A great combination of InuYasha and Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
the two demonic shows we thought couldn't mix. (Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com) Disclaimer: Don't own the shows, don't plan on trying to,
none use this fic without permission.
Author's Notes: This is an edited and
corrected version of the story originally posted to
Fanfiction.net January - March, 2004. The content is still
essentially the same as the first version, but I fixed some
consistency glitches, typos, and Japanese usage errors.
This story takes place after the second
Inuyasha film, "Castle Beyond the Looking Glass," (after Episode
74 in the series), and after the Buffy series finale. Contains
spoilers for events that happen in all seasons of Buffy, through
the beginning of the final season of Angel, Inuyasha episodes
1-74, and the second Inuyasha film.
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...san?" 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-san!"
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 monk
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...san?" asked Kagome, with a slight
frown.
"It's nothing. Just a bad memory, "Buffy said,
still clenching her teeth. "Sango-san, 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.
