Family Tree- the following is the answer to the few reviews I've had that pple stated having a problem telling who belongs to who
Sesshoumaru's- Kohaku (wife Keely) Ronin, Kiyoshi, Dare, Sora, Rin (husband Triton) Nomi
Inu yasha's- Hotaru (husband Linc) Wufei (wife Chelsea) Mika, Kyou, Shippou
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Know Her Anywhere
Once the images flickered and died there was nothing but silence in the hall as everyone processed what they'd all just seen and heard. Many of the demons in the room were rethinking their opinions of the Lord of the West and just how powerful/weak he was. He was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future and many demons were thinking to either ally with him or get him out of the way before he had a chance to acquire such fierce allies and family. Sesshoumaru was more then a bit shocked over the fact that he'd apparently adopted the wind user's daughter even though it would appear she was more his son's then his. She would be a powerful ally and likely came in handy, Sesshoumaru thought with a considering look on his face. Plus he'd apparently get to humiliate and tear Manta practically to shreds which was a nice thought and would make up for the annoyance of having the girl in his care and having to protect her from the wolves. Manta was in a state of shock both to learn that he would be losing both a battle and an arm to Sesshomaru, not to mention actually running away from the Lord of the West which was an unbelievable humiliation. Now that he knew it was going to happen he had no intention of seeing history repeating its self and had already started to plot Sesshoumaru's end. Shortly after the visions the meeting broke up to be continued the next day as the host had to take his mate up to rest from her tiring use of her magic. Everyone filtering out of the hall many headed out to set up camp on the lord's grounds. Needing to take a walk Sesshoumaru simply started walking away from camp once he'd left Rin in Kagome's care giving Sango no choice but to follow him on her feet or being dragged.
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Keeping up to him without too much trouble Sango would have let him have it for treating her like a weak and spineless servant but she held her tongue this once. He'd almost seen his son die before his eyes after all, not to mention getting the startling news that he was going to be adopting Kagura's child. Then of course there was the biggest shock of all which had to do with his connection to herself. She'd like to think that she was Ronin's mate but it had been the actions of a mother she'd witness on the screen and the thought terrified her. She could excuse falling for Ronin since he'd appeared to be a good and decent young man but she would only be lying to herself if she believed the idea. Sesshoumaru's oldest was named Kohaku and they'd already established that Sesshoumaru's wife was a human who was tough enough to handle the cool dog demon. There could be no mistake and the thought that she would someday become this silent demon's mate was unsettling to say the least. He was a murderer, a cold hearted bastard who would think nothing of killing hundreds of innocents. But it hadn't been an evil demon who'd rescued not only Rin and Nomi from sure death nor had it been a cold man who'd sliced into his own palms at the sight of his son's impending death. And there were five children that would be theirs by blood. Which not only caused her to blush but would indicate that she had feelings for him since you didn't have that many children simply out of a duty and she'd given him a son first try as well.
His own thoughts following hers Sesshoumaru didn't know what to say to her. Had it been the old him he would have slaughtered her now to prevent the future he'd seen but the future he'd seen..didn't horrify him the way it should. He could still picture the slayer cradling his son against her, weeping as she called out his name and the pain he'd felt when his name said with such anguish had passed her lips. She wasn't hideous by any stretch of the word and when she wasn't talking back to him she wasn't too much of an annoyance. She was rather stunning for a human actually but that didn't change the fact that she was in fact human and the idea that he would willing lay with her, give her his children was mind boggling. She'd given him children to be proud of at least and it would appear that together they'd raised strong and confident pups who weren't hindered in any way by their slightly tainted blood thankfully. Not to mention that none of them looked like they were only half though the children had hinted they weren't exactly only half. He didn't understand that either but took it to mean she was referring to the fact that Rin was human and that Nomi was a full wind demon. By all the Gods he had seven pups in one way or another. He'd never expected to have more then maybe two sons to carry on his name and line, full blooded, more then two pups had never factored into his thoughts. "I must have been out of my mind." Sesshoumaru finally said after they'd been walking for nearly an hour in complete silence, both lost in thought and Sango didn't even have to ask what he was thinking.
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"I'd say we both had to be but I don't think we looked out of our minds. Besides we would have had to be out of our minds for a very long time." Sango pointed out dryly as she crossed her arms across her chest as protection against the cool night air though it meant getting closer to Sesshoumaru so that she could move her one arm. "Five for God sakes and they ALL look like you."
"At least they don't look like Inu yasha." Sesshoumaru said with the faintest of smiles touching his lips for a moment before disappearing as though it had never been there to begin with but Sango saw it and smirked.
