Title: Present Time.
Series: Inuyasha
Author: animealam (a.k.a. alandrem)
Rating: This chapter is R
Warnings: Some characters may be a bit OOC. Violence, the mention of drug use, attempted rape, and bad language.
Summary: Inuyasha discovers the present is more dangerous than he was led to believe.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Although I’ll probably add a couple more characters of my own imagination.
Author’s Notes: This is my first Inuyasha fic. If you want to archive it, just let me know where. I will edit this and repost it in a couple of days, but I don’t think much will change, mostly grammar and spelling.

Chapter 09

Asami took one more look around the shrine before going back inside. Kagome and Sota had already left for school and she expected the dog-demon that was her daughter’s protector to make an appearance anytime, but there was no sign of him. She wondered if something happened on the other side of the well to keep him in the past.

With a resigned sigh the Higurashi woman decided it was better to get busy in the kitchen. She brewed some coffee, Inuyasha had really loved it, heated water for Jii-chan’s tea and fixed a light breakfast for the both of them; the kids were running late and refused to eat. On second thought she decided to make enough for three. Everything was almost done when she heard her father in law’s surprised yelp followed by some of his ‘powerful’ incantations, then the hanyou’s gruff voice.

“They don’t work old man!” This was followed by one angry sermon about the family’s powerful legacy of spiritual strength. “When are you going to understand? Your damn spells don’t work on me!” He said exasperated at the time he went into the kitchen, the old priest at his heels. The young man was peeling some ofuda Jii-chan had managed to paste on him.

“Demon be gone!” The old man exclaimed again, and this time he stuck an ofuda on Inuyasha’s silvery mane. “You are not taking my grand daughter again!”

“Jii-chan Kagome is already at school.” Asami said patiently, she’d talked to the old man the night before, but as always she was sure he had not really been listening.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Inuyasha exclaimed annoyed and with a hint of anger in his voice. The ofuda clung to his hair with a vengeance and he was beginning to think the only way to remove it would be to cut the patch of hair where it stuck. He didn’t want to do that.

“Here let me see if I can take it off.” Asami offered and he eyed her wearily.

He didn’t like people touching his hair. It had been a really painful experience when he was a pup. But he realized there was no other way unless he cut the thing loose. With a shrug he moved to the chair she indicated, before she started working, she placed a mug of steaming coffee fixed the way he liked before him. Inuyasha sniffed it delicately enjoying the scent, then blew on it to cool it and took a swallow.

“Serves you right demon for taking Kagome away!” His daughter in law had also placed before him on the table his mug of tea, before starting to remove the ofuda, so he too took a sip. He glared at the young demon in front of him and Inuyasha returned his glare not one bit daunted.

“Inuyasha is not here to take Kagome away,” Asami began saying. Her efforts to remove the thing were working and she tried to be gentle, though she did pull his hair a bit.

“He’s not? Then what are you doing here demon?” The Higurashi grand father asked stressing the last word.

Inuyasha inwardly cringed and his fluffy ears dropped for only a fraction of a second before they were laid back in anger. It was the same everywhere for him, humans rejected him because of his demon blood and demons wanted to kill him because he had human blood. It bothered him, and the truth was it hurt. But there was no way in all seven hells that he would ever admit that even to himself, especially since the guys had accepted him so readily the day before. This, coming from Kagome’s grand father, was a wake up call to reality.

“That’s none of your damn business old man,” he retorted in an indifferent tone of voice. But Asami read between the lines, she had seen his ears drop, he was building his defenses against possible hurt. This called to her motherly instincts, so she gave him a reassuring path on the head that surprised the hanyou. His ears perked and turned in her direction as far as they could go.

“You’re in my home of course it’s my business… I don’t recall inviting you in.”

“Feh!” He retorted, again she saw his ears twitch sadly. But he was too proud to show in any other way that it really bothered him to be rejected. He tried to stand to leave but she pressed firmly on his shoulders indicating that he should remain seated.

‘That’s it,’ Asami thought, Jii-chan was acting as immature as a teen. ‘He did not have to be so rude. Inuyasha’s had enough rejection to last him a couple of lifetimes, I’m not having it from my own family!’

“But I did Jii-chan,” her tone denoted her anger and, since that was a rare enough occurrence, the old man stared at her for a moment forgetting his animosity toward the hanyou. “This too is my home and I have every right to welcome whoever I want.”

‘Wow she sounds just like Kagome when she’s angry!’ The young man thought, surprised to hear her defend him against the old man. He had not expected that.

“I thought you had paid attention to what we talked last night but I guess I was wrong.” She went on, and her displeased voice only made the old man cringe. He had not really listened to what she had to say, but had gotten some gist about Kagome being attacked.

“She wouldn’t have been attacked if she had not been over there!”

“You’re the limit some times!’ Asami exclaimed a bit exasperated. “She was attacked HERE on our time! Not THERE! At the park, Friday night, and we have reasons to believe it was ‘The park killer’ who did it.”

“The… park… killer?” The Higurashi grand father stammered. “Kami-sama! But I still don’t get why he is here?”

“Inuyasha is here to protect Kagome from those men of course!”

“Is that’s right demon?” He asked Inuyasha, the young man gave him a curt nod. It changed things up, Kagome’s safety was more important than whatever he thought of the hanyou.

“He’s probably also going to be working with the police to help them catch these men.”

“Men? But they said on the news it’s only one!”

“Kagome was attacked by two thugs, and Inuyasha believes they are the same ones that got the kids on the alley, we were there. You did hear the news Saturday?”

“Yes daughter, I did. Poor souls I’ll pray for their rest,” the old man said.

“Right now we better hurry because we have an appointment with Detective Nomura who’s in charge of the investigation.”

“But he’s a demon! And with those clothes it’s going to get quite suspicious.”

“I took care of that Jii-chan; I bought him some modern clothes. Inuyasha why don’t you go change? I’ll reheat breakfast and leave after we eat,” she told him and he again agreed with a nod.

He felt awkward just sitting there in the middle of a family quarrel the object of which was his presence. This time common sense, not that he had that much of it, told him it was better to remain quiet. Besides, he had too many things to sort up in his mind. His findings at the cave were disturbing and confusing, hard to believe even for him, who was used to strange things happening all around. It had taken the young man almost all night to go through just ‘half’ the scroll; having to backtrack many times to make sure he was not confusing the characters. He really did need some help remembering what he had been taught about reading and writing.

By the time daylight began filtering inside the cave, he had the worst headache of his life, and felt so confused he really did not know what to believe anymore. The part of the scroll he read gave him some instructions that sounded sensible, unfortunately there were almost no explanations, so he spent some time searching for three of the items it described and that he should take back with him. A black lacquered box, a back pack thing much like Kagome’s but black; inside he placed those as well as the rest of the scrolls, the frames, the book… his mother’s spell book, and a bulky yellow thing called a ‘Manila folder’ to be given to the human helping him; how did the person who wrote it knew there was a human helping him puzzled the hanyou. It was hard to believe the writer was who it said it was, so he decided to remain skeptical. Once done he retraced his steps back to the shrine.

