InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Tomorrow ❯ Chapter 22 ( Chapter 22 )

Chapter Twenty-Two

InuYasha peeked out of the cave-mouth at the driving rain. The wind was so strong that the rain was almost horizontal. What he could be thankful for was that the wind was at the wrong angle to blow rain into the cave. What he couldn't be thankful for was that the wind was blowing north.

“Dammit,” he muttered, slamming his fist against the rock wall as he turned around and walked over to the small fire, slumping down next to Kagome. “How much longer is this gonna keep up? They're gonna catch up with us!”

“InuYasha, there's nothing that we can do about the weather,” Kagome said soothingly. “It'll blow over eventually. We can wait. Even with the wind at their backs, i'm sure that we're faster than them...”

“We'll only have a problem if this kind of weather happens a lot...” Sango said.

“Or if it turns into snow,” Miroku said. “Now, what time of year does that happen again...?”

“Shut up,” InuYasha growled.

“Houshi-sama...” Sango said with a heavy sigh. “At your time of life, should you not have outgrown baiting InuYasha?”

“Why, when it's so fun?” Miroku asked with a cheesy grin that suddenly made him look twenty years younger. “you must admit that, in the present climate, a little fun may be necessary...”

“I think that the present climate, social and weather-wise, may be a little dark and damp for laughter in our hearts,” Kohaku commented.

“Yeah,” InuYasha agreed, “'Cause all i'm getting is an itch in my fist...”

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Isamu and Kazuki came upon a path. Everything seemed to be happening a little further along it, behind a bend obscured by the thick trees. Suddenly, a second after Isamu caught her scent, a human woman ran around the bend and into their line of sight. She was clutching two small children, the third- not much larger than her obviously very young siblings, but old enough to run- following her closely. All three of the children seemed to be attached to a large, fluffy something like a mokomoko-sama, though their scent identified them as hanyou. The woman's eyes widened as she saw them, and she stopped dead.

“It's all right, i'm hanyou too,” Isamu said quickly. “Now get behind us, we'll help your mate.” Kazuki pulled his mace out of its holster and stared intently up the path. The huge blood-scent was drawing nearer.

A four-legged something suddenly ran around the bend in the path. Isamu couldn't tell precisely what sort of youkai it was, because the number of spears and arrows sticking in it obscured it, and the blood-scent was too strong to notice anything else. Several villagers followed it, slashing swords. Suddenly a burst of fire knocked them over, though they did not seem burned.

“Kitsunebi,” Kazuki muttered. Isamu nodded. So it was a Kitsune. He pointed Kazuki at the villagers, noting that several others were drawing bows behind them. Drawing Tessaiga in a flash, he sliced the bows apart, while Kazuki knocked the soldiers out with the handle of his mace. One of the archers started yelling for backup, but Isamu knocked him and the others out with a couple of punches. He turned back to Kazuki, who was helping the human woman to cut arrowheads and spears out of her mate. The youkai now looked more like a fox than a hedgehog- the few patches of fur that weren't matted with blood were vivid orange. It only had one tail- Isamu vaguely remembered Kazuki's mother explaining that, though there were several breeds of Kitsune, the most common grew a new tail every hundred years. It must be relatively young, he decided.

He then realized that the Kitsune had resumed a human form. The man was speaking to him.

“Hey, you,” he said- rather impolitely, Isamu thought, considering they had just saved his life- “what's that blade, there?” Isamu looked at the Tessaiga and quickly sheathed it, crossing his arms in a domineering stance meant to intimidate the man who was watching his with half a smile, like he knew the punchline and Isamu didn't.

“This blade belongs to my father,” said Isamu, “and will return to him on Hokkaido.” The man was openly grinning now, and it was making Isamu bristle. Kazuki was watching the youkai with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Knew it. It is Tessaiga, then? You certainly sound like InuYasha.” Isamu growled slightly.

“How do you know Otou-san?” he asked.

“And how do you know that sword's name?” said Kazuki, with the air of one who hopes that they know what's coming. “From was chichi-ue's told me, not many who see that blade end up in any mood to talk to anyone except priests, y'know?”

