Artificial Love

Artificial Love


Hello all, are you feeling happy today?! I know I am! I really shouldn’t be, but it apparently takes a lot to piss me off. I have been flamed! My first flame, wow, does that make me an official author? I feel all warm and crispy inside. It was a pretty puny flame though I must say. Barely warranted a band aid. I mean, “I’m sorry to say this... but your story sucks.” Ow man, that really hurt. You might have mentioned why it sucked. Then maybe I would have cared what you thought. Happy reading to you my little flamer. Come back to read my sucky story anytime!


Disclaimer: I refuse to claim Inuyasha. That's right, I don’t own him. Don’t really want him anymore anyways. If someone would like to adopt him call 555-1234, or review, and he will be transferred to your imagination for a small fee. Thank you!


Chapter 11: The Unknown Heir

Time passed, and with that passage, as these things are wont to do, Inuyasha’s wounds healed. Any wound that runs deep though is bound to leave a scar, and Inuyasha indeed bore the scars that remained from the mending of his tattered heart. They were strong reminders of his pain, worn with a newfound patience and dignity that Inuyasha himself did not know that he had possessed.

He returned often to his friends, for friends they were, even if the very sight of them always threatened to reopen his all too freshly healed wounds. They all had fallen into a bit of happiness and for that he was grateful. He bore them no ill will for moving on with their lives. He was thankful that they still had lives to live.

He however, was not really living anymore. If he had any life at all it was lived in the past. In the memory of his brief time with Miroku. He knew, that though brief it was, it was more than some had. In quality, more than most. And he drifted with that knowledge, a dreamer through the waking world. When he happened to wake from a memory, he wandered. Eating when need be, sleeping when it was forced upon him, but never willfully. A guiding force had claimed him and stripped him of his free will. He was a wraith, a mere whisping shadow of what he once was. Bound to this world by god only knows what, and living for the day that he died.

So he found himself one day, lying on the sturdy branch of a tall tree on the outskirts of a lazy little village. He didn’t dare enter. None of the villages that he had encountered since his departure seemed quite as tolerant of hanyous as Kaede’s.

This town was unknown to him. He often sat outside of villages, watching their inhabitants with a kind of listless curiosity that came from knowing that he could never be one of them. And though he thought that he knew the surrounding area quite well, he had been surprised to find that an apparently new village had sprung up in this area, where, when last he checked, and it had not been long ago, there had been nothing but all too familiar, and uninhabited wilderness, crawling thick, with weak, unintelligent demons. This new village though, was nestled into the hills like it had been there for years, and the surrounding forest was free of any demons, weak or otherwise. He could sense not a single one for at least a mile in any direction. It was as if the town was blessed. As if it was special in a way, though it looked normal enough, and that drew Inuyasha to it as much as anything else about it did.

Just as another memory threatened to take him, he caught a glimpse of a child’s ball bouncing happily toward him through the tall grass, and froze, as the sound of brightly ringing laughter followed it. A group of small children were in hot pursuit of the small runaway toy, heading straight for the tree that he had chosen as a makeshift observation platform. The merry laughter intensified, as a boy wearing a roughly made kitsune mask over his face separated from the group, followed by two girls that seemed to be trying to catch him. The rest of the children lagged back warily, and after a bit, walked back to the village. THEY knew better than to go out into the forest without an adult.

The boy laughed as he nimbly dodged the girls and got to the ball first, picking it up quickly and throwing it at one of them.

“That wasn’t fair!” the girl that had been his target whined. “We’re out of bounds so that didn’t count!”

“Yeah right, your just sayin that so ya don’t have to be it, Kiri!” the boy shouted back, picking up the ball again and making a half hearted toss at the other girl.

“Nuh uh, dumb face!” Kiri yelled, her face growing red. “Come on Saiame, he’s just a big cheater. Lets go back and play with everyone else.”

She walked off in a huff that was all too familiar to Inuyasha, and the girl named Saiame blushed, and waved quickly before running off to catch up to Kiri, giggling as she did.

The lone boy lifted up his mask and propped it atop his head, before turning to face the forest defiantly. When Inuyasha saw the child’s face he nearly fell from his vantage point, breaking a branch in his efforts to right himself. The boy let out a startled yelp and scrambled backwards a few feet, pulling out a wooden sword and pointing it shakily at the trees.
“Wh... who’s there! Don’t make m-me hurt you!”

Inuyasha suppressed a laugh in spite of himself, and stayed where he was.
“If I come down, will you promise not to get scared and start screaming or somethin?” he asked the boy softly, not wanting to frighten him any more than he already was.

