Disclaimer: The characters appearing in this work of fiction belong to and were created by the great Mangaka Rumiko Takahashi-sama.  No copyright infringement was intended by this work.

I never knew my father; truth be told, I barely remember my mother.  Oh, I remember how she looks, smells, sounds and feels like well enough. I know that she loved me enough to take care of me despite me being a hanyou… but other than that, I barely knew her; nor can I remember anything else other than her crying most of the time.

Oyaji must have loved her, though. Enough to use one of his own fangs to forge Tetsusaiga.  So why the hell didn't he stick around till I grew up?  Was he so sick of how weak I was that he huffed and left, taking time out to kill himself in grief over having such a pathetic child?  I don't know, really. I'm not even sure I want to know.  Oyaji was Oyaji, the Dai-youkai who terrorized the humans yet fell in love with one.

I used to hate that about him, thinking it to be his greatest weakness, believing that he shouldn't have acted that way.  Yet in the end, I understood, when I fell for Kikyou.

I wanted to be better than my father, to be the perfect Dai-youkai: the scourge of humanity, the bane of every spiritualist, bouzo or miko there ever was.  I want people to cringe upon hearing my name and quake in fear each time they crossed my domain, just so I could be more like Oyaji.  But meeting Kikyou changed all that; her quiet words changed my world view, my beliefs and my dreams.  I actually looked forward to being a human, living, loving, growing old and having children with Kikyou by my side.  I thought that life wasn't so bad.  But then she died and I got sealed forever and locked with me were the dreams given light by the woman I loved.

I got unsealed by Kagome, Kikyou's reincarnation, and the old dreams came unfettered as well.  I thought that being a Dai-youkai — or even just an ordinary youkai — would protect me from falling for someone like Kikyou again.  Yet Kagome still reached within me and slowly freed the dreams that got entombed with Kikyou.  She used my miko's old beaten paths to the inner depths of my soul, the place only Kikyou could reach.  I find myself dreaming the new dreams yet again as well as understanding Oyaji, little by little.

-Fin-

Author's notes:  My dad's still alive but I could never understand him. I had an enormous argument with him over something very petty and it wounded me greatly, so I found myself writing this piece as a suture.

Anyway, C&C most appreciated.

Jiro

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007