InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A New Sibling ❯ Ayumu ( Chapter 1 )

(A/N: I know that this is long but hey…what can I say, except that I was bored and couldn't stop! I'm already almost done with the second one-shot in the arc. This was originally planned to just be something for me and my friends! Oh, well!)

<…>=thinking

"…"=speaking

One dark night, InuYasha was traveling through a forest when all of the sudden there came a blinding light. When he got closer the light faded and there was a giant bowl of Instant Ramen!!! He could hardly believe his eyes. Just before he took a big bite of the steaming Ramen, he heard Kagome calling his name and he woke up.

Groggily, he sat up on the tree limb he had been sitting on only to find Kagome yelling at him from the ground. He jumped down before she had a chance to MAKE him come down.

When he was on ground level again she yelled, "You're such a lazy bum, InuYasha!! It's nearly noon and you just woke up!! I suppose you don't want us to find the Jewel Shards!!!"

Before he could come back with an argument, Miroku walked over to stop the fight before it got any worse. "Hey, Kagome is right. We really need to get to work on finding the Shikon Jewel. We haven't found a shard in over a week."

"Why does everyone always have to side with her!?"

Quietly, so InuYasha couldn't hear with his dog ears, Shippo replied, "Because she's always right."

They set off after InuYasha had his breakfast, three entire bowls off Instant Ramen. Before long, Kagome stated that she sensed Shikon Jewel Shards coming at them…fast.

"It must be Koga again," InuYasha said, "Doesn't he ever give up!"

Upon saying this InuYasha draws Tetsusaiga from its sheath and gets ready to battle.

"I don't know why you even bother InuYasha. I mean, doesn't he just run away when ever you start to get the upper hand?"

Of course InuYasha knew Sango was right. So he replied, "I figure that if my claws can scare him off that quick…how fast would he run if I used Tetsusaiga?!"

When InuYasha turned back around he was knocked to the ground. When he tried to stand back up, he found that he was much heavier and his arms were stuck tight to his sides. Suddenly, remembering that everyone else was there, he looked up to ask for some help when he realized that they were all trying to hold back … laughs!!!

"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING ABOUT!?!? I CAN'T MOVE AND NO ONE IS TRYING TO HELP ME!!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU GUYS!?!"

Still trying desperately not to burst out laughing, Kagome replied, "You *giggle* really need *giggle* to *snort* look down *laugh laugh* Inu *snort/laugh* Yasha!!!"

At the end of her sentence she just couldn't hold her laughs back anymore. He hesitated but after a second he did as she said and looked down. When he did he saw a child's face, looking about 15 or 16 years old with yellow eyes, a fangy smile, pointed ears, stripes down her cheeks, crescent moon on her forehead, and white- silver hair. At that sight he paused and then staggered up to his feet, after wriggling free of this newcomer's grip.

The little girl was still sitting on the ground only now, looking up at InuYasha's surprised face, started to pout. When Kagome noticed this she bent down to comfort her and asked her, "Just why did you tackle InuYasha?"

"I didn't tackle him…I was just happy to see him!"

"What do you mean? I don't even know you!"

"But I have heard ALL about YOU!!!" She said back to him with a smile.

After she said that InuYasha thought about whom she might be, she looked so young! Could Sesshoumaru have a daughter!? Was this her?! NO!!! That's impossible!!!

"You think too much…..InuYasha."

He turned to face the girl and asked, "Who ARE you?"

With out delay, she stood up, face plain showing no emotion. Startled by the sudden movements, everyone jerked away.

In a flat emotionless voice she answered InuYasha's question. "My name is Ayumu. I just so happen to be your half sister."

"What do you mean my half sister?! You look more like Sesshoumaru than me!"

"You're a bright one, aren't you?" She asked with great emphasis on her heavy sarcasm. "If I'm YOUR half sister, then I'm SESSHOUMARU'S…"

"…sister..." He said quietly to finish her sentence. This statement was followed by complete stillness.

