Disclaimer: theworldsgreatest01 does not own Inuyasha.

A/N: open to reviews or questions.

Chapter Two: Fears

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Oto-san always thinks he's stronger than me but I don't pay much attention to it because he knows very well that I've beaten him like a dirty, old rug in every competition he tries to air out his tired muscles in, and he's certainly aware that all his traits were passed down to me and mixed with Oka-san's that makes me way stronger than he, a half-demon is. Sure, he has Tetsusaiga from the old man who's his father and he claims to be feared by every demon in the east and west still he's no match for me. Actually, I don't think I can't take on that old guy in a little sparring. I'd wipe the floor with him, even though he's supposed to be the biggest and the baddest. Hah. As I always say, bring it on. Okay, so maybe I'm bragging a bit, as Shippou always tells me, reminds me constantly to stop showing off that I am the strongest of our group. I am so why should I not let them know! The puny runt gets on my nerves sometimes with the harassments and bossy attitude of his, when I can just put my foot on him and squish him just like that. But fortunately, Oto-san feels that way too, he's been feeling that way since he first met him. And the kid is afraid of everything. It wouldn't do it much justice to call him a coward. I believe he has elevated past that level, but then again, it wouldn't be right to call him a kid, since he is older than Nii-san and I combined. After all, he took care of us both when we were just helpless babies. He said Nii-san was always the quiet, passive, timid baby. I was the biter, screamer, kicker…etcetera. I usually was the disruptive one. The kitsune is really a scaredy-cat though. That explains why he couldn't handle me. I wouldn't like to be handled by the way. I hate it when the scrawny men we meet along our travels tell me to stay in a woman's place. A woman's place?! I'd have half the mind to slap him like those prostitutes he pays for his nights alone! Surely they're all joking. Most of them actually believe men are dominant to females. They look at me and see a girl, but they feel a blow from my fist and know I'm a fighter. It frustrates me at times when men can be so dense…

This is besides the point though…ahem, back to Shippou. The slightest movement in the dark ticks him off, sends him shouting straight into my ear, the second to the most sensitive one in our ragtag family. Come to think of it, I have reason to say that Shippou might be the only one out of all of us who's easily frightened. I don't get shaken up at all, to tell the truth. I'm told that it's because I have so much of my father in me.

Great. Now even I'm admitting that I have more masculine genes running through my veins than dainty, girly ones. Sometimes I wish I coulda' turned out like my Oka-san. Oh, how they talk, all the villagers, how pretty my mother is, the miko Kagome. But what ever happened to their poor daughter! It has to be the work of that Inuyasha…what a horrible burden to be tied down to such an anomaly of a husband and grotesque child! They say.

At times I just want them all to go someplace, far away, or them to hush at the very sight of my presence, no, the very sense of me walking past, like they do with Oto-san. One glare and they fall back to their stupid chores with a shallow cough and not another word. Most of them think he might kill them as soon as look at them. Who wouldn't be a slight bit traumatized when he carries the Tetsusaiga at his hilt and side, never taking his hand off of its sheath. Only around us.

Me, no, I happen to get the reaction of whispers, and if I try the death-glare like my father I get titters of humiliation and stares, people speaking in hushed voices, "I told you that girl is nothing like her mother. More of her father in her…those piercing eyes. Such a shame…" It's not like I pay much attention to it, although the comments make me angry. Shame? What's a shame when I can kick your ass whenever I feel like it? I bet they'll never say anything to my face! I bet!

I'm not sorry for that little input by the way. Yeah, things are getting aggravating now, so naturally, I'll blow my top for a while, cool off some steam. Or blow off some, well-you know. I'm not afraid of them. Hm. Just considering the idea is funny.

So when Oto-san and Miroku and Sango wanted to go to the nearest village and rest before we set out again I didn't have any objections. Right here on this tall roof overlooking the weakling old men, pregnant women and snot-nosed kids running around is where I'll be until we leave. Akebi village is filled with the same faces each morning because there is such a low population and the peasants who founded it kept their roots here, so practically each one person is related to everyone else in the village almost.

