Author's note: I messed up in the posting of it last week, but have figured
out the problem. As I said before, this fic will be posted every Thursday
night. Also, for those reviewers with stories out there, I will review
your stories if you let me know you read this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha.
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My Protector
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Brief review of chapters 1 and 2:
Kagome is poisoned by Sesshoumaru in battle and Inu Yasha takes her to his sister, whom he has not seen for 50 years, for help.
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Chapter 3: Scars
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Kagome could hear birds chirping. Her head hurt, and her throat was very dry. She opened her eyes to find herself in a dark room, with weak gray light coming in through the window. Where was she? Gingerly, she looked around the room. Her yellow backpack had been placed in a corner, and outside the window were several trees. This was definitely someplace she had never seen before. Where was Inu Yasha? Then she remembered the fight. Was he dead?
In her panic, she tried to sit up, but couldn't. She could barely lift her head up, and it throbbed even more. That's right, I was poisoned. What happened after that? As she tried to work through the fog that still clung to her mind, she heard a footstep on the other side of the room, and a voice that was unfamiliar to her.
"You are awake much sooner than I had expected." The woman's voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to wake others in the house. Kagome turned her head carefully to look at her. She was tall, and had a long braid of black hair that fell over her shoulder. Kagome had the feeling that she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place her. Kagome's interest was drawn towards a small pendant she was wearing. It had an odd aura, one she couldn't figure out.
"You must be thirsty." Her voice brought her mind back to her parched throat, and she nodded, not trusting her voice. The woman helped her sit up, and then held the cup to her mouth as she drank. She drank her fill, and then lay back down, exhausted once more. She just wanted to go back to sleep, but her curiosity would not let her rest.
"Who are you?" Her voice sounded thin and forced, she wasn't sure if the woman could hear it, but she answered.
"I am a friend. Inu Yasha and the others are still asleep. Rest some more, and the next time you wake up, I will answer more of your questions." The answer comforted her. Inu Yasha and the others were still alive, and they were safe. With that thought, she drifted into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
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Sango woke up when Kiara got up, went to the well outside, and returned with a cup of water, going into the room where Kagome was recovering. Listening, she heard low voices, and then Kiara came back into the room. Sango sat up.
In the dim, early morning light, she thought she saw the other woman look at her and smile, but she couldn't be sure. Before Sango could ask about Kagome, Kiara held a hand to her lips, and gestured her to step outside.
As she slid out of her blankets, she noticed the monk had shifted in the night to come to rest next to her. Sango yawned softly and looked at his sleeping face, wrinkling her nose at him. It was hard to believe that this peacefully sleeping man had such a lecherous attitude. Sango quickly stood up and stepped around the monk, following Kiara out the door.
She was already at the well, lowering the bucket down to get the water needed for the rest of them to start the day. "How is Kagome?" Sango kept her voice low as she spoke, knowing Inu Yasha was sleeping out here somewhere. Kiara had kept her promise to make him sleep outside, though, in all honesty, that is where he preferred to be.
"She is doing well. To be honest, I had not expected her to awaken this soon. The poison had been slowed by the herb her wound was treated with, but it shouldn't have had such an extensive effect on her recovery."
Sango was startled, then pleased by what Inu Yasha's sister had said. "So it helped then?"
"You bandaged her wound?" At Sango's nod, she continued, "Then you saved her life." Sango started to protest. She hadn't really done anything that remarkable, but Kiara cut her off. "If it hadn't been for that herb slowing the poison in her veins, she would have died not more than an hour after Inu Yasha brought her here. My antidote would have had no effect." The bucket splashed into the water far below in the silence after that statement.
Surprised that her desperate attempt to help had actually worked, she stammered out an explanation. "I-I didn't know what else to do. I hoped it would slow it down enough that her natural resistance could save her."
"Natural resistance?"
Sango realized that while Inu Yasha had told his sister the entire story of Kikyou, including that she had been reanimated; he had neglected to tell her anything about Kagome other than she had freed him from the tree. Leave it to Inu Yasha to leave out any details about Kagome, whom his sister had just saved, but go on in excruciating detail about Kikyou.
