Time Trip: Mistaken Identity
"Good afternoon, Oyajii"
"Good afternoon, my Lord."
"Good afternoon." Lord Nishi nodded to the pair, and turned to his companion. "Jonathan, this is my third wife and her son." A very uncomfortable looking man was looking at Lady Yukio in astonishment.
"I… You will have to excuse me; I just can't wrap my mind around that one yet."
"Jonathan is from the west, and his daughter is interested in Sesshoumaru. There are a few cultural differences we are working out."
"I just can't see why any man would need or be able to stand having more then one wife at a time. I'm not sure I want my daughter set up for heartbreak. That's what it comes down to in the end after all. Where I come from you don't go out and find another woman when something goes wrong in a relationship. You stick it out and work it through, or you go through the considerable trouble of breaking it off and ending it for good."
"You sound like my young son." Lord Nishi motioned to Inuyasha. "He made similar comments to me about Lady Shinju just a short time ago, since I have a very broken relationship with my first wife. I'm quite open about the whole business. I'd rather have the truth out there for all to see then whispered rumors. A close friendship has existed between a powerful dragon clan in northern China and my family for many generations. Lady Shinju thought my relations with the princess of that clan were inappropriate when they most certainly were not. Lady Futomi and I have been best friends since we were walking around on all fours, and by my honor I would never touch a woman without a proper wedding. On top of that she's plotted to poison some of my close friends for talking badly of her. I've heard far worse rumors, but can prove nothing more."
"It all centers on trust, Oyajii. If you can't trust someone it isn't worth it, no matter what else is going on." His mother jabbed him sharply with her elbow.
"My son has contracted a strange ailment, and cannot control what he says." Yukio explained. "We agreed I would help him keep quiet."
"Strange indeed, any other symptoms?"
"I had a nasty gash on my back but it's almost gone now. I don't think that was part of it though." Jab, poke.
"Sounds like a unicorn attack, but you'd have to corner one good before it even attempted to fight. They prefer to run away, and they have the wind in their hooves!"
"I wasn't fighting anything." Poke.
"You couldn't anyway, the nearest unicorn heard I know of is in Bulgaria, and I'd guess it would take you a week strait of travel to get there."
"I'd better leave before I put my foot in my mouth." Jab.
"We're taking a walk through the gardens." Lady Yukio smiled brightly. "The exercise will do me a world of good." Nishi and Jonathan continued in their chosen direction, while Inuyasha and his mother started down a sloping path in another.
"I like that one." Jonathan said when the pair was out of earshot.
"He isn't my heir."
"Since when did that matter in the least? I'm not looking for diplomatic unions, and if my heir marries yours I'll just have a headache or twelve worth of arrangements to make such a union of lands feasible."
"Your daughter is your heir?"
"My sole heir. Her younger brother didn't inherit any magical abilities." Jonathan sighed. "He's a good boy, but Souta is as human as his mother."
"Your wife is human?"
"Yes, though I miss her terribly my work keeps me from her. A beautiful eastern flower, she is the very reason I came to know about Japan in the first place, though it was a very different place I visited. I'm no demon myself; no I am of a different breed altogether."
"I could tell that much. What exactly are you?"
"A phoenix."
"What is a phoenix?" A mischievous glint came to Jonathan's eye, and he gracefully hopped off the path and onto a low rock wall. He looked down a moment, realizing suddenly that the other side of the wall was much taller then the side Nishi was standing on. Below, Inuyasha and his mother looked up from the flowers to see Jonathan standing on the retaining wall.
"If you've never heard of one, the only way for me to properly explain in a short period of time is to show you. Come closer and watch me." Nishi walked up to the waist-high wall, and Jonathan leaned back.
"You'll fall!" Nishi warned.
"I'm counting on it." Jonathan quietly explained as he dropped backwards and plummeted off the wall. Above, Lord Nishi bent over to try to catch him but failed. Below, Inuyasha took off running to the place Jonathan would hit.
