InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Buffy the Youkai Slayer ❯ Dinner with the Dog Boy ( Chapter 5 )

5. Dinner with the Dog Boy

Author's Note: Just a quiet interlude before I start doing Bad Things to Good People again. *g*

Tokyo, the present day

As she followed Koji and the others to the house, Buffy noticed that both Kagome and Inuyasha were looking awfully glum. She remembered the looks they traded after the last thing old Mr. Higurashi said, and as she plodded after them now, she really wished she spoke Japanese. It was getting really old having to ask everyone to translate for her.

Once inside the front door, she found herself in a little antechamber. There, she followed the others' lead and took off her shoes. While she was unzipping her boots, the kid she'd seen earlier--Kagome's little brother?--came dashing up with a handful of paper towels.

He offered them to Inuyasha first, who took them with a grunt and started to methodically wipe down the rusted, battered blade of his sword. Little bro handed Buffy the remaining towels, and she used them to clean up the naginata as best she could.

It was a really nice weapon, she thought, examining it closely--well-balanced, wickedly sharp blade, and it extended her reach farther than a sword would have.

When she had finished, she propped the weapon in one corner of the antechamber, next to Kagome's bow and quiver.

Kagome took the stained paper towels from her, and picked up a pair of slippers from a neatly-aligned row of shoes, handing them to Buffy with a shy smile. Buffy remembered what she'd read about etiquette in her Lonely Planet guide, and attempted a bow in return.

Buffy figured that she looked like a total dork doing it, but Kagome was too polite to laugh at her

Inuyasha, who had been barefoot to begin with, had already vanished inside the house. He had taken his sword with him.

What? He really thinks someone's gonna steal that piece of junk? Or maybe he was afraid that the seals wouldn't hold... Buffy eyed the naginata she had just put down, then decided not to take it into dinner with her. If anything else came out of the well, she could grab her weapon on her way out of the house.

"Please, this way," Kagome said, taking a half-step up onto a polished wooden floor.

Buffy caught the savory whiff of frying pork chops, and her stomach growled. Her airline breakfast felt like it had been consumed ages ago. Koji's driver hadn't stopped anywhere on the long drive from Narita Airport, so she'd missed lunch. Given the dire straits Kagome had been in by the time she arrived, that had probably been a smart decision, but she was starving.

She looked around curiously as she followed Kagome into the house. The Higurashi residence was a large one by Japanese standards, but very sparsely furnished. As Buffy passed the living room, she noticed a coffee table, a futon couch and a TV with a gaming console. Other than that, most of the furniture seemed to consist of floor cushions and low tables.

The smell of food grew stronger as they entered a large combination kitchen/dining room area. Everyone else was already seated around a large, Western-style dining table, and the table was set with gently-steaming bowls of rice, a platter of deep-fried boneless pork chops neatly sliced into segments, and several kinds of salads, some of them brightly-colored. It all looked delicious.

"Oh, tonkatsu!" Kagome said, happily, motioning Buffy to take the empty seat between Inuyasha and Koji. "You'll like it, Buffy-kun."

"It looks wonderful," Buffy agreed, pulling out her chair.

As soon as she sat down, Inuyasha grabbed for the platter of tonkatsu, only to be thwarted when Kagome slapped his hand away. He gave her a dirty look but subsided while Kagome introduced the rest of her family to Buffy.

The boy sitting on Inuyasha's other side was named Souta, and he was indeed Kagome's kid brother. The nice-looking lady sitting across from them turned out to be Kagome's mom, Atsuko Higurashi.

"I thank you for your help, Miss Summers," she said, in a gentle voice. She cast a worried glance at Kagome. "I was really frightened this afternoon."

"Keh," Inuyasha said, reaching for the food again. This time, no one stopped him. As he pushed a large potion onto his plate, he added something else in what Buffy thought sounded like a really show-offy tone.

Mrs. Higurashi gave him a fond smile, then jumped up, as if she'd suddenly remembered something. She hurried over to the fridge, pulled out a container, set another plate down in front of Inuyasha.

Buffy saw that the dish was piled high with coin-like slices of bright yellow pickle. Inuyasha's face brightened and he immediately began shoving them into his mouth using his fingers. He chewed noisily.

At least he had washed his hands! Though his hair still had bits of leaf in them from taking a header into the ground and his kimono-thingy was just...gross, Buffy thought, spying bits of bug stuck to the woolly red fabric of his wide sleeves.

Having served themselves, everyone chorused "Itadakimasu!" before digging in.

Everyone except Inuyasha, that is, who had started eating the moment the food hit his plate.

Dinner was eaten in silence, which gave Buffy a chance to appreciate Mrs. Higurashi's excellent cooking. The tonkatsu was crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside, and the tangy sauce served on the side finished it off perfectly. The green salad had a creamy sesame dressing, and the other salads turned out to be made from various kinds of pickled veggies. They were cold, crunchy, and had a pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor.

