Ch10
Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the plot and the characters that don't seem familiar.
"What do you mean you don't sense it anymore?" a loud cry echoed throughout the forest. A completely shocked InuYasha stared at Kagome with wide eyes and his jaw dropped open. Kagome had told them before that she felt a shard's presence in the opposite direction they were heading, but the minute they started going back, the brunet miko told them that she can no longer sense it.
"InuYasha, calm down," Miroku told him, waving his hands in front of the seething hanyou, "If Kagome-sama doesn't sense the shard then there's not much we can do about it."
"Bu it could be Naraku, for all we know!" InuYasha shouted.
"Then we'll investigate in the morning," Miroku told him, "If you haven't noticed, tonight is the night of the full moon."
The silver haired hanyou's head tilted to the side. Everybody could imagine a rotating question mark by his head as he tried to connect what they were talking about. Not being able to take it anymore, Sango decided to start slow. "InuYasha, what happens when the moon doesn't appear in the sky?" she asked.
"I become a ningen," he replied in a 'well, duh' kind of tone.
"Are you weak during that time?" she asked again.
"What do you think?" he answered in an annoyed tone.
"Does Naraku know about this day?" she asked.
"Of course not! If he did, then we would be done for!" InuYasha shouted.
"Do you want him to find out?"
"Baka! Of course, I don't want him to!"
"Then we have to wait for morning to investigate," she said, thinking that he had understood what the whole interrogation was about.
"NANI!?! Why do we have to wait?" InuYasha shouted, still not getting it.
With that question, everybody just fell down and wanted to bash their heads to the ground. Kagome got annoyed and decided to explain it in terms that he could understand. "Osuwari!" With a loud bang, InuYasha was pulled to the ground by those beads around his neck. "If we go and end up meeting Naraku then he will find out about your day transforming into a ningen!"
"Then why didn't you tell me that straight out?" the inu hanyou shouted, pitting the dirt out of his mouth.
Everybody smacked themselves on the head and sighed, "Wasn't it obvious with the questions?"
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"Onee-sama, do you really have to go," one of the children asked. The entire village came out to say goodbye to Usagi as the sun started to rise to the sky, or rather, the children tried to convince her to stay.
Usagi patted the small child on the head and smiled. "Gomen minna-chan, but I have to go," she said, "I'll try to visit again." She had received some food to last a few days from the villagers along with flowers from the children. She got on Suicine's back and waved goodbye. "Arigato, minna-chan, for everything."
"We should be the one thanking you," the elder said, "After all, if it weren't for you then this village would've been destroyed."
Usagi just laughed and said, "I would do what every good person would do." She waved at her new friends as Suicine bowed his head slightly before leaping over the waters and out of their sight quickly.
"Onee-sama's amazing," a little girl said, clinging to her mother.
"She really must've been a tenshi," another girl said.
"It must've come from here," an unfamiliar voice said from the village entrance. Everyone turned around to see InuYasha and his friends standing there and looking around.
"You sure, Kagome?" Shippo asked, "This place doesn't look like it's been through any trouble from Naraku."
"That's because of onee-sama," a boy said out loud.
Another child nodded his head. "Onee-sama saved us and made a youkai become good."
"Onee-sama?" InuYasha repeated. He walked over to the children and knelt down so he was about their height. "Hey, did this 'onee-sama' have long golden hair and bright blue eyes?" The children nodded their heads in reply, causing him to smile. "I see, so it was Usagi who found the shard."
"She took it off a youkai she called Suicine," a young woman told him.
"NO WAY! Suicine? Are you sure? A blue and white ookami youkai, right?" InuYasha asked. He laughed and ran his hand through his hair. "I never thought I'd see him again."
"InuYasha, you know this youkai called, 'Suicine'?" Sango asked.
"Ah, Usagi was the one who helped his mother when she was in labor. Suicine was the name she gave him," the hanyou said, "If he's with her, then I guess I don't have to worry about her safety as much."
"Would you happen to be that hanyou?" the elder asked, eyeing InuYasha carefully.
InuYasha stared at him and after a long silent pause, he asked, "Which hanyou? Usagi has helped many youkais and hanyous throughout her life."
The elder walked over to the inu hanyou with no fear or caution in his movements, to the gang's surprise, and whispered in his ear. InuYasha stared at him in shock and nodded his head. The rest of the gang had no clue what was going on and immediately assumed that it must be one of those secrets he was keeping from them.
"Come, why don't we tell you what happened last night at my home?" the elder said, walking towards his home with the small group following while the rest of the villagers carried out their chores.
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After riding for several hours, the two travelers came across a large field with a river running through. Usagi got off of Suicine when he stopped in front of the river to drink the water from the river. She knelt down to study the flowers and was amazed with the variety in front of her. "There must be a hana youaki(1) around here, judging by how many there are," she mused to herself.
