After about a half hour of wandering down the path, Shin realized that wherever they were, it was nowhere near the centipedes’ lair. He didn’t really recognize this part of forest at all. Even stretching his spiritual senses—his ‘reiki radar’ as he and his mom liked to call it—he didn’t pick up on any useful signatures to help clue him in, like tree youkai or other familiar stand-stills. 

Of course, in his demon form, he could’ve sniffed out the trail of those centipedes in a snap. But for whatever reason, he’d been avoiding transforming. He knew Kaori wasn’t like most humans, who’d freak out at the first sign of his youkai self. Her dad was his half-demon uncle, after all. 

He wasn’t so sure that she knew about all that, though. And so, though Shin didn’t really know why, he’d kept playing along with her like he was just some random human kid off the streets. Plus, he was enjoying the challenge of trying to hunt in his human form. It sure wasn’t easy. To draw on his demon side now would spoil the game.

He could sense one thing, though, that was for sure—Kaori was starting to get suspicious that he’d gotten them lost. She kept glancing sidelong at him the deeper they went into the woods. Any second now, Shin felt, she’d open up that bossy little yap of hers and start demanding whether he’d led them on a wild goose chase or not.

As he was mulling this over, a sudden idea came to mind that had him grinning. He veered aside with a downward wave to her not to follow, crunching off into the thick of the brush. 

“Hey!” she called out, crunching after him. “Where are you going, Prince?”

“To take a whizz, Lady K!” he called brightly back. “What else? I guess you can join me if you really want to…”

Her crunching footsteps stopped abruptly. “Ew!” she yelled through the trees. “Gross.”

Shin snickered, plunging deeper into the brush. He might’ve grossed her out a bit, but he’d gotten her off his tail, at least. Now that there was some distance between them, he thought maybe he could bend the rules of the game—just a little.

Transforming into his hanyou self, he bounded up from the ground into the canopy of the trees. He swung and leapt from branch to branch, just like Tarzan. He even whooped a little like Tarzan, as he swung himself up to the very top of the highest tree. Up here, the wind breezed through his hair, tickling his ears as they swiveled around—taking in the sounds of the woods and the valley, the sounds of the birds (youkai and not), even just faintly, the sound of Kaori huffing from the deer trail. 

Shin grinned as he sniffed the air and swept his much sharper demon eyes over the treetops. The scents filtered through his keen nose—some familiar, others not so much. But there was one scent he was searching for in particular. And as he turned about in the breeze and finally caught a whiff of it, he whooped again, slashing out with his practice sword.

“Hell yeah!—gotcha, you stupid centipedes. You can’t hide from this Shin.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Glad y’all are stoked for this little (mis)adventure XD <3