A/N: Now you get to find out who blasted their way into the cave! Don't be so surprised, you knew it wouldn't stay a secret. Although, some secrets, SOME secrets, will stay secret for a long time, you see, a long time indeed. But not this one. This one doesn't have to be a secret for a long time at all. I'll tell you who it is soon, I promise. See? ;P
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"SESSHOUMARU!" a sharp, loud voice rang out of the labyrinth as a bright ball of light illuminated the exit and took a very sharp turn towards them.
Kagura shifted herself to a defensive stance, failing to realize there was no purpose for such an action.
Inuyasha and Shippou started to chuckle. Maku and Saitou blinked, not sure who or what this ball of light was yet. Toutousai and Myouga continued to hide, and Moumou and Ah-Un continued to be passive, if slightly amused observers.
The ball of light hovered and whirled rapidly for a few seconds, then lowered to the ground and began to take on the shape of a woman wearing a rather elegant dress, her long white flowing hair and distinct markings becoming visible.
"Hello, Mother," Sesshoumaru sighed as the glow around her faded.
Kagura had wanted to say something as the surprise made her blink a few times, but before she could fathom what kind of words to use, the taiyoukai woman had already taken decisive action of her own.
Sesshoumaru's Mother stalked over the six steps she'd deliberately put between herself and her son, then she reached out, swift as lightning, to slap him straight across the face.
Sesshoumaru just blinked at her.
"That's for scaring your own Mother into thinking you were going to die, you ungrateful brat! You know I carry the Meidou-seiki, I saw Everything you did in there!"
Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at her.
"You came all the way here just to scold me for that? Why Mother, you've gone soft in the head, haven't you?"
"Gone soft in the head?! Sesshoumaru, I've Been soft in the head your entire adulthood, that's neither here nor there nor anywhere between, you callous mongrel of a son! I was worried sick that you'd get crushed by that dragon Shishinki, and you had no right to run off and throw yourself away like that! You know you're my only heir!"
"Nice to hear that you worried about me," Sesshoumaru crossed his arms and huffed at her, "due to your own lineage."
"I worry about you because you're my SON, my Only Son, which makes you the one creature I love the most in this world, and there's only one of you to love, you Fool, you wretched ingrate!" she shrieked, then sobbed, "I thought you were going to be stupid enough to die on me, all for some soul which you hadn't even made a body for!"
Sesshoumaru winced slightly. Well, she was very rough around the edges, but his Mother DID care about him, of that there was no doubt. She had some awfully strange ways of showing it, but she loved him as any Mother did.
"If it helps, the quest wasn't in vain," he said in a tiny, apologetic voice, and for once everyone got to see him actually being the sheepish little kid getting cowed by his Mother. It was really quite priceless.
"I'm not done being upset with you yet! How could you just risk your life, your legacy, your-" here she paused, as the actual meaning of the words he'd spoken actually settled into her conscious thought process. "You mean..." she glanced to the side, spotting Kagura immediately, which made the wind sorceress smile nervously and sweatdrop.
"Uh, hello, I'm Kagura," she introduced herself with a dark red blush and a slightly squeaky voice.
What wasn't expected was the way Sesshoumaru's Mother went from hellbent raging lunatic to sweet doting mommykins within a tenth of a second flat. Her entire being, her posture, her facial expressions, the whirl of her aura, the set of her jaw, the tilt of her head, the squaring of her shoulders, everything morphed instantly, and she was transformed into the most pleasant woman one could imagine.
"Why, so you are! And you're alive, in a real flesh and blood body, a good strong youkai body with all the proper organs and a regular heartbeat, nothing amiss...yes, you're Alive, and more importantly, you're to be my son's wife, yes?"
"Husband," Inuyasha snickered, but Shippou elbowed him hard.
"I should hope I will be, or else he's awful generous to come rescue me and make me marry someone else!" Kagura said with a very nervous laugh, not sure if the humor would be well-received but unsure what else to say.
"And that means..." Sesshoumaru's mother smiled, whirling on her foot triumphantly to face her son again, this time extending her arm ominously to point right at him, "YOU are going to Finally make me some Grandchildren!"
