Inuyasha Learns Enlgish
Inuyasha Learns English
This one-shot piece breaks from chapter 27 of Lucky Seven. Kagome still healed, only without the presence of Ayumi, and this happens...
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“Let’s go Kagome!” The always impatient hanyou barked from the Higurashi living room. He could hear the rushed footsteps of a certain miko from upstairs. “Hayaku, jeez, you’re so slow!”
“Argh, Inuyasha, I’m still in pain.” Kagome faked a groan.
“Yea, right, you healed completely and fully, and now we’ve gotta go back. Everyone was worried.” Inuyasha tried to conceal his guilt as he mumbled the last sentence, but he knew it was his fault.
“Un huh, and who was it that made them worry?” Kagome stared at Inuyasha blankly. Being run over by a car was no fun; neither was fighting with Inuyasha while she was bandaged up like a mummy. Now it’s her turn to get revenge, and what other good way than to make the hanyou feel guilty?
“Oh, Kagome, dear, are you heading back again?” Kagome’s mother’s head popped out from the kitchen. “Before you go, can you do me a favor and go buy some groceries?”
“Sure mama,” Kagome grinned at Inuyasha triumphantly. Any excuse to stay in this world is fine by her. And besides, she knew Inuyasha couldn’t refuse one of her mother’s requests. Like she predicted, Inuyasha all but grunted.
“I’ll be back in a quickie, Inuyasha,” Kagome patted him on the head, which got her a growl from the hanyou.
“No way, Kagome, after that last incident, I’m sticking to you like glue.” Inuyasha was gone in a flash. And just when Kagome thought she can make a clean escape, the hanyou came back with his “modern” attires, with the cap and everything. Kagome giggled at how her mother still hasn’t gone back to the store and gotten Inuyasha a larger size t-shirt, the current one is just too tight. “Okay, make it quick, I don’t feel right without Tessaiga.”
“Fine, let’s go, ya big whiny.” Kagome smiled to herself that Inuyasha cared enough to come. She took the money and the grocery list from her mother and grabbed her shoes.
Just as the two were walking down the shrine steps, they saw a girl coming towards them.
“Ayumi-chan!” Kagome yelled out in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Checking up on you, what else?” Ayumi smiled at the two. “Back to the old disguise again, eh, Inuyasha-kun? Where are you two going?”
“Groceries, then we’re leaving.” Kagome grabbed Ayumi’s arm, “come with us, I probably won’t be back for a long time.”
So the two girls chatted excitedly up ahead, with a grumpy (yet handsome) hanyou trailing not far behind. The walk to the largest grocery store in the neighborhood was a short one, and for that, Inuyasha was glad.
As they entered they felt a sudden burst of warm air. “It’s only the beginning of fall, and they’re turning up the heat already?” Kagome asked in disbelief.
The radio of the store was blasting with American music. Kagome and Ayumi sang along while looking at the vegetables as though they were experts. Inuyasha was gazing at the ramen section when his ears caught words of the strange language.
“What are you singing?” It wasn’t complaining, since the song was so nice. Ayumi’s voice was delightful, while Kagome’s was another story.
“Jessica Simpson, Forever in Your Eyes.” Kagome and Ayumi shot out a bunch of words that Inuyasha didn’t understand.
The puzzled look on Inuyasha’s face was enough to give the girls’ a good laugh. “It’s Eigo.” Kagome explained as soon as she caught her breath.
“Eigo? Isn’t that one of your test subjects?”
“Hai, it’s another language.” Kagome explained patiently. “Like Chinese is also another language.”
If Inuyasha hasn’t heard of English, then he definitely had heard about Chinese. “So Eigo is the language of another country?”
Ayumi answered this time, “exactly!”
“So what’s this song saying?” Inuyasha became intrigued y this new information. So Kagome knows another language. But I bet she can’t communicate with dogs. The competitive side of the hanyou caved in, and he was compelled to learn the basics of this language, and perhaps beat Kagome in it.
But Inuyasha didn’t expect his question to bring blushes upon the girls’ faces. “Umm… Inuyasha…” Kagome started to stuttered. And when Inuyasha looked onto Ayumi for help, she turned her attention to a square watermelon.
“C’mon, Inuyasha, let’s go look at some ramen.” Kagome dragged Inuyasha by the arm while that blush still remained on her face.
“But I don’t want to look at ramen.” Inuyasha’s words almost caused Kagome to fall. Inuyasha not wanting to look at ramen?! What has the world come to?!
“Kagome, what’s the big deal?” Inuyasha planted his Air Jordan-wearing-feet into the floor and insisted on an answer. “Why won’t you tell me?”
“It’s no big deal, just… kind of embarrassing to translate.” Ayumi tore her eyes away from the square watermelons and came to Kagome’s rescue.
Inuyasha apparently didn’t care whether it was embarrassing or not, he didn’t remove his eyes away from Kagome’s head. Finally, the miko caved in.
“It’s a love song.” Once the words were out, Inuyasha regretted asking. “Ya know, about looking at each other’s eyes… and falling asleep… next to… each other…”
Kagome was blushing full scale. Ayumi looked at her friend and admired her bravery.
