InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Past, Hidden Self ❯ The Remembrance ( Chapter 6 )

I do not own any of the InuYasha characters mentioned in this fanfic. The OC's and story line are off limits.

Chapter 6: The Remembrance

As the demon approached the hanyou, Setsuna felt he had to do something. He couldn't just sit there while InuYasha was out of it and let that demon go after his sister. `I can't let him win; Kane-Sakura won't die because of my weakness.' He stood and lashed out, “Hey asshole! Face me instead of that mutt over there! I'm your opponent!”

He turned to look at the neko, who now had fire burning in his eyes and a determined smirk on his face. "So, you've decided to face me, huh? What a lovely choice." The demon reached for Setsuna to smash him into the ground, but he was too slow. The neko dodged his hand and leapt into a tree near InuYasha. But he didn't stop there; he attacked instantly, using the tree like a springboard for his legs.

"Think again you bastard!" Setsuna cried out as he pounced on top of the demon's head. He used his retractable claws to cling to its head, and he closed his eyes, concentrating on the burning sensation in his belly. When he opened his eyes, instead of the usual emerald green that inhabited them, they were the color of flames; red mixed with gold and orange. He smirked in triumph as he let loose his attack. His claws glowed red and sprouted flames into the demon's head. His Flaming Claws had worked thus far, but the battle was far from over.

The demon grabbed Setsuna by the arm and flung him into the same tree that InuYasha had been leaning against. He yelled out in pain when he hit and struggled to regain his breath. "Ha! You think that one little attack will defeat me?! What a petty little cat demon!" The demon seized Setsuna by the neck, lifting him into the air with one hand.

`I-I can't breathe!' Setsuna struggled to free his neck, but the demon's grip only tightened as Setsuna's vision slowly became black. `But I need to save Kane-Sakura, she's...she's...'

During Setsunta's bout with the demon, InuYasha had managed to get back up. He was braced for attack, Tetsusaiga brandished and glowing in a magnificent gold. "Wind Scar!" He yelled out. He let loose his attack as the sword hit the ground; the golden beams of death slashed the demon into bits and grazed Setsuna's feet as it went by. With the demon gone, he lay on the ground afterwards, shaking in mild anger.

"Heh, I saved your sorry ass. You'd better say thank you since you'd be dead now if it wasn't for me.” InuYasha sheathed Tetsusaiga and stood cockily with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Thank you?! I should thank you?! What the hell for?!” Setsuna yelled at InuYasha. He brought an arm back, made a fist and punched InuYasha in the face, using the force of his body to send the hanyou reeling back slightly, but anger and pride kept him standing. "I'm not thanking some psychopath for almost killing me with his stupid sword!”

"Listen fish-breath, I knew what I was doing; stop making such a fuss over it! You're still alive aren't you?”

“As usual, you're denying that you did something wrong. Don't you think it's time to start growing up?”

Mika listened to the conversation, looking between both men as they argued and threatened each other. Finally, she decided to break it up. She squeezed herself between them and said, “Setsuna that was a pretty neat attack. Would you mind doing it again so I'll know how to beat you next time?”

"With pleasure. Would you like me to demonstrate it on this dog over here?" Setsuna smirked.

“No way in hell are you demonstrating anything on me!” InuYasha growled.

"Anyway, I have to be going. Maybe some other time wolf." Setsuna brushed himself off and turned away from them. He walked into the forest, ultimately disappearing from sight.

"What was that all about? You two enemies or something?" Mika asked.

"Not enemies, we're just at a difference with each other." He turned away from the wolf demon.

"How come?" Mika asked curiously. “You can't just leave me hanging here; what's going on between you two?”

"None of your damn business, that's what." He hopped back into his branch and pretended to sleep to avoid the subject. Mika shook her head and decided to sleep while she could.

InuYasha thought about the neko's earlier statement. “As usual, you're denying that you did something wrong...” He sighed. `I know I did something wrong, but for Kami's sake, it was two years ago.'

*** Flashback ***

InuYasha raced away from the damage he had caused, Kagome hanging onto his shoulders as he ran. She held onto the jewel shard they'd retrieved, her fist tight around it and knuckles white. He looked back quickly to see if Miroku and Sango were still following close behind. He felt relief flood his senses when he saw them clinging to Kirara as she flew just behind him. The background behind them worse than he thought, and he cringed. The village they'd attacked was burning, black smoke rising in the west as the sun set, heat emanating from the gold and red flames.

