Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Chapter Seven
Inuyasha and Takumi: Rebirth
"And just who the hell are you?" The cross voice snapped Inuyasha out of his slumber and his eyes opened wide. Two things immediately crossed the hanyou's mind. First, he was appalled he hadn't sensed someone coming. Second, the face that was currently gaping at him was his own face. At least, his face on the night of the new moon.
"I could ask the same of you!" he snapped back, unsure of what was going on. Still, he had always been a firm believer that the best defense was a smart ass remark to back up a tough offense. He furrowed his brow, trying to look intimidating without letting on that he couldn't move.
"I know Kagome, she doesn't just go around picking up strange guys. So the next logical assumption is that you did something to her. So I'll ask again – who the hell are you?" Dark brows graced violet eyes that Inuyasha was too familiar with to pretend he didn't recognize himself.
"Before I go on about myself, why don't you tell me who you are, and why you look like me?" The boy scoffed at that, his anger still in his features.
"I look like you? Please, I don't have old man hair, nor do I wear fake ears!" The boy reached up to one of Inuyasha's sensitive ears, intending to grab it off. The minute he clasped it, Inuyasha yelped in pain, his eyes wide.
"Damn it, that hurt! What the hell is wrong with you?" Inuyasha whimpered, painfully moving his hand up to his head, trying to massage his ear. The boy had stepped back in shock, staring at Inuyasha. The expression on his face was one Inuyasha knew all too well. Disgust. Fear. Complete mistrust of the being in front of him. Inuyasha struggled to sit up.
"Don't move," the boy said. Inuyasha kept at it until he was up, panting with the effort. His eyes laced red for a moment, then subsided. He looked straight into violet eyes.
"My name is Inuyasha. I don't know who you are, or who Kagome is. She found me when I was beat up really bad. She saved my life. I wish she hadn't though." The boy continued staring at Inuyasha, though his gaze was less fearful.
"I'm Takumi," he said slowly. "Are you...are you a hanyou?" Inuyasha started at that. "Just a legend in my family," Takumi said in answer to the silent question. "Something that happened a long time ago." He approached Inuyasha, who cringed despite himself.
"Look, I don't know what is going on here." Inuyasha defended himself, but Takumi shook his head.
"What did you say about dying? That's not how it was supposed to happen. Mom told me the legend a thousand times about the fairytale legend of the hanyou and the miko, who overcame the prejudices of the time."
"What?" Inuyasha asked, more confused than he had ever been. "It was that man, he somehow got Kikyou to think I betrayed her...then he killed me. I thought. I was by the well, I don't know." It was completely uncharacteristic of the hanyou to open up the way he was, but since the boy looked just like him, it seemed so much like talking to himself.
"What are you talking about?" Takumi asked. "There was never another man. The only other person was Onigumo, a bandit who wanted the miko, so the hanyou killed him. The miko never knew about it."
"I don't know," Inuyasha rubbed his head tiredly, then carefully eased himself back down on the bed. "I don't know what's going on at all." His ears twitched. "She's coming back."
"Who? Oh, Kagome? She'll be upset...wait, I'm leaving. Don't let her know I was here, ok?" Takumi crawled out the window, and Inuyasha was left alone again. His nose twitched, the clean smell of a summer rain infiltrating his being. She was coming back, the girl who looked so much like Kikyou it made his heart ache.
