InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Becoming Sesshoumaru ❯ The Village ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A strange pride welled up in him as he gazed around at the simple pottery plates and bowls that held the offerings. Picking up a plate he found a pile of circular, white things that were soft and sticky. He sniffed them carefully and finding them edible, popped one into his mouth. Although they weren’t exactly culinary gems Sesshoumaru closed his eyes in pleasure as he savoured the sweet delights.

“Mmmmmmmm….” He had never tasted anything quite like it before. Clearly humans were good at SOME things.

The sound of feet scraping on wood brought his attention back from his reverie. Turning in the direction of the sound, he saw a small village boy staring open-mouthed at him. Sesshoumaru quietly chided himself. He had been so wrapped up in the moment that he hadn’t noticed the little boy sneaking up on him.

“Wait…” Sesshoumaru recognized the boy as the son of the now deceased village headman. However, the frightened child ran away as soon as the youkai noticed him. With inhuman speed, he caught hold of the child and gently asked, “What is your name?”

Still trembling, the boy opened and closed his mouth like a fish and then finally stuttered, “T- Takeo.”

Sesshoumaru paused for a moment not knowing what to say next. He had hardly any experiencing interacting with anyone demon or human in a social context.

“Sesshoumaru,” he finally said, pointing at himself.

Takeo opened his eyes wide and mouthed the name silently. In an attempt to break the awkward silence, youkai lad pushed the pottery plate with the fluffy white things in front of the boy, “Here, have some.”

The boy shook his head and said, “No, it is forbidden…”

Sesshoumaru blinked in confusion, “Why not?”

“It is sacred… an offering…” the white-haired youkai still seemed confused. “It’s for kami… er… you.”

Kami? Sesshoumaru’s eyebrow shot up when he heard the boy’s explanation. “Well, if its mine then… I can give it to anyone I like.”

Takeo gingerly picked up one and popped it into his mouth. Clearly, he liked them too.

“What are they?”

The boy seemed surprised, “They are sweet rice cakes, Sesshoumaru-sama. Do they not have rice cakes in paradise?”

“No.”

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Takeo was as intelligent as he was bold. His awe of Sesshoumaru soon turned into genuine friendship. An open and honest child, he soon introduced the entire village to their “kami”. Although the initial introductions were very very awkward for both the awestruck villagers and the youkai, somehow Takeo made it bearable for everyone. Despite his anxiety, all the villagers accepted his presence, albeit as some sort of demi-god walking the earth. They bowed to him when he passed by and showed him the kind of respect that reflected their view of who they thought he was.

Strangely enough, the behaviour of the villagers caused some rather alien thoughts and feelings to emerge in Sesshoumaru’s heart. There was a warm tingling feeling when he gazed on the village and a sensation which he recognized as pride. The village and its people were not just some Ningens he happened to save by mistake; they were now part of the land that he instinctively considered his personal territory. He felt a sense of ownership and responsibility and started using his powers to help them rebuild their homes and fields. A bond of trust began to grow between the villagers and the youkai and they all began to regard him as a kind of local guardian deity.

All, that is, except for a young lad by the name of Goro. He was an orphan who lived with his uncle and aunt. Sesshoumaru noticed that the boy didn’t really bow to him and carefully avoided showing him any sign of worship or homage. His first reaction was to confront Goro publicly, but stopped short of it because in truth, he was feeling a little unworthy of the reverence and admiration that the villagers heaped on him.

However, one quiet night, he quietly made his way to the house where Goro lived with his relatives. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he knew he needed to find out the cause of the lad’s hostility towards him. As he paced around outside the hut, wondering how he should approach the situation, he heard a loud conversation coming from inside. Moving quietly to a half-opened window, he hid and watched.

“How dare you say such a thing!” the boy’s uncle threatened, glaring that the defiant Goro with a stern expression.

“He’s a youkai!” the boy exclaimed. “I saw others like him when I traveled around with father and grandfather.”

“Sesshoumaru-sama is NOT a demon!” the uncle thundered. “He is a blessed kami that has come to us in our hour of need!”

“Listen to your uncle, Goro,” seeing that the argument was becoming more heated, the boy’s aunt tried to coax some sense into him. “If Sesshoumaru-sama was really a demon, would he bother to save us or help us rebuild our village?”

The boy fell silent hearing the words of his aunt, then added sullenly, “I don’t know why he’s doing this. But I DO know that he isn’t a god.”

