Inuyasha was having trouble keeping quiet. Okay, it was nice to have Myouga back after all this time. It meant to him that they were getting close to returning to the village. But did the flea-youkai really have to divulge his entire life story to a relative stranger like Juanyu?
The two of them were having a delightful talk about him; blatantly ignoring the topic of their conversation. Inuyasha didn't know how much longer he could put up with this. He knew that they did have to stop soon, night was falling and making walking in this thick woods more difficult.
"Hey, Hikaru. Do you see any good places to camp somewhere up ahead. It's getting dark and we should stop before one of us breaks something," he called out. But he received no response. Looking up, he was surprised to see that Hikaru wasn't there.
"Hey! Hikaru where are you? Don't joke with us!" he cried out in growing alarm. This wasn't certainly not funny. Without hr, Inuyasha didn't have any real idea how to back to the village.
The others had noticed at this time that Hikaru was indeed missing. They began to call out for her in earnest. Inuyasha sniffed the air for her scent. But it was no where to be found. Where had that miko gotten to?
******
Sesshomaru paused for a moment. Behind him, Jaken and Rin also stopped with their lord.
"What is it, Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin asked.
The youkai was silent for a moment. "Nothing," he finally replied, "I thought that I had heard something. It must have been the wind."
The human child accepted that answer, but the small youkai wasn't so certain. He knew his lord. There was a look in his eyes that said that something was out there. May not necessary be a threat, but it was worth guarding against.
Jaken sighed. This whole trip was strange. No one, not even Sesshomaru-sama could remember why they were in this forest. It had seemed like a good shortcut at the time but now with the thickening trees and rough terrain, he wasn't so sure.
Sesshomaru knew that he had heard something just now, but he didn't want to alert his followers. They would only want to get involved and he didn't want that. Whatever it was, he was sure that he could deal with on his own. Also, this whole place was giving him a nagging felling that he had been here before. It may have been years if it was true, but he couldn't remember when he had been in this area or why.
Something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He whiled his head quickly in hopes of seeing it properly, but he only saw a glimpse. Yet that glimpse was enough.
"It can't be," he muttered. Louder, "Jaken, Rin. Get on my back. Now!"
Wordlessly they clambered on just as he began to run. That shape he saw, it couldn't be. It just couldn't; not after all this time. Besides, he was dead.
******
Inuyasha paused in his shouting to think. Where could have that miko gone? It wasn't like she would willingly abandon them or anything like that. Nor would she have gotten lost, she was in the lead. No, something else must have happened to her.
Behind him, Juanyu was still calling out for Hikaru. He couldn't imagine what had happened to her. One moment she was right in front of the group, leading the way through this damn forest and the next, she was gone!
"Hikaru-sama! Hikaru-sama! Where are you…" his voice quieted by an eerie sight. Barely within vision was a figure in white, almost silver in color. And the energy that Juanyu could feel from him was intense.
"Who is that guy?" Inuyasha said, showing up at his side. He too had noticed the power emitting from this stranger and wondered if this guy had anything to do with Hikaru's disappearance.
"Oh my goodness!" cried Myouga. He had a pair of hands to his mouth and was quivering with barely suppressed excitement.
"Myouga, what the hell is wrong with you?" Inuyasha said. Just then the figure turned and moved away, deeper into the forest.
"Oh, oh! Inuyasha-sama, hurry! Go after him!"
"What the hell for?"
Myouga turned his face up. Inuyasha was surprised to see that his eyes were a mixture of disbelief and certainty. "That is your father, Inuyasha-sama," was the reply.
Inuyasha said nothing but began running with Juanyu not far behind.
******
"Hello? Guys? Come on now, if you're hiding somewhere come out. This isn't funny," Hikaru said. She had been wondering for a few minutes now and getting nowhere. Night had truly fallen, she was lost, alone, hungry, and getting more scared by the minute. What could have happened to them?
Hikaru.
