InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Young Ones ❯ Chapter 18 - A Lesson ( Chapter 18 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
Disclaimer: InuYasha belongs to Rumiko Takahasi and her publishers. No profit is made from this story. No copyright infringement is intended.
 
Chapter 18 – A Lesson
 
 
The next day, as the group followed the road, they traveled over many hills, but no caves or tunnels were evident. 

As the day wore on the princess wondered since she now had a small amount of youkai blood did she gain any youkai powers?  Voicing her thoughts she addressed Kagome “Kagome I’ve wondered, Yasha and InuYasha are very similar in their powers and everything, but you’re a powerful miko and I have no powers at all. I wonder why are we so different?”

Kagome smiled, she had thought about this very question since she had met her counterpart. “You have to remember princess, that I did not gain any of my powers until I traveled back to InuYasha’s time and broke the Shikon No Tama. I do not know if I only got my powers due to the Shikon No Tama being in my body for so long or if they developed naturally and just happened to come out when I turned 15. However, you got a dose of spiritual energy from the waterfall and a little youkai blood from Yasha, not to mention being partly mated to him so you may already have gained some powers. The first thing I really noticed when my powers started to emerge was that I could sense youkai and spiritual powers. All three of us have these powers so when we stop tonight I’ll start to test you.”

The princess was happy, she had been feeling a little inferior (a situation she was not at all used to) being the only one in their group with absolutely no ‘powers’. Even if she gained only a tiny bit of spiritual or youkai power it would make her feel somewhat more in control. Realizing that she had never replied to Kagome she quickly smiled and added “Thank you, I really want to see if I gained any powers, I don’t want to be a burden on everyone.”

Kagome could only shake her head realizing that both the princess and Yasha never seemed to act like children. The little princess was already burdened with the knowledge that her future was not in her own hands and Yasha was generally somber knowing that his own life belonged to others to do with as they wished. 
Kagome smiled inwardly, after all the children had just been through they really needed some time to play and forget that they were not just fated to be mates, but quite probably immortal. Glancing at her mate Kagome decided to have a word with InuYasha later so that they could set up some sort of situation where the children could, for once, just act like children. 

When InuYasha spotted a good resting place, near one of the ever present streams that seemed to cover the countryside, Kagome found her chance to talk to her mate in private for a moment. InuYasha had asked Yasha to check the stream to see if there were any fish, as the little hanyou left the group, the little princess followed. Seizing her chance Kagome quickly whispered “InuYasha, I think the kids really need to be children for a bit, they’ve had so much happen to them so fast. I don’t like how adult they’re forcing themselves behave. When you see an opportunity, try to set something up where they can have some fun, even if it’s only for a few minutes.”

InuYasha nodded his agreement “You’re right, they act so grown up all the time. I think I have an idea.”

Turing towards the stream where the two children were standing InuYasha called out “Yasha, Princess, you two are in charge of getting us lunch. Yasha, it might be good for you to show the princess how to catch fish, it might come in handy.  Kagome and I will gather firewood and start the fire. I’m pretty hungry so I think at least one good sized fish for each of us will do, but get more if you can.”

With that InuYasha quickly turned away from the two youngsters and taking Kagome’s hand led her towards a stand of trees to ostensibly look for firewood. Once he reached the first of the trees, InuYasha stopped and he and Kagome settled down to watch Yasha give his princess a fishing ‘lesson’.

At first Yasha intended on doing all of the ‘fishing’, his princess could sit on the bank of the stream and watch. It would not be proper for his princess to demean herself with common work such as fishing.

Unfortunately for Yasha his princess had different ideas. Within a few moments the princess had shed her outer kimono to reveal that she wore Chinese style silk trousers and a simple short silk kimono style shirt. Taking off her shoes and rolling up the legs of her trousers she wadded into the stream next to her slave and mate and hands on her hips she demanded “Well Yasha are you going to show me how to fish or not?”

InuYasha and Kagome had a hard time not laughing out loud. For the last half hour poor Yasha had been trying to teach his princess how to fish just using her hands. By the time the young hanyou had caught enough fish to feed their group the two children were thoroughly soaked as the princess had slipped and grabbing her mate had pulled poor Yasha into the stream with her. Within a few moments the two children were splashing water on each other and for once were behaving like the small children they really were.