The boy glared up into the trees as menacingly as a scared child could, and gulped loudly.
“I’m not scared of you!” What’re you a demon? I fight demons all the time!”

“Well that would explain why there aren't any demons around here, wouldn’t it?” Inuyasha said sarcastically, barely keeping in a laugh. “I’m only half demon, so I bet a great demon slayer like you could take me easy.”

“You’re a half demon?” the boy asked, staring awestruck at a clump of branches near where Inuyasha was perched, apparently no longer afraid of the stranger in the tree. “ My mom says that my dad is friends with a half demon! She says that he’s really strong, and he fights bad demons for villagers! Will you come down Mr. half demon? I promise I won’t hurtcha!”

Inuyasha’s throat tightened at the child’s words. Could he be? He jumped from the tree, and landed in a crouch next to the child, giving his ears a less than happy twitch for him. He knew how cute people thought the ears were, and he hoped that they made him less frightening to the boy.

“Wow...” the boy said, his jaw dropping to somewhere around the vicinity of his knees. His play sword fell forgotten to the ground, and he smiled at Inuyasha’s twitching ears.

“What’s yer name kid?” Inuyasha asked, dodging the child's chubby hands as they made swift attacks at the furry triangles atop his head.

“Miroku.”

Inuyasha gasped and fell out of his crouch, his bottom plunking itself onto the soft grass.
“What?” he asked softly, thinking that he must have misheard the young boy.

“It’s Miroku. Can’t you hear with those puppy ear things?”

At that, he took advantage of Inuyasha’s lack of mobility to grab one of the hanyou’s fuzzy ears, petting it rather roughly.

Inuyasha came out of his daze, and reminded the child that his ears needed to stay connected to his head by swatting the boy’s small, tormenting hand away. He noticed that familiar looking beads wrapped protectively around the child’s right hand. He had to be...

The child went on undaunted to talk about his name to the hanyou.
“Miroku is my dad’s name too, so my mamma said that it’s a good one.”

Inuyasha grabbed Miroku’s hand, which had again found it’s way to his ear, and studied the beads closely. Prayer beads. Almost exactly the same as...

“Hey Miroku,” Inuyasha said, his voice only cracking slightly. “How old are you, four... five...?”

“I’m five and a half!” Miroku yelled indignantly, tearing his hand away from Inuyasha’s. The beads slipped a little, and Inuyasha could have sworn that he felt a slight wind before the boy hastily fixed the beads securely back over his palm.
“Don’t touch that,” the child whispered angrily, stepping back a few feet from Inuyasha with a mixture of fear and anger on his cherubic face.

“What if I told you that your dad had beads just like that.”

"That’s what my mamma always says,” Miroku voiced brightly, not noticing that Inuyasha used the word had, unintentionally. He stepped a bit closer but still seemed wary.

“And that you look just like him.”

“Mamma always says that too. Mamma says that I’ll have to beat off the girls with a stick when I’m older. She says not to hit girls though... Sometimes I don’t get her...”

Inuyasha laughed, and Miroku started to laugh too, though he wasn’t quite sure what the puppy eared guy thought was so funny.

“How d’ya know all this stuff about my dad?” Miroku questioned, obviously excited to hear more about the man that he had never met.

“I w... I’m his best friend,” Inuyasha said, quickly avoiding another slip up. He hated to lie to the kid, but he didn’t want to be the one to have to break the news of his fathers death to him.

Miroku’s eyes lit up again with awe, causing Inuyasha’s gut to tighten more painfully.
“You’re...?”

“Inuyasha.”

Said hanyou could literally see the small child’s whole face light up as the boy held in a gasp, a cheek splitting smile stretched ear to ear.

“INUYASHA!” Miroku yelled, as he threw his arms around the startled, yet amused hanyou.

“Woah, woah, settle down kid, ok?”

Inuyasha tried in vain to pull the overexcited kid from him, until with a loud thud, he was knocked flat on his back. Human or not, an excited child is a force to be reckoned with.

“Ok,” Miroku said in answer to Inuyasha’s question, as he bounced up off of the flattened hanyou, and gave a happy bow, before tugging on Inuyasha’s arms as if to help him up. When he had gotten the abused hanyou half way off of the ground, he let out a loud gasp of realization and promptly dropped Inuyasha right back on his bottom.
“Is my dad here? Did he come with you? Did he come to see me?!”

Inuyasha’s grin slowly melted, or froze, he couldn’t tell. He tried not to let it falter too much, for fear that his perceptive little friend might catch it. He liked the kid. He didn’t want to give him that news... The news that his father was dead. Murdered. Murdered by HIS hands. It was too much for him to bear repeating. So he kept his mouth shut about it. He smiled, the smile not reaching his eyes, barely staying on his face at all.

