Chapter Three: Too Long
By Ddoskocil
-------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the reviews. I'll try to update at often as possible, but with school and work, I don't know how often I can. So far, there are only about 5 chapters complete, but I'm working on this story every moment I can.
Sorry this is another short chapter. The next couple will be longer.
Flashback
"Big Sister," ten-year old Inu-Yasha said as he tugged at Kan-Tama's kimono.
"What?" Kan-Tama barked back, angry at being disturbed while she was talking to one of the many sick town-folk at her doorstep.
"They're picking on me again, Big Sister. They won't stop pulling on my ears and teasing me," the little half-demon tattled. Kan-Tama sighed.
"Excuse me one moment," she said to the man in front of her before turning to her little brother.
"Yasha, go back and play. I'm very busy right now,"
she said as she kneeled in front of him, trying to conceal her
annoyance.
"But, Kan-Tama-"
"Inu-Yasha. Find a way to deal with it." She stood and turned back to the man she had been talking to. She hardly noticed Inu-Yasha sniff before sulking away.
Not ten minutes later, a young mother came stomping her way.
"That little monster you keep around here attacked my son," she cried, hysterical and pointing fingers at Kan-Tama.
"Monster," Kan-Tama replied, outraged by the woman's outburst. Her eyes began to burn with anger and her fangs grew a little longer. "That little boy is the worst monster I've ever seen," she barked, meaning the little boy who picked on Inu-Yasha. "Out! Everyone out of my shrine!" she screamed. People hurriedly picked up their things and left.
"Inu-Yasha!" she roared. The little half-demon came out from behind the alter, his red ball clutched in his arms.
"I'm sorry, Kan-Tama. They wouldn't stop hurting me and they kept laughing at me. I just pushed him. I didn't really hurt him," he blurted out in one breath. He took a tentative step forward.
"Go play," Kan-Tama said softly as she turned her back on him, not really mad at him. Her body trembled as she tried to control her anger at the woman and her brats.
"But, Kan-Tama...I'm sorry."
"Go, Inu-Yasha," she yelled. The little boy sniffed as the tears slowly over took him, thinking her misplaced rage was directed at him. He dropped his ball to the ground and ran out of the shrine temple.
It took a while for her rage to subside and when it did, she went looking for Inu-Yasha. She found him crying beside his mother's grave. She scoped him up, but he kicked at her.
"No!" he screamed as he fought her. "You hate me just like everyone else." The comment shocked Kan-Tama and she put the young boy down.
"Yasha...I don't hate you."
He wiped his eyes on his sleeves and looked up at her, anger filling his amber, tear-filled eyes. "Leave me alone," he mumbled as he pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them.
"Inu-Yasha." Kan-Tama sighed. "Okay. I'll leave. I'll leave the shrine open for you when you want to come to bed." She walked down the hill, often looking over her shoulder at her little brother.
End Flashback
Kan-Tama sighed sadly as she remembered that day. Their relationship had never been the same after that fateful day and Kan-Tama regretted.
"Oh," she said to Kagome when she finally looked up, "there's the family shrine." She turned up a little overgrown path that led to a small gazebo. In the gazebo was an incense burner and trays for offerings, but the latter were empty.
Kan-Tama lit an old stick of incense and said a simple prayer before sitting cross-legged on the floor. Kagome followed her example, also lighting a stick of incense and bowing her head. But Kagome had no prayer to offer to this strange little shrine, so she lifted her head and sat next to Kan-Tama. She sits just like Inu-Yasha does, Kagome noticed absently.
The demon looked around the small space before finally resting her gaze on Kagome. "When Inu-Yasha was little, his mother and I would take him here and tell him about our father," she started. Kagome held her breath. "But I stopped taking him after his mother died. It was hard for both of us, but Inu-Yasha took it much harder than I did. I caught him here a few times following her death, but I think he finally gave up on our father ever helping him with the questions he had."
"This is a shrine to your father? But I thought you ran the shrine for your father?" Kagome asked, a little confused, but curious about Inu-Yasha's youth.
"I run the large public shrine. But no one comes any more. This shrine was built for Inu-Yasha's mother when she took ill. Father went to find a cure for her, but he never came back."
"His mother was sick? How sad," Kagome said, tears creeping into her eyes.
Kan-Tama nodded. "Inu-Yasha was barely six," she started.