Fanfic / Memoirs

Every generation blames the one before

"Memoirs" is a long-running Backstory fanfic for the InuYasha manga series, following the pre-series life of Inuyasha's father. The first chapter was published in June of 2008 on its home site of Inu-papa.com, and has since then surpassed 100 chapters, with new chapters being posted approximately once per month. Each individual chapter also has an accompanying illustration.

As Inuyasha's father is never named in any canon material, this story circumvents that by being told in First-Person Perspective as a sort of autobiography, thus negating the need to ever refer to him by name, with other characters addressing him by titles or epithets.

However, for ease of discussion, he is often referred to by the Fan Nickname "Inu-papa".

The story opens with a young Inu-papa separated from his mother, and his subsequent quest to find her again. Along the way he meets various other characters who help him become stronger and learn more about himself, eventually leading to his final role as a Youkai lord.

The story is somewhat of a Patchwork Fic in that it borrows Inu-papa's character design from "Inuyasha The Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler", but otherwise derives its canon only from the manga. It attempts to maintain a similar tone to the source material with a balance of humor and drama, however it will habitually devote much more time to character analysis and social commentary than the original InuYasha series.

---

This fanfic provides examples of:

• The All-Concealing "I": In order to keep the narrator nameless.
• All Part of the Show: When Inu-papa barges in on Omosaki in his oni costume, thinking he's attacking some children when he's really putting on a play. They ad-lib from there.
• Analogy Backfire: Hisui tries to cheer up Inu-papa by giving examples of ways a bad situation can open up opportunities for good things to happen, and he turns it right back on her by asking her, "So what sorts of good things should I expect to come from my mother dying?"
• Anatomy of the Soul: A soul can only pass into the next world in a complete state. Kogane's body was left "alive", but functionless, due to her soul being split and unable to pass on.
• Animal Theme Naming: The oni on the cursed mountain are all named "Oni" + animal, based on which kind of animal they're crossed with (e.g. "Oniuma" = "oni horse", "Onishika" = "oni deer").
• Another Man's Terror: A side-effect of Tamaokuri no Nari is that the wielder has to personally experience the dying memories of the spirit they send.
• Archnemesis Dad: Souzou Tennou
• Art Evolution: Sansazume was so manageable-looking when it first showed up.
  • Akagane gets progressively more muscle bulk as the series progresses. Can be justified by the fact that he returned to his blacksmithing trade full-time between his first and second appearance.
• Art Shift: The illustrations for the April Fool's chapters are intentionally drawn badly.
• Artifact of Doom: The Shikon no Tama
• Awful Truth: The fate of Inu-papa's mother. Eika knows, but tells Inu-papa he's better off not knowing and runs away before he can prod her further. He ends up finding out later, anyway.
• Bathtub Bickering: Inu-papa and Akagane squabble with each other while purifying themselves in the river.
• Battle Aura: Auras play a large role in the story, and are represented as free-floating energy connected to the body, which can be drawn on or manipulated for attacks.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Akagane originally considered attempting to revive his sister with the Shikon no Tama, but after readers thought that was a terrible idea, he amazingly decides against it in the next chapter.
• Bishie Sparkle: Parodied with Akagane after he gets dunked in sake.
  Though it might just have been the residual moisture clinging to his skin-tight black bodysuit, reflecting in the sun as he crouched there on all fours, but he almost seemed to... sparkle. His face, however, was hardly alight when he flatly wondered, "Why are you looking at me like that?" —Chapter 67
• Bonding over Missing Parents: Inu-papa with just about everyone thanks to a rash of missing mothers and fathers.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The story recognizes that two diametrically opposing forces hold their opinions for legitimate reasons.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As this is meant to be a chronicling of past events, the narrator occasionally breaks prose and addresses the audience to provide reasoning or clarification.
• Break the Cutie: Pretty much every character experiences this at some point
• Breather Episode: The "Trip to the City" mini-arc.
• Brought Down to Normal: Inu-papa has to wear a rosary for a while that inhibits all his youkai abilities.
• Call-Back: Too many to name. As a general rule in this story, anything that happens is going to get brought up again at some point.
• Call-Forward: Due to being a prequel, makes several references to events of the original Inuyasha series.
  • Yakurou Dokusen's treatment of Inu-papa and Akagane parallels his future treatment of their descendants, Inuyasha and Sango.
  • "For a moment, I almost thought he was suggesting I make a weapon out of my own body. But that would be silly." — Chapter 94
  • "I wondered if this was what it was like to deal with quarreling brothers. Hopefully I would never have to deal with that in my future." — Chapter 109
• Chastity Couple: Akagane and Hisui don't get around to consummating their marriage until four years after the fact
