Reunited, At Last!
A/N: Just a fun little plot bunny that was running around my head where Inuyasha shows up to save Moroha during the battle with Kirinmaru. There are spoilers for Yashahime below!
Leave it to Sesshomaru to release them from the Black Pearl in the middle of a battle with Kirinmaru.
They stood there disoriented, suddenly back home but without any idea of where or when they'd arrived.
"Stay close, Kagome. Nothing about this place smells right," he warned. None of it was real. Wherever they were it wasn't the place his eyes told him it was. It had to be an illusion of some kind. Kagome stepped in closer with a wordless nod of understanding. How long had they been gone?
He looked around and noticed two young girls. Scent confirmed what his eyes were telling him - they were Sesshomaru's daughters. They'd only been infants the last time he'd seen them and now they were... Which meant Moroha was...
Inuyasha shook his head to dispel the thought that had haunted him every day in that place. His daughter had grown up an orphan, something he'd sworn would never happen, because of a stupid prophecy. There would be a reckoning for Sesshomaru for his part in all of it, but for now they had bigger problems to deal with.
From the looks of things the battle with Kirinmaru had endured for some time. The half-demon twins were panting heavily and Sesshomaru had drawn Bakusaiga. He launched another assault against Kirinmaru and their swords clashed, sending a deafening metallic clang echoing through the air.
But above the sound of that ruckus his ears picked up on something else—someone was struggling, breathing hard, scraping their way up the cliff's sheer rock face. He slowly backed towards the cliff's edge, curious as to who was desperately crawling towards a battle.
A hand appeared at the top of the cliff followed by another, and then a dark head of hair. His nose told him without a doubt exactly who she was, but his feet remained frozen in place. His heart clenched hard inside his chest, mirroring the claws that tightened into fists at his sides.
Though he never would have admitted it aloud, he was terrified to meet her. Would she hate him for abandoning her? For allowing her to grow up alone in a world that had never been kind to those who were different? On the day she was born he'd made a vow that she would never know the depths of loneliness he'd experienced as an orphaned hanyou, but Sesshomaru had forced him to break that vow by trapping he and Kagome in the Black Pearl.
A lifetime of memories had passed for her and they'd missed it all – her first word, her first step, the first day she realized the strength of the demon blood inside of her. Every moment that should have been theirs had been stolen. He was no closer to understanding his brother's motives than he'd been on that fateful day, but it didn't matter. He thought he'd despised his brother before, for his arrogance and cruelty, but what he felt towards him now was something else entirely, something deep and feral. Sesshomaru would pay for what he'd done, he vowed, with his life if necessary.
Moroha had nearly pulled herself up onto the clifftop when the ground began to crack and break away beneath her. Instinct moved his feet before his mind was even consciously aware of what was happening. Inuyasha dove, slid across his stomach against the hard earth and grabbed her hand just as the cliffside fell away.
Moroha dangled above the seemingly bottomless gorge beneath, her head downcast as she watched the rocks she'd been clinging only seconds before tumble and disappear into the dark chasm below.
"Hey, thanks—," she said as she turned her face upwards. Her words came to an abrupt halt as their eyes met and they stared at one another in silence. Moroha's nose gave a subtle twitch as she took in the scent of him and her brows rose in a look of surprise.
An uncharacteristic smile lifted one corner of his mouth as he realized she was the spitting image of Kagome and answered, "Sure, any time."
A pregnant pause passed as he studied the perfect girl who until that moment had existed as a baby in his memory. He'd always thought of her as some small, defenceless human but he could see now how wrong he'd been.
"So, are you gonna pull me up?"
"Inuyasha?! Who is it?" They heard Kagome's call from the clifftop and their eyes met.
"Is that—?" Moroha asked as her nose lifted to catch Kagome's scent on the air.
"Yeah..." he answered and pulled her effortlessly up to the safety of the cliff ledge. He reluctantly released her hand and watched as she stared down into the abyss and clapped the dust from her hands.
