Hellooo everybody! I am VERY sorry that I have been unable to update in quite a while, but I have been pretty busy with homework and we just recently had a powercut so I was unable to post the chapter. AARGHH! Stupid power cuts!
This is the chapter that will hopefully answer some of your leftover questions concerning Hanyuu's death, the second Arc covering the remaining ones. Thank you so much for coming with me on this journey, I honestly couldn't have done it without all your support! Seriously thanks guys!
Disclaimer: For the final time in this Arc, I do not own Inuyasha or any of its respectable characters. I only claim my OCs and the plot.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The air was cold and Inuyasha's breathing was hoarse, as he sat perched up on one of the highest branches of the scared Goshinboku, his back pressed against the trunk ad he stared out into the vast forest plains.
Hanyuu's final words still spun around in his mind as he tried to crack their meaning, desperately rattled his brain for answers... but found none. Why did she have to be so discrete with her wording? She could have just come out and told him what she meant, plain and simple. It would have made things a ton times easier for him that was for sure.
"What did you mean Hanyuu?..." he muttered, trailing his gaze to the pale blue sky that borderlined grey, "I don't get what you said... What were you trying to say?"
He sighed and pulled out the torn old scrapbook that Arina had given him earlier, something about it having once belonged to her father that he had kept during his studies of the winged people and their origins. He had been a dedicated old fool, she had said, his obsession over the winged creatures consuming his life. He had collected angel remains that he could get his hands on and hung up in his temple on display, a cruel action of disrespect and insanity. He would have loved Hanyuu, she had also mentioned with a frown, and Inuyasha not liking the way she had said it.
Inside the scrapbook contained pieces of crumbled papers about old legends of the winged folk. Stories of bloodshed and war, death and destruction. They spoke of a battle between angels and demons, humans siding with demons for a change! The angels in the pictures shown looked brutal, wings of fire and teeth the shape of daggers, relishing in their kills. They supposedly attacked human villages to claim innocents, only to be fought off by demons who defended the human territories. Inuyasha read that bit with a disbelieving snort. Demons defending humans? No matter what or how great the foe, demons and humans would never join forces to take it down. It just would not happen.. ever.
There were pages on the structure of a winged being, heavily detailed wing diagrams showing the weak spots and other tips to kill one. There were other pages showing records of the elemental demon Lord's failed attempts to re-create one of the angels, using the fossilized wings he collected and blood and flesh. But of course, he had not succeeded, for neither human or demon organs worked, both imperfect for such a creature of divinity.
Hanyuu's bruised and bloodied form from her final moments flashed into Inuyasha's head again and he shook his head. How could such a fragile and gentle creature like her be a threat to demons and humans alike? What danger could something like her possibly be? She had struggled to kill Naraku, the monster who tried to kill her family, so how could she be capable of taking hundreds of innocent lives without feeling how wrong it was?
She had had more humanity than any human he had come across, and more courage than any demon.
"Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha was drawn out of his thoughts and looked away from the scrapbook on his lap down at the foot of the tree. Kagome stood at the bottom, her fingers knitted together as she fiddled with them nervously, and her cheeks were stained with fresh tears. Inuyasha stared at her in confusion, not finding his voice.
"Can you.. can come down here for a second?" she asked.
He closed the old book and shoved it into his haori before hopping down so that he was standing beside her. "Hey. What's up?"
For some reason, she refused to meet his gaze and just stared down at her fingers. "I... I need to talk to you about something." she mumbled in a guilty sounding manner.
Inuyasha tilted his head to the side and put his hands in his sleeves. "Okaay.. What about?"
She walked deeper into the forest slowly and beckoned him to follow. They walked through the green shrubbery in silence for a while, Inuyasha staring up through the green screen of leaves above and Kagome staring down at the ground.
"...Inuyasha?" she whispered finally, her gaze still glued to the floor as she came to a halt.
He stopped walking and turned around to face her. "Yeah?"
Kagome opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. Tears burned in her eyes again and clouded her view of the ground. How could she tell him? But how couldn't she tell him? He deserved to know, even though it was something that he really wouldn't want to hear at this time. She hadn't been happy when she knew either, but there wasn't anything she could do to stop what was happening.