She stopped in her tracks. It could have been the wind, but the miko could have sworn that someone was calling her name…and it wasn't any of the men.
Hikaru, please child come here.
No, it wasn't the wind, something was definitely out there. And he, she, it wanted her to come to them.
Gulping, Hikaru began to walk to where the voice came from. No use in pretending she didn't hear or ignoring the command. It might make things worse. Then again, it wasn't so much a command as a request. Damn her curiosity but she had to know who it was that calling to her in such a motherly way.
******
Inuyasha raced through the forest following the ghost (he thought that it was the only thing that it could be) with Juanyu a few steps behind. No matter how fast they moved, the apparition seemed to be always just far enough ahead to keep the chase going.
Gradually the trees thinned and gave way to a clearing. There Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks and Juanyu nearly ran into his back.
"Hey, Inuyasha. What's the matter? Why did you stop?" he said.
Inuyasha stood frozen. He couldn't be here. But then it had been many years since he left and he had traveled a lot. His recent travels could have brought him back.
"I'm…I'm home," he whispered.
"Huh?"
"This…this place. This is where I lived when Mother was alive," Inuyasha said. "I can't believe that I'm back. I thought that I would never be back here."
Juanyu looked around. "No offense to you or your Mother, Inuyasha. But it doesn't look like anyone has lived here for a while," he said.
The hanyou took a moment to look and realized that Juanyu was right. No one lived here now and haven't for a while. The grass of the once even lawn was now knee high and rest of the garden was overrun as the plants had been neglected over the decades. The house, which they could see in the distance was looking its age. It building was still in one piece but pieces of it were falling off. Yet Inuyasha could still recognize this place as where he had spent his childhood years with his human mother.
"The manor must have been abandoned not long after your mother's death, Inuyasha-sama," Myouga commented. He looked at his lord and saw tears well up in the hanyou's eyes. It was because of this show of emotion that the flea was proud to serve his former master's younger son.
Just then, not too far from where they were standing Sesshomaru burst out from the forest with his two followers on his back.
"Hey, Sesshomaru. What are you doing here?" Inuyasha yelled.
"That's the older brother of Inuyasha?" Juanyu asked in wonder.
"Yes, he is. Sesshomaru-sama and Inuyasha-sama had the same fathers but different mothers," Myouga explained.
Oh, that explains the difference in power that I'm sensing," Juanyu said.
His older brother smirked. He didn't want to admit that he was surprised to see his younger brother here. Then he remembered where he was. This was the hovel where his younger siblings were born. He never did understand why his father would want to spend so much time here.
"Hey, asshole! I'm talking to you! Answer me!" Inuyasha demanded. Sesshomaru never failed to annoy him one way or another. It was one of his more loathsome traits.
"If memory serves me right…then this is the place where that worthless human wench spawned you. Isn't that right, Inuyasha?" he said.
Inuyasha growled and swore that if big brother or not, if Sesshomaru had anything to do with Hikaru's disappearance he would pay for it.
"Don't go insulting my mother. Say whatever you want about me! And another thing, did you have anything to do with Hikaru?" he responded.
Sesshomaru was confused. "Who?"
"The hanyou girl who was traveling with us a few minutes ago. Somehow she just vanished. Did you do anything to her?"
Sesshomaru snorted. "Now why on earth would I want anything to do with another hanyou. I can barely tolerate your tainted presence," he said.
++Can you just feel the brotherly love here?
Inuyasha's growling only got louder and more menacing. But Juanyu found his older brother more frightening. The way that he just stood there and not show any emotion, like he was a living statue. And the power that he was emitting was also a factor. This youkai was powerful, he knew it and wasn't afraid to let others know the same. All of that made him more scary than Hikaru gone berserk.
"That's enough from both of you!" a voice called out. The brothers relaxed and turned to the voice. Who was that?, they both wondered.
