Chapter Nine: Inuyasha's Big Day Out: Part One
The door to the small well house opened slowly and Kagome peered out through the crack. She always liked to check and make sure no one was around before parading hatless Inuyasha around the temple grounds. He got enough strange looks for his clothing, hair, and eyes. The ears would be too much for people to overlook.
"Okay," she said, "the coast is clear. Come on!" Taking Inuyasha's hand, she more or less dragged him behind her all the way to her home, humming the Mission Impossible theme as she did so.
Wrinkling his nose at the smell of Kagome's era, Inuyasha obediently followed the miko. To be honest, he was a little uneasy about missing the new moon. Would there be consequences to it? He changed for a reason, didn't he? Or would he change here anyway, without the moon, just because it was time?
Kagome mentally patted her back as she tugged Inuyasha through the courtyard. It seemed like the perfect setup. Inuyasha always hated becoming human because he felt weak and useless. Him coming to her home for his human night, or when it would normally occur in the Sengoku Jidai, would help him feel more confident and, possibly, more agreeable with his teammates.
Of course no one had counted on Inuyasha becoming restless over missing his human night. He tried to relax. After all, this was Kagome's time. There were few demons to worry about, if any, and there was lots of Ramen. Now there was a happy thought.
Opening the door to her home, Kagome slipped off her shoes and stepped inside. "I'm home!"
Mama Higurashi walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron, and smiled. "Welcome back, dear. I see your brought company." She bowed politely to Inuyasha. "Will you be staying for dinner?"
Inuyasha returned the bow, just slightly, but didn't quite know how to answer. "Uh, well..."
Kagome nodded. "He is, Mama. Is it okay if he stays the night, too? We could find somewhere for him to sleep, I'm sure."
"Of course." Her mother's smile widened. "Please make yourself at home, Inuyasha-kun."
Inuyasha bowed again. "Thank you, Higurashi-san." He had manners, after all.
Kagome bowed to her mother as well. "Thank you, Mama. Do you need any help in the kitchen?" She wanted to make sure that her mother wasn't expecting her to stay around the house and be helpful now that she was home, or if it'd be okay for her to take Inuyasha around the city a bit.
"No, I don't think so," the older woman replied, shaking her head. "Why don't you show your friend around? Be careful of Jii-chan, though. He's been muttering about sealing demons again."
"Oh, not that again." Kagome rolled her eyes at her grandfather's eccentricities. He was amusing, at least until he started telling stories about articles in the shrine giftshop in an attempt to get people to buy them. "We'll watch out for him. Anyway, his seals have never worked on Inuyasha before."
Her hanyou smirked and tucked his hands in his haori sleeves. "Maybe I should go find him some minor demons to practice on."
Mama Higurashi winced. "Best not to encourage him."
"Inuyasha! The only demon coming through that well is you, got it?" She made a fierce face at him, but then smiled. "Come on, help me find that hat that I gave you last time."
"Again?" He made a face. "Do I have to wear that thing?"
"I promise, Inuyasha, nobody else in all of Tokyo would miss those," she held her hands to the sides of her head, index fingers pointed upward to indicate Inuyasha's ears. "I could give you a bandana if you'd prefer that, though."
He flicked his ears. "Bandana?" he asked, trying the strange word. "What's that?"
"Come with me, I'll show you." She nodded to her mother and proceeded to lead Inuyasha up the stairs to her room. Digging around through one of her dresser drawers, she pulled out a large square piece of fabric. It was a convenient bright red color, and though Kagome didn't exactly like the white paisly pattern on it, the thing would have to do for now. "Here it is. It matches!"
Inuyasha eyed the material suspiciously. "I'm supposed to use this how?" He carefully fingered the cloth, trying to keep from snagging his claws in it.