Satisfied that their two little companions were finally having some fun, InuYasha quickly gathered some wood and started a fire so they would be able to dry the children off properly as well as cook their lunch.

Noticing that a fire had been started Yasha and his princess wadded out of the stream and Yasha then proceeded to show his mate how to clean fresh fish. The princess apparently did not have the same enthusiasm for fish cleaning as she did for fishing, so after Yasha had cleaned the first fish she commented “Since I can’t shake myself dry like you can I’m still all wet, why don’t you finish cleaning the fish while I go and start to get dried off.”  Yasha only smirked as his princess bid a hasty retreat towards the fire, she might say she wanted to pull her weight like everyone else, but apparently that did not include fish cleaning!

Before long, the children were dry; the left over fish packed up for later and the group was once again on the road.

Noticing that the road was beginning to climb up a rather tall hill, the two hanyou decided to carry their human companions on their backs. When the road began snaking sharply upwards hugging the side of a sheer wall of rock the princess was glad she was being carried by her sure footed hanyou. The only problem was that she was starting to get a little stiff. Hoping to stretch her neck a little the little princess tipped her head back and opening her eyes wide gave a very unladylike squeal exclaiming “Everyone, stop and look up!”

Kagome riding as she was on InuYasha’s back was the first to obey the little princess, what she saw made her gasp. The tall hill they were climbing, rather than narrowing as it rose towards its peak seemed to flair out several hundred feet over their heads. Instead of blue sky over their heads, there was a solid rock overhang. They were going over a hill and were technically under stone.

Turning towards her wide eyed companions, the princess commented “Well I guess we will be meeting up with someone soon. So we better get going or we might miss them!”

Nodding InuYasha turned and resumed his fast pace up the steep road followed by Yasha. 

As Kagome continued to look overhead she realized that the odd overhang was only a hundred meters long or so. If the princess had not looked up at just the right moment they never would have seen that they had indeed been traveling over a hill and under stone at the same time!  Kagome also realized that the road they traveled on only seemed to hug the edge of the tall hill and once past the outcropping was starting to descend back to the flat forested terrain they had been traversing for the last few days.  She wondered - did the road take this odd route just to satisfy their prophecy?

As if to confirm Kagome's suspicions the rest of the afternoon passed without the slightest sign of any other living beings higher up the evolutionary ladder than some small birds and the occasional rabbit. Each time the group rounded a bend in the road they half expected to encounter someone, but finally as the sun began to set they decided to make camp and once again let the prophecy set it's own pace.

All things considered, Kagome was more than happy that InuYasha had found a camping spot adjacent to a small hot spring, fully intending on taking full advantage of the hot water bubbling so temptingly nearby. Kagome immediately set her plan in motion by the not so subtle but expedient plan of immediately stripping and as quickly as possible getting into the spring.

Poor Yasha turned bright pink and quickly spun around as soon as he realized what Kagome was up to, InuYasha just rolled his eyes when he realized Kagome was going to strip right there, that was until the little princess decided to emulate her counterpart and also started to strip. Then it was InuYasha's turn to blush and quickly turn. It was one thing to watch his own mate strip, quite another to see her pre-pubescent counterpart shed her clothes.

After what seemed like an eternity InuYasha heard two splashes and Kagome's laughter as she instructed “It's OK now, we're both decently submerged! If you promise to behave you both can even join us.”

The two hanyou turned around, but in a show of solidarity both declined the miko's offer and instead InuYasha declared “Why don't you two take your time, we'll get dinner ready and we will take a quick bath later.”

After Kagome and the Princess had lounged enough to start pruning they both decided it was time to reluctantly emerge from the hot spring. They were both more than pleasantly surprised to discover that InuYasha and Yasha had set up a cozy campsite and had even caught another small piglet, but what really impressed the girls was the fact that while they had set a good portion of the piglet to roast they had also cut up some meat with some root vegetables they had managed to find and were cooking a thick soup or stew in their small pot.

Kagome could not contain herself and wrapping her arms around her mate kissed him soundly exclaiming “InuYasha you're so sweet, thank you I was really getting tired of grilled fish!”

Blushing InuYasha quickly replied “Well Yasha did as much as I did, it was no big deal, if you like I can let you know when I sniff out edible roots or berries, I know you can't exclusively live off of meat like Yasha and me.”