The look on Sesshoumaru's face, and on Kagura's face, was priceless. Sesshoumaru was wearing the unmistakable visage of a fat mouse cornered by a hungry cat, and Kagura was trying to figure out if she was more amused or embarrassed.
Inuyasha couldn't help it anymore. Neither could Shippou. They fell to the ground laughing uncontrollably. Moumou, Ah-Un, Toutousai, Myouga, Maku, and Saitou all started to laugh too.
Sesshoumaru was slightly tense now, and as he met his Mother's gleeful and slightly insane eyes, he realized that he hadn't even thought to ask Kagura if she wanted children. He'd just wanted to be with her, he hadn't given the idea of children much consideration, and now faced with this-
"I don't think he's the one who makes them...isn't that my job?" Kagura giggled, and the taiyoukai woman turned to look at her again with a smile on her face, lowering her arm.
"Oh, well of course my dear, and I'm so glad to hear that you're not opposed! Oh, you wouldn't Believe the way some of these young spinsters Are about having children these days, and not to mention My relief! Here I'd almost given up on having any legitimate grandchildren, because of course up until he took a fancy to You my dear, he was rather adrift towards Men, you know, and while that's all fine for the frenzy, it certainly doesn't make pups!"
"MOTHER!"
"What? I'm not criticizing, dear, I certainly can't say I blame you for liking men as much as I do, but you just can't get pups with only men no matter how hard you try! I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever try anything else with a woman again. I'm just so relieved that you finally found this one, because the way you shied away from all other females this past century was so very concerning! Why, I thought you'd stay on the stiff side of the fence for the rest of your life, Sesshoumaru!"
By now, the only ones who weren't laughing were the two people involved in this "conversation" if one could call it that, namely Sesshoumaru and his Mother. Everyone else couldn't help themselves anymore. It was too much. Even Kagura, despite herself, found it to be too much.
Sesshoumaru was so red in the face that his stripes were nearly invisible. His Mother, for all intents and purposes, was dead serious about everything she'd said. And he was regretting having lived through his ordeal, because he sure wished he could die on the spot right now.
However, it was Kagura's cleverness that salvaged the situation in a most unusual and satisfying way.
"A man that can take charge of other men even in the bedroom? Now that I definitely like," Kagura sidled up to him, trying her best to turn it around.
And then Sesshoumaru's Mother immediately smashed it down again with innocent but sure damnation.
"Oh no, dear, I'm quite sure they took charge of him. All his consorts in his younger days were usually much more muscular than he was, and his one recent favorite was quite the hefty sort as well, a big white tiger, so I hear. I'm fairly certain he-"
"Why, Mother, do you even spend your time imagining these things? Have you nothing better to do?!" Sesshoumaru asked weakly, finally interrupting her with a voice that cracked in embarrassment.
"Simple, really," and here she smiled and straightened herself up, then gave Kagura a graceful nod, "to be assured that my son's future wife can tolerate some eccentricity. If a mere few minutes of my motherly sabotauge deterred this love of your life, then would she really be truly in love with you? I have to embarrass you to test your wife. She needs to be given reasons to run away from you, so I may prove she loves you when she doesn't."
"You're horrible! That's not how this is supposed to work at all!" Sesshoumaru protested.
"You know nothing because you have no children yet," she huffed and drew herself up, then smiled at Kagura again as she tipped her head slightly, "and it's been a pleasure to see that you're willing to remedy that. It takes a special kind of woman to be so content with my strange boy."
Considering everything his Mother had just said, Kagura decided to slip in one of her own.
"I'm more than Content with him, I'm Thrilled. He makes a wonderful wife," she giggled and leaned up to kiss him.
Even though he accepted the peace offering of the kiss, Sesshoumaru sighed and hung his head in defeat. Note to self...This is why you never allow your Husband and your Mother to talk.
"Oh?" the Ice Sorceress caught that one, then smiled sweetly, "Hmm, I bet he does."
"And look, she's already such a good husband, being polite to the future mother-in-law..." Inuyasha snickered from the peanut gallery again.
"Consoling her wife after a losing debate with his Mother..." Shippou added with a chuckle.
"Taking responsibility for fostering a new generation of children..." Inuyasha continued.
