A/N: 'Ello, mah peeps! Special guest appearance here, by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come! And curses on anyone who gets his name wrong and thinks its the Ghost of Christmas Future. Guh.

And much thankies to magic15, my first reviewer! Luv you lots!

As the last toll of midnight lingered upon the nighttime air, Inuyasha remembered the prediction of Kikyo's spirit, and looked about him for the third and last spirit. Turning to face his room once more, the hanyou beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, crossing the room like a dark mist.

The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. As it neared him, Inuyasha bent down into a low bow, for the in the air through which the Spirit moved seemed to radiate gloom and mystery.

It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, face, and form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand, ghostly pale and smooth. Inuyasha knew no more of it save what his eyes beheld, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.

Very much afraid of this silent Ghost, Inuyasha took a deep breath before speaking.

"Is it that I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?" Receiving no reply, but knowing he was correct, Inuyasha went on, "Ghost of the Future! I fear you ... more than any specter I've yet seen. But, as I realize that your purpose is to do me good; and as I hope to live to be ... to be another man from what I was ... I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a grateful heart." Still the Phantom did not speak. "Will you not speak to me?"

It gave him no reply. The elegant hand was pointed straight before them.

"Lead on! Lead on!" urged Inuyasha. "The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!"

They scarcely seemed to enter the city, for the city rather seemed to spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it; in the market, amongst the merchants, in the middle of a cloudy, dreary day.

The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of businessmen. Seeing that the graceful hand was pointed to them, Inuyasha approached them to listen to their discussion.

"No," said a great, fat man with a monstrous chin. "I don't know much about it either way. I only know he's dead."

"When did he die?" inquired another.

"Last night, I believe."

"Why, what was the matter with him? He was so young ... I thought he'd never die! Not in my lifetime, at least."

"God knows," said the first with a yawn.

"What has he done with his money?" inquired a young wolf-demon that seemed vaguely familiar to Inuyasha.

"I haven't heard," replied the large man stiffly. "Company, perhaps. He hasn't left it to me. That's all I know. Good day."

Inuyasha was at first surprised that the Spirit should attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial; but feeling assured that it must have some hidden purpose, he decided to consider what it was likely to mean. It could scarcely have any bearing on the death of Kikyo; the topic of their conversation was male, and at any rate, that was the Past, and this Ghost's province was the Future.

He looked around for his own image, for the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being at the market; but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and he saw no likeness of himself amongst the multitudes that clogged the streets of the market. It gave him little surprise, however, for he had been revolving in his mind and spirit, a change of life, if you will, and he thought and hoped that he saw his new-born resolutions carried out in this.

The Spirit led Inuyasha away from the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of town, to a low shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were bought. A grey-haired old neko-demon sat smoking his pipe. Inuyasha and the Phantom came into the store just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely entered when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was closely followed by a man in faded black.

After a moment of blank astonishment, in which the old neko with the pipe had joined them, all three burst out laughing.

"Maid, laundress, and undertaker, all at once!" cried out the first woman. "Look here, old Joe, here's a chance! We've all three of us met here without meaning it!"

"You couldn't have met in a better place," the greying neko assured them. "You were made free of it long ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to sell? Well, what have you got?"

"Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see."

"What odds, Mrs. Dilbur?" asked the second woman. "Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He always did! Who's the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose."

Mrs. Dilbur, who seemed to have a knack for agreeing with everyone, said, "No, indeed, ma'am."

"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, wicked screw, why wasn't he natural in his lifetime, short though it was?" the second woman ranted. "If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself!"

"That's the truest word that ever was spoke, and it's a judgment on him."

"I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it would have been, you may depend on it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it. Speak out plain, I'm not afraid to be the first, or afraid for them to see it."

Joe went down creakily to his knees to open the bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff.

"What do you call this? Bed-curtains!"

"Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now."

"His blankets?"

"Who else's do you think? He isn't likely to take cold without them, I daresay. Ah! There's his best shirt – the best he had, and a fine one, too. They'd have wasted it dressing him up for burial, if it hadn't been for me."

Inuyasha listened to this dialogue in horror.

"Spirit!" he cried. "I see, I see! The case of this unhappy man could well be my own. My life tends that way, now. Merciful Heaven, what's this!"

