InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mayumi's Story ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Mayumi's Story, Chapter 3

 

 

I saw Daichi standing at the edge of the forest, watching me and my `sisters' play at being slayers. Hiroshi and Kazuki had long since graduated from practicing in the big field beyond the village to patrolling the nearby hills and getting real practical experience. I wondered why Daichi wasn't with them.

 

He caught me looking and stared back briefly, then he turned abruptly and was swallowed by the trees. Even his youki was gone. The girls hadn't sensed anything at all. We resumed our practice.

 

I wore the slim black silk pants and fitted blouse typical of slayers. Auntie Sango had made three pairs, one for each of us girls. There were a few other village children our age similarly dressed. I assumed their mothers had sewn their outfits as well. My parents were also here, in the Sengoku Jidai, but they no longer stayed in the village when we visited. Lately, they had been traveling with my Aunt and Uncle, looking for something or someone, I wasn't exactly sure which.

 

“Come on, Mayumi. You be the youkai.”

 

I rolled my eyes. I was always the youkai. Fine. “Fine,” I said aloud. “Get ready to run.”

 

Everybody knew I was part youkai. That one thing made it easier for me to be with my friends here than the ones at home in my time. But did they always have to single me out? I know what my Papa would have said: `Get somebody else to do it. I'm not playing your stupid games.' Then he would have walked off. But I wanted to keep playing, so I'd be the youkai. Again.

 

My superior speed elicited shrieks of mock terror from my young playmates as I sprang up and over them, one by one, tagging them lightly as I passed. But as much as we all knew it was a game, I couldn't dismiss the scent of true fear that underlay all of the excitement. I was a youkai; I could hurt them, if I so chose. How could they think I ever would? It hurt, a little, though I wouldn't let them see. They had no idea that I could sense their hidden fear. To be fair, my sisters in the feudal era, Auntie Sango's kids, weren't afraid of me at all. Their laughter was just that—laughter. It made the rest of it worthwhile.

 

Towards the end of the afternoon, I sensed Daichi's presence again. Our group broke up to get ready for supper and I made up some excuse about needing to go to the toilet. Instead, I doubled back and jumped over the stockade wall that surrounded the village. When my family visited, Uncle Miroku kindly left the protective spiritual barrier down. We could break through it if we tried, although it stung like crazy. Not all youkai could even break through, which I suppose was the whole point of having a barrier in the first place. But today, I was grateful I didn't have to fight with the barrier as I hopped over the wall. I confronted Daichi as he waited half-hidden in the trees.

 

“Kazuki's not here,” I said.

 

“I know,” he replied. “Are you his sister?”

 

He didn't have to be a genius to figure that out. He was youkai. My brother and I both probably smelled similar. I nodded.

 

“Want to go for a run?” he asked me, cocking his head to the side. He had the delicate pointed ears of a full youkai, but his hair was dark, pulled back from his face, making his youkai ears that much more noticeable. Daichi didn't need to hide what he was, no. He was proud of his youkai heritage. So was I. I tugged at the kerchief which hid my hanyou ears, and my dyed black hair fell like a cloud around my hands. I was proud, but I still had to hide.

 

“Ok,” I replied, knowing I shouldn't go. My parents trusted me. I was supposed to stay in the village until they returned. Kazuki was responsible for me. But Kazuki wasn't here. I smiled. “Let's go!”

 

We raced down the hillside, keeping to the trees. I liked running. Here in the Sengoku Jidai my Papa had only taken me out running a handful of times. Our vacations here were so short, and he and Mama lately had their own agenda. I spent most of my free time playing at Slayer School. It was my own fault. It was either join Slayer School like my brother Kazuki before me, or do girl stuff in the village. No choice, really. I enjoyed running in this time. The air was so clear, the smells were so sharp, and there was always the possibility of danger. That set my blood on fire.

 

Daichi and I ran in a great circle, and only stopped briefly to snag some rabbits. His eyes widened as I neatly finished mine. “You like that?” he asked me.

 

I nodded. I bet he didn't see too many village girls, even slayers, eat raw rabbit. My nose picked up another faint scent. “I have to go,” I told him. We were close to the village, but so were Kazuki and Hiroshi, on their way home from their patrol.

