A/N: Uh...right. This is chapter two. One note on the reviews, though:
Evilbat667, this is nowhere near supposed to be an actual story, it is something I just cooked up as a joke for her. Mainly, it's about her criticising Inu-Yasha's sword technique on various occassions. It was just the introduction I wrote.
CHAPTER TWO: A FIGHT AND SOME RANDOM CRITIQUE
The demon jumped them from out of nowhere. Inu-Yasha turned and battled it for a couple of minutes, before finally slashing it to pieces with his transformed Tetsusaiga. When he turned around, a victorious smirk on his face, he stared right into the face of a mad Ari. "What is it now?" He asked, confusedly. The girl had been staying with them for the last couple of days, and he knew better than to provoke her temper. Of course, he wouldn't hit her, but her tone could go extremely high when she was angry. And it hurt his ears a lot, too.
"Grrrr...." Ari was staring at the hanyou with murder in her eyes. Her dark brown eyes were flashing with barely restrained anger, and she seemed ready to kill – even with just her unsharpened sword. Subconsciously, Inu-Yasha took a half-step back. "What's wrong, woman?"
"Grrrr...." Was all Ari continued to say.
The half-demon was completely confused. What was it with that girl? One moment she seemed delighted at seeing him swordfighting, next moment she was ready to kill him? He had realized she was a sword maniac, and a perfectionist at that. She obviously loved the art of swordfighting to an extent that was almost unhealthy, and he had no doubt it had probably affected her mental abilities, too.
And she continued to glare at him the rest of the way back to the village. He snorted. Feh. I'll never understand women.
Inu-Yasha noticed the girl staring at him with a murderous look in her eyes for the rest of the day, and he tried futilely to shake off the nagging feeling of unease that was creeping up in him.
Later that night he was sitting outside in the Go-Shinboku tree, trying to catch some sleep when he heard rustling beneath him. In an instant, he was down and ready to draw. He relaxed when he saw it was only Ari.
"What do you want, woman?" He asked gruffly.
"Just to tell you the thing I have been trying to tell you all along today," she said calmly. Somehow, that did nothing to alleviate Inu-Yasha's growing sense of doom. "Uh...what?"
"YOUR TECHNIQUE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The girl yelled at the top of her lungs, a yell so loud it was echoed hundredfold in the forest, scaring awake everything that could skitter, fly, or crawl. Inu-Yasha thought he would die from the intensity of the sound in his sensitive ears, and he felt as if the scream could be heard to the end of the world. When she had stopped screaming and his ears had stopped ringing – which took quite a while – he glared at her.
"What do you mean by that, wench?"
She took a deep breath.
"Yourkatawasoffandyouweretotallyoverswingingtheswordwithouteventhinkingwhereitwassupposedtogoandyoustancewashorribleand..." Inu-Yasha tuned her out as she started rattling off critique faster than any living being could have listened and comprehended. When she paused to take a breath – which seemed to take her an inhumanly long time – he interrupted her.
"Say that again. This time, at normal speed. Woman, at the rate you talk, it's no wonder no one understands you!"
Ari glared at the hanyou for a second, her brown eyes reflecting in the starlight, then started again. "All right. First of all, your stance sucks. You bend over too far, and let the sword carry you away. You're supposed to stand straight." Inu-Yasha sighed. Was it his fault he had a bad back?
"Second, you are overswinging your sword. I mean, you just slash without even thinking of where to hit and how to hit..." The hanyou shook his head. Hey, if he hit someone with the Tetsusaiga, it didn't matter where or how he hit it – the thing was DEAD!
"Third..." Ari seemed to be able to go on forever. "Your kata – it wasn't anything I could recognize!"
"That's because it wasn't supposed to be one," Inu-Yasha told her, his patience waning away. "It was supposed to be a seven-hit combo with a dunk as a finisher."
"Still, what were you trying to accomplish punching the ground like that?"
Ínu-Yasha sighed. "Never mind. Just leave me alone, woman."
"I WON'T! I can't stand by and let you carry on with this...this...perversion of proper style! You didn't even bow to your opponent!"
"Woman, this isn't mock combat –here, the youkai actually try to kill you! Now listen, if you think you can do better, fine, handle the next demon that comes along with you 'proper style'!" With that, the hanyou walked off.
