Title: Elegy
Author: Annie Dolnar
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Originally Written: 2008
AN: The song at the beginning is called "Elegy" and was something of an inspiration for this fic. Originally I had no title for this other than "Isamu", and I didn't like that as a title, so I'm calling it Elegy instead. I had a whole post-manga headcannon going on here, so this will be where I post the bits and pieces from that alternate universe.
Shadows blue in the evening shade,
Mark the ground where my love is laid.
Thick green grass in the morning sun,
Blankets my own beloved one.
Doves coo sweetly, soft and low.
Sing to my love who lies below!
Winds blow gently, Soft rains weep,
Tenderly guard my lover's sleep.
Tall, strong oak tree at his head
Watch o'er his dark and earthen bed
Snow white lilies, pure and wise,
Lighten his way to paradise.
Shadows blue in the evening shade,
Mark the ground where my love is laid.
But surely as sweet morning sun,
Within my heart, my love lives on.
Love. Lives. On.
Elegy
"Inuyasha," whispered Kagome. "Do you see over there? The village has been destroyed…"
Inuyasha looked out at the village ahead, where dead bodies and ashes of burnt homes could already be seen and smelt. He nodded grimly. "Looks to me like they never had a chance," he muttered.
Miroku bowed his head. "Such is the fate of those who cross paths with bandits like those that must have struck here…"
Sango nodded sadly in agreement. "Let's give them a proper burial," she suggested. Everyone else agreed to this; even Shippo, who was shaking like a leaf.
"What if they're still nearby?" he whispered in Kagome's ear. Kagome turned to Inuyasha.
"Inuyasha, can you search around to see if there are any bandits left here? I'm going to look for survivors, and try to heal them."
Inuyasha shook his head. "You won't find any survivors that you can save here, Kagome," he told her.
"I-I know," Kagome said, tears brimming in her eyes. "But I have to try, right? Come on Shippo."
The group then split up to do their various jobs. Sango and Miroku went around giving dead bodies proper burials; Kagome, Kirara, and Shippo gathered those who weren't dead yet(there were three) to try to desperately save them, and Inuyasha searched the area for bandits that had been left behind.
Inuyasha's job didn't take long, and so he soon joined Sango and Miroku in burying dead ones.
"Kagome," Shippo said, "I brought you some more herbs."
Kagome smiled in spite of her tears. "Thank you, Shippo. Maybe we can save them," she lied, more to herself than Shippo. Kirara suddenly looked up and sniffed the air. She got up and began to walk towards the edge of the village; an area Kagome hadn't searched, as Sango and Miroku had told her that everyone there was dead. But as she approached the area again, she heard a small, terrified crying.
Suddenly she was rushing to the other side of the village, to a hut that seemed to be almost completely burned away. She and Kirara began to dig around in the ashes, until they hit a metal, overturned tub. Once lifted, a young woman and a bundle of blankets could be seen, and heard. The woman was cooing to the bundle, and the crying sound Kagome had heard was coming from it.
She kneeled down beside the mother, who cringed away. It was then that Kagome noticed little antennas sticking out of her head, violet eyes, and fangs that marked her as something with demonic power. It wasn't very strong, however.
"It's alright," Kagome reassured the woman. "I won't hurt you."
The woman looked at Kagome in disgust. "You're the first, then," she croaked, in a voice that told Kagome she didn't have long. "Why don't you kill me now… human? Prove how strong you are… by killing a weak half-demon. Or better yet… get your husband to do it! He'll be celebrated by all the land, won't he?"
"I'm sorry you feel that way," Kagome said sadly. "I promise, I'm not going to hurt you. I don't have a husband, either. Just InuYasha, and he is half-demon as well. Now please, will you allow me to nurse you back to health?"
The woman's eyes widened in disbelief. She turned her face away. "It-It's too late for me now, girl. My own time has come. But," she whispered, her voice rasping and close to death now. She tugged the bundle from under her and held it out to Kagome. "Take my son… He… He looks human enough. He could live… A normal life. Better… than it was…"
Kagome took the child, who was crying softly. "Does he have a name?" she asked the woman quietly.
"Ha," laughed the woman. "I named him Kichirou, but don't you call him that. The name… jinxed him, I think. He hasn't had a single lucky… day. You rename him, girl. I can see now… you mean us no harm."
Kagome nodded, but the woman flinched in pain. "I'm coming, Aki… o.. "
"Akio?" Kagome said in question.
"Akio Kimura, his father," croaked the woman, gesturing to the baby. "Goodbye, my son. Take care of him… girl…"
And she shut her eyes, never to reopen them again.
Kagome stood with the baby in her arms and walked out of the hut with Shippo and Kirara following behind. Without seeing their faces, she could already tell they were worried for what she was going to do with the child. The subject seemed unavoidable even as she reached Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku, who wiped his brow and clapped his hands together.
"That was quite tiresome," he said. Sango looked sadly at the row of graves, each with a small bouquet of flowers on top.
"So many babies and children dead," she whispered sadly. "Why do people do things like this?"
"They're worse than demons," agreed Inuyasha, "and I've known some pretty awful demons. Come on let's-"
He stopped in his tracks, nose up in the air as Kagome approached. Miroku looked in her direction and frowned. "Another dead-"
"It's not dead," interrupted Inuyasha. He was growling at the infant in Kagome's arms. Sango started to walk toward her, but Inuyasha stopped her. "No, Sango. What if it's possessing her?"
Sango frowned. "Like Naraku's infant?" she asked warily. "Shouldn't you separate them at once, if that's the case?"
