Chapter 10: The Documentary
Time seemed to fly by so much faster in the South than it did in the North. Every week, Towa repeated variations of her schedule: go to school, attend her club, study with Hisui, attend music lessons (she had convinced "Aunt" Moe to give her flute lessons instead of violin lessons for a few weeks when she saw the instrument sitting in her and "Uncle" Souta's apartment, thus sparing her the need to explain her sudden lack of playing ability, though she had managed to pick up the flute pretty quickly, if she did say so herself), and work in Mama's shop. She even did the occasional interview to drum up support for the documentary. All her activities ate up the days, and before she knew it, a month had passed.
She had to figure how and when she was going to reveal herself to her mother and what to do about her deportation. But she was waiting on one last thing to happen before she played that card, and the day had finally arrived.
"Hurry, it's about to start!" Aunt Kagome snapped.
"Hold on, hold on. I've got to butter the popcorn," Uncle Inuyasha answered.
"I don't know if I can eat anything," Rin replied, her foot bouncing as she sat on the couch. Towa put a comforting hand on her knee.
"Don't worry, Mother. Miss Shiori wouldn't have let them publish anything negative," she said.
"I hope you're right, sweetie," Rin answered, fanning her face. "But I'm still getting all hot from nerves. I think I'm going to open a window."
"Ah-ah, don't!" Aunt Kagome snapped. "Have you seen all the bats flying around the streetlights lately? I swear there's a whole colony roosting out there, and I'm not giving them any opportunity to get into this house."
"Kagome, let her open the damn window if she wants. The TV'll make too much noise for them to want to be anywhere near here. Trust me," Uncle Inuyasha groused as he walked into the room with two big bowls of popcorn.
"Fine. But if one flies in, you're going to catch it," Aunt Kagome replied, cracking open the window only four finger widths. Uncle Inuyasha set down the popcorn and kept a hard stare on his wife as he walked over and yanked the window all the way up. Aunt Kagome huffed and strode over to the couch, grabbing a bowl and sitting on the very edge, leaving a wide space between her and Towa. When Uncle Inuyasha sat down between them and reached for his wife's bowl of popcorn, she casually moved it out of the way, popping some kernels into her mouth without acknowledging him. He huffed but then switched to Towa's and Rin's bowl. Rin didn't seem to mind, her gaze focused on the TV, waiting for the endless stream of commercials to finish.
Finally, the opening montage of the documentary started rolling, and Rin turned up the volume until Inuyasha winced; she promptly dialed it back a couple notches.
It began with a satellite image of their divided country, zooming in on its unnatural scar: The Wall.
"Fourteen years ago, humans and demons believed they found the only way they could live in peace: by separating themselves from one another. Without exhausting resources on the war, humans flourished in the South." Panoramas of city skylines, their skyscrapers glinting in the sun, rolled across the screen. "To the North, demons live as they have for centuries." The film panned an ancient painting of demons flying through the sky and parading in front of palaces. "While their ways may remind us of simpler times, their lives are anything but. The North remains a land where survival of the fittest is the unwritten law. In nearly a decade and a half, these two species have carved out their own ways of life. But when The Wall went up, one group remained unaccounted for: those who were of both worlds. Half-demons. In this divided world, which side can they call home?"
Drone footage crested over the Southern wall and dipped into the Zone of Neutrality, speeding along its untouched lands.
"As the bridge between humans and demons, perhaps therein lies the answer."
The title card appeared, reading: Camp Half-Demon: Bridging North and South.
As the title faded, the lush scenery that Towa recognized from camp came into view. Half-demons with fins for ears swam in the lake. Others raced on the ground or through the trees. Still more—all with their unique, demonic traits showing, such as odd-colored hair or horns—laughed around a campfire. There was even a shot of Councilor Jinenji.
"Half-demons. Thanks to their demonic parents, who possess various animal forms or traits, they are the most diverse species of mammal on the planet. Yet because of their human parents, they retain a largely humanoid form. What traits they inherit from their demonic parents are unpredictable, but the trait that their human parents always pass down is a compassionate heart. A heart that feels joy and sadness, love and loneliness.
