CrazyDreamerGirl: Yay! I got more reviews! I want to thank Inari's angel, Animeotakufreak, sable, Bloodcherry, Rei Minamino, Hirina for reviewing.
Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha don't belong to me,
But, my birthday is coming up, and they would make a great gift, you see.
Note: Did you like the poem disclaimer?
A Fox's Heritage
Chapter 7
"That's stupid," said a voice, "I'll fight you, but you have to leave them alone."
Youko and Kuronue looked at the direction from which the voice was coming from. A man leapt out of the trees in front of them. He had long black hair and brown eyes. He was dressed in all red and had a sword hanging at his side.
"Are you Inuyasha?" asked the bat demon at once.
"Yeah, what's it to you?"
"I thought he was supposed to have dog ears," the bat demon said, turning to the fox demon.
"He's a half demon, you moron. Which means, he turns into a human once a month," replied the fox and hit his companion upside the head.
"Ow."
Inuyasha sweat dropped. "So, are you going to leave them alone and just fight me?"
"I did say we wouldn't harm those friends of yours if we get to fight you," the fox demon said.
Unbeknownst to Inuyasha, or to Sango and Miroku, Youko had planted some seeds near where the humans were standing. Sango gave a yelp. Both she and Miroku were being wrapped in vines. Their legs were held together tightly and Miroku's right arm was held especially tightly. The vines hiosted them up until they were a couple feet off the ground.
Inuyasha tried to set them free, but more vines shot out of the ground and hit the half demon. Inuyasha recoiled. If only he had his claws. . .
"I thought you said you would leave them alone!" shouted Inuyasha.
"I said we wouldn't harm them. Those vines are there to make sure they don't get involved," replied Youko with a smirk.
"Right, we don't some pesky intrusions in our fight," added Kuronue.
"Make this fight look convincing; your little girlfriend is watching," whispered Youko to Kuronue, slightly moving his head up, which meant that Kagura was in the sky, watching. "I'll give you the signal to stop. You'll know it when you see it."
"She's not my girlfriend- wait, why am I stuck fighting the half breed?" hissed Kuronue.
"Because I smell Shippo in those trees behind the dog. Relax, and follow my lead."
Kuronue rolled his eyes, but he complied. He unhooked his sickle from his belt and tilted so the light from the fire shined off it. He narrowed his eyes at Inuyasha. "I'll be your opponent." His eyes flickered with excitement.
Inuyasha glared back and unsheathed his Tetsusaiga. It wasn't much, but he needed a weapon to stand up against the bat demon's sickle. His sword looked old and beaten up. Kuronue laughed. Youko hit him so he would stop.
"Have fun you two," said Youko and began walking away.
"Where are you going?" asked Inuyasha. Worry was evident in his voice.
"More of your companions are hiding. I'm merely going to look for them," replied the fox demon with a smile.
"Oh, no you don't!" yelled Inuyasha.
He charged towards the fox demon, but he suddenly stopped. Kuronue's sickle was mere inches away from his face. It was stuck in the trunk of a tree. Inuyasha gave a gulp. "Your fight is with me. Leave Youko out of this," Kuronue said menacingly. He gave a tug and his sickle came back into his hand. "And next time, I won't miss."
Kuronue was going to give his friend the chance to reunite with his son without any interruptions, especially from a big mouthed half breed.
Inuyasha gave one last glare at the fox demon, now identified as Youko. Youko gave him a smile and disappeared into the forest. Inuyasha couldn't help but worry for the safety of Kagome, Shippo, and Kilala.
"Bastard!" yelled Inuyasha and charged towards the bat demon.
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As Youko walked away from the battle scene, he saw Kagura fly away. He chuckled to himself. Naraku probably wanted to see if they would keep their end of the bargain. But, they were left with quite the predicament. How were they supposed to prove Inuyasha had been killed?
Youko sighed and continued following the faint energy signal left by his son. He stopped dead in his tracks. How was he supposed to tell Shippo that his mother was dead? He rubbed his temples in frustration. Something would come to him. It always did.
