InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Young Ones ❯ Chapter 17 - The road continues ( Chapter 17 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Inumimi 
The road continues and the princess wants some information on the change she gone through.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.30.2010 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 364 | Status: Completed
The road continues and the princess wants some information on the change she gone through.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.30.2010 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 364 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 17 – The Road Continues
The quartet quickly traversed the remainder of the falls without incident, exiting into what appeared to be a heavily wooded valley.
Since all four of them were still rather shaken by their experiences InuYasha quickly found a small dry cave near a pond and declared that they would already be stopping for the night.
Since they still had cooked meat from InuYasha’s last kill they quickly started a small fire and started to eat dinner.
Yasha and the princess were unusually quiet, especially the princess. Yasha was usually quiet, but the princess normally chatted with Kagome during their meals, now she was just picking at her food and surreptitiously looking at Yasha.
Unable to stand the little princess abnormal mood any longer Kagome gently inquired “Princess are you really OK? I know it’s a lot to take in all at one time, but you and Yasha don’t have to do anything about being mated for lots and lots of years. Or is it the immortal part that’s worrying you?”
The princess finally looked up at Kagome, then back to Yasha and replied “Both I guess, just what does it mean if we are immortal? Can we still be killed, and will Yasha and I finish growing up?”
InuYasha decided that he was marginally the best qualified to answer the princesses concerns “Well, if this immortality is like that of most full blooded youkai, yes you will finish growing up normally. Actually Yasha and I might have already been immortal, it’s hard to tell, almost no hanyou ever make it to adulthood so we might have been immortal or we might just have had a very long life span, there really is no way for us to know now. Anyway, you should grow up normally till you’re about 17 or 18, then you should stop aging. I know some full blooded youkai, who started to look older at some point in their life, but they really were not aging, it was all looks. The important thing to remember is that you can be killed. If someone cuts your head off – you will die! We know Yasha heals from his wounds just like me, almost like a youkai, but there is no way to know how you, princess, or Kagome will heal. You may heal fast like a youkai or hanyou or you may still have the slow healing time of a regular human. If you heal like a human, it would be very easy for you to be killed; your immortality would be of little help. Until something happens to one of you there will be no way for us to know about your healing speed and to be honest I’m in no rush to find out.”
Kagome was impressed, InuYasha was more of the one word answer type of person, he had just given, what was for him, a major speech.
The little princess nodding in understanding and then mused “What I still don’t understand is, when we were outside the falls InuYasha and Yasha felt youkai power and you Kagome felt human spiritual power, but InuYasha said he thought the power came into us via youkai power.”
Kagome smiled and eagerly replied “I’ve been thinking about that and here’s what I think may be the answer. First off Yasha and InuYasha do you feel any youkai energy coming off of me or the princess?”
InuYasha shook his head “No different than before, your human spiritual powers have always overshadowed any youkai power that might have gotten into you when we mated and I still don’t feel any youkai power coming from you. As far as I could tell the princess had no particular power before, though now she has a decent amount of human spiritual energy. By the way Yasha’s youki does not seem any different to me than it was before.”
Kagome nodded “Exactly, now I think the immortal energy itself is neutral, neither human spiritual, nor youkai. You just said yourself that you and Yasha might already have been immortal or at the least very long lived, so your youkai energy had no problem incorporating this immortal energy into itself. I on the other hand have plenty of human spiritual power, but it has no immortal or long life attributes so in order for the immortal powers to get into me they had to use a path that was compatible with it, my mating mark, which is the place where your youki entered my system, once it had a path to follow it was able to incorporate with my human spiritual powers. In the same way once the princess had a mating mark the immortal energy had a path to follow, but since she is human it immediately transformed into human spiritual power.”
Noticing the somewhat glazed looked on everyone’s faces she quickly added “It just a theory and the important thing is that we are all OK.”
