InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Blue Anshan ❯ Everything Changes 10 - Control ( Chapter 48 )

The Blue Anshan

By Alesyira

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I made a few OCs to fill in my gaps.

Summary: Control comes in different forms. Control of self, surroundings, others

Chapter Rating: T

-o-

Arc 5 - Everything Changes 10 - control

Shippo held his mother close as she recounted her story in fits and starts, trembling like a leaf in the breeze. He had lost her long before he would have ever thought to ask her about her childhood. He cherished the tidbits of old history, marveling at the rare points where the fanciful legends he'd assumed the humans had somehow pulled from their asses mysteriously aligned with reality. He was a little surprised to hear her recollections of youthful adventures with the sweet young man that had somehow become the nightmarish fire elemental that had been plaguing the Makai.

Hearing about how his father came into her life made his eyes misty, and he was quietly delighted to hear they'd had something more special than some stupid arranged mating. Thinking of his father being a clumsy teen on a mission from Inari was worth a good chuckle. He'd have to revisit these memories and get more details when things were less crazy.

As she neared the end of her tale and began adding in sweet stories about his early years and the little things she'd noticed, he began to understand the inconsistencies in his magic came from the remnants of a foreign magic held closely to her heart. He imagined that his first child would probably get at least a touch of the magic he'd snagged from Kagome centuries ago. He threaded his fingers through her hair and patted her on the shoulder as he glanced sideways at his favorite person.

Kagome sat cross-legged a short distance away as she quietly looked at her clasped fingers, obviously trying to give the two some space but still close enough that she could listen in on his mother's stories. She probably needed a good hug, too. Maybe from that dark and brooding one. His gaze slid to the left and he met the unimpressed stare of the youkai in question.

"The day we met again…?" his mother started, drawing their attention back to her as she trailed off, sounding unsure. "You and your father had left to… catch fish. And swim, I think. You were both at the river. I needed some herbs for dinner. I couldn't sense him. He was just there, suddenly, like some half-forgotten dream." Her voice choked off and she pressed a hand to her mouth.

Shippo vaguely heard Yusuke muttering about being "done with crazy-assed bitches for the day" and rolled his eyes. The phrase was too new for his mother to understand it for the insult it was, even if she'd heard him.

"He was… surprised. And angry. And then I thought he was leaving me again. I meant to ask him to stay…"

Shippo leaned back to look at her face as she spoke. It had been too long, and now there were too many unfamiliar nuances in her voice. She met his gaze with a sad look. "I don't really know what happened. Darkness. Dreams. Nightmares." She sighed. "So many nightmares."

She closed her eyes and leaned against his chest. "Sometimes the nightmare was that I'd be frozen, stuck watching these horrible things happen, unable to help. One day, he chased some rabbits, caught them, gave them so much of his magic that they turned into little statues. They were so frightened. When he set them next to me and talked about how we'd all be together, I think that's when I understood what had happened…"

Shippo held her close and pushed his face into her hair, squeezing his eyes shut against tears that threatened. "Papa… he…" He swallowed against a lump in his throat, trying to recollect what he hadn't really understood at the time. "He got weird. Just before we realized you were gone. It was like he knew something had happened, and we came looking right away. We couldn't find you. Your scent just vanished."

Hana's tears had soaked the front of his shirt by now, but he didn't care. It felt so good to have his mother back. "It's ok, Mama. It's ok. He was alright, in the end. He always believed Inari had some plan in mind, that he wasn't meant to keep you. I couldn't understand why we didn't look longer."

"He wouldn't have been able to find me even if he'd tried."

They held each other for a moment longer. "Mama, do you know why he keeps coming out to burn things? Like what he's done to this tree?"

She shook her head. "I never understood why… why he…" She burst into tears. "So many nightmares, and how many of them were real?"

Shippo cursed silently, looking around at the others. Kurama shrugged, then motioned to see if he wanted something to give her to make her calm down. He shook his head. The danger could come at any time, and they'd need to have their wits about them. Kagome sniffled and wiped away a tear. Bleeding heart syndrome on full display, there. He sighed. "It's alright, mama. I know it was hard for you."