Inuyasha shook his head. "I can't tell exactly what it is yet, except that it has demon blood."
At this, Kagome looked at him with a dead, somewhat irritated stare. "He is part beatle-demon, and his name is Isamu."
"Bravery," translated Miroku. "Where did you find him?"
"A demon woman told her to look after him," spilled Shippo. "I think she was his mother. She died from burns."
Inuyasha sniffed the air. "She was a half-demon," he stated. When Kagome gave him a questioning look, he simply said, "keh, I can smell her all over you and the pup."
"She also told Kagome to rename him" said Shippo, "because the name he had was jinxing him."
"So you named him Isamu?" Sango asked curiously. Kagome nodded.
"His original name was Kichirou," she explained wearily. "I figured I should honor his mother's wishes. But I have to admit, I like Kichirou better. I was thinking about Kenichi or Katsuro, but I decided on Isamu because I figured he'll have to be brave."
Inuyasha snorted. "We are not taking that thing with us," he stated. Kagome glared at him.
"And you would leave him here, where demons would devour him? He's too young to take care of himself, Inuyasha! From his size, he's only about two months old, and he can't survive without relying on someone else," Kagome reasoned.
"Well, it ain't staying with us," Inuyasha growled. "We'll drop it off at the nearest village."
"Inuyasha," Kagome said dangerously. "I would think perhaps you would understand! He is part demon! D-E-M-O-N! You of all people should know how he would be treated under the care of the average villager!"
"And I sure as hell know his life will be worse if he gets caught up in the fight with Naraku! Face it, Kagome, we can't fight with him around! He's so small, a demon would eat him up before you could save him! He looks human enough to live in a village, Kagome, so why don't we?"
Kagome hugged the child closer to herself and whispered, "I-I can't. What if the villagers discover his demon qualities? What then? And what of his heritage? How will he ever know where he came from, what his name used to be, who his father was…"
Inuyasha stared at her. "You know who his father was?"
"His mother said that the father's name was Akio Kimura."
Miroku bowed his head. "Alas, I knew the Kimuras when I was a boy. Akio happened to be friends with a young half-beatle demon girl who lived in her own, self-built hut on the outskirts of the village. Now that I look at him, he does remind me of Akio. Perhaps the two fell in love, and the child was the outcome."
"Isamu Kimura," Kagome murmured. "Isamu, Isamu, Isamu…"
The baby cooed softly and cuddled closer to Kagome.
"Maybe," Inuyasha said, "we can bring him to Kaede. She might know a family that will keep him, despite him being part-demon."
Kagome pursed her lips thoughtfully. "That could work," she said. Then she looked at Isamu, who was making funny faces and noises. "I guess we'll have to go back to the village, so we can find someone to care for you. I just wish I could honor your mother's dying wish..."
"Dying wish?" inquired Sango.
"She said, 'Take care of him, girl', two seconds before she died," Shippo explained. Sango shot Kagome a worried look.
"Do you think Kaede can take care of him while the war is going on, and then you can take care of him after?"
Kagome shook her head sadly. "She is too old. She said once that she didn't have time to fully commit to anything but her priestess duties."
"Yes, Kaede is very busy," Miroku agreed. "I don't see why Isamu wouldn't be perfectly safe with Kagome-chan to protect him. She has her arrows; she knows how to take care of herself."
"Not if a bigger demon like Naraku comes along," Kagome whispered. "I'm not that good, guys."
"But you'll have us to help protect him," Sango put in. "This could be our new project! 'Raise a half-demon child to be safe and happy and have a good childhood.' It's perfect!"
InuYasha looked ucomfortable and a little frustrated. "Are you guys out of your minds? The pup could die! We're on one of the most dangerous adventures there ever was. This is no place for a child," he shot at Sango and Miroku. "We don't have time to play with babies all day. Niether does Kagome. She barely has time for her homework! As if we need more holding us back."
"InuYasha is right," Kagome whispered. "Isamu would not be safe this way. But I can't leave him alone, so..."
She squated down next to her bag and slid the baby into one arm so she could look through with the other. Eventually she found one of the thinner sheets and wrapped it around herself and Isamu, like a baby sling to keep him secure. "We'll keep him with us until we reach the village. Then we'll decide what to do with him from there."
"Alright," Miroku agreed, sounding a little... Disappointed. Kagome suspected he had been thinking about making Isamu his heir. Sango and Shippo looked disappointed as well.
"But what about his mother's dying wish, Kagome?" Shippo asked earnestly.
She looked at him sadly. "I will take care of him while I can. Then, when I cannot, I will find someone else to take care of him. When the war is over, I will take care of him once more, if he is not too old."
Everyone seemed satisfied by her words. InuYasha knew she wanted to keep the child, but he also knew she could not, if she was to be searching for jewel shards. And he knew she would not give up the search, so living with the baby in the village was out of the question.
Soon, they reached Kaede's village. Kaede knew of a family who could take care of Isamu, who loved all children regardless of their parentage.
~Five months later~
Isamu's parents- the ones who had taken him in when he was two months old- had also died in the war, having been away to buy supplies in a town which was unfortunately blasted to smitherines by Naraku. It was on this same day that Naraku was defeated and Kagome wished the jewel gone.
Since then, Isamu had been staying with Kaede, who took care of him with the help of InuYasha. Now that he was seven months old, he knew how to crawl, and he followed the half-demon wherever he went. InuYasha found it annoying, especially since the boy called him "Oyagi". He couldn't bop him on the head for it, either; he was only a pup. InuYasha didn't harm old people, human girls, or pups.