"A human looking guy like that won't survive a fall that high without some serious injuries." Inuyasha mumbled his thoughts. "Though he did smell funny…"
Jonathan smiled, and burst into flame. Red and gold flames engulfed most of his body, the leading edge shimmering emerald green. Great wings shot out of either side of the fireball as Jonathan transformed. The fire disappeared as Jonathan flapped his wings, swooping over the garden and the awe-struck woman in it.
"I don't believe it." Lord Nishi mumbled softly as the huge bird made a lazy circle around the area. Jonathan wanted to say 'there are stranger things' but lacking a human voice, he sang out in his phoenix song. This only startled the three onlookers more.
"What a lovely voice!" Yukio called as she waddled down the path. Jonathan perched on the wall and bowed deeply, then swung up his tail fan. Brilliant gold flashed in the noon sun, giving the appearance of flickering flames. His spirit form could feel the turmoil in the young Halfling's soul, and Jonathan started singing again. He didn't realize that Inuyasha was half-human, only that he wasn't at peace, so Jonathan chose a soothing song that would put the proudest flutes and violins to shame. Lord Nishi, Lady Yukio, and Inuyasha remained silent, enraptured in the haunting, inspirational melody. Inuyasha slowly settled down into his natural doggy sit. Nishi's ears stopped flicking around to focus on the song. Yukio sat on a bench near a decorative bridge. Servants stopped what they were doing to listen. All in the court felt at peace.
That is, they felt at peace until two white streaks zoomed past Jonathan, who ended the song with an abrupt squawk. Lord Nishi wasn't quick enough for the first streak, but he snagged the second by the scruff of its kimono.
"Sesshoumaru, what do you think you are doing? Why are your clothes in shreds? Why do you smell like tears?" A very confused great demon asked as Sesshoumaru tried to continue the chase.
"I… I fell off a waterfall by accident. I wasn't badly injured, but then there was this odd bird. I decided to chase it, for sport, I wasn't going to hurt it. She can barley take off but once she got into the air she just moved so fast I could barley keep up." Sesshoumaru explained as quickly as he could, ignoring the question about tears. Jonathan changed back into his human shape to give the speeding demon a piece of his mind, but had his plans abruptly changed when all the air in his lungs was forced out. The first white blur had come by again, this time bursting into flame and crashing directly into his chest.
"Papa!" Kagome cried, squeezing the life out of a very surprised phoenix. "I ran into Sesshoumaru on the bank of the river you left me at. He was all banged up so I used some of my magic to heal him, and it worked! He started chasing me and I got scared but I heard you singing so I came strait here."
"Can't… breathe… Kag… let… go."
"Sorry Papa." Kagome let go of the now very relieved Lord.
"This is precisely how your aunt got started! Going about using your phoenix tears on anything that's a little scratched up…"
"Sesshoumaru isn't a thing, and he was very badly hurt. Look!" Kagome, feeling rather safe with Inuyasha climbing the wall and her father inches away, seized a torn portion of Sesshoumaru's kimono, holding it out to show the extent of the bloodstain. "There was a lot more in the river and on the bank."
"Sessh… Sesshoumaru… You know it didn't sound right when I heard it and now that I'm looking at him…" Jonathan was deep in thought. "Blast it but I'm terrible with names! Is this the young man you were...?"
"NO!" Kagome jumped back. "This is his older brother. I've been traveling with Inuyasha."
"That's right, and just where were you? BAKA! What possessed you to go near that blasted thing in the first place? It almost killed me!" Inuyasha was on a roll, and with whatever it was that loosened his inhibitions still working at full force, he wasn't about to stop. "Why do you smell like toast? You've got Sesshoumaru's unbearable scent all over you too! Where did those wings come from? Those new clothes are stranger then your regular ones. How did you move so fast? And another thing…"
"SIT BOY!"
