InuYasha decides to visit Totosai in hopes of finding a method to break barriers. Given the opportunity to help prepare a bath, Totosai indoctrinates InuYas to accompany Bunza, a young lynx y?kai messenger, in fetching some water as well as chopping firewood. The two later unite to save Bunza's father, trapped in a barrier made by Nanafushi, a mantis demon who is destroying the village of the lynx y?kai tribe.