InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Deep Woods ❯ Chapter 9

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

In Deep Woods, 9:


“I’m his wife,” Misty murmured quietly as she sipped her coffee in the empty kitchen.

Shippo knocked on the door, ready to scold Megumi again for forgetting to renew her barrier.  He blinked.  “Where is everybody?”

Misty looked up at him, her golden eyes unblinking.  The power that radiated from her was palpable, and Shippo wondered not for the first time just how old Kazuki’s cute little wife really was.  “Gone.  They’ll be back,” she said philosophically.  “Coffee?”

“No, thank you.”  Shippo sat down next to her.  “Did you meet the new boyfriend?  What do you think of him?”

Misty gave a little shrug.  “It doesn’t matter what I think.  I don’t have a problem with him, if that’s what you mean.  Megumi seems happy.”

“Hmm,” Shippo grunted noncommittally.  He glanced around.  “Where are the kids?  Is it just you and Kazuki this time?”

“Leif is still in school.  I have to be home by three o’clock to get him off the bus.  The other two are out and about somewhere.”  She smiled.  “They think they’re too old to have to tell their mother where they go.”

“Yeah, I remember those days,” remarked Shippo.  Although Misty’s ‘somewhere’ most likely meant somewhere out in the ocean, riding the waves or swimming beneath them.  Both of the older two took after their mother that way.

“Shippo?  You remember Kazuki’s first wife, don’t you?  What was she like?”

“Sachi?  She was human, one of Miroku and Sango’s daughters.  They both met when they were still kids.  It’s funny, I remember her quite well, and Kazuki too, although I didn’t know he was Inuyasha’s son until years later.  He really loved Sachi.”

“That was in the past—in Japan’s feudal era,” Misty said.  Kazuki had told her the story often enough, how he and his siblings had been able to travel across space and time five hundred years into the past.  Kazuki and his sister Mayumi had chosen to stay there and settle down.  He had two hanyou children from his marriage with Sachi, who had been born in the past.  Misty had met Masashi and Akiko, adults now.  They were wonderful people, and had been happy when their father found love again in Misty.  She thought Kazuki was happy, too.

“How did she die?” Misty asked softly.

“W called it a wasting sickness back then.  Koji thinks it was cancer.”

“Are you sure?”

“He was.  He told Kazuki so.  I think that’s what finally made Kazuki come back to the time he was born in, the knowledge that nothing he could have done would have changed it.”

“I—see.”  Misty tapped her fingers against her chin, lost in thought.  But if it was not cancer, if Sachi really did die because of something Trace did back then, Kazuki had the power to go back in time and change it.  Her heart clenched in sudden pain.

She lifted her head and forced a smile.  She was older than Kazuki by far, and wiser.  The boy had given her so many precious gifts—his love, his company on this earth for a while, their children.  What more could she want?  She loved Kazuki enough to let him go.  “I think I’ll go home now after all,” she said.  “I’ve got some errands to run.  Tell Kazuki,“  she hesitated, “Tell Kazuki if he gets back and you’re still here, I’ll see him later.”

“Sure,” Shippo said, watching Misty leave.  It was a little after nine in the morning.  From what he could tell, Misty and Kazuki had only just gotten there.  He wondered if she and her husband had had a fight, or something.  “No,” he said to himself under his breath.  “Not those two.”

Shippo didn’t feel like sitting around and waiting in case Kazuki, Megumi, and the boyfriend, Tarec, finally showed up.  They were all canines and probably out for a good long run.  No wonder Misty had decided to go home.

He locked the door since he couldn’t reset the barrier, grumbling to himself about Megumi’s irresponsibility lately.



Trace found himself back in the north woods, with Megumi by his side.  Kazuki had materialized a scant three feet away.  “Quick, Megumi, take us somewhere else!”  Trace was still extremely limited as to where he could travel in between.

Kazuki was not.  Winking out and winking back, he appeared with an arm around Trace’s throat, his fangs very close to the other youkai’s neck.

“Stop!”  Megumi screamed, throwing herself at her uncle and Trace.  She managed to dislodge Kazuki, and disappeared with Trace into the cave they had so recently vacated.  Kazuki followed them in between with ease.

“Get away from him, Megumi,” Kazuki growled.  “I don’t know what he’s told you, but he’s a liar and a murderer.  He killed Sachi.  I’m going to kill him.”

“You can’t kill me,” Trace taunted.  “I can’t die.”

Megumi didn’t move from her protective stance in front of Trace, but she did cast her eyes back and asked, in a bleak voice, “Is it true?  You killed Auntie Sachi?”

Trace stiffened.  “Go ahead and believe it if that’s what you want.”