Kurama knelt beside them. "The Reikai has excellent counseling services available to help you overcome any mental trauma that lingers, if you need it."

"And we know a lot of super safe places you can stay until you feel better!" Kuwabara flexed, thinking of the top-notch hospitality Yukina would no doubt shower upon this sad little female.

"We will do our best to help. It will take time, but I'm here for you. We won't let him take you back. You're free now." He bumped his forehead against hers and she gave him a watery smile. "It's been a long journey. You want a snack?"

She burst into tears again.

She did indeed want a snack, and Kagome was happy to oblige the sniffling female, who seemed quite a bit younger than she'd have thought a mother should be. Maybe it was the time spent in her weird cursed limbo. Didn't matter. She watched as Hana nibbled on a chocolate-chip bar, her expression changing with every new flavor she encountered.

Shippo chuckled and folded his arms behind his head, watching Kagome interact so easily with his mother. They'd make good friends. Never in a million years would he have imagined the two of them giggling over a chocolate bar. He stretched briefly, turning his gaze upwards, wondering how they would stop this guy once he came back. His knowledge was woefully limited. Knowing this guy could call up the hottest parts of the earth didn't do much to inform him as to how he might be stopped, even with the new tidbits from his mother that he'd inherited some aspect of fire.

A vague burning sensation began low in his abdomen, creeping slowly up toward his solar plexus. The sensation faded, then returned, in the center of his chest and drifting higher. He narrowed his eyes and stared down at the ground, tapping his fingertips against the material over his heart as he analyzed nuances of this unfamiliar discomfort. The burning crept up his neck and he coughed, trying to clear his throat before the feeling vanished again.

The burning returned and he leaned forward against the fire creeping up his throat. He shuddered and gagged as a boiling hot liquid erupted from his mouth and splashed in a hissing, sizzling puddle on the ground. "What the…?" He blinked down at the burning mess and spit, his hands on his knees.

The fire raced up the back of his neck to slide up and burrow into his skull, and he winced at the unexpected pressure.

"Shippo?" Kagome called out in concern, noticing his strange behavior. He pressed a hand to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut. It didn't hurt, but it was a jarring and unexpected sensation. Weird ripples of something echoed up his spine, like feeling the aftershocks of an earthquake, only in reverse, gaining momentum and strength with each passage.

"I feel like…" he paused, unsure of his next words. "I feel like something is coming?"

"Coming from where?" she asked, moving closer.

He furrowed his eyebrows in concentration and tilted his head, listening to the energies thrumming through him with such intensity. His eyes snapped open and his face paled in realization as he met her worried gaze. "Beneath us!"

"C'mere, quick quick!" he commanded, reaching out for her. "We're gonna work together to boost the barrier."

He turned to the others with a grim expression as she stepped close. "If the rest of you are gonna stay, be prepared for some heat. Remember what I said about the volcano?"

Yusuke looked over his shoulder as he pulled Kuwabara to his feet. "Fuck - how big do you mean? Do we need to evacuate anyone in the area?"

Shippo shrugged. "I don't know if there's time for any kind of evacuation. I don't know if a barrier will stop this. I don't know - I've never gone up against this guy before."

Hananoki reached out to her son and placed a cool hand on his shoulder. "You can do this. You must feel for the magic and guide it elsewhere. You can do this."

Shippo looked at her in confusion. "I don't understand, how can I possibly do that?"

She pulled her hand away from him and stepped closer to the massive tree, settling her palms against its rough surface. She was afraid of what the immediate future might hold, but she would do all she could to ensure things were set right, once more. She glanced over her shoulder at her son, a grown male that had lived nearly his entire life without her. So many regrets, so many things she'd missed, time stolen from them both. She smiled warmly and gave the only advice she could, "Close your eyes and feel."

It wasn't the first time he'd heard such a thing, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Kagome's hands found his and he closed his eyes against the power swelling between them. 'I can do this. I can do this. Probably. It's just another form of magic.' He sent his concentration into the ground beneath him and sank to his knees, pulling her closer to him within the circle of his arms, his fingers resting against the skin of her neck to maintain contact with the jewel. 'Gods, if we fail…'

"Stop worrying," Kagome murmured as she pressed her forehead against his chest. "We'll be okay."