Inuyasha walked ebb closer to her and caught her hands, making her finally meet his gaze. "Talk to me Kagome," he encouraged her to speak, giving her hands a light squeeze, "I'm here. I'm always here."
The tears leaked out of her eyes and rolled down her cheeks in thick droplets. "I..." she whispered, "I... I'm pregnant.."
Inuyasha stopped breathing for a moment at her confession and just stared at her. His mouth lay slightly open and his eyes flickered with the sunlight. "Wait... What?" he muttered stupidly, his mind having gone blank.
Kagome sniffed and looked away. "I'm.. pregnant.. Kaede said I have the signs and I've not had my period to quite a while now-"
"Woah woah woah hold on a minute!" Inuyasha interrupted, waving his hands, "It's still pretty early on right? How can you be this sure?"
"I took a medical course in high school... Trust me, I know."
Inuyasha was silent at this, unsure of what to say. Words had never been one of his strong points and he didn't want to mess anything up by letting his tongue run. He had forgotten there was the possibility that Kagome's world would be more knowledgeable about this kind of thing, just as it had more effective medicines and better tasting foods. But... what were they going to do? This was too soon. There was too much doubt and fear in him and Kagome for this to happen. How would they be able to pull through this?
His silence panicked Kagome more as her heart thudded away in her chest. She should have expected this, he wasn't ready to hear this yet. She should have waited, should have waited for him to recover a little at least before she dropped such a big bomb on him-
Being pulled into his arms unexpectedly cut her thoughts short. She blinked and sniffed fiercely in an attempt to dry her tears and clear her nose, the last thing she wanted was to drip snot onto his shoulder. 'Not attractive Kagome!' she scolded mentally.
"Don't worry," he whispered, "We'll get through this. We always get through tough shit like this, it's like a second nature to us now. We can do it."
He stroked the back of her head and felt her sigh into his chest. He would find the strength to cope with this. He had to for Kagome's sake. This would not end the same way it had for Hanyuu, he would make sure of that. This child was going to survive, and it was going to live a long life with him and Kagome. He would protect this one even if it killed him.
"So you gave Inuyasha your father's scrapbook from his study?" Ren asked Arina as he handed her a pile of books to put on one of the shelves in the library, "Why?"
She took the books from him and placed them in several empty spaces in the shelf. "When I went in to tidy the room up and... retrieve mother's body to lay to rest, I came across his stash of records and papers on the winged people. I thought that Inuyasha might be interested in what was in the information, seeing as he was so distressed about something Hanyuu told him before she passed. So I thought that the documents could help and act as a sort of apology for our actions in the past."
"I'm sorry..." he muttered, "...about your mother.. I mean."
"...It's fine. She was in the same spot I saw her last, sitting with her back against the wall where father repeatedly struck her. Unmoved..."
"You don't have to dwell on those memories now Arina," Ren said firmly, "She's in a better place, if you believe in that kind of thing."
She chuckled, "You don't say, anywhere away from my father is a better place."
"Hey I don't mean to pry, but... where is your father now? Is he...?"
Arina looked up at the broken ceiling and shrugged, "I don't know. After he chased me through the castle and I jumped out of that window.. I never saw him again. I just assumed that he had given up or he was dead, but I suppose he could still be alive. It just doesn't make sense why he hasn't come after me if he is..."
Four friends were seated around a small table in Miroku and Sango's hut, discussing Kagome's pregnancy and the consequences that came with it.
"How do you think Inuyasha will take it?" Miroku asked quietly, as Setsuko zoomed around after Hiroshi somewhere behind him.
"Who knows..." Sango sighed, "They're both very upset about what happened to Hanyuu... as I would be if it happened to me. And another child immediately after that might not be the best idea. Kaede told me Kagome panicked so much that she started to cry when she realized, she cried even more at the thought of telling Inuyasha..."
Shippo sniffed as Kirara mewed and rubbed her nose on his cheek, "Poor Kagome... Inuyasha had better not say anything stupid to upset her more!"
The unlikely voice of Sesshomaru coming from outside startled the four as they jumped. "It is inevitable with Inuyasha's low IQ level that he will say something that will unintentionally upset the girl, they are just lucky that there are no more remaining threats to the child's life."
