InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Adventures in Sunnydale ❯ New Developments and Research ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

Chapter 3: New Developments and Research

"Here's something!" Willow exclaimed.

"…Well?" Zander prompted after a pause.

"Well it says here that Japanese dog youkia are easily identified by their yellow, golden or amber eyes, their strong claws and prominent canine teeth."

"Is that it?" Zander asked.

"It goes on to say that no humans have reported seeing any for almost 500 years... but it seems to fit, I mean there are lots of demons that pop up after centuries of laying low."

"But why would they leave out the ears. That is a pretty big feature." Zander looked up from his book.

"Ah, I've been thinking about that," Willow jumped for another book in the `been through pile', "this book says that … wait …ah here it is!" she rested the book on the table, "While it was rare for the various species of youkia to mix successfully, it happened more often than youkia/human mixes. The product of which was thought to be so undesirable that both of the parents, youkia and human, as well as the child were killed as soon as possible. The half youkia children were easy to identify because, while a youkia has two forms (one human form and one power form from which the name of it's species is derived), the half youkia were born in a form between these two making them look half transformed and impossible to hide."

"Wow." Zander sat back in his chair. "Humans would breed with demons?"

"Zander I think that with his ears he looks pretty half transformed." Willow sat back now too. "Now that I think about it… his face even had a sort of canine look to it. In a… handsome kinda way."

"Excuse me?" Zander started, "Dog-boy was handsome? I didn't know you were into the violent-demon-animal guys!"

"Grow up! I just said he was KINDA handsome. KINDA. As in not too dog like, I guess." Willow defended herself.

*

For the rest of the day InuYasha sat in trees healing and pondering, while Buffy slept through her classes.

InuYasha listened to the inane chatter of the unhurried population of Sunnydale. The ones that had time to spend the day in the park. It annoy him greatly that not a single feature of the folks below resembled the ones back home. Not a single hope of communicating with anyone and getting back to Kagome and the shard hunt, and revenge. Funny how revenge was almost an after thought right now. The third priority instead of the first. Of course if that was true then that would mean that the first priority…

A ball hit him in the head interrupting his train of thought. He quickly tossed the ball away from the tree and moved a safe distance from the field he had been watching.

*

Buffy relayed the fight for Giles, Zander and Willow.

"So he was tough, huh?" Willow asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Buffy lay her head down on the table, "But right at the end he started in on moves and stuff," Yawn, " like he was holding back before."

"So he attacked you, just like that?" Zander asked, "Well I guess that proves he's evil."

"Maybe," Buffy lifted her head, "I just wish I knew what he said before we fought. He didn't get in fighting pose until he had talked for, like, five minutes."

"Well regardless, he is wounded," Giles interrupted, "I would suggest that you rest tonight and renew your search tomorrow night."

Buffy agreed with a yawn and a nod. Then the scoobies filled her in on what they had learned about their new "friend".

*

`*Four days,*' InuYasha thought, staring up at the full moon, `*four fucking useless frustrating days I've been here.*'

He hadn't gotten far. He hung out in the trees healing. Roamed a little at night, but people either ignored him or ran screaming from him. Not that it really mattered, he couldn't communicate with them any way.

He had learned some things. He now knew what was meant by "ball" "Frisbee" "dog" "catch" "hot dog" "hamburger" "litter" and "garbage".

And he was homing in on the differences in "hi" and "Hello". Not that he cared overly much, but it was something to do.

God he missed home. There, he at least knew what people screamed as they ran. There he could grab someone and yell at them and make them answer him. There he knew many places to hide, rest, and bath. Man he wanted a bath. He was too exposed here to take one, and the water smelled kind of funny, and tasted funny too. And he had no soap.

`*I wonder if they notice that I'm gone. Or if they care.*' InuYasha was getting depressed.

*

"Six day and no sign of our favorite dog demon." Buffy examined the carrots. The girls were out shopping for munchies and decided to give produce a try. "I wonder if he went home?"

"I doubt it Buffy, He didn't do anything yet. I mean why come here fight with you and then leave. It wasn't even a decisive battle, you both just kinda left." Willow headed for the fruit.

"Well, he was pulled here by that spell," Buffy reasoned, "he might even be from a different time. What about that, huh? Could he just zap himself back there?"

"Maybe he did." Willow said defensively. She picked up an apple and looked at it. Suddenly, the front dropped out of all of the fruit bins. And the apples, oranges, tangerines, every fruit in the store fell crashing to the floor.

Willow quickly put down the apple she was holding and stepped out of the store.

*

"Eight days a week" was playing some where in the park. Actually eight days had passed since InuYasha had arrived. Not that he got the irony. He had just figured out "I" "we" "come" "play" "ice cream" and had a concept of "soda" "pop" and "cola" as some kind of drinks. He was getting restless and bored. He wanted to fight something. That girl with the blond hair was a good candidate. But he didn't want to hurt anything that might be human and in his current condition it might be difficult to control his strength. Besides fighting an opponent that can't understand you isn't very gratifying.

InuYasha sighed, stretched on his branch and continued his English lesson.