The jewel found its balance between them faster this time, and their whipping hair and clothes settled down as he sighed and tried to relax. "Right. Barrier?"

She nodded, reaching out with her senses to feel for the magic of the barrier he'd put into place earlier around the clearing. She flexed her control to send a boost of energy outwards, strengthening the protection against harmful magic. "I'm afraid to ask what you meant by volcano," she muttered.

He talked while he searched with his senses, tracing the thrum of burning magic back to its source. "Every few dozen years, this mountain kami would wake up and beeline to some exotic plant, something rare or precious. I've had contacts stationed near his mountain retreat to watch for his emergence and they'd send word as soon as he was spotted. I made chase every time to try and stop him, but he'd be gone just before I could get there." His hand twitched and clenched in irritation on the back of the elemental's cloak still draped over her shoulders. A waft of cinnamon and woodsmoke drifted upwards and he relaxed. If that little youkai ended up spending more time around Kagome, he could really get into that scent.

His magic wound closer to something growing beneath the earth, and he made haste to finish his story. "One of those times, I guess the locals fought back enough to irritate him, because a fissure opened beneath the area and started spewing molten rock. It went on for days, constantly erupting. There's a bit of a small volcano there, still. The wound in the earth never healed."

"Why were you chasing him to begin with?"

"Stories that placed him in my mother's past. I was initially looking for answers, but eventually I was just trying to stop him from destroying stuff. Sometimes there's nothing better to do than play hero."

Kagome chuckled lightly, rubbing her face against his shirt. "You're hopeless."

He sighed and shrugged. "This has been the only instance I've arrived in time to do any good against him, and it's only because I knew where he'd be instead of having to backtrack all the way to his mountain before following the trail."

She gasped and looked up into his face. "You knew he'd be here?"

Shippo laughed, a bit ruefully. "I knew it was your time, Kagome, and if anyone can draw in the worst type of trouble, it would be you."

"But you didn't know I'd be in the Makai!"

"Actually…" he trailed off, hesitant. "I kind of did. But that's a story for some other time. He hasn't left the Makai since The Split, and I knew I'd be seeing you again at this Goshinboku. I know this tree here as well as I do its counterpart in the Ningenkai." He smiled briefly before he noticed the bubbling swirl rising quickly, pushing through the ground beneath them. It slid through the fingers of his control like boiling glue, oozing up through the earth.

Seeking traces of the burning magic slipped into the clearing, bypassing the protections of the barrier. They drifted with singular purpose and coalesced around… Shippo furrowed his brow and tilted his head, following the traces with his mind, then opened his eyes to see what the heck was going on in that direction.

Hiei stood a short distance away, opening and closing his fist with a confused expression on his face. Shippo watched for a moment as the foreign magic wound around him, dread filling him. 'What the hell?'

He caught Kurama's eye and nodded sharply toward the dark youkai, hoping he got the hint that something was wrong.

He nudged her in the back with his knuckle. "Let's push the barrier out further. Time grows short."

He buried his face in her hair as she nodded in agreement, and he could sense her nervousness. "Don't worry about us - worry about all the trees outside your barrier that are probably going to melt."

She pulled away to glare at him. "That isn't being very helpful."

"Hiei?" Kurama stepped closer, watching the shorter youkai carefully.

"Something's wrong," Hiei muttered.

*This asshole has control over… something. I don't know what, exactly. I think he pushed me off course earlier tonight, but I think it only affects me.*

~He can control you, like you're going to unexpectedly try to take off our heads?~

*Not like that.* Hiei briefly met Kurama's eyes. *I should go before something happens.*

The numbness had already begun to trickle into his limbs, and he had no wish to be a puppet of any sort. He could imagine the magic flinging him around like some scowling projectile, knocking his teammates over like spare pins at a bowling alley.

'Don't go too far. I'll let you know when it's over.'

Hiei nodded and quickly leapt away without a word to the rest of them. He wanted to see this through to the end, but he refused to stand around and become a liability to the team.

"Hey, where's shorty going?" Yusuke complained, watching as the black blur vanished through the shimmering barrier.

