InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mayumi's Story ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Mayumi's Story, Chapter 24:

 

 

Papa was very glad to learn that Trace could not read all our thoughts, but not for the reasons you might think.

 

“Yeah!” he said, golden eyes gleaming. “I'm finally gonna give that Fenn a taste of his own medicine!”

 

Papa would have gone home right then and there to put his plan of out-thinking Fenn into action, but Mama wouldn't hear of it.

 

“That can wait,” she said, physically restraining Papa with a touch on his sleeve. But that was enough to hold him, and he settled back, quite content to have her leaning into the crook of his arm. “Mayumi, what's this about the jewel and Midoriko?”

 

So I had to explain how I'd tricked Trace into believing we had the jewel hidden inside my cave, and how he thought we all got our power from the jewel.

 

“Keh,” my father commented, irritated that even an enemy like Trace would think for a minute that he needed outside help to become more powerful.

 

“It's better to let him believe that than the truth,” Mama told him. “If he thinks you're weak, he'll eventually let down his guard.”

 

I could see it in Papa's eyes—he really didn't like playing those kinds of games. He was a straightforward youkai. He probably wouldn't be able to fool Fenn even if he tried to hide his true thoughts. I made a note to myself to remind Mama we'd better be careful of what we said in front of Papa, because Trace would read him like a book!

 

“Fine!” Papa spat. “But when I do kill him, he'll know it was me and not some jewel!”

 

Mama and I exchanged wry glances and wisely refrained from mentioning Tetsusaiga, with whom Papa had a sort of symbiotic relationship. But even Tetsusaiga would not have permitted Papa's touch if he hadn't been strong in his own right to begin with.

 

“Dad, what's up with the outfit?” I queried, raising my eyebrows at the gray sweats my father was wearing. “You're a walking anachronism.”

 

“It's comfortable,” Papa defended himself.

 

My mother, who was dressed appropriately in red and white, hid a smile.

 

“Well, the people around here are going to think you're some sort of monster,” I said.

 

“Like they don't already!” Papa retorted. “I can move better this way.”

 

With that, he took off on his favorite new pastime in the feudal era—bedeviling Uncle Sesshomaru.

 

“Cover your ears!” Mama and I both shouted. He could disguise Tetsusaiga, but not his own features.

 

“One of these days he's going to get caught,” I muttered to my mother under my breath.

 

We both knew it wouldn't happen because it hadn't happened, and Papa knew it, too. He'd let Uncle Sesshomaru sense his aura, which was a lot more powerful than when he used to live here in this time. Sesshomaru would give chase, and if he ever got too close, Papa would just use Tetsusaiga to take himself back to the 21st century. In the meantime, Papa got to go tearing all over the countryside to his heart's content.

 

“Did he ever tell Uncle Sesshomaru about this on the other side?” I asked my mother curiously.

 

“Are you kidding? If your Uncle Sesshomaru ever knew that the powerful youkai he could never catch in the feudal era was really your father, well, let's just say that the brothers' uneasy truce might just be over!”

 

I doubted that—Uncle Sesshomaru was more of a softy than anyone gave him credit for, and my father was definitely a big softy. “Just who does he think the mysterious youkai is?” I asked. Sesshomaru didn't know about the whole Trace situation on this side of time.

 

Mama's eyes got a faraway look in them, and her tone grew serious “He's let things slip a few times,” she said. “I think he thought he was chasing the ghost of his father. Then, when he found out Inuyasha and the rest of us could actually go back in time, he remembered these sightings and now I think he wonders if it really was his father traveling forward in time.”

 

“Oh,” I replied, thinking of the grandfather I'd met on the other side of time, before my father was even born. But Grandfather was dead in this time—it wasn't Grandfather that Sesshomaru had seen, it had been my father. “Papa shouldn't do that, then,” I reasoned. “Does he know who Sesshomaru thinks he's chasing?”

 

“Probably not.” We both giggled.

 

Papa only played these hide and seek games with the unsuspecting Sesshomaru when he knew Mama would be safe with me. He had to come back through the well and get her if he ended up having to leave this time suddenly. He would never put her in danger unless I was there to protect her in his absence.

 

All the comings and goings had an interesting side effect on the new well. It picked up some of the residual time-crossing power Tetsusaiga threw off, and when Mama or Papa came near, the walls of the well itself began to glow with blue power. So technically, Mama didn't need to wait for Papa to bring her home again. She could do it herself. But she never did. She always waited for my father to come get her.

