The Life After

6/30/06

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the characters of Inuyasha. I do not own Naraku, Inutaisho, Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, Jakken, Rin, or Ah-Un. I also do not own Ayame, the Elder, or Kouga. Nor do I own the lunar rainbow promise. I do not own Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, or Shippo. I do not own Kohaku, Hachi, Kaede, or Kikyo or ANY of the characters or happenings from Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi is the wonderful creator and owner of said characters, manga, and show. I do not make money off of her characters or this story. Anything that is not owned by her is still owned by the people who own the Inuyasha show and movies. I give them credit for their work as well. I do not make money off of their ideas or episodes. This Disclaimer applies to this and all following chapters.

Author's Note: Another short chapter. Sorry for the short installments, but I'm not sure where I'm going with this at the moment. I'm kinda stuck. lol. Feel free to review with input! Ten points for animegirl007 and music for the masses! You're right, I did plan my names out carefully. Riki means strength, a quality that not only does he possess, but one that his father prizes highly. Not only is he strong of body, but also of mind and heart. He's a good kid who acts just like a puppy and finds everything amusing. Now, as for Ukiyomaru. Let me first point out that Sesshoumaru's name can mean a couple of things, but one of them is perfect destruction. I thought that Ukiyomaru's name should counter that. Ukiyo means life. This makes him perfect life. I was looking for perfect creation, but I thought that life fit just as well, and Ukiyo suited him. So there you go. (Not that it's terribly important but Tsurara means icicle and Kouseki means crystal. Whereas Shen and Tuu-Yen are completely made up from my head so I don't know if they mean anything in any language or not.) Oh, and not that you know who they are yet, but you will in a minute, so: Akina means spring flower. Suki means beloved. And sweet little Sorano is “of the sky.”

Thanks: Thanks to Sorceressofthenight. You guessed it, Riki is my absolute favorite character, I wish I could just hop in the story and hug him. And Ukiyomaru is my second favorite, I'm hoping he'll be even cuter when he's older. I thought Sango and Miroku's children were too distant, that's why I started this chapter out with them. They needed personalities and names. Thanks animegirl007 and music for the masses for asking about the names, I meant to write it in my author's note for the last chapter, but I completely forgot! So thanks for reminding me. Thanks for all your kind words, as well. Sorry if I haven't been focusing on enough different relationships between people. I just get so confused with all these characters in one village. I don't know what they're going to do when Ukiyomaru and Sango and Miroku's daughter get old enough to run around and wreak havoc! Three little girls and two little boys, and the boys are part demon nonetheless! It's going to be insanity. Oh, and I know that it's kind of obvious who's behind Sesshoumaru's demon attacks, but I felt like being mysterious anyway. lol. ENJOY!

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“Hold still would you?! Oh…Kirara! Help!” a young man with a long black ponytail chased two little girls around the hut. He wore a purple and black sleeveless kimono. The small cat looked up at him and mewed, her two tails curled around her. Suddenly she seemed to catch on fire; then she was huge. A black diamond showed on her forehead above her two red eyes. She had black feet that striped up around her ankles, black stripes on her tails, and black ears. Mostly she was a pale yellow shade. As she had grown huge, two saber teeth had grown from her mouth. She roared softly, and the two black-haired, brown-eyed girls stopped quickly. “Thanks, Kirara,” the man wiped sweat from his forehead, “Now will you two eat your lunch?”

“OK, Uncle Kohaku,” the oldest, Akina, looked at the floor. She was ten and was trying her hardest to be responsible. Unfortunately it wasn't always as easy as she had hoped. They had been playing with their uncle all morning, and even though she knew he needed a break, she couldn't help but want to keep playing. She shifted in her light pink kimono.

The other girl, Suki, pouted, but headed towards her food. She was only eight and quite enjoyed having things her own way. If Akina was going to listen, however, she figured she might as well listen too. Her pale blue kimono glistened in the sunlight that fell through the open doorway.

Kohaku sighed, lifting the eight-month-old Sorano out of her bed. The quiet child looked up at him calmly with bright blue eyes under her shiny black hair. Despite the fact that she was youngest, Sorano seemed to be the most level headed of all the girls. “Don't worry, your mom should be back soon. Then you can have your lunch too,” Kohaku rocked the girl in his arms.

