InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Yozora ❯ Yozora ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and I in no way gain any profit from writing this story. Inuyasha and co. belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I OWN NOTHING!!!!

Chapter 2

Yozora~**~**

Kagome saw the bewildered look on the hanyou's face. What had happened? The lady had held herself up and done something, but she couldn't see. Had she told him something? She walked over to him, but he stood up and stopped her. He was holding his right arm for some reason and looked slightly pained.

Inuyasha looked back at Kagome who had a confused look on her face. “We're too late.” He sighed as Kagome put a hand to her face in sorrow. “She's dead.”

Inuyasha took a few deep sniffs, trying to locate something. Turning from the dead Inu-youkai, he started off into the deep forest, Kagome close behind. “Where are we going?” She asked softly, feeling horrible for leaving that poor woman to rot.

“Don't worry; you can go back to her. If you do, clean her up.” His amber gaze bore into her soul, fiery and mourning. She nodded.

“What about you? Where are you going?” She queried.

“I gotta find something.” He growled. Kagome nodded, though confused. Both of them wondered the same thing. `Why would a demon live in a human village?' For Kagome the answer didn't come, but as Inuyasha sniffed around, the answer was clear.

Sweet but not overpowering, like vanilla, but soothing like lavender. The scent was so soft it was hard to follow through the scent of blood, fear and smoke. As he pulled apart the underbrush, he found his answer.

A tiny girl, knees against her chest and staring at him with eyes like liquid silver. Her face was smeared with her mother's blood, two uneven streaks of tears spreading it down her neck.

Inuyasha held out a clawed hand. Twin triangular dog-ears, black as pitch flattened against her head as she flinched away. He held out his hand still and after a moment, she gingerly moved forward, looked at the hand, then to the man. She was fighting an internal battle. Should she trust this man who smelled slightly like her mother, that she'd never met before, or should she try to bolt lest he made an attempt on her life?

His eyes were fearsome, but compassionate. As her gaze moved upward she saw his flowing silver hair, obviously not human. She knew from the scent, even with a stuffy nose, he was an Inu.

Inuyasha recognized the look of surprise on her face as she noticed his ears. She sniffed his hand as best she could, getting braver as her nose cleared. Once she reached the middle of his forearm, she stopped, looking at the mark.

She traced the crescent moon on his right arm with a finger and let it rest on one of the three stars in the shape of a triangle inside of it. It was her mother's mark, but why did he have it?

Inuyasha looked down where her finger rested, where the bitch had bitten him. A deep sorrow filled him. `She must be so confused.' Inuyasha couldn't believe how fate worked. Was it every hanyou's fate to have at least one of his parents brutally murdered? Were all half-breeds destined to be miserable? As the girl rubbed her face against the mark on his arm he made a silent promise to never let this girl go through what he had.

He felt her shiver softly and he gently pulled his arm away. Her torn sky-blue kimono was too short and thin, decorated with multicolored circles of red, navy and green, quite unsuitable.

She looked at him, scared and confused. He carefully slipped off his kariginu and wrapped it around the child, which was like a blanket compared to her. He tentatively wrapped an arm around her and pulled the girl to his body.

She gladly accepted his attentions and snuggled her head into his chest. He stoked her head once with his hand, brushing her fluffy shoulder-length, navy hair. She couldn't be more than five, just a whelp, younger than Shippo. He heard her breathing slow as she fell asleep. He blushed when he realized his actions and quickly stiffened his posture, crushing and strangling any feelings he had at that moment.

Inuyasha made his way to Kagome who had undressed the woman and was cleaning her off with a cloth and rinsing her with a bottle of water that she'd gotten from her pack while he was gone. He didn't blush, nor look at her directly in respect, but instead felt sorry for the pup in his arms. He was glad she had gone to sleep; no child should have to see their mother in such a horrific state.

Kagome's eyes widened as she saw the bundle in his arms. “Is that what I think it is?” Inuyasha shifted his kariginu from the child's face. Kagome gasped and rushed over to him. “It's so tiny!”

“She's a hanyou…” He muttered, motioning to her ears. Kagome knitted her brows.

“Yo-you don't think they killed her mother just because her child was a half-demon, do you?” She asked in disbelief.

