InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ In Deep Woods ❯ Chapter 8

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

In Deep Woods, 8:


Trace brought Megumi back to Inuyasha’s mountain, following the same path in between that had taken them away.  He was still limited to where he could go in between.  But every day he became stronger, regaining more and more of his lost abilities, although he still could not shed his physical form at will.  It seemed he was stuck in this human form.  Megumi couldn’t understand his frustration, having only the one form herself.  If she only knew. . . .

She said she loved him.  She accepted him, no questions asked, which made Trace feel obligated to tell her some of his past history.  That, too, was a side-effect of his physical body—obligation, remorse.  Love.  He wished he didn’t have to deal with such feelings.  It would make life so much easier.

Trace hadn’t expected to fall in love with Megumi.  It wasn’t until after he had lost her that he realized he loved her at all.  Or maybe it was the first time she appeared with Kagome in his cave, centuries after his initial imprisonment.  It had been a physical blow to see her standing there, and seeing no recognition in her face.  Something in him died at that moment, the only part of him that could die.

Until now.  Trace had a choice to make.  He could stay with Megumi and feel really alive, or he could become the creature he once thought he wanted to be, and slaughter them all.  Then he could go on with his endless existence, nothing human about him, nothing to redeem him or make him feel anything anymore.

There really was no choice.  Was this what Fenn had discovered over the course of his long existence?

Trace leaned into Megumi.  “Now what?” he whispered in her ear.  They sat out on the deck with a soft drink Trace didn’t want and watched the forest below darken as the day waned.  Megumi had changed into another of her odd outfits, wearing a loose-fitting pink blouse over striped tights.  He liked it.  Trace wore the same jeans he had conjured—not the same ones—these were clean.  Megumi hadn’t yet picked up on the fact that he formed his clothes out of pure energy, and Trace was content to leave it at that.

He felt the tingle as something passed through Megumi’s barrier without being blasted to bits.  The front door opened and closed, and shortly after, the door that led to the deck slid open.  He tensed, although Megumi remained relaxed in his arms.  She obviously knew who had breached her barrier.

“Megumi!  Fenn, I thought I told you . . .”  Shippo’s voice broke off as he came around the front of the deck.  “Who are you?”

Megumi glanced up at Trace and swallowed a gasp of surprise.  Trace’s sleek dark hair was now longer in back and spiked in the front.  His deepset purple eyes had been replaced by cool blue ones, which stared evenly at the kitsune who stood in front of them.  Her eyes widened.  Was that a tail she spotted extending behind his suddenly accommodating jeans?  Megumi quickly recovered, extending her hands in welcome.  “Shippo, what brings you here?”

“What brings me?”  Shippo’s face turned three shades darker.  “What brings me?  Where were you, Megumi?  Where’s Fenn?  We were all worried when nobody could get hold of you.”  He turned his suspicious gaze on a now taller, leaner Trace.  “Who’s he?”

Trace smiled in challenge, revealing incisors that put Inuyasha’s to shame.   His transformation had worked this time.  “I’m Megumi’s lover,” he said smugly.  “Who are you?”

Shippo frowned.  “Her uncle.”

Trace pointedly looked at Shippo’s bushy red tail, a sure sign of his kitsune heritage, before drawling, “Her uncle?  Really.”

Megumi moved to head off the impending confrontation.  “I’m sorry if I worried you, Uncle Shippo.  I went up north to run, and I met—“ She glanced at Trace.  “—him.  We just got back.”

“You should have told someone,” Shippo reprimanded her sternly.  “The whole family is up in arms looking for you.”

“Why?”  Megumi was genuinely puzzled.  “I’ve gone off on my own before.”

Shippo wisely didn’t mention that neither he nor her grandfather Inuyasha had liked the fact that Fenn had been nosing around shortly before her disappearance.  It had caused Shippo to call Japan when Megumi didn’t come home for several days in a row.  That, and the fact that Fenn had disappeared as well, made him suspicious.

“Where is Fenn, then?” he asked, and the blue-eyed wolf-youkai next to Megumi came to sharp attention.

“Fenn?  I haven’t seen him since the last time you both were here at the house,” Megumi replied.  “Is it so hard to believe maybe I had plans?  I’m a grown woman.”

Shippo cast a last suspicious glance at Trace, before taking his leave.  “Just don’t be surprised if some of the family drop by to check up on you.  Good night, Megumi, er, what did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t,” Trace said, but at Megumi’s worried start, he added, “It’s Tarec.”

“Well, Tarec, good night.”  Shippo looked past him to Megumi.  “Turn on your holo if you don’t want any more surprises tonight.”

Megumi retrieved her wrist holo from where she had thrown it on the bed and switched it on.  Shippo was right.  There were a hundred messages.  She skimmed down and responded to the one from Kagome first.  “Grandma,” she said as Kagome’s image appeared in the air in front of her.  “I’m sorry if I worried you.  I just wanted to get away for a few days.  And Grandma?  I met someone . . .”

Downstairs, Trace listened with half an ear as he let his features shift back into the ones he was used to.  It took less effort that way.  He felt grimly satisfied that he had been able to change so effortlessly.  It meant his powers were returning.  He had fooled the kitsune certainly.

“Way to make friends,” Megumi commented, as she came downstairs, taking in Trace’s altered appearance.  “When did you change back?”  She put her arms around his waist and tilted up her head for a kiss.  “I like you better this way,” she said, smiling.  “Although,” her eyes crinkled.  “I did like the tail.   You’ll have to work on your scent, though.  You still smelled like you even when you looked like a wolf youkai.”

That had changed during his captivity, too.  Once, Trace had not had a separate scent any more than his offshoots had.  Scent was physical.  He was physical.  “I’ll have to work on that,” he said, frowning.

