A Girl and Her Dog
An Inuyasha fic by Jixie

The woman walked slowly with small, purposeful steps. It was easy to see why: while there was nothing unusual about wearing sunglasses or walking a dog, the way she always looked straight ahead and the heavy harness that the dog wore told the world that she was blind.

She was very pretty and impeccably dressed. Her clothes were modest but flattering, long hair pulled back and held in place by a decorative tie, one with beads and feathers that contrasted nicely with her silky black hair. Even with the dark sunglasses covering her eyes, her face was pleasant, young and undeniably feminine, even and well proportioned, with smooth pale skin.

She carried herself well, her posture showing an inner strength that most people only dreamed of. One could assume that life had been less than kind to her, having taken away her sight… but she showed no signs of being jaded. Instead she radiated with self-confidence and dignity.

Her guide dog led her carefully, and together they wove through the crowded train station with surprising ease. The dog was not exactly what one would call handsome, with his long skinny legs and absurdly large paws, small pricked ears and huge muzzle. He was about the same size of an Akita bitch, but not as heavily built. He had a feral look to him, and it seemed a little odd to see such a wild looking dog leading such a lovely young lady… but there was a depth and intelligence in his eyes that made clear that she had nothing to worry about.

They were about to board the train when someone passed by them, accidentally brushing against the woman's shoulder. Both the woman and dog froze, her eyes widening behind her glasses, and his head turning to watch the man who walked on.

He didn't notice them. They hesitated for a moment longer, and then boarded the train.

Anyone watching wouldn't have noticed anything strange about the encounter, but then, anyone watching wouldn't have known that the woman wasn't blind and her guide dog wasn't a dog.

"It's been a long time since we saw him, eh?"

The dog yawned in response, making a sound that was something like "arrroowf."

She dropped her free hand down and scratched the dog's ear. Standing in the train allowed him to relax, so he sat down and leaned against her leg.

It had been a long time… a very, very long time. She hadn't forgotten him, oh no, but it had been so long that she didn't think about him much anymore. To run into him now, at a train station of all places, had been a big shock. He hadn't recognized her, and she wasn't sure if she should be happy or sad about that. 'After all these years… does he even remember? Does it matter? Should I try to contact him or… no. Maybe. How did he get here?'

"Do you think he was reincarnated?" she asked the dog, her voice barely a whisper. The dog's head lowered slightly, his shoulders rising in a canine sort of shrug. She sighed and scratched his ear again. 'Does it really matter?'

The next morning the woman stumbled out of bed, yawning noisily as she turned off her alarm. The dog lifted his head and watched as she made her way to the bathroom, but he didn't bother to get up.

After taking care of the immediate necessities, she began her daily grooming ritual. It was the most important time of her day, something that went beyond hair styling or putting on make-up.

She stared into the bathroom mirror and tucked her hair behind her ears.

Her ears. Without the small sealing spell she put on during the day, her ears had healed during the night. Their long points revealed her true nature, and to blend in she needed to disguise them. It was gruesome and painful, but she'd grown used to it over the years. Retrieving her knife from the medicine cabinet, she cut through the skin and the cartilage. She'd done this so many times that she could do it with her eyes closed and still get a perfect, even trim. She cleaned the blade and then waited a few moments for the skin to close up before she put the sealing spell on. Blood oozed down her neck and she watched it, watched the thick crimson blood with her bright ruby eyes.

The dog strolled in as she cast the spell that would keep her ears from healing. He looked at her with his deep blue eyes and she playfully bopped him on the head.

"You should take human form, you stupid mutt. That way I can trim your ears down and cut your silly tail off."

He drew back his lips in a canine grin, and she knew if he could talk he'd make some stupid remark about the real reason she wanted him to look like a man. She bopped him on the head again and undressed.

'It would be nice,' she thought idly as she stepped into the shower. 'I haven't had any in a while.'

It was an odd relationship that they had, but together they'd survived day after day for over five hundred years. Their kind had clung to its desperate existence by blending in with humans, and oh how well they blended in. It was easy to get lost in the never ending game they played, and bumping into Inuyasha— was he even Inuyasha anymore?— in the train station had brought back memories of a time long passed. Kagura dried off, dressed, and slipped Kouga into the guide dog harness she'd snitched a while ago. While it wasn't the ideal situation, it was the best they could do. Things were constantly changing these days, and there was always hope for a better future.

In the mean time they would carry on as they always had, pretending to be things that they weren't, surviving in a humans world.