"During the summer of 20XX, over one hundred half-demons from both North and South came together for the first time in fourteen years to learn, nurture relationships, and grow. But this camp revealed more than just a need for companionship and acceptance. It revealed the heartbreak and sorrow many of them live with daily as a result of political decisions none of them had any say in."
Towa watched as a brief clip of her hugging her sister and cousin—their day of separation—played, and Aunt Kagome yelped, pointing at it.
But just as quickly as the clip surfaced, it was replaced by ones of Councilor Shiori speaking in front of crowds. "Today, one policymaker is trying to shine some light on their predicament. Councilor Shiori, who founded the camp, is the daughter of General Tsukuyomaru, a former leader of the bat demon tribe." A painting of a dark-skinned man with long silver hair in a ponytail, small horns on his forehead, and extended bat wings faded onto the screen.
Inuyasha grunted. "That's actually a pretty good likeness."
Then, Miss Shiori appeared in the hot seat and started speaking. "Although he had been taught all his life to hate humans and had even fought against them as a coming-of-age event, once my father started overseeing part of the bat demon tribe territory and getting to know the humans under his governance, he became fascinated by how a species he had always considered weak could indeed survive so long against demons. He discovered that the will to make their short lives happy and bearable was what drove them. And he found that beautiful."
The documentary then detailed how Tsukuyomaru had fallen in love with Shizu, Shiori's mother, and eloped with her to keep her safe from his father and the other bat demons. But in eloping, he had neglected his duty to safeguard the bat demon tribe, so his father, Taigokumaru, came after him.
"My father refused to return to his post unless my grandfather could guarantee my mother's and my safety," Miss Shiori explained. "Unfortunately, my grandfather saw his refusal through a different lens. He believed my mother and I were holding my father back. So he tried to kill us. That's when he discovered I had the same power to construct barriers that my father had. Suddenly, I was too valuable to kill. I remember his exact words then."
A male voice-over spoke, reading the words that floated on the screen: "Leave the woman and come home, Tsukuyomaru, and I will let her live. In exchange, bring your daughter. She will be safe with us. She will learn our ways and follow in your footsteps."
Tsukuyomaru asked him for a day to say goodbye. Taigokumaru allowed it.
Shiori's eyes grew glassy. "But it was all a ruse. My father refused to leave my mother behind."
The narrator then explained how this act of love sealed Tsukuyomaru's fate. Shizu and Shiori used the daylight, when the bat demons did not venture out, to run away towards the human lands and seek shelter. Tsukuyomaru stayed behind to buy them time come nightfall. In the end, Taigokumaru killed his son.
Shizu and Shiori relocated to a human city, where they struggled to make a living.
"Demons may believe themselves superior to humans, but at least they will acknowledge those who display strength. Humans, on the other hand, are apathetic at best and hateful at worst," Shiori said. "Even to their own."
The two largely had to take care of themselves. As the nations were still at war, Shiori's status as a half-demon made others shun her and Shizu. So when Shizu fell sick with cancer, few were willing to help as Shiori struggled to work and make money to afford treatments.
"I can't say for sure whether, with the proper medical treatment, my mother would have survived. Cancer is always uncertain, and the treatments twenty years ago were not as advanced as they are now," Shiori said. "But perhaps she could have lived longer or in less pain had others shown a little kindness or given a young girl a chance to work for more than a pittance."
"Poor Shiori," Rin murmured, sniffing and wiping her eyes. Towa grabbed a tissue for her.
Mama has such a kind heart. She hurts so much for Miss Shiori, even though she herself has had just as trying a life.
Shizu's death was a turning point for Shiori. Knowing her father had been killed by his own kind and her mother through the negligence of her own, just because her parents had dared to see past the difference in each other, inspired a dream in her that she wanted to change humans' and demons' perceptions.
"But such views are difficult to change during the midst of a war," the narrator said. "So until Closing Day, Shiori's main priority was establishing a life for herself."
It had taken her years to settle into human life, so when she heard about the displaced villagers from the border closing, many of whom were half-demons, she dropped everything and volunteered to help in their relocation efforts. She rallied for them, raised money for them, and tried to help them by passing on her own experiences.
Her work as a half-demon activist paved the way for her political career and made her something of a media darling. In the end, she was elected the first half-demon councilor.
