Shouga is a hanyou like Inuyasha, except that she’s half cat youkai, rather than dog. Understandably, this is source of some rather amusing antics between the two hanyou. She wears a haori and hakama much like Inuyasha’s as well, except that they’re light blue and a little more form-fitting. As her name, which means “ginger,” suggests, Shouga has bright red hair and an unusual tannish-bronze skin tone. Her eyes are amber and so are the fuzzy kitty ears perched on top of her head and her fluffy little cat tail, which resembles Sesshoumaru’s in a way.
I have yet to invent a past for this brainchild of a Swedish Fish overdose, so for now, she exists only in this story.
THE INEVITABLE DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Shippou, Kirara, or Inuyasha, more’s the pity. They belong to Takahashi-sama. *bows reverently* I DO, however, own Shouga. She is MINE! MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE! So don’t attempt to steal her, ‘cause she hasn’t been declawed.
Demons Behaving Badly
By: Nizûno Mikomi
Chapter One: Pounce
Inuyasha crouched on a gnarled tree branch about ten feet off the ground, claws digging into the bark, golden eyes staring intently, an occasional twitch of one fluffy white ear the only movement in his entire being.
'Come on, bitch,' he thought. 'I know you’re bound to come by here sooner or later.' A light breeze whispered through the afternoon, stirring the long silver locks hanging down the hanyou’s back. He didn’t move. His sensitive nose picked up a familiar scent carried along with the leaves and moving air: rain and the sharp tang of burning leaves. A smug grin curled the corner of his mouth.
'Ah . . . there you are, kitten.' Secure in his hiding place and downwind of his prey, Inuyasha watched the path beneath his tree with a predatory gleam lighting his golden gaze.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, a slender neko hanyou in a periwinkle blue haori strolled into view, the light filtering through the trees picking up the highlights in her crimson hair and gleaming on the amber fur of her kitten ears, bare toes curling on the sun-warmed earth as she selected a patch of ground where a sunbeam brightened the grass from olive to emerald.
Inuyasha’s muscles tensed imperceptibly and his shoulders wiggled slightly as he prepared to spring.
'She’ll never know what hit her . . . .'
~~~~~~~~~~
[AN: If you don’t get the following mental image, just imagine a domestic cat rolling around in a sunbeam on your living room floor, ‘cause that was my inspiration. ^.^ ]
Shouga stretched her lean form out on the ground, relishing the warmth of the sun as she wriggled over onto her back, amber eyes closed, a peaceful smile spreading across her face. The raspy beginnings of a purr sputtered to life deep in her throat.
'Hmmm . . . .' she sighed happily. 'It doesn’t get much better than this . . . .'
A slight rustle overhead caught the hanyou’s attention and she opened her eyes to peer up into the tree above her. Silver hair gleamed in the shadows and golden eyes met amber. Shouga wrinkled her nose and squinted.
“What the . . . . ”
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Inuyasha sprang from his hiding place, claws ready to inflict damage upon the unsuspecting cat girl below.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“My God, Inuyasha!” Kagome exclaimed as the dog demon trooped back into camp, looking like nothing so much as a joint of steak fresh out of a meat shredder. “What happened to you?!” Inuyasha glared daggers at his toes, mouth curled in a sulky frown.
“I keep forgetting that five of her six limbs end in points when she lies that way.”
~owari~
THE NOTES: I invented Shouga . . . blah blah blah. If you’re reading the second chapter, you had better read the first, ‘cause Mikomi-chan don’t feel much like repeatin’ herself today! (Where did THAT come from?!)
THE DISCLAIMER OF DOOM: I don’t own Inuyasha. That much is obvious, ‘cause if I did, there’d be a whole lotta citrus goin’ on! And certain bishies would be living in my apartment . . . . we won’t say which ones . . . . *cough cough* FLUFFYINUYASHAKOUGA *cough cough hack*
THE OTHER DISCLAIMER OF DOOM: Shouga-chan is MINE! MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE! And NO, you cannot borrow her for a pleasant romp. That’s a dangerous undertaking in her current un-declawed state.