“Are you saying you didn’t?”  Kazuki sneered.  “Mayumi told me you had claimed responsibility for Sachi’s death.  I didn’t believe her—I didn’t want to believe her!”  Kazuki’s voice rose in volume, but at least he had stopped trying to attack Trace.  “But she was right, wasn’t she?  You murdered my wife just to get back at me.  Now you’re after Megumi—again.  How the hell did you get free?”

Trace snorted.  “I was a fool then,” he said, lifting his chin defiantly.  “I said a lot of things.  I didn’t kill your wife.”

“Easy words to say,” Kazuki said.  “Why don’t I believe you?”  He crouched lower, and bared his teeth.  “Get out of the way, Megumi.”

“No,” she said evenly.

Kazuki considered her, as she stood protectively in front of her lover.  Megumi’s face was pale but determined.  Trace’s, on the other hand, was anything but repentant.  His lips curled in a mocking smile, and his violet eyes burned with an unspoken challenge.  Kazuki had no choice.  Without giving Megumi or Trace time to react, Kazuki rushed them, sweeping them both in between as he barreled into them.  If he couldn’t kill Trace outright, then he damn well would see the escaped youkai back in his prison where he belonged.

“Well, hello.”  A weak voice came from the deepest corner of the cave, and Kazuki whirled, senses engaged to sniff out what his eyes could not see.  There was a youkai in the corner, another prisoner from the looks of him.

“No you don’t.”  Kazuki went back a few seconds, and headed off an attempt by Trace to escape in between while his attention was distracted.  Kazuki held firmly onto both Trace and Megumi this time as he watched the prisoner in the shadows.  He nearly let them go as the prisoner rose to his feet and shuffled forward.

It was Trace!  But it couldn’t be Trace, because Trace was right next to him!”  He stared at the figure walking towards him.  

“Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag,” said the prisoner with Trace’s face and voice.  “I can’t say I’m ungrateful.  Trace, do you mind?  I’m a little starved at the moment.”  He held out his hands, and Trace, the Trace whose arm Kazuki still firmly grasped, moved back.

“I don’t think so,” Kazuki’s Trace said.  “Don’t touch Megumi, either.”

“Ah, so Kazuki is fair game?”  The other Trace beamed a smile at the utterly confused dog-youkai.  “Kazuki, old friend, what’s a little energy between friends?  I won’t take much.”

“What the hell is going on?” Kazuki demanded.  “Who are you?”  He turned and looked first at his Trace, and then at the other Trace.

“Energy first,” the other Trace said.  “Or else I can’t show you.”

Kazuki growled, then glanced uncertainly at the Trace he still held on to.  Why hadn’t his Trace tried to drain his energy?  His Trace smiled mockingly at him, letting him draw his own conclusions.

Megumi sighed, and yanked her arm free of her uncle’s.  “You can have some of my energy, Uncle Fenn,” she said, laying her hands on him before either Kazuki or Trace could object.

They both objected, loudly.

“Megumi, no!”  yelled Kazuki, letting go of his Trace in an effort to pull his niece back.

“Don’t do it!” Trace yelled, racing forward alongside Kazuki to drag Megumi away from the other youkai.  He completely ignored his one chance to escape in between.

“Too late.”  Fenn smiled, and cradled Megumi in his arms.  “She’s fine.  I didn’t take much.  Since she so kindly revealed my secret identity, I won’t bother wasting what energy she gave me on transforming my features.”

Trace grabbed Megumi out of Fenn’s arms and glared at his maker.  “I told you not to touch her,” he muttered.

Fenn chuckled and shook his head.  “Then you should have given me some of your energy,” he said.  “How did you stand it all these years?  If you three hadn’t come along, I might have faded away to nothing,” he said dramatically.

Trace snorted.  “You aren’t that weak,” he pointed out.  He gently stroked Megumi’s forehead as her eyes fluttered.

Kazuki glanced warily from Fenn/Trace to the real Trace who still had made no move to try to get away.  “I don’t understand,” he said.  “Why is Fenn here?”

Megumi propped herself up on her elbows.  “It’s because of me,” she said, not catching the glance Fenn exchanged with Trace.  “He did it so I could be with Trace.”

“Sit down, boy,” Fenn said, his voice sounding stronger than it had a short while ago, thanks to the energy he had siphoned off of Megumi.  “There’s a lot to explain.”

Kazuki crashed to the ground, knees crossed, arms folded, and a very familiar pout on his lips.  If not for the crew-cut hair, he would have looked a lot like his father at that moment.  “Start talking,” he growled.  “That one’s on borrowed time.”  He pointed a clawed finger at the Trace who currently fussed over Megumi.



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