“You bought him clothes? Isn’t it enough that we have to feed him? We can’t affor…”

“Jii-chan, come on! Not that again!” Asami said with a sigh, shaking her head.

In some ways the old man could be as outdated as one of Inuyasha’s contemporaries. He never understood his youngest son’s chosen profession, financial consultant, when he’d wanted him to become a shrine priest just like he was. Yushiro was stubborn and knew what he wanted so he’d managed to get a scholarship after high school to study at a prestigious university in America. He even worked in Wall Street before coming back to Japan. It was there that he met his best friends and later partners, Ryoutou[1] and Sessho, both as uncannily good at finances as he was.

When Yushiro died, she and her kids were left as heirs to his holdings at the firm he co-founded with his friends. It was one of the best in Japan and both his partners handled it well. So she did not have to worry about money probably for the rest of hers and her children’s life. They could have moved to a more exclusive part of Tokyo, but the shrine held many dear memories, none of Jii-chan’s other sons were willing to live there and take care of him, and she thought it was a nice place to raise her children, so they stayed.

“Yushiro left us enough money to live well Jii-chan. The firm is better than ever now, even after Ryoutou died last year. Having Inuyasha around is no problem. Besides, I’m taking him in, this will be his ‘official’ home and I’ll be assuming the responsibility of being his guardian.”

“Don’t be fooled by his youthful looks Asami, that demon…”

“Half-demon,” she stressed, “he is also human.”

“Well whatever, he is probably older than you.”

“Actually no, he is Kagome’s age,” that got her a disbelieving harrumph from the old man. “So for all purposes he is a HUMAN TEEN, not a demon. He lives here and we are his foster family. Understood Jii-chan?” She had to make these things clear; detective Nomura would be paying them a visit later in the afternoon to interview Kagome. He would probably even call looking for the young man. It would be no good having her father in law refer to him as ‘that demon’ or say he lived down the well in the Sengoku Jidai. “Besides can you be a little more civil to him? There is really no need to be rude.” She also had to talk to Sota about it, but she knew there was no problem there; her youngest thought Inuyasha was the coolest guy walking on earth.

“He’s not civil to me either.”

“I’ll talk to him Ok?” He just nodded; he knew that when his daughter in law got into one of her protective motherly modes, there was no way to go against her. Obviously she had decided to take the dog-demon under her wing; he wondered why? A demon did not need protection.

“You don’t have to worry about providing for me Higurashi-sama,” Inuyasha said from the door. His tone was ice cold, his posture stiff. He obviously heard her father in law’s comments. She saw he carried a back pack she did not recall buying.

“It’s Ok; another mouth at home won’t even put a dent in my purse. I told you I’ll take those responsibilities from you Inuyasha, I meant it.”

“Here, you can sell these as payment,” the hanyou ignored her comment. The scroll’s writer had been right; he needed the contents of the box. “I told you I have always provided for myself.” He handed the Higurashi woman a beautifully crafted black lacquered box. The thing was quite heavy so she put the box on the table. When she opened it, Asami saw it filled to the brim with exquisite jewelry.

“My!” She gasped, taking out a beautiful gold necklace with diamonds and rubies, it was heavy. The Higurashi grand father stared at it sparkling on his daughter in law’s hand sure the thing would cost a small fortune. “This is beautiful! Really Inuyasha, it’s not necessary…”

“Where did you get all those?” Suspicion colored the old man’s voice. Again the young dog-demon cringed, this time offended. He was no thief… Well… the Shikon no Tama was the exception.

“I went to my cave last night,” he explained. “I keep some stuff there; those were part of Ofukuro’s dowry. When she died they became mine.” He answered taking his mug of coffee, refilling and fixing it the way he liked before going to sit at the table.

“I can’t sell these! They must have some sentimental value.”

“They don’t,” he replied curtly. “She never wore them… she preferred the ones Oyaji gave her, and even then she didn’t like wearing jewels. When I was a pup she told me I could sell them if I ever needed… But I had no need…” He made a pause, his eyes clouded for a moment and unconsciously shook himself, those things brought back some memories he rather keep buried back where they were. “So I forgot about them.”

“You’re sure about selling them?” He nodded. “Ok I’ll see what I can do, although I don’t think it’ll be necessary to get rid of all of them. This necklace alone should be enough to get you a small fortune. You keep the rest, if there is need we’ll sell something else.” She gave him the box back but kept the necklace.

“Ok, is it that valuable?” He asked surprised, he’d been told long ago they were just trinkets. Asami nodded and this time looked at him, her mouth gaped and for a moment the only thing she could do was stare at the hanyou until she finally got her voice back.

“Your ears! What happened to your ears?” She exclaimed when she finally noticed they were missing, a look at his hands showed them devoid of claws and looking quite human.

“It works! It works!” He exclaimed excitedly, looking like a little kid with a new toy, a big cocky grin on his face. Asami saw that he had no fangs either.

“What works?” Jii-chan asked also noticing the changes in him; the kid didn’t look so demonic now, even though he still had his odd golden eyes and white hair.

“The concealing spell I found in Ofukuro’s book.” Inuyasha was still exited, that much he’d made sense of the scroll; it suggested that he might want to use the spell. It wasn’t hard at all once he was able to read through the instructions.

“Your mother’s spell book?” Asami asked surprised.

“I think it only half worked boy, your hair and eyes are still strange looking.” The old man pointed out.

“Ofukuro was a Hime and had strong Miko powers, Oyaji was a Taiyoukai.” He explained. Then went on saying to Kagome’s grand father, who almost choked at hearing he was the son of a Demon Lord and a princess with spiritual powers, the old man would not have thought the ‘demon’ had that kind of lineage. “I couldn’t conceal those, the ‘police man’ saw me. If I appear today looking like I do when I’m human it would surely look strange.” He wore the smuggest grin the old man had seen in his long years.

They finished breakfast and both human and hanyou left toward the police precinct. Asami decided the night before she better start introducing the young man to some of the other means of transportation on her time. So instead of using the car, they walked toward the subway. On the way she carefully explained all she could about it, making sure he knew the address of the shrine, which stop would leave him close, having him memorize the phone and how to use a payphone (just like you do with small kids) in case he got lost, although he would probably try to locate Kagome’s scent to find his way back.

Inuyasha had little trouble reading the big signs for directions, although he did it like a pre-schooler or a first grader would, slowly and syllable by syllable. But for some reason, everything in small print became another matter whatsoever; he just could not figure them out as well. Still, Asami wrote the directions for him, including her cell phone. Making the young man promise to work on improving his reading skills and not just use it as an excuse to be at that time. If Kagome asked, he should have something to show for the time ‘supposedly’ spent at her home.

No matter how much she had explained about the subway, he was not prepared for what he found the moment they went into the station. His senses went into overdrive, too many people, and too many scents. He even thought some belonged to several types of demons and hanyous, but that was not possible! So many strange loud noises and unknown sights in such a confined space, it was still rush hour in Tokyo. For the first time in his entire life he panicked, unable to deal with the assault to his sensitive senses. His hand moved to his side for the comfort of his katana, but he left Tetsusaiga at the shrine. The hanyou stood frozen eyes darting wildly, mind reeling, beginning to sweat nervously, completely disoriented and to top it he felt like there was no air and just could not breathe!

