InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reflections In Your Tears ❯ Scroll Four - A Kitsune's Lost Past ( Chapter 4 )

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

Scroll Four
A Kitsune's Lost Past
Inuyasha took a step backwards, pressing his body up against the dead girl in fear. The person before him was about twenty-years old in appearance, but that didn't count for anything because Inuyasha could see by the person's pointy ears that they were a demon.
Figures as much, he has damn fire power. And that means… that means he's a fox-demon…
“What the hell are you doing! Don't you
dare touch her!” snapped the fox-demon in front of Inuyasha. The stranger had slanted green eyes that seemed childish and innocent, fiery red hair and a quivering fox tail behind him.
He was angry, Inuyasha could tell by the ferocity in his face. But he's not strong… I can get behind him too - I just need to pivot on my right foot and-
Inuyasha pivoted just as the demon's arm shot forward in a punch.
The demon turned, furious that someone had evaded him, and was about to pounce on Inuyasha when the half-demon held up his hands in surrender.
“Hey. Hey, calm down, I'm sorry - whatever I've done, I'm sorry…” Inuyasha told him, nodding in his direction - an uneasy smile on his face.
And now that the older guy was looking at him, staring at him, recognition crossed the fox-demon's face. Except it wasn't the kind of recognition Inuyasha wanted.
The kitsune froze. “F-F-Father…?” the fox-demon whispered, lowering his punching arm. His bottom lip wobbled as he gazed at Inuyasha.
Inuyasha opened his mouth in shock. “
W-What?”
A million thoughts suddenly surged through his mind.
Surely this guy's older than me - how can I be his dad? And besides I haven't even… I mean, I'm a virgin for crying out loud! And how could I have a full-demon son if I'm a hanyou?
It didn't make sense at all. Inuyasha was stood, looking shell-shocked. The demon opposite him had his head cocked on one side. The Kitsune opened his mouth, and then shut it. “Father? Don't you recognise me? It's Shippo. Remember?”
“Look, I don't know who you are,” Inuyasha held up his hands in defeat, stepping backwards. “My name's Inuyasha. Inuyasha Daioshuu. I've never ever seen you before, let alone a Kitsune.”
The man called Shippo opened his mouth in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief. Then he sniffed the air. After a moment of deliberation, he frowned. “No. No you're not my father…”
Shippo turned away, confused. The daggers of emotional pain still cut him to the core, after all these years. The memories surged forward. Father…
Inuyasha spoke up.“Look. I'm a half-dog-demon. No offence, but is your `father' one too, because I really can't see it myself…”
“Huh? Oh. Uh, yeah. Yeah, he is,” Shippo nodded, distracted, staring at the girl on the tree.
He sent a snide look at Inuyasha and then nodded at the unconscious girl. “How the hell are you capable of touching her?” he asked, staring at the hanyou.
Inuyasha blinked, then blinked again. “You mean
you can't?”
Shippo laughed, almost hysterically. “
No one can. Not since my father put her there,”
Inuyasha's mouth fell open on two accounts. “You mean, your father-? Is your father dead?” Something about the way Shippo talked about his father… it made Inuyasha think.
Shippo looked down, his fiery hair falling about his face in waves as he did so. Then he nodded. “Yes. He died after binding her to the tree. And I don't even know why he did it, they were so
happy. I mean, we were so happy,”
Inuyasha stepped forward, motioning at the girl. “Is that your sister?” he asked Shippo, not seeing how it was possible that this guy had a dog-demon father and a human sister.
Shippo raised his eyes and frowned. He shook his head. “No. No, that's not my sister. That's my mother,”

