A Hanyou in Tokyo

By socchan

Ten: New Moon

Shifting the precious cargo in his arms, Inu-Yasha reached out for the doorknob and turned. He carried Kagome back into the office, startling a wave of gasps and murmurs from the assembled family. Rin rushed up, a worried look on her face. "What happened?"

"She mostly drained herself taking out a monster in there." Inu-Yasha replied, laying the girl down on Sessho-maru's immaculate desk. "The magic trap should be restoring some of her energy as we speak, but even so, I don't know how long she'll be out. The more power you have, generally, the longer it takes to restore. Even with Kagome's advanced restoration rate, it'll take a while with how powerful she is." Straightening her clothes, he pulled the cord the ring hung on out from under them. If he concentrated, he could see power flowing from a white-hot spark in the center, slightly resembling a firefly, to the different energy centers of Kagome's body. He breathed a sigh of relief to see she hadn't found out how to tap into the magic trap yet.

Rin turned to Sessho-maru. "How did a monster manage to penetrate your father's grave?"

Sessho-maru sighed, and closed the door they had used behind them. He opened the other door, revealing a perfectly normal office with a small black pearl in the middle of it. This he scooped up and pocketed. "I made the transport spell a long time ago, as you may recall. Perhaps the barriers weakened a bit since then; Gods know I didn't check on them often enough. I think the Nothing Woman was drawn by our memories at first, and slipped in on one of the occasions I visited, when my memories got stronger. She had also gotten stronger than when we last dealt with her." Sessho-maru closed the second door, and then opened them both, first one at a time, then together. Each time revealed nothing more than an empty room. Satisfied that the spell was effectively broken, Sessho-maru closed the doors again and took his place by the desk next to Rin.

"I'm sorry this happened, Inu-Yasha." Rin said. "I was hoping you could meet more of your relatives."

"What happened now?" Kagome asked, voice scratchy. She tried to sit up on the desk and get a feel of her surroundings, but only succeeded in propping herself up on her elbows. She rubbed her forehead wearily. "Man, I've got a killer headache!"

"Kagome!" Rin cried, wrapping her up in a hug. "Oh, thank God you're okay!"

Kagome blinked. "Huh?"

"You almost drained yourself again, bitch." Kagome turned to see an irate Inu-Yasha scowling out the window.

"Oh." Kagome blushed slightly. "Oops."

"Oops? Oops?!" Inu-Yasha exploded, whirling around to face her. "You nearly got yourself killed again and make yourself vulnerable to further attack and all you have to say is oops?!"

Kagome's blush darkened. "Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to, really! It's just, you were in trouble so I had to do something!"

Inu-Yasha closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, gently. "Never mind. Is there any cinnamon in this building?"

"There's coffee and donuts in the lounge downstairs. I think they have cinnamon rolls, too." Inu-Yasha turned to see Nathan standing next to him.

"That should work. Could you bring up about three? And a cup of coffee."

Nathan blinked. "Why the coffee? I don't think we have cinnamon flavor."

"The coffee's for me." Inu-Yasha replied.

"Selfish jerk." Kagome muttered.

Inu-Yasha flicked one of his ears at her. "I heard that, you know."

"Good; now you know what I think of you."

"Is that any way to treat someone who just saved your life?"

"Not really. Should that make a difference?"

"That had to hurt." Nathan muttered.

Inu-Yasha redirected his scowl from Kagome to Nathan. "You should learn to respect your elders, boy. And why are you still up here? I thought I told you to go fetch us some coffee and cinnamon rolls!"

Nathan rolled his eyes and began to walk off. "Yeah, yeah…"

"You know, if age were judged by maturity, you'd still be in infancy, Inu-Yasha." Kagome remarked.

"Ah, that wouldn't be so bad." Inu-Yasha replied. "After all, some people sell their soul trying to be young forever."

"Not that young."

"Amusing though this senseless bickering may be," Sessho-maru interrupted, drolly, "I believe Inu-Yasha has some relatives to meet."

"Aw, but it was about to be reduced to immature name-calling!" Kagome whined. "Can't we bicker senselessly while he's being introduced?"

"No."

"Moot point anyway, Kagome." Inu-Yasha said, conversationally. "You don't have the energy to stand, let alone walk around meeting people. It's a wonder you have the strength to argue."

"Just wait until I get that cinnamon." Kagome growled. "Then, you're a dead man."

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Why you--!" Kagome lunged for Inu-Yasha. With a yelp, he leapt out of the way, causing Kagome to land on the floor. "Ow…" Kagome rubbed her side and glared. "Come back here and try that again, doggie boy!"