He trudged onwards. He pushed a low hanging branch out of his face. His ears perked up. He heard voices. He walked just a bit further and crouched down, concealing himself behind the plants. Youko saw a young woman with black hair. She was wearing a green and white uniform of some sort. She did not seem normal, and neither did the energy signal he sensed from her. He also spyed a small cat demon resting on her lap.
Now, I can smell my son, but where is he? I can't see him, thought Youko.
Then, Youko saw him. The son he was searching for. He was right there, sitting next to the girl and staring off into space. We used to do that all time. Just stare into the night sky, forgetting about everything, he thought as he suddenly remembered a time where they did just that.
"Dad," said Shippo.
"Yes, son," replied Youko.
"Tell me the story about the stars again," said Shippo, not taking his eyes away from the sky.
"Well," began Youko, placing Shippo in his lap, "It all began when the world was created. Everyone loved the day. It was bright and everything just seenmed to prosper more. But when night fell, it was dark and gloomy. Although, the moon was there to illuminate the night sky, it wasn't there all the time. The people needed something else to give them light.
So, they gathered up the world's fireflies and put them in special container. They launched the fireflies into the sky using a catapult. The container that held the fireflies broke into millions of pieces, freeing the small insects. They stayed up in sky and over time, people forgot that there were fireflies thousands of feeet above their heads. They began calling them 'stars.' And so, the night began to be a time of peace and tranquility, and never again it was thought of as a time of evil and sadness."
Youko looked down at his son in his lap. Shippo had fallen asleep. "Sweat dreams," said Youko and kissed Shippo on his head. He carried his sleeping child inside and a lone firefly rested on the flower next to where they were sitting.
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"Admit defeat. You don't stand a chance against me," said Kuronue as his sickle lunged towards the half demon. Inuyasha just barely made it out of the way.
"Never," panted Inuyasha.
Inuyasha was in bad shape. He had various cuts and bruises from the fight. As a human, he was no where near powerful enough to defend himself against Kuronue, let alone the fox demon that's able to manipulate plants. He looked up at the night sky. It was no where near day break. If this continued, he probably wouldn't survive for another hour.
He was no longer wearing his red top. It was torn off during the fight. His eyes kept darting from the bat demon to Miroku and Sango and to the spot where Youko had left them. His mind was obviously on other things.
"Hey, hey! Are you even paying attention?" shouted Kuronue.
"What?" asked Inuyasha.
Inuyasha finally noticed that Kuronue had given him another cut against his chest.
"Miroku," whispered Sango.
"Yes."
"That bat demon had multiple chances to finish Inuyasha off, and yet, he hasn't done so."
"That's exactly what's bothering me," replied Miroku, "I thought that he meant to kill Inuyasha off, but they must have an ulterior moltive."
"What if they want to kidnap Kagome? I mean that fox demon did go towards them."
"Well, we haven't heard any screams of help yet, so everything must be alright."
"For the time being," said Sango as she managed to grab the handle of her sword. Now all she had to do was free her arm to cut Miroku and herself free from the vines.
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Youko mustered up the courage necessary to finally show himself to his son. He stepped out of his hiding spot. Kilala's hair stood on end and she began hissing at Youko. The cat demon jumped off Kagome's lap and transformed. Kagome turned around and gasped. She reached for her bow and arrows and aimed.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," said Youko and put his hands up in surrender.
Shippo showed his head from behind Kagome's legs once he heard the intruder talk. His eyes widened and the biggest smile ever appeared on the young kit's face. His father was standing right there. I knew you would come back for me, thought Shippo. It was like a dream come true for the young kit. He thought he would never see his father again. He was wrong. He had come back.
"Dad?" Shippo asked in disbelief.
"Dad?" repeated Kagome and looked down at Shippo and then to the silver fox demon. She lowered her weapons.
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Kuronue lowered his weapon. His blade was inches away from slashing Inuyasha again on his chest. Sango and Miroku dropped to the ground. The vines that were holding them back had released them, or had been cut to be more exact.
"That must have been the signal," muttered Kuronue.
The bat demon walked towards Inuyasha and offered him his hand after he had knocked the half demon to the ground. Inuyasha glared at his hand like it was the plague. He used his sword as a cane and brought himself up.
