InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Mayumi's Story ❯ Chapter 29 ( Chapter 29 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Mayumi's Story, Chapter 29:

 

 

I lay on my back on a steep hill and stared up at the patches of blue sky just visible above the treetops. Beneath me brown leaves crunched every time I moved. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the powdery scent of the leaves and the hint of the coming winter. A tear leaked out of the corner of my eye. This would be the last time I smelled this smell, the last time I felt this precious earth underneath me. I choked back a sob. Goodbye, I thought sadly. Goodbye to this time, this place, my life. The tears flowed more freely now, mixing with the decaying leaves and the pungent earth, leaving my mark on the feudal era.

 

I squeezed my eyes shut. Now or never. In my mind I saw the path. I'd always known the way home, but to me, this was my home, and now I was leaving it behind forever. There was no use procrastinating. Taking a deep breath, I went in-between and stepped out in my old bedroom at my parents' house.

 

I don't know what I had been expecting—that they would have kept it just the same for 150 years? I had left it quite a mess at the time. It could have been worse—someone else could have been living in it. As it was, I had to swallow another round of tears as I looked around at what was obviously a rather generic guest bedroom. They say you can never go home. My throat hurt.

 

“Mayumi!” My brother Koji appeared in the doorway, followed by a beautiful youkai woman. “You're here! Welcome home.” He gathered me into a hug and introduced me to his wife. “We live here now,” he explained. “Mama and Papa are on their way back to Japan to settle some things there first. None of us thought you'd make your decision this soon. They live at the shrine now,” he added as an afterthought.

 

I knew that. Kazuki had come back to the States and it was my parents' turn to become the shrine family at Grandma's old shrine. Because of our longevity it became necessary for our family to move about periodically. It was Koji's turn to live at the house in Connecticut.

 

I nodded. In the end, I hadn't had the courage to see Daichi one more time. If I had, I don't know if I could have gone through with this. It was better this way. A clean break. Strangely, that thought seemed familiar to me. Hadn't I done this before?

 

“Well, let's get you settled,” Koji said. He would admit me to his hospital as soon as Mama and Papa returned. The sooner we did this thing, the better for the baby.

 

“Should I contact Dai?” he asked me, concern showing in his golden eyes.

 

“No,” I said, a little too quickly. I wasn't ready to face Dai yet when the pain of losing Daichi was still so fresh in my mind. “No, I just want Mama,” I said. And I did. More so than with any of my other pregnancies, I wanted my mother with me. Daichi hadn't even known that I was pregnant when I left. That meant that Dai didn't know yet, either. I was happy to keep it that way for a while.

 

It was winter already here. The air smelled sharp and full of the threat of snow. One week later I stared out of the car window as we drove down our mountain towards the hospital. Everything looked familiar, yet different. This was the same road I'd driven to go to school all those years ago, but it was paved now, smooth instead of rough and pitted. Occasionally, I glimpsed houses set far back from the main road. They blended into the dense trees unless one knew where to look. My father's mountain had blossomed into a youkai village of sorts, with several generations of descendants settling here. I closed my eyes. I wasn't ready to meet any of these descendants yet, especially not mine. I was vaguely relieved to hear that most of the wolf youkai had followed Dai into the north woods of eastern Canada.

 

Mama, who sat next to me in the backseat, patted my arm. “You won't be at the hospital long,” she said to reassure me. “You can come home after the operation. Koji says you should enjoy a normal pregnancy after that.”

 

I nodded mechanically. Normal. Normal for a human. I feared for my baby. Trace had been right about one thing—I had wanted my children to grow up strong. I was proud that they were youkai, like their father. Now my little one would have to pay the price for my mixed blood. Koji had told me that the flaw in my baby's heart did not necessarily mean the child would not have youkai power. Even without Daichi's blood, my baby carried the strains of the Inu no Taisho in its veins, and blood would tell in the end.

 

Koji's hospital catered to humans and youkai. The people involved in my care knew fully what I was, which made it easier for me. I was scared enough already. True to Mama's promise, my baby came through the operation with flying colors, and I was allowed to go home, which for me, meant back to my old room on the mountain. Home was five hundred years in the past.

