Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-Yasha
First of all, we will be talking about- Uh, yes what is it?
"Are we going to talk about me?" Inu-Yasha asked hopefully.
"Er, not yet Inu-Yasha."
Inu-Yasha narrowed his eyes. "But I'm the main character!"
"I know that. I'm starting with the small characters first. And when I say small, I mean small."
Shippo bounded over happily and stuck his tongue out at Inu-Yasha. "She's going to talk about me!"
Anyway, Shippo is one of those really small characters who has a strong, brave side to them and---
"Brave?" Inu-Yasha snorted. "He hasn't got a brave bone in his body!"
"Hey!" Shippo yelled. "I resent that statement!"
Please, I'm trying to write a Fan Fiction here! Anyway, like when Shippo tried with all his might to save Satsuki by defeating that lizard youkai...
'I'm just not powerful enough, not anything like all my friends!' Shippo thought in an angry yet sad tone. 'I can't defeat it!'
...he had to accept the fact that he wasn't powerful enough. Then Inu-Yasha came...
"Good job Inu-Yasha!" Miroku said, plunging his staff onto the little lizard. He looked down at it. "This was the youkai that was taking over the house."
Inu-Yasha nodded, then looked over at Shippo and smiled. "Nice work on that lizard youkai there, Shippo!"
...and praised him.
"What?!" Inu-Yasha yelled furiously. "I wasn't praising him!"
"Inu-Yasha, quiet please. I'm trying to write here."
Inu-Yasha grumbled a few curse words.
Anyway, during that time, Shippo had learned something. His weakness. Shippo was one of those people who knew their weaknesses. As they say, the people who have a disease will live a long life while the people who don't will live a short life. This basically means, if you know you have a weakness and you avoid it or take care of it, you will live a longer life than the people who don't care about their weaknesses. I mean, what if you have rather weak muscles and you try to pull a car out of a river? It won't work. And Shippo learned that.
Shippo smiled while looking at Inu-Yasha. "See, I'm smarter than you."
Or with Shippo, we can say 'Te'.
The kistune's smile went away and was replaced by a confused look. "But tea's a drink!"
"No Shippo, I mean Te is a Taoist thing. It means 'Virtue of the Small'."
"Oh," Shippo said, his tone having a bit of hurt in it. "Small?"
"Well, you are pretty small Shippo," Miroku commented, for he had suddenly come in through the door. Shippo sighed and said nothing more.
OK, moving on-
"Wait!" Shippo cried before I could continue. "What's the small or whatever or talking about? Could you maybe explain it? "
"Yes, I could. Thank you for reminding me to explain it."
"No problem."
Since we were referring to the Taoist stuff, Taoists emphasize the importance of smallness. And so does Lao-tse in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Tao Te Ching:
Know the masculine,
But keep to the feminine.
Become a river
To all under heaven.
As a river flows,
Move in constant Virtue;
Return to the infant state.
Know the light,
But keep to the shadow.
Become a pattern
To all under heaven.
As a pattern repeats itself,
Act in constant Virtue;
Return to the beginning.
Know the high,
But keep to the low.
Become a valley
To all under heaven.
As a valley provides abundance,
Give in constant Virtue;
Return to natural simplicity
Shippo still looked a bit confused, but nodded.
"Ah," Miroku said, looking down at the poem. "I get it. Tao, right?"
"Kind of, yes, I guess I should say," I replied, nodding.
I then looked over at Inu-Yasha and smiled. "I guess we should say something about you, huh?"
"Finally!" the dog hanyou smiled brightly. "What are you going to talk about? How great I am? How I can do anything?"
Still smiling, I shook my head. "Nope, we're going to talk about something else."
"Huh?"
Just by what we heard Inu-Yasha say, we know that, well, he can be quite egotistical at times. He thinks highly of himself (not all of the time though, because of course he changes through the series). Inu-Yasha, you could say, is one of those people who are the complete opposite of Shippo. He might know his weaknesses, but he doesn't really want to accept them. Maybe it's because Inu-Yasha was born in a world that admires, encourages, and awards really bad, blood lust full behavior.
Inu-Yasha growled, for he had no idea what I was talking about. "Stop yammering about all that junk. Do you have a poem for me?"
"Oh yes, actually, I do."
Inu-Yasha stuck his tongue out at Shippo. "I'm better than you. I bet my poem is going to be better and longer than yours? Right?"
I smiled grimly. "Actually it's not much longer. It's still by Lao-ste, except it's in the twelfth chapter of Tao Te Ching."
The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors deaden the tongue.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Inu-Yasha snorted again. "What the heck does that mean?"
I looked at Miroku, who had a strange look on his face. "Would you like to explain?"
Miroku smiled. "Certainly (ahem)."
"It's what's wrong with Inu-Yasha's sensationalistic approach to life."
Inu-Yasha stared at me, to Miroku, to Shippo, and back to me again blankly. "What?"
We all sighed.
"Such an idiot," Shippo said, throwing his hands up into the air dramatically. Inu-Yasha bobbed him on the head. I shook my head in disbelief. They could both be such idiots at some times.
"Anyway," I said, trying to get their attention. Next, we will be talking about you Inu-Yasha."
Inu-Yasha smirked. "Finally, something good about me."
Wheeee!!! I really hope you like it so far!
I got a lot of help in writing this from the book "The Te of Piglet" by Benjamin Hoff. Those poems do not belong to me, they belong to Tao-ste. I'm quite surprised that I'd be able to write something like this…I am not that smart (truthfully) and half the time I don't really get what I'm writing. –sweat drops- anyway, I do get this, but please comment…