Catharsis

[Catwho]

This is probably my current most famous fic in the fandom, now that Under the Dog Star is more or less AU and nobody ever reads it any more (*sob*.) It has not had as much of a lasting impact on the current fandom as UtDS did (hardly anyone realizes that UtDS had the first use of "Inutaisho" as the name for Inuyasha's daddy -- some newbies think it's canon!), but Catharsis is being cited all over the place as a fairly likely ending for the series, which makes me pleased.

This is my vision of the ending of Inuyasha. Although most of the ideas were pulled from various MLs, this was the first full integration of these ideas that I know about.

Spoilers abound. Proceed with caution unless you're a manga reader.

Rating is about PG-13, for violence and cussing. Originally written back in 2002 sometime.

* * *

Disclaimer: They're not mine. In the event that Takahashi-sensei even knows I exist and orders me to cease and desist, I will be flattered beyond belief and immediately take this down. Since that is unlikely, let it be known that I make no profit off my fanfiction works with her characters. If I did, I wouldn't be so poor.

* * *
Catharsis: A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.
* * *

"And now, all that is left is this."

Kagome cradled the completed Shikon no Tama in her hands, and looked imploringly at the rest of the group who had gathered to see its disposal. Miroku and Sango, their arms around each other in relief and mutual joy, offered her no clue. Next to them, Kohaku, who had been revived by Sesshoumaru's Tenseiga, watched with eyes far too old for his body. Shippou sat on Kirara's back, curious as to what her next step would be, but again without guidance. Even Kouga, and Sesshoumaru with Rin and Jaken were there.

They had returned to Kaede's village, and the entire community had turned out for their triumphant finale.

All the allies. All her dearest, dearest friends. And a certain hanyou who had come to mean more to her than her own life. He was looking at her as intently as the rest of them, an unreadable expression upon his face.

She closed her hands and brought them up to her heart. This would really be the end. They had defeated Naraku. Kikyou had died perhaps for the final time, but Inuyasha had avenged her. That left only the whole, purified Shikon no Tama left as the final reminder of their adventure.

"I can't keep such a thing, when all it's caused is trouble," she began, and squeezed the jewel, feeling the briefest pulse of life. "Inuyasha has rejected my offer to let him have it as well."

Everyone looked in astonishment at Inuyasha. He pretended not to notice, and developed a sudden fascination in the dirt around his feet.

"Since keeping it for myself is a burden that I don't want to deal with, and there is no one safe to give it to anymore, I want to destroy it once and for all."

That announcement caused murmurs among the villagers, and Kagome knew what was coming. Kaede spoke for them all.

"Kagome, my sister too wished to destroy it, but it was reincarnated into you instead. How do you know that you will not have it reincarnated once more?"

She squeezed the jewel once last time, and then held it out for everyone to see.

"Kikyou did not know, as I do, where it originally came from. Rather than force it to be passed along through the centuries, I want to return it to its creator."

Sango blinked, and Miroku pulled her closer. Kagome only noticed them out of the corner of her eye.

Instead, she concentrated all her energy on the jewel, and wished with all her heart.

"Midoriko, you fought for all the humans in this world. I want to free your soul from this pain of balancing out the chaos and order within the jewel. Please, Midoriko, come out, and be free."

Suddenly the Shikon no Tama flared in a brilliant flash, and a streak of lightning flew up to the sky from the ball. Inuyasha was instantly at her side, Tessaiga poised and ready to protect her from whatever dangers lay ahead.

The flare finally subsided, and coalesced into a being of pure light. Kagome drew in a breath when she saw the face that the woman warrior bore.

"She's . . . me."

Midoriko, the priestess, looked radiant and surprisingly whole, even though the Shikon no Tama had burst from her chest during its creation. She did indeed bear a striking resemblance to Kagome, even more so than Kikyou did. But whereas Kagome's face was often annoyed, and Kikyou's had always been sad, Midoriko wore a look of determination that showed her true calling as a warrior.

