InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ B & B ❯ No Room at the Inn ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.


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Nominated for Best Inu/Kag Romance, IYFG, 1st Quarter 2011

Winner!!! 2nd Place for Best AU, IYFG, 1st Quarter 2011

Winner!!! 2nd Place for Best Inu/Kag Romance, Feudal Association, 1st Quarter 2011





A/N:

This story takes place in modern times, in what I envision would most likely be the scenario assuming the world of the past (with regard to youkai, not the Canon plot line) truly existed. Youkai and humans have not evolved side by side with humanoid youkai functioning as open and active members of human society without prejudice. Youkai are outside of the human order. They are youkai. Magical beings. They have no need of jobs, of money or of human-type housing. The humans all know that youkai are still around, though youkai attacks are much rarer than they used to be, as most of the lower, animal-type youkai have come to fear humans and their technological advancements. Hunters of various types are still around to fiercely defend their race, and the youkai know it. You still see the occasional humanoid youkai, unafraid of mankind in their perceived superiority, and they are treated with the same mentality of fear and/or mistrust as one would see in the past, which is a healthy fear for most humans to have considering that some of these youkai still view humans as nothing more than sheep, and they themselves as a wolf in the fold. There are no universal ‘concealment charms’, though that’s not to say there aren’t also youkai living among humans in disguise. It’s simply every youkai for themselves. There is no ‘grand council’ of the youkai, but neither is there a grand council of humans in charge of monitoring all the youkai of the world. Take the universe as a whole of the world from the Sengoku jidai and put them in the 21st century and you pretty much have the universe I have created here.

So where does a universe like this leave hanyou? Read and find out…






Chapter 1 – No Room at the Inn






“I’m sorry…sir,” the hotel clerk added as an afterthought, eyeing the man before him suspiciously, “but we are completely booked solid for the next several weeks.”

“Yeah, sure…” the silver-haired man answered in a tired tone of voice. “Don’t worry about it.”

Consciously tugging the red wool cap he wore a little further down on his head, Inuyasha picked up his large backpack from where he’d sat it on the floor in front of the registration counter, before turning and heading back out the way he’d come. That was the third lodge to shoot him down in this crummy little tourist community. Gazing up at the waning crescent moon accenting the late evening sky, Inuyasha sighed before heading further up the road.   

His exotic looks wouldn’t be a problem back in Tokyo. He knew from experience that he could blend right in with all the ‘modern’ weirdos in the Shibuya District, but there were simply far too many humans in the bustling city for his taste, and he could never force himself to stay there for very long. Not to mention he wasn’t made of money.

Finding shelter for the new moon never used to be such a hassle. Usually after wrestling himself up some freelance work of one kind or another, he’d have a place to stay for at least a month or two, until whoever had decided to take him in later decided that he’d worn out his welcome. It wasn’t easy being a two hundred year old hanyou in the 21st century.

Back in his prime, during the closing decades of the Edo period, finding ways to sustain himself after his mother’s death hadn’t been a problem. The people of his hometown had known what he was, and though they had run him out of town upon his elderly mother’s passing, he hadn’t been without a fallback plan. He had immediately sought out the taijiya. His mother had always told him stories of the people who lived in the mountains and kept the valleys safe from monsters. They did not kill all youkai, only the evil ones, and being able to tell the difference, his mother had told him that someone of his unique talents would be openly welcomed among them.

She had been telling the truth.

For several years Inuyasha had lived with the headman’s family, fighting alongside a pair of siblings named Sango and Kohaku. He had grown so close to them that he had even shared with them the secret of the new moon, a secret they had helped him guard with their lives. Over the years he’d stayed with them he had even befriended some of the spiritualists that assisted the taijiya at times. A monk by the name of Miroku became his best friend, and he’d even fallen in love with a miko named Kikyou. She had fallen for him in return, and there had even been talk of her giving up her life as a miko to become his wife. Of course, things changed, as they often did, and one day the shogunate had made its presence known in the taijiya village. They had demanded a more thorough cleansing of youkai blood from their country, and were appalled to learn that the slayers had been ‘harboring’ an abomination such as himself. Never mind that he had been one of the most successful of all the youkai slayers.

The taijiya had been ordered to ‘deal’ with him, or else, and while Sango, Kohaku and Miroku had been quick to come to his defense, others had been equally as quick to ostracize him, wishing to save their own hides. Looking back on it, he couldn’t really say that he blamed them; self-preservation was a deeply imbedded instinct, after all. If anyone understood that concept, it would be him. Mutiny against the headman’s family would have been inevitable, and so he had left before it could become an issue, not wishing to see any of his second family fall into ruin because of him, and he had been a nomad ever since. After having learned the hard way that his presence was ultimately a burden to those he cared about, he’d made it a point of never staying in one place long enough to develop feelings for anyone else ever again, be they feelings of friendship, or something more. Besides, it was kind of hard to open up and grow close to someone when he constantly had to hide what he was. That was no way to make friends.

