Surrounded by a purple light, I floated, my arms outstretched. Mama . . . . . Papa. Wait for me.
I landed gently on the ground, and was hit with a smell, the scent of tall grass with fresh dew. I looked up and there was the sky. It was beautiful but wait, do I have to actually climb out of here?! With what? Vines? Fuck!
There's no way I could manage that, not with a heavy bag of bento lunches.
Turning to survey the small space, I spotted an old ladder. That doesn't look risky at all. I peered at it un-trustingly. But then again, it's better than vines. Reluctantly I started to climb.
About halfway there, I felt a pulse. With every move I make towards the top there was another pulse. They got faster and faster until finally, as I hauled myself over the edge, they stopped.
I was in a clearing in the middle of a forest. Swallows fluttered about nearby. The noises of the area orchestrated into a rhythm, the different birds, the bugs, the cicadas.
There was a small house at the edge of the clearing. My last thought was, It's almost in the exact spot where the Higurashi residence was on the other side, before there was boiling in my blood.
I fell to the side on the grass, my entire body shaking, pulsing. I tried to focus on something, anything, but my eyes had shut in pain. My ears rung with a new burning intensity. My stomach felt as if someone had punched it. My heart roared in my head.
Squinting in a last effort to keep consciousness, between all the lush green, a crimson figure was rushing towards me.
Wood. A ceiling. A house. My thoughts were slow and I had a monstrous headache. I sat up quickly, only to have a hand stop me. Before I had time to guess who it was, a burning sensation crawled up my stomach and something round was quickly put below my hanging face.
I shuddered violently and emptied my stomach into it, gagging on the burning in my throat. A hand was at my back, comfortingly. My nose flares at the smell of vomit, the scent so strong I nearly suffocate in it. I voice my disgust through my screwed up face and a grunt.
Finished, the container was pulled away and I could smell it leaving the room. My vision was blurry, so I couldn't . . . No wait . . . I blinked, I can see just fine, in fact I can see too well. Everything is so sharp, every fine little detail. I could count the specks of dust that lay on a floorboard where it meets the wall.
My brain starting to wake up, a scent hit me. It smelled pleasant but I couldn't understand what it was. Was it . . . Human? A human being?
I turn to see a woman. I could swear I saw a glow emanate from her body and surround her like an aura.
Her voice reminds me of crystals somehow. "Moriko-chan. I'm glad you've awakened."
My eyes darted around, though my face was still. They refused to keep focus on any one thing, as there was so much detail to be seen in such a small room.
I keep trying to will them to stop, but all I can do is close my eyes. Not caring that she knows my name, I said, "Forgive me, my senses are whacked today."
"Mm," she understood, "You mean overwhelmed."
"Overwhelmed?" I whispered
"Inuyasha had said that becoming part demon for the first time would be . . . Tough, -and hard to explain without experiencing it yourself."
I sighed, "Hai. That's for sure. I don't want to look at anything right now."
Before I had even processed what she said, as I was still obsessing over every note and syllable, I felt a flicker above my head. My arm reaches up and filtering through my hair, my fingers find something alien within the strands.
A piercing scream was all Inuyasha needed to come running back to his house after dumping the vomit in an appropriate secluded area. He was itching to barge in, having being so full of worry, but he walked in calmly, as the years with Kagome have taught him, and observed the scene.
Moriko was touching her white hair, rubbing her ears as Kagome had had him when he was still asleep, pinned against the tree. Kagome looked up at him now, her expression amused and full of love. He sent the same expression back, grinning like the proud father that he is.
"They're not that weird, you know," He whined playfully. His arms crossed in the sleeves of his haori. Moriko looked up at him then. Her hands slowly drifted back down to her sides. Her beautiful ears twitched and her head tilted to one side in a dog-like manner identical to his own.
"Inu . . . Yasha?" Her voice was a beautiful hum to his velvety white ears.
He could smell the salt before tears even began to form in her eyes. He was heading towards her when she leapt out from underneath the foreign sheets. To his shock, she nearly tackled him to the ground, falling upon him with such a force.
She cried into his fire-rat haori, clutching it, she exclaimed, "Papa!"
The words hit him hard in the silent room. Kagome had arisen at that point and went to them both, hugging Moriko and himself. He embraced them both then, his wife and his daughter. Despite being in his hanyou form, he was overwhelmed with emotions. Happiness. Protectiveness. Love. Regret. They even dulled his other senses.
His heart nearly surged, "So you decided to come back to us, Moriko."
"Inuyasha," Kagome whispered and glanced up at him lovingly.
I sat with my parents on either side of me, angled towards each other. There was silence. I stared at the fire ahead of the three of us.
Night had fallen outside. I didn't know what to think, what to say.
Mama reached and clasped my hand awkwardly, "You grew up to be so beautiful, Moriko."
"Oh. Thank you," I said, equally awkward.
"Ne, how old are you now?" It's the first time papa spoke since we all embraced. He looked at me with such a perfect gaze. It made me want to rip my heart out, anything to satisfy that expression.
I found it awkward that he didn't know. "I'm eighteen," I said shortly, "I just finished high school."
"Oh congrats!" Kagome exclaimed, her hands clasped together. "I wish we could've been there."
Been there . . .
"Yeah . . ." I whispered, "Where were you guys? . . ." My anger boiled unnaturally beneath my skin.
I stood abruptly. The floorboards creaked as my feet carried me outside. I kept walking. My socks were soaked, as I had taken off my shoes once I had woken up. The dew of the humid, chilly night was fresh.
Did they have any idea how I've felt all these years? The loneliness? Grandma and Souta were there for me and I had my friends but . . .
An anxious habit, I bit my lip in thought. "Ah!" I hissed. A metallic smell racked my senses. A hurricane of a migraine brewed in my head. It's only a little bit of blood, I thought as my tongue had testified, prodding my lip. I guess, maybe it's because it's so close, in fact, literally right underneath my nose.
The scent faded and my aching brain sighed gratefully as the pain subsided. My lip healed already? I always admired people who healed fast but this unheard of.
But as the scent disappeared, another appeared.
Inuyasha followed downwind quietly. As she had stopped and he had smelled blood, he remained perched on a branch in the thick forest. The shadows hid him well beneath the moonlight. He was stock-still. There wasn't much room where he was. If he were to move even an inch, he would disturb a branch or brush a twig.
He was cautious. She's just like how Kagome used to be. He mused. He watched as Moriko continued, wandering through the woods, her emotions clouded the air around her, nearly palpable.
He had gotten used to his wife and knew how to approach her now, after all these years, when she was like this. But, as it hurt to even think it, he didn't know his daughter. He didn't even know what it was like to be a father spare the few months he was able to hold her tiny body in his arms. Now she was an adult as a human, and an adolescent by normal demon standards. What could he do?
She had disappeared from sight but he followed her lingering scent and occasional brushes of her body against the foliage. He knew better than to speak, as her ears would be able to pick it up. So he thought, Well. She's definitely not as clumsy as Kagome. That was good, seeing as she'd outlive her mother and Inuyasha couldn't always be there to catch her when she stumbles, literally and metaphorically.
He caught sight of her again at the base of a tree. THE tree. The tree where it all began. She sat on the roots as if she were sitting on what Kagome would call a chair.
Eyes narrowed at the scar on tree. Annoyed at the memory clawing at his brain, my back will never forget you, you damn tree. He remembered the ache of it as he had tried to ignore it due to the situation with the centipede when Kagome had awoken him.