"Yes. Kagome is Kikyou's reincarnation. She has powers like Kikyou's as well. She is very resistant to poisons and can purify them too. I had hoped that her own body would reject Sesshoumaru's poison if it was given a chance to recover from the shock."
"I see. That explains it then, why she is up so soon." She finished hauling the bucket up and grabbed it one-handed to carry back inside. Sango was surprised at her strength, but she supposed she shouldn't be. She had probably needed to be very strong to live out here for 50 years alone.
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Inu Yasha sat in Kagome's room later that morning, waiting for her to wake up. Kiara had told him that she had gotten up earlier that morning, and that they should keep watch over her for when she next woke. Sango had watched her first, and then Shippou, wanting to do something useful. Now it was his turn. She really looked like she was just sleeping now, no hint of how close the poison had come to taking her life just the day before.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and he moved closer to her with the cup of cool water he had ready.
She heard his movements, and turned her eyes to him. "Inu Yasha?" She sat up as she said this, although she seemed a little sluggish.
"Here. Kiara said you would probably be thirsty." She reached for the cup, and he steadied it in her shaking hands as she drank.
"Thank you. Inu Yasha, where are we?"
"We are at my sister's cottage. She made the antidote that saved you from Sesshoumaru's poison." He could see the hurt in her eyes before she bent her head so her hair would cover her face. She was probably upset that he hadn't told her that he had a sister, much less that she was alive. Well, he wouldn't let that get to him. He hadn't told her a lot of things.
"Inu Yasha? Would it be possible for me to take a bath?" She had changed the subject. He was glad she had; he didn't want to talk about his sister when he still wasn't sure of all the answers himself. Like why was she so damn young?!
"Yeah. My sister said there is a hot spring very near here that she uses for bathing. She thought you might want to take a bath, so she has gotten everything ready. She and Sango were just waiting for you to wake up so they could take you up there. Can you get up?"
"I think so." She said this as she slowly rose, using the wall for balance. As she stepped away from the wall, she lost her balance. He caught her by her arms, and steadied her, then helped her into the other room where the other women were waiting.
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Kagome hated the way she felt. Her legs were so shaky they barely supported her to the hot spring. She had to lean on Sango the entire way. But she refused to let either of the guys carry her. She had to get over this, and the fastest way of doing that was to grit her teeth and just do it.
When they reached the spring, Sango helped her sit down on a rock.
"Can you undress yourself?" Kagome nodded to her friend, and methodically began undoing the ties on the shirt she had woken up in. She supposed her blouse had been removed to dress her wounds. She hoped Miroku hadn't had a hand in that. She didn't want that pervert looking at her when she couldn't help it.
As she pulled the shirt off, Kiara came over to remove the bandage, and inspect her wounds. As she pulled the bandaging away, the dried blood pulled at her tender skin, and she winced at the sharp pain. Looking down at them, they weren't as bad as she thought they might have been. Just scratches.
"I think you can leave the bandages off now. They appear to be healing quite normally." Kagome smiled at the woman, Inu Yasha's sister, and thanked her, then looked down at her hands in her lap. She didn't really know what to say to this woman who had saved her. Thanks to Inu Yasha's secretive nature about his past, she didn't know anything about her.
She felt a touch on her arm, and looked up at the woman who was now standing next to her, stripped and ready to bathe, wearing only the strange pendant. "You ready to go in?" Kagome nodded as she noticed how scarred the older woman was. She had already noticed the scar along her jaw, and without her shirt, Kagome saw that there was another, less severe scar on the left side of her neck, and three more on that shoulder. There were also another, smaller set of scars on her upper right arm, and on her thigh, right above her knee. These were in addition to many smaller nicks and scratches that criss-crossed her skin.
Kiara smiled a slightly crooked smile as she saw where Kagome was looking. "The hazards of growing up with a hanyou brother." Kagome smiled back as she was assisted into the water, wondering if Inu Yasha had really given her all these scars.