Seeing identical bodies and complexions, eyes and smiles flashing by me in a haste to do some chore or another just confuses me, so I stay on the roof to get a break. All of them enclosing me, breathing in my air and taking it from me, sucking it in with the force of a tsunami makes my chest constrict, so I hop up as quick as possible to the next highest place away from it. Bodies crushing together trying to get by, pushing and shoving are too much for me. Of course it's not a phobia like other crazy humans have. A thing is what I call it.

Shippou doesn't like rats much, fighting scares him, and spiders haunt him…that's all I remember. Those are phobias I guess. Oh well, who cares. I must not have that much of a life if I'm sitting here analyzing the kid. Truthfully, I would rather be traveling to the nearest point of Maburoshi's whereabouts. We've been at it for three weeks now, ever since that spider demon attack. Shippou went for the hills while the rest of us battled it out. He doesn't do much.

Boring myself to death might be a more affective way to pass the time…maybe. Either way nightfall has come indeed, closer to tomorrow and we'll leave this place and the village headmaster's pathologically insane daughter alone. She seems to be attached to Nii-san and I think she'll die before ever letting go. It's hilarious to see him with her arms constricting his neck like those giant snakes, seizing his air and forcing the color from his face and the breath of his lungs to leave him. But he brings it upon himself!

Flirting is what he does with those clingy ones, smiling at them with that goofy, lop-sided grin that makes the girls fall to their knees and go limp like a wet noodle, reforming to his every command. It makes me sick to see how they touch him wherever and he lets them. Well…most of the time he tries to break away and always shivers when a hand trails down his skin, and that stupid blush on his cheeks! Oh please! Sissy!

Blush, blush, blush! That's all he ever does! Look at him, blush. Call his name in a cooing voice, blush. Touch his hand, beet red facial tone in return. Oh sure, I've noticed that he inherited it from Sango. The way her cheeks flush when Miroku leans over to her some moments and says something discreet, then she hangs her head and her face heats up. Whatever he says can't be for children's ears so I guess that's why she does that. And Nii-san can do an exact replica of the maneuver, speak of anything private and secretive and he will embark upon the routine as well as Sango herself! Hide his face with his bangs and everything! It's entertaining, sometimes annoying, then most girls find it…how do you explain? Oh, right! Adorable. Cute. Blech.

Speaking of Nii-san, his whole protector attitude. He may think of me as his little sister, but he is sadly mistaken. During this journey, my abilities will come into the spotlight, and by the end, I'll be the new legend.

Following over my father's footsteps-no, making new and even better ones. Yes. The Great Wind of the West. Or the Wrath of the West. I like the sound of that.

Respected. Maybe that's what I want out of this, to be respected. Revered.

This hunt for the head of Maburoshi will prove to them all how much I don't need anyone to watch over me. I am my own protector! The granddaughter of the great Inutaisho, Kikyou!

Now it makes sense. I'll get my rights to be the best without anyone telling me what to do, meddling after me, or trying to save me from anything!

I won't need saving. Ever. After this is all done….I'll be written in history!

I won't have to have Nii-san or anyone help me. That's what I want. I know it.

It's what I want. Right? Right….

"Are you sure?"

"What??" I sprang from my meditative position into a full combative stance, out of instinct and habit, then in alarm too. To see him looking up at my wild expression, I relax. "Nii-san. What the hell gives you the right to intrude on my thoughts? I don't listen in on your psycho-talk."

A grin graced his serene features, and then vanished as quickly as it had come. "I didn't say you couldn't." I leaned over the ledge of the roof and watched him shuffle his feet below. "Imoutou-chan it isn't wise to hold a conversation with yourself." I folded my arms and held up my chin. "You should talk!"

"My doing it doesn't mean that it is okay. Other people stealing doesn't justify the sins of thievery." He recited, holding his hands behind his back. It was a continuous reminder of our attentive spirits and the nervous effect the constant onslaughts we happen upon in unsuspecting places and in our sleep have on us. I already know his fists are clenched so tight that the white of his knuckles show.

"Did you just come out here to lecture me you little hypocrite? It's not like I'm going to even think twice about stealing anything from out of this bread basket."

