DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: I do not own Inuyasha or Pokemon or anything else mentioned herein.

Dedicated to Alannada.

The Very Best

The year is 1998.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 has just been released. A new anime based off the popular Pokémon franchise is all the rage in Japan. Human trials for AIDs treatment begins in the United States. NASA announces that water has been found on the moon. Anyone who is anyone owns a Tamagotchi. Every kid worth their salt has collected at least five Beanie Babies. J.K. Rowling debuts "Chamber of Secrets", the second installment of the popular Harry Potter series. The Beastie Boys have just released their hot new single "Intergalatic" and Windows 98 is now available for your PC.

One other thing has just been introduced. A new, groundbreaking website is launched, pre-dating Xanga and Livejournal by almost a year. For the very first time, authors and fans can now publish their work about their favorite characters in a public forum that can be read all over the world.

"INUYASHA," Souta screamed as the notebook was ripped from his hand. Jumping as high as he could, his fingers couldn't quite reach the paper being held high above his head as he begged desperately, "Please give it back before sis sees it!"

"You did this to yourself" Inuyasha snapped back playfully as he dangled the notebook just out of reach, "I can read ya know. Wouldn't have taken it if you hadn't said I wouldn't understand. I'm not stupid."

"No, you got it all wrong," Sota groaned as he pulled at his hair, "I never meant I didn't think you couldn't read it, just that it's ...um, it's private."

"Well why didn't you just say that?" Inuyasha scoffed as he lowered his hand and let the young boy rip the notebook from his hand before the hanyou smirked and folded his arms in front of his chest, "Didn't take you for a kid who kept a diary."

Sota sighed as he looked up at his hero, "It's not a diary, it's...um, a...a story I guess but...but it's not finished and sis would think it's stupid."

"What makes you say that?" Inuyasha asked trying and failing to hide his amusement as he held out his hand, "Can't be that bad. Lemme read it."

For a moment, Sota bit his lip and stared down at the small notebook with a torn look on his face. On the one hand, Inuyasha would have no idea what it was about or the context. On the other, however, he'd probably get frustrated and give up because he didn't understand it which meant that he'd then leave him alone. Either way, the small boy knew that Inuyasha would probably tell Kagome whether he showed him the story or not. Unless...Inuyasha got embarrassed that he didn't understand, which – now that he thought about it - was almost guaranteed. So, with a deep breath and a blush on his cheeks, Sota held out the notebook.

"You can read it. It's a story about Pokemon," Sota mumbled in a resigned time of voice, intentionally leaving his explanation vague, "I don't know whether it's any good or not though so don't be mean."

"I'm not gunna be mean," Inuyasha grumbled as he took the notebook and plopped down as he quietly muttered under his breath, "Why does everyone always assume I'm gunna be a dick, jeez."

'It was a good day in Cerulean City. As the boy walked through the streets, all the girls looked at him because he was hot, really hot, with purple hair and green eyes and he wore a tight leather jacket and had sunglasses. He also had a Squirtle walking behind him and those were really rare. He wanted to be the best there ever was, like no kid was before and nothing was going to stand in his way. He was going to become a Pokemon master. This one girl suddenly came up to him, super excited that he had come into town. The boy was real excited she came up to him because she was really pretty with blonde hair and blue eyes and she had a Poliwag which meant she liked water based attacks too. 'I'm Sota,' the attractive boy announced confidently, 'I'm here to get a badge.'

It was all Inuyasha could do not to laugh as he slowly handed the notebook back to the kid. Put aside the fact that the hanyou had no fucking clue what the hell was even happening in this made up world, the kid had put himself front and center as the most attractive guy in it. It wasn't necessarily a bad story but it wasn't all that good either - not that the hanyou had much experience with literature before and hell, he didn't even think he read half of that right. Most of those words sounded made up but far be it for him to insult the only kid he'd ever met that idolized him.

"Whatever floats your boat kid, "Inuyasha muttered as he stood up and turned to leave, "Have fun, I guess."

Sota clutched the notebook to his chest and sighed in relief. Just as he turned to go sit back down at his desk, he froze and whipped his head towards the door when he heard Inuyasha ask quite loudly.