And what of the woman who was to be his wife?

When push came to shove, Kikyou had proven that her duty as a miko was more important to her than her own heart. He had wanted her to come with him, had begged her to come with him, but the shogunate had put the fear of the gods in her, and so instead of even parting on decent terms, she had told him how she couldn’t believe what she had been thinking. That she would never want to ‘settle’ with a half-breed such as himself. He had seen the lie behind her words, had smelt the salt of her tears, and had suspected that someone was watching. Still, it’d hurt, but when you loved someone you had to set them free. She had done that, in her own way, since he would have been hunted down had he not fled their village right when he had. So he’d returned the favor, letting her go without a backward glance.

Over the immediate years that followed, Inuyasha had continued to pick up work as a freelance youkai slayer fairly easily, sticking to the smaller towns, the superstitious villages. The smaller crowds suited him just fine, and it was truly the smaller communities that suffered the most from lingering youkai attacks, anyway, since most youkai tended to avoid large clusters of humans, fearing their rapid advances in technology. But he didn’t need the taijiya’s fancy tricks for luring youkai scum out of their hiding places when he could hunt the creatures down like a bloodhound. There were times when he still let people know of his own youkai heritage, either by accident or necessity, if a swipe of his claws was what was needed to save a villager’s life in the heat of the moment, and he wasn’t always hated for it. Sometimes he was called an inugami, and other times he was called a yama-inu, and while he always moved on once the local humans discovered what he was, or rather, what they thought he was, he always left those communities with some pep in his step, pleased that those particular humans had accepted him in their own little way. Then there were the times, as rare as they were, when he was called an oni, when somebody recognized that he wasn’t human while he was just trying to get by and hadn’t immediately done anything heroic to stave off their hatred of him, and he would suddenly find himself on the receiving end of a youkai-slaying at those times. Though he always emerged victorious, fleeing in most cases without causing his human attackers any harm whatsoever, whenever he was forced to fight back, he only did so to the point of incapacitation, before then taking his leave. He never killed humans. He didn’t hate humans at all, but neither could he truly live among them, even if he wanted to. The cities had built up around him when he wasn’t looking, and now, he felt like a relic trapped in a past that no longer existed. He couldn’t get a job; he couldn’t rent an apartment. It was a vicious cycle because in order to get a job, one of the main requirements was having a permanent address and phone number, which he didn’t have, and couldn’t acquire, because he didn’t have a job. But even if he had a steady flow of money from his freelance work, which he didn’t, he also didn’t have any ‘papers’, and an ID would be required for renting an apartment, as well. According to the modern-day hall of records, he didn’t even exist, and it wasn’t exactly like he could go down and get his picture taken for an ID card looking the way he did.

If a large-scale number of humans ever found out what he was, like in the middle of an office building somewhere as he attempted to file paperwork on himself, it would most likely cause panic and chaos. He still remembered hearing all the craze from when a little boy’s body had been found drained by a kappa near a lake, and instead of posting more signs warning people not to go into the water, or perhaps putting up a fence, forces had been brought in to deal with the kappa directly, like it was really their fault the stupid child had gotten too close to their habitat. But in the case of him trying to get an ID, it would definitely be him invading the humans’ domain, and he wasn’t stupid enough to tempt fate. He knew what would happen. In this day and age, if people discovered what he was, especially while doing something like that, the police would be called, and then the taijiya, and if they didn’t kill him outright, he would at least surely find himself locked away in a cage for the rest of his life. Sure, the taijiya’s job in that century was truly nothing more than glorified pest-control, but as far as society was concerned he was a pest, and the worst possible kind, too, being humanoid and able to slip in under the radar.