Guilt ate at his heart like a nagging little pest, but why should he feel at fault? The town had been made up of cat demons, and they had fought fiercely to protect the Jewel Shard in their little shrine. Innocent lives had been lost. Even the little children had fought with utter determination to guard it. `It wasn't our fault; they brought it upon themselves.' He kept saying to himself over and over again, but he couldn't get the images out of his head of little children crying over their dead parents, or of one woman being cut to ribbons by his Wind Scar when she'd tried to protect her husband.

One cat demon stood out in his mind, the young teenager that had come to save his village even though he had been outcast years earlier. His green eyes had been burning with fire and tears as he tried to help another in need, but had been harshly pushed aside and called an unsightly bastard. InuYasha remembered how the boy had looked at him in fear and anger, tears rolling down his face. He had come to help his tribe, and still they disowned him.

`They protected that shard with their lives even though they knew they were going to lose. They deserved it.' Even though he remembered that the Shikon no Tama was almost complete, he still felt tears at the back of his eyes. `If only they hadn't put up such a fight.'

He looked back one more time and saw the outline of the boy. He was standing there, staring out at InuYasha as the hanyou fled the scene. That's what he didn't understand. His village had abandoned him as an adolescent, why mourn over those that had disowned him? He could be an asset for the village with his incredible fire powers, and they had pushed him into the wilderness all because he wasn't a full demon.

"InuYasha, are you all right?" Kagome asked from his back. He crept back from his reminiscing and found himself standing still and staring out at the boy's outline.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. Don't worry about me.” He looked down at the burns on his hands.

“Are those bothering you? I'll bandage them up and put some salve on them when we get back to Kaeda's.”

“Yeah, that's fine.” He started running again to catch up with Sango and Miroku. But the images kept circling his head like a demon that had possessed his every thought. `I wish none of this had ever happened.'

*** One Year Later ***

InuYasha ran through his forest like ancient flames were licking his heels. If his memory served correct, he knew who carried this scent on his person. And it was the one person he'd hoped to never see again.

He kept going until he was at the outskirts of the village. It was from this vantage point that he saw a man with long white hair pulled up in a high ponytail, a black haori, and green eyes smiling as he talked to Kaeda. His hair had grown out, and he looked grown up this time around. Had it only been a year since he'd seen the boy? He turned, still talking to Kaeda. While his mouth remained upturned, his eyes lost their happiness. He never turned back to the old woman.

"Setsuna, is something the matter?" She asked pensively.

"No, it's just that the stench of dog makes me sick." He stared at InuYasha, his face contorting slightly into a frown of disapproval.

"You know, cats don't exactly smell that good either." InuYasha stopped staring and approached the cat demon.

"So that's why you burned my village down? That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard, but the exact one I expected to hear from you.”

“You know why I attacked the village. If they had just surrendered the shard, then I wouldn't have had to kill them.”

"You killed my clan! Every single one of my tribe's people were killed!” Setsuna yelled, all restraint from earlier gone.

InuYasha staggered back. He had never felt fearful like this; even when he had faced Naraku or Sesshomaru.

"I feel nothing but hatred toward you, you filthy bastard! You could've spared the women and children at least!" Anger seethed and a black aura surrounded his being. Something wasn't right...

*** End Flashback ***

InuYasha opened his eyes and sat up again to gaze at the early morning sunrise. The last of the stars were disappearing and a pink sky was taking the place of the black one. Strange, he hadn't thought about that day since...since it had happened, he realized. That boy had really messed with his mind.

"Are you ready to go, Mika?" InuYasha asked the sleeping wolf girl as he hopped down from the tree. She winced and slowly opened her eyes. "We need to leave; the sun's rising."

"I'll be ready in a little while." She yawned really big, stretching her arms to the sky.

`I hope we don't run into Setsuna again. He makes me feel so frickin' guilty.' He looked to his left and sensed Setsuna's demonic aura. `He headed west, the same way we need to go.' He sighed heavily.

"What's eating you?" Mika asked when she heard him sigh.

"Nothing; I'm just anxious to get home and see how my sister is doing." He lied. Stepping forward, he ignored Mika the rest of the way back to the village as memories continued to resurface.

*** Flashback ***

The black aura was strong, choking off the sunlight from the area. InuYasha felt his hair stand on the back of his neck, and he'd never felt that before. “Kaeda, get out of here!” He warned the old miko.

“You cut them like they were blades of grass!" Setsuna let his eyes convert to their flaming coloration as he prepared for battle. "I depended on them, I protected them, and you just killed them!"

"The village wouldn't give up the Shikon Jewel Shard; we had to get it back to finish it!"