 

We kept my return a secret from almost everybody. I wanted it that way, so I could re-acclimate myself to this time. I had to get checked every week during my pregnancy to make sure the baby was all right, so there was no chance I would be going back in time. Truth be told, I was afraid to. Nobody had come out and said so, but I knew that of all my children, only Megumi and this new baby had time-walked with me while they were in the womb. I was deathly afraid that that had something to do with the new one's problems, and I was almost positive it was the reason Megumi knew how to time-walk too. I wouldn't even go on an airplane to Japan with my mother for fear of harming the baby.

 

So Mama went home to Japan with Papa, to finish tying up those loose ends they had. I was too wrapped up in my own problems to ask about hers. “I'll be fine, Mama,” I assured her. “Koji's here, and so are Valynne and Junko. If there's a problem, we'll call you.” Mama promised to come back in time for the birth.

 

I'd had to tell Shippo's family of my return, since they lived right down the hill from us. The little wild youkai I remembered from my childhood had all but disappeared. Papa said they moved on, and I wasn't sure if he meant physically or developmentally. There were certainly a lot of new houses around the mountain.

 

In the meantime, I wandered about the nearby hills, not at all put off by the increasing cold. Valynne came to the house to cook for Koji and his wife, and sometimes I would share a meal with them, but I'd been wild for too long, and I preferred the taste of fresh meat. Koji said it wouldn't harm the baby because that's what I was used to. He insisted the baby was youkai, but I thought of my unborn child as fragile, and I had to protect my baby. Isn't that why I had come here?

 

I revisited the spot where Dai had taken me the night of my disastrous prom. It was our place in these woods, the same as our summer place in Japan was ours. Half of me was prepared to see it razed away, and perhaps a house or a road in its place, but it was the same as I remembered, a dip in the woods, cool in summer, isolated now in the grip of winter, but still beautiful to my eyes.

 

Fenn found me there, as winter began to melt into spring.

 

“So you came back, little Mayumi,” Fenn said as he took a seat next to me on a fallen log.

 

“Did I have a choice?” I asked, and it came out more bitter than I meant it. I turned sideways so that Fenn could see my swelling abdomen. “Not so little,” I added, smiling to take the sting out of my earlier words.

 

“There's always a choice,” Fenn replied, serious for once.

 

I didn't know what to say to that. Technically, Fenn was right. In my experience, there always was a choice, but no matter which choice was made, eventually you ended up where you needed to be. Whether you liked it or not.

 

“Thank you for helping Megumi,” I said softly. There was a choice I didn't regret making.

 

“Thank you for dealing with Trace,” Fenn replied just as softly.

 

I blinked in surprise. It wasn't the same at all!

 

A little squall of snow, winter's last hurrah, coated us both in white before it scurried away. I flicked my ears, but otherwise I let the snow gather on me. I wasn't cold, and I was glad to be out of the house. Time had marched on in the last 150 years, and I felt like the poor country cousin in my own house. I felt much more comfortable out here.

 

Fenn shimmered, and the snow was gone from his body in an instant. He raised his eyebrows, but I shook my head minutely. I would not travel in-between with the fragile life inside me. Who knows what damage it might cause.

 

Fenn nodded, as if he'd heard my thoughts. He probably had. “You'd better get home before they start to worry,” he said, lending me a hand to stand up.

 

“Yeah,” I murmured. I shook the snow off me, managing to get Fenn with most of it as I did so. I grinned, and he grinned back at me.

 

 

I wandered Papa's woods that whole spring, reacquainting myself with all the familiar places I remembered from my childhood. I kept up a running commentary with my unborn child as I wandered. “Back home, the cherry blossoms would have already come and gone,” I said, breathing in the light scent of a single daffodil. I didn't pick it. Let it live. Daffodils were nice, too. It was slower to get warm here, and quicker to get cold. Even so, the seasons each had their own distinct beauty. I welcomed spring, with all its new growth, reminding me strongly of the new life growing within me.

 

Perhaps it was selfish of me not to seek out Dai to share this time with him, but I needed to sort things out in my own mind first. My family gave me space, and wandering out here on my own went a long way towards allowing me to come to terms with my decision to leave the past.

 

Mama and Papa both returned in early June to be with me during my final weeks of pregnancy. The baby was doing fine. Koji opted to let me wait for a natural birth, although that didn't mean he'd let me have this baby at home. He said I had to be in the hospital, which of course made me worry that everything wasn't as rosy as he'd painted it.

 

Papa looked at me sideways when he found out I had yet to contact Daichi—Dai. “What are you waiting for?” he asked, getting right to the point.

