InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Family Instincts ❯ Family Instincts - The Children's Task ( Chapter 1 )

Family Instincts

By Majicman55

 

Akamaru scowled as, in the darkness, he leaped between rooftops in downtown Tokyo. It wasn't that he didn't love his parents. It was just that, well, sometimes he felt like nobody could ever understand what it was like to have parents like his.

 

Maybe that wasn't a completely fair statement. There were plenty of ningen children with famous parents. Of course, his mother and father had to become legendary by destroying Naraku 500 years ago, thereby saving Japan and the world from an age of darkness.

 

It was true that Akamaru and his brother and sister, Aoimaru and Midoriko, had played a part, as their mother never tired of telling them, but this did little to alleviate Akamaru's inferiority complex.

 

It didn't help that his dad more powerful than ever and his mother, the famous miko from the story, was so powerful that she could purify all of Japan if she wanted to (but that would mean purifying her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and so on). It also didn't help his feelings of inferiority that now, five hundred years later, his parents were not only still alive, but looked like teenagers (and screwed like them, too).

 

At least his parents had decided to keep a low profile. Over the centuries, their story had faded into myth. After all, who would believe such a story could be true…and, even if you believed such a fantastic tale, how could the hanyou and the miko still be alive?

 

As Kagome had grown in power, she had learned little tricks that helped keep their secret. For example, if you looked at InuYasha now, all you'd see would be a young man with longer than normal hair. Only someone with great spiritual powers might feel a twinge of “something's not right here.”

 

Yet, while the centuries had allowed InuYasha and Kagome to fade into legend, their - activities - had given rise to new problems…one of which he was looking for that very night. He scanned the horizon with his keen youkai eyesight and reached out with the miko powers he had inherited from his mother, but found nothing.

 

Embarrassingly enough - due to his parents' unwavering sex drive and his mother's never ending fertility (and intermarriage among their descendants and ningens, of course) - there were now few people in Japan who did not have at least a trace of youkai and miko in them.

 

Akamaru smirked. Not that his esteemed, stick-up-the-ass uncle hadn't contributed to the problem…once the Great Lord of the Western Lands consented to his descendants mating with ningens.

 

He and Kagura had argued about it, but by the time of the American's Revolutionary War he had mellowed enough on the subject that most of his bluster was for show. There was a family story of how Kagura convinced him to allow that first intermarriage which supposedly explained the birth of their cousins, the twins.

 

And so there were lots of descendants out there who had varying degrees of youkai (and/or miko) blood in them; although most of them were so far removed that they might have better eyesight or hearing, or they might live a little longer, but that was all. There were some who claimed to be able to help find bank robbers, kidnappers and the like. A few excelled at bilking old widows out of their life savings, although father said those must have something of Miroku in them.

 

But every now and then a gene bred true. Centuries ago, when Uncle Sesshomaru was cursing InuYasha as a “worthless half breed,” the taiyoukai did not know about modern genetics. There was no way do could know that, every now and then, a child would be born almost pure youkai…or worse, a combination of strong youkai and strong miko.

 

And that was the source of Akamaru's current problem.

 

One of these genetic throwbacks - an almost-pure youkai/miko - was just now discovering her powers (that this particular youkai/miko was female was all that he had been able to discover so far) and had the potential for causing all kinds of havoc.

 

And the fact that most Japanese had some small bit of youkai and/or miko in them would do little to assuage the panic that would ensue if they discovered these powerful creatures were living among them.

 

Oh, sure. Akamaru could just picture it. His mother would talk dad into coming onto one of the national news/talk shows. (“And how is it that there are so many out there?” the host would ask. And dad would reply, “Feh. Because we've been screwing like teenagers for five hundred years.”) Sure, that would help.

 

Akamaru had no desire to be the object of a youkai hunt.

 

It had happened before.

 

 

******************

 

 

Akamaru took a cell phone out of his pocket and called his siblings. “Oi. Aoimaru…got anything?”

 

The video on the phone showed the city from above and swayed wildly. Akamaru covered his mouth with his clawed hand and forced back the bile. “Do you have to do that?”

 

Aoimaru's voice came through. “You've gotta get over that sickness one of these days, bro. You can fly, you know.”

 

“Look, I just prefer jumping. Okay?”

 

“Whatever floats your boat. And, no, I haven't seen any sign, either.”

 

“Damn.”

 

“Try Midoriko. Sis might have something.”

 

“Keh.”

 

“I'll keep looking and will call if I run into anything.”

 

Akamaru stared into the small screen and shouted, “Like that police chopper behind you?”

 

“Huh? Wha?”

 

The image careened wildly again, leaving Akamaru even more nauseous, finally settling down when Aoimaru landed on a building top. “I owe you one, brother. Brother?”

 

Akamaru hoped there was no one standing next to the building some thirty floors below. What was left of his ramen would make a nasty impact from this height.

 

After a few minutes spent regaining his composure, Akamaru called Midoriko. When the screen finally lit up, Akamaru smiled. His sister was sticking her tongue out at him. “Sis…”

 

“What's the matter, brother dear? You look a little green.”