"Why not just take it, maybe push them aside so you didn't have to murder everybody?!"

"It didn't work like that! They were guarding it with their lives!"

"Bull shit! I hate you, and I hate the people you're involved with; I'll loathe all the children you ever have, and my children will loathe them with me!" Setsuna yelled at him.

InuYasha pulled Tetsusaiga out of its cozy sheath, into the cold air that surrounded them. “That's no problem fish-breath. I've never been too fond of your kind anyway.” He growled under his breath. “And just because I felt sorry for you doesn't mean I'll go easy.”

He didn't even reply. Setsuna lunged for him, knocking Tetsusaiga out of InuYasha's grasp and into the dirt as he drove him back into a hut wall. InuYasha shoved him off, sending the boy staggering back. He wasted no time in getting his sword back, but soon found himself surrounded in a ring of fire.

“Give up, hanyou.” Setsuna said, his eyes burning the color of a raging inferno. “My revenge will be carried out today!”

The flames took a life of their own at his shout of rage and shot into the air. The heat was almost too much to bear. It choked out the breeze that fluttered the branches above him, and then he realized that he was encased in a flaming cage. InuYasha swung Tetsusaiga around him, extinguishing the fire with the air stream Wind Scar created. However that opened an opportunity for Setsuna to attack. The neko leapt forward and punched him in the stomach.

InuYasha fell back with a loud grunt, skidding a ways before he sat up. `Damn, he's too fast. I need to bring him down without killing him, but how?'

He didn't have enough time to answer his question. Setsuna came rushing at him again, claws outstretched and the desire to kill etched in his face. InuYasha leapt into the air, reeled Tetsusaiga back over his head, and unleashed the Wind Scar. He easily dodged it, but he didn't expect to suddenly have InuYasha's fist in his face. The punch knocked him to the ground, and he lost consciousness instantly.

The hanyou landed gracefully on the forest floor, panting. “Jeez, what a pain in the ass.” He sheathed Tetsusaiga as he walked over to where Setsuna lay. Kagome came running from the village as he knelt by the boy.

"InuYasha, what was all that for?!" She stood beside him, angered that he'd risk all of the villagers' lives to destroy a demon.

"He threatened me, so I knocked him out." His eyes narrowed in anger. "Do you remember the day we attacked the neko village for their shard?"

"Yes I do; but what does this have to do with…?"

"This boy is from that town. I saw him try to save someone and get pushed away because he'd been disowned."

"And what does that have to do with attacking him?"

"He wants to kill me for ruining that same village." He became silent as he inspected the boy. "He doesn't have a home."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Let him stay here; or at least in this area."

"But I thought he hated you."

"He's strong; maybe he can defend this village while I'm gone." InuYasha stood. "You can tell him; if I stay around him when he wakes, I'll strangle him."

Kagome nodded. "Okay, I'll suggest it…"

"NO! Tell him he is staying! I'll feel guilty for the rest of my life if I don't give him some kind of hospitality!" InuYasha stormed off in a fury.

`His heart is much kinder than it used to be.' Kagome thought, staring at his hair as it swayed with his steps. `He just doesn't like showing it.'

*** End Flashback ***

"We need to hurry; Kane's waiting." InuYasha said from in front of Mika.

"Yes sir." She grumbled.

***

It was already late morning in the village, and the whole place was busy getting the last of the crops harvested. Kane sat under her brother's favorite sleeping tree and watched all the activities. `These people's lives are so hard. In the future we have much more technical machines, while the people here have such simple machines or just their bare hands.' She sighed, resting her head on her hand, which in turn rested on her upraised knee. `I wish I could go back home.'

"Kane-Sakura, how are you this morning?" Miroku approached her with a bright smile.

"Pretty good, I guess." She couldn't bring herself to smile, so she settled with an easy wave.

The hoshi sat next to her, carefully looking into her pools of gold to see if she was telling the truth. "Kane-Sakura, is something bothering you?"

"Bothered, me? Of course not.” She exaggerated and huffed. “I lived in the future all of my life, and I'm suddenly here, in a place so primal functioning is going to be impossible.” She put her knee down and rested her back against the tree again.

“Are there any memories that comfort you?”

“All of them make me want to cry until the day I'm buried in death. I loved my boyfriend so much and our relationship was moving steadily along. Then there's choir and my favorite foods to take into consideration. Hell, I miss it all; even the smog in Yokohama.”

Miroku had to laugh slightly. "It can't be all bad. Perhaps there's something here that makes you happy.”