"Whew! I thought I was a goner for sure that time..."
That time?! Inuyasha resisted the urge to guide her away from the cliff's edge. The protective instinct he felt towards her was almost suffocating. Suddenly everything was a potential threat. But when she turned towards him she appeared no worse for the wear.
"So that's what you look like..." she said more to herself than to him.
He felt awkward under her probing gaze and scratched behind one ear to distract himself.
"Sorry it took us so long to get here. Sesshomaru trapped us inside the Black Pearl."
It felt like a pathetic excuse but it was all he could offer her. They'd tried everything to get out of that place, exhausted every possible idea. He wanted to tell her all of it, but instead stood there tongue-tied with his claws tucked deep in sleeves of his haori.
"Now that you're back do I still have to pay off my debt to that cheapskate corpse dealer?" Moroha wagered with an arched brow.
Inuyasha's mouth dropped open. What debt? And what corpse dealer? What the hell had happened to Kouga watching out for her?! He knew he never should have trusted her to that mangy wolf!
"Moroha!"
Kagome ran up and grabbed their daughter up into a tight hug. The tears were already streaming down her face. His fists clenched tight inside his sleeves; he hated when she cried and he hated it even more when there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.
The years inside the pearl had been hard on her. There were some days where she hadn't gotten out of bed, days where she didn't speak and could do nothing but cry. As wonderful as it was to finally reunite with their daughter, this moment was painful for them both. Mostly because it was achingly clear just how much time they'd missed with her.
Moroha stood stiff in Kagome's embrace and laughed awkwardly while patting her on the back. The parts of himself he saw in her were almost too much to bear. He remembered that feeling, how foreign it was to have another person care for you, to touch you with love and kindness instead of anger or violence. He remembered how long it had taken Kagome to wear him down and he felt sick knowing it would be the same for Moroha. She'd survived, and so had they, but at what cost?
Kagome released Moroha and stepped back to give her some space. She beamed down at their daughter while Moroha stood there looking uncomfortable under the weight of their probing gazes.
"We've missed you so much," Kagome gushed and Moroha's cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
"Well...that's..." Moroha gave an unsettled chuckle and scratched at the back of her head. She stared at her feet next, struggling to find the right words even as her attention was drawn towards the battle taking place behind them.
"Moroha!" One of the twins called. "We need Beniyasha!" Her face lit up.
"Sorry, gotta go!" she said with an apologetic shrug and reached into her robe to retrieve the small shell containing her lip rouge.
Kagome's hand settled gently on his arm, "Inuyasha, that's..."
"Yeah..." His mother's rouge. She still had it with her, even after all this time. Maybe there was hope for them yet.
Moroha dipped her finger in the rouge and spread it across her bottom lip, then ran fearlessly into the heart of the battle against Kirinmaru.
"Moroha wait! It's too dangerous!" Kagome started to run after her but he grabbed her hand and held her back.
"Inuyasha! We need to go after her! She could get hurt! She could—" Die. They were both thinking it but he stubbornly shook his head.
"She's survived on her own this long," he pointed out. "Trust her to take care of herself."
"But she's just a child!" Kagome protested emphatically.
"Not in this era," he rebutted. "Kids grow up a lot faster here than they do in the modern era. They have to, especially when they're hanyou."
He released Kagome's hand once he was certain she wouldn't try to run after Moroha again.
"Besides," he added, "it looks like they have Kirinmaru practically defeated."
They watched their daughter expertly yield her sword and throw blades of blood with devastating accuracy. He felt his chest swell with pride as he watched, certain he'd never loved anything as deeply or profoundly as he loved Moroha in that moment.
Moroha's role in the battle was mercifully short lived. She burned out in minutes, with her human body unable to handle the taxing demands of the demon blood coursing through it. It was Sesshomaru who dove in to grab her before she could hit the ground. He moved her out of harm's way with one graceful leap and delivered her to them in the next.