“We're back!” Miroku's voice called from outside.

“Daddy!” The lunch was quickly forgotten as Suki and Akina raced outside to hug their parents.

“Finally,” Kohaku sighed, handing Sorano to Sango, “I don't know how you two have enough energy for these little girls.”

“Did you two not listen to Kohaku?” Sango said, looking down at her elder daughters.

“We're sorry,” Suki whimpered.

“We tried, but Uncle Kohaku's just so much fun!” Akina added.

“You two need to behave,” Miroku sighed, “Now, go eat your lunch. Ok?”

“Yes, Daddy!”

“I'm going to go feed Sorano. Thank you, Kohaku,” Sango smiled at her brother; then followed the girls inside.

“No prob., Sis,” he called after her, “So how's Rin's baby?” Kohaku asked Miroku.

“He's a month old and doing wonderfully, and so is Rin for that matter. She seems a lot happier now, than when she first came here to the village. I think it's been really good for her to have Ukiyomaru to look after. He helps her forget all the trouble she went through with Sesshoumaru,” the monk looked down at a small-sized Kirara who was rubbing at his ankles.

“That's good. I feel really bad for all the things he did to her,” Kohaku replied.

“I don't think it's as simple as we'd like to think. There's a lot of things Rin won't say about him. Even Inuyasha agrees that it's strange that Sesshoumaru hasn't come looking for her yet. He thinks something must've happened to distract him.”

“Hmm…that's true. I bet everything will turn out ok, though. I'm gonna head home.”

“Thanks again, Kohaku!” Miroku called.

“No problem,” Kohaku waved over his shoulder.

Kirara looked up at Miroku and mewed. He looked down and laughed, “I guess you wanna get back to Shippo, huh? You two always did get along since he was little. Well, go ahead. I'll tell Sango you said goodbye.” Kirara purred, then took off towards Shippo's hut. Miroku shook his head, “Too bad Kirara's not more human, I bet she and Shippo would make a great couple.” He shrugged and went to help Sango with their children.


Rin held Ukiyomaru lovingly, as Riki walked up to her. “He's a month old, right?” Riki looked distractedly at the villagers going about their business. Rin was sitting in the shade of a tree.

“Yes. He is,” she smiled at the younger hanyou.

“D'you think…D'you think I could hold him NOW?” Riki whimpered turning to her.

“Riki!” Kagome came up behind them, “Didn't I tell you to stop bugging Rin?”

“Yes, Mom…”

“Don't worry about it, Kagome,” Rin turned to Riki, “You know? I think you might be old enough to hold him now.”

“Really?!” Riki smiled, bouncing excitedly.

“But you have to be still. Can you do that?” Rin whispered.

“Oh! Yeah, I can do that,” Riki quickly lowered his voice and sat slowly beside her. Kagome smiled at her son and sat on Rin's other side.

“Ok, now, hold your arms like this,” Rin instructed, “Now very gently,” she placed the baby hanyou in Riki's arms.

Riki's eyes widened as he looked down at Ukiyomaru. “He's so little!” he commented, “I'm not gonna hurt him, am I?” suddenly he looked nervous.

“No, you're doing fine,” Rin laughed, turning to Kagome to discuss the past month's happenings.

Riki looked down gently at the hanyou, “I guess I'm kinda like your big brother, huh? You're probably gonna look up to me, us both being hanyous and all…well, don't worry! I'll watch out for you! I promise I'll be a good brother,” Riki let the baby grab one of his fingers in his tiny hand.

Inuyasha had just come out of the house; he had heard every word Riki had said to Ukiyomaru. He sighed to himself, “Those two are going to be inseparable. It's strange really. I never really looked up to Sesshoumaru, and he certainly never looked out for me . . . but Riki is already an even better cousin than Sesshoumaru ever was a brother.”

