InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Delving Into The Mysteries Of The Past ❯ The Present Continues ( Chapter 6 )

 

As I lay huddled in a ball in the attic, I listened for the sound of the door opening and shutting, signifying when Mitsu was leaving. I had sprinted up the stairs as soon as he got off the phone. He obviously still thought that I was in my room resting. I wiped sweat off my brow and tried to catch my breath.

 

Too many things were happening at once. Fleeting images of a past I never knew, and that silver-haired man were driving towards the brink of insanity. I put my face in my hands and stayed there for a few minutes, contemplating. I took a deep breath. I needed to be strong to find the truth.

 

There were many boxes in the attic. Luckily, since I was the one who packed most of them, I knew which ones would hold nothing of importance. I reached for the one that I knew held a shoebox full of old pictures. I smiled at them. They captured many happy moment of my life. There was one when I was seven, and another taken only a year ago. My smile faded though, when I looked at the picture of Horeshio. I remembered that day well. He was about four years old, and was giving the camera a very grudging look. The frown became deeper when I noticed a certain likeness to that silver haired man I had met earlier. True, the facial features were a bit off, and so were the eyes, but certain aspects of Horeshio's attitude were the same. And it would explain the silver streaks in his hair. I stared at the picture a bit more, and then put it aside. It was too early to think about Horeshio's father. I had to find out about myself first.

 

In other boxes, there were a few picture albums. I glanced at my watch. I didn't want Mitsu catching me up here. Something told me he wouldn't find it amusing, seeing me covered in dust looking at old pictures. I sighed again. Life was too stressful. Part of me wanted to give up my search and go on living my happy life the way it was before I started remembering these things. I reached for one of the albums. They were pictures from when I was still dating Mitsu. I smiled in spite of myself. There was I, young and inexperienced with a child, and there was Mitsu, always calm and collected, with no burdens whatsoever. I would find nothing in this one, even if it did bring back good memories. Unfortunately, all of the other albums I looked in were basically the same. I was either very young in all of them, or I was only a year or so younger in the other ones. I fought back the urge to curse, and instead tossed the album I was currently looking at to the ground, rising up another cloud of dust. Several pictures flew out because of my actions. I picked them up not really looking at them and looked for their places in the album.

 

They had none. I was perplexed. I knew they had come out of this album, so why was there no empty slots? I looked at the pictures and dropped them almost immediately. They were the very same pictures I had been searching for. I quickly grabbed the album and shook out the pages. Sure enough, about a dozen more photos came out, hidden behind the others. It made sense. I wasn't supposed to know about my past, so the safe thing to do was to hide the reminders. And where was the best place to hide something? In plain sight.

 

I looked at some of the pictures. They were mainly group shots, without me in them. I was left to guess that I was the one working the camera. There was one photo of only two people. One was a pretty young woman, maybe sixteen of seventeen, with long dark brown hair, smiling at them camera and the other was young a man about nineteen with his arm around her shoulders. It was easy to tell that they loved each other very much, and that they were both very happy. I felt a pang of resentment, but I chased it away. There was another photo of a small boy, and at closer examination appeared to be a demon. That stopped me in my tracks. Checking the back of the picture, I realized that it was taken around the time the Demonic Revolution had been at full blast. I stared at him a while longer. He was happy too, smiling up at the camera with a lollipop sticking out of his mouth. He did not seem to be involved in any of the fighting that had been going on at that time. They were still many pictures to examine, but I had the feeling that I was running out of time. I hurried to hide the photos once again in the album. One picture fell out of my grasp. I had not looked at that one yet, but when I looked, I was so shocked that I let out a yelp and threw the picture away from me as if it had burned my hand.

 

It was the silver haired man from before. I took several deep breaths. He had not looked at all older in the picture than how he was a few hours ago. I checked the date. September 1996. My blood ran cold. That was eight years ago. Yet he was the same age today as he was in the photo. Was he…could he possibly be…how could a demon survive the Demonic Revolution?! I thought that all if not most of them had been killed. I closed my eyes, trying to regroup my thoughts.

 

“It was a warm day. The kind of day I liked to spend outside with Sango-chan, Miroku-sama, Shippo-chan, and Kage.”