Then a child-like scream echoed in the air, causing Usagi to stand up quickly. Both her and Suicine ran towards the direction to the screams and found a little girl, or rather a young youkai, being surrounded by a bunch of male villagers. She had bright red hair that reached to her waist with dark blue eyes. Judging by a petal shaped birthmark, Usagi came to the conclusion that she was a hana youkai.
"Filthy youkai, it's because of these flowers you created that's destroying our crops!" one of the men shouted.
"You're wrong! Okaa and otou's flowers never do anything bad," the child shouted.
"I had just about enough of you scum," another man shouted, holding up an ax.
"Kohanam look out," two adult youkai rushed out to protect their child, only to immediately fall prey to the humans' weapons.
"Okaa! Otou!" Kohana shouted. Like the flowers they create, hana youkai are quite fragile and can die quite easily from a mortal wound any other youkai can survive from.
"Now it's your turn." The men turned towards the child.
"I think it's best if you gather up your facts first before attacking the innocent," Usagi said, walking towards them. "As you an see, she is clearly a hana youkai and they are known to be pacifists."
"Shut up, wench," one of them said, "Go back to the village where you belong and mind your own business. A woman's job should be tending her husband's needs and taking care of the house and children."
"But a woman's job is also to offer guidance to those who are lost," Usagi told them. Her lips formed a pout as she grew upset with the man's outburst about a woman's inferiority and anybody could tell her displeasure just by looking into her eyes. Usagi stared down at the flowers and knelt down to touch them. "These types of flowers are for healing purposes and could be found as the base for many medicines while these other flowers are to help purify the air." She stood up and said in a commanding tone, "Take me to your fields."
The men looked uneasy and didn't know what to do, but judging by her tone, they came to the conclusion that she knew what she was talking about. "Very well, but you better be right or else it's on your head, wench."
"My name is Usagi, not wench," the blonde told them. She walked over to the trembling child and lifted her up. "What is your name?" she asked her.
The small redhead looked at Usagi with a cautious look. "Kohana," she whispered, wondering why this woman appeared like a youkai but carries the scent of a ningen.
"Little flower," Usagi said, translating her name, "Cute." Releasing one of her hands, she brought if to her lips and gave out a loud whistle, bringing the large wolf out. "This here is Suicine," she said, introducing the two of them. Kohana looked at Suicine, wondering if he's going to eat her when Usagi's not looking. As if knowing what she was thinking, Usagi laughed and said, "Don't worry about a thing. Suicine won't hurt you, he's still just a puppy."
"You seem to be very comfortable with these youaki," one of the men said as they led the three to their village, "You must be one of them as well."
"Nope, I'm a ningen 100 percent ," Usagi told them in a carefree tone, "I'm just more use to them because of my family's business with youkai."
The group came to a poor looking village and, true to their word, the crop fields were indeed in terrible shape. Everybody stopped what they were doing and stared at the two strangers, especially the two youkai. Whispers arose as they watched Kohana, Usagi, and Suicine walk over to the crops.
Kohana gasped and quickly scurried down from Usagi's arms and ran over to the wilting crops. She knelt down and placed a hand on the brown dying plants. "They're sick," she said in a sad tone.
Usagi staredat the water that surrounds the crops and her eyes followed the irrigation trail to the source which was a rather large lake. "It's the water," she said, catching Kohana's attention. "Suicine, purify the water," she ordered the large wolf.
Suicine quickly rushed towards the lake and went forward in doing what Usagi had ordered, but when he got started in taking the poison out of the water, a loud grumbling sound was heard as large bubbles appeared on the water's surface. Usagi stood up and held out her hands, creating a bow and arrow in her grasp, making the people wonder if she might be some kind of miko. However the weapon wasn't something simple like the wooden ones Kagome has and uses, but rather a bow made out of silver, similar to the weapon her ancestors had used to purify youkai.
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Back in the lake, a beautiful mermaid was sitting on a rock. Her black hair flowed about her in the water as her dark red dyes stared into a mirror with a look of satisfaction and delight. She's wearing a type of tight corset made of bright colored shells and from the waist down was a teal green fish tail. All in all, she looked a lot like a mermaid in those childish fairy tale stories, except she sported a necklace with a shard hanging around her neck.
"Beautiful," she sighed dreamily as she continued to admire her reflection in the mirror. "There's nobody in the entire world that is more beautiful than me," she said. With each vain statement, the shard made her blind to the waters around her as it grew more and more poisonous, not even bothering to care that the crops above were wilting.