Pulling the material from his hand, Kagome circled around behind him and tied the bandana around the top of his head, knotting it in back. Granted, now he looked a bit like he should be riding a motorcycle, but she figured that this was more comfortable than the hat. Unfortunately, the points of his ears could still be seen as oddly shaped lumps under the bandana. It was actually kind of cute.
The bandana moved as Inuyasha involuntarily flicked his ears back and forth. "It tickles," he complained.
"It's that or the hat. Pick which one you like best." Her tone was only slightly annoyed. Honestly, he could endure the pain of being impaled time after time with swords, spears, and claws (Kagome wondered at the fact that Inuyasha still had a digestive system after all that abuse), but would complain because a bandana tickled his ears. What a big baby, she thought.
Grumbling to himself, the hanyou reached up and arranged the cloth to his liking. He flattened his ears and tucked the loose corners down before knotting them in place. He didn't like the way it muffled sound, but at least this way it wouldn't tickle and make him twitch like a sensitive dog. "Fine. This works."
"All righty then, let's go!" But before either of them had the chance to leave the room, someone else came barging in.
"Inuyasha no nii-chan!" Souta burst into the room, all smiles. It had been so long since Kagome had brought Inuyasha home with her. "Hey, cool! You look like a biker!"
"A what?" Inuyasha's confused expression would have been cute if his ears were visible, but as it was, he looked almost human.
"Er... A biker. Y'know... a guy with a motorcycle. And they ride around and get lots of piercings and tattoos and stuff!"
He frowned. "Why?"
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Souta, Inuyasha doesn't know what a motorcycle is. They don't have them five hundred years in the past."
Souta ignored her. "Why what?"
"Why do they do all of those things? Is it a ritual or something?"
Souta considered that for a minute. "No. They do it 'cause it's cool!"
Now Inuyasha was thoroughly lost. He looked to Kagome for help. "Huh?"
"There are people all over the world who ride motorcycles, which are like my bicycle that I ride on, but can go faster and you don't have to pedal them." She shrugged. "There are all sorts of different kinds. Some people race them, too."
"Riiight." Inuyasha decided that perhaps it was best to just pretend he understood them. To distract Souta from continuing with the subject he stared at the kid and asked, "So how ya doin'?"
"I'm great!" he exclaimed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. "I'm glad you came to visit!"
The Higurashi's guest shurgged. "Didn't have anything better to do. Besides, why would I pass up free food?"
Kagome wanted to sigh loudly. Could her younger brother's case of hero worship get any more obvious? Could Inuyasha be any more insensitive? She didn't think so.
Inuyasha took pity on Kagome, and gave Souta what he hoped was a man-to-man smile. "Your sister's got some stuff she wants me to do, but maybe you can show me what guys do here when we get back."
Souta's eyes grew amusingly wide and he bobbed his head up and down. "That'd be awesome!" He gave Kagome a stern look before turning to leave. "No fights!"
Kagome gave a sigh of the eternally suffering. "Sure, Souta."
Beside her, Inuyasha smirked. "I'll make sure you remember you said that."
"He only said that to me because he practically worships the ground you walk on. Don't let it get to your head."
The smirk didn't fade.
She grabbed one of his forelocks and tugged on it, pulling him along with her. "Come on, then."
"Ow!" he protested as she dragged him. "Leggo!"
As the pair passed the kitchen, Mama Higurashi looked up and smiled. Kagome certainly did have that young demon of hers under control.
Kagome decided that maybe it would be a bad idea to take Inuyasha anywhere on a bus or subway. He was used to walking long distances anyway, so a little trip around Tokyo shouldn't be a problem. Or so she thought.
Meanwhile, the visitor from the Sengoku Jidai was mumbling agitatedly about his current footgear. To be honest, the sandals Kagome had pushed on him were as simple and comfortable as shoes get, but that still didn't make him happy. "Where are we going? Why do I have to wear these things?"