Settling down into the water, Kagome let out a sigh. The heat felt so good against her bruised body. After they had finished washing, they sat there just soaking in the heat. Kagome finally got up the courage to ask what had been on her mind.
"What was Inu--What was it like, growing up with Inu Yasha?"
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Kiara looked over at the strange girl. She heard the change of phrase. What she really wanted to know was what Inu Yasha had been like as a child.
"Well, I haven't thought about it in a long time. Let's see...Inu Yasha is four years younger than I am, and I always felt like he was mine when I was a little girl. Mine to play with, mine to watch, and mine to boss around. I remember when I first saw him, the first thing I did was tickle his ears." Kagome smiled, and blushed a bit. Apparently she had done the same thing. Well, who could help it? Those ears were just so cute, they begged to be touched! Smiling as she went on, she knew the story she would tell these two.
"I loved Inu Yasha's ears, and touched them every chance I could get, mostly because I wanted some myself. I didn't understand why Inu Yasha and Father had them, but mother and I didn't. Eventually, I knew that it was because Inu Yasha and Father weren't truly human, in the sense that Mother and I were, but it wasn't until I was 13 that I knew the full impact of what it meant to be a youkai, or a hanyou."
The other two were paying rapt attention as she related her tale. She supposed Inu Yasha hadn't told them much about his childhood, and would probably be very angry with her for relating this particularly painful memory. But it was her story too, she reminded herself, as she fingered the scars on her leg, and took the girls back to that bright summer day.
"We lived well outside the village. Close enough to go there if we needed to, but not so close that the villagers would bother us much. Inu Yasha had never been there before because Mother never allowed him to come along when she took me."
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She walked along the weed-choked path that led from her house down into the village. It was her first visit to the village alone. Father had given her the money to pay for the new kimono he had ordered for her mother as a gift. She fingered the bag at her waist, proud that he had entrusted this to her.
She took another step, and heard a rustle behind her. She sighed. No matter how often she caught him at it, her brother refused to give up this stalking game, even when he wasn't supposed to come down this way. "Inu Yasha, I know you're there, why don't you at least walk with me so I have company?" Even though her little brother could try her patience, it was still better than walking alone.
"I didn't think you would let me come, 'cuz I'm not supposed to go to the village." He came out and skipped around her.
She sighed. She supposed that she should send him back, and not disobey their father's wishes. "I honestly don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to go to the village. The women there adore cute children, and you are cuter by far than any of the ones they fawn over." She tweaked his ear as she said this, and he smiled at her despite that.
When they reached the village, she took her time getting to her destination. She knew Inu Yasha had never been here before, and she allowed their path to wander as he took in all the new sights, sounds, and smells. As she trailed after her excited brother, she heard snatches of conversation behind her. "...has ears!" She smiled, proud of her unique little hanyou, until she caught more of what they were saying. "What is that thing doing here?" "Is this some sort of joke?" As she turned around to see who it was that was making fun of her brother, she heard more comments, and realized that nearly everybody was pointing, and talking. They weren't even making an attempt to hide it, either.
She decided it would be a very good idea to collect her brother and finish her business quickly, but when she turned back to look for him, he had disappeared. Damn that little brother of mine, she thought as her annoyance rose.
She was desperate to find him, but none of the villagers would help. They just laughed at her. Then she heard a pained yelp. That could only be Inu Yasha. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, glad that it was faster than the villagers around her, who had also started running towards the sharp sound. Following another yelp, she ran just out of town, to the bank of the river that flowed past the village. The scene she saw there made her stop, uncertain of what to do.
Some older boys she had seen on earlier trips into the village had caught her brother. They were dangling him by an ankle as they laughed at his futile attempts to free himself. They had a bag, and had apparently decided to drown him like he was some rat they were getting rid of.
"Put him down!" She started to run towards the group, but her pause a moment before had allowed the rest of the villagers to catch up to her. They grabbed her arms, and held her back. She was now as helpless as Inu Yasha. "No!! Let GO!!"