To break the silence Shippo decided to ask her a question himself. "Just how old are you anyway? I mean…you look Kagome's age! But you can never tell with demons."

"Shippo!! That's a rude thing to ask!" At Kagome's words, he looked at her and didn't say anything else.

"It's ok." When Ayumu spoke it startled them, they had forgotten she was there for a moment. "If he wants to know…he may know." She turned to Shippo and said, "I happen to be 46 years old, no matter how young I look. He is right, you know. Demons are tricky to guess the age of."

"Wow! You're an old lady for a little sister!!!"

She turned to InuYasha. "You're one to talk, just look at how old you are!"

He started blushing and Miroku, one of the only two that had been silent the whole encounter, finally realized. "Kagome, you said that you sensed a Sacred Shard of the Shikon Jewel coming at us!"

"Oh yeah! Well…..There it is!" she said pointing at Ayumu's arm.

"Oh! You mean," she pulled a shard out of her wrist, "this? You can have it! I don't need it."

"You're just gonna give it to us?!"

"Sure. Why not? I mean…I thought brothers and sisters were supposed to be nice to each other!"

After she told them about her search for InuYasha and her meeting with Sesshoumaru, InuYasha told her why she hasn't been able to find him.

"I was pinned to a tree by a magic arrow for the last 50 years." He said quickly.

"Well…um…I guess…that…that…….would ex... plain…i...t……….HOW CAN YOU TALK ABOUT IT SO CALMLY???"

"Practice." He answered flatly.

She stared at him, taking in his sarcasm. She did not know how to say it, but she wanted to know why he was pinned to this tree and WHO would have the nerve to attack one of the great dog demon's children!!! But she suddenly realized that, knowing Sesshoumaru's temper--and her own that showed they were definitely related--he must have angered someone. Ayumu suddenly drew her senses back to herself and realized that everyone was staring at her as if she were insane.

"Just thinking it over," she told them coolly.

"Ayumu, if you're a child of the great dog demon than you must have some sort of power also."

She was startled by Miroku's request to know about her. In the past, she had often received questions about why she wore a cloak about her or a hood on her head. She would simply ignore them or answer that she was prone to secrecy. They asked this because most of the time she did where a hooded cloak, including right now.

Knowing again that everyone was watching her think she said, "I have the basic powers of both InuYasha and Sesshoumaru, you know, like strength and speed. Only I'm sure that I am more agile than at least InuYasha!"

"Feh." Was all that InuYasha said in reply.

"I don't get it," said Shippo, clearly confused, "if InuYasha and Sesshoumaru both have different powers of their own, why don't you?"

"Well… I do." She said with a sigh. "I mostly concoct mischief when I use my powers of great strength because they are too powerful for me to control."

She `flumped' back to the ground and looked at him intently, thinking of how to tell him or… "I have an idea. Why don't I just show you my lesser powers?"

Shippo looked at her suspiciously as if expecting something like trickery from this newcomer.

With great speed and silence she quickly stood up once more and, yet again, startled everyone with her sudden movements. "I think I know what one of her powers is," whispered Miroku, almost silently to Sango. "She can move with such speed and silence, like when she tackled InuYasha to the ground that she can sneak up on anyone she pleases."

"I heard that," she called to them in a plain voice.

"Well I guess that she can hear even better than InuYasha also."

She smirked at Sango's comment and turned back to Shippo. "Ok, what I need you to do is run as fast as you can. I'll even give you a five minute head start. Ready…GO!!!"

As she started counting, Shippo ran as if being chased by a pack of blood-thirsty wolves.

Ayumu finished counting…the hunt was on. She quickly changed from a human form to a dog which startled everyone once more. Though not as big as Sesshoumaru, she still had an impact of fear that could drive some of the bravest animals in the forest to insanity or paranoia because she was at least a foot taller than everyone there measured to her shoulder instead of her head.

She quickly swished her fluffy tail at InuYasha and began to search through the forest. Ayumu did not move though. She simply stared in the direction that Shippo had first gone and then closed her eyes.

