InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ With One Eye ❯ In Her Heart ( Chapter 2 )
Kaede has secrets she will never tell.
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.16.2009 | Updated On: 11.16.2009 | Pages: 1 | Words: 544 | Visits: 200 | Status: Completed
In Her Heart
She woke to the distant cries of her name. Scrambling to her feet, she looked around quickly. To her dismay, she saw that it was late, and was astonished and faintly horrified that she had actually fallen asleep in the forest, of all places. And yet, oddly enough, she didn't feel afraid. Placing her palms against the tree's bark, young Kaede thought she could sense a faint, but warm aura coursing through the sacred tree.
Or perhaps it was only her childish and hopeful imagination. A hope that if she proved she had miko powers, they wouldn't turn her out as a mere, useless, orphan girl child. That when the new miko arrived, the headman would arrange to send her to a temple for training. That she wouldn't be turned out, turned away, because she was blind in one-eye; was scarred and disfigured.
If only she could stay! If only she could prove she had the power and ability to be a miko! She didn't want to leave the village where her sister's ashes were buried, where she'd actually made a few friends among the other girls. And where her sister and Inuyasha had--whatever had developed between them.
Where her sister had been--in brief intervals--happy.
Kaede looked at the hanyo, blinking hard against a potential fresh onslaught of tears. One unmoving ear attracted her attention, and she started to reach for it, and then pulled away. She'd never had the temerity to ask to touch his ears, unlike a certain pretty, vivacious, and spoiled five-year old. Her fingers brushed against the red fabric of his sleeve, then daringly touched the stiff, cool, clawed hand.
Ani-ue. I wanted to call you ani-ue.
She pressed both hands against the trunk, and leaned her forehead against it as well, struggling with her grief. She felt so alone--no sister, no family. Not even a fantasy of a heroic, elder brother. She had only herself...
The voices came again, louder. Kaede dug her fingers into bark, and then took a deep breath, and pulled away. It would be silly to run away from the voices, and she wasn't a silly girl.
She walked away from the tree, trying to set her face into the mask her sister had used, hoping her eye wasn't too red. She would go to meet the searchers, not wanting them to realize where she had spent too much of the day. She didn't want them to wonder why she had been to the tree--and Inuyasha. She didn't want them to wonder if she knew things--hidden things--about her sister's death. About the sealed hanyo.
Her sister's secrets--what she knew and guessed about them--would never pass her lips. For the love of her sister, some secrets would remain in her heart, forever untold.
Kikyo's.
And her own.
Author's Note: This was written for the IYFic_Contest community on LiveJournal, for the prompt "Untold Secrets." It was originally published on September 29, 2009.