Chapter 2: 'Osuwari' and Other Useful
Phrases For the Traveling Vampire Slayer
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.
Tokyo, the present day
Sooner or later, one of the demons would get
past her, get past Inuyasha, and make it as far as the
house...or worse, escape into the unsuspecting suburbs that
pushed up against the base of Higurashi Shrine Hill.
I can't allow that to happen! Kagome
Higurashi flashed on a brief image of the horrors that even a
small spider youkai could wreak on her unsuspecting neighbors.
She stood in the middle of the shrine's
central courtyard, all her attention focused on the shattered
remains of the small well-house. Reaching over her shoulder, she
drew the next arrow from the quiver on her back.
Draw. Aim. Release. Only two arrows
left, and inside the crazily-leaning structure of ruined
planking and sagging beams, she saw that the Bone-Eater's Well
was glowing again, a blue light whose purity seemed at odds with
the monsters it spewed forth.
The next wave of youkai was coming. And she
would be unarmed soon.
Inuyasha had planted the blade of his sword in
the dirt, taking advantage of the brief respite between waves of
incoming youkai. He sank to his knees, shoulders heaving under
his heavy mane of silver hair. Kagome could hear how his harsh
and ragged his breathing sounded as he gulped great lungfuls of
air.
"Inuyasha," she said, quietly. "Incoming."
"Keh," he spat, but it was drained of his
usual vehemence. If nothing else, that told her how dangerously
exhausted he was. He staggered to his feet, pulled the narrow,
battered blade of Tetsusaiga from the soil, and raised it.
With a blinding flash, the sword transformed,
growing larger, shimmering scarlet and gold with demon energies.
He was the front line of defense against the
invaders. She was the second line, finishing off anything he
wounded--or anything that managed to slip past him.
She fitted her second-to-last arrow to the
bow, her fingers blistered and bleeding. Her arms and shoulders
were burning with fatigue, her fingers cramped and shaking. But
she wouldn't--couldn't--give in to the strain.
Draw. Aim. Release.
Don't think about what's going to happen
when you use your last arrow.
It had been a little after noon when the
horror started. Her midterms had finished yesterday, and right
on schedule, Inuyasha had emerged from the well to fetch Kagome
for another expedition to the Warring States Era.
Mama, Grandpa, her little brother Souta,
Inuyasha, and Kagome had just seated themselves at the table for
one of Mama's delicious pre-departure luncheons when sound of
the splintering well-house doors had caught their attention.
"Youkai? Here? Shit!" In a flash, Inuyasha had
gracefully leapt over the table, and drawn his sword.
He was out of the kitchen in an instant, his
bare feet pounding a staccato beat against the polished wooden
floorboards, leaving Grandpa, Mama, and Souta gaping in
astonishment.
Kagome, inured by months of traveling in his
company, hadn't hesitated. Pausing only to grab her bow and
quiver from the pile of her traveling gear in the living room,
she ran after Inuyasha.
"Kagome! Be careful, dear!" Her mother's voice
followed her out of the house.
As Kagome ran after the red flash of
Inuyasha's robes, she had heard Souta complaining, "Awww, Mama!
But I don't wanna stay here. I wanna help--"
Then she hadn't had time to think, hadn't had
time to do anything but follow Inuyasha's urgent orders as the
first of a stream of hideous insect youkai emerged from the
well-house.
Draw. Aim. Release. How long had she
and Inuyasha been battling this unending stream of invaders?
Hours, though it felt like an eternity of days.
Kagome had thought her family safe from the
often-frightening world of demons and bloodthirsty samurai in
feudal Japan. Because until today, only Kagome and Inuyasha and
a single centipede youkai had been able to travel through time
using the Bone-Eater's Well.
How had these youkai managed to find them? And
why were they so determined to come here?
The autumn sun was low on the horizon now, the
pale gold of midday darkened to burnt orange. The shrine's
grounds were littered with countless youkai corpses--mostly
insect youkai, for they were the most dangerous kind, mindless
and ravenous.
