Coyote Tricks: Fox Child

This chapter is rated PG for language.

The Monkey Monk

Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku went to see if they could catch the Oni who had changed the monk into a monkey. Kagome and Shippo remained to sort out Kit and his family.

- English -
“Yuriko says you could speak Japanese before,” Kagome asked Kit, “what happened?”
“Oh yea, the babelfish charm! I must have lost it in the fight,” Kit answered. “Help me find it, it’s a bracelet with a stone carved like a fish.”
Kit, recovered enough to stand with a tree branch as a crutch, started looking around the field. Kagome translated his request to the others and they all started looking for it.

- Japanese -
“I found it,” Shippo cried after a moment and bounded over to the coyote to hand him the charm.
“Here you go,” he said.
Kit looked at him with bemusement on his face and taking the bracelet, put it back on.
“Thank you, Shippo,” Kit said to the little fox, with a grin.
“Hey, I can understand you!”
“Yes, thanks to this,” Kit said, tapping the fish charm.
“Amazing,” Kagome said. “It’s like the universal translator on Star Trek”
“Yes, sort of, except this one works on elven magic” Kit said still looking at Shippo.
The little Kitsune was starting to get creeped out by the intensity of that stare and wandered off to play with Hanako, who proudly displayed her newfound yo-yo skills for him.

Kit had shortened the string for her short stature, but so far she did only one trick moderately well.
“Walking the doggy,” Hanako said dropping the yo-yo to ground. It only rolled a few inches before dropping over.
“Oh” she said, disappointed.
Shippo picked up the yo-yo, fascinated by the bright red plastic. There was gold lettering all around the sides but he couldn’t read any of it.
“Duncan” Hanako said, pointing to the lettering.
Shippo smiled and nodded, none the wiser.
Moments later the two were happily taking turns with the Duncan Yo-yo while Kit, Yuriko and Kagome shared cans of tea.

“So was that monk a monkey demon?” Yuriko asked.
“Oh no, that was Miroku. He is human.” Kagome said. “The Oni did something to him.”
“Miroku eh?” Kit said, looking in the direction the others had gone. “He doesn’t look a thing like his pictures.”
“What?” Kagome said confused.
“Oh, nothing, just a bad joke, forget I said it.”

The others returned a short while later.
“The Oni trails cross and recross each other all over the area,” Inuyasha said “I couldn’t pinpoint the one who attacked Miroku.”

“Oh…” Inuyasha started to ask more when they were interrupted by a cry from Miroku.

The transformed monk was staring at his palm in disbelief.
“The Wind Tunnel is gone!”
Inuyasha and Kit both looked at Miroku’s exposed palm. There was a dark spot in the center that wavered as they watched but no wind extended from it. Kit sensed something odd and looked closely at the palm. He sensed a portal there! He probed deeper, it was definitely a portal but only a maniac would use human flesh as an anchor point of a portal. Then he understood what Miroku’s curse was, a portal anchored in his palm that lead to nowhere. With no second anchor point the portal would act as the magical equivalent of a black hole until eventually it would destroy the very flesh that anchored it and disappear in a flash destroying everything around it. And according to what the future Shippo had told Kit, the portal regenerated in the next generation of Miroku’s line. Whoever had created this curse was sick and twisted as well as massively powerful. Kit could well understand Miroku’s shock at finding his curse gone but unfortunately he had to break the bad news to him.
“Its still there I’m afraid. I can sense it under the surface. The magic of the transformation has temporarily blocked the entrance but it will break through again eventually.”

Miroku took this pronouncement well. The group set out towards the town they were heading toward before the encounter. Miroku and Inuyasha fell behind the others.
“What kind of demon did he say he was?” Miroku asked Inuyasha, indicating Kit ahead of them.
“Ki-yo-te, he said,” Inuyasha replied.
“Never heard of them before, but he is a canine hanyou of some sort.”
“Yea, well, I never heard of them either.”
“The Kitsune woman is obviously his mate,” Miroku said to Inuyasha, “but the child is pure Kitsune. She looks nothing like him.”
“No, she is a whelp by a previous mate,” Inuyasha said, his sensitive nose sampling the scents from the family ahead of him.
“The mother is just recently out of heat though and she is carrying his pup now.”

Kit rubbed his temple as he struggled to recall something he had forgotten.
“Are you alright, Kit?” Kagome asked, concerned.
“Yes, I just have a little headache. After effects of the blood rage I think. The whole thing is very hazy but it is coming back a little at a time.”
Kit suddenly stopped, a look of concentration on his face. Then he turned and looked back at Inuyasha.
“Hey, wait a minute, you tried to kill me didn’t you!?” He shouted at the hanyou.
“Yea and I would have if Kagome hadn’t saved your lousy hide!” Inuyasha said back indifferently. “Its not like you gave me a lot a choice, was it?”
Kit opened his mouth to shout back but then seem to think better.
“No, I guess I didn’t,” he said after a moment and then louder finished, “but you didn’t have to seem so eager about it.”
“Feh!”
Kit turned around and was quiet for awhile, a look of intense concentration on his face. A much older Shippo would have recognized the look and been concerned but that Shippo was 500 years away. Young Shippo of course didn’t have any memories of Lord Sesshomaru and a certain pink shampoo yet (Author’s Note: see Outfoxed for details.).

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They arrived in the town as the late afternoon sun started to settle into the mountains. The town was very large and centered itself on an impressive temple complex. As they approached the town, several armed men gathered to meet them as cries of ‘demons’ went up. Inuyasha sighed, this being a not unusual occurrence for his group. Normally Miroku would go ahead and calm the locals concerns but in his current state he held back as Sango and Kagome stood in his place. The town guardians were not willing to be convinced however, the deprivations of the Oni had the locals on edge and untrustworthy. At last Miroku stepped forward.
“Sango, Kagome,” he said, “lets just find a place to camp and…”
That was as far as he got, for the moment they saw him the townsfolk dropped their knees and bowed to him.
“The Monkey Monk!” they cried. “The Monkey Monk has come!”
This bewildered the travelers until Shippo pointed up at the temple hilltop.
“Miroku, look!” he said.
They all looked up to see, towering over the shrine grounds, an elaborately carved statue, inlaid with gold and precious stones, that was the exact likeness of Miroku in his monkey form.

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Foxfur: Oh great Miroku going to get a swelled head now.
Stardreamer: It will help offset that new tail.
Foxfur: Oh yea!
Stardreamer: This chapter was a little short. The Toshiro/Yuki subplot is something I’m adding after a wrote most of this so getting it written and inserted is slowing me down but I hope to keep posting on time. We find out what is with the statue and what it means to our heroes and Kit gives Inuyasha a gift in the next chapter, The Prophesy.