WHAM
"That has to hurt." Jonathan winced and stepped back. Kagome took a deep breath, and then fell to her knees in front of the downed hanyou.
"Standard operating procedure." She explained. She reached down and rested her hand between Inuyasha's ears too keep his mouth planted firmly in the dirt.
"This is normal for you two?" Nishi asked, wondering how exactly the collar around his son's neck worked.
"Yep." Kagome beamed up at the startled group. Lady Yukio waddled up from the garden, mildly worried but by now well aware of the nuances of her son's relationship with the odd Miko. From the other direction came a hysterical Lady Shinju.
"I can't believe what I've just seen! What did that awful creature do to you, Sesshoumaru?" Shinju dripped concern as she examined Sesshoumaru's tattered clothing. Sesshoumaru missed a beat, for the first time seeing the over-reaction for what it was: an act.
"Nothing Haha-ue, I did it to myself by accident." Sesshoumaru was suddenly repulsed by the feel of his mother's hand on him. She was looking at Inuyasha's prone form a hint of amusement not quite concealed behind her act.
"The heir to the throne should be more careful." Again he was repulsed, this time by her sudden change of tactics. Had he really bought this stage show once? It was a scary thought.
"I'm fine." His tone was flat, flatter then it had ever been as he recited a line used by millions of people who had too many problems and refused to deal with pity. "Who are you, Sir?" He quickly changed the subject.
"This is the father of a young woman who has taken a liking to you." Shinju supplied.
"Actually that was a case of mistaken identity, I didn't know… uh…"
"Inuyasha" Kagome supplied.
"…had a brother." Jonathan finished. "And one day I will remember that name." He cleared his thought and continued. "We both made an assumption, which is a word best said in English."
"Why?" Nishi asked. Kagome removed her hand as Inuyasha started to get up.
"To 'assume' makes an Ass out of U and Me." Jonathan explained in English, writing in the sandy soil. "It uses the same symbols as an offensive word in English for a stupid, stubborn person, the word used to refer to oneself, and the sound of the word used to refer to another person. It's considered a terrible thing to assume in England, or most of Europe really."
"You know so much about so many languages."
"I translate in my spare time, Kagome. You know that." Then in Latin Jonathan added: "The study of words is the key to wisdom."
"I can't even begin to tackle that one." Kagome admitted.
"Whoever told you wisdom can be easily gained deserves to be strung up on the tallest tree with 'BAKA' branded onto their forehead in more languages then I know. Since I've met this mystery boy, and hopefully memorized his name… Inuyasha… I've accomplished my goal for the day. As for you young lady, things have gotten rather behind schedule. You should have a few music lessons if you are going to use your voice to heal and soothe. Then we'll work on your take off and landing. Crashing into the softest object nearby is no way for a phoenix to land, and I will never catch you that way again. I enjoy breathing more then seeing you without bruises."
"I think we should have a talk, Sesshoumaru." Lord Nishi gave his elder son a look that clearly stated 'I want to know what you are hiding.' Shinju, Yukio, Inuyasha, I've decided to have a formal dinner in the main hall for us and our guests. I will see you then."
There were a few more polite words spoken, and the little group broke up. Inuyasha, who resorted to biting down hard on a bit of very sticky dried fruit in order to keep quiet during the ordeal, followed his Kasan back down into the garden to continue their walk, under heavy if muffled protest. Sesshoumaru, sensing imminent doom, didn't really want to deal with either of his parents, but decided he was better off talking to his father. The alternative made him feel ill. Kagome and Jonathan transformed again and practiced perching on the many walls, roofs, trees, and cliffs to be found within the castle walls.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I may have to switch the order of Chapter 17 and 18. A Moment with Mom is an explanation as to why Inuyasha and Yukio are coming out arm in arm. Does this make more sense now? FYI, Kagome's scent changed when she turned Pheonix to show that she is no longer human, so Inuyasha doesn't recognize it at first.
