Hi guys! The reveal has been made! Naraku is Aikotsu's father! Holy hell weasel! Did you put it all together?
In case you missed anything, I put together all of the Easter eggs:
(Chapter one) Bankotsu finds a two year old on the side of the road, alone and covered in blood and soot. The pink barrier that protected Jakotsu and Aikotsu. The strange bracelet present on her wrist since she was found. The sad woman who disappeared after giving a sad smile.
(Chapter two) Aikotsu nearly getting kidnapped for the first time. The lightning.
(Every chapter) Aikotsu continually nearly getting kidnapped. Conscious and subconscious barrier summoning, effortless maintenance.
(Chapter three) The dream at the end. And her lullaby. Her athleticism. Think about it. No human is as flexible or agile as Aikotsu. But...Inuyasha, a half demon, is.
(Chapter six) The nightmares of fire and blood and screams. Sound familiar? Read "NO!". Her barrier didn't activate around Naraku, but it did against the man who injured her.
(Every chapter) Her absolute abhorrence of all violence. Sounds reasonable, especially once you get to read what happened the night everything went to hell.
I think that's all the Easter eggs, did you catch them?
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, all rights are reserved for Rumiko Takahashi and affiliates. I do not own the song I put in last chapter, it's from the anime Fairy Tail, it's solely property of the creator, which I am not. I selected the song because I felt it matched the story and the dynamic between Naraku and Aikotsu. The song is known as Lyra's Song, from Fairy Tail season one, during the Deliora arc.
Can I just name this chapter "Aww"? No? Fuck.
Chapter ten: Questions and Not So Many Answers
The next day was just as mind-boggling as the day before had been. Aikotsu's bleeding thankfully stopped overnight, although her wound was still open and not healed yet. She's still confined to bed rest, to her utter displeasure, and Suikotsu is on the verge of tying her to her futon to keep her there. Fortunately for everyone, Naraku and Byakuya are quick to continue the talk from yesterday, thus saving the seven brothers from their injured sister's fiery wrath.
"So, Naraku, why doesn't she look more like you if she's your daughter?" Suikotsu asks, gently pushing his sister back into her futon once again. He's utterly unphased as she bares her teeth at him, eyes narrowed in fury.
"I imagine her appearance changed to aid in hiding her identity. Although to be completely honest, she doesn't look too much different compared to when she was a baby, apart from the fact that her eyes were the same color as mine. Right now, she actually resembles her aunt Hitomiko." The demon man hypothesizes, giving his infuriated daughter a look as she attempts to sit up again. That combined with Suikotsu's doctor glare, she's effectively cowed back into lying down, though none too happily.
At that point, the mood changes drastically, as the brothers release a more serious question. "I have a question." Bankotsu says. "I don't suppose you were able to find out who exactly hurt Ai, did you?" He's itching to give the bastard who hurt her a piece of his mind, and give him a reason to never piss him off ever again.
Naraku frowns, eyes narrowing at the ground. "I have a feeling that it may be my older brother." Byakuya has a similar response, glaring at the trees.
"Your brother?" Bankotsu echoes.
"Yes, my older brother Magatsuhi. He's the eldest out of five, and I'm the second eldest. And..he's to be put bluntly, a complete nightmare. See, he's always had something of a resentment, if not complete hatred for me, since our father passed over him and named me the successor. He was supposed to be the Lord of the Southern lands, but father saw how...unhinged he was, and decided he wasn't the best match. Ever since then, he's hated me. And it only got worse when I met my mate Midoriko. He was...unhealthily interested in her, to the point of obsession. I don't think he loved her at all, but I do think he wanted her to spite me in some way. When she turned out to be my mate, and agreed to become full mates, he also went ballistic."
"Yes," Byakuya agrees, "Big brother has never been the best at controlling his emotions. And he certainly isn't very stable. I personally believe he's at fault one hundred percent. If what you said about her barriers is true, then only Magatsuhi would be able to strike too quickly for her barrier to pull up."
"He sounded like the man from my dreams." Aikotsu suddenly chimes in, her tone unnervingly flat. She's staring up at the tree tops, and hasn't said much since waking, not until now.
"You mean-" Jakotsu begins uncertainly, only to get cut off by Aikotsu's curt nod.
"Dreams?" Naraku and Byakuya ask in tandem, turning to look at the injured girl.
