InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Shippo's School ❯ Shippo's School ( Chapter 1 )

Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi

 

 

Shippo's School

 

 

“So that was you?” Shippo shook his head. “I don't remember anything except getting knocked over the head.” He glanced at Kazuki, who was happily playing with some of the forest youkai in their front yard. “I definitely don't remember seeing him,” he admitted. “It was a long time ago, and I might have met some kid at one time or other back then, but I would have known if he smelled like you.”

 

“Ah, but he didn't,” said Kagome. “We made sure to disguise all our scents—with curry powder!”

 

Shippo raised his eyebrows and looked questioningly at Inuyasha. He knew how much Inuyasha hated curry.

 

Inuyasha shrugged. “It worked,” he said. “And I didn't have to eat it.”

 

Shippo had brought his family to Inuyasha's new home for a long-overdue visit. He couldn't believe that Inuyasha, Kagome and Kazuki had gone back to the feudal era without his ever suspecting. Curry, of all things. He may never have found out at all except Kazuki, whom he hadn't seen since the hanyou boy was a toddler, announced to everyone that he remembered Shippo's scent from the time they had played together in the woods while Kazuki and his family had been on vacation.

 

“'Course, you weren't a grown-up last time,” the little boy said.

 

Thoughts of past lives flitted through Shippo's head until he caught the guilty looks exchanged between Kagome and Inuyasha. Looking them straight in the eyes, Shippo asked, “And when was last time?”

 

“In the summer,” answered Kazuki. “Don't you remember?”

 

Kagome waddled to the kitchen to turn off the whistling teakettle, leaving Inuyasha to explain about Tetsusaiga and the time slip. She poured them tea as Kazuki scooted back outside to play. Some of Shippo's younger relatives joined him, leaving Shippo and his wife to hear the whole story.

 

“Your youkai are good with him,” Shippo commented, watching them out the window. It was winter and the ground was blanketed in snow, yet Kazuki frolicked with the other youkai wearing little more than a shirt and pants. He tolerated shoes when he had to, but just like his Daddy, he preferred to go barefoot at home. Kagome had finally stopped worrying that he might catch a cold if he weren't bundled up. Maybe she'd have more success keeping clothes on the next one.

 

Valynne watched from the driveway, her foxy face serene as the hanyou and youkai tumbled and leaped and chased one another back and forth. It was rough play, just right for a growing hanyou boy.

 

“And Tetsusaiga brings you back here?” Shippo asked, trying to understand how the whole time thing continued to work. “How did you ever figure that out?”

 

“It was an accident,” explained Inuyasha, going on to explain that Kazuki had been the one to inadvertently invoke the blue power of the time slip. “I grabbed Kagome then grabbed him just as the sword pulled us through.”

 

“You mean you didn't know exactly what would happen?” asked Shipo incredulously.

 

“I had a pretty good idea,” said Inuyasha. “We didn't stay, that first time. We realized where we were and then used the sword to bring us right back.”

 

“Right back? You mean here?”

 

“Yeah, turns out that we end up where we started. Tetsusaiga stole the power of the time slip, and the time slip connected to the old well in my time, but Tetsusaiga isn't anchored to any one spot,” Inuyasha explained. “I can create the time slip from anywhere.”

 

“Kids, kids!” shouted Kagome, “Stay in the front yard!” She knew if Kazuki went around the back to the drop-off, he would be out and over in an instant, dragging not only their own youkai, but all of Shippo's young youkai along with him. For a minute, it looked like Kazuki was going to ignore her. Then Inuyasha stood up and walked over to the window. That's all it took. Kazuki veered back towards the driveway, the other youkai following behind him.

 

“So that's why the old well got re-built and turned into a shrine,” said Shippo.

 

“Not yet, it didn't,” muttered Inuyasha. “But it will.”

 

“Sss. . .” murmured Kagome softly as she stopped short on her way back to the kitchen with the tea tray. Instantly, three sets of youkai eyes swiveled to focus on her, and three youkai noses sniffed the air. Inuyasha jumped up and guided Kagome to the nearest chair.

 

“Is it time?” asked Shippo's wife.

 

“I think so.”

 

Shippo's wife Junko, a lovely petite youkai woman who had had her fair share of offspring over the years, had come along on this trip not only for a visit, but also to act as Kagome's midwife when the time came. Unlike Kagome's first youkai doctor, Junko didn't mind the thought of traveling beyond her native Japan.