 

Daichi knew immediately what I meant, having picked up their scent also. I liked that, not having to explain. We both headed our separate ways. It had been fun, and a little exciting.

 

“Where were you?” asked one of the girls. She had seen me jump back over the fence, so lying was out. She looked worried, and suddenly I felt bad.

 

“I'm sorry,” I blurted. “I wanted to stay out a little longer.”

 

She eyed me suspiciously, looking much like her mother at that moment. Then her eyes softened, but the worry didn't disappear. “I ought to tell your brother,” she said, and my face fell. She relented. “Don't do it again,” she said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. We both went in to the house so I could change.

 

She never did tell Kazuki, or my parents, and I learned to be more careful after that. By `more careful,' read `sneaky.' Thank Uncle Shippo for that. He's a great teacher.

 

“Let's go,” my father said when he and my mother finally returned. We had school, regular school, in the morning. I was pretty sure I knew how to go by myself, the way Kazuki did, but I didn't want to hurt my father's feelings. He used Tetsusaiga and brought us all home again. He held me back with one arm when I would have gone to my room, and made a show of sniffing me. “You stink,” he pronounced. “Go take a bath.”

 

 

 

We always had visitors to our house in Connecticut. Uncle Fenn and Uncle Shippo both lived nearby and were often present while I was growing up. Uncle Sesshomaru didn't come around nearly as often, but I saw enough of him in my formative years that I had a really hard time pretending I didn't know him back in the Sengoku Jidai. Uncle Kouga and Auntie Ayame sometimes visited from Japan, and many of their children, descendants I should probably say, took my father up on his offer to settle here, so we had a couple of different wolf youkai tribes in the woods of the Northeast.

 

As I said, I like running. I loved running with the wolves. Papa had a bit of a problem with that. Oh, he made jokes about stinky wolves, but I don't think he really meant it. There was nothing wrong with their scent. I think he was just overprotective of his little girl. Whenever any of the wolf youkai came near, he was right by my side. He wouldn't let Mama key her barrier to them. They had to call us on the phone if they wanted to visit.

 

Oh, but I loved it. Wolves run like nothing else. There's a wildness about them that speaks to me. My father has it, too, that wild side, which has never been tamed. I know that's a large part of what attracts my mother to him, even if she won't come out and admit it. So, when the wolves called, we would run with them, my father and me. He might not like their scent, but I know he liked running, too.

 

One of Kouga's relatives was a frequent visitor to our house. Dai was tall, and handsome, for a grown-up. He got along ok with my father, except when he tried to talk to my mother or me. Then my father was right there, in between. Nothing personal, I thought. Just the dog/wolf thing. Dai called my father `Uncle.' I thought that was quaint, and more polite than my father deserved.

 

“You stay away from her,” my father cautioned Dai, who was just walking towards me with a fresh kill in his hands. We were on a run and had paused to take a breather. “I'll take care of her. I'm her father.”

 

Dai stopped, then nodded and turned away. He gave the rabbit he had caught to one of the other wolves and disappeared.

 

“Mayumi, you hungry?” Papa asked. He hadn't even thought of food until Dai had brought over that rabbit.

 

I glanced in the direction Dai had gone. I felt sorry for him. He was just trying to be nice. “No, Dad,” I said, making a point by not calling my father `Papa,' which he preferred. “I'm fine.”

 

“You sure?” He sounded worried now, like he sounded when he knew he had said something to set Mama off.

 

Mama was a good teacher, too. I had learned a lot from her just by watching her handle my father. I looked away, not meeting his gaze. “I'm fine,” I reiterated.

 

My father didn't know how to react. He knew I wasn't happy, but he also wouldn't or couldn't see that he had done anything wrong. It would make him think twice before he was so rude to someone on my behalf again. I hoped.

 

We were getting ready to run again. I stood up, and scanned the wolf youkai for the one I was looking for. “Uncle Dai!” I called, waving to him that we were ready. I figured that would show my father. But I couldn't decipher the pained expression that crossed Dai's face as I called his name. He kept his distance from me the entire way back, and in the end I didn't know who had upset him more, my father—or me.

 

 

 

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