The villagers held tight though. "Girl, you're too soft hearted for your own good. Don't you understand that vermin like that have to be exterminated? We can't allow things like that to live near our town." She was dumbfounded at their response. Her sweet, innocent, cute little brother was vermin? But it was more than that. The way the man had said it, it was like a curse. He truly hated Inu Yasha, even though he had no cause.
"You Bastard!" She said the first thing that came to her mind. "He is my little brother! He is just a little boy! Damn it! If you do this you will be murderers!" The man's face changed at this. Before, his tone had been that of a harsh schoolteacher instructing a stupid pupil in the proper way to do things. Now his face changed, and she was picked up roughly. "In that case, you can be killed along with it, bitch. We can't allow a family of youkai to just waltz in here like they own the place." This last was spit out. He thought she was a hanyou too? The crowd jeered as she was carried bodily down to the river's edge, kicking, screaming, and cursing.
Her brother was being lifted to be put into the bag. "Inu Yasha! No!!" It came out as a scream, her fear for him overcoming her. He looked over to her when he heard his name and realized that she was in danger as well. In a blur, he had bent himself up, and bit the hand of the boy who was holding him. He fell to the ground in a heap as the boy yelled in pain and ran back to the crowd of villagers. Next, Inu Yasha was on the man who was holding her, clawing and biting at his hand, forcing him to let go. As soon as she dropped, falling bonelessly into a pile, rather shocked at the violence her sweet little brother had just displayed. She stood up after a minute, and assessed the situation. There seemed to be a stalemate.
Inu Yasha, her 9 year old brother was standing between her and the man who had been holding her, blood dripping from his fangs and claws, ready to attack again. The man stood there, staring at Inu Yasha in terror, cradling his arm. That was when she realized that it wasn't out of hatred that the villagers were doing this, but fear. They feared her little brother. No, they feared the hanyou. Her sweet little hanyou with the adorable ears.
The rest of the villagers had stopped their cheering at Inu Yasha's sudden move. They were now turning angry. They weren't going to let one little whelp get the better of them.
Inu Yasha felt the change in their mood as well, she could tell it in the way he shifted his balance. He was going to use that flying-claws attack he had discovered not too long ago. Shit! She couldn't let him do that! She couldn't let anyone else get hurt! She started running as he raised his arm, hoping she could get there in time. She threw herself in between him and the villagers as the blades left his claws. His eyes widened in shock as he realized it was too late to stop his attack from hitting her, and then she felt them hit. They tore through her leg like blades of ice, and she fell in shock.
She saw black spots on the edge of her vision, but she had more to do, she couldn't just faint here. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she stood up in front of Inu Yasha. "Stop it. You can't hurt these people, they are afraid." The villagers had once again stopped at her move, confused by her actions. They wouldn't stay there long.
"They were trying to hurt you! I--"
She cut him off as his anger started to rise again. This time anger at her for stopping him. They had to get out of there. "Inu Yasha, we have to go." She limped over to him, and put her arms around him. Feeling him about to push her away, and knowing she wouldn't be able to resist, she picked him up, and used her good leg to propel them into the river.
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"We came back onshore about an hour later. Father came and found us that night when I didn't come home on time and he realized Inu Yasha was missing. He was furious. I had never seen him in such a rage. Of course, after that, the villagers didn't leave us alone at our cottage. They constantly came and picked on him. It became a game for older boys especially to see if they could provoke him to attack because they knew he wasn't allowed to hurt them. After that, he grew to be the cynical, human hating hanyou you know. I never expected him to hold trust for any humans again."
Sango sat in the silence after the recounting of the tale. She hadn't imagined what life must have been like for Inu Yasha as a child. As a demon exterminator, she had encountered that particular fear of villagers on a regular basis. It was her job to get rid of that fear, and she was very good at it. But she had never seen hatred exhibited towards the youkai so strong that they would go so far as to kill a child. She gently scratched Kirara behind the ears. Didn't they know that not all youkai attacked villages? They had even had one living next to them peacefully for 9 years, and still they didn't understand the nature of what they called an enemy.
She stood up, the warm water no longer comforting, and went to sit on a rock to dry in the mid-morning sun. Kagome shakily stood, and pulled herself up next to Sango. She really was getting stronger. They dried off and made their way back to the cottage.