"Stepping up to handle all the manly duties of-OOOWWWW!" Shippou yipped, then laughed and ducked as another rock just narrowly missed his head, aimed right where the first had hit.
"Uh-oh, Kagura, you better handle your wife, he's getting violent!" Inuyasha teased.
Sesshoumaru finally lost it.
"INUYASHA! SHUT UP! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Sesshoumaru pounced.
Inuyasha took off. Shippou was right there with him, figuring he was at the same point on the list right now. The two fox apprentices, the two old men, and the two amused animals gathered generally near two amused sorceresses so as to stay reasonably out of the way.
For a few minutes, as the rest of the onlookers watched Sesshoumaru chasing Inuyasha and Shippou around the cave, Sesshoumaru's Mother watched Kagura from her peripheral vision.
Kagura was looking at Sesshoumaru with pure adoration. Her body language, her demeanor, the joy that radiated from her very soul...not only had Kagura won his heart, but she had given her own as well. Oh, after all this time, the Lady of the Ice had heard the tragic story of Kagura's captive heart, of Naraku's final cruelty. But layered between these tales that Kohaku had been willing to divulge on rare evening visits, Sesshoumaru's Mother had sensed the irony in the taijiya boy's words as he'd once made a very wise observation.
"She always seemed to want more than anything in the world to reclaim her heart from Naraku...but oddly, she wanted it even more so when she wanted to give it to the man she loved."
At the time, his Mother had been nearly dismissive of those tales. Having never met Kagura, nor having been told much of anything about her besides a snippet here or there by way of some other inconsequential thing, she'd never given these things much thought. But now she saw what Kohaku meant, though he'd never really specified that man had been none other than Sesshoumaru, the old woman realized idly in the back of her mind as part of her suppressed a frown.
Yet that frown was easy to suppress, watching her son round up the two younger pests and whack them a few solid times to put them in their place, then barely letting a smile show on his face as Kagura laughed and applauded him.
"How mightily you vanquish your foes!" she cheered, and Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes.
"Such pitiful foes were hardly worth the vanquishing," he snorted.
"Hey, who're you callin' pitiful?!" Inuyasha protested.
"Yeah, we're not pitiful!" Shippou agreed with a huff.
"Quiet, or I'll tell my husband you were being mean to me," Sesshoumaru said coyly, and Inuyasha and Shippou burst into laughter again as the dog smiled past his blush. Well, he figured, there's no avoiding the joke anymore. He may as well learn to live with it, embrace it fully even, because it was clearly not going away anytime soon.
"Hey, who's picking on my wife?!" Kagura cheerily stomped over to join in the playful act.
Sesshoumaru's Mother tilted her head slightly as she watched, then blinked.
"Ah well, at least there's one husband and one wife...they'll have pups either way," she said with a smile.
Yes indeed, and probably several of them, Ah thought as his mouth split in a big toothy grin.
Three or four at least, Un agreed, or perhaps six or seven!
Say, Un, what do you suppose Kagura's true form actually Is?
Ah...I don't know. She used to smell like Naraku, who was a spider. Now she smells of algae and herbs. She has the powers to control the winds. The only thing she's ever used that ties her to a creature is the feathers.
Perhaps she's a bird? Or do you suppose she lost her true form when Shippou re-created her body?
No, the Myobu granted him the ability to craft a body just as he said. And he specifically said he wanted her to have all the powers she had before. That would include the power to transform into her true form, whatever it is.
Considering that she was created by Naraku, do you think she even Has a 'true form' besides her womanly shape?
Ah, that's a good question.
Un, do you suppose Lord Sesshoumaru and Kagura's children will look like those young incarnations of Naraku?
Both Ah and Un blinked at each other and snorted derisively, flashing back to the old but distinct recollections of Akago and Hakudoushi. The creepy little child-spawn of Naraku, though entirely of his flesh, did have a certain way of looking like they might've actually been the offspring of Sesshoumaru and Kagura, now that they thought of it.
"I wonder what their children will look like," Sesshoumaru's Mother murmured out loud to nobody in particular, and in fact she was more than likely talking only to herself, but Moumou heard her and mooed, all three eyes blinking.
For a brief moment, the sacred cow's eyes skimmed through flickers of Sesshoumaru and Kagura in the far distant past of a decade ago, then she settled on a few longer scenes of Kagura with Akago and of Hakudoushi riding on Entei.