Youkai could not legally join human society, and since he wasn’t a kitsune, tanuki or mujina, he really stood no chance of successfully doing so in secret. But neither could he truly live among the youkai. Never mind the fact that there weren’t all that many youkai left in the world, or that the vast majority of humanoid ones still living in the physical plane were pretending to be humans, themselves, but even despite that there was still no love for hanyou among youkai kind. Especially now, with their numbers so few and far between, breeding with the humans was expressly forbidden within most youkai families. You were more likely to see two different species of youkai interbreeding than willfully diluting their gene pool with human blood, and it was thanks to that same human blood flowing through his own veins that he was stuck on Earth in the first place, unable to transform himself into wisps of energy to flutter away to wherever it was all the rest of the youkai had gone to. And so he wandered, keeping to the smaller towns, or what was left of them, looking for odd jobs from older people still willing to pay a ‘youth’ under the table. Despite being over twice as old as the oldest living human, he still appeared to be in his early twenties, and he took advantage of his appearance to the best of his ability. It was about time his looks worked in his favor, for once. Instead of immediately believing him to be youkai, thanks to the popular trends of the 21st century, most elderly people initially thought he was just a runaway; a punk-rock wannabe who had bleached his hair and wore funny contact lenses, and that was all right with him. He even dressed the part, sporting baggy dark blue jeans and a red t-shirt with some random rock band’s insignia in black, the fire-rat robes from his youth tucked securely away in his backpack. He could usually find work without too much difficulty, so long as he avoided flashing his claws or fangs. There was always an old fishing boat in need of repair, or a roof in need of patching. Even though he never went to school, he knew how to read and write and do numbers, and while he didn’t know how to use newer technology like a computer, he knew his way around a manual set of tools. Extermination was still his specialty, be it youkai or your a-typical rodents, because he loved the feel of the hunt, but when it really boiled down to it, any job was hunting, in a sense, because it was truly the money he was after.

He usually managed to pull it off, somehow or another, finding shelter for himself during the night of the new moon. A few scary times he had failed in his task, and too afraid to stay out in the wilderness where the invisible youkai of the world might suddenly decide to show themselves, jumping at their chance to rid the world of one more hanyou, he had fled to the cities he despised on those nights, knowing there was safety in numbers as he wandered the busy streets until dawn. If he couldn’t find a hotel willing to take him in this time around, he might be forced to do it again. Sighing as he hoisted his backpack a little further up his shoulder, Inuyasha reached down to grasp the hilt of the sword at his hip, finding comfort in the family heirloom. He hadn’t needed to use Tetsusaiga in battle in over a century, but Tetsusaiga was a part of him, and where he went, it went. Still, it might not be a bad idea to hide the sword for just a few minutes prior to attempting check-in at the next hotel. Like getting rid of the sword would really help when he had white hair, yellow eyes, claws and fangs.

I’m sorry sir, we’re booked solid…he mocked in his head as the next place came within view. Perhaps he should’ve stayed closer to the big cities, after all. While the room would be more expensive, at least the hotel clerks wouldn’t look at him quite so funny. In this day and age, in the big cities, the hotels were used to seeing people of every shape and size, color and race. Simple tourists from overseas could have been mistaken for youkai back in the days of his youth, and now in this day and age, the suspicion was reversed. You didn’t dare accuse somebody of being a youkai if you weren’t 100% certain they were one; for people who could not sense youki it was much safer and more politically correct to just assume they were foreign. But despite the easier acceptance in the big cities of his white hair, which from afar was easily his most obvious difference from the norm, he’d never felt very at ease in such a setting, especially when the occasional human giving him the evil eye was truly a youkai in disguise, themselves, glaring at him as if his very presence was a threat to them all. So he always preferred sticking to the more rural areas. It was much easier to find free-lance work from people who were a tad on the rural side, themselves. The cities involved too many computers, too much paperwork. He couldn’t even get a private job as somebody’s gardener without them wanting to run a background check. Though, on the other side of the coin, it was much safer for a homeless person in the big cities than it was out in the middle of the forest, and in three nights’ time that’s precisely what he’d be, a homeless person no different from any other human bum, instead of the half-man half-beast he usually was who prided himself on being one with nature. He needed to find himself some shelter, and pronto.

Worst-case scenario, he would head for Morioka. It was a small city, but it had a major train station. He could hop a ride on the Komachi – literally – and be back in Tokyo in less than three hours. Anything to avoid spending his human night out in the woods; he loved living among the trees, but only when he had his youkai powers to back him up. Still, he could give it a couple more days. He really didn’t want to head back into the city unless he had to. It was so beautiful where he currently was, in the northern region of Honshu. He wasn’t sure where he was, exactly, as far as the name of the low scale, off-season skiing community he was presently wandering through, but all he needed to know was that it felt like home, like how Japan used to be all over before the humans paved paradise to put up a parking lot. The trees of the forest called out to him, the mountain beating in time with his heart as if he really was a yama-inu. He would stick it out where he currently was. He wasn’t ready to give up on the area just yet. Somebody would rent him a room; he could feel it in his blood. There was no way these ski lodges were all sold out in the middle of summer, weekend or no.