Glancing at the two children Kagome realized that it would take some time for them to get used to all of the changes that had just been forced upon them. In the space of a few moments they had marked each other as mates and become quite probably immortal. Not to mention the fact the princess now possessed spiritual powers. They both looked exhausted and scared. Going into mothering mode Kagome decided to take charge proclaiming “OK it’s getting late and you two need to get some sleep, InuYasha will take the first watch so let’s get your bedding set up.”
As he did every night Yasha got his princess’s bed roll set up for her and the princess almost immediately crawled under the top blanket. Yasha couldn’t understand why, but he was so tired that he did not argue with the adults and curled up on the cold cave floor next to his princess.
Kagome shook her head at the little hanyou and took the blanket from her own bedding to cover the child. She knew that Yasha was as hardy as InuYasha, but marking a mate even without the actual mating was exhausting and the child needed some quality rest. Yasha of course protested, thrusting the blanket back at Kagome proclaiming that he didn’t need a blanket and Kagome did. Yasha’s arguing roused the little princess who turned and holding up the edge of her blanket sleepily mumbled “Yasha, just come here and go to sleep.” Yasha quickly wiggled closer to his princess who flipped half of her blanket over the little hanyou; within minuets the two children were fast asleep.
As the children slept, Kagome sat next to InuYasha, who wrapped his arm around his mate and bent to kiss the mating mark on Kagome’s neck. Smiling Kagome rested her head on InuYasha’s shoulder and whispered “They are so cute together, but I hope they wait till they’re older, 17 or 18, to finish up with the mating.”
InuYasha smirked “If they don’t it won’t be his fault” at Kagome’s confused and somewhat annoyed look he quickly continued “ Well it’s not like he’ll be like a 17 or 18 year old human male, even without the immortality he would have aged a little differently than a human. At the age of 17 he can mate if he wants to, but he will not be a crazy teenager, like a human. That really never happened to me, I think that I aged too slowly to go through all that crap. Now that the princess may be immortal perhaps she’ll be spared all that human teen crap.”
“What do you mean ‘human teen crap’ I was a human teen when I met you and we defeated Naraku!” was Kagome’s whispered indignant reply.
“Well you were a little tough on me, always ‘sitting’ me for every little thing. I always thought that you did that to me because you were so young and emotional. You really are a lot calmer now, much more adult.” InuYasha whispered; he hoped Kagome was adult enough now to hear the truth. “Not that I was acting all that adult either.” The hanyou quickly added.
At Kagome’s confused look InuYasha sighed and continued “Come on you were always complaining how childish I acted and it’s true, I was acting childish. I had lived alone for almost my whole life and then I spent 50 years pinned to a tree in an unnatural sleep, I was really messed up. It wasn’t till we defeated Naraku and I was living a more stable life in the village that I really learned how to interact with others. Kaede really helped me learn all the social crap that I never needed living alone. I really owe her a lot.”
Feeling a little ashamed Kagome had to admit “You’re right I was petty with my ‘sitting’ you all the time and I never made any allowance for your upbringing. I don’t know how you put up with me. I guess I really was a crazy teenager.”
InuYasha just smiled and kissed Kagome gently and whispered “It’s getting late, why don’t you put your bedding here next to me and get some sleep.”
*****
The next evening as Kagome ate her dinner she reflected on the day and had to repress her laughter. The little princess and poor Yasha had been so stiff and formal with each other. For all of their talk of being in love with each other and wanting to run off together, they were still very young children and the reality that they really would be together at some point in the future was a bit too much for them to handle.
Even InuYasha had been unexpectedly nice to the children. Not pushing them too hard and letting everyone rest as much as they wanted.
Deciding that everyone needed a distraction from the previous day’s events, Kagome pulled out the prophecy and invited everyone to help figure out what would be the next challenge they would face.
Scanning over the manuscript Kagome commented that they should ignore everything that came before the ‘The sky is dry, but water is falling like rain’ as they all agreed that they had already passed that point.