Inuyasha took Moroha from Sesshomaru and slid her onto his back to rest. She was already snoring loudly, dead to the world.
"This doesn't even begin to make us even," he levelled at his brother with a dark glower. The Lord of the West responded a dismissive "Hn".
"That child has better control over her demon blood than you ever did, little brother," Sesshomaru remarked snidely and then returned to the battle.
Inuyasha growled low in his throat but the concerned furrow of Kagome's brow as she looked over Moroha was enough to distract him.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" Kagome asked, as she gently stroked Moroha's cheek.
"The demon blood exhausted her. She just needs a bit of sleep, that's all," he assured her and she nodded in understanding.
In the next moment Sesshomaru's daughter, the one with the Taisho family hair, dealt the killing blow to Kirinmaru. Served him right to be shown up by a hanyou, Inuyasha thought with a derisive snort. The twin girls celebrated with cheers while Sesshomaru calmly returned Bakusaiga to its sheath.
"So I guess we're walking home?" Kagome said with a look askance at Sesshomaru. Even if he agreed to take them, neither of them were all that keen to be in his presence at the moment.
"Guess so," he replied and adjusted Moroha's weight across his back. As hey headed away from the cliff's edge they were stopped by Sesshomaru's daughter, the one with the Taisho-family hair.
"Hey! You're Kagome and Inuyasha, right?"
"That's us!" Kagome answered with a kind smile. "And you are?"
"Towa. Uncle Sota showed me pictures of you from before. How's Moroha?"
They blinked at one another in surprise and then back at Towa.
"You've met Sota?" Kagome gasped. Clearly a lot more had happened while they were trapped in the Black Pearl than they realized. Had the well re-opened somehow? They would have nearly a thousand questions for Kaede by the time they reached the village.
"I wonder what that kid's up to these days..." Inuyasha mused.
Towa tried to hide a smile at his insinuation Sota was just a "kid".
"Uncle Sota is married now," she informed him politely. "And he has a daughter named Mei. I lived with them in that other world for a long time."
"Married? That's wonderful!" Kagome gushed. "My little brother all grown up. I can't wait to hear all about it!"
Towa smiled awkwardly and managed a soft, "Sure." She then asked how Moroha was again.
"She'll be fine," Inuyasha assured her and glanced over his shoulder at Moroha's sleeping face just to be sure. "She just needs to sleep a while."
Towa nodded in understanding, "Where are you taking her?"
"To Kaede's village. Is the old hag still kicking around? I bet she is. She'll outlive us all at this rate."
Kagome playfully admonished him with a light slap on the arm, "Shhh! Don't say that!"
"You know it's true," he scoffed with a roll of his eyes.
"Say," he said, turning his attention back to Towa. "Moroha said something about a debt to a corpse dealer?"
"Oh. Jyuubei. Moroha works for him as a bounty hunter."
"Could you tell me where he lives? I think he and I have some business to sort out before I find that mangy wolf and tear his guts out..."
Towa laughed nervously and then offered them both a polite bow before chasing after her sister and Sesshomaru with calls of "Hey guys! Wait up!"
"Well, she's got her mother's personality that's for sure" he remarked as they watched her retreat.
"You've got that right," Kagome agreed with an amused smile. "But what'll we do about Moroha? We're practically strangers to her."
Inuyasha lifted his shoulders in a light shrug. He could feel Moroha's strong and steady heartbeat against his back and tightened his grip on her legs. She stirred and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck before settling back into a deep sleep.
"Take it one day at a time," he answered. His eyes softened at the look of concern on Kagome's face. "It worked with me didn't it?"
Kagome smiled; it was sad but hopeful. She reached her fingers out to lightly brush a lock of hair back from Moroha's eyes and nodded in agreement.
"Okay then. We'll take it one day at a time."
A/N: My first foray into the IY fandom in years. I've really missed these characters but still feeling a bit rusty. I'd love to hear any thoughts or comments you might have! Thank you for your time today dear readers - I hope it was well spent!
Langus