InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Learning my way... ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

  Mariko woke up the next morning with the feeling that something was off. Cracking open her eyes, she shrieked at the sight of a pair of golden eyes hovering above her face, but the sound was muffled by a hand being clamped over her mouth.

 "Keitaro, don't DO that! How did you get in here?" she hissed after he had let her go. The inu-hanyou was already in his school uniform and his backpack was on the floor near her bed. Mariko noticed that he was still wearing Inuyasha's prayer beads.

"Akihiro's window was open," he replied, grinning. Then suddenly, his grin disappeared, and he turned to face the door, taking a careful sniff and training his ears forward.

"Shit…" he breathed.

"What is it?" asked Mariko, but then she heard her mother's feet padding down the hall and the doorknob started to turn. Keitaro dived over her bed and started fumbling with the window. He popped open the catch with surprising ease (Neither Mariko, nor her father had been able to budge it,) and was climbing out the open window when Mrs. Fujita pushed open the door.

"Time to get up Mari-" she sang before her eyes finally focused on what was going on.

"What the hell?!" she cried in English, before her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Mariko lept out of bed to do damage control, before her mother got any really bad ideas.

 "Mom! Keitaro didn't stay the night! He um…just showed up this morning… woke me up!"

"Was just leaving…" supplied Keitaro at the same time, still sitting on the sill.

"From the window? Have you got a death wish boy?" demanded Mrs. Fujita. Keitaro shook his head, then swore inwardly, as Mrs. Fujita's eyes suddenly were riveted on the top of his head, or more accurately, on his ears. He wasn't wearing his baseball cap.

"How did you get into the apartment?" she asked, her voice hard.

"Akihiro's window," replied Keitaro, his ears flattening. 

 "Get yourself off that sill young man! The both of you have A LOT of explaining to do," before turning and stalking out of the room. Keitaro meekly pulled his legs in and went to stand outside the room so that Mariko could have some privacy to get dressed. Ten minutes later, they both sat down at the kitchen table where a sleepy eyed Akihiro joined them.

It didn't take long for the eleven year old boy to notice Keitaro's ears.

"Whoa! Are those dog ears real?" he exclaimed.

Keitaro nodded curtly in reply as Mrs. Fujita plunked down three plates of bacon and eggs in front of them. Taking a seat across from Keitaro, she gave him a long searching look. Mariko and Akihiro began to silently eat their breakfast.

"So those ears are why you've been wearing a baseball cap every time you came here?" she said. Keitaro nodded, not wanting to spark too much of an outburst from Mariko's mother, who was starting to resemble a boiling teakettle.

"And you seemed to think you could climb out my daughter's window, which is fourteen stories up and has no ledges or fire escapes near it?" Keitaro nodded seriously again. Mrs. Fujita glared at him, her blue eyes narrowing. She was obviously wondering why she let this lunatic spend time with her daughter.

"How did you get in?" she asked again, daring him to lie.

"Akihiro's window… It was open…" explained Keitaro, "I saw that it was open and I figured, why not?"

Mrs. Fujita's eyes narrowed until she seemed to be squinting. Keitaro her suspicion and distrust was starting to make him feel ever so slightly ill.

"You're lying," she announced.

"No," replied Keitaro calmly.

"He's not lying mom… Keitaro… is…well…um…" Mariko trailed off. 

"What she's trying to say is that my ears are not some random genetic birth defect, Mrs. Fujita, I'm a quarter dog demon," he explained. Whatever Anna-Marie Fujita had been expecting as an explanation, it had not been that.

"Come again?" she said blankly just as Akihiro exclaimed "Dog demon? That is SO cool! Wait until I tell Toshi and Genji about that!"

Mariko rounded on her brother before Keitaro could say a word.

"You're not going to tell Toshi or Genji ANYTHING about Keitaro being part inu-youkai, got that? If he doesn't shred you, I'll do it myself!" Akihiro gulped and cast Keitaro a wide-eyed look as he scootched his chair away a few inches. Keitaro sighed and his ears drooped slightly. 

"Don't worry, I'm not going to shred you, but please don't say anything," he told the boy, who nodded mutely. 

"Dog demon…?" Mariko's mother managed to say staring at him. She didn't seem to have noticed the exchange between her children.

"Yah, dog demon… my father was a hanyou and how he met my mother is kind of a long story, which is too long to tell right now, because school starts in fifteen minutes and unless I give her a ride, it takes Mariko twenty minutes to walk to school," replied Keitaro, glancing at the clock on the wall.