She blushed. One certain face that entered her mind also raced guilt through her system. “Well, there is the fact that I met somebody. He's...oh who cares! I want to go home!”

"Kane, you need to get this through your skull; this is your home now." A familiar voice said from behind Kane.

“InuYasha, you're back!” Kane turned around to face him, a smile faintly tracing her lips. Then she saw Mika, sulking behind her brother beside a tree. She glanced at her brother, but he appeared to not have noticed that there was a wolf behind him.

“Of course I'm back.” He replied cockily. “What did you expect?”

“I-InuYasha...there's someone behind you.” She whispered. “It's that bitch that almost killed me.”

Rolling his eyes, he sighed and started, “Well, ain't that a coincidence. And here I thought I'd come home all by myself.”

“Why are you just letting her stand there? She could attack any minute!” She stood, prepared to attack the girl herself. But InuYasha held her back.

“She's not here to attack,” he put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I brought her here in agreement with Koga. She's going to train you.”

“What?!” Kane stumbled away from her brother and glared at him. “No way! I am not going to be trained by that flea-bitten wolf!”

Mika overheard the siblings' argument and straightened her back in defense. “Hey, who're you calling flea-bitten?!” She cracked her knuckles and approached the other girl.

Stepping between them, Mika stood face to face with Kane. She was almost a head taller than the mutt, she figured. Not that height really mattered in battle. Cunning and strength were what really mattered in battle. InuYasha swore behind her, and she turned and gave him an icy glare. “Stuff it mutt-face. If I'm going to train her, then I might as well start now.”

She turned back to Kane, brought her hand out, and slapped her in the face. Mika felt the sting of the slap on her hand, but she paid no heed to it. Instead she instructed, “If I'm going to train you, you will start off learning how to respect your trainer. If you don't like me, deal with it. I'm not exactly fond of you either.”

Rubbing her cheek, Kane glowered at the woman. “Then at least we have a mutual understanding.”

“Training starts now.” Mika stated nonchalantly, slapping Kane on the face once more.

“Hey! What was that for?!” Kane held her other cheek and yelled furiously. “I didn't say...” Mika's other hand came to punch her instead of slap her, and she blocked it effectively with her arm. Before she could react again, her legs were kicked out from beneath her and she fell flat on her back. Then a blade was shoved in her face only millimeters from her nose.

Mika hummed in disapproval and shook her head. “You're basics need a lot of work.” She took her blade and shoved it into its sheath. “Coordination will probably be the best thing to start off with.”

Kane sat up, glowering at the wolf demon. “I'm not that weak! Besides, I've been working with InuYasha on...”

“You've also been in bed for over a week.” She turned on her heel and stated blatantly. “If you know what's good for you, you'll begin with the basics again.”

“It's your fault that I need to be retrained! If you hadn't decided to try and kill me, maybe this wouldn't have happened!”

Mika sighed in resignation and answered, “But it's not my fault that you were too weak to begin with.”

InuYasha stood off to the side, listening to them argue. As they continued to pass insults back and forth, he merely walked down to Kaeda's hut with a special request in mind.

He returned a short while later with the old woman in tow. She carried a miniature version of his prayer beads in her hands, chanting an incantation into them. “Are ye sure the girl will need these?”

Nodding, he said, “Yeah. As you can see, my sister and her trainer aren't getting along too well.”

They were still bickering, and InuYasha's ears could hardly take anymore. Kane's bantering had gotten high and squeaky while Mika's were just loud and annoying. He didn't like her tone of voice; it sounded so deep he almost mistook it for a man's. But as she quarreled with his sister, he noticed hers was rising in pitch too. If he had to deal with this all the time, he wasn't going to be happy. The bracelet was the only answer. He needed a subjugation spell for the wolf to keep her tame and in line.

“Get your asses over here you screeching banshees!” He bellowed. Their dispute stopped almost instantly as his voice echoed through the woods. Kane was standing now, her face inches from Mika's and hands on her hips. Mika was standing with her body angled away from his sister with her arms crossed over her chest and her face aimed at Kane's. They stopped voicing their opinions of each other and swerved their heads to look at him.

Kane obeyed without question. She knew being indignant would only land her in the dirt through subjugation. Mika, on the other hand, stood where she was and refused to budge. “Who made you alpha male?”

“He probably appointed himself.” Kane muttered, reaching yet another mutual understanding with the woman. She earned an evil eye from her brother, and she winced in apology.

“I don't want you and Kane to continually fight when you're supposed to be training her. So, I had Kaeda make something for you.” He took the beads from Kaeda's weathered hands and held it out to the wolf. “Put it on your wrist.”