Inu-Yasha snorted and rolled his eyes. "Come on. I may be dense, but I'm not that dense."

On the floor, Kagome seethed. "Just you wait, Inu-Yasha." She vowed. "I'll get my revenge. You'll see. Even if it's not now, you'll have to put that necklace on sometime, and then, you'll be sorry!"

Nathan approached the desk, blinking. In one hand was a plate with three industrial-sized cinnamon rolls on it, in the other, a steaming cup of coffee. "I missed something, didn't I?"

"I think we all did," was Rin's reply as Inu-Yasha grabbed the cup and Kagome tugged piteously at Nathan's pants leg for a roll.

Rin and Sessho-maru accompanied Kagome and Inu-Yasha back to the shrine. The gathering had gone on for several more hours, and Kagome had fallen asleep halfway through. She was now curled up on the seat next to Inu-Yasha, snoozing peacefully, her head on his shoulder. (Inu-Yasha's cheeks tended to color whenever he was reminded of this, so he did his best to ignore it.) The sky was painted red and gold as the limo pulled up to the steps in front of the shrine.

Inu-Yasha was reaching for his seatbelt when he was stopped.

"Inu-Yasha…" Sessho-maru said, hesitantly.

The hanyou met his half-brother's eyes across the space between their seats. "Hmm?"

"I know we haven't been very friendly in the past, and you'd have no reason to accept, but we were wondering… I was wondering," he corrected himself, "if you would consider coming to live with us?"

Inu-Yasha stared at him, speechless. Finally, he got his mouth to work. "I'm… honored that you would even think of asking me to stay with you, really, but…" He looked at Kagome where she leaned against him. "I kind of already have a home." He finished, quietly.

Sessho-maru nodded. "I understand. I'll make the necessary arrangements for you to stay. If you're ever in need of someplace to stay or have legal matters that need to be cleared up…"

"I know." Inu-Yasha replied. "I'll come straight to you. You wouldn't mind if I visited from time to time, would you?"

"Not at all." Sessho-maru assured him. He glanced at his watch. "You'd best be on your way." He said.

"Right." Inu-Yasha unbuckled his seatbelt and smiled crookedly. "See you around, Sessh." Gently, he shook Kagome's shoulder. "Yo, Kagome."

Kagome blinked, sleepily. "Hmm?"

"We're back."

"Oh." Kagome looked around, covering a yawn. Suddenly realizing the position she was in, she shot upright, blushing. "Uh, sorry." She murmured.

Inu-Yasha shrugged a shoulder and opened the door, glad to have his back facing her. "It's no biggie. C'mon, let's get going; I smell something cooking."

Kagome rolled her eyes and stepped out of the limo after him. "That's all you ever think about: food, food, food."

Rin and Sessho-maru watched the two as they argued all the way up the steps; then, Sessho-maru closed the door, and gave the signal to leave. The limo pulled away from the shrine, leaving hanyou and miko in peace for the time being.

Inu-Yasha flopped down backwards on his bed, stuffed full. He sighed in contentment, watching the sun set lazily through the window. The Tetsusaiga hung on a rack above his bed, battle-ready in case of need. Happy and content, Inu-Yasha let his eyes drift slowly shut…

He sat up again with a frown. Something felt wrong… He glanced out the window as the sun at last sunk behind the hills, the last rays of light dragging behind it like streamers. Realization dawned on his face, and he glanced down at his hand to make sure; true enough, his nails were shrinking down. He threw back his head and screamed in frustration.

There was the sound of a door being opened, then slammed shut in haste, followed close by footsteps all but running down the stairs. Kagome threw open the door to find him sitting dejectedly on his bed, looking at his hands. "Inu-Yasha? What's wrong? What happened?"

He looked up at her, helplessly. "It's the new moon." As he spoke, his hair changed in a wave from white to black, starting down at the tips and flowing up to the roots.

Kagome frowned, confusion and concern playing over her features. "Inu-Yasha, I don't understand. What's happening?" He couldn't have put the necklace on; it was still in her room. So why was he turning human?

He looked into her eyes just as a wave of indigo overtook their natural gold. He sighed, and looked away, becoming almost entranced with the bed covers. When he spoke, it came slowly, as if the words were weighted down with something. "You know I'm a hanyou, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well most of the time my demon blood is dominant, but once a month, my human side has to take over."

"But what about the necklace?" Kagome argued. "Shouldn't that count?"

