Experiment #4 Part I: Boys will be Boys

The estrous cycle: refers to the recurring physiologic changes that are induced by reproductive hormones in most mammalian placental females; humans and great apes are the only mammals who undergo a menstrual cycle instead. Estrus cycles start after puberty in sexually mature females and are interrupted by anestrous phases. In species with estrous cycles, females are generally only sexually active during the estrous phase of their cycle. This is also referred to as being "in heat."

A female dog (bitch) is bi-estrous and goes into heat typically twice a year, although some breeds typically have one or three cycles a year.

Pheromones in the female's urine and the swelling of her vulva let the male know when his mate is in heat.

The male will mount the female firmly from behind. After achieving coitus, the two form a copulatory tie once the bulb (bulbus glandis; located near the base of the canine penis) of the male's penis swells and the female's vaginal muscles tighten. The two become physically inseparable for anywhere between ten and thirty minutes, during which period the male will ejaculate multiple times. (This has nothing to do with pheromones, but it's funny. I have seen it once when my friend had her dog mated. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants!)

Purpose: I have shown the effectiveness of pheromones on youkai; however, since there is no evidence supporting humans having reactions to pheromones, there may be less instinctual drive for hanyous to the chemicals, being that they are of half youkai and half human blood. I intent to determine if in fact hanyous react to the allure of pheromones by conducting an experiment on a subject close at hand. Inuyasha shall be the first test of the effect of pheromones on hanyous. If the results are promising, this experiment shall be expanded to include another of the hanyou breed: Naraku.

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Have you ever been paralyzed with fear? Do you think that this is just a saying? I assure you it is not.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling. It's as though every muscle in your body is tight, ready to spring at any second. The problem is; they don't. All you can feel is a strange tingling sensation where you know there should be movement but there isn't, the blood pounding through your veins so hard that your head feels like it will explode from the pressure, and an unrelenting sense of panic that threatens to crush all of the air from you lungs.

It is strange though; in the midst of such a horrible physiological shutdown, I was still able to find my voice.

But at the moment there are only two words that come to mind.

"Oh…crap."

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I suppose I should start at the beginning.

It started out as a beautiful day. You know, the sun was shinning, the birds singing, gentile breezes and all that sort of stuff. I had thought that it would be a good day for an experiment. Boy was I wrong! But I'll get to that later.

Inuyasha was at the well to greet me. He knew I was coming because I had promised him I would come after school. Mind you, that was because it was the only way I could get him to leave my house this morning so that I could actually go to school; but I divulge. He greeted me with his usual cheeriness.

"Took you long enough! I'm not getting any younger you know!"

Yes Inuyasha," I sighed, "I know. And that's why you have all that grey hair."

"This isn't grey stupid! It's silver! And you know I was born like this!"

I couldn't stifle the giggles that poured out of me then. For a guy who is always running around through the forest getting dirt everywhere, fighting monsters and being covered in demon blood, and having his own body ripped and torn from so many battles; he really is concerned with his looks. Don't tell him I said that though. I can just imagine what kind of colorful words that would be sent in my direction if he knew what I thought.

"I know; I'm sorry Inuyasha. Why don't we just get going ok? I'm sure the others are waiting."

"Feh," he said as though that would explain everything, and then turned and started walking towards the village. As we walked back together, just the two of us, I couldn't help but think of what was going to happen later when my next experiment would commence. Even thinking about it caused blood to rush to my face. If even the thought of such things would make me blush, how on earth would I confront the real thing later?

But I decided that it didn't matter. I knew what I had to do, and everything was planned. I just needed to be brave enough to test this one last theory before I would be able to put all of my hard work to some good practical use.

The theory of course is whether or not hanyous can be affected by pheromones in the same way that youkai are. The problem however, was that while conducting the necessary research for this phase of my experiment I discovered that the animal variety of interest (dogs) use very few pheromonal signals. In fact, there were only two that I could find.

The first being territorial pheromones. Like wolves, dogs also mark their territory using pheromones deposited in the urine (as you all know because everyone has seen a dog or two lift their leg by a tree, fire hydrant, lamp-post, street-sign, and pretty much everything else that you can think of that they can lift their leg beside).

The second pheromone used by dogs that has been documented to elicit a response is the one released by the female dog (I keep trying to use the technical term for this, but every time I do it makes me giggle so until I can contain that particular reflex action I will have to make due with female dog) when she goes into heat. For lack of a better term, I have labeled this particular chemical the 'sex pheromone' because of its role in attracting a male to the primed female and beginning the whole mating process.

Unfortunately, because of the fact that our group is always on the move looking for Naraku and the Shikon shards, I do not believe that Inuyasha has actually claimed a particular territory as his own. Also, I haven't noticed him marking any area in that sense (Thank god! He acts enough like a dog as it is what with the sniffing the ground and shaking water off of himself, if I ever saw him lift his leg – so to speak – I think I might never stop laughing. That and in doing such a thing he would be exposed in a way that I don't think I ever want to see!).

Anyways, since I am not aware of any territory marking by Inuyasha, it made little sense to use these pheromones on him because he would not be very likely to have a reaction to them. But that leaves me with only one option: the sex pheromone.

