Ch9

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the plot and the characters that don't seem familiar.

Kagome woke up and stared around cautiously, that was when she realized that her wounds had all been healed and that Ryu no Fuyu, Usagi, and Chibi-Usa were missing. She gasped and asked frantically, "InuYasha, where's Usagi-san and Chibi-Usa-chan?" Were they kidnapped?"

"No, she left," InuYasha said, he handed her the shard he picked up. "She said that she wanted to explore by herself to figure something out."

"But why didn't she tell us?" Sango asked. She had just woken up and heard what InuYasha had told Kagome, "And who destroyed Ryu no Fuyu."

"What happened to Chibi-Usa?" Shippo asked, getting worried about his playmate. The last time he saw her was when she crashed into the three when Ryu threw her. "Is she okay?"

InuYasha shook his head. "Chibi-Usa…she didn't make it. Usagi left when she died," he said, "It was Usagi who got rid of Ryu, or rather, set his soul free."

Miroku stared at his hanyou friend and felt that he was hiding something from tehm. "Ryu no Fuyu mentioned something about Usagi-san being dead, would you mind explaining that to us, InuYasha?" he asked, "After all, you're the only one who really knows what's going on."

InuYasha turned around. "It's none of your business," he barked angrily, "I'll tell you when I feel like it and anyway, she's not dangerous, so there's nothing to worry about." He refused to tell them. Nobody must know that Usagi was his sister, surrogate or not, she gave up everything for him, her dream of getting married and starting a family on her own and even her own life. He can't let them know that his desire to be a full-blooded youkai was his way to repent for being a weakling and having Usagi die to protect him. He wanted to be strong so none of his love ones will ever sacrifice their lives for him again.

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Usagi had wandered down a path that led to a quiet village she had seen from a nearby hill. When she left InuYasha's group, she tied her long blond hair into a low ponytail and covered it with a long golden scarf so she won't be mistaken for a youkai, though she could do nothing about her eyes.

As she walked to her present destination, Usagi couldn't help but think about what had just happened. Never in her life had she realized that Ryu no Fuyu truly did love her or was obsessed enough to try and resurrect her a soul from an innocent girl. She didn't know that her death would caused something this tragic to happen, she knew that hundreds of her friends and her brother would mourn, but she didn't think that they'll do certain things that'll hurt others around them.

"Why is someone always getting hurt because of me?" she asked, "Everything…everyone's always dieing…" She stopped walking and fell to her knees as she hid her face into her hands and started to cry all over again. "Maybe I shouldn't had come back, then none of this would be happening and Yasha-kun wouldn't be hurting."

"But if you had never returned here, then I'm afraid that he would still be hurting rather than rejoicing for the return of his sister," a familiar voice said. Usagi turned around and saw the spirit of the past lunarian queen standing there with the same kind and understanding smile.

"Okaa-san," Usagi said. She rushed over to her mother from her first life time and sobbed into her embrace. "I could've saved her, okaa-san, I could've healed her wounds and save her from death," she said.

"Oh, Sere, you know as well as I do that everything happens for a reason," Selene told the crying princess, "Chibi-Usa was actually a pawn of a great evil in this world, no matter how she may act on her own free will. It would've been much better for her if she had perished saving the mother loves and adores rather than to be killed by him directly." She wiped the tears off of Usagi's cheeks and held her in a cradling way. "And don't worry about InuYasha, I think he understands that you need this time alone more than anything."

Usagi buried her face into her mom's shoulder and listened to soft heartbeat that's surprisingly there even after death. "But me being there is still hurting him so much," she murmured.

"No," Selene said, resting her cheek on top of Usagi's head, "You being there has given him hope one more. And now you need to give that hope to others as well, just as you had done in the past. That must be your destiny here, your purpose."

"Okaa-san, what's with the wedding kimono?" Usagi asked, changing the topic. Usagi had remembered the kimono in her bag and couldn't help but wonder what her mother could be thinking. Although she had a certain idea what could be going through her mind is the same idea she had when Usagi told her that she had accepted Endymion's proposal. After all, all mothers thought of this after hearing about their child's future, her mother, lunarian queen or not, was no exception; grandchildren is what every mother thinks about when their own children are getting married.

Selene just smiled at Usagi with the same 'you shall see' smile Setsuna had often shown her. "That's for you to discover on your own, Sere," Selene said, "Perhaps you can find your other half in this lifetime and we can see your darling Chibi-Usa come back." Strangely enough when the queen mentioned Chibi-Usa's name, her light violet eyes glistened.