"Were you listening to our conversation?" Shippo asked, forgetting his manners for a moment and the fact that Sesshomaru could kill him if he said anything to offend him, "That's a little rude. Come on in if you're going to make remarks like that."
Instead of Sesshomaru, Jaken scurried in and gave Shippo a big thump on the head with his staff, making the fox squeal in shock. "How dare you insult my Lord so! You should feel lucky that he hasn't come in here like you suggested and melted you on the spot!" he shrieked.
Kikyo lifted the straw flap that covered the entrance to the hut and walked in. "So Kagome left to inform Inuyasha of the bad news?" she asked sadly. The others nodded slowly as she took a seat beside Sango and sighed. "Such bad timing for something that would usually be seen as a blessing..."
Akane hopped over to the table and leaned on her father's shoulder for support. "There's something that I don't understand.." she started, joining in the rather adult topic, "If Inuyasha and Kagome didn't want another baby, then why did they do it? That is how babies are made right?"
Everyone gasped at her words and blinked rapidly. "Akane!?" Sango stuttered, "Where did you.. where did you hear about that!?"
"Well I was playing with daddy a little while ago and I really wanted to know where babies came from.. so I asked daddy!" she answered like it was a simple topic, "And he replied with 'Every woman has a garden-"
"That will be quite enough Akane." Sango interrupted, giving Miroku a fierce glare that promised they would have words later, making him gulp and laugh awkwardly.
"Kikyo?" Shippo asked, changing the subject, "Why won't Sesshomaru come in?"
Kikyo glanced over at the straw flap covering the door for a moment before returning her gaze to the little fox demon. "Sesshomaru is just feeling a little out of it at the moment, like Inuyasha and Kagome are. Hanyuu was his niece and he was rather fond of her, as we all were. He just needs some time to come around."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Shippo nodded.
Sesshomaru stood at the entrance of the human hut, his gaze glued to the skies above as he stared at the passing grey clouds that crawled across the pale blue stretch.
He did not have many regrets that effected him much, but the one regret he had now acquired was not spending more time getting to know his niece. The times he had spent with her as a child had not been very long and had been filled with little importance. He was no fool, he had known that she was a sweet girl filled with dreams and ambitions, and also rather powerful according to the others, and since she had managed to eliminate Naraku so easily on her own, it must have been true. There was something in her that didn't belong to either Inuyasha or Kagome.. something entirely of her own being. She was strong like her father, and loving like her mother.. but there was just something else there that had caught Sesshomaru's attention. He had seen it in her eyes whenever she stood up for human children who were being bullied, still as a young pup, and protected the small human herd from the bullies.
It was her ability to stand up if there was something she saw that she didn't like, an ability that Inuyasha and Kagome too possessed true... but there was something different in the brave glint in Hanyuu's eyes when she stood up and protected the human children from danger.. the way she lead them away to safety, their trust in her evident and her half demon heritage forgotten... the leadership she had shown. Sesshomaru was certain that she would have been capable of leading an army into battle with the way she stood against the human bullies. Yes, her capability of leadership was quite remarkable for such a young pup.
But time had been cruel to her, it had torn her away from her loved ones just as it had done to her mother, only there would be no coming back for her.
"Hello my Lord."
Sesshomaru drew himself out of his regret filled thoughts and tilted his head down to look at the sadly smiling Rin, her eyes filled with softness and sympathy.
"Are you all right?" she asked gently.
As to be expected, he did not answer. He just stood and returned his gaze to the grey clouds above. Rin, however, was used to this now and accepted the fact that he was not very open when it came to his feelings unlike his brother, but she felt honored to know that he acknowledged her questions and curiosity more than any one else.
She smiled and stood beside him, his tall frame still towering above her even though she had grown a little taller herself. She now came up to at least his mid-chest, which was quite an improvement in her eyes seeing as before she had barely reached his thighs. She took a sneak peek up at him from under her messy bangs and looked at his distant expression, his eyes looking far away into the dullness of the sky.
"You like to look up at the sky don't you?" she asked, following his gaze skyward, "You've been doing it for as long as I can remember but I have yet to discover the reason why. Just what does the great demon Lord of the Western Lands find so impossibly fascinating about staring into the skies?"
