InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomaru's Story 2: Prejudice ❯ Chapter 12

Dragonfly: Oi, Tomaru! I hear you're guest-starring in Warm-Ice-sama's story!

 

Tomaru: Hai! I've been requested to join her wonderful story, “My Father!” -wink- With my cute Haruko and those baka fiancés of hers…

 

Dragonfly: Who's the baka?? -rolls eyes- Anyways… just a quick note to apologize for the slowness of updates and the shortness of this chapter, and to let everyone know that I'm going to be uber busy real soon, so I'm not sure how quick updates are going to be. Please be patient with me, okay? Arigatou, minna!

 

Chapter 12

 

Inuyasha closed his eyes and the two ningens watched, fascinated, as a pale green crescent mark appeared on his forehead color. He blinked several times and they noticed his eyes had faded from amber-gold to a goldenrod color. His cheeks reddened as he bowed his head. His ears flattened somewhat in awkwardness.

 

“Um… konnichiwa. My… my name is Tomaru. I am… Kagome's eldest son.”

 

Souta recovered first. “Eldest? You mean she's got more?”

 

Tomaru nodded slightly, still flushing. “Well, there is Shippou. She adopted him not long after Naraku's defeat. I suppose that does make him the oldest, but he is not blood-related to the rest of us. Then there is my brother Komichi… he is 11.” He looked away. “Not to mention my sisters.”

 

Both Souta and his mother blinked several times in succession. “Sisters? How many sisters?”

 

“Five,” he mumbled, feeling quite out of sorts. “Rin is the oldest, adopted around the same time as Shippou. Then there is Tamiko- she is 19, a year younger than I. Then Kioko is 17 and Aiko is 16. Finally, Haya is the pup of the family. She is only 5.”

 

Kagome's mother stared at him for a moment. “Are you telling me, young man, that my daughter has eight children?”

 

“So far, ma'am, hai.”

 

“I have eight grandchildren??”

 

Souta held up a hand. “Hold up. Wait. Question.”

 

Tomaru turned his attention away from his gawking grandmother and stared, slightly nervously, at his uncle. “I will try to answer to the best of my ability.” His ears flicked a bit.

 

“You are obviously a hanyou. An inu hanyou, to be specific. Who is my sister married to? It evidently wasn't Inuyasha, like we all thought would happen. How many other inu youkai are there 500 years ago?”

 

The young hanyou took a deep breath, although outwardly he didn't react at all. “She is now Lady of the Western Lands. The Inu no Taishou, Sesshoumaru, took her as his mate over nineteen years ago.”

 

“Inuyasha's death-dealing, cold-hearted brother? My daughter married HIM?” Kagome's mother looked like she was about to faint.

 

“Well, he did save her life on several occasions,” Tomaru mumbled.

 

Souta narrowed his eyes. He had done some quick calculating. “You say 19 years ago… and you said you were 20, correct? That means that you, nephew, were conceived and born out of wedlock. Exactly how did you come about?” Tomaru's ears flattened. No ningen had any right to be this intelligent.

 

“It is a long and somewhat strange tale,” Tomaru replied awkwardly. “But I swear to you, on my mother's life, that she is very much in love with my father, and he with her.”

 

“I wonder, though,” Souta replied hotly, “if he truly does or if she is more of a `bitch' to him, valuable only as a breeding female.”

 

Tomaru had his uncle pinned to the wall and dangling by his neck in the blink of an eye. “Speak with respect when you discuss my parents,” he growled. “They may not have planned on creating me, but they followed through with their responsibility- and love won them both over. My mother chose to have me, just as she chose to create and give birth to my five natural siblings!”

 

Kagome's mother nodded slightly, totally unperturbed with her grandson's behavior. “He's right, Souta. Now sit down and behave yourself or you will be asked to leave.”

 

Rubbing his throat where Tomaru's claws had nicked his tender skin, Souta scowled briefly before sitting down again. “Hai, Mom.”

 

Tomaru sat as well and began his tale, beginning with Inuyasha's death at Naraku's hands and his resurrection with the Shikon no Tama.

 

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“Lady Kagome! Lady Kagome!”

 

The black-haired former miko turned around, her white silk kimono rustling with the movement. She blinked in complete surprise as Haruko rushed across the lawn toward her, long silver hair flying and her lovely face a mask of worry. Worry?

 

“Princess Haruko,” Kagome began, somewhat perplexed. “What troubles you?”

 

Haruko shook her head, her ears slightly drooped. “Tomaru… he… he…”

 

Oh, jeez… she knows. Mentally wincing, Kagome put an arm around the young hanyou female. “I apologize for his baka behavior. I'm sure when he meets up with Kouga, he'll put him straight.”

 

“It's not that,” Haruko protested. “We… I followed him… and a rock youkai found me.”

 

“You followed him?” Kagome led her over to a nearby bench next to a koi pond. “I think we need to sit down.” She patted the seat next to her. “Now, tell me everything.”

 

Quickly, Haruko explained the conversation she had had with Tomaru in the hallway, just before he left for the Southern Lands. “But on my way to talk with him, a rock youkai discovered my presence and became intent on making me dinner.”

 

“Oh, dear.”

 

“Indeed. My magic would not work on him, and my physical fighting skills are minimal. Naturally, I fled for Tomaru as quickly as I could.”

 

“And I take it you found him?”