Unfortunately, the argument continued, but Sesshoumaru did not stick around to listen to the conclusion. He had heard all that he needed to. He had feared something like this would happen since the day Takeo introduced him to the village. Sadly, he flew back to his mother’s cavern and wondered if it were better to just disappear before disappointment had any chance to take hold. As he entered the sparkling cavern lit by moving werelights, he saw Leiko his mother standing in the doorway. Her cold stare unnerved him, her eyes seemingly reading his unspoken thoughts.

“What is this that I sense from you? Fear? Regret?... Where have you been, my son?”

Sesshoumaru looked up. She hadn’t referred to him as her son since the night he killed the ogre. “Nowhere… mother.” He winced looking away from her. That was certainly a ‘great’ answer.

“Why should you concern yourself with the opinions of lower beings?”

His mother knew!

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Experience and training told him that he should just have admitted, but his annoyance at finding out that his mother had probably spied on him caused his defiance to emerge.

Before he could blink, a sharp, stinging slap landed on his cheek. “NEVER EVER lie to your mother!”

His mother’s razor-like claws had left a thin line of blood on his left cheek. He didn’t turn to face her as tears sprung to his eyes.

“Either leave them or destroy them utterly,” Leiko’s voice was cold and emotionless as she saw a tear fall from her son’s face. “No good can come from consorting with humans. Like smoke that rises from a fire, they exist for a brief moment and then vanish into darkness. Their emotions and loyalties change like the currents of the sea, for they know not their own mind. They are a weak race, a stain on the beauty of our world, why should you fear their opinion or seek after the regard of those without strength, or wisdom, or honour?”

Seeing that she was going to get no reaction from her son, Leiko turned to leave, “In the end, they will only cause you grief. If you must persist in associating with them, then learn to show no weakness or emotion. Let no one read the thoughts of your mind.”

“Mother –“ There were so many things he wanted her to know, but somehow knew that she would never accept or understand.

He never finished his sentence, instead turned and ran out into the night.


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Sesshoumaru never did return home after that night. He didn’t hate his mother for hitting him, but he knew that she would never understand or approve of his actions in the village. Leiko’s ruthlessness and persistence were things that he knew all too well. For the first time in his life, he truly feared what she might take away from him if he continued staying with her.

He found a giant hollow oak in the nearby forest which he made into his home. It was roomy inside and the entrance was well concealed. Using some of the magic his mother taught him he was able to make it so that his home inside of the oak was a lot larger than it looked on the outside. Although it still looked exactly like a large tree on the outside, no one would have guessed that it contained a hall, several bedrooms and a fully furnished bathroom that had a sunken wooden tub!

Although he continued to watch over the village, he limited his visits and made sure that most of them were discreet and formal. It was likely that Leiko his mother was still spying on his activities, and he wanted to ensure that he did nothing to endanger what little happiness he found here. He made sure that he never appeared to be getting close to any particular human or family, for he was sure that his mother would think of a way to cause them harm.

However, despite his best efforts, he was unable to keep the little Takeo at arms length. The boy instantly noticed the change in his behaviour.

“Why are you hiding from us?” the boy asked him one day when he visited his shrine during a quiet afternoon.

The youkai stared at the boy, then sighed, “There are many… places I have to look after.”

“Oh, that means you’ll one day leave us?” The little boy looked sadly at his bare feet.

“I’ll watch over you, Takeo… Always.”

The boy looked up at him and beamed.


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Author’s Notes:

I know some of you might be wondering where Sess got the magic to create an oak tree home. Well, there is some evidence from the book manga series itself that gives certain hints as to his ‘other’ abilities and knowledge… apart from the obviously martial ones. In book 2 of the series, he seems to have enough knowledge to set up an illusion to try and fool his brother. Some might say that the illusion could have been generated by the mother-demoness in the story or even Jaken, but if we think about it, even Jaken’s human-headed staff was given to him by Sess. The demoness herself was a rather weak creature that was killed in a single blow. Even Inuyasha was ready to believe that Sess could somehow retrieve his mother from the afterlife and give her a physical form. For that to happen, Inuyasha had to have witnessed something Sess did in the past for him to accept what I thought was a rather weak explanation regarding the presence of his mother in the land of the living.

If Sess’s skills and knowledge were completely martial, he probably won’t be able to quickly figure out the riddle of the “left black pearl”. This sort of thing does require a certain amount of mystical knowledge. Moreover, we have seen time and time again that demons like Naraku and the butterfly demon that spins cocoons, are able to create vast illusions that distort entire landscapes. It seems magic is one of the powers and skills that exist in a demon’s arsenal; the unfortunate thing is that we don’t see a lot of in either the books or anime series.