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The woman behind the counter wasn’t what he’d been expecting, as she silently shuddered in fear, pretending to read the monitor in front of her as she attempted to tell him there were no available rooms for the night.

“G-gomen…ano…” she stuttered helplessly. “I-it appears we do n-not have any available rooms.”

Rolling his eyes, Inuyasha wiped a clawed hand down over his face in exasperation.

Fucking great, I get the clerk who’s daddy told her scary stories about avoiding the big, bad youkai when she was a kid…I’ll have to be on my toes in case security shows up.

Just because the woman’s obvious agitation had him on edge didn’t mean he was going to show it, however. He’d been in situations like this before, the person in front of him having a working set of eyes, realizing what he was and trying to have him detained. If she tried to cause any trouble for him he’d be long gone before any authorities showed up.

“Look, Yumi…” he began, reading the girl’s nametag. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya, or no one else at this ‘fine establishment’. I really do need a room for the next three nights, and I’ve got the money to pay for it.”

Gulping nervously, the girl behind the counter – she really was nothing more than a girl – turned to glance over her shoulder at the security camera in the corner.

Crap…

Was she signaling somebody? Or was somebody already speaking to her, telling her on her computer screen to stall him?

He was just about to turn and bolt for the door when she smiled at him, almost apologetically, the stench of her fear dying down just a little bit.

“O-okay…well, so long as you plan on remaining in your room-”

“I’ll lock myself behind that door until check-out.” he interrupted, confirming he wouldn’t fight her on the issue.

“I just need to swipe your credit card.” she said next.

Fuck!

Where was a drunken partier he could pay off to rent a room for him when he needed one?

“But I’m paying cash.” he tried, hoping...

Her apologetic look appeared even more genuine as she told him, “I’m sorry, sir, but a credit card with valid picture ID is required to process all guest check-ins. It’s just how the computer works.”

“Stupid 21st century…” he muttered under his breath, not caring if the girl behind the counter heard him or not. And she had been willing to give him a room, too!

“Is there such a thing as a traditional inn any more?” he asked her then, not caring if the question somewhat gave away his age. “Some place without computers, without the need for credit cards?”

“Umm…” she replied with a troubled expression, not sure if she was about to regret what she told the man who was clearly a youkai standing before her. Still, even though she had been frightened by his appearance, at first, she had been raised to not judge people by their looks. While she had no idea why a youkai would want or need to rent a hotel room for the weekend, surely such an elaborate scheme would not be required if his plan was merely to devour their other guests. Perhaps he had the intention of sharing his room with a female caller? That was truly none of her business, though it would at least mean he was telling the truth when he said he was not going to hurt anybody, herself included.  

“There is a pseudo-traditional Western style Bed and Breakfast about five kilometers north of here, I could give you the directions.” she offered then. “I know about this place, and the woman who runs it is really nice. While Higurashi-san does use modern technology, like a computer, running a business out of her home allows her to be more flexible with what she chooses to do, and there’s no way she’d be booked this time of year.”

Inuyasha truly appreciated the girl’s information, offering her a sincere smile as she took a moment to scribble out a quick map for him. Catching sight of his fangs made her nervous again and he immediately dropped his smile, accepting the paper with a brief nod. After heading back outside, he took a quick moment to collect Tetsusaiga from where he’d stashed it up on the lodge’s roof, and then leapt off the building, following Yumi’s directions. A small, privately run establishment like a Bed and Breakfast sounded perfect for him. Hopefully, he’d be the only guest there.

Let’s just hope this ‘Higurashi Kagome’ woman doesn’t mind sharing her home with a youkai.

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“Ho w about now?”

“Nope.”

“Now?”

“Still nothing.”

Sighing, Kagome tilted the satellite dish a little more to the right. “What about now?”

“It still says ‘cannot establish signal.’” came the reply from down below.  

“Damn it…”

“Language.”

Rolling her eyes, Kagome slumped back on her rear, rubbing her hand down across her face. “This is all your fault, you know.” she spoke quietly, knowing the boy in the house below her would hear her words. Movement caught the woman’s attention and she turned her gaze to see a pink balloon rising up within view over the edge of her roof. Said balloon then disappeared in a puff of smoke to reveal a small boy standing on her roof next to the satellite dish.

“I’m really sorry, Kagome.” Shippou apologized sincerely. He hadn’t meant to hit the TV dish with his baseball, knocking it completely out of whack.

“It’s okay.” Kagome told him. “I’m just glad you didn’t break a window. I’ve told you before, no baseball so close to the house. If you and your friends are going to play games like that, you need to do it deeper into the woods.”