“Work on it soon,” Megumi advised.  “Among the holo calls I returned to let everyone know I’m still all right, I called my father and he’s on his way here.  He wants to meet the wolf-youkai who finally stole my heart.”

Trace concentrated, recalling everything he knew about the wolves.

“That’s it!”  Megumi sniffed, and nodded.  “But I don’t like it.  I like your scent better.”

For some reason, Trace felt pleased at Megumi’s remark.  He let the wolf-scent fade.

“This will work,” she said, hugging him again.  “No one will know you’re Trace.”

Trace nodded.  That was what he wanted, wasn’t it?  If he was to remain with Megumi, it was what he needed to do.   She was his key to his future, and possibly literally his key to the past.  “I can be anything you want me to be,” he whispered huskily.

“You, just you,” she whispered back.  

He whisked her in between to her bedroom and made a point of shutting off her wrist holo and carefully removing it before he removed everything else.

The sun streamed in the windows, waking Trace at first light.  Megumi was already up, and the smell of coffee wafted up from the kitchen.  She still didn’t get that he did not eat human food, not unless it was alive and he could drain the life out of it.  For her, he would choke down the coffee, however.

The barrier tingled and the doorbell rang almost simultaneously, giving Trace just enough time to assume his wolf-youkai disguise, scent included this time.  Unfortunately, Megumi had keyed her barrier to certain friends and family, so it was no deterrent to the horde of people currently on her doorstep.  “I thought you returned all their calls,” he said, ice blue eyes gazing at hers over the coffee cup.  He sipped, and grimaced.

“It’s Kazuki,” she said, getting up to answer the door.  “And his wife.  I didn’t know they were in the vicinity.”  She smiled sheepishly over her shoulder.  “He didn’t leave me a message.”

Of course, she could identify her uncle by scent.  Trace recognized the name, too.  He remembered Kazuki all too well.  He folded his arms across his chest, coffee forgotten.  This would be a true test of his new form.

“Of course I’m fine,” Megumi voice came back muffled from the other room.  “Why does everyone think I’m a fragile flower?  I’m a wolf youkai!  I can take care of myself.”

Trace’s skin prickled as the two youkai, not precisely a horde, walked into the kitchen.  Kazuki, looking better than Trace remembered, with his silver-white hair cropped close to match the spiky white hairstyle of his petite wife, helped himself to a cup of coffee.   He did not wear a holo on his wrist, and his hanyou ears stood out more than his wife’s more elf-like ones.  They both looked at him with golden eyes, and the woman’s eyes widened slightly.

“Uncle Kazuki, Auntie Misty, meet my boyfriend.  Tarec.”  Megumi hesitated a fraction over Trace’s ‘name.’

“Misty.”  Trace realized he knew the youkai woman.  She was one of the Old Ones, like Fenn.  What was she doing with a hanyou kid?  Misty recognized him, too, despite his disguise, and watched him solemnly.  He wondered if she would give away his secret.

Kazuki sniffed Trace.  There was no polite way to put it, and Kazuki didn’t bother to hide what he was doing.  “Tarec, you say?  What tribe are you from?  I thought I knew all the wolves that ran in this part of the world.”

“Maybe you don’t know as much as you think.”  Trace couldn’t resist saying something to antagonize Kazuki.  He fell easily into the old familiar pattern, sneering slightly as Kazuki’s eyes narrowed.

It was the wrong thing to do.  Kazuki lunged across the table and grabbed Trace’s shirt front, dragging him close.  He got a noseful of Trace’s wolf scent and backed away quickly, his eyes blazing.  “What are you?” he demanded.  “You’re not a wolf-youkai.  You’re no kind of youkai I’ve ever smelled before.”  Kazuki’s eyes took on a vague, confused look.  “No, I have smelled that scent before.  It was. . .”  He shook his head, then glared at Trace.  “Show yourself.”

Trace stubbornly glared back at Kazuki.  He let the wolf scent fade away, as it hadn’t passed the dog-youkai’s scrutiny.  He held on to the visual image, however, as he felt Megumi’s upset.  “You don’t need to know,” he taunted.  “I’m Megumi’s lover, not yours.”

Kazuki launched himself at the seeming wolf-youkai, growling and all too ready to make the youkai eat his words.  Trace laughed, and without thinking it through, shifted in between just a few inches, giving himself an advantage over the enraged dog-youkai.  Kazuki growled louder, and shifted in between as well, coming out before Trace had shifted.  He held on to Trace’s shoulders and shook him.  “What are you that you can do that?  Are you one of Fenn’s?”

Megumi stared at her uncle in shock.  Had he just gone in between?  And how did he end up holding onto Trace’s shoulders when she hadn’t even seen him move?

Trace laughed bitterly.  “One of Fenn’s.  That I am.  You don’t remember me, do you?”  He let his disguise fall away and took on his accustomed form, that of a slender, dark-haired youkai with a mocking grin and angry violet eyes.

“You!”  Kazuki pointed a shaking finger at Trace.  “I’ll kill you!”

“No!” screamed Megumi, rushing to put herself in between the two.  “Trace isn’t the same person you remember from back then.  He’s changed!”

“Trace!”  Kazuki spat out the name.  “How did you get out of your prison?  It doesn’t matter, I’ll take you back there myself!”  He grabbed Trace’s arm, and firmly pushed Megumi out of the way.

Misty, who had been silent up until now, spoke quietly.  “Kazuki, why don’t you listen to what he and Megumi have to say first?”

Kazuki shook his head violently.  “There’s nothing to say.  This—creature—killed my wife!”

Trace pulled his arm away from Kazuki and disappeared.  With a soft cry, Megumi disappeared right after him, and Kazuki did not hesitate to follow. Misty, alone in the empty kitchen, smiled sadly and went to pour herself a cup of coffee.






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