Sorry this took a little longer to update than the other one had. This chapter is my first attempt to get the plot rolling (couldn't have everyone just sit around and be sad forever, now could I?).
I do not own Inuyasha.
Just A Hanyou – Part 3
Sunlight filtered through the green treetops and into Kagome's closed eyes. She stubbornly turned her face from the offending light, desperate to delay her inevitable awakening for a few more minutes. The sound of metal rings jingling against a staff caused her to roll over and open her eyes, facing the monk who had just approached her.
"Good, you're up. I was just about to wake you," Miroku offered with a small smile as Kagome blinked the last few bits of sleep from her eyes.
"I hope you weren't planning on waking her up in a way that would be unbecoming of a monk, Houshi-sama," Sango said as she walked up from behind Miroku.
"You're lack of faith in my good intentions is disheartening, Sango," he replied while feigning a look of hurt.
"Everything seems like its normal, but it's not, is it? It wasn't all just some horrible dream. Inuyasha is really gone," Kagome thought as she turned her attention from the two in front of her so that she could find Shippo, whom she had noticed was not in her sleeping bag.
"He must already be awake," she though as she sat up. Searching the campgrounds with her eyes, however, she was unable to spot the tiny kitsune.
She looked over at the pot that was suspended above the camp fire, thinking it was most likely cooking their breakfast, before absently calling out, "Hey, do you two know where Shippo is?"
"I believe he is still sleeping in that tree over there," Sango indicated with a nod, a light blush appearing on her cheeks as she did so. Just before Kagome's question, Miroku had whispered to the exterminator that he hoped the two of them could practice some more "understanding" together.
"In a tree?" Kagome thought as her eyes scanned the lower hanging branches. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment when she suddenly spied the familiar red haori lounging on one of the tree limbs. As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, common sense told her it was only Shippo.
"Since when has Shippo slept in trees?" she questioned, still staring at the tiny form wrapped in the fire-rat jacket.
"It started a few weeks back. Whenever you went back to your time, he would sleep on one of the Goshinboku's branches near Inuyasha," Miroku answered, smiling at the memory of how embarrassed the hanyou had been after the monk discovered Inuyasha trying unsuccessfully to sing some sort of lullaby to the tiny kit one night. Luckily for Inuyasha's tough-guy image, Miroku's silence had been bought with some girl magazines the hanyou had "borrowed" from Kagome.
"Maybe we'll let him sleep a little longer," Kagome stated as she began to roll up her sleeping bag.
"Hai, that sounds like a good idea. It's been…a tough couple days for him," Sango agreed, giving Miroku a look that said 'It's now or never.'
The monk nodded his head and cleared his throat. "Kagome, Sango and I have discussed it, and we feel-" he paused as she turned her eyes to him. Miroku noted how tired she still seemed before clearing his throat again and continuing, "We feel it'd be best if we went back and found Inuyasha's…um, his, uh…if we found Inuyasha, so that we could perform a proper ceremony."
As Miroku talked, Kagome paused from rolling up her sleeping bag; her hands now gripping the soft fabric tightly. There was an awkward silence between the three of them as the monk and demon exterminator waited for the young miko's reaction.
"Hai, Miroku, I….I agree."
Sango let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Then I think it would be wise for us not to be caught there after dark. A great number of youkai were there last night."
"Good point, so we'll leave as soon as we finish eating," Miroku said as he pulled out a stack of plates from Kagome's giant backpack. The fish that Kirara had caught at a nearby stream earlier that morning would be a good enough meal to travel on. With any luck, they would reach their destination a little after noon.
"Leave for where?" a voice that came from above asked them. All three turned their heads to the small kitsune who had just crawled out of the fire-rat haori. Shippo was furiously scratching behind his ear with his tiny paw as he jumped down from the tree limb, the haori in tow. Kagome smiled as the red jacket fully enveloped the young kit once he landed on the ground.
"We're going back to the meadow we were at last night, Shippo," the miko explained as Shippo poked his head again out of the haori
"Oh," was his only response. A look of recognition suddenly flashed across his face as he grabbed behind his ear and yanked hard, pulling out some stray hairs as well as an engorged flea. "I thought I smelled you, Myouga."
"My apologies, young Shippo, but I was in great need of sustenance after my long journey," the old demon replied as he bowed to Shippo, who now held the flea in the palm of his hand.
"We haven't heard from you in a long time, Myouga, where have you been?" Miroku asked as he walked up and bent down in front of Shippo.
"Not in a pleasant place, believe me. But for the last week, I have been searching for all of you. I had hoped to find you in Lady Kaede's village. However, when I arrived, I was told you had all left the previous day. I am very relieved to have finally found you so that I might warn you all."