Standing by what remained of a pagoda stood a youkai. He had silver hair going done to his feet and it was bound at the end. His clothes were finely made and the cut was made to comfortable and at the same time regal and acceptable in case of combat. The golden eyes held the viewer with their authority yet kept there by the unexpected warmth. He looked to be middle aged, but he really could have been much older. His expression was hard to tell, as it was with most youkai. And the power resonating from him was greater than anyone assembled there.
Sesshomaru and Myouga were holding their breaths at the sight presented to them.. Whatever they thought they had seen separately…was in front of them.
The youkai walked slowly over towards them. "Some distant part of me had hoped that the two of you would have learned to get along with each other. But I guess I should have know better, eh? Inuyasha, you were too young and you, Sesshomaru, were too set in your ways even for someone as young as you were," the youkai said. His gaze fell onto Rin. "Yet I see there's still hope for you."
"Wait a second! How did you know my name? And his for that matter?" Inuyasha said. There was something disturbingly familiar about this guy.
The stranger stopped a little in front of them and stared.
Myouga made the jump from Inuyasha's shoulder to the other youkai's. "Please for give him, sir. He doesn't realize what he's saying!"
The youkai looked down at the flea. And he smiled. "Please, Myouga. Give some credit. I never really expected the boy to remember me. He was still an infant when I died. But I'm glad that he was able to retrieve Tetsusaiga." He reached out and put his right hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "I'm glad that you were able to make use of it," he said
Inuyasha could smell that this guy was a dog-youkai, like his father and older brother. Then an idea slowly emerged in his mind. It seemed outrageous but it might explain a lot. Slowly, he removed the hand and looked at the fingers closely. He sighed, all the claws were still there. None of them were missing from binding a dragon-youkai to a mountain wall.
The youkai chuckled. "Wrong hand, Inuyasha," he said. He held up his left hand and Inuyasha saw that the claw on the left pointer finger was broken off at tip.
Inuyasha gasped and stepped back. The shock was so overwhelming that his body swayed. Fortunately, Juanyu was there to steady him and stop him from fainting.
"Inuyasha, who is he? Do you know him?"
Inuyasha nodded. "Yes. He's my father."
******
Hikaru walked further along the trail the voice was leading her on. She still had no idea who was calling her; but she figured out a few things. First, it was definitely a woman speaking. Second, she doubted that whomever it was wanted to cause her any harm; if he or she did, they would have done so by now. Third, she was getting close, the voice was getting louder and less mysterious.
And yet through all of this, she hadn't any sign of Inuyasha, Juanyu, or Myouga. The miko was really getting worried about them. She knew that they must have realized that they had gotten separated by now. Hikaru hoped that whatever was guiding her wouldn't try to harm them.
Soon Hikaru came out of the forest into a neglected garden. By the looks of things, no one had lived here for many years. The same could be said of the manor the garden edged on. Hikaru had no idea where to go next when a light showed up in one of the ground floor rooms.
She stepped forward and stepped up onto the walkway that must run the whole building. The door slid open in front of her.
"Oh, you're here! I'm so glad that you came, Hikaru. Please come in, I managed to get some tea made for us," her apparent hostess said. She was a woman older than Hikaru but hadn't any gray hair yet. Her clothes were very fine and looked richly made. Hikaru could see lines of sadness edging her face but the relief in her eyes was doing a good job combating that. And Hikaru saw the beauty still upon her.
"Thank you, ma'am. But may I ask, how did you know my name and that I would be in the forest?"
"I can answer some of that. But first have some tea," the woman replied. She poured the tea and served Hikaru graciously.
The miko took her cup and sipped carefully for the brew was hot. She liked the tea that was served here. It was much better than anything they tried to pass from back on the island. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Hikaru waiting and grateful to rest her feet while the woman looking at her.
Eventually, Hikaru couldn't wait any longer and the staring was getting at her. She set done her cup and tried to think of a way to approach this without being rude.
"Um, ma'am, I'm grateful for the tea and the chance to rest. But you haven't answered my question," she stated.