"Becoming a councilor only got me closer on the avenue towards creating change," Shiori explained. "It wasn't the beginning. Suddenly though, I had the power to reach out to our Northern neighbors to try to foster an understanding between our governments. And I was in a unique position to do so, being half-demon myself."
The narrator then explained how she had written to the demon lords whose territories bordered The Wall, asking for permission to set aside land for a half-demon camp. Mostly, her letters went unanswered. Only when she grew persistent did she start receiving negative replies.
"And then the letter I had been waiting for finally came," Shiori said with a smile.
An ancient, stylized painting appeared, showing a familiar figure that cast out a green whip towards an army of humans.
Towa jumped with excitement. "Pa—uh, Father!"
The narrator continued, "General Sesshoumaru, ruler of the western demon lands, responded to her inquiry. The dog-demon general, notorious for the carnage he left on the battlefields and how he could decimate an army with a single swipe of his hand, was one of the few who deigned to reply. His letter was short and curt, giving no explanation for his silence over the last two years." An image of a letter written on high-quality rice paper and in fine, brush calligraphy appeared onscreen, and Towa gasped, recognizing her father's handwriting.
"Mother, look!" she cried out, pointing at the TV.
Rin grasped her hand. "I see it, sweetie." Her eyes were riveted to the television.
The narrator read, "'You have permission to use the neutral lands bordering Dog Demon territory as you see fit. Whatever assistance you need, name it.' Such a letter coming from such a notorious general might seem bizarre—even a trap—to anyone else. But Shiori already knew something most did not."
"He had every reason to assist me—as became apparent at the camp," Shiori said.
The narrator then said, "The proof lay in the closing statement of his letter: 'Should you have the opportunity to speak with my wife, reassure her that we are well.'"
Towa's heart thudded, and tears pricked at her eyes. We.
"I thought he was using the 'royal we,'" Shiori said. "He's a demon of high-enough standing to do so. I had no idea that he actually meant it in the plural. I thought I knew his daughter. Turns out, I only knew one of them. And neither Setsuna nor I would ever have known had it not been for Camp Half-Demon."
The documentary then showed footage of the camp—before its transformation—as the narrator explained, "Camp Half-Demon rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a town evacuated on Closing Day. A village remained like a ghost town, a haunting memory of a time of war."
Aunt Kagome gasped as the video showed how overgrown the town had gotten. "Look at it. We once lived there. But now it just looks so sad."
A time-lapse video showed the drab, brown-gray wood of the homes and barns slowly coming to life with bright color as workers repaired them and painted them.
Then came the first day of camp.
Footage of camp counselors getting checked at the border crossing played before the film took viewers on a first-hand tour of the tunnel. They emerged from the other side and into the valley between the two walls. Then the film cut to a clip of the buses trundling down the single lane and Southern half-demons getting off and posing for the camera.
"Then came a historic moment for these nations as members of the North and South met together for the first time in fourteen years," the narrator declared.
The Northern convoy of carriages rolled into view. Towa's eyes were glued to the screen. She picked out A-Un pulled her own carriage, and it was strange to experience her arrival from the outside. She remembered the moment her carriage had finally stopped. Her hands shook in anticipation, wondering what she would find on the other side of her carriage door. When she opened it and first beheld the buses, she stared at them in shock, unable to comprehend such technology. The cabins beckoned to her with their bright colors. And then the mass of half-demons swarming around them took her breath away. She had expected a small, intimate camp, especially given that there had only been six half-demons from the North, so when she used her military training to eye the crowd and estimate the count at around one hundred, her heart just about burst from excitement.
"The moment was one to remember for each side alike," the narrator said.
Clips of Southern campers appeared in succession, explaining how they had been surprised to see the demonic animals as well as how old-fashioned the Northern campers were.
Then Rion's interview popped up.
"Mother, that's my friend, Rion!" Towa exclaimed.
Rion, who was labeled as "Princess of the East, daughter of General Kirinmaru," said, "Even at home, Father did not let me out much, so anything would have been a surprise to me, but to see so many half-demons like myself in one place—that alone was the true surprise. All my life, I had been so alone, brought up to believe that I was an anomaly." She smiled, her ears twitching. "Already, I've made such great friends, and I'm sure there are more to come!"