Kuronue took his hand back and said, "Sorry 'bout all the wounds. I had to make the fight look convincing."
"Look, convincing? Why?" asked Miroku as he helped Sango up.
"It's complicated you see, but trust me, we never really wanted to hurt you," replied the bat demon.
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Kagome was still in shock. Standing right in front of her was Shippo's father. He was very handsome looking fox demon. He was muscular and his golden eyes were full of love and compassion when he looked at Shippo.
She glanced down at Kilala and saw the cat demon had relaxed and had transformed back into its small feline state.
"Um, could someone please tell me what is going on here?" asked Kagome.
Both fox demons looked at her with a look of confusion. Youko blinked. Then it hit him, the girl was still there. Apparently, Shippo had told his friends nothing about his real family. Youko secretly agreed that was a good thing because he has too many enemies, and if anyone found out about Shippo, well, he shuddered at what might happen. But now, things had quieted down, and it was safe for Shippo to come back.
"I am the great Youko Kurama," Youko said and bowed after Shippo jumped off his shoulder.
"My name is Kagome," said Kagome, a little skeptical. She looked at Shippo. "Shippo, I thought your father was killed by the Thunder Brothers, and had red fur."
"Long story, but I assure you, I am young Shippo's real father."
"Right, um, you wouldn't be the one that killed Naraku's demon puppet, are you?" asked Kagome.
Youko nodded.
Shippo grinned. "I knew it." The young kit looked back and forth between his father and Kagome. The reincarnated priestess looked a little awkward standing there, and was that worry?
Kagome bit her thumb. Now that Shippo is reunited with his father, does that mean he'll leave us? I hope not. . . Oh, that's selfish of me. I should be happy that Shippo has his father back, thought Kagome. She looked at Shippo. I'll miss the little guy. She looked up and smiled at the of the reunited father and son. Shippo deserved to have his father back, and if it meant that he would leave them, then so be it. Kagome wouldn't do anything to stop Shippo from having a family.
"Is uncle Kuronue here?" asked Shippo, breaking the long and drawn out silence.
"Yes, hopefully he hasn't gotten too carried away and killed Inuyasha, or maimed him, or made him suffer great agony," said Youko, counting them off with his fingers.
Kagome laughed nervously. "Shouldn't you go and stop him then?"
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When, Kagome, Youko, Shippo, and Kilala entered the campsite, they saw that Kuronu had his hands up in surrender and was facing down an angry demon slayer and monk. The demon slayer was brandishing a larger boomerang and the monk had his hand up, ready to use his Wind Tunnel again.
Youko began laughing. "I leave you alone for a couple minutes, and this is what happens."
Kuronue returned his laughter with a glare. "You gave me the signal."
"What signal?" asked Youko.
"You made your plants stop."
"I never did that."
Kuronue looked at Sango and Miroku and saw the demon slayer nod with a smirk. Sango edged her boomerang towards Kuronue's neck.
"Sango! Miroku! Stop! They're not enemies!" shouted Kagome.
"Not enemies? They tried to kill us!" shouted Inuyasha.
"Hey, you were the one that assumed we wanted to kill you in the first place," retorted Youko.
"Well, if you hadn't noticed, your little friend there actually tried to kill me!" growled Inuyasha, pointing to the bat demon.
Youko finally noticed that wounds Inuyasha had received during the fight. "I thought I told you to make the fight look convincing, not try to kill him, Kuronue."
"It's not my fault he kept moving around, getting in the way of my attacks," complained Kuronue.
Youko clenched his fist. "You're getting on my last nerve, bat."
"Same to you, fox."
"Um, Dad," said Shippo, tugging on Youko's pant leg.
"Dad?" asked Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha in astonishment.
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CrazyDreamerGirl: This was a fast update, wasn't it? I'm so proud of myself. I hope I got Kagome's reaction as realistic as possible.
Oh, and I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I have outlined the rest of the story, so updates will hopefully become more frequent. The bad news is that the story is roughly half way over. Maybe a little more than halfway. I feel so sad now.
More meetings will come in the next chapter when Miroku, Sango, and Inuyasha are explained what happened. Remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I'll update!