Author's note.
Hi hi!
This is my second time uploading this story.
The first was just so old, and my style was still developing at the tender age of 15. Now fourteen years later I have went back and updated many things, adding and editing.
So if you've read before, this time around there are some major changes to the story and thus a few changes in chapters you might have read the first time, and not to worry, I have every intention of finishing this and was very close before deciding to update it to begin with. So forgive the re-write please, it is worth a second time reading I promise.
These are interconnected one shot stories, that lead into an actual plot further in, based on the character Lord Sesshomaru, from the manga and anime Inuyasha, created by the lovely one and only Rumiko Takahashi.
Sesshomaru is ever slightly OOC, as is Naraku, but hey my girl changes things around so the guys react in different ways. I have used parts from both the English dub and the original Japanese version, both to please each set of fans but also because I enjoy both versions of the anime.
Also an important thing to give credit to is the fact that certain scenes have been inspired by my favorite book series called The Dark Hunters by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
So here we go, an Inuyasha AU, told through the eyes of yet another future girl, but one who loves the OTHER brother in a story I happily titled…
….
FOREVER MY SESSHOMARU.
PROLOGUE: FRACTURED PAST.
Akane Rairyu didn't have your typical childhood. Sure, parts of it were normal, but there was always hidden secrets behind the walls of her family home.
She came from a wealthy family, her Mother the typical blonde trophy wife, and her business savvy Father a handsome Japanese man who owned a small yet popular line of hotels in the northwest. Heck she even had an older twin brother named Akito, her identical twin to be exact, since twins ran strong in the family on their Fathers side.
But even then, when her family was whole, there had been secrets, some the typical drama of a mother who used loneliness as an excuse to be seen with other men while her husband ran his business. Arguments were normal in Akane's house growing up, and she and her brother Akito would pretend her parents were two fighting monsters they would have to sneak around at night while playing, and whenever their best friend spent the night he would join, the kids sneaking past the monsters and up to the attic.
The attic held bits and pieces of their families OTHER secret, this one far less typical, if not a bit unbelievable.
The attic was normally off limits to the children without their father with them, as it held shelves of old books and paper scrolls, a small weapons collection, strange looking statues and items their young minds could only imagine the uses for. In short, a child's treasure trove, and they sneaked in there whenever their parents fought, pretending it was a dragon's hoard. Which, if the story was true, it actually was.
According to their Father, the Rairyu bloodline was descend from dragons. Not just that, but Lightning Dragons to be exact, hence the last name they carried. The Rairyu clan was a dying breed on the border of extinction, before they dropped their old ways of only mating with their own kind, and began mixing with other species and races. Also, according to their Father, they're family was the direct line from the very first lightning dragon to mate with a human.
Supposedly, over the years the dragons blood had been so diluted that there wasn't too many alive anymore who could access their full abilities, and her Father told stories of the few times he had managed to control the clouds in the sky, or created a bolt of lightning from his hand in a fit of anger in his younger days. The children always listened with utter fascination, and would always wonder if the stories were true or not, because all the treasures their family had made it seem so. But if that story was true, then so was another, far darker tale, one that had to do with yet another secret their family carried.
Akane and Akito were brother and sister, but nobody outside of the their family actual knew that. As far as the rest of the world and even other relatives were concerned, they were brothers. Two boys were on the hospital records and birth certificates, and they had a family doctor on their pay roll to keep the secret as well.
Akane hadn't thought it odd being raised as a boy, being too young to understand back then, and the reason behind being called son instead of daughter had made it feel like some kind of odd secret game her family played.
There was a legend passed down, written on one of the many scrolls her Father had, a story he told many times so the children would hopefully understand the seriousness behind keeping Akane a boy to the public eye...
A legend and prophecy about how there would be a female dragon with golden hair born someday. And that female dragon would somehow bring the downfall of the entire clan. Nobody knew when or how this legend started, but it claimed the dragon bloodline would end with a cursed child of misfortune and destruction.
And of course, Akane was the first female they knew of to be born with blonde hair. Nobody knew the secret of Akane's true gender, her Father too afraid to even tell his own family, not even his own twin brother with whom he was so close. Granted, Akane's Mother only half believed in her husbands claims of a dragon lineage, but went along with keeping the charade of two sons as long as her husband continued to give her money.
Even as small children both Akane and Akito thought their Mother to be cold and selfish, loving money more then her own family, the type of woman who thought children should be seen and not heard. Tools to be used for family gain.
The two siblings had been inseparable back then, spending many days in their own company when their best friend Izumi wasn't allowed to come over so much, simply because his family wasn't good enough for their Mother.
That had been Akane's life.
Secrets and games, stories and fun. But nothing stays the same for long, and a destiny decided long ago could not be avoided, no matter how hard a certain someone may have tried to intervene.
