InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mayumi's Story ❯ Chapter 17 ( Chapter 17 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Mayumi's Story, Chapter 17:

 

 

“Who are you?” my savior said harshly as he pulled me to my feet. I must have looked a hodgepodge of human and youkai, with my light hair still streaked brownish-black from when I had dyed it to go the human village, and my dog ears clearly visible atop my head. He must have thought I was a youkai when he rescued me, and only realized the truth when he got up close. I watched his nose wrinkle in disdain as my scent registered. “Hanyou,” he said derisively, and he turned to go.

 

“Wait!” I said. “You're the Inu no Taisho, aren't you?” Not only did he carry Tetsusaiga, but something in his demeanor reminded me strangely of Papa—and Sesshomaru.

 

His back stiffened but he didn't turn around. “Not for your kind,” he said in a low voice. “Be glad I let you live.”

 

I was astounded. Never in my wildest imagination would I have dreamed my fabled grandfather despised hanyou. His own son was hanyou! I felt my temper rise.

 

“My kind?” I repeated. “My kind! I knew Sesshomaru felt that way once upon a time, but you? It's because of you that `my kind' exists!” I turned my back on Grandfather's back and stomped a few feet in the opposite direction, not paying very much attention to where I was going, until a rough arm grabbed me and swung me back around. Grandfather had a temper, too. Surprise, surprise.

 

“How do you know my son?” he hissed, his grip on my arm painful. I stared up at his face, and realized I had probably said too much. But he deserved it, the bigoted jerk.

 

“I'm outta here,” I muttered, and I turned in between to follow the track back to where I had started. I'd obviously followed the strange youkai backwards in time, to an era in which my grandfather was still alive, but before he had met my grandmother, if his raging intolerance was any indication.

 

To my utter horror, he followed me! I sensed him the moment I turned, but then I felt him floundering, blind and lost, in the in-between space. He was truly powerful if he could pick up on that trick; not even Papa or Sesshomaru could do it! I briefly contemplated leaving him there to figure his own way out. He had lost me as soon as he entered. But I couldn't do it. He was my grandfather, whether he knew it or not. I couldn't just leave him behind. With a mental sigh, I touched him lightly and led him back the way we came, back to the sunlit slope where he had rescued me.

 

He stared at me, a little shocked, I think, that a mere hanyou had so much power. Hah. Little did he know it ultimately came from him! I stared back, still angry at him for his attitude. “Thanks for saving me and all,” I said, barely polite, “but I have to get home now. Don't try to follow me this time.”

 

“Wait,” he said, echoing my earlier word. “I'm—sorry.”

 

It killed him to say that, I could see it in his eyes. But he said it. I don't know whether Papa or Sesshomaru would have said sorry. Even now, that one word comes very hard to them. So I took Grandfather at face value and stayed, for the moment. I rubbed my arm where his claws had pierced my skin. Already the skin was healing over—Grandfather's legacy, again. His eyes narrowed; he noticed it, too.

 

“Tell me how you know my son,” he said, a little more calmly. He kept his distance from me but he watched me warily in case I decided to disappear again.

 

“Sesshomaru?” I asked uneasily. Now I had really put my foot in it. What was I supposed to say? He's my Uncle, or he will be, in I don't know how many years in the future? That would lead to more questions, I was sure. Oh, I was surely messing up the time stream now. “Um, I heard about him?” I suggested.

 

Grandfather's lips tightened in a way I recognized from Sesshomaru. He didn't believe me. “Sesshomaru is a child, sequestered safely with his mother,” he said, scowling. “No one knows about him yet.”

 

“Oh.” This just got better and better. I closed my eyes. In for a dime, in for a dollar, I supposed. “You should probably take a more active role in his upbringing,” I said. “Or maybe not. I always assumed he'd learned his prejudices from his mother, but now I'm not so sure.” I turned away. Let him make of that what he would.

 

Grandfather raised his eyebrow. Boy, both his sons looked so much like him! “Are you trying to insult me, hanyou?”

 

“As a matter of fact, I am,” I replied. “And don't call me that. I have a name—Mayumi.”

 

His lips quirked. “Mayumi. How do you know these things, Mayumi?”

 

I stared back at him, unsure of how much to say. I had already said too much. “Thank you for saving me,” I said instead, changing the subject. “Even though I'm hanyou.” I couldn't resist getting that dig in, but I think it went right over his head. He nodded, accepting my thanks, even though I was hanyou. Damn! How bad would it be if I messed up time a little more?

 

“What's your problem with hanyou anyway? Are we that bad?”

 

My grandfather's eyes clouded over, whether with anger or just reflection I couldn't tell. However, he answered me. “Hanyou were never meant to exist. They aren't strong enough to handle the potent youkai blood that flows in their veins. At best, they destroy themselves. At worst, they destroy everything around them.”

 

“Keh,” I scoffed. Not strong enough. “My Papa says there's no real difference between youkai and hanyou as regards power. And our human half gives us power too, you know. I suppose you also despise humans.”

 

“Humans? No. I don't despise them, as long as they keep to their place. I have no dealings with humans.”

 

I laughed. This was so absurd. “You will,” I told him smugly. “Tetsusaiga is made from your fang, right?”

 

He jumped back in startlement. “How do you know these things?” he asked, one hand protectively on Tetsusaiga's hilt. I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was thinking about killing me now to protect himself and ensure his line's future. I knew about Tetsusaiga, I knew about Sesshomaru. I grinned, showing my own fangs. Silly Grandfather—I was his future!

