InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Future Beginnings ❯ Ch 22: Brotherly Love ( Chapter 22 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Ch. 22: Brotherly Love

 

 

Kagome called the number Sesshomaru had left them. She hoped he was still in New York and had not already gone back to Japan. They met him at the same building where they had met last time. Kagome wondered if he lived there while he was in New York, since he had never offered to bring them to his home.

 

They took the bus again, although Inuyasha was sure he could find New York by himself. She told him it was too cold for her and he gave in. He was giving in to her a lot more these days, she realized with a smile. Inuyasha unerringly guided them from Port Authority to Sesshomaru's building. Sesshomaru himself was waiting at the entrance. Everyone else had gone home early for the holiday.

 

Kagome was pleased to see Inuyasha's restraint as Sesshomaru led them through the deserted lobby and up the elevator to his suite of offices. She knew it wouldn't last very long, and she was right. As soon as the elevator doors closed behind them, Inuyasha grabbed the front of Sesshomaru's vest and snarled, “I want some answers.”

 

Kagome laid a hand on Inuyasha's arm. “Inuyasha,” she murmured.

 

Sesshomaru just stared down at the hands holding him until Inuyasha finally let go and dropped his arms to his side.

 

“You didn't tell me youkai would attack me,” he growled at Sesshomaru.

 

Kagome had never seen Sesshomaru with a look of surprise on his face. He quickly masked it. “Tell me what happened,” he said.

 

In a few short sentences Inuyasha told him about meeting Mr. Rinks, and his visit to the camp in the woods. He told Sesshomaru that he had been right about these new world youkai being intrigued by his mixed heritage. He went on to say that at least the lesser youkai seemed to think he was a pure youkai with both animal and human features. Kagome was startled to hear that. He mentioned that first attack as they were leaving Mr. Rinks' mountain, and how he hadn't thought too much about it. After all, youkai were unpredictable and they had just drawn attention to themselves. But when they attacked his forest, and he wasn't even there, it took on a personal feel.

 

Sesshomaru interrupted. “They attacked your forest—your Place you showed me?”

 

“That's what I said. Completely demolished the little house I built so Kagome wouldn't be cold.”

 

“What did you do?”

 

“What do you think? I took them out.” Inuyasha walked over to a window and stood staring out at the building across the street. “Did I do it?” he asked without turning around. “Did I cause these angry youkai to take a material form?”

 

Kagome finally began to see what had been bothering Inuyasha about the situation. It wasn't really the destruction of the little lean-to he had built for her. He thought he was somehow responsible for loosing these violent youkai on the modern world. Hopefully Sesshomaru would be able to assure him that it wasn't his fault.

 

“Yes,” replied Sesshomaru. Kagome gasped, as Inuyasha slowly turned around to face them. He balled his fists in frustration, causing little pools of blood to well in the palms of his hands where his claws pierced through the skin.

 

“You are Lord of these youkai. All of the youkai,” Sesshomaru continued. “What are you upset about? You controlled them.”

 

“I'm not upset!” Inuyasha yelled. “Why didn't you tell me this would happen? I didn't want to be your—your—bridge—in the first place! I don't want to be responsible for bringing back youkai if they're going to terrorize people!”

 

“What people? The only beings who are aware of these youkai are you and your humans,” replied Sesshomaru. “The youkai are reacting to your presence. If you are a strong leader they will learn to modify their actions. Or they will face the consequences you set forth.”

 

“But where did these youkai who attacked us come from? Were they there the whole time? Why me? Are they challenging me because I'm the new Lord?”

 

“That I cannot tell you,” said Sesshomaru. “I don't know enough about these creatures. I was hoping you would be able to draw them out. Perhaps you should speak to one of the greater ones, like your Mr. Rinks.”

 

“I intend to,” replied Inuyasha, glancing significantly at Kagome as if to say, `See, I told you.'

 

“We plan to see Mr. Rinks next week,” said Kagome in explanation.

