Chapter 2 American Werewolf or Youkai?

Sesshoumaru was standing at the windows, looking over the shipyard. Located just outside of Zushi city, it was outside of Tokyo Harbor. Not as crowded or busy as Tokyo; Sesshoumaru preferred the relative quietness. He had been going over the figures for the first half of the year, as it was June, and his company was doing well. He turned when InuYasha came in.

"Sesshoumaru, you might want to see this." He opened Sesshoumaru's laptop and turned it on. He did a quick search for an image. "What do you make of that?"

Sesshoumaru went to the desk and stared at the image. There were actually two. One showed a lake and woods and what appeared to be creature standing behind some trees. The second picture showed a blurry close up of the creature. It looked somewhat like a baboon and seemed to be holding something. He read the caption. It was called an "American Werewolf". He did a mental check on known youkai in America and came up blank. None were trouble makers. He did another mental check of youkai in Mexico and Canada. Again he came up blank. Very few youkai in the 21st century wanted their identity known to the human population.

"Reminds me of Naraku. Could be a youkai, but I don't know who it could be. Any press?"

InuYasha made a face. "Yeah, not a pleasant thought. Plenty of press including a movie."

Sesshoumaru sat at the desk and did a search on the "American Werewolf". He frowned at all the coverage. "If this isn't a hoax and is a real youkai and it gets caught…" he let the sentence trail off.

"You gonna go?" InuYasha asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded. "I need to do more research on it first. You're in charge here."

InuYasha nodded. The company had been told InuYasha was a half brother that Sesshoumaru, or Takashi as he was known here, had recently discovered. The humans believed the story. They had no problem with InuYasha as security chief and second in command when Sesshoumaru was gone. The youkai that worked for Sesshoumaru knew the truth. They also had no problem with the arrangement.

Sesshoumaru took his laptop and went home. On the rare occasion he went off to check out possible youkai sightings, the company was told he was checking out a product someone wanted to ship over seas. Sesshoumaru refused to ship anything that might not be safe and he did a personal check on the product. He flatly refused to ship oil, as it is dangerous and toxic to the environment.

Once at home, he did a thorough internet check on the "American Werewolf". It had been described as a bear-dog, Bigfoot, and a mutant canine. In other areas of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota it was called the Bluff Monster and Shunka Warakin. It was seen several times on particular stretch of road, called Bray Road. Most people who had seen it felt threatened and didn't stop their cars. A group of collage students claimed to have seen more than one drinking from a lake. Most of the recent sightings took place in the 1980's and early 1990's. Then they stopped. Then in 2006, a hiker disappeared. And the sightings started up again. Several other people disappeared over the next few years. It seemed as if the creature had become bolder and started going after people.

Next, Sesshoumaru did a search of the area, keeping in mind any youkai that live in the Untied States, Mexico and Canada. A youkai can migrate a considerable distance. Sesshoumaru checked for any odd happenings from Mexico to Canada. A sighting of something called a chupacabra, or some odd dog-like creature in the southwest and Puerto Rico. From the information that was gathered, Sesshoumaru agreed that the dog like creature was most likely a coyote or coyote mix with a bad hair day. It appeared to be hairless. A sheriff in Texas had filmed one with his dashboard camera in 2008. He narrowed his search to the Midwest. Nothing. He got in touch with Hi'Iki.

"Any youkai acting up in the United States?"

"No. Youkai there keep very low profiles. There're too many people who are happy to investigate odd sightings there and film them. Why?"

"There are reports of an 'American Werewolf' in the state of Wisconsin."

"You think it may be an unhappy youkai?"

"Could be. If so, it's someone we don't know. I'm going to check it out."

"Need help?"

"I'll call if I do. I don't want a repeat of the 1967 bridge incident. So I'm just going to scout around and see what's going on."

"Okay. Be careful."

Sesshoumaru hung up and went back to his search. It was beginning to look like either a hoax or an unknown youkai causing problems. Sesshoumaru was beginning to suspect the latter. If it was a youkai, it seemed to be getting its kicks out of frightening humans and possibly killing them, if the disappearances are linked to the sightings. He thought about the bridge incident. He didn't want any of the news sensationalism that had happened then. A youkai had been frightening people for a few months and when Sesshoumaru had confronted the youkai, the youkai had destroyed a bridge before Sesshoumaru could stop him. Sesshoumaru was sure humans had found out about them, but reports of UFO's and "men in black" deflected everything towards "aliens". Sesshoumaru knew the so called lights had actually been himself, in his ball of light form. While the news had dubbed the youkai "The Mothman", his true youkai nature was never known. It was time to go to the US and look more closely into this "American Werewolf" story.

The late night road was almost black. Ross's headlights were the only illumination on the road. He needed to pee, so he pulled over to the side and got out. He walked to the trees, relieved himself and got back in the truck. Despite living in his truck and being a Jack of all trades, Ross made good money. His truck was a brand new Dodge Ram. He started the truck and pulled onto the road. The thump on the cab startled him and he slammed on the brakes, thinking a branch or something had fallen. The unearthly growl told him otherwise. Flooring the accelerator, Ross shot down the road, and something fell or jumped off. He didn't get a good look at it; he was too scared and kept on going. Suddenly something loomed up in the road a few yards ahead. It had glowing eyes. Slamming on the brakes once again, Ross spun the wheel, fish-tailing slightly and sped back the way he had come. He turned off Bray Road onto Plank and kept going until he saw a light and a gas station. He pulled into the gas station. It was closed, but at least there was a light.