"Yup, she wants grandchildren," Usagi sighed mentally, shaking her head. Just then loud cries of help echoed into the air from the village below. "Okaa-san, you better…" Usagi turned around to see that her mother had already left. A small smile appeared on her face before turning around and running in the direction of the screaming.

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It was a peaceful day over at a small village located right by a lake. Children were running around and playing with each other. The women were washing clothes in the river as the men worked on the fields. When all of a sudden, a large gust of wind blew through the village, stopped everyone in their tracks. A loud roar echoed from the direction of the waters, catching everyone's attentions.

A large wolf was rushing in their direction. The top half of its entire body was covered with blue fur while the bottom was white; it had a wavy tail that never seems to touch the ground with mist coming out from its paws. It stood to be about the size of Kirara when she becomes big enough to battle. Its dark blue eyes kept flickering to red and back as it shook its head from side to side. A glisten from the sun revealed a shikon shard attached to its head, right between its eyes. As it raced along the water, the top turned to ice as the liquid underneath turned to pitch black, polluting the once pure substance. Not once had the creature paid attention to the destruction of the lake as it tried to rid itself of the headache the shard had caused him. The terrified screaming from the villagers weren't helping, in fact, it only made it worse; now all the wolf could think about was getting rid of those who were screaming and hurting his head even more.

The women grabbed the children and pulled them into the houses as the men grabbed whatever tools they can and tried to keep the wolf at bay. The wolf demon growled in defense as gardening hoes and fishing spears were pointed at him; the demons ran towards them and opened his mouth as a bluish orb appeared and fired it at the men, who quickly jumped to avoid it and watched in horror as the tree turned to ice.

Just when they all feared for their lives are now beyond saving, Usagi ran over and threw Venus's whip around the wolf's snout. "Get out of here," she said, "I'll hold it off while you try to get away." She pulled hard and then noticed the disbelief and doubt in the men's eyes. "Do what I say unless you want to be wolf food!" she said angrily. "Men," she scoffed and rolled her eyes when they finally started doing what she told them to do.

Usagi turned her attention to the bluish-white wolf. "You remind me so much about this certain ookami youkai," she said with a soft smile, trying to calm it down. When she had arrived at the scene, she noticed the shard on its forehead and realized that perhaps this youkai was just scared and reacting on its survival instincts, considering it was still a baby. "Maybe you're a relative of hers since her kind is very rare…or you could possibly be…" Usagi paused and stared into the wolf's flickering eyes and gasped, "Suicine."

The wolf stopped snarling and his tugging when he heard his name. He stared at Usagi, who just stared back with a shocked look on her face. "It is you, isn't it, Suicine?" Usagi whispered. The wolf then got frightened even more than before and continued thrashing about. Usagi kept her grip on the chain tight as she slowly inched her way to her target. "It's alright, Suicine, I won't hurt you. Don't you remember me? I was the one helping your mother when she gave birth to you. I was the one who gave you your name."

Suicine stopped thrashing and just stared at Usagi with frightened and confused eyes and snarled at her, still not trusting humans or anyone in that manner. However as Usagi crept closer and closer to him, he managed to sense that she won't hurt him, not to mention, he felt the same warmth and comfort he had once felt from the only human who had ever shown kindness to him and his mother. It was then, Suicine recognized her as the young girl who cradled him in her arms countless times with a small silver-haired hanyou by her side; he lay down on the floor to show his submission towards Usagi.

Usagi sighed in relief and then knelt down beside Suicine. She patted him gently on the head and then plucked the shard out; she hid the shard in her subspace pocket when Suicin knocked her over. The villagers all shouted in fear, thinking that he was attacking her, but when they heard Usagi laughing, they realize that the once violet wolf was now acting like a playful pup, licking Usagi's cheek and nuzzling into her neck. But as Suicine continued to give the woman he hasn't seen for so long a 'welcome-back' cuddle, he had loosened the scarf and revealed Usagi's blond hair.

"Look, she's a youkai as well," one of the men said, "Let's kill her while we have the chance."

"Wait, what if she's not like the rest of them?" his wife asked, "After all, she did save our lives."

"It could be a trick," another man said, "You know, to lower our guards down and then send that wolf to attack us."

Everybody watched in fear and anticipation as Usagi stood up and glance back and forth from the villagers to the polluted lake. Usagi whispered softly into the wolf's ears and pointed slightly to the people. When Suicine glanced at them, they all thought that he was going to kill them, but to their surprise, Suicine walked over to the frozen contaminated water source and with the first single stomp, the ice had thawed out and melted away; when his muzzle touched the water, all the poison evaporated out of the water, leaving it as the pure substance it once was.