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Tamaokuri no Nari. TWICE.
• Chekhov's Skill: Inu-papa learning to use Yachouon's bells.
  • Yachouon's voice-projection ability also applies. It first appears in Chapter 6, but Inu-papa doesn't realize he's inherited the ability until Chapter 79, when he discovers it can allow him to speak to people while in dog form.
• Children Are Innocent: Played with to various degrees.
  • Played straight with Inu-papa and Kogane
  • Zig-zagged with Ryakki. Her attitude is innocent, but she willfully kills and steals due to being raised with Blue-and-Orange Morality.
  • Discussed with the baby spider oni, but ultimately subverted.
• Children Forced to Kill: Inu-papa kills his first human at age 7, to save his own life.
• Child Soldiers: The spider oni babies.
• Colourful Theme Naming: Every named character in the artisan village has a color in their name, which is also the color they tend to wear.
  • Akagane: "Red Metal" (copper)
  • Kogane: "Yellow Metal" (gold)
  • Hisui: "Kingfisher Green" (jade)
• Coming of Age Story
• Contemplate Our Navels: Inu-papa and Akagane's favorite pastime.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Akagane and Hisui have been doing this with Kogane for five years.
• Cool, Clear Water: Justified with the purified river.
• Cooldown Hug: Hisui to Akagane when he freaks out after Kogane is possessed by the Shikon no Tama and flies away.
• Custom Uniform: Hisui's father became an artisan due to needing to customize his uniform and equipment to fit his size.
• Cuteness Proximity: Lampshaded and averted with Akagane.
  [You want me to be] his little fluffy buddy? Oh suuure, I'm sure he'd warm right up to me. With my big, adorable eyes and cute floppy ears, it's amazing the guy hadn't melted into a puddle of "Awwww" already. —Chapter 28
• Date Peepers: Inu-papa and Kogane when they sneak into the house to spy on Akagane to see if he'll be able to get Hisui out of an arranged marriage and propose to her instead.
• Double Aesop: After Inu-papa helps Akagane, he finds himself in almost the exact same situation Akagane was in originally.
• Elsewhere Fic / Lower-Deck Episode: While Inu-papa is technically a canon character, his canon personality is unknown and therefore functions more as an O.C. Stand-in. The majority of other canon characters who make appearances are side characters in the original Inuyasha series.
• Exponential Plot Delay: The introductory arc lasted 3 chapters. The Yachouon arc lasted 10 chapters. The first Akagane arc lasted 27 chapters. The second Akagane arc is currently at 48 chapters and still going.
• Faking the Dead: Wakage.
• Family Theme Naming: Akagane and Kogane are named after precious metals, copper and gold, respectively. Hisui maintains the naming theme of Sango's family, named after semi-precious stones, with a name meaning "jade".
• Gold–Silver–Copper Standard: Played straight with the money, for historical purposes.
  • Also in play with Akagane's family's names, with Kogane (gold), Shirogane (silver), and Akagane (copper)
• Gratuitous Japanese: The story is written as though it was translated from Japanese, and keeps Honorifics, titles, attack names, and untranslatable words in the "original" language. Each chapter title also comes in both English and Japanese. The story even has an attached glossary of Japanese terms.
• Hammerspace: Lampshaded, then later justified: Youkai can convert themselves and anything they touch between physical form and free energy.
  • Exploited by Akagane when he needs a means to transport more cargo to the city than he can physically carry.
• Hate Plague: The miasma on the mountain is literally malice made manifest, and causes those who take in too much of it to become sadistic and easy to anger.
• Heroic BSoD: Inu-papa when he discovers what happened to his mother.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Eika steals Yachouon's bell, but after 10 years still can't use it very well.
• Ho Yay: Although Word of God insists that Inu-papa and Akagane's affection for each other is not THAT kind of affection, derivative material paints a different picture.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Hisui and her father.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Akagane vs. Inu-papa when Inu-papa has his youkai power-suppressing rosary removed.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Souzou Tennou's preferred method of execution, especially through the back.
• Informed Conversation: Due to the story being told in first-person, any conversations that happen between other characters that the narrator is not present to hear fall under this. Becomes more apparent after Akagane and Hisui grow closer and it's obvious they've been having a lot of private discussions.
• Interspecies Adoption: After repeatedly balking at taking the role, mostly due to the only 9-year age difference, Akagane eventually explicitly adopts Inu-papa.
  • Myouga seeing himself as Ryakki's father would also likely apply.
• Interspecies Friendship: Inu-papa with Akagane and Hisui.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Akagane's reasoning for not doing anything to prevent Hisui's arranged marriage.
• Japanese Spirit:
  • Koyuu: Akagane, a prodigious craftsman and master of many skills.
  • Chie: Hisui, unwavering optimism and a logical mind.
  • Kakan: Inu-papa, single-minded devotion to a specific goal.