"Because, Inuyasha, you can't go inside buildings in the modern world without shoes. 'No shirt, no shoes, no service.' Besides, they're just little sandals. You've had worse inflicted on you with less complaint." She glanced at him irritably. He enjoyed making her life difficult, she was sure of it. The odd looks from people on the street weren't helping, either.
"Fine, but did you have to take Tessaiga, too?" That was the real reason behind his grumpiness. For one thing, he feared something might happen to Kagome, and he wouldn't be able to protect her. For another, he was afraid that he might transform and be the thing that hurt her.
"Inuyasha! The worst thing that's happened so far is that an old lady nearly tripped you up with her cane. Demons don't exist here anymore, and if they do, they're doing a pretty good job of hiding. So calm down, okay?" She crossed her arms and sniffed indignantly. Her oh-so-brilliant plan was going rapidly downhill. She imagined that it couldn't get any worse, even if her school friends, or even Hojo turned up. "We're almost there, anyhow. Buck up, we're supposed to be having fun today, remember?"
He grudgingly stopped complaining and mumbled, "All right, but you still haven't said where we're going."
She pointed to a large sign emblazoned with a large golden "W." "There it is," she said.
"There what is?"
"... Just go inside." She opened the door of the WacDonalds and ushered the reluctant Inuyasha inside. "This is a restaurant."
The smell hit him first. Grease, lots of it, and food. Even as Inuyasha wrinkled his nose, his stomach rumbled. "Like an inn? Or a tavern?"
"Um... no. It's just a restaurant, so they only serve food here." She looked around until she spotted an empty table. Indicating it, she shooed Inuyasha in it's direction. "Go sit over there and I'll get the food, okay?"
"O--OW!!!" Inuyasha desperately tried to keep calm as he slammed into the floor of the restaurant. He supposed she just kept using that word around him out of habit, right? Right. Must ... keep ... composure ...
Kagome gasped in horror as she realized what she'd done. "Inuyasha! Oh no, I'm so sorry!" She kneeled next to him and tried to help him up off of the floor, as well as assuage his wounded pride. "I didn't mean it, really!" She cringed inwardly as most everyone in the restaurant turned to look at them. Must save face! she thought. Looking up to one of the staring employees behind the counter, she tried her best to appear disgruntled.
"You guys need to keep this floor cleaner! Someone could get hurt!" Helping Inuyasha to his feet, she showed him over to over to one of the tables.
Still a little out of sorts, Inuyasha followed Kagome and glared angrily at anyone who looked his way. Pretty soon, most of the restaurant was taking care to avoid looking at the hanyou.
"I'm really really sorry, Inuyasha," Kagome apologized sincerely and bit her lip. She hadn't meant to subdue him and worried that their day was going to be completely spoiled because of this incident.
"Keh. You think that hurt?"
"That's not the point. I made a mistake and I'm sorry about it, okay? Sheesh, Inuyasha, just forget it." She fisted her hands and placed them on her hips. "I'm going to go get the food now."
Inuyasha brightened at the mention of food. "Okay." His ears perked in anticipation, and before long he was toying impatiently with the napkin dispenser and other items on the table.
Unbeknownst to him (but knownst to us), Inuyasha wasn't alone. There were others in the haven of unhealthy food who were watching him carefully. Three pairs of eyes observed him, whispering among themselves.
Pretty soon, the hanyou had managed to get a claw or two stuck in inconvenient places, including between two splintered sections of the table. All the while he muttered and swore softly to himself, knowing that if he made a (bigger) scene Kagome could break his spine. Again.
Meanwhile, Kagome stood in line, bouncing on the balls of her feet while waiting for her turn to order. She too was blisfully unaware of the three people watching Inuyasha, or she might have had a heart attack standing in the line.
"Stupid table...Why can't these people fix their own damn furniture?" Inuyasha was sucking on his injured claw as he vented. He hadn't expected the table to put up as much of a fight as it had when he yanked his finger free.