He looked up at me with a lop-sided curl of his lips. I don't think Nii-san's smile has changed much within the years of our development. It has the same reminiscent qualities that bring me back to the days when we were children. "I came to tell you it's decided that we are leaving this-bread basket-at the first signs of daybreak."

Keeping my half-lidded stare from way down there he seemed shorter than me rather than the actual several inches he usually stood taller. I enjoyed it. "I know that. I've been counting the minutes." I stretched out and lowered my chin in my arms folded onto the soft straw of the roof. "I should kill you for being nosy."

"Well, it is a little boring around here. I don't have anything to do other than wait." Nii-san mumbled, stepping backward to view my position on the perch above his head. "It's too quiet."

"Oh! You finally got rid of the headmaster's delusional little princess? Did you have to drug her first, or wait until she blinked and run as fast as you could?" I snickered, and he blushed…again.

He smiled fleetingly and scratched the area around the nape of his neck as I have seen him do many an occasion, and a shaken expression formed like a bashful cloud on his face. I studied the downcast baleful eyes of his with conspicuous glee.

"I told her I wanted to go and look for you, but the latter of your perception will suffice for my escape plan. She didn't listen to any request I had for my release, so I begged to be allowed out her sight long enough to relieve myself, and once she gave her consent and I was far from her guards I made a clean break for it."

I collapsed in unrestrained laughter, gripping my sides that burned from the force of it. I couldn't help it. Nii-san is such a stupid, sweet fool. His complications with women are my source of hilarity. I often wonder what his next great accomplishment will be that leads up to him breaking out of the future prison another girl is sure to encage him in.

"I'm just glad my misery can bring you to at least give off a semblance of a smirk in these harsh times." he looked up at me wistfully. We both often tried our best to forget the fact that every day is a battle for our own mortality. Have I really been smiling less and less these days?

I watched him kick a stray rock stalling at his foot. A grocer passed by him, bowing as he went in reverence, most likely in return of seeing the small ponytail at the back of his head as his insignia for his occupation. If it weren't for that, he would not have recognized it because his garb was in dispose at the time: torn and ripped from battle, and he now wore one of the old festival robes the headmaster lent him. The fabric was pretty expensive, well priced and garishly colored, outrageous tones that he probably hates wearing so much that he can't wait for his robes to be tailored. Nii-san nodded in favor of the display of respect and a showing of courtesy. While the old man pushed his cart by, he glanced up and saw me, his eyes widening and his jugular quivering as he gulped. I stared him down as he passed by. How pathetic…like he's never seen a person on the roof before.

"So what you want is to be on your own? You have no desire for my assistance." he said, waiting for the man to pass and redirecting his attention to me.

I sat up into a cross-legged position and held my ankles in my hands. "Exactly. And I stand by that, for sure. I'm old enough to take care-"

"-I thought we already discussed this last week. Or do we have unfinished business in that category?"

"No one told you to eavesdrop. I'm only telling you my thoughts." I concluded, throwing my head to the side. The sun was making its way to the thin stretch of horizon that separates the end of the land and where the sky begins, sinking to the depths of it, the rays slowly dissipating out of view. The clouds are cumulating overhead, and coloring the skies a navy and fair blue. A storm might come. I don't understand how the cycles work, why rain forebodes the worst.

His voice reached me from far away. "And you make fun of Shippou's fears. What could he have to do with your wants?" A gust of wind suddenly blew across the village; I see the standing markets being covered with boards, mothers coaxing their children indoors and men offering their associates shelter inside.

The air was a bit damper than the ground below when it hit my cheeks and lifted my hair, so I stood and walked off the roof, landing effortlessly onto the dirt coated side street in front of Nii-san. "Because he's a little punk. He's the only one out of all of us that's afraid of stuff. Always scared of something or another!" I replied, a second breath of wind whipping my hair across my face, blowing the bangs from my eyes.

Nii-san also mediated the change in weather with squinted eyes, then responded in a voice low enough to go unheard but deep enough to be acknowledged. "You assume this is true, but you aren't truly sure. Shippou has a reason to be afraid. Once he thought he was safe, a long and terrible war won. Now yet again he is thrust back into the fray, his life in danger a second time. It is common for one to build up anxiety from such a period of calm and then more calamity.