"Aikotsu has nightmares sometimes, of the same thing over and over. Fire, blood, bloodcurdling screams. She's had the same dream since she was two. The dreams have only gotten a bit more clear as she's gotten older, but it's still the same set. She's walking through a castle drenched in flames, screams all around her, and the walls and ceiling are ablaze but the fire doesn't touch her. She follows the frantic yelling of a woman and the enraged shouts of a man to a nursery where a woman is huddled up against a wall, a barrier keeping her and a bundle in her arms relatively safe from the man just outside of the shield." Suikotsu explains.
Then Ginkotsu picks up where he left off. "The man's yelling like a maniac, and then a maid runs in, telling the man to leave the woman alone. The woman begs the maid to run, and the man says he'll kill them all as he stalks to the maid. The dream ends with the first woman screaming 'NO!'."
The thought of an eleven-year-old having such a horrific nightmare is enough to make Naraku pause, however the mention of the nursery alerts him once again.
Then, as Bankotsu leans over to grab a fish skewer from the fire, something falls from his haori. It's a piece of fabric, a pale yellow in color with little white flowers, and no bigger than his palm. "What's that?" The demon man asks, prompting Bankotsu to look down and scoop up the fabric.
"Just something to remind me of how lucky I am. It's a scrap from one of Ai's old kimonos. When I first found her, she was just wearing a tiny loincloth and this tiny little kimono stained with soot and blood. I did my best to wash the blood and soot off, but it didn't make sense to keep the whole thing, so I just kept a piece of it to remind me how lucky I was to find her that day. If I hadn't, I'd probably never have met all of my brothers. Why?"
"Oh, no reason." Naraku says lightly. "It just looks a bit like one of the kimonos my Haruko wore when she was a little girl."
Aikotsu frowns. Haruko? Abruptly, she begins to recall a dream she'd had one night when she was little.
A woman and a man are playing with a little girl with short black hair. Their faces are obscure and blank, aside from the bright, happy smiles gracing their lips. "You're so cute, Haruko!" The woman gushes.
"Can you walk to Daddy?" The man asks, and the little girl struggles to her tiny feet and stumbles along until she falls in the man's lap. He sweeps her up into an embrace, holding her dearly. "You did it, my little Haruko! I'm so proud of you!"
That man is Naraku, and so the woman must be her mother. But, if that much is true...Slowly, her eyes drop down to stare at the child.
Then that means..
That she is...
Haruko.
...
It was maybe a week after that when Aikotsu started to see that Naraku was perhaps a bit more broken than she'd originally guessed. Now, that wasn't to say he didn't have any right to be - he definitely did - but it hadn't taken her long to realize he was a bit...damaged.
After bolting awake to the sound of Naraku screaming someone's name for the third time in one night, Aikotsu struggles out of her futon. Lazily padding over to the still asleep but clearly distraught man, she plops down right in his open arms, and promptly conks right back asleep. She doesn't notice how he slowly, ever so slowly, calms down from his fit and wraps her tightly in his arms, chest still heaving. She doesn't notice his dark red eyes open to stare at her, sleeping peacefully in his arms. She doesn't feel him press a kiss to her forehead before he falls back to sleep himself.
For Naraku, sleep isn't very fun. He used to enjoy it, as any sane person would. But ever since he found his worst nightmare, that same scene plays out every time he closes his eyes, and it still haunts him to this very day. Even when he's exhausted, he still dreams of it and wakes up heartbroken all over again. This night was no different. As usual, he finds the same vision of horror awaiting him as he always does, and breaks down into tears as always. His feelings on his dreams range from annoyance over the consistency and frequency of them, to all-encompassing grief from being forced to relive the single worst moment in his life. Why couldn't he just be normal and dream of his mating ceremony? Or the birth of his daughter? No, he has to constantly be tortured by the memory of finding his entire life in ruins. Yes, sleep is very much an enemy of his at this point.
So when he wakes up the next morning to find Aikotsu snuggled up in his arms and snoring like a tiger demon in hibernation, he vaguely wonders just what happened. Then, as lucidity begins to clear the fog of sleep, he's reminded of his awful night, and of having the same nightmare three times in a row. And he also vaguely remembers feeling the eleven-year-old stumble over to him from her futon, climb in his arms, and conk right back out as soon as she was settled.
Well that certainly explains why she's over here. And the snores too, he decides as he picks up on the equally loud snuffles coming from Suikotsu. He rolls his neck and is rewarded with a few satisfying cracks, carefully untangling the still-slumbering eleven-year-old from him so he can stand. Aikotsu's brothers are already up, crowded around the fire, and he makes himself comfortable in between Jakotsu and Ginkotsu.