 Both Mariko and Mrs. Fujita looked at the clock as though they had never seen one before and then Mariko began to eat faster. She then disappeared into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

   Minutes later, they departed from the roof of Mariko's building and were bounding across the rooftops. Mariko still held on tightly, but the impulse to scream her head off had disappeared.

   ~~~

When they walked into English class, the first thing that Keitaro noticed was that Yukio wasn't in class, which struck him as odd, because he had smelled the other boy in one of the school's hallways.

It wasn't until halfway through class that Keitaro smelled something rather ominous coming down the hallway.

Gunpowder.

There was a knock on the door and Mr. Baker went to open it. Standing there were two uniformed police officers.

 "Is there a Higurashi Keitaro in this class?" asked the tallest one, an older man with a dark face and streaks of grey in his hair. All eyes turned from the officers to him on a dime. Nervously, Keitaro raised his hand.

 "We would like you to come with us,"

Gasps rippled through the classroom and whispering erupted. Mariko shot him a fearful, wide-eyed look. What did you do? She mouthed. Keitaro shrugged in reply, but he had an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that Yukio had something to do with this.

Slowly, Keitaro stood up and walked to the door, pulling his baseball cap lower over his ears out of nervous habit. He tried to come up with reasons why the police would want to take him anywhere. Then it suddenly occurred to him that Nishimura might have squealed and knowing the lying bastard, he had probably exaggerated.

Keitaro grimaced when one of the younger cops, a short, skinny guy with halitosis, grabbed him roughly, spun him around and slapped a pair of handcuffs on.

 Yep, He exaggerated…

The three officers led him out of the classroom and patted him down. Thankfully, none of them thought to bother with his hat. When the older cop came closer, Keitaro noticed something odd about his scent, or more, something that was odd about a female someone who was close to this guy. His mate is a bat hanyou…

"Why the funny look, boy?" demanded the man, glaring at him as they led him along the hallways towards the school office.

"Nothing," replied Keitaro, being careful to keep his tone of voice reasonably pleasant. If he wanted to get out of this okay, he had to make sure that he didn't come across as a rude delinquent or he might as well just jump out of the frying pan into the roaring fire.

They led him to Principal Yasukawa's office, and Keitaro could smell the principal, along with Nishimura, his parents and a forth person, who was revealed to be another police officer when the door was pushed open.

Keitaro was amused to note that the thirty-something principal had finally wised up about her own situation and was now wearing a maternity dress. He refrained from smirking however.

Instead, he took time to study Yukio's parents. Mr. Nishimura was a handsome man of about forty wearing a navy business suit. His hair was lighter than most and the emotion that Keitaro smelled on him was concern. Yukio's mother was a tall, slender woman with short hair and a power suit. She looked and smelled ready to throw down. Literally.

Yukio was sitting on his father's right side and looked very pleased with himself. Keitaro fought the urge to growl at him.

Keitaro was pushed into a chair without much ceremony and the oldest cop stood in front of him, trying to look menacing. He wasn't very successful. Mariko could be much scarier. Keitaro raised an eyebrow.

"Higurashi Keitaro," started the older policeman, "Do you know why you're here?"

"I have a pretty good idea," replied Keitaro, shifting in the chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed both of Yukio's parents giving him strange looks.

"Are you admitting that you threatened to kill young Mr. Nishimura over there?" asked the officer.

"No. I said I was capable of killing him, but I wouldn't and that he was damn lucky that I have a conscience," He replied, scowling at the other boy. "I know a few people who would have shredded him on the spot if they'd have had to put up with what I've had to put up with from him."

As one, all the police officers turned to look at Yukio, who bristled at his comment.

"Prove it. Prove that I've done anything to you,"

"Go ask Baker-sensei, He's seen some of the stuff that you've pulled," Keitaro retorted.

"That was exposing you for the freak of nature that you are!"

"I'm not a freak of nature,"

"You're not even fucking human!" shouted Yukio, jumping to his feet and making a lunge for his baseball cap. Keitaro threw his arms up to block him instinctively, then swore as everyone in the room, save Yukio and the senior officer, gasped. He had broken the handcuffs. Fuck! What better proof do they need?

"See?! See?!!" cried Yukio, "He's not human! No human could do that!"

