Disclaimer: Neither I nor Itadaikimasu claim any right to Inuyasha. All
recognisible characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Enjoy.
----
Mr. Higurashi rushed his wife over to the emergency room, panting heavily while pushing her wheelchair. She was about to give birth. It was her first child.
He was scared out of his wits.
"Quickly, quickly, if you want her to survive!" the nurse beside his wife cried. She was holding an IV tube up in the air. He felt sick as he watched the small drops of blue liquid trickle slowly into his beloved wife's arm.
Something had gone wrong with the pregnancy, terribly wrong. It seemed as though the baby was intwined in her womb, almost choked. It had stayed in that position for over 24 hours. The woman's life was on the line. Tears ran down her husband's face while she cupped it gently, telling him that everything was going to be all right. It was the irony of it that made him smile. Usually he was the optimistic one and she the pessimistic of the two, yet the situation was completely turned around now. By the time he had finished rambling on in his own thoughts, they had reached the delivery room. The young nurse beside his wife signaled the two other people that were in the room to lift the woman up onto a stretcher. With a few struggles, they managed to do so. One of the nurses was about to close the door on Mr. Higurashi's face when she was interrupted rather rudely by him.
"What do you think you're doing? I have a right to be in that room!" he shouted out in a perplexed voice, weren't fathers usually WANTED in the delivery room?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Higurashi, normally you WOULD be in that room, but right now, the situation is too critical to have you inside there. You might distract her attention, and she would be focused on you instead of the baby and what she is doing." The nurse tried to calm him down, keeping her voice and tone hushed so that almost nobody could hear their conversation.
"What the. . .?" Mr. Higurashi threw his hands in the air. He tried to grab the nurse's arm as she went inside the delivery room once again, but she was too quick. She turned around once more at his attempt to stop her, fixing him with a cold glare that sent shivers up his spine.
"This area is off limits, Mr. Higurashi, you are not allowed in here. If you do somehow manage to set your foot inside, you will be immediately detained by medical staff and we will be forced to send you to the police. Have a good day, and we will try our personal best to save both the baby and its mother." The nurse slammed the door in his face, leaving him devastated. No matter what happened, the baby being born was going to be his, and if his wife or child were going to die, didn't he have a right to be there at their last moments? To think that he would have to leave them at this critical stage, when he had been there with her through all the long months of the pregnancy. . .
Mr. Higurashi sat down on the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area while holding his head in his hands, trying not to rip the few pieces of hair he still had out. He let loose a disappointed groan and decided to walk around the hospital a little to calm his moods down. As he was about to pass the coffee machine, he saw a little room, full of newly born babies, wrapped in tiny clothes and pink or blue blankets. He stared into the window, his sweaty palms pressing against the cold glass.
"God, please, let them survive! They are my life!" Mr. Higurashi pleaded towards the sky, hoping for the best. He knew there was absolutely nothing he could do but pray. "I'm not asking for too much, am I? I haven't done anything truly evil in my life. I'm just a normal person, but every person needs another to love," He paused for a moment in his prayer to choke back an anguished sob. "So please, spare their lives, even if you decide to take mine somehow." He closed his eyes gently and walked away from the room full of babies, deciding to sit down and stay still at the waiting room. That way, if anything happened, he wouldn't be very far away.
-----
(in the delivery room)
"Quick! Give me that blade! We have to perform a caesarian!" The head doctor shouted out to the nurse beside him. He was completely aware that the operation was going to be risky, but it was their best chance.
"Here? NOW? But that operation could kill her!"
"Don't question my orders! If we decide to deliver the baby the natural way, she would be even more in danger!"
"May I ask why, doctor?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, clenching her teeth because of the pain that was twisting inside of her.
