InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bound to Tomorrow ❯ Thirty Years of Waiting ( Chapter 16 )

Author's Note: I'm pretty happy about this chapter here. I got to geek out on history a little bit so it was a lot of fun for me. Hope you guys enjoy it. Don't forget to review!

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Thirty years of waiting… 1569-1599.

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The only thing left to do was wait. If the talisman worked the gang agreed that Miroku's children would be allowed to choose to wear their own talisman when they were of the appropriate age to accept them. After ten years it became apparent that Sango and Miroku, each only a few years shy of hitting their forties, were not aging a bit. Neither one had acquired so much as a gray hair while their children continued to grow up. In the meantime Kohaku had been given his own talisman several years before as soon as Shippo had been able to grow back his fang teeth.

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In so many years Shippo's efforts in working with the talisman and his increasingly rare educational outings with the elusive forest kitsune had manifested in only the slightest increase in his physical age. The kitsune had grown enough inches to be the same height as his beloved Kagome. He had lost the rest of his baby fat and had grown into a good deal of muscle to the point where his build bore an uncanny resemblance to Inu Yasha's. The young man hadn't quite gotten there yet, though; he still appeared to be made of more bone than muscle—if only just slightly.

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Shippo's abilities had grown as well. He could maintain a human appearance without the aid of a leaf for an entire day. Foxfire magic could do real damage if he concentrated hard enough but only worked against ghosts in the exorcism trips he often took with Miroku. Even then, utilizing offensive magic was quite draining on him so he only used it in emergencies and could not sustain any attack for more than a few seconds. His abilities also extended into a new realm: crafting. Ever since he had helped make the Sage's Blessing, Shippo had grown interested in making new magic toys.

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He had a tendency towards traps—mostly to annoy the hell out of Inu Yasha. Initially, the traps started as bigger and more elaborate sink holes. It only took the hanyou a year to catch on, however, and thus began taking to the trees for his daily patrols of Edo. That, of course, encouraged the kitsune to plant traps in the trees next. Sometimes it was a hidden cut on a branch that fell away the moment Inu Yasha set foot on it; other times he hid spinning tops in knotholes that exploded to life the moment someone got close, usually startling said person from his perch.

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However, Shippo had been forced to quit making that type of trap for a time when a village boy was injured when he had climbed a tree to take a look at a bird's nest and it had turned out instead to be a nest of tops. The child had been so surprised he had fallen from the branch he had been holding onto and had broken an arm. The kitsune had been heartbroken over the accident for several months until Kagome suggested that he try to create traps that only reacted to demons.

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The novel idea became Shippo's obsession for the next twenty years. After ten years of trial and error he had created magic toys that would respond to long-distance commands from anywhere in the village but could only be activated by him. Still, he could not create a toy that would remain dormant near humans. It mattered not if the being setting it off was a demon or a human. Miroku had come to the rescue in the end by suggesting the addition of one of his protection sutras to the toys. Sutras were created with the protection of humans in mind, so it seemed possible that the effect might work on his tops.

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The first test was conducted with the aid of Kohaku in an open field near the village. He played the role of the human test subject while Inu Yasha reluctantly stepped in for his demonic role. Kohaku approached the top cautiously. When nothing happened, he stepped in closer; and then closer still. Finally, he gathered the courage to pick it up. Everyone held their breath. If the trap couldn't handle a little jostling by a human, particularly a careless child, then they would have to try again. Again, the top remained as it was. After a while the hunter tossed the object from one hand to the other a few times, shrugged, and set it back down.

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At the time, Shippo had worried that perhaps his top was not functional at all… until Inu Yasha stormed over to claim just such a thing—at which point it promptly ballooned to ridiculous proportions and slammed down onto his skull with a frightening `whirr!' Shippo and Miroku had celebrated that night while Kagome had been left to deal with her abused and fuming husband.

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From that time on Miroku and Shippo worked together to perfect his traps. They quickly discovered that the paper sutras did not hold out against rain, thus Shippo eventually began carving the sacred texts into his wooden creations and then have Miroku bless them. Once they were sure the traps would not harm any humans Kohaku and Sango set about placing the devices in strategic locations all around Edo.