"Are those my future grandchildren?" she asked the sacred cow.
Ah and Un chuffed humorously, seeing that it was This Question of hers that finally caught the attentions of both Sesshoumaru and Kagura, and as they looked at the images, they both blushed furiously.
"Uh, no, Mother, that's Akago and Hakudoushi. They were other incarnations of Naraku. Did you not know this?"
"I rarely bother with affairs outside my realm, you know this," she waved her hand dismissively.
Sesshoumaru huffed and crossed his arms.
"You constantly meddle whenever and wherever you please, no matter whose realm it happens to be."
"But only when it pleases me, and meddling with Naraku was your affair, not mine. It would have become rather like trying to get you to attend a nightly dinner if we had met on the battlefield too often, don't you agree?"
Hm. On second thought, that was a very good reason for her non-involvement indeed.
"Quite," he nodded in hasty agreement.
"So Kagura was holding this child because...?"
Sesshoumaru sighed.
"Mother, it's a long story. A very long, very serious, very somber story, which is why I prefer not to discuss it right now."
"I see," she raised both eyebrows, then with a smile, "but the cow is right. Those two children, whoever they are, could have certainly been mistaken for your offspring."
"Mother..." Sesshoumaru growled.
"Would I lie to you?"
"Ah-hah! You finally said it! And now I get to prove you wrong! As a matter of fact, you Did lie to me!"
Ah's tongue lolled out as his mouth opened wide in amusement. Un lifted his head proudly, snout high, ears raised, posture clearly suggesting immense humor.
Everyone else went deathly silent. It was even weirder than his bowing to thank the fox, which at least was a warranted sign of gratitude that was proper for someone with dignity to use as a show of respect. This was the most unexpected, uncharacteristic, unusual outburst they'd seen from Sesshoumaru the entire time. Mostly because when he did so, he'd almost literally taken on the equivalent of Inuyasha's personality in the execution of his bold accusation. His posture, his tone, his stance, his cockiness, his pointing for emphasis and the crowing lilt in his voice, they all sounded so much more like his brother-
So much more like his Father-
And Sesshoumaru's Mother finally let out a little huff, smiling at her son.
"Oh? I Did lie to you, you say? And just what Exactly did I lie to you about?" she asked dangerously.
The air grew tense. Two, three, four seconds passed. Sesshoumaru and his Mother both held their postures, still as statues, expressions never changing, muscles never twitching, hair never rustling.
Everyone else waited, breaths bated, eyes wide, afraid to break the silence but feeling as if they'd burst from the tension of the suspense at any moment, emotionally caught on the knife-edge of anticipation.
"You told me that you and Father met at a diplomatic conference and had a torrid courtship, and you split it off in just a few months because of some political conflicts. But actually, Father was sent to see you because he needed to find a way to test Tenseiga, and you were the one person who could help him do that."
Sesshoumaru's Mother smiled.
"Ah, yes, dear. Touga did always try to stay professional when he made his business calls, even after we parted on sour terms. He was so stiff after that little affair of ours...and I, well, I was too young to know better, and only returned his ire with more of my own," she said a bit sadly, "but that was no lie, dear. You just saw what it was like after we'd departed from mutual enjoyment, you were born from the incident when I made an attempt to draw him into actually courting me again."
I didn't know I was so dear to the old-
Oh, shut up, Ah, I'm trying to pay attention!
Now Sesshoumaru felt royally stupid and embarrassed, his arm drooping but not quite dropping.
"Oh," he said weakly.
Shippou snorted. Well, if the dumb dog hadn't caught on by now, he wasn't gonna tell.
"She still lied to you about the Meidou-seiki," Inuyasha pointed out with an ear flicker and a snide snicker.
"Yeah, you told me it was the last thing Father left you, but actually you had it when he came to you before Tenseiga was even created!" Sesshoumaru crooned, trying to save face.
"It was. This isn't the original Meidou-seiki. This was reforged with two more like stones and part of the Crystal in order to specifically harmonize with Tenseiga's weilder. Though my original stone has become part of this one, it's not the same as it once was. This completed and refined Meidou-seiki was passed to me just before his death," she smirked at him, amused by his persistent attempts at accusations.