 

“I—?” What was I waiting for? I was here, it was done, and my little piece of tomorrow was right here inside me, making it all worthwhile. I'd accepted that. And I missed Daichi terribly. I wanted to see him, to let him know that I hadn't abandoned him all those years ago.

 

But I was afraid. I was afraid it wouldn't be the same for us anymore. What if he didn't want me back?

 

I squared my shoulders. I would just have to face that possibility when the time came. “Soon, Papa, soon,” I said. “As soon as the baby's born.”

 

We both knew it was another excuse, but Papa nodded, and let the subject drop.

 

When the time came, I was in the garden with Mama, enjoying the warm sunshine on my head and ears. I felt a twinge and immediately recognized it. This was my sixth baby, after all. There was no hurry. We had plenty of time. Papa brought his new car around. It was sleek and round and bore little resemblance to the cars I remembered. At least it still drove on the road and not in the air like some cartoon. It was smooth, though. I didn't feel any bumps at all, which was good news for my increasingly sensitive abdomen.

 

At the hospital, I was surprised again. The room Koji had set up for me could have been taken right from our house on the mountain. I had been expecting a sterile, clinical environment, not this comfortable, comforting space. “Is this where I will have the baby?” I questioned him, seeing no monitors or equipment of any kind.

 

“Yes. I wanted you to feel at home,” Koji said.

 

Mama kept me company as I alternately walked around the room and sat in the big rocking chair by the picture window. Papa had dropped us off at the hospital entrance. I didn't expect him back any time soon. Stuff like this made him nervous.

 

“This is the first time I've ever got to be at the birth of one of your babies,” Mama said wistfully.

 

She was right. In the feudal era it was Ayame, my mother-in-law, who attended me during my birthings. My own mama out of necessity had to wait on the sidelines until I could get away to show her and Papa the newest addition to our family. “I'm glad,” I replied, and I meant it. Although I loved Ayame dearly, I had always missed my mother when my children were being born.

 

During labor I was too busy to dwell upon the whole `facing Daichi' situation, though it did cross my mind briefly that after this was over I'd have to make good on my promise to Papa and contact him. I both looked forward to it and dreaded it.

 

At the moment, my thoughts were occupied with giving birth to a healthy child. It didn't matter to me anymore whether my baby was human or youkai or something in between, as long as he was healthy.

 

He. I was so sure it would be a boy. When the baby came out, squalling and whole and beautiful, she turned out to be a girl. I fell in love instantly. “Asuka,” I named her, the name just coming to me as I gazed upon her face. It just seemed to fit.

 

Asuka was beautiful in every sense of the word. She had youkai ears and Daichi's coloring, and the power that emanated from her little body made me wonder how I ever could have doubted she would be as strong as any of us. Koji was right. Her youkai healing abilities had made it like she never had a problem. Her heart was whole.

 

I felt the brush of Daichi's youki just before he came into the room. I should have known he'd find us. I sighed, and put on a tremulous smile. Would I still know him? Would he know me? I was afraid of the answers.

 

I shouldn't have been. The youkai who came through the door was my Daichi, no matter what name he wore these days. He looked the same, he smelled the same, and the love that shone from his eyes was more than I deserved.

 

How could he still love me when I had abandoned him for this child? I had missed several lifetimes with him in exchange. But Daichi's eyes swept over us and lingered on the baby, and he fell to his knees beside us. He had the biggest smile on his face, while at the same time tears coursed down his cheeks.

 

“You gave me a daughter,” he said, wonder in his voice. “I knew I'd find you again someday, but this—this is so much more than I could have dreamed.”

 

Then he leaned forward and buried the two of us in his fierce embrace. I felt his shoulders shake as he cried, and in that moment I knew I had my old Daichi back. I'd never really lost him at all. I finally let my own tears fall as I hugged him back. “I love you,” I whispered.

 

Asuka's soft cries broke us apart soon after, and I put our daughter to my breast. She was covered in both our scents now, secure and warm and loved. She was right where she belonged. We both were.

 

Other figures crowded around the doorway and spilled into the room. Gintaro, Choko, and many faces that I didn't know but I could smell that they belonged to us. My descendants. Our descendants. I couldn't stop crying. Their very presence at my bedside let me know I was redeemed.