….
Her family had been on a road trip shortly after she and Akito turned seven years old, one of the rare times they all went out together. Their Father always tried to fit in a day outing around their birthday, but this time didn't feel like all the others, the car was filled with enough tension that the two children knew to keep quiet.
They had been playing cards in the back seat, not paying any attention as the two parents started arguing up front, soft and heated voices slowly growing in volume.
Only years later would Akane learn just what her Father had been so angry about, and why her Mother had kept apologizing as if she had been caught in some kind of lie.
The two adults were so into whatever they were discussing in angered tones at the time to notice that, despite a green light signaling it was safe to go, a truck was coming at them as they drove through the intersection.
Her Fathers side of the car was totaled by a head on collision to the driver door, sending them into a slide that caused them to go off the road and flip into a ditch. Akane barely recalls anything other then yelling, screaming, the sound of crunching metal and smell of gas. Her memory so foggy she didn't know how long she hung upside down before some white creature tore her out and dragged her half unconscious body from the backseat and away from the flipped car.
In her minds eye she can to this day still recall the same white blur going back and pulling her Mother out as well, but when it went back a third time for the rest of her family, that's when the car burst into flame. The sound of the small blast the last memory of that day before the world around her went black.
Her Dad and twin had not been able to make it out in time before the car blew, and Akane always hoped that with some mercy, the two had already been dead before that.
It took five days for Akane to awaken and start to recover from her injuries, and no matter what she said, the adults told her the "white blur" she claimed save her life was just her imagination, as no animal was in the area when the police and ambulance were called to the scene.
Even as a kid she didn't believe to have imagined it, knowing she had been stuck and the white creature had to tear the seat belt to get her out, but she didn't argue with the adults at the time, far too worried about her Mother to focus much on phantom animals.
Even after a week had past her Mother had yet to wake up, and Akane was expecting to lose the only living parent she had left.
Akane's Uncle, her Fathers younger twin brother, showed up and took care of Akane once she was released from the hospital, while waiting the three extra weeks it took for her Mother to awaken from her coma. But when she did, not only was she unable to recall the crash itself, the woman now had no memory of having two children. She only recalled her firstborn son, Akito, and now thought Akane was him.
Doctors tell Akane and her Uncle that the best thing to do is to go along with it for a while so that her Mothers mind could slowly recover without anymore forced trauma of losing her husband AND son.
Akane, being a young child, didn't fully understand the complex reasons behind her Mothers sudden selective memory loss, and simply agreed to pretend to be her brother. So all signs of Akane were removed from the house, pictures, half her belongings, some toys, all packed away to leave only signs of Akito's presence.
But it didn't bother Akane too much at the time, she was already being raised as a boy after all, and acting like her brother was her own childish way of keeping him alive, by living as she thought he would.
One week became two, then a month, and at the three month mark with no sign of her Mothers memory returning, Akane was completely erased. False papers made it seem like she had died in the crash instead of her brother, so that the people their family knew would ALSO think her to be Akito, and not speak of the assumed dead second child and trigger a bad reaction from her Mother. The lie was complete, and the Mother's delusion of only having one child was now a game everyone in their lives would play to keep her semi sane. She was allowed to return home, and by this time there really WAS no trace of two children.
Her Uncle soon moved into their house, he had always secretly loved his brothers wife and now could easily slip into the shoes of caretaker and lover, something the Mother took little time in allowing once she realized her late husband had left his brother his entire business in the will, until one of his children was old enough to take over.
Her Mother had always been the crafty type who valued money and appearances over anything else, and happily took advantage of the man's years of hidden affections for her. He was a kind man, and like Akane and Akito had been, was his brothers identical twin.
Akane didn't know what to think of how quickly her Mother seemed to move on, but that didn't matter much, by the end of the second year her Mother had married her Uncle for his new money and her husbands matching face.
He treated Akane well, even when making sure the child kept up the act of being the one and only son at all times, always with a look of sadness. He clearly didn't LIKE this lie they had to keep up for his new lovers fantasy, and had been beyond shocked when he at last found out that all this time Akane had been a girl. But he fully understood the reasons for his brothers secrecy, and since she was already raised as a boy, becoming Akito was beyond easy.
But how long could they hide it as she grew older?
…
By the end of the fourth year, Akane was used to being called Akito, her old life a distant memory. She was eleven now and finally understanding that this game of being her dead brother would never end. Her Mother didn't even know she was really a girl, since Akito had been the real boy, and therefor was always on her case to act like the perfect son and behave accordingly to their families wealthy life style.
So now even in the privacy of her own home, Akane had to continue to pretend she was a boy, always on edge of her secret being revealed.