Inu-Yasha shook his head. "No; the necklace gives my human blood more influence over my appearance, but nothing more. On a new moon my demon blood wanes and leaves me," he lifted a hand as an example, "like this." He let it drop beside him again.

Kagome looked at him carefully. "So once a month, you're officially human." He nodded, listlessly. Kagome shrugged. "Well, that's not so bad."

Inu-Yasha glared at her. "How, exactly, is it 'not so bad'?"

She sat down on the bed beside him. "You could be human all the time instead of just once in a while. And most of us don't seem to mind it all that much." Inu-Yasha continued to frown, but didn't say anything. Kagome sighed. "Well, it looks as if you're going to sulk all night despite my efforts so far, so we may as well stay up until you stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Inu-Yasha blinked. "Don't we have school in the morning?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm kinda full of cinnamon tea at the moment, and that stuff has caffeine, so it's not like I'd be getting much sleep anyway." Kagome got to her feet and started walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Inu-Yasha asked. She just said she'd stay up with him, right? She wouldn't be leaving him alone and helpless after all that fuss she'd made.

"To get a pack of cards."

"Cards?" Inu-Yasha blinked.

"Yeah." Kagome flashed him a grin. "I'm gonna teach you how to play poker."

Inu-Yasha sat on the bed, dumbfounded, wondering whom exactly he had to poke, and why exactly Kagome wanted him to, as well as why she had to teach him.

Naraku crept over the ground as silently as he was able. He wouldn't get another opportunity like this in a long time, and then it might be too late. There was no way the girl and hanyou would leave themselves this vulnerable again.

Naraku had been forced to rely on going human that night in order to sneak through the kitsune's defenses. Still, the girl might be able to sense the evil that tainted his system and the hanyou would surely recognize his scent on another night. His wasps were too loud to be used in this densely populated area, too, so tonight he could cut no corners. He'd have to do everything by hand.

Soon he reached the site where the miko's ashes had been buried. He took a shovel from where it had been strapped to his back, and began to dig. As he moved the earth, the scar on his back from the fire so long ago began to burn, faintly, and the skin around it pulled. Before long, pain began to shoot through his back like shards of glass as he lifted earth from the hole. Those shovel-fulls he emptied into a wooden chest. In one shovel-full, one that nearly blinded him with pain, was a twisted ring of stone beads. The ash was highly concentrated around these.

When he was satisfied with the amount of earth he had collected, he secured the chest, and strapped it and the shovel to his back. Slowly, painstakingly, he made his way away from Sunset Shrine. Even as a human, the power emanating from the area made his teeth ache. He glanced back to make sure that everything was as he had found it—with the exception of the miko's remnants in the chest—then continued on his way.

As he walked, he was assaulted by memories. Memories of a time when he was weaker, the last days of his human exsistance. There was a time when he had longed, even lusted, for the woman whose ashes he now carried on his back. But she did not want him; she wanted the dog hanyou near the village, though she did not realize it at the time. The hanyou also wanted her, though it was doubtful that he'd realized anything, either. He coveted their attentions, and began to plot their downfall. It was these events that triggered the birth of Naraku.

The day he put his plan into action, one of his first as Naraku, stood out clearly in his memory. He had shifted his shape to take on the form of the dog hanyou, and wreaked havoc on the village. He took his pain and anger out on the villagers who never paid him any good will and on the very miko whose attention he so desired. He then retreated to watch from the shadows.

He witnessed the miko pinning the hanyou to the tree, and her death, cremation, and burial, then moved on. As he traveled, he passed slightly twisted versions of the story on to whoever cared to listen.

Onigumo had not been quiet at first. He was angry that he had not gotten everything he wanted. Little by little, he battled the demons he had absorbed and gained power. Naraku had no inner peace until he accepted Onigumo and his desires.

The memories faded at last as Naraku walked through the city. The pain began to subside as the distance between him and the shrine grew, but the scar on his back still burned where the wooden chest rested. It didn't matter—not for long, anyway. Soon, he'd rise again, stronger than he'd ever been, the miko at last at his side.

Kagome studied the face of her opponent, looking for any hint of weakness; she found none. She glanced to the small cinnamon-sugar cookies they were betting with, and then back to her hand. Her eyes returned to Inu-Yasha's blank face. Again, she could read nothing. With an inner sigh of resignment, she laid down her hand.

"Three Jacks."

A very toothy grin spread over Inu-Yasha's face as he laid down his own hand. "Four Queens."

Kagome groaned as he swept the small pile of cookies between them away to his own rapidly growing stash. "How can you be so good at this? Two hours ago, you didn't even know what poker was!"

