InuYasha Fan Fiction / Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Grenade ❯ Suspicious Minds ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter Four
Suspicious Minds

Ichigo had been right. As soon as Rukia took in the new person arriving at the Kurosaki breakfast table she started in with the questions, but Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin seemed to take the newcomer in stride. Ichigo's youngest sister asking what Inuyasha would like for breakfast, and Karin ignoring Inuyasha entirely in favor of baiting Isshin. Isshin had done a double take when he first saw the striking combination of silver hair and golden eyes, the fleeting look of recognition passing through his eyes made Inuyasha wonder if the elder Kurosaki may know what he was even with the cloth pinning his ears down.

“Where did you come from?” Rukia was asking Inuyasha, she felt the odd energy coming off him and knew he wasn't human, but the closest she had felt to his aura was when she was near Captain Komamura. That wasn't entirely right either, so she was curious and a bit alarmed at his presence.

“Tokyo, I lived there for three years before a family situation made me decide to leave, Ichigo found me last night when it was too late to go to a hotel. He offered to let me stay the night. I will be looking for my own place today, so I will be gone soon.” Inuyasha figured that was as much of the truth as it was safe to say in front of everyone.

“If you are looking for a place here, how long do you plan to be in town?” She didn't seem to realize that she was interrogating a guest, but Ichigo wondered where Rukia's brain went to, didn't she realize if he had found Inuyasha last night than it was while he was in Shinigami form. If Inuyasha could see him then, there was more to the story than could be told in front of Ichigo's family. She would get better answers if she waited, but she didn't appear to have that much patience.

“I'm not sure, at least a month. After that it depends on what kind of work I can find, or if there is a place I can rent long term.” It also depended on Ichigo and whether or not he survived the stab that was supposed to strengthen him, but he wasn't about to say that.

That's when Isshin looked up from his verbal sparring match with Karin, “There are not a whole lot of places available around here long term, a few hotels, but they wont come cheap. We already have one extra around here, another set of hands to help with the house couldn't hurt.” Isshin may be a bit of a dork to his children, but he was a doctor, and a previous Captain, taking care of people was in his nature. Ichigo didn't get all of his protectiveness from the death of his mother, just the catalyst to act on it.

“I will still look for something, but if I do stay I will pay you rent, I wont take advantage of your offer.” Ichigo's dad reminded Inuyasha of Miroku, and oddly enough a bit of Lady Keade, that relaxed him more than he would have thought possible after the events he had went through lately. He wouldn't fawn himself over Isshin's feet, but he wasn't going to throw the man's kindness back in his face.

“Just cover the cost of the extra groceries, and stay away from my daughters, and we'll call it even.” Isshin warned him off with a sly grin, but Inuyasha did not miss the steal in his eyes, so the man wasn't just teasing. Inuyasha's instincts told him not to ignore the warning, and he wasn't about to ignore them now.

'We have a good place here. Close enough to our goal we can keep an eye on him, and these human's don't seem the type to run us out of their village with rocks an pitchforks.' Youkai was pleased at the results of taking Ichigo up on his offer for lodging over night, though he wasn't too thrilled with having to hide themselves away again.

Inuyasha spoke back to his demon, while trying to make it look like he was paying attention to Rukia's next question. 'I don't like hiding either, but if these Soul Reapers can run around like they do, maybe we can do the same, at least at night when we have some cover.'

'That will have to do, it isn't time for us to reveal the truth to everyone. I'm not happy, but I haven't told you not to hide, have I? This is the best path we have at the moment.' At least Youkai wasn't fighting on this, that took too much of Inuyasha's energy and it strained Tetsusaiga to have to hold back that much demonic power.

“Hey Inuyasha! I asked you a question!” Rukia's protest was punctuated with a sharp pain in his shin, the little brat just kicked him!