“Yeah,” the Kitsune said chuckling, “InuYasha had one hell of a temper... probably still does, the baka...”

“InuYasha?” the woman said thoughtfully. “I remember him. That arrogant, silver-haired inu-hanyou?”

“Would you mind telling me just who the hell you are?” Isamu asked again, starting to lose his patience. Kazuki, however, slapped his knee. Isamu stared at him.

“Now I've got it,” he said with an air of triumph. “Now I remember. I dunno if you were old enough to remember him, but...” he turned to the Kitsune. “Shippo, right? Haven't seen you since I was a kid... heard chichi-ue joking that you'd eloped or something.”

Isamu stared at the Kitsune as something clicked in his brain. He could dimly remember... that vivid ginger hair colour was vaguely familiar...

“Not exactly,” Shippo said. “But anyway, this is my mate, Satsuki.” The human woman waved. The children, who had been hiding behind her, had evidently decided that it was safe to come out.

“I'm Hotaru,” A girl of about five announced, then reached down to help a girl of about two to stand up. “And this is Momo. Say konnichiwa, Momo-chan!”

“K'nichiwa,” the little girl mumbled, obviously still feeling shy. A much more hyper, though not much larger, boy ran right over to Kazuki and waved.

“I'm Satoshi,” he announced proudly. “I'm the only boy!” He was trying to look glum at this announcement but didn't seem able to pull the emotion off very well.

“We noticed,” Kazuki said, stifling a laugh. Isamu walked over to them and picked Shippo and Satsuki up onto his back.

“Now that the introductions are over,” he said pleasantly, “How about we get the hell out of here before the soldiers I smell get here?” He ran back towards the others, closely followed by Kazuki, who was holding the children.

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Haruka was glad to see that Hotaru and Satoshi had instantly been accepted by the other children, who were all now involved in a loud and active game of tag- even Hitomi and Kiki, who had tried to declare themselves too mature before caving. Yoshinori and Michio hadn't bothered.

It was nice to see them all so active. They had all been more subdued than usual, even frightened, ever since they had been forced to flee the village, not knowing what had become of their parents. All they could do was run to Hokkaido.

“It was the academy, y'see,” Shippo explained. “I got to one of the highest ranks. It's sort of a rite of passage, coming of age type of thing, you know?” Isamu nodded.

“So you had to stay?” he asked. Shippo shrugged.

“Not had to, exactly,” he said, “but the masters there offered to teach me some of the most advanced Kitsune magic, and I had to stay for a few years to do that. By the time I left, I was twenty, and then I stayed in Satsuki's village on the way back, and never really left,” he concluded, grinning saucily at Satsuki. She rolled her eyes and pulled a bandage extra tight.

“We met when we were little kids, you see,” she explained, “When they were hunting for the Shikon No Kakera. The rumours were that I had one, though it turned out to just be a stone flower. But I thought it could bring my brother back, and a youkai tried to use that to get the real shards from Shippo's friends.” She smiled a little sadly, then kissed Shippo on the cheek. “But Shippo killed the youkai and helped me accept my brother's death. I was so happy to see him again.”

Kazuki rolled his eyes and made a slight gagging motion when Satsuki kissed Shippo, getting him a slap on the arm from Mitsuko. Feigning seriousness (Haruka was certain that he could never be serious about anything), he said, “I didn't recognize you at first. Didn't you used to have a tail?”

“Is that how I appear in your memories? As a ginger tail?” Shippo said, wincing exaggeratedly (They're a perfect match, Haruka thought with a sigh). “I did used to have a tail, but it disappeared from my human form when I reached maturity-“

“Physical maturity, anyway,” Satsuki cut in, rolling her eyes, which only made him grin wider.

“-and learned to take on the fox form,” Shippo finished. Then he looked over at the kids. “But since they're hanyou, they'll never transform,” he said, “so they'll always have tails. Like your father's ears,” he added thoughtfully. “Kagome learned to leave those alone yet?”

“Are you kidding?” Isamu said incredulously, glancing at the small children's tails- so that's what they were, and they were bloody huge balls of fluff, too- “I'm fairly certain that the only reason that she even had Kiki was so that she could play with her ears, considering that Otou-san gets so embarrassed when she plays with his...”