"Warn us of what?" asked Sango as she knelt down beside Miroku.
"Before I answer that question, Lady Sango, I wish to first speak to Lord Inuyasha, as this affects him a great deal," Myouga answered before noting the sudden sadness and uneasiness that covered the group around him like a heavy blanket.
Miroku noticed Shippo's shaking hand before putting forth his own, the prayer beads wrapped tightly around it. The kitsune deposited the flea demon into the outstretched hand before running over into Kagome's embrace.
Myouga took the scene in from his new vantage point with a look of utter confusion on his face.
"Inuyasha was captured almost two weeks ago, Myouga," Sango informed him, glancing back and forth between the flea and the young woman and kitsune.
Myouga's face fell and his shoulders slumped, a wave of sadness washing over his entire body. "Then it is already too late."
"More so than you think," Miroku began in a voice that sounded more tired than he looked. "We…we found him last night, in a field. He had been crucified."
A muffled sob was heard behind them. Without turning, Miroku guessed the sob belonged to Shippo.
"I see. Is he…has he already passed on?" Myouga asked as he sat on one of the prayer beads around Miroku's hand.
Another sob was heard, this time clearly Kagome, who at that time decided to take Shippo and leave the campsite as well as the conversation. Sango looked over at Miroku and Myouga before standing up, "I'll go follow her and make sure she's alright."
Miroku nodded and then turned back to the flea. "To answer you question, yes, Inuyasha sacrificed himself to a horde of demons in order for us to escape."
Myouga sighed and looked down at the monk's hand. He rubbed at his eyes, wiping away the tiny tears that threatened to spill. Kneeling there, Miroku realized for the first time how long Myouga must have known their recently deceased friend. From the stories that Myouga had told them of a young Inuyasha, Miroku guessed that not a day had gone by in the hanyou's life that he had not known Myouga the flea.
For the second time in as many days, Miroku did not know what to say. "I'm…I'm sorry, Myouga. I realize how long you had known him."
"Hai, it's…it'll be okay," the flea stated as he stood up from the prayer bead. "I just wish…I could have prevented it, could have warned him."
"Please, Myouga, tell me what happened to Inuyasha. All of us are confused why someone would take the time to do that to him," Miroku pleaded as he sat down, the flea demon still in his hand.
"Hai, alright," Myouga said with a sigh before telling Miroku the tale of how Inuyasha had had a bounty placed upon his head from the moment he was born.
He was, after all, just a hanyou.
**********
Kagome sat on a log as she tried to calm the sobbing kitsune. Rubbing the back of his head, she quietly whispered in his ear. "It's okay Shippo. Everything is going to be okay." "I hope."
Shippo was able to gain some control over himself as he stared at the ground in Kagome's arms. "It's all my fault, Kagome. It's my fault he got captured and…and…" another sob burst from the young fox demon's mouth as he buried his face in Kagome's shirt.
"Shippo, you can't blame yourself like that. You didn't do anything wrong," she cooed in his ear, hoping to assure him.
"I-I got angry at him when he let you leave," the kit said in a meek voice, the last bout of sobs now subsiding. "Then I ran off and that's when all the demons attacked me. He…he got captured cause he was trying to save me."
Kagome sat in silence for a moment. She hadn't really known the details behind Inuyasha's capture. Miroku and Sango tried to avoid talking about it; probably because they feared Shippo would blame himself.
"Inuyasha was captured right after our huge fight," Kagome thought as more of what Shippo told her sunk into her head. She clutched Shippo all the tighter as the memories from that day at the Bone-Eaters well came rushing back to her.
**********
Kagome had had it! Inuyasha had once again abruptly left Kaede's village to "take care of a few things" in the forest, alone.
"'Take care of a few things' my ass!" Kagome thought as she walked angrily to the well. "It's more like he wanted to spend some time with his precious Kikyo!"
Kagome had once again stumbled upon them, having ignored Inuyasha's comment that what he was going to do in the forest was none of her business.
"If he so much as tries to stop me from leaving, I'm going to 'sit' him into oblivion!"
"Kagome," a familiar, and expected, voice called from behind her.
"Sit."
"Shit!"
The louder-than-normal crash indicated he might have been in mid-leap when she used the subduing spell. "Good."
"Damn it, wench!" Inuyasha snarled as he shook the last remnants of numbness from his legs, a side-effect that always happened after he crashed to the ground. "She's pretty pissed off," he thought as he continued after her, this time avoiding taking to the air.
"Kagome, listen to me!" he yelled as he almost caught up to her.
"Sit."