Instead, she thought that the poisonous waters was helping her become more gorgeous, so when she felt the waters around her slowly becoming clean again, she took it as an offense. "Those pesky ningen are trying to take away my beauty," she snarled. Tornadoes started to swirl around as her vain anger increased the with the shard's light blinking. "They're just jealous of the way I look so they're trying to find a way to destroy my waters." She was still situated on the rock as the water gained a life of its own and pushed the rock to the surface.
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The mermaid was lifted into the air and stared at the quivering ningen and the youkai. But then she noticed Usagi standing there with the weapon pointed at her. Oh did she become infuriated with her and no it wasn't because our heroine had a weapon pointed at her, she was furious at the fact that some ningen dared to make her beauty rival hers. "How dare you look as attractive as I?" she screeched, "My beauty is suppose to be supreme and NO ningen will ever be able to match mine."
"Why does this remind me of Snow White and the queen's vain jealousy?" usagi said silently as a sweat dropped on the side of her head. Her blue eyes then caught a glint of the shikon shard on the necklace. "These shards are becoming a nuisance more and more," she sighed.
The mermaid held her hand up straight and moved it to aim at Usagi as a cyclone of water rose up and flew towards Usagi. The target released the arrow; the heat of the arrow caused the water to evaporate, angering the aquatic youkai even more. She glared angrily at Usagi who pulled the string back with another arrow appearing in its place. Her black hair whipped around her in the air as the shard's light turned to pitch black. As she threw another water tempest at Usagi, she released the arrow. This time, the projectile dispersed the water and connected to the shard. The mermaid glared at the arrow and reached over to get rid of it when the arrow dissolved into the shard, pushing all the negative power out. As the shard became clear white again, the youkai held a hand to her head, to get rid of the throbbing headache. Her hold on the water began to loosen, causing the water to fall back into the lake; she blacked out and fell along with the very element she lived in.
Usagi turned to Suicine and said quickly, "Catch her." The large wolf obeyed the blond and leapt into the air, allowing the mermaid to fall onto his back. Suicine landed in front of Usagi, who was staring at the crystal flake lying innocently around the unconscious youkai's neck. She took the shard and sighed in annoyance, "If this goes on, I'll be able to complete the crystal myself."
"She unconscious," one of the men shouted, "Now's our chance." The rest of the men lifted up any form of weapon they got their hands on and stalked over to where Usagi was.
"I thought I told you to get all your facts straight before attacking someone," Usagi said, turning around, "like what happened to Hana-chan's parents." some of the mend managed to look guilty while the others acted like they didn't care. "We humans aren't very innocent a well," she said angrily, "Just as there are good humans, we also have those who are corrupted. The same goes for youkai."
"But youkais kill for no reason at all!" one of the men shouted.
"So do bandits!" Usagi shouted, stomping her foot in their direction. The villagers stared at each other as they realized she was right. "So do lords and kings who start wars and battles for each other's lands. But I don't see you gathering weapons to attack them." Usagi's hand clutched tightly on the shard and held it for them to see. "You want to know the source of the trouble, well here it is."
"But that's just a piece of jewelry," one of them said, trying to justify their actions, "How can a simple thing like that do all this damage?"
"How does a simple object like money influence bandits and lords?" Usagi asked, using her question to answer his.
A low moan attracted everyone's attention as they all stared at the awakening mermaid. "What happened?" she whispered, "The last thing I remembered was finding that nice stone in the water and then..."
Usagi walked over to the mermaid and said gently, "I'm afraid that this stone decided to show your darker side. You became infatuated with your beauty and in turn poisoned the water."
"The water," she repeated and then gasped, "Oh no! What have I done?"
"It's okay," Kohana said, calming her down, "Usagi-san had Suicine make the water clean again."
The mermaid glanced at the wolf she was sitting on and at the young woman beside him. "Arigato," she whispered to Usagi, who just smiled at her.
"You're welcome, but if you don't mind me asking, where did you get this?" Usagi asked, holding the shard for her to see.
"It landed on my lake," the mermaid replied, "Since no one came in to claim it, i kept it myself." Usagi held her hand out to give her the jewel, but the youkai shook her head. "If that was what caused all this, I think it's best if you keep it, seeing as how you're a miko." Her eyes wandered to Suicine and walked as the wolf headed to the waters to let her go back in. "Though, I never heard of a miko that is merciful to youkai or travel with them to begin with."
Usagi helped the mermaid down into the waters and knelt by the shore. "Actually I'm not a miko," Usagi said, wondering just why everyone she had met would either compare her to a tenshi, a youkai, or a miko.
"If you're not a miko, then how were you able to purify my waters and stop the shard from taking control over me?" the mermaid asked. She lifted her hand and tapped her cheek in thought. "Of course, mikos are known to purify youkais by turning them into dust."
