parents's ages."

"Why are you keeping your age a secret? You don't look all THAT old to me!"

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"Depends, are you more or less than fifty?"

"Fluffy-sama doesn't look fifty!" came another voice from the door. It was Kira's cousin, Rin.

"Fluffy-sama?" asked Kira, about to break out laughing her head off.

"Oops….." Rin giggled, "Sorry, old habits never fade."

"Where do you get Fluffy?"

"Ummm…..that's a long story…..you'll know one of these days…" and with that, she and Shessomaru skedaddled out the door (1).

They three finished their project with the names, and then Yuki headed home. It was almost 6:00. After she left, Akio somehow got his tattoos back. The red lines appeared on his face, and the green leaf appeared on his forehead. Once again, Kira didn't want to be rude, so she kept the questions to herself, and just avoided him.

It was 7:00 before they ate dinner. The meal was in silence. The cooks made Akio's favorite, which was cheeseburgers and French Fries.

8:00 came and went, and soon it was time for bed: 9:00. Tomorrow was to be a long day, and she needed all the rest that she could get.

6:00AM, the clock read as she turned over in bed. The alarm was blaring as she hid her face. She used her hand to hit the offending clock's snooze button, but she must have hit it too hard, because she heard a loud crack when she hit it. She looked at it, and sure enough, it was in several pieces on the floor. She looked at her hand, and thought for a second that she needed to trim her nails.

She decided that she might as well get out of bed, and found that when she got out of bed, she was a lot taller than usual. Her pajama pants were too short. But, as tiredness can have strange effects, she barely thought about it.

She walked over into the bathroom to brush her teeth, and then was when she realized that something was wrong. Last time she checked, she did NOT have dog-ears. She did the only thing she could—scream.

Veronica came running to her rescue. "What is it?" she panted.

"My…..my……MY EARS!" she screamed and sobbed at the same time.

"Is that all?"

"IS THAT ALL! How can you just say THAT? I need help!"

"I'll go get your uncle so that…."

"MY UNCLE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE'LL DO TO ME IF HE FINDS OUT?"

"Ummm…be glad that you know the truth finally?"

"YOU KNEW!" she screamed. Kira really was hurt. All this time, they were hiding it from her? Why? Why would they be so mean? Did they not trust her?

"We all knew, but we were putting it off as long as we could. I don't understand your uncle's thinking, either, but I do know that he was thinking for your safety. Hanyous aren't very welcome in most places."

"I'M A HANYOU?"

"Yes, you are. I really should leave this talk to your uncle, but I guess he won't mind if I tell you the basics now. Your father was really your uncle's half brother. He was a hanyou. Your mother was a miko. We still don't know why you turned out to be a hanyou. We would have guessed either a quarter demon or even a human because of the miko powers purifying you. All we know is that you are exactly half human, half demon, just like your father."

"But, demons can't be real? Can they?"

"You are one, so they must be real. Speaking of demons, I too am a demon. This may come as a shock to you. I am a kitsune, more specifically, a black fox. Would you like to see my true form?" She was answered with a nod.

She transformed, and in her true humanoid form, she had her black hair, but it had red streaks in it. Her eyes were almost black, and she had black lips and black outlines around her eyes. Her teeth had grown considerably, as did her nails. She grew about four inches, making her about 5" 7'. Her ears were like an elf's, and they were slightly hidden in the mass of hair on her head.

All Kira could say was, "Wow…."

Veronica changed back to her human form, and led Kira to Shessomaru's office. Upon arrival, they were greeted by him, Rin, Shippou, and Akio.

"I see you have learned the secret," came the emotionless voice of Shessomaru.

"Shessy, why did you see it necessary to do this to her? She had every right to know!" came Shippou.

"Oh be quiet, Fox-boy."

"Why didn't you tell me?" came Kira's question.

"You deserved better than you got. Hanyous are hated, you can ask any of them. You needed a firm foundation to build a meaningful life and not have to deal with the torment."

"Have you ever though that I may want to KNOW about this secret in my life? I mean, the most important thing to anyone would have to be their species, and now you're telling me that I'm not even a human anymore? What about everything that I knew? What about the life that I had ready for me? Will I have to go into hiding now?"

"You're taking this a little too hard. You've spent your whole life as a hanyou, so how would it change now? You'll have three more years of a similar life, but after that, you'll have to move."

"MOVE? YOU'RE KICKING ME OUT?"

"On the contrary. It is the only way to keep you safe. We demons and you hanyous have to keep moving, or else someone will be suspicious. During your teen years it is the worst. Three years in one place is a long time for that time period. You see, when you reach 16, your body will slow down its aging process immensely. You may be 16 for almost fifty years. Some say that demons live forever, but that isn't true. They just live so much longer than humans that people suspect that they are immortal."

"How old are you, anyway?"

"Now is the perfect time for that. I am 1,283 years old. When your father was born, I was 625 years old. But, that doesn't make your father 658 years old, or even near that number. You see, your father came from the past, 514 years ago, approximately. He spent fifty years of his "life" pinned to a tree, and didn't age. He actually was quite young. He was a whole 94 years old when he met your mom, and he was 97 years old when he died.

Kira took all this in with big eyes, and a confused mind. She was glad that she didn't have to go to school that day. She would have been so out of it that she would have gotten in lots of trouble with the teachers.

END CHAPTER

(1) Can you imagine Shessomaru skedaddling out the door? Somehow, it reminds my of my childhood days, watching Blue's Clues, but the word there was skadoo, not skedaddle. Anyway, I think it is funny.

Sorry if my math is off or makes no sense. It took a while to figure out how to make it work. I messed up on a part, and it took the whole back of a piece of paper to figure out where I made my mistake. It is very confusing, but do not worry about it! It has no real point, just gives you and me an idea of Shessy's age.

R&R