Fanfic / Auburn Strands And Red Threads

A battle against a demon in the Modern Era, leads Inuyasha to a chance encounter with Orihime. A blossoming friendship soon follows.

Auburn Strands and Red Threads is a fanfic written by Juri.DP

Read it here.

Don't read the tropes below unless you want to be spoiled.

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This work provides examples of:

# - Z

• Accidental Murder: Orihime involuntarily kills Inuyasha when he tries to steal her hair pins.
  • Inuyasha was trying to break it to retrieve the jewel shard embedded in one of them.
    • On the other hand, he didn't have to be so rash and impatient. There are better ways to handle the situation. Harassing a poor, confused girl into destroying one of her most treasured possessions and the only gift her late brother left her was not one of them. Good thing said girl revived him afterwards.
• All-Loving Heroine: Orihime.
• Cassandra Truth: Everyone, at first, seems to have a hard time believing demons exist and that Inuyasha is a half demon. Even Orihime, initially, didn't understand the concept of Inuyasha being a half demon because he doesn't look at all monstrous like the textbooks she's read describes demons to be like. They all eventually learn to accept the existence of demons, and time travel in general.
  • Ichigo has a very, very difficult time accepting that Orihime and Kisuke are just friends, finding their sudden friendship very weird and disturbing, and believes they are engaging in some sort of a Compensated Dating.
• Close-Knit Community: Of the friendship variety. Ichigo strongly believes that everyone should share the same friend group, and when Orihime strays from this mindset, he struggles to understand why, which leads to him spying and questioning her growing friendship with Kisuke and Inuyasha, people outside their friend circle. It's also because of this mindset that leads to him to wanting to know Kisuke and Inuyasha better because since they are friends of Orihime and are of no threat to her, then he should stop being stubborn and try to be friends with them as well. He also has a bit of Green-Eyed Monster moment when he learns Orihime comes to Kisuke or Inuyasha for help instead of asking for assistance from him or any of their shared friend group, basically telling Kisuke, almost in a possessive sense, to come to and inform him of Orihime’s troubling private affairs in the future.
  • It's also a bit deconstructed when Orihime finds this mindset a bit annoying and suffocating, especially when people like Ichigo think they doing it for her "protection".
• Compensated Dating: Ichigo, being the idiot that he is, wonders if Orihime and Kisuke have this kind of relationship, and goes to talk to Orihime about it. This greatly offends Orihime for two reasons. One, Ichigo bad mouths Kisuke's good name, and two, the audacity of him believing that she would engage in indecent activities.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Miroku seems to be caught between encouraging Inuyasha to pursue Orihime, and not wanting to betray Kagome, knowing she's a dear friend who has deep feelings for Inuyasha. Although, he is enjoying how closer he and Inuyasha has gotten ever since the latter met Orihime.
  • Miroku, having enough of keeping Kagome in the dark, eventually advises Inuyasha to inform Kagome he is moving on and no longer holds feelings for her.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Orihime.
  • It’s because of this that Tatsuki and, especially, Ichigo believes she is lying about cooking and making dinner for Kisuke. However, Kisuke, his companions, and Inuyasha greatly enjoy Orihime’s cooking, much to her great delight.
    • This is very notable in that, people who claim Orihime doesn't know how to cook are the same people who have never tried her cooking in the first place, judging Orihime’s cooking skills purely on how unaesthetically pleasing it looks rather than how it taste. People who have tasted her cooking, quickly learn that Orihime is a Supreme Chef.
• Crush Blush: Despite being in denial regarding her feelings towards Inuyasha, after inadvertently hearing his confession, Orihime can't seem to stop blushing when around or thinking of Inuyasha.
• Dude Magnet: Orihime. So far Inuyasha, Shippo, and, possibly, Ichigo (given his growing jealousy of Orihime getting close to other males who aren't him or part of their friend circle) have varying levels of feelings for her. Miroku does try to hit on Orihime the moment he meets her. But that's... Miroku.
  • She has noted that she constantly used to get love letters at one point until she told her friends how much the love letters bothered her, then they mysteriously stopped.
• Everyone Can See It: Everyone seems to quickly pick up on Inuyasha's feelings for Orihime. In fact, it's easier to count on one hand how many people haven't noticed his growing affection for her. Ichigo and Orihime herself.
  • Orihime does eventually and inadvertently overhears Inuyasha's confession, and it is now struggling to understand which kind of "love" does he mean and what does it mean for their relationship down the line. She's also struggling with whether or not it's okay to move on from her long time crush on Ichigo and focus on returning Inuyasha's affections.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Inuyasha definitely has cases of this towards Ichigo since he is the guy Orihime is in love with, getting easily jealous and irritable whenever Ichigo is mentioned.
  • After Inuyasha confesses his feelings for Orihime to her, Kagome starts to show signs of this. Not initially, at first, but later on.
  • Ichigo also seems to show some very subtle signs of this, wondering why Orihime would come to Kisuke instead of him or any of their shared friend group for help.
    • He also admits to being a bit envious of Inuyasha and Orihime’s closeness, not finding the hypocrisy in this line of thinking with how close he has gotten to Rukia in such a short amount of time. And when a hurt and offended Orihime calls him out this hypocrisy several chapters earlier when Ichigo is trying to dig for the truth of Orihime and Kisuke's sudden friendship, a flabbergasted Ichigo claims that his friendship with Rukia is nothing like Orihime's friendships with her new and mysterious friends, Kisuke and Inuyasha.
• Handsome Lech: Miroku, of course. He tries to hit on Orihime the moment he meets her, earning a vicious punch from Inuyasha.