Really, the only downside was having to sit next to Demon Boy. She tried to ignore Inuyasha's table manners--or, more precisely, his lack of them--because no one else at the table seemed to be paying attention, but it was hard. He ignored the chopsticks that were giving Buffy a hard time, and was simply picking up handfuls of food and shoving them into his mouth.

Buffy gave him a sidelong glance as a particularly slippery piece of pickled cabbage slipped out of her hold for the third time, and wondered if she might be better off using her fingers, too.

No way, she thought, as soon as the thought crossed her mind. And have everyone think I was raised in a barn, like him? She realigned the skinny, lacquered chopsticks between her fingers and stabbed at the cabbage with renewed determination.

The yellow pickles disappeared in record time. As soon as she noticed, Mrs. Higurashi rose and fetched more from the fridge, smiling the whole time. She really likes him! Buffy thought, in amazement. And not even a thank-you from that jerk!

Once she'd finished eating, she looked over at Koji. He was staring at Inuyasha, too, but at her glance, he smiled and looked down at his plate.

Hey, he's got a dimple! she observed. This Watcher was definitely growing on her. And he had good taste in weapons.

"Did you know that the traditional guardian of this shrine is an inu-youkai, a dog-spirit?" he said, in a low voice. "Take a look at the guardian statues out front when you have a moment. You may see a resemblance to the fellow sitting next to you."

Across the table, Grandpa Hirugashi perked up at the mention of "inu-youkai." He put down his chopsticks, and using Koji as a translator, he began telling Buffy all about the history of the shrine, including the guardian dog statues, the Jewel of Four Souls, and the Bone-Eater's Well.

Buffy nodded politely at each factoid. So, the shrine was eight hundred years old, very cool. Demon bones disappeared magically when thrown into the Bone-eater's Well...now that was interesting. More proof that that well was actually a trans-dimensional portal of some kind.

Her mind began to wander a little when Grandpa launched into a blow-by-blow of each building's history. As he rambled on about sacred trees and purification fountains, Kagome threw her a sympathetic look. But no came to Buffy's rescue--or poor Koji's-- until dinner was over and Mrs. Higurashi had cleared the plates from the table.

* * *

Kagome helped Mama clear the table, and spent the next few minutes slicing oranges for dessert. Returning to the table with a platter of the fragrant fruit, she heard Minamide-sempai tell Buffy-kun, "...and as soon as we get hold of a Portal Key of our own, I think you ought to try and locate the one the demons are using to come here. Mr. Higurashi tells me that his granddaughter regularly travels between the present day and the feudal era using the old well."

"So, why do we need a Portal Key?" Buffy-kun asked, giving Kagome a quick smile as she took some of the proffered orange quarters.

"Because it appears that only she and Inuyasha can travel through the Bone-eater's Well without a key." Minamide-sempai sighted. "We have to stop the youkai from coming through again. It was only the sheerest luck that Inuyasha was visiting here when the invasion started. Otherwise..." He gave an expressive shrug and began to repeat what he'd just said in Japanese for the benefit of everyone else at the table.

"Eh, it's probably that bastard Naraku. He's always sending others to do his dirty work," Inuyasha said, carelessly.

Mama was still slicing up fruit in the kitchen, but Kagome saw how her knife abruptly stopped moving. She turned around, and Kagome cringed inside as she saw the horrified look on her mother's face.

Dead silence reigned at the table. Inuyasha, you moron! Hadn't she warned him time and time again never to say anything about their more dangerous adventures in the Feudal Era to her family? But now the cat was out of the bag.

"Kagome-chan," said her mother, in an odd, strained tone. "Have you met this...Naraku before?"

"Yes, Mama." Kagome forced out the words. Unable to meet her mother's gaze, she intently studied the platter of oranges that she still held.

"Has he tried to harm you? Sent demons to attack you?"

"Yes, Mama." She thought furiously. "But not all demons in the Warring States Era are evil," she said, desperately. "For instance, there is Inuyasha. " Who tried to kill me, the first time we met. "And Shippou-chan..." Well, the little kitsune didn't try to kill me, but thanks to him, the Thunder Brothers nearly turned me into a hair potion. "And, um, Kouga-kun." Who kidnapped me and considers me his woman now.

She devoutly hoped that her mother would never find out about that.

Inuyasha's scowl deepened at the mention of the wolf-prince, but mercifully, he kept his big mouth shut.

"It's really not too dangerous," Kagome continued, in the face of Mama's continued silence. What could she say to convince her? "And--and Inuyasha is always with me."

Mama gave a tiny nod, but Kagome's heart shriveled at the unspoken weight of her mother's anxiety. What if she forbade Kagome to travel through the well again? All the Shikon shards would find their way into the hands of evildoers. And she might never see any of her friends in the feudal era again!