Chapter 1: Take and Give

It was another peaceful day at the sea. The rowdy, rag tag band of fishermen were at the open sea, reinforcing their fish stocks for the current booming market. They needed to get new supplies once every week, or else they wouldn’t be able to quench the increasing fish demands.

Being seamen, the fishermen were usually rough in their behaviors and mannerisms and their usual qualities never left them. The band of five was bantering with an old fellow who had just dozed off after a heavy dosage of sake. Startled after awakening, the old man soon regained his composure and mouthed off weak reprimands at the youths but soon he’d have to resort to strong abuses to make them stop.

The youngsters couldn’t be blamed though, for the old man himself was at fault for his drunken state. But this was nothing serious. Fishermen were used to all the banters from their colleagues, and being the old and most experienced one among the fishermen, the old man gave up and used silence to counter all the comments that ensued.

But the master of the boat wasn’t going to remain silent like the grey-haired, wrinkled-face, shrunken and thin old man.

“Silence,” his voice thundered, and rendered the otherwise noisy boat completely silent.

The banters had ceased and the fishermen resigned themselves to their usual work of spreading the net and watching the under-water movements.

The boss, as referred to by the younger fishermen of his group, began to discuss various matters with the oldest and wisest person on the boat. Their chat was progressing fine, from the amount of fish they had left in their storage vaults, the rising and falling of price of fishes in the market to the trading of fishes with the inner provinces, until panicked cries from two fishermen out of three, brought their discussion to a halt.

“Boss, Ginta – he...he was pulled in!”

The boat’s master was stunned just as the others already were. But being the leader he had to think of something. It was very much obvious that some strong sea monster had pulled him into the blue depths, and knowing that, there was no way for the fishermen to rescue their friend. The only path reasonably open for them was to retreat from there. Basic sense screamed they needed to flee and not await the similar fate of their late friend.

Their fates were sealed by the sudden appearance of storm clouds in the eastern skies. In the middle of the sea, fear of a sea monster below the surf and fear of storm above it had completely engulfed them. The only thing they knew was to reach land, but land was nowhere in sight.

They tried as hard as they could to pull the rig away to as far as possible. Rain had set in and the dark storm clouds had shrouded the skies with a pall of darkness and occasional lightning being the only source of light, the fishermen could hardly figure out which direction they were headed.

The poor vision and the turmoil of the brine below were already filling fear within the hearts of the helpless fishermen and only thing that awaited them was their death. They still tried.

But an enormous wave soon crashed against the frail boat and sunk it; it should go without saying that the fishermen were entirely wiped out of existence except for their boat’s debris.

The storm abated some roughly 3 hours later and after another couple the sea calmed down. When the shroud of black was lifted off by the white sun, one could see small red patches in the otherwise wide greenish-blue ocean.

It could be blood of the fishermen or that of the “sea monster.” When the sea-gulls flocked and prepared to take a plunge, some tentacles shot out from below and waved them aside, leaving a few headless, and a few wingless in the process.

The scavengers dropped their greed and left.

Soon after a group of six human-like figures shot out from the waves and rocketed off towards the shore.

******

The village was entirely peaceful and calm, save for the occasional cries of a woman from one of the huts and the ever present, from the last 3 days, sound of rain hitting the soft land, bushes, tree-leaves, canal water and house-tops.

No one was outside. The routine six hours had begun. It would rain, storm would blow, clouds would flow overhead and darkness would spread all around for the aforementioned time.

There was light coming off the hut from which a woman’s shrill cries could be heard.

She was lying on her futon, her hair untied and spread over the floor, on her were multiple layers of kimonos possibly acting as blankets and at her sides were two other women. One was an elderly priestess and another, a brunette of the wailing woman’s age.

“It’ll soon be over, Kagome,” the brunette said reassuringly and turned away to get the tub of warm water as the elderly priestess had told her to.

“Aye, Kagome, ye will soon see babies lying beside ye,” the grey-haired woman said as she began the procedures of child birth.

******

“Is anybody there...? Anybody – ugh...? Ugh – please let me in! I don’t want to die ou--”

A man whose face and appearance couldn’t be deciphered in the rain just about entered through the newly built village gates and collapsed; probably from fatigue.

He lay there for one more hour and finally when the clouds abated and sun shone in the afternoon sky, villagers, who came out to check their crops, saw him.

“Oi, Rikichi, come here! Here’s an injured man! Get Lady Kaede.” One of the villagers shouted without even looking whether ‘Rikichi’ was present or not.

Rikichi was just exiting his hut when he heard his name and the order that was given to him and after noticing the gathered crowd at the village gates, he sped off towards the general direction of the shrine.

******

“What’s the matter? Why’s everyone shouting so much?” Sango had come out of the hut, from which the woman’s cries no longer could be heard, instead cries of two children could be heard, and heard the coarse voices of the village folk.

“There’s an injured man at the gates. We need lady Kaede to tend to his wounds.” He said in one breath and after catching breath he asked, “How’s lady Kagome?”