She looked at her glowing body, and then at Kagome, who was still holding out the jewel.

"Who has called me forth from my slumber?" Midoriko asked in a gentle voice that belied her strong face. Her eyes glittered dangerously as she glance over the crowd.

Kagome stood her ground firmly, and answered in a voice that only wavered slightly. "I, Kagome, guardian of the Shikon no Tama, did."

Midoriko looked at her curiously, and stepped forward to touch the jewel. It glowed briefly in reaction.

"My soul . . . my soul that was trapped."

Kagome nodded, and Midoriko then touched her hand. It too glowed softly at the contact. Midoriko looked startled, and stared at Kagome, finally reaching out to take the jewel in her hand.

"I cannot purify the demons inside," Midoriko said, without emotion. The spirit of the ancient miko seemed completely calm, as if she were merely having a conversation about unchanging weather.

"Because you're no longer alive?" Kagome asked. "I too am a miko, and I am alive. I can purify the Shikon no Tama itself . . ." she faltered.

"You were able to do so with my aid. Perhaps with our strength together, it can be done . . . but it will not be an easy battle. Are you prepared to fight until the death? The demons inside are stronger than any youkai horde ever before known to man."

Kagome nodded, and raised her bow, readying an arrow. "Inuyasha can also help," she said with a nod to the hanyou next to her. Midoriko noticed him, as if for the first time.

"Hiroshi," she whispered, staring for a long moment at Inuyasha. For the first time a ghost of sadness drifted across her expression. She finally looked down at the Shikon no Tama in her hand, which glittered innocently under its own power.

"So now I see what this thing has done . . . as the war waged on inside this jewel, so it also waged on with our very souls." A single luminous tear slid down Midoriko's cheek. "It is time that we all finally went to our permanent rest. Are you ready, miko?"

Kagome nodded, and then felt a rush of wind behind her. Everyone gasped when the ghost of Kikyou appeared.

"Kik-kyou!" Inuyasha cried, and Kagome and Midoriko turned around.

"You died! I know I saw you fall. We *buried* your remains!" Kagome said in shock, as Inuyasha ran to embrace his old love. But his arms closed around the air. She was only an outline, much dimmer than Midoriko, but still a ghost of light.

"I did." Kikyou's face was also calm and emotionless, much like Midoriko's.

"So a third has joined us. One soul, from three times . . . that means we shall have three times the power." Midoriko raised the Shikon no Tama high into the air.

"I want this battle to be over, one and for all!"

The Shikon no Tama shattered for the second time in its life. This time, however, the shards dissolved into a horde of youkai so powerful that all the humans immediately dropped to their knees from the strength of the demon auras. Only the three miko, two of whom were ghosts, and Inuyasha managed to stay upright. Sesshoumaru had dropped down to protect Rin, and watched the fight with interest.

Kagome shot arrow after arrow of purifying light into the swirl, without making a dent. Kikyou also fired arrows that were much weaker, while Midoriko slashed violently with a ghostly sword. For all their efforts, they couldn't break through the never-ending cloud of demons.

"Just as I feared, we cannot defeat them!" Midoriko called frantically. "We'll have to seal them all again!"

The horde of swarming youkai loomed closer. Miroku set up a shield to protect himself and Sango, but by now many of the villagers had passed out. The demons dropped closer, ready to feed and regain strength.

"I won't give up!" Kagome cried. She shot another arrow at a demon that had landed next to a village girl. "Inuyasha, help us!"

It was only when Inuyasha joined the fracas that the battle seemed to go anywhere.

"Kaze no Ki!" the hanyou bellowed, sending a wave of power through the myriad edges of youkai in the battlefield. A few of them dropped, but thousands more remained.

"It's not working!" Midoriko shouted, slashing away violently. Kagome ran out of arrows quickly, although Kikyou seemed to have an infinite supply of her own ghostly arrows.