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha.
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My Protector
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Brief review of chapters 1 and 2:
Kagome is poisoned by Sesshoumaru in battle and Inu Yasha takes her to his sister, whom he has not seen for 50 years, for help.
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Chapter 3: Scars
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Kagome could hear birds chirping. Her head hurt, and her throat was very dry. She opened her eyes to find herself in a dark room, with weak gray light coming in through the window. Where was she? Gingerly, she looked around the room. Her yellow backpack had been placed in a corner, and outside the window were several trees. This was definitely someplace she had never seen before. Where was Inu Yasha? Then she remembered the fight. Was he dead?
In her panic, she tried to sit up, but couldn't. She could barely lift her head up, and it throbbed even more. That's right, I was poisoned. What happened after that? As she tried to work through the fog that still clung to her mind, she heard a footstep on the other side of the room, and a voice that was unfamiliar to her.
"You are awake much sooner than I had expected." The woman's voice was quiet, as if she didn't want to wake others in the house. Kagome turned her head carefully to look at her. She was tall, and had a long braid of black hair that fell over her shoulder. Kagome had the feeling that she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place her. Kagome's interest was drawn towards a small pendant she was wearing. It had an odd aura, one she couldn't figure out.
"You must be thirsty." Her voice brought her mind back to her parched throat, and she nodded, not trusting her voice. The woman helped her sit up, and then held the cup to her mouth as she drank. She drank her fill, and then lay back down, exhausted once more. She just wanted to go back to sleep, but her curiosity would not let her rest.
"Who are you?" Her voice sounded thin and forced, she wasn't sure if the woman could hear it, but she answered.
"I am a friend. Inu Yasha and the others are still asleep. Rest some more, and the next time you wake up, I will answer more of your questions." The answer comforted her. Inu Yasha and the others were still alive, and they were safe. With that thought, she drifted into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
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Sango woke up when Kiara got up, went to the well outside, and returned with a cup of water, going into the room where Kagome was recovering. Listening, she heard low voices, and then Kiara came back into the room. Sango sat up.
In the dim, early morning light, she thought she saw the other woman look at her and smile, but she couldn't be sure. Before Sango could ask about Kagome, Kiara held a hand to her lips, and gestured her to step outside.
As she slid out of her blankets, she noticed the monk had shifted in the night to come to rest next to her. Sango yawned softly and looked at his sleeping face, wrinkling her nose at him. It was hard to believe that this peacefully sleeping man had such a lecherous attitude. Sango quickly stood up and stepped around the monk, following Kiara out the door.
She was already at the well, lowering the bucket down to get the water needed for the rest of them to start the day. "How is Kagome?" Sango kept her voice low as she spoke, knowing Inu Yasha was sleeping out here somewhere. Kiara had kept her promise to make him sleep outside, though, in all honesty, that is where he preferred to be.
"She is doing well. To be honest, I had not expected her to awaken this soon. The poison had been slowed by the herb her wound was treated with, but it shouldn't have had such an extensive effect on her recovery."
Sango was startled, then pleased by what Inu Yasha's sister had said. "So it helped then?"
"You bandaged her wound?" At Sango's nod, she continued, "Then you saved her life." Sango started to protest. She hadn't really done anything that remarkable, but Kiara cut her off. "If it hadn't been for that herb slowing the poison in her veins, she would have died not more than an hour after Inu Yasha brought her here. My antidote would have had no effect." The bucket splashed into the water far below in the silence after that statement.
Surprised that her desperate attempt to help had actually worked, she stammered out an explanation. "I-I didn't know what else to do. I hoped it would slow it down enough that her natural resistance could save her."
"Natural resistance?"
Sango realized that while Inu Yasha had told his sister the entire story of Kikyou, including that she had been reanimated; he had neglected to tell her anything about Kagome other than she had freed him from the tree. Leave it to Inu Yasha to leave out any details about Kagome, whom his sister had just saved, but go on in excruciating detail about Kikyou.
