Sealed
A oneshot.
Author's note: Well, if Kikyo could be reincarnated, then why not Inu-Yasha? Besides, he had to do SOMETHING during those fifty years . . .
Inu-yasha is not mine. The Aspects of the Universe are Life, Death, Order, Kaos, Space, and me, Time. Time belongs to me as I am she and so if I claim to own Time, I'll have to sue myself. But I'm not claiming to own Inu-Yasha, so, onegai, please don't sue. Being the Aspect of Time has lousy pay, after all.
* * *
"INU-YASHA!" Kikyo roared his name, causing Inu-Yasha to pause. He smelled her blood, but at that point, he was so angry with her that he didn't care.
And then, out of the blue, she shot an arrow at him. Her aim was true, and it hit his most vunerable spot, his heart. . . and he found himself pinned to the Go Shinboku.
"Kikiyo . . . you bitch," he muttered, as his consciousness began to slip away. "Why?" And then Inu-Yasha stepped away from the tree, and started to reach for her, but then Kaede came along.
"This was caused by my foolishness," Kikyo said weakly, and stared right through Inu-Yasha.
"It was caused by your betrayal," Inu-Yasha yelled. Kikyo ignored him.
"The Shikon no Tama," she whispered. "Take it . . .and burn it with my remains."
"Nooo! Don't, I need it! Dammit, Kikyo! Listen to me! Hey, what the hell happened to your shoulder?" Inu-Yasha crouched next down, next to Kikyo, and tried to touch her, but his hand went right through her body. He was so shocked that he jumped back a few feet, and felt the urge to run away. Was she -- or he himself -- a ghost?
Yet still he watched on, fascinated, as Kikyo took the Shikon no Tama and then collapsed. A few small wisps of light escaped her body, and floated off to to the world unknown. Is that what it's like to be dead? he wondered, and looked down. He looked normal enough to himself, but then he turned around, and saw his body struck quite soundly to the tree.
"What the hell is happening?" he complained, but none of the humans huddled around Kikyo's lifeless form heard him. He started to walk toward around them, but he it was getting hard to get away from his body. He looked, and a thin blue line around his body was connected to what could only be his soul.
But why do I still look like myself? Kikyo's soul has fled already.
Puzzled, the hanyou struggled in vain to escape the chains around his soul, but finally had to give up and sit on the ground, panting.
"Dammit! The afterlife isn't supposed to BE like this!" he yelled into the air.
"Actually, yeah, it is," a voice answered him.
Inu-Yasha whipped his head around and saw a short person in a
black robe, holding a scythe. "Oh wait . . . hold on. . .
," the being said, and then cleared its throat.
It was a simple, peaceful life. The cell new nothing of sadness, discontent, pain, or fear. All it felt was joy. Joy at being alive, at eating, at floating. Every moment there was pure, unadulterated joy in existance.
After several days, the amoeba's life cycle ended as it became a snack for a filtering fish, and it died joyfully, glad to have lived as part of the great circle of life.
* * *
"Haaaaappppyyyyyyy!" Inu-Yasha's mind screamed as he suddenly slammed back onto the courtyard in front of the Go Shinboku.
"Eh?" the newly conscious mind complained, and he struggled to sit up. "What the fuck was THAT?"
"Oh, you're early," the Aspect of Death said, materializing out of nowhere. He was back to his black outfit, the scythe hanging at his waist next to a katana. "You weren't supposed to come back for another week, at least. Welcome back to the afterlife, anyway," Death said, and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled it, and started reading instructions. "My sister's been nagging me to try for a little more cultural authenticity, so I'm trying to blend in here," he explained, and found Inu-Yasha's soul's notation in the scroll. "Okay, life as an amoeba. Did you learn anything?"
"I learned that being happy all the time is fucking boring as hell," Inu-yasha complained, and stood up, stretching his ghostly form. The courtyard looked as though it hadn't been kept up for a long time. "I only felt three days pass. What happened here?"
"Time passes oddly in the afterlife. What you experienced as three days took a full year, here. Forty nine to go, still, before you can be reunited with your . . . hot . . . beautiful . . .uh, never mind." Death coughed, and snapped his fingers again. "Next up, life as a flea."
And Inu-Yasha's consciousness faded away again . . .