 

“We? No, I'm going to talk to him—alone!”

 

“It disturbs me that the violence obviously occurred because of you but without your physical presence.”

 

“Yeah, me too.”

 

“They acted like vengeful entities,” said Sesshomaru.

 

“But not exactly evil, right?” Kagome piped in.

 

Sesshomaru raised one eyebrow. What had his brother been telling the miko? “Not exactly, no,” he agreed. “Who can say what triggered their attack. They may have been dormant for centuries. Possibly they were tainted--” he glanced at Inuyasha, who glared back at him “—by some terrible human catastrophe in the past.”

 

“I don't care what the reason was,” Inuyasha stated flatly. “They aren't getting away with that while I'm around.”

 

“Good,” said Sesshomaru. “A youkai Lord must keep order in his lands.”

 

Inuyasha growled in frustration. They were back to the beginning. “But I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing! They're not the same as the youkai from home.”

 

Sesshomaru agreed. “No, they are not. We are products of our origins, and our origins were in Japan. These new world youkai formed from the stuff of this place, and became what they are through interaction with the humans and animals of this place, just as we did so long ago in Japan. It would be very surprising if we were the same.”

 

We? Thought Inuyasha. What's with this `we?' What exactly had happened in the intervening five hundred years to make Sesshomaru lump Inuyasha in with the youkai instead of with the humans? Inuyasha didn't voice his thoughts, however. Instead, he asked quietly, “So what do you suggest I do?”

 

For a second time that evening Sesshomaru looked surprised. Inuyasha was deferring to him. He collected his thoughts. “You have shown some insight, Inuyasha. You are a youkai Lord now. Try not to expose any more humans to our existence if you want to keep them safe. You have a responsibility to youkai as well as to humans now. I wish I could be of more help but you need to solve this problem on your own. They are your youkai.”

 

“You're a big help,” muttered Inuyasha. He hadn't held much hope that Sesshomaru would be able to do much anyway. Like Sesshomaru said, his best bet would be to talk to Mr. Rinks again, since he was from this place. And Sesshomaru had given him an idea or two. He wanted to find out if some of these youkai had indeed been tainted by human tragedy at one time, and if that was what was making them so angry. Maybe if he knew what the cause was, he could deal with the problem.

 

Nothing he could do about it right now. He turned to Sesshomaru. “So are you going to give us Thanksgiving dinner?”

 

It turned out that Sesshomaru kept a room in a nearby hotel when he was in New York. Playing the role of elder brother to perfection, Sesshomaru had the hotel staff bring up two rollaway beds for his guests, which suited Kagome just fine. She would have been horribly embarrassed if she and Inuyasha had been given their own room. They had a choice of room service or going to one of the few restaurants still open for Thanksgiving. Kagome was homesick for Japanese food, so Sesshomaru brought them to a nice Japanese restaurant on Thanksgiving Day.

 

They did go to the parade, or as close as they could get with all the crowds. The weather was still mild and there were tons of people at the parade. Inuyasha offered to jump up with Kagome to a window ledge above the crowds but Kagome and Sesshomaru both told him no. Cameras were everywhere. They couldn't see much except for the giant balloons. Surprisingly, Inuyasha took the balloons in stride. After the giant dinosaur at Toys-R-Us, what were a few big balloons? The noise was deafening, so they didn't stay long. As soon as they got away from the parade route, the streets seemed deserted in comparison.

 

Sesshomaru offered to drive them back to school on Friday, and he and Inuyasha had a brief clash of wills when Inuyasha decided he wanted to try driving.

 

“You said you would teach me!” Inuyasha argued.

 

“And I will. When you are ready,” countered Sesshomaru. “This is a rental car,” he added.

 

Inuyasha didn't know what that meant, but he didn't push the issue, preferring to stare out of the window at the passing cars. “Kagome, what's that?” Inuyasha pointed at a car in the other lane. It had a long green tree strapped on top of it.