She took it, sniffed it, and tossed it aside. “Hell no. This thing smells of conspiracy and pain. I don't want anything to do with it.”

He growled and retrieved the bracelet. “I don't care what you smell in this stupid thing. Put it on before I strangle you with it.”

“No.”

“Put it on.”

“Keh!” She turned and sat on the soft forest floor. “Make me.”

Saying `make me' was probably the worst mistake of her life. Mistaking him not to be so strong, he grabbed her left wrist, picked her up, and pulled the bracelet over her hand so it fit snuggly. She tugged her hand away from him and tried to pull the thing off, but it wouldn't budge. “Hey, what is this thing anyway?!” She pulled and pulled, but it wouldn't come loose.

InuYasha walked over to Kane and said, “Say a word. Any word will work as long as it's not `sit' or your word.”

“Why me?”

He snorted. “She's the one that's training you; I don't have to be around her as much.”

Before she could carry out his commands, he was pushed into a tree by a brown, gray, and black blur with a tornado behind it. Mika held him by his throat, her retractable claws out and puncturing his skin. Tiny droplets of blood seeped from his wounds.

“You bastard! I want you to take this thing off of my wrist, or I'll knock off something more precious than your head.”

Fear for her brother's life kicked Kane into `protective sister' mode. She blurted out the first word that came to mind, praying that it would work. “HEEL!”

At first, the bracelet glowed a soft purple color. But soon the light brightened and gravity took effect. Letting go of InuYasha's throat, she fell to her left and laid there in shock.

Kane rushed to her brother and knelt by him. “Are you okay?”

He coughed a couple times before nodding. “What was that word you used again?”

“It was `heel'. It's used to tell a dog to stop when they're running away.”

InuYasha looked over at Mika, who was now sitting up and glaring at the sibling pair. “Good choice.” He stated matter-of-factly.

Mika stood, anger making her icy eyes grow even colder. “I didn't ask for this. This wasn't supposed to be in the agenda.”

“Too bad.” He said. “Deal with it.”

In an angry huff, she stormed away into the woods. Kane watched the girl's retreating shadow and said timidly, “Don't you think you went a little hard on her?”

“Me? She's the one that tried to kill you, remember?”

“Yeah, but...”

He sighed and stood to come to eye level with his sister. “Kane, she's a wolf that's very temperamental and hormonally imbalanced. That and she's an alpha-female.”

“So?”

“It means she's used to getting her way most of the time. The only time she doesn't get her way is when the alpha-male is in command.”

“Okay, then who's the alpha-male?”

“Koga, her brother.”

Kane's brow furrowed in confusion. “That doesn't sound right. Shouldn't Koga's mate be...?”

“He has no mate. Until he takes one, Mika is alpha-female.” InuYasha blew out a frustrated breath and added, “Not that he'll ever find one if I don't cut his balls off first.”

Sighing, Kane turned away from her brother. “He's made passes at Kagome, hasn't he?”

His silence proved her answer correct, and she decided to leave it at that. She needed to find Mika and apologize for her brother's rude behavior. As she started to walk away, a hand stopped her by grabbing her collar.

“She'll come back on her own.”

Looking at her brother over her shoulder, she nodded. “Fine, I'll wait.”

They walked back to the village, not noticing the icy blue eyes that watched them take their leave.

***

She screamed in terror, her blue eyes widening on the smooth, pale plane of her face. He watched as she clutched a tiny bundle in her arms, begging for mercy.

“Insolent wench! Hand that baby over!” His voice roared over the woman's desperate sobs like thunder. To think he had once loved her! The very idea of her sleeping with that...tai-youkai, InuTaisho, made his red eyes glow in fury. She had been everything to him, but now...

The baby started to cry in her arms. It resonated with the woman's pleas, almost knocking him out. Such power behind the infant's voice! How...?

He sat up, sweat pouring down his forehead. Panting, he cursed under his breath at the memory he'd relived in his dreams. `That damn woman Sakura, why does she haunt me?'

Unable to contain his rage, he pitched the lone blanket off of his body and stood in the waxing moonlight. Why in all the hells was he dreaming about Sakura again? Why that day? Couldn't he have dreamt about him loving her?

No, his subconscious argued. You stopped longing for her when she scented of InuTaisho. You lost her to that bastard. Shoving himself away from the window, he seized his sword from his bedside and swung it. The blade sliced through nothing but air, but he swore he felt the elating pleasure of flesh and bone meeting steel.

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