Brushing off Kaori’s naysaying, Shin slung his practice sword over his shoulder and strutted past her, pacing back and forth down the trail. “First thing’s first, though,” he said, taking a swing at a passing dragonfly, “I’ve gotta help my mom find my dad. I’ve never met him before, but I know he’s really strong—he’s just got himself stranded somewhere in deep trouble. My mom’s really strong, too, but she’s all torn up about it, so I have to be even stronger. She’s depending on me, and I can’t let her down.”

“Oh,” Kaori said, her arms falling slack. “I’m sorry…about your dad.”

“It’ll be okay,” Shin said, seeing the too-bright glimmer in her eyes and crooking a smile. “Really. We’ll find him soon. I know we will.”

Kaori nodded, glancing aside. “I lost my dad, too…my real dad. Before I was born. So I never met him, either.”

“That’s tough,” Shin said with a frown.

Kaori nodded again, sniffing. “Yes, but I know he was a great warrior, too—just like my papa. They were best friends who fought together to destroy Naraku and save the world. So really I’m lucky,” she said with a soft pretty smile, “because both my dads are heroes.”

Shin smiled back. “Yeah.”

Together they followed the new path deeper into the woods, chatting about this and that. Places they’d been to and places they wanted to go, youkai they’d run into and other ones they’d only heard about. And about sword-fighting, of course.

“So,” he asked, grinning as he puffed out his chest, “where d’you think I’d rank in your class now, sensei?”

“Dead last,” Kaori said, matter of fact.

Shin’s face fell. She wasn’t even being snooty about it. She’d lightened up a lot in the last ten minutes, thanks to him. She’d just called it like she saw it.

“…Shit,” Shin muttered, while Kaori huffed at him for cursing.

I’ve gotta step up my game, he thought, furrowing his brows, or how else am I ever gonna smoke that lame-o, Kenji?

Lost in thought over this, Shin didn’t notice the clearing up ahead of them until he’d walked right into it through the brush. In the same second he saw what he would’ve smelled a mile away in his hanyou form—hide bedrolls, bulging rucksacks, tied-up war horses and a greasy campfire whose coals were still fresh and smoldering. 

At the sight, Shin halted so suddenly in his tracks that Kaori crashed into his back with an ‘umph!’ It was a campsite, all right—and he didn’t like the looks of it one bit. If those horses weren’t stolen, then he was the Emperor of Japan.

Stepping up beside him, Kaori swept her eyes over the clearing and murmured, “This looks like a bandit camp.”

Shin nodded. Luckily, it was an empty bandit camp—at least for now. Turning on his heel, he opened his mouth to whisper back, ‘Let’s get out of here,’ when one of the horses behind them whinnied and snorted, and a second later there was the sound of men’s heavy footsteps crunching through the trees right toward them.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi