InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Buffy the Youkai Slayer ❯ Girl Talk ( Chapter 12 )

12. Girl Talk

Musashi's Domain, late 16th-century Japan

Buffy rejoined the others, deeply unnerved by Inuyasha's revelation. She felt hollow and shaky, like someone had just rung a deep-toned bell deep inside of her and she was still reverberating with the aftershocks.

Inuyasha leapt up, and landed lightly on a branch a good ten feet above campsite.

Kagome, Shippou, and Miroku were still playing cards as Buffy let herself drop down next to the fire. Of course, the wind immediately shifted to shroud in her a stinging veil of smoke. She coughed and wiped her watering eyes thinking, Yeah, it's been that kind of day.

She spared a glance upwards, where Inuyasha had settled down. His rusty old sword was nestled in the crook of his arm, and his eyes were closed.

Her anger returned. He had gone easy on her! She had given their duel everything she had, short of a killing blow, and he had been coasting, exerting himself just enough to give her a good workout.

In nearly ten years as a Slayer, Buffy hadn't lost very often. Heck, she was still alive, wasn't she? Old, even, for a Slayer. Most didn't make it past eighteen.

But defeat still tasted bitter. Especially when it was at the hands of a skinny, white-haired kid with a big ego.

"Buffy...kun?" Sango knelt gracefully next to her. She was smiling. "Kagome-chan and I are going to bathe in the hot spring. Will you join us?"

Buffy looked up, startled out of her brooding. "Hot water? You don't have to ask me twice, um, Sango-kun!"

Miroku looked up from his cards and gave them a dazzling smile. "Do you need someone to wash your back?"

"Houshi-sama!" Sango raised her fist in mock-threat, and he pretended to cower.

Getting to her feet, Buffy grabbed her soap and towel from her backpack, then followed the lighted circle of Kagome's battery-powered lantern to the steaming pools of water at the base of the nearest hillside.

The three of them stopped in the shelter of some bushes. Sango began to unfasten the clasps along the neck and shoulder of her armor, then stopped. "Did that pervert houshi follow us?"

Kagome shook her head. "Last I saw, Shippou was keeping him busy with a puzzle. We should be safe for now."

Following the example of the other two girls, Buffy stripped down, and soaped and rinsed on the banks of the pool before wading in.

It felt wonderful--hotter than she normally liked it, but it leached the residual stiffness and deep bruising from her match with Inuyasha the day before.

After a few minutes of soaking blissfully, Buffy looked over at her companions. Away from the guys, this was the perfect opportunity to ask some of the questions that she'd been storing up over the past few days.

"So, what's the deal between you and the dog-boy?" she asked first, because she had been puzzling over the relationship between Inuyasha and Kagome since she first met them. "Are you two an item, or what?"

"Well, not really," Kagome answered. "I--he--well, it's because of Kikyou!"

"Kikyou?" Buffy slid down in the water a little. "Don't tell me he's already got a girlfriend!"

Guys never stopped surprising her...after hearing the sad story of Inuyasha the lonely outcast, the last thing she had expected was there was another woman in the picture. "Is she, uh, human?"

"Yes. Well, sort of. It's a long story." Which Buffy recognized as the universal code words for I don't want to talk about it.

Then, as if in apology for her curtness, Kagome added: "I know that we've become friends, and that he trusts me more than he trusts anyone else." She looked down at the water, intently studying her hands. "But it's just friendship to him."

"I don't like it when she's suffering. It makes me feel...helpless." Those hadn't sounded like "just friends" words to Buffy.

Sango was apparently thinking the same thing. "Oh, you really believe that, Kagome-chan? It's not just something you tell him because he's too block-headed to admit the truth?"

Kagome's face, already pink from the heat of the water, grew even pinker in the merciless light of the Coleman lantern.

When it became obvious that Kagome wasn't going to reply, Sango said: "If friendship is all that lies between you, how do you explain Kaguya's castle?"

"It was just once. And, ever since, he's been pretending it didn't happen," Kagome mumbled.

"Just once--what?" Buffy couldn't help asking. This was more interesting than she'd thought.

"I--I kissed him." Kagome whispered. She slid down, as if trying to hide by sinking below the surface of the shallow pool.

"And you think it's just--" For God's sake, don't even think "puppy love." Don't say it. Don't. Buffy bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood, and said, "I mean, you think he doesn't return your feelings? Because I--"

"It's more than that," interrupted Sango. "I was there. I saw how that sorceress was trying to turn him into a monster."

And that would be different--how?--from the way he usually is? Buffy thought, and instantly felt ashamed of herself.

Sango turned to Buffy. "This summer, Kaguya lured us all into a trap, and we were each bound by her spells, and helpless. Somehow, she separated Inuyasha's human half from his demon half, and imprisoned the human part inside her enchanted mirror. What was left was an angry...demon. I think she intended for him to tear us to bits."

"You guys must have really pissed her off. Because that's just--" Cruel. Evil. Wrong. Especially for a hanyou who, if Miroku was telling the truth, had just found the first real friends of his life.

"But Kagome-chan managed to break her bonds and go to him," continued Sango. "Inuyasha was nearly transformed by then, all red eyes and teeth--" Her gaze grew remote, and she gave a little shudder. "But she kissed him. And held on to him. And somehow, he managed to call back his--" her voice softened. "His human heart. Because that belongs to Kagome, and as long as she has it in her keeping, he can't ever lose it."

I knew it! thought Buffy. Just friends, eh? Guys can be really dumb.

"It wasn't--I didn't--I just didn't know what else to do," Kagome said. She spread her hands and shining drops flew from her fingertips. "He was fighting so hard to stop it. I know he's violent, and rude, and jealous, but he's also a good person. Even if he doesn't like to admit it."

"He's okay," Buffy said, sincerely. "You're totally right about the rude part, but he does care about you guys. And, Kagome--I've seen the way he looks at you. That isn't just friendship, trust me. He wants more, but I don't think he's ready yet."

"How do you know this, Buffy-san? Do you have a--a boyfriend?"

Both girls were looking at her eagerly, as if she was about to reveal the Ultimate Secret to Understanding Men. As if!

"Not right now." Buffy looked Kagome's hopeful face, and decided that she needed to tell them at least part of the truth. "I've had three serious boyfriends so far. And two of them were youkai...or, actually, hanyou."

That was probably the best way to describe vampires, who had once been human, but then possessed by demons at the moment of death.

Sango didn't bother to hide her shock. Buffy could almost hear her thoughts: A youkai-exterminator who dates youkai?

Kagome looked solemn. "What happened to your boyfriends?"

This was the question Buffy had been dreading. "The first one lives in Los Angeles. We still love each other, but he was--is--under a curse. And we can't be together, ever. The second guy couldn't handle me being the Slayer. He tried, he really did, but in the end--" Buffy swallowed. It had been nearly three years now, and the memory still hurt. "He left me, and married someone else."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kagome said. "I didn't mean to--"

"And the last boyfriend?" Sango interrupted, her eyes wide.

Three boyfriends and a single one-night-stand were pretty conservative by American standards, but Buffy suddenly wondered if she was confessing to being the Sengoku-jidai's biggest slut.

"The last one...well, I'm not sure I can even call him my 'boyfriend.' It wasn't as simple as that. He was my enemy to begin with. I can't tell you how many times I tried to kill him, and he tried to kill me. Just the usual for a vampire, except he was smarter and meaner than the others."

"What changed?"

Buffy shrugged. It's a long story, she thought, ironically.

When had this conversation become All About Her? Wasn't she was the one who had come here intending to get the 411 on the Inuyasha-Kagome sitch, and to try and figure out whether Sango was really a Slayer?

"I don't think we were ever friends. But somehow, he fell in love with me. And I used him. Then he tried to reform, and ended up dying heroically." Buffy tried to chuckle, and failed. "Just like a movie--except it hurt a lot more. The only thing is--by the end, I think we had finally become friends."

"Oh." Kagome looked really depressed by this. "So, you were unlucky in love because they were hanyou?"

Buffy laughed. "No, because they were men. And I was the Slayer. I wasn't too lucky with the human guy, either. I think," she said, thoughtfully. "That being the Slayer messes you up for relationships. You can't pretend you're a normal girl when all this abnormal stuff keeps happening. Believe me, I tried so hard when I was--" your age "--in high school. I would have sold my soul to fit in. But that wasn't my...destiny, I guess."

Sango leaned forward, as if preparing to ask another question. Then her head snapped up.

A second later, Buffy heard it, too--a rustling in the bushes that screened the pool. Sango reached down, scooped up a large pebble, and threw it.

"Ow!" Miroku's dark head popped up, his hand clapped over his forehead. Sango had great aim.

Instinctively, all three girls sank down up to their necks in the dark water.

"Houshi-sama, what are you doing here?" Sango asked, her tone like poisoned honey.

"He always does this," muttered Kagome, water lapping at her chin. She raised her voice. "Pervert!"

He raised his hand and stepped forward with the smarmiest smile Buffy had ever seen. "Ladies, ladies. No need for violence! I was only keeping watch in case something happened while you were bathing!"

"And what, exactly, do you expect to happen when there are two youkai-taijya and a miko present? Other than we skin you and turn your hide into a portable bathing screen?"

"Maybe that way we'd have a little privacy for once," Kagome said. "I only had to 'sit' Inuyasha once or twice before he learned not to peep."

"But, Kagome-sama, I only--" He took a step closer, craning his neck.

Sango picked up another pebble and held it up threateningly. "Leave! Shoo!"

As Miroku hastily beat a retreat, Buffy caught sight of Sango's back and inhaled sharply. The smooth skin was raised and knotted with terrible scars that writhed between her shoulder blades. Smaller white indentations puckered her ribs, torso, and hips.

Sango looked over her shoulder, caught Buffy's horrified expression, and sat back down abruptly.

"Youkai attack?" Buffy said, since she couldn't pretend not to have seen. She had her own collection of battle-scars, if Sango wanted to play show-and-tell.

"You could say that." Sango bowed her head. "We--my father, my brother Kohaku, me, and most of the slayers from our village--were summoned by a local lord to his castle, to exterminate a spider youkai." Her expression grew closed, and she stopped speaking for a long moment.