"Oh," Sesshoumaru's case crumbled even more, as did his ego.
"However," she conceded with a big gracious smile, "I did lie to you about one thing."
"Hah! I knew it!" he waved his finger in exaggeration.
"There was once that I said I didn't care if you threw away your life. I was lying when I spoke those words."
Sesshoumaru sighed and dropped his arm, hanging his head.
"How do you always WIN?!"
"Because I'm your Mother," she giggled, then with a wide sweeping gesture, "Sesshoumaru, you sure have taken on a grand mood, hmm? I've not seen you this playful since you were an adolescent. She really does warm you, I see."
Kagura blushed even as she sidled up next to him, and he was doing the same, his face red even as he grinned. Yes, he was embarrassed, but it was that special kind of embarrassment that actually felt a little bit endearing, the kind of strange contradictory thing that felt like the same kind of bonding as whispering a secret to a best friend.
"I should hope so. Isn't that the most sacred duty of every husband, to keep their wife warm?" Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and snorted, a bit of a smile lingering on his face.
"Hmm, indeed," Sesshoumaru's Mother smiled coyly, "and I see you've already begun to practice for your new role in the house. Ditching the boots will probably help you fit the typical description of the kitchen-bound wife."
"If only I could get pregnant to go along with being barefoot," Sesshoumaru conceded with a heavy sigh, "I'm lucky that I have such a husband, to take a wife that can't even get pregnant and bear a child-"
"Oh, stop, you're so ridiculous!" Kagura finally burst into laughter and settled their silly banter with a firm, impatient kiss, and as she drew back, "and all this goofy joking aside, I want to be the Wife at the wedding!"
Sesshoumaru kissed her again. And again. And then they looked at each other with this certain type of lust...
"Ah, I see I needn't worry about encouraging them to make pups," Sesshoumaru's Mother said with a chuckle.
Not at all, Ah agreed with a nod.
They encourage each other quite well enough, Un snorted in amusement.
"All things considered, though," Shippou coughed to interrupt before the two newly-reunited lovers could run off for hours of fun again, "I don't see why we all have to keep staying here, unless there's something else important we need to do while we're in this cave for some reason."
"I agree, we don't need to linger any longer," Toutousai said with relief that someone finally made sense.
"I concur, that's a splendid idea, let's get outta here!" Myouga said hastily.
Well, the chorus of agreement that accompanied the suggestion was followed by a quick discussion and then a few minutes of gathering what few supplies they cared to bring out, and once they were outside, both Maku and Saitou were excused with orders to report to the village with a final message, and then run off and try very hard not to get themselves killed. Toutousai and Myouga bid them a hasty farewell, now that Moumou was finally willing to let herself leave, and the cow and dragon bid each other farewell in a way only they understood. Inuyasha and Shippou lingered for just a bit longer, somehow feeling their presence was still warranted.
"Sesshoumaru," his Mother said after a long few moments of everyone's silent contemplation as they watched some of the others leave, "are you aware of how Kagura's new body was made?"
"Mmm, the sacred cow showed me. And yet when I tried to express my gratitude to the Taiyoukai Kitsune who had been willing to sacrifice so much to help me, all he could do was stare at me like I'd fallen from the stars."
Shippou blushed. Inuyasha and Kagura and Ah-Un made little noises of amusement.
"That's not what I meant. I was wondering if you were aware of her new power," Sesshoumaru's Mother intoned.
"Huh? What new power?" Kagura asked, blinking at the Ice Sorceress.
"Wind Sorceress, up until now, you've never revealed a form that isn't humanlike in shape. As I scoured the archives of the sages for references to your situation, I discovered that the Myobu chose the material Shippou was to use for a specific reason. Had you already possessed a true form, you'd have been crafted out of seaweed. The spells are all very precise, there is no mistake. Your true form has not yet been born, but rather, it will reveal itself in what is only vaguely defined as 'a moment of clarity' within your spirit. However, until you have discovered this true form of yours, it's likely that you'll have much more difficulty producing offspring. Dogs tend to do best if-"
"Mother, that's enough," Sesshoumaru chided lightly.