* * *
The baby flea hatched from its egg, which was attached to the hair of an enormous dog. The flea instinctively dropped down from the hair onto the skin, and began sucking the sweet blood of its host.
Soon, the flea's soft outer flesh dried into a hard shell, and the flea, full and satisified, began navigating the giant hair-trees of the dog.
It encountered a few other fleas, and had a few brief but quite satisfying interactions with a few of them. It hopped along, contentedly, searching for the perfect skin to nibble on.
After weeks of navigating through the jungle of white trees, the flea finally found the perfect skin. Here, the tree-hairs were thinner and shorter, and the skin was delicately veined. A huge shell loomed up and occasionally cam crashing down into the delicate skin, but the flea's tough exoskeleton allowed it to withstand the attacks.
Sighing in anticipation of its meal, the flea bit into one of the prominant, beautiful veins in the skin. The blood there was very sweet, and before long it was gorged and full. It then started to burrow into the dead surface layer of skin.
However, something dreadful happened. A giant claw came out of nowhere and started digging into the surface skin. The flea and his comrades began to run for their lives, but the giant claw was merciless, and even pierced a few of the unlucky ones.
And then, the world disappeared. One minute the flea was surround by millions of trees, and the next, there was nothingness. The flea and its surviving comrades fell from hundreds of feet in the air, and hit the newly visible ground with a hundred thousand tiny but signifigant splats.
Human Sesshoumaru scratched in irritation at his ear. "Now I remember why I don't stay in that form for long," the demon lord said, and wandered off.
* * *
Inu-Yasha returned to himself curled up in a ball. This time, he remembered dying. He had felt no pain, only surprise as one minute the body was fine, and then the next it was flat and broken, but even so, that was definitely death.
"I'm never killing another flea again as long as I live," Inu-Yasha said, still curled up in a fetal position, remembering the horror of that never-ending freefall drop now that he was back to his afterlife self.
"That's what they always say," Shinigami answered with a shrug. He was wearing white again this time, and now only the katana remained at his side. A few gremlins danced around his feet, and started to move toward Inu-Yasha, but Shinigami stopped them. "The next time Time tries to get me involved in one of her schemes, I'm telling her no. You're making my life very difficult, you know," Death complained, and took out the scroll of Inu-Yasha's soul. "I'm still cleaning up the mess you made when you trashed the village right before you died. That, and your father and mother are insisting on seeing you now that you're dead. I have to keep telling them no, and your mother is a very . . . beautiful . . . shapely . . . persuasive female . . ."
Inu-Yasha punched the Avatar of Death in the jaw.
"Ouch!" Shinigami glared at him, and smacked Inu-Yasha back with his katana. Then he went back to his scroll, rubbing his jaw angrily. "Next up, life as a carp in a pond. You've already gone through five years worth of reincarnations, so be glad this is going quickly." Death snapped his fingers, and Inu-Yasha's soul was thrust into yet another strange body.
* * *
This time, he was born from an egg in an ornamental fish pond in the lawn of a castle outside of Edo. The hungry baby fish immediately swam down and began nibbling on plankton and seaweed in the bottom of the pond, feeling as if it would never be truly full.
For the first time in his reincarnations, the soul had the ability to actually think. It could only remember things for about five seconds, though, so it could not accomplish much with its thinking.
The male carp grew strong and healthy. Humans would occasionally throw rice into the pond for the fish, and the soul quickly learned by Pavlovian response to take advantage of the free food, scrambling over his comrades to be the one on top, his mouth breaking the surface of the pond in order to catch it more efficiently.
Soon the carp felt the instincts of spring, and since it was a large, handsome male, it had no trouble enticing many of the females to spawn with it.
Years passed in that manner. The carp was truly a big fish in a small pond, and as it surveyed its scores of descendents and closed its eyes for the last time, the carp felt that that had been the best second in its five second memory.
* * *
This time, Inu-Yasha felt as though he were simply waking from a dream. He opened his eyes again slowly, and resisted the insinct to gasp for water.
Oh yeah, I'm . . . I'm a dead half-youkai, his consciousness finally remembered. Not a dead carp.