"Stand back Kagome!" Inuyasha aimed for the densest part of the youkai swirl, and unleashed the final move of Tessaiga. "Bakuryuha!"

Caught in the enormous power of their own demon auras, the combined mass of youkai sizzled and fried in the air. That they were all still joined by the Shikon no Tama was their undoing. The Bakuharyu ripped through them in a single streak, until there was nothing left but wisps and ash floating in the air. The attack that could kill a hundred youkai with a single swing had finally manifested itself in its final form.

Midoriko actually continued slashing for a moment, until she realized that there was nothing left to fight. Kikyou calmly slung her bow over her shoulder, while Kagome dropped to her knees, gasping for air. Inuyasha ran over to help her.

"I'm all right," she said weakly. He hugged her nonetheless, and then noticed something odd.

"Kagome?" he asked, staring at her in disbelief. He also looked at Kikyou and Midoriko.

All three of them were fading.

"Wh-what the hell's going on?" he yelled, and grabbed one of Kagome's hands.

"The mission for which she had been called here is now complete," Midoriko said, sheathing her sword. "She is being returned to her own time, no doubt."

Kikyou walked over, her ghostly monochrome form shimmering less brightly as she too disappeared. She hugged both Inuyasha and Kagome, causing the younger girl to nearly cry out in amazement.

"I never got to say goodbye before, Inuyasha," Kikyou said. "I wanted to say . . . that I loved you, after all." With those words, the ghost of Kikyou burst into a thousand shimmering motes of white light. Kagome began to openly weep, even as she too faded into the ether.

"I can finally rest with my Hiroshi," Midoriko said to no one in particular, but then turned to Kagome and Inuyasha. "My future self . . . do not be afraid. You have broken the cycle. Love will find a way." Midoriko too burst into pinpricks of starlight. "Thank you," they seemed to whisper.

Kagome then turned to Inuyasha, who seemed on the brink of tears as well. The villagers were rousing from their youkai-induced sleep, and they all crowded around the now transparent schoolgirl.

"I don't want to go, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her tears leaving soft sparkles on her lashes.

"I'll just jump down the well, don't worry," Inuyasha assured her.

"I want to do one last thing." Kagome reached up and took Kaede's prayer beads in her hands. With a sharp tug that spoke of the strength her skinny arms belied, she snapped the string on them, sending the beads in all directions. "You're free now, Inuyasha." Her arms then began to dissolve into violet colored motes as well.

"Kagome, no!" Inuyasha cried. "I love you!"

The last thing to dissolve was Kagome's face, which had smiled softly upon hearing the words. And then she was gone.

Inuyasha sat there, unmoving, as the last motes of light shimmered away like so many drops of dreams. The villagers stepped back, in case the newly freed dog-demon decided to revisit his old pillaging ways now that the reincarnation of Kikyou was gone.

"Kagome," he whispered finally, and his voice cracked. He slumped down, unafraid to show the world his tears as the woman he loved left his life for the second time.

"The well," Miroku said urgently, and Sango beside him nodded in agreement. "You have to try the well."

Wordlessly, Inuyasha sprang up from his crouch, and ran swiftly toward the well. The rest of the village followed him as fast as they could, but by the time they arrived he had already jumped in. They could all hear his howl of anger echoing in the forest.

"It's not supposed to be like this!" Inuyasha snarled from the well, and jumped out with one angry leap. Unconsciously, the villagers shied away from the snarling demon. There was a feral light in his eyes that frightened them more than the full youkai who stood among them.

"There are no such things as fairy tale endings, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru's cold, proud voice rang across the crowd. "The things we wish for only come when we make them happen on our own."

Inuyasha looked at his older brother, who simply glared at him. What could Sesshoumaru mean? Without some means of getting to Kagome's time, he'd have to sit around and rot for five hundred years before he saw her again.

Or maybe . . . just sit around and sleep.

A wild, dangerous idea entered his mind.

"Miroku," Inuyasha said cautiously, approaching the priest slowly. "I have a big favor to ask."