"What the hell are Pokemons?"

Sota groaned and buried his face in his hands. He was never going to hear the end of this...ever. Inuyasha was sure to tell her.

"Pokemon, not Pokemons," Sota could hear Kagome snort, "It's a video game, a manga and I think they just came out with a TV show. Where'd you hear that?"

Oh god, here it comes.

"I, uh, saw something last time I went to get you from school," he heard Inuyasha lie lamely before asking, "What's a manga?"

"It's a book. Mostly drawings I guess. You might like them actually," Kagome answered cautiously, obviously thrown for a loop by these out of the blue questions.

"Okay, so it's a book and something from your box," Inuyasha announced, seemingly pleased.

"Yeah..." Kagome answered slowly – obviously confused by the hanyou's sudden interest in such a random thing, "The show on the TV is called an anime. Uh, drawings that move," Kagome explained quickly when Inuyasha cocked his head and frowned, "I think Sota's really into it right now."

The rest of the conversation was lost as Kagome closed the door.

Several weeks later, Kagome returned from the feudal era accompanied by her hanyou shadow. Sota was proud to say that he'd finally finished his first story and was ready to post it. His friends had been working on stories too and they were all gunna get together that evening to compare. He had also managed to get his hands on a holographic Charizard card that he was itching to throw down. It was gunna be awesome!

As Sota waited for the modem to quit dialing so he could get into the internet, Inuyasha suddenly came up behind him out of seemingly nowhere and pushed him out of the way.

"Inuyasha! What're you doing?" Sota huffed, "I was using that!"

"This is your story right?" Inuyasha asked as he sat down on the chair and began hitting buttons at random trying to do god knows what on the computer, "Make it bigger I want to read it."

"You won't get it," Sota groaned in a dejected tone as he continued to half-heartedly try to push the demon off the chair, "You don't even know anything about Pokémon."

Inuyasha smirked and turned to rest his chin on his hand as he looked into the small boy's incrementally widening brown eyes, "Its a story about a boy named Ash and these little demons called Pokémon. He's trying to get badges - these little stones - to become a Pokémon Master but there's these dicks that keep trying to steal his tiny demons. He's travels with..."

"Hold up, wait, wait," Sota spluttered incredulously as he waved his hands in front of him, "A few weeks ago you didn't have any clue what Pokémon even was?! When did you...how did you..."

"I told you I can read didn't I?" Inuyasha snorted as he rolled his eyes, "I stole one of those drawing books from your room and I read it."

"That was you! Dude, I've been looking for…wait, what? Why?" Sota asked in a confused tone before he froze and blushed when Inuyasha merely gave him an affectionate smirk and ruffled his brown hair, "Because I wanted to be able to understand your story."

"You did that for me?" Sota breathed as his eyes swam with pure admiration, "Really?"

"What did I just say?" Inuyasha teased lightly before turning back to the screen. It soon became abundantly clear that the hanyou had no idea was he was doing and was getting increasingly agitated when nothing of use happened when he hit keys except annoying fucking sounds. Grumbling under his breath, Inuyasha reached up and began gently shaking the monitor, "How the fuck does this even work? This is a useless piece of..."

As Sota nervously yet excitedly pushed the demon out of the way - one broken TV had taught the young boy where that kind of comment usually led - the kid began to fumble with the computer to get to a place where Inuyasha could read his story. Sota pulled it up and stepped back as he wrung his hands – glancing anxiously between the screen and the half-demon's face to gauge his reaction. As he read on, Inuyasha tried desperately to hold back a grin. In truth, Inuyasha had never had anyone that cared about him until recently but he'd really never met anyone that thought he was the coolest person they'd ever met…until he met Kagome's kid brother. He was Sota's hero. So, the hanyou did what any good hero would do. Stolen the kid's favorite book. While the others slept, Inuyasha had read it over and over until he knew the characters, the cities, and all the one hundred and fifty fucking little demons.

All to be the best there ever was, like no hero before.

At least….in Sota's eyes and those were the ones that really mattered.