InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Lost in the Past ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Lost in the Past, Chapter 7

 

 

They trudged back to the village at a comfortably human pace. Kazuki had lost all of his former energy despite Miroku's assurances that they would just inform Sango of the situation, restock for a longer period, and go right back out to search for Tetsusaiga again. Hopefully, with a hot meal in their stomachs first.

 

Miroku was reasonably sure the sword was just—misplaced. Youkai couldn't touch it without getting burned. To humans, Tetsusaiga appeared as a battered, rusty blade. Who else would want it?

 

“Ah, Sango my love,” he greeted his wife jovially, noting her deepening frown as well as the toddler perched upon her jutted hip. It wasn't one of theirs. “Mayumi?” he guessed. The little one was dressed in village clothes and had hair dark as Kazuki's peeking out from under her kerchief. She could have been one of his own.

 

Mayumi caught sight and scent of her brother and squirmed to be let down. Sango let her go just before she jumped, smiling as Mayumi ran towards her big brother, almost bowling him over in her enthusiasm.

 

“Well?” Sango asked.

 

“Kazuki—ah—couldn't find where he'd left Tetsusaiga.”

 

Sango's mouth opened. She snapped it shut. “Kazuki may be hanyou, but he's still very young,” she said. “He had a lot on his mind that day.” She glanced meaningfully at the little girl who was currently climbing all over her brother as Hiroshi looked on and laughed.

 

“Yes, he put her safety first,” agreed Miroku. He had made some hard decisions which, in the end, were the right ones. Inuyasha would have been very proud of him.

 

The little girl ran back to Sango and pulled urgently on her skirt. Sango looked down. “You have to go?” she asked.

 

Mayumi nodded emphatically, so Sango picked her up and disappeared behind a corner of the nearest house. Kazuki's eyes goggled. Boy, Mom was going to be surprised.

 

Mom. Kazuki's shoulders slumped. Mama. He wondered what she was doing right now. Was she mad at him? His breath hitched as he swallowed the urge to cry. Just then, Hiroshi, who had disappeared momentarily, came back wearing a peculiar black outfit and carrying a very short curved stick. Kazuki's attention shifted immediately and his ears perked up underneath the scarf.

 

“What's that for?” he asked curiously, gesturing towards the stick.

 

“Wanna see?” Hiroshi grinned, and threw the stick straight up in the air. It whirled around several times, then came hurtling back down. Hiroshi caught it, grinning even wider.

 

“Can I try?”

 

Miroku saw this as a good sign. Their search for Tetsusaiga could wait a day while his old bones recuperated. “Kazuki,” he called. “Why don't you go with Hiroshi to the field and watch the other trainees practice their moves?”

 

“At Slayer School?” asked Kazuki, clearly interested. “Sure!” He ran after Hiroshi, right through the re-established barrier which threw up sparks as he passed.

 

Ah, youth, thought Miroku. Then. . . Slayer School? He supposed you could call it that. Kazuki might give the trainees a little pause. He wondered if the boy would play `youkai' for them.

 

“Come here, you little dumpling!” Miroku swept a giggling Mayumi up and over his head, tickling her. “How's my girl?”

 

“Good, you can play with her while I finish supper,” said Sango. Of course, the other children had to crowd around and get their turn at being swung into the air, too, never mind that they were several pounds heavier than the hanyou toddler. Miroku didn't mind.

 

Kazuki was never one to just watch. He was literally leaps and bounds ahead of the other children when it came to maneuvering, but on weapons they had him beat. There really wasn't much call for weapons in his woods at home.

 

“I have these,” he said shyly to one of the other boys who questioned him on what weapon he preferred. He held out his hands, fingers curled slightly so that his sharp, long claws were presented.

 

Claws. The boy's eyes widened. He had forgotten Kazuki was youkai. With his dark head all wrapped up to hide his telltale ears, it was easy to overlook the light eyes. “Fine, then, let's see what you can do with them.” He presented Kazuki with an easy target—the tree stump about halfway down the field. “Pretend that's a youkai,” he instructed.

 

The boy expected Kazuki to shave a few splinters off the stump, maybe, or at most gouge it with his claws, but Kazuki bolted down the field almost faster than his eyes could track, and swung one arm. When the dust settled, the tree stump was gone, completely gone. The slayer boy cursed appreciatively.

 

“Did I do it right?” asked Kazuki.

 

“Yeah, you were great!” Hiroshi rushed over and slapped his back, eyes shining. “You should be a slayer!”

 

Kazuki considered that. He was a youkai, well, a hanyou—he knew the difference now, although his Dad told him there really was no difference—could he even be a slayer? “Would I have to kill youkai?” he asked, thinking of Uncle Shippo and Uncle Sesshomaru.

 

“Just bad ones,” said Hiroshi. “My uncle Kohaku is a slayer and he works with a great youkai Lord. They only slay bad youkai.”