The woman looked up in surprise and laughed to herself. "I'm sorry, child. I didn't mean to be rude. But I have waited for so long for this moment that now it is here, everything I thought to say to you has slipped my mind. I don't know where to begin.
"But you're right. I haven't answered your question and it also seems like just a good beginning as any. Now, please have patience and bear with me. What I'm going to say may seem unbelievable but I assure you that it true."
"All right, I can agree with that," Hikaru said. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. This whole situation was weird. Had this woman really been waiting for her this entire time. Why though?
The woman sighed with relief. "Thank you. The reason I know your name is because I'm the one who gave it to you. Hikaru, I'm your mother."
******
"Your father?" Juanyu said.
Inutaisho nodded. "Indeed I am. Although I died many years ago, I've been allowed to come back to see both of you," he said.
"Why?" Sesshomaru asked. Why was his father back now? And why did it have to include his stinking half-brother?
"I'm here to explain something to the both of you that affects your lives very much. It concerns your sister."
"What do you mean it concerns Hikaru?" Sesshomaru said.
For a moment, Inuyasha thought that his older brother was referring to his missing friend. Then he remembered that Hikaru was also the name of his younger sister.
"Yeah, isn't she dead?" Inuyasha added.
Inutaisho looked confused. "Dead? What do you mean, Inuyasha?"
"Myouga told me that my imooto died on the night she was born," Inuyasha said.
++ 'imooto' means younger sister.
The youkai took Myouga from his shoulder and held him in the palm of his hand. "Is this true, Myouga?"
The flea nodded.
There was a squishing sound as Inutaisho flattened the flea-youkai between his tow hands. Inuyasha looked shocked. He thought that he was the only one who did that.
"I'm sorry that both of you were unknowingly misled by Myouga. I can assure you that your sister didn't die that night."
His two sons looked at him. "What do you mean?" Sesshomaru asked. Something in him already guessed the answer but he wanted to hear it from Inutaisho.
He smiled, "Your sister, Hikaru, is alive and well. And the reason I was allowed to come back tonight is to reunite the three of you together."
The two of them were having a delightful talk about him; blatantly ignoring the topic of their conversation. Inuyasha didn't know how much longer he could put up with this. He knew that they did have to stop soon, night was falling and making walking in this thick woods more difficult.
"Hey, Hikaru. Do you see any good places to camp somewhere up ahead. It's getting dark and we should stop before one of us breaks something," he called out. But he received no response. Looking up, he was surprised to see that Hikaru wasn't there.
"Hey! Hikaru where are you? Don't joke with us!" he cried out in growing alarm. This wasn't certainly not funny. Without hr, Inuyasha didn't have any real idea how to back to the village.
The others had noticed at this time that Hikaru was indeed missing. They began to call out for her in earnest. Inuyasha sniffed the air for her scent. But it was no where to be found. Where had that miko gotten to?
******
Sesshomaru paused for a moment. Behind him, Jaken and Rin also stopped with their lord.
"What is it, Sesshomaru-sama?" Rin asked.
The youkai was silent for a moment. "Nothing," he finally replied, "I thought that I had heard something. It must have been the wind."
The human child accepted that answer, but the small youkai wasn't so certain. He knew his lord. There was a look in his eyes that said that something was out there. May not necessary be a threat, but it was worth guarding against.
Jaken sighed. This whole trip was strange. No one, not even Sesshomaru-sama could remember why they were in this forest. It had seemed like a good shortcut at the time but now with the thickening trees and rough terrain, he wasn't so sure.
Sesshomaru knew that he had heard something just now, but he didn't want to alert his followers. They would only want to get involved and he didn't want that. Whatever it was, he was sure that he could deal with on his own. Also, this whole place was giving him a nagging felling that he had been here before. It may have been years if it was true, but he couldn't remember when he had been in this area or why.
Something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He whiled his head quickly in hopes of seeing it properly, but he only saw a glimpse. Yet that glimpse was enough.