After everyone had a hearty meal the Princess remembered the conversation she and Kagome had had earlier that day and inquired “Kagome you said you would test me to see if I was developing any spiritual powers, can we start now?”

Kagome smiled at her young counterpart, she remembered how inadequate she felt when she and InuYasha had first started their quest, she has no controllable powers and could not even shoot her bow with any accuracy so she more than understood the Princess's desire to be a little more like everyone else in their small group.

Kneeling across from the little Princess Kagome thought for a moment and then instructed “Princess the first thing I want you to do is clear your mind, like you're going to meditate, but instead of looking inward I want you to start to look outward with your mind. Try not to get caught up with outside stimuli, remember you're trying to sense our auras. Just close your eyes and tell me everything you feel.”

Obeying the little Princess closed her eyes and began to clear her mind “Kagome I don't feel anything.” was the Princess's immediate statement.

“Don't worry, I didn't expect you to feel anything the first second you started to meditate.” was Kagomes reassuring reply, thinking quickly she then added “pretend you are looking for Yasha, but only using your mind.”

Once again the Princess cleared her mind but this time she pretended she was looking for Yasha, and then it happened, she thought she could feel 'something'. Excited she whispered “I think I feel something, but I can't describe it, it's like I can feel Yasha next to me, but I can also feel something almost exactly the same, but stronger, nearby.”

Kagome smiled and replied “I think you're starting to feel youkai auras, what you are feeling is Yasha's aura, and the other stronger one you feel is InuYasha's, they are almost identical, InuYasha's is stronger because he is so much older and therefore, more powerful than Yasha. Now I want you to look for me with your mind. Remember my energy will feel rather different than Yasha's and InuYasha's, they have youkai auras and mine is human.”

Nodding her understanding the little Princess once again cleared her mind and began to 'look' for Kagome.

After several moments the Princess began rather hesitantly “I think can feel you, you're energy is so different, it's much more powerful, but at the same time tamer?”

Kagome actually laughed “Quite correct, very good! My power really is not that much stronger than InuYasha's, but as a human it is more controlled. You have to remember Yasha and InuYasa's powers come from their youki, and well to put it bluntly their youki is not even remotely human. However, as you become more used to sensing auras you will realize how much wilder most other animal youkai are. Yasha and InuYasha are Inu and therefore, as much as they don't like to admit it, not technically 'wild', not like a tiger or bear youkai is.”

“What the hell are you talking about! You better not be implying that we are 'domesticated' Inu! We are just as wild as every other animal youkai I'll have you know!” was InuYasha's not unexpected retort.

Kagome had to control herself from rolling her eyes “No my dear mate I was not implying that you were 'domesticated' I just meant that Inu youkai are more civilized than most other animal youkai. I mean, look at your brother, he lives in a beautiful castle and dresses in silk, while Kouga and his wolf pack live in caves and dress in animal skins. Inu are just naturally more sophisticated. Anyway back to you, Princess, the more you try and feel for auras the more you will notice them without thinking about it, it will eventually become second nature. Oh and before I forget, you will also be able sense elemental based youkai and even gods and demi-gods. Despite the fact that they all have different powers, once you have the ability to feel auras, you will be able to feel them all.”

The poor Princess was still trying to absorb everything she has just learned and felt. She realized with a start that she never really thought about that fact that her Yasha was part Inu, for the most part he acted like a human, but then he really had never lived with youkai. She also wondered what an elemental youkai would feel like so she finally asked “Just what does an elemental feel like, if they are not animal based and not human?”

Kagome thought a bit, but before she could formulate a reply InuYasha interjected “They feel different - have you ever felt the power of a storm approaching? It's sort of like that; they feel wild, but not really alive. Oh, and don't worry about feeling a Kami's aura, they are so powerful you really can't mistake it for anything else, it will almost hit you in the head, even the most powerful youkai does not have that feeling of 'pure' power that a Kami has. Don't sweat it too much, like Kagome said, now that you have felt human, and in our case, hanyou auras you won't be able to stop, it's like seeing or hearing, once you know how to do it, it will become second nature.”

Deciding that the little princess had done enough mental work for one night Kagome quickly resumed “Right, I think that's enough for one lesson, why don't we all turn in for the night. We can do some more work on this tomorrow and perhaps we'll finally get to meet whoever we're supposed to meet.”