Inuyasha’s response was a short and simple “oh”.
And after two minutes of awkward silence, Inuyasha surprised both of the girls with “so which word meant eyes?”
Kagome responded with a slight shock. But Inuyasha didn’t stop there.
“And which word meant sleep?”
Kagome translated that as well, with a slight Japanese accident in her English. And even more to her surprise, Inuyasha imitated her word by word, without any mistakes.
Finally Inuyasha made a grand request as the three were checking off the grocery list item by item. “Now teach me the whole song.”
“What?!” Kagome and Ayumi exclaimed simultaneously.
“This Eigo seems easy enough.” Inuyasha flaunted his abilities. The truth why he was so good is actually because of his heightened hearing. With his hearing, he can not only hear all the hidden syllables, but also separate them, thus learning the words faster and more precise than any normal beginner.
“Why not give it a try, Kagome-chan? It’ll be fun.” Ayumi nudged Kagome with a grin.
Sure, make me do it. It’s not embarrassing for you. You’re not the one who has to say all those things to the guy you like. Kagome growled at her friend, Inuyasha-style. But the determined look on Inuyasha’s face made it clear that he was not going to simply give up.
“Alright then,” Kagome sighed,”First sentence: ‘Eyes like fire, burn desire, as we dance away into the night’.”
Kagome said it in a super fast speed in English, hoping that Inuyasha wouldn’t catch it and forget the whole thing. But Inuyasha repeated word by word, just as fast, and just as accurate.
“Umm… okay, second sentence: ‘this attraction, fuels a passion, that’s just too strong for us to try and fight’.”
And just like before, Inuyasha repeated word for word. Kagome was taken back completely by Inuyasha’s almost inhuman ability to learn. Then again, she has forgotten for the moment that he wasn’t exactly human.
By the time they paid for the groceries (Inuyasha insisted on more different flavored ramen), they were all done with the English song. And even more to the girls’ shock, Inuyasha was able to repeat the whole song from beginning to end.
“‘…forever in your eyes’, okay, I think that’s all.” Inuyasha cleared his throat with a triumphant look. “Now tell me what it all meant.”
There comes the hard part. Kagome blushed more fiercely than before. At least when she said it in English, Inuyasha didn’t understand most of the part. But now he expects her to translate.
Ayumi nudged her even more now, clearly enjoying her friend’s embarrassment. After walking a whole block without saying anything, Kagome finally realized that she needed to face the music, so to speak.
“Ahem,” Kagome cleared a throat at least a dozen times before she finally began, “first sentence: ‘me wa hini nita, moeru ganboo*…’”
And so, Kagome didn’t stop her translations. And the whole time she was looking at nothing except her feet. Ayumi was looking around the traffic in case Kagome’s clumsily causes her to get run over by a car again. Inuyasha listened with full attention. The more he heard, the harder he blushed. The only person who seemed to be enjoying this was Ayumi.
“’… Kimi no me ni eien ni iru*.’” Kagome finished the whole thing in a matter of minutes. By the time she was finished, both she and Inuyasha were quiet, and blushing like two ripe tomatoes.
The three entered the house and dumped all the groceries onto the kitchen floor with Kagome’s mother, and Inuyasha went to grab Kagome’s big yellow bag, new packed with freshly bought ramen. Ayumi walked them to the well house.
“I guess I won’t be seeing you for a while, Kagome-chan, Inuyasha-kun,” Ayumi hugged Kagome tightly. Now that she knows the truth, she’s even more worried about her friend than before. “You go back to the past and kick some youkai butt, ya hear?!”
Kagome flashed Ayumi a warm smile. “We will!” And just before she jumped into the well, she yelled to Ayumi, “And the bad guy’s a hanyou, not a full youkai!”
Inuyasha followed after Kagome, giving Ayumi one of his rare smiles. “Thanks for everything, Ayumi!”
After seeing a bright light engulf her friends, Ayumi yelled loudly into the ancient well, “look after her, Inuyasha-kun!”
*****The other side of the well*****
The two were quiet as they climbed out of the well. Inuyasha’s forest was calm, just like the last time he left it. They walked toward Kaede’s hut in peace, neither saying a word, and both still blushing about the content of the song from earlier.
They were merely a few feet away from the hut when they both stopped walking. In a matter of seconds their peace and time alone would be disrupted by their over-excited friends. Kagome looked down to her feet, cheeks flaming.
So many things had surprised her that day, and the last surprise was no doubt the best.
Inuyasha took her hand and the two looked into each other’s eyes with intense emotions. And in almost perfect English, Inuyasha whispered a line from the song he had just learned:
“I need you by my side, ‘cause I could live forever in your eyes…”
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Tada! How was that? Did anyone get confused?
Two things I need to mention:
1.Eigo means English in Japanese.
2.* I translated those two lines myself, so they might be wrong. I tried to do the best I could. And don’t sue me or anything. “Forever in Your Eyes” belongs to Jessica Simpson, and Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
Go on to original chapter 28
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