"It can't be," he muttered. Louder, "Jaken, Rin. Get on my back. Now!"
Wordlessly they clambered on just as he began to run. That shape he saw, it couldn't be. It just couldn't; not after all this time. Besides, he was dead.
******
Inuyasha paused in his shouting to think. Where could have that miko gone? It wasn't like she would willingly abandon them or anything like that. Nor would she have gotten lost, she was in the lead. No, something else must have happened to her.
Behind him, Juanyu was still calling out for Hikaru. He couldn't imagine what had happened to her. One moment she was right in front of the group, leading the way through this damn forest and the next, she was gone!
"Hikaru-sama! Hikaru-sama! Where are you…" his voice quieted by an eerie sight. Barely within vision was a figure in white, almost silver in color. And the energy that Juanyu could feel from him was intense.
"Who is that guy?" Inuyasha said, showing up at his side. He too had noticed the power emitting from this stranger and wondered if this guy had anything to do with Hikaru's disappearance.
"Oh my goodness!" cried Myouga. He had a pair of hands to his mouth and was quivering with barely suppressed excitement.
"Myouga, what the hell is wrong with you?" Inuyasha said. Just then the figure turned and moved away, deeper into the forest.
"Oh, oh! Inuyasha-sama, hurry! Go after him!"
"What the hell for?"
Myouga turned his face up. Inuyasha was surprised to see that his eyes were a mixture of disbelief and certainty. "That is your father, Inuyasha-sama," was the reply.
Inuyasha said nothing but began running with Juanyu not far behind.
******
"Hello? Guys? Come on now, if you're hiding somewhere come out. This isn't funny," Hikaru said. She had been wondering for a few minutes now and getting nowhere. Night had truly fallen, she was lost, alone, hungry, and getting more scared by the minute. What could have happened to them?
Hikaru.
She stopped in her tracks. It could have been the wind, but the miko could have sworn that someone was calling her name…and it wasn't any of the men.
Hikaru, please child come here.
No, it wasn't the wind, something was definitely out there. And he, she, it wanted her to come to them.
Gulping, Hikaru began to walk to where the voice came from. No use in pretending she didn't hear or ignoring the command. It might make things worse. Then again, it wasn't so much a command as a request. Damn her curiosity but she had to know who it was that calling to her in such a motherly way.
******
Inuyasha raced through the forest following the ghost (he thought that it was the only thing that it could be) with Juanyu a few steps behind. No matter how fast they moved, the apparition seemed to be always just far enough ahead to keep the chase going.
Gradually the trees thinned and gave way to a clearing. There Inuyasha stopped dead in his tracks and Juanyu nearly ran into his back.
"Hey, Inuyasha. What's the matter? Why did you stop?" he said.
Inuyasha stood frozen. He couldn't be here. But then it had been many years since he left and he had traveled a lot. His recent travels could have brought him back.
"I'm…I'm home," he whispered.
"Huh?"
"This…this place. This is where I lived when Mother was alive," Inuyasha said. "I can't believe that I'm back. I thought that I would never be back here."
Juanyu looked around. "No offense to you or your Mother, Inuyasha. But it doesn't look like anyone has lived here for a while," he said.
The hanyou took a moment to look and realized that Juanyu was right. No one lived here now and haven't for a while. The grass of the once even lawn was now knee high and rest of the garden was overrun as the plants had been neglected over the decades. The house, which they could see in the distance was looking its age. It building was still in one piece but pieces of it were falling off. Yet Inuyasha could still recognize this place as where he had spent his childhood years with his human mother.
"The manor must have been abandoned not long after your mother's death, Inuyasha-sama," Myouga commented. He looked at his lord and saw tears well up in the hanyou's eyes. It was because of this show of emotion that the flea was proud to serve his former master's younger son.
Just then, not too far from where they were standing Sesshomaru burst out from the forest with his two followers on his back.
"Hey, Sesshomaru. What are you doing here?" Inuyasha yelled.
