The Tale of the Princess of the Crescent Moon

Infancy

"Inuyasha, are you sure it's safe?"

Inuyasha was struggling with the various baby baskets, trying to figure out how best to carry all of them. "How can it not be safe?" he said. "She went down the well I don't know how many times when she was in your belly—why should now be any different?"

"Yeah, you're right," she said, unconvinced, as she stood at the lip of the well and peered into it, holding the infant Izayoi tight to her chest. "But I still don't know..."

"C'mon," he said impatiently. He had wrestled all the baby baskets into one hand; he jumped onto the lip of the well and with his other arm, he scooped up Kagome and the baby. "It's now or never—let's go!" he shouted cheerily, and jumped into the well.

Kagome squealed and clutched tightly at the baby, but little Izayoi seemed quite content to float through the time stream within the well. Her eyes eagerly followed the twinkling lights that floated by, and she cooed happily at each passing glimmer.

In a few moments, they arrived at the bottom of the bone-eater's well in the feudal era. "Y'see—nothing to worry about! I told you it would be fine!" said Inuyasha proudly.

"Yeah, you were right...but don't do that again!" said Kagome crossly. Inuyasha wrapped his arm around Kagome again and leaped skyward, and the three of them sailed out of the well and began their walk to the village.

"They're here! They're here!" The village children shouted happily as they saw Kagome and her family approach, and soon she and her child were surrounded by an adoring throng, with everyone hoping to catch the first glimpse of the new baby.

Inuyasha couldn't have been happier. He had never seen a hanyou so welcomed by humans before. He himself was treated cordially enough by the villagers, but he knew that it was entirely due to his relationship with Kagome. But no father could have been prouder than he was, as he watched the hero's welcome that his wife and child received.

There was only one sour voice in the whole crowd. "Yeah, I guess it's cute enough...if you like hanyous," one man said coarsely.

"WHO SAID THAT?" came a roar from the rear of the crowd, and a furious Kaede pushed her way through to the center of the crowd and stood before Kagome and her child, her eye burning with fury. "Who said that...who?" she repeated. The villagers had never seen Kaede this angry before, and they cowered as her eye swept the crowd. Suddenly, her eye fell on one man, and it narrowed angrily. "You...it was you, wasn't it?"

Even though Kaede was barely half the man's height, she seemed to tower over him, and she poked him angrily in the belly as she spoke. "This poor innocent child... what could it have possibly done to you, to deserve such hatred?" she growled. "And how dare you insult the child of Kagome-sama, even while she lies in her mother's arms?"

The man hung his head in shame; Kaede pointed angrily to the forest, and snarled, "Go. Leave the village. Spend the next three nights in the forest. See what it feels like to be alone, friendless, and helpless...before you condemn this innocent child to the same fate. And if you return before the three days have passed, I will burn your house to the ground myself, with you in it. GO!"

The man slunk away whimpering. Kaede turned to face Kagome, her face still terrifyingly stern. She looked silently at the infant in Kagome's arms for a few moments; then, she pulled up Izayoi's shirt, put her face against the baby's belly and, blowing merrily, made a loud and rude noise. She straightened, smiled at the child, and said "Woodgie-woodgie-woodgie!" as she tickled the baby's tummy.

"Awww..." said all the villagers in unison as Izayoi giggled adorably, and the moment's unpleasantness was soon forgotten. The villagers led Kagome and the baby into the village with all the pomp of conquering heroes, and in very short order, they threw together quite a celebration.

Miroku and Sango arrived not too long after the party had started. "Kagome-chan!" squealed Sango with delight. She ran to Kagome and enthusiastically threw her arms about her. "Shippou and Kirara stopped to pick flowers for you—they'll be here soon." She gasped excitedly, "Is this the baby? Oh...she's adorable!"

Kagome handed Izayoi to Sango, and Sango cooed and purred blissfully as she held the child in her arms. "Sango-chan," said Miroku, "look how beautiful she is. Perhaps soon we might be lucky enough to have one of our own...?"