Inuyasha's eyes disappeared behind his silvery bangs. “I know so…” He growled at the unfairness of it all. Hurried footsteps approached them.

“Inuyasha! We put out the fire! We've been told a demon attacked the village and fled into the forest.” Sango informed him. They all froze as Inuyasha gave them a cold glare.

“Bullshit! Those lying bastards! They attacked her!” The heated hanyou pointed to the bloody form of the girl's mother. They others gave a collective gasp. Kagome had done her best to clean off the blood, but had run out of water, leaving smeared streaks of blood in random spots on her body.

“Why would they do that? Surely the demon provoked them?” Miroku defended.

Inuyasha scoffed, “Apparently, to all humans, being the mother of a half-breed is perfectly acceptable grounds for murder.” He immediately registered what he'd said and cursed internally for even hinting his past grievances. The others finally saw the child in his arms, though Kagome was the only one to grasp the inner meaning of that statement.

“Inuyasha? Is there something you're not telling us?” The monk asked suggestively.

“Get your mind outta the gutter, you bouzo! The kid's a half-breed, meaning the father is a human. I've never seen that woman, but she's a bitch and I don't have a mate. From her lack of marks, she was either raped or her mate died early on.” Inuyasha tried to defend himself. Sango punched the perverse monk in the arm, giving him a disapproving look.

But still she wondered, Inuyasha was terrible with kids and it was hard to tell which disliked the other more, him or them, and yet, this child was snuggled up into him and wrapped in his kariginu, something only Kagome had been privileged enough to do, while she was cleaning the dead body.

“What's going to happen to the child?” Sango asked softly.

Inuyasha looked like he was thinking and Shippo retained his urge to say `Don't hurt yourself.' Why did this have to happen to him? He had no choice now.

“She comes with us.” He decided. All of them looked shocked, nearly falling over at the fact he had given in so easily. They'd expected him to fight it and Kagome would have had to `convince' him to let her come along.

“Really? That easy? Inuyasha, is that really you?” Kagome asked incredulously.

He looked offended as his face turned a slight reddish hue. “Jeeze, you act like I'm some kind of monster! I'm not heartless enough to leave some kid to die out here! I know what'll happen if she's caught…” They all shuttered at the thought. Wanting to be off that subject, he asked the houshi, taijiya and kitsune, “Did you put out the fire?”

They nodded. “We cleared the forest near it so it couldn't spread.” Miroku educated the hanyou. He nodded in approval. Then looked back at the dead femme, it was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. He handed the pup to Kagome. If she'd slept through his rampage, she could sleep through anything. He carefully picked up the body of her deceased mother, leading his `pack.'

“Where are we going?” Kagome asked softly, looking down to the helpless form in her arms. How could anyone feel distain towards anything so innocent?

“To give this woman a semi-decent burial.” He replied softly. They nodded and followed obediently. He made sure he was far enough from the village, so they couldn't desecrate her unless they really wanted too. Miroku and Inuyasha worked diligently and laid her in the grave. However, Inuyasha stopped them from covering her. Inuyasha took the child from Kagome's arms, waking her with a soft shake.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at him sleepily. She heard him whisper to her, “Say your goodbyes.” His voice was gruff and held a deep sadness. He put her down, taking his kariginu back and put it back on as she looked down the hole. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her mother was silent, unmoving. The horrible reality began to set in that this was real, that this hadn't just been a dream… She was really alone. Her whole body shook as the tears flowed freely.

Kagome could feel the tears coming as she saw the girl drop and hug her knees to her chest. Shippo knew well enough how she felt, and how devastating it was to lose ones parents. Kagome crouched next to the hunched child, patting her back.

The crying stopped suddenly as the girl's silvery orbs locked with Kagome's brunette. The sobs immediately turned to growls as the girl turned on Kagome. Kagome yelped in fear and fell backwards. The girl took this chance to run over to Inuyasha and behind his legs, looking out from behind them. He stumbled slightly from the suddenness of it all, but understood.

Kagome recovered and looked at the girl behind his legs, bewildered. “Whoa, what just happened?” She asked.

The little hanyou just ducked behind the bigger hanyou's legs. Shippo jumped down from Miroku's shoulder, all compassion lost. “HEY! Stop being mean to Kagome!” He shouted angrily.