Asami kept walking and talking unaware the young man was not at her side, until she reached the ticked stand. Worried she looked back to find him rooted to a spot near the doors in the middle of the throngs of people coming in, a wild cornered look on his face and about to bolt away any minute. She rushed to his side silently berating herself for bringing him in. The subway was always a chaotic experience even for those who had lived in that time for years.

“Inuyasha,” she called softly grabbing a hold of his wrist to pull him out of the way. He almost jumped out of his skin, but he recognized her and let the woman lead him out of the way toward one of the walls were he sat on a bench. He was shaking, breathing rapidly, he would probably hyperventilate and faint if he did not grab a hold of himself. “It’s Ok, come on take a deep breath.”

“I can’t! I can’t breathe!” He was beginning to see spots and feel dizzy.

“Yes you can! Now take a deep breath.” He shook his head as his senses continued to take in the throngs of people and the scent of a couple of demons he could not see, moving in such an enclosed space.

“No! No I can’t!” His eyes darted wildly all over the station.

“Inuyasha look at me!” She said in a more forceful tone grabbing both his wrists to force him to focus his attention away from the rivers of people moving about. She worried that he might still bolt and harm not only himself but others in his need to get away. Thankfully he obeyed. “Good, now do as I do one deep breath.”

She demonstrated and he tentatively took one, followed by others as she coaxed him, until he was able to breathe normally. He looked very much like a frightened child, and without really thinking she hugged him like she would do Sota when he was scared, murmuring comforting words and apologizing for not thinking. He let himself be held, reminded of his mother. She would hold him just like that when he had nightmares, or people were mean to him. It had been so long since he had felt comforted like that, Kagome sometimes tried but he rarely allowed her.

His trembling slowly abated and he pulled away unable to look at Kagome’s mother feeling ashamed and angry with himself for that display of weakness. He was supposed to protect her daughter, but now she probably would dismiss him. How could he after freaking out, he now understood the phrase, like this? Higurashi-sama might not want Kagome to go back with him to hunt for shards. How could she trust him to keep her safe after this? The young hanyou placed his face in his hands.

“It’s Ok Inuyasha,” she said in a comforting tone. “I’m sorry for bringing you here. I guess it was too soon.”

‘Am I hearing right? She’s apologizing?’ He thought bewildered. ‘But it’s not her fault! I was too weak to control my senses. The scroll warned me about places like this and demons living among humans in disguise. It said most were not really dangerous anymore.’

“It’s not your fault Higurashi-sama,” he finally said still without looking at her.

“Of course it is! I know this place is chaotic during rush hour, even those of us who have used it for a long time, get a bit claustrophobic…”

“Claustrophobic?”

“It’s the name for a condition when people can’t stand to be in enclosed spaces. There are many who suffer it, and even those of us who don’t have it tend to feel uneasy when it’s so crowded.”

“I am sorry,” he apologized. “I… there were too many… I…” he was still unable to face her.

“No Inuyasha, don’t apologize,” she patted his head comfortingly.

‘She reminds me of Ofukuro too much, she treats me kindly, almost like I was another… son.’ Inuyasha thought a surprised, not really able to understand why this human treated him like that when she barely knew him. No one had before… with the exception of Kagome. Kykyou did, but only after some time not in the beginning.

“I should have known. You are used to open spaces and there’s a lot less people in your time. Please forgive me for putting you through this. Are you feeling better now?” He nodded and finally looked at her, still a bit worried that he might find rejection in her face, but there was only sincere regret and concern. “Then let’s go we’ll take the car instead.”

“No,” he shook his head. “Kagome uses this ‘subway’ right?”

“Yes, she does. Most young people for that matter, it’s fast and not so expensive.”

“Then I will learn to use it too,” he said with determination.

She was surprised, the kid was really something. Most people would shy from the experience and head away from it. He was willing to face it again and overcome it. But then remembering what she knew about his life, she realized that if he had not had that kind of attitude he would probably be dead now. He had to beat his fears or at least be able to hold them at bay to survive. Inuyasha was not a quitter, and she liked that attitude in the kids she counseled. When guided in the proper direction, most of them left their terrible childhoods in the past and achieved what they wanted in life.

Kagome arrived at school barely on time and that was a help, it did not give her nosy friends a chance to ask about the bruises on her face and legs. Still, Arumi gave her a look that said she better explain or she would never find peace again. The young Miko sighed thinking about what could she possibly tell them? Obviously not the truth, she did not want to talk about it. It disturbed her so much and made her wonder if she was not really overreacting, nothing really happened. He groped her more roughly than Miroku would, much more and in places the lecherous priest had yet to reach. But that was it, only a rough groping. She shuddered and Eri asked if she was all right.

“Yeah don’t worry, just a draft. It’s getting colder.” She said and tried to concentrate on the chemical formulae the teacher was scribbling on the blackboard.

Class was over in a flash, it was not that bad since she attended the week before and knew this time what the teacher was talking about. As soon as the Sensei left the room she was surrounded by her trio of friends. No chance of escaping.

“What happened? It looks like you took a beating!” Arumi asked going straight to the point.

“Er… I tripped over Buyo going up the shrine’s stairs Friday.”

“You tripped?” Yuka eyed her dubiously.

“Yeah, I tripped. It was dark and I was rather in a hurry to go back, and well, Buyo some times gets this crazy urge to twine around your legs while you walk.” She shrugged, her lie sounded convincing. Besides, her lazy cat did have that crazy spell every once in a while.

“Did you hear the news Kagome? Someone was attacked in the park,” Yuka asked.

“Yeah the park killer… They said in the news that since this girl escaped he went on a rage and killed those four kids later. Scary don’t you think?” Arumi agreed with a shudder.

“What a psycho! I wonder why the police can’t capture him. It makes me scared to go out at night,” Eri said, and then looked at Kagome closely taking in her bruises. A concerned look appeared on her face. “It was you wasn’t it Kagome-chan?”

“WHAT?!” Kagome’s eyes almost bugged out of her head.

“It was you the one attacked in the park. You have to go through to get back to the shrine,” everyone stared first at Eri and then at Kagome.

“No! No, really it wasn’t me,” Kagome exclaimed a bit nervously, but then got a hold of herself. “You have such an imagination Eri-chan! I told you I fell going up the shrine’s stairs. At night, I always go around the park never through,” Eri looked like she did not believe her, but did not comment anymore.

“Anyway Kagome who was that absolutely, completely and totally HOT guy that was with you and your Okaa-san yesterday?” Yuka asked all starry eyed.

“Huh?” For a moment she did not register what the question was.

“I saw you at the mall, then at the skateboard place where Dayu hangs out.”

“HOT guy? You went out with a hot guy?” Eri asked obviously surprised and angry that her friend had not told them.

“And you didn’t tell us!” Arumi echoed.

“Hot… guy?” Kagome asked thoughtfully still not getting who they were talking about then…

‘Kyaaa! Inuyasha! Kami-sama! Yuka saw us yesterday! Eeeek! How am I going to explain him? I just knew it wasn’t a good idea. And what’s with Yuka’s face?’ She thought jealousy crawling into her feelings. She directed a none too friendly look toward her friend. ‘She thinks he’s hot?’