• Kiss of Life: Kogane gets revived with a mouth-to-mouth soul transfer.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Hard to avoid when your weakness is human blood.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Yakorou Dokusen forces Inu-papa and Akagane to fight each other to the death as part of his trials.
• Lost in Translation: Invoked. Despite the story being originally written in English, it is written as though it were translated from Japanese, including retaining "untranslatable" bits of dialogue.
  • Chapter 8: Inu-papa asks Eika "Do you have kane?", which can either mean "Do you have the bell?" or "Do you have any money?" He meant the former, she interpreted it as the latter.
  • Chapter 27: When Akagane jokingly(?) switches to Sansazume to threaten Inu-papa, Hisui comments "Yarisugi". This means "overkill", but "yari" also means "spear".
  • Chapter 45: Inu-papa notes that Ryakki refers to herself with the masculine pronoun "ore" rather than the feminine pronoun "atashi" in order to hide her lisp. Japanese has multiple pronouns that mean "I" that are divided by gender and social class, and Inu-papa initially mistook Ryakki for a boy due to how she referred to herself.
  • Chapter 66: Inu-papa wonders if Akagane chooses all red clothing because he has "red" in his name. While Akagane's name means "copper", the word is a compound word of "red" and "metal".
  • Chapter 77: When Inu-papa is learning to read numbers and money-related words, he points to the character for "copper" and asks Akagane if that's how he writes his name. Akagane's name means "copper", however it's written differently from the term for the coin.
  • Chapter 111: Since a youkai's aura is called youki, Inu-papa attempts to coin a new word by referring to a human aura as ninki. Unfortunately, this word already means "popularity".
• Loved Ones Montage: Inu-papa gets one in Chapter 75 when arguing with his corrupted half that his keepsakes from his friends, which the corrupted half had discarded, had protected his memories.
• Luke, I Am Your Father
• Magic A Is Magic A: Youkai abilities are limited by Conservation of Mass and Conservation of Energy.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Averted in chapter 124. Despite Inu-papa's Chronic Hero Syndrome making him believe he's responsible for the Shikon no Tama, the monks are able to convince him that a youkai like him really isn't the most qualified person to look after it.
• Malaproper: Kogane's attempts at mimicking her brother's inflated speech usually results in the wrong words.
• Manly Tears: Akagane, several times.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Shigeka-sensei.
• Missing Mom: The main driving plot, plus a running theme with other characters.
• Mistaken for Granite: The koma-inu statues that guard the sealed shrine in the Killing Field.
• Moral Myopia: Deconstructing this trope is one of the central themes of the story.
  "Really the only striking difference between the two was how much personal investment I had in them. But could I honestly say that Akagane was in the right simply because I cared about his life more than the Meioujuu's, and Souzou Tennou was wrong because I cared more about my mother's life than his?" - Chapter 123
• Multitasked Conversation: Akagane's confirmation of devotion, which turned out to be directed not only to his sister, but Hisui as well.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Inu-papa when he realizes he killed a lot of innocent people after escaping from the mountain in a mindless rage
• Mythology Gag
  • In chapter 21, after Akagane refuses to tell Inu-papa his name, Inu-papa thinks, "I'd think it would be pretty horrible for no one to know your name and instead have to make up epithets as a placeholder", poking fun at the fact that Inu-papa himself in the series has no name and is only known by nicknames and placeholders.
  • The "Inuyasha Jar" used in the play in chapter 79 is a play on the title of the "Inuyasha's Jar" segment that ran at the end of each episode during the Inuyasha series' original Japanese TV run.
• Necessary Fail: A running theme, called "kiki no ki" ("opportunity in crisis") in the story itself. There are multiple instances where characters discuss how bad things that have happened can still result in a net positive outcome.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Souzou Tennou, Divine Protection type, however in this case it's not a favorable spirit protecting him, but rather because he physically bound himself to a godly being and is leeching her power.
• No Conservation of Energy: Averted. A youkai can utilize free energy or body mass, but has to exchange one to increase the other.
• No Loves Intersect: Akagane and Hisui are the only romantic pairing in the story, and neither has a legitimate rival.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In order to defeat a youkai who regularly slaughters random human villages to train his armies, Inu-papa goes out to find random youkai to kill to train himself. He soon realizes how hypocritical this is.
• Official Kiss: Akagane and Hisui get theirs in Chapter 78.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Inu-papa confides in Kogane that he's glad Akagane can "relieve his frustrations" with Hisui now instead of him. He, of course, means by talking.
• Only Mostly Dead: Kogane.
• Patchwork Fic: Word of God states that while Inu-papa is based on Rumiko Takahashi's design from the third movie, at this time there is no plan for the story to attempt to work in the continuity of the anime-only characters including the movie villains and the Hyounekozoku.