"That's the older brother of Inuyasha?" Juanyu asked in wonder.
"Yes, he is. Sesshomaru-sama and Inuyasha-sama had the same fathers but different mothers," Myouga explained.
Oh, that explains the difference in power that I'm sensing," Juanyu said.
His older brother smirked. He didn't want to admit that he was surprised to see his younger brother here. Then he remembered where he was. This was the hovel where his younger siblings were born. He never did understand why his father would want to spend so much time here.
"Hey, asshole! I'm talking to you! Answer me!" Inuyasha demanded. Sesshomaru never failed to annoy him one way or another. It was one of his more loathsome traits.
"If memory serves me right…then this is the place where that worthless human wench spawned you. Isn't that right, Inuyasha?" he said.
Inuyasha growled and swore that if big brother or not, if Sesshomaru had anything to do with Hikaru's disappearance he would pay for it.
"Don't go insulting my mother. Say whatever you want about me! And another thing, did you have anything to do with Hikaru?" he responded.
Sesshomaru was confused. "Who?"
"The hanyou girl who was traveling with us a few minutes ago. Somehow she just vanished. Did you do anything to her?"
Sesshomaru snorted. "Now why on earth would I want anything to do with another hanyou. I can barely tolerate your tainted presence," he said.
++Can you just feel the brotherly love here?
Inuyasha's growling only got louder and more menacing. But Juanyu found his older brother more frightening. The way that he just stood there and not show any emotion, like he was a living statue. And the power that he was emitting was also a factor. This youkai was powerful, he knew it and wasn't afraid to let others know the same. All of that made him more scary than Hikaru gone berserk.
"That's enough from both of you!" a voice called out. The brothers relaxed and turned to the voice. Who was that?, they both wondered.
Standing by what remained of a pagoda stood a youkai. He had silver hair going done to his feet and it was bound at the end. His clothes were finely made and the cut was made to comfortable and at the same time regal and acceptable in case of combat. The golden eyes held the viewer with their authority yet kept there by the unexpected warmth. He looked to be middle aged, but he really could have been much older. His expression was hard to tell, as it was with most youkai. And the power resonating from him was greater than anyone assembled there.
Sesshomaru and Myouga were holding their breaths at the sight presented to them.. Whatever they thought they had seen separately…was in front of them.
The youkai walked slowly over towards them. "Some distant part of me had hoped that the two of you would have learned to get along with each other. But I guess I should have know better, eh? Inuyasha, you were too young and you, Sesshomaru, were too set in your ways even for someone as young as you were," the youkai said. His gaze fell onto Rin. "Yet I see there's still hope for you."
"Wait a second! How did you know my name? And his for that matter?" Inuyasha said. There was something disturbingly familiar about this guy.
The stranger stopped a little in front of them and stared.
Myouga made the jump from Inuyasha's shoulder to the other youkai's. "Please for give him, sir. He doesn't realize what he's saying!"
The youkai looked down at the flea. And he smiled. "Please, Myouga. Give some credit. I never really expected the boy to remember me. He was still an infant when I died. But I'm glad that he was able to retrieve Tetsusaiga." He reached out and put his right hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "I'm glad that you were able to make use of it," he said
Inuyasha could smell that this guy was a dog-youkai, like his father and older brother. Then an idea slowly emerged in his mind. It seemed outrageous but it might explain a lot. Slowly, he removed the hand and looked at the fingers closely. He sighed, all the claws were still there. None of them were missing from binding a dragon-youkai to a mountain wall.
The youkai chuckled. "Wrong hand, Inuyasha," he said. He held up his left hand and Inuyasha saw that the claw on the left pointer finger was broken off at tip.
Inuyasha gasped and stepped back. The shock was so overwhelming that his body swayed. Fortunately, Juanyu was there to steady him and stop him from fainting.
"Inuyasha, who is he? Do you know him?"
Inuyasha nodded. "Yes. He's my father."