“Grrrrr” She unconsciously growled aloud. The young woman probably picked this from the hanyou. Her friends looked at her a bit startled; Kagome did not look very friendly at the moment. Yuka was a flirt, and she did not want another woman after Inuyasha. There were enough the day before.

‘Well… He did look HOT yesterday wearing modern clothes,’ she admitted to herself while blushing a bit.

<Flashback>

“Mama I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Kagome commented, as she walked down the stairs.

“Why not? It’s Sunday and I have no desire to cook today.”

“I don’t mean going out for breakfast.”

“Are you suggesting that we leave him here?”

“No… I mean, he’ll probably won’t behave and cause a mess. And you have made it perfectly clear that I’m not to say the ‘S’ word in public. If he starts being his normal stubborn self, how are we going to control him?”

“He promised to behave,” Asami said in matter of fact tone.

“And you believe it?” There was clearly disbelief in her tone. “Besides how are we going to explain his outdated clothes, ears and Tetsusaiga?”

“Those are easier to explain than a ‘sit’. Don’t you think?” She asked with a smile. “But don’t worry; I got him some modern clothes yesterday,” her mother said casually.

“You what?”

“I got him some modern clothes yesterday. Since he has to stay here today, I thought it might be a good idea to go out and let him see Tokyo.” Asami said in a logical tone, like it was the most normal thing in the world to take out a dog-demon for breakfast. Kagome groaned, it was no use trying to talk her mother out of it once she made up her mind.

Inuyasha came out of the guest room wearing a pair of jeans that fit him perfectly; a black long sleeved jersey with some interesting designs in tones of red at the front, and black cap covered his ears, the visor at the back. His silvery mane was neatly combed and tied in a ponytail with a leather band, including his bangs, and on his eyes he wore sunglasses.

‘Oakley? He gets imported Oakley sunglasses? Aaarrrggg! What has he done to deserve them? I’ve been after Mama to get me a pair! It’s not fair!’ Kagome thought annoyed. But once his general appearance caught her attention, the annoyance evaporated and she just gaped and stared for what appeared to be an eternity, until the young man began to shuffle his feet uncomfortably, and asked what she never thought he would in a tone of voice she also never thought cocky, over confident Inuyasha could ever use.

“Do I look so bad?” His voice was colored with uncertainty. Her jaw dropped to the floor and back, very bungy like.

“N… N… No.” She squeaked, then gathering her wits she added. “You look good… VERY GOOD… Really, really good… extremely good! Actually hot would be a better description…” Or at least she believed she had, obviously that had not been the case. Her eyes had roved his lithe form from head to toes. She was not really aware yet of what she said.

‘Did I hear her right?’ A slightly confused Inuyasha thought, blushing a fiery shade of red. ‘Kagome is acting weird.’

“Erh… hum… Thanks.” He managed to say, his blush not fading.

‘My! He is soooo good looking in modern clothes! HOT! Yeah hot is better,’ He made his way to the door and her roving eyes settled on his very hard and very nice ass. ‘Wow! I definitely need to convince him to stop using those pillow-like trousers of his; they hide such a nice view.’ She stood rooted to her spot after he put on his sneakers and went out.

“Darling you should stop drooling and close your mouth,” Her mother said in a teasing manner, her finger actually closing her mouth.

‘Eeeeeeeeeeek! Mama saw me staring at his ass! How embarrassing! Oh my! Oh my! She heard me babble like an idiot. Worst! I actually babbled that to Inuyasha! Come on earth open up and swallow me please!’ Kagome had the decency to blush deep crimson as she went out where Inuyasha was waiting impatiently.

“Oi wench I’m starving can’t you hurry up?” He leaned on Tetsusaiga using it like a walking cane. She had cleaned the bullet wound earlier, it was healing, but she was really surprised that it was taking so long to heal. He still had a limp, and being his stubborn self he tried to hide that it also still hurt a lot.

‘Ah if he only didn’t have to open that foul and grumpy mouth of his everything would have been perfect.’ She thought wistfully.

They ended going to an IHOP [2] since Asami wanted something different for breakfast. As soon as they walked through the door Inuyasha’s nose went wild, same as his eyes that darted every which way taking in all the food on tables, being carried and even the one being prepared. For a moment the Higurashi woman thought that perhaps her daughter had been right, he had a slightly food crazy and hungry look. Surprisingly enough, he managed to contain himself from jumping and grabbing the food from the first unsuspecting waitress that happened to pass his way, contenting himself instead with asking what everything was.

He ate like a pig; and not because of his manners which he took care to mind after receiving some warning glances from both Kagome and her mother; but because he had the largest stack of pancakes on the menu; literally drowned in maple syrup after he’d smelled and tasted the other kinds of syrups; the largest egg combo, and enough orange juice and coffee for a football team. He wore such a blissful expression as he ate the likes of which the young Miko had never seen. At the moment he was one very happy inu-youkai.

“Yuck! How can you eat that?”

“This?” He asked cramming some more drowned pancakes in his already full mouth, then washing everything down with a large gulp of coffee. “It’s sooo good!” More food went in and he said as he munched happily. “You gotta bring Shippou, he’ll love it.” That got him another warning glare and he gulped everything down, finished the rest of his coffee and found out the carafe was empty.

That day he finally understood with a mighty weapon Shippou’s cute puppy face was, and used it to his advantage. Since he managed to have half the female staff of the restaurant at his beck and call, he directed a cute puppy look at one of the waitresses and signaled the empty carafe, he was instantly given a full one, then he flashed the woman a thankful grin. In return the waitress; a very pretty foreigner; gave him a flirty smile.

He was oblivious to the fact that he was perilously close to being splattered face first on the ground by the jealous girl sitting in front of him. Kagome was utterly annoyed that almost all the female workers of the restaurant and a few from the other tables seemed to think he was hot, some napkins with phone numbers; which she destroyed; ended at their table almost out of thin air. Was she painted or what? They didn’t even look alike, and yet one very pretty girl had asked if he was her brother! She had almost become a very dead girl.

The young woman never thought he’ll have that kind of appeal, of course she liked him; a lot to be truthful; Kykyo liked him too, but somehow it didn’t cross her mind that other women might find him attractive too. And it was getting on her nerves, for a moment she even thought of taking his cap off and saying ‘Look he is a demon!’ to scare them away, thankfully she refrained. If he had some interested girls now imagine what would happen if they saw his cute fuzzy ears. They’ll be all over the hanyou trying to feel them, at least she; Kagome; was the only one he allowed to touch his sensitive ears.

Inuyasha too wondered about all the attention he was getting, and at first he’d been put off not really understanding what the fuss was all about. Never in his life had the thought that women might like him looking like a hanyou crossed his mind. Not even Kykyo since she wanted him to become human, and only recently had he secretly begun to wish that Kagome liked him.