"You mean I...I will become a different kind of youkai?" Kagura struggled with this concept, eyebrows raised.
"Not exactly. The Myobu's spell was derived of an ancient and very precise ritual used mostly by a particular one of the lesser dieties of an obscure swamp near the base of Inari's Mountain. If a body was crafted with seaweed, it was made with it's true form in mind and the crafting process solidified that aspect. If a body was made with algae, it was with the intention of creating a specific human guise, and the essence of the youki that filled the body would then determine the true form of the youkai. You were a being who was originally created by Naraku, a spider loosely, but an abomination in all actuality. You weren't given a true form so to speak, but you were never expressly denied one either. The Myobu has given you a chance to find yourself, your True Self. Now that's not to say you can Choose, for if it were that simple, I'd suggest you join the refined ranks of the dog youkai," she smirked, "but whatever it is that your true form happens to be, I'm sure it will suit you quite well, Kagura. From an Ice Sorceress to a Wind Sorceress, I can tell you...there are many times I would that I were a bear, for it fits my preferences better than to be a dog. You are perhaps even luckier than those born with a natural true form."
"Hey, you sure know an awful lot about all this stuff...I didn't think that Meidou-seiki showed you all the things that went on with the Myobu or any of that," Shippou frowned at Sesshoumaru's Mother.
"Oh? And did you also suppose that I rely solely on the Meidou-seiki for information, that a mage such as myself is incapable or unwilling to seek other sources, that a master of the magics wouldn't notice the kind of stir a Myobu visit might cause in the ripples of rumors from the grapevines? Though you are noble and wise for your age, a great portion of your inexperience yet hinders you. But fret not, good fox, you'll grow out of that."
Shippou blushed furiously. She sure had a way of making somebody feel stupid...
"Oi, Shippou," Inuyasha flicked his ears with a big smile, "should we head back now and get the party ready, or do we wait so we don't spoil their surprise?"
"Uh, well if we wait, I'm sure it'll take a few extra days, cause they look like they wanna run away before they go telling everyone to come bother them," Shippou giggled, thankful for the welcome distraction from his embarrassment.
"Indeed, don't you two go and make all your Friends go bothering them and delaying them from making my grandchildren any longer!" Sesshoumaru's Mother huffed and waved her arm dramatically, "And on that note, my son, I'm off to my castle to await the news of your wife's pregnancy. Do try to remember, son, that for her to get pregnant, You have to be the one poking Her, hmm?"
"MOTHER!" he shouted at her retreating form as she leaped into the air and transformed into her true dog self.
Inuyasha and Shippou snickered, then glanced over at the two youkai with big grins on their faces.
"We'll take Ah-Un and let you guys get reacquainted. Catch up whenever you feel like it," Inuyasha smiled, and he and the fox hopped on the dragon's back and went off, waving farewell.
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AAHAHAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAAAHAHAAAAA!
No apologies, no excuses, no regrets. If you don't like it, quit now.
I've already written way too much of this to concern myself with whether or not you grow as attached to my descriptions of character as I have. Like I said before in the first story author notes, somewhere, I did Not Presume that the Weilder of the Blade of Heaven, the weapon meant for one with a Compassionate Heart, was going to Stay Outwardly Emotionless. It's hinted at in the Final Act that he does start to loosen up and chill out around the village.
Also, one thing I Will Say, the "Since Then" flashback story about Root Head in the very first episode of Yashahime (but NOT the situation in which it was presented, the telling of it to the daughter of Sesshoumaru who Rumiko didn't write into existence) was an actual piece of the original story, a sort of epilogue Rumiko herself wrote before Yashahime was ever put into screenworkings. And in that, there was also some hinting at the fact that Sesshoumaru had started to show a sort of bristly, aloof concern for the village his hanyou brother calls home, not Just Because Rin is there. I think it was no great coincidence that he, a Great and Powerful Dog, refused to Stop Guarding the Babies. Kinda like the pitbull side of him came out, eh? ;D
Well actually on that note, I think his breed is most likely drawn to be a resemblance to a Saluki, which is soft of like a greyhound with fluffy paws and ears and tail, only, his dog form is a little Anime Exaggerated in musculature for a Saluki, but that's because it's his Powerful True Form.