"Delivering a child that way would take a long time, longer than a caesarian. The child would have been inside you for too long without oxygen, and you will have had a toxic reaction. By then, it may have been strangled to death in your womb as well. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
The doctor knew though, that the woman was far from all right, but he guessed she knew it too. He could see her smile bravely at him as she nodded her head. Thoughts of the little newborn girl he had at home flashed through his head, forming a grim smile on his face. No one deserved to have their child taken away from them. His mind raged with determination as he adjusted the mask that would supply the courageous woman on the table in front of him with anesthetic.
-----
Mr. Higurashi couldn't take it anymore. He walked over towards the doors of the delivery room and stood outside of them clicking his fingers, something he always did when he was nervous. He sighed in frustration and begged to all the gods he knew of for the doors to open for just a second so he could at least get a glimpse of what was going on.
"Excuse me sir." A nurse said as she tapped him on his shoulder. "But waiting outside the doors like that is prohibited."
This one was the final straw.
"I DON'T CARE IF IT IS PROHIBITED OR NOT! MY WIFE AND MY UNBORN CHILD ARE STUCK IN THERE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! THEY MIGHT BE DEAD FOR ALL I KNOW!"
He stopped to try and control his rage, but he found that he couldn't. Chest heaving from his ragged attempts at breathing, he continued to take out his frustration on the poor nurse.
"I THINK IT'S BEST IF I STAND OUT HERE BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY, NOT ONE MINUTE LATER, NOT ONE SECOND LATER, IF ANYTHING HAS HAPPENED!"
The nurse backed away, surprised at his reaction, and something quite unexpected happened.
She smiled.
"That's fine Mr. Higurashi. But we'd prefer it if you tone down a little!" she walked away from him, apparently about to continue her duties, when he called out to her, still stunned at her response.
"T-thanks, ...This really means a lot to me."
"No problem."
Suddenly, a scream could be heard from the delivery room. It was high- pitched, and Mr. Higurashi swore the sound of it alone could break ear drums. Just as quickly as it came, it died down again. Mr. Higurashi frantically turned around again expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
The doctor came out, peeled off his blood covered gloves, and invited him into the room.
"Where is she?" Mr. Higurashi asked.
The doctors and nurses looked down fallen. His heart felt like it had broken into millions of pieces and scattered across the world, never to be found again. A strangled noise tore itself from his throat, and tears made a slow path down his rough, unshaven face. He had lost her... his beautiful wife. Full of spirit and love. Or, maybe it was their child. An innocent being that never had a chance to experience life. Or... Oh God. Could he have lost both of them? He remained speechless with horror.
Suddenly the staff's faces brightened. Pitying frowns were replaced with happy smiles.
"CONGRATULATIONS! You're now the father of a beautiful baby boy. We'll show you to the room of your wife and son."
Mr. Higurashi sighed in relief, tears forming yet again in his dark brown eyes. He wiped them away with his palm and shook the doctor's hand furiously while thanking him again and again.
"Thank you. Just... thank you. May I please ask what the name is of the man I owe my family's life to?
"Of course, Mr. Higurashi, although I think you're giving me too much praise. Your wife did most of the work," He said modestly, smiling at Mrs. Higurashi. "I am Ishizaka, Mizone Ishizaka. And you're very welcome."
-----
Mr. Higurashi walked inside his wife's room while congratulating her on giving her first birth. He looked at the tiny child that she held in her hands fondly. His face was so delicate, his hands so tiny. He looked like a doll, but he sure wasn't as quiet as one!
"What should we call him?" he asked his wife.
"Why don't you decide a name?" she suggested. Her husband had always been the good one at names.
"No, I think you should. After all, you gave birth to him."
"Don't you forget it," she said with a sly wink. Her face suddenly turned thoughtful. "When I was a child, there was this legend that I heard so often of a boy from Japan and a girl from a faraway country and time. When I heard that story and its lovely ending I said to myself that if I grew up and had a child of my own, I would name him or her after the boy or girl in that story. But I can't remember what the names were..." She had a faraway look in her eyes, as if trying to see something that was not there, grasp something that was unreachable.