These couple of days she had complimented his looks, yet he didn’t want to raise his hopes, it’ll be painful if it wasn’t true. But he was male and young, and his ego wasn’t that small to begin with, so it didn’t take the hanyou long to understand the advantages of the attention he was receiving when he saw the envious looks from some teens about his age on other tables. Yeah! He had something they didn’t. A couple of those women attending him were very pretty and foreign no to mention the one sitting with him. Not that he had eyes for any other besides Kagome… and well probably Kykyo too.

After that both Higurashi women had to deal with a cocky dog-demon on a sugar and caffeine high. He became hyper-active; that was to be expected of course; but the other side effect was something neither woman had anticipated… Inuyasha just could not shut up, he shot question after question about anything and everything that caught his attention, finally letting his immense curiosity surface.

Since he had never been to a place even remotely like a mall, both Kagome and Asami were hard pressed into answering the curious hanyou, following him from store to store examining things. They also had to keep him from sniffing, tasting and trying to pull things apart to figure out what they were. His looks and antics again caught the attention of the fairer sex, with more than a couple of the most daring slipping phone numbers into his hands. Kagome had trouble to keep from hitting every girl that dared look his way.

Overall it had been a very tiring and interesting day, especially after Inuyasha decided he wanted one of those planks with wheels that many guys were riding on. A skateboard, man! he could be such a child sometimes. There had been no way to convince him he did not need one. The worst thing was that he tried his recently discovered puppy dog look on her mother, and it worked. Kagome felt like ‘Sitting’ him a few times. In the end he would get the thing on the condition that he proved he could use it.

Her mother had not listened to her advice that the condition was almost like a challenge. And Inuyasha, being who he was, never turned away from one. He was also very stubborn, and demon with excellent reflexes. The hanyou was also still high on sugar and caffeine, which were making him act way too crazy for his own good. Knowing all that, if her mother had meant to dissuade him, she just took the wrong approach.

He got his skateboard of course, but it was not as easy as he thought, since his leg was not all right yet. The first time he placed his foot on one, he ended flying into the air feet first, and he landed with a loud thud and much cursing on his butt. The second was no better, he flew again but this time went face first. It took him about an hour to finally get the gist of riding without falling, crashing, running into people and almost destroying half the store and one of the trash cans in the parking lot when he zipped out the doors. He used too much force on his impulse.

After that collision, a guy named Dayu, the same Dayu that was Yuka’s twin, introduced himself. He taught the young man a few tricks. Inuyasha picked them with ease, once he saw what he had to do. He learned to fight that way, watching samurai and other demons fight, and then copying the movements. By the time they left the store, he had become quite good with the tricks. He saw other kids doing different stuff and there was no doubt he would try them later. And the insufferable hanyou also got himself an invitation to go practice with Dayu and some friends at the Sakura Park.

<End Flashback>

“Inuyasha you’re a jerk!” Kagome muttered.

They had all seen the looks that crossed her face and correctly guessed who he was, undoubtedly that two-timing guy she loved. The growl had been enough of course, she had sounded so jealous! Kagome complained that he was possessive; in their eyes she had just matched that statement too. But it surprised them to hear his name; she had never mentioned it before. Most of the time she just referred to him as ‘jerk’ adding variations or other descriptions like ‘selfish’, ‘overprotective’, ‘insensitive’, and so on.

“Is he really that hot Yuka-chan?” Eri asked her really curious, since Kagome seemed to still be lost somewhere.

“You bet girl! Hojo-kun never had a chance! He’s cute but this guy could easily be poster material.”

“Wow! What does he look like?” Eri was moving impatiently, shaking Yuka’s arm to make her speak.

“Earth to Kagome-chan! Earth to Kagome-chan!” Yuka called ignoring Eri and passing a hand in front of the girl’s eyes. Kagome came back and blushed a deep crimson.

“Sorry guys.”

“Come on spill it out Yuka-chan! What does he look like?” Arumi asked impatiently seeing her friend’s mischievous smile.

“He’s about this tall,” she said raising her hand at least a head and ½ above her own. “Great, I mean really great body. Best ass I’ve seen,” she was actually beginning to drool. “The most beautiful long hair you can imagine. And it’s such a rare color: Silvery white, amber eyes… man he’s handsome. I wouldn’t mind if a guy like that two-timed on me,” that comment made Kagome blush even redder.

“How come you never told us this Inuyasha, really odd name for a guy, was such a handsome guy?”

“How do you know his name?” Kagome asked defensively. Perhaps Yuka had been one of those who slipped her phone number to him when she was not looking; her friend was quite the flirt. But she dismissed the thought, believing she was starting to get paranoid.

“Girl you were really out of it, you just said it,” Arumi commented

“Kagome-chan you must really introduce him to us!”

“Yeah I gotta see what you see in him!” Just then the math sensei came in and all talk about Inuyasha was temporarily put aside.

Inuyasha managed to go over his initial panic paying close attention to his surroundings and doing his best to ignore the people but specially the demon scent; as really no demon had come charging to attack him; by the time he reached the subway car he acted like he’d been using the thing for most of his life. Inwardly he felt a bit intimidated by the car’s automatic doors; they looked like gaping demonic mouths.

He decided to tell Asami what he found in his cave, the scrolls addressed to him, the other stuff and his mother’s spell book. That puzzled her, back in the warring states period books did not exist in Japan, all writing was done in rice paper scrolls. He agreed, saying that although the book was old it was not made in his time. The first scroll he read had explained very little and only gave him several instructions to follow. Some of which he’d already followed, but there was one that confused him. It told him to have his eyes checked; something about pure white dog-demons having some kind of birth defect; and if needed get a contraption called eye glasses before he even attempted to go on reading the other stuff.

“Have your eyes checked?” Asami was stupefied.

“Yes, that’s what it said.”

“Well…” She began thoughtfully. “That could easily explain why you have trouble with the small print… It’s so obvious, but with you being…” She stopped before saying he was a demon; there were too many people in the subway car. An old woman beside her leaned closer to hear, she apparently was finding their conversation quite interesting.

“Do you mind baba? We are having a private conversation.” He told the woman, looking none to friendly.

“Inuyasha it’s not polite to address senior citizens that way.”

“Feh!”

“You should apologize.” The old woman gave him a smug look.

“I’m NOT apologizing! She should mind her own business. It’s not polite to listen to private conversations either.” He glared at the hag through narrowed eyes.

“Yes you’re right. Would you mind Obaa-san? This really concerns only us.” She said politely. The old woman shrugged and turned away, not without glaring at Inuyasha, who returned it. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible for you to need glasses, but… the fact is you can’t read small print.”

“Feh! It’s not possible!” He said with utter conviction. “I probably just need to practice reading more. I barely remembered what Ofukuro taught me, besides what are these ‘eye glasses’ thingies anyway.”

And so she started explaining what they were and what they were for. Since the car was so full of people he got to see many wearing the contraption that had as many different forms as the humans who wore them. Asami told him that if they had time that day she’ll take him to get examined, if not the next. He did not like how it sounded, like he had some kind of odd disease or something. Anyway he was still skeptical about the scroll, even if so far it had been correct in its suggestions. He really couldn’t believe that this time it was his youkai blood that had a weakness, when it always was his human side that made him ‘weak’.