“So you were gone...” Kazuki said, counting on his fingers, “what, fourteen years, and it never crossed your mind to stop back and say hi?”

“Well, to be honest...” Shippo said, dropping a little of his baka air, “We had a bit of trouble.”

“My village weren't particularly accepting of a youkai,” Satsuki explained sadly, twining her fingers through her mate's. “We had to leave, and roamed for a couple of years. We found a village that would accept us and let us stay, so long as Shippo protected them. We felt safe enough there to have Hotaru, who's nearly five whatever she says, Satoshi, who's three, and Momo, who just turned two.”

“But in reality, they didn't trust me,” Shippo said, actually sounding bitter now. It was a shock to Haruka. She could quite clearly remember Shippo, and he'd been a very friendly, carefree kid; he was no killer, and she couldn't believe that anyone could see him as dangerous. But apparently, paranoia was everywhere these days.

“We should have seen the signs,” Satsuki said sadly. “I heard the other women in the village telling their children not to play with ours, that they were unnatural, because of their tails.” She glanced over at her children, who had split up, now- Satoshi still playing tag with Michio and Yoshinori, while Kiki and Hitomi braided Hotaru's hair. Momo was sitting next to Akira, playing with Tsukiko as she sat in Takumi's lap. The Kitsune-hanyou looked, without exception, as if they were having the time of their lives. Satsuki's face melted into a gentle smile as she watched her children play happily. “Really, I think this must be the first time that they've played with any children other than each other...”

“So the villagers chased you out?” Kazuki asked. Shippo nodded, his face hard.

“They heard of the massacres down south and decided that I was a danger,” Shippo said. “I should thank you for saving us. I do know Kitsune Yojutsu that's good for real fighting, for killing, but I don't think I have it in me to kill. If it weren't for you, we'd all be dead.”

“You're going to be dead anyway if you don't rest those wounds,” Yuki said. “You'd better heal fast, because there's not enough of us to carry the five of you, too...”

“Sure, sure, I'll sleep...” Shippo chuckled, wincing a little as he settled back onto his heavily bandaged wounds.

“You and I can go into a nearby village tomorrow, Yuki,” Haruka said. “He's probably not going to be ready to go tomorrow, and we could take the chance to stock up on food and medical supplies...”

“Can I ask one more question?” Shippo said. “Hey, human girl who inexplicably has Tenseiga-” Kazeko jumped, realizing that he meant her “-What's your name?”

“Kazeko,” she replied. He stared at her for a second, then nodded. She looked back at the children.

“Her father's the general of the army in the south, he gave her those wounds when he found out that she had made friends with a youkai, I'm sure you can guess which one,” Isamu muttered to the thoughtful-looking Kitsune. “Oji-san saved her and we decided to bring her with us. We've gathered who she may have been in a past life. Given that oji-san actually gave her Tenseiga, and it protected her, we've also gathered that not a lot's changed.”

“Does she know?” Shippo muttered back.

“We figured we'd get round to telling her when we had a bit of rest time,” Isamu replied quietly. Shippo grinned slightly and gestured at the mass of bandages covering him.

“Tomorrow looks good for that,” he commented. “An eyewitness account may help you out, anyway.”

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As an extra apology for taking forever on the last chapter, I just bashed this out in the past half-hour. It helps that most of it was already written. Anyway, putting things in an altogether lighter tone... who better than Shippo-chan? Kawaiii!

InuYasha is the property of Takahashi Rumiko-Sensei, and I claim no ownership of any of it. All couples not involving original characters will be strictly canon. Aside from Haruka, Yuki and Kazuki, I made up all of the kids, though since birthdates other than Kazuki's were never really stated in the manga, nor names, I've made these up as well. This fanfic will make little sense if you have not read the entire manga, and I'm afraid that to read the last twenty or so volumes you will have to (at the time of writing) venture into the internet, but I strongly suggest that you do buy the Tankoban volumes for yourself, so that Takahashi-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with her imagination. Anyway, hope you enjoy the fic. ^_-