Sesshomaru's eyes softened ever so slightly at her hopeless curiosity and he allowed a small sigh to escape from his lips. "Perhaps Rin.. one day in the future, if you are lucky.. perhaps I will tell you why some day."
She seemed content with his reply and smiled at him again, this smile one filled with warmth and familiarity. "I've missed you, you know." she admitted, earning a snicker in response.
"... And I, you." he responded after a moment of silence, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as her eyes lit up in adoration.
But the smirk tugging at his lips soon ceased as he began to think again. Though missed him she may have, he knew that she loved every moment she spent in the human village. She had learned to live with her own kind and shower her affection on them as well as himself and his demon underlings. And it was quite evident now to Sesshomaru that there was a high possibility that she would choose to remain here with Kaede and Jirou, who had just begun a relationship (A/N: ahh old people romance, way cuter love stories than Twilight)...
He knew that she would choose to remain here... and not travel with him as she had before.
Rin was not a child any more, she could make her own decisions and was free to do whatever she wanted. But still... a piece of Sesshomaru's carefully guarded heart ached at the thought of her choosing the village over him... choosing humans over him. He would miss her clumsiness when she 'accidentally' pushed Jaken down head first when fishing, miss her random quirks that nearly.. nearly triggered a chuckle from him once, a true genuine chuckle. He would miss the way she copied what he did - be she mimicking his walking pattern or insisting on taking a bath whenever she learned he had had one earlier. He would miss the way she looked up to him for protection and comfort... just as a child would look up at her father.
He was puzzled when she suddenly edged closer to him and elbowed him in the waist. She looked up at him and smirked in a strange manner that unnerved him, though he kept his cool mask firmly in place.
"So..." she started casually, "You and... Kikyo, huh? Didn't see that coming, I'll yell you."
Sesshomaru nearly groaned at loud when he saw the familiar curious glint in her eyes, flashing away in the brown depths like her own private morscode. He should have known that she would be interested in this specific topic And would want to discuss it with him.. just as Inuyasha undoubtedly would sooner or later. Well obviously she would be interested in learning more about their relationship, she had matured considerably and been unfortunate to hear Inuyasha's rambles about how he used to hate humans and go around killing them like they were ants. She probably found it quite amusing that he had decided to take one on as his woman after hearing all that, especially a priestess!
The hidden look of despair peeking out from beneath his calm mask made her want to laugh. She decided to take advantage of it, and elbowed him in the stomach again. "Well... What brought it on? Who said 'I love you' first?"
His eyebrow twitched. Her way of wording was beginning to sound like Inuyasha's priestess, indicating that the two spent quite a lot if time together doing whatever it was that women did. Her last question had made him feel even more awkward, especially since she had used the L word. Never had he used that word, for he had had no reason to use it. Now that Rin mentioned it... did Kikyo actually know the full extent of his feelings for her? Hell he wasn't even sure if he knew the full extent of them himself! He had told her that he desired her. Was that enough information to tell her his feelings? Or would he have to make it a little clearer as Inuyasha and Kagome had to, with their stubbornness and overly oblivious ways.
But, Sesshomaru stopped, he had kissed her back in Kagome's time. Was that enough of a hint to let her know of his feelings? Was a kiss enough to tell her what she needed to know? Somehow, he doubted it. Kikyo and Inuyasha had kissed before, and that apparently hadn't been enough. True she had wanted the half demon to go to hell with her back then, which was a little extreme, and not even that had been enough to make their 'relationship' last. They had just had to accept that it wasn't meant to be and move on with their lives. Perhaps Kikyo was unsure of how he, Sesshomaru, felt because of that past? Perhaps he did have to make it clearer for her after all? But how to go about it...?
Rin raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Have either of you even said anything?"
He coughed. "I informed her that I had developed an interest in her."
"... What... That's it?"
He looked down at her disappointed expression. Words had never really been one of his strong points. "I also kissed her." he added.
This caught her interest.
"You kissed her!?" she hissed excitedly, keeping her voice down so that their conversation would not be overheard, "When? Where? What did she do? I need details!"
