A/N: Wow thanks everyone for reviewing! Double the reviews :3 let's aim for 10 reviews before the next chapter! Please?
Dedicated:
Once again to you moon I thank you for being an annoying kitty-cat,
for stepping on my keyboard when I leave to get water causing my computor to shut down,
for spilling my water when I finally figure out that you were dancing on my keyboard,
rubbing against my leg while I'm having a nervous breakdown because of the water staining the rug and wetting my new wooden floors,
then drinking from the puddle of water while I try to not scream at you for shuting down my computor and annoying me,
rolling around in the water like a dog while I try to dry off my floor which invites my brother to pretend to be you,
and then drying yourself off on my couch and my brother on my towel I had to wash my cover twice in one week!!! And my towel smelled like chocolate and peaches... but I still love my crazy kitty very much.
My brother.... not so much =x=
Chapter 3:
"Well it's now or never." With a sigh the silver haired man picked up the phone dialing a number in ridiculously early in the morning. The phone rang three times before a sleepy voice answered, in a monotone sort of way the voice spoke like a answering machine.
"Hello, you have reached the Takashi Tao residence. If you are looking for Sesshomaru Takashi he's not available so please call again and leave a message for him and he will get back to you at a later date."
"Hey Rin-chan."
The voice suddenly became animated; the youth's voice broke through the sleepiness of the morning. "Morning Inu. What's up? You're never awake this early in the morning unless you stayed up all night."
"I've got a favor to ask of ya Rin-Chan." The man almost wanted to smack himself, it was hard enough calling the young woman who had married his brother for this favor; and now having to actually do it was worse than imagining it.
"Go for it, I still owe ya don't I?" Rin-Chan had come from the mountains, so she spoke with a county like accent when she wasn't doing business. She had some how managed to learn how to speak without the accent if she tried.
"I need a spot in your preschool."
"Why? You's don't have any kids or…"
"I've taken custody of one quiet little girl."
"How old is she?" the young woman's voice suddenly became harsh. She was not one to play around with something important like this.
"Three and a half."
"Please don't tell me she's…" he could actually visualize her, head down biting her left thumb as she always did when she was hopping for something to not be true. he could hear her mumbling prayers in the background.
I let her have it, "Kyoko's…" it was better than dragging this out. Kyoko was important to Rin-Chan. She'd been her best friend and mach-maker for her and husband—Inuyasha's very own unemotional brother.
"Where's Kyoko?" she was nearly crying into the phone, her voice was becoming hoarse.
"She… she died in a car accident. While driving Shiru to the hospital with a high fever."
"Oh good lord… gosh, good God…" Rin was never one to curse and she would mummer random things about god and such. "Inuyasha I'm so sorry, but I knew… all these years I knew why she left you."
"Shiru?" I answered it for myself.
"She just wanted you to do real good in the future."
"Damn it Rin! Why didn't you tell me!? Kyoko was sick and was going to die from cancer and you couldn't speak up!"
"I didn't know where she was, she sent me E-mailed pictures of Shiru but when I replied her with my own pictures she never responded. For all I know she never got the reply. I'm sorry Inu-Kun, please don't be too mad." Her voice was quivering again; making me fell bad for yelling at her. She loved Kyoko as much as he had. Had she known where she was she would have said something obviously, but as always Kyoko was two steps ahead and three steps behind.
"I'm not mad at you, a bit frustrated but not mad you wouldn't have done much to change what happened. So back to Shiru, can she come today or are there all these files I have to send?"
"Just come in with her today, she's had all her shots right?"
"Ya, even a couple of cancer prevention shots."
"Ok then, at 7:50. I'll help ya get through the process."
"Thanks, hey gotta go Shiru's waken up"
"Ok bye." The two hung up and just in time a little ball of messy silver blue hued hair came into the room, one arm whipping away the sleepiness from her eyes and he drool from her face.
"Mornin Inuwasha…" the silver haired man pat the place next to him, inviting the child to sit next to him. Crawling onto the huge bed she sat cross-legged next to her father, he kissed the girls forehead pushing back her bangs with his thumb. "Morning Shiru-Chi, guess what."
"What?"
"You're going to school! Aren't cha excited!?" The man attempted to excite the child, raising his arms above his head and speaking in a happy-go-lucky tone of voice. Shiru on the other hand seemed indifferent and remained quiet; lifting her small hand to her mouth she chewed on her left hands index finger at the joint much like her mother did when she was unsure and nervous.
"Hey Shiru-Chi, what's the matter? You should be excited." He put an arm around the girl's small shoulders, pulling her in closer for a soft hug. "You don't usually act this way, are you feeling ok?"
"I'm good… do I have ta go to school?"
"Don't you want to learn new things and explore?"
