Seiichi’s skinny brows shot up. “Centipedes?”

“Sounds made up to me,” Daiji grunted.

“Aye,” Seiichi said narrowly. “What kind of wild lie is that?”

Shit, Shin thought again.

Kaori stamped her foot at being called a liar. “Great big monster centipedes,” she tried huffily to explain, but from the darkening looks on the two bandits’ faces Shin could see she was only digging herself that much deeper. 

He shook his head and sighed, trying to think of a way to bail them out of this sinking ship, when he heard more men’s voices and heavy footsteps crunching through the brush behind them. Turning, he saw another pair of bandits entering the campsite with strings of fresh dead river carp slung over their shoulders. He guessed the two might be twins, they looked so similar to one another—their clothes were cut the same, they wore their hair in the same long ponytails and they even had the same smirking expressions on their faces. Without his inuyoukai nose it was hard to tell for sure, but Shin knew they must be brothers, at least.

Spotting them, Seiichi sneered. “Well, look who it is, Daiji.”

Daiji grunted. “It’s Juri and Yuuji.”

Seiichi rolled his eyes at him and then said to the two brothers, “‘Bout time you two decided to come back from that piss break o’ yours. So much for keepin’ an eye on camp.”

“Says you!” one of the brothers shot back, pointing at the dead boar laying in the grass. “Where’d that pig come from, eh?”

“Jus’ found it rootin’ around near camp.”

“Bullshit!”

“Well, it’s a fine pig, and the boss’ll agree. While the pair of ye were out lolly-gagging, we rustled up a feast fit fer a king.”

The slightly taller brother strode forward, hooking a thumb into his chest. “We were the ones who set out to catch supper—look at all these fish!”

Seiichi sneered wider. “Those slimy mud-gluggers of yours? Don’t make me fuckin’ laugh.”

The other brother raised his fist. “We’ll see who’s laughing, you yellow son of a bitch…”

Shin couldn’t believe their luck. This pair of bandit brothers seemed just about as big of dummies as the other two. While the four of them were busy fighting about fish and pigs, Shin nodded to Kaori, and together they began slowly and quietly edging back away from the fray toward the cover of the trees.

They’d just about made it to the treeline when the back of Shin’s foot caught against a tree root and sent him toppling down to the grass with an ‘Umpf!’ The fighting bandits went silent at the sound. Four sets of hard mean eyes snapped toward them.

Fists balled at her sides, Kaori went red in the face as she shouted down at him, “Again?!”

“Sorry…” Shin said, ducking his head as he cursed his clumsy human feet.

“Who the fuck are these kids?” one of the brothers said, storming over.

“That’s what we’d all like to know,” Seiichi muttered darkly.

Shin had barely picked himself up from the grass when he and Kaori were surrounded on all sides by glaring, hard-faced bandits. Looking up and around at them as he rubbed at his smarting backside, Shin thought it might be time to throw in the towel on the no-transformation game.

But before he could summon up so much as a wisp of youki, Kaori burst suddenly into big, loud, girly tears.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

oops got the part number wrong 😅 will fix the link after the next part drops (the real part 9 lol)