The only relieving things in her life were afternoons spent with her childhood friend Izumi, and her cat Luca, who was actually a runaway shapeshifter she took in two years ago. The three of them were practically siblings with how they got along and the amount of time spent together, the only time she could just be herself. But spending time with them only made her wish she didn't have to put on the act the moment she left her safe haven of a bedroom.
One time Akane had asked her Uncle if they would EVER be able to tell the truth about her real identity. He once more looked sad as he told her there were two possible options, they could risk telling her Mother and take the chance of a mental breakdown, or they could send Akane away once she was a good age to live her life as a girl in Japan with a cousin of his.
The second option meant she would only have to be a boy whenever they visited one another, and he would work on her Mothers memory further when she was safely away.
They agreed to keep her at home until she turned sixteen, then he would send her off. So Akane continued to live as a boy, beginning to call herself Akito even in her own head so as not to accidentally make a mistake, fully letting go of who she used to be. Only Izumi still called her by her real name when alone in her room, and aside from the cat boy Luca, he was the only person close to her.
Akito went to prestigious schools to please her Mother, bound her chest in an attempt to hide any breast growth, and took every single martial art and sport option available to keep herself out of the house.
The excuse to not shower with the other boys was that Akito's body was covered in scars from the accident, and she didn't want others to see, which thankfully worked and made it so that she not only didn't have to shower with others, but could wear as many layers of clothes needed to hide her female body.
But one day not long after her fifteenth birthday, her Mother, who was never the sweetest person to begin with, was complaining about how her son had never shown any REAL interest in girls.
Now this annoyed Akito, because she had made a point of creating a flirtatious male persona that she used at school to try and avoid this very thing, and was known as the class "Prince" with a small little fan club to prove it, something Luca and Izumi teased her about.
But her Mother was actually bothered by this behavior apparently, thinking it odd that despite all the known flirting her son did at school, he had never actually went out on an actual date. She starts saying how he is of dating age, and that she was going to start arranging dates with girls from other rich families in hopes of a daughter in law shortly after he was of age to marry.
She didn't stop nagging about her child's lack of dating interest and how he rarely did anything she wanted him to. How selfish he was for being so focused on sports that his dear mother was all alone. How the only friends he willingly hung out with were technically not good for their social network simply because Izumi's family was barely middle class and she didn't even KNOW the parents of the other strange boy that was almost always at their house.
Akito by this point couldn't take much more.
Her Mother was just too self centered and superficial for her to handle. That's why she never even bothered to tell her the truth about what Luca was, she'd have kicked the cat out first thing OR thought they were all crazy.
She did all the sports and martial arts to avoid these talks, and normally had a book in her hand when she DID have to spend time around her Mother and claimed to be studying to avoid as much interaction as possible.
The whole reason she created the flirty and flamboyant persona was to be popular with girls and hide the fact she WAS one, and yet even this wasn't good enough for her Mother? She had KISSED a few girls, had taken them to dances and walked them home from school in order to be the Prince, what more could she do to make her Mother happy and somehow still keep her gender a secret?
Anytime someone was suspicious of her actually being a girl they were paid off by her Uncle and sent away if possible. Her favorite guitar teacher had been sent away recently because HE found out she was a girl.
All because of a stupid legend, and how seriously her family took it. To think others of the Rairyu clan would come to kill her just for being a blonde haired girl was starting to sound crazy the more time that passed.
She was forced to hang out with other rich brats she couldn't stand, hating people with high and mighty attitudes simply because they had money. Children of privilege made her want to punch them in the face, and she had been in a few fights this year alone because of how rude such kids treated others.
And now her mother wanted her to DATE and MARRY one of the many rich arrogant idiots she had been having to deal with for years?
This was the last straw for Akito, but, despite all her pent up anger and frustration, she couldn't bring herself to tell the full truth... to risk losing her Mother completely.
So Akito said the only thing she could think of to save herself from marrying a girl without giving away the fact that she happened to BE one herself.
She said she was gay.
This of course had the effect she was expecting, but a lot worse then she had thought it would actually be, because her Mother completely exploded.
Calling Akito the most ungrateful child ever born, telling him to fix his little problem or she would for him, followed by many hateful slanders and insults that flowed from her Mothers mouth like a venomous waterfall. It was no secret just how judgmental her Mother was, but Akito hadn't expected this level of a violent reaction, making her wonder if she should have just told the truth instead.
Finally, at long last, her Uncle had enough.
He came home right in the middle of her Mothers verbal assault, and stared in shock at the fact that even in Akito's angry and hurt state she was just taking the abuse. Again.
And once he figured out just what the woman was yelling about, that Akito had simply said she was gay, he fully understood the situation and just couldn't take all the lies anymore. He was sick of his wife acting like this whenever something didn't go her way, and tired of making his brothers child live a lie for a woman he now understood did not deserve such devotion. His years of marriage had showed the woman he loved was nothing like he thought she was, with this level of violence being shown as further proof, and it explained why his brother had been thinking of divorce before his death.