Keitaro gritted his teeth and slid his hands out of the cuffs. It left a few abrasion marks on his skin, but those would heal up quickly. Might as well take these damn things off.

"Sorry about that," he apologized, handing the cuffs to the junior officer with halitosis. The officer stared at the cuffs with wonderment for a few seconds, then silently put them on the desk.

The older officer didn't seem particularly ruffled by his strength. Keitaro wondered if his hanyou mate had given him some ability to sense youki. Yukio's mother was staring at him with a look of mixed shock and fear in her expression, but his father was different. Instead, he had a look of recognition on his face.

 "What's wrong, Nishimura-san?" Keitaro asked him, struggling to keep his voice from getting snarky.

 "Was your mother… by any chance… named Kagome?" he asked quietly, his voice shaking slightly.

Keitaro's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he nodded. Mr. Nishimura choked audibly. Keitaro frowned.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I knew your mother, we were friends in middle school, but we kind of drifted apart when we started going to different high schools… My name is Houjou," replied Mr. Nishimura.

Keitaro recognized the name from one of his mother's photo albums and a few of Mama-baachan's stories. He found it very hard to believe that Yukio's father had been a friend of his mother.

"How is Kagome?" asked Houjou eagerly. Yukio was staring at his father with something akin to horror.

"She's dead," answered Keitaro quietly, "So is Otou-san, I live at the shrine with Mama-baachan." Houjou reacted as though he had been slapped.

"Kagome…is dead? When did this happen?" demanded Yukio's father.

"When I was a baby, she got attacked in the well-house by something and fell into the well and broke her neck," feeding them the lie that Mama-baachan had conceived. Houjou-san hung his head. Both Yukio's mother and Yukio were staring at him. 

"Who was your father?" asked Houjou curiously.

"His name was Inuyasha, he and my mother met when she was fifteen, and they were together until he died, which was a month before Okaa-san did - in a motorcycle accident," answered Keitaro, wincing at the lies. Glancing at Yukio, he noted that the other boy had a very sinister grin on his face. That was not good.

"Inuyasha you say…?" said Houjou thoughtfully; "I think I met him once… Silver hair, red outfit and always wears a baseball cap?"

Keitaro nodded. Yukio's expression was making him nervous.

"You're father's name was Inuyasha? Doesn't that mean dog demon?" demanded Yukio harshly, before his father could say anything else.

"Yah, what of it?" asked Keitaro, trying to act like he wasn't ready to jump out of his chair and throttle Yukio. The three police officers, Principal Yasukawa and Yukio's mother were glancing at each other nervously.

Yukio put two and two together faster than it had taken Keitaro to break the handcuffs.

"You're a youkai!" he accused. Everyone in the room, save the eldest police officer reacted with surprise. Keitaro felt his insides go cold and numb. Houjou glanced back and forth between his son and the other teenage boy.

"I knew it!" continued Yukio, "there's no way that any birth defect could have given you those fucking ears. As for how fast you move, well, that explains everything! You're some sort of heathen! Why hasn't a fucking priest had a go at you yet! You need to be purified out of existence,"

 Keitaro closed his eyes and struggled to reign in his anger and his fear. In less than half an hour, his life had fallen apart. Yukio continued to rant, but Keitaro couldn't listen anymore. Not without losing it.

"Be quiet young man," said a sharp voice.

Keitaro's eyes snapped open and Yukio's mouth stopped moving in mid-word. The older police officer was glaring at Yukio with disgust written all over his face.

"Do not think that you know anything about youkai, boy!" hissed the officer. "There are more of them than you'd ever dream of and they are not the forgiving type when their secrets are exposed," Keitaro got the impression that the officer spoke from experience. At least he had one person on his side.

The other adults in the room seemed stunned into silence. 

"I have seen enough already, there will be no arrests made today, but if I hear anything about you harassing Higurashi, I will arrest you - for your own safety!" he continued, glaring at Yukio. Keitaro frowned.

"What's to stop him from spreading rumors?" he asked.

"He won't if he knows what's best for him," said the officer gruffly, giving Yukio a look that could have melted lead.  Keitaro knew this was his cue to give Nishimura some sort of threatening look and gesture, but for some reason, he didn't want to. It was taking advantage of his youkai heritage if he did that.

If that bastard hates demons so much, I'll beat him on human terms…If he calls a fucking priest on me though, I'll ask Mariko to put him through a little hell…thought Keitaro darkly, the few faint burn marks left on his back twinging in agreement. 

The only thing that Keitaro wondered about now was how.   