“It's because he was raised with more love than Sesshoumaru was,” Ayame startled him, coming out of the house herself, “And don't forget, you probably were, too. You had a human mother. Do you even know who Sesshoumaru's mother was? Do you know anything about her? He might not have ever gotten to know her.” Inuyasha and Kagome had shared all of their knowledge of Sesshoumaru with everyone. It seemed imperative to helping Rin. They often discussed Sesshoumaru, though always out of Rin's hearing range. She still only referred to him as the lord, but her strength and even a bit of her natural happiness with life had been restored in Ukiyomaru. He gave her hope.

“I never really thought about that. I don't remember Myouga ever saying anything about Sesshoumaru's mom. It's too bad that he passed away last year. He knew so many things; he probably would've been able to help us out,” Inuyasha sighed. He had been as distressed by Myouga's death, as Kagome had been with Kaede's. Finally he turned to Ayame again, “How can you be so sure that Sesshoumaru is looking for Rin? He just never struck me as the loving type.”

“You forget how fast my husband is,” she smiled. She had traveled back to the Elder's a few weeks before, and she and Kouga had been married in front of her tribe. Ginta and Hakkaku, the only two demons left of his tribe, had of course been the best men. Ayame shook her head, her pigtails flowing, “He's been traveling around for news lately, it seems that the entire Southern Lands have been searched by Sesshoumaru.”

“Are you kidding? So why didn't the wolf just go tell Sesshoumaru to get his ass over here?” Inuyasha growled.

“Of course he tried! It's really strange actually. It's nearly impossible to get into the Western Lands, lately. They're completely overrun with demons.”

“Shouldn't we tell Rin?”

“No. I don't think so. It would only worry her, and she seems happy now. I think we're just going to have to wait for Sesshoumaru to come of his own accord,” Ayame decided.

“I already told you. Even if Sesshoumaru does find out she's here; he'd never come to my village looking for her! Did you forget he hates me?! Maybe you should just take her and Ukiyomaru back to the North,” Inuyasha sighed.

“No,” Ayame's thoughts turned instantly to Shen, who had not been seen in the north for a while, though that certainly didn't mean he wasn't just biding his time for Rin to return, “She's much safer here. Trust me.”

“If you say so,” the dog demon shrugged.

“Besides. We couldn't take Riki's new best friend away, could we?”

Inuyasha looked over at his son and beamed. He was so proud of the boy. No indeed, even if Sesshoumaru did come, he wouldn't let him take Ukiyomaru or Rin away. At least, not if Rin wanted to stay. He would protect them with his life. He might even let Kouga help him, if it came to that. He loved his son and his nephew.


Sesshoumaru lay panting behind a rock; he had never been this tired in his life…he had never been worn out at all in his life. This was insanity. No matter how many demons they killed, more came. There were only a few villages that had been completely saved, and he was terrified that they would just be overrun again. Who could possibly want to keep him this busy? What was the plot behind these constant demon attacks? Jakken lay moaning over a rock. His staff was on the ground as he was too tired to hold it up any longer. “I'm sorry, Jakken,” Sesshoumaru sighed, “I never meant to get you into this.”

“What are you saying, my lord?!” Jakken jumped up with newfound energy, “I will stay by your side, no matter what! We will get through this.”

“Thank you, Jakken,” the taiyokai's eyes held kindness. When would all of this madness end? He needed to find Rin; he hadn't seen her in ten months. She could easily have been killed by then. If these stupid demons would just leave, then he would go to Inuyasha's village without a fuss; anything to find his mate. His guilt had greatly increased over the months. There was nothing to distract him from it. If he found her dead…he would have to kill himself. He knew anything that happened to her was entirely his fault. If only he hadn't chased her off. A measly snake demon crashed into their hiding place, and Jakken and Sesshoumaru resumed their defense.


A swarm of lesser demons floated in the air, listening intently to the words being spoken to them, “You must attack! Never stop! If a demon is killed, then send another! The taiyokai must be kept busy in my absence. I will not be here to lead you for a while, so you must listen well. Kill the dog demon if you can. If not, just bring his lands to ruins. I want him crying at my feet! Now, go! I have business with a wolf prince. He must pay for destroying my plans.” As the demons flew away, bright green eyes glowed through the darkness at them along with the glint of white fur. The man who had spoken disappeared into the forest.