Page 1 of 4 8/6/2003
"Good afternoon, Oyajii"
"Good afternoon, my Lord."
"Good afternoon." Lord Nishi nodded to the pair, and turned to his companion. "Jonathan, this is my third wife and her son." A very uncomfortable looking man was looking at Lady Yukio in astonishment.
"I… You will have to excuse me; I just can't wrap my mind around that one yet."
"Jonathan is from the west, and his daughter is interested in Sesshoumaru. There are a few cultural differences we are working out."
"I just can't see why any man would need or be able to stand having more then one wife at a time. I'm not sure I want my daughter set up for heartbreak. That's what it comes down to in the end after all. Where I come from you don't go out and find another woman when something goes wrong in a relationship. You stick it out and work it through, or you go through the considerable trouble of breaking it off and ending it for good."
"You sound like my young son." Lord Nishi motioned to Inuyasha. "He made similar comments to me about Lady Shinju just a short time ago, since I have a very broken relationship with my first wife. I'm quite open about the whole business. I'd rather have the truth out there for all to see then whispered rumors. A close friendship has existed between a powerful dragon clan in northern China and my family for many generations. Lady Shinju thought my relations with the princess of that clan were inappropriate when they most certainly were not. Lady Futomi and I have been best friends since we were walking around on all fours, and by my honor I would never touch a woman without a proper wedding. On top of that she's plotted to poison some of my close friends for talking badly of her. I've heard far worse rumors, but can prove nothing more."
"It all centers on trust, Oyajii. If you can't trust someone it isn't worth it, no matter what else is going on." His mother jabbed him sharply with her elbow.
"My son has contracted a strange ailment, and cannot control what he says." Yukio explained. "We agreed I would help him keep quiet."
"Strange indeed, any other symptoms?"
"I had a nasty gash on my back but it's almost gone now. I don't think that was part of it though." Jab, poke.
"Sounds like a unicorn attack, but you'd have to corner one good before it even attempted to fight. They prefer to run away, and they have the wind in their hooves!"
"I wasn't fighting anything." Poke.
"You couldn't anyway, the nearest unicorn heard I know of is in Bulgaria, and I'd guess it would take you a week strait of travel to get there."
"I'd better leave before I put my foot in my mouth." Jab.
"We're taking a walk through the gardens." Lady Yukio smiled brightly. "The exercise will do me a world of good." Nishi and Jonathan continued in their chosen direction, while Inuyasha and his mother started down a sloping path in another.
"I like that one." Jonathan said when the pair was out of earshot.
"He isn't my heir."
"Since when did that matter in the least? I'm not looking for diplomatic unions, and if my heir marries yours I'll just have a headache or twelve worth of arrangements to make such a union of lands feasible."
"Your daughter is your heir?"
"My sole heir. Her younger brother didn't inherit any magical abilities." Jonathan sighed. "He's a good boy, but Souta is as human as his mother."
"Your wife is human?"
"Yes, though I miss her terribly my work keeps me from her. A beautiful eastern flower, she is the very reason I came to know about Japan in the first place, though it was a very different place I visited. I'm no demon myself; no I am of a different breed altogether."
"I could tell that much. What exactly are you?"
"A phoenix."
"What is a phoenix?" A mischievous glint came to Jonathan's eye, and he gracefully hopped off the path and onto a low rock wall. He looked down a moment, realizing suddenly that the other side of the wall was much taller then the side Nishi was standing on. Below, Inuyasha and his mother looked up from the flowers to see Jonathan standing on the retaining wall.
"If you've never heard of one, the only way for me to properly explain in a short period of time is to show you. Come closer and watch me." Nishi walked up to the waist-high wall, and Jonathan leaned back.
"You'll fall!" Nishi warned.
"I'm counting on it." Jonathan quietly explained as he dropped backwards and plummeted off the wall. Above, Lord Nishi bent over to try to catch him but failed. Below, Inuyasha took off running to the place Jonathan would hit.