So HE told the truth. Shouted it, repeated it, cracked the woman's wall of fantasies with cold hard truth.
Mother had frozen at first, not wanting to believe that her perfect little world wasn't so perfect after all.
Her previous husband had wanted to divorce her for cheating on him so many times, her true son had died in that accident, and she had been forcing her daughter to live as a ghost. The woman fell apart, screaming and yelling how it wasn't true, he was telling lies.
Then she started to spout things that didn't make sense, pulling at her hair, mumbling and stuttering like a mad woman before diving at Akito, screaming how she had destroyed everything.
Most of her rambling made no sense, but one thing stuck with Akito long afterwords.
Her Mother had called her a cursed child. That the legends were true of the female dragon who would bring the downfall of the clan. Saying that her simply being born a girl had caused all of this, the car crash, her brother and Fathers deaths were all her doing. The family falling apart. All because she had been born, something her mother hadn't even wanted to begin with, having never wanted children and had only done so to please her husband and use as a tool to keep him from leaving.
During the tirade her Uncle managed to pull her Mother off Akito, Luca the cat taking on his human form and rushing to her aid, but not before both physical and emotional wounds cut deep. A cut from a broken plate ran down her arm as blood dripped on the pure white carpet. A scene that would plague Akito for many years in her dreams and in triggered flashbacks.
After that day, her Mother indeed had that mental break they all dreaded, and was taken away to be locked up in an asylum. Akito shut down after that. No amount of therapy helped and after the second month her Uncle was advised to let her go to Japan and start over. To try and move on and find out who she was without ties to her fractured past.
So she left America behind, saying goodbye to her only friend Izumi, sending the shapeshifting cat Luca off to finally go live with his Aunt, all swearing to meet again someday when they were older.
When leaving, Akito's Uncle gave her something from her Father that he had been holding onto until she was ready to take care of it. A silver chained pendant with a light blue jewel at the center. It was passed down in their family for a long time, the jewel changed shades of blue in the light, and if you stared it looked like there were white and yellow lightning bolts crossing inside.
Supposedly a dragon spirit was held within, one of their ancestors who had been cursed inside for being the first to break the law and mate with a human, a taboo crime back when dragons still prided themselves on being pure bloods. Those times had long ago changed and very few pure bloods were left now, Akito wasn't even half dragon, more like a hybrid of whatever her dragon ancestors mated with and human.
She wouldn't have believed any of it if not for the fact she had a few abilities that supposedly only dragons were known for. Like being able to literally taste lies, a sour bitter flavor in the air whenever someone even tried to deceive her, and the fact she could heal faster then most people she knew, the scar from her Mothers attack already gone despite how deep it had been.
Her Uncle told her that the pendant would keep her safe, and help to bring her luck as long as she wore it. Something her Father had wanted her to keep on her person at all times once she was of age, and Akito promised to rarely remove it.
….…
Once in Japan she legally changed her name to Akane Akiha, hoping that severing ties with the last name would keep any possible dragons from finding her if they really were out there looking for a blonde descendant to kill.
She settled into one of the many apartments owned by the gentleman who was to look out for her until she turned eighteen. A trustworthy cousin to her Uncle, he understood her whole situation and swore to give her all the space she needed, and Akane was thrilled to get a whole apartment to herself.
Her Uncle sent her money to live on and paid for her to go to school, and within the first two weeks she was settled into this new life.
She still wears the boys uniform, not feeling ready to go all out with a skirt just yet, and goes by the nickname Aki in homage to her much missed dead sibling, and the past she wouldn't forget.
This is the girl that Kagome and her friends meet one spring morning, and right away they all decide to make Akane their project for the year, trying to help make her feel more at ease being a girl, which never really seems to work as much as they wanted. Aki falling back on her whole "Prince" persona out of habit when at school to keep herself from getting to close to people.
In time they all become good friends, Akane began trusting them enough to not use her persona when around them, and even though the plan of making her the perfect female never seems to catch on, they all except her tomboy ways and get along rather well.
Kagome and Akane become the closest of the group, and she spends many a night with her new friends family, who eventually get her to open up about just why she acts the way she does and how she came to live on her own in Japan. The Higurashi family slowly become like her own, and she ends up feeling like an adopted member, spending more time there then at her apartment.
That was the story of how a girl became a boy, only to become a girl once again.
However, this was only the first act of the story her life was to be. The life of a girl just learning how to be a girl, and who would become a fierce woman and dragoness.
Akane Akiha.
A loyal friend, protective mate, tamer of stubborn yokia, strong warrior and loving mother...
She just doesn't know it yet.