InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tamatebako ❯ Chapter 1

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Inuyasha © Takahashi Rumiko

Chapter 1

If anyone had happened to look up, they might have seen him. Sesshoumaru stood at the top of a tower that glowed orange in the artificial light. The tallest in the city. He was surrounded by a sea of black towers, their own light making the night sky turn red and blocking out the stars. But then again, he supposed he looked even smaller to their human eyes than they did to him, he stood so high above them. But no one looked up.

He descended the tower slowly, allowing himself to become acclimated to the scents around him, picking them apart at the same time, to find that one scent that would lead him towards where he needed to go. Sesshoumaru couldn't quite find it in himself to care about the girl, but he could no longer deny what was at stake here. Inuyasha was passionate, but even he was unaware of the true importance of this task, and why it was so crucial that he remain behind.

His hand reached into his sleeve and he fingered the small box that Inuyasha had given him. He recalled the reverence with which he had handled it, and the command in his voice as he made clear what would happen should he return without it. “Don't lose it, or next time I'll cut off something you'll really miss.” It was one of the few instances Sesshoumaru did not doubt Inuyasha's ability to carry out his threat. While he had been to the shrine many times, now was the true test on whether it was the correct one. She was about to give birth and he was about to find out how good his nose really was. The deteriorating cloth within the box would be key in identifying the child without a doubt.

Inuyasha had only been able to give him vague speculation as to when exactly she would be born. He'd never paid attention to the year of her birth. The calendar had changed so much between then and now that he had to pay attention to different signs and wait for things to begin to look familiar again. But he didn't want to miss it either. There were still those of their kind that would waken when they felt the pull of the Shikon no Tama, and he couldn't miss it's rebirth.

So it was that Sesshoumaru had first arrived in Tokyo some 10 years prior to Kagome's birth. It had taken some difficulty to find the shrine, despite Inuyasha's assurances that it would be easy, “The well is covered now, but the tree is still there. Once you spot the tree you'll know you have the right shrine.” What Inuyasha had neglected to tell him was how much the landscape had changed, and it was continuing to change rapidly, even by human standards. Eventually, and not without much difficulty, he found the tree. It was still scarred by Inuyasha's 50 years pinned to it, though the bare patch was much higher now than it had been over 400 years ago. So certain was he that he had located the correct shrine, that he ignored his better senses and had mistaken the girl he now knew to be her mother, as Kagome.

She was 10 or 11 at the time and he had ignored the differences in appearance and scent. All humans looked alike anyway, didn't they? It wasn't until he heard her called by another name that he realized his mistake. Still, he couldn't be sure of the relationship between the girl and Kagome. He returned to the shrine maybe once a year. Kagome must appear eventually.

He saw the mother court, marry, and eventually, finally become pregnant. He visited more frequently. The jewel, no doubt, growing inside the child as the child grew inside her mother. The risk that one of his kind might notice was too great for him to leave her alone for very long. As her time drew near, he made one last trip home, as he found it unlikely he would be able to leave the shrine very often, maybe not for a long time once the child was born. He returned only to find that he almost missed the birth.

The young woman's husband was helping her into a car, and Sesshoumaru followed it from above. He couldn't follow them into the hospital, however. Not without attracting more attention than he wished. So he waited and listened from outside. He was familiar with the location from their doctor visits and there were no youkai in or around the building. They should be safe enough for him to watch from the roof of the building or from one of those surrounding. No unwanted visitors approached. Not that they would dare, he'd been broadcasting his presence to any of those who could feel it. It was obvious to those who could notice that the area was under his protection and that they would be fools to cross him.

He saw the couples' parents come and go with gifts, soft toys and flowers. Two days later, he saw the couple leave the hospital with their daughter. Though the scent was distant and different, as she was an infant, from what he remembered, he knew it was her. And the Shikon no Tama, it was there, he knew it was. He couldn't tell how he knew. He didn't know of any who could sense the Shikon no Tama the way that Kagome could in the past, or the one before her. But there was a definite pull. He didn't understand how some could feel it and some couldn't. Inuyasha and the young fox had long ago confessed that they had only followed rumors to its location. Sesshoumaru suspected that it was simply that darkness drew to darkness and nothing more. Even evil humans felt its pull even if they weren't aware of it and didn't understand.

There was no indication that the child was a miko. A true miko, not the young girls that merely carried out tradition and went through the motions of performing the old rituals. Though the rituals had power in themselves, even if the girls did not. Inuyasha had prepared him for this. He'd warned him that the spirit of the jewel had sealed her power. This disturbed him, that the spirit had the power to do such when the jewel was only just reborn and the child so small and weak.

In a short time, they arrived back at the shrine, and they quickly fell into the new pattern of life, easily incorporating the new addition. Sesshoumaru kept his distance during this time, not only pacing the boundaries of the shrine, keeping unwanted visitors away, but allowing the qualms of a new mother to fade. She had to feel at ease for him to attempt what he next had planned, for him to go unnoticed. Though she hadn't her daughters power, she was still a shrine daughter, and as such her mind was more open to the old ways than other humans.

He waited past nightfall on the night of the full moon. It was spring and the sun was up quite late, but the family went to sleep early. He'd entered the house previously, out of curiosity, though not often. This time, however, he had a clear goal in mind. He entered the parents' room. While a nursery had been prepared for the child, the mother would not let her that far from her side, even in sleep. He approached the girl's cradle and looked upon her close-up for the first time. She was awake. Looking right back at him. He was disarmed at first, because she seemed to look through him. Then he remembered the child was human, and barely two weeks old. Adult humans could see little in the dark, even on a bright night such as this, and human infants even less. Momentarily, the child's gaze slid and she appeared cross-eyed. He briefly feared for her, but he vaguely recalled that all new humans, even the young of his own kind, were born nearly blind.

He bent and silently lifted the child from the cradle. One hand under the child's head and neck and the other under her bottom. He'd never held a baby before. He'd seen the child's father hold her in such a way and it was never long before she started squalling, but the mother held her close so he pulled her in close to his body. He didn't want the mother to wake. He'd waited for the arrival of his charge for so long. He wanted this moment to himself. He surveyed her thoroughly. She was still so tiny. So different from the young woman she would become. So hard to believe they could possibly be the same person. He bent his head so that he could memorize her scent. After a moment he raised it. So filled with the scent of the child in his head, he hadn't noticed the changes in the room. The mother was awake and staring at him.