"Of what nature, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, pulling Sango close to him. "You cannot have Sango now that Kagome is gone. Sango is mine."

Sango's face instantly blanched at such a declaration, but the serious look on his face caused the expression to be replaced by one of blushing wonder.

"I wouldn't want her -- no offense, Sango. I want Kagome." The hanyou closed his eyes, and looked off in the distance, toward the Go Shimboku which stood proud and tall in the middle of its grove. "I want you to seal me." He nodded toward the Go Shimboku. "On that tree. It's the only one still around in Kagome's time. And . . . you'll have to guard me." He grabbed Miroku's arm, the anger in his eyes gone and replaced by the most pleading expression that the priest had ever seen. "If someone finds me sealed by a priest's ofuda, they can just take it off. You'll need to check on me, make sure I'm still sealed and alive."

Miroku gently extracted his arm from Inuyasha's grip. He looked at Sango, who was staring at him with a curious expression on his face. Finally he sighed, and smiled slightly at Sango. "It's about time I settled down anyway." He looked back to Inuyasha. "I will do as you ask, and seal you, and guard you. I will ask my children to guard you . . . and their children."

Kaede stepped forward then, picking her way through the grassy ground. "Houshi-sama. I am old, and there is not a new miko ready to take over for our shrine." Kaede closed her one good eye calmly. "I would be honored if you resided in the shrine here."

Miroku nodded in acceptance. He then looked at Sango again, who was crying for some reason. "Sango? Will you stay with me here?"

She nodded mutely, and that was all Miroku needed to make him happy despite the tragedy of moments before.

"Come, Inuyasha!" he said, and the little group made its way to the towering Go Shimboku.

The hanyou climbed into the branches, and tried to settle himself down comfortably. I'm coming, Kagome, he promised. Below him, Miroku took out one of the paper demon wards that were part of his spiritual arsenal.

"Hey Inuyasha, catch," Sango called, and tossed him Kagome's heavy book. "She left it behind. Give it to her, okay?"

Inuyasha clutched the book bag tightly.

"I don't think these could be used for any greater purpose," Miroku murmured, and held a lone ofuda high in the air. "Are you ready, Inuyasha?"

"I am."

Miroku threw the ward at the hanyou. It caught Inuyasha squarely on the nose, and he instantly slumped down on the branch, sealed. Then, to everyone's amazement, he actually began to dissolve, sinking into the wood of the ancient time tree. The book bag went with him as well. Soon all that was left was the ofuda itself, which then became engraved into the bark of the tree.

"That's never happened before," Miroku said, in surprise. Sango caught his hand with her own, and squeezed it reassuringly.

"The time tree also wants to help Inuyasha," she explained. "I have a feeling that they are like old friends. They have merged. Inuyasha will be safe . . . until someone who can remove the ward comes along."

The villagers looked at the tree for a long time, before turning back to their normal lives. The legend of Inuyasha had finally come to a close.

* * *

"I know," Kagome whispered as she landed on the cobblestones right outside her home. She blinked in the sudden bright sunlight, and then burst into tears when she realized what had happened.

"The well!" she told herself, and scrambled up on the slippery stones. "He said he'd be at the well. I can just jump through, or he can . . ."

She ran crying all the way to the well house, on the other side of the shrine grounds, and ignored the sign outside of it like she always did.

"Inuyasha!" she called into the well house hopefully, sniffling and wiping her nose childishly on her sleeve. "Are you here?"

He didn't answer. Frightened, Kagome leapt nimbly over the well lip, and fell . . . and landed with a very hard thump on the dirt floor.

"The magic is gone," she said hollowly, and clutched at the dirt. Sobs racked her thin body, and she leaned against the well wall. "Love will find a way," she told herself. "It has to. It has to . . ."

She must have stayed down there for nearly an hour before the afternoon sunlight began to fade into twilight. Realizing that the well wasn't going to work no matter what she did, she climbed reluctantly out, and only then discovered that she had twisted her ankle in her hard fall.