The scene had changed, and now Inuyasha was almost touching a bare, uncurtained bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed; and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for save a single sheet covering it from head to foot, was the body of this plundered, unknown man.

"Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death," Inuyasha begged, "or this dark chamber will forever be present to me."

The Phantom then conducted him to poor Sango Higurashi's house, and found Sango, Kagome, and the twins seated round the fire.

Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little twins were as still as statues in one corner, and sat looking down at a large book, taking turns reading it. Sango and Kagome were working busily at needlework. But surely they were very quiet!

"And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them."

The small boy, Shippo, had read those words out as Inuyasha and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why did he not go on?

Sango laid her work upon the table, and put her hands up to her face. "The color hurts my eyes," she said.

The color? Inuyasha wondered before realizing what must have happened. Ah, poor Sota!

Taking a deep breath, Sango removed her hands from her eyes and picked up her needlework again. "They're better now, again. It makes them weak by candlelight ... and I won't show weak eyes to your grandfather when he comes home, not for the world. It must be near his time."

"Past it, rather," Rin answered, shutting the book. "But I think he has walked a little slower than he used to these last few evenings, mother."

"I have known him to walk with ..." Sango hesitated a moment before going on, "I have known him to walk with Sota on his shoulder, very fast indeed!"

"And so have I," exclaimed Shippo. "Often."

"And so have I," echoed his twin. So had all.

"But he was very light to carry, and Grandfather loved him so that it was no trouble," Sango murmured. "No trouble at all. And there is Grandfather at the door!"

She and Kagome hurried out to meet him, and the old man in his comforter came in. His tea was ready for him, and they all vied to see who should help him to it the most. Then the twins each curled up beside him, as if to say, "Don't mind it, Grandfather. Don't grieve!"

Grandfather was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly with all the family. He looked at the work on the table, and praised the speed and ability of Sango and Kagome. They would be done long before Sunday, Sango assured him.

"Sunday!" he said. "You went today, then?"

"Yes," Sango nodded. "I wish you could have gone. It would have ... would have done you good, to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child. My little child!"

She broke down all at once. Kagome and Grandfather tried to offer comfort, but both were crying as well. They couldn't help it. If they could have helped it, they and little Sota would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they were.

The wolf-demon that Inuyasha had seen earlier entered the house. "Kagome," he began, only to stop at the sight of her tears. She looked up at him. "Oh, hello Kouga," she sniffled, dashing tears from her face. "What is it you want?"

"What is the matter, dearest?" the wolf-demon insisted, moving closer to her. Kagome scowled at him and moved away. "Don't call me dearest," she requested wearily. "What is it you want?"

Inuyasha dashed tears from his face as he turned to face the Ghost before he heard Kouga speak the news. "Specter, something tells me our parting moment is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Just, please, tell me; who was that man, with the covered face, whom we saw lying dead?"

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, ruinous churchyard. The Spirit stood amongst the graves, and pointed down to one.

Inuyasha was filled with a dreadful foreboding. "Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," he asked carefully, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will Be, or are they the shadows of the things that May Be only?"

Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if the course is followed, they must lead. But if the man departs from the course, the ends will change. Say it is so with what you show me!"

The Spirit was as immovable as ever.

Inuyasha crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, he read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name – INUYASHA YOUKAI.

"Am I the man who lay upon the bed?" he exclaimed, horrified. "No, Spirit! Oh, no, no! Spirit! Hear me! I am not the man I was! I will not be the man I must have been for this to happen. Why show me this, if I am past all hope? Assure me that I might yet change these visions, these shadows you have shown me!"

For the first time, the kind hand faltered. As it did, Inuyasha heard Kagome as Kouga told her the news of his death.

"Why do you not cry for your old friend?"

"The true Inuyasha that was my friend died many long years ago, Kouga. I shed my tears for him then. I will not weep for the man that he became, the man that has died, for he is not worth shedding tears over. I used to hope ... but my hope is gone now; I have none to give."

Inuyasha shook his head in denial. "No! I am not dead within myself! I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and Future! The Spirits of all three shall strive within me! I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, Spirit, tell me that I may yet erase the writing on this stone!"

Reaching out to the ghost in supplication to have his fate reversed, he saw a shift in the Phantom's form. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.

Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, however, was that the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!

TBC ...