 

Shippo volunteered to keep the children busy outside while Inuyasha carried Kagome up to their bedroom. “Send Valynne in,” he instructed Shippo over his shoulder.

 

Junko bustled about readying her supplies for the impending birth. She didn't expect any complications. Hanyou births generally went smoothly. But it was always best to be prepared.

 

Outside, Shippo spoke briefly to Valynne before sending her inside to help with the birth. Inuyasha certainly seemed to trust the young fox girl around his family. Shippo wondered again about her origin. She was definitely fox, he could smell it on her. Kagome had thought she was newly formed, not born, and that in itself was amazing if it were true.

 

The other youkai were less human in form, but no less real for all that. He sensed several different animal varieties, and could recognize certain physical characteristics of the different animal aspects, but at times the lines would blend, and the youkai would become more spirit than substance. He couldn't tell who was learning more from whom; the little youkai copied Kazuki about as often as Kazuki copied them. The main difference was that Kazuki couldn't revert to spirit form—yet. Shippo had no doubt it would just be a matter of time.

 

It would probably be a while, and if Shippo knew Kagome, she wouldn't just lie down and wait for the birth, as much as Inuyasha might want her to do just that. He could imagine the fireworks already.

 

“Kids,” he called, to get their attention. The forest youkai, Kazuki and his own grandkids, whom they'd brought with them on this trip to meet their `cousin' in the new world, gathered around Shippo in anticipation. “Let's go play in the woods.”

 

Yelling with delight, Kazuki and the others shot off ahead of Shippo, who had to sprint to catch up with them. It was going to be a long day. He flinched when Kazuki didn't even slow down for the barrier, then realized that Kagome had not replaced it when they arrived. She probably knew she wouldn't have the concentration to remove it once she was in labor. Lucky for him. The local youkai seemed immune to the barrier and since Kazuki tended to plow right through it anyway, his mother had keyed it to allow the little hanyou free passage. So the only ones who might have been affected were Shippo and his young grandchildren.

 

They had a whole mountain to explore. Kazuki knew most of the fun places, but he wasn't allowed to go to them without his Daddy, so he was thrilled to be the unofficial `leader' of the little pack of youkai today. Some of Shippo's grandchildren looked as young as he did, but in actuality they were quite a bit older. One of the boys looked to be about the same age as Valynne, and Shippo had already caught a few glances flying back and forth between the two. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. If Valynne wasn't a `born' youkai, would she be able to bear children in due course herself? He wished he knew more about these new world youkai. Were they old in spirit and just young in body? Or were they truly young? It was a shame they didn't know themselves. They had a lot to learn about being youkai.

 

Kagome had told Shippo the story of when she had tried to teach their little youkai to `trick' the human construction workers during the time their house was being built so that the youkai would lose a little of their fear of humans. At the time, Shippo had laughed along with her at the absurdity of the situation. Kagome, a human, had taught youkai to play tricks on other humans. Now, however, the more he thought about it, the more logical the whole concept seemed. These youkai certainly did need to learn more about what they were and what they could do. And he, Shippo, a trickster by nature, was just the youkai to teach them!

 

“Over here,” he instructed them. They all settled down on the ground or in the trees in front of Shippo. “We're going to play a game.”

 

Shippo's grandchildren exchanged glances. They knew what was coming.

 

“All of you will have a certain task to complete,” continued Shippo. “You can work on your own or in groups, it's up to you. But you can only get a prize if you finish your own task, got it?”

 

“What's the prize?” Kazuki asked.

 

Shippo pulled a stack of leaves from inside his vest. Each leaf had a number on it. “These,” he said. “You can start collecting these every time you complete an assignment. When you get all of them, you win.”

 

Kazuki's eyes shone with excitement. This was going to be a fun game! “What's an assignment?” he wanted to know.

 

“It's the thing you have to do,” explained the older of Shippo's grandchildren. “It's like homework.”

 

“Oh, I don't have homework yet,” replied Kazuki. “I'm only in playgroup. Next year I'm going to kindergarten.” He frowned. “Can I still play?”

 

Shippo laughed. “Of course you can play. This is youkai school, and you're just the right age. So are you.” Shippo looked pointedly at the other little youkai. To his knowledge, none of them actually spoke. They all nodded enthusiastically, however. “Ready? This is what you have to do. . . .”