“But then the ball will bounce off a tree!” the kitsune protested, though the glare Kagome sent his way quickly had him closing his mouth.

“Get back to your station.” she said in a no-nonsense tone, which quickly had him scampering back down off the roof to stare at the blue words floating across the black TV screen.  

Pulling herself to her feet, Kagome inched her way back to the dish, yanking it back another good three inches.

“How about now?”

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Humming to herself as she washed her bowl from dinner, Kagome shook her head in amusement as her thoughts traveled back to the kitsune boy and his friends. She would never forget the day she’d first discovered that a large group of kitsune lived in the woods not too far from the Yukiyama Inn. The establishment had still belonged to her grandmother Kaede at that time. It was shortly after she had moved in, and while exploring the surrounding woods she had fallen victim to one of Shippou’s pranks, the boy having disguised himself as a terrible oni who’d then proceeded to corner Kagome in a thick patch of trees. Frantically reaching for an ofuda, which she always carried on her person whenever exploring out in the woods, Kagome had been terrified for her life, only to suddenly find herself stunned speechless when the horrible monster before her had turned into a small boy, crying and pleading with her not to kill him. Quickly tucking the purifying ofuda back into her pocket, Kagome had knelt before the young fox, attempting to sooth his cries while promising that she wouldn’t hurt him. She had then scolded him that it wasn’t a very nice prank, pretending to be a terrifying monster, getting him to understand that she had feared him just as he had feared her ofuda. Sniffling, he had apologized for frightening her so badly, and had asked her if she would be his friend.

Over the months that followed, Kagome had continued to venture out into the woods beside her home, meeting with Shippou on occasion, who eventually took her back to meet his father and some of his fox friends. They were the guardians of that particular patch of forest, and they were very happy to have Kagome in the neighborhood. Shippou was quick to consider her an adopted mother of sorts, though that was perfectly all right with Kagome.

Smiling to herself, the young miko mused over how quickly things could change.

It had always been her grandmother’s dream for retirement to own and operate a friendly little B & B tucked snugly away in the mountains, and so when the opportunity had actually presented itself to purchase the perfect old house in the perfect location near a small ski resort up north, Kaede had immediately jumped at the chance. Kagome didn’t know much about the building’s history, except that it had once belonged to a wealthy couple that had used the place as a vacation home. Nothing bad had happened to them, the elderly couple had simply passed on from old age, and so there weren’t any nasty ghosts to worry about. The building had eventually been reclaimed by the town and auctioned off, so Kaede had gotten the place for an incredible deal. Kagome remembered staying with her grandmother for a week during summer vacation the first year after she’d gotten the establishment remodeled and open for business, and even back then the then fifteen-year-old had fallen in love with the place. Kagome had had a vision about living there and running it herself one day.

If only she had known that her fantasy had actually been a premonition of disaster. She often times wondered if she would have been able to save her family if she had more properly foreseen what horrors had been awaiting them.

Kagome’s mother, brother and grandfather had all been killed in a terrible car accident. A car accident that she herself had also been a part of, though miraculously, her life had been spared. Why the kami had decided it wasn’t yet her time she couldn’t be sure, but Kagome had spent the better part of a year learning not to blame herself for her family’s deaths. She hadn’t been the one driving, after all, so there was truly no way she could logically twist the blame to rest upon her own shoulders. She’d had to learn to stop feeling guilty for having survived.

Since her father had passed away a few years earlier, Kagome, at the age of seventeen, had moved in with her grandmother from her mother’s side, Kaede, in her Bed and Breakfast up north. The shrine that had been in her father’s line for generations still belonged to the Higurashi family, but since Kagome had not been able to live by herself as a minor, and Kaede had had her own business to run on the other side of the island, the place had been rented out to shrine keepers while Kagome left the only life she’d ever known to go live in the place that had captured her heart two years prior.

After graduating from high school, Kagome had opted not to go to university, not having earned high enough grades to qualify for a scholarship thanks to the amount of school she’d missed during the transition, and also not wanting to burden herself or her grandmother with the debt of school loans. Picking up a job as a waitress in a small restaurant within bicycle distance to her grandmother’s home, Kagome had done her best to help with what she’d from then on considered to be the family business. She never forgot about her roots at the Higurashi shrine, and she had packed with her many mementos of her family, including her grandfather’s old scrolls about youkai and spiritual magics, but becoming a shrine miko was simply no longer in the stars for her. She wondered if it had ever been.  