Kagome moaned, “Crap, this is that passage that I really hate - I could swear I’ve read a book with some of these words in the title, it wasn’t a Japanese story – anyway it’s ‘over hill and under stone’ * then ‘two as one, two as one, but not alone’ as far as I can tell we will have to climb a mountain and go through a tunnel or cave – so that means lots more travel, unless we find a very small hill and a very small tunnel. It also says two as one twice so that must refer to InuYasha and me and Yasha and you princess. Since you are now referred to as ‘two as one’, it must mean that the prophecy knew you two would become bonded to each other. The part I do not understand yet is the ‘but not alone’ part. I guess someone will join our group at some point. When all of this stuff happens then I guess we will be ready for the next part of the prophecy to take place.”
Eager to be off of the subject of her recent mating and immorality, the princess commented “I wonder if it’s any use for us to even bother with any of later part of the prophecy till we get to that point. As far as I can tell some parts are so minor as to have no impact on what we are doing and others a major impact, but they both look and sound equally important when you read them. We now have a warning that we may be covering a lot of ground and we may end up meeting with or even traveling with someone, but I bet it will be useless for us to try and anticipate anything further in the future. I don’t know why, but I get this feeling that trying to outguess the prophecy will backfire on us.”
Kagome nodded her agreement adding “I think you’re right, everything seems to have been happening to us without us planning it. The prophecy only seems to be confirming that we are on the right track. I say we should just go on, do what seems to be the right thing, confirm with the prophecy that we are still moving forward and always take the next part of the prophecy with a grain of salt. It might be important, but then again it might be trivial. The important part of the passage we have been studying might be the ‘over hill and under stone’ part, but then again the important part might be meeting this new person. There’s just no way to tell.”
Ever practical InuYasha concluded “Well if we don’t get some sleep, we won’t be getting up tomorrow and we’ll never get to the hill, the tunnel or the stranger!”
InuYasha once again insisted on the first watch and just as he did the night before Yasha curled up next to his princess only to find himself covered by half of her blanket.
* Kagome has gotten confused, the story she is thinking of is ‘Over sea, under stone’ by Susan Cooper – perhaps she her Japanese translation was off!
Chapter 17 – The Road Continues
The quartet quickly traversed the remainder of the falls without incident, exiting into what appeared to be a heavily wooded valley.
Since all four of them were still rather shaken by their experiences InuYasha quickly found a small dry cave near a pond and declared that they would already be stopping for the night.
Since they still had cooked meat from InuYasha’s last kill they quickly started a small fire and started to eat dinner.
Yasha and the princess were unusually quiet, especially the princess. Yasha was usually quiet, but the princess normally chatted with Kagome during their meals, now she was just picking at her food and surreptitiously looking at Yasha.
Unable to stand the little princess abnormal mood any longer Kagome gently inquired “Princess are you really OK? I know it’s a lot to take in all at one time, but you and Yasha don’t have to do anything about being mated for lots and lots of years. Or is it the immortal part that’s worrying you?”
The princess finally looked up at Kagome, then back to Yasha and replied “Both I guess, just what does it mean if we are immortal? Can we still be killed, and will Yasha and I finish growing up?”
InuYasha decided that he was marginally the best qualified to answer the princesses concerns “Well, if this immortality is like that of most full blooded youkai, yes you will finish growing up normally. Actually Yasha and I might have already been immortal, it’s hard to tell, almost no hanyou ever make it to adulthood so we might have been immortal or we might just have had a very long life span, there really is no way for us to know now. Anyway, you should grow up normally till you’re about 17 or 18, then you should stop aging. I know some full blooded youkai, who started to look older at some point in their life, but they really were not aging, it was all looks. The important thing to remember is that you can be killed. If someone cuts your head off – you will die! We know Yasha heals from his wounds just like me, almost like a youkai, but there is no way to know how you, princess, or Kagome will heal. You may heal fast like a youkai or hanyou or you may still have the slow healing time of a regular human. If you heal like a human, it would be very easy for you to be killed; your immortality would be of little help. Until something happens to one of you there will be no way for us to know about your healing speed and to be honest I’m in no rush to find out.”