"So, what did you learn this time, dog boy?" the Aspect of Death asked cheerfully. Inu-Yasha growled and glared at him. Shinigami was unintimidated, and sat there calmly, this time in a white kimono instead of a robe and cowl.
"I fucking hate carp, that's what," Inu-Yasha said, and managed to sit up. And this his memory fully returned. "Shit! I had SEX as a FISH!" He clutched his head in his hands, trying to erase the embarassing memories. While his fish body could not remember more than four or five seconds at a time, the soul knew every second of what had happened in that life.
Unable to close his eyes, for fear he'd remember the icky taste of plankton or something, Inu-Yasha stared out into the air. The courtyard had really changed, this time. His body, still perfectly preserved on the Go Shinboku, was higher up than it had been before, and vines were growing near his feet. The courtyard was almost completely covered in grass.
"Humans have abandoned this place, I see," Inu-Yasha observed, and looked dejectedly at his sealed body. "How much longer do I have?"
"Another twenty-five years. You have one more incarnation to go, and then your . . . sweet . . . delicious . . ."
Inu-Yasha growled threateningly.
"Your completely unattractive-to-me-in-any-way girlfriend will return in a human incarnation to free you," Death hastily continued. "Your last incarnation is going to be as . . . a mongrel."
"A what?"
"Look, that's what it says. You're going to be a half-breed puppy. Hmmm, I suppose the PC term is 'mixed' breed, but . . ."
"Just who the hell is determining all this anyway?"
Death looked sheepish for a moment. "Kaos and Life are in charge of planning reincarnations," he said. "Although in your case Time got involved, because she's a sucker for true love and she felt sorry for you and Kikyo. Anyway, this is your last chance to figure out what you did wrong in your human -- er -- hanyou lifetime. Good luck!" And Death snapped his fingers, and Inu-Yasha's sight faded . . .
* * *
It was dark, but warm, and he cried piteously, because he was so hungry. Then he smelled the milk, and blindly stumbled toward the source of the sweet smell.
Inu-Yasha was startled to realize that he could remember his life before this time. Feh, I finally got a mind I can work with, he thought to himself, as he fed without shame along with his littermates.
"Arrr," was what he said.
"Ohhh, mother, look! Inoko has had her puppies!" A child's hand reached down to stroke the newly born litter, as the mother cleaned her new children of their birthing sacs. The hand was slapped away by an adult's hand, and it quickly retreated.
"Don't touch them, you might make the mother reject them if they smell funny. But we can congradulate Inoko. That's a good Inoko-chan, yes, she is," a soothing female voice crooned, and tickled the mother dog under the chin. Inoko barked proudly.
I can't believe they had me be reborn as a dog, Inu-Yasha complained as he fought for a nipple alongside his brothers and sisters.
"How come none of the puppies look like Inoko-chan, mom?"
"Probably because their father was a different type of dog than our Inoko. But they could have puppies together because they are still both dogs."
Just like Mom had me, with Father, Inu-Yasha thought glumly. They both still posessed souls, but just different kinds. Hopefully being a half-breed puppy will be easier than being a half-breed youkai.
The next few weeks were rough for Inu-Yasha, as the puppies quickly grew and competition for Inoko's milk became fiercer. Inu-Yasha was also having trouble remembering who he really was, as he played and learned and grew into his life as a puppy. Inoko's owner was the widow of a rich noble lord, and so Inoko herself was plump and healthy. The puppies had free reign of the house, although his stupider brothers and sisters nearly spoiled it by tearing up the tatami in the main room.
Inu-Yasha, on the other hand, took to sitting on the windowsill and planning on how many people he was going to kill once he got back into his normal body. Inoko's owners noticed this, and so when the time came to find homes for the litter, Inu-Yasha was allowed to stay with Inoko's family.
"He's just so well behaved, isn't he, our little Inu-chan,"Inoko's "mommy," the widow, said, as she held Inu-Yasha on her lap. Inu-Yasha whimpered in reply, remembering being held by his human mother in such a manner a long, long time ago.
They more or less simply called him Inu-chan. That was fine with Inu-Yasha, although he really wished they'd at least call him Inu-kun or something slightly less childish.
