Note to all: Please see my info page to know when I update things. There is a very important reason I haven't been posting. It is still in effect, so please read the profile when you have a chance. Thank you very much, everyone who has reviewed so far. I read and appreciate everything you say. To Landlady of the Universe, I apologize for not answering your request. I will as soon as I figure out how exactly to answer it. And thank you to NOVAMARU for the information; I was unaware of it. As always, please R & R and more notes are at the bottom.
Ladymage Samiko ; )
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Of Moonlight and Honor
Part 8
Sesshoumaru stared unseeing at the tiny bundle. A daughter. The gods had seen fit to toy with him once again. He hadn't even been able to match his father's indiscretion with a son of his own. Quickly, he thrust the girl back at Rin and left the room. Cradling the baby carefully, Rin gave Tsukiyo a worried glance. Thankfully, she had fallen into an exhausted sleep and would probably remain that way for some time.
"She needs her rest," Kyoumi told her, interpreting her look. "She is stronger than I had expected; she will be fine. Now go reason with that stubborn youkai. For all his youkai powers, he's just the same as the rest of them. Men!" she sniffed. Rin nodded and hurried out.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin spoke tentatively as she approached the youkai now sitting at the edge of the gardens. It was night, a beautiful spring night with the sakura falling gently to carpet the earth. A half-moon gave faint illumination, though not enough to make out any sort of expression on Sesshoumaru's face.
"She'll turn at the time of the waning half-moon," he said distantly. "The moon is waxing now. The day of her birth is the time of strongest ki. She will be human when it wanes."
"Oh." Rin moved to sit beside him, carefully shifting the girl in her arms. "She's fought a long, hard battle to meet you, Sesshoumaru-sama. You should at least say hello."
"What am I supposed to do, Rin?" he asked suddenly. "What am I supposed to do with a half-blood daughter?"
"The same as you did with me," Rin returned. "Take care of her, watch out for her. Love her. She is your daughter, Sesshoumaru-sama. I rather think she'll be a lot more than what you're thinking right now. But at least take some time to get to know her before you dismiss her out of hand. Let her tag along with you for a while. She deserves that chance even more than I did."
Sesshoumaru gave a small snort of laughter. "At least you were older. I haven't the faintest idea what to do with a baby."
"You didn't have the faintest idea what to do with me, "she retorted. "Try holding her again, Sesshoumaru-sama. Any father can do that much."
Sesshoumaru sighed and held out his arms. Rin carefully arranged the child in the crook of his growing left arm, leaving his hand free. He looked down and the baby smiled sleepily up at him, a tiny fist waving in the air. He blinked. Black fuzz already covered her head, fluffing out as it dried. In the midst of it were two tiny white points of ears, swiveling to catch the sounds of the night. Something in the noises startled her and she opened her eyes wide. Sesshoumaru stared. Her eyes. . . her eyes were an extraordinary, rich purple. Not the rose-tinted violet of her mother's, but the vivid blue-violet of ayame.
They were his mother's eyes.
Once again, Rin found the newborn practically shoved into her arms and both matron and babe stared wide-eyed as Sesshoumaru disappeared into the shadows.
It was three days later when he returned. Rin could see something troubling in his eyes, but said nothing as he approached the pale young mother and the child feeding hungrily at her breast. Tsukiyo looked up at the youkai and smiled. "Sesshoumaru-sama," she greeted him, her voice faint. "Your daughter is very eager and very strong." There was a quiet pride in her voice that was shadowed slightly as she continued. "I am sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama, that I could not give you a son."
"Until such time as a son is born to me," Sesshoumaru stated calmly, "this child is my heir. She is to be treated as such. And so do I present her now with these tokens of her status." He held out first a hakama. "You are my daughter, granddaughter of my mother, and so do I present you with her hakama. Wear them well, my daughter." At the distraction, the baby pulled away from her mother's breast to stare silently at the dark bundle of fabric. "Also," he continued, laying the hakama on the floor by Tsukiyo's side, and reaching towards his belt, "do I present you with this, a katana made by the swordmaster, Toutousai." He pulled the sword from those bound at his waist and held it in front of the child, its gold-trimmed, black-lacquered sheath gleaming. The baby's tiny hand reached out for it as she gurgled. There was perhaps a tiny smile on Sesshoumaru's face. "Bear it well, my daughter."