Rin rubbed Towa's back and smiled at her. Right, Towa thought. She would see Setsuna as one of those new friends. Not me, who's been one of Rion's only friends for the last decade.
A montage of various camp activities then played, showing off the half-demons' camaraderie as well as their powers.
"Half-demons are just like anyone else. They laugh, play, and get into trouble too," Shiori giggled.
Then came low-resolution shots—obviously from phone cameras—of the notorious food fight, and Towa's face burned as she watched the insanity she hadn't paid any attention to that night, since her sole focus had been on pounding Setsuna into the floor.
"Early on into camp, one dinner devolved into a food fight, and while it's normally difficult to pinpoint the instigator of such an event, one counselor sniffed out exactly who the culprits were," the narrator explained.
Then came a shot of Inuyasha hauling Towa and Setsuna off the floor and dragging them outside.
Towa buried her face in her hands as her mother and Aunt Kagome turned to stare at her in shock. She might have left out a few details about why they were thrown into the Solitary Cabin.
The Uncle Inuyasha appeared onscreen, and the one on the couch groaned. Aunt Kagome sat forward in interest.
Towa sympathized with her uncle in the spotlight. His brows pinched together in discomfort, and he scratched his ear, apparently not able to heed the interviewer's request to sit still. "Look, sometimes siblings just need to beat the shit out of each other. They didn't know it yet, but that's the kind of bond they had."
Off-screen, the interviewer asked, "Is that the kind of relationship you have with your brother, General Sesshoumaru?"
The Inuyasha onscreen sneered, "Yeah, we were known to get into it."
"Were?" the interviewer echoed.
Inuyasha sighed. "Things changed when he had his own family. Wasn't such a prick anymore."
"It was that very night that twins Towa and Setsuna found each other as long-lost sisters and daughters of General Sesshoumaru," the narrator cut in, showing a shot of the two girls together.
Towa appeared onscreen, and it was so strange to hear herself recorded. Is that what I look and sound like to others? "The truth is, I came to camp with a mission: to find my sister, Setsuna. I had discovered her existence as a child, but I couldn't bring myself to ask my father about her until he brought up the option of going to this camp, because I had seen firsthand how much it hurt him to talk about our mother, so I figured it would be the same for my sister.
"I thought it would be so easy to find her: I had a name, and I didn't think there could be that many half-demons. Imagine my surprise when I come to camp and there's over a hundred! I spent days trying to introduce myself to everyone and learn people's names. Then of course, the one girl I had been…ah…contending with for days—the one girl whose name I had never asked for—turned out to be my long-lost sister. Funny how life works like that sometimes, isn't it? I can't wait to tell Papa all about her. I know he's dying to know."
A sniffle caused Towa to turn towards her mother. Tears ran down Rin's cheeks as she stared at her estranged daughter. "My little girl. She's so beautiful."
Towa couldn't help it. She wrapped her arms around her mother and squeezed, laying her head on her shoulder. Soon, Mama. I'll show you the real me soon.
Then their family portrait appeared, and Rin sat up straighter. "How did they get that?" She sounded almost frightened.
"Towa let them scan it," Towa rushed to say, though she now felt so stupid and naïve for having done so at the time. Her mother's face had now been broadcast to the entire nation without her consent. "I'm sorry, Mother. I didn't know she did that. She brought the photo album and—"
"Shh!" Uncle Inuyasha snapped as the narrator continued to speak.
"Few photographs of General Sesshoumaru exist, but the demon pictured here is undeniably the notorious dog demon who led campaigns against humans for centuries." A black-and-white photo of him—one Towa had spied in Setsuna's scrapbook—sidled up next to the portrait as a comparison. Though he largely looked the same, the grim set of his features in the older photo contrasted with the soft near-smile he wore in their family portrait.
Then the film showed a different photo from their portrait series—one of just him and Rin staring lovingly into each other's eyes. Towa loved looking at that photo. If she hadn't already known how much her father loved her mother, it was so obvious in that picture.
"But it begs the question: just how or who changed the general's heart towards humans?" the narrator asked.
