InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity 8: Vendetta ❯ Epiphanies ( Chapter 74 )

~~Chapter 74~

~Epiphanies~

 

-=0=-

 

 

Gritting his teeth, Kurt tried to block the descending blade, but it moved entirely too quickly, though he did manage to compensate by knocking it off-course enough to keep it from slamming against his ribs as he spun to the side to avoid the strike.

 

“Better,” Ryomaru hollered from where he was lounging against the low stone wall that ran around the perimeter of the raised patio. Bas leaned over to mutter something to his uncle. Ryomaru nodded, his lazy grin widening.

 

“What's the matter, Gunsie? Losing your touch?” Bas goaded.

 

Gunnar ignored Bas' commentary as he stared blankly at Kurt, nodding slowly, as though he were approving of something. Kurt could only guess.

 

A moment later, Kurt had to roll out of the way of another well-placed thrust of Gunnar's sword. With a grimace at the impact when he couldn't avoid the flat side of the blade, Kurt got to his feet, certain that the man was really trying to kill him.

 

Heaving a sigh, Kurt adjusted his hold on the bokuto and righted his stance for the next go-round, scowling at the ring that Gunnar wore on his right hand ring finger. The first time he'd seen it, he'd thought that it was a wedding band, but as near as he could tell, the arrogant hanyou wasn't married—and Kurt really had to wonder if that one in particular would ever find a woman willing to put up with his complete and utter autocratic, dictatorial sort of way. But there was something entirely too familiar about that ring, too, and while Kurt hadn't really gotten a chance to give it a good look over since it was normally moving and normally working to swing the sword that Gunnar was altogether too good at using, that wasn't really surprising. Still, why did he know—just know—that there was some sort of scrollwork on that ring? And why did Kurt feel as though Gunnar were wearing it on the wrong finger, anyway?

 

In fact, he was so preoccupied with that train of thought that he was slow to react when Gunnar swung again. The man got an entirely too-condescending grin on his face when his hit caught Kurt across the side of his thigh and sent him sprawling onto his back a few feet away.

 

Heaving a frustrated sigh as he mentally berated himself for his lapse in concentration, Kurt started to push himself off the ground when the ear-piercing wail echoed around him.

 

It was a cry that he hadn't heard before; one full of fear and pain, and without a second thought, he took off at a dead sprint, following the sound.

 

“Oi! You're not done!” Gunnar hollered behind him.

 

“It's all right. He ain't goin' far,” Ryomaru said. “I'd go, too, if my pup were hurt.”

 

Kurt snorted but kept moving around the side of the mansion, frustrated at his own physical limitations. The rest of them—they'd have gotten there by now . . .

 

Still . . .

 

Skidding to a stop as he reached the woman and child, he dropped to his knees. It was easy to see what had happened. Samantha had bought the girl a tricycle on a trip to the store yesterday, and she'd managed to coax the child onto it. From what he could see, she'd fallen off of it and scraped her knee, but he wasn't entirely sure who was making the bigger ruckus: Samantha, who was sobbing because the girl was hurt or Stinky-butt, who was waving her arms and sobbing because her knee was injured.

 

Letting out a deep breath as a surge of relief shot through him, he pulled both of them into his lap and reached around Samantha to inspect the injury. “It's not that bad,” he said quietly, unsure whether he was speaking to Samantha or the child. “A couple hours, and you'll be as good as new, right?”

 

The child sniffled and buried her face against his chest.

 

“Sam . . .”

 

The woman blubbered something that made absolutely no sense, her face covered by her hands, which certainly didn't help her diction at all.

 

“She's all right,” he said, giving Samantha a little squeeze to reassure her. “Kids fall off tricycles all the time, you know. Bet you did, too.”

 

That seemed to do the trick. Samantha sniffed and wiped her eyes, her face all blotchy and red . . . Really unattractive, Kurt figured, and yet . . . and yet he couldn't say that he didn't think she was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen, either. “Oh, I hurt her,” Samantha whimpered, fresh tears springing to her eyes when she saw the blood still surfacing in the wound.

 

The child wiggled over closer to Samantha, as though she wanted comfort from the both of them. Samantha choked back a sob and slowly, gingerly wrapped her arms around her. “I'm sorry, sweetie,” she murmured, “I'm sorry . . .”

 

Kurt heaved another sigh and shook his head. It was just a scraped knee, right? The girl would be fine, even if Samantha took a little longer to get back in order . . .

 

What he didn't see was the gathering of men on the far side of the mansion where they'd stopped after trailing after Kurt in his sudden defection. Gunnar looked irritated enough—it seemed that he never really got to have much of a go at Kurt. Bas looked a little surprised, but he couldn't say that it was a bad thing, either. Ryomaru just nodded and grinned, as though he'd realized something awhile ago and was gloating that he'd been right, after all. InuYasha stepped up behind the men, sparing a moment to take in the display unfolding on the front lawn of the Zelig estate, but he said nothing, either.

