Author's Note & Disclaimer: Guess what happened three days ago!!!! My 30 hours of Driver's Ed ended! Yaaaay!!! I'm so excited I feel like a little happiness fairy came down and gave me three more hours to my day! Domo Arigato Gozaimasu, Happinessu Fueri. San more hours arimasu! Bonsai! And that was Ghostly Hand's Pen's Little Corner of Bad Japanese. Anyway I was working almost nonstop for the past two days to make up for the fact that I've been locked in my Driver's Ed classroom for the past two weeks (it's really creepy that there are no clocks in that whole building. I looked for two weeks and I didn't find one). Okay I forgot the point I was going to make so it's probably best if you just go on and read the story. I don't own InuYasha. I don't even own Setsuna's name... I stole it from the Sailor Moon manga so I guess I better add I don't own Sailor Moon either. (it just seemed to fit so well it was almost scary! It's mysterious, a girl's name, and it begins with a 'Se' and ends with an 'Uh' - a good hybrid of InuYasha and Sesshomaru's names.)
InuYasha's Elder Sister
Part III. Home Again
They landed out of sight of anyone, at the time Kagome didn't recognize this as anything peculiar. Then Kilala transformed into her familiar kitty form and happily took her place in Kagome's arms. InuYasha fidgeted slightly. Kagome on the other hand was excited. Soon they would find the person who could save Miroku. Everything would be okay.
InuYasha soon found a gravel trail and called her over. It was a long trail that swerved away from town and through the forest. Tall trees with interlocking branches rose so high they nearly blocked out the sun. Flowers and plants Kagome had never seen before grew in abundance everywhere. After awhile of walking it occurred to Kagome since she herself had never seen the kinds of floral that grew in such abundance here – not even in pictures in her high school botany class - then maybe no one from her time had seen plants like these. Flowers grew in the underbrush and in the leaves of trees in every color. It was so beautiful Kagome felt she could sit forever in the flowers and-
"AAAGH!"
Suddenly the ground fell out from underneath Kagome and she was falling. She felt her heart leap into her throat and she let out another scream as her arms immediately shot out reaching for something to grab onto.
InuYasha caught her and the next thing Kagome knew she was clinging to InuYasha's arm off the edge of a rocky cliff. She looked up at InuYasha leaning over the side of the cliff surrounded by pretty flower bushes. With the exception of InuYasha's arm there was nothing on Kagome's end to grab. Once again, InuYasha's quick reflexes had saved her life.
"Stay. On. The. Path," InuYasha said through gritted teeth as he pulled her up.
Kagome looked around astonished. The bright flower bushes marked the edge of a dangerous cliff. A dangerous cliff she almost went over. And the worst part about it all was she didn't remember going anywhere near the flowers.
"I-I-I'm sorry. I'll…be more careful," she said at last. Kagome sighed. In her life she had been kidnapped - not once but several times! - nearly sliced in half, shot with arrows, chased by the undead, survivor of several fires, once or twice her soul was nearly stolen, and was nearly eaten by several different demons. The whole nine yards for a damsel in distress. She had secretly been hoping that accidentally walking off a cliff was one thing she wouldn't have to be rescued from.
InuYasha saw the confused expression in her eyes and laughed to himself for a minute. Kagome looked at him even more confused than she was a minute ago. She'd never seen InuYasha go from being so serious to angry to relaxed so quickly. She estimated the whole event had probably only been a couple minutes.
"The flowers naturally draw people to them. They were planted there specifically to lead unsuspecting teenage girls off cliffs," he stood up and looked at her and smiled.
Kagome stared at InuYasha. Then she stared at the flowers on the bushes. Then she looked back at InuYasha some more. He was joking! Maybe the flowers did more than just draw people toward them like maybe mess with half-demon's personalities.
"Get up! You look dumb sitting there!" InuYasha finally growled.
