InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Child's Wish ❯ Life Goes On ( Chapter 1 )

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha. While the plot and the lovely little Takara are my creations, everything else belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. I make no profit off this, and do it only for my own enjoyment and hopefully yours.

 

Chapter 1 - Life Goes On

 

Five years had past since that awful afternoon when Kagome had been taken from him, and a lot had changed since then. Inuyasha had expected that the villagers would turn on him after that, as he had failed to protect them. However, the fact that he too had that day lost the woman that he clearly loved more than life itself just earned him more sympathy in the eyes of the villagers and not one of them so much as said one harsh word in his direction. It was the hardest thing he had ever done, to go through the well and tell Kagome's family that she had died, but somehow he got through it. To his never-ending amazement, her family hadn't blamed him either and insisted that he and Takara were welcome there anytime.

 

Takara, his daughter, his angel, his reason for living. The last five years had been so hard on him, and there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't miss Kagome with all his heart and soul. There were still nights that he cried himself to sleep, missing the warmth of his Mate besides him. There were times when he wished he himself could just die, just to be with her once more. He would happily spend an entirety of torment in Hell, if only it meant Kagome would once again be by his side. But he knew he couldn't, not while the other love of his life still needed him. He had made a promise to Takara, and to himself, to be the best father he could be and he was going to keep that promise, no matter what. And he did love his daughter, more than he could possibly say in words. She was so happy, so full of life and love. He couldn't stand the thought that if anything happened to him, she would be all alone, just as he had been when he was her age.

 

Then again, she wouldn't be all alone would she? Takara didn't just have him; she had a whole family that loved her. She had her mother's family on the other side of the well, who were always so happy to see her when she came to visit. And on this side, she had another grandmother (Kaede), an aunt (Sango), three uncles (her blood uncle Sesshomaru, as well as Miroku and Shippo) and four cousins her own age and younger.

 

Sango and Miroku had been busy the last five years, and were well on their way to having the ten or twenty children Miroku had once told Sango he wanted. Their eldest, Yukio, was barely two months younger than Takara. Inuyasha knew it had been hard on Miroku and Sango, knowing Kagome would never meet their son, but Inuyasha had privately rejoiced at his birth. He knew how much Kagome had been looking forward to their child having someone to play with, and he was immensely relieved that Sango had survived the birth, not wanting to loose anyone else who had become important to him. Yukio had been joined the following year by a daughter, Sachi, and six months ago by twin boys Akira and Kisho. Sango, when she wasn't pregnant, still worked as a demon slayer with Kohaku, though she usually restricted herself to the villagers nearby while Kohaku would handle problems at villagers that were farer away. Miroku, though he had lost his Wind Tunnel with the death of Naraku still retained his spiritual powers and now helped the ageing Kaede with her duties. They all knew that a new Miko would likely be needed before too much longer, as Kaede was already older than anyone else in the village. Kaede however, had so far been unwilling to take on an apprentice, as she didn't sense anyone in the village with the necessary spiritual power. That is, save for Takara, but Inuyasha was reluctant to let his daughter take on the kind of life her mother had lead, knowing full well the dangers than came with being a Miko.

 

Shippo, now seventeen years old and coming up to Inuyasha's shoulder, still came by to visit regularly. He adored Takara, as she did him. On his last visit, he had brought with him his new girlfriend, a Kitsune Hanyou by the name of Akako. The two were clearly in love, and Inuyasha was happy for his young friend, even as he felt a stab of pain in his heart at seeing what he had had but could never have again.

 

Not that Inuyasha didn't have options. He had diligently protected the village the last five years, never wanting anything like what happened five years ago to happen again. As a result, many of the young village women now saw him as potential husband material, despite his mixed heritage and the fact that he already had a daughter. In fact, some were even more drawn towards him because of Takara. Seeing how good and loving a father he was to her made many of them fantasize about how good a father he could be to their own children.

