Motherly Memories and Visions

Songfic Oneshot by Patriot1776

Song: Vision of Mother by Ralph Stanley

InuYasha was just sitting at the table watching as Kagome and Mama Higurashi were making their dinner for that night. He had come to get her that day after another one of her 'tests', and she'd insisted staying for the night with her family and then leaving in the morning. After a little arguing, he'd given in, but not because he had wanted to leave early, but mostly because he actually did enjoy squabbling with her a little. Truth was, InuYasha didn't mind at all her staying an extra night with her family, because she still had something he hadn't had since he was a child: a mother to come home to and talk to.

So there InuYasha sat, idily watching, when memories started to come back to him. He began to remember and visualize himself playing with sticks and rocks inside of his mother's hut, at her knee with her watching. The scene then switched to something different. It was something he didn't ever remember seeing in his childhood. He saw his mother again, Izayoi, and also his father, the Inu no Taisho, standing in a beautiful garden that seemed to be amongst the clouds, a sky of bluest blue around them. Instead of being dressed in the kimono he always saw her in, Izayoi was instead now dressed in a pure white raiment, whiter than the whitest snow. His father was dressed similarly, and he was standing guard over her, protecting her. He saw her kneel down and begin to pray a prayer of guidance and safekeeping. He was confused as to what it meant.

………………………

Oft my thoughts drift back to childhood

To the times when I was free

As I played before the fireside

Round my darling mother's knee

There's a blessed home up yonder

Where my loved ones wait for me

I saw mother in a vision

Kneeling there to pray for me

………………………

It was a few days later. They had gone out to see if a youkai infestation was being led by one with a jewel shard. They got there, but unfortunately there were no jewel shards to be found. One thing they did find however, touched InuYasha deeply. While looking around in the village afterwards, they had found a little boy crying uncontrollably. When they had asked him what happened, he said that the youkai had killed his mother, his father already dead from having gone to war and never coming back. Kagome immediately said they were going to find the boy a new adoptive family, and everybody had expected InuYasha to refuse to let the kid tag along with them, but he had agreed with Kagome without argument, because the sight had reawakened one of the most painful memories he had.

It was the day Izayoi had died from a very bad fever. She had felt hot for several days prior to it, but he had always thought she'd get better when she wasn't feeling well,becauseshe always had. This time however, she hadn't, and he had cried for days afterward. Then at that time a vision had come to him. It had been a vision of father, telling him it wasn't safe to stay in the village he was in anymore. His father had told him mother was actually in a better place now and not to worry about her. Instead, his father told him to start worrying about himself and to start searching for somebody, anybody, who would befriend him and help him. That was the day his decade long journey for who turned out to first be Kikyo, and then Kagome, had begun.

Then the other vision, the one of Izayoi kneeling in the garden praying, his father watching over her, happened again. She prayed the exact same prayer as before, but InuYasha knew it couldn't be a memory, maybe it was a dream, because he again heard his mother's voice. In the meantime, back in reality, him and the others had had to go to another village, but they did find the orphaned boy a new home and family.

…………………………….

Then one day our mother left us

Daddy said she'd gone to rest

I remember how she loved me

As she clutched me to her breast

There's a blessed home up yonder

Where my loved ones wait for me

I saw mother in a vision

Kneeling there to pray for me

………………………………

That night, while sitting up in his tree, InuYasha contemplated what the visions of his mother and father he'd been seeing were actually meaning. Then the vision came again. Again, his mother knelt and prayed the same prayer. This time InuYasha couldn't take it anymore, he had to know what was going on.

"Mother? Father?" He heard his own voice say in his head, he wasn't really expecting a response. He was agape, when the reply came.

"Yes, my son?" Izayoi then asked.

"What's going on? I've seen you two doing this for the past few days. I'm confused." The Inu no Taisho then smiled and answered.

"Watching over you, my son. Your mother has been praying for your safety and well being ever since she joined me here in the afterlife. It has pained us to tears many times to see you go through the things you've experienced, but you've become a very fine young man in spite of that. Despite your faults boy, you've become everything I had hoped you would become and then some. I cannot express in words how proud of you I am. Kami-sama decided to allow us to speak to you over the last few days to remind you we are always watching over you and to tell you not to stray from the path you've chosen. Keep doing what you are doing my son, and tell Kagome the same too. If you both do, then eventually someday you and Kagome will come up here to join me and your mother to spend eternity with us." InuYasha smiled. Izayoi then spoke.

"My son, continue to cherish and protect Kagome. You will not find another one like her. Your father protected me while he was alive with the same dedication and devotion you protect Kagome with. Please listen to her words of comfort and wisdom when she offers them. Farewell my son." And with that, the vision faded, and InuYasha was left smiling, tears welling up in his eyes.

…………………………..

Some sweet day I'll meet you mother

Your little boy is coming home

To see you as in days of childhood

The one you loved and left alone

There's a better home up yonder

Where my loved ones wait for me

I saw mother in a vision

Kneeling there to pray for me

…………………………….

-

Author's Note:

The song is this songfic was, as in 'Unbroken Circle', a bluegrass piece. 'Vision of Mother' is a piece by Ralph Stanley, one of the giants and living legends of bluegrass.

With this songfic, its safe to say that I've practically started a series of InuYasha bluegrass-sonfics. Next songfic I probably write however is probably not going to have a bluegrass piece in it, just to do a piece from a different genre. I've started doing sonfics like this to help keep my love and enjoyment of writing going. Please review!