“Hey kid, is your mom around?”

The childlike Miroku sobered up a bit, seeing that his new friend was upset about something. He grabbed Inuyasha’s hand and smiled, a calmer smile this time, as he led the hanyou towards the village.
“She’s at home,” the boy said quietly, lest he upset his puppy eared friend further. “She misses dad a lot. She’ll be really happy to see you.”

The two walked the stretch from forest to town in surprising silence. Miroku’s son not once letting Inuyasha’s hand slip from his small grasp.

As the two slowly wound their way through the village towards the child Miroku’s house, Inuyasha noticed the general lack of fear or outrage that the many villagers had towards them. The child grinned and greeted all those that he passed, often earning some praise or a small treat or trinket for his childish antics. The people did not ignore the hanyou by his side, as Inuyasha had expected. Usually, if people didn’t jeer at him, or run from him, it was only because they ignored his very existence. Indeed though the inhabitants of this village did not greet him with quite the same exuberance that they poured on the boy at his side, they did treat him kindly. Apparently, if he was deemed safe by the child, then that was good enough for them. Miroku rushed quickly through his many admirers to a hut at the far end of the village. The building was just slightly larger than it’s surrounding neighbors, and a bit more ornate, but it seemed not to be a gloating wealth that the house possessed, and it was not that much larger or grander really. It possessed just the smallest amount of difference so that if you only saw it at a glance you would swear that it was only the way that the sun shone on it, or perhaps just an inherent pride that was built into the house that shone through and winked at the unsuspecting passerby on occasion. The child beamed at Inuyasha as they stepped up to his home and squeezed the white haired hanyou’s hand doubly as he pulled him inside.

Inside of the strange abode, all was dark save for a few weary candles scattered sparsely here and there, their meager flames guttering and flickering suspensefully at the slightest breeze. The weak light suffused the huts haphazardly scattered contents with an earthy golden glow, and Inuyasha noticed a strange scent, a faint tickle in his nose, that he realized was just the barest tint of magic. He dismissed it though, finding it non threatening, and scanned the room with his reflective canine eyes.

A lady, fair enough, though a bit careworn and frayed, sat in a pool of golden light at a small low table crafted of a rich and highly polished dark wood. Her clothes were simple, though well taken care of, and the adornments of the room meager, but she didn’t seem to mind. She was content it seemed, to stare blankly across the room at nothing in particular, her face set in a thoughtful expression, and her fingers absently twirling her long raven hair.

She suddenly looked at the pair as if she had just noticed their presence, though they had been standing in silence for a good while. A small smile lit her face and she focused her attention on her son.

“Miroku, who have you brought to me?”

Her calm light voice came to Inuyasha as little more than a whisper, gentle and polite, as he let the little Miroku guide him to sit across the table from his mother.

“Mamma, this is Inuyasha. He says he’s dad’s friend.”

Miroku tugged on Inuyasha’s sleeve lightly and whispered up to him. “Inuyasha, this is my mamma Suiko. She’s the prettiest lady in the world!”

Inuyasha suppressed a grin and kept his attention on the lady in front of him, who’s deep gray eyes drifted from her son to meet his gaze lightly. He couldn’t help but feel that she was studying him somehow, as if he was in some way transparent to her powerful yet gentle gaze, and it could see right through him. After a moment of rather tense silence, her softly penetrating gaze lifted and she smiled once again. A small smile that somehow didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Indeed he is a friend of your fathers. You have done well to bring him here, Miroku.”

“Yes mamma,” the child said politely. It seemed to Inuyasha that all of Miroku’s youthful exuberance had dried up at the door to his house. The boy seemed quite melancholy in the presence of his mother.

“Well Inuyasha, I see that you have changed since last we met, though I dare say you won’t remember such a brief encounter. I know what troubles you. What caused such a change in you...”

Inuyasha opened his mouth, questions piling up in his head at her strange words and manner, but she raised her hand calling for his silence.

“Miroku, go play outside now please. Your father’s friend and I have much to discuss.”

Miroku let out a groan of protest, but at a hard questioning look from his mother, gave the lady a quick affirmative nod and went out the door. Suiko watched him leave, then directed her attention back to Inuyasha.

“Miroku is an... energetic child. Please, forgive him if he treated you rudely in any way.”

Inuyasha, still smiling at the child's mini temper tantrum shook his head absently. “Na, it’s nothin. He’s a good kid.”