 

Trace didn't bother me or anyone else for several decades. I worried a little that he had caused some trouble back in Midoriko's time, but nothing on our side seemed to change, so I began to relax. Maybe Midoriko had taken care of Trace for us.

 

My mind went back to my last conversation with Trace. What had he started to say? Did he think I had some connection with Midoriko, other than that we shared a bloodline? I wondered if that was why Trace had lured me there once. It was strange to see Midoriko's cave without her stone remains, and stranger still to realize that the slayer's village did not yet exist. Had Midoriko's relations, who were my relations, too, come looking for her and stayed to settle in the area where she had died? There were so many questions that I couldn't answer.

 

Trace turned up just when I had stopped expecting him, years later, and I finally got those answers, although sometimes I wish I hadn't. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. But all the `what if's' in the world can't change what was, or what will be, or both in my case. It's the classic question of the chicken and the egg. In the end, what is, is.

 

Trace appeared by the riverbank, wild-eyed and out of breath. He grabbed my shoulders, hauling me bodily to my feet, and shouted in my face, “What have you done!”

 

I glanced quickly around. Other wolf youkai females were doing washing just a few yards away. Luckily, Trace didn't give off any scent when he first appeared, or he would have been noticed immediately. I knew that wouldn't last too long, however. I had to get him out of there. Clearly he wasn't thinking straight, or he never would have appeared where there were others nearby. He hadn't killed me thus far, so I was reasonably certain he wouldn't do so now. I placed both my hands on his forearms and thought us out of there.

 

`Forgive me, Daichi,' I said to myself. I took Trace to the summer house.

 

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” I said coldly once we were inside. “I haven't done anything.”

 

Trace, still obviously agitated, paced in tight circles around my little house, shooting me glances that alternated between extreme anger and utter fear. “He followed me,” Trace said at last. “The one they call the Inu no Taisho, he followed me in between time. What have you done, Mayumi?” Trace's voice cracked on the last sentence.

 

The color drained from my face as I realized what Trace had meant. Only I could have shown the Inu no Taisho how to walk through time. I must have taught Grandfather that trick when I met him that once. I'd gone in between, and Grandfather had followed me, although he had floundered helplessly and I'd needed to lead him back. It had only been for a moment. I never thought he'd remember how to get there, or that he'd try it on his own!

 

“How far did he follow you?” I asked sharply, but it was too late. Trace had read my mind and known what I was thinking. He pounced on me, figuratively.

 

“The Inu no Taisho is your grandfather?” he shouted incredulously. It came out almost like a squeak.

 

“Yes, but he didn't know it,” I said. I'd have to be careful from now on not to let my true thoughts surface. It would be a close game of telling the truth without telling all of the truth. It was too late to take back my slip about Grandfather, but maybe I could turn it around. “I thought that's why you brought me there, that time. I thought you knew.”

 

Trace scowled, then sat down almost at my feet and put his head in his hands. I could smell his scent clearly now, and I could sense his creatures, the lesser youkai who hovered about him, just outside the house. If he meant to harm me, I was in a lot of trouble. He raised his head sharply as I thought that, then he spoke. “No, I didn't know about the Inu no Taisho. I led you to that time because I knew you had a connection to Midoriko. I wanted to see for myself if it was true, and also to test if you had the ability to move to another time besides this one. I never expected that youkai to be there.”

 

“Now I'm really confused,” I told him, sitting down beside him. I guess I was going to live a little longer today. “Midoriko wasn't there. There wasn't even a village yet.”

 

Trace was silent for a moment, although I could still hear his heart beating faster than normal. For a youkai who bragged he was more spirit than flesh, he was certainly going through a lot of very physical reactions today. I very carefully hid that thought.

 

“I can't go to a time where I've never been, not precisely. You should know that.”

 

I did. I would never even attempt such a reckless thing. I let Trace read that thought.

 

He nodded. “When I heard the story of Midoriko and the Jewel of Four Souls I knew that she was the beginning of all my troubles. If I could just go back and take the jewel from her, I could prevent your family from becoming so powerful and stop all of you from interfering with time. Inuyasha would never have gone to the future, your mother would never have gone to the past, and you would never have been born.

 

“But it wasn't so easy for me to find the exact period of time when Midoriko was alive. It took me many years to even find the correct century, and then I had to follow rumors of the warrior miko across Japan until I found her. She looks like you, you know.”