 

“Ok, I guess I can be one, then,” Kazuki decided. “Can I try using a weapon, though?” he asked. Claws were just too ordinary.

 

The village youths took turns letting him practice with their weapons of choice so that Kazuki could see which weapon he liked best. He was sort of young, even by slayer standards, but in light of his awesome youkai abilities, they decided among themselves that he could join their practice sessions.

 

Kazuki really really wanted to try a sword, like his Dad. Daddy used Tetsusaiga to slay youkai. Kazuki's thoughts faltered. Except that now Tetsusaiga was missing, and it was all his fault. Now Daddy couldn't slay youkai with it, or come to get him and Mayumi, either. He hoped his Dad was Ok without Tetsusaiga. He squared his shoulders. No matter what, he would get Tetsusaiga back to Daddy.

 

One of the boys had a sword. It was a lot shorter than even the untransformed Tetsusaiga, and hung from a sheath across the boy's back. It was just the right size for Kazuki to swing around without hitting the ground every time. “I like this one,” he commented.

 

“Just think of it as an extension of your arm,” the older boy advised him. He stood behind Kazuki and positioned him so that he could get maximum leverage with the sword. “That's it. Keep practicing. You're doing great.”

 

Kazuki smiled happily. Now he had a sword just like his Dad. He determined to become as good with it as his Dad was with Tetsusaiga. “Can I keep it?” he asked, when it got too dark for the others to see and their practice session broke up.

 

The boy let him `borrow' it for the night, but told him it was only until the next day. Kazuki's face fell, but he understood. Maybe, when he found Tetsusaiga and went home, he could ask his Dad to get him his own sword. He fell asleep with the sheathed sword clutched in his arms, dreaming of swords and youkai, and mama and papa.

 

 

 

 

“I remember you,” the old youkai woman pointed a shaky finger at Inuyasha next. “From back then.”

 

Inuyasha keh'd, and turned his head away. Of course, she might have seen him during the Sengoku Jidai if she was alive since then. All of the youkai in this room had been alive since those days. What was Sesshomaru thinking? How was this supposed to help them find another way to the past?

 

Kagome laid her hand on Inuyasha's arm. “Go on,” she encouraged the woman.

 

“I saw you appear in a flash of blue light.”

 

Sesshomaru nodded imperceptibly, while Inuyasha and Kagome exchanged glances. So that was why Sesshomaru had included this woman in his little group? It didn't solve their problem, however. So they were indiscreet and had been observed in one of their trips back to the past. It didn't help them now.

 

“Wait—you only saw Inuyasha?” asked Kagome suddenly. As far as she was aware, they always went back and forth together—Inuyasha's ironclad rule—until this disaster with the children, at least.

 

“Only him,” the old youkai woman agreed. “He was there. He looked right at me. Then the blue light surrounded him again, and he was gone.”

 

Inuyasha jumped up and started pacing up and down, his youki sparking off the rapidly rising youki of the other youkai who sat around the table.

 

“Calm down, Inuyasha,” Sesshomaru said quietly.

 

“Why? I don't know what she's talking about! Woman,” he directed his glare at the youkai. “When did you see me? Where?”

 

“Back then,” she repeated vaguely. “You were dressed differently, too, more like him.” She pointed at Sesshomaru this time. “But it wasn't him, it was you. I was much younger then, and pretty.” The youkai woman smiled dreamily, lost in her memories. “I was hoping you would stay and talk to me,” she said.

 

Sesshomaru frowned. This wasn't at all what he had thought the old youkai woman had meant when she said she'd seen his brother in the past. He had brought her in on the strength of her recollection of a blue light, such as the light that surrounded Tetsusaiga when it brought Inuyasha's family back through time. It was the same blue light, or so they told him, that had animated the well when it functioned as a time slip. Now, he had a suspicion that the old youkai hadn't seen Inuyasha at all. Was it possible that Inuyasha was not the only family member to have power over time? But Tetsusaiga had only recently acquired this power. . . .

 

“Woman,” Sesshomaru needed to get something straight. “Was he holding a great sword?”

 

“Sword? There was no sword.”

 

“Then where did this blue glow that you say you saw come from?”

 

“It surrounded him, my lord. The blue glow covered his entire body.”

 

Kagome gasped, as the implications hit her. Not Inuyasha. “It wasn't me, then,” he concluded. The only youkai he knew who could appear and disappear at will was right now on the other side of the planet. Fenn. And he had point-blank asked Fenn if he knew a way to go back in time. Since the youkai hadn't answered him, he figured that he didn't. Fenn could wait till later. “Ok, that was a waste of my time,” he said. “Who's next?” He let his eyes rove around the table at the collection of youkai who remained, and pointed at one. “You. What's your story?”

 

Sesshomaru let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding, and nodded for the youkai to comply.