"Yes. Kagome is Kikyou's reincarnation. She has powers like Kikyou's as well. She is very resistant to poisons and can purify them too. I had hoped that her own body would reject Sesshoumaru's poison if it was given a chance to recover from the shock."
"I see. That explains it then, why she is up so soon." She finished hauling the bucket up and grabbed it one-handed to carry back inside. Sango was surprised at her strength, but she supposed she shouldn't be. She had probably needed to be very strong to live out here for 50 years alone.
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Inu Yasha sat in Kagome's room later that morning, waiting for her to wake up. Kiara had told him that she had gotten up earlier that morning, and that they should keep watch over her for when she next woke. Sango had watched her first, and then Shippou, wanting to do something useful. Now it was his turn. She really looked like she was just sleeping now, no hint of how close the poison had come to taking her life just the day before.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and he moved closer to her with the cup of cool water he had ready.
She heard his movements, and turned her eyes to him. "Inu Yasha?" She sat up as she said this, although she seemed a little sluggish.
"Here. Kiara said you would probably be thirsty." She reached for the cup, and he steadied it in her shaking hands as she drank.
"Thank you. Inu Yasha, where are we?"
"We are at my sister's cottage. She made the antidote that saved you from Sesshoumaru's poison." He could see the hurt in her eyes before she bent her head so her hair would cover her face. She was probably upset that he hadn't told her that he had a sister, much less that she was alive. Well, he wouldn't let that get to him. He hadn't told her a lot of things.
"Inu Yasha? Would it be possible for me to take a bath?" She had changed the subject. He was glad she had; he didn't want to talk about his sister when he still wasn't sure of all the answers himself. Like why was she so damn young?!
"Yeah. My sister said there is a hot spring very near here that she uses for bathing. She thought you might want to take a bath, so she has gotten everything ready. She and Sango were just waiting for you to wake up so they could take you up there. Can you get up?"
"I think so." She said this as she slowly rose, using the wall for balance. As she stepped away from the wall, she lost her balance. He caught her by her arms, and steadied her, then helped her into the other room where the other women were waiting.
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Kagome hated the way she felt. Her legs were so shaky they barely supported her to the hot spring. She had to lean on Sango the entire way. But she refused to let either of the guys carry her. She had to get over this, and the fastest way of doing that was to grit her teeth and just do it.
When they reached the spring, Sango helped her sit down on a rock.
"Can you undress yourself?" Kagome nodded to her friend, and methodically began undoing the ties on the shirt she had woken up in. She supposed her blouse had been removed to dress her wounds. She hoped Miroku hadn't had a hand in that. She didn't want that pervert looking at her when she couldn't help it.
As she pulled the shirt off, Kiara came over to remove the bandage, and inspect her wounds. As she pulled the bandaging away, the dried blood pulled at her tender skin, and she winced at the sharp pain. Looking down at them, they weren't as bad as she thought they might have been. Just scratches.
"I think you can leave the bandages off now. They appear to be healing quite normally." Kagome smiled at the woman, Inu Yasha's sister, and thanked her, then looked down at her hands in her lap. She didn't really know what to say to this woman who had saved her. Thanks to Inu Yasha's secretive nature about his past, she didn't know anything about her.
She felt a touch on her arm, and looked up at the woman who was now standing next to her, stripped and ready to bathe, wearing only the strange pendant. "You ready to go in?" Kagome nodded as she noticed how scarred the older woman was. She had already noticed the scar along her jaw, and without her shirt, Kagome saw that there was another, less severe scar on the left side of her neck, and three more on that shoulder. There were also another, smaller set of scars on her upper right arm, and on her thigh, right above her knee. These were in addition to many smaller nicks and scratches that criss-crossed her skin.
Kiara smiled a slightly crooked smile as she saw where Kagome was looking. "The hazards of growing up with a hanyou brother." Kagome smiled back as she was assisted into the water, wondering if Inu Yasha had really given her all these scars.
Settling down into the water, Kagome let out a sigh. The heat felt so good against her bruised body. After they had finished washing, they sat there just soaking in the heat. Kagome finally got up the courage to ask what had been on her mind.