For five years Kagome lived with her grandmother, doing her best to help with expenses with her waitressing job since her presence meant that the inn was down one available room for guests. If she was a burden in any way to her grandmother, Kaede never showed it, though Kagome always tried her best to make up for it, anyway, assisting the elderly woman with things like cleaning and gardening when she wasn’t working. Kaede had definitely appreciated having a second set of hands around the inn, though she had been perfectly capable of doing things for herself, at least at first, until one day when she suddenly, without warning, began feeling weaker and weaker. Knowing in her heart that she wouldn’t be around for much longer, Kaede had made sure that Kagome would be able to take care of herself once she was gone, teaching her granddaughter all that there was to know about running her own business. The B & B was paid for, aside from the normal monthly bills one could not avoid, so if Kagome budgeted her money properly and ran her business wisely, she would be able to maintain her self-reliance indefinitely.

When Kaede had passed away, with Kagome at the age of twenty-two, the young woman had been saddened to lose the last living member of her family, but she had not let it get her down. The Higurashi Shrine back in Tokyo was still doing well with its shrine keepers, she checked in on them at least once a month, and so it was that she decided to stay up north in the Bed and Breakfast, determined that both of her family traditions would remain alive and well. It hadn’t mattered to her that the B & B hadn’t been in her family for generation upon generation. It had been her grandmother’s dream come true, and for the last five years, it had been her home.

That had been three years ago, and the now twenty-five-year-old had been running the place by herself ever since.

So far so good… Kagome mused.

It helped that she had a large garden off to the side of the property where she grew most of her food during the spring and summer. What she didn’t use she sold to a local market that bought farm fresh produce, sometimes even trading with the market for other grocery items she needed. It was like experiencing just a little bit of what life had been like in the past, trading goods. Many things she dried or pickled so that she would have them year round, so even though she did have to buy more grocery items during the winter, she was pretty thrifty with her spending.

Putting her bowl back in the cupboard, the miko headed out of the kitchen, smiling to herself as she passed the television in the living room before heading down the hall to her bedroom. It had taken almost an hour, but she and Shippou had finally managed to find that magic sweet spot that enabled her TV satellite to locate its provider’s signal. Sure, she could have just called somebody out, but she didn’t have the kind of money to waste on unnecessary tech-support calls. She could barely afford the TV bill as it was, though she stood by the decision of having separate receivers for each bedroom; she knew how guests would appreciate the ability to watch TV in their rooms as they settled down for the evening. Besides, living by herself, she would go crazy without TV. While the Yukiyama Inn was usually booked solid during the winter and going into early spring when the sakura trees started to bloom, summer was definitely her slow season, and so more often than not Kagome found herself spending her days by herself. She no longer had her part-time job as a waitress, unable to predict when she might have a guest and always needing to remain available at the inn whenever she did, but she made enough money during season to last her the rest of the year, so long as she stuck to her budget.

Opening her hall closet to take out the broom, Kagome was pulled from her thoughts when a tingling sensation traveled through her, strong youki energy vibrating against her aura. Something, or rather someone had just passed through her barrier.

That aura is far too powerful to be one of the kitsune… she thought, putting her broom back away before heading for the front door.

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Standing at the edge of the tree line, Inuyasha blinked slowly at the sight before him. The place looked rather inviting, were he to be honest. A large, fairly modern-looking yet clearly traditional Japanese-styled home was sitting nestled up against the incline of the mountain summit, with a large vegetable garden off to the side. An artfully crafted, hand-painted sign was hung from a torii-like gate over the walkway, reading “Snow Mountain Inn” in English below the Kanji for the same, obviously with the intention of appealing to the occasional Westerner.

How the hell can she make any money out here in the middle of nowhere? The place doesn’t even have an onsen!

Thinking back on the hustle and bustle atmosphere of the ski lodges that had rejected him, apparently being booked solid even during August…he snorted at the thought…Inuyasha figured that a smaller setting like a B & B probably had an appeal all its own, for a different kind of vacationer. It didn’t have to be ski mountain adjacent to attract the winter crowds, after all. Maybe some people liked getting away but didn’t want to lose that ‘at home’ feeling.

Noticing the rows of green sakura trees that lined either side of the walkway as he approached the property, the hanyou imagined that the place was probably very pretty during blossom season, too, not that it wasn’t pretty now. Still, he was sure the inn probably made all its money during the winter, and that Higurashi horded her profits away to live off of bit by bit throughout the rest of the year. Though of course, there was always the occasional off-season client, like…himself.

Passing through the gateway, Inuyasha paused for a moment, feeling a light tingling sensation against his skin.

What the hell was that?