 

What on earth!?

 

“However, I had decided to spend my time with one of my more chilly acquaintances. “

 

Was this what one would call a flashback? I could actually see myself slipping away from a group of people I was with into the forest that was behind me. So that's what I looked like when I was sixteen…

 

“I knew he didn't care for my intrusions, but I couldn't help myself. It was one the faults Kikyo liked to bring up about me. I was too quick to trust someone, and I felt too much compassion. But I couldn't help it. It wasn't that I pitied him, I would never pity someone who had tried to kill both myself and Kage on more than one occasion, but I thought he might be a bit lonely or something.”

 

It was that name again. Kage. Obviously it was someone I knew. And who was this person, this man that I was referring to. Why had he tried to kill the mysterious Kage and me? I kept my eyes shut, afraid that if I opened them, the images that were playing like a movie in my mind would disappear.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama,” I said, once I had found him. He must have known I would find him; his demonic aura was too great to miss, even for me. I sat down, leaning on a tree a few paces away from him. I was still a little edgy around him, even though I sad seen him countless times in the past few weeks. The memory of him trying to kill me was still fresh in my mind.”

 

I gasped. It was the silver haired man…Sesshoumaru-sama? Why the honorific? Why was he `Lord' Sesshoumaru?

 

“Why are you here mortal?” he asked me. I would have thought that by now he would have realized that I wouldn't leave.

 

“Because I can,” I answered. I deemed it safe enough to use cheek when talking to him. I didn't think he would pin me to tree as he did before.

 

“They'll be looking for you,” he said. I shook my head. They were too wrapped up in the letter that had recently arrived. It had nothing to do with me, so I took the opportunity to sneak off.

 

“I'll go back when I hear them calling for me,” I told him. He didn't say anything, and I took that as a good sign, and stayed there in silence. That was how it usually was, with the two of us saying nothing for the longest time until I started babbling about something.

 

“Why do you come?” he asked suddenly. I looked at him in surprise.

 

“What?” I asked.

 

“Why do you come here?” he asked again. “You know that I want nothing more than to kill the one you call Kage, and I easily kill you now.”

 

“But you don't,” I said. “You haven't tried to kill me since we first met.”

 

“That does not mean that I cannot.”

 

My breaths were starting to become irregular. The scene before my eyes dissipated into evanescence and I thought it was over, until another memory began to unfold. It was later in the season; the trees were beginning to change into their fall colors. Once again I was sitting a few trees away form where Sesshoumaru was, only this time I had something in my hands. It was a Polaroid camera.

 

“Come on!” I said. “It's just one picture!”

 

“No,” he said, remaining impassive. I had been bothering him about this for about twenty minutes, and he still refused to give in.

 

“It's not like it's going to kill you!”

 

“No.” I sighed. Everyone else had agreed to have their picture taken. I didn't see why Sesshoumaru-sama had to be any different. I looked down at the camera in my lap, and then back up to where he was. He had his eyes closed, as if he was thinking about something. A mischievous grin formed on my face. I quietly lifted the camera up, careful not to make any noise.

 

“Sesshoumaru-sama!” I called. As I had hoped, he turned to look at me. I snapped his picture. I knew he had to have been at least a little surprised, even though he didn't show it. I smirked at him. “I told you I would get a picture,” I said, wondering what he was thinking about. His eyes met mine, and something flickered in them so quickly that I barely even noticed it. Someone far away called for me.

 

“Kagome-sama!” It was Miroku-sama. Sesshoumaru-sama looked away.

 

“They're waiting for you,” he said, rising up and walking off into the forest, leaving me to deal with my conflicting emotions.

 

I finally opened my eyes, gasping for breath. I had known him. I had known him from eight years ago. There was no mistaking it. And what of that flicker of emotion in his eyes? I hadn't known it then, but I realized it know as a sign of affection. I gripped my knees so hard that my knuckles turned white.

 

What if that little flicker of affection had turned into something much, much larger?

 

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Well, that was a plot twist! I am so going to be killed for this I know it. Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Who thinks they know who Horeshio's father is? R&R!