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Meanwhile in the Future
Kiyoshi was sprawled out on his back with a cloth bag under his head for a pillow as he lay there with his eyes closed. Deep in thought he had the appearance of someone napping which was only heightened by the fact that Nomi was cuddled against his side using Kiyoshi's bare chest as a pillow for her head. With his arm around her waist holding here there they made quite the picture and Shippou would have said so but didn't care for he splitting headache that would come from Nomi whacking him upside the head with her fan. Sitting on a rock on the other side of the campfire Shippou was on watch duty for the moment since they weren't all that close to the caves where the wolves were. Normally they would have but it wasn't safe for Nomi to be there even with them and so they'd opted to camp down wind of the caves since it wasn't safe for Nomi to be out alone even if she was floating in the air high above the ground. As Kiyoshi had put it there were plenty of demons that could fly too. Technically Kiyoshi was keeping watch too since he was well aware of what was going on around him closed eyes or not but Shippou was official watcher at the moment and wished he could go to bed. But he couldn't till it was Nomi's turn to watch and so he tried to get comfortable on the rock and forget about curling up by the fire with his tail as a soft pillow.
Feeling a strange sense of forbidding Shippou stopped wishing he could go to sleep and stood up on the rock. Carefully inhaling the scents of the forest he sorted through them looking for something that didn't belong but found nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps some wolf demons were coming thinking that they would take them by surprise. Wolf demons were stupid that way. Could be the enemy too of course but they would be making more noise and have given themselves away by now. Inhaling deeply Shippou scrunched his nose in confusion at the new smell that had hit his sensitive nose. It was faint but it was there and he'd know that scent anywhere. "Kiyoshi..do you smell her?"
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"Yes..I think so." Kiyoshi said as he'd come to the same conclusion and getting confirmation Shippou took off running with Kiyoshi cursing as h shook Nomi awake since he couldn't go after Shippou and leave her there fast asleep. Moving like the wind Shippou made hardly a sound except for his faint and rapid beating. He could smell her more clearly now, it was her, she was back. But as he got closer a new scent hit his nose which had his heart pounding and his mind coming up with agonizing images about what he might find. It was the fruity, almost metallic scent of blood and it was Sora's blood he smelled, he was sure of it. Lips drawing back in a snarl Shippou burst into a clearing and stared at the sight before him, not even aware of the force field that had sprung up behind him preventing Nomi and Kiyoshi from following him into the clearing where the trap had been laid. The sight before him was of Ferio, smiling evilly at him with one of his tentacles held an unconscious Sora, her blood staining her clothes in a scent that had become nauseating to the fox demon. As if she were suddenly aware that he were there Shippou watched Sora slowly lift her head and reach out a free arm as if to call him to her. "Shippou..help me." Came Sora's thin and thready voice, begging him for help and putting a red haze in front of Shippou's eyes.
"SORA!" Shippou yelled out then charged, coming at the laughing Ferio at full speed and jumping into the air with his sword raised Shippou's eyes met Sora's for an instant. Blinking in confusion Shippou changed targets quickly and pushed off against Ferio, landing on the ground having not struck a blow, staring at Sora intently like Ferio wasn't even there.
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"See that little girl, he's too afraid of me to even try to save you." Ferio guffed in an almost sing song tone designed to grate on ones ears and make you want to kill them just to shut them up permanently. "What's the matter little fox? Fear got your tail?"
"Shippou..please..please Shippou." Sora called out to him, tears shimmering in her golden eyes before she gasped in pain as the tentacle holding her tightened its fierce grip. She looked like a doll in the grasp of the horrible monster under a child's bed. Her face distorted in pain Shippou could feel her pain echoing in his own heart as he tried to see beyond the rage and emotion clouding his judgment. "Why won't you save me?"
"Because I had to know something first." Shippou said finally with a calm look, the red haze reappearing only brighter this time as he made up his mind. "And I will save Sora, I give my word on it." Shippou added then charged right back at Ferio which was exactly what the monster wanted Shippou to do but this time would be different. Once again jumping into the air Shippou aimed for Ferio's heart right up until the last second before he twisted his body and ran Sora through the heart with his large blade. Letting go of his blade Shippou jumped away as both Ferio and Sora erupted into ear splitting screams with the tentacle promptly letting Sora go, the girl dropping to the ground in a heap. Shippou watched as she got to her knees while Ferio's hideous laughter rang out and his taunts about her true love killing her filled the still air. The girl pulled the blade from her chest and throwing it away stared at him in pain and heartbreak.
"Why, Shippou? .I love you..why..how could you..why?" Sora said as blood poured from the wound to the ground, her arms outstretched as if to call her to him once more, the picture of the tragically dying heroine.