 

“It's a Christmas tree,” Kagome explained, and she proceeded to tell Inuyasha all about Christmas and why people cut down green trees to put inside their houses for the season. Even in Japan there were decorated Christmas trees on the streets and in stores and restaurants.

 

“Don't they just die?” asked Inuyasha. He scanned the cars as they passed. Every so often he would see another one with a Christmas tree on it.

 

“Yes, eventually, but it's a symbol of life - an evergreen tree - the leaves never die. It's tradition,” she told him.

 

Inuyasha didn't reply right away. He just saw a big truck full of Christmas trees drive past in the opposite direction heading for New York City. Kagome mistook the reason for his silence. “Lots of people use an artificial tree,” she told him, and at his look of confusion, she added, “you know, like plastic?”

 

That made even less sense to Inuyasha. Why would people use something that was never alive as a symbol of life?

 

 

Sesshomaru's lips tightened as they drove up the street where they lived and he saw the dilapidated state of some of the houses.

 

“We didn't feel comfortable spending too much money since this will only be for a short time,” said Kagome as she unlocked the door at the top of the rickety stairway. Sesshomaru glanced at Inuyasha, who shrugged.

 

“Please make yourself comfortable,” Kagome continued. Sesshomaru looked around the nearly empty living room, then followed Inuyasha into the kitchen where there were two folding chairs on either side of a card table. He sat in one chair and Inuyasha sat in the other as Kagome made them tea. It seemed the only room that had any real furniture in it was the bedroom.

 

“You have money,” he said to Inuyasha, referring to the bank account he had set up in Inuyasha's name.

 

“And we've been using it,” answered Kagome. “I used some of it to book Inuyasha's airline ticket.”

 

Inuyasha sat up straighter. He didn't pay much attention to money matters, figuring that Kagome knew more than he did. He hadn't realized she had already got tickets for the way home. That must mean it would be December soon.

 

“If you needed more money, you should have contacted me,” said Sesshomaru.

 

“Oh, we're fine,” Kagome replied. “We eat at school most of the time, and the money I would have spent on the dorm is enough to cover the rent.”

 

Sesshomaru nodded and stood up. “Then I will take my leave,” he said.

 

They watched him drive away. Across the street Inuyasha saw the reflection of a Christmas tree decorated with tiny red lights in a first floor window. It looked pretty.

 

“I hope he's not mad about the money,” Kagome said.

 

“He's always mad about something,” replied Inuyasha.

 

The next morning a delivery truck pulled up to the front of their house with a sofa, two soft chairs, two lamps, a kitchen table with four chairs, and a desk. In their mailbox was a note from Sesshomaru. `This should get you started until you build your own place. The rent is paid through May.'

 

Kagome laughed through her tears. Inuyasha didn't see what all the fuss was about. “If you wanted stuff like that, you should have said so,” he told her. He really thought Kagome deserved all that and more, and he pondered how he was going to get it for her.

 

Later that night, after Kagome fell asleep, Inuyasha quietly left the apartment. In the front yard of a house down the street grew one of those Christmas trees. Inuyasha slashed the base with his claws and hefted the tree over his shoulder. Kagome was going to be so surprised.

 

It wouldn't stand up straight in their living room even after Inuyasha slashed the base again to make a straighter cut. He grabbed the tree and took it back down to the street so he wouldn't wake Kagome. With a mighty slam, he flattened out the base so that the tree would stand up on its own, then he brought it back upstairs and positioned it in front of the living room window like he had seen the neighbors do. He opened the curtains so everybody would see that they had a Christmas tree, too. Satisfied, he went to bed.

 

“Inuyasha! Where did you get a Christmas tree?” Kagome squealed the next morning. Inuyasha grinned. He led her to the window and pointed down the street. A stump was sticking out of the ground on someone's front lawn.

 

“Oh, no!” Kagome hurriedly pulled the curtains closed. “You didn't!”

 

“I did,” he said proudly.

 

“Oh, Inuyasha!”