When Kagome finally reached the front of the line, she ordered two burgers, plus fries and drinks. She considered getting Inuyasha one of the kiddie meals that came with the little toy, but somehow she doubted he'd appreciate the sentiment, even if he did like the toy. Within a few moments, she was back at the table with their food. "Dinner is served, Inuyasha!"
He sniffed at the food on the tray, and his stomach rumbled again, this time with approval. Some of the items smelled a lot like the treats and supplies Kagome usually brought to the Feudal Era. "What do you call this?" he asked, curious. He smelled bread and beef, some vegetables (a few of which he didn't recognize), and something else resembling the chips he was so fond of.
Kagome set the tray down on the table and slid into the seat across from Inuyasha. She listed the different items to him as she handed him his own food. "Sprite, which is caffeine free since you don't need any of that stuff because you're already high-strung as it is. French fries which aren't actually from France at all so the name is kind of pointless. And this," she handed him the larger of the two burgers, "is a double bacon cheeseburger. I had them take the vegetables out so you chould choose which ones you wanted. There are pickles, onions, tomatoes, and lettuce."
Inuyasha prodded at the items on the side, and lifted the tomato slice on one claw to get a good sniff at it. He shrugged, and piled all of the vegetables on the burger. "Smells good," he remarked.
The girl smiled at him and allowed herself to watch him as he assembled and began to devour his served up side of cow. She knew that he was a great deal like a dog while eating; completely absorbed in the task and extremely irritable if disturbed.
Within a few minutes, he'd finished off the cheeseburger and started in on the fries. He was obviously enjoying himself, but just as he was about to take his first bite of grease and potato, he paused. "Aren't you going to eat, Kagome?"
She snapped out of her reverie in slight surprise. She hadn't noticed that he'd been observing her as well. "Well sure. I'm just waiting for it to cool down." She unwrapped her burger and nodded. "It's good now."
"Huh." He supposed it made sense. After all, she was just a human girl, even if she could shoot purifying arrows and detect Shikon shards. He set back in on his food. Perhaps unknowingly, Kagome had just given him a good reason to behave the rest of the day. He wanted to come back to this place later!
Kagome cut her burger in half and picked up one of the sides, enjoying the modern food which had become a delicacy to her. After all, it was pretty hard to find hamburgers in the Sengoku Jidai. That's when she saw them watching her.
Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka, sitting across the restaurant, quite suddenly engrossed in their own conversation to cover the fact that they'd been staring at Kagome and Inuyasha only a split second before. Kagome nearly choked on her food.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked around a moutful of food. He swallowed and stared at her, eyes widened in concern. "What's wrong?"
"They're here!" she ground out in a harsh whisper. "My friends from school. Three of the biggest busy-bodies in all of Japan. Oh Kami, I'm doomed."
"Why?" Being a boy, and one from the Feudal Era at that, Inuyasha was dumbfounded.
"They see you!"
He frowned. "So?" Wasn't that why he was wearing the bandana?
"Nevermind. Let's just finish quickly and get out of here." She wanted to crawl under a rock and die. She would never hear the end of this from her friends. This was Bad News. She was Doomed. Hopefully her friends were too dull to associate the image of Inuyasha with the "violent, two-timing boy" that she'd described to them in the past. ... No, no, she was pretty sure that she was Doomed.
Still confused, Inuyasha did as ordered. He didn't bother to look at the girls Kagome had mentioned, but he had the strangest sensation of something crawling up his back, as if he could actually feel their stares.
Kagome didn't even bother to eat her fries. As soon as her burger was finished, she quickly collected her purse. "Come on, before they decide to come and talk to us." There was a tone of urgency in her voice. She really didn't want to deal with them today.
By now, the feeling of their stares on his back was driving Inuyasha a little crazy. He hurried after Kagome, wondering just what it was that made her friends so scary.
"Don't make eye contact. They can smell fear." With a few brisk steps they were standing outside. Kagome heaved a sigh of relief.