 

Shippo made their first tasks easy since they were new to the game and he didn't want them to get discouraged or roam too far from Inuyasha's house. Too bad there weren't any humans around for them to play tricks on. That would have to come later. It was a shame he was going back to Japan in a couple of weeks. He would have liked to stay here and see how this `youkai school' played out.

 

Kazuki trotted back to the clearing where Shippo waited proudly carrying a struggling squirrel by its tail. “Nice squirrel,” he said to it, as he set it down carefully next to Shippo. The frightened squirrel took off like a shot. Kazuki blinked in surprise.

 

“Nice try,” Shippo said encouragingly. The assignment had been to find a forest creature and gain its confidence enough to get close to it and `capture' it, either through trickery, by transforming like the fox youkai, or through stealth. Shippo didn't think Kazuki used either of those methods. The kid was too much like his father. He probably used his speed to snatch up the squirrel with no attempt whatsoever to soothe the little animal. Still, he did capture it, and to his credit, he didn't end up killing the thing either, so he supposed Kazuki had successfully completed the first assignment after all. “Here you go,” he said, handing Kazuki a leaf with the number 1 on it. “Good job!”

 

The others trickled in after that; even the local forest youkai managed to capture various natural creatures. One cradled a toad in its small hands, and one even had a wild cat following behind it. Shippo sniffed, trying to ascertain what type of trickery the little youkai had used to make the wild cat follow so docilely, and sure enough, the little youkai had exuded some sort of scent to attract the beast. That one should have got the number one leaf! Shippo had their entire group take off through the trees, leaving their collection of confused forest animals to find their own ways home. All in all, it was a successful afternoon.

 

Shippo's cell phone rang, jarringly loud in the darkening forest. The labor had gone smoothly. Kagome had actually gone into labor earlier that morning, and hadn't wanted to alarm anyone or, thought Shippo, be coddled until the last possible moment. Her daughter was born at five p.m. Junko asked Shippo to keep the kids out a little longer until the new baby was settled. Inuyasha had ordered pizza to be delivered in about an hour.

 

That gave Shippo an idea. “Kids,” he said, including Inuyasha's new world youkai in his definition of kids, “how would you like to try for one more leaf today?”

 

Everyone was up to the challenge.

 

“This time, you all need to work together.”

 

“Will we still get our own leaf?” asked Kazuki.

 

“Yes, you will, if you do your part. Kazuki, you need to pretend to be fully human. Do you think you can do that? Yusuke, you too. You're brothers, lost in the woods, got it?”

 

Yusuke, the older of his grandkids, grinned and nodded. He could transform, but Kazuki had only the clothes on his back. His silver-white hair and twitching ears were clear marks of what he was. “Come on,” said Yusuke to the younger hanyou boy, taking a knit cap out of his pocket. “I'll help you.”

 

Shippo sent his other grandkids along with the forest youkai to the access road that led up the mountain to Inuyasha's house. The pizza delivery kid should be driving along it any time now. Their mission was to `scare' the pizza delivery kid.

 

The access road was little more than a dirt track put in so that the construction workers could get equipment up to the house. Kagome sometimes used it to drive into town for groceries, but other than that, it was seldom traveled. In winter, it was icy and there were deep ruts where tires had sunk down in the mud before the road froze.

 

The teen-ager in the pizza delivery car had his work cut out for him. He was expecting a big tip for it, too. He had five large pizzas to deliver to the top of this mountain. He'd been out here a couple of times before. It was creepy. The guy at the top of the hill was kind of creepy, too. But he tipped good.

 

Halfway up the mountain the delivery boy thought he saw wisps of white out of the corner of his eye. They didn't look like snow, they looked more like ghostly wraiths. Every few seconds he heard a thunk against the side of his car, as if someone were throwing snowballs at it. He nervously flicked the locks on his doors and hunched over the steering wheel. Must be his imagination. His headlights bounced over the rough road. Once he thought he saw a figure standing in the middle of the road, so he slammed on his brakes, but when he stopped, nothing was there. He shakily started driving again. From outside, the wind howled. At least, he hoped it was the wind. He turned up the radio louder.

 

Another figure blocked the road. The kid ignored it, figuring it would disappear like the other one, but as he got closer, the figure solidified into a crying little boy, with no coat and no shoes! For the second time, the pizza delivery kid slammed on his brakes. The child remained in the roadway, sobbing and shivering with cold. A second child, this one a little older, stood off to the side, pleading with the little boy to get out of the road. This second boy ran up to the car window and pounded on it. “Help us, you've got to help us!” he cried desperately.