Ichigo must have realized what happened because he stepped in before Inuyasha could let the angered protest out, “Rukia don't you think you have interrogated him enough? We have to leave now or we will be late for school, and it sounds like he has plans too, so lay off will ya?

That caused Rukia's ire to find a new target, Ichigo. “I was just asking what kind of work he does, it wasn't that personal! Are you telling me you're not curious at all about him?”

“Yeah I am, but you're being rude doing it this way. How would you feel if you kept getting pelted with questions a mile a minute,” Ichigo then dropped his voice, “My family didn't do that to you when you showed up out of the blue. Give him time, that's a better way of getting to know him than asking all these questions that can be lied about or simply ignored.”

Inuyasha appreciated the help deflecting her attentions, so didn't find it in him to get angry, or even inform Ichigo that while he was talking too quietly for a human to hear them at this distance it was crystal clear to him. When you live in a pack with two humans, one full demon, one demon slayer, with a hanyou alpha, you get used to ignoring comments not meant to be heard by others.

Inuyasha watched as Ichigo masterfully lured Rukia away from the interesting stranger with a string of comments that raised the brunette's ire and caused her to follow him out of the house and towards school. At least Inuyasha figured that's where they were going after Ichigo had mentioned it to her earlier. This assumption seemed to be confirmed when Ichigo's two sisters also took off at the same time.

“Well that was different. Now are you going to tell me why my son managed to bring a half demon to our home in the middle of the night?” Isshin's question threw Inuyasha so badly he couldn't stop from starring.

“What did you just say?” He asked the normal looking human.

'He's not human, he is like that annoying girl this morning. Not fully a Shinigami, but not human either.” Youkai warned.

“You heard me, I know what you are, at one time I had a very good friend who was a Youkai. He mentioned about hanyou a time or two, more importantly that they all had silver hair and some kind of mark that showed which kind of youkai sired them. You are far too young to have that white hair naturally, and most people would just use a tie, not a full headband, so I assume your heritage marking is unusual ears of some type.” Isshin explained calmly, still wary, but relaxing a bit as Inuyasha's first reaction was shock not anger.

Inuyasha crossed his arms defensively, wishing for the protection of his fire rat clothes, before responding. “I knew it wouldn't be as easy as Ichigo made it sound, though I thought it would be the girl, or that child-Captain that figured it out first. So you know what I am, do I get to know what you are in return? I know you are not fully human either.”

“I can't tell you, Ichigo doesn't even know yet, but I may be forced to tell him soon so please keep that to yourself for the time being. I know about Ichigo's duties by the way, though he doesn't know that I do, that's why I didn't feel the need to panic when a Hanyou showed up at my breakfast table. The offer of a place to stay still stands, and I may just insist on it, if you answer my question. Why are you looking for a place here? It can't be too safe for you to be moving around too visibly, so what has brought you out of hiding?” Isshin knew enough about demons and their like from Komamura that he knew Inuyasha would not be wondering around in the open without a purpose.

“Did this Youkai friend of yours ever explain what it really means to be a half-demon? Not the obvious one of parentage, but the mental side of it?” Inuyasha figured this would be the best place to start, building on what the man may already know.

“Not really, he only told me what a Hanyou was, and the basics of what they looked like. He never really told me about the mental side of being a youkai himself, let alone for half-demons.” Isshin confessed.  

“Youkai are animal spirits, the stronger ones are intelligent and can take the form of a human, but they are not even slightly human in their instincts. A full youkai is born with a body and soul strong enough to control these intense instincts, Hanyous are not. When threatened with physical harm, those of us sired by TaiYoukai, or demon lords, have enough of a demon side it can take over our bodies and those aggressive animalistic instincts overpower our human halves. The problem with that is we have mostly human souls, the more often our demon blood takes over the closer we are driven to madness by the fighting between our youkai instincts and human soul. Is this making sense so far?” Inuyasha stopped there to let Isshin digest what he had learned. It wasn't an easy concept for a human to figure out if they have never had to fight a darker side of themselves.