Towa's interview reappeared. "Papa told me the whole story!" she gushed, and Towa wanted to hide her face in her hands and how excited she sounded. I was so naïve back then. I couldn't even control my emotions for the camera. Thank goodness I didn't spill everything. She had taken enough of Setsuna's advice to keep secret that her mother's family had been killed for being suspected of aiding the enemy.
"My mother grew up near the constantly shifting border. As a result, she became a war orphan as a child. One day, she found my father lying wounded on the outskirts of a battlefield, and she brought him human food and medicines to try to nurse him back to health. To this day, my father still doesn't understand why she approached him. 'She is the kind of human who will open her heart to anyone,' he told me. Another demon might have said that with a sneer, thinking it a weakness. My father said it with a smile. Anyway, he brought her to a village—this village, in fact, where we're having camp—and left her in the care of the village elder. As she grew up, she sent him letters, and he replied, so when she finally became an adult, they fell in love, and the rest is history," Towa finished with a wide grin.
"She has such a beautiful smile," Rin said through a thick throat.
Aunt Kagome looked over at smiled through her own tears. "She looks just like you, Rin."
I do? Towa wondered, trying to get a good look at herself through their eyes, but then the family photo reappeared, zooming in on their four faces.
The narrator said, "The general and his wife, Rin, had this series of portraits taken a few months after their daughters were born—and a few months before The Wall went up, separating them forever. Some might call that luck; others would suggest the general knew that the tide of war was changing." An official-looking document faded into view. "On June 2, 20XX, General Sesshoumaru joined other demon and human generals in signing the armistice that ceased the fighting but did not declare a formal end to the war. It also called for the creation of The Wall. Even though this act would irrevocably divide his new family, minutes from the armistice discussions show that the general was the first to bring up the issue of half-demons."
The male voice-over spoke again, reading words that typed themselves onto the screen. "What will become of the half-demons?"
"Do you speak on behalf of your brother, General?" another male voice-over asked.
"He is not the only half-demon in existence. Which side of this wall will they call home?"
The narrator then continued, "Through his efforts, the general managed to add the famous Half-Demon Clause to the armistice agreement, stating that they could choose on which side of The Wall they would live. However, the minutes reveal that the general even suggested a separate land for half-demons or mixed families, such as the very border itself. In the end, his suggestions were overruled, others citing that there were not enough half-demons and mixed families to create such an exclusion and that to allow only specific families access to the Zone of Neutrality would complicate matters.
"As the final armistice noted, no one was allowed to step foot on this land without official government sanction. In fact, it took a literal act of Assembly for the South to allow Councilor Shiori to requisition lands on the southern half of the Zone of Neutrality to use for Camp Half-Demon.
"And so, when The Wall went up, General Sesshoumaru took his daughter, Towa, leaving his wife, Rin, and their daughter, Setsuna, in the South in the care of General Taijiya, who was put in charge of the resettlement efforts."
The photograph of a mustachioed military man popped up, and Kagome pointed at the screen in excitement. "Oh my gosh, Sango's dad even made it in! Is she watching? She must be. Whatever, I've got to tell her." She whipped out her phone and started texting.
"But General Sesshoumaru left his wife with this stipulation: that they would never tell their daughters that they were twins," the narrator added.
"He wanted to spare me and Setsuna the pain," camper Towa said. "They say twins share a bond, right? Well, we're still getting to know each other, so I can't read Setsuna's mind quite yet, but the string of fate connecting us must be strong, because the way we found each other through that food fight and in solitary afterwards was just so perfect. We both turned human that night, you see, and my hair turns black when I do. Our cousin, Moroha, noted that we looked like twins. I was happy to report to them that we actually were."
The narrator cut back in as a photograph of the two sisters at camp panned over the screen. "But while one sister knew, the other had no idea. Setsuna came to camp knowing only that her father had helped to make it happen. How did it feel for her to realize her family had kept this huge secret from her all her life?"
Then the film cut to Setsuna, and Towa watched in rapt attention. She had only seen the brief clip from her the morning show interview. She wanted to know what else her sister had to say.
Two tears dropped down Setsuna's cheeks, and she hastily turned away to wipe them. Towa had to keep her mouth from dropping open. Even at their parting, she hadn't seen Setsuna cry before.