"I sense a great deal of demon energy in her, InuYasha." He turned to face Miroku and was going to reply but he knew she was right he could even feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end because of all the power in the air!

Again, before they noticed what was going on, she had stood and began to run…fast. She could not turn with much accuracy when going at the speed she was so she bounded off of the trees to help turn sharp corners to follow the waving trail that Shippo had taken through the forest.

Before even five minutes had past she appeared out of the tree, Shippo's clothes held gently in her powerful jaws, Shippo dangling inside of them, shaking in fear like Ayumu was about to eat him.

After she put him down, he ran directly to Kagome, and changed back to her humanish form, Miroku asked how she had caught Shippo so fast.

"When I laid down I was searching the forest floor for hints of fox demon feet. When I found him, I stayed locked on to his power, or trail, and just followed the quickest way I could. It was a little harder when I caught up with him because he panicked thinking I was some kind of wolf or something, making him feel that he had to run faster. Oh well," she changed to her dog form and started jumping around them like a pup, asking, "What was the time? How long did it take? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

After getting over the fact that there was a talking dog jumping around them Kagome answered, "Around three minutes, why?"

With greater speed than when she moved, she jumped one final time and landed as her humanish form. She jumped once more with a smug look on her face and said, "New record." When everyone looked confused she explained, "I keep a record of how long it takes me to catch animals like foxes, rabbits, and other small creatures."

"Well, after that quick catch everyone must be hungry!"

Hearing Kagome's words InuYasha ran to her pack to break out the Instant Ramen.

Through a mouthful of Ramen he asked, "You want some?"

Everyone went over to grab some except Ayumu.

"I don't eat human food." With that she slowly faded into the trees, "I will return soon."

This time, after swallowing, InuYasha asked, "Where are you going?"

"To clean up in the small fall just a ways that way," she pointed the direction in which she had already been traveling, "I passed it while trying to catch Shippo and I also got all muddy as you can plainly see."

She completely disappeared into forest in an eerie, shadow-like way. When she was long gone everyone continued to stare in her direction. After about 2 or 3 minutes they came back to their senses and continued to eat VERY quietly.

Finally the silence was broken by a guitar-like instrument in a very distant place amongst the trees. After finishing the rest of his half-full bowl of ramen in one bite, InuYasha stood to go see who was playing the sorrowful music.

"I will go with you just in case, InuYasha."

"Fine just don't slow me down, Miroku."

They ran through the forest, eyes and ears alert to every little thing around them. InuYasha led the way, with Miroku close behind, following his keen hearing.

As they ran, InuYasha started to wonder about what could be making this music, full of sorrow and remorse. Another thought suddenly crossed his mind. What if it was some kind of demon…what if it got Ayumu? Before he knew what was happening, which was occurring a lot lately, he noticed that they had past whatever the noise was.

He turned back to Miroku who had obviously noticed also and ran the OTHER direction. When they almost passed it once more InuYasha spotted something white in the trees…in fact, it sounded like the music was coming from that white mark. He signaled for Miroku to stay there while he jumped onto the branch opposite the white…thing.

When he edged his head carefully around the tree to see what it was, the music stopped abruptly and he saw two golden eyes staring at him, emotionless and cold set…as if they were aching from…something. He drew his eyes away from those icy, almost frightening eyes to see what the rest of this being was. He fell out of the tree and landed on something semi-soft when he suddenly realized who it was.

After getting over the pain that still came when he hit the soft thing, he realized that whatever he landed on was wriggling to free itself from under him. When he looked down he saw that he was set firmly in the middle of Miroku's back.

InuYasha quickly stood up and helped Miroku to do the same. When they were both standing InuYasha looked back up to the person in the trees and found that she was staring back at him…eyes colder than ever.

He hesitated to do anything and before he stopped wavering, Ayumu jumped from her tree to see if Miroku was okay. InuYasha followed her with his eyes wearily. She pulled a bandage out of the belt she wore around the dark armor that she wore.

