Well, now you get to find out what Shippo's been doing this whole time! Time for another story/explanation/tale. I have a lot of these.
A Change in Our Future
Chapter Thirteen: Shippo's Memories
"Shippo."
I stared at him and he looked at us, a small smile on his face.
"Do... do I know--" he cut off and his eyes widened. He gasped and took a few steps towards InuYasha and I. Gosai and Sukebei were forgotten in the corner. Kirara walked up towards us and jumped on my shoulder.
"K-Kagome?" Shippo asked, taking a step forward. The beautiful human woman stood next to Shippo, obviously left in the dark.
Then, suddenly, Shippo ran up to me and hugged me. He was taller than me now. I suppose that 500 years will do that to you, though. I felt him rub his head into my shoulder, and my shirt was getting wet from tears. I smiled and hugged him back.
InuYasha growled a little bit and folded his arms. Shippo stopped hugging me and held me out at arm's length. Then he looked over to InuYasha and hugged him too, but InuYasha showed him by hitting him upside the head and giving him a huge bump.
"Don't do that, runt!" InuYasha shouted, growling at the same time.
Shippo wiped away tears and laughed. "I can't remember the last time I was called that..."
Shippo turned to me and smiled. "Wow, Kagome. You haven't aged a day since I last saw you... And when I last saw you I could ride on your shoulder," Shippo said, smiling.
The human woman walked over to Shippo with a slightly angry look. "Shippo, hon, who is this woman?" I had a really hard time holding back my laughter. She thought I had a relationship with Shippo? That's funny!
Shippo smiled. "Ah... This is Kagome. I knew her about... Uh.."
"500 years ago," I said, holding up my finger.
"Wow... That long? That well doesn't really change you much, does it?" Shippo said, smiling. "Yeah, I knew her 500 years ago. After my father died I found Kagome and she sort of became my surrogate mother."
"That's a relief," the woman said, smiling.
"Kagome, Inuyasha, this is my mate, Naomi," Shippo said, introducing the beautiful woman beside him.
I smiled and bowed to her and then looked over at the forgotten siblings. "Those two are Gosai and Sukebei," I said. "They are Sango and Miroku's kin."
Shippo's smile faded slightly. "Really?" he asked looking at me. He nodded.
InuYasha smirked. "By your scent, I guess that hasn't been your only mate," InuYasha said.
"Sit! You pervert!" I said, glaring. Then I looked over to Shippo. "Is this true?"
Shippo nervously laughed. "Only because my other two mates died..." Shippo said, slightly nervous.
No wonder Naomi reminded me of InuYasha's mother. InuYasha's father also had a mate before InuYasha's mother.
"Who were they?" I asked.
"Both of them were demons, but my first mate died after birthing her child and my second mate died from a horrible disease," Shippo said sadly.
I was silent. "Oh..." I said, not really knowing what to say. That was sort of... Strange.
I heard crying and Naomi left the room.
"Did she have a child?" I asked. Shippo nodded.
"Yup. One child. A girl," Shippo said, smiling. "My other mates also had children, three all together, but this is the first girl I've had," Shippo said.
"She's a half-demon, isn't she?" I asked quietly. Shippo nodded.
"Though these are different times, half demons are still treated unfairly. Though, it's a bit different here, it's not much different from the rest of the world," Shippo explained.
Naomi came back with a huge blanket in her arms. I walked over to Naomi and looked at the child who was covered in the blanket. She had red hair and green eyes, like her father, but had huge fluffy fox ears on the top of her head, and you could see the tip of a fluffy tail sticking out of the blanket.
"What's her name?" I asked no one in particular, looking at the baby.
"Her name is... Kagome," Shippo said, blushing a little. I gasped and looked at Shippo. He nodded and I smiled.
"Would you like to hold her?" Naomi asked, holding out her child slightly. It took baby Kagome (that sounds so weird, calling someone your own name) and held her close to me. Naomi went over to get a chair for me, and I sat down in it, holding the tiny half-demon close. Her fluffy ears seemed too big for her head, and her huge green eyes were so beautiful.
InuYasha, staying on task, started to tell Shippo what we had found out. "Naraku is still alive," InuYasha said. Shippo sighed and nodded.
"I figured as much, since Miroku had died from the Wind Tunnel," Shippo said. He looked up at us and we nodded.