Suiko pinned up a small smile at the praise of her son. “Im sure... were you to spend a bit of time with him, that it would do you much good. He does me so much good every day...”

She stared out the door again wistfully, her smile gaining a bit of warmth that her eyes caught and reflected. “He reminds me so much of his father...”

Inuyasha sensed her distress and his heart heaved a little in his chest against the tidal wave of memories that broke against it. He took a hard swallow and braced his voice so that words could form. “His father... Miroku... you’ve heard the news about him then?”

Her shining tear glossed eyes swung back to him and her sad smile twitched a bit, answering his question without words. She gave a small shaky nod and looked into her lap, slowly regaining her composure. “ You were with him? With him when he died?”

Her voice only cracked the slightest bit and he used her trick, nodding briefly and looking out the door to the bright, carefree village.

“I knew.” she stated briefly, joining in his gaze outside. “I saw... but I didn’t believe.”

She laughed. A sound too loud and sharp, and her brow furrowed with emotion. “Didn’t want to believe. It was foolish of me. The sight of the present is never wrong, it’s future work that’s debatable. I should have trusted it...”

She covered her face with her hand and steadied herself, her head shaking in disbelief of her ignorance.

“He didn’t even know that I was with child. I never saw him again after that night in the village... I remember that he was surprised that I accepted his offer. I couldn’t refuse, he reminded me so much of... But he never came back. I watched him with the sight, but he was always so far... and then he was too far... gone where even I cannot see. I am grateful for that night though. And for his son...”

Inuyasha looked on uncomfortably. The thought that Miroku had a son that he didn’t even know about was bad enough, but the fact that he had only known the mother of his child for one night, while not really that surprising for Miroku, was still disconcerting. Inuyasha had a strong urge to leave then, and forget everything that he now knew, but he could not. He felt strangely responsible for this woman and her child. His mate had wronged them, albeit unintentionally, but still he felt it was his duty to make this better somehow. He felt the need to make right what his mate had done.

“What were you talking about? The sight? You mean that you can see what people are doing, anytime and anywhere?”

Suiko stared at him with tear swollen eyes, but her demeanor suggested calm. “I have the sight, yes. It was a gift from my father and his side of the family, though sometimes it seems more a curse...”
She sat silent for a moment, a sad smile resting fragile on her lips. “I see many things Inuyasha... You look doubtful, would you wish to test me?”

She laughed then, in seeming exasperation, and she questioned him with her eyes. Receiving a nod of confirmation, her face went imperceptibly harder and she looked again to her lap.

“ ... I know this then, here is your test. Something that I could not possibly have known otherwise. It was you, Inuyasha, that took Miroku’s life. Your mates life.”
Inuyasha stared incredulously for a moment, unable to grasp and handle the words that had been tossed his way. They hit him so forcefully that it was as if a strong gust of wind had caught them and forced them his way as a rock flung at a hut by the winds of a tornado. He felt nothing though, of the blow, his feelings seeping further into him and leaving him that much more cold and empty.

Suiko continued as if she didn’t notice Inuyasha’s reaction, though she had and worried about him. “As for my sight, this is what is known to me. I can see the past, and am studious enough to learn from it’s mistakes. The present also is within my sight, and I can watch for what it has to offer. I am able to see into your thoughts, though I do not, for I find it rude. The future alas, in any certainty, is not within my power to divine, for it is wrought with too many paths for any person to decipher correctly.”

She shot Inuyasha an amused and slightly sarcastic smile. “... Though many DO try...”

Inuyasha warmed a bit at her humor, and chanced a meek smile in return, before gazing at nothing in particular in the direction of the door.

“As you might have guessed, I am not human as I appear, and never was. I was born of my mother and father a pure blood kitsune. But that was so very long ago... and I have had a hard life.”

Inuyasha turned again to face her and realized that the magic that he had felt at entering the house was coming from her. It was a shield. A protection of sorts in that it allowed her to present herself as human, her son, as nothing but a human child.”

“Miroku then...” he started slowly, searching for the boy through the bright chink of the door frame.

“A hanyou, Inuyasha. He doesn’t realize. The spell, the illusion that I have cast over us both has dampened his power. He must not know. But more importantly, for our safety, this village must not know. They are under the impression that I am a mere human seeress, and are thankful for my services... But I fear that would not last if they were to know that I am of demon blood. I worry so much for my son. I am ill. Weak. I would not be able to save him if the worst were to happen, and I fear the day that It does. So much I fear...”