"I may not be a miko but my family has been known to have spiritual power," Usagi said, "However what my family is well known for is the dream of connecting the road between the ningen and youkai together."
"I've heard that there is one family that's been trying to do that," Kohana said, "Okaa and Otou said that ever since there has been youkai and ningen, that family has been trying to stop the hostility between the two, but the family had died out about a hundred years ago."
"More like kept hidden," the mermaid added, "If you are part of that family."
"I don't think that the question should be about my family, but rather about Hana-chan's family," Usagi said, looking at the young child. "Since you're an orphan and still young, there's no way that you can survive on your own." She glanced over to the men who had attacked Kohana's family wit the accusation of their flowers poisoning their crops. Usagi sighed, shaking her head, finally understanding her annoyance of ignorant people and the damages they do without even knowing it. "Hana youkais are hard to find because they blend in to the flowers around them and those flowers range from common to rare, so it's hard to figure out if they're there or not."
Kohana stared at Suicine and then at Usagi. "You seem to be very knowledgeable about the different kinds of youkai," she said in a soft voice.
Usagi nodded her head and said, getting on top of the wolf youkai, "Even if I know a lot, there's still much I have yet to learn," Usagi said, "But my parents were well acquainted with several hana youkai and taught all I needed to know." Suicine turned around to face away from the lake as Usagi kept her gaze on the small child. She held out a hand and said with a smile, "You can stay with me until you get older."
Kohana stared at Usagi in shock. "But if you did that, you would be treated badly by the other ningen," she said frantically. She sounded as if she really didn't want Usagi to take her, but deep down she had hoped that Usagi wouldn't care about the way she'd be treated and still offer to look after her.
Everybody just watched as Usagi laughed. "Back at my old village, I may had been scolded for helping and taking care of hanyous and youkais, but nobody had actually went and treated me horribly," she said. Usagi took Kohana's hand and lifted her onto the back of the wolf. "I know the feeling of being left all alone as a child, so there's no way I'm letting the same thing happen to another child," she said, "but the question is do you want to come with me, Hana-chan?"
Kohana stared at Usagi with thoughtful red eyes, not sure of what she should do. A part of her was telling her to not go and cause her more trouble; Usagi had already done so much for her by saving her life. However, an even bigger part of her wanted to go with Usagi and learn all that she can about this woman who shows no fear and so much compassion to the youkai. Maybe she was feeling selfish, but she couldn't help but wish that Usagi is also willing to be her new mother, but the feeling of doubt was large. The redhead brought her hands together and tapped her two pointer fingers lightly against each other in a shy manner.
As if sensing her dilemma, Usagi patted Kohana on the head. "But even if you don't want to stay with me, I'm afraid that it's against my morals to leave a child all alone," she said. What she had said caused Kohana to stared at her in shock and in relief. Usagi grinned and wrapped her arms around Kohana. "Welcome to the family, Hana-chan. I get to play mother again, so it works for me too," she said laughing.
"Again?" the villagers repeated.
"You're not the first I had looked after and I highly doubt you'll be the last," Usagi said, "Since I can't marry anyone who is biased about youkai and hanyou, this gives me the opportunity to be a mother, pretty much."
Kohana stared at Usagi as a dreamy smile grew; she whispered in a tired tone, "I have a mother again." She wrapped her arms around Usagi and said in a more awake voice, "I have a mother again." Usagi laughed and planted a kiss on her forehead. Kohana looked at Usagi and asked, "What can I call you?"
"Anything your heart desires," Usagi replied. She patted her on the head. "You can see me as a mother and even call me 'aneue'," she said, giving her a wink, "Though Yasha-kun thinks of me more of a sister than a mother."
"So…I can call you anything I want, right?" Kohana asked, still looking at Usagi cautiously. She was trying to find a way to not anger this new mother she had received; the last thing she wanted is to make her regret adopting her. In a soft tone, she tested out the name, "Hahaue."
The villagers stared curiously, wondering about what Usagi's reaction would be. Most thought that she would be disgusted while the other group thought nothing of it. What Usagi had done next completely blew everyone off their feet…literally. "KAWAII!" Usagi shouted, squeezing onto Kohana tightly, "She called me 'hahaue'!"
All the adults fell to the floor as the children stared at them, wondering what had just happened. "I guess there's just one person who's this enthusiastic about these creatures," they sighed deeply, getting up. They shook their heads as they watched the new mother and daughter getting ready to leave.
(1) hana youkai is a flower demon. Not sure if they actually have it, but in my story there is one.
AN: Please ignore my poor skill in the battle. I'm not very good with the whole fighting scenes so I'll most likely rush through it. (falling to the floor and sobbing)
Please send your reviews! I'll try to get the new chapter in, hopefully before this year is up.