 

The kid in the car unlocked the door and then ran around to help the boy coax the little one into the car. The child was crying openly, “I can't—I can't—mama told me never to go with Strangers!” At the same time, the child's nose was twitching fiercely and he kept glancing towards the insulated red containers in the back seat. The older child cuffed him, not unkindly, on the back of the head, seeming to knock some sense into the smaller boy. He sniffled, then climbed into the front seat along with the other boy.

 

Just then an unearthly howl tore through the woods, making the pizza delivery kid jump. He ran around to the driver's side and slid in, once more locking all the doors. “How did you two get out here?” he asked, as he continued up the road.

 

“We're lost,” said the older boy. “We don't know how to get home.” He held onto the younger boy who was trying to climb over the seat into the back where the pizzas were.

 

The pizza delivery kid wasn't sure what to do. However, the smaller kid looked familiar. “Did you come from the house on the hill?” he asked. “I'm going there now. I'll bring you home.”

 

The little kid nodded. He seemed to have forgotten his tears. He didn't look all that cold now, either. He had on a winter knit hat, but no coat, yet he was no longer shivering. The pizza delivery boy shivered instead. Strange kids. Of course, he would bring them back home. They were just kids, after all. Maybe he'd get an even bigger tip for it.

 

He pulled up in front of the house and had to fight with the kids to get them out of the front seat. That little one had sharp fingernails! A different man waited by the door. He didn't say anything about the two missing children, who accepted what looked like leaves from the man, then darted past him and into the house as if nothing were out of the ordinary. He held out his hand for his tip, but he didn't even count it as he got back into his car and started the trek back down the mountain. Tip or no tip, this was the last time he was going to come out here! These people were weird!

 

 

“Kitsune School?” Inuyasha asked, after they were warm and dry and full of pizza. Kagome sat on the sofa with baby Mayumi, nursing her while Kazuki sat next to her, gently petting his baby sister's downy head. That was the only pizza delivery guy they could get to travel out this far. “You're teaching Kazuki kitsune tricks?”

 

“Not only Kazuki, all of them,” explained Shippo. “And it's not Kitsune School. It's more like Youkai Kindergarten. I just borrowed a few ideas from the old school.”

 

Kagome looked up and smiled. “I think it's a great idea,” she said. “The children obviously loved it. I think it's good for our youkai, don't you, Inuyasha?”

 

“Yeah, well, Kazuki's no kitsune,” grumbled Inuyasha.

 

“That's for sure,” Shippo agreed. “He's your son all right.” He went on to tell Inuyasha and Kagome how Kazuki had answered the first youkai school challenge. Kazuki, in the meantime, belly full after the pizza and finally tuckered out from his long day of `school,' was fast asleep next to his mother on the couch. Inuyasha was gratified to hear that his son was number one.

 

“He did play the `human' pretty flawlessly, though, according to Yusuke,” said Shippo.

 

“That's good to hear. I've been taking him to a playgroup at the University twice a week so he can get used to being around other human children,” said Kagome. Inuyasha took the baby from her shoulder and walked around the living room, crooning to her softly. “But I have to stay right there to make sure he doesn't do something he's not supposed to. It's going to be hard with the new baby now. It would be nice if you could stay a while and continue to teach him and the other youkai.”

 

“What's wrong with me?” asked Inuyasha, although his gaze never strayed from the face of his new baby daughter. “I can teach him.”

 

Kagome laughed. “You're worse than he is!” she remarked. “You'll have him baring his fangs at the first human child who crosses him.”

 

“And what's wrong with that?” asked Inuyasha.

 

Both Shippo and Kagome shook their heads.

 

“Well, why don't you?” asked Junko. “Stay a while and work with Kazuki and the other youkai until Spring, to give Kagome and Inuyasha time to concentrate on the new baby.”

 

“You don't mind?” Shippo asked his wife. Today had been fun. It had been a long while since he'd had the challenge of teaching young youkai some of his tricks.

 

“I'll take our grandchildren back. We can come again for the summer, if Inuyasha and Kagome will have us.”

 

Kagome assured Junko that they were always welcome. “Shippo can stay here with us,” she said. “Right, Inuyasha?”

 

It might be interesting to have the little fuzz-ball around for a while after all, Inuyasha thought to himself. They had about five hundred years of catching up to do. “Whatever,” he said.

 

Shippo grinned. That was as good as he was going to get from Inuyasha. Youkai Kindergarten, here we come!