"Are they demons?" he asked curiously. "Is that why they can smell fear? They didn't seem like demons."
"They're not demons, it's a figure of speech." She wanted to laugh, though. She loved them dearly, but sometimes her friends did seem a bit demonic. She grasped Inuyasha's hand and pulled him along behind her. She didn't want him getting lost, after all.
"Feh." Women were strange.
"Feh!" She grinned at him and pointed to a large building up ahead of them. "The library is just up over there. Now, there are some rules that you have to follow when we get in there."
His ears pressed harder against his head beneath the bandana. Eyes narrowed, he stared at the building and asked, "What kind of rules?"
"Don't break anything. And you have to be quiet, so no yelling or screaming or anything."
Inuyasha didn't see why he would have a reason to yell or scream unless Kagome gave him one, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
She nodded her head. "You'll like the library, I think. It's full of books and music and things."
Books, huh? Why would she think I like books? Not that he didn't. He loved them. He just didn't feel the need to tell her that.
"Higurashi!"
"Oh no..." Kagome wanted, once again, to find that rock she'd dreamed of earlier and die underneath it. She turned and saw Hojo jogging briskly towards her. "Hojo-kun! How... unexpected!"
Inuyasha growled under his breath.
"I know!" the clueless schoolboy exclaimed. "Your grandfather said you were ill!"
"Oh... it comes and goes." She laughed nervously. "We were just on our way to the library..."
"Oh? I'm sorry. Have we met before?"
The hanyou ground his teeth.
Stepping between them, Kagome put her hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "Hojo-kun, this is my friend Inuyasha-kun. Inuyasha, this is Hojo-kun."
"Hi," Inuyasha ground out. By now, his arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and he didn't bother to bow.
"It's nice to meet you, Inuyasha-kun!" Hojo, ever the polite one, did bow. "What an unusual name!"
"Inuyasha is... from my physical therapy group. Isn't that right, Inuyasha?"
"Your what?" he growled.
"Well anyway, it was nice to see you, Hojo-kun!" Kagome desperately wanted to flee. She hoped that Hojo would take a hint and allow her to escape with some modicum of her tattered dignity left.
Of course, she had no such luck. "Actually, I'm going to the library too, Higurashi. Maybe I could help you catch up on your studies."
Inuyasha's teeth ground audibly together.
There goes my day. "No no no, that isn't necessary, really! I wouldn't want to impose!"
"It's not a problem, really!" Hojo smiled his bright, sometimes airheaded smile.
At this point, Inuyasha finally chose to interrupt. "We're here for a group... thing," he lied, hoping it was believable. "We're not allowed to accept outside help."
"Yes!" Kagome exclaimed, maybe with a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary. "Yes, that's right. We couldn't ask for your help, it would be wrong." She nodded concisely.
Hojo's smile didn't fail. "All right, then. Maybe I'll see you around. Nice to meet you, Inuyasha-kun!"
"Whatever," the hanyou mumbled as soon as the boy was out of earshot. Feeling suddenly possessive, he took Kagome's arm and led her up the stairs.
Kagome waved and had to resist making a shooing motion with her hands. Being rather abruptly grabbed by Inuyasha put an end to that, though. "Eep! Inuyasha!"
"What?"
"You just startled me. It's nothing. But you should have been nicer to Hojo-kun." She tutted at him and shook her finger. "He's not a bad guy. Just not that bright."
"I don't like him." Not that he'd admit, even to himself, the reason why he didn't like Hojo.
"Don't be so childish, Inuyasha! Hojo-kun has always been very nice to me. What reason do you have not to like him?" They were paused at the top of the stairs that led up to the library, since she didn't want to speak with raised voices once inside the building, and had a feeling that Inuyasha might just test her patience.
"Because." He let go of her and crossed his arms again. "He bugs me, okay?!"
