Title Education Musushito
Author landofthekwt
Rating PG-13
POVKohaku
Prompt "The root of education is bitter, but the fruit is sweet" Aristotle
Word Count 1079
Warning character death
Summary Musushito finds the words to say goodbye to his father
"Hurry up or you will be left behind, Musushito" " A sloppy taijiya does not leave youkai alive" " Your sickle chain throws are sloppy, I was doing better than that when I was eleven." "You have to have strength of character. You would not have lasted five minutes at Naraku's side." "You can sleep when you are dead. Someone has to use the brain coral to protect the taijiya village. Your mother has not slept one night in the last twenty years. It is time for your to do your part.": Stand up straight, a taijiya does not slouch." "Kirara does not trust you. Only if you believe in yourself will she trust you." "Don't ever use that weapon again in the presence of your comrades. Until you can control it and yourself, you are more of menace to the taijiya than to the youkai." " They called you half-breed. Be proud of what you are. Running away shames all of us." "You will never their respect unless you are willing to lead. No leader stays at home cowering in his den. He faces the monster knowing that he may die."" Do you have any idea a taijiya is? Until you do, you are no fit to wear our uniform or fight with our weapons."
Everything negative his father said to him came back to him in full force at the funeral. Everyone was there for the great man. The founder of the new taijiya village. What was he? He was the worthless son who never earned his father's respect. The son who abandoned his father and mother when his father went into a coma.
His mother stared at him and whispered"What is wrong with you? Your father turned over actual leadership of the taijiya long ago. He believed in you. Now it is time to be a man and justify the faith he showed in you
Now is not the time to wallow in self=pity. Your father loved you and wanted what was best for you No gather your courage and say something nice about your father. Your people are expecting that of you."
Musushito stumbled over the words. Could his mother actually be correct? Did his father love him? Did he actually believe in him?
He searched his memory. His training with his father. Teaching him about youkai and weapons. His first hunt. His first kill. His first wound. The first time he led a group of taijiya.
When he looked back, all he remembered was the criticism. Maybe his father was actually trying to teach him something with what Kagome referred to as tough love.
Caring about someone so much that they were willing to cause them pain in order to teach them how to by in case they fell in order to catch them if they fell. Maybe his father was watching out for him after all.
His father did believe in him. He may not have stepped down as headman, but he had turned over all his duties to him before he fell had led the taijiya for some time before his father's illness. His father had been a figurehead. All the taijiya knew who was really in taijiya and the taijiya village were everythHe stood up and faced the taijiya. The words flowed from his lips. He knew what kind of man,his father had been. Recounting his deeds was easy.
The hard part was telling the world what he felt about his father. For now those words stay between him and his father. If he only could have told him while he was alive that he loved him.
"Today I come to celebrate the life of a man. To many of you he was a great man. Rebuilding the Taijiya village out of nothing. Creating a solid wall between the youkai and humanity. A person who was strong yet took time to care about the progress of the weak and young."
"He knew what it was like to be weak for he once had been weak. Serve a master more evil than we will ever he strrove against evil until he was saved He never forgot that saving the life of a single person was more important than destroying the greatest evil on remember that when you are fighting evil. We must never think that the ends justifies the means.
"Today that great man died after a long struggle. Just as in life he never surrendered so in death he liveson
He lives on in the hearts of every taijiya whether great or small. We are a family united to fight evil So long as we are here Kohaku will never die."
"My mother reminded me of something I had forgotten today that my father loved me. That love transecends time and links our heart together."
"My father will always be in my heart and the hearts of taijiya everywhere. Just as my father loved me, he also loved you.. Remember him now and always and he will always remain in our hearts."
With those words Musushito took his mother into a crushing embrace. Crying into her hair, he heard the words that she told him when he was afraid as a child.
"Never forget that your father and I love you and will always watch over you."
He looked at her and realized what he should have known alll his father said or did detracted at all from the feelings of love between father might be dead, but he was not dead. From today forward he would apply all the lessons he learned from Kohaku to lead the taijiya into a new era. Kohaku was dead, but his spirit remain. Musushio was determined that it would never die on his watch. He would make his father proud. He could be brave and strong knowing that he had nothing to fear because he had his father's love.