"Do you mean the Feudal Fairy Tale? Is it that legend? The one with the boy that was half human, half youkai?" he asked.
"Yes! You know it too?"
"Of course. I grew up with a father that was obsessed with legends after all."
She chuckled softly as she remembered. Her face soon grew serious again. "Do you know the boy's name?"
"Yes, it was. . .Inuyasha."
"Then Inuyasha it shall be." She tickled the chin of her newborn son and smiled at the chuckle she got from him. The doors whooshed open suddenly, interrupting the perfect moment. Mizone Ishizaka calmly entered and asked Mr. Higurashi to step out of the room.
"Mr. Higurashi, there's something that I must discuss with you." The doctor had a serious look on his face.
"What is it?" he asked questioningly.
"It's your wife. She doesn't know this yet, but, .....well," He hesitated.
"Spit it out!" Mr. Higurashi was getting impatient.
The doctor sighed and continued. "While we were operating we found that she had a tumor growing inside of her. That's why the baby's position was not usual. We were forced to remove it."
Mr. Higurashi let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "Than everything's o.k, right?"
"That...That's not all, Higurashi-san. We also had to take away some of the organs it had managed to spread to. She can't bear any more children."
"A tumor? Is she going to be all right? And what do you mean she can't bear any more children? I want an explanation!" Questions were pouring out of him like a river, but he couldn't stop.
"Calm down Mr. Higurashi, the tumor was entirely benign. She will be fine in that respect. Unfortunately, because of the loss of a few organs, it will be impossible for her to have any more children. It's not that she's not allowed to, she just simply will not be able to."
Mr. Higurashi was shocked at the mention of this. He and his wife had always wanted to have many children to share their love with, but their dreams were now shattered. He couldn't bear to tell his wife... She had been the most enthusiastic of the two to have a large family. She would be devistated.
"Fortunately, sir, there is a preferred alternative." The doctor said.
"And what is that? I'm willing to try anything, anything at all."
"Adoption."
------
----
Mr. Higurashi rushed his wife over to the emergency room, panting heavily while pushing her wheelchair. She was about to give birth. It was her first child.
He was scared out of his wits.
"Quickly, quickly, if you want her to survive!" the nurse beside his wife cried. She was holding an IV tube up in the air. He felt sick as he watched the small drops of blue liquid trickle slowly into his beloved wife's arm.
Something had gone wrong with the pregnancy, terribly wrong. It seemed as though the baby was intwined in her womb, almost choked. It had stayed in that position for over 24 hours. The woman's life was on the line. Tears ran down her husband's face while she cupped it gently, telling him that everything was going to be all right. It was the irony of it that made him smile. Usually he was the optimistic one and she the pessimistic of the two, yet the situation was completely turned around now. By the time he had finished rambling on in his own thoughts, they had reached the delivery room. The young nurse beside his wife signaled the two other people that were in the room to lift the woman up onto a stretcher. With a few struggles, they managed to do so. One of the nurses was about to close the door on Mr. Higurashi's face when she was interrupted rather rudely by him.
"What do you think you're doing? I have a right to be in that room!" he shouted out in a perplexed voice, weren't fathers usually WANTED in the delivery room?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Higurashi, normally you WOULD be in that room, but right now, the situation is too critical to have you inside there. You might distract her attention, and she would be focused on you instead of the baby and what she is doing." The nurse tried to calm him down, keeping her voice and tone hushed so that almost nobody could hear their conversation.
"What the. . .?" Mr. Higurashi threw his hands in the air. He tried to grab the nurse's arm as she went inside the delivery room once again, but she was too quick. She turned around once more at his attempt to stop her, fixing him with a cold glare that sent shivers up his spine.