******
Hikaru walked further along the trail the voice was leading her on. She still had no idea who was calling her; but she figured out a few things. First, it was definitely a woman speaking. Second, she doubted that whomever it was wanted to cause her any harm; if he or she did, they would have done so by now. Third, she was getting close, the voice was getting louder and less mysterious.
And yet through all of this, she hadn't any sign of Inuyasha, Juanyu, or Myouga. The miko was really getting worried about them. She knew that they must have realized that they had gotten separated by now. Hikaru hoped that whatever was guiding her wouldn't try to harm them.
Soon Hikaru came out of the forest into a neglected garden. By the looks of things, no one had lived here for many years. The same could be said of the manor the garden edged on. Hikaru had no idea where to go next when a light showed up in one of the ground floor rooms.
She stepped forward and stepped up onto the walkway that must run the whole building. The door slid open in front of her.
"Oh, you're here! I'm so glad that you came, Hikaru. Please come in, I managed to get some tea made for us," her apparent hostess said. She was a woman older than Hikaru but hadn't any gray hair yet. Her clothes were very fine and looked richly made. Hikaru could see lines of sadness edging her face but the relief in her eyes was doing a good job combating that. And Hikaru saw the beauty still upon her.
"Thank you, ma'am. But may I ask, how did you know my name and that I would be in the forest?"
"I can answer some of that. But first have some tea," the woman replied. She poured the tea and served Hikaru graciously.
The miko took her cup and sipped carefully for the brew was hot. She liked the tea that was served here. It was much better than anything they tried to pass from back on the island. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Hikaru waiting and grateful to rest her feet while the woman looking at her.
Eventually, Hikaru couldn't wait any longer and the staring was getting at her. She set done her cup and tried to think of a way to approach this without being rude.
"Um, ma'am, I'm grateful for the tea and the chance to rest. But you haven't answered my question," she stated.
The woman looked up in surprise and laughed to herself. "I'm sorry, child. I didn't mean to be rude. But I have waited for so long for this moment that now it is here, everything I thought to say to you has slipped my mind. I don't know where to begin.
"But you're right. I haven't answered your question and it also seems like just a good beginning as any. Now, please have patience and bear with me. What I'm going to say may seem unbelievable but I assure you that it true."
"All right, I can agree with that," Hikaru said. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. This whole situation was weird. Had this woman really been waiting for her this entire time. Why though?
The woman sighed with relief. "Thank you. The reason I know your name is because I'm the one who gave it to you. Hikaru, I'm your mother."
******
"Your father?" Juanyu said.
Inutaisho nodded. "Indeed I am. Although I died many years ago, I've been allowed to come back to see both of you," he said.
"Why?" Sesshomaru asked. Why was his father back now? And why did it have to include his stinking half-brother?
"I'm here to explain something to the both of you that affects your lives very much. It concerns your sister."
"What do you mean it concerns Hikaru?" Sesshomaru said.
For a moment, Inuyasha thought that his older brother was referring to his missing friend. Then he remembered that Hikaru was also the name of his younger sister.
"Yeah, isn't she dead?" Inuyasha added.
Inutaisho looked confused. "Dead? What do you mean, Inuyasha?"
"Myouga told me that my imooto died on the night she was born," Inuyasha said.
++ 'imooto' means younger sister.
The youkai took Myouga from his shoulder and held him in the palm of his hand. "Is this true, Myouga?"
The flea nodded.
There was a squishing sound as Inutaisho flattened the flea-youkai between his tow hands. Inuyasha looked shocked. He thought that he was the only one who did that.
"I'm sorry that both of you were unknowingly misled by Myouga. I can assure you that your sister didn't die that night."
His two sons looked at him. "What do you mean?" Sesshomaru asked. Something in him already guessed the answer but he wanted to hear it from Inutaisho.
He smiled, "Your sister, Hikaru, is alive and well. And the reason I was allowed to come back tonight is to reunite the three of you together."