Both Miroku and Sango giggled coyly, and there was much exchange of significant glances and nuzzling of noses—so much so that Inuyasha groaned impatiently, rolled his eyes, and muttered "Enough, already, you two," loudly enough for Kagome to hear him, whereupon she elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Just look at her!" cried Miroku, taking the child gently out of Sango's arms and lifting her into the air. "Ha-ha!" he laughed joyfully, playfully bouncing the child over his head, "Kagome-sama, she's absolutely..." Suddenly, Izayoi gurgled wetly, splattering Miroku squarely in the eye.

"...perfect," concluded Miroku calmly with his best priestly demeanor, and he quickly handed the child back to Sango. Kagome and Sango both blushed, but they couldn't control their laughter; nor could Inuyasha, much to Miroku's visible annoyance.

"Then again," said Miroku thoughtfully, wiping his face and trying to rub the stains out of his robes, "Perhaps we shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to have one of our own."

Kagome excused herself from the party to sit under the shade of a tree and feed Izayoi, and Sango accompanied her to chat.

"Kagome-chan, if you don't mind me asking," Sango said, trying not to stare too hard at Izayoi as she suckled at Kagome's breast, "That doesn't ... hurt, does it?"

"Oh, no," laughed Kagome. "Once you get past the bit about, you know, having milk coming out of your body...it feels pretty good. Don't worry about it, Sango-chan." Kagome smiled; but then she suddenly winced, and she gently tried to adjust Izayoi into a different position. "Besides, your children probably won't be born with..." Kagome winced again, gasping slightly. "...fangs." Kagome gently pulled Izayoi away, and she laid the child over her shoulder, patting her gently on the back. "I hope you've had enough for now, dear...because I'm afraid Mommy has."

Sango reached for Izayoi, and Kagome handed her the baby. Sango rocked the child tenderly in her arms, and Izayoi happily settled down for a nap. "I could get used to milk coming out of my body," Sango said thoughtfully, as she tenderly stroked Izayoi's fine, silky white hair. "But I'm not sure about having a baby come out of me. What was it like? Did it...hurt horribly, Kagome-chan?"

"Hmm," said Kagome thoughtfully, ticking points off on her fingers as she spoke. "Let's see: I've been shot in the back with my own arrow...I had my soul ripped out of my body to re-animate Inuyasha's former lover...I had my soul ripped out of my body again, and maybe another time after that, I forget...I had to stand in an ogre's stomach acid to hold up Inuyasha so we wouldn't all be killed... So, the pain of having a baby—well, with the sort of life we lead, it's just all in a day's work, isn't it?" Kagome laughed. "Actually, it did hurt, worse than all of those things put together, and even more because it was so very...personal. But once I saw my beautiful daughter...it was all worth it, every moment of it."

Suddenly Izayoi awoke and started crying. Sango's eyes grew very large, and she held the baby at arm's length, quite terrified. "Kagome-chan—I swear, I didn't hurt her—I didn't do anything—she just started crying..."

Kagome laughed. "She just does that sometimes. Don't worry, Sango-chan." Kagome took back the crying baby and began rocking her, but nothing she could do seemed to make Izayoi happy. She didn't want more milk, she didn't want changing, she didn't want burping; nothing made any difference.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Inuyasha had heard Izayoi's cries and had rushed over in a fluster.

"She's just...unhappy, Inuyasha," said Kagome. "Why don't you see if she wants Daddy?" Kagome handed Izayoi to Inuyasha, who stared quite bewilderedly at the wailing child in his arms.

He tried dandling her on his knee, he tried rocking her, he tried putting her over his shoulder and patting her back; nothing worked. Finally, he held her between his hands and brought his face right up to hers. "I don't get it—what do you want?" he said impatiently to the baby.

Izayoi grabbed the hair that hung down along the sides of Inuyasha's face and pulled hard, bowing Inuyasha's head towards her. Inuyasha cried out in surprise and pain, but then he suddenly shouted out in a panic, "Get her off me! Get her off me!"

Izayoi had latched on to one of her father's ears and was sucking happily away at it, all crying forgotten. Izayoi was now quite content, but Inuyasha was madly flapping about, trying desperately not to upset his daughter while at the same time trying to pull her off his ear. Kagome and her friends nearly fell over laughing at the sight, much to Inuyasha's irritation and embarrassment. Kagome finally contained herself enough to assist Inuyasha in maneuvering over to a nearby table and depositing Izayoi in her basket, and she pulled up a bench so that Inuyasha could sit down while his daughter continued sucking on his ear. "If you ever mention this again," Inuyasha growled as he sat with his head hanging over his daughter's basket, blushing as red as his kimono, "I swear, I'll never forgive you."

