The Meaning of Forever
By Rashaka
2
"May I help
you?" a young woman asked in a solemn voice, almost inaudible as if talking was
something she did rarely, and no longer saw purpose in.
Huashan
sucked in his breath, and smiled. It
was half real, because he had found her, and half not, because it was hard to
smile at a woman who so plainly had no interest in smiling back. "Yes.
Yes. Are you Higurashi Kagome? Born on
March 17th, 1985?" The young, teenage face hardened, and there was a
slight tightening around her eyes.
"What do you
want?" It came out a low growl, quite a dramatic change from the docile, timid
tone of before. "You have no business
knowing my birth date."
Huashan held
up his hand deploringly, open as a sign that he was unarmed. "Please," he
returned, avoiding her question in favor of a plea.
"No." Kagome's voice was cutting, suspicious. "Tell me here, now."
The man with
the deceptive youth sighed lightly, and looked down. He raised his eyes determinedly then, and answered the girl behind
the fractionally opened door. "My name
is Huashan, but the name I go by to others now is Tendo Hikari."
"What does
that have to do with me?"
Huashan
stammered, a little taken aback by her tone.
He had to remind himself that this young woman had had her life ripped
apart only nine months before. "I—I
came—I came to talk to you about Inuyasha."
Kagome's
misty eyes widened, then she snapped, "I know nothing about any demon, dog or
no. Please go away." But the tone was different this time,
guarded.
He held out a
hand to stop the door from closing on his face. "Please, please!" Huashan said, fingers pressing against the
wood. "I—I know about your time
traveling. I know very well the kitsune
you met, and the monk and the demon hunter.
Please let me speak to you. I
have so much to say to you, and something to give you as well. I promise you, I mean you no harm."
Kagome's eyes
slid over his face, down his body to his shoes and up again. Then she looked around behind him. Huashan's demon nose could smell a couple
across the street, playing with their dog.
He saw Kagome's eyes fix over his shoulder on them, then slowly she
nodded and stepped back, opening the door wide for him. Smiling a kind smile, Huashan stepped into
her home.
He followed
his young host through her home to the family room, passing by the kitchen,
several bedrooms, and the entrance to the family's ancient shrine. When they reached it Kagome directed him to
sit in a soft chair, then placed herself directly across from him, a few feet
away. Her metallic eyes had gone from
angry to melancholic, so mournful in fact that Huashan almost felt his own eyes
well up with sympathy tears when he looked at her. But sorrowful though it was, her grey gaze met his squarely.
"You are
wearing an illusion. I can see
it." Her words hissed at him, but the
sad eyes didn't change. "If you don't
drop it now, I will break it."
Without a
thought he dropped his mental shields and let the glammer fall away from his
body like a drape. This was why she had
let him come in, no doubt. Huashan had
the feeling that if those people hadn't been walking their dog behind him, she
would have used her power to try to break his illusion right then. He didn't know if she would have been
successful or not, but he was relieved she hadn't tried in plain sight.
A gasp echoed from Kagome's lips as she
watched the illusion leave the young man on her couch. The person she'd let in had been tall, with
thick black hair and a white streak despite his obvious youth, and attractive
violet eyes that seemed to look right through her. Now the man—no, demon—in front of Kagome looked back at
her with piercing, intense gold-flecked green eyes. His fingertips bore claws, as sharp as Inuyasha's had ever been,
and his short hair was now uniformly red—a thick, intense bronze-red that
seemed frighteningly familiar to Kagome, though she had no idea where
from. He remained on the couch,
unmoving during the change, and she could see that he maintained a tall, lanky
form. Upwardly curved, sharply pointed
but small ears gave his handsome face an elven look.
"Who—who are
you?" Kagome asked breathlessly. Those
curved ears… the dark red hair… he reminded her so much of someone…
Huashan bowed
his head to her. "This is my true
form. The other is my form as well, but
only for once a moon cycle. I'm only
5/8th youkai, not whole." As
he spoke delicate fangs peaked over his lips, shocking Kagome again. Fangs… ears… red…. Why could she not think
of it…?
Kagome pulled
herself out of her internal brainstorm and tried to remain calm. There was a demon in her house. A demon who "just wanted to talk". A demon who knew about Inuyasha, and Shippou
and Sango and Miroku too. "How do you
know about them? How do you know about
the well?"
Leaning forward,
the crimson and bronze-haired youkai smiled kindly again. It was a charming smile and Kagome had to command
herself not to relax around him. His
words were gently spoken, "Miss Kagome, what I'm going to tell you is going to
come as somewhat of a shock to you.