"InuYasha," I said, "I think Shippo should come with us to fight Naraku. I'm sure that now he's much stronger, and his illusions are probably more than powerful." InuYasha shrugged.
"Fine," InuYasha said.
"Wait, how come you had to fight to get us to be able to come?" Sukebei asked me.
Shippo answered, saying, "It's simple. InuYasha doesn't know you, and isn't as trusting towards you. I was in their group when we were fighting Naraku way back when."
"Five hundred years ago," I corrected.
"Yeah, whatever."
Shippo looked around suspiciously and said, "I must do something." Shippo got up and walked past us, but then turned around and came back behind a bored looking InuYasha, his head on his hand. I glanced down at baby Kagome, having a hunch of what was going to happen next.
I looked up when I heard InuYasha yelling and Shippo yelling something else. Shippo was giving InuYasha a noogie, and yelling at him, "HA HA! HOW DOES IT FEEL? IT'S PAY BACK, RUNT!"
InuYasha got out of his grip and stood up next to Shippo quickly, and hit him on top of the head hard. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, YOU LITTLE ASSHOLE?" InuYasha shouted.
"Kagoooooome," Shippo whined. I glanced at him and sighed. InuYasha flinched, thinking I was going to say 'sit', but I wasn't.
"Shippo, you're grown up now. You can take care of yourself," I said, staring at him.
InuYasha slowly started to smile, and then he started to laugh. "THIS IS FOR ALL THE TIMES YOU GOT ME IN TROUBLE, RUNT!" InuYasha yelled, grinning and running after Shippo.
The two of them ran in circles around the room and everyone, except me, was staring at them like they had never seen anything so strange as this. Shippo's wife (or mate, that's a weird word to use too) seemed completely shocked, so I could safely guess that Shippo never acted like a child anymore. It's amazing what old friends can do.
Deciding that it was time for me to stop them, I sighed and got up. I walked over to Shippo's wife and asked if she had a frying pan. Not questioning my need for a cooking utensil at this strange time, she left and a few minutes later came back with a huge frying pan. Perfect. I traded the baby for the frying pan and walked stood in a spot of the room that Shippo and InuYasha had decided to make their path for running. I readied myself, pulling back the frying pan like it was a baseball bat. Shippo would be the first to come, so I could just yell at InuYasha at the same time.
Shippo came running and when he was close enough I swung the huge frying pan and yelled out, "Why don't you just SIT down!" Shippo was stopped dead in his tracks and InuYasha was kissing the ground. I smirked and walked over to Naomi and returned her frying pan.
She looked at me strangely, but we traded off the frying pan and the baby. That little baby half-demon was so cute! I loved holding her.
I walked over to the chair and sat down. That's when InuYasha confronted me.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?" InuYasha shouted. The baby started to cry and I looked down at her sadly.
Looking up at InuYasha I glared and said, "Now look what you did."
"What?" he asked.
"InuYasha, just be quiet. You're upsetting the baby," I said, glaring at him.
InuYasha pouted and sat down, glaring into space. I looked over to Shippo, who was getting up now, and rubbing his head.
"Ow..." Shippo said as he walked over to his desk.
"Anyway, can you tell us what happened over the time that InuYasha and I have been absent?" I asked, adjusting the child in my arms.
Shippo rubbed his head where I had hit him and looked at us both sadly. "You're sure you want to hear this?" he asked us, and we both nodded.
Shippo sighed and then started to tell the story. "After we thought that we had defeated Naraku, Kagome left and InuYasha followed her. We needed to figure out a wish to put on the Shikon no Tama, so Kagome went to this time to think it out," Shippo said, telling the story like he wasn't telling it to us. "Soon she came back, and Miroku and Sango had left to live together, and I stayed behind to wait for Kagome and InuYasha. We left for the place where Miroku and Sango lived and they were happy. Kagome managed to protect the jewel from any demons that wanted it.
"A few years passed and we still hadn't decided on a wish to put on the jewel. Sango and Miroku had three children, two boys and a girl, and were happy. Kagome often left for her time, or this time, and InuYasha would take her to visit Sango and Miroku whenever she was in the Feudal Era. Soon, though, Miroku had discovered that the Wind Tunnel had returned, and it was growing faster than ever. He told me because he didn't want to worry the others, and he wanted me to protect his family, since InuYasha was hardly there anymore.