 

“Hai. Standing next to a rather worn-looking well in the middle of a field.”

 

Kagome froze. Well… in the middle of a field?

 

“And Tomaru pulled out this rusty sword, thinking to fight with it,” Haruko was saying, unaware of Kagome's shocked thoughts. “Imagine my utter surprise when it transformed right in front of my eyes into this huge-!”

 

“Fang… I know,” Kagome finished absently. “The Tetsusaiga… Inuyasha's sword, left for him by his father…”

 

“Exactly! So Tomaru started getting attacked by the rock youkai, and he got hurt…” Haruko looked away, her ears flattened against her head and her lovely sapphire eyes sad. “I wanted to go to him, to help him, but the rock youkai went after me instead. Tomaru protected me…”

 

Kagome's ears, if they could have, perked up at that. Protected her? After swearing he was going to marry Niji? What is going on inside that baka head of his? “He protected you?”

 

“Hai. We ended up getting knocked into the well, and I landed on the bottom, but Tomaru…”

 

The former miko blinked. No…

 

“He disappeared! There was this odd pink light, and he was gone! And I cannot find him! Oh, Lady Kagome, I am so worried!”

 

Kagome nearly keeled over from the complete and utter shock. Dear God… the well… it's open. It opened up. My son… went through the well… Did he go back to my time? Is it still the same era? Or have twenty years passed there as well? Oh, Mom… Souta… Grandpa…

 

“Lady Kagome? Are you ill?”

 

Kagome managed to shake her head. “I… I need… to go. Now. To the well.” She lifted her head and looked straight into Haruko's eyes.

 

“It was in some place called `Inuyasha's Forest,'” Haruko answered, wide-eyed. “I believe it is called the Bone Eater's Well?”

 

“Dear God in Heaven,” Kagome gasped as the breath left her lungs. “I… I must get Sesshoumaru.”

 

Haruko stood up, nodding. “I will seek him out, my Lady. Onegai- wait here. I am sure he is with my father.”

 

“Hurry. We must go immediately.”

 

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Sesshoumaru glanced up at his miko, his mate, the mother of his children, as she clung to his back as they flew over the landscape, heading in a nearly forgotten direction. She is entirely too pale. This is not a good idea. Surely you do not believe this tale of the well being reopened?

 

Anything is possible, Sesshoumaru replied silently. Inuyasha, apparently, was able to pass through the well without the benefit of jewel shards. Perhaps that ability was carried in his soul.

 

Kagome pointed shakily. “Down there. I see it.”

 

Sesshoumaru did not answer; instead, he descended slowly, mindful of the inu princess sitting delicately behind his mate on his back. He had opted to transform to his full inu form for the trip, as it would have been troublesome to carry both females, and Haruko insisted on coming along. The taiyoukai sensed a deeper concern from the young hanyou.

 

He landed gently and allowed the ladies to dismount before changing back to his humanoid form. Silently he watched as his beloved mate glided over to the well, staring at it as if in a dream.

 

“It's been over twenty years,” she murmured, sliding a hand over the rim as if caressing the aged wood. “I never thought to come back here again.”

 

“There was no reason to,” Sesshoumaru commented reasonably. “Your life is with me and our pups now.”

 

She gave him a sad sort of smile, yet he knew that she wasn't truly sad. “That's true,” she whispered. “But if Tomaru was able to go through…”

 

“That does not mean that you would be able to as well,” the taiyoukai pointed out.

 

Large, lovely eyes, eyes that he had fallen in love with so long ago, turned on him, nearly piercing him in their intensity. “But I have to try, Sesshoumaru. I have to try! I have to get our son back!”

 

Although he merely blinked at her, Sesshoumaru fought against an uncharacteristic urge to sigh and enfold her in his arms. “Try if you must. I will wait here for you.”

 

Haruko took a slight step forward. Kagome had confessed her secret to the girl, and the inu princess was as eager as Kagome to find Tomaru. “I, too, Lady Kagome. I will wait for you and Tomaru to come back.”

 

Kagome nodded vaguely, her mind obviously on the depths of the well. “Wish me luck,” she whispered as she sat on the rim and dangled her legs into the inky darkness.

 

Sesshoumaru shot forward, faster than Haruko could have blinked, and caught Kagome by the arm. “Wait.”

 

She blinked at her mate as he knelt beside her. “Sesshoumaru?”

 

“What if… you are… unable to return?” he asked slowly, uncertainly. “If the well closes again, with you and our son on the other side…”

 

Kagome gasped. She hadn't thought of that. “Oh, itoshii,” she whispered, caressing his cheek with her hand, running her thumb along one of the two magenta stripes on his skin. “I don't want to leave you. But I must… I must bring back our son. He's alone, in an unfamiliar time…”

 

“You do not know that,” Sesshoumaru said, his voice actually cracking slightly. It was obvious he was fighting with every once of his willpower to not show any emotion- but he was starting to lose the battle. “And if Inuyasha has been in your time previously, he will guide Tomaru, will he not?”

 

“I suppose,” Kagome faltered, tears escaping her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. “But… Mama… my brother…”

 

“I cannot lose you, Kagome,” Sesshoumaru finally admitted. “Do not risk this. Onegai…”

 

Kagome sat there, torn, between staying with the man and children she loved more than anything, and the chance at seeing her family again- and finding her first-born son. What am I to do?