"This area is off limits, Mr. Higurashi, you are not allowed in here. If you do somehow manage to set your foot inside, you will be immediately detained by medical staff and we will be forced to send you to the police. Have a good day, and we will try our personal best to save both the baby and its mother." The nurse slammed the door in his face, leaving him devastated. No matter what happened, the baby being born was going to be his, and if his wife or child were going to die, didn't he have a right to be there at their last moments? To think that he would have to leave them at this critical stage, when he had been there with her through all the long months of the pregnancy. . .
Mr. Higurashi sat down on the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area while holding his head in his hands, trying not to rip the few pieces of hair he still had out. He let loose a disappointed groan and decided to walk around the hospital a little to calm his moods down. As he was about to pass the coffee machine, he saw a little room, full of newly born babies, wrapped in tiny clothes and pink or blue blankets. He stared into the window, his sweaty palms pressing against the cold glass.
"God, please, let them survive! They are my life!" Mr. Higurashi pleaded towards the sky, hoping for the best. He knew there was absolutely nothing he could do but pray. "I'm not asking for too much, am I? I haven't done anything truly evil in my life. I'm just a normal person, but every person needs another to love," He paused for a moment in his prayer to choke back an anguished sob. "So please, spare their lives, even if you decide to take mine somehow." He closed his eyes gently and walked away from the room full of babies, deciding to sit down and stay still at the waiting room. That way, if anything happened, he wouldn't be very far away.
-----
(in the delivery room)
"Quick! Give me that blade! We have to perform a caesarian!" The head doctor shouted out to the nurse beside him. He was completely aware that the operation was going to be risky, but it was their best chance.
"Here? NOW? But that operation could kill her!"
"Don't question my orders! If we decide to deliver the baby the natural way, she would be even more in danger!"
"May I ask why, doctor?" Mrs. Higurashi asked, clenching her teeth because of the pain that was twisting inside of her.
"Delivering a child that way would take a long time, longer than a caesarian. The child would have been inside you for too long without oxygen, and you will have had a toxic reaction. By then, it may have been strangled to death in your womb as well. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
The doctor knew though, that the woman was far from all right, but he guessed she knew it too. He could see her smile bravely at him as she nodded her head. Thoughts of the little newborn girl he had at home flashed through his head, forming a grim smile on his face. No one deserved to have their child taken away from them. His mind raged with determination as he adjusted the mask that would supply the courageous woman on the table in front of him with anesthetic.
-----
Mr. Higurashi couldn't take it anymore. He walked over towards the doors of the delivery room and stood outside of them clicking his fingers, something he always did when he was nervous. He sighed in frustration and begged to all the gods he knew of for the doors to open for just a second so he could at least get a glimpse of what was going on.
"Excuse me sir." A nurse said as she tapped him on his shoulder. "But waiting outside the doors like that is prohibited."
This one was the final straw.
"I DON'T CARE IF IT IS PROHIBITED OR NOT! MY WIFE AND MY UNBORN CHILD ARE STUCK IN THERE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! THEY MIGHT BE DEAD FOR ALL I KNOW!"
He stopped to try and control his rage, but he found that he couldn't. Chest heaving from his ragged attempts at breathing, he continued to take out his frustration on the poor nurse.
"I THINK IT'S BEST IF I STAND OUT HERE BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY, NOT ONE MINUTE LATER, NOT ONE SECOND LATER, IF ANYTHING HAS HAPPENED!"
The nurse backed away, surprised at his reaction, and something quite unexpected happened.
She smiled.
"That's fine Mr. Higurashi. But we'd prefer it if you tone down a little!" she walked away from him, apparently about to continue her duties, when he called out to her, still stunned at her response.
"T-thanks, ...This really means a lot to me."
"No problem."
Suddenly, a scream could be heard from the delivery room. It was high- pitched, and Mr. Higurashi swore the sound of it alone could break ear drums. Just as quickly as it came, it died down again. Mr. Higurashi frantically turned around again expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
The doctor came out, peeled off his blood covered gloves, and invited him into the room.
"Where is she?" Mr. Higurashi asked.