He sat, shaking. The whole thing had completely unnerved him. It took several minutes for him to calm down. Finally, he felt calm and brave enough to get out and check his truck. The cab had a big dent and scratches on the roof. Ross got back in the truck and sat thinking. He had always liked it out here. It seemed safer than in the big city. Now he wasn't so sure. He headed into Elkhorn to the Sheriff's department to report the incident.

The creature stood in the middle of the road and watched the truck speed away. Had any human been within ear shot, they would have heard a hissing laughter. Loping away on all fours, the creature continued to laugh. It enjoyed tormenting humans. Seeing humans so frightened gave it a thrill, a rush of pure joy. It went in search of new prey.

"Daddy, where are you going?" Moriko stood in the bedroom's doorway.

Sesshoumaru looked up at the sound of her voice. He had been packing a small overnight carrier. "There's a problem in the United States."

"Will you be gone long?" Moriko had always called Sesshoumaru Daddy. Hikaru called him Father, affectionate but respectful. Moriko had a deeper bond with her father. Moriko had often followed him around when she was younger, much like Rin had. Unlike with Rin however, Sesshoumaru's paternal instincts had kicked in and he was much more attentive, protective and strict with Moriko. He never let her out of his sight when they traveled together. He was strict with Hikaru as well, and a little harder on him when it came to teaching lessons, but allowed more freedom when it came to wandering. Hikaru was more adventurous and Sesshoumaru let him learn some things the hard way.

While both children needed him after Rin's death, it was Moriko's compassion that helped Sesshoumaru deal with Rin's death.

As the twins got older, Hikaru tended to go exploring more while Moriko stayed with Sesshoumaru. Hikaru now spent a lot of time with Shiyota at the shipyard, or off exploring somewhere, always on the look out for "bad behavior" as he called it. Moriko tended to spend time at home, or with "Uncle Inu and Aunt Kagome". It was Moriko who had told Kagome about what transpired in those 450 years.

Home was no longer the castle in the little valley. That had been destroyed by youkai slayers. They had been a group of monks and bandits joined together to slay youkai. Sesshoumaru and the twins had been with Hi'Iki when it happened. Rin, Daira and Jaken had been killed, the castle burned to the ground. That group of slayers didn't live long enough to realize their mistake.

The new home was in the Kitatsuru District, still in the mountains, still isolated from humanity. Over time it became a little modernized. Moriko had her own small house in the suburbs of Tokyo but she often came here to visit.

"I'm not sure. Depends on what I find."

Moriko nodded. "I'm going to stay with Uncle Inu." She gave him a hug. "Be careful," she whispered.

Sesshoumaru returned the hug and nodded. "Always."

After she left, Sesshoumaru finished packing. He put his two swords in the specially made walking stick. It was made of a special wood that hid the properties of metal. It could go through an x-ray machine or metal detector without revealing the swords. This was convenient for flying. Sesshoumaru didn't care to fly in a metal object; he'd prefer to do his own. However, in this modern century with all the sophisticated detection systems and so many eyes on the sky, that wasn't an option. So plane it would have to be.

Next he looked up flights to the US. There was one leaving for Chicago by way of San Francisco the next day before noon. He figured he could rent a car in Chicago and drive from there. He made his reservations. Then he took the time to study a map of the Chicago area and of the southern part of Wisconsin. He committed to memory the routes he planned on taking. He thought of finding a hotel to stay in but decided against it. He wasn't to keen on staying at a big popular hotel with lots of people. He preferred to find something a little more out of the way and quiet.

He decided to look up car rental places and found several in the Chicago area. Picking Enterprise, he reserved a car for himself. He didn't have to worry about it when he got there. The car would be ready to go.

The next day, shortly after noon, he was on his way, from Tokyo to Osaka, Osaka to San Francisco to Chicago. At O'Hare he made his way to the Enterprise rental place and got his car. It was mid-sized, practical and non-descript. He headed north.

Notes:

After doing a map search, I have either added things that aren't there or changed them to suit my story. Sesshoumaru's shipyard is in fact a nice little Marina. There is no gas station on the stretch of road I mentioned; the road itself is real.

Sightings of an unknown creature in Wisconsin gave me the idea for the background of the story. I did some research into the sightings, and have changed things to suit my story. If interested, do a google search for the Beast of Bray Road.

The Beast of Bray Road was made into a movie and the pictures I described are on the internet, though I changed my description somewhat. "The Beast of Bray Road" aired on Sci-Fi over the last weekend, 15th or 16th .

The "Chupacabra" I mentioned was in fact actually filmed by a sheriff in Texas. It does look like an odd coyote, sparsely furred with a large muzzle. Two dead ones were found with leathery skin and no fur and were genetically tested and are related to coyotes.

And a thank you to Plumespixie for pointing out the misunderstanding about who the mothman was and the idea of what the UFO sightings really were.