This was the first time that he had actually gotten a real good look at what she was wearing, seeing as how she was wearing her cloak when they first `met'. To his surprise she was dressed almost exactly like Sesshoumaru, except she didn't wear a cloak of white fur. The armor that wrapped around her upper body was not bloated looking like Sesshoumaru's, her armor fitted almost tightly but still comfortably and followed the modest curves of her body. He DID notice how much she looked like Sesshoumaru. The only difference in their faces, other than the obvious gender difference, was that her crescent moon was purplish instead of blue. Not only that but her hair reached past her heels, had she not braided it and wrapped that braid around her neck several times.

While he was still taking in the sight of his half-sister, Ayumu came over to stand almost nose to nose with him. He hadn't noticed how TALL she was either!!!

For a moment Ayumu's cold, merciless eyes held InuYasha's, then she broke the silence by asking, "Did you sustain injuries such as Miroku's?"

He stared at her for a moment, not hearing a word she said. Then finally answered, "No… I think we should go back to the camp now."

InuYasha turned started walking away absentmindedly. Suddenly he heard Ayumu call, "InuYasha!"

He turned abruptly to see her jog up to him, eyes no longer cold and unforgiving. Her eyes were suddenly full of cheer like a child on their birthday.

She caught up to him and asked, "Would you like to race back to camp?" "No, not really."

She looked suddenly very smug and started to walk off saying, "That's ok. I thought you would be scared. I'm sure you're well aware that no half-demon could ever beat a full-demon in a race for speed." Ayumu looked back at InuYasha with much satisfaction showing on her face from seeing that with every word she spoke, he had become even more irritated. He ran up and said, "You just got yourself into a race you have no chance of winning." She simply smiled and replied, "We'll see about that."

They stopped at a tree and Ayumu drew a line in the dirt with the toe of her shoe. "We'll start here and race to the fire in the middle of camp, agreed?" "Fine with me. Just be sure to not choke on the dust that I leave behind!" "Dually noted," she said.

They started and before InuYasha could even take two steps, Ayumu was ahead by about ten yards. She turned to run backwards and called, "I thought that I was supposed to be the one eating dust, InuYasha!" With that she darted out of sight. When InuYasha finally got back to camp he saw that Ayumu was already there. She looked very disgruntled and he also saw that Kagome, Shippo and Sango were all laughing at her. He walked over and saw where the fire had been, except now it was in about ten different places and all the wood had burned out from being covered by dirt. In the middle of the small trails of burned wood he saw skid marks in the dirt leading to the completely soot-covered Ayumu. Kagome walked over and explained that Ayumu had been going so fast towards the fire that when she tried to stop it was too late and she skidded into the burning wood and put it out.

Ayumu once again `flumped' to the ground with a soft thud and stared into space. Sango walked over to Miroku, who had just arrived, and asked, "Did you two find where the music was coming from?"

"Well…" he didn't know what to say, they found Ayumu where the music sounded like it was coming from, but they never asked if it was her. Besides she wasn't carrying an instrument with her and they didn't see one anywhere around the tree she was in. "Not really. It might have been Ayumu, but I'm not sure. She doesn't have an instrument with her." They looked at Ayumu, her eyes again sorrowful, merciless, cold, unforgiving. She continued to look so and didn't move the rest of the day, even when they went to sleep she hadn't moved. They woke next morning to find her in the same position, eyes the same, staring into space, still cold as ever. Miroku stared at her, when she saw him out of the corner of her eye she slowly tilted her head to look him in the eyes. He stared on, into the depths of those cold, unforgiving, yellow eyes. It was almost as if he were frozen in fear. He tried to move, finding he was unable to even look away he tried to call for help. Miroku couldn't even open his mouth. He was the only one awake; there was no one to see what was happening. She bore into his mind with those golden, yellow eyes, unblinking, not moving. He was unable to see anything around him except for her eyes. Miroku found that his eyes stung from dryness, his head hurt from staring, but he was unable to look away from the sorrow in Ayumu's eyes. Suddenly, as if from no where, InuYasha appeared between them, breaking her hold on him. If InuYasha had not stepped in front of her, he would not have broken that horrible power that she had over him.