"People make fun of me at school." Putting his arms under the child's pits he lifted her easily and placed her small body on his lap facing him. Her blue eyes looked up at him asking him the silent question many hanyou's often had 'Why?' of course with many added on words sometimes but the main thing was 'Why?' He paused to look at the child's face, her puffy pink cheeks and small body on his reminded him of the younger Kyoko; the times she sat in his lap and kissed him or simply held him in her arms. A touch woke the man from his day dream; Shiru had cuddled her face into his chest like a puppy her small hands hooked onto his white shirt miniature claws pinching his skin.
"I promise you no one will make fun of you at school." She looked up, paws refusing to let him free, her face pink and tearful if he didn't say something soon she would cry "You're my daughter and I'm your father. Your last name is Takashi and so because of that I can swear no one will make fun of you. If anyone does you'll see what I'll do to their parents. So you don't need to cry ok Kiddo…" she let her arms wipe the tears that continued steaming down, "You know I hate to see people cry." With his thumb he swabbed away the tears in her eyes; she sniffled whining as he kissed her cheeks.
"You pinky promise no one will make fun of me?" lifting her hand up she stuck out her pinky, the man smiled eyes blurring in thought, where had he seen this scene before? It seemed like Déjà vu, he though back hard remembering a small child only two years or so older than Shiru herself. Her pink lips moved but it was difficult to remember the sound that came from her mouth, her face was clouded but she obviously had long flowing sea blue hair. His head snapped him back into place and he spoke finally with a smile.
"I pinky swear no one can make fun of you." Twining his large pinky with hers she smiled before letting him go. "Now go take a shower, school's awaiting"
"Kay!" she jumped off his lap, pulling her pants up so that they wouldn't fall as she ran. His honey gold eyes blurred out of focus going back to that memory of the blue haired girl, she was smiling as he twinned his finger with hers and he kissed her cheek. His eyes couldn't quite grasp the face that he had kissed after all it had been so long ago, but he knew one thing he had made an important promise with her. "Who is that girl?"
"I can't remember…"
The drive to school was silent, besides the rare Thump, Thump, Thumping Shiru's shoes against the seat there was no noise. Her hair had been tied into braids by Otonashi-San herself a pink bow placed at the base. Her blue eyes focused on the window, watching the world as he drove by. She was obviously nervous: her hands held tightly onto her shorts, she was turning this way and that in nervousness, and her cheeks were pink. "You doin ok back there Kiddo?" The man looked back at the child; she nodded just as noiselessly as usual.
When they finally arrived to the school, the glass was covered in see-through child like drawings; rainbows, teddy bears, dogs, cats, birds, the sun, boats, clouds, and many other little paintings. After putting Shiru down on the concrete parking lot ground, he motioned towards the school and began walking towards it. Her blue eyes scanned the surroundings, several trees and flowers were around the building. But although the place seemed nice enough she found herself caught in the shadow of her father, he was moving forward and she… was not. Her small hands rolled into fist, holding them closely to her chin she closed her eyes tightly and made a wish. Then without opening her eyes she took three steps forward, she finally opened her eyes and speed up to her father's side looking at the dangling hand at his side. With a small smile she lifted her tinny hand and put it in his. When he looked down and their eyes met he smiled at her.
Entering the building a young woman greeted them, her short brown hair cut to a short shoulder length. "Hey Inu-Kun." Her smile could easily brighten up a room, and with her large child like milk chocolate eyes she seemed like a warm person in general. "Hey Rin-Chan."
"Let me guess, this is Shiru-Chan." The young woman kneeled down to the child's height, giving her a soft smile, the silver haired girl hid behind her father's leg holding his black pants with her tinny hands "I was one of Kyoko, your mother's, best friends you know? I knew her since, she and I were just a couple of years older than you." Her ears lifted at the sound of her mother's name, blue eyes shinning brightly.
"You were…?"
"Yep, I met my husband because of Kyoko-San. She used to send me pretty pictures of you, when you were a littler baby."
"…"
"Well are you ready to go to class everybody's excited to meet cha?" Holding out her thin hand to the child she took it wrapping her hand around her index and middle finger.
"Wait!" she let go of her thin hand and hugged her father's neck tightly, "You promise you'll be right here?" The man nodded kissing the child's forehead.
"You be good kiddo."
"Ok." She waved goodbye as Rin-Chan led her into one of the class rooms, a giddy smile on her face. At first the inside of the class had been bumpy and jumpy with all the hull-a-bullu going around about the new kid in class. But the second Rin-Chan walked through the door, the only things heard were shushes from student to student. "Everyone as you all know, we have a new student in our class." The man stood at the cracked open door looking through it to see what was happening on the inside.
