Chapter 4: The Hanyou

The sky broke out in a riot of colors of pink and gold, heralding the arrival of a new dawn. Inuyasha perched on the roof of a dilapidated building on the rundown street. He took in a deep breath of the fresh early morning air, the light golden sunlight glinting off his long silver hair. The fuzzy white puppy ears almost hidden in his mane of silver hair started twitching as they picked up sounds of running water coming from inside the building he was perched on. Inuyasha listened carefully. With his heightened demon senses, he easily picked up the pattering of light feet that was Mayu. She seemed to have just woken up. Kagome was still fast asleep, her breathing even and regular. Inuyasha took a deep breath, trying to catch Kagome's elusive scent. It was a great pity that the one time they had met he had been in his human form. So, he had not been able to truly catch her scent. Sitting on the roof of her bedroom was the closest he had gotten to her in his true form.

A chorus of bird calls were heard from the vast forest surrounding the Fountain City. The city wall kept the trees from encroaching on the people's dwellings. Still, Inuyasha thought it was a great pity that there were very little trees in the city. The palace probably had many and fancy gardens as well. But he preferred the wild untamed nature of the forest better. Being of demon lineage, it was not a difficult task for him to scale the large city wall. But it was considered illegal to scale the walls. You had to use proper gates set at various intervals along the wall to go outside. But Inuyasha did not like using the gates since it meant he had to walk past guards and other civilians and endure their name calling and rough treatment. He could probably defeat them all with his demon strength, but why get in trouble when he can just as easily scale the walls? He had to sneak past the guards to do it, but hey, being a half demon had its perks.

"Morning, mama."

Inuyasha's ears perked up when he picked up on the melodious voice coming from beneath his feet. While he had been day dreaming, the object of his obsession had woken up to greet the new day. Inuyasha sighed in bittersweet remembrance of that night nearly two weeks ago when he had first met the owner of that voice. He felt that night had been a turning point in his life, although he could not have said to which direction it had turned. On that dawn, when he had felt his demon blood taking over his body once again, he had made a vow to himself to always protect Kagome. He had been coming here every night since that day, although the two women were unaware of his vigil. He kept a watch throughout the night and had even scared off an intruder or two. Even drunk men knew better than to mess with a home under the protection of a demon, especially when said demon was growling at them and cracking his knuckles. Inuyasha knew that Mayu and Kagome were more than capable of looking after themselves. After all, they had been doing it all these years. Yet he came every night and left at dawn, after hearing Kagome greet her mother. Another thing he did not understand why he was doing, only that he must. His inner demon had always been a quiet one, only speaking when forewarning him of danger in his younger days. As he matured, it had grown almost silent. But now, ever since his encounter with Mayu and Kagome, he had become very vocal and stubborn, hardly giving him a moment's peace. Without even this much contact with Kagome, his inner demon would never shut up and he would get a massive headache.

Jumping lightly between the roof tops, Inuyasha made sure that he was far enough away from the women's house to avoid detection before jumping lightly to the ground. He was wearing the pants that Mayu had given to him. The wool was hard, but it kept him warm not only in body, but also in spirit. He was unused to wearing shoes, so kept the pair she had given hidden in the basement room he shared with his friend, Jinenji.

Inuyasha was so lost in thought that he did not pick up on the scent of the wolf fast approaching from his right.

"What are you up to hanyou?" demanded a harsh voice startling him.

He turned and stared into a pair of ice-blue eyes framed by midnight black hair pulled into a high ponytail. Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly before he forced his face into a cold and blank expression. The days when he had hidden from the wolf demon were long gone. He knew that he could take Kouga in any fight, but he had two women to protect. He did not understand why he worked so hard to conceal his association with Kagome and Mayu from him. Kouga might be a cruel bastard, but he was not evil. But his beast would have none of it and almost took off his head (if that was possible) when he merely thought about it.

"What do you want, Kouga?" Inuyasha asked in a cold voice, his stance that of a bored person. He folded his arms lightly and spread his legs, ready for any attack that Kouga might throw his way.

"I want you to stop existing, hanyou." Kouga said in a deadly calm voice. "You are a disgrace to my kind. But before you do me that favor, I want you to tell me where you have been going for the past one week."

Inuyasha merely raised his eyebrow in a show of arrogant defiance and from long practice, forced his heart to beat at a normal pace. Wolf demons were very similar to dog demons in their sense of smell and hearing. He must protect Kagome at any cost.

"If I'm such a disgrace, why are you so interested in what I do or don't do?"