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The traps had a positive effect on Edo. Youkai attacks on villagers dropped significantly. The feral demons were quickly spooked away by the simple devices while demons of higher intelligence were quickly identified and dealt with using the same technique; an intelligent demon's approach was quickly recognized by the amount of sequential traps set off. It was quite handy, and Edo flourished for it.

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While Shippo's experiments helped shaped Edo's development, history would help shape the rest of the gang's development as well. In the summer of 1582 Akechi Mitsuhide, one of Oda Nobunaga's generals, attacked and killed him and his son. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal daimyo to Nobunaga, ascertained what had happened before any of Nobunaga's rivals had found out about his death. In that crucial moment, he hunted down and killed Mitsuhide before any rivals could come to his aid. With Mitsuhide dead, the rivals had no one to quickly unify under and were quickly wiped out by Hideyoshi. By 1588 Hideyoshi had completely annihilated the competition and was in full control.

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At that time, the change of power within the government did little, good or otherwise, for Edo's community, though Kagome knew it historically as the informal end to the Sengoku Period. The two years that followed would be slightly less simple. In 1590 Hideyoshi began a sword hunt. The “hunt” disallowed the ownership of weapons by anyone other than the samurai class and this in turn altered the lives of Inu Yasha's gang.

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The hunt affected Sango and Miroku's family the most. Sango's clan might have been affiliated with the samurai class at one point but was lost when everybody was killed. Hence, Hiraikotsu had to be hidden away in the same way Miroku had been forced to hide his Buddhist robes years before. The huntress had to rely on weapons she could hide in her gauntlets; namely shuriken and throwing knives. Kohaku had Totosai make a smaller version of his sickles that looked like the ones farmers would carry about to skirt Hideyoshi's orders.

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Before the sword hunt had occurred Akahanna and Haruto had been formally trained in the hunting arts by Sango and Kohaku. Additionally, Miroku had initially trained Haruto in the spells and skills of Buddhist trade. Unfortunately, Haruto turned out to be far more interested in learning the hunt with his mother and uncle than he had in succeeding his father. Sango had been quite upset when her son had not wanted to follow in the ways of his father, as her traditionalist culture encouraged. Miroku, on the other hand, had brushed off his wife's concern. The houshi was almost joyous knowing that his son did not have to be shackled to the burden of monkhood as he had been because of the air rip in his palm. For once, the male heir of his family would not be bound to his bloody legacy. From then on Haruto became an expert hunter and preferred the use of a spear in fights until the age of the sword hunt. At that point Miroku and Shippo helped him fashion a detachable top to the spearhead so that it would look exactly like the shakujou his father carried; who in their right minds would take a monk's staff, after all? During that time Haruto also accepted a newly forged Sage's Blessing talisman of his own.

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While Haruto was busy learning from his mother and Kohaku, his sister Akahanna became avidly interested in learning about the Buddhist ways from their father. As a child, she had fallen in love with the intricate writing of her father's sutras. It had not been long before she began learning from him, though in the end she did not choose to carry a shakujou. As a demon hunter she preferred stealth; and a noisy staff offered little of that. Her weapons of choice eventually became ofuda and throwing knives; objects easily hidden during the sword hunt days.

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Like her father, she was full of mischief and she quickly took to Shippo's company. The kitsune entertained her with foxfire magic when she was a child and as she grew up she lent a hand in helping him construct demonic traps. His leftover toys became her playthings and it wasn't long before she began using them in her hunts. Eventually she graduated to smoke bombs and other such tools that earned her the nickname of “Little Ninja” from friends and family. She, too, accepted a talisman at the same time as Haruto.

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Meanwhile, Kagome and Inu Yasha faced a different series of challenges. Oddly, the sword hunt did not force Inu Yasha to give up or hide his weapon. He could, in fact carry it freely. Somehow, a highly-ranked member of the group tasked with sword removal had been notified that he came from nobility; hence he was allowed to carry. Kagome had a sneaking suspicion Sesshoumaru had something to do with it, even though they had not seen hide nor hair of him or any of his people since Rin had left years before.