Ah, she thought, there's the impatient InuYasha we all know and despise! Kagome stood up - wiping the dirt from her skirt - and got back to the path.
"Just don't look at the flowers. Don't even think about them. Keep your eye on the path in front of you and that's it."
"Aye, aye, captain," she mumbled to herself.
"Kagome!" shouted InuYasha with his voice full of exasperation and a little disbelief.
"What?!" Kagome hissed back.
She felt his hand grip her wrist. She noticed he was staring at her with his accusing golden eyes. She felt there was a little extra air blowing against her foot than there had been a moment ago and automatically looked down. She realized she had one foot in a pink and purple flower bush and the other hanging off the cliff.
"Oh."
" 'Oh' is right!" shouted InuYasha as he dragged her back on the path, "You're walking in front of me for now on!"
Soon after Kagome, InuYasha, and Kilala trailing behind them, entered a clearing. The flower bushes had stopped and the trees had thinned enough to let in rays of sunlight. Straight ahead of them was a cottage.
Kagome glanced at InuYasha, "Inu-"
"GET DOWN!"
InuYasha pulled her to the ground as an arrow sailed over their heads.
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" InuYasha shouted. He was talking to a figure that had come quietly out of the cottage armed with bow and arrow only moments before.
Kagome, on the other hand, could only hear InuYasha shout because said InuYasha presently had all the strength in his left arm pressing her face into a pool of mud. "InuYasha…" she mumbled to the mud
"Stay back, Demon!"
InuYasha jumped to his feet, "You're Setsuna! You know me. I'm-"
"I know you are a demon! NOW STAY AWAY!"
"Okay, okay. Relax Setsuna. Remember me? I'm-"
"InuYasha…," hissed Kagome still face down in the pool of mud. She looked up at him with eyes flaming as her clothes and face were now a colorful combination of several shades of brown and green.
"Er… Kagome?" he mumbled weakly.
"Sit," she hissed with enough venom dripping from the word to make Naraku grab all his poison insects and cower in a very dark corner.
BAM!!
The dust around the InuYasha shaped pit had barely settled when a tall, white haired demon woman pushed Kagome behind her.
"Stay back, maiden!" the demon woman said, "Many thanks in containing the demon, but I will deal the finishing blow!" The woman cocked an arrow in her bow and aimed into the InuYasha shaped pit.
"Hey," said Kagome annoyed yet slightly surprised, "You can't shoot him!" Kagome reached out and grabbed the top of the demon woman's bow and yanked it back. The result was the arrow soared from the bow up into the sky and hitting a giant demon in the wing who happened to be flying overhead on a leisurely fly.
The giant demon bird came crashing down at them uprooting trees and sending many smaller, cuter demons into epileptic fits. Dramatic tears streamed from the creatures bulging red eyes as it screamed, "Setsuna!! You helped my mother! Why would you shoot me with your arrow?!"
In the midst of all the crashing, epileptic fitting, and screaming InuYasha stood up rubbing his temples, "What the hell is going-" was all he got out.
30 minutes later…
"There you go, Nasalump! Everything's all better!" declared Setsuna happily. She patted the spot on Nasalump's wing that an arrow had been in 25 minutes ago.
Despite the damage caused by a falling 80ft demon bird of prey, things weren't really that bad. No one was seriously injured. Least of all the white haired demoness Setsuna, who had remarkably reached safety, at least, five miles away next to a calming brook before one could scream, 'Agh! That 80ft demon bird is gonna fall on me!' and then it actually happen.
The bird demon - that just so happened to tower over Setsuna – looked at her gratefully, "Last year you helped my mother and now me. The eagle clan owes you much." And with that said Nasalump jumped into the air and flew away leaving nothing but a monster whirlwind in his wake.
After the wind died down Setsuna reached up and flattened down her hair before tuning to look at Kagome and InuYasha, "Now who are you again?" she asked calmly.
Kagome and InuYasha stood together with their backs to the cottage.