Inu-Yasha shrugged, still grinning like a maniac. "It's a gift."

Kagome scowled. "I hate you."

Inu-Yasha popped a cookie into his mouth. "Well, at least now I know. 'Nother game?"

=^-,-^= End Chapter Ten =^-,-^=

Yay! Computer's fixed! ^_^ Still won't let me save as HTML, though, so I'm sort-of improvising.

I was really tempted not to update for a few more days, until I got a few chapters ahead again. I mean, how would you know when my computer was up and running or not? Then I remembered something really important I had to say as soon as possible, so I'm updating now. I'm not going to make a long story short, because I've wanted to keep it long for quite a while now.

A few days after my last update, I was scanning through my favorite author's stuff to see if there was anything I hadn't read yet, when I stumbled across a summary that looked vaguely similar. Swallowing anxiety, I clicked on the link to read it. The bottom dropped out of my stomach as I got farther along; the story had a strikingly similar concept to this one. Frantic, I checked the date. Sure enough, it had been put up on FF.net before mine. I signed off the computer for about an hour as I pondered what to do. Finally certain that if I asked anyone for help that they would tell me to confess, I wrote an e-mail to the author explaining the situation and asking for permission to continue writing.

I got a reply the next morning. The author said that not only did I have her permission to continue writing; I didn't even have to say that I got the idea from her fic (which certainly wasn't true, but I was willing to say so anyway). The entire situation had gone better than I had hoped. All I had to do was put in a note about it the next time I updated. She said that she believed that there were coincidences, and that there were no truly original ideas in fan fiction anyway.

Relieved beyond imagination, I sent a reply saying that of course I would put a note up in my next update, and would she do the same? She would indeed. I practically skipped through school the rest of the day.

To anyone in a similar situation to mine, I urge you to contact the other author as soon as possible, before some fan of his or her story finds out and tattles. Things go much worse that way, I've found (though not from personal experience).

If you want to read a fic with a very similar concept to this, though with better characterization, a different feel, and, unfortunately, slower updates, check out 'Kaigan' by Clara. If that also means you don't wish to continue reading this one, I completely understand, though if you do wish to continue, I'll be delighted. See, it's not really that great minds think alike. Often enough they think very differently from one another. It's more that great minds are susceptible to similar wavelengths. That said and done, I move on to review responses.

Teo: Yes, Inu-chan will be fighting more demons now. Though not without help ^_~. I hope I gave a good enough explanation of how the Nothing Woman got in for everyone. I'll be sure to include more of Nathan just for you. Also, it wasn't just that one chapter that was dedicated to you; it was the entire sequence with Sesshy and Rin.

Tenshineko: You were right again. Maybe I am encouraging a bad habit, but if you get it all out in my story, then other authors won't have to worry as much, ne? I'm giving you an outlet here. I hope I did a good enough job with Inu-chan pulling rank on Nathan for you. The softening of Sesshy probably took a couple of centuries at least, but if anyone could do it, Rin could. I suppose you could say that Sesshy got Inu-Taisho's grave from somewhere else, though I'll have to get into a deeper explanation of how later. I was planning on doing a special chapter on it ^_^. This does not necessarily mean that Inu-chan will be mastering the Tetsusaiga relatively sooner. As to corresponding reincarnations, you'll just have to wait and see.

Leina: Sorry, no Bankotsu—yet. I don't really have much of a plan for the Seven-Man Army as of yet, but I do have a general idea in mind for them. Do you have any suggestions? I'll be sure to give you credit if I use them. And yes, Bankotsu is an eye candy, I'm well aware.

DiaBLo: As a matter of fact, the characters do say their attack names—in the manga, at least. I haven't seen much of the anime, so that's really what I'm going by.

Well, I think that's everything. I'd like to take this time to shamelessly plug my IY one-shot. It has relatively good characterization, a well-checked Japanese pun so it's actually saying what I mean, and a dedication that may or may not include you. Plus, it's short. It's the only reason I feel even slightly less guilty for getting this chapter out late. (Speaking of which, I'm going to try and get the next ones out as soon as possible until I'm back up to speed; I might not make it, but I'm on the last day of a three-day weekend, so I figure it's worth a shot.)

Next chapter will focus on Shippo, just for a change. Fox-power ^_^! Woo-hoo!

Disclaimer: Too lazy and too late to think of anything creative. Suffice to say, I don't own Inu-chan and co.

Ciao!

Edit (1-1-04): Not much changed here, either.  Maybe a word changed here or there.  That was an embarrassingly long wait between chapters, too. ^^; Oops.

-socchan