InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Quarter-Demon ❯ Truth ( Chapter 2 )

Quarter-Demon

Chapter Two: Truth

By Kurohi Tatsaki

"speaking" ***POV switch/Passing of Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha! Don't sue! I'm broke!

----------------------------------------

Inu-Yasha bounded across the grass following Naraku's scent. [Why would he be attacking us now, of all times? Why can Kurohi see jewel shards, just like Kagome? I know you have to be a Miko in order to see them, but Kurohi is NO Priestess! So, how?!!] So many questions, not enough answers. [He refuses to tell me anything!]

"Kagome, are we getting closer?" he asked urgently, something adding an accent to his voice.

From his back she replied, "I don't know. I'm not the one who sensed him." [Maybe if we get closer, I'll sense him. I mean, he DOES have almost all of the Shikon no Tama, after all... the rotten, no-good, conniving bastard!!]

"Fine, then. Kurohi!" barked Inu-Yasha, turning his head slightly to see the boy.

He turned his head toward the hanyou slightly, racing effortlessly beside him. His short brown, black and white hair whipped behind him with each bound. He said nothing in reply to the half-breed's demand.

"Are we getting closer to Naraku?" snapped the hanyou in annoyance.

"His scent is getting stronger the more we move in this direction," he said confidently. "Shouldn't *you* be able to smell him, too?"

"To be honest, I can't right now. It's really weird." [Yes, this is weirding me out. My nose feels all stuffy.]

He sneezed half a beat later.

"Oh, GAWD, Inu-Yasha! No wonder! You got sick!" laughed Kurohi, landing on the ground only to "fly" up again. Shippou posed as his luggage, and the little kitsune was having the time of his life.

"Nya nya! Inu-Yasha's si~i~ck!" sang the brunette kit.

Inu-Yasha growled at the boys. "Shut up!"

"It's true! Don't deny it! Da mutt got sick!" He had a huge grin on his face, showing two half-the-normal-size fangs. Shippou did likewise, sticking out his tongue and pulling down one of his bottom eyelids.

"MUTT?!!" he retorted, growling. "Dammit, boys! Shut up!"

Kurohi did, but Shippou didn't stop silently tormenting the hanyou for another few minutes. The quarter-demon turned away and dashed quicker. After a few more seconds, he changed his momentum entirely and leapt straight UP. Inu-Yasha followed, and felt Kagome grab his shoulders tighter, almost as if afraid to fall. Sango, Miroku, and Shippou, riding on Kirara, followed them closely behind.

They landed on a cliff quite noisily. The white baboon-cloaked man turned his attention to the group, but, due to the disguise, they couldn't see his reaction.

"I wonder how you found me... hmm? Who's that dog with you?"

His query was directed at Kurohi, who smirked and set down Shippou. Before answering the devious half-demon, he spoke to Inu-Yasha, blue eyes burning. "I'll take him on on my own."

"Your brain must be broken! That's crazy!" the hanyou retorted, gently depositing Kagome on her feet.

"I happen to inherit my insanity, thank you," he said sweetly. Inu-Yasha could have gagged at said sweetness in his voice.

He turned to Naraku. "M'name's Kurohi. Now, I hope you have enough breath in your body to say "ja matta ne" to this world when I'm through with you. Consider my killing you as a favor, for by the time I'm finished with you, you won't even know the meaning of true agony. The only kind you'll know is the physical one, rooted deep inside any being. Now DIE!" He lunged and pulled back his right clawed hand. "CLAWS OF STEEL!!"

The blow missed Naraku by millimeters. He took note of his speed and managed to retaliate with a swift kick to the boy's left shoulder, sending him to the ground easily. He scrambled up without so much as a cry - as his wound had healed - and gripped something inside his robes. "I've been saving my /fang/ for your flesh, Naraku. Take it as a compliment!"

[Fang?] the white-haired hanyou thought. [I don't understand at all. What in all the hells is he talking about?!!]

"Say hello to my Ryukiba!" He drew a gray sword that had a dragon-shaped head on the hilt. It seemed straight for a moment before it shifted into a zig-zagy form.

["Dragon Fang"?]

"Die!!" he lunged again, faster than ever, and cutting into flesh, which expelled miasma. Kurohi tumbled backward, gasping and hacking for a breath of fresh air. Miroku, Sango, Kirara, Kagome, and Inu-Yasha exploded into the fight while the fox kit tried to settle the quarter-demon's breathing by whacking the boy's broad back. Kagome ran up to the boy's heaving form and touched the red-clothed shoulder. Inu-Yasha heard him growl loudly at Kagome and sit up from his hunched-over position unaided. "I don't need your help!" he uttered. "Let me at him!"

"You're hurt!"

He growled at Kagome again, and stood up, wielding his "fang". "I'll be fine!" He dashed back into the fray, sword held above his right shoulder. "Take this, demon!" He swung his sword again, but the sword missed its target and plowed right into the ground. Kurohi was sent forward and landed a few feet away from the Ryukiba.