"Shit!" he snarled again as he crashed to the ground right behind Kagome. He once again shook off the last bits of the subduing spell before pushing himself off the ground. They had finally reached the well. Kagome only stood there facing it before she finally turned around to face the hanyou.
"You're not leaving, Kagome," Inuyasha said as he crossed his arms and turned his face to the side, avoiding her gaze that was a mixture of hurt and anger.
"Why the hell not, Inuyasha?" she replied in a livid tone. He snapped his head to face her, surprise written over his face at her colorful use of language.
"Why do you even want me here? Can you actually tell me that?" she continued as a tiny tear found its way down her cheek.
Inuyasha did not like where this conversation was going. She had never been so direct when questioning him before. The look in her eyes, however, told him to not even think about mentioning the words 'shard detector.'
"I'm serious, Inuyasha. Give me a reason for why you always want me here beside you," Kagome pressed on, the look of anger in her eyes giving way to a pleading one. "Please, tell me why."
"I-" Inuyasha began before closing his eyes and looking to the side again, a sigh of defeat escaping his lips.
Kagome bowed her head in sad understanding. "I thought so," she whispered before turning back to the well.
Suddenly, a small ball of brown and orange fur burst from a nearby bush and bounded over to Kagome. Shippo latched onto Kagome's shirt, refusing to let go.
"Don't leave, Kagome!" he yelled before turning and pointing a tiny claw at Inuyasha. "And don't listen to him. He wants you to stay here as much as I do!"
Kagome glanced up from Shippo and at the hanyou, who now wore his own pleading look. She slowly walked up to him and handed him the kitsune.
"I'm sorry, Shippo," she said, taking a step back, "but Inuyasha already made his decision; I can't stay here."
"Why the hell not?" Inuyasha finally asked, echoing her earlier question.
The indignation behind those words cut at Kagome. It was as if he didn't realize what he was doing to her every time he ran off to meet Kikyo. It was as if he really didn't know how much he meant to her.
"Inuyasha," she began, hoping her next words might sting him as much as his had her, "have you ever stopped to wonder whether I was happy here? Or that maybe I might be happier in my own time? With people like me?"
The meaning behind her words hit Inuyasha hard. His ear drooped as his eyes closed and his head bowed. The hand that wasn't holding Shippo clenched into a fist, his claws drawing blood from his palms.
With Shippo still in hand, Inuyasha turned and began walking away from the well and into the forest. Shippo took one last look over the hanyou's shoulder as the girl from 500 years in the future disappeared over the well's lip, maybe gone forever.
**********
Kagome was broken out of her thoughts by hand gently shaking her shoulder. She looked up at Sango, who now held a napping Shippo.
"Are you going to be alright, Kagome?" the demon exterminator asked.
Kagome rubbed at her eyes which had become red from some crying she didn't even realized she had done. "Hai, Sango. I was…I was just remembering."
Sango nodded her head in understanding. "Come on, then, let's get back to camp. We'll need to leave soon if we want to make it to that meadow before nightfall."
Sango helped Kagome up and the two began to walk back to camp, an untransformed Kirara walking in front of them.
**********
Miroku turned towards Kagome and Sango as they entered the campsite. He gave Sango a look which asked 'Is everything alright?'
Sango replied with a small smile and nod before asking, "Are we ready to go?"
"Hai, soon," Miroku responded, "but I think that first the two of you should hear what Myouga has told me regarding the 'who' and 'why' behind all that has happened."
Both girls nodded as they sat down and took the fish that Miroku offered them. Myouga jumped from his place on Miroku's shoulder and landed on the monk's knee, facing the two human females and the slumbering kit. Kirara padded over to the group and lay down in front of Kagome, who now absently petted the fire-kitten's head.
"I think it is best to start off at the beginning," Myouga explained as he settled down on the monk's knee.
"Over one hundred years ago, Inu-taishou, Lord Inuyasha's father, took a human woman for a mate. The woman was Inuyasha's mother, and a year afterwards, Inuyasha was born," the flea said matter-of-factly.
"The uproar among demons that surrounded a taiyoukai taking a human mate only intensified when their hanyou child was born. The other taiyoukai were furious and wanted the child destroyed.
The most adamant of the Great Demons was Kuma-shiro, the White Bear of the Northern Lands. He called for the remaining taiyoukai to help him exterminate the young hanyou, as is the way most demons act when they encounter a half-breed.
Inu-taishou knew that he could not protect his son forever; the hatred towards hanyous was far too great for the other taiyoukai to ignore. However, he did convince the others to wait one hundred years, until Inuyasha would be able to defend himself," Myouga informed the group as he looked from Sango to Kagome.
