"May, excuse me please, but can I ask you a personal (crunch) question." Kagome managed to say in between bites."
May shifted nervously. "Sure, what do you wish to know?"
"You mentioned (crunch) you're searching for your parents (crunch). That's so sad, did you never know either one of (crunch) them?"
Inuyasha stopped eating and looked up. May sat straighter and shifted to a more comfortable direction. "No I never did, but it's okay, I do fine for myself. I just want to know what happened, I want to learn something about my past. It use to be harder for me to deal with, but now I think, if I don't find out anything ever, I'll just never, you know, know for sure why my parents were separated from me." May looked away, "I've just gotta know."
Everyone bowed their head in sympathy except for Inuyasha who sniffed and scowled, "Why would you want to know someone who has done you in like that. If I were you I would be angry, don't you think things would be different if they really worried about you or where you are today." Kagome was furious, how could he act so rude to this poor girl.
"Inuyasha what has gotten into you, why are you being this way?"
Inuyasha retreated back into a deep thought. Across the way Miroku watched his friend and realized, something wasn't right. That was not anger in Inuyasha's voice, it was sorrow.
"Isn't she pretty Inuyasha? We will live a perfect life. I want to live in small town with trees all around where she can play and I can enjoy the beauty of the world." Voices echoed over and over. Inuyasha wanted it all to stop, the painful memories, and the worry. Why the worry, he looked at May, she was a stranger just like everyone else, one in many of the half-demons that walked the earth. "Yet, that smell, it's all coming back to me, I know that smell, I've always know that smell but how could it possibly be?" Inuyasha shook his head in frustration, "She's dead, they're both dead, who would take in a half breed like me?" Oblivious to the others Inuyasha rose and ran, he ran as fast and as far away as he could. Kagome mounted her bike and followed calling after him.
"Inuyasha, where are you going, slow down please." Kagome panted as she pushed herself to keep up in close pursuit. Inuyasha stopped short then turned to leap, landing right before Kagome's bike and causing her to swerve to a screeching halt.
"Why are you following me, I need to think and you need to go away."
Kagome puffed her cheeks in anger but relaxed understanding that something was obviously very wrong.
"Inuyasha, sit boy." Inuyasha fell to the ground and Kagome kneeled to his level.
"Something is obviously not being said here, you're acting weird, and you're scaring me. I want to know the truth… I don't want to see you like this!" A tear ran down Kagome's face as she looked him in the eye.
Inuyasha turned away, "there are things you wouldn't understand Kagome, things you never need to know about." Kagome placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Just try me, please, I want to help you face whatever it is that's troubling you." Inuyasha's face grew weary and he reached to brush away a tear.
"Look, I've been such a jerk to you," Inuyasha sighed out of fatigue, "I'm sorry okay? You need to understand that I, I don't want to talk about it."
Kagome lifted his chin gently, "Inuyasha, you can tell me anything. I care about you, you're my best friend. Do you understand that?"
Inuyasha flexed his ears and began to speak. "Come on Kagome," Inuyasha spoke tired and monotone, "Doesn't May look a little like someone you know? Wake up and think about it. Her eyes, her age, her hair, her scent, her part-demon?"
Kagome gasped bringing her hand to her mouth, "Inuyasha what do you mean?"
"Kagome, May isn't any old stranger that happens to look like me, I think that she may possibly be… my daughter."
All the color drained from Kagome's pail face and her stomach plummeted. Inuyasha attempted to shake away the anxiety but was unsuccessful, it was devastation.
"Inuyasha, but I don't understand, when… how?" Inuyasha rubbed at the corners of his eyes. Kagome Placed her hand on his shoulder and Inuyasha turned to look her in the eye. "Inuyasha what happened?"
He began calmly and slowly. "Never in my life had I known love. My family was crappy and torn; my peers treated me like I was a nothing because of the way I looked. I'm tough Kagome, I learned how to close people out, everybody, and unfortunately I sometimes close out the only people I have, the only people who ever showed me signs of compassion. Then I met a young woman named Kikyo and it was all the same, I learned to hate her just like everyone else. Yet something was different about her, she kept talking to me and slowly against my stubbornness a change began to occur. I began to grow closer, first just wanting to talk to her, then waiting just to meet her, and finally I found myself feeling something new, I was all out in love for the first time. I loved her so much, I was going to use the sacred jewel to become a full human, so we could be together for eternity."
Kagome looked downwards, "I understand but what about May?"
"One day Kikyo smelled different and we knew what it meant. May was of course born. Her real name was Ishimaru, I remember her mother insisted on it. We had it all planned out and we were going to live together as a family." Inuyasha tossed back his head angrily and bowed it back to where it was before. "Then you know what happened after that. Naraku screwed us both over and we were all ripped apart. When you awoke me fifty years later I assumed that she had passed too, just like her mother. We never told anybody about her, there was nobody to tell, and I couldn't imagine anyone taking in a lowly half-breed like myself. I didn't believe the possibility that she could be alive, I didn't want to believe that she was alive. Try to understand Kagome, I wanted to forget everything and its pain. I dreamed of her full grown and raised, but I awoke praying that it wasn't true, that she hadn't suffered much after our dreamed up reality went to hell. None of the things that happened should have ever happened. We were young and blinded by the promise of the proper family we both lacked in our early years. It was so unfair, but I could do nothing, I just leaved everything and anyone behind." Inuyasha gave a dull chuckle, "Me, a father, yeah right, some father I would have made. I lose my temper easily, I have a bad attitude remember." Inuyasha frowned painfully, "Maybe it was for the better huh. I guess you can call me the most selfish, irresponsible jerk off in history… I guess I deserve it."
Kagome's heart wrenched, she had never known all that poor Inuyasha had been through. No wonder he was the way he was. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged her broken friend.
"Inuyasha, I… I never knew that you had so much to deal with, oh my gosh I could just cry for you forever." Inuyasha's eyes widened at Kagome's hug, how could she be so kind to such a failure. "Inuyasha you can't be so hard on yourself, how can I make you see, it wasn't your fault. You may be strong, but here you are the victim. Naraku tore apart your family, he is the real criminal of this story. Oh Inuyasha I'm so sorry that all that happened to you. And you know what, lots of people if faced with your situation would leave behind all that pain, who would ever want to remember. Oh your dreams, it all makes sense all those times I watched you moan and toss in your sleep. Oh gosh, I just can't imagine." Kagome sobbed as she held tight to a very surprised Inuyasha. He pulled her away to look her in the eye.
"Don't feel sorry for me, what I did was nothing honorable. How can you look at me?" For the first time ever Kagome saw tears running down Inuyasha's face, he was crying. Kagome managed a smile, "I wouldn't take back a word and you know something else? I think you would have been a great father."
Together they sat spilling their souls onto the soil below and not saying a word, not needing to say a word. As each other finally calmed to a more manageable level Kagome looked into Inuyasha's miserable bloodshot eyes, "You know she deserves an explanation Inuyasha."
Inuyasha looked up, "How do you do something like that huh, what am I supposed to say? Hey May, nice weather out, oh and by the way I forgot to tell you that I happen to be your father?" Kagome took his hands.
"It's the right thing to do. If what you say is true, I know that she will understand. She will have to understand."
He rose and prepared to leave to find his daughter.
"Thanks Kagome for… everything." Inuyasha bounded towards the others as Kagome smiled away, watching her friend finally find closure for part of his broken heart.