"I imagine now he holds his livelihood in great importance because he already lived half of it on the brink of death at every turn. Then when you enjoy it for a moment, it is like drinking sake." I raised my eyebrows at him. "N-not that I would know…but once you have experienced happiness, and are forced to be put through fighting to live again, you are likely to develop a fear that you will not be able to…see it again."

By this time we were the only living souls left outside in the village, every hut was lighted in the interior with candles and stoves being heated for supper. A moderate drizzle had started but I was more intent on the logic in Nii-san's answer. He is always so precise and perfect with his explanations. Sometimes I wonder when he will ever be wrong about a thing. I knew why he let himself drag on the topic so fluidly, because he felt the same way. He is practically an open book.

"Maybe we should retreat?" he offered, a homely grin on his face replacing the longing in his gaze. I sought out a hut where the slit beneath the doorway would not be emanating a source of inhabitance, and I located one a quarter of a few houses away. I pointed to it and Nii-san fell in place behind me while I led the path toward the location with shrouded windows. It was a downpour now, but we both took our time getting there. My hair became water-heavy, and my clothes soaked to the extent that it attached itself to my skin.

"I guess you're right," I say, over the pattering of rain adamant around us and drowning my voice. "Its just that-well-there are times for being afraid…then there are times to be strong. Right now, there's no debate on the road to take. There's no room…to be scared of anything."

A sneeze came from behind me. Upon reaching the shelter, I peek inside to assure myself that it is vacant, then shuffle in and shake the dampness from my head. The tight space harbors a compression of heat from our bodies occupying it, although it is a bit dusty I take a seat on the wooden floor. The boards are worn and creak loudly when I settle. The square pit in front of me where logs are burned for warmth holds charred remains that appear to be still smoking.

Nii-san removes the outer garment of his haori and tosses it to the side, where it lands with a wet impact to my right and walks on bare feet to the corner where two discarded splint rocks lie. I draw my knees underneath my chin and drape my arms around my legs to watch the routine he enacts, hitting the stones together until a tiny spark leaps from the friction and spreads into a healthy fire before me. At first they lash out to me with vicious strikes, then he quickly throws small amounts of dirt onto the fire to tame it, and finally it calms. With a proud sound of content, he creeps to my side and sits down to my left.

"Kirara doesn't like the rain. I don't know if it's a fear, but she has a apprehensive dislike towards it. One drop of water and she runs. So," he wipes a renegade stream slithering down his temple from his damp hair and turns to me. "Shippou isn't the only one."

Rolling my eyes I scoff. "Kirara doesn't count."

"And why not? She assists us on our journey even more than Shippou does. Or is it because she fails to have the ability to believe in your standard of bravery?"

I lift my head and lean toward him, the crackling of the fire filling the space of time I use to give a moment for my thoughts to manifest. "All I'm saying is that now isn't the time for being sentimental or afraid. If people want to live they have to ignore-"

"The simple qualities of being human?"

"Well maybe I don't like your way because I'm not all human!" I retort, frowning.

That I didn't want to broach, but he pushed me to it. I accept that he gives me a sideways look. He expected me to use my lineage as an excuse to exit the conversation. But fears! Who would think of them when all that matters is kill or be killed? Maybe I used the fact that my father passed on the demon blood in his veins to flow through mine as a way to disassociate myself with Nii-san. I know he grows impatient whenever I bring it up, but I see it as the easiest way out, not as a barrier that I conjure to imply that he has no idea what I experience and emphasize the fact that we are different.

I turn my head to the other side to avoid the disappointment his expression showed. When he spoke and I looked into his eyes, they scolded me. "You are more human than you are youkai."

He speaks the truth. Sure, I can pull out the demon card, but he will overlap it with his own use of intelligence and correct me. Nii-san will, if I may add, jump on the chance to prove me wrong. Or if he can learn a tidbit of a secret I keep to myself, he will badger me until I acquiesce to his attempts to wriggle it from me, which is why it is difficult for us to keep things from each other. In conclusion, leading up to this and last weeks long talk about our feelings and views. Ever since the start of this journey, he has been looking, seeking any opening I leave for his explorations into the depths of my mind. How I wish he would just leave me the hell alone!

