I do not, have not, and never will own InuYasha. I would love to, who wouldn't? But alas, it is not meant to be, and I must instead rely on my brains to pay for my college education. Oh, well.
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10 years later
"Daddy!" A little boy yelled as he ran to Hojo. Hojo picked him up, laughing.
"Hey, Toki!" He said. "What have you been up to today?" Toki whispered in his father's ear.
"I went to Kyoya's house today, and we thought it would be fun to go play in the bottom of this well that's behind his house. So we did. But when we tried to get out, we weren't at the shrine anymore... I met some really cool people. I'm going back tomorrow, but my friends' mommy said I had to have your permission first. So..." Toki gave Hojo the puppy dog eyes. "Can I go?" Hojo could not resist the puppy eyes. He sighed.
"Well... I'd like to meet these people before I let you go anywhere." Toki beamed.
"Ok! You can go with me tomorrow!"
The next day, Hojo found himself dragged to the Higurashi shrine. He remembered how often he had hung out around here when he was younger, trying to attract Kagome's attention. He still had this reaction, even though he had been bringing Toki here to play with Kagome's nephew, Kyoya, for years now. Toki pulled on his hand to get him to go into a small house behind the shrine. Inside, there was a well, and Hojo had a nagging feeling that he had seen it before.
"Come on, Daddy!" Toki said, leading the way to the well. Toki leapt in, and Hojo followed, not really seeing another course of action. He fell through blue light and stars, only to land at the bottom of the well again, though it was slightly different now. Toki began clambering out, and Hojo followed suit. As soon as they were out, Toki cupped his hands to his mouth.
"HEY!! IZAYOI!!" He yelled.
"You don't have to shout, you know. I'm right here." A girl's voice said calmly from above their heads. Hojo looked up startled. A little girl sat on a tree branch, dressed in an old fashioned kimono. Hojo's eyes immediately went to her hair, which was black streaked with silver, and pulled back into a tight ponytail, revealing two small silver and black dog ears.
Dog ears? No I must be seeing things... Hojo did a double take. Sure enough, there were two dog ears on top of her head. Nimbly, she stood up on the branch, grinned, showing two sharp
white fangs, and jumped nearly ten feet to the ground, landing neatly in front of Hojo and Toki. She crossed her arms, tucking her hands into her sleeves.
"You're late." She informed Toki, then turned to Hojo. "Yes, I have dog ears. Yes, they're real. No, you can't touch them. I hate it when people do that. My family's the only ones who are allowed anywhere near 'em." She cooly answered all of the questions Hojo had been wanting to ask, completely unruffled. Toki grinned.
"No I'm not! I had to bring my daddy with me. Do you think your parents will mind?" The girl tilted her head to the side, inspecting Hojo with unblinking golden eyes. Then she shrugged.
"I dunno. Mommy probably won't, but Daddy might, if he gets annoyed with him." She turned, and smiled at Hojo. "My name's Izayoi. Who're you?" Hojo stared at her for a moment, stunned at the girl's sudden change of tact.
"I'm Hojo." Izayoi nodded.
"C'mon. Let's go to my house. Sissy and Brother are waiting for us!" Toki nodded, and the two children walked off leaving Hojo to follow along behind them.
Their destination was a small house on the edge of a village, where two teenagers, one boy, one girl, sat on the steps leading to the house's entrance. Both stood when they saw Toki and Izayoi coming towards them.
"Hey Iza. Hi Toki." The boy said with a grin.
"Hi!" They chorused. The girl, meanwhile, took a good look at Hojo... and her brow furrowed.
"Shippo..." She said suddenly, attracting the boy's attention.
"Yeah? What is it Rin?" He asked, looking at her with concern.
"That man... he seems familiar..." She murmured. Shippo looked up, and locked eyes with Hojo. His eyes widened, and he whispered something to Rin urgently. Her eyes also widened, and she stared at Hojo, with a touch of what might have been pity in her eyes.
"You better hope Rin's father doesn't see you..." She informed him. Hojo looked back at her, with total confusion in his face.
"Wha-"
"Never mind." Rin said, rolling her eyes, and turned to go inside. Izayoi and Toki darted into the house ahead of her, nearly tripping her. She laughed, and followed them in side. Shippo turned to Hojo and jerked his head towards the door.
"Come on. You'll want to talk to my parents, right?" Hojo nodded, and followed the boy into the house. He saw a young woman sitting in the middle of the room with her hair covering her face, grinding herbs with a mortar and pestle. Izayoi pounced on her.
"Mommy, Mommy! Guess what!" She said happily. The woman laughed. Hojo froze as she brushed her hair out of her face to deal with her daughter. He knew that face. He had sighed over it, once its owner vanished after high school.
"I don't know, Iza, what is it?"
"Toki brought his daddy with him!" The woman looked up, and saw Hojo. Her jaw dropped.
"Hojo?" She said uncertainly.
"Higurashi?" Hojo replied, slightly stunned.
"That's who he smells like." Shippo confirmed. "I remember. Shall we try to hustle him back down the well before Dad and Uncle Sesshomaru get back?"
"Try to hustle who down the well before Sesshomaru and I get back?" A rough voice asked from the entrance to the house. Everyone turned to the door, to see two men standing there, one dressed in red, the other in flowing white, both with long silver hair, like the streaks running through Izayoi's hair. The man red, who'd spoken, also had Izayoi's dog ears, and judging from the fact that Izayoi tried to tackle him, much like she'd pounced on Kagome, Hojo guessed that this must be her father. Meanwhile, the other man, Sesshomaru, Hojo guessed, had entered, gotten behind Kagome, and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head against her shoulder. Hojo watched this display with confusion, while everyone else, with the exception of Izayoi's father, grinned. Izayoi's father looked over her head, as she had attached herself to his waist, and growled slightly at Sesshomaru, who smirked at him, but let go of Kagome, walking over to Rin, who beamed up at him, and said
"Rin is so happy to see you, Dad!" Now Hojo was really confused. If this Rin was Izayoi's sister, InuYasha should be her father, right? Not Sesshomaru, but then again, Sesshomaru was very friendly with Kagome... Suddenly, Izayoi's father growled again.
