Inuyasha: A New Generation

First Breaths Under the Lunar Eclipse

Under the blinding lights of the delivery room, a young woman screamed in pain as another contraction spasmed through her body. A monitor beeped insistently as nurses swarmed around the hospital bed, ready to give the best care they could to the young expectant mother, as well as her son when he came.

This pregnancy had been an unusual one, not just because it was twenty-three-year-old Chihiro Tsukino's firstborn child. Chihiro had been wracked with constant aching and kicking from the apparently restless baby, was weak and hungry no matter how much she ate and bled from lacerations on the wall of her womb itself, that had no apparent cause. As soon as labor had begun, she had been in constant agony, as if her little boy were trying to claw his way free.

"Well, now," she said between gasps, clutching her swollen belly, "You better... remember how much trouble your mother went through for you, little man!"

"Miss Tsukino!" The doctor ran in.

"Yes... doctor!" Chihiro asked between a gasp and a hiss as she felt another contraction.

"The nurse informed me that your son might come breech."

"What does that mean?" her frantic husband begged to know. Honda Tsukino stood up from his chair, stepping protectively in front of his wife.

"Normally, a baby comes out headfirst. That's the easiest way for them to get out smoothly. A breech baby comes out legs first for whatever reason. It's not a death sentence, but it does make things more difficult... and prone to complications, worst case scenario."

"Difficult... I can handle," Chihiro said bravely, at the same time Honda said, "What kind of complications?!"

"The baby could get stuck. That's what we're most worried about. Worse comes to worst, we might have to perform a c-section."

Honda looked pale as a ghost and flopped down in his chair. "Do what you must," he whispered.

The doctor nodded. "Don't worry, Tsukino-san. We will take good care of her."

Chihiro gently rubbed her belly. "Come on, little one. No problems, now. Don't worry your poor father."

Then another squeeze made her cry out. She felt something warm between her legs.

"Looks like we were right," the doctor said. "That's your boy's leg."

Chihiro tried to lean forward to see, only for another contraction to stop her short before she caught a glimpse of any more than a blood-covered, pink thing, only recognizable as a foot from the tiny, individual toes.

"Is he stuck?" Honda asked.

"He might be. I don't see his other leg."

Another, more insistent and painful contraction shot through Chihiro, and she screamed. This one seemed to carry on for an eternity, not the rhythm of the contractions but simple agony, as if she were being split in two.

"There's the other leg!" The doctor announced.

Chihiro sighed. So her baby wasn't stuck. At least there was some good news.

"He should be here any second, you two. Nurses, get ready!"

The monitor's rate picked up, and Chihiro's vision blurred and doubled as she screamed louder than ever.

"Right... torso... left arm... right arm...nurses, get ready to catch him! - come on, Miss Tsukino, you're doing excellent," the doctor said. "We should see the head any moment now- good heavens!"

His cry was drowned out by a sharp yelp from the mother and, joining her voice, a small, high-pitched wail.

Chihiro slumped back, listening numbly as her son screamed in the doctor's arms. She tilted her head to look at her husband, who was staring at the doctor in shock.