For the record, this would not have been my chosen course of action if there was another way to test my theory, but with no other friendly hanyous and no other pheromones to test, the only option I had was to use the sex pheromone. At first I didn't want to manipulate Inuyasha in such a way. I was afraid that he would see it as me trying to divert his attentions away from the woman he truly loved because I was being selfish with his attentions. But I quickly realized three things.

First, that I would never try to take Inuyasha away from Kikyo, who he wants to be with is entirely his decision. Second, I would only test the chemical so far as to gain evidence to support my theory and would then abruptly end the experiment because I would never force something so special on someone, and when I do engage in that particular act I want it to be special and with someone I love and who I know loves me. Finally third, I realized that if there is even the slightest chance that the results of this experiment would lead to the destruction of Naraku, Inuyasha would likely have no complaints about it.

So with these things in mind I started making plans for the experiment. When all the plans were complete, and all the necessary provisions obtained (Thankfully I did not have to resort to using the pheromones in their natural state – I think that I've handled enough animal urine to last me a lifetime thank you very much – because I found a dog breeder that carried a purified form of the pheromone that is used to excite male dogs before they are brought to the females to…ahem…well you know) I was ready to begin the experiment.

It was just after dinner when I finally got my chance.

"Inuyasha," I called up into the tree he was perched in, "would you come down from there? It's such a nice evening I thought that we could go for a walk and watch the sunset."

"Go find someone else to bug would ya? I'm fine right here."

Why that little…! Ooooo he is so lucky that I need his nose clear for this experiment to work or he would so have been eating dirt after a comment like that. But I knew that getting angry wasn't going to help the situation at all, no I had to resort to something much more powerful.

"Please?" Ah the all powerful please, add to that big bright puppy-dog eyes, a few glistening unshed tears, and a poutty lip and you get…

"Geeze, if you're gonna make such a big deal about it."

Success.

We took a nice walk through the forest. Well, nice in the way that we weren't arguing, but if you factor in the fact that there was an extremely tense feeling between the two of us and that I was beyond nervous I guess it wasn't really that nice after all. When we reached the river we stopped and sat down by the bank (I chose the river as the location of this experiment because water would be able to remove the pheromone's scent very quickly should I need to). It really was a beautiful evening, and for a time I got lost in watching the sky changing from a beautiful blue to wondrous shades of pink orange and red.

But alas, I had brought him here for a reason, and it was time to start.

"Inuyasha," I began hesitantly, "do you think I'm pretty?"

He actually fell over. Yes, on the ground twitching. Was it really that bad of a question? Apparently it was. Well let's see if I can't change his tune a little shall we?

I pressed down hard on the small vial in my pocket, causing it to break and allowing the pheromone to soak into my clothes. Of course it did produce a feeling similar to if I had just wet my pants (or skirt in this case), but it was necessary because the pheromone is released in the – I can do this – bitch's urine and the smell lingers around her private parts. Being that it would be…very unusual…to have a sex pheromone scent coming from any other part of my body, this was the course I was left with.

I waited on pins and needles to see Inuyasha's response.

When he finally recovered, the reaction I got wasn't at all what I was expecting.

"What the hell kind of question is that! You dragged me all the way out here just to ask me that! You stupid girl! Why the hell would I care if you're pretty or not! I don't have time for this. I'm leaving!"

"Inuyasha!" I called out to him and started running so that I could catch up. "Wait Inuyasha! I'm sorry ok? Can't we just talk about this? I didn't mean anything by it I swear!"

He stopped but he still wouldn't look at me. When he spoke his voice was tense and his words clipped.

"We shouldn't be out here. Climb on; I'll take you back to the village."

"Umm, ok"

I started to walk towards him, but before I even took two steps, something huge came out of nowhere and swatted Inuyasha with a massive paw, sending him crashing through at least five trees before he finally hit one solid enough to stop the momentum.

"Inuyasha!" I screamed at the hanyou; only to realize that my voice was falling on deaf ears because he had been knocked out cold.

I wanted to go check if he was alright, but the second I took a step in his direction a thundering growl ripped through the air making me turn to face the creature that had wounded my friend so severely.

But when I finally got a good look at it, I froze in my place.

Standing right in front of me was a massive white inuyoukai over fifty feet tall. His fangs glinted in the fading daylight, and his red eyes were focused on me so intently that they seemed to be boring a hole straight through me. But it wasn't his size or his fangs or his eyes that scared me to the point of being incapable of any movement. It was the lines of crimson streaking the immaculate fur and the crescent moon adorning his brow. I knew this beast, more than that I knew what he was capable of. And there is no other youkai who holds so much power or who can strike so much fear into a person as he can.

And that brings me back to the present. Frozen in place out of fear so terrible that it has overtaken my body, and unable to do anything but utter the only words that will come to me.

"Oh…crap."

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I can't believe I finished this chapter tonight! I tried to write it last night, but no ideas would come to me. Then I turned on my computer tonight….and poof….suddenly I have a chapter. Isn't that great!

What's even better is that I have finally given this story a reason to be in this category! Wow I have certainly been productive today….I wonder what will come next….Oh! I know….The World Is Mine! Haha just kidding.

Anyways, that's all for now. Tune in next time for Part II of Experiment #4: and Dogs Will Be Dogs.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters I am about to weave into my web of chaos. Any and all definitions have been taken directly from Wikipedia the online encyclopedia because I am far too lazy to do any further research to support my Inuyasha obsession.

Later.

ShadowsWeaver1