 

“Funny you'd say that.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Aoimaru said you'd be calling. And no, I haven't found out anything new, either.”

 

“The baka nearly got hit by a police helicopter.”

 

His sister got wide-eyed. “He didn't tell me that.” Midoriko turned serious. “He could've blown it for all of…”

 

“Stop. We have more important things to worry about.”

 

“Right. Like ratting out Aoimaru to mom and dad.”

 

“Midoriko…”

 

“Just kidding! Sheesh. You're turning into Fluffy.”

 

“I wouldn't let him hear you call him that.”

 

“He lets mom and dad do it. And Kagura calls him that all the time.”

 

“Don't push it.”

 

Midoriko sighed. “I'll keep looking.” Her face brightened. “Why don't you ask mom to locate her for us?”

 

“You know the answer to that. Thanks to mom and dad's - activities - it's like finding a needle in a haystack.”

 

“You mean because they screwed like rabbits.”

 

“Midoriko…”

 

“It's true.”

 

“That is as may be, but you know it embarrasses her.”

 

“All those years since they decided to stop using the well and simply wait till Kagome could rejoin her family. Every time there was a disaster resulting in tremendous loss of life, mom and dad would make the sacrifice of taking the special charms out of their hair that suppressed their effect on the libidos of youkai and ningen alike, and then travel around Japan…stimulating the sex drives of everyone, restoring the population, all because they…”

 

“…screwed like rabbits.” Akamaru scowled as his sister roared with laughter. “Doesn't sound like much of a sacrifice to me.”

 

“I suppose not,” mused Midoriko. “By the way, dear brother. Why is it that you have never mated?”

 

Both Aoimaru and Midoriko had mates and Akamaru had to admit it had worked out well for them. “I d-don't know,” he stammered before collecting himself, “but we have a mission to complete.”

 

“Maybe our target's cute. Did you think of that?”

 

“Feh.”

 

“You're starting to sound like dad, now.”

 

“Just keep looking.”

 

“Okay, but…”

 

<CLICK>

 

Akamaru put the cell phone in his pocket. He stared at the edge of the roof. “I can fly,” he thought, and stepped off the edge. He didn't fall. Indeed, he (slowly) began to climb. “I can do it. I can do it!”

 

An ancient memory returned unbidden: his mother calling out all three of his names. “Oh no!” It was happening all over again. He strained forward, yet was yanked suddenly earthward. Over thirty floors! This would hurt worse than a hundred of his father's legendary sits. “Fly,” he thought, “fly!”

 

That was it. He was actually slowing! “Concentrate…concentrate.” His descent slowed to a crawl until, fully thirty feet off the ground, he came to a mid-air stop. “Must keep my concentration.” Slowly, he lowered himself towards the deserted sidewalk. Twenty-five feet, twenty…

 

Suddenly he caught a blur of motion off to the left, in a small park that abutted the sidewalk. There was a girl. Not just a girl, but a beautiful girl. In fact, an incredibly beautiful girl.

 

She was surrounded by six ningen males. They were drawing closer to her and commenting about how they would have a “good time” with her. As they drew closer their suggestions became lewder.

 

Akamaru growled as he landed. Apparently it was loud enough for the ningens to hear him because they all turned his way.

 

“What's the matter, buddy? This your girlfriend?” The man reached out and grabbed the girl by her arm. “Wanna watch us…”

 

The man never got to complete his remark. For an instant, the girl was surrounded by a bright pink aura of incredible power. When the aura subsided, there was not trace of her assailants…

 

…except for one thing. The hand of the man who had grabbed her was on the ground at her feet.

 

Akamaru stared in disbelief. The sheer power was almost as great as his mother's, if his senses were to be believed. “Are you alright?” he called to the frightened girl.

 

The youkai/miko, for that was what she was whether she knew it or not, looked around for her attackers. She finally drew back in horror when she spotted the disembodied hand on the ground.

 

First, she clutched her hand over her mouth, trying to avoid getting sick. Then she made two fists and rubbed them into her eyes, finally screaming, “I don't want to be here!”

 

Her pink aura flashed again and, when Akamaru could see, the girl was gone.

 

Gone.

 

Not there…anymore.

 

Not even mom could do that.

 

What was more, all traces of her aura were gone.

 

Nervously, he dialed both Aoimaru and Midoriko, putting them on conference. “I think I've found her.”

 

Aoimaru leaned towards his camera. “You have her?”

 

“No.”

 

“But you've seen her,” Midoriko said excitedly.

 

“Yes.”

 

“And?”

 

“She's…beautiful.”

 

There was a pause from both Aoimaru and Midoriko. Midoriko was the first to speak.

 

“Shit.”

 

 

 

A/N: I've never been happy with this story (the third part of my “Instincts” trilogy) and, during the original writing, finally got tired and just finished it. I've decided I should rewrite it. It just bugged me that it was hanging out there, second rate.

 

As always, please read and review. Thanks!