The doctors and nurses looked down fallen. His heart felt like it had broken into millions of pieces and scattered across the world, never to be found again. A strangled noise tore itself from his throat, and tears made a slow path down his rough, unshaven face. He had lost her... his beautiful wife. Full of spirit and love. Or, maybe it was their child. An innocent being that never had a chance to experience life. Or... Oh God. Could he have lost both of them? He remained speechless with horror.
Suddenly the staff's faces brightened. Pitying frowns were replaced with happy smiles.
"CONGRATULATIONS! You're now the father of a beautiful baby boy. We'll show you to the room of your wife and son."
Mr. Higurashi sighed in relief, tears forming yet again in his dark brown eyes. He wiped them away with his palm and shook the doctor's hand furiously while thanking him again and again.
"Thank you. Just... thank you. May I please ask what the name is of the man I owe my family's life to?
"Of course, Mr. Higurashi, although I think you're giving me too much praise. Your wife did most of the work," He said modestly, smiling at Mrs. Higurashi. "I am Ishizaka, Mizone Ishizaka. And you're very welcome."
-----
Mr. Higurashi walked inside his wife's room while congratulating her on giving her first birth. He looked at the tiny child that she held in her hands fondly. His face was so delicate, his hands so tiny. He looked like a doll, but he sure wasn't as quiet as one!
"What should we call him?" he asked his wife.
"Why don't you decide a name?" she suggested. Her husband had always been the good one at names.
"No, I think you should. After all, you gave birth to him."
"Don't you forget it," she said with a sly wink. Her face suddenly turned thoughtful. "When I was a child, there was this legend that I heard so often of a boy from Japan and a girl from a faraway country and time. When I heard that story and its lovely ending I said to myself that if I grew up and had a child of my own, I would name him or her after the boy or girl in that story. But I can't remember what the names were..." She had a faraway look in her eyes, as if trying to see something that was not there, grasp something that was unreachable.
"Do you mean the Feudal Fairy Tale? Is it that legend? The one with the boy that was half human, half youkai?" he asked.
"Yes! You know it too?"
"Of course. I grew up with a father that was obsessed with legends after all."
She chuckled softly as she remembered. Her face soon grew serious again. "Do you know the boy's name?"
"Yes, it was. . .Inuyasha."
"Then Inuyasha it shall be." She tickled the chin of her newborn son and smiled at the chuckle she got from him. The doors whooshed open suddenly, interrupting the perfect moment. Mizone Ishizaka calmly entered and asked Mr. Higurashi to step out of the room.
"Mr. Higurashi, there's something that I must discuss with you." The doctor had a serious look on his face.
"What is it?" he asked questioningly.
"It's your wife. She doesn't know this yet, but, .....well," He hesitated.
"Spit it out!" Mr. Higurashi was getting impatient.
The doctor sighed and continued. "While we were operating we found that she had a tumor growing inside of her. That's why the baby's position was not usual. We were forced to remove it."
Mr. Higurashi let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "Than everything's o.k, right?"
"That...That's not all, Higurashi-san. We also had to take away some of the organs it had managed to spread to. She can't bear any more children."
"A tumor? Is she going to be all right? And what do you mean she can't bear any more children? I want an explanation!" Questions were pouring out of him like a river, but he couldn't stop.
"Calm down Mr. Higurashi, the tumor was entirely benign. She will be fine in that respect. Unfortunately, because of the loss of a few organs, it will be impossible for her to have any more children. It's not that she's not allowed to, she just simply will not be able to."
Mr. Higurashi was shocked at the mention of this. He and his wife had always wanted to have many children to share their love with, but their dreams were now shattered. He couldn't bear to tell his wife... She had been the most enthusiastic of the two to have a large family. She would be devistated.
"Fortunately, sir, there is a preferred alternative." The doctor said.
"And what is that? I'm willing to try anything, anything at all."
"Adoption."
------