Loyal in heart by summerbirdy

Loyal in heart

Hello!

This story hit me square to face when I was reading guidebook of Tokyo. And I stored the plunnie, thinking I'd write it when I came home from my trip. Unfortunately, the trip never was made, due the recent happenings in Tohoku area in Japan. But the plunnie refused to leave me alone, so here you go. 

It is not betaed, so please, bear with my mistakes and my weird way of thinking. 

And as usual, shall it be known, that I do not own characters of Inuyasha, they belong to Takahashi-sensei. Only thing I own is the plot. ^^

Enjoy!

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Loyal in heart

She looked at him, teary eyed and longing clear in her face. He looked at her and his eyes were golden whirlpools of sadness, though his face remained passive. She was leaving, she wasn't allowed to stay. He was staying, he couldn't leap through times. She knew it. And she also knew he didn't know what was really happening to her.

Four years of traveling, sometimes together, at first not. Fighting each other and together against common enemy. It would now be just a memory, and her heart couldn't take the idea she wouldn't see him again.

A hurried whisper reached his ears.

”Five hundred years from now, at the day when carps fly, meet me below the loyal dog. Beware of the time when the middle of the Occident causes uproar all over the world second time.”

”I'll wait. And a hundred years more, if need be” He whispered back. She smiled through her tears.

Then as the blue sphere circled her, she vanished from his eyes and senses. And he set to solve the riddle she had given him. First to wait five hundred years. That would be easy, wouldn't it.

_ _ _ _ _ 

Sesshoumaru sat on a stone bench near busy station at the Tokyo metropolitan. It was fifth of May, the day when people celebrated their children and shrines all over Tokyo were crowded with families. Inuyoukai was thankful to who ever it was that had invented the way to conceal youki and his markings and diminish the sharp senses. Without this spell, he would have had a headache, with all the sounds and smells.

He was looking at the eyes of the statue he sat in front of. It was familiar statue. He had seen it numerous times, specially on this date. Last fifteen years on row, even. He didn't know why he still bothered. She might have changed her mind, and decided to not to come. That thought made him always so angry. Maybe she had stood him up. Maybe she had been laughing at him all these years.

But then he looked at the bronze eyes again and sighed. That statue could have been him. It was about loyalty and love. Things that reminded him of himself and of Her. His Kagome. Yes, he was loyal. He had given a promise to meet her here. And by the kami, he would wait until he was sure she wouldn't come. And maybe he would wait even then.

It had not been difficult to solve the riddles of her little message. They had actually hit him right on his face. One of them quite literally. He still didn't quite like to be near those carp kites, but they were magnificent from a far. He had destroyed the one that hit him, thinking some fish youkai had found way to breath and was attacking him, until he had noticed the papery material his claws were ripping. This had happened not long after Kagome had been taken away from him. Though what he gathered, the celebrations and carps had been there for ages, even then. But since he didn't bother with human festivities, it was by accident that he found out. Or rather, it found him.

It wasn't until 1948, when Japan's government set the permanent date for this celebration called Kodomo no hi, that he understood the hint completely.

Before that he had gotten harsh reminder of human's stupidity. Twice they managed to make whole world uproar and set it on flames. Second time it happened, he had warned his fellow demons and half demons and fled the country. Some took his vague “feeling of something horrible is about to happen”. Some didn't and perished at the attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Several years he traveled around the safer parts of the world. Not that there were many really safe places. And when he finally came back to Japan, he was startled to notice it was only few decades to go, until she would be by his side again. Waiting was agony.

Second clue that had opened to him, though first that he completely solved, was the loyal dog. In 1932 he read an article in one of the magazines, that mentioned a very loyal dog. The dog had waited years for his master to come how from work. Even years after the said masted had died. Though he understood the loyalty of this dog, he was still puzzled. Yes, it was still few decades to her set time, but how would they be able to meet ”below” this dog? It was life and breathing, though what he saw from pictures, it might not be for long.

The answer to his thought came two years later, when a statue was lifted to honor the dog. It was placed by the Shibuya station, in Tokyo, and in time it became very famous spot to meet other people.

And then the five hundred year mark came. He had place and date written down on his diary, and so he was sitting on a bench in front of Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station. It was May 5th and carp kites were everywhere. But she didn't show up, even though he waited till midnight.

Kagome didn't come next year either. Or next one. Or any of the fifteen year he had waited for her. Always sitting on the same bench, at the same spot. Always waiting until the midnight. And every year he could feel sympathy from the bronze akita that was sitting on his place.

This was sixteenth year. And here he still was as usual. Being true to his real form, he was loyally waiting. He had promised he would. No matter how much his fellow demons tried to convince him otherwise. Over the last five hundred and fifteen years his former court had pressured him to mate. He had said he didn't need one. When one of his closest generals asked him why, he has just stated that he had made a promise. So come back in five hundred year. We'll talk about mating then.

To his surprise, Inuyasha had supported him fully. He had even told Sesshoumaru where Kagome had really gone to, but had refused to help him with the clues. Maybe he didn't know.

Sesshoumaru shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts. He looked at the bronze dog and smiled. How alike they were.

And then he felt it. The humming power that responded to his youki. That caressed and pricked him. Next he noticed the scent. He could hardly remember her scent, but this faint fragrance of lilies was what he had imprinted in his memories.

Sesshoumaru straightened in his bench and his head started turning, his eyes scanning the groups of people who used this place as their gathering point. Then his eyes met the blue ones and it felt like lightning hit him.

He rose from the bench and was immediately assaulted by a small woman, who launched herself into his arms. They laughed both when he swing her around. People around them seemed to smile at their happiness too. And Sesshoumaru could have sworn he saw happy look in the bronze eyes, that had been watching him all these years.

_ _ _ _ 

Their visits to the statue didn't stop there. When Sesshoumaru told his story to Kagome, she decided then and there that they would visit the dog every year. And name their daughter after him. And then she started crying at the thought of Sesshoumaru waiting for her all those years, just because her mistake.

Sesshoumaru dried her tears and caused new crying fit when he asked her to marry and mate him. She said yes.

And they lived happily ever after. How ever long the "ever after” was. And they had lots of children and eldest daughter was named Hachiko. And every May, on Kodomo no Hi, whole family would go to Shibuya Station and meet the bronze dog. And all the children wanted to be like him. Loyal in waiting. Loyal in heart.  

Owari.