Silently, feeling very sorry for herself, she opened the door of the well house. She touched the sign outside absently, and then realized that she'd left her book bag behind.

She began to laugh.

She sank to her knees, laughing and choking back miserable sobs at the same time. So this is what hysteria is like, she thought, clutching at the cobblestones. She tried to calm herself down a bit.

"Not only am I all alone, I don't have my books anymore. Life is going just great. I might as well just stay at home and become a shrine maiden . . . since I'm not going to high school or getting married any time soon."

She climbed to her feet again, wincing as she landed on the bad ankle, and looked at the sign she was clutching as if for the first time.

"The Bone-Eater's Well," it said.

If I'm going to be a shrine maiden, then I had better learn about this place, Kagome thought wildly. She was not entirely in good mental health at the moment, and her mind was trying to find something, ANYTHING, to take it off her incredible loss. Inuyasha . . . couldn't be gone. He couldn't have died hundreds of years ago. How long did hanyou live, anyway?

"The Bone-Eater's Well: During the Sengoku Jidai, this well was used for the disposal of youkai remains. There are many legends surrounding it, and its fate is intertwined with the Shikon no Tama. The mikos who guard the Shikon jewel have the ability to use this well as a conduit through time."

Shikon . . . the sign had mentioned the Shikon no Tama!

Suddenly Kagome remembered how her grandfather had explained the good luck charms that they sold on the shrine grounds. She laughed again, a little more bitterly and less maniacally this time.

"Some good luck charm that turned out to be." She sighed, and limped her way over to the other side of the courtyard. The Go Shimboku. It too had a little metal sign in front of it, but before she read the sign, she walked over to the tree itself, and stroked the worn spot where Inuyasha had rested for fifty years. It was only a few feet higher than she remembered it being in the past.

"Oh, Inuyasha," she whispered, and hugged the tree, once more leaking tears. Sniffling again, she went over to the little sign.

It said," The Go Shimboku: Legend says this is one of the 'time trees,' which act as a powerful conduit through the ages. This particular tree is said to hold the spirit of a half youkai, sealed over four hundred years ago during the Sengoku Jidai. The one who loves him most may still free him."

A faint tingle of hope caused Kagome's heart to skip a beat. A hanyou was in the tree, a hanyou from over four hundred years ago. She remembered how she once thought she had heard Inuyasha's voice in the tree . . .

Frantically, she began to search the tree for a sign, ANY sign, that a demon had once been sealed on there. But there was nothing that she could see. The branches were all too high up for her to climb.

Letting out a scream of frustration, she limped across the yard to her house.

"Jii-chan!" she called hoarsely. All her crying had nearly ruined her voice. She stepped inside the house, cleared her throat, and tried again. "Jii-chan, are you here?"

"He's in the shed Kagome," her mom called from the kitchen. "And welcome home."

"Oh. I'm back," Kagome replied belatedly, and then stumbled around the house as fast as she could to find her grandfather carrying a ladder across the courtyard.

"Jii-chan, is there a demon ward on the Go Shimboku?" she wailed, dragging the bad ankle behind her pathetically. "There has to be. Please tell me where it is."

Her grandfather blinked stupidly at her for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

"As a matter of fact, yes. It's a carving. Legend has it that the carving was made when an ofuda, thrown by the founder of our family, landed . . ."

Kagome stopped listening when she heard "yes." Before he could get started on another legend story -- which she WOULD listen to once she found Inuyasha again -- she snatched the ladder away and limped toward the God Tree.

"Oy, Kagome, what are you doing?"

The ladder was heavy. It took Kagome several minutes of effort to drag it over to the tree. She set it up, and gingerly started climbing up it. Her grandfather came up behind her, looking at her with confusion.

"Where is it, Jii-chan?' she cried, looking around the tree frantically. Then she saw a small rectangle of darker bark, with the definite appearance of a Buddhist ofuda to it. Hardly daring to believe it, she gently touched the carving.