‘But… There are pictures that prove it.’ That annoying little voice in the back of his mind reminded him. ‘There’s proof.’ He growled to himself, it just went against everything he had believed and experienced so far to think his youkai blood had a problem.

They reached their station and went off; the police precinct only a couple of blocks away. As they walked Asami handed him a strange thing she called ‘wallet’, Inuyasha peered at it and sniffed. The faint scent of the paper things called ‘money’ came from it; he’d been introduced to this time currency the day before at the ‘mall’ place. At his inquiring glance, she explained that he might need some ‘money’ to buy himself lunch or something to drink, besides he might have to pay for the subway ticket in case the detective didn’t give him a ride back to the shrine.

The police station was a large building 5 stories high; it was full of humans dressed in strange clothes. Asami explained that they were uniforms and used to distinguish the police officers from the rest of the people. Inuyasha pointed out that the ‘Nomura’ policeman had not been wearing that type of clothes; she told him that some didn’t because of their higher rank. Thankfully he did not ask for more explanations, she probably couldn’t give him one. Inside they had to leave their full names, and Inuyasha was aware that again the scroll was right, he needed a family name. Asami was about to give his as Higurashi when he went ahead and stated to the officer.

“Shirosenshi[3], Inuyasha Shirosenshi.” The man punched some set of odd things that made a clacking noise.

After hearing the whirring of some machine that left an odd inky scent, he was presented with a piece of paper with characters inside a clear and unfamiliar plastic stuff. He took it not wanting to appear ignorant, and then noticed the man wore a similar thing stuck to his clothes. So trying to look as if he’d done it all his life he managed to stick the thing to his trousers waist line. Then they were instructed to take the ‘el-e-va-tor’ to the fifth floor. Detective Nomura’s office was to their right then going all the way to the end of the hall. Once they moved from the desk Asami couldn’t help but ask.

“Shirosenshi? Where did you get that name?” It was not common and both she and her husband had known a Shirosenshi family.

“The scroll said I could use it.” He frowned. “In fact it said it was my family’s name.” He scratched his head a bit puzzled. “That thing left more questions than answers, although so far it’s been right.”

“Maybe you’ll begin getting answers as you read on.” She led him into the elevator and saw him take a deep breath and steeling himself as he got inside another strange machine.

The ride up was fast, and they came into a large noisy room filled with cubicles, lots of people and at least a couple of demons, which only served to put Inuyasha on edge. She started moving toward her right when the hanyou stopped her. He started sniffing and the Detective’s scent came from the other way, he then caught the whiff of something familiar. The alcoholic beverage the thugs had imbibed. It came from the general area from where the detective’s odor came; so he began moving purposely toward the back of the room, stopping every few cubicles to sniff confirming his direction.

His antics were strange enough to start calling the attention of the officers on the floor. Many stopped what they were doing to look at the strange kid, the rumor that Nomura was going to use a teen with an exceptional sense of smell to track the park killer had been running around the precinct since the day before. So the young man sniffing about the place, with a very embarrassed woman tagging along, must be the one.

Someone had the courtesy to inform Detective Nomura and he came out of his office followed by Watanabe to find Inuyasha sniffing the air only a few cubicles from his office, he expected the kid to head straight in his direction. But instead he dove into Detective Fukasawa’s place, making the officer yelp in surprise at finding a very determined young man sniffing around and then without hesitation open the lower drawer of his file cabinet and pull from the back of it his two bottles of whiskey. He sniffed one, then the other before the stupefied man, then triumphantly selected one and said.

“This is the one,” Nomura came into view then, looking none too pleased.

“Kid what the hell is this all about?”

“This is the thing those thugs drank.” He gave him a bottle of Whiskey, a few eyes widened in surprise including Nomura’s. That was indeed the brand of the bottle found at the site of the attack. Only those officers who were there that night knew about that particular piece of evidence.

“And how did you manage to find it in my closed drawer boy?” Detective Fukasawa asked finally recovering from his surprise. He was annoyed that a kid had found his secret cache.

“I’m no boy ‘police man’” Inuyasha stated, looking none to friendly.

“Whatever. How did you know it was there? No one did!”

“The stench reaches all the way to the elevator.” He pronounced the last word carefully hoping no one noticed it was unfamiliar to him. “How could anyone miss it?”

“Stench?” A man peering from over the panel asked. “Boy I’m right beside him and I didn’t smell a thing!” Inuyasha growled low at the man for calling him boy and it got him curious looks from the others who were also peering inside the cramped cubicle.

“Stinking as you do of smoke, it’s no wonder you can’t smell at all,” Inuyasha retorted.

“Hey! I don’t stink!”

“Erizawa-kun you smoke?” The cubicle owner asked surprised.

“Er… Yeah I do. But I never smoke more than 4 cigarettes a day.”

“So this is the ‘prodigy kid’ who’s going to help you crack the ‘park killer’s’ case?” Fukasawa asked.

“I thought you’ve finally gone nuts Seijuro-kun when I heard the rumor earlier,” Someone said from behind the detective. “But this was pretty impressive. You might still catch the man.”

Nomura just shook his head, he had wanted to keep Inuyasha’s involvement as quiet as possible, but someone had gotten a hold of the information and with the kid’s performance there was no way to do that anymore.

“Please come this way Higurashi-san. And every body else come on, back to work this is not a show,” he told Asami signaling for her to follow. “You too kid I want you to meet my partner.”

“I’m not a kid!” He snapped.

“Yeah right.”

Just then Inuyasha saw him, standing outside the door that seemed to be their destination. Acting more on impulse than rational thought, he swiftly placed himself in a protective stance before Higurashi-sama. It was just like he did with Kagome, his hand again going to his side only to remember he was not carrying Tetsusaiga. His knuckles cracked and a low menacing growl could be heard coming from him.

To Detective Nomura utter surprise his partner Watanabe Kojiro assumed a defensive posture, and let out a low cat like hiss that he had never heard the other man utter before. He watched the kid intently ready to react as soon as there was movement. The dislike between those two was obvious, and it was attracting everyone’s attention again.

“Do you know each other?” He finally asked. Watanabe was the first to snap out of whatever trance he had been in, and assumed a less threatening posture. He was, in a way, inviting the dog-demon in front of him to do the same.

“Inuyasha?” Asami asked in a tone of voice that reminded him of Kagome, so he too snapped out of it and relaxed his stance only a fraction.

“No, but I know his kind,” Inuyasha said very softly, for her ears only. She knew then that the young man in front of her was either a demon or a hanyou.

“Let’s go inside where we can talk,” Seijuro suggested. He went into the office followed by Asami. Inuyasha and Kojiro were last. Once everyone was seated, coffee offered and served, the Lieutenant introduced himself.

“I’m Lieutenant Watanabe Kojiro,” he offered his hand in greeting to Asami as was proper. The young dog-demon was weary, and growled softly in warning. It was understood by the other demon, no tricks, no harming his human. Watanabe sighed, inu-youkai were so possessive.

“Higurashi Asami,” she responded and shook the proffered hand. Next was the dog demon’s turn and the lieutenant, a Neko hanyou, dared him to refuse with his eyes.