  ~~~~

He smelled Mariko coming long before she grabbed him by his uniform collar and dragged him into an alcove in the school hallway.

"Well?! What the hell happened?" she demanded without so much as a 'Hey! I'm glad you're not being arrested,' Keitaro filled her in on the whole incident in Yasukawa's office.

"Nishimura's father was a friend of your mother?!" cried Mariko. Keitaro nodded.

"Mama-baachan said he was a really nice guy… kinda makes me wonder what happened to his kid… maybe Yukio got all his nastiness from his mother," replied Keitaro in a low voice, "Anyways, that old officer's mate is a Koumori hanyou,"

Mariko frowned for a second, the word escaping her vocabulary.

"Koumori…? Oh… a bat hanyou," she muttered, "and he stood up for you? I can see why,"

"Yah, now I'm just kind of worried that he'll start telling everybody… He basically got told today that youkai exist, and I don't doubt that he'll start something, but I don't know what,"

  ~~~~~

The rest of the week was quiet, and when Keitaro encountered Yukio in the hallways, the shorter boy would only glare at him hatefully. Yukio distanced himself from his friends from the look of it and could be seen slumped in the corner of the cafeteria, his gaze drilling holes in the back of Keitaro's head. It was about then that Keitaro and Mariko started eating their lunch on the roof of the school.

When Saturday rolled around once more, Keitaro couldn't wait to jump through the well again. When Mariko arrived at the shrine at five after ten on Saturday morning, she was amused to note that he was all but bouncing with anticipation.

 He virtually grabbed her hand and dragged her down the well. Mama-baachan had packed them lunch and they brought the Shikon jewel with them, wary of the fact that Mariko could be injured if she tried to travel through the well without it.

They had exited Inuyasha's forest and were half way across the rice fields before they were noticed. The villagers working in the fields called out greetings to him and before they reached the village, they could see (or in Keitaro's case, smell) Sango, Rika, Miaka and Naomi waiting for them at the edge of the village.

Oddly enough, Miroku's scent was absent from the village as was Masuhiro's and Sachi's.

"Where are they?" asked Keitaro, once they had finished saying hello.

"There was a demon raiding a village to the north, taking children," explained Sango, "My husband took the boys to go exterminate it… We alternate when we get complaints such as these. The next time there is news of a demon attack, I will go after it with Masuhiro and Sachi,"

"Oh," remarked Keitaro, suddenly feeling distinctly uncomfortable. His fighting skills, while far outstripping a normal human's, had never been really put to any use. He doubted his usefulness if the village ever came under attack. He suddenly wondered if he could take on Sango and Hiraikotsu and come out nominally un-injured.

Come to think of it… I don't even know how to use any of the special attacks that I know Otou-san had… if I even have them…

As if Sango had been reading his mind, she asked him to show her what he was able to do in a fight. He admitted right off the bat that he had never touched a sword before. Surprisingly enough, Mariko revealed that she'd done fencing for a year in the US.

Between his embarrassment about his lack of sword skills and Mariko explaining what fencing was to Sango, Keitaro began to feel oddly inadequate. Especially when Sango excused herself for several minutes and returned dressed in her Taijiya armor with Hiraikotsu slung over her shoulder. She handed Rika and Mariko a pair of katanas and told Rika to assess how good Mariko was.

The two girls walked away, chatting animatedly.

Sango in turn, led Keitaro to an open space, far away from the village huts, in the middle of the rice fields.

"I knew you would be inexperienced if you ever did return to us Keitaro," she said calmly, "Kagome told me about how people don't usually need to know how to defend themselves in the modern era. Judging from your expression, this embarrasses you… but I will train you, as will Miroku when he returns. This is something that we agreed upon several days ago. Also, Mariko can become one of my apprentices if she wishes,"

"Arigatou Sango-san-"

"Sango, just Sango to the son of my best friend," replied Sango. "Now let's see what you can do," and with that she let Hiraikotsu fly. Startled, Keitaro barely managed to duck the flying boomerang. He was faster when it came soaring back and merely stepped out of its line of flight. 

The next time Sango sent the weapon flying in his direction, he was ready. Dodging the whirling boomerang he lunged at her, only to be stopped by her katana, which he had grabbed out of instinct when he saw it move. Swearing as he felt it slice his left hand open, he cursed his stupidity and ducked the returning hiraikotsu.

For the next hour, they sparred like that. Keitaro only managed to close enough to the Taijiya to inflict damage a handful of times. He didn't actually try to slash her, as he stopped when he came close enough to do so.

"For one who's barely had more than a few real fights in your life, you're decent," declared Sango as she caught Hiraikotsu for the fifty-eighth time. Keitaro nodded in reply.

"Do you know how to use your youkai attacks?"

"I have a vague idea… but I've never used them," replied Keitaro, shaking his head. Sango frowned.

"You will have to learn to use them Keitaro,"

"I know,"

"Good, I know you'll do Inuyasha proud," answered Sango with a smile. "I have to go make lunch, I will see you soon," with that, she turned away and began to walk back towards the huts.

Keitaro stared after her, his emotions making him too choked up to speak.

No one has ever said that to me before…

  ~~~

"Mariko, what are you doing?" demanded Rika, backing off and staring at the younger girl incredulously.  Mariko flushed slightly and the hand with her katana dropped to her side.