When she continued, her voice was husky, as if strong emotions had rubbed her throat raw. "It was an ambush. All--all of us were attacked. I saw my father die. I saw...everyone...die. First, there was a--a chained scythe." She drew a sobbing breath, but didn't cry. "Then the guardsmen shot us with arrows, to make sure we were dead."

"Oh, Sango-chan!" Kagome covered her mouth with her hand. She obviously hadn't heard this part of the story before.

"But you didn't die," Buffy said, an uneasy prickle traveling up from the base of her spine.

Sango's straight black hair fell forward to hide her face. "When I woke, I was in a grave. I should have been dead, but I wasn't. I don't know why!" She took a long, rasping breath. "And so I--I dug my way out. And started looking for my revenge."

"So that's how you came to be so badly injured when we met you," Kagome murmured.

Despite the hot water, every hair on Buffy's body stood upright, and a cold shudder clawed its way through her gut.

That first gasp of air, thick and stinking with decay. Smothering darkness pressing in on all sides. Knowing she had to get out of--of her coffin. Kicking and punching with all her strength, slippery cloth tangling around her fingers, and wood splinters shredding the skin of her hands and arms. Pushing upward through damp soil and thick roots, desperate for the sight of sun and blue sky. Emerging finally into darkness and fire, the very vision of Hell...

God, I'm going to be sick, Buffy thought, desperately clamping her lips together as the long-suppressed memories rose in a roil of nausea and sour terror. Oh, God. Poor Sango. Not her, too!

"Buffy...kun?" asked Kagome, with a slight frown.

"It's nothing. Just a bad memory, "Buffy said, still clenching her teeth. "Sango-kun, who did this to you?" She reached out and very lightly traced the path of the longest scar, which ran parallel to the delicate knobs of her spine.

"Naraku. Of course." Sango's head snapped up. Her eyes were as cold and hard as polished obsidian. "I am going to find him. And I am going to kill him."

Buffy nodded, grimly. So did Kagome. Her usually-friendly face looked determined.

That reminded Buffy of her original intent in sharing a bath with the girls. "Sango, you managed to survive and recover from a wound that would have killed anyone else. Tell me, did you ever notice while you were growing up, that you were stronger--a lot stronger--than the other girls in your village? Or even the boys?"

Sango blinked. "How did you know? It happened all of a sudden, about two years ago. One day, I woke up, and I felt really...powerful. Father said it meant I was destined to be a youkai-taijya."

"He was right. What about injuries? When you get hurt, do you heal faster than other people?" Buffy pressed.

"Y-yes. Even broken bones only take two or three days. Do you know why?"

"'One girl, in all the world, to fight the vampires, the youkai...'" Buffy quoted, and smiled at Sango. "It means that you're the Chosen One of this generation, Sango. Just as I was the Chosen One for mine..."

"What does that mean?" Kagome asked, looking from one to the other.

Duty.Bloodshed. Heartache. A lot of heartache. Fighting a never-ending parade of demons, until one day, you meet one who's stronger and faster and meaner.

Death is your gift. Your destiny.

"It means," said Buffy, "that if she says she's going to kill Naraku, then she will. She's not only a slayer, she's the Slayer." She turned back to Sango. "Do you have a Watcher? Someone who trains you? Someone who's studied all about the different kinds of demons, and mystical lore?"

"I was trained by my father," Sango said proudly. "He was the son of a youkai exterminator, and the grandson of one. My family descends from the first youkai-taijya, who was trained by the great demon-slaying miko Midoriko herself." Her expression grew sad. "I am the last one, now."

"So, no Watchers in Japan," Buffy mused. Still, Sango seemed to have done pretty well despite the lack of tweed and mildewy books.

"But you have us, Sango-chan!" Kagome exclaimed. "We can be your watchers! Inuyasha already lets you practice fighting with him! And Miroku-sama knows all about spells and demons! And I'm--I'm a miko. Maybe not as powerful as Midoriko, but I can learn!"

Buffy smiled. She'd promised Inuyasha that she'd give Kagome a pep talk, but it didn't seem necessary now. The girl had snapped out of her funk as soon as someone needed her. Just like a real leader.

"You've learned something it took me a long time to figure out," she said to Kagome. "That it doesn't matter how strong or fast you are. The most important thing a Slayer--or a leader--can have are her friends."

"Friends like you, Buffy-chan?" Sango said softly.

Chan? A warm feeling slowly filled the cold, hollow place in Buffy's middle. When had she graduated to friend in these girls' eyes?

"Yes, like you, Buffy-chan," echoed Kagome. She stood up. "Ooh,my knees are wobbly. I think we've been in here a long time."

Kagome wasn't the only one whose legs were feeling pleasantly rubbery after the prolonged soak. Buffy found herself staggering a little as she followed the other two girls out of the water.

She felt really relaxed. And absurdly pleased by having graduated from Buffy-san to Buffy-chan.

Even Inuyasha had called finally her by name, instead of hey, foreign slayer or hey, bitch, she thought, vigorously toweling herself off.

Maybe this hadn't been such a bad day, after all.