It felt like spiritualist magic, though not like anything he had ever felt before. For some reason, it didn’t feel threatening, which seemed contradictive since spiritualist magic was by nature a threat to anything demonic. After double-checking that he was still in one piece, he shrugged it off and headed for the door. He would have knocked – this was a woman’s home, after all – but a little sign hanging on the door said “Please come in” and so he did, opening the door to reveal a traditional genkan where he slipped off his zori sandals in exchange for house slippers before passing into the rest of the house. What he saw took his breath away.

A beautiful combination of ‘East meets West’ greeted his eyes, as he took in the homey décor featuring American-styled furnishings resting upon the tatami-covered flooring. The place both looked and smelled like a home, and that was a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time. It also smelled of kitsune, but so did the entire surrounding forest area, and so he supposed that some of them must have posed as humans at the inn from time to time for whatever purpose. Kitsune were usually harmless, so their presence didn’t bother him.

“Good evening.” a friendly voice greeted him suddenly, snapping him back into reality as he turned to register the appearance of a young, barefoot woman in a yellow blouse and pale blue denim just rising up from her polite bow. He quickly bowed in return.

“How may I help you?” Kagome asked next, taking a moment to truly take in the sight before her.

The young man appeared to be in his early twenties, though she knew with youkai that you could never really tell their age based on appearances. He had long silver-white hair tied back in a low ponytail against the nap of his neck, and a red wool cap pulled down over the top of his head. A matching red t-shirt and loose dark blue jeans completed the look, with a large black backpack slung over one shoulder, and a sheathed katana hanging from his belt that looked totally out of place with such an outfit. Still, where else would he keep it?

Of course, Inuyasha noticed her eyes focusing on his sword and immediately swore mentally for having forgotten about ditching it so as not to add any more fright to his appearance than necessary. Oh well, too late now. Fortunately, Kagome actually appreciated the fact that he wasn’t trying to conceal his weapon, though he didn’t know that. Nervously, he cleared his throat.

“Are you Higurashi-san?” he asked as politely as possible, to which she nodded.

“I, uh…I need a room for a few nights, and a girl at the lodge five kilometers south from here recommended you.”

Kagome furrowed her brow at that. Why wouldn’t he have just stayed at the lodge, if he were already there? Then again…all things considered…

“Okay, well, I don’t have any other guests at this time, so I can definitely accommodate you.” she answered, sensing no malice from the man. “How will you be paying?”

“Cash.”

Well that answers one question right there, probably doesn’t have an ID or credit card, which would be required at a real hotel.

“Cash works.” Kagome stated before walking with him over to where she’d set up her check-in station in the living room. Establishing that he wanted a room for three nights, Kagome told him the rate and he then proceeded to retrieve his money from his pocket, which she accepted from him without so much as a double-take at his claws.

What gives? Inuyasha pondered, feeling like he was missing something important. It was almost too good to be true that this woman seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was a youkai.

“Name?” Kagome asked him then, fingers poised over the keyboard of her notebook, ready to log in record of her guest.

He hesitated, a worried look in his eyes that did not go unnoticed by his hostess. Then before he could think of something common enough to reply with, the woman before him put her hands at her sides with an understanding smile and said, “That’s all right, never mind.”

“Inuyasha.” he blurted suddenly, his eyes widening in surprise at himself. He never told anyone his real name any more! That was suicide, considering his name meant ‘dog spirit’.

Kagome just continued to smile at him, and didn’t bother reaching for the laptop on the table.

“It’s nice to meet you, Inuyasha-san. You may call me Kagome-san.”

He grimaced a bit at that, his face comical to the woman before him as he muttered, “Uh, just ‘Inuyasha’ is fine, you can leave off the suffix. I’ve never been one for all that ‘title’ nonsense.”

Musing over his request, which could be considered either especially rude or especially personal, Kagome smiled brighter and decided in that moment that she didn’t really care much for suffixes, either.

“Well in that case, then I insist you not use any suffixes with me, either. We will be on equal terms while you are in my home, Inuyasha.”  

He blinked at her, truly surprised.

Kagome then proceeded to give him the ‘grand tour’, and it didn’t take him long at all to fall into step behind her as she first showed him the eat-in kitchen, where she said he was free to get himself a drink or a snack whenever he wanted, though she would be preparing his main meals for him as part of the service. On the other side of the kitchen was the main washroom, complete with washer and dryer for his clothes. Besides the toilet, there was also a separate tub and shower, the tub big enough to lie down in while the showerhead could be clipped to the wall. Kaede’s upgrades had been made with the occasional Western tourist in mind, as well. Exiting back through the kitchen and heading through the living room and down the hall, Kagome showed him the three available guest rooms, allowing him to pick whichever one he wanted since she was fully vacant at the moment. She also pointed out which door led to her own bedroom, in case he needed anything, and which door led to the secondary toilet, in case the washroom was occupied.