Sesshomaru just raised his eyebrows at her overreaction and resisted a sigh. Yep, she had definitely been spending too much time with Kagome. It had made her insane! He failed to understand why she was so worked up over something as little as a kiss. It was, after all, just a kiss. It was nothing amazing, as the other women from Inuyasha's gang of misfits described. But perhaps it was normal to be worked up over a kiss? It seemed to be quite common among the females so did that mean that.. Kikyo too became excited over things such as silly little kisses? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. It was truly laughable. Women were indeed strange creatures.
Wait. Maybe Rin would know of a more effective way to let Kikyo know of his feelings for her? She may only be a young teenager but she was sure to know more than him, her being a member of the female gender.
"Rin?" he started, trailing his gaze up to the grey sky once again, "How... how is one to approach informing a human woman of his feelings towards her without her misunderstanding his intentions or failing to understand?"
Rin blinked a few times to digest the information given in his intelligent sounding question, before she burst out into hysterical laughter. He frowned at her in confusion and waited for her to explain what had caused her sudden laughing fit. Women found the strangest of things amusing, for reasons he could not fathom in the slightest.
"Oho.. I'm sorry!" she choked between giggles, "I just.. never expected to hear you ask for love advice from me!" Her laughter intensified and she held her stomach tightly. "Why don't you ask someone with more experience when it comes to romance? Like Kagome? Or Sango? Or maybe even Inuyasha-"
"I will not ask the half breed." was his sharp response, only increasing Rin's laughter.
"Too proud, I see." she teased, " Well I can't blame you, a reputation is a man's life! Without it he would be a sorry nobody, and being a respectable Lord, you couldn't become a sorry nobody could you Lord Sesshomaru?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Indeed I could not."
She laughed some more for a while. "Oh you are funny sometimes with your pride, my Lord! Why don't you just come out and tell her how you feel nice and simple? You know like an 'I love you' thing?"
A mental image of Sesshomaru spouting mushy poems of love to Kikyo popped into Rin's head, and she shoved a fist in her mouth to muffle the snort. Nope, somehow she just couldn't picture her Lord saying things like that, not even to a woman he claimed to be in love with. He spoke more with his actions than he ever did with his words.
"Forget that, we'll think of something else." she shook her head, "It can't be helped since you are kinda new to this whole thing after all. It's only normal that you'd be stuck."
"And you have more experience than me in the subject?" he asked suspiciously.
Her cheeks tinted pink. "Well... I've never been in a proper relationship.. but I know what it's like to be in love." she whispered.
"With whom?"
She leaned up on her tip toes and whispered into his ear so that no one around would hear. "Kohaku." she giggled with a blush.
Sesshomaru stared at her blankly, wondering where that could have come from. He had considered the possibility that the boy had developed an interest in her seeing as he had shown signs of doing so recently, but he had not been sure about Rin herself.
She shrugged at his look and rubbed her temples, "Well I have known him for quite a few years and I know he's a nice guy. He stops by occasionally and brings me flowers you know, it's really sweet." she blushed.
He sighed inwardly and looked up into the skies once again. Humans, he thought, unable to place a label on them to explain their confusing contradictory ways. The clouds hovered over the pale blue and suggested rain.. maybe even a thunderstorm. A bad omen in his opinion. But why, he wondered? Just what more could happen that would be even worse than what fate had just claimed? What could be worse than losing Hanyuu?
As Inuyasha walked back in the direction of the village with his fingers laced in Kagome's, she stopped abruptly and looked up at the dark storm clouds gathering above.
"Look Inuyasha, up there!" she pointed up into the sky, "There's a bird flying way up in those storm clouds! You can see its white feathers! I hope it'll be okay!"
"What bird?" he frowned, squinting his eyes as he scanned the dull skies for this bird she spoke of. It had better be careful if it wanted to avoid being hit by lightning or something! The last thing Inuyasha wanted to see was another death, even if it was just a little bird.
"There!" she insisted, pointing again, "Near that weird flurry of purple lights!"
Inuyasha finally picked out the small white wings that were almost hidden by the dark clouds and tried to figure out what the small flash of purple lights nearby were... and where he had seen them before. It was in that single moment that the realization hit him. It hit him hard like a wet fish in the face. Hanyuu's final four words flashed across his mind and his mouth slid open to repeat them.