"A human looking guy like that won't survive a fall that high without some serious injuries." Inuyasha mumbled his thoughts. "Though he did smell funny…"
Jonathan smiled, and burst into flame. Red and gold flames engulfed most of his body, the leading edge shimmering emerald green. Great wings shot out of either side of the fireball as Jonathan transformed. The fire disappeared as Jonathan flapped his wings, swooping over the garden and the awe-struck woman in it.
"I don't believe it." Lord Nishi mumbled softly as the huge bird made a lazy circle around the area. Jonathan wanted to say 'there are stranger things' but lacking a human voice, he sang out in his phoenix song. This only startled the three onlookers more.
"What a lovely voice!" Yukio called as she waddled down the path. Jonathan perched on the wall and bowed deeply, then swung up his tail fan. Brilliant gold flashed in the noon sun, giving the appearance of flickering flames. His spirit form could feel the turmoil in the young Halfling's soul, and Jonathan started singing again. He didn't realize that Inuyasha was half-human, only that he wasn't at peace, so Jonathan chose a soothing song that would put the proudest flutes and violins to shame. Lord Nishi, Lady Yukio, and Inuyasha remained silent, enraptured in the haunting, inspirational melody. Inuyasha slowly settled down into his natural doggy sit. Nishi's ears stopped flicking around to focus on the song. Yukio sat on a bench near a decorative bridge. Servants stopped what they were doing to listen. All in the court felt at peace.
That is, they felt at peace until two white streaks zoomed past Jonathan, who ended the song with an abrupt squawk. Lord Nishi wasn't quick enough for the first streak, but he snagged the second by the scruff of its kimono.
"Sesshoumaru, what do you think you are doing? Why are your clothes in shreds? Why do you smell like tears?" A very confused great demon asked as Sesshoumaru tried to continue the chase.
"I… I fell off a waterfall by accident. I wasn't badly injured, but then there was this odd bird. I decided to chase it, for sport, I wasn't going to hurt it. She can barley take off but once she got into the air she just moved so fast I could barley keep up." Sesshoumaru explained as quickly as he could, ignoring the question about tears. Jonathan changed back into his human shape to give the speeding demon a piece of his mind, but had his plans abruptly changed when all the air in his lungs was forced out. The first white blur had come by again, this time bursting into flame and crashing directly into his chest.
"Papa!" Kagome cried, squeezing the life out of a very surprised phoenix. "I ran into Sesshoumaru on the bank of the river you left me at. He was all banged up so I used some of my magic to heal him, and it worked! He started chasing me and I got scared but I heard you singing so I came strait here."
"Can't… breathe… Kag… let… go."
"Sorry Papa." Kagome let go of the now very relieved Lord.
"This is precisely how your aunt got started! Going about using your phoenix tears on anything that's a little scratched up…"
"Sesshoumaru isn't a thing, and he was very badly hurt. Look!" Kagome, feeling rather safe with Inuyasha climbing the wall and her father inches away, seized a torn portion of Sesshoumaru's kimono, holding it out to show the extent of the bloodstain. "There was a lot more in the river and on the bank."
"Sessh… Sesshoumaru… You know it didn't sound right when I heard it and now that I'm looking at him…" Jonathan was deep in thought. "Blast it but I'm terrible with names! Is this the young man you were...?"
"NO!" Kagome jumped back. "This is his older brother. I've been traveling with Inuyasha."
"That's right, and just where were you? BAKA! What possessed you to go near that blasted thing in the first place? It almost killed me!" Inuyasha was on a roll, and with whatever it was that loosened his inhibitions still working at full force, he wasn't about to stop. "Why do you smell like toast? You've got Sesshoumaru's unbearable scent all over you too! Where did those wings come from? Those new clothes are stranger then your regular ones. How did you move so fast? And another thing…"
"SIT BOY!"