“Feh!” The inu-youkai said before he took the proffered hand and shook it firmly accepting the challenge. “Shirosenshi Inuyasha.”

“Nice meeting you,” he said politely and then added. “So you’re to be Nomura’s nose? I’d say your name is quite fitting.”

“Grrrrrrr,” to the young man’s surprise Asami elbowed him, and gave him a look that said he had better stop that behavior. He should not keep on acting like a dog-demon when he had to make people believe he was human. Inuyasha appeared fit to rebel, but in the end subsided. This Neko worked for the ‘police’, among humans, so he could probably be tolerated; even if all his instincts screamed for him to attack.

“Shirosenshi is you family’s name kid?” Inuyasha suspected the kid thing was just to annoy him, yet, he could not avoid being angry. “Why didn’t you tell me Higurashi-san?”

“She didn’t know it,” Inuyasha answered instead. “There had been no need for me to tell her.” Both Nomura and Watanabe bore inquiring faces, but he forwarded nothing more.

“Hmmm… Somehow your whole name sounds familiar…” The detective expression was thoughtful. “I’ll remember later. Anyway, ready to take the tests?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“If it isn’t much trouble, can you tell me what these tests are going to be about?” Asami asked.

“It’ll be two sets of tests,” Kojiro began explaining. He was after all who arranged everything while Nomura talked to the chief. “One will be at Tokyo University. There is a group of scientists that developed some benchmarks to measure the acuteness of someone’s sense of smell. With what I just witnessed, I’m sure the kid is going to come off the scale. These tests are widely accepted, and on occasions have been used to support blind people’s testimonies in court.” Asami nodded, she seemed to understand what was said even if the young hanyou had absolutely no idea. But, since she did not object, he was sure it was alright. “The other is more of a comparison set of tests. We need a reference, and we’ll get that by comparing his ability to that of our best trackers.”

“Dogs,” Inuyasha said sounding quite displeased.

“Yes, dogs. We have no other way to compare or to really prove what you can do,” Nomura said. “You’ll be coming with us Higurashi-san?”

“No Detective, I’ll be running some errands today and working on getting Inuyasha’s custody.”

“I see. I talked to my Captain about the kid’s…”

“Grrrrrrr”

“If you keep growling I’ll start to believe you are more dog than human,” Kojiro said looking at the hanyou. It had the desired effect, the young demon before him stopped growling, and would probably start watching himself every time he felt like it.

‘I wonder where he came from,’ the Neko hanyou thought. ‘He seems too wild to have been around civilization for long. But most, if not all inu-youkai live in cities, and are used to mingle among other types of youkai. He was surprised to see me. I’ll have to talk privately with this pup.”

“As I was saying, I talked to the Captain about the kid’s situation. Even though it’s a bit irregular, he agreed to accept you as his temporal guardian until you get his custody. So I need you to sign some consent papers,” he said showing her what she had to sign. “We’ll also be at the shrine later today to talk to you daughter. Our artist, Miss Kazumi Yamamoto, will accompany us to get the sketches. Then, as I promised, we won’t talk to her again.”

“We’ll wait…” Asami began saying, before she was interrupted.

“You are not going,” Inuyasha told Kojiro firmly. That surprised the Neko-youkai. Kagome would be scared, she could sense youkai easily, and would probably try to kill him to protect the Shikon no Kakera she had.

“I’m not? Why not?” Kojiro asked, and Inuyasha was left speechless. He could not say it was because Kagome had Miko powers and could see through the concealing spell. She would know what he was the moment he entered the shrine grounds.

“Just don’t go near Kagome!” He snarled and Kojiro raised an eyebrow at his words. This was piquing his natural curiosity.

“Kid come with me, I’ll leave you to settle the paper work Seijuro. We’ll wait for you in the parking lot,” Inuyasha eyed the Neko wearily. “It’s my turn to drive, so hand the keys.” The Detective threw a set of keys to the other man, they were easily caught, and then a larger object flew his way. Kojiro caught it too and examined it. “Tapes? Hey if I drive it’s my turn to play what I want!”

“Forgot to tell you, our usual car is being serviced. This one doesn’t have a CD player,” Nomura said with such an innocent expression, that everyone was sure he ‘forgot’ it on purpose. “It’s parked on our parking slot, dark blue Nissan Maxima.”

“Damn Seijuro! One of these days you’re gonna get it. Besides, we rate a Nissan Maxima but it has no CD?”

“Don’t ask me!” The older man said shrugging.

“Now come with me Inuyasha,” Kojiro said. The hanyou gave a look to Asami for confirmation that she would be fine, the older woman nodded, and he went after the Neko all senses alert.

They walked in silence and took the elevator to the basement, once down, Kojiro took the lead. Inuyasha surveyed the place looking for a possible ambush. The fact that, one, there were too many objects that could hide an attacker. And two, there were enough scents to confuse even a human, made it the perfect place. The fumes of the ‘cars’ were especially disgusting, there were also very few people. Kojiro had chosen it because of the later. It was a better place to have a discrete demon to demon conversation. They reached the car, the lieutenant unlocked it, signaled for Inuyasha to take the back seat and he got into the drivers place.

“Now we can talk without humans around,” Kojiro said, and on the rear view mirror he say the young hanyou give him a distrusting look. “You are not from around here,” the Neko stated, but the young dog-demon remained quiet. “Look I don’t know were you come from, but every pack leader all over the world, not just Japan, knows we agreed not to fight each other, or the humans for that matter, about 200 years ago.” Inuyasha had a surprised look on his face that had a tint of disbelief.

“No one told me anything,” he replied cautiously. This got him a raised eyebrow from Kojiro.

“Come on pup, surely your pack leader must have taught you some history.” The pup thing made the hanyou growl. “Who is your pack leader?” There was no response. “Come on Inuyasha, if I meant to attack you I would surely have done so by now, don’t you think? We are alone down here, and I have a gun. I won’t harm you, why do you think I joined the police? My job is to protect both humans and youkai, of course most humans are not aware of it, but that’s what I do anyway. I catch the bad guys.”

Kojiro could see the younger hanyou was measuring his words, the mistrustful expression still on his face, but not fear, only the kind of alertness of those who constantly live on the edge ready to snap at the least provocation.

“I lived in the forest,” he finally began saying, not really trusting the demon on the front seat, but aware that what he said was surprisingly like what the scroll had told him.

“I know of some groups still living in the forests trying to keep as pure as possible to our roots. But to my knowledge, all dog demons dwell in cities,” the neko hanyou commented. “Still… even those youkai in the forest know about the changes.”

“I’ve been on my own since I was a 5 year old pup, and I’ve been fighting youkai and humans since then. You wouldn’t beat me easily, I’m hard to get.”

“On your own? Fighting youkai and humans? Why would you do such a thing?”

“I’m a hanyou,” he responded as if it explained everything.

“What does that have to do with anything? I’m a hanyou too!” The neko was perplexed, and Inuyasha returned his perplexed look, not really comprehending why he took it so casually.

‘Have things changed so much now that it doesn’t matter anymore if I’m a hanyou? Have demons finally accepted half-breeds?’ He thought confused, and then heard the other hanyou sigh and shake his head.