The Ryukiba reverted into a thin short sword.

"Oww.. okay, now I'm pissed!" he growled. Then, he looked up from his spot on the hard ground and his blue eyes widened in both shock and indignation. "...Ee?!" (that sounds like "ehh")

He just realized that everyone was fighting Naraku, and he frowned.

Just like he said they shouldn't. [Damn it!] He stood up, forcing himself not to rub his slightly sore ass, and pried his sword from the ground. By the time he transformed his Ryuken again, the Naraku puppet had been destroyed. He cursed loudly and for a long time, starting with , "That stupid son of a---".

Inu-Yasha blinked once and glanced at everyone else. [He sure has a profane streak...] "Oi, Kurohi, 'rusei! He won't be able to come back even with OR without all those stupid words your throwin' out into midair!"

Surprisingly, he nodded once, and was silent. Inu-Yasha had expected a retort. "Hey! Aren't ya gonna talk back to me like a man would?!" he demanded, stepping forward. Shippou - fearing the roughhousing that could be imminent - dashed over to Kagome and leapt into her arms.

He looked up at the hanyou with half-lost blue eyes. "I'm... not a man yet, but I have to carry a man's burden after what happened."

"Please, tell us more about the events in your time. I'm sure Kagome can relate," gently offered Miroku, for once not even trying to feel Sango up.

[More than you think, Miroku.. Oh, and don't even deny it - you have NO self control, houshi.] He nodded and sat down, holding onto the hilt of his sword.

Just then, Miroku's lecherous hand reached out and began to rub the slayer's bum. Blushing profusely and with a shout of embarrassment, Sango's Hiraikotsu met the monk's head.

"Ow!"

Kurohi sighed. "Okay... I'm through lying, as I have a low tolerance for it..."--

[He was lying?!?!] thought Inu-Yasha.

--"Since this happened to me barely even yesterday, this is kinda hard for me to say at all. Normally, I would just brush off any old bad event like it never hurt me, but this is different." His eyes narrowed and his ears flattened tightly against his head at the memory. "Both my parents were killed by demons infused with more than five shards apiece. My mother is - no - WAS human before she died. She used the Shikon no Tama to allow herself to become a hanyou or human at will, and my father..." He gave a small smile. "Half-demon, but turned human or hanyou at will as well. They had me in their original states - mother as human, father as hanyou. My father was very intelligent with fights of many kinds. He would tell me about his world, and I would listen attentively, as I was very interested in his stories."

"Tell us about these stories!" "Pleeeeaaaase?" asked Kagome and Shippou, using their puppy eyes to maximum level.

Kurohi chuckled. "Father always fell for that kind of look. Father..." He closed his eyes. "He came back to this world, and carved the Ryuken - I call it Ryukiba, after the alternate name for the Tetsusaiga - out of his father's, my grandfather's, fang. He gave it to me when I managed to beat him in a fight. Boy was he pissed, but proud to have raised such a fine son.. according to his words." He chuckled and looked directly at everyone for a moment. He stood up, and approached Kagome and Inu-Yasha. He spoke as he walked, temporarily ignoring everyone else.

Inu-Yasha and Kagome stared at him. Inu-Yasha's eyes widened. [Tetsusaiga... either, I passed it down to someone else, or I'm his...!!]

Kagome was thinking along similar lines. [His mother was a human, and his father was hanyou. If his father is Inu-Yasha, then that must mean that either Kikyo, Sango, or myself birthed him... because Inu-Yasha doesn't seem to always trust villagers...]

"Not only that, they also wished for their child, me, to be able to become human or hanyou at will, when the need arose..." He turned slightly to face everyone else and still see his earlier forms of parents. He closed his eyes. "I wanna become human."

His hair turned jet black. His tail withered away. His black ears returned to the sides of his face, and he suddenly opened his deep brown eyes. "In their human forms, both my parents have the traits I have. Father has my bone structure, and I get my slim-ness from my mother." He faced the human and hanyou and grinned widely. "Mother could see Jewel Shards, and Father hated his brother until he fell in love with a human named RIN!"

[It IS us! He IS the son of Kagome and I!!]

"My Mom's name is Kagome Higurashi!"--

Kagome's eyes widened at the confirmation, and the boy's grin enlarged.

"Father's name.. is Inu-Yasha!!" ^_^

"Wha-wha-wha-what did you say?!!" stuttered the hanyou, golden eyes wide.

Kurohi grinned. "Y'heard me... *dad*.." His face suddenly fell at that last word. "Wait... that's what I called you.. before you died...... Sumimasen, kudasai!" he excused himself, and dashed off, leaping down the cliff's rough edges while shifting his form back to hanyou.

----------------------------------------

Revised: 12:13AM, 6/29/04