InuYasha pointed an accusing finger at Setsuna, "I told you already! I'm InuYasha! INU! YASHA! How could you even forget me?"
Setsuna rolled her eyes, "Obviously easier than you might think, Inu. Yasha."
"I'm your own brother!"
Kagome snapped her head around to look at InuYasha, "Brother?!" Kagome echoed. She looked between the two and wondered how she didn't pick up on the little detail that they looked exactly alike.
Setsuna had the same gold eyes and long silver hair that seemed standard in the family. Her silver hair ran to the back of her knees and a twisted braid hung over her right shoulder. She had pointed ears like Sesshomaru, but, unlike Sesshomaru's, her ears were weighted with several different mismatched silver earrings, the most prominent being a big, golden hoop earring hanging from her left ear. None of the earrings seemed to be from the same pair. A few had jewels embedded in them and Kagome saw one small silver star with a thin chain that ran from the bottom of her ear and connected farther up to a tiny moon. She was dressed in a gentle, white, silk fabric under a dark purple michiyuki, overcoat, with red trim. Her hakama pants had the knees ripped out of them showing her scraped and dirty legs and the material was shredded at the bottom of the hakama. A tiny leather bag hung from a thin rope that was tied around her neck, and on the similar rope belt around her waist she had more leather bags and a few dried herbs. She wore what you'd expect from someone living on their own in the woods but there was something untrusting behind Setsuna's comfortable personality. It wasn't just that when she walked there was a nervousness in her step. Or when the wind blew at her big, open sleeves one could see a jagged blade strapped to each of her forearms. Or if you looked carefully you could see how her strong legs were covered in old healing ointments and clawed scratches. Maybe it had something to do with her eyes. How they were the same gold as InuYasha's and Sesshomaru's yet so different at the same time. Somehow they were keener than InuYasha's and deeper than Sesshomaru's.
Setsuna snorted and crossed her arms, "I only have one brother – and you are definitely not him! – and the only other person in this world who could be called 'my brother' is no longer of this world. He died decades ago."
InuYasha's sizzling temper suddenly died like a confused - yet extremely cute – puppy who thought he was following the scent of food, but inexplicably finding himself trapped in the 'slicing and cutting room' of a dog food factory.
"Eh?" muttered InuYasha.
Setsuna grinned happily and laughed at the hopeless expression on InuYasha's face, "Hey, don't sweat it," she elegantly flipped her long braid over her shoulder only to have it fall back into place when she cocked her head at InuYasha, "I know how you absolutely wanted to be my brother, but, hey, look at it this way, that's one less family member you have to worry." Then Setsuna turned on Kagome, "And who are you? Some poor damsel in distress kidnapped from her village by this lunatic?"
InuYasha's eyebrow twitched, "Lunatic?! Who's calling who the lunatic?"
Setsuna's eyebrow twitched in the exact same motion, "What? Was what I just said to complicated for you, Inu. Yasha. Maybe I need to pound some sense into that sausage you call a brain!"
InuYasha's left hand gripped the hilt of Tetsuaiga sluggishly, "Fine with me, but don't think I won't be afraid to hit you just because you're a girl."
Meanwhile, Kagome was growing impatient. She glanced from InuYasha and Setsuna. Despite what either of them said she was convinced they were related. Not only did they look enough alike to be twins but also they had the same incompetent temper and two-second attention span.
Kagome sighed. This conversation was going nowhere.
"Hey, InuYasha," Kagome whispered.
"Not now, Kagome. I'm busy," hissed InuYasha without taking his eyes from Setsuna. Then it dawned on InuYasha what he just said and he warily turned his head to face her, "Er…Kagome?" he muttered hoping she had gone into a three second coma while he said those last words.
No such luck.
"Sit, boy."
WHAMM!!