Kagome was impressed, InuYasha was more of the one word answer type of person, he had just given, what was for him, a major speech.
The little princess nodding in understanding and then mused “What I still don’t understand is, when we were outside the falls InuYasha and Yasha felt youkai power and you Kagome felt human spiritual power, but InuYasha said he thought the power came into us via youkai power.”
Kagome smiled and eagerly replied “I’ve been thinking about that and here’s what I think may be the answer. First off Yasha and InuYasha do you feel any youkai energy coming off of me or the princess?”
InuYasha shook his head “No different than before, your human spiritual powers have always overshadowed any youkai power that might have gotten into you when we mated and I still don’t feel any youkai power coming from you. As far as I could tell the princess had no particular power before, though now she has a decent amount of human spiritual energy. By the way Yasha’s youki does not seem any different to me than it was before.”
Kagome nodded “Exactly, now I think the immortal energy itself is neutral, neither human spiritual, nor youkai. You just said yourself that you and Yasha might already have been immortal or at the least very long lived, so your youkai energy had no problem incorporating this immortal energy into itself. I on the other hand have plenty of human spiritual power, but it has no immortal or long life attributes so in order for the immortal powers to get into me they had to use a path that was compatible with it, my mating mark, which is the place where your youki entered my system, once it had a path to follow it was able to incorporate with my human spiritual powers. In the same way once the princess had a mating mark the immortal energy had a path to follow, but since she is human it immediately transformed into human spiritual power.”
Noticing the somewhat glazed looked on everyone’s faces she quickly added “It just a theory and the important thing is that we are all OK.”
Glancing at the two children Kagome realized that it would take some time for them to get used to all of the changes that had just been forced upon them. In the space of a few moments they had marked each other as mates and become quite probably immortal. Not to mention the fact the princess now possessed spiritual powers. They both looked exhausted and scared. Going into mothering mode Kagome decided to take charge proclaiming “OK it’s getting late and you two need to get some sleep, InuYasha will take the first watch so let’s get your bedding set up.”
As he did every night Yasha got his princess’s bed roll set up for her and the princess almost immediately crawled under the top blanket. Yasha couldn’t understand why, but he was so tired that he did not argue with the adults and curled up on the cold cave floor next to his princess.
Kagome shook her head at the little hanyou and took the blanket from her own bedding to cover the child. She knew that Yasha was as hardy as InuYasha, but marking a mate even without the actual mating was exhausting and the child needed some quality rest. Yasha of course protested, thrusting the blanket back at Kagome proclaiming that he didn’t need a blanket and Kagome did. Yasha’s arguing roused the little princess who turned and holding up the edge of her blanket sleepily mumbled “Yasha, just come here and go to sleep.” Yasha quickly wiggled closer to his princess who flipped half of her blanket over the little hanyou; within minuets the two children were fast asleep.
As the children slept, Kagome sat next to InuYasha, who wrapped his arm around his mate and bent to kiss the mating mark on Kagome’s neck. Smiling Kagome rested her head on InuYasha’s shoulder and whispered “They are so cute together, but I hope they wait till they’re older, 17 or 18, to finish up with the mating.”
InuYasha smirked “If they don’t it won’t be his fault” at Kagome’s confused and somewhat annoyed look he quickly continued “ Well it’s not like he’ll be like a 17 or 18 year old human male, even without the immortality he would have aged a little differently than a human. At the age of 17 he can mate if he wants to, but he will not be a crazy teenager, like a human. That really never happened to me, I think that I aged too slowly to go through all that crap. Now that the princess may be immortal perhaps she’ll be spared all that human teen crap.”
“What do you mean ‘human teen crap’ I was a human teen when I met you and we defeated Naraku!” was Kagome’s whispered indignant reply.
