Set during Inuyasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island.
Pick and Choose
Sitting on the raft and watching the land draw near, Moegi reflected on her life on the island and the future that might await her and the other hanyou children in the outside world.
Her parents had left that world, because they had been outcasts from their respective societies, had been hated and spurned for their relationship and for spawning a half-breed child. In order to survive, they had had to choose between the world they knew and that had come to hate them, and life in exile on safe Horai Island.
With her knees drawn up to her chest, Moegi stared blankly into the distance. Horai Island had given them a measure of privacy and privilege. No one had hated them there, no had been an outcast, because they were all outcasts. But their lives had been lived in hiding, in constant worry of discovery and when the island had been invaded, life had become very much like what Moegi's parents had said the outside world had been like.
The wind ruffled her bangs and she took a deep breath, as behind her the other children argued and talked. There was no choice now left to them. Horai Island was gone and the hanyou children would have to make their own way and do so in the hostile lands of the outside world. They would have to pick and choose their companions carefully, measure the words and intents of strangers.
But it would be a life of a new kind, with a wider world to explore and more possibilities than Moegi could ever have dreamed. There was wisdom in seeking new experiences and though she would be careful in choosing her path, she would not be picky when it came to the road she was to follow.