"She's no youkai, she's a tenshi," the children shouted in excitement. In their eyes, Usagi was an angel that saved their lives and made a demon bent on destroying them, help them instead.

Usagi knew that she couldn't hide her natural hair color so she pulled the scarf off and smiled at the still wary villagers. "It's all right. Suicine won't hurt you anymore," she said, "In fact, he wants to say sorry for scaring you." She nodded her head to the large wolf, signaling him to bow his head down as a sign of apology.

While the adults were still cautious, the children just cheered and laughed as they ran over to Usagi, all eager to meet this young woman, beautiful to be an angel, or a youkai to the adults, and be wearing clothes suited for a princess, and yet not be accompanied by guards or soldiers. Usagi laughed merrily as she knelt down and embraced the youngest child, it was then that the adults decided that she wasn't as harmful as they had thought, especially when Suicine was lying on floor as the children crawled all over him and he didn't seem to mind, in fact, he was playing with them.

"Ne, ne, Tenshi-sama, what's your name?" the child Usagi was hugging asked her.

Usagi laughed and thought that the little boy looked adorable so she hugged him even closer to her body. "I'm afraid that I'm not a tenshi, nor am I a youkai," she said, "I'm just an ordinary ningen like the rest of you, the only difference is that I'm not afraid of youkai and know the difference between who I could and could not trust."

"Onee-sama, what's your name?" a girl, only slightly older than the boy, asked. Even after finding out that she's just a regular human, it still amazed the children as they were in awe of her looks, strengths, as well as her kindness.

"My name is Usagi," the blonde told them, "And this is Suicine. I hope you'll forgive him for giving you a scare, he was being influenced by something bad."

"Of course we will," the elder told Usagi with a soft smile on his face. "May I ask what is your purpose here in our village?" he asked, hoping that he wasn't being too rude, but he was quite interested in Usagi, not in any perverted way, but it was quite rare to find a young woman who hasn't settled down already and started a family.

"I'm just on a journey and this village just happened to be one of the stops I've managed to find," Usagi said, "I just recently separated from my group when I decided to look for something."

"Oh perhaps, you can tell us what it is and we'll help you look for it," one of the mothers said, "After all, you did help us."

"Yes, let us repay you for saving our lives," another woman said.

Usagi was happy to hear that, but she shook her head. "Arigato, but I', afraid that you can't help me. What I'm looking for isn't a material item, rather something personal," she said. She sat down beside Suicine and patted him on the head. "I'm just searching for my purpose here. I know that I'm supposed to make a difference, but I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to be doing."

"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" the elder said, sitting down across from Usagi, "Maybe we can tell you if you made a difference or not."

"Well, watashi wa Usagi, I came from a well to do family. We are neither poor nor rich, nor do we wish for more in our lives. My parents, grandparents, all the way up to our ancestors had been trying to build a bridge between ningen and youkai. Some had said that our ancestors may had been the first hanyou, a cross between youkai and ningen, a separate class in itself; perhaps we hold a part that is still youkai because of our looks, even though we can die from a fatal wound and don't live any longer than ningen themselves. While trying to have both sides come together, my ancestors had gathered information on all sorts of youkai, knowing how is more likely to change and who wants to create mass genocide. Even after all these generations, my family still held onto a belief that ningen and youkai can and will coexist peacefully together. No one in my family had ever done anything to contradict our dream since we believe in marrying for love and know when someone lies about their love or concern towards youkai. That's my family history."

She took notice of everyone's awed and curious expressions and just smiled. InuYasha had the exact same look on his face when her parents had told him the same story. There had been powerful and influential men and women who gave up their power just to devote their time and energy to see the same dream happen. The Tsukino clan was once a very rich and powerful family with allies of youkai and ningen and nobody had the guts to attack, all fearing the youkai, who were mostly powerful leaders with hundreds of loyal minions. Many ningen, who didn't share the same view, had often thought of the Tsukino clan as being foolish to not use the power to dominate the world, but they were usually the ones who were the power greedy type. Then as time went on, the clan had decided to it would be best to separate and tried to spread their dream to others all around, not just in the local area. Dividing the wealth, the clan had settled in five directions of Japan, the north, south, east, west, and the center. However, due to the prejudice between both sides were strong, her ancestors had chosen to die with no heirs, fearing their dream would be tainted by hate, leaving only her direct ancestors to be the only ones left. And with her being the last of the clan left, it was up to her to continue the dream her ancestors had believed so passionately about, something that she too had hoped will happen.

