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Jaken never liked children.
Jaken never liked rain.
And one thing Jaken was certain of, was that he did not like being confined in close quarters with two children on a rainy day. Even if said children were the treasured daughters of his lord and master and his human wife. Their boredom was palpable, their energy was unspent, their curiosity restrained to the four walls of the main room of their modest house, gathered around the sunken fire pit, a pot of tea brewing slowly in the sand edging the flames.
Through the day, he had brought out all the toys they owned, and together, they played card games, read riddles, had a contest of rock paper scissors, and currently, the two hanyou girls across from him were half-heartedly playing with a kendama each . The soft tok-tok-tok of the two different balls falling in two separate cups, decidedly not in unison, along with the noisy pitter-patter of the rain falling on the tiled roof, ensured that Jaken’s nerves and patience would be slowly eaten away at. Until at last, the small green youkai decided that kendama were not toys suitable for the rainy season.
Lounging deflated on the floor, the girls stared at the ceiling in silence, until suddenly, Towa sat up, eyes full of wonder and ignited curiosity, clenched fists shaking in front of her chest from sheer enthusiasm, “Jaken-sama! I forgot to tell you! Last night when Setsuna and I went to pee, we walked through the corridor and we passed by the sliding doors next to the garden, and the sliding doors were wide open, and we saw the biggest dog ever, right there at the edge of the forest!”
At this, Setsuna gasped and abruptly stood as well, piping up, “Yes! And Mother was there, speaking to it, and the dog leaned down his head to let her pet him!”
“Mother never told us she has a dog!” Towa lamented with a pout.
If Jaken’s eyes would bulge any more out of his head, they would promptly fall off, so Jaken’s eyes did not bulge, but simply widened, staring dumbly at the suddenly animated children. Once he comprehended the situation, he composed himself, his shrill voice loud as he pointed one of his three fingers at the twins, “That is not a dog, you fools! That is your honoured father!”
The girls laughed then, laughed so heartily that they held their stomach and they bent over.
Towa was the first to recover, wiping away at a tear in the corner of her eyes as she spoke, “Don’t be silly, Jaken-sama! It was not Father, it was a dog .”
“Yes!” Setsuna cooed, “A really big dog with a fluffy tail.”
“And teeth as big as our house!” Towa helpfully supplied, and she grinned as she made a wide dramatic gesture with her arms, just in case Jaken did not understand how big she was talking about.
“His teeth are not that big,” the demon objected. As the girls continued to giggle, he crossed his arms in annoyance, sighing heavily, and spoke slowly, “Listen, that big dog is your father. Did you see the facial markings? The moon, and the stripes?” and when the girls nodded emphatically, Jaken smiled and stood, puffing up his chest, although he looked almost exactly the same as he did sitting down and hunched over. With a higher pitch and unnecessarily louder tone, he continued, “Sesshomaru-sama is a dog youkai, one of a few, and certainly the strongest. Like many daiyoukai of old, he is an animal-based spirit that became a youkai many aeons ago, before history was written and before human emperors wore their crowns, before human settlements—”
“Is this another boring story?” Setsuna interrupted, her shoulders shrinking.
“ I don’t like boring stories,” Towa decided, and stood, holding a hand out to her sister, “Let's go Setsuna, let’s find more games!”
“No, wait! Listen to me!” Jaken protested, waving his hands around dramatically, “Your father is a dog! The form you see every day, that tall man with long silver hair, that is just a beautiful illusion!” and at this, he pointed at the girls once more, “Your father’s true form is just one big scary dog!” he cried out, realising now that he was almost breathless from his tirade.
The girls sat back down and were quiet for some moments, and their heads synchronously tipping sideways in thought.
Towa was first to breach the silence. “But, why?”
“Why does father need an illusion?” Setsuna asked.
“It’s just who he is,” he responded, sitting down as well, seeing an opportunity to impart some of his vast reserves of knowledge about the world, “ It is how all daiyoukai are. The strongest youkai in the land have a real form — large and powerful, showing their raw strength — and a humanoid form — easier to travel in and mingle with the common folk. Daiyoukai transform between the two when needed.”
A prolonged silence ensued then, with the girls staring at him unwaveringly.
This time, Setsuna was the first to speak, asking cautiously, “Jaken-sama, are you a daiyoukai?”
“A strong youkai, like Father?” Towa quipped.
“O-of course!” Jaken responded, his eyes closing and his nose turning up towards the ceiling, “I am so strong and wise that I will one day be the chief minister of your father’s future empire. I have served him for over a century, I have fought valiantly by his side in countless battles, and my strength has been instrumental in the defeat of the hanyou Naraku in that final battle where—”
“Nevermind that, Jaken-sama,” Towa interjected, “what is your true form?”
“What true form?!” Jaken was flabbergasted.
Setsuna piped up immediately, “That is easy, Towa-nee-chan! Jaken-sama is a toad demon!”
“Ah really?!” Towa’s eyes were almost sparkling with excitement, “Jaken-sama, can we see you transform into a giant toad?”
“Please!” they cried in uniform, their fingers interlacing as if in a prayer.
“Don’t be ridiculous!”Jaken spat, “I am an imp! Not a toad youkai!”
“Huh? Then why do you look like a toad, if you’re not a toad youkai?” Towa wondered out loud.
“You impertinent children! I do not—”
At that moment, Jaken’s surroundings blurred, and his mind transported him to another time, another place, over a decade prior. He was sitting in the shade of a tree by a pond. It was a hot summer day, and he felt miserable, abandoned once again by his master, relegated to being a babysitter for a strange human girl that his lord allowed to accompany them on their travels. He was trying to nap, when he heard it, a happy and naive voice asking him a question that would plague him forever,
“Jaken-sama, has anyone told you that you look like a toad?”
Back in the present, the imp’s gaze softened as he beheld the children in front of him, truly looking at them. They both looked so much like their mother, and deep down, Jaken was grateful that they did not just inherit her looks, but also her kindness, her bright disposition, her optimism. All the things that endeared that little human girl to him as if she were his own child. So even if the little rascals were sometimes restless and noisy and barefoot like their mother, he was at least thankful that they did not take after their father in temperament.
With his tiny imp heart warmed, and his voice soft and quiet, he spoke again, a small smile on his beak, “You two are really your mother’s daughters. She asked me the same thing when she was just a bit older than you.”
Confused, the girls just sat and watched him in silence as the rain outside their home mellowed out. After a while, Towa leaned in close, her voice curious once again, “Jaken-sama.”
“Hmm?”
“Did you know Mother as a child?”
At this, Jaken’s eyes brightened up, sensing another opportunity. “Ooooh, well that is a wonderful story, the story of the legendary Tenseiga and how Sesshomaru-sama learned to master it—”
Synchronously, the two girls sighed deeply, falling backwards in unison.
They did not like rainy days either.