“Kagome should be fine now; but Kaede-sama needs to stay with her for some time.” Her eyes widened and after looking at a hut on the opposite side of the canal that flows through the village, she added, “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Rikichi agreed in silence and let Sango walk off towards her own hut on the other side of the canal.

It seemed normal on the outside. But who could tell what was happening inside? Of course, with those three bandit-like children, no one could tell what they were up to. And who was watching over them! Rin, of all people, Rin was watching over them. A certain Jaken would have loved to see his master’s ward looking after children. Too bad neither he nor his master was around to see how she fared at that task.

Sango was proud of her; her children hadn’t moved an inch since she left. Rin had fed them in time and kept them quiet all the time. She had been singing songs to keep them contented.

The 9 year old twin daughters of Sango, Emiko and Keiko, were the naughtiest of all the children in the village. Their younger brother, Akio, 6, was at the same level as they were.

The villagers would complain of broken branches, missing fishes, missing fruits and vanished heaps of hay almost every day. Miroku would have to pay for the damages his kids had caused. He didn’t quite get the courage to scold them though; after all, a man must pay for his Karma.

Once he’d try to scold them, Sango would just roll her eyes and walk off with her kids. Miroku was helpless in front of his beloved Taijiya. But inwardly he would smile. At the age his kids were, he didn’t know what his mother looked like, never had any show of affection from his father. His father lasted only some more years before leaving him in Mushin’s care. The monk and his monastery didn’t have kids and lacked any way of amusement.

He had spent his childhood confined in an old temple, among religious scriptures, waiting for death, fearing, cowering, then finally learning how to squeeze joy out of every moment of life and eventually living. His beloved slayer knew the latter half of his life, for she was very much a part of it; and even at present was.

No, he wouldn’t let his kids have a childhood like him; he’d let them live like kids and enjoy their childhood. He would also let his beloved wife decide what she wanted her kids to be. She wanted nothing more than what he wanted.

The kids would grow up and be like their parents. Their good qualities would be instilled in them. That was a certainty. Both Miroku and Sango believed that.

Sango entered her hut and was immediately greeted by three small figures who wanted only a kiss and her soft touch. She didn't deprive them.

“Thank you, Rin,” Sango smiled at the young girl draped in blue kimono with patterns of rings and new moons all over.

“No problem, Sango-sama.” Rin smiled back at her.

“Uhh, could you please stay over for a few more moments?” She asked, almost apologetically. “Umm, there’s an injured man out there and Kaede-sama and Kagome – by the way, Kagome gave birth to twins!” she announced to Rin in particular and her children in general.

The four jumped with joy, the older girl a bit restrained though.

“Hold your excitement kids.” She fought back her giggle with a herculean amount of effort. “It’s still drizzling. And I won’t let you go out now!”

Kagome’s kids were cute and even had dog-ears like their father. She just couldn’t help imagine her daughters tug at those just like they did to Inuyasha’s.

******

The drizzling had completely stopped and all the villagers were out of their houses.

Sango brought back the injured traveler to her hut and tended to his wounds. Some of the village girls helped her with it. Rin and her kids were at Kagome’s looking after Kagome as well her kids. Not just looking after them, they were doing what Sango had imagined they would. Kagome didn’t mind though. Sango’s three kids were really gentle with their brothers.

Sango left the village girls to look after the injured man and went over to Kagome’s hut.

She was hardly in when there was another commotion outside.

Sango hurried out to see what had happened. She saw Miroku and Inuyasha with Shippou in tow, walking towards her. They had been out on an exorcism all morning.

“Oi, what’s all this fuss about?” Inuyasha asked Sango with an annoyed look on his face.

“Don’t your dog ears pick anything, Inuyasha?” she teased. “Or is it too tough to swallow?”

Miroku couldn’t help but smile. He had already noticed the bulge of Kagome’s abdomen and knew that new born babies would soon be heard crying.

“And what’re you smiling for?” he turned towards Miroku and clenched his fists.

“Why don’t you just go in and see for yourself, Inuyasha?” Sango tugged at his sleeves. “Come now, it’s about time you saw your own kids!”

Inuyasha was getting the scent of his kids but he just couldn’t believe it. He was dumbfounded when Sango broke that news to him.

Just when Sango was about to settle down inside, one of the village girls looking after the injured man came.

“Sango-sama, that man is awake now,” she said.

“Oh, thank you for looking after him.” She turned to Miroku who was cuddling the babies.

He looked back at her and gently laying the babies beside their mother, he followed Sango out of the hut.

On their way to their hut, Sango told Miroku about the injured man who had collapsed at the village gates where the villagers found him.

Upon reaching they saw the man sitting upright, looking out of the window. Hearing the footsteps of Miroku and Sango he turned back.

His cheeks showed dried tear marks.

“Hope they don’t take yours away...” he trailed off.

Miroku and Sango looked at him questioningly. Who would take away what? That was the only question on their minds for the moment.

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A/N: Emiko means Blessed, Beautiful Child. Keiko means Blessing. Akio means Bright boy. I have changed the names of the children! XD In the next chapter I'll give the same Author's Note.