Finally, Setsuna looked directly at the camera. "Hurt," she bit out. "But when Towa explained why they did it…to keep us from suffering with the knowledge that we had even more family we could not meet…I understood. And the fact that I wasn't the only one left in the dark helped. I didn't feel so alone anymore."
Towa's heart stuttered. Rin sobbed, and pulled Towa closer to her, rubbing her hand over her hair and rocking back and forth.
"Baby, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I hid Towa. So sorry you felt lonely."
"M-Mother, it's okay," Towa murmured, rubbing Rin's back in comfort. "I'm fine now."
"But while Setsuna had no idea her twin sister existed, she had come to camp in the hopes of finding her long-lost cousin," the narrator stated.
A clean-faced Setsuna reappeared. "My cousin, Moroha, was kidnapped on Closing Day. We never knew what happened to her. We could only hope that my father found her on the other side of The Wall."
A clip of Inuyasha directing campers played, and the narrator said, "Moroha is the daughter of Inuyasha, General Sesshoumaru's half-brother. Inuyasha himself is a half-demon, the son of General Touga and a human princess, Izayoi, who lived almost three hundred years ago."
A painting of General Touga as a massive dog with a long, curly tail swinging across the sky slid into view. "Oh geez, they're bringing all this up?" Inuyasha groaned, putting his head in his hand.
"Honey, that's your grandfather!" Rin said to Towa, an excited note in her voice. "I've never seen any pictures of him before."
Towa didn't have to paste on a smile, since her mother's excitement was infectious, but she couldn't exactly say that she had seen plenty of portraits of her grandfather. Despite his fallout with her grandmother, Inukimi had never taken down the memories of him from around their palace.
"At the time, General Touga's troops commandeered Izayoi's family's home as their battle headquarters. The General grew enamored with her during his time there, and Izayoi returned his affections. However, rumors spread that the general was debasing the princess. Her loyal retainer, Setsuna no Takemaru, staged one final effort to retake Izayoi's family lands from the dog demon clan.
"In his fervor, his men set fire to the mansion the very night Inuyasha was born. General Touga fended off human after human that stormed the palace, trying to protect his lover as she gave birth. But Setsuna no Takemaru's troops were armed with muskets, and even though the general killed all who fought against him, he was left gravely wounded. When Setsuna no Takemaru finally faced him in a duel, they ended up killing each other, though not before General Touga saw to it that his lover and newborn son made it safely out of the burning palace."
Towa looked up at her uncle. Though his face remained neutral as he listened to his parents' tragic tale being told, his ears drooped. Towa wrapped herself around his arm.
"I'm glad you're here, Uncle," Towa murmured so quietly that only his enhanced hearing would pick it up.
He patted her knee and in just as soft a voice said, "Thanks, kiddo. I'm glad you're here too…Towa."
She squeezed his arm even harder.
"Though they survived that night, Izayoi passed away a few years later when Inuyasha was still a child. He grew up fending for himself, trying to survive in a world where both demons and humans shunned him for being different. As a result, Inuyasha had no strict allegiances during the war. Because he was viewed as a war baby, General Touga's wife and son shunned him, so he never formally joined the dog demon clan or its army. Instead, he fought in what battles he pleased."
Inuyasha reappeared. "Look, no side was ever in the right a hundred percent of the time. So yeah, sometimes I helped out the demons, and sometimes I helped out the humans. I tried to get the lay of the land before butting into a battle."
Aunt Kagome smiled and patted her husband's back before giving him a kiss.
"As a wandered, Inuyasha one day came across a border village that his brother occupied—the same one where the general would one day bring a young Rin. It was there Inuyasha met the human woman, who would one day become his wife."
A smug Inuyasha popped back up. "He'll tell ya different, but I like to think Sesshoumaru chose this village out of all the ones in his territory to drop off Rin at, because he knew I was sticking around there. Like it or not, he's had to acknowledge over the years how powerful I am, so he'd have wanted someone there with the capability to look after Rin."
Towa held back a laugh. He would indeed say different. Papa never mentioned anything about Uncle being a factor in that equation.