"What is he doing here?" Kagome, Shippo, and Rin exchanged uneasy looks.
"Dear, this is Toki's father. He came to meet the parents of his son's new friends." Kagome explained, walking over to him, and resting a hand lightly on his shoulder. He glared at Hojo. Kagome sighed, as if she knew something was going to be very, very bad.
Kagome had been stunned when Izayoi entered the house, leading not only her new friend Toki, but his father as well. Unfortunately, she knew Toki's father all too well. Shippo's confirmation that this was indeed Hojo did not comfort her in the slightest. Not only would his presence put
InuYasha's over-protective, jealous tendencies into high gear, but it would also mean that he registered on Sesshomaru's list of people to be exterminated. While she had no problem with Sesshomaru visiting Rin, who had been living with Kagome and InuYasha for about three years now, Kagome had no desire for him to eliminate people in front of the children, especially not when one of them was the prospective eliminee's son. As a result, Kagome would have supported Shippo's plan to dump Hojo back down the well in a hurry, if InuYasha and Sesshomaru had not chosen that instant to come back to the house after hunting, and leaving the kills with Sango and Miroku.
At first, both brothers were a little too distracted to notice Hojo's presence. Izayoi had gotten to the point where she could actually slam InuYasha to the ground with her overenthusiastic greetings if he was not careful, so he was occupied with standing upright, and Sesshomaru immediately went to wrap his arms around her, enacting the usual "Let's mock InuYasha, because Kagome is the mother of my daughter" plot. As usual, it got a growl out of InuYasha, and barely concealed laughter from everyone else. Sesshomaru decided to be kind, unlike many other times when he had decided to stay near Kagome, Rin, and Shippo, acting like a father figure to the children, and a bit like a mate towards Kagome, for hours until InuYasha's eyes started to turn red and Kagome broke off the act and went to calm him down. He went to go speak with Rin, who greeted him with the same sunny smile and words she always did.
"Rin is so happy to see you, Dad!" Confusion clouded Hojo's face. Kagome sighed, figuring that she would have to give a very long explanation about how Rin had adopted her parents on her own, one just so happening to be Kagome, one just so happening to be Sesshomaru, and that the two had never been remotely interested in each other in that way. Although, she had to admit, Sesshomaru hugging her all the time would give Hojo the wrong impression, never mind that it was Sesshomaru's method of mocking InuYasha...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a growl from InuYasha
"What is he doing here?" Kagome exchanged uneasy looks with her two older children. Her husband had noticed Hojo. She walked over to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to calm him down, and explained.
"Dear, this is Toki's father. He came to meet the parents of his son's new friends." She spoke softly, trying to soothe his temper. She had no desire for InuYasha's inner demon to come out today. It would be messy, and to be quite frank, she did not think that things would turn out well for Hojo. InuYasha looked at Hojo for a second, then turned puppy dog eyes onto Kagome, and murmured.
"Can I hurt him?" In a voice that was so eager, it was vaguely disturbing.
"No, dear. You can't. He doesn't remember anything, and he hasn't done anything to hurt the kids, or me, or anyone else. I explained this to you years ago." Kagome informed him firmly. The similarity between this conversation, and ones she had had with Izayoi, when the child wanted to do something against the rules, struck her, and she resisted the urge to smile.
"Are you sure, Kagome?" InuYasha's puppy eyes bore into her, making Kagome thank God that she had managed to make herself immune to InuYasha's eyes years ago.
"Yes, InuYasha, I'm sure." She told him gently. She glanced over at Hojo, who had stiffened at the sound of InuYasha's name. Then his eyes traveled slowly to Sesshomaru, who had his arm around Rin. The color drained out of his face. Then in a flash, his eyes had moved back to InuYasha, and he yelled.
"Y-you! I remember you! And-" he glanced back at Sesshomaru, who was looking at Hojo with an expression that indicated a great deal of interest in the object of his focus, attention that no one in their right mind really wanted to receive, and what little color remained in Hojo's face vanished. "Ohhhhh shit..." He whispered. InuYasha's ears, which had gone flat against his head perked up, as he looked at Kagome, with hope in his eyes.
"See Kagome! He remembers! Now can I kill him?" Kagome groaned and covered her eyes with her hand.
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Aaaaaaaaaand... that's the story. The plot is over, finished, done. Kinda sad, really... I was depressed not to be able to incorporate the voice into the epilogue...
I chose the names of Izayoi, Toki, and even Kyoya, for various reasons. Izayoi is named after InuYasha's mother. I personally think he would name his daughter after her. Toki comes from the name of Hojo's ancestor, Akitoki. And Kyoya? Well, his name has absolutely nothing to do with InuYasha, and everything to do with the fact that I wanted to incorporate the name of one of the awesomest characters in Ouran High School Host Club, aka "The Shadow King". If you've seen it, you know who I'm talking about. If you haven't... go watch it!
I do have some amusing deleted scenes, which I shall not post here, because there are rules against posting bloopers, and I don't know if that applies to within the fanfic or for the show in general. I'd rather not find out by getting chewed out by the authorities…. You can find them at jellolids. deviantart. com/ art/ Losing-Kagome-Deleted-Scenes-77777628