 

Inside the study, Cain stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a thoughtful frown on his face. Gin had already run off to get the first-aid kit, though he had half a mind to stop her. The child wasn't in any serious danger, and maybe those three needed that moment far worse than they needed to bandage the scraped knee . . . Did Kurt realize exactly what he was doing? That his actions were exactly what a man did for his family—to comfort each other in such a way . . .

 

Bellaniece smiled as she watched out the window, a hint of reassurance that her daughter really was right adding a brightness to her gaze. Those things that Samantha had said . . . they showed, didn't they? Showed in the careful way that he held them both, in the way that he leaned down to murmur things to Samantha—things that made her smile, that made her understand that it was all right if a child fell down as long as someone was there to help them back up and to brush them off . . . It was all right . . .

 

Beside her, Kichiro scowled at what he saw. It was an odd thing, wasn't it? He didn't doubt that Drevin might actually care about Samantha. Hell, it'd be impossible not to, wouldn't it? After all, Samantha was a special girl, and he knew it. The thing was, Kichiro wasn't about to soften his stance on it, and in the end, wouldn't they all see that Kichiro was right?

 

Narrowing his gaze, his expression hardened. He wasn't about to back down, not in this. It was his responsibility to protect his daughter. Damned if he would fail her a second time . . .

 

 

-OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO-

 

 

Kurt glanced around the office, wondering what he'd done this time to be summoned here so formally. Maybe Zelig had taken exception to the fact that Kurt had run away from his daily training to check on Samantha and the kid. A slight belligerence entered Kurt's gaze at that thought, and he snorted inwardly. The day he apologized for doing that was the day he died, damn it . . .

 

To his surprise, though, Cain smiled when he strode into the office with Ben in tow. Kurt had only actually talked to that one once, though he'd seen him around a few more times since then. He seemed to be one of Zelig's friends or something. Samantha had called him a general, whatever that meant. Still, Kurt had the feeling that the man's presence meant something, if only he could figure out what.

 

But he said nothing as he waited patiently for Cain to get on with it.

 

“Would you like something to drink?” Cain asked rather cordially. “Water? Coffee? Tea?”

 

Kurt shook his head as Ben strode over to the wet bar on the other side of the room.

 

“I wanted to talk to you,” Cain said, settling down in the chair behind his desk.

 

“Okay.”

 

Cain smiled in a way that Kurt figured was supposed to reassure him. It didn't. “It's about the child.”

 

Kurt frowned. “What about her?”

 

Cain's smile dimmed but didn't disappear completely, and he took his time as he considered what he was about to say. “Kurt . . . Have you ever thought about keeping her? Raising her? Being her daddy?”

 

Kurt wasn't sure what he'd expected Cain to say. It certainly wasn't that; not by a long shot. Shaking his head, he struggled to make sense of Zelig's meaning. “What?”

 

“Zelig tells me you're Samantha's mate. Is that right?” Ben asked as he strode back over with a bottle of water in his hand.

 

“I—w—y-yeah,” he agreed. “But—”

 

“That child already thinks of you as her father, and you . . . well, you act like she's your daughter. Kurt . . . would you and Samantha like to keep her? Adopt her?” Cain asked.

 

Why did it feel like the ground had opened up beneath him? Kurt shook his head slowly, still unable to figure out exactly what was going on. Was it some sort of elaborate hoax? Were they waiting for him to say or do something stupid? Just what the hell were they thinking, anyway? A guy like him? With a . . . a family . . .?

 

Cain sighed. “I think you know as well as I do that she'll just run away again if we try to do the whole overnight thing, and while I could still look for a compatible family, I have to wonder if that's really necessary. You love her, right? Love her like she was your own . . .”

 

Kurt frowned. “I'm not . . . not really father material,” he muttered.

 

“Yeah, but you didn't think you were mate material, either, did you?” Cain countered mildly.

 

Kurt snorted. “You're not going to tell me something bizarre, like the girl will die if I don't agree to be her fa-father, are you?”

 

Cain laughed and shook his head. “Nope, it doesn't really work that way,” he allowed.

 

That hardly served to pacify Kurt. “Listen . . . I don't think . . .”

 

“Before you say no,” Ben interrupted. “Think about it. I'd hate to see her end up somewhere with people who might love her but that she doesn't trust. With her background, maybe . . . maybe it's the best thing for her. To be completely blunt, if I may?”

 

Kurt nodded.

 

Ben drew a deep breath and shot Cain a quick glance before he went on. “Samantha might well understand her far better than anyone else could . . . and I daresay that you . . . you probably do, too.”

