InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Buffy the Youkai Slayer ❯ Signed, Sealed, and Stranded ( Chapter 4 )

4. Signed, Sealed, and Stranded

Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to review my story so far. You've been so kind and so very encouraging!

Today's installment is rather short, since I had to work overtime at the day job, but I'll try to post something every evening. Unfortunately, I'm sort of a slow writer, so the longer chapters may take me two or three days to finish. But rest assured, I *do* intend to finish this story!

Tokyo, the present day

Kagome dared to hope that the demon infestation had finally ended when the American girl turned up, but luck was not on her side.

At least she and Inuyasha had reinforcement for killing the next three youkai who crawled, slithered, and scuttled out of the Bone-eater's Well.

Buffy-kun, holding her deadly naginata, moved to the forefront when the next invader, a preying mantis youkai, emerged.

Just call me Buffy, she had said, in her casual American way, when Kagome tried to address her as Summers-san, so Kagome had compromised on using -kun. That way, she could be less formal--after all, Buffy-kun was at the most five or six years older than Kagome--but still be polite.

Kagome hoped that Inuyasha would take the opportunity to rest a little and regain his strength, but, scowling, he deliberately moved in front of Buffy-kun to take his place nearest to the well.

Kagome sighed. Silly hanyou boy, to worry about losing face in front of a youkai-taijya at a time like this!

Still, Inuyasha was Inuyasha, and she knew it would be useless to try and argue with him.

For the hundredth time that afternoon, she drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it.

Everything hurt--her bleeding fingers, her wrists, her elbows, her shoulders, her neck, her feet. How long would the youkai invasion continue? Would she still be here at midnight?

Would she even be able to lift her bow, much less bend it, by then?

Do your best! she thought to herself, fiercely. Everyone's counting on you.

By the time the maggot-youkai emerged, pale and fat, but with a round mouth ringed by dozens of translucent teeth, Buffy-kun and Inuyasha were fighting together as smoothly as paired dancers despite their enmity. Neither of them gave the youkai a respite from an attack on both side, and it was only a minute before it lay, gashed and pulsing, deflating slightly as clear ichor escaped from the deep gashes along the length of its body.

The smell was indescribable, like garbage fermenting under a hot summer sun, but a hundred times worse.

Kagome covered her nose, gagging a little, and Inuyasha was looking distinctly green and glaze-eyed as the stink assaulted his sensitive nose.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome stepped forward, ready to catch him if he passed out from the stench.

He waved her away, then whirled around, and stared in the direction of the torii that marked the entrance to the shrine. Someone was coming!

He vanished abruptly, bounding away in a blur of scarlet. Probably taking refuge in one of the sheds, thought Kagome. She felt sorry for him, always having to hide when he came to visit her, but it was safer this way.

A few moments later, Grandpa's scholar friend Koji Minamide-sempai came into view, puffing from the steep stairs, and dragging a large, wheeled suitcase behind him.

He caught sight of them and waved. "Good evening!" he called. "Kagome-chan, is your grandfather at home?"

"Good evening!" answered Kagome. "Yes, he's here. Thank you for sending Buffy-kun. We've just been--"

Minamide-sempai stopped and blinked as the stench from the maggot youkai hit him, then looked around slowly, as if only now noticing the carnage in the shrine precinct. "This is terrible, much worse that I'd feared!"

He turned to Buffy and asked her, in English: "Are you all right, Miss Summers?"

"Fine," Buffy-kun answered.

She glanced over her shoulder, obviously puzzled by Inuyasha's sudden disappearance, but to Kagome's relief, she didn't say anything.

Then Grandpa emerged from the house, shouting greetings, and he and Minamide-sempai held a long consultation. Luckily, no youkai emerged from the well during this time, though Buffy kept her weapon at the ready, scanning the well-house with wary intensity.

Finally, Grandpa looked over to Kagome. "Kagome-chan, our visitor has kindly brought some extra-powerful charms with which to seal the well. He and I are going to do it now, so why don't you fetch Inuyasha from wherever he's hiding, and go inside for dinner? I expect you must all be starving by now," he added with a small smile.

Then, he bowed in Buffy's direction, and said in his measured English: "Thank you very much for your help, Miss Summers."

She blinked, and returned the bow a little awkwardly. "You're very welcome, Mr. Higurashi."

Kagome walked over to the nearest storehouse, and called out, "Inuyasha! Dinner!"

She felt relief that Minamide-sempai would be helping to seal the well. She loved her Grandpa very much, but his track record with wielding mystical powers was a bit spotty. In fact, when she first met Inuyasha, he had broken through Grandpa's magical seals with no difficulty.

Those seals hadn't stopped that Centipede Woman, either, Kagome remembered with a tiny internal shudder.

Inuyasha appeared right in front of her, and she jumped back a little. He moved so quietly!

"It's safe to be seen?" he murmured, his strange golden eyes luminous in the deep shadow of the storehouse wall.

She nodded. "Minamide-sempai is the one who sent Buffy-kun to help us."

"Eh, we were doing just fine against those wimpy youkai," Inuyasha said, rolling his eyes. Kagome pressed her blistered fingertips against her palms, but didn't bother to argue with him.

He followed her back out to the courtyard, where she performed the introductions.

Minamide-sempai was clearly fascinated by Inuyasha, and actually walked completely around him, looking at him from all angles. Inuyasha put on his aloof expression, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and bore the inspection with uncharacteristic sufferance.

Finally, he stepped away. "What happened to dinner?" he demanded of Kagome. "And is she going to stand guard in case more youkai come while we're eating?"

Buffy looked at them, puzzled, clearly understanding the word "youkai" but little or nothing else.

Grandpa stepped forward, clearing his throat. "That will not be a problem," he declared proudly. "With Minamide-sempai's assistance, I sealed the well."

"Keh!" said Inuyasha, rudely. "I hope you didn't use the same crappy spells as last time. They didn't work at all."

"I believe these ones will hold," interjected Minamide-sempai. "But it's only a temporary solution, I fear."

"Do you think Naraku will find a way to break the seals?" Kagome asked. Her stomach twisted in fear. She had seen the terrible damage inflicted by rampaging youkai upon the hapless villlages of feudal Japan. What if Mama got hurt? Or Souta?

"It's only a matter of time, I'm afraid," admitted Minamide-sempai.

Inuyasha snorted. "Well, we'd better get started on dinner, then. And eat fast."

Kagome saw that Buffy-kun looked a little lost, clearly unable to understand what was being discussed. "We shall be having dinner soon, Buffy-kun," she said, in English.

"There's one more thing," said Grandpa, as they all began to walk back to the house. "As long as those seals are in place, you and Inuyasha are trapped on this side of the well."

Kagome shared a dismayed look with Inuyasha. What would happen if they were unable to return to the Feudal Era to continue their search for the fragments of the Shikon-no-Tama?

Had that been Naraku's aim all along, to strand them in modern-day Tokyo?