InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Short Tails ❯ Legacy ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and anyone else she may have sold the rights to. It's just fun to mess with them occasionally.

A/N: yet another entry at iyfic_contest on LJ. This one's theme was in vino veritas. For those unsure, that translates to "in wine, truth." This was my interpretation.

 

Legacy

They say that truth can be found at the bottom of a bottle. Well, Mushin had been drinking for a very long time now and had seen the empty end of many a sake jug; and he had yet to find the truths to the questions that plagued him. It wasn't always this way, and one of those truths he did know. The answer to why he drank could be found, not at the bottom of the jug, but in his fading memories, the very ones he hoped to drown in sake.

When he was a young, optimistic acolyte, he drank very little, just the occasional cup with friends or toast to Buddha. It was never enough to be truly drunk, and he made sure that he could still walk home without a stagger. He studied diligently and was as holy as one of his scanty years could hope to be. All of that changed, though, when he met Yoshi.

Another young acolyte like himself, Yoshi was bound and determined to enjoy all of the finer things in life. Women, booze, fine foods, and money, it was all meant to be savored; and if you had to tell a little lie or pull a small con, well. As long as it wasn't hurting anyone, who was really going to care? Such was Yoshi's outlook on life, and it took a very long time for Mushin to come around to that way of thinking.

When he finally did, he found himself dragged all across the countryside in pursuit of the finer things in life. He also started drinking a little more heavily than before and by the time the two men had put on sandals and started their wanderings, he was an expert in finding the taverns with the prettiest geisha and the best sake in that region. He also had, thanks in large part to Yoshi, some of the best women in those villages.

It was several years after meeting Yoshi that he finally got up the courage to ask the man some questions about his life. It had always intrigued him, why Yoshi asked every pretty girl they met to bear his child, and why he never seemed all that concerned about his immortal soul. After all, some of his cons were doozies and not exactly what one would expect from a man of Buddha.

It was drunken courage, of course; but he found that that was probably for the best. The answers Yoshi gave him were not ones that he really wanted to think about sober anyway. Yoshi propositioned women in the hopes of producing an heir before his curse killed him. Mushin was doubly glad he was a few sheets to the wind the first time Yoshi demonstrated exactly what that curse was. The look of horror on that demon's face was enough to bring pity from anyone, never mind a man of the cloth. It was also enough to send Mushin into a sake jug for several days, a condition that didn't lessen with each exposure.

Several years after they started their journeys, Mushin accepted a more permanent position and settled down at a small mountain shrine, content to tend its small flock of followers and give Yoshi a base of operation. He saw his friend three or four times a year, and they shared stories and, of course, sake. Yoshi always had the best sake, and Mushin found himself regretting leaving the road; the liquor in his little corner of the world left a lot to be desired.

It was during one of these visits that Yoshi presented Mushin with, not several bottles of good rice wine as he had come to anticipate, but a babe of tender years. When asked what Yoshi expected Mushin to do with a child, the answer surprised and pleased him. "I need you to raise him, old friend. My time is extremely short, and I can't teach him all that he needs to know. Raise him in the ways of Buddha, tell him about his father, and educate him in his curse. He is the hope of my line. He must defeat the monster that damned us."

Two years later word came that Yoshi was no more, his last mark on Earth a wide crater. Mushin raised the little boy, educating him as his father asked and growing to love the lad as a father would. Every day, he checked the boy's hand and watched as the curse grew; and every day, he drank a little more. Finally, the time came when the boy, now a young man, had to leave to make his way in the world and carry on his father's legacy. "When you find a woman who will consent to bear your son, know that he will always be welcome here."

As Mushin watched Miroku take up his staff and shoulder his meager pack, he reached for the sake jug that now never left his side and took a good, long swig. He couldn't stop Miroku's fate any more than he could Yoshi's. The only thing he could do was drink and hope that Miroku could finally put an end to his curse.

They say that there is truth at the bottom of a bottle. Mushin didn't think so. There was only air and clay at the bottom of his bottles. Truth was walking a dangerous path, carrying on his father's legacy, fighting for a future and an end to his damnation.