 

“It's . . . it's not that easy,” Kurt admitted with a shake of his head. Glaring at the carpet under his feet, he cleared his throat, rubbed his forehead. “Samantha knows that there's something . . . something I have to do . . . before I can be with her . . . before I can even think about anything else . . .”

 

“What's that?” Cain asked. His question was entirely candid, as though he were merely interested in hearing it.

 

“Just . . . something . . .”

 

The sudden flash of a half-formed thought flickered to life in his head: the vision of a little house with a smiling girl with her face plastered to the window as though she were waiting for him. Behind her stood Samantha, waving happily . . .

 

Kurt sighed, blinking the lingering scenario out of his head. “It's not . . . not that easy,” he mumbled.

 

“It never is,” Cain agreed. “Suppose you tell me what you have to do first?”

 

Kurt didn't answer. In his mind, the two faces faded from the window, only to be replaced by the silhouettes of monsters and then of his family . . . Their voices echoed in his head, their screams as they begged for mercy that wasn't to be. To appease their memories, to vindicate their lives . . .

 

“I have to find the monsters that killed my family,” he said. “I . . . I have to . . .”

 

“Killed your family . . .?”

 

Kurt shook his head. In truth, he hadn't meant to mention that; not to Cain, but given the topic . . .

 

“Youkai?” Cain asked slowly, his expression clouding over as he considered that. “Youkai killed your family . . .?”

 

“. . . Yeah.”

 

“When?”

 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kurt heard the sharpness, the terseness behind Cain's voice. Trapped half inside the memories that were entirely too vivid, Kurt didn't question it. “Thirty years ago? Thirty-two? I . . . I was seven . . . when they came . . .”

 

“Thirty years ago,” Cain murmured. “I see . . .”

 

Shaking his head, Kurt closed his eyes for a moment, willing away the memories that did nothing to help him. That was the reason he'd never considered having a family of his own, wasn't it? Those memories . . . They hurt, and he . . . He didn't know if getting revenge would do anything at all to assuage his conscience, but it couldn't hurt, could it? It couldn't possibly make things worse. Those dreams—those nightmares . . . if he could just do this for his family, wouldn't it make a difference?

 

“Drevin,” Cain said, as though he were pondering something. “Drevin, Drevin . . .”

 

“Zelig . . .” Ben interrupted in a cautiously quiet sort of tone.

 

Cain nodded slowly and cleared his throat. “Kurt . . . Why don't you let me look into this? Things like that . . . I should have known about it.”

 

Kurt blinked, his eyes slowly coming to focus on Cain's features, realizing that the man looked completely disturbed by the things Kurt had said. Cain forced a wan smile and shook his head as Ben strode over to rifle through a nearby filing cabinet. “But about the child . . . Do you want her? Do you want to adopt her?”

 

Kurt didn't know what to say to that. Well, that wasn't completely true. The thought of seeing her every day, of watching her grow into a child then a youth then a woman . . . For some reason, that idea was . . . was nice . . .

 

“I . . . I haven't talked to Sam about it,” he confessed.

 

Cain nodded. “Tell you what. Why don't you go find her, talk to her? Sleep on it if you want to. There's no rush.”

 

Sensing that he was being dismissed, Kurt got to his feet and headed for the door.

 

To keep her? The child . . .? He'd never considered that, had he . . .? But what would Samantha say? What would she think? Would she think that he'd lost his mind? Or . . .

 

The memory of the woman, kneeling in the grass with the little girl, both of them crying because the child had fallen off the tricycle . . .

 

Kurt stopped mid-step on the first flight of stairs as another memory solidified in his head. He didn't know how old he was at the time, but he remembered . . . He'd fallen off the swing in his back yard, hadn't he? His mother, with tears in her eyes as she spoke to him with an unsteady voice, telling him that he was okay . . . wiping his knee with an antiseptic towelette, her fingers shaking, her lips trembling . . . and his father pulling them both into his lap . . . “You'll be fine in an hour or so, son, right . . .?”

 

A small smile surfaced on his features; the barest hint of emotion at a sense that maybe things really did come full-circle. But Samantha . . . what would she say . . .? If he said that he wanted to keep the girl . . .

 

 

-OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO-

 

 

Samantha laughed as the child leaned over, trying to peer between the toilet seat and the bowl as Samantha peed. She didn't seem to fully grasp what was going on, but Samantha knew that it was just a matter of time before she did. She was entirely too bright not to, wasn't she?

 

Still, it was just too amusing to watch the child, really. Samantha wiped then stood up, and she laughed when the girl shrieked happily. “Ooh!” she squealed, clapping her hands as she stared at the water in the bowl. She'd seen that it was blue before, and Samantha supposed that the change in shade of the water inside was fascinating to the girl's young mind. She shot Samantha a questioning look as Samantha pulled up her underpants and shorts.