“I guess I understand… You probably ran into some of those really extreme purists that resist change. And well not many humans know about us… you being a hanyou would have scared them… Pup, you had pretty bad luck, but don’t worry the city folk is quite different.” That got him another surprised look, the distrust was still there, but he could tell the kid had relaxed his guard a bit. “Now, why would you be left alone to fend for yourself in the forest?”

“I rather not talk about that,” Inuyasha said tensely. He wanted to give the impression that it was a private affair. Although the truth was, he really did not know what to say.

“So, why don’t you want me to see this girl?” Kojiro asked deciding to go the kid’s way and change the subject.

“She’ll see what you are.”

“I doubt it. So far, I haven’t met a human that could see through my concealing spell. I have a couple of kitsunes in the family,” at Inuyasha’s inquiring look he explained. “Best tricks around. There is nothing like a kitsune for disguising. My cousins are really good, one’s an actor, the other’s military,” he informed proudly to the younger hanyou.

‘Nekos mixing with kitsunes?’ He wondered, in his time something like that was almost unthinkable. Canine types of youkai did mingle, but felines? ‘This is getting weirder by the second.’

“Kagome can,” he hesitated a bit before adding. “She has very strong Miko powers.”

“Humans with Miko power are rare nowadays,” Kojiro commented. “What about you? Your concealing spell is not strong.” Inuyasha growled again, he was very proud of his spell, and this neko was saying it was weak! “You need more practice pup. Surely if she has Miko powers she’s seen your true form.”

“She knows what I am.”

“So what’s the problem? If she knows about you then I can’t see why it’ll be a problem if we met.”

The neko’s argument was valid. So far, he had not been threatening in any way, he had explained that it was his job to protect both humans and youkai. In fact, he was being quite informative about youkai relations in this time. Perhaps it was not so bad to allow him to do his job, but how could he explain without telling him about the well and the Shikon no Tama?

“Kagome was attacked by a centipede demon…” he finally began saying recounting how he met her but changing a few things. “In the forest where I lived, I… rescued her from this demon. I was not using a concealing spell and neither was the centipede, she didn’t mind me being a hanyou and we became friends. But that’s not the only demon that has attacked her, so she doesn’t trust youkai.”

“So you decided to protect her?” He said rummaging in the cassette bag, muttering a curse and shuddering when he read the label of the first he took out. “Disco? Nomura you’re so dead!” He muttered again.

“Yes, but her attackers are not youkai. What’s this ‘disco’ thing?”

“That’s as much as I found out. They don’t smell like there’s even a trace of demon blood there.” The cop agreed with the young man. “Disco is a type of music; you probably weren’t born when it came, about 20 odd years ago. Man it was awful, I was around then, let’s say it’s not something I like. But Nomura has odd tastes in music.” He kept looking until he found something he liked. “Ah! Pink Floyd! The division bell! Now this is good and not that old.” Inuyasha just raised one eyebrow at the neko, who plugged the cassette thingy into a strange slot in the front of the car, some music started to play, it was soft, like a lament, and he liked it. “Man this is good! I just love this group. I don’t know about you though pup, this is not really something young ones like.”

“I never heard it before, but so far I like.” Somehow, he was not minding that much that Kojiro called him a pup, and he also felt less tense now. He did not trust the hanyou yet, but maybe he could give him a chance to prove he was not one of the bad guys.

“Perhaps if you’re there she won’t feel threatened,” he said returning to the topic of Kagome now that he had something nice to hear in the background. “I still have to see her, it’s my job. Anyway, Nomura says you don’t want her to know you’re involved in the search.”

“I’m not sure it’ll work,” he said after thinking a bit. How was he going to explain his presence to her?

‘Ah the fighting lessons! I can tell her I’m there to teach her to fight, that way I can be there when they arrive! Or that ‘skateboard’ thingy. Hmmm… Wouldn’t mind riding on it, I should try those tricks this Dayu guy taught me,’ he thought pleased to find an answer to that small problem. ‘Thing is… how am I going to keep her from doing something like asking me to kill this guy or she trying to protect the Shikon no Tama?’

“If she knows Kagome will get involved too. Damn wench is too stubborn! Besides it’s dangerous, these humans have already killed 6 women.”

“Actually Inuyasha, the toll is 18 so far, including the ones from Saturday. And not all victims were human.”

“18!” Inuyasha’s eyes went wide open.

‘So many! Why?’ His mind could not understand why a human would do such a thing. Some were evil of course, but this was just too demonic.

“Some were youkai? How?”

“2 youkai teens. Probably too inexperienced since they were around 13 years, 1 hanyou. She was older, at least 20, and I think she gave them a lot of trouble. In the end she was overpowered. She was the worst we’ve encountered; it was really hard to identify her remains.”

‘They were able to overcome a hanyou? The youkai were mere kids, but Kagome is not that strong!’ He wondered. ‘There’s no doubt these men committed both attacks, then how in the seven hells did she manage to escape?’

“I really can’t understand these humans… They act more like those youkai that feed on emotions.”

“No one understands these people pup. But this is not such a rare situation. There have been several serial murderers through out time, and the great majority of them were human. By the way, the emotion eaters became extinct last century, as they also began preying on youkai ignoring the treaties and alliances. They were hunted down and destroyed.”

“I have one question… You’re a neko and should have a pretty good nose, so why aren’t you using it to track these guys?”

“I do have a decent nose, but I have to admit it’s not nearly as accurate as an inu’s. Best noses around, save for kitsunes. We have a few of them in narcotics, and they just love to wear disguises and work undercover. Unfortunately they are not available to help at the moment. And well… I can’t really blow out my identity if all of a sudden I develop this great sense of smell. I knew from the beginning there were two guys, my nose told me so, but I had no way of proving it. That’s were you come in handy pup.”

“I come in handy?” He repeated.

“Yes, no inu-youkai works for the police, at least in Japan. I still haven’t figured out why. But for cases like this, it’s just what we need. I’m glad you’re going to help and we’ll get confirmation of your better sense of smell. Now we can prove ‘my hunch’ about there being two murderers.”

“You say it as if you count already that I’ll pass those tests.”

“You will…” He sniffed then and looked toward the end of the parking lot. “Nomura’s coming. He doesn’t know I’m a hanyou, and as most humans around, he is not aware that we are still around.”

“I’m not telling if you aren’t,” this made Kojiro laugh heartily and Inuyasha grinned. It was surprising he had actually been talking civilly with another hanyou. Somehow this Neko had managed to make him comfortable enough. It was nice for a change, not having to be on the defensive, and worried that someone might attack. Things were really different here than back at his time.

[1] Ryoutou means two swords.

[2] IHOP = International House of Pancakes, my favorite place for breakfast when I go to the United States. I’m not sure there’s one in Japan, there used to be one here in my country (Mexico) but I’m not sure it’s still here. 🙁

[3] Shirosenshi means white warrior (soldier). I just put together the two words probably it’s not the proper way to do it, but I’m just starting to learn Japanese.

[4] After doing some research I found out cats depend more on their sight and ears for hunting, even though they do have a good sense of smell.