"What was Inu--What was it like, growing up with Inu Yasha?"
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Kiara looked over at the strange girl. She heard the change of phrase. What she really wanted to know was what Inu Yasha had been like as a child.
"Well, I haven't thought about it in a long time. Let's see...Inu Yasha is four years younger than I am, and I always felt like he was mine when I was a little girl. Mine to play with, mine to watch, and mine to boss around. I remember when I first saw him, the first thing I did was tickle his ears." Kagome smiled, and blushed a bit. Apparently she had done the same thing. Well, who could help it? Those ears were just so cute, they begged to be touched! Smiling as she went on, she knew the story she would tell these two.
"I loved Inu Yasha's ears, and touched them every chance I could get, mostly because I wanted some myself. I didn't understand why Inu Yasha and Father had them, but mother and I didn't. Eventually, I knew that it was because Inu Yasha and Father weren't truly human, in the sense that Mother and I were, but it wasn't until I was 13 that I knew the full impact of what it meant to be a youkai, or a hanyou."
The other two were paying rapt attention as she related her tale. She supposed Inu Yasha hadn't told them much about his childhood, and would probably be very angry with her for relating this particularly painful memory. But it was her story too, she reminded herself, as she fingered the scars on her leg, and took the girls back to that bright summer day.
"We lived well outside the village. Close enough to go there if we needed to, but not so close that the villagers would bother us much. Inu Yasha had never been there before because Mother never allowed him to come along when she took me."
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She walked along the weed-choked path that led from her house down into the village. It was her first visit to the village alone. Father had given her the money to pay for the new kimono he had ordered for her mother as a gift. She fingered the bag at her waist, proud that he had entrusted this to her.
She took another step, and heard a rustle behind her. She sighed. No matter how often she caught him at it, her brother refused to give up this stalking game, even when he wasn't supposed to come down this way. "Inu Yasha, I know you're there, why don't you at least walk with me so I have company?" Even though her little brother could try her patience, it was still better than walking alone.
"I didn't think you would let me come, 'cuz I'm not supposed to go to the village." He came out and skipped around her.
She sighed. She supposed that she should send him back, and not disobey their father's wishes. "I honestly don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to go to the village. The women there adore cute children, and you are cuter by far than any of the ones they fawn over." She tweaked his ear as she said this, and he smiled at her despite that.
When they reached the village, she took her time getting to her destination. She knew Inu Yasha had never been here before, and she allowed their path to wander as he took in all the new sights, sounds, and smells. As she trailed after her excited brother, she heard snatches of conversation behind her. "...has ears!" She smiled, proud of her unique little hanyou, until she caught more of what they were saying. "What is that thing doing here?" "Is this some sort of joke?" As she turned around to see who it was that was making fun of her brother, she heard more comments, and realized that nearly everybody was pointing, and talking. They weren't even making an attempt to hide it, either.
She decided it would be a very good idea to collect her brother and finish her business quickly, but when she turned back to look for him, he had disappeared. Damn that little brother of mine, she thought as her annoyance rose.
She was desperate to find him, but none of the villagers would help. They just laughed at her. Then she heard a pained yelp. That could only be Inu Yasha. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, glad that it was faster than the villagers around her, who had also started running towards the sharp sound. Following another yelp, she ran just out of town, to the bank of the river that flowed past the village. The scene she saw there made her stop, uncertain of what to do.
Some older boys she had seen on earlier trips into the village had caught her brother. They were dangling him by an ankle as they laughed at his futile attempts to free himself. They had a bag, and had apparently decided to drown him like he was some rat they were getting rid of.
"Put him down!" She started to run towards the group, but her pause a moment before had allowed the rest of the villagers to catch up to her. They grabbed her arms, and held her back. She was now as helpless as Inu Yasha. "No!! Let GO!!"
The villagers held tight though. "Girl, you're too soft hearted for your own good. Don't you understand that vermin like that have to be exterminated? We can't allow things like that to live near our town." She was dumbfounded at their response. Her sweet, innocent, cute little brother was vermin? But it was more than that. The way the man had said it, it was like a curse. He truly hated Inu Yasha, even though he had no cause.