Unfortunately, Izayoi was not contented by her father's ear for very long, and when she opened her mouth to begin crying again, Inuyasha leapt to his feet with a whoop of relief that startled everybody. Both he and Kagome tried everything that they could think of to calm their child, but nothing could satisfy poor little Izayoi; and finally, one of the village parents quietly suggested to Kagome that sometimes children just need to cry, and that a few minutes alone in her basket might be all that was necessary. With a sigh of both concern and relief, Kagome carefully laid her daughter into her basket, covered her with a blanket, and walked off to take a break with the others.

By the time that Kagome joined him, Inuyasha was already sitting in the circle of villagers, listening with rapt attention to the women discussing the finer points of rearing an infant—how often to feed them, how to know when to put them down for their naps, how to get the father to change the diaper (Inuyasha crossed his arms and said "Keh!" at this; the women only laughed louder).

Suddenly, Inuyasha's ears twitched. "It's Izayoi—she's stopped crying."

"Good," said Kagome.

"No...I don't like it." He jumped up and started heading for the table on which sat Izayoi's basket. "It sounded like she stopped very suddenly."

Kagome jumped up and followed Inuyasha as he ran towards Izayoi's basket; but they soon discovered why she had stopped crying.

It was Shippou. He had returned from gathering flowers, and had hopped onto the table to see what was in the basket that was making all the noise. He was standing on the table next to Izayoi's basket, holding Izayoi's hand; her tiny hand nearly engulfed his even tinier paw. He was staring at Izayoi with an expression of rapt adoration; and Izayoi was staring at him with the same expression.

"She...she's...incredible," said Shippou, never taking her eyes off Izayoi. "What's her name?"

"Izayoi," said Kagome. "It was Inuyasha's mother's name."

"Izayoi," repeated Shippou in a reverent whisper. He gently bent down and kissed Izayoi on the forehead; Izayoi cooed and squirmed with delight. She held out her little arms to Shippou, clearly asking to be picked up.

"Can...can I hold her?" asked Shippou.

"Let's see what we can do," laughed Kagome. Izayoi was nearly the same size as Shippou, and there was simply no way that he could have held the baby in his arms. Instead, Kagome had Shippou sit crosslegged on the table, and she laid as much of Izayoi as she could in Shippou's lap, placing Izayoi's upper body in his arms and resting her head against his shoulder. Izayoi laughed happily and gurgled with joy, and she laid her palm against Shippou's chest, caught his fur in her fist, and squeezed.

"She's...got a real grip...doesn't she?" said Shippou, wincing.

"Aren't babies wonderful?" said Inuyasha dryly. "Just keep her away from your ears."

It didn't take long for everyone to see that Shippou and Izayoi had become quite inseparable. Shippou watched with fascination as Kagome changed and fed Izayoi, and Izayoi's crying stopped the moment that she was returned to Shippou's arms or was given his hand to hold. "Well, we'll never lack for a babysitter...and we'll probably never find a better one," Kagome said happily, as she watched Shippou entertaining Izayoi with fox magic.

Soon it was time to go. Shippou blinked back the tears as he said goodbye to Izayoi. "Please, come back soon!" he said to Izayoi; then he caught himself, and turned to Kagome and said, "I mean...please bring her back soon!"

Izayoi was sad to leave Shippou, too—she reached out to him from her mother's arms and cried when she couldn't reach him. In desperation, Inuyasha took his daughter in one hand and held her to the side of his head like an icebag, where she merrily began sucking on his ear again.

"Goodbye, everyone! We'll be back soon! Goodbye!" said Kagome, as she jumped into the well.

"See ya!" said Inuyasha—but before he jumped into the well, he looked sternly at Miroku and Shippou, and pointed to his daughter, still sucking on his ear.

"This never happened. You understand me? Say anything about this, ever again...and I swear I'll kill you."