"It might not be safe for him to remain," Kurama murmured, wondering how much control their enemy had over fire. The normal noises of the forest had trailed off into an eerie silence.

"And it's safe for us to be here?" came his expected rejoinder as he stomped in irritation. "A fuckin' volcano might be brewing below our feet and he's free to just run away like some pussy?"

"Not like that," Kurama shot him an irritated glare. "We'll discuss this—"

The ground rumbled ominously beneath them, and Shippo placed both of his palms against the earth with a grimace. "Shut up," he growled at them in irritation, forcing his attention downwards. Kagome pressed her fingers against the exposed skin of his neck, closing her eyes as she focused her magic to remain stable and calm in her growing concern.

The ground shuddered and the hiss of escaping steam and gas broke through the quiet that had swallowed the clearing. A cacophony of birds startled into sudden flight erupted around the clearing and Kagome wasn't the only one that flinched against the unexpected noise. "Fuck," Yusuke muttered. "This is bullshit. Should I call for a portal outta here?"

"Wait," Kurama said, watching the ground intently. He could sense the magic diverting around the strengthened barrier.

Some distance away, just outside the barrier, the ground broke apart. The sharp cracking sounds of earth splitting rocked through the forest around the clearing. Animals broke from their hiding spots and dashed away from the danger as trees and bushes burst into flame in the escaping plume of superheated air. The dirt beneath their feet grew warmer, but the clearing remained mostly stable and untouched as the earth around them rippled and shuddered from the onslaught of seismic force.

Molten rock sprayed suddenly from multiple directions, the pressure forcing it upwards before it splashed harmlessly against the shimmering barrier. The air within their protective bubble grew warm, but they remained safe as they watched with morbid fascination the lava bubbling angrily from wounds in the earth. It arced toward and around the clearing as though intending to consume its contents and destroy anyone still in its vicinity.

Shippo tracked the boiling mass of anger, a focal point of the fire magic, as it slid through the earth beneath them along the circumference of their barrier, seeking to breach and mindlessly destroy. It broke through the earth as his eyes followed its progress, and he was vaguely surprised at what he saw: the terrible mountain kami's appearance was nothing more than a partially rock-plated male with burning orange rage-filled eyes, a shock of fiery red hair, and an eerily familiar set of facial markings.

Their enemy only had eyes for one person in the clearing.

His mother.

The rage vanished from his face in a moment of surprise that was quickly replaced by a healthy dose of suspicion.

"Ryuu…" he heard his mother whisper.

The mountain kami, Youganryuu, growled in rage, "No! No, you're dead. I felt your spirit break away from your body. I felt your death." Clawed fingertips found and ripped at his hair as he screwed his face up in a soundless scream. Panting, he glared down at her. "Gods, how many times must I be played for a fool?"

Shippo sensed the magic swell around them as more lava burst from deep within the earth, guided high above to encompass the clearing before slamming the immense weight of molten rock against the immutable barrier they'd put in place. He grimaced. They might be safe from being crushed and melted by lava, but the temperature of the air within their protection was growing warmer by the second. He couldn't force the lava away from them, but maybe he could draw the heat…

He turned his focus toward the surrounding lava-fueled firestorm and took

took the burn

the burn

Kagome hissed in discomfort as her friend grew hot to the touch. "Shippo!" she said, worry leaking into her voice as she held on through the pain in her fingertips.

"Let go, get them to break open vents around us to let the heat escape," he ground out, hoping the decision to try and handle this effort without the support of the jewel wouldn't end in their demise. He had faith in the barrier but not that much faith in his strength against this enemy.

His heart faltered when she released him and the power lulled. He felt like he could barely hang on to his sanity in this madness of fire and foreign rage. He heard her shouting at the others, felt the release of pressure around them, knew that they would live to see another day as the heat began to dissipate. His focus was sunk into his task of keeping them safe from the burn.

Their enemy would have to give up these efforts eventually once he realized they couldn't be crushed by brute force like this. He hoped he'd be ready for whatever change in tactic came their way.

He was not.

-o-

Author's Note: (I just realized I forgot to post the rest of this story on this site.  Sorry about the incoming spam.  Please read my fics on AO3 or FFN instead, this story is complete AND I've already started the third fic in the trilogy.)