And the easiest for an enemy to control,
thought Kagome. Insect youkai would not stop to question orders,
nor were they moved by reason or compassion.
Souta suddenly spoke up behind her: "Wow, sis!
You're really good with that bow! And Inu-no-nii-chan is amazing
with his sword!"
"Souta! What are you doing here?" Kagome tore
her eyes away from the eerily glowing well. "It's dangerous. Get
back in the house!"
"But, sis--" His jaw set, stubbornly.
She hastily added: "You have to protect Mama
and Grandpa!"
"Onee-chan, I got these from the dead bugs! I
thought you might need them." He grinned up at her, and she felt
her heart expand with sisterly pride as he offered the dozen or
so stained arrows clutched in his hands. He was so brave!
"Thank you, Souta!" She took the arrows and
dumped them in her quiver. Saved! She felt a fresh burst of
strength. "Now, go!"
She saw two demons come scuttling rapidly out
of the well-house.
Apparently too exhausted to invoke the power
of his sword with Kaze-no-Kizu, Inuyasha slashed at the nearest
demon, a centipede youkai.
His first swing took off a couple of legs and
peeled off one of the youkai's armored back-plates, but the
injury barely stopped the insect's advance.
Souta, who had taken a step or two in the
direction of the house, stopped to stare, his mouth open.
Inuyasha swore, and swung again. This time,
his sword merely bounced off the centipede's back.
The other youkai, a serpent with gleaming
green and copper scales, made a beeline for Kagome.
She shoved Souta out of the way with desperate
haste. "RUN!"
Fumbling a little, she turned to fit an arrow
to her bow.
But it was too late. The serpent, its eyes
glowing like bloodthirsty jewels, was directly in front of her,
and rearing to strike. Its neck flattened and fanned like a
cobra's hood.
For an endless, frozen moment, the snake demon
towered over her. With strange clarity, Kagome saw the droplets
of clear venom beading the youkai's curved fangs.
"KAGOME!" Inuyasha screamed hoarsely.
But she knew he couldn't reach her in time,
not with the centipede still putting up a struggle.
Inuyasha, she thought. At least I
got to kiss you, once.
Then the fangs were suddenly gone. Kagome
gaped, unable to comprehend her sudden reprieve.
What? How?
A spray of blood pulsed from a stump where the
snake's head had been a moment ago. Then it crumpled, falling
into two pieces that hit the ground in front of her with a meaty
thud.
And Kagome came face-to-face with a stranger,
a blonde girl wielding a curved blade mounted at the end of a
staff.
Panting a little from her run up the steep
stairs leading to the shrine, Buffy passed under the tall red
gate, and paused to assess the situation.
The acrid smell of dead demons assaulted her
nose. There were pieces of them scattered everywhere--legs and
thoraxes and antennae. And head with faceted eyes, mercifully
dulled now. Ugh. Koji didn't tell me they were giant bugs.
A shout and movements halfway across the
shrine's courtyard caught her attention. There were people
fighting there--a teen-aged girl with a bow, a little boy with
an armful of arrows, and a teen-aged boy, all in red, dressed in
an old-fashioned Japanese kimono and puffy pants. He had a
really big sword, which he was using to chop yet another bug
into pieces.
He seems really strong, thought Buffy,
but there's something kind of weird about him--besides his
long silver hair.
But she had a more pressing problem right
now--the girl with the bow didn't seem to register that a giant
snake was headed her way.
Wonder if he's a relative of the late
Sunnydale mayor? thought Buffy, sprinting. Bugs and
snakes. Yuck. She clutched the naginata that Koji Minamide
had given her, holding it away from her body so she wouldn't
trip over it.
"Hey!" she shouted, but neither the girl nor
the little kid seemed to hear her.
She reached them just as the snake prepared to
strike.
"Oh, no, you don't!" She swung her weapon,
pleased to note that it sliced through snake-meat like butter.