"So, the night Moroha was kidnapped, I had to trust him to save her," Inuyasha continued, his smugness melting into a subdued air. "I was human then and couldn't do nothin' about it. But damn if it wasn't the worst feeling in the world, not being able to go after my baby girl and not knowing if he'd make it back in time. And when he didn't, well…we just had to hope he'd find her and take care of her."
Then Moroha popped on. "Sure, what happened to me sucks, but it could have been worse. My stepdad—he's a wolf demon—is actually the one who found me and the tanuki that kidnapped me. Apparently, Uncle Sessh came flying in just moments later. He yanked me out of my stepdad's arms and rushed for The Wall, but it literally went up right in front of his nose. He couldn't bring me home with him and Towa—he already had to break the news to Granny about Towa, and she wasn't exactly keen on my dad or, by extension, me back then—so he left me with the wolf demons. But he paid for my whole upbringing, and he never refused me anytime I came to visit him and Towa."
A montage of clips showing Moroha and Inuyasha hanging out together at camp played. The narrator said, "Even though Moroha knew the sad tale of her separation from her parents, she never expected to find her father—or learn of a long-lost cousin—at camp."
"Look, I just came to this camp to have fun and because Towa asked me to," Moroha explained. "I had no idea it was going to become some huge family reunion. But…" Her eyes misted, her nose went pink, and her voice grew thick and wavered. "I'm really glad it did, 'cause…I finally got to meet my dad, you know? Fourteen years of wondering if he even remembered me, and I learned the moment I met him, the good ol' sniffer kicked in, and he knew exactly who I was," she said, tapping her nose. "He never forgot me for a second."
"I'm not gonna lie—we hoped Sesshoumaru would send Moroha to camp," Inuyasha revealed in his interview. "But after years of hoping for something—anything—to reunite us, we learned to dampen our expectations. But seeing her again? Third best moment of my life. Only her birth and marrying her mother even top it."
Aunt Kagome kissed her husband's cheek again.
The documentary then explored other campers' stories. There was a segment focusing wholly on the Northern campers, where they explained what their lives were like in the North. Towa noticed how her mother watched her interview segments during that part with rapt attention.
The documentary also looked at other Southerners' stories as well. Sometimes, theirs too weaved together. There were two campers who found out their fathers were from the same demonic clan and grew up as a tag-team duo. Others reunited with those they hadn't seen since the relocation efforts. Certainly, not every story was one of love, but those half-demons that were born as true war babies explained how they had always been taught to hate a part of themselves as a result.
"Here at camp, we were taught to embrace both halves of ourselves," one camper said. "If we can't love all of ourselves, after all, how can we expect others to love us?"
"Of course, all good things must come to an end, and for some, leaving camp was more heartbreaking than for others," the narrator said. The now popularized images of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha hugging and crying before they parted played. Then came a clip of Inuyasha hugging Moroha goodbye and her crying in his arms. Aunt Kagome started sobbing in response. "For six weeks, two twin sisters as well as a father and daughter lived in a dream where they could be together. Then, they woke up into the real world, where nothing short of a government sanction or, at the very least, another summer of Camp Half-Demon, will allow them to see each other again. And yet, while the camp was a reprieve for them, there are others who were not so lucky."
"I don't regret coming to camp," Moroha said. "Even though I know the time with my dad is going to be short, I would rather have six weeks than nothing. I'm just sad that I didn't have the opportunity to meet my mom too. I hear you can do this thing called "video calling" in the South and actually see people as you talk to them. Even that…might have been enough." She sniffed and put on a forced smile. "But hey, we've just got to hope, right? Maybe one day, things will change, and I can meet her too."
Aunt Kagome lost it then, bawling into Uncle Inuyasha's shoulder. He held her, close and kissed her forehead. Towa noticed the way the light from the TV glinted a little too much in his eyes for them to be entirely dry.
When Towa reappeared onscreen, her smile was gone. In its place was a downcast turn to her lips. "How do you say goodbye to your family, knowing you might never see them again? Thinking of how I'll have to leave Setsuna…." Camper Towa put a hand to her heart and blinked back tears. "Now I know how my parents felt when they were forced to separate. When people say it's like you're heart's been torn out, it's no exaggeration."