 

It also helped that Takara was so cute that it was hard not to love her. Last year one of the young village women in peculiar, Etsu, was especially drawn to the little quarter demon, and Takara seemed to like her back. Seeing this, and knowing how Etsu had wanted him for her husband, Inuyasha had briefly considered the possibility of taking her for his wife, if only so Takara could have a mother. While it was true that Inu-Youkai mated for life, once their mate died they were free to move on with another if they so wished. However, Inuyasha had quickly dismissed the idea. It would not have been fair to Etsu, or himself, as he knew his heart still belonged to Kagome and always would. Not only that, but he also had doubts that he would be able to love any children he did have with Etsu as much as Takara (as cold as he knew that sounded) and that certainly wouldn't be fair to them. Besides, it wasn't like Takara wasn't surrounded by people who loved her anyway. In the end, receiving no encouragement from Inuyasha, Etsu had married one of the village hunters, and had just found out that they were expecting their first child. Inuyasha was happy for her.

 

No, Inuyasha knew he would never find another Mate, would never love anyone as much as Kagome. Takara, and the Mating Mark on his arm (which had remained just as strong after her death) were constant reminders of the time he had shared with her, and no matter how much it hurt to remember her death, he would never regret being with her.

 

###

 

Takara was essentially a happy child, and felt herself to be very lucky. She had who she considered to be the best daddy in the world, and was constantly surrounded by people she knew loved her. She never went hungry or cold. She had more clothes and toys than just about any other child in the village, and thanks to her grandma on the other side of the well, many of them were unlike anything the rest of the village children had ever even imagined.

 

But still, she found herself growing upset at times. She may be young and not know everything yet, but she could easily see that all the other children in the village had two parents. Why didn't she have a mommy too? She saw how her cousins were with her Aunt Sango, and she wanted that too. Not that she didn't love her daddy, but even she knew that there were just something's a mommy is better suited for. Her daddy was a bad cook for one. For another, she was growing up and knew there were something's girls didn't want boys to know, not even their daddy. Okay, she wasn't there yet, but she saw the older village girls and knew it was coming.

 

Then there was another thing that worried her. Her daddy was always so sad. He tried to hide it from her, but she knew it was there. She saw it in his eyes, especially when he looked at young couple in love, like he knew there was something missing in his life. She could sometimes hear him crying in his room late a night after she was supposed to go to bed. She knew he didn't mean for her to hear him, but her hearing was almost as good as his, so she did.

 

One day, while she was over playing with the cousins Yukio and Sachi, Takara worked up her courage to ask Aunt Sango why Daddy was always so sad?

 

She was surprised when Aunt Sango looked like she herself was about to cry, before asking Yukio and Sachi to go play outside for a while, and having Takara sit down. It was then that Aunt Sango told her, her daddy was sad because he still missed her mommy.

 

Takara was shocked, she never knew she even had a mommy, let alone that she had gone away. Seeing this as a chance for her and her daddy to both get what they wanted, she had eagerly asked where Mommy had gone, of a mind to find her and bring her back. Aunt Sango had looked even sadder, and told her gently that her mommy had gone to Heaven. Takara didn't ask anymore after that. Young as she was, she knew that Heaven was a place people didn't necessarily want to go to but had to, and going there meant that you could never come back. She remembered last year when old Rieko had gone to Heaven, her son had been so sad. So had she, old lady Rieko had always been nice to her, and given her fresh fruit from her very own tree when she saw her. No wonder Daddy was always sad.

 

The next time Takara woke up in the middle of the night to hear her daddy crying, she had clenched her fists into her sheets as hard as she could, and wished with all her might that Mommy could come home from Heaven and make Daddy happy again. She didn't want Daddy to be sad anymore.

 

Unknown to either Takara or Inuyasha, a certain Jewel in Inuyasha's room was able to pick up on Takara's wish. After that day when Kagome died, the group had known they could not keep the Jewel in sight anymore. Aside from the obvious problem that it attracted too many demons, Kagome had been the only one who was able to keep it pure. Worried that without her they would be unable to stop it from once again becoming tainted, Kaede and Miroku had worked tirelessly to create a box infused with spiritual energy that prevented it's aura to leave, or dark thoughts to enter. Inuyasha was entrusted with its protection and was the only one who was capable of opening the box, which he never did having no desire to even see the thing again. The Jewel had therefore remained dormant for five long years, but now sensing Takara's pure hearted wish for her father to once again be happy, it started to glow.