The girl was about to bare her little fangs at him from behind Inuyasha when he said quite firmly, “Stop! Both of you!” The girl gave out a yelp and her ears flattened against her head.

“But Inuyasha! She was going to attack Kagome!” He growled.

“No she wasn't.” He sighed. “Kagome just scared her, that's all.” He looked down at the girl, and gave a short yip, attracting everyone's attention.

“Inuyasha? You can bark?” Sango asked. Truth be told, everyone knew he could growl, but wondered if he could bark or not for the longest time.

He gave an exasperated sigh and nodded. “Yeah, what of it?” He flushed slightly; suddenly knowing he was being scrutinized.

“So you can talk to her? What's her name?” Kagome questioned, rising to her feet.

He looked down and barked twice. He received a smallish heen in return. “Yozora.” He answered simply, and then barked again, adding a low growl to it. She paused a bit longer, and then replied with a short whine. “The mother's name was Anya.”

Once more they exchanged growls and Inuyasha walked over to the grave and began to fill it, leaving the girl standing alone. She looked around. The tall woman in a kimono was to the left, the one in the ridiculously short one was by her and the mean kitsune was on her shoulders. The monk was by the nice hanyou man, helping him fill her mother's grave.

She was confused with the older hanyou's pack. Why did he consort with those horrible, disgusting humans? Why did he let them call him dog-demon? Or was that really his name? What was going to happen to her? The only thing she'd figured out so far was that she would stay with that man.

After the grave was filled she took the chance to dart over to him. She watched him crouch down and pick up a good sized rock and with his claws, begin to etch in her mother's name, then set it in the head of her grave as a tombstone.

`He can write?' Kagome thought suddenly. She knew his mother was of high standing, and so was his father, so it only made sense that he was literate. So why then was it so surprising? She shoved that thought into the pile in back of her mind, `The Mysteries of Inuyasha' for later consideration.

“Let's head back.” He ordered and Yozora, like an obedient puppy, stayed by him, walking near him, but not underfoot. A light pink dusted his cheeks in slight embarrassment. She noticed his pack's odd looks. Why were they staring at her? She hated staring! That's all people did to her was stare and call her names!

Inuyasha sensed her discomfort and honestly, he was feeling it to. “Whatcha staring at?” He asked gruffly.

They all jumped at the sudden comment. They all knew they were doing it, but they couldn't help it, Inuyasha was always intolerant of everyone and yet he lets this little girl so close? It was so… weird. By the time very reached their camp, the question on everyone's mind was, why?

Yozora watched them all get ready for bed, all too tired to bother with dinner. She sat next to the big hanyou whose blazing amber eyes watched over them all, surveying the land, constantly watching for danger. As the others fell asleep she saw him take off his kariginu and wrap it around her.

Inuyasha blushed uncomfortably as she cuddled into his side, holding his hinezumi robe tightly around her body. As the night went on he thought about the day's events. It had started so simply, and now suddenly, nothing made sense. He knew how hopeless the mother must have felt, but it was hard to imagine that she had been desperate enough to do `that.' Had she any idea who she'd entrusted her child to?

The Kami obviously loved irony because this definitely fit the category. This mark on his arm, this one-sided promise that he would forever be obligated to honor. She had marked him as only one marks their mate or a close puphood friend, except it was in the wrong spot to be a mate. No, this mark specifically made him this kid's new father! He knew usually, these things could not be forced, but in her desperation, she'd had no other choice.

Inside, he laughed sardonically. Only he could become a father overnight and have never touched a woman. Those words she'd said before she died, how relieved she had sounded. He doubted he would ever forget it.

“Please… Protect her… my Sora,… Yozora…”

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A/N: Yay! the second chapter is up! There is chapter art for this story!!!I may not be updating this one as often as my other story, so please don't be mad. Tell me what you thought, please! *Holds out cake!*Once again, the chapter urls, take out any unnecessary spaces.

URL for chapter 1: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/fullmetal_chibi_cha n_/Chappy1.jpg

URL for the mark: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/fullmetal_chibi_cha n_/TheMark.jpg

URL for chapter 2: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c100/fullmetal_chibi_cha n_/Chappy2.jpg