Then Setsuna said, "I know it won't be easy, but one day I will meet my father. And Towa will meet our mother. And Moroha will meet her mother. And all the other campers who haven't seen their parents or loved ones in years will meet as well. I can't be sure how this is going to happen, but that's the new goal I'm coming out of camp with."
Towa had to smile. And we did it, Setsuna. We met them. Now we just need to bring everyone together.
Finally, Shiori said, "When you're the child of two worlds, you have to make yourself fit into just one of them. There's nothing wrong with adapting, but think about yourself. Perhaps you have a job where you have to wear a certain sort of persona. Or you're in school and trying to fit in with a certain crowd. It's exhausting to live that double life, and the best feeling is to come home and just be yourself with your family, isn't it? Now imagine living that half-life all the time. That's what many half-demons do, and so Camp Half-Demon provided a place where we could just be ourselves without fear of hiding either or demon or human selves."
Then, as the credits started to play, the drone footage of The Wall came back on, and the narrator said, "Today, we stand at an impasse. Without dialogue, there can be no understanding between our nations. Camp Half-Demon provided an important first step in a post-armistice world, bringing together two peoples who have been divided for fourteen years. Perhaps it is a sign that one day, half-demons will be the bridge of understanding between our divided nations. Perhaps one day, humans need not live in fear and demons need not live in the dark ages. Perhaps the groundwork for coexistence has already been laid and we only need those brave enough to venture forth upon it."
Uncle Inuyasha turned off the TV, and the family sat in silence for a moment.
The silence shouldn't have eaten at Towa as much as it did, given that she grew up with a stoic father, but finally she couldn't take it anymore. "Well, I thought it was amazing."
"It really was impressive," Aunt Kagome added. She dabbed a tissue at her eyes, cleaning up the mess of tears on her cheeks. "Being able to see Moroha like that was such a treat."
"Towa too," Rin added, blowing her nose.
"Are you sure you're not mad Towa gave them your name and photo?" Towa asked. She had noticed the film never mentioned Aunt Kagome's name. Uncle Inuyasha must have purposely kept it out, and perhaps Moroha never mentioned it either.
"If it can help people understand the kind of demon your father truly is, I don't mind," Rin answered. "Being able to see those old paintings and documents really was something else."
"I've gotta hand it to Shiori—she can really spin somethin'," Uncle remarked. "The question is, are people gonna buy it?"
Just then, everyone's phones began chiming and dinging with unread messages and incoming calls.
"Oh my goodness," Rin gasped, scrolling through the shop's social media pages. Towa quickly leaned over to see the damage. But her mother just smiled. "We really do have the most wonderful customers. Look at all these messages of support!" Tears started dripping down her cheeks. "'Well done, Setsuna!' 'So sorry to hear about Watanabe-san's loss. I can't imagine giving up my child as she did.' 'The way Watanabe-san had to endure separation from her husband and child and move to a new home while still managing to create a shop with the best flowers in town speaks volumes about her strength.'"
"Any parent should be able to empathize with the pain of being separated from a child," Aunt Kagome said. She wiggled her phone. "I'm getting a lot of the same types of messages from friends. I mean, a lot of these people knew we had lost Moroha, but…they're asking if I'm okay since I never got to meet her."
Towa saw that the group chat for her class at school was bursting with unread messages. She was almost afraid to open it, but when she did, she was met with question after question about her family. Some were even nice enough to ask how she was feeling after watching the program. Others congratulated her on a job well done and praised her for looking so cool on TV. There was the occasional student that slipped in something like, "That half-demon propaganda was something else," but she ignored them. She knew not every reaction was going to be positive.
But already she could see how many hearts the documentary had touched. People were talking. Even kids her age had taken an interest in it.
Maybe this will go viral. Maybe we can spark change. Maybe we've taken another step onto that bridge between worlds, Miss Shiori.
AN: I'm not gonna lie—it was REALLY difficult to write out what's basically a screenplay (i.e. the documentary) in expository format. So, it's not perfect, but I hope it wasn't too boring. I was going to tack on another scene at the end, but I ran out of time, so it will have to wait until next update.
Speaking of next update—just a heads up that I will be on another business trip most of next week (which is my writing week for this story), so I can't guarantee that this will be updated on Jan. 24th as per the usual schedule. I will certainly try though!