Edit: Sorry. Forgot the Disclaimer. I claim nothing of this. If anyone wants to make it into a real story, I don't have the time, so feel free. Have at it.
“I remember she was always defiant. She didn’t have any respect. Rather, that’s what I had thought at the time. To me, having no respect was as bad as having no honor. She challenged things that shouldn’t have been challenged, but I see it now as just a different way of thought. She brought so many changes to the land, but she won’t be remembered for them because of her wish, her selfless, wonderful, terrible, wish.”
The little boy looked up at his father, wide eyed, waiting for more of the story, but his father simply tucked him in, kissed his forehead and promised he would get more of the story later.
********
“The first time I saw her, she was in a place she had no right to be. I wanted to kill her just for disrespecting the dead, but something in her eyes, the determination there made me pause. The loyalty she showed for the boy…. And he was just a boy in demon years… Well, that pause cost me my arm, and very nearly my life.”
“But…” The little boy interrupted.
“Ah, I will explain that later. For now, listen to the story, or we will call it a night.” The little boy nodded quickly, paying rapt attention. “I confronted the boy several times. Convinced him I wanted him dead, and a part of me did. My father had named him my Beta. And in an Inu clan only the Alpha and the Beta are able to produce offspring. So I either had to forcibly separate him from his life, or force the demon half of him to mature. The Inu clan was thinning. There were mostly females left to guard my lands. I couldn’t have that, and I didn’t have the time or patience to pup them. I needed a Beta and could not name another until the boy was dead. As a hanyou, he could mature physically faster given the strength to do so, so I made certain he gained that strength. Pushing him like that, though…. He never matured emotionally.” The father shook his head sadly. “She was there with him, though, through everything, even when the physical stress of his maturing body drove him to lash out at her and sometimes caused him to lose control to his demon blood. I could not admit to them that it was my doing. I just kept pushing.”
“Why?” The boy asked, forgetting his father’s warning. With a tap on the nose as a reminder, his father tucked him in, kissed his forehead, and wished him goodnight.
********
“As time went by, the boy’s old crush was partially revived from the dead. And I do say crush, for the boy was too young to truly love her, and in part of every relationship he sought out, he was seeking a mother figure, someone to take care of him. His physical drives, however, were increasing with the strength of his demon blood. He was too embarrassed to admit it and would cause fights instead of admit his attraction. Somehow, the Miko accepted this. She eventually even began to understand it. She eventually gave herself to him to calm his blood, even though she no longer had the crush she had had when she was younger. I didn’t understand her selflessness at the time. Angry with her for not sending him off so he would run into the demoness I had demanded follow the group, I forced myself upon her. She stared at me defiantly the whole time.” The little boy blanched. He might be 200 years old, but he was still just a child in demon years, a small one at that. “She bore a litter of 3 from the union. Imagine my surprise to find that, though hanyou and born from a miko, they were all strong and healthy. I should have taken them and brought them to the Inu clan. Something kept me from it. It was then that I understood. I had grown to respect the woman. That was why, on the day that Naraku showed himself, I assisted in his death.” He paused, looking at his son, his heir, and decided it was time for him to rest.
********
“Once she stopped the boy from wildly attacking me, she asked a simple question I couldn’t bring myself to answer. I had shamed myself and my clan with what I had done to her. I did not know at the time she wasn’t asking why I had hurt her, but why I had helped. She accepted my lack of answer and collected the jewel shards, purifying them before my eyes. And then I heard it, the selfless wish that tore the ground from beneath my feet and shook my very soul. And yes, it was at that moment that I realized I had a soul, an intense, vibrant, feeling soul. Not because I felt it, I wish it were that simple, but because it was ripped from me and bathed in a bright, cleansing light before plunging back into my chest, healing me inside and out.”
“What was the wish?” The boy in the futon asked curiously.
“She wished for the Kamis to forgive the worthy their transgressions and allow her to stand in their place. Oh, and the gods did take her. They took her directly from the world, body soul and all. We may never know what became of her, but to this day I feel as if she’s taking care of us somehow.”
“Otousan, what was my mother’s name?” The little boy asked gravely.
“Kagome.”