Some trace of miko powers must have remained in her, because the carving of the ofuda flared into a genuine demon ward, dangling tantalizingly on the tree. She tugged on it, not just afraid of being disappointed, but unable to believe with her whole heart that fairy tales really could come true.

Kagome removed the ward with one final pull.

Nothing happened.

Choking back a cry of disappointment, she dropped the ward onto the ground and leaned her head on the tree. She had been wrong. She closed her eyes, her tears still flowing freely down her face. How could she have been so wrong?

"Kagome . . . you still haven't said--" Her grandfather's admonition was interrupted by the appearance of light on the branch beside Kagome. The light quickly coalesced into solidity. Her grandfather took a step back, and held his stick out in defense. "Isn't that your book bag?"

Kagome looked back at the branch, unable to comprehend what she saw. Her book bag hung suspended in midair.

Hesitantly, she reached out to touch it, and then a bit of red cloth also appeared below it. Kagome nearly lost her balance, on the ladder, so great was her joy.

"Ohhhh," her grandfather said on the ground below.

Inuyasha soon appeared whole on the branch, and then stirred, as if waking from a long sleep.

"Kagome?" he mumbled when he saw her tearstained face. "Why ya crying?"

"Because I'm so happy now," she answered in a whisper.

Inuyasha yawned and stretched, but apparently he hadn't realized he was high in the air. The movement knocked him off balance, and he toppled forward. Kagome screamed in fear as he landed on her, but his senses kicked back to life, and he managed to grab her tightly as they fell ungracefully to the grassy ground below. The ladder ended up on the courtyard grounds, inches from Kagome's grandfather's feet.

Inuyasha had managed to land below her. "Did it work?" he asked, sitting up cautiously. "Ouch."

"Did what work?" Kagome asked, covering Inuyasha's face in a rain of joyous kisses.

"I asked Miroku to seal me . . . and . . .,"

"Miroku, the founder of the Higurashi Shrine?" Kagome's grandfather chimed in helpfully.

"Yes, Miroku . . . wait a minute. Founder of the shrine?" Inuyasha angrily looked at the old man, who took a step back instinctively. "You mean that perverted priest--"

"--and the demon hunter who was his bride--" Jii-chan interjected.

"--started this shrine?" Kagome finished. Then she smiled her first genuine smile all day. "Why . . . this is turning out a fairy tale after all!" she said, hugging Inuyasha tightly.

"There are no such things as fairy tales," Inuyasha argued, hugging her back. "This is what we wished for . . . and now we've done it on our own."

Drained from the emotions of the afternoon and the centuries, the two teenagers hobbled across the courtyard, arm in arm, leaving Kagome's grandfather beside the fallen ladder.

"So all the legends were really true," he said, picking up the ladder and Kagome's heavy book bag. "Since the half youkai has been set free, now all that is left is this." Her grandfather stroked a plastic glow-in-the-dark ball attached to a key chain on his belt, and smiled.

The legend of the Shikon no Tama was also true. It had brought luck and fortune, and most of all, true love, to the one who had finally learned to believe in magic.

* * *
The End
* * *

Okay, not really the end, because the future adventures of everyone occur in my massive, sprawling cross-over novel War Games (a project which was entirely the result of a vision of Sesshoumaru in a business suit. Yum.) War Games is not complete at this time. Stay tuned. I'll probably post the first three chapters here.

[Noko Marie]

Huh, well it's pleasant. Does tie everything up neatly. War Games sounds interesting.

[Wingnut]

Who cares about War Games? I like this ending very much. And unlike certain tendicies of anime to leave little things hanging, like the romance between main characters, this thankfully does not.
Quite ironic that Miroku and Sango started the shrine in the first place. Talk about comeing full circle. That means that Miroku and Sango are Kagome's ancestors!

[Hitomi Lei]

In fact I just found out last week that you named Inuyasha's papa!

