InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ What Could Have Been ❯ Chapter Four: A Sleepless Night ( Chapter 4 )

Binas: I don't own anything but my interperatation of the concept of Toga surviving. Rumiko Takahashi owns Inuyasha. Also, why aren't there more of these kind of stories? I honestly want to see what others think what would happen if Toga survived.

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The fussy cries coming from Inuyasha woke Toga and Izayoi up during the early hours of sunrise the next morning. Izayoi's tiny hand stroked the left side of Inuyasha's tiny face gently. Each stroke through his hair and across his soft skin had little effect on her son's distress. The human princess then proceeded to hum into her son's ears as she continued to stroke her son with delicate grace.

Toga sat up and watched his son with concern as his crying continued. Something was definitely bothering the babe. Toga lightly sniffed the air around Inuyasha and grimaced at the offensive odor. He pulled back as far as he could go and pinched his nose. Upon his face was a look of disgust and a tinge of green upon his cheeks.

"Is something wrong with him, Toga?" Izayoi asked.

"He soiled himself," Toga replied. "I believe it is your turn to change his diaper…"

The diaper change only helped a little bit in regards to Inuyasha's mood. The young couple tried everything that they could think of to cheer him up, but nothing worked.

Milk did little to reduce Inuyasha's irritability. Granted, he was indeed hungry, but it was not hunger that was causing him make such a fuss. The few short moments of him drinking milk was the only length of time of quiet so far as the day passed on.

Blowing raspberries upon his bare stomach made him cry out even more. Izayoi was saddened to see that Inuyasha's favorite pastime fail so badly. She felt more worried about his well being as this small activity always filled him with so much mirth, even though he struggled to show it due to his age.

After the afternoon meal, Toga tried his hand at cheering Inuyasha up by tickling his toes. In theory, it would work as feet were a sensitive part of a baby's body. However, all that tickling Inuyasha's toes did was earn Toga feeble kick to his hand.

Not wishing to give up, Toga's clawed fingers had lunged forward again, lightly scratching the soles of his baby's feet. Hoping for more of an impact, Toga cooed and made a few funny faces within Inuyasha's line of sight. Inuyasha wailed even harder and let out a fury of kicks, most missing but a two of them landed their hits on Toga's hand.

Toga sighed as he retracted his hand after being kicked for the third kick overall landed and said, "Our boy has a good pair of lungs for sure."

Izayoi, who was holding Inuyasha, placed the back of her hand against their son's forehead for a few moments before saying, "He does not seem to have a fever. I wonder what is causing him so much distress. He has not been this way since you were injured."

Toga pondered long and hard. His eyes shut lightly as he thought. There had to be a reason for Inuyasha's sudden degradation in mood. The baby's needs for a clean diaper, affection, and food had been fulfilled.

'Perhaps he senses something nearby?' Toga mused in his mind.

With that in mind, Toga focused on every bit of sensory input all around him. The two senses he relied upon most, smell and hearing, were fully attuned to his surroundings for kilometers upon kilometers around. The scents of the hundreds of humans, flora, and fauna filled his very sensitive nose. The sounds of every movement that transpired under the roof of the castle that he and his family inhabited trickled into his highly acute ears. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

That was until Suguru opened the shoji door of the room with an exhausted, irate look painted on his face.

"Can you two not keep that thing quiet?" Suguru asked.

"Father, we are trying to calm Inuyasha, but we cannot figure out what ails him," Izayoi said, her eyes firm and uncharacteristically cold towards the man who raised her.

Suguru sighed as he hung his head with exasperation and said, "Have you tried placing a rag in his mouth?"

Izayoi frowned at that suggestion and said with an offended tone, "I will not gag my son!"

"That is not what I meant," Suguru facepalmed. "That son of yours is supposed to suck on the rag. It always calmed you down when you were small, Izayoi, even before you began teething."

Izayoi felt her cheeks heat up as they turned a vibrant pink. She turned to Toga and asked, "Do we have any clean rags in here?"

"I think so," Toga replied.

As Toga began searching the room for a clean rag, Suguru left the room and shut the door behind him. It did not take long for Toga to find a clean rag for Inuyasha to suck on.

Toga kneeled next to Izayoi and Inuyasha and gently poked Inuyasha's lips with the rag. Eventually, the tip of the rag went into Inuyasha's mouth and he began to suckle on it. Toga and Izayoi both smiled in relief, glad that Suguru's input was working.

It was only about an hour later when sunset had neared its end. Inuyasha had ceased his suckling, causing the rag to fall out of his mouth. Instead of the fussy cries that he gave earlier, he let out full blown wails as he kicked and struggled in his mother's arms.

Izayoi quickly brought Inuyasha close and began patting his back and murmuring into his ears. Toga quickly dove for the rag and tried reintroducing it into Inuyasha's mouth. Unlike before, Inuyasha refused the rag. He instead buried his face into the crook of Izayoi's neck and continued to scream and cry.

As soon as the sun disappeared over the horizon, Toga sensed something change within his son. He sensed the demonic energy that his son possess fade away. It was then that Toga realized exactly what was going on. Inuyasha was experiencing one of two half demon phenomenons that Toga had heard about but had never properly witnessed.

Izayoi gasped as the brilliant silver hair that covered Inuyasha's head deepen into a pitch black like her own. His little, adorable dog ears vanished from right under her finger tips, causing her hands to fall onto her baby's head. From there, little by little, Inuyasha's frantic movements slowed and he became less mobile as his muscles weakened. His head fell limp against Izayoi's shoulder, which sent pangs of fear throughout her heart. The only thing that could reassure Izayoi that her son was remotely okay was the continued crying that erupted from Inuyasha's mouth.

"Toga, what happened to him?" Izayoi asked. "He looks almost-"

"Like you," Toga completed. He smiled, which confused Izayoi, so he continued "I had a feeling this would eventually happen, I just did not know when."

"What do you mean?" Izayoi pressed further.

"What happened is that tonight is apparently his human night. From what I heard, all half demons go through it every month, and the only differences between them is when it occurs each month. In our son's case, it is the new moon," Toga explained. "Our child must have sensed it was coming all day and was trying to warn us. Right now he is scared and has no idea what is going on."

Izayoi turned her attention to her crying infant and held him even closer. Tears threatened to emerge from her eyes as she felt a wave of guilt. She was Inuyasha's mother and she was supposed to know what her child wanted and what was wrong when he became panicked or irritable.

"Why did you not tell me sooner?" Izayoi asked softly.

"I was not sure if it were true or not," Toga admitted sheepishly. "I have heard many absurd things about other types of demons and humans alike that turned out to be false. My mother once tried convincing me that humans ate their offspring if they proved to be too weak. When I asked a human about that, I quickly learned that was most certainly not the case. I would show you the scars to prove it, but they have long since healed."

Izayoi gave a look that was mixed with horror and inappropriate amusement. She had no idea how to react to such a claim that was provided as an example. It was an outlandish and barbaric rumor, but yet for someone to believe that humans ate their weakest was beyond absurd. All she could do was let out a single chuckle out of disbelief.

So, for the rest of the night, Toga and Izayoi remained awake in their part of the castle, comforting their little baby Inuyasha to the best of their ability. It was an unspoken truth that no one, not even Suguru, would be getting any sleep that night.