Demons Behaving Badly
By: Nizûno Mikomi
Chapter Two: Stalk
Shouga glared venomously after the dog demon as he scampered away yelping for all he was worth, her usually fluffy tail at least twice its normal size. She shook herself vigorously, ears flapping against her head, then sat down cross-legged, feeling rattled and tense in the wake of the confrontation.
‘Inuyasha no baka . . . .’
Well, less a confrontation than a mauling, really.
After rolling her shoulders a couple of times, Shouga went to work on finger-combing her long crimson mane to remove the leaves and twigs that had gotten tangled in it as she was rolling on the ground, making sashimi of a certain loud-mouthed hanyou.
“Inuyasha no baka,” she reiterated, out loud this time, snarling as her fingers caught in a particularly vicious knot and yanked rather painfully on her scalp. “Get your ass back here so I can pummel you again. Damned half-breed . . . . ”
“Not that I have any room to talk,” she smirked as her fingertip brushed the base of one fuzzy amber ear and it twitched in response. “What with my illustrious history and all . . . yeah, right.”
A few more minutes of grooming got rid of the rest of the debris, but Shouga continued to run her claws through her hair, a means of calming herself that she had used for years. Today, however, it didn’t seem to be working. Despite the soothing sensation of claws running gently over her scalp, she still felt tense . . . twitchy, even.
Abruptly abandoning her grooming, Shouga stood and took to the air, hopping energetically from branch to branch, tree to tree, making her way to nowhere in particular in a terrible hurry. She leaped and twisted and rolled and tumbled, always landing on her feet in true cat fashion. This spontaneous display of acrobatics was yet another calming technique, Shouga’s reasoning being that limber muscles being put to good use distract the mind from stressors.
Unfortunately, the tension continued to gnaw at her synapses, picking at the corners of her consciousness.
Landing in a shaded glen and shaking herself briskly once more, Shouga growled in annoyance and began to pace, stalking back and forth like a caged animal, taking long, loping strides over the leaf-covered ground, trying to sort out her jumbled thoughts.
‘What do I feel?’ she asked herself, snarling when she automatically answered, ‘I don’t know.’
‘You do TOO know, Shouga no baka! Now THINK!’ A few more circuits of the glen brought the dawning glimmers of enlightenment.
‘I feel . . . restless . . . uneasy . . . and I know I’m not in heat, so that’s DEFINITELY not it. And even if I was, that would mean that Inuyasha . . . .’ She stopped her train of thought cold in its tracks. ‘I don’t even wanna go there.’
Three more minutes of brisk pacing started to wear a rut in the leaves and activated the “By Jove, I’ve got it!” switch in Shouga’s brain.
‘I need . . .to hunt.’
A frighteningly toothy predatory grin plastered itself across her pixie face and the hanyou crept off through the forest in search of her prey.
~~~~~~~
Shippou plopped down in a shady spot on the lowest branch of a tall tree, panting slightly and sweating buckets. The heat of high noon had burnt off the last few remaining clouds and the day had turned from pleasantly warm to slightly hot and muggy within an hour. It was not a good day to have fur.
The infant kitsune mopped his forehead dry with his sleeve in the style of every good unhygienic child, silently cursing whatever fickle god was responsible for the weather and Inuyasha’s lousy temper, which was responsible for the golfball-sized lump on his noggin.
“Just because he got beat up . . . .” Here he paused and grinned. “Correction, mauled . . . by a girl doesn’t mean the stupid mutt has to take it out on me. Hmph . . . it’s too hot to chase him down and hit him with something right now.” Shippou yawned loudly, stretched, folded his tiny paws across his tummy, and settled back against the cool bark of his shelter for a midday nap. “He’ll regret bopping this kitsune. Later . . . .”