• Phlebotinum Analogy: Hisui can explain anything — from supernatural energy to fighting stats to medical conditions — in terms of money.
• Plot Parallel: All over the place.
  Present in the first story arc to in which Akagane acts as Inu-papa's mentor; Akagane undergoes a personal subplot in which he resigns himself to being unable to gain anything of importance with out losing something of importance. This plot is resolved in Chapter 42 when Akagane is faced with choosing between carrying either Sansazume or Kogane, and Inu-papa solves the problem by offering to carry one of the two. This comes up again later in the same chapter when Akagane feels like he can't save Hisui from an arranged marriage because it isn't in his power to do so. Inu-papa draws a parallel from the earlier example, telling Akagane "But you shouldn't just resign yourself to losing one without considering you might have other options. Don't act like if you can't carry something yourself, it can't be carried at all.", which is sufficient enough for Akagane to experience some Character Development.
• Poison Is Corrosive: The spider venom dissolves Akagane's armor and bodysuit and severely burns his skin, but he's able to get an antidote salve on it before it can spread further.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: And that's why Souzou Tennou loves it.
• Recap Episode: Chapter 81, where Inu-papa gets Akagane and Hisui up to speed on everything that happened to him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Oniuma (red) and Onishika (blue). Bonus for actually being oni.
• Restraining Bolt: Inu-papa was forced to wear a rosary for a while that suppressed all his youkai abilities.
  • He also gained a self-imposed weakness to human blood to prevent himself from committing massacres when his Superpowered Evil Side took over.
• Running Gag: Inu-papa always smacking into the barrier around the temple whenever he goes there.
• Sadistic Choice: Inu-papa can either kill a bunch of potentially-brainwashed children or let those children kill everyone in the village.
• Say My Name: Played straight with Akagane to Inu-papa (albeit calling him "Bake-inu" due to the latter having no name).
  • However, interestingly subverted Inu-papa to Akagane, who has yet to refer the latter as anything, even after nearly 70 chapters together.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: Inu-papa gives himself a weakness to human blood to force his feral side into an aversion to killing them.
• Self-Parody: The April Fools chapters, and some of the gag images in the gallery.
• Shipper on Deck: Kogane, for Akagane and Hisui.
• Shooting Superman: Inu-papa temporarily blinds Souzou Tennou and takes the opportunity to attack him with a normal sword. Strangely, it sort of works.
• Shrines and Temples: Both show up.
• Sick Episode: Chapters 62-64 deal with Akagane knocked out by a stress-induced cold.
• Side-Story Bonus Art: The main story page has a link to a gallery of this.
• Sliding Scale of Unavoidable vs. Unforgivable
• Speak of the Devil: As Inu-papa is trying to get the nerve to tell Akagane and Hisui what he saw on the cursed mountain, he suddenly smells his mother.
• Something Only They Would Say: Inverted. Akagane convinces Inu-papa that he's not a hallucination by saying something that Inu-papa could not ever imagine him saying.
• Stealth Pun: In Japanese, at least. Oniuma and Onishika are a horse (馬) and deer (鹿), respectively. These characters are the two halves of the word 馬鹿 ("baka"), the Japanese word for "fool".
• Suck Out the Poison: Myouga to both Inu-papa and Ryakki when they're exposed to miasma for too long.
• Sympathy for the Devil: The title of Chapter 98. This trope is also discussed in said chapter.
• Take a Third Option: Discussed, but rarely available.
  Yakurou Dokusen: "[W]hile there's nothing wrong with having hope, there comes a time when you have to just man up and face reality, and deal with what's actually there in front of you instead of what you wish was there. You aren't always going to have the luxury of dilly-dallying about waiting for something better to happen." —Chapter 69
• Talking Is a Free Action: Inu-papa and Akagane have a lot of conversation time while fighting the giant serpent in front of the shrine.
• Time Skip: Lampshaded in chapter 8:
  "At this point, I'm going to skip a couple of months. In hindsight, it was mostly just a couple of false leads, some incidental encounters here and there, but otherwise nothing worth noting and nothing that was of any importance to future events. So if anyone was really looking forward to random filler at this point, sorry."
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Inu-papa releases the rest of his suppressed youkai power when Onishika shoots him a dozen times.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Inu-papa, Akagane, and Hisui.
• Unstoppable Rage: Inu-papa rampaged in this state for two years after he escaped the cursed mountain.
• The Un-Twist: Sorry, Ryakki, that's not your real dad.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Inu-papa and Akagane.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Kogane suggested Akagane give Hisui flowers. Akagane thought flowers were dumb since he likes swords better. So he settled on a flower-shaped sword.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Inu-papa to Akagane in chapter 120 in an effort to convince him not to consider his death in the upcoming battle to be an inevitability.