After InuYasha passed, Miroku looked down, fearful that if he looked up Ayumu would again have a hold over him. Curiosity got the better of him and he looked up only to see that it looked as if she had not moved. Ayumu was back in her original pose, staring into space, unmoving. He inched forward slowly but his hand slipped on the grass, wet from the morning dew. He fell on his chest and hid his eyes from Ayumu, afraid his fall may have alerted her to his movements. He slowly looked up once more to find that she had not moved one bit. Relieved, he decided that it had only been a dream and went to retrieve some breakfast from Kagome, who had awoken. Along with Kagome, everyone else had also woken up.

Miroku sat isolated from everyone, thinking about that `dream' he had had just moments ago. As he thought about it, a twinge of doubt formed in the edges of his mind. A little voice told him that he should get far away from that demon, that she was just trouble, that it was no dream and that if InuYasha had not walked between them…

He cut off the little voice before it could finish what it had to say. He regretted it, but he actually thought to agree with the now miniscule voice in his head.

Miroku finished breakfast and went to a tree nearby to meditate. He suddenly felt a thud next to him and looked to his right to find Ayumu sitting next to him. She had taken his staff off of the ground and was examining it with a look of great interest. He tried to snatch it back from her strong grip but only succeeded in getting his staff turned to ash. She heated it with her demonic powers so much, so fast that Miroku's metal staff turned to ash. "Sorry," she said with an embarrassed, fangy smile. "You startled me." "That's all right," he answered trying to avoid eye contact after what happened already. "I can always get another one…somewhere."

"Well, I just wanted to apologize for this morning," she said in a very small voice, she was not used to apologizing because she was a `ruthless' dog-demon.

Miroku thought he had imagined this so he asked, "Apologize for what, I dare ask."

"For almost killing you with my gaze. You see, well, the best way to put it is…" She started to think and finally thought how to phrase it. "The reason I wasn't moving all night and yesterday was because I was meditating to…"

"You meditate with your eyes open? I didn't know anyone could do that!"

"Well, I can. And it's not all that grand. After I snap out of the trans my eyes are all itchy and dry…it's not fun!"

"Why would it have killed me anyway?"

"Well, the way I see it is that it is just like when I gather energy to my hands. I figure that meditating with my eyes open sends large amounts of my demonic powers to my eyes. Not only that but when I meditate I go temporarily blind…sorta. All I can see in my state of mind after meditation are eyes. So I just look at the eyes and next thing I know someone walks in front of me and I lose contact with the person I was looking at. It just so happens that even though I don't have the best of luck, I'm full of luck when it comes to almost killing people like I almost killed you. I almost killed my best friend once. He thought it would be funny if he snuck up on me while I was meditating but luckily when my eyes met his it started to rain." She sighed.

"So, you can't use that power in the rain?"

"No, that's why I try to meditate in the rain or if that's out of the question then I try to meditate away from people or at night. All three if I'm lucky!" She smiled a big, fangy smile at him and got up. Ayumu held out her hand to help him up, Miroku still would not look her in the eyes.

Ayumu ducked down and looked him in the eyes instead and said, "You know," sigh, "I'm out of the trans. It's ok to look into my eyes." Despite the fact that she said this very softly, she added her next words in a very loud voice so she was sure that everyone could hear. "Who wouldn't want to look into my beautiful eyes?"

She ducked down again and spoke softly. "Beautiful, but deadly. You know," she said looking as if deep in thought, "I guess I should practice controlling it! Any volunteers?" She asked looking at Miroku.

"No, thank you." He said and grabbed her still outstretched hand. "I've already had enough for one life time."

Miroku smiled at her and walked off towards where the fire used to be before Ayumu smashed into it. She followed him looking at the ground as she walked, just in case.

A/N: Banzai!!! R&R!!!

Happy Reading!

Taiyoukai Ayumu of the Western Lands