Chapter 7: The tale of Matsurika

I don't own Inuyasha or any other character from the manga "Inuyasha". I am not Japanese, I have tried to use a few Japanese terms to try and preserve the flavour of the story. So if there are any mistakes, please forgive me and do point out the necessary corrections with the right meaning.

Matsurika had been dreading these questions ever since she agreed to help Lord Sesshomaru. It was one thing to intimidate curious humans, but the daiyoukai was a different cup of tea altogether. Now his strange friends were asking her the questions she had tried to avoid for as long as she could remember. But strangely enough, she did not feel awkward or irritated by their curiosity. She found herself warming to the group who obviously cared about each other. Even Sesshomaru-sama for all his aloofness cared about his ward and he actually trusted this group, if he were to leave the girl in their care.

Matsurika heaved a sigh and began her tale "It's a rather long story; one I have never told anyone before. My mother was the daughter of the demon Hirokazu, a powerful healer of the Isha demon tribe who would go out of his way to help those in need and Chihiro the miko of the shrine of the Heiwa no tani village. The isha demons are gentle and have no stomach for violence or warfare. Although the villagers were aghast that their shrine miko had mated with a demon, they soon saw that the demon was a gentle being and a wonderful healer and welcomed him to their midst. My mother Amami, was thus a hanyou with healing abilities but she did not inherit her mother's miko powers.

When my mother was 16, she met Lord Mitsuo, the heir to the Honoo fire demon tribe. The fire demons are a very powerful and rather dangerous group of demons. They detest humans and hanyous with a vengeance. Lord Mitsuo seduced Amami but would not officially mate with her, because she was just a hanyou. He was furious that he let himself stoop to being with a hanyou and left her soon. A devastated Amami soon found that she was pregnant. She was aghast and panicked. If the fire demons found out that she was expecting a fire demon half-breed, then they would kill her offspring and destroy her too.

A desperate Amami turned to Shirou, a young man in the village who had secretly adored her since childhood and explained her predicament to him. Shirou asked to marry him; then everyone would believe that the baby was his. A grateful Amami agreed to the plan. When I was born, my eyes and hair told the world that I was not Shirou's offspring. You see, fire demons have golden markings in their eyes like you see in mine and their hair has hues of blue and green in them. But no one dared ridicule my hanyou mother openly for she was their healer. Two years later, my mother bore Shirou's child, a boy. Shirou was never unkind to me, but neither was he an affectionate parent, for I always a demon's offspring in his eyes. My mother saw Lord Mitsuo, who had so callously discarded her, in me and could never bring herself to openly love me. I never really understood the reason for their withdrawn behaviour until much later, for my mother never told me her secret. The only person who was non-judgemental about me was my little brother. He loved me like I was the best thing in the world and he was the light of my life.

Things were fine initially. By the time I was 10, I started to become aware of my powers. I had the healing abilities inherited from my Isha demon grandfather and the ability to yield and control fire like a fire demon. Most surprising was that I had also inherited the miko powers of my grandmother which was lost on my mother. When my brother was attacked by a bear demon in the forest where we were gathering firewood, I felt a surge of power through me and ended up purifying the demon. My mother who saw this was alarmed. She did not want news of my powers to reach the fire demons and told me never to yield my fire powers or miko powers again. Then when I turned 14, fate played a cruel hand on my family.

Lord Mitsuo had been killed in a battle and the fire demon tribe was looking to select its next chief. The fire demons have a holy fire burning in their castle which can be handled only by the true heir to the throne. The true heir has to be a blood-offspring of the previous leader. Only in the absence of such an heir, would the holy fire permit another worthy demon to claim the throne. Lord Mitsuo had not mated; he was rather young when he was killed. So the tribe chose another demon by the name Songatsku to inherit the throne. When Songatsku staked his claim, the holy fire rejected it. The puzzled fire demons turned to their oracle who consulted the holy fire. The holy fire then showed my image in its flames and announced that I was the true heir. Only after my death could any one claim the Fire throne. You can imagine the sort of furore that announcement would have caused among the hanyou/human hating demons. They would never permit a hanyou to be their leader, even if she was technically only quarter human.