"It's called a coup droit," replied Mariko, the french terms rolling off her tongue.

"Well, it'll be called a 'you're dead' if you tried to use that against anyone bigger than you," replied Rika, shaking her head.  

"How so?" asked Mariko, puzzled. So far, she had been 'killed' every single time she had tried to use anything from her very tiny fencing repertoire. Rika's slashcutwhack method of sword use had driven Mariko back nearly every time, save the odd occurrence when Mariko got lucky and managed to touch Rika's arm or torso.

Rika sighed.

"Try it again and I'll show you what I mean,"

The two of them took up starting positions.

"Engarde," whispered Mariko as she lunged forward. Rika parried and spun sideways, swinging her katana up. Mariko gasped as she felt the blade touch her neck.

"What you need is to learn is how to fight dirty," remarked Rika dryly, "If I was some demon or rogue soldier, you'd be fighting for your life and because of that, you'd be dead, and you'd either be eaten or raped."

Mariko was forced to see her point. All her imaginings of a three musketeer-esque sword fight were promptly swept out the window.

"Okay,"

"Let's start again,"

And they did.

 ~~~~~

 Weeks passed as Mariko and Keitaro made dozens of trips to the feudal era. Slowly, they came to know everyone within the small village. Keitaro began to figure out how to use his youkai attacks and Sango taught them both how to sword fight.

Keitaro began to accompany both Sango and Miroku on demon slaying missions, learning how to bring down demons larger than himself. The presence of the Shikon jewel in the feudal era once more began to draw evil youkai and humans to the village.

By his seventeenth birthday, five months later in late May, Keitaro was able to handle demons on his own that often took Miroku, Sachi and Masuhiro seamless teamwork to bring down. Mariko had become Sango's apprentice and while her sword skills had improved dramatically, she still was years behind Sachi and Masuhiro when it came to training.

Sango had been the first to notice the emergence of Inuyasha's stubborn, fighting spirit in Keitaro's eyes. Before, she felt that the benevolent hanyou boy took after Kagome more than he did Inuyasha. But now she could see, outside appearance aside, that Inuyasha's love for the fight had been awakened within Keitaro's soul.

Just like his father, his eyes would glow with a savage pleasure in battle, but unlike Inuyasha, Keitaro lacked the recklessness that had gotten Inuyasha in over his head so many times. He stopped, thought things over, planned, then acted.

Unlike Kagome, neither of Keitaro nor Mariko took more than a day or two off school every few weeks. Mariko had only told her mother about her trips to the feudal era and as a result, she didn't come through the well nearly as often. Keitaro would come through the well almost everyday after school, even if only to get a breath of fresh air before jumping back through the well. He had discovered that he could travel through it without the Shikon jewel, just like his father had been able to do two decades before.

 One thing that both Miroku and Sango marveled at was Keitaro's control over his demon nature. They often wondered how the boy managed to survive without a sealing sword. When Sesshoumaru had arrived in the village three weeks after Inuyasha and Kagome's deaths to avenge the slaying of his brother, he had taken Tetsussaiga back with him to the ancestral castle that stood on the shores of what Kagome had said was going to be called the Sea of Japan…

     ~~~~

Hey all! I've done some rough sketches (I'm no artist) of a bunch of Characters from Learning my way and it's sequel, Kimi's song. If you want to see them, you can drop me a line and I'll send the pictures in the return e-mail and perhaps a bit of a hint for a future chapter!

 Also, Since I've been getting more reviews from media miner & aff.net than from fanfiction.net, I decided to start acknowledge them too.

   ~Mockingbird

Ff.net

RayeSun: Oh, they will go find Shippou, eventually… or maybe Shippou will find them? Hmm… interesting thought ;)

Katgome-chan: Thanks ^_^ Happy now?

Teenage Inuyasha: That many times? I feel very special :D

Lady-Sttar: He's dead. Poor guy. I hope he doesn't stay that way :P

Mediaminer

Persephone of Abydos: I will!

Pagan_sedjou: I was trying to write a tear-jerker scene… I'm glad that it worked J

Farahlayla: You're my most frequent reviewer! Yay!

Tessie_fanfic: thanks