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They had no more trouble from Hideyoshi's people until a year later during the first-ever conducted census. Rumors of an immortal priestess with the surname of Higurashi surfaced around the Edo region and men were quickly deployed to check it out. Strangely, the moment the inquisitors set out for their journey from Kyoto to Edo a new story began to trickle in from local traders passing through that region. It was said that an ugly, toad-like man appeared at the house of the mysterious priestess and that the creature took away the woman's immortality because the gods had not wanted a powerful noble to take immortality for himself. By the time Hideyoshi's men arrived in Edo they could only find one priestess that went by the last name Higurashi; and she was quite clearly in her forties. When questioned directly, Shoko Higurashi laughed and proclaimed that the story was a silly legend from a time long past that had somehow been bound to the Higurashi family name. She also mentioned that the elderly were fond of telling grand stories of demons defending Edo's honor, too, and other such nonsense. The inquisitors left soon after and a new family name appeared on the census with the curious surname of Inushiro… which could, if one looked carefully, be broken into two words “Shiro” and “Inu” or “Dog, White.” Of course, nobody bothered to notice that little detail… all except for one ugly toad-man; who carried the news back to his boss, Sesshoumaru.

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By 1592 Hideyoshi's men had been recalled from their sword hunting duties to focus on the new war effort in Korea. Life resumed to as normal a pace as it could under the circumstances. For the first year of the war word filtered in from Kyoto that things were going well in Korea. Hideyoshi had taken over large portions of the country after it had grossly underestimated the preparedness of the invading army and navy. The victories were short lived, however, and things rapidly deteriorated as the years progressed. The Japanese were routed by the Chinese and Korean navies and cut off from many of their supplies as they pressed inland. Starvation, a lack of easily-accessible manpower and supplies eventually forced Hideyoshi to call for a retreat on his deathbed in 1598.

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For thirty years Kagome (no longer a formal miko of Edo) and her friends had waited for Noboru's return. Finally, the bamboo message arrived, just as it had before; only this time it sprouted up outside the front of the new Inushiro residence. Again, the note identified a private location in the outskirts of the forest for them to meet and, as always, everyone was encouraged to join. This time, however, Miroku and Sango were able to join Kagome and Inu Yasha together. Their grown children stood guard around the perimeter of the forest along with Kohaku and Shippo.

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Once again, Noboru appeared with no trouble and without setting off a single one of Shippo's traps. It confirmed to everyone that the person was not a demon, nor had he brought any demonic allies. When the blonde, looking no older than he had before, saw that Sango and Miroku were equally youthful he smiled and clapped his hands together excitedly.

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“Oh! So you did find a way to stay young. My, you are so clever! How did you do it, Lady Kagome?”

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It took some energy not to bite back that she was not the one responsible for it, instead she replied in a cool voice, “Is that the one question you wish to ask me?”

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Noboru rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment before shaking his head. “No, not really, I'm more interested in learning your favorite food.”

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Inu Yasha couldn't contain his surprise, “What the hell? You want to know her favorite food?”

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The blonde happily nodded. Kagome scratched her head for a moment. She had thought his question would be much like her own; information about the enemy. Apparently, that was not so.

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“Ah… well… steamed vegetables and rice.”

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“Excellent, then that must mean you still eat food. Hmm… Good to know… Then, what would you like to know about me?” The man leaned forward expectantly, eliciting a possessive growl from Inu Yasha.

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Composing herself, Kagome folded her hands and settled them in her lap. The gang had plenty of time to come up with a question and they had all agreed it would be best to find out as much as they could about him. “All right, I know you're not a demon and you can't be a human so… what are you, exactly?”

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Noboru seemed to pout for a moment, “Aw, I thought you would have figured it out by now with my little messages. Ah well, I suppose if you were perfect all the time then I wouldn't love you nearly as much.” He had to pause as yet another growl rumbled to life from the irritated half-demon. “Why, my lady, I am but a humble living tree.”

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“…A what?” Sango blurted without warning. Noboru ignored her and he refused to elaborate any further on the matter.

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“You heard me. Anyway, as promised, I will now give you a hint to the location of your little ones. I suggest you take a trip south in thirty years to the onsen where you can view the sunset… I hear the Chanpon is quite famous there.” The ruby-eyed man smiled and turned away back into the forest. The last thing they heard from him was, “This was fun! We'll have to do this again in sixty years.”

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Once again, the Noboru disappeared back into the forest.