A gentle breeze, the whisper of leaves rustling, and the occasional soft chirp of an unseen bird where as good as a lullaby to the little fox and in mere minutes, he was dozing peacefully.
~~~~~~~
From the shadows downwind of the kitsune’s napping place, Shouga crouched low to the ground, nose testing the air, ears pricked forward, all senses on full alert. She crept forward one limb at a time. Hand, foot, hand, foot. Every time Shippou shifted even the tiniest bit, she froze, hand or foot in midair if need be, proceeding only when her prey was still. Meticulously avoiding crunching leaves and snapping twigs that would give her away, she slunk even closer, until she was almost within pouncing distance.
At ten feet away, she froze again, silently gauging the distance between herself and the kitsune, the height of the branch, the terrain between herself and her target and a million other unnamable factors that would play a part in the success or failure of this hunt. The baby fox hadn’t moved in several minutes and was snoring softly. Shouga had the size advantage and the element of surprise in her corner. A sly grin curled the corner of her mouth as her muscles tensed, preparatory to the running leap needed to clear the branch where Shippou snoozed on, dead to the world.
Then, as if some inaudible starter pistol had fired, she shot off over the leaves on all fours, barely slowing as her leg muscles bunched and launched her upward at such an angle that her momentum carried her perfectly up into the tree.
~~~~~~~
Startled awake by a loud scuffling sound behind him, Shippou rubbed his eyes and rolled over just in time to see one hundred twenty pounds of feline fury hurtling straight at him. His eyes saucered and he let out a yelp as Shouga tackled him, her body just clearing the branch.
“WAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGH!”
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
The two of them tumbled to the leaf-strewn forest floor, rolling about in a melee of tails, limbs, teeth, claws, and fur. Fur and some choice expletives flew as the twitching mass of youkai slammed into one tree trunk after another, in a sort of demented free-for-all, anything-goes cat-fox fight. Using his smaller size to his advantage, Shippou slipped out of Shouga’s grip and ducked around to her flank as she fell onto her stomach, wrapping his tiny arms around one ankle and pulling back with all his might.
“Give up?” he asked the prostrate cat hanyou under his feet. Shouga lifted her head and turned her quizzical amber gaze over her shoulder at the disheveled kitsune yanking on her foot.
“Hell no,” she quipped before grabbing his tail and putting him in a very strong but not very effective headlock. Shippou wriggled away once more and clambered up her shoulders to gnaw on her head. Shouga swatted him off like a mosquito . . . a mosquito with a huge fluffy fox tail and a big red bow. For a moment, the two adversaries regarded each other warily from several feet away, seeking a weak spot.
Shippou moved first, diving for Shouga’s ribs. Putting his tiny paws to good use, he began to tickle her unmercifully. Now it was Shouga’s turn to go saucer-eyed.
“BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!”
The hanyou collapsed, laughing helplessly, barely able to make the slightest effort to dislodge her attacker. Shippou dodged her ineffective swipes and continued to poke at her sides and stomach.
“Dame . . . hehehehehe . . . dame onegai! Hahahahaha!” Shouga begged, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Say ‘uncle’!” Shippou commanded, digging a thumb into her kidney. Shouga let out a squeal.
“Hehehehehhe . . . can’t . . . speak . . . . hahhahahahahaaa . . . stop . . . bwahahahahahaha . . . . ”
“Say it first!
“Hahahahaha . . . UNCLE!” Shippou ceased his torment and sprang away with all available speed. Shouga remained sprawled on the ground, still giggling.
Giggles, of course, are a highly contagious disease. Shippou caught the bug a few seconds later and started to roll around like a furrball with a mind of its own, which only made Shouga laugh even harder.
And that is how Sango found them when she came to investigate the commotion. The taiji-ya shook her head and turned to walk away.
“Kagome was right,” she thought. “They’ve all gone completely insane.”
~~~~~~~
OK, now it’s done. For real. I mean it this time. Please R&R.