Finally, after twenty minutes of being shown through the house, Inuyasha just couldn’t take it any more.

“Doesn’t it worry you, being out here in the middle of nowhere all by yourself?” he asked, realizing he was tempting fate though he just couldn’t help his curiosity. “Aren’t you nervous about a youkai attack, living right next to the forest?”

Surprisingly enough, Kagome just smiled at him again, and the expression was so genuine, he found the girl’s demeanor sending calming waves through his entire being.

“No, I’m not worried about a youkai attack. I have the property warded.”

He snorted before he could stop himself, causing Kagome to tilt her head in amused curiosity.

“Are you thinking that my wards don’t work, because you were able to get through?” she asked knowingly.

That shut him up, as he snapped his mouth closed to stare at her with a calculating gaze. She raised her hands in a peaceful gesture.

“Relax Inuyasha…” she stated calmly. “I do not fear you, and you have no reason to fear me. My wards are not designed to keep out all youkai, only the malicious ones. I have designed my seals to react to jyaki, instead of youki, so peaceful youkai such as yourself are welcome here. In fact, there’s a group of kitsune that live out in the woods not too far from here, and sometimes some of the boys come here to play.” she informed him, explaining the scent of fox he had picked up earlier.

“You’re a miko…” he stated in wonder, realizing it all made perfect sense now. It’d just been so long since he’d been around one that he’d forgotten what a miko’s aura felt like, though now that he knew what to look for he felt embarrassed for not having recognized it sooner.

“I was going to be.” she answered quietly, pulling him from his thoughts when a slight tinge of melancholy invaded her scent, though she shook herself free from such emotions before he could think to question her on it.

“Well, then…” she stated suddenly, clapping her hands together. “I’ve already eaten, but if you’re hungry I can fix you something for dinner. Just say the word.”

“You don’t have to go through the trouble if you’ve already cooked once this evening.” he answered her, even as his stomach proceeded to argue with him, growling loud enough for her to hear.

Giggling behind her hand, Kagome shooed Inuyasha into his chosen room so that he could start getting himself settled, while she told him she’d have a quick dinner ready for him in five minutes.

Back in the kitchen, as she put some ramen noodles on to boil, the twenty-five-year-old couldn’t help but think how her life had just gotten much more interesting, at least for the next three days.

```

Slurping his noodles greedily, Inuyasha couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the puzzle that was Kagome. A young woman, with spiritual powers, living all by herself and running a Bed and Breakfast out of her home, tucked away in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It almost seemed like something about of a fairytale, and here he was, a creature of legend himself, showing up on her doorstep seemingly out of nowhere. He was still a little shaken up by the fact that she knew what he was, more or less. He was sure she didn’t suspect that he was actually a hanyou, but she knew he was of youkai origin, apparently from the instant he’d stepped foot through her barrier, and that fact didn’t bother her. That fact had him feeling a bizarre combination of suspicion and relief. While he would like to believe that he had hit the jackpot, finally finding himself a place where he could be himself for at least a couple of days, he knew he couldn’t let his guard down so easily. Usually, he was used to being on his toes while staying in somebody’s home so as to make sure nobody suspected what he was. Whenever they began to suspect, it was shortly after his host’s discovery that he was usually not so politely asked to leave. Since Kagome already knew what he was, and he was a paying customer, it seemed like that worry had been taken away, but that only meant that he had a whole new reason to stay on his toes. While he truly doubted that she was going to make a phone call and turn him in while he slept, especially after her comment of befriending the local kitsune, Inuyasha knew it would just be plain foolish of him to not remain on alert for a little while longer, just in case. For all he knew, Yumi had given Kagome a head’s up, sending up a red flag about a youkai trying to pose as a human, and the miko’s immediate show of acceptance toward him was designed for him to let his guard down. While he would love to be wrong, while he would love for it to turn out that Kagome was somehow merely just some girl with spiritual powers who didn’t have anything against ‘friendly’ youkai, only time would tell.

Because it was so late, after serving him his ramen Kagome had bid him goodnight before excusing herself for the evening. She had apologized for the simplistic dinner, but he had assured her, with all sincerity, that the noodles were delicious. Sitting by himself at the high, Western-style kitchen table, Inuyasha found himself wondering what Kagome’s story really was.



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