His question seemed to stump Kouga for a minute as he blinked and tried to think of a reason. Finally, he scoffed and pushed his face into Inuyasha's in a show of dominance.

"You live in my territory mutt. Be very careful…" Kouga's voice was smooth, but Inuyasha heard the underlying threat loud and clear. He fought his instinct to pummel the arrogant wolf to the ground. He could do it too, but Kouga had a lot of nasty friends willing to play dirty to get even. It was just not worth the trouble. With his demon blood, Inuyasha was exceptionally strong, but so was the other side.

"I'll be watching you, hanyou." With that last threat, Kouga was gone in a whirlwind of sand, garbage and dry leaves. Inuyasha let out a deep breath before continuing on his way home. He had to be more careful from now onwards. If Kouga had observed his curious behavior of the past weeks, it would only be a matter of time before he got curious enough to follow where his scent led. The only reason he had not already done so was probably because Kouga did not think that tracking down a hanyou was a dignified venture.

Inuyasha smiled grimly to himself as he thought of his hanyou status. Ever since he could remember, everyone had called him as such. At first, he had thought that it was a bad word people used to refer to orphans. It had been years later when he first came across Jinenji and his old mother that he realized that people were actually referring to his mixed blood heritage. It meant that he was half demon and half human. Thinking back to those days when he had no idea even of the kind of creature he was, Inuyasha sometimes found himself wishing that he had never found out. Ignorance had been bliss. Now he knew why both demons and humans alike condemned him. When before he had been an orphan like so many others, this new-found knowledge had led him to wonder if his parents had abandoned him because of what he was. He had no recollections of either of them. But sometimes he had dreams in which he heard a soft comforting female voice sing. But soon, the dream would change to the same voice screaming in abject terror. Inuyasha hated getting those dreams. He had no idea who the voice belonged to or why he kept hearing her. But some instinct buried deep within his heart insisted that he knew the owner of that voice.

Inuyasha shook himself out of these depressing thoughts and looked up to realize that his feet had already led him to the building which he called his home. It was completely rundown and the roof had collapsed long ago. The street itself was more or less empty, many of the buildings having been abandoned long ago. Inuyasha walked around to the back of the building and shifted two huge dumpsters out of the way to reveal a gaping hole in the shape of a doorway. He stepped inside the dark doorway and pulled back the dumpsters to their previous position. He then turned and headed down the stairway that led to the basement which was where he lived.

Jinenji had accidentally found this place many years ago when they had both been kids and were being chased by bullies. The dirt and filth surrounding the building had helped to mask their scent. Eventually they had decided to live here permanently instead of just coming here to hide. Inuyasha stepped off the last stair and walked into a large dark room. He could see perfectly well in the dark, but he wondered why Jinenji had not yet woken up and started a fire for cooking breakfast. They still had some boar meat left over from a kill they had made a few days ago in the forest. Jinenji was quite good at making tasty dishes with the help of the herbs and spices he collected from the forest. Inuyasha was hopeless in cooking, so he stuck to finding the main ingredient for their meals.

"Oyi Jinenji! Get your butt up and start breakfast." Inuyasha called out to his friend. He could see him huddled underneath his meagre blanket and thought he was shivering. 'What's up with him now?' he wondered and sniffed the air to make sure that Jinenji was not sick. The subtle change in his scent made Inuyasha pause and then he sighed deeply.

Like him, Jinenji was also a half-demon. And like all half-demons, there was one time in every lunar cycle that they lost their demon power and became completely human. Inuyasha was lucky that he lost his power during the night of every new moon. He only had to hide for the duration of the night and no one need be any the wiser. But Jinenji changed to a human on the morning after a full moon. He was stuck as a human for the entire day and it was very dangerous since if anyone found out, they could easily kill him today as his injuries would not heal without his demon blood.