"And this is her, Takashi Shiru." Moving aside so that everyone could see the small pink faced child, several children blushed and most smiled at the girl few gasped recalling the last name all but one student he noted. The boy was small with milky pink hair and milky white eyes, he wondered from where he recalled the blank bored expression but shrugged it off as just a fluke. "She happens to be my brother-in-law's daughter, so everyone please be nice to her. Let's see an empty seat… where is there an empty se—ah! Shippo-Chan, raise your hand." A small fire orange haired boy raised his hand high into the air; he was wearing dark blue jean overalls and a light green dark green leaf patterned shirt. "You can sit next to Shippo, he's a good boy."
"Ok." She walked with a bounce in her step to the second row two-person desk, sitting down in the small seat next to the smaller boy. His orange tail wagged as she did so. "My name's Shippo, so you're a Takashi… wow your dad's famous."
"I guess, are you a badger demon Shippo?"
"I'm A Fox!" his hair stood as he barked, he hated being called a badger.
"Sorry Shippo-Chan."
"Well class time to get your smocks on we're all heading outside to play!" The students all screamed happily, Shippo turned to Shiru his sickle green eyes sparkling.
"You wanna go play in the sand box with me?" he asked.
"Ok." He took her hand, which was nearly the same size as his, and stood with the other kids leading her to the boxes pilled with light blue smocks. Her farther watched vigilantly still, slightly shocked at the fact that Shiru made friends as fast as a heartbeat. Inuyasha had been anti-social as a child and didn't make friends that easily, she was obviously her mother's child; if she simply had dark blue hair and human ears not a soul could tell she was his.
"Sir…" a woman poked his back, and he stood turning with a red face to the old woman "You should leave now, she's doing just fine."
"Uh… ok." He walked out leaving his child in the hands of several strangers and one family member.
"Hey you, halfy." A young demonic child stepped into the sand box, his milky pink hair standing on end naturally. "So youwr daddy is Inuyasha Takashi. Well my Daddy's Hitomi Onigumo Naraku, and that make's me Hakudoshi the one and ownly son of the Hitomi Onigumo houwse hold." He spoke in a silly voice but it was all because of his missing tooth on his left top.
Shiru giggled as Shippo made a funny face at the boy, attempting to copy his looks with transformation but instead made his face look like a dango. "It's nowt Funny! I'm Bewing Sweous here!" he spoke again.
"Sorry, but I don't know who your daddy is. But my name's Shiru not halfy; do ya wanna play with us?" She said this in an earnest voice, her blue eyes and small smile making Hakudoshi blush.
"No I down't wanna pway with yous!" The little boy yelled at the two children. "I hate you and yous Daddy! You bowths nothing but a couple of dumb Mutts!!" he pushed the girl onto the sand, getting sand in her hair, nose, mouth, and even a little in her eyes.
"Hey, leave her alone!" Shippo pushed the milky pink haired boy back, but he was too small to make him fall.
"Stop don't fight, Shippo, fighting just ain't right. Specially not for me." Shiru stood up wiping away the sand from her face and the spit from her face. Her blue eyes had changed to a golden fire; the anger was evident on her face, with a deep breath her eyes flashed several times before changing back to their usual blue hue. She let the breath out as her shaking body calmed down. She didn't like getting angry. She took Shippo's hand and walked away towards the swings, sitting down on one of them she swung back and forth hopping the milky eyed boy would take that as a hint to leave.
"Hey, I awn't fwinished with yous yet." Running to the swings he growled at the girl asking for her attention as she whipped her head around to glance at the boy he pushed the girl off the swing causing her to fall forward, scrape her nose and cut her left cheek right bellow her eye her knees cut and scraped from falling on the rugged concrete. When she looked up her blue eyes were watering, her cuts bleeding and mixing with the salty tears that fell from her face. Several students went to look other's called for the teacher, when Rin finally came outside Hakudoshi had been pushed on the floor and punched by several of the boys and lil' Shiru who was being held up by Shippo was crying her eyes out begging everyone to stop hurting Hakudoshi preaching that fighting was wrong even though he'd been the one to make her bleed.
Rin, first breaking up the fight saw the damage, Hakudoshi was crying the boys little fist hadn't done any damage there wasn't even a red mark on him. Then she looked at Shiru, the bleeding on her face and legs hadn't stopped for a second and neither had the tears, she looked harshly at the young boy "You are in big trouble mister." For the first time since he first saw the girl his milky eyes saw the blueness of them, a genuinely beautiful blue, far to sapphire in color to be from any demon and yet far to exotic to be that of human. He could have sworn that she was a perfect half demon; a mix of pure human goodness and demonic features.
"…" he was noiseless as she lifted Shiru in one arm and held his wrist pulling him towards the office, he looked up confused but then remembered the harsh words of the woman—he assumed he was in grave trouble. After sending him to sit on a chair she began cleaning out the cuts, noticing the sand in her hair and skin. "You poor baby, did it hurt that much?"
"No."