• Has a Type: Lampshaded. At one point, Orihime wonders if she has a thing for scowly-faced men with tough attitudes, but are really good guys deep down.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Inuyasha and Miroku slowly develop into this, and the rest of the group grow suspicious over the reason why.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Ichigo is well aware of the fact that he is a hypocrite who can't stand to being on the opposite end of shady secrets. He's usually the one in the middle of mysterious business. But the moment someone else is, he can't stand not being in the know, and spies on them for their "protection" he claims.
• Hypocrite: Ichigo finds it very hard to believe and a bit disturbing with how fast Orihime became Kisuke's friend in such a short amount of time, claiming that Orihime can not be friends with someone in such a short time. He does not seeing the irony when he became close friends with Rukia in a shorter amount of time, enough to risk his life to save her. Orihime calls him out on this.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Inuyasha and Ichigo.
  • Orihime, at one point, ponders if she has some sort of attraction to these types of men.
• Love at First Sight: Inuyasha essentially falls in love with Orihime the moment he meets her. However, at first, he chalks her up as a witch who is out to get him, and has put a spell on him.
• Love Confessor: Inuyasha seems to have an easier time telling everyone who isn't Orihime he's in love with Orihime (well, at least, people he's close to and is comfortable with knowing). He's confessed to both Miroku and Kagome about his feelings for her thus far.
  • Although, his confession to Kagome both serve to finally let her now the truth of why Inuyasha has been acting so strangely, and as a breakup from any romantic relationship that's been happening between them. This does lead to Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship being a little rocky later on with Inuyasha's guilt for hurting Kagome's feelings (but he does not feel guilty for falling in love with Orihime), and Kagome's spiteful jealousy.
• Love Hurts: After developing and understanding his romantic feelings for Orihime, Inuyasha soon has to deal with pain, anguish, and tribulations that comes with falling in love with a person who is already in love with someone else. Which is a first for him. Although, for someone like him, he is surprisingly...sensible about his jealousy towards Ichigo. He doesn't...lash out as he normally would.
• Love Revelation Epiphany: Inadvertently hearing Inuyasha's confession, starts Orihime on a slow path to realizing her own feelings for him. There were a couple of times she was rendered physically ill because of it, stressing out about whether he meant it or not. And when she almost thought he didn't mean it when he said he loved her, she was almost disappointed and hurt until Inuyasha was talking about how her friends aren't as terrible to get along with as he thought. When hearing that he meant something else, and not that he was lying about loving her, she was relieved.
• Love Triangle: Inuyasha/Orihime/Ichigo.
  • Orihime/Inuyasha/Kagome.
    • This one gets resolved later with Inuyasha choosing Orihime over Kagome.
• Lunacy: The first time Orihime sees Inuyasha's human form, she is in complete awe and amazement. Since his transformation into a human is dependent upon the moon, she gleefully wonders if he is some kind of were demon. A confused Inuyasha has to carefully elaborate to her that all half demons have a period of weakness, and his weakness happens to turn him into a full human with all his demonic powers lost on the night of a new moon.
• Oblivious to Love: Inuyasha has quickly picked up that Orihime is this, sometimes playfully calling her dense.
  • That is until she overhears him muttering to himself how that he loves her. Now, she's struggling to understand what exactly does he mean when he says he loves her, and, if he does mean it in a romantic sense, how can he fall in love with her in such a short amount of time, especially since she's well aware of the fact that he had crush on Kagome before they ever met?
  • Ichigo's oblivious of Orihime’s own feelings for him, and part of the reason why she calls him out on his hypocrisy.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: This happens when Inuyasha comes to Miroku for advice on how to deal with a girl asking him to eat dinner with her. Miroku believes said girl Inuyasha is talking about is Kagome when it's really Orihime. This misunderstanding is eventually cleared up after Inuyasha has dinner with Orihime when Miroku mistakenly encourages him to.
• Nice Girl: Orihime.
  • This is somewhat deconstructed. Because of Orihime's overt kindness and compassion, her friends believe her to be kind of naive and easily susceptible to be taken advantage of, and, therefore, needs to be protected at nearly all times. This, in return, somewhat aggravates Orihime with how weak and fragile her friends tend to believe her to be.
• Protectorate: As much as Orihime does appreciate her friends care and concern for her, she sometimes finds it annoyingly suffocating because of how weak, helpless, frail, and naive they wrongly tend to believe her to be, especially when characters like Ichigo push it to the "Orihime must be supervised twenty-four/seven" territory.
• Ship Sinking: Word of God has informed that this isn't a story where characters swap pairings. So, no Inuyasha/Kagome and no Ichigo/Kagome.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Inuyasha having dinner with Orihime is what essentially kicks of their friendship.
• Third-Option Love Interest: In short, between Inuyasha's complicated relationships with Kikyou and Kagome, Orihime seems to be this. A girl with no relation to either girl. No complicated Reincarnation Romance involved. It also seems to invoke Last Girl Wins.
• Unknown Rival: This is kind of zigzagged. Ichigo is unaware that he is Inuyasha's competition for Orihime’s love. On the other hand, Ichigo is a bit envious of Orihime and Inuyasha's closeness.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Inuyasha/Orihime.
  • Inuyasha is fairly quick to pick up on his feelings for Orihime. Orihime...not so much. Justified in that Inuyasha has more experience in the field of romance compared to Orihime, so, unlike her, he is not so Oblivious to Love.