"So the taiyoukai are the ones who captured Inuyasha?" Sango asked, still unclear on some of the details surrounding the hanyou's death.
"Hai, in a way," Myouga answered. "Two weeks ago marked the one hundredth anniversary of the agreement between Inu-taishou and the other taiyoukai. A meeting was called to order by Kuma-Shiro to determine Lord Inuyasha's fate. All the Great Demons were there, including Inuyasha's half-brother, Sesshomaru."
"Why wasn't Inuyasha there? Isn't he considered a Great Demon?" Kagome asked. Myouga's story was starting to become frighteningly clear. Inuyasha had been hunted and killed for no better reason than being a hanyou.
"Technically speaking, yes, he is one of the Great Demons of the Western Lands. However, the other taiyoukai were just as unwilling to acknowledge that as Sesshomaru is. Kuma-shiro, most of all, hated Lord Inuyasha for his human lineage. In the decades since Inu-taishou's death, Kuma-shiro has become the dominant taiyoukai. It was easy for him to convince the others to sentence Inuyasha to death," Myouga explained.
"Did Sesshomaru do nothing to defend his brother, Myouga?" Sango asked.
"He…convinced them to give Inuyasha three weeks notice. I was to inform my master by then, but…"
"But what?" Kagome asked again.
Myouga's shoulders slumped as a look of hatred crossed his tiny face. "Kuma-shiro kept me imprisoned after the meeting. He promised to release me in a week's time, to see just how quickly I could find and warn Inuyasha. I knew Inuyasha would need to know of the danger that was now after him as soon as possible, but…I was too afraid to risk an escape."
Myouga paused to compose himself. "He released me a week later, as promised, and I held out hope that I could still reach my lord in time. However, it seems that Kuma-shiro had no intention of following the Great Demons' decision and has already finished what he set out to do a century ago."
Miroku finally spoke up as Myouga motioned that he was finished. "Myouga says that we are now in Kuma-shiro's territory. About a day's journey to the south are the Western Lands."
"What should we do now, then?" Sango asked as she stood up and stretched.
"I propose we follow through with our plan to retrieve Inuyasha's body," Miroku responded, also standing up. Myouga hoped over to rest on Kirara's head as the monk continued. "However, Myouga has informed me that Kuma-shiro rules these lands through fear and aggression. We best be on our guard."
Kagome nodded as she stood up and took the slumbering Shippo from Sango's arms. "Hai," she said, "let's get going then."
**********
I had a little trouble getting this chapter started because I didn't know where I wanted the story to really go. However, now I have a clear picture in my head and am already starting on Chapter 4.
Authors note: kuma = bear; shiro = white; Kuma-shiro = White Bear
Extra points for anyone who guesses what type of youkai he is…
Oh yeah, taiyoukai = head/great demon. So Inu-taishou means Great Dog Demon.
Now onto the review responses for Chapters 1 & 2:
Gigi-chan: Thanks for the kind words. You were the first to review my first story. I hope the story has gotten a little happier since the first chapter. Granted, I still have some loads of angst in store, I also have some happier scenes as well.
E. Marie: As you can see, I've decided to continue with the current progression of the story while cleverly throwing in flashbacks every now and then (like in this chapter). I'm hoping the story gets even better because I have some ideas in store that aren't very common to the Inuyasha genre (at least not from what I've seen). Keep reading.
Kurayami no Kakikishoku: Wow. After reading your review, I had to rethink the idea that Inuyasha might have survived the demons' attacks. You're right; I'd have to be pretty naïve to believe he could. However, I think I came up with an even better idea for a story that I don't think has been done before in the Inuyasha genre. Lets wait and see, but I hope you'll be able to read this story again soon.
Dark Mimiru: Too late, I've already decided to continue with the story as is. However, like you have already read, flashbacks will be slipped in to give you an idea of what the hell happened before Chapter 1.
Crispy muffin: Don't worry; I won't leave anyone hanging much longer on the fate of Inu. By the way, I plan on making this a pretty long story, so no fear of me leaving everyone with an abrupt and unsatisfying ending. Unfortunately for you, just because I'm moving the story along doesn't mean I don't have tons more angst to write.
Ehtne: Like I said before, I hope the story has gotten a bit happier. The flashbacks are indeed just flashbacks which will be used to fill in any cracks in the story (there are a lot of them, aren't they?). I wouldn't count out a non-flashback appearance by our favorite hanyou sooner or later, though. A shiny dollar, you say?
Sorrow: Hey, the guy's got an image to keep.
Silverinudogdemond: Score, I'm perfect.
Remember, please review!