WHAM
"That has to hurt." Jonathan winced and stepped back. Kagome took a deep breath, and then fell to her knees in front of the downed hanyou.
"Standard operating procedure." She explained. She reached down and rested her hand between Inuyasha's ears too keep his mouth planted firmly in the dirt.
"This is normal for you two?" Nishi asked, wondering how exactly the collar around his son's neck worked.
"Yep." Kagome beamed up at the startled group. Lady Yukio waddled up from the garden, mildly worried but by now well aware of the nuances of her son's relationship with the odd Miko. From the other direction came a hysterical Lady Shinju.
"I can't believe what I've just seen! What did that awful creature do to you, Sesshoumaru?" Shinju dripped concern as she examined Sesshoumaru's tattered clothing. Sesshoumaru missed a beat, for the first time seeing the over-reaction for what it was: an act.
"Nothing Haha-ue, I did it to myself by accident." Sesshoumaru was suddenly repulsed by the feel of his mother's hand on him. She was looking at Inuyasha's prone form a hint of amusement not quite concealed behind her act.
"The heir to the throne should be more careful." Again he was repulsed, this time by her sudden change of tactics. Had he really bought this stage show once? It was a scary thought.
"I'm fine." His tone was flat, flatter then it had ever been as he recited a line used by millions of people who had too many problems and refused to deal with pity. "Who are you, Sir?" He quickly changed the subject.
"This is the father of a young woman who has taken a liking to you." Shinju supplied.
"Actually that was a case of mistaken identity, I didn't know… uh…"
"Inuyasha" Kagome supplied.
"…had a brother." Jonathan finished. "And one day I will remember that name." He cleared his thought and continued. "We both made an assumption, which is a word best said in English."
"Why?" Nishi asked. Kagome removed her hand as Inuyasha started to get up.
"To 'assume' makes an Ass out of U and Me." Jonathan explained in English, writing in the sandy soil. "It uses the same symbols as an offensive word in English for a stupid, stubborn person, the word used to refer to oneself, and the sound of the word used to refer to another person. It's considered a terrible thing to assume in England, or most of Europe really."
"You know so much about so many languages."
"I translate in my spare time, Kagome. You know that." Then in Latin Jonathan added: "The study of words is the key to wisdom."
"I can't even begin to tackle that one." Kagome admitted.
"Whoever told you wisdom can be easily gained deserves to be strung up on the tallest tree with 'BAKA' branded onto their forehead in more languages then I know. Since I've met this mystery boy, and hopefully memorized his name… Inuyasha… I've accomplished my goal for the day. As for you young lady, things have gotten rather behind schedule. You should have a few music lessons if you are going to use your voice to heal and soothe. Then we'll work on your take off and landing. Crashing into the softest object nearby is no way for a phoenix to land, and I will never catch you that way again. I enjoy breathing more then seeing you without bruises."
"I think we should have a talk, Sesshoumaru." Lord Nishi gave his elder son a look that clearly stated 'I want to know what you are hiding.' Shinju, Yukio, Inuyasha, I've decided to have a formal dinner in the main hall for us and our guests. I will see you then."
There were a few more polite words spoken, and the little group broke up. Inuyasha, who resorted to biting down hard on a bit of very sticky dried fruit in order to keep quiet during the ordeal, followed his Kasan back down into the garden to continue their walk, under heavy if muffled protest. Sesshoumaru, sensing imminent doom, didn't really want to deal with either of his parents, but decided he was better off talking to his father. The alternative made him feel ill. Kagome and Jonathan transformed again and practiced perching on the many walls, roofs, trees, and cliffs to be found within the castle walls.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I may have to switch the order of Chapter 17 and 18. A Moment with Mom is an explanation as to why Inuyasha and Yukio are coming out arm in arm. Does this make more sense now? FYI, Kagome's scent changed when she turned Pheonix to show that she is no longer human, so Inuyasha doesn't recognize it at first.
Page 1 of 4 8/6/2003