It was a rather calm and moon-lit night like tonight. The whole village was slumbering peacefully. Suddenly I woke up….I felt some strange energy; it was very powerful and was not from a single being. Now I realise that I had actually felt the combined auras of 20 or more fire demons, but at that time I had no idea what I was experiencing. It was approaching us very fast. I woke up my mother. She sensed the presence and quickly woke up my step-father and my brother. She told me to take my brother and hide in the forest. Before we could even step-out of the hut, the whole village was engulfed in flames cutting off any escape routes. A tall and very strong demon, who I would later learn was Songatsku, approached my family snarling. His eyes which were so much like mine were now literally alive with leaping flames. I was terrified and hugged my whimpering brother. I had to be brave for his sake. My mother stepped in front of us. Although she was a half-demon, my mother possessed only the healing capacities of the …demons. Songatsku threw a fire-ball at her and in front of our eyes my mother was burned to a cinder. But his real target was me. I screamed at my brother to run and hide, but the little fellow thought he could fight off the demon about to attack his sister. When Songatsku was done with him, I couldn't even trace his ashes.

By then I was screaming in pain and rage. I was only 14, but sorrow and anger know no age. I was surrounded by the stench of death and burning flesh. I felt something happen to me… I could feel power swirling inside me, howling like a beast to be released. I was terrified, but my desire for revenge and also a sense of self-preservation were much stronger than my childish fears. I let go. For the first time, I felt the demonic and miko powers in me rise simultaneously. They ripped through me tearing me from the inside out as they fought for supremacy over each other. Then suddenly they blended like two branches of a river and radiated from my being in waves. Every demon surrounding me was caught in the flames and purified. The power continued to radiate from me. I felt that it would consume me too as I collapsed on the ground. I would have welcomed death that night with open arms after witnessing my family's slaughter. Then slowly the howling beast in me quietened and was then silent. I looked around and saw that there was no one left. The entire village had been massacred. Everything, everyone I knew in life was gone…dead….burnt away. But most of all I lost my brother, the only person who ever truly loved me.

I ran. I fled. I tried to outrun the pain, the hurt, the helplessness. I don't know where I went but I ran. It was futile. I couldn't shut my eyes without hearing their screams or seeing the burning flames. The fire demons too had not given up their pursuit. They tried to trace me and kill me at every opportunity. But somehow I managed to defeat them with my fledgling powers. I decided that I would not let them make me run all my life. I tried to master and understand my powers. It was very difficult at first with no one to guide me, but I managed to get a grip on what I had to do.

Still I did not understand why I was being pursued by the fire demons. When I was 16, I managed to capture one of the fire demons who were pursuing me. I managed to "persuade" him to talk and learnt the secrets surrounding my birth. At first I found it hard to believe, and then soon things began to make sense. My powers, my parents' attitude towards me…all these began to make sense.

That day I resolved that I would stay away from the fire demons as much as I could… the healer-demon in me abhorred the sort of violence I had to resort to in their presence. I would learn to completely control my powers. I would use the healing powers to help those in need and keep my destructive powers in check unless their use was warranted. So I began my training and travelled. I never stayed in a place for too long and served more as a travelling healer. I had been travelling for almost 150 years when I reached the forest near the Aaiyouri village. It was so remote and peaceful and I felt the need to finally settle down in a place. So I have been living there for 100 years now as a healer. My efforts to throw the fire demons off my trail must have paid off, for they haven't bothered me since I settled there. The last I heard, a demon named Aikotsu was their unofficial leader. I have discouraged humans from trying to get close to me or be curious about me to maintain my secrecy. Until today, I have never left the Aaiyouri forest."

As Matsurika concluded her tale she was staring at the moon and the stoic expression on her face would have rivalled Sesshomaru's any day.

Inuyasha stared at the demoness… he thought his life had been hard. Keh, it was cakewalk compared to what this girl had been through. He had known love. His parents had loved and wanted him, although he never got to see his father. He had people who loved him; first Kikiyo and now Kagome. The others in the group too loved him. Kagome and Sango were misty eyed and Miroku was lost in contemplation. Sesshomaru spoke up "Have you never thought to challenge the fire demons for your rightful place on the Fire throne?"

Matsurika quietly looked at Sesshomaru for a long moment before replying with a faint smile "It is not worth it. That throne has so much hatred in it; it has taken away everything that mattered to me. No power is worth it, if you can't have love."