Halto-San
The real reason why Halt never got a cool animal nickname…
Mikeru sipped his cup of tea and said to his companion, "Can you believe Chocho-san killed Arisaka?"
"Hai," replied Hinodé, a good friend of his. "It was well for the traitor to know that he died by the hand of the Butterfly."
They both laughed. "The tall girl," said Mikeru, putting up a finger for every name, "Arris-san. She was Tsuru. Ev-an-in-san was Kitsuné, the Arridi with the big nose-"
"Se-eth-en-san," corrected Hinode. "The Taka."
"And the Kurokuma!" they chorused.
Mikeru set his teacup down. "But what about Halto-san? He has no animal name."
Hinodé shuddered. "Hai, friend. But it was said that he was too terrifying for an animal title."
Mikeru frowned. "How so? He was every bit as dangerous as the others. And surely he was not as bad as the Kurokuma! I have met him, you know," he said, not specifying which person.
"Halto-san trained the Kurokuma partially," insisted Hinodé, "and Chocho-san, Tsuru-san, and Kitsuné-san. Especially Chocho-san. He might have been nice to you; you were an ally! But he is scary. I have heard tales of him destroying one hundred warriors alone in a place called…" he paused, "Heck-am Heath."
The other boy stared at his friend for a few seconds, and then shook his head. "We should not argue about this. Perhaps the real reason is that there is no animal like Halto-san."
"Hai," replied his companion.
And they never spoke of it again.
A/N: Ugh, short AND not very good. Oh, well. I love Nihon-Ja, though. It's my fav book. How the heck did that rumor get to Nihon-Ja? I don't know, either.