"Kagome!"
From the corner of her eyes, Buffy saw the
silver-haired boy drop his sword and rush toward them. Behind
him, a giant centipede lay in six more-or-less equal chunks.
Some of the legs were still twitching feebly.
"Kagome!" he shouted again, followed by a
stream of Japanese that Buffy didn't understand.
What she did understand, suddenly, is that
this kid had fangs and long, bloodied claws.
Another demon! She leaped between the
girl and the--the--what the hell IS he?--noticing as she
did so that he had two incongruously cute pointed ears at the
top of his head.
He snarled, and swiped at her with his claws.
His wide, red sleeves belled out like a matador's prop. Using
her Slayer reflexes, Buffy jumped over him, somersaulting in
mid-air to avoid the blow.
He spun around to face her again, his arm
raised, fingers crooked, blood-stained claws black in the
twilight. His mouth twisted, and he said something to her. She
didn't need a translation--his nasty tone was enough.
He's actually growling at me! And
jeez...look at those teeth. Nearly as long as a vampire's
fangs. This demon is bad news.
Then Buffy heard the girl shout, "Osuwari!"
The boy's necklace flashed an instant before
an invisible hand stopped his forward motion and flung him
face-down into the gravel of the temple courtyard. He sprawled
there in a tangle of waist-length silver hair, still growling.
The girl staggered forward, and came to stand
beside Buffy. She looked utterly exhausted.
"Inuyasha," she said, in a tone of reprimand.
Was that his name?
He glanced up at the girl with a hurt
expression.
She said something else, and he turned his
face away with an exclamation that sounded like, "Keh!"
Why, he looks just like a puppy someone hit
with a rolled-up newspaper, thought Buffy.
Suddenly, the demon boy seemed a lot less
threatening.
Then the girl turned to Buffy. She looked
maybe fifteen or sixteen, and was wearing a green-and-white
sailor blouse with a matching pleated miniskirt.
"Good afternoon, miss," she said, softly, in
heavily-accented English. "My name is Higurashi Kagome. It is
very nice to meet you."
The spell wore off, and Inuyasha slowly got to
his feet and staggered forward, snarling. "Kagome! Why the hell
did you--"
Only to meet the blonde girl's blade sweeping
around to rest against his jugular.
"Youkai?" demanded the stranger. She was fast,
and very strong. In fact, she reminded Kagome a lot of her
friend Sango. Especially that determined look.
"No!" Kagome said, desperately trying to
remember her English. She had missed so many classes this
year..."No! Friend!"
She lunged for the shaft of the naginata, and
clutched it. "No, please!"
The girl slowly lowered the weapon, but her
gaze never left Inuyasha. "Friend? Are you sure?"
"Hai--yes!"
Inuyasha did look rather dangerous, admitted
Kagome to herself. He was spattered with insect ichor and other
noisome substances, bleeding himself from a number of wounds,
his red robes torn, his silver hair disheveled. And he was
grimacing, which showed off his inhuman fangs quite nicely.
"Who is she? What the hell is she?" demanded
Inuyasha. His gaze flicked sideways, keeping a vigilant eye on
the well-house. "I've never seen a woman with yellow hair
before."
"Watashi no namae wa Buffy Summers desu," said
the girl, her Japanese sounding rehearsed, hesitant. "I am
a--a--" she frowned, as if trying to recall something. "Youkai
taijya."
"Shit. I knew it!" said Inuyasha, but he
looked nearly as relieved as Kagome felt.
"My friend's name is Inuyasha." Kagome
struggled to remember the right English words through the haze
of fatigue. "Thank you for helping us, Miss Buffy."
"Don't worry about it. And I'm really sorry I
tried to kill your friend. " Buffy dug in the back pocket of her
jeans, and produced a small Japanese phrase book. "But this book
isn't much help for asking, 'Hey, are you a good demon or an
evil demon?'"