InuYasha slammed into the ground at full speed. Kagome ready to launch into an angry lecture but in the time it took her to blink Setsuna was standing over the InuYasha shaped crater giggling. She looked up at Kagome, her gold eyes twinkling like a malicious demon child, "That's amazing! That's the trick you did before wasn't it? Do it again! Do it again!" Setsuna chanted before falling into another laughing fit.
Kagome stared at Setsuna' sudden transformation in personality and wondered if the girl was schizophrenic or just mentally retarded.
"Do the… 'Sit'" – THUNK! – "command again?" she asked. "Oh, wait… Sorry InuYasha!" she said after realizing what she'd done.
Another force of overactive gravity slammed into InuYasha and he groaned miserably in his hole.
Setsuna seemed to be having the time of her life. She bent down beside the InuYasha pit and poked InuYasha in the back. He grunted with each poke.
"Wow! This hole is four inches! Four inches!" Setsuna looked back up at Kagome, "What's the deepest hole you've ever gotten?"
Kagome put her index finger to her mouth and sat down across from Setsuna, "Well… I think Shippo measured one about three feet before."
Setsuna cocked her head and gave Kagome a sly look, "C'mon, 'about three feet'? Is that all?"
Kagome giggled, "Okay, well this one time I brought a ruler from home – just for this purpose - and well… we measured one that was 3.6 feet!" The girls squealed with laughter. "And then there was this one time he was being really difficult. He was carrying this huge boulder over his head and-"
InuYasha raised a twitching hand out of his hole and dropped it next to Kagome's knee, "Are you two done yet…?" He gasped pulling himself shakily out of the hole, his face covered in mud.
Setsuna smiled at InuYasha and then eyed Kagome, "I was wrong about you, Damsel. You aren't in distress at all. In fact, you might have even been the one doing the kidnapping."
Setsuna stood up and brushed the dirt from her pant legs, "So, my dominating damsel, what brings you to me?"
Once again, Kagome was caught off guard by Setsuna's swift change in personalities. Cantankerous. Childish. Collected. Kagome glanced at InuYasha who was still recovering and was now putting all his attention into popping his back.
"First of all," began Kagome, "my name is Kagome." When Setsuna said nothing Kagome continued, "We have a friend, Miroku. He's in a bad condition. There's no one left who can do anything for him."
There was silence. Kagome hesitantly looked up at Setsuna towering over with gold eyes staring down at her with an unreadable ferocity.
"Why come to me?"
It was InuYasha who spoke up, "Setsuna, you can say what you like, but even you can't change the past. I'm your little brother no matter what you say. And, well, you're the best physician in Japan," InuYasha smiled, "I remember when we were kids, I fell into that poison patch. Real poison, Kagome, I didn't have a chance. I must have only been about six years old at the time and I shouldn't be alive now. A Half-demon, demon, human, no matter what you are a six-year-old's body isn't built to stand that much poison. But Setsuna dragged me out of there and had me healed by nightfall. Setsuna, I'm sorry I left. Things sort of… got complicated and before I knew it I'd never returned. But, this guy Miroku, he's doesn't have a chance and if there's anyone left who can save him it's you."
InuYasha looked up at Setsuna and saw she was crying. How long had it been since he'd seen her cry? Was it really the day Mother died?
Setsuna slipped to the ground like her legs had become too weak to support her any longer. Her arms hung loosely at her side and tears ran from her gold eyes down her cheeks.
"InuYasha," she said, "I thought you were dead. I just woke up one morning and you were gone. I didn't know what happened to you. I-I thought you were dead!" she moved her hands to wipe away the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Mama told me to protect you because you were so young. On her deathbed she told me to protect you! And you were just gone! I was so scared, I thought I'd lost you too. And until before I thought you were dead. I didn't know you'd left! I didn't know… That last night was the last time I saw you…" Setsuna reached out and grabbed the sleeves of InuYasha's fire robe and pulled herself into his arms. She hugged him like she'd never see him again.
And InuYasha hugged his sister back.
"InuYasha," she whispered, "You grew up."