"The naming ceremony is, of course, in four days time." The ceremonial air was laid abruptly aside as he turned away. "You may choose the name, as my father is not here to perform that task. And she will be presented to the household and my retainers at that time." Emotionless, he walked out of the room. "Be sure you are ready at that time," he called back as he left.
Rin stood silently to the side as an honorary member of the family during the naming ceremony. She had been dubious about the way Sesshoumaru had turned it into a public event and had spoken to him about it a few days before.
"Because it is necessary, Rin," he had replied steadily.
"I don't see why," she commented. "What's the point of exposing all of you to the gossip and ridicule that is going to follow?"
"I trust that my reputation will keep the ridicule, at least, to a minimum, as my father's did when that. . . moron was whelped. But you must understand, Rin, that there is no way to stop the rumors. Her parentage will be painfully obvious as the child grows up. And I have chosen to acknowledge her. There is no other way around it. By opening the ceremony to the household and my retainers, I make the situation fact. Everyone will know where I stand on the matter. What they think of it matters little. What does matter is that Tsukiyo and the child will be known to be under my protection. And to harm my heir is tantamount to declaring war on the Western Lands. She will be a target in any case, but most youkai will think twice before taking on such a task."
"Hmm." Rin thought for a moment. "I suppose I understand. I don't like it, though."
Sesshoumaru gave her a wry look. "You don't have to like it," he replied. "You just have to attend."
And so here she was.
Tsukiyo looked luminous, if tired. She was still recovering from the difficult birthing, but had regained enough strength to stand beneath the forty pounds of kimono that constituted formal wear. She held the well-wrapped child close, using all of her childhood training to stand tall before all the eyes on her. A precious few were friendly or deferential. Most were hostile or derisive.
Sesshoumaru raised his voice to be heard throughout the hundred or more people who had gathered before the castle. "I, Sesshoumaru, son of the great lord, Inu Taisho, am before you today to present to you my child. I have acknowledged her as blood of my blood and so she is before you today as my heir apparent. Know that both she and her mother are under my name."
The courtyard buzzed with surprise. That the great Inu Taisho had fathered a bastard hanyou had been no shock to the youkai; affairs (consensual or otherwise) with mortals were not uncommon and such children were considered a sign of the youkai's virility. The blood mix was tricky, though, and few lived to adulthood. That the hanyou Inu Yasha had lived and was recognized as minor heir was unusual, but not surprising. The fact that he survived made him worthy of some portion of the Taiyoukai's estate. But now, Inu Taisho's son was not only acknowledging his daughter, he was making her full heir. This was unheard of!
Sesshoumaru outwaited the annoying noise before speaking again. "And it is as my heir apparent that I name her today." He held up the paper that bore the kanji of the child's full name. "I present to you Inu Chuugokuchihou no Hime Yumemi."
At this point in the ceremony, there were normally great cheers. Today, the pronouncement was met with dead silence.
--tsuzuku. . .
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Cultural Notes (skip 'em if you like)
Ki is the same word as chi, which is life force, I suppose you could say. I could go on, but the easiest explanation is that it's like the Force in Star Wars. Before the moronic midychlorian idea was introduced.
ayame = Japanese Iris
hakama are normally used for traditional Japanese martial arts such as kendo (fencing) and iaido (sword drawing). They resemble a split skirt.
The presentation of the sword and hakama are taken from the imperial traditions and are from articles about the birth of Princess Aiko (daughter of Japan's current Crown Prince).
The naming ceremony is also from descriptions of Princess Aiko's ceremonies and does take place seven days after the child's birth, but I did make up most of the events. So don't quote me as being accurate on this one.
Forty pounds is what a geiko's outfit weighs today, so I think it is a safe esimate for the formal clothing Tsukiyo might have worn. (A geiko is a type of geisha.)
Yumemi's name: Inu (dog) seems to be the family name, going by various fics, so that's why I've used it, though now I think of it, Inu Sesshoumaru sounds a little odd. Chuugokuchihou seems to be the Japanese for the Western Lands (which I have now pinpointed) but as I don't have the Japanese version of Inu Yasha, I may be wrong. So Chuugokuchihou no Hime is "Lady of the Western Lands." It is a title and also me mixing a few different naming traditions. Yumemi is the child's given name. Depending on the kanji chosen, it could mean either "dreamseer" or "beautiful dream." I (or Tsukiyo) chose "dreamseer."
