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It had been more than a year since the end of the Shikon Jewel. Or the War of Four Souls, as Miroku liked to tell it. But the story wasn’t over yet.
Miroku and Sango were married, twins already and both Inuyasha and Sango knew another was on the way, though no one was saying anything. Shippou trained to become a stronger demon every day, but he came back to the village more often than not. When Miroku wasn’t being a doting father, he helped Kaede tend the shrine or performed exorcisms.
Life in the village had mostly returned to normal – or as normal as one could be while being home to the strongest half-demon to have ever walked the earth.
Or, at least, so Miroku’s stories and the legends went. And Inuyasha certainly wasn’t complaining.
But the story wasn’t finished yet. Kagome had gone back to her own time, and even though they all knew, or at least told themselves, that she would come home… no one really knew if it was true. And until she did, Miroku said, the story would continue.
“Why?” demanded Shippou. “Everything worked out. We all got our happy ending.”
“Mmm… I wonder about that,” he said, eyeing Inuyasha, who just scoffed and turned away.
What no one said was that the true story behind it all was that war within everyone’s self. That desire to be content, and accepted, for whoever and whatever you were. And until Inuyasha was truly satisfied, in Miroku’s eyes at least, the story wasn’t done.
Besides, it wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of filler to be had. The legends went far and wide, and people journeyed from the other end of the country to find the warriors who defeated Naraku. Inuyasha, Miroku, and whoever had time to go with them would travel everywhere, defeating demon pests, keeping the village well-funded and Inuyasha busy.
When he wasn’t travelling, Inuyasha spent his time lounging in his favoured tree, or hovering around the well. Waiting. On good days, the villagers called it romantic. On bad days, it was just pathetic, and Inuyasha knew it.
Which was why people always approached cautiously, when they had to talk to him. He had mellowed out a lot, especially after he realised the villagers weren’t going to come after him with torches and pitchforks without Kagome around to ‘control’ him, but if he was angry with himself, there was no telling how he’d respond.
In the same way though, Shippou liked to think he’d grown up a lot, especially concerning Inuyasha and teasing him, but in reality… “Hey, Inuyasha!” he shouted as he breasted the hill. He couldn’t see Inuyasha yet, but those dog ears probably heard him enter the village. “Are you sulking today?”
“You little brat!” The fist came out of nowhere, and Shippou clutched his bruised head, staring up at him with watery eyes.
Then he got over it, because no one was around to defend him anyway. He looked up at Inuyasha with a smile, and the hanyou peered down at him with that half-hidden smirk Shippou had gotten a lot better at noticing these days.
“Heh. You’re never gonna get rid of that tail, are you, you human-wannabe,” he said, and Shippou scowled, kicking him with a very human-looking foot.
“Shut up! At least I will one day – you’re stuck with those stupid ears for life!”
“Oh-hoh, making fun of my ears!” he said, and lightly cuffed him up the side of the head, his claws just raking Shippou’s own pointed tips. “When’re you gonna learn how to get rid of these, huh?”
“Hmph!” He spun away with his arms folded. “I don’t know why I come up here.”
“Like I’m supposed to know?” Inuyasha turned away himself and began walking back toward his tree, not waiting to see if Shippou followed him.
Truth be told, Shippou knew exactly why he came up here. It was the same reason the fact Inuyasha had noticed the change in Shippou’s human guise was making him swell with hidden pride. The same reason he was hurrying behind him now, watching the tall, straight back with an expectant eye.
“Ah, so?” Inuyasha demanded, spinning around and dropping to the ground with folded legs in one movement, at the bottom of his tree. “What else did you learn? You better not have been slacking off up in those mountains.”
“Of course I haven’t!” he cried, and pulled out a leaf. “My transformation’s gotten heaps better! See –!”
For almost an hour, he showed off, with one fox trick after another, until he collapsed, panting, against Inuyasha’s side. But he didn’t have to look up to know Inuyasha was looking down at him with another hidden smirk.
“Looks like you’ve been training real hard, Shippou.”
Yeah. He knew exactly why he came up here all the time.
After a while, though, he looked over in the direction the other reason he came up here lay. “Anyway, Inuyasha… about the well,” he murmured, and Inuyasha sighed, thwacking him on the head again.
“Don’t be stupid,” he said wearily. “If she came back, do you think I’d be out here?”
“I know, but I was just wondering –”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Inuyasha…” He trailed off, lowering his eyes to his hands, then looked up at Inuyasha from under his hair. The yellow eyes were fixed somewhere in the distance, the uncaring facade he was so good at firmly in place. It wouldn’t come down. It hadn’t for over a year now. They knew it wouldn’t, either.
Not until the story was done.