Kagome was fully prepared to stomp and yell that his was a pretty dumb reason not to like someone, though she'd used it before on some occasions. She didn't want the day to be spoiled any more than it had already been, so she took a few deep, cleansing breaths. "Okay, okay. Fine. Let's not argue about it, okay?" After all, since one of the two of them had to be mature, it might as well be her.
Inuyasha gave her a strange look, but finally uncrossed his arms and nodded. He'd expected her to make it a shouting match between him.
Feeling pretty pleased with herself, Kagome opened the library door and ushered Inuyasha inside, holding her index finger to her lip to remind him that it was important to be silent. "Follow me," she said in a quiet voice.
As they moved through the building, Inuyasha looked around at the shelves and tables. He was startled by the number of books, and found himself curious about their contents. It made him a little uneasy. He hadn't really paid much attention to books or learning since his mother had died.
Kagome guided him noiselessly through the maze of tall stacks. She paused for a moment to consider where it would be best to start, and decided on a section about world travel. It would be nice for him to see things that lay outside of Japan, especially in the modern world. She started out once again, having to turn back briefly and pull Inuyasha along, since he was gawking at the huge number of books.
"How much does this cost?" he asked. "They just let anyone in?"
"It's free," she replied. "Libraries are for learning and reading and things. Anyone can come in, but you have to have a library card to check out the books." She selected a few off of one of the stack shelves and then found an unoccupied table for them to sit at.
"Then how do they make the money to buy the books?"
"Some people donate books and money to them. Also, there's only a certain amount of time that you can keep the books. If you keep them too long, you have to pay a late fee." Kagome opened one of the books, a large volume about Africa which was also full of colorful pictures.
Inuyasha had more questions, but he was easily distracted from them by the pictures Kagome had just revealed. The book reminded him a little of the ones she used to study, but he'd never seen animals like that.
"It would be nice to go to Africa someday and see the lions and elephants up close." She pushed the book closer to him, subtly inviting him to pick it up and turn the pages.
He took the book carefully and turned the pages. The glare of the light on the pictures sometimes made it difficult to see. "Are these demons from somewhere else?"
"They're not demons, just big animals. A lot of them are like animals that live close to Japan. Lions are like tigers, but without the stripes. And there are elephants in India, but they're smaller." She smiled as she indicated the different animals on the glossy pages. "Everything is really exotic over there."
Inuyasha nodded and stared at a picture of a zebra. "That's the ugliest horse I've ever seen."
"It's a zebra. They live in huge herds. Their stripes protect them because when they're all bunched together, it's hard for predators to pick out individuals."
Camouflage was something Inuyasha was familiar with, so Kagome's explanation satisfied him. He moved on to another page, and frowned at the text. "This doesn't look right."
"Those letters aren't Japanese. They're romanized so that people in other countries can read them too." She found another book written with hiragana and kanji text on the front and handed it to him. That one in particular was a book on marine mammals, which she was pretty sure he'd never seen before.
"Oh." The other book made more sense, and he flipped slowly through the pages, careful not to tear them with his claws. He didn't want to get shouted at for harming some stranger's possession. He pointed at one of the pictures. "These don't look like any dolphins I've ever seen." Of course they wouldn't. Inuyasha had never been to the sea, and only knew what the decorative dolphins on palaces and shrines looked like.
Kagome scooted closer to get a better look at the images on the page. "Well, those are photographs and not paintings. These are spinner dolphins. I think they're cute."
"Cute?" Inuyasha made a face.
"They are! They jump out of the water and spin through the air and make little squeaky clicking noises. Everyone loves dolphins."
Now he was looking at her like she was crazy.
"You're no fun." She picked up another book from the pile and began to read it.
What? He was too fun! Wasn't he? He was pretty sure that sometimes he made her laugh, and smile, and joke. Suddenly in a huff, and not sure why (he really was thickheaded when it came to his feelings towards women), the hanyou buried his nose in the book she had given him.