And to make matters worse, Jinenji was not at all like Inuyasha. He was very tall, almost 8 feet in height with a body to match. But he had a disfigured face with huge baby blue eyes that always appeared full of tears. He also had a nasal voice and walked with a drooping hunch to his shoulders. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was graced with a handsome visage and well-built body. His gleaming golden eyes and sparkling silver hair made him an altogether attractive package, if people bothered to see him as a person as opposed to a hanyou. But more than these obvious physical differences, their personalities were also as different as night and day. While Inuyasha was a fighter, arrogant and always ready for a brawl, Jinenji was soft spoken, timid and often afraid even of his own shadow. And, Jinenji knew who his parents were. Although he had never met his father, who had been a demon with healing powers, he had grown up with his old mother who had always looked after him. Inuyasha had come across the two while on one of his excursions in the forest. The old crone had been dying from a nasty snake bite and Jinenji had been bawling his eyes out. He had somehow ended up comforted the big kid and promising his mother to look after him. She died soon after and they buried her beneath a huge tree. It had taken the entire night to calm Jinenji even a little bit. Not knowing what else to do, Inuyasha had coaxed him to climb the wall with no luck. Finally, he had braved the nearest gates, managing to convince the guards that Jinenji was a long-lost cousin. The ridiculing had started Jinenji on a fresh bout of tears and Inuyasha still cringed, thinking of the bullying that had resulted. Even though Jinenji was older and bigger than him, he had ended up being his guardian.

"Hey Jinenji" Inuyasha called in a soft voice, cursing himself for forgetting that his friend would be a human for this day. Changing to a human is not a pleasant process and Jinenji always wanted company when he changed, unlike Inuyasha who wished to be left alone during that time. He had stayed at Kagome's for too long and that mangy wolf had held him up some. Still, he felt guilty for abandoning his only friend on his most vulnerable day.

"I'm sorry I'm late, okay." Inuyasha said "You're safe here, Jinenji. Look, let me make breakfast for a change. What do you say, huh? Ready to try the Inuyasha special?"

That earned him a muffled chuckle from underneath the blanket. It caused a scowl to form on his face, but it was half-hearted. He knew that he was forgiven. Still wishing to make up for neglecting his friend, he started the fire in the pit they had dug in the center of the room and went to fetch the meat which was hanging by a hook on the far wall.

Soon the two friends were settling down to enjoy a hearty breakfast of roast boar and some soup that Jinenji had seemingly conjured out of thin air. He was still bundled up inside his blanket that was too small for him. How he manged to hide his entire face and half his body was a mystery to Inuyasha. He had long since given up on trying to get Jinenji out of his blanket on his human days.

They ate their food in silence. Inuyasha found it to be a little odd since normally Jinenji would be chattering at him and asking about his pretty friend. At which point Inuyasha would redden and yell at him, and Jinenji would chuckle and wink at him. But it seemed Jinenji was going to be quiet for today. 'Maybe it was his human blood' Inuyasha mused to himself.

"So…" Jinenji started nervously.

'Or maybe I spoke too soon.' Inuyasha thought and put on a long-suffering face. But both friends knew that it was all for show.

"I was just thinking…" Jinenji said in his soft slightly squeaky voice. "Please don't be mad at me."

Inuyasha blinked at his roommate and put down his cup of soup. Something was not right. Jinenji was getting nervous in telling him something. That did not usually mean anything good.

"What did you do this time?" Inuyasha sighed.

"I didn't do anything!" Jinenji said.

Inuyasha merely rolled his eyes and indicated to him to get on with it. Jinenji's nervousness returned. Inuyasha was unpredictable at the best of times. And his beast seemed to have found its mate, which meant this was not the best of times. Inuyasha would be feeling very protective and prickly and on edge. It had occurred to him last night that his friend probably had no idea what was happening. He was pursuing Kagome purely out of instinct. Inuyasha had practically raised himself on the streets. So much of his demon heritage was a mystery to him since no one had explained anything to him. Jinenji's heritage was very different from Inuyasha's. But he could give his friend the general idea. The only trouble was how Inuyasha would react. Knowing him, he would go into denial and make things much worse.

Jinenji grappled with his internal self while Inuyasha, being the ever-impatient hanyou that he was, developed a tick in his left eyebrow.

"Will you spit it out?" he finally yelled.

"Did-you-know-that-you-are-pursuing-this-Kagome-because-she-is-your-mate?" Jinenji's mouth yelped out in one breath, without permission from his brain.

"Huh?" Inuyasha was thrown for a loop as his friend started sprouting gibberish.

Jinenji took a deep breath and asked, "Have you heard about demon mates?"

"M-mates? As in wife?" Inuyasha stammered and wondered what was wrong with Jinenji. Scum-life like themselves did not get fairy tales or a family life.

"Not wife. Mate…demon mate." Jinenji sighed softly as he peered at his friend from within the safety of his blanket shield. "You haven't heard of them, have you?"

Inuyasha shook his head dumbly. Apparently, demon heritage lessons were not over, though he did not particularly like the sound of this one.