"Then, while InuYasha and Kagome were visiting, the Wind Tunnel had become too large. Sango and the rest of us followed him as he ran out of the hut and watched as the Wind Tunnel sucked him in. The sacred beads around his hand broke and he was sucked in. The beads laid in the bottom of the hole he made and his sons had inherited the cursed void.
"Only a couple years after that, Naraku showed his face and managed to steal the jewel. After months of trying to track him down, they didn't get even the smallest rumor, and Kagome went home. InuYasha followed her, but..." Shippo looked up at us. "You two never came back."
I bit my lip, saddened by this horrible story. But Shippo wasn't finished.
"I lived through many wars, wars with demons, wars with humans, and wars with both. They were all more devastating then the last. About 300 years ago I found a mate, but she died after giving birth. My second mate had two children, and then died from a disease, like I said before. Now I have Naomi.
"These last couple years I have been working to destroy the Demon Hunters. They had tried to capture me, but I hid well by disguising myself as a human girl. And about fifty years ago I founded this demon village." Shippo finished and I sighed.
"Naraku is behind the Demon Hunters," InuYasha said bluntly. Everyone in the room gasped (except for me), and they stared at him with wide eyes.
"How do you know?" Shippo asked.
InuYasha growled. "My stupid brother is the 'president' of the Demon Hunters. He is working there to try and find out information about Naraku."
"So that's why Sesshomaru wanted to learn how to transform," Shippo said to himself.
"YOU MEAN YOU TAUGHT HIM THAT TRICK?" InuYasha shouted. Shippo smiled and laughed nervously.
"Y-yeah..." Shippo said, scratching the back of his head.
InuYasha's eye twitched as he growled.
"InuYasha, settle down. If Shippo hadn't had taught Sesshomaru that trick, we wouldn't have learned that Naraku is still alive," I said, comforting the baby. InuYasha's outburst had made her restless.
InuYasha seemed to calm down a bit, but he still looked angry.
Shippo looked out a window and looked surprised to see that the sun was almost setting. "Wow. Almost night already. I suppose that you will all have to spend the night somewhere. You can stay in the guest bedrooms. We've got plenty of them," Shippo explained. He stood up and led us all to a long hallway with many rooms.
Each of us got our own room. I had a large room that had a blue theme going on. The bed was soft and comfortable, and there was even a fireplace, burning brightly. Outside the window you could see beautiful forests and plants. Though this room was nice, cozy, and comfortable, I was lonely. Now it was very late; the sun had gone down about ten minutes after we all got settled in our rooms, which was about two hours ago. No, I wasn't very tired, but I was bored.
I grabbed a blanket off of my bed and started to walk through the halls, which were cold. Soon enough, though, I found InuYasha's room. I slowly opened the door just a hair, and held in a gasp. InuYasha sat on his bed, wide awake and holding his sword. Tonight was the night of the new moon, and his white hair had turned black and his eyes a dark brown.
I knocked on his door and he jolted up, looking over to the door very surprised. I smiled and opened the door wider and asked, "May I come in?"
InuYasha shrugged, and I entered, closing the door behind me. I sat on the bed next to him, cuddled in the blanket that I had brought with me. "You don't have a fireplace in here to keep you warm. Are you cold?" I asked.
InuYasha looked at me and blinked. He shrugged again and said, "I'm fine."
I put my hand against his and shivered. "You are cold. Here, share my blanket with me," I said, offering my blanket. I threw half of it behind InuYasha so he could pull it over himself. It was a huge blanket, but even so, just that little bit of air made me shiver.
InuYasha pulled up the blanket around him and I scooted closer to him, crossing my legs like him. I leaned back against the wall and wrapped my half of the blanket around me.
Soon I was half asleep, half conscious. You know when you're just falling asleep, but you're still aware of your surroundings? That's where I was. InuYasha scooted closer to me and tightened the blanket around us. He leaned against the wall too, and soon I was leaning on him. That's how we fell asleep. Or I fell asleep. InuYasha didn't fall asleep until morning, when he changed back into a hanyou.
Aww... So sweet.
I can't believe this is the 13th chapter already/only! It's amazing. I'm a little over half way to the end. I love writing this, but the other fanfic I'm writing is suffering for it. I really should get to work on You Can Run's next chapter. -sigh-
Next Chapter: Now that they have as much of the original gang as they can get, they've decided to go look for Naraku! But how much stronger can one demon be after 500 years? Not to mention all the technology he must be using to make himself even more powerful. How will InuYasha and Kagome beat him?