"...Eye on the sky..."
"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked in confusion as her husband continued to stare high into the depths of the grey watercolour sky, "What did you say?"
Slowly, a lazy grin washed over Inuyasha's features and he managed a smile for the first time in weeks. He watched as the purple lights and wings disappeared somewhere into the storm clouds before he turned his gaze back to Kagome.
"Doesn't matter," he shook his head, the lazy grin still on his face.
She tilted her head to the side at his sudden relaxed expression. She squeezed his hand and managed a small smile of her own. "Well if you're sure... But feel free to tell me if you feel you want to, I'll listen if there's something on your mind."
His grin widened and he suddenly scooped her up into his arms, drawing an audible gasp from her as he spun her around. Before she could ask him what had ruffled his feathers, he stopped instantly all of a sudden and put her down before him, holding her at an arms length by her shoulders.
"What's wrong?"
He glanced down at her stomach and frowned, "The baby... I.. I don't wanna break it."
Kagome stared at him for a while with big blinking eyes, before she burst out into insane laughter. He frowned more and raised an eyebrow at her sudden outburst. She had gone from being utterly heartbroken and sad to laughing her head off at something random, probably something that only females knew about no doubt.
"Uhh.." he mumbled awkwardly, "What's so funny?"
This just made her laugh even more as she clutched her stomach because of how hard she was laughing. But this of course, only made Inuyasha assume that he might have actually broken the baby growing inside of her, so she laughed even more.
"I'm sorry!" she squealed in between laughs, "It's just... break the baby by hugging me? I have never heard anyone say that before about a pregnant woman! It's hilarious!"
Inuyasha still failed to see how it was funny, but decided to let it slip aside for the time being. He was just happy to see her smiling again, let alone laughing her head off. It was quite refreshing actually.
He clasped her hand again and grinned at her again, "Come on wench, get your laughing ass back to the village before we get caught in a storm."
They strolled our of the forest and made their way back to their home, Inuyasha glancing up at the sky briefly before returning his gaze back to the path ahead. Perhaps fate would be kind to them from now on after it had had its fun with them? Perhaps... if they were lucky.. the worst was over.
A mysterious man chuckled darkly from his hiding place behind a thick three trunk as he watched the half demon and his priestess walk back to their residence thinking that their troubles might finally be over. Oh no, their troubles were not over.. far from it.
He looked up at the grey sky and smiled in a strange knowing manner as he too caught sight of the purple lights and wings. This was not the end of things at all, if anything, it was only the beginning. Especially since the foolish sword of the underworld had gone and donated its remaining power to the lovely Hanyuu, thus complicating things. At least the sword was now out of the way and unable to protect its mistress.. because protecting was certainly what she was going to need.. with him now added to the game board.
The man had been waiting for this opportunity for so long. He had spent long years of his life studying the winged people and their origins, learning about them. And now.. a real living breathing angel would soon be his for the taking.. just as soon as 'the process' was complete.
There was no where she could fly that he could not reach to follow. For she would soon belong to him. And his possessions were never unreachable to him... He smiled again and the clouds opened and spilled their rain down onto the lands below. Not long from now, the Western Lands would be drenched with not just rain, but a redder, richer smelling liquid that could only be drawn from pain and death. And death would soon rain down..
- To be Continued
The END! Well of Arc One anyway ahahaha. There are still so many questions left to be answered! Here's a little of the things you can expect to see in Arc Two:
· The identity of the mysterious man at the end, and what the hell he wants.
· The 'process' he spoke of concerning Hanyuu.
· Hanyuu's fate (involving the purple flurry and the pair of wings in the sky).
· Tales concerning the winged people and more on their origins.
· The fate of Inu and Kags' second child, and the difficulties that surface.
· More battles, misunderstandings between characters, fluff, character angst, action, storytelling, and of course.. more romance.
Sounds exciting, I know. Just want to say a HUGE thank you to those who've stuck with this fic since the beginning, the reviewers and of course the new readers! I honestly could not do this without all your support and feedback! ~Happy