"Then why are you crying?" she bandaged the cuts on her knees.
"Everyone was beating up on Haku-Chan; Mama says it's not right to fight." She winced as she passed a cotton swab with disinfectant alcohol drenching it.
"It's not right to just let him pick on you either, Shiru-Chi." She placed a bandage over the last two cuts before lifting her and bringing her to the office, sitting with a crying Hakudoshi was an angry Shippo. He looked as Rin sat the girl next to him.
"You ok Shiru-Chan?" She nodded her white hair mixed in with several particles of sand. "Don't worry they said they're gonna call your Daddy and Hakudoshi's Daddy too, he's gonna be in so much trouble." He scratched at the girl's ears, knowing that dogs liked this feeling.
She put his hand back to his side, standing on wobbly feet she walked in front of the milky pink haired boy who'd hurt her. "Haku-Chan" she called as she touched his head, he was sitting in the chair rolled up into the tightest ball he ever possibly could, "You don't have'ta say sorry, I forgive ya anyway."
His pale hands gripped her shirt, and he looked at her with milky white eyes, filled with tears. "I'm sowry…" he spoke in a shaky voice and she merely ruffled his hair around. "I'll tell Inuwasha not to be too mad at cha."
"Ok…" he blubbered, Shippo watching in amazement as she completely and honestly forgave a boy who he himself felt rage and irritation towards without even asking for anything in return. There weren't too many people like that any more and when she stepped back a black haired man entered the office his eyes dark as well.
Shiru who wasn't ever shaken up easily was frozen with fear. It was his eyes; they were blank and contained no emotions. He looked down at the children; she wobbled back to her chair, and he looked sharply at his son who shook in fear. "Ah Mister Hitomi, there was an incident involving your son. Would you like to step into the office please?" he left the room taking the chilling feeling in Shiru's body with him.
When the man finally came out of the office he glowered at his son, the boy's milky eyes widened in fear, "Come along Hakudoshi." The boy followed his father's dark shadow, waving bye to the little girl he'd hurt because of nothing more than suppressed feelings. She waved back at him, showing off the red hand she landed on when she fell, the scrape still evident but so light on her skin it couldn't have hurt her at all. Yet he frowned in discomfort before exiting the room unsure of his father's future plans for the girl.
"How could you say sorry to that jerk?" She merely smiled at Shippo, understanding his confusion.
"Mama, say's the best thing you can do; no matter what you've done wrong; even if it don help sayen sorry is the best." She touched the eye that had been cut underneath Shippo looked at her eye as well it was red which was unusual.
"Do you want me to blow at it?" she shook her head as a silver haired man came in, his hair in a disarrayed fashion. He was looking at his child up and down, noticing the bandages and the fading bloody smell. Kneeling down to her height he held her for a moment then asked Shippo what had happened, obviously a more trustworthy source than the teachers who'd came far too late. "There was this bigger kid Hakudoshi of the Hitomi whatever family, and he pushed Shiru-Chan onto the sand in the sandbox and then when we went to the swings he pushed her off and she fell on face like this." He showed the man with his hands making a smacking sound as well as some grinding. "And then a bunch of the boys pushed him and started punching him, but he didn't have a mark on him which ain't fair."
"Well then thanks for protecting Shiru for me."
"No problem Mr. Takashi Sir. That's what foxes do best" the orange haired boy chuckled, his small hand going into a fist to say he was brave as any boy. He nodded lifted the girl up and walking away towards the exit, Rin came along and out of the office.
"Sorry today ended up like this Inu…"
"It isn't your fault; I told you my name's a blessing and a curse."
"Will, Shiru-Chan still come to this school?" the blue eyed child looked at her father waiting for his own reaction.
"Ya, I think that she already has some friends here."
When the two arrived home the man immediately checked out his daughter making sure the cuts were healing and they were, at slightly fast human pace. Though she looked like a hanyou as any other she had been mixed with human blood twice making her less than one forth demon or so one would think. But they were healing at least. "Shiru, you need to fight back once and awhile that way you don't end up like this."
"But if I fight Haku-Kun wouldn't be my friend right now." He ran his hands over the claws on her fingers; they felt strong as any other demons nothing like any human child's should feel.
"You call him a friend, look what at he did to you. How can you call such a boy your friend?"
"He said sorry, and that's enough." The man sighed; she was too much like Kyoko just as Rin-Chan had said before to him. 'Take the beating without pleading' only Kyoko could be tolerant enough to believe in this, and worse to pass the ideal off to a weakly built hanyou.
"Next time, please, at least scream what if you can get really hurt next time?"
"Ok, I promise I'll scream next time. But I ain't fighting, fighting's wrong no matter what" The man groaned.
"I swear I've never seen anything quite like you." The young child giggled at her father, letting him kiss her puffy pink cheek.