The brothers greet him amicably, Bankotsu only half-listening as Renkotsu berates him for one thing or another. If they know about his nightmares or even woke up to his screaming, they refrain from speaking of it, which he is grateful for.
Now, Naraku's had a question for them all burning up in him for days now, anxiously awaiting for the right time to go for it. "I want to thank you for allowing my brother and I to stay with you, especially after our less than savory first meeting."
"Think of it as a thank you for saving Aikotsu from that psychopath." Renkotsu offers, standing up to go kick Suikotsu awake.
Aikotsu is unfortunately roused by her brother's infuriated squawk, shooting upright with dazed brown eyes as the doctor swears violently at their scarf-wearing brother. Other than looking incredibly tired, she's otherwise unfazed by everything, completely ignoring the coarse language flying around the camp as she ambles over to the fire and grabs a skewered fish away from the fire.
Buyo and Junko curl up in her lap as she eats, although she has to pick a couple of pieces off of her breakfast for her cats when they look up at her. Clearly, she's no match for the big wide eyes they give her.
"There is something we'd like to ask of you all, though." Byakuya states, before giving his brother an encouraging smile.
The eight siblings turn to look at the demon man, and he swipes his tongue over his suddenly dry lips. "I was perhaps wondering if you all would be alright with Aikotsu meeting her aunts. It's entirely up to you all, but I just don't want to hog the opportunity to see her again from my sisters."
Bankotsu hums in his throat. "I think it's honestly up to Ai. It's her decision if she wants to meet them." He turns to her. "Ai, what d'ya say? You wanna meet them?"
Suddenly put on the spot, Aikotsu flushes bright red, toying with the stick in her hands. "Um, well, I-I guess it would be cruel not to, right? As long as they're nice, a-and they respect my brothers, of course, then I'm open to meeting them."
...
The first impression Aikotsu has of her aunts is being drowned in tears and smothered endlessly. The very minute their group had crested the hill and could see two women, Naraku had only whispered one thing to her. "Good luck." He'd said.
Now she understood. Still uncomfortably trapped in the tight embraces of the two women, she started squirming this way and that, trying to at least free an arm. "C-can't...breathe..!" She wheezed.
Just as abruptly as she was squeezed to death she's released, the taller of her hug assailants bringing her hands to her mouth with watering crimson eyes. "I'm sorry, dear, I just can't help it!" She gushes. "The last time I saw you, you were only a few months old!" Her long black hair is pinned up in an elaborate bun decorated with multiple gold hairpins.
Her other aunt is as much of a crying wreck as the first one. Her pale cheeks are flushed pink as she cries quietly, her hand muffling her sobs. "I can't believe it! I can't believe you're really here!" She whispers as tears pour down her cheeks.
"Come!" Kagura says suddenly, ushering them all up towards the gigantic castle. "You all must be tired!" Aikotsu, unable to protest, lets the women drag her up into the massive structure, her brothers and the demon brothers following behind. Junko licks her cheek comfortingly from her place on Aikotsu's shoulder, while Buyo pushes himself up against her legs as he offers his own comfort.
As soon as everyone is comfortable, physically speaking, Kagura and Kanna introduce themselves. "My name is Kanna, I am Naraku's younger sister and Kagura and Byakuya's older sister."
"My name is Kagura, and as said, I'm Naraku and Kanna's younger sister, as well as Byakuya's older sister. This castle belongs to myself and Kanna."
Aikotsu chooses to speak up next. "My name is Aikotsu, I'm eleven years old. These are my brothers, Bankotsu, Jakotsu, Suikotsu, Ginkotsu, Renkotsu, Mukotsu, and Kyokotsu." Each boy nods to their name, giving the ladies an idea as to who they are. "And these two are my nekomatta kitties, Buyo and Junko." The girl states, gesturing to each of her cats.
"Nice to meet you all," Kagura responds, nodding her head. "Now, as much as I'd like to keep the topic light-hearted, I must know something. What happened that night, and how did you boys acquire my niece?"
At the question, there's a simultaneous look shared between the founding members of the Band of Seven, an uncomfortable pocket of time where silence reigns.
Bankotsu sighs. "It was about nine years ago.."
Sorry to cut off at this point, but A) I didn't feel like rewriting Aikotsu's history once more or even copy and pasting it again, and B) well, I just seem to have been working on this chapter for forever. As it is, it's currently 3 PM, and I haven't had lunch yet because I wanted to finish. Oops. *insert shrug emoji*
Join our favorite cast next chapter for more familial nonsense and plots abound!
-Silver Sin