 

Beyond them all I glimpsed the tips of white ears, so like my own, and I knew how Daichi had found me at last. `Thank you, Papa,' I said in my mind, and he must have been taking lessons from Fenn, because I heard a definite `Keh' from out in the hallway. Or maybe he was just reading my face. I had a hard time keeping my emotions off my face right now.

 

My homecoming was a family affair, with relatives I didn't even know I had filing in and out to welcome both me and Asuka. Through it all, Daichi remained by my side, so very familiar and so very necessary to my peace of mind. I told him all the secrets I'd been holding back for years, and he understood. He already knew most of them by now, and he'd forgiven me long before I even came back home. Home was where Daichi is, I knew that now. I was finally home.

 

My Uncle Sesshomaru came around looking embarrassed to see me, knowing that he'd once known me but not known who I was. I grinned up at him. That was a compliment to me, surely! I hadn't forgotten my vow to set him up on some dates with dark-haired human-seeming youkai women. First, I was going to have to carefully study our convoluted family tree, which most resembled a Gordian knot. It wouldn't do to set Sesshomaru up with one of his own relatives.

 

 

Daichi and I sat on the deck in the cool of the evening. Asuka slept peacefully on Daichi's chest. Everyone had finally gone home and we were by ourselves for the first time in a very long time. For Daichi, it had been 150 years since the last time he saw the modern teenage Mayumi, and 350 years since he'd lost his wife—me. He'd always known we were the same person; it just took me a bit longer to realize it.

 

We would have all the time in the world to be together now. It was a relief, not knowing what the future would bring. Whatever it was, we would face it together, surrounded by our family. Little Asuka would be our gateway into tomorrow. I didn't know if she had inherited my special ability to walk between time. I certainly wasn't going to tell her about it. By unspoken agreement, Koji, Kazuki and I had decided not to use that particular trick anymore. None of our other kids could do it, either. Megumi could, but she had forgotten thanks to Fenn.

 

Megumi was my only child who hadn't come to see me and the new baby yet. She currently lived in Japan, still unmarried from what I'd heard. Mama had taken her under her wing and was working with her on becoming a youkai miko. It seems a contradiction in terms, but somehow I think it will work.

 

Daichi and I planned to visit with Kazuki and his new girlfriend Misty, if you could call such an ancient youkai a girl, as soon as Asuka was a little older. He had stopped by briefly but hadn't stayed. He looked happy.

 

It helped that the youkai and hanyou I knew hundreds of years ago still looked exactly the same. The passage of time didn't strike me as keenly as if they had aged and withered. Or died. I knew some of my more human relatives experienced the ravages of time, and some of them had indeed died. I mourned their passing, but I didn't feel the crushing sadness I had expected. It was a part of life and something each of them, for their own reasons, had chosen. I accepted that now.

 

Koji and his wife were moving to Japan in a month. They would take over the shrine so Mama and Papa could go elsewhere. Daichi and I got to live in the house in Connecticut. I was happy about that, all things considered. It was a good place to raise a child for a few decades. And after that, the northern woods beckoned.

 

I wasn't as happy when I found out where my parents were going. Daichi had built a beautiful house on the spot where our summer place once stood. Now Mama and Papa would live there, with Megumi, while Mama plied her heart-healing ministrations to whoever needed them. The only one in that area who might need such a thing would be Trace. I was not happy about that. Neither was Papa, but he couldn't gainsay Mama on this. At least he was there to protect her and Megumi. They told me Trace was a changed youkai. He had lived in that cave the entire 350 years I'd skipped. I didn't believe it, but who was I to say people couldn't change? Megumi didn't know who he was, and Papa made very sure Trace didn't tell her, vocally or otherwise. I had to trust Papa—and Mama—and Megumi—and even Trace, I guess. Maybe not Trace.

 

Asuka fussed, and Daichi handed her over to me so I could feed her. He kept his hand on my shoulder and I leaned against him as she nursed. I sighed in contentment. All was right with the world.

 

 

 

THE END

 

 

“You can't always get what you want. . .

But if you try sometimes

You just might find

You get what you need.” -Rolling Stones

 

 

 

 

Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who's read `Mayumi's Story,' and to my loyal reviewers who have been with me since the beginning. I think this is it. The farther I get away from our beloved Inuyasha and Kagome, the less the story remains theirs, and really, it's their story. Never say never, though! But now I get to read for awhile instead!