The next day Buffy and Willow were drinking slushies after school, walking down the street when a horrible racket of blowing horns and angry yelling got their attention. Every traffic light had suddenly gone green. Well, right now they were green at first they had just made sure that every one was at one intersection and then they all turned green.

It was a mess.

Buffy turned to Willow, "This is getting weird."

Willow nodded.

Little things like the fruit stand and this traffic jam were happening all around town. Nothing too big, just annoying little things that inconvenienced a lot of people. Buffy had had a bad feeling about it when it all started with the fruit. Now she still had that feeling, but there didn't seem to be anything behind it. No linking factors.

*

InuYasha walked down the street a few days later. No one seemed to notice him anyway unless he tried to get noticed. He was very hungry and tired of rodents and too proud for garbage. He would steal something. Perhaps a "hamburger". He didn't want to bring attention to himself in the park, so he left in search of an easy mark in the city.

While trying to figure out how to steal the food without bringing to much attention to himself he caught whiff of something strange. A youkia-esk smell flitting about. He followed it to a strip mall and into a store.

A pet store. He sniffed around, trying to place the smell, both in his mind and in the store. The place smelled awful. Scared, nervous and young, animals stank the place up. Litter that needed changed. Nasty aromatic foods. It was far too pungent. InuYasha decided that it wasn't worth it and tried to leave the store.

As soon as his hands touched the door it flew open. So did all the cages. All the birds hamsters, rats, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. Ran out of the store and to freedom. Sort of. Traffic on the streets stopped and everyone ran around trying desperately to catch the poor misguided creatures.

InuYasha shook his head. The behavior made him think of something Kagome might do. It was stupid and useless… and very sweet and kind.

InuYasha used the opportunity to steal several hamburgers, a bag of fries and a soft drink. In the direction of the pet store he thought that he heard laughter. But he shook it off and headed back to the park for lunch.

*

Willow and Zander sat in the cafeteria, staring off into space dismally. Things were not going well on the research front. It was reported that a guy with white hair and red clothes, and no shoes, had opened the door and let out all the animals at the pet store. That had sent them all back to the books trying to figure out what his game was and why a great warrior was pulling pranks.

Sara Lost, a classmate of theirs walked over and sat her tray down next to them. Ever the nosy and helpful baby of the family she asked, "What's wrong guys?"

"We're having trouble with this … report that were doing." Zander said.

"Oh…Can I help?" she inquired.

"Not unless you know anything about Japanese Dog Demons." Willow sighed.

Sara blinked. "Well… my grandpas' shrine, back in Japan, has a thousand year old tree that was said to once have had a dog youkia pinned to it for fifty years."

Willow and Zander jumped in their seats.

"Really? Wow… that's …weird." Willow said.

"And coincidental." Zander piped in.

"Do you know anything else?" Willow asked, "For the paper." She added hastily.

Sara frowned, "Mom used to put me to sleep with the stories grampa told her when she was young. Let me see….uh, before and after the warring states era they ignored and avoided humans. But around that time they were quite active. A lot of youkia lore around that time, I think that there was supposed to be something that brought them all out besides the general chaos of the times. Um…they were violent, unpredictable, excellent warriors, highly instinctive. That all lead to them being fiercely protective of their lands, property, family, friends and mates." Sara finished with a blush.

"Ah." Zander raised his eyebrows.

"Anything else?" Willow prompted.

"Well, there are differences in power according to color, I think white is the most powerful," Sara continued slowly. "and brown the least? I'm not really sure."

"What about weaknesses?" Zander decided to be helpful. "How could they be defeated?"

Sara blinked at the strange question. "Um…well, they were adverse to loud noises and even more so to bad smells. Mom thought that was why they stayed away form human settlements, you know… primitive city's" Sara wrinkled her nose to demonstrate. "I've never heard anything about defeating them."

"What about that pinned to a tree thing?" Zander asked.

"A powerful miko shot him with an enchanted arrow pinning him to the sacred tree and sending him into a fifty year slumber, after he attacked her village. Then someone came along and freed him. That's about all I know."

"Thanks," Willow took out her notebook, "Oh! Wait, do you speak Japanese?"

Sara gave willow a sad look, "No, I can't remember anything except for good morning. But my cousin is coming over from Japan today. I could ask her, if you give me an idea of what you want. But you have to keep it simple. She's been kinda sickly lately and I think that one of her friends at the hospital must have died or something `cause their sending her here on her break for a change of scenery."

Willow nodded her understanding and commenced writing notes on what she had been told, and then began working on a list of words that might help them deal with the demon, and not raise suspicions as to her sanity.

Later that day in the library the team had gathered for a huddle. Willow and Zander filled in the rest of the team on Sara's input.

"So what are we looking at? Dog whistles and stink bombs?" Buffy asked when they were done.

"Well, I think that stink bombs are our best bet," Willow replayed, "but we have to make sure it's strong enough to knock him down. So, Buffy, would you buy us some masks so that none of us are too effected by it?"

"Sure, no Prob. What are you guys going to do?" she asked.

"Somebody has to make the stink bomb." Zander made yippee gestures as he rose to gather their materials.

*

A/N: I'm back! And may have found a source for early Buffy. Keep on reviewing, it helps a lot.