“I still don't understand it,” Inuyasha shook his head, placing his empty bowl down on the floor of the hut. He leant in closer to the fire and shook his head. “Shippo, explain from the beginning.”
Shippo shrugged, putting his own bowl down. “I can't. I was only a kid at the time. Well, by `kid' I mean I was fifty - but, well, I was five in my head. I don't remember much…”
“Then tell me what you know,” Inuyasha frowned, aggravated. It was late now. Shippo had fed Inuyasha and taken him to his village, shown him off to the other civilians and told Inuyasha what the year was. Apparently, Inuyasha was back in the Sengoku Jidai - which he found hard to believe.
Inuyasha had explained to Shippo that he wasn't from this time - with great difficulty. Whilst thinking of home, Inuyasha felt ill.
He missed so much! The television for instance, and his hi-fi and his games consoles… And he wondered what had happened to Sesshoumaru and the police… whether Rin was okay…
Shippo had only just reminded Inuyasha that the girl on the Go-Shinboku was supposedly Shippo's mother. But she was younger than him - it wasn't possible!
The sky outside was dark, and the night was cold - Inuyasha was trying to get as close to the fire's heat as possible.
Shippo had created it with a flick of his wrist. Inuyasha remembered thinking: Nice.
Now Shippo sighed, and tucked his light-blue robes in around him - wrapping up warm.
“I guess you've noticed that they weren't my real parents…” he began, grabbing a spoon to stir the leftover stew in the cauldron above the fire.
Inuyasha opened his mouth, then nodded.
Shippo continued. “My real father was killed by Hiten and Manten, the Thunder Brothers. After that, they sort of adopted me and became my foster-parents,”
“Who are `they'?” Inuyasha frowned, prying slightly.
Shippo looked up, then looked down. “Oh. My dad was called Inukoshuu, my mum was called Kagome.”
Kagome… Inuyasha thought, a bell ringing somewhere in his head. A chord seemed to have struck somewhere within him, but he didn't say it aloud.
The girl's name is Kagome…
Shippo was continuing“My dad was about your age when he died. I was, like I said, just a kid. It's been fifty years since then. Theoretically I should be ten years old, but I wanted to age - I wanted to be tougher. My dad always was tough…”
Shippo looked into the fire and felt his eyes sting at the thought of his foster-father. “My dad was a half-dog-demon like you. He looked just like you. He wore really expensive robes - a long white kimono with a sapphire-blue sash. He would always walk barefoot and Mum soon followed his lead.
He had his hair up in a high ponytail - in a samurai-knot. He wore silver arm plates over his kimono and had a hefty silver neck brace with embedded crystals like lapis lazuli and sodalite and sapphires and agate… only blue crystals - Dad loved blue, just like Mum loved red.
Dad was the village protector. He wasn't a priest because he was part-demon, but he had certain powers that no demon had. For instance, he could use telekinesis - you know, move things with your mind? - and he could use telepathy. He could also create walls out of nothing, and they weren't really there but they still stopped you in your tracks.
That's… what he did to Mum…”
Shippo trailed off of his long speech and took a deep breath. Tears were welling up in his eyes.
Inuyasha felt awkward. It obviously hurt Shippo to talk about his mum and dad like this, but Inuyasha wasn't used to seeing adults cry - his mum or dad had never cried in front of him. Dad never cried at all.
Shippo wiped his eyes before any tears fell and smiled bravely, testing himself. He began to talk again, his voice unsteady and wobbly. “My mum and dad weren't together. They were in love, everyone could tell, but they never admitted it. Until that day. And they were just about to get married when…”
Shippo gulped and bowed his head. “Dad betrayed Mum. Or something happened. I think she betrayed him first. I don't know what happened. But Mum was running away. Mum had stolen something and she was running away. So Dad stopped her. He was crying when he did it - he didn't want to…”
“What happened?” Inuyasha urged softly, curious.
Shippo bowed his head and looked away. “He used his powers to force Mum against the God tree in the forest. He put her to sleep. He'd followed her, and she'd kept running - so he had to stop her. He
had to. And after he trapped her… he died.”
Inuyasha blinked twice. “Just like that? He just keeled over and died?”
Shippo looked up angrily. “He didn't just `keel' over, idiot. But…” he calmed. “My dad was so strong. He would never allow himself to be beaten. He was
never beaten. Even though he was just a hanyou, he was strong. But Mum defeated him,”
“How?” Inuyasha sighed, suddenly bored. This was all a good story to him. He didn't exactly believe it all…
Shippo smiled weakly. “Dad couldn't be beaten
physically. He was beaten mentally, emotionally. He loved my mum more than life itself, and she betrayed him. She broke his heart,”
Shippo shrugged simply and looked into the fire. Then he exploded. “I hate them both!” he snapped suddenly, angrily. “They left me! I was just a kid! They didn't once think about me!” He was starting to sound more like a child than a twenty-year-old.
But then Shippo sighed and calmed down, banging the spoon against the cauldron. “But… I loved them. I still do. We were happy. Maybe not a perfect family, but they cared - I know they did. And now they're gone… they've been gone for fifty years…”
Inuyasha frowned. He didn't know what to do, so he resorted to patting Shippo's back in comfort. “Look, I'm sorry, Shippo. It sounds awful,”
Shippo laughed, meekly. “You have no idea,” he said dryly. “You don't realise how much it hurts to look at you,”
Me? Why?” Inuyasha cried, puzzled, standing up.
Shippo shook his head, smiling. “You look, you sound, you
act just like my father. It's like you are him. Reborn,”
Inuyasha smiled. “Keh! I think you're nuts.” He grinned to show it was a joke. Then he grew serious. “Shippo, do you have any idea what the `Jewel of Four Souls' is?”
Shippo froze. He stared at Inuyasha, and the colour drained out of the fox-demon's face. “Why do you ask?”
Inuyasha shrugged. “That centipede woman who dragged me here. She asked me for it, she thought I had it.”
“She thought you had the-? Why would you have it?”
Inuyasha shrugged. “Look, I don't even know what it is. I don't have a
jewel. Do you think that she thought I was Inukoshuu like you did? Is it one of the jewels he used to wear?”
Shippo looked away and shook his head furiously. “I always had an idea of what Mum stole from Dad. I think she stole the Shikon Jewel, a jewel used to boost demon powers. Dad was intending to use it to become a full-demon, but when he admitted that he loved Mum, he was gonna become human.
I thought Mum stole it to, you know, finalise a break-up. `I don't love you anymore, so I'm taking the object that will allow us to be together' sort of thing. The Shikon Jewel… well, its other name is the Jewel of Four Souls. Maybe Mistress Centipede did think you were Dad. After all…”
“After all…?” Inuyasha prompted.
“Dad told me, before he died, to burn the Shikon Jewel with his remains. So, it should be with him in the afterlife - but Mistress Centipede seemed to think you had it. I… I wonder why…?”
At that moment, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the peace of the night. Shippo stood bolt upright, crouching in a defensive stance just as Inuyasha dropped into an attacking stance.
They frowned at the hut entrance.
Shippo's eyes narrowed. “What could it be?” he said.
There was another noise from outside that rose to deafen the other. The scream subsided. Instead, there was nothing but maniacal laughter and the ear-splitting crashes of falling houses.
Hanyou!” a voice screamed.
Inuyasha's mouth fell open in disbelief. “No…”
Shippo's head jerked in his direction and their eyes met. “I thought you said she was
dead!” Shippo cried.
Inuyasha looked at a loss. He faced the flap that was the door. “Apparently not,” he scowled, before running outside - ready to face the centipede demon from the well once more.