Please bear with me though, and know that I am not lying, about any of
it."
The priestess
nodded, lips pressed into a thin line.
"I know about
how you came and went from the past to the present, about your quest with the
hanyou Inuyasha, and the others. I also
know about the demon priestess Kikyo, and the terrible act she did to strand
you in the present, leaving everything you loved in the past. I know all of this through both speaking to
Miroku and Sango and Shippou and your Kaede, and through this."
If Kagome had
any room left in her to be shocked again, she would have. Huashan held out to her an old book that was
falling apart at the seems and covered in dirt and grime. The book was enclosed in a clear plastic
bag.
//// "What are you doing with that silly book, you dumb wench?"
"Be quiet baka. I'm putting my diary into a zip-lock so it
won't get damaged while we trek across all of Japan."
"'Zip-lock'? What is that? I don't see any locks. It
looks pretty flimsy to me, I don't see how—"
"Don't touch that! You're going to poke a hole through the
plastic! It's just supposed to keep it
from getting wet, that's all." ////
Tears
glistened at the corners of her eyes, and she irritatedly brushed a hand at
them, swallowing. She did not mean to
cry right then. It wasn't even the same
bag, after all. The book was inside,
but the plastic bag must have been changed, the one covering it now was clean,
not covered with four centuries of grime and dust.
"I see you
recognize this," Huashan said gently.
"The original bag was lost, but without it this diary would never have
survived. Plastic preserved it well for
most of three hundred years."
"How do you
have it?" She whispered, holding back a sob. "How do you know so much?"
Huashan
didn't answer her, instead kept his green and gold eyes focused on her face,
and continued his story. "The daughter
you were forced to leave behind grew up happily despite losing both of her
parents early on. Kaede was raised by
Sango and Miroku. She had thick black
hair with a thick, snowy white streak from the right side of her forehead. She had pretty violet eyes, and she laughed
all the time. Kaede found the whole world amusing."
Kagome
couldn't help it and the tears began to drift down her cheeks, becoming two
glistening rivers of salty pain and loss.
She tried, tried to imagine in her mind the woman he spoke of. She wanted more than anything to know her as
he seemed to. My child… her mind
wept inside her… My child!
"She had a
wicked temper, much like her father I've been told—" the tears just kept coming
and coming and Kagome couldn't stop them, "but when she was happy she lit up a
room, and her disposition was as sweet as spring water. She was beautiful, tall for a woman, and
handsome, with a glowing smile. And she
could fight. She fought as if
she danced, jumping around madly so that it was all that tuusa— all that a
person could do to just to watch and not get left behind. She was quicker than she was strong, and
could cut demons and people apart faster than they could build the strength to
beat her. And your blood gave her the
power to blend the strength of raw demon chi with the skills of a priestess."
"When Kaede
turned 16 she married, to a young demon with an unusually a kind heart, who
bore no ill will to humans. Apparently,
she had been telling this same young demon since she was only eight years old
that she would marry him. When she
finally grew old enough, she deliberately tracked him down, cornered him, and
told him that he would be better off marrying her than wallowing in misery like
he was, and that she would make a far better wife than any other. I am told he resisted for a while, but
eventually gave in to the inevitable.
He could have escaped her I bet though—kitsune magic is stronger than
any other demon magic or power, if used well and at the right time."
Kagome's
hand traveled up to her mouth, and she tried to let her thoughts go into some
kind of order… something to make it all make sense to her. Kaede… demon… green eyes… red… pointed
ears… fangs…oh my god fangs… kitsune magic… kitsune… kitsune… and it all
fell into place.
"Shippou…"
Kagome whispered, bringing her arms around her to hug herself. Shippou!
Shippou married my daughter!
Huashan's
affirmatative nod came with a fond smile.
"Yes. They were happy together,
happy everyday of their marriage until at 177, when her demon blood finally
gave out and she died."
"What—what happened
then? What happened to Shippou?" Kagome wanted to shut her ears out, she
didn't want to hear the answer. She
already knew, in a way.
"He…"
Huashan's voice hitched. "He went out
and began to search for one of the last great demons. There weren't many left by that time—it was 1772 by your
calendar—and he found it. He challenged
it, and died vainly." Kagome could hear
the regret in the demons' voice, and his eyes no longer met hers. "He was only 190, in the early prime of his
life."
"…And you?"
"…And
me?" His voice sighed, but when he
looked up again he wasn't sad, just full of love for a memory. "I'm their son. I was born when Kaede was only 19. I've got dog demon blood, kitsune blood, and …and your human
priestess blood in me."
~To Be Contnued~
R&R
Meaning of Forever
By: Rashaka