"You Bastard!" She said the first thing that came to her mind. "He is my little brother! He is just a little boy! Damn it! If you do this you will be murderers!" The man's face changed at this. Before, his tone had been that of a harsh schoolteacher instructing a stupid pupil in the proper way to do things. Now his face changed, and she was picked up roughly. "In that case, you can be killed along with it, bitch. We can't allow a family of youkai to just waltz in here like they own the place." This last was spit out. He thought she was a hanyou too? The crowd jeered as she was carried bodily down to the river's edge, kicking, screaming, and cursing.
Her brother was being lifted to be put into the bag. "Inu Yasha! No!!" It came out as a scream, her fear for him overcoming her. He looked over to her when he heard his name and realized that she was in danger as well. In a blur, he had bent himself up, and bit the hand of the boy who was holding him. He fell to the ground in a heap as the boy yelled in pain and ran back to the crowd of villagers. Next, Inu Yasha was on the man who was holding her, clawing and biting at his hand, forcing him to let go. As soon as she dropped, falling bonelessly into a pile, rather shocked at the violence her sweet little brother had just displayed. She stood up after a minute, and assessed the situation. There seemed to be a stalemate.
Inu Yasha, her 9 year old brother was standing between her and the man who had been holding her, blood dripping from his fangs and claws, ready to attack again. The man stood there, staring at Inu Yasha in terror, cradling his arm. That was when she realized that it wasn't out of hatred that the villagers were doing this, but fear. They feared her little brother. No, they feared the hanyou. Her sweet little hanyou with the adorable ears.
The rest of the villagers had stopped their cheering at Inu Yasha's sudden move. They were now turning angry. They weren't going to let one little whelp get the better of them.
Inu Yasha felt the change in their mood as well, she could tell it in the way he shifted his balance. He was going to use that flying-claws attack he had discovered not too long ago. Shit! She couldn't let him do that! She couldn't let anyone else get hurt! She started running as he raised his arm, hoping she could get there in time. She threw herself in between him and the villagers as the blades left his claws. His eyes widened in shock as he realized it was too late to stop his attack from hitting her, and then she felt them hit. They tore through her leg like blades of ice, and she fell in shock.
She saw black spots on the edge of her vision, but she had more to do, she couldn't just faint here. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she stood up in front of Inu Yasha. "Stop it. You can't hurt these people, they are afraid." The villagers had once again stopped at her move, confused by her actions. They wouldn't stay there long.
"They were trying to hurt you! I--"
She cut him off as his anger started to rise again. This time anger at her for stopping him. They had to get out of there. "Inu Yasha, we have to go." She limped over to him, and put her arms around him. Feeling him about to push her away, and knowing she wouldn't be able to resist, she picked him up, and used her good leg to propel them into the river.
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"We came back onshore about an hour later. Father came and found us that night when I didn't come home on time and he realized Inu Yasha was missing. He was furious. I had never seen him in such a rage. Of course, after that, the villagers didn't leave us alone at our cottage. They constantly came and picked on him. It became a game for older boys especially to see if they could provoke him to attack because they knew he wasn't allowed to hurt them. After that, he grew to be the cynical, human hating hanyou you know. I never expected him to hold trust for any humans again."
Sango sat in the silence after the recounting of the tale. She hadn't imagined what life must have been like for Inu Yasha as a child. As a demon exterminator, she had encountered that particular fear of villagers on a regular basis. It was her job to get rid of that fear, and she was very good at it. But she had never seen hatred exhibited towards the youkai so strong that they would go so far as to kill a child. She gently scratched Kirara behind the ears. Didn't they know that not all youkai attacked villages? They had even had one living next to them peacefully for 9 years, and still they didn't understand the nature of what they called an enemy.
She stood up, the warm water no longer comforting, and went to sit on a rock to dry in the mid-morning sun. Kagome shakily stood, and pulled herself up next to Sango. She really was getting stronger. They dried off and made their way back to the cottage.