Inuyasha:The third sword

Being bathed by the sun and surrounding a well that sits in the middle of the shallow forest, four people plus a small boy half fox can be seen. 

"Let's see if I'm forgetting something, Shippo wants a new bookmark, Inuyasha some bags of potato chips and Miroku nothing in particular."

Speaking loudly and pointing with her eyes one by one, Kagome makes a shopping list out loud. 

"Must be red, Kagome. I already have a black marker, a blue one and also a green one in green."

"Okay, Shippo, I'll also get you a box of crayons... I already know those markers you won't use for painting and drawing."

Clearly amused by how Shippo's tail bristles as she points out the truth of the matter, Kagome squeezes him to her chest in one last hug and tosses him to Inuyasha. 

Inuyasha being who he is, moves out of the way the little Shippo flies and lets him crash to the ground. It is obvious that he has no intention of looking good even in the last moments.

"Now it'll just be three packets of chips, Inuyasha."

"Sorry, it was just an instinct!"

"Have some dignity, Inuyasha." x2

Finishing their joint words, Miroku and Asahiko stare into each other's eyes before appreciating their incredible speechless coordination, leaving everyone unable to say anything at that spectacle. 

"Silence, you two can't talk about dignity. Miroku is a libertine who will kneel before any woman and you, Asahiko, have said what do you make Kikyo angry for the sake of it"

"Cofgh, when did I say that?"

"When we were drinking on Miroku's return."

Perhaps noticing that Inuyasha had enough weapons for mutual destruction, Miroku and Asahiko share a glance before accepting that Inuyasha has already joined the group of great powers. 

Though they all know that this balance is momentary, at any moment Asahiko or Miroku can open fire again and everything would go to hell in a few moments. 

"Well, if you're done playing, I'll be on my way."

"What do you want, kisses and petting?"

Chuckling under his breath, Asahiko teases Kagome one last time and waves "Goodbye" with his hand. 

"Goodbye, Kagome, I hope you pass that test."

"Remember, Kagome, as soon as you're done you come back here."

Holding Shippo by the head who seems to want to run off into Kagome's arms, Inuyasha places him under his arm and makes his position very clear. 

"Remember, Kagome, a sound mind resides in a sound body. Get a good night's rest tonight and the exam will be a breeze, or so Asahiko says."

"Guys... Thank you all!"

Letting out a smile and clenching her fist in clear hope, Kagome looks around at everyone gathered here before finally launching herself into the well. 

"Well, we have a day off without all the girls in the group... So what do we do?"

"Obviously not what you're thinking, Miroku."

"Elder Kaede was very clear with you, Miroku. You can't go around asking the girls in the village if they want to have your child."

"I'm terrified of the implications in her words, Inuyasha, Shippo. It was just a friendly question."

"What did you do to married women with children!"x2

With the background noise of the conversation between Miroku, Inuyasha and Shippo, the four begin to march towards Kaede's village again. 

...Christopher/Asahiko pov….

Flattening the wide fisherman's cap that is made of straw to block out the powerful sun, he lifted the fishing rod firmly and in one swing sent the bait to the center of the river. 

A soft but beautiful splash was created as the bait hit the crystal clear water, while small ripples spread across the river and the bait began to float with the current. 

"The village children bathe in a section further up the river, so this is not the best place to fish."

Tapping his finger on the tip of the straw cap, he easily managed to make it move out of the field of vision and observed the newcomer. 

Who was speaking was Elder Kaede, yes, having heard Inuyasha refer to her like that so much made me catch it too... He is clearly a bad influence. 

"Oh, but yes it is Elder Kaede, what brings you to these parts?"

"Clearly you fall more into the 'Elder' category than I do. You must be between seven and eight hundred years old by the amount of tails you have."

"My body may be that of an old man, but my soul is still that of a child~"

Overlooking that she's been doing research on me, or so it seems to me since I've never let all my tails out in front of her, I answer her rather calmly. 

"Another one like Inuyasha…"

"Wow, wow, stop right there I was just kidding. I'm a grown man myself, though I do have a few screws loose... Just like Kikyo."

Nodding his head a couple of times, he fixed his eyes on the river, but still failed to spot any fish. 

"You know what you're saying bad about my sister?"

"Me, talking 'Bad' about Kikyo? I think you're getting it wrong, that's one of the most interesting things about her. She's like a surprise box, you never know what she's going to do next."

I'm not kidding, Kikyo is like a summer storm. Sometimes it's intense but momentary, sometimes it's mild but continuous... Cof, cof... Damn Inuyasha and his strange tastes. 

"We'd better change the subject, I don't think I'm ready to talk about certain topics of my older sister's 'Relationship'."

"Your loss~"

"You really don't know when to back off, I could tell the discomfort on your face, but you still make yourself look like the winner."

Squeezing the cane extra tightly, he turned his face briefly and looked at her with a questioning look. Kaede didn't think much of it, she simply raises a finger and points towards his face as if to tell me "With age comes wisdom, young man." 

"Have you ever gone towards the center of Japan, Asahiko?"

"Edo, Tokyo and... Well, I don't remember another city anymore. But what's so important about that, so important that you'd mention it?"

"Do you know that even though Confucianism is widespread, the main Faith of the elites is Shintoism? Now Shintoism must be more widespread, since what I said was during my childhood, when I was traveling with my sister."

Ehh, I know Japan has the Shinto Faith, but I was already in... Well, that thought was idiotic. Basically priestesses are Shinto, torii gates too and my Onmyōji joke worked. 

I guess at this point in history Shintoism and Confucianism must coexist, while later on Shintoism will become a state religion. 

"I really didn't know that, but now is not the time to go to the important stuff~"

"There is an interesting difference between Confucianism and Shintoism, the former relegates foxes to malevolent beings and seducers of men or women... Something is not so wrong!"

By all the gods, that mold clearly belongs to Miroku! I'm obviously a pure and benevolent child. 

"Shintoism, on the other hand, has a certain very popular goddess named Inari. The interesting thing about this goddess is that her earthly messengers are foxes, they are even worshipped in certain areas as protectors and guardians."

"Interesting, and here I was already accepting that I was a demonic fox or something... Um, um, I knew my beauty couldn't be evil in nature or something."

Inflating my huge supernatural ego, I nod as if the truth of the world will be displayed in front of my eyes, and in passing I give Kaede a glance.

She wasn't looking at me, but kept her eyes on the pearl fragments I have embedded in my forehead. They are quite striking and beautiful, their pure pink hue is really striking, but not as much as the moon that Sesshōmaru has... Now that's style. 

"So you're a guard fox?"

"I really have no idea, don't look at me like that, I'm really serious. To be more accurate, I'm only introducing myself as a demon because Saya said I was, and why it sounded cool."

"How can it be that you don't know what you are, did you lose your memories or something?"

"Something like that, but not as troublesome... Oh, something's bitten!"

Closing this topic, as I need more information to know well what's going on, I notice how the reed is forced by something.

Obviously that was no difficulty for the big me, so with a little force, he easily pulled the fish out of the water. 

"Clothes?"

"It must have slipped off someone who was washing, or it could also belong to one of the children playing further up the river."

Too much luck there has been, I guess I'll just have to listen to Kaede or not eat fish. Letting out a sigh, I lifted my body and pick up the basket for the fish, then spoke to Kaede. 

"I'm going higher up, will you come with me?"

"I don't think I have anything better to do right now, so this old lady will keep you company."

Oh, Kaede, oh, Kaede... Never trust a demon, those malevolent creatures will always want something. Hahaha, now it's time to pull childhood memories out of Kikyo, all to have something to beat her with.