Usagi just closed her eyes and shook her head slightly before opening them. "Where I came from, many people had looked down on what I've accomplished, but due to my family's popularity, they never rioted against me or my parents. I was taught to cherish those who are different, to not discriminate others. I followed in my family's footsteps in aiding youkai who were injured, pregnant, lost, or orphaned." She patted Suicine on the head and leaned slightly into the warm body. "Suicine was one of the many I had helped bring to the world, ningen and youkai. As you can see, I am neither married nor do I have children; I guess you could say that even if many men would ask for my hand in marriage, they disapproved of what I was doing. When I was just a child, I befriended a hime who had mated with a youkai and had a newborn hanyou as her son; unfortunately, her husband was killed in combat just after her son's birth. My family and I became the only who the hanyou treated as if he was a part of the kin, so even after I was the only left and his mother passed away, I took him in since he was like my otouto. I looked after him for so long, showing him that there was someone out there who doesn't hate the fact that he's a hanyou. Many men who came to me, often telling me to get rid of him, so I would marry them, but I refused; I would rather be single for the rest of my life if it meant I didn't have to marry those close minded men. I had known that hanyou ever since he was just a baby and I made him my otouto the minute I laid eyes one him. When his mother passed away, I sheltered him, showered him with love and care, comforted him when he cried…and yet…those pompous arrogant conceited idiots had the nerve to think that I'll actually leave him like that so I would marry them. How shallow did they think I was? I could care less when some of the men were lords or princes, there was no way that I was going to abandon him and my dream. But now…he has close friends, those who don't care that he's a hanyou, and he's beginning to learn how to truly trust others and fall in love. It was then I decided to separate and meet up with them later. I probably sound a bit selfish, leaving him like that."

"Actually you sound like a complete selfless person," a woman said, "If it were me, I probably would leave my family behind if it meant I could marry a prince." Several other women nodded their heads in agreement.

The elder stared at Usagi and was just surprised at what he had heard. In this time and era of war and greed, it's really rare to find someone still filled with innocence and wisdom. All of his life, he had thought that only the children would be innocent since they know nothing of the harsh reality until they are confronted by fear. But here is this young woman, who had seen many horrors that would have tarnished this child-like innocence in her, but it only seemed to have strengthen the purity her heard possesses. "If it's a question of what your purpose here, I'm afraid that only the gods know," he said with a gentle tone, "Bit if it's a question of did you make a difference, then I would have to say yes. With each person, youkai, and hanyou you've met, befriended, and helped, you made a difference in their lives, Usagi-san. No matter how small the amount of kindness you've bestowed on someone, they will always remember what you've done."

Usagi's blue eyes widened as she slowly smiled at the village elder. Her mothers from the past lifetimes had often said that very exact words to her. Despite in her lives, whether she was graceful or not, her family and friends had often said that it was her kindness that had changed people for the better and brought them out of the darkness. When she had aided so many youkai and hanyou who came by her way, she had often given them the evidence that there are people out there who aren't as judgmental and prejudice about them. "No matter how small the amount of kindness you've bestowed on someone, they will always remember what you've done" those had been her hahaue's words during the time that she had cried as a child when an injured youkai she had found and helped get better, had to leave. The youkai had known that her leaving would upset her so she went over to Usagi and given her a friendly hug, whispering, "Arigato, Usa-chan, I'll always remember the way you've helped me. You were the first ningen child to come to me with no fear in your eyes and you were the first to help me when I was injured rather than try to kill me. And for that, I'm grateful that I have you as a friend." Those words healed her broken heart and a bright smile grew on her face.

Usagi nodded her head at the elder and whispered, "Arigato, jii-san." She stood up and brushed the dust off her kimono as Suicine stood up after her. "Arigato, minna-san, for everything," she said, "And now I think I should continue on my journey."

"But it's getting late," an elderly woman said, "At night it's very dangerous for a young girl like you to be out with no companions. There are bandits and other strong youkai out there. Why don't you stay the night with us?" Usagi shook her head and tried to talk her way out, but the rest of the adults had continued persuading her until she finally relented and nodded her head, causing the villagers to cheer happily before dragging her to the elder's home.

AN: Sorry for the long delay. I've been very busy with work and school so I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted to. This is my present to all those who like my story so far. (starts jumping up and down) AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I'm just so excited, I'm starting to act like a rabbit that got into a secret sugar compartment. Because...tomorrow is my birthday! I'm so happy! Anyway I'll try to update the rest of the chapters for my other stories. Send your reviews!