"Because you aren't Sora." Shippou said, his eyes flashing in the moonlight as he stared at the beautiful form that was certainly not this creature's true face and form. "You almost had me fooled but your mistake was disguising yourself as Sora...in a room full of identical women I would always be able to find my Sora." Walking closer Shippou retrieved his knife from his belt and threw it at her, the blade going straight through the creature's heart. Slowly the figure that had been the taunting Ferio faded away as if it had never been there and the Sora look alike began to change before his very eyes into a small, disfigured creature about the size of a small child looking kind of like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy he'd seen once at his grandma's. Walking over Shippou retrieved his sword and stood over the creature who writhered on the ground in the obscene dance of impeding death.
"No one..has ever managed to know me from those they loved most..until their blood..was on my hands. You must love her..dearly..fox demon..to have seen through my illusions. If she makes it..back alive from the past..tell her of..your love." The creature said as it finally managed to remove the dagger and threw it at Shippou's feet. "In times..like this...time is not something one has..the ability to stop." The creature managed to gasp out before closing its beady eyes, its body ceasing to move. Backing away from the form with his dagger in his hand Shippou never took his eyes off the form and when he was several meters away he dropped to his knees and dropping the dagger buried his face in his hands as he struggled to breath.
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Rushing into the clearing with Nomi at his side Kiyoshi took in the scene around them, searching for his sister but finding no trace as Nomi hurried over to Shippou's side. Kneeling in front of him Nomi reached out and stroked the fox's head, asking him quietly if he was all right. When he simply pulled her against him and buried his face in her neck Nomi wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Noticing this Kiyoshi felt chills run down his neck but walked over to where the stench of death was the strongest. The blood pouring from the creature on the ground faintly resembled his sister's but wasn't and the thing certainly didn't look like Sora. Confused Kiyoshi turned his back to the creature and sat down beside Shippou, calmly waiting for his friend to explain. Since it would appear that Shippou wasn't hurt or crying Kiyoshi assumed that this would be a strange story indeed. Once Shippou got himself under control he pulled away from Nomi though he kept his head down and in doing so hid his features from view. "Thanks, Nomi." Shippou said in a low voice as the girl moved to sit beside Kiyoshi since he would need her if something had happened to Sora.
"We were stopped from following you by a force field." Kiyoshi explained, hesitantly putting a hand on his friend's shoulder to squeeze before withdrawing the hand. "Was Sora ever here?"
"No but her look alike was. When I came into the clearing it was to see Ferio holding a Sora in a death hold with her bleeding all over the place..begging me to help her." Shippou said in a pained voice as he pictured it all again in his mind. "I charged forward like an idiot, determined to run the bastard through his black heart and then..and then I looked into Sora's eyes and knew it wasn't her. It was her face, her form, her eyes but what was in them..what was in them wasn't Sora."
"The monster that slaughtered the Lord of the East two months ago. That took on the form of his dead son to confuse his father into coming to him with the minimum of protection and caution. Witnesses said that there was no differences between the real son and the monster, that it spoke, even smelled like the son. His own mother watching from behind her husband thought it was her son until the boy decapitated her husband in front of her before going on a killing spree with the lord's warriors hesitating to kill the boy they'd thought their future Lord and master." Nomi said quietly as she recalled the stories they'd been hearing in the last year. "A creature that takes on the form of loved ones in order to infiltrate a holding or assassinate an individual. After all who would be suspicious of a wife, father or child?"
"So the beast took on the form of Sora and created the illusion of Ferio." Kiyoshi said as he filled in the remaining gaps. "When Shippou would have tried to kill the illusion the real monster would have had its chance to kill Shippou unaware."
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"I thought I'd killed her...for a split second when she was kneeling there, my blade through her chest as she cried out to me I thought it was her..that I'd been wrong and I'd killed her..that I'd KILLED her." Shippou finally said, his voice going hoarse and tight with barely contained emotion as he tried to rein it all in. "And even when I knew..watching her die in front of me..before it changed into that..that thing. God damn it..I'd sooner be slowly sliced to pieces then ever see that again." Shippou said as his clenched fists began to leak blood from his nails digging into his palms.
"Yet you knew it wasn't her..." Nomi pointed out wisely as she took Kiyoshi's hand in hers, her tears rolling down her cheeks as she cried for Shippou who wouldn't allow himself to.
"Yeah...Sora would never beg me for help..she'd be more likely to yell at me for not getting there sooner or being slow about it." Shippou said with a half laugh, half held in sob. "And if I ran her through..you can bet she'd try even with her dying breath to return the favor."
"That she would." Kiyoshi said with a small smile as he reached out to pat his friend on the shoulder again before standing up, not wanting to dwell in this place any longer then necessary. There was something about it that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Now let's go back."
"I think I'm gonna stay here for a few more minutes.. You two go ahead and I'll be there shortly." Shippou said looking up slightly to convey to Kiyoshi without words that he needed to be left alone for a bit. Understanding Nomi grabbed Kiyoshi's hand and began tugging his away and soon the two were into the darkness of the forest leaving their friend behind to his solitary solitude.