 

“It was blue; now it's green, huh?” Samantha asked as she reached for the handle to flush.

 

The child laughed as the water in the bowl cleared and was replaced once more by the fresh blue while Samantha washed her hands. With a little hop, she tugged at her diaper. Samantha smiled and tugged on the tapes, letting the disposable garment fall to the floor before lifting her onto the toilet and holding her in place. “Now you pee, then the water will turn green again,” she said.

 

“G-gween!”

 

Samantha giggled. “Yes, green.”

 

She smiled expectantly at Samantha, but a moment later, she wiggled to get down. As soon as her feet were on the floor, she whirled around to inspect the toilet only to frown when the water was still the same shade of blue.

 

Samantha smiled. “You didn't go pee, sweetie,” she said. “It won't change color unless you do.”

 

She shot Samantha a puzzled sort of look, and Samantha shook her head. “Come on. Let's put your diaper back on, and we'll get you some Pull-Ups tomorrow. Those are big girl pants, and then you can use the potty like I do, okay?”

 

The child nodded in agreement, and while Samantha didn't figure that she really understood at all, that was fine, too. She was coming along a lot faster than anyone had really thought, given her background, and even then, Samantha had to wonder if her mother could speak. After all, she'd chosen not to speak to the white-coats, herself, hadn't she? Maybe the girl's mother had taken that route, too . . .

 

But there really wasn't a doubt in Samantha's mind that the girl was just as smart as any other two year old child. She was just a little behind because she was never taught anything. That made her angrier than anything else, really. Science experiment, indeed . . . Just what the hell had those white-coats done to her over her lifetime in that facility? Hadn't it ever occurred to them that the girl had the capacity to learn things?

 

Heaving a sigh as she refastened the diaper and helped her wash her hands, Samantha figured that she was better off, not thinking about all of that. It wouldn't do any good now, would it? Bemoaning circumstances and being angry about it wouldn't change anything, and it certainly wouldn't do a thing for the girl, either.

 

Kurt was standing at the window, looking out over the sprawling yard and the ocean beyond when Samantha stepped into the room. He didn't turn when she entered the room, but she knew that he felt her presence. The girl squirmed to get down and darted over to him. “Daddy, tanny!” she hollered, holding up her arms.

 

Kurt leaned down and scooped her up, handing her a small bag of Skittles.

 

“We were showing her how to go potty,” Samantha said as she hurried over to kiss Kurt's cheek.

 

“Oh? And how'd that go?”

 

She smiled. “It was just the first step. These things take awhile.”

 

He nodded and shot her a perfunctory sort of smile before shifting his gaze outside once more. There was something on his mind, she could tell. She only wondered whether or not he'd confide in her . . .

 

He heaved a sigh and set the child down, slowly turning away from the window to stare at Samantha as though he were trying to see inside her head. “Tell me something,” he said slowly. “If I asked you a question, would you tell me the truth?”

 

She nodded slowly. “Of course.”

 

He shook his head as though he doubted her. “No, I mean really tell me the truth. You wouldn't hold back just to save my feelings.”

 

“Okay,” she agreed. “Why?”

 

He forced a small smile and shook his head again. “Let me think about it a little longer,” he said almost apologetically. “Then I'll tell you; I promise.”

 

She smiled and nodded and slipped her arms around him. “I trust you, taijya,” she said quietly.

 

Kurt heaved a sigh and kissed her forehead. “I'm glad one of us does.”

 

 

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A/N:

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Reviewers

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MMorg

Sesshomaru4Kagura4ever ------ Firedemon86 ------ AtamaHitoride ------ malitiadixie ------ ThisIsMeSmiling ------ Usagiseren05 (Yes, I have, probably more than anyone reading it. lol. Though if you think this one is bad as far as that goes, Purity 11 will be much, much worse …) ------ 3427 ------ kds1222 ------ darkangel05 ------ monkeyseemonkeynodo ------ Dark Inuu Fan ------ OROsan0677 ------ shestarr334 ------ Jester08 ------ kittycatkitten ------ Sovereignty ------ My-Only-Love (I think his behavior has more to do with his granddaughter and less to do with Kurt being Miroku's reincarnation. Besides that, InuYasha was the one who came up with Kurt's punishment, and given that most of the others wanted to kill him, I'd say that InuYasha's behavior was for the best. If it still bothers you, though, then I suggest that you don't read on. Simply stated, if I don't enjoy something I'm reading, I just stop reading it. Lol.)

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Forum

Mangaluva ------ malitiadixie ------ Firedemon86 ------ cutechick18 ------ OROsan0677 ------ laura.beth

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Final Thought fromKurt:

…Adopt her …?

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Vendetta): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~