Many years passed. The young master of the house kept Inoko and Inu-Yasha with him even after his own mother died, and he loved Inoko dearly until the old mother dog died of age as well. After that, he and Inu-Yasha became good companions. Over the years, Inu-Yasha had tried to remember as much of his old life as he could, but a dog's memory is not perfect, and while it came back to him in flashes, he found it all seeping away slowly, especially as his body grew frailer and weaker.
Why was I so content here? Inu-Yasha asked himself, one day.
And then Inu-Yasha, a half breed youkai who had been reborn as a half-breed dog, realized why he loved his master so much. The noble lord accepted him for who he was, without asking him to change.
I remember Kikyo, Inu-Yasha thought during one of his more lucid moments. He was lying on the floor at his master's feet, staring off at the fire in the distance. Kikyo. . . whom I loved. She had never loved me the way I was, though. She wanted me to change for her. Why? Why couldn't she love me the way I had been born? Was I not good enough for her? Why was it that I had to give up my dreams so that she could be free?
He broke his vow never to kill a flea again and absently scratched his ear. This body's growing old, he thought to himself, and lay down. Maybe I should just give it up now and go back. I'll be able to see Kikyo again, and really give her a piece of my mind . . .
And the dog closed his eyes, and went to sleep, only this time never to wake up as himself again.
* * *
Inu-Yasha woke up, curled into a ball like he had been when his dog-self fell asleep. He didn't move for a long time, the last thoughts of that lifetime running around and around his mind.
Kikyo wanted to change me . . . Kikyo then broke up with me . . . why, Kikyo? Why?
Shinigami was sitting next to the Go Shinboku, with the pall-bearers to the afterlife dancing around him. He poked Inu-Yasha's still form with his katana.
"So, what'd you think?" the Aspect of Death asked.
Inu-Yasha sat up, and walked over to his body, still held up by Kikyo's arrow.
"I want . . . I want a second chance, with her," he said, and it was true.
"Very good!" Shinigami smirked. "I certainly wouldn't let a sexy little thing like her get away over something as small as a betrayal. And now, we have just to wait for her reincarnation to appear . . ."
"Um, yo, Shi, Bro, can I talk to you for a second?" a female voice said, and a purple haired girl with tiny spectacles appear next to him in a flash of green light.
"Time-chan! Will you sleep with me, sister?" Shinigami asked in greeting.
"No, you pig. We have a problem, Shi," Time said, and pulled him aside. "Remember how the plan was to reincarnated the miko so that she'd wake him up after fifty years?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, Kwok and Kaos decided to play around, and we accidentally added another zero . . . she's not going to be reborn for another four hundred and thirty five years. . ."
"Oh man. That means . . ."
Inu-Yasha was immediately tugging on his sleeping body angrily, trying to get it to wake up. "I am NOT going to go through this reincarnation shit for another FUCKING FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!"
"Well, no, you see, I fixed it. I put a time-loop on the well over there. Four hundrd fifty years from now, the reincarnation will fall into the well, and end up in this time." Time smiled proudly. "Go ahead and say it, I am a genius."
"And that means we can go ahead and let him get back in his body, right?"
"Right. She actually landed here earlier this afternoon, although Dog Wonder was still in another lifetime then, so we can go ahead and get him set up now. Life?"
A third Aspect appeared, towing a fourth and fifth, the aforementioned Kaos and Space, known to his family as the Kwokinator. The final Aspect, Order, came along as well. The Aspects tended to travel in packs.
"Bad Kwok! Bad Kaos!" Time said, smacking her brothers angrily.
Life walked over to the sleeping body of Inu-Yasha, and touched it. Inu-Yasha felt his soul being sucked back into his body, and all the events of the past fifty years suddenly faded from his memory.
The Aspects watched as their pet project woke up again.
"I smell her," Inu-Yasha whispered, and cracked his knuckles. "I smell the blood of the one who killed me."
"Are you sure he's ready for a second chance, Shi?" Time asked.
Shinigami nodded. "I think so. Hopefully this time they'll get it right. And hopefully no one will do something stupid like try to drag the previous incarnation of the soul back into this world . . ."
"Who'd be so dumb as to do that? Kaos, I see that gleam in your eye. Do NOT get any ideas . . ."
"But Sis, it'd be so much fun!"
Arguing and laughing, the six Aspects of the Universe faded away, to watch the outcome of their little project.
The end!