 

You could have knocked me over with a feather. “What?” I asked, with a distinct squeak in my own voice this time. “But I'm youkai!” I had white hair and dog ears, not to mention claws and fangs.

 

“She has your face, your eyes. The coloring is wrong, but I recognized her immediately.”

 

My heart was in my throat. I didn't want this. I wanted to be me, just me, Mayumi, and nobody else. I wasn't strong like my mother, to have a soul big enough to house more than one. `Mayumi, Warrior Princess.' No, that wasn't me. I gulped.

 

“But there was no sign of the jewel, and no indication that anyone around her knew of it. I thought if I brought you there, I could read the truth about the jewel in your mind.”

 

I breathed a sigh of relief. So he didn't think I was Midoriko's reincarnation. He just wanted to pick my brain. I could live with that.

 

“Then when you let slip that the jewel wasn't formed until after Midoriko died, and that she formed it while battling youkai, I realized there was a better way for me to stop your family than stealing the jewel. All I had to do was make sure Midoriko never was able to form the jewel in the first place!”

 

“How?” I asked, careful to let him read my skepticism. Shouldn't he know how difficult it was to actually change time?

 

Trace smiled bitterly at me. “Difficult, but not impossible,” he told me, answering my thought. “If I joined with the other youkai in attacking Midoriko, she would be overwhelmed and ultimately defeated and the jewel would never have formed. That was my plan.”

 

“Was?”

 

Trace stood up and began pacing again. The half-hate, half-fear look was back on his face. “It took me this long to find the right time period, where Midoriko was a powerful miko and youkai of all kinds tested their strength against her. She was beset on all sides and I watched the battle rage for days with no sign of an end. This is it, I thought. I can turn the tide of this battle in favor of the youkai, and the jewel will never come into being. I called my youkai to me, and together we entered the battle. I could see the miko's eyes, your eyes, cloud with despair and I felt victory within my grasp.

 

“Then he came. The Inu no Taisho. At first, I thought he was entering the battle on the side of youkai. I was glad, because I knew Midoriko could not survive our combined power. But the Inu no Taisho did not attack Midoriko. He did not attack the other youkai either. He came after me and mine. I didn't expect it, and so he took out a great number of my followers before I realized he was after me. I had no fear that he could kill me as easily as he killed my youkai. They were weak creatures that fed off my energy to survive. I could always make more. But he was relentless, and to escape his attacks I stepped through time, just a tiny bit, as you know we can do, to throw him off my track. But he followed me! How could he do that, Mayumi?” Trace stopped and grabbed my shoulders again, shaking me. “Now you tell me he is your grandfather? What have you done? You've ruined everything.”

 

I guess I did quite a lot. Way to go, Grandfather! He must have taken my words long ago to heart, because he didn't attack Midoriko, even though she was a human and fought against youkai, and he did attack Trace, the youkai who had attacked me back then! But that would mean that time had not been changed, and Midoriko had died subduing the youkai who had attacked her, and the jewel had formed. I felt a twinge of sorrow at Midoriko's sad fate. I regretted that I had not gotten the chance to actually meet her.

 

“I should kill you,” Trace muttered. “Tell me why I shoudn't just kill you now.”

 

“Because killing me wouldn't really solve anything,” I answered, shrugging free of his grasp. “My family is still strong, and we're growing both here and in the future. You can't stop us.” I was extremely careful only to let Trace see the thoughts I wanted him to see. Let him be angry. Let my words prick him where my sword could not. “Grandfather was able to hurt you, wasn't he?”

 

Trace turned his back to me, but I could smell the fear in his scent. “You should never have shown him how to move through time.”

 

“He can hurt you there, can't he?” I gloated, and Trace turned around and glared at me. I knew the truth, and the truth was Trace could never go back to a time where Grandfather was alive, because Grandfather could kill him.

 

“There's still the jewel,” Trace replied. “You think you can keep it hidden from me in your barricaded cave? I'll break through the barrier, and take back the jewel, and then we'll see how your family survives without their precious jewel to give them power.” With that, Trace disappeared. He still hadn't made any serious attempt to kill me, and I was beginning to doubt that he ever would. I had become his sounding board. He needed me to justify his actions to himself.

 

I was still one step ahead of him, maybe two. First of all, there was no jewel. Our power was our own, much as he was unwilling to believe such a thing was possible. Secondly, if Grandfather had the power to harm Trace, then it stood to reason that the rest of us did, too. We just had to discover how to do it.