“But your a demon!” Inuyasha said loudly, rising to his feet and pacing the small room. “You’re telling me that some pesky little villagers would be too much for you? And you had a hanyou? Didn’t you realize that hanyous are never safe! That you’d have to fight for your son! What were you thinking having a hanyou when you had no way of protecting him!”

“Calm down Inuyasha, there is no need to shout,“ Suiko patiently explained, gesturing with her hands for his calm. “I’ll explain the reasons, but most days I tend to agree that it was a mistake on my part. A wonderful mistake.

"I am nearing the end of my life now. When I was a younger demon by many years, I took a mate, a young illusionist kitsune that had been my friend since childhood. He was more important to me than my very life, and we shared many happy years together, but I see now that it was doomed from the start. He was from another tribe of kitsune, a thieving bunch that was thought of as lower than us. But only by our tribe. You understand how these things work.

“When I was small I thought nothing of sneaking off into the forest to play. It was there that we met by chance, me and this boy, and there that we continued to sneak away to whenever we could, to play. The secrecy and taboo of our friendship made it exciting, and we were happy to keep defying our parents and our tribes for many years, until we were grown.

“When we realized that our feelings were stronger than friendship, we decided to become mates, and that is where the trouble began. Once we had mated, my parents, and his as well, noticed the marks and the change in us immediately. They had us followed into the woods where our pursuers met, and invariably fought. There was an awful battle. One of his tribe tried to murder me... but my mate blocked the blow, and was killed. Since I was mated to him, and our bond was so strong, a part of me was, quite literally, killed. Since then I have been ill. Dying slowly, as the dead part of me spreads. I am not long for this world now...”

She paused for a time, eyes unfocused, staring into the past. Inuyasha was painfully familiar with that look of complete despair. He wore it enough himself.

“What was his name? Your mate?”

“...Tsuyoko... Just his name brings back so much... Memories... Pain... That was the reason for Miroku’s birth. When I met his father, he reminded me so much of Tsuyoko that I lost my reason. Nothing mattered at the time except being close to him. Remembering the happiness and healing the dead part of me. Just being near him. Just that one night, healed me more than I could have ever imagined. It helped me to live. To care for his son. It gave me a life, and I would not take it back for anything. I do fear for my son now, but I would never change how he was brought into this world, save to give me more time with the one that seemed a mirror of my Tsuyoko’s very soul. You understand... It was as if he was back with me. For one night I was happy, content, with him. And now you have lost your mate. Surely you understand...”

“I understand,” Inuyasha somberly intoned. “I understand...”

The site is alive! ALIVE!!! I is so happy, I could huggle you all! Well... I could if we weren't miles apart... VIRTUAL HUGGLES FOR ALL!!! You guys are so great reading my story! Do you like it? I couldn’t just leave Inuyasha all alone and sad and such so I sent him here! Awwww isn’t little Miroku chan soooo cute! Well I think he is. If you don't think a five year old Miroku’s cute you have a horrible taste in cute! But I love you anyway because you read my story!!! Thanks you’s!!! Now review and I’ll give you extra virtual huggles! Happy reading, riting, and reviewing!


Inuyasha: Where did you come up with that reading, riting, and reviewing crap anyways?

Immortality lost: I’m not speaking to you! (sticks tongue out at Inu)

Inuyasha: (turns to Miroku) Is she being childish about this or is it just me?

Miroku: Well you did burn her favorite teddy bear... (trying not to giggle as Immortality lost pretends to strangle Inu behind his back)

Inuyasha: Exactly! Babies have teddy bears, not full grown girls!

Immortality lost: (mimics Inuyasha as he talks, waving her arms and making funny faces)

Inuyasha: (watching Miroku try not to giggle) And another thing! (turns around and glares daggers at Immortality lost who freezes in some random ridiculous pose)

Immortality lost: Eeep! (pulls halo over head while going into innocent pose and starts twiddling her thumbs and whistling)

Inuyasha: You little...! (makes swipe at Immortality lost shaped poof cloud)

Immortality lost: Don’t kill me! (runs around in circles with Inuyasha right behind her, growling and throwing out curses left and right) I didn’t do anything I swear!

Miroku: (laughing hysterically) Dude, you should have seen the faces she was making! (rolls around on the ground clutching his stomach)

Inuyasha: (pausing in air mid leap and pointing accusingly at Miroku) I’ll deal with you later, traitor!

Immortality lost: Hey that rhymed Inuyasha! You should write dark angsty poetry so I can steal it! Ack! (ducks behind couch as sharp kitchen implements fly her way, and turns to readers, gasping and grinning like a maniac, dangling the pin of a grenade in front of the camera) KAABOOM!!! (winks at reviewers) See ya next time folks!