"For every demon, a person is born into this world who is their destined mate." Jinenji began in a preaching tone. "God alone knows why, and no one is sure about hanyous, but considering your actions of the past few days, I have to say that the same must hold true for us too."

"What do you mean m-mate?" Inuyasha couldn't help stumbling over that word.

"Like your soul-mate. A wife if you wish to simplify it." Jinenji said. "But you will have an emotional connection to her and you are bound to her for life. It's the Law."

"What law?" Inuyasha demanded "I scorn all laws of all kinds." He crossed his arms in a huff as though this settled everything.

"It's the Law of the universe, Yasha." Jinenji sighed in exasperation. "You can't avoid it. Kagome is your mate…"

"Wait. What?!" Inuyasha interrupted with a yell.

"It's why you can't get her out of your head or sight. It's why you work so hard to keep Kouga away from her. It's your protective instincts." Jinenji insisted calmly.

"That is a load of bull!" Inuyasha jumped up and made to storm out of their house.

"Yasha, wait!" Jinenji tried to scramble after him, but being bigger and clumsier than his quarry, he ended up landing rather heavily on his backside making the fragile structure tremble and dust rained down from the ceiling.

Inuyasha paused in his rampage to look back and make sure his moron of a friend was ok. Jinenji was sprawled on the floor and was trying to get the blanket off his face. He finally managed to stand, letting go of his blanket. That more than anything else gave Inuyasha pause. He took in the human face of the only friend he ever had and did a double-take. Jinenji's face was totally transformed. His eyes were mesmerizing and could not seem to decide whether to be blue or green. Dark hair adorned his head and his face had lost its misshapen outlook.

"You…you…" Inuyasha stammered. He had always assumed that Jinenji refused to show his human face because he was extra ugly. But apparently, he had the opposite problem.

Jinenji sighed and shook his head, "I know. But it's not important."

"But why..?" Inuyasha could not understand his friend or his logic.

"Look, I don't like others to see this face because it's not really me, alright?" Jinenji said. He even sounded different now, since his voice was no longer muffled by the blanket. "People will judge me all the harsher, when the sun goes down."

"But Jinenji…"

"Leave it, Yasha." Jinenji said. For the first time, Inuyasha truly felt that he was younger than his friend, in fact as well as reality.

"No one will ever see my inner beauty, so I refuse to be judged by my outer one, however temporary it may be." Jinenji bent down and picked up his discarded blanket. He wrapped it around his head like a veil, but left his face exposed.

'I misjudged this guy all these years' Inuyasha thought, as he watched this new Jinenji who seemed to have a backbone of steel.

"This is not important right now" he said, as he looked at Inuyasha seriously.

For a moment, Inuyasha had forgotten about his most recent demon-heritage lesson. It all came rushing back in a moment. But unlike a few moments ago, he did not feel the need to run away from it. Instead, he wished to understand.

"So.." he began nervously, as he tried to order his chaotic thoughts. "So, all demons marry their mates?"

"Not necessarily." Jinenji said. "They may or may not have other wives or lovers for whatever reasons. But they can never ignore the pull they feel towards their mates."

"Huh…" Inuyasha said, his head buzzing with ugly thoughts. "So, I can just look the other way, right? There is no 'Law' that says I gotta marry Kagome, right?" He sounded disgusted, desperate and angry, all at the same time as he refused to meet his friend's gaze and glared at the wall.

Jinenji wondered what was going on in his head.

"You should not resist it." he said seriously. "My Ma told me bad things happen to you when you resist. It will be like going against your basic nature."

"Whatever." Inuyasha mumbled and walked out determined to get to his favorite tree in the forest. He felt a headache coming on and he wanted to think. Not the best combination out there and the day had just begun.

"Even if what you say is true, Kagome cannot be meant for me. She is pure and I am a filthy hanyou." He whispered so quietly only the breeze heard him as he ran.

Jinenji sighed and went back to curl up in his corner for the day. It had not been easy for him to talk about mates. He still recalled with perfect clarity his mother's pain when she used to talk about his father. She had not been his mate, just his lover. But his Pa found his mate while his mother had been pregnant with him. According to his mother, his father had tried to resist, for the unborn child's sake, and stay with them. But he nearly killed himself in the process. In the end, his mother had told him to go. It had been a relief for him, but she had carried the grief of the separation to her grave. Jinenji wondered if Inuyasha was having similar thoughts about his parents. It was entirely possible that his demon parent had found his or her mate and abandoned the other and the child. His heart went out to his friend who had no idea even who his parents were, and which one of them had been the demon.