“Yes I get it, so you are running from this madness than, why here?” Isshin didn't have too much trouble understanding Inuyasha's explanation, it made quite a bit of sense.

“My Youkai side can speak to me, something about how a hanyou is born allows the demon soul inside of us to take on a mental presence and influence us directly. Probably has something to do with compensating for us not being born with youkai instincts. Anyway, I was recently in need of a distraction which is when my demon half informed me there is a way around the madness, at least in my case because my human side has a lot of dormant spiritual pressure passed on from my mother. I'm new to the concept of spiritual pressure but my Youkai insists that is the key to strengthening my soul enough to allow him to come out without risking my sanity and everyone's safety.” Inuyasha paused to make sure Isshin was still following.

Isshin nodded his understanding, “Alright, I can see how that might be possible if you had active spiritual pressure, but how do you intend to wake it if it is dormant? Is that why you contacted my son, or did he really just stumble across you last night?” Isshin was deeply concerned about all of his children, but he knew Ichigo put himself in the most danger and as that was mostly his fault to begin with Isshin was truly terrified for Ichigo.

“I do need your son's help, but it wasn't planned that way. Ichigo is a special type of Soul Reaper, its his sword that holds the key, apparently if I survive a stab from his Zanpkuto at full power it will react to my Spiritual Pressure and awaken it. Your son isn't the only one of this type, but he is the first I have found so I was lucky to run into him as early as I did.” Inuyasha didn't know if Isshin knew Ichigo was a Vizard not a true Soul Reaper, so he just implied it without directly saying it. Hoping that Isshin would keep this to himself as he had his own secret to protect.

“I know what Ichigo is, you can relax, I saw you tense up as you were explaining. I can't tell you what I am but I can say I can sense Spiritual Pressure and his changed dramatically right before he disappeared on me. I know what the change meant, so don't worry if you are under any agreements to keep the truth to yourself you haven't broken it. Does he know what you need from him?” Isshin had to hide a small chuckle at the deer in the headlights look in Inuyasha's eyes when he tried to avoid talking about Ichigo too deeply. It was heartening to see him trying so hard to keep Ichigo's secrets.

“No, I want him to get a little more used to me, and know that even if he helps me have control over my demon, that I am not going to go on a killing spree the first moment I could. If I wanted that, I wouldn't bother trying to save my sanity. Plus, I want to see him fight a little bit more, for this to work I actually need to survive the attack, an overzealous hit and I wont get the chance to see if this will work.” Inuyasha explained his reasoning.

Isshin grinned, “Alright, then welcome to the clan Inuyasha, its crazy around here, but you'll never be bored that I can promise you. I am going to trust you. I don't see any reason to believe you are lying, do not make me take back those words, my son did not get all of his fighting skills from his trainer.” Isshin decided a little warning wouldn't hurt, a bad person wouldn't listen, but a good person would realize the threat was acknowledged but they were still being allowed to join them.

“Thank you, now do you happen to know where I may find some work? I meant what I said earlier, I don't want to depend on anyone else.” Inuyasha figured this man had surprised him enough already, it wouldn't hurt to ask as he may know a place where his heritage wouldn't have to be hidden so thoroughly.

“As a matter of fact, I may know a shopkeeper around here that hates the morning shift. I believe if I put in a good word for you he might have something you can do. Oh, and if that band of yours happens to slip it won't be a problem, in fact I bet he will know quicker than I did. You should be safe there.” Isshin offered, knowing Kisuke wouldn't mind the help and it would be an extra pair of strong hands on call if something happened to Ichigo or his friends.

“I appreciate it, where is this shop, and who do I talk to?” Inuyasha was glad he wouldn't be sitting around doing nothing while everyone else supported him. He figured Isshin's offer was a bit too good, and there had to be a catch somewhere, but for all this family had done for him he would take the chance on this it was the least he could do.
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