 

“Something from the full youkai who sired the hanyou's line can seal his blood. Tetsusaiga could do it, if you ever sired a hanyou.” There. I had planted the seed in his mind. Time was funny that way. Did I just make sure things would turn out the way they had? In which case, it was no accident that I found my way here. But why would the strange youkai have led me straight to an encounter with my grandfather if, as he said, he wanted me to go home to my own time? Why bring me back even farther? Unless he hadn't planned on me being able to follow him. Unless there was another reason why that youkai had come back to this particular time. Maybe Grandfather's appearance had surprised him, too. Maybe . . . .

 

My grandfather was growling audibly and had been for some time while I'd been off in my own little world. His eyes bled red and his voice, when he spoke, was the gravelly warning of the dog he was fast becoming. “I will never sire a hanyou!”

 

He was massive in that shape! But I had seen both Uncle Sesshomaru and Papa, and Grandfather didn't scare me—much. I knew that behind all that instinctual posturing remained a reasoning mind, one that could think like a man, or at least like a higher-order youkai. “Oh, stop it,” I said, and whacked his front paw with my foot. “We both know you're too honorable to just kill me. You might as well resume your other form so we can talk. Or I'll just leave, like I did before.”

 

He still tried to intimidate me. He thrust his giant head at me and scented me all over. It tickled! I patted his head and giggled. The next thing I felt was him transforming. The energy was incredible! Back in his youkai form, Grandfather stood incredibly close to me, still sniffing at my striped hair as if puzzled.

 

“Why do you smell like inuyoukai—and wolf?” he asked.

 

“That's because I'm inuhanyou, and I married a wolf youkai.”

 

His eyes widened. “A wolf youkai accepted you?”

 

“Yes, and I accepted him,” I replied. I was a modern girl, after all. “We love each other.”

 

Grandfather looked at me as if I'd grown two heads. I began to get annoyed. Now, I know I wasn't ugly. Ever since I was a baby, people had been going on about my ethereal beauty. I didn't think Grandfather cared that the wolves had accepted a non-wolf youkai into their midst, either. That wasn't it. The fact that they had accepted a hanyou was what had astounded him. “Where is this wolf territory?” he demanded. “Where is the inuyoukai who spawned you? Does he live with the wolves too? Why didn't I know about this?”

 

I smiled inwardly as I imagined Papa living with the wolves. “Nowhere near here,” I replied honestly, not even sure where `here' was. Nowhere near now would have been more accurate. I glanced around the hillside again, trying to orientate myself spatially in this time. The place didn't look very familiar. I glanced upward, towards the very top of the hill. There was a cave, barely visible against the side of the hill, but I saw it. I recognized it. My eyes immediately glanced to the other side of the hill, where a village should be. There was nothing but trees and grass and an incredible view.

 

“Midoriko's cave,” I murmured to myself as I scrambled up the hill, leaving my grandfather staring curiously after me. Was it this place in particular that the strange youkai was going? Was he after the jewel? I had to check and make sure it—she—was safe!

 

I rushed into the cave's entrance. There was no barrier to stop me or my grandfather, who had followed behind me. No youkai bones. I pushed my way into the depths of the cave, past where in both my times stood the scroll of Names, bearing the names of all our descendants. No, this time was way before that. Finally I reached the place where Midoriko rested, only to find it empty. It hadn't happened yet. Midoriko hadn't fought the youkai and created the Jewel of Four Souls in her attempt to subdue them for all time. I was too early.

 

“Midoriko,” I whispered. I hoped the strange youkai wasn't after her. Time couldn't be changed that easily, could it? My eyes fixed desperately on my grandfather. “That youkai who attacked me,” I said, “do you know him?”

 

Grandfather blinked. “I never saw him before. I thought you knew him. Or was he just trying to kill you because you are hanyou?”

 

I laughed a little uncontrollably. He probably was. If that strange youkai was trying to change history, then he certainly would have killed me. I would never have been born. Neither would my kids, or—my heart flip-flopped as I realized what would happen if our time-hopping family had never crossed over the boundaries of time. Ultimately, youkai would have died out. Most of them. Is that what the strange youkai was trying to do—prevent the future by preventing the past? And is that why he was after me and my family, because we changed the future by changing the past? Suddenly I felt sick. I sat down and put my head on my knees.

 

“What's wrong, hanyou?” asked my grandfather.

 

“Mayumi,” I mumbled.

 

“Are you all right?”

 

“No.” I needed to go home, home to Daichi and my family in the Sengoku Jidai. What did it matter what year I was born in? My soul belonged to Daichi. I belonged with him, in the feudal age. “I know you hate me because I'm hanyou,” I said, “but I have to ask you something. You said you don't particularly hate humans, right? Well, someday a human miko named Midoriko will battle youkai here in this spot. Don't be here. Don't interfere, ok?”

 

Grandfather shook his head. “I am youkai. Why shouldn't I defend youkai against a miko who seeks to destroy us?”

 

“Because you are honorable, and so is she. This battle is her destiny. You are not.”

 

Grandfather backed away from me, eyes wary again. “Are you a seer?”

 

I smiled. “Something like that.”

 

He frowned. “You are a strange one, for a—“

 

“Hanyou, I know,” I answered. “I have to go now, and I don't think I will come back.” I'd better not come back. One visit was disastrous enough. I hoped I had done some good and not messed things up too badly. I had a goal now, however. I would track down that strange youkai myself and find out why he had come here—and stop him from ever coming back here again. History needed to play out the way it already had. I choked back a sob. Grandfather would die. So would Midoriko. The wheels of fate would turn and someday, somehow, we would get to where we needed to be. I had to believe that. Because I was fated to lose Daichi too. I knew that. My one hope was that someday we would find each other again and live happily ever after. I guess it's everyone's secret hope. “I'm glad I met you, Grandfather,” I said, using the honorific that could apply to any old man, but that's not how I meant it. “Remember me.”

 

His eyes were solemn as I disappeared in front of him. This time, he didn't try to follow me.