“Well you were a little tough on me, always ‘sitting’ me for every little thing. I always thought that you did that to me because you were so young and emotional. You really are a lot calmer now, much more adult.” InuYasha whispered; he hoped Kagome was adult enough now to hear the truth. “Not that I was acting all that adult either.” The hanyou quickly added.
At Kagome’s confused look InuYasha sighed and continued “Come on you were always complaining how childish I acted and it’s true, I was acting childish. I had lived alone for almost my whole life and then I spent 50 years pinned to a tree in an unnatural sleep, I was really messed up. It wasn’t till we defeated Naraku and I was living a more stable life in the village that I really learned how to interact with others. Kaede really helped me learn all the social crap that I never needed living alone. I really owe her a lot.”
Feeling a little ashamed Kagome had to admit “You’re right I was petty with my ‘sitting’ you all the time and I never made any allowance for your upbringing. I don’t know how you put up with me. I guess I really was a crazy teenager.”
InuYasha just smiled and kissed Kagome gently and whispered “It’s getting late, why don’t you put your bedding here next to me and get some sleep.”
*****
The next evening as Kagome ate her dinner she reflected on the day and had to repress her laughter. The little princess and poor Yasha had been so stiff and formal with each other. For all of their talk of being in love with each other and wanting to run off together, they were still very young children and the reality that they really would be together at some point in the future was a bit too much for them to handle.
Even InuYasha had been unexpectedly nice to the children. Not pushing them too hard and letting everyone rest as much as they wanted.
Deciding that everyone needed a distraction from the previous day’s events, Kagome pulled out the prophecy and invited everyone to help figure out what would be the next challenge they would face.
Scanning over the manuscript Kagome commented that they should ignore everything that came before the ‘The sky is dry, but water is falling like rain’ as they all agreed that they had already passed that point.
Kagome moaned, “Crap, this is that passage that I really hate - I could swear I’ve read a book with some of these words in the title, it wasn’t a Japanese story – anyway it’s ‘over hill and under stone’ * then ‘two as one, two as one, but not alone’ as far as I can tell we will have to climb a mountain and go through a tunnel or cave – so that means lots more travel, unless we find a very small hill and a very small tunnel. It also says two as one twice so that must refer to InuYasha and me and Yasha and you princess. Since you are now referred to as ‘two as one’, it must mean that the prophecy knew you two would become bonded to each other. The part I do not understand yet is the ‘but not alone’ part. I guess someone will join our group at some point. When all of this stuff happens then I guess we will be ready for the next part of the prophecy to take place.”
Eager to be off of the subject of her recent mating and immorality, the princess commented “I wonder if it’s any use for us to even bother with any of later part of the prophecy till we get to that point. As far as I can tell some parts are so minor as to have no impact on what we are doing and others a major impact, but they both look and sound equally important when you read them. We now have a warning that we may be covering a lot of ground and we may end up meeting with or even traveling with someone, but I bet it will be useless for us to try and anticipate anything further in the future. I don’t know why, but I get this feeling that trying to outguess the prophecy will backfire on us.”
Kagome nodded her agreement adding “I think you’re right, everything seems to have been happening to us without us planning it. The prophecy only seems to be confirming that we are on the right track. I say we should just go on, do what seems to be the right thing, confirm with the prophecy that we are still moving forward and always take the next part of the prophecy with a grain of salt. It might be important, but then again it might be trivial. The important part of the passage we have been studying might be the ‘over hill and under stone’ part, but then again the important part might be meeting this new person. There’s just no way to tell.”
Ever practical InuYasha concluded “Well if we don’t get some sleep, we won’t be getting up tomorrow and we’ll never get to the hill, the tunnel or the stranger!”
InuYasha once again insisted on the first watch and just as he did the night before Yasha curled up next to his princess only to find himself covered by half of her blanket.
* Kagome has gotten confused, the story she is thinking of is ‘Over sea, under stone’ by Susan Cooper – perhaps she her Japanese translation was off!