But no, I can now refer to this meeting between the two of us as mental therapy for our thoughts to be expressed and analyzed, in the hopes of continuing on without losing our sense of self. I don't like to be analyzed. He knows full damn well of that. "Alright, Nii-san. What do you want from me?"

His smile irks me. "For you to tell me why you are so protective of your weaknesses. It is human nature to fear, to be afraid. You can't bottle emotions. One day they will overflow and you will not be able to digest it all, resulting in a solid wall that blocks off the world. You have to express your shortcomings. They are the only ways to realize your potential."

I search his eyes with a shake of my head. "I don't have the time to consider that kind of crap. You don't either. Otosan and Okasan and Miroku and Sango don't show their fears because they have none!"

He slowly shook his head. "You're wrong. Haha-ue and Chichi-ue have told me their shortcomings in full confidence, and I am sure that Inuyasha and Kagome have fears as well. It was told to me that fears must be suppressed for the exchange of courage, but they always have to be confided in. We are all only human, but even in our case we are only beginning to understand."

"Oh, fine then! I don't feel like telling mine! I don't have any for you to assuage. Speaking them will only make them greater anyway!"

"So you admit you have them." He ducked his head to look at my averted gaze.

"If you're so intent on learning about my deep-rooted fears, why don't you tell me yours?"

Aha! I spit out a comeback well enough to make him ponder. I smirk when Nii-san considers this, leaning back on his forearms and staring at the ceiling with a serious outlook. His pupils dash around the room, then focus on the fire kindling at our naked feet.

When he finally speaks, his voice breaks. "I think…no, well, yes. I think that I…can't tell you that."

"What?!" I shriek. He's kidding! "How are you going to interrogate me when you didn't even plan on telling me your fear??"

He sat up straight and kept his eyes on the orange and red flames, I see them dancing in his iris. "This hunt that we have to do; this destiny we are bound by has made us both hardened to each other. I would tell you confidently and without hesitation if it were in a situation where I feel as though I would not need to put up such shields."

I shove him to the side, away from me. My temper was flared by that stupid statement. Not comfortable? I feel my body tense with anger, filling my head with unkind things to say that he would not take too kindly to hearing. It felt as though he was belittling my presence beside him, thinking that after half of our lives spent together, I was not worth trusting. He was the one drifting away…

Unfolding my legs, I place my hands on the floor to get up and leave. I can still hear the continuous pounding of the rain beating against the hut. His grip around my wrist is soft, yet firm enough to still my movement and look into Nii-san's eyes and not let mine waver.

"You don't want to be alone." he murmurs.

I swallow against a sudden knot in my throat and stare into his hazel eyes, every now and then I glance at his features, sympathetic yet respectful all the same. "Yes." I answer truthfully, and stand over him.

"Imoutou-chan."

A stalwart force thrusts the fabric concealing the threshold back, allowing the rain to shower us both for the space of a second, spraying my dried hinezumi no koromo and crippling the fire. I stand there and allow the burst of air to jolt me from my current state, close my eyes and breathe deeply before it was swept back to the outside, the storm roaring beyond our safe haven.

I woke up. At a glance I saw him with his head down to the floor, but looking past it most likely, to his thoughts hidden deep in the confines of his mind. So many layers…it would be hard to tell what he pondered. His eyes never revealed much.

"But I can't let that hold me. This isn't the time to be afraid of that." I said, observing my hands. Small cuts decorated the calluses in my palms from wielding weapons.

He spoke with a voice that reminded me of when we were children. His eyes sought mine with such innocence that I almost tasted those days. His countenance seemed to beg for me to show empathy. "I don't want to go out there."

And then I understood what his fear had been all along, but I said nothing. I only hoped he would bury it deep within himself, and only bring it forth when the storm had settled, the rain stopped, and the sun would peer over the horizon again, brimming with new life.