And although I don't consider myself I newbie...I really did think that was his name...infact I get upsat when people don't name him that because...well...it just seems wrong somehow...

I like this, and I can diffently see the story ending this way, kinda bittersweet...

I'm going to go find Under the Dog Star now and read it!


Smoochies

[Hitomi Lei]

errr...bloody stupid compy...ended up posting twice...hate it when that happens...

[ice princess]

You cannot even begin to understand what I went through when I read this story.

First, I did a crazy dance. Because, you have read my mind. My favorite thing to do with any story I read or watch is dream about how it will end, and how everything connects. I love tangled connections of fate. Everything you said is something I've thought of in my daydreaming, for example, that Miroku and Sango were Kagome's ancestors who started the shrine. It's like someone was writing my daydreams as a fanfiction. Now that I think of it, that's actually quite odd...

Second, I decided to ask you if you'd like to beta-read an epic fic I'm doing concerning Sesshomaru. I really don't want to say anything else, 'cause it would give a lot away, but I would be using Inutaisho in this fic. And I must tell you, your fic UtDS was the very first fic I read concerning the dog brother's dad. I later read on a forum that Inutaisho was canon, and didn't know what to believe since I've only seen whats on Cartoon Network. Still, you are so right in saying that every story has to name him Inutaisho or it just doesn't work.

Can I IM you with the particulars of my fic? I only have up to chapter three, but IMO there is no one better suited than you to beta-read it (wow, if that's not pressure I don't know what is...). Really, if you don't want to/don't have the time/would rather eat manure, I can understand (though manure is bad for you, I bet). You just read my mind with your fics...I think you'd appreciate where my story is going.

So yes, your fic rocks...all of your fics rock, and I CANNOT WAIT to read WarGames. I think I might faint with anticipation...

~Ice Princess

[Catwho]

You can send me a PM on this forum, or an email (tprara@catwho.net) but I don't AIM or anything like that (AIM in particular I'm not using because I'm hiding from Toriyama's World lest they make me do website stuff. Some webslave I am!)

I'd be more than happy to beta. Although I'm not sure I believe her, Kristine Batey says I have a fairly clear understanding of Sesshoumaru's character . . . and I do truly seem to have an easier time getting inside his head than many other people. ^_^;;

To clear it up once a for all: Inutaisho is not canon. I mis-heard Myouga say "Inu no Taisho" relatively early on in the series (I'm thinking episide five to ten-ish), and when I decided to write about the parents (which only one or two people had yet done at the time), I decided I liked the name. Even after movie three, from what I have heard, he is still only referred to as "Inu no Taisho," or "The Great Leader of the Dogs."

Somehow, the name stuck and became "fanon." So there's my mis-contribution to the fandom. D'oh.

For those wishing to read Under the Dog Star, here's a linky:

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=377777

I've declared the fic officially AU, and so the website associated with it has been removed from catwho.net. However, various bits of fanart are still posted in my fanart section.

Here, let me post chapter 1 of War Games on this forum for everyone. Er . . . it's a crossover so it'll probably not be in this section . . . but Inuyasha is the only series in it that has its own section . . . eh. Suggestions?

[pilot03]

I thought this was great!!! It was so wonderfully written and I do think I can imagine the series ending this way!!

[Little Green Miko]

::blink, tilt head one way, blink, tilt head the other way, blink, put head right way up:: ...I read this one last year on FF.Net. It was good then, still good now.
You have any new stuffs planned, chicki? : )

[Catwho]

Well, there's War Games (chapter 1 is now in the crossovers section here.) It's a novel, so it won't be done anytime soon, although I'm almost finished with Chapter 4. I have seven incomplete Inuyasha fics I need to get around to completing. (I also have half a dozen HNG fics, a Slayers fic, and then two GW fics that are officially unfinished. Wah ;_;)

As for new stuff . . . I DO have an outline for another Inu/Kag and Miro/San double lemon, but it's only a rough outline at the moment and I haven't even started actually writing it yet.