WHAT EVERYONE IS BOUND TO WANT
chapter 3
INTRODUCTION:
Tier, Slayer, Priest, Monk, Demon
What a tier actually is isn't anything special. Every once in a while a human is born, but the soul that makes them who they are is just a little bit bigger than other people's. The extra space in that soul allows them to bend that power to their own will.
A slayer would be the next level up in power. Though the casts that they tie are considerably weak, their bodies are built much stronger; they heal faster, and have enhanced strengths.
In the case of a priest or priestess, the soul is nearly twice as big as a normal person's. The open power, known as reiki, is a pure and tangible force; leaving one to use it as they wish. The main difference between a holy person and a tier is that purity. The purity of the enormous soul opens an entirely new door, the number of casts they are able to perform doubles, though they are still limited to only defensive casts.
A miko or monk is like their stronger equivalent. A miko does not have just one soul, but two. The second soul provides an inexhaustible source of power, a power that can be called upon at any time, and that will never run out. Unlike a priest or priestess, a miko or monk may cast ties in an offensive manor, and are known simply as holy worriers.
Unlike the previous four categories, a demon is not in any way human. Their blood has been said to have been mixed with that of the Kami's. The soul they have is known as youkai. The energies are darker, very primal, and it is common for a certain type of demon to be associated with an animal counterpart. The powers of youkai work in opposition to that of a holy tier's reiki. A demon may cast a tie as well as any other, but without the agreement of the inner youkai's conscious, power cannot be pulled to complete the cast. It is for this reason that demons are known to be so volatile, as they often disagree with their more primal half, and it creates an imbalance.
(A/N; tier is pronounced like a car tire, not like the tiers on a cake)
CHAPPY THREE: ONIGUMO
"Kagome! Shippo! Let's go!" Sango yelled form downstairs.
The ride to the institute was filled with exited chatter and bickering, but the entire car became silent when we finally approached the campus grounds, nearly an hour later. Surrounding the small one lane street were rows upon rows of Sakura trees, just starting to bloom; they were oddly premature for so early in March. At the end of the road, we came upon a large, impregnable looking gate. It was a shining mass of clean silver, a large crescent moon and sun in the center, showing the demon clan (the moon) and that holy people were welcome (the sun). It was very ordinate.
"Well, these guys sure don't mess around." Shippo muttered, leaning forward in his seat to get a better view of our surroundings.
As we came closer to the gate, Sango rolled down her window. A young man came up to the car, kneeling down so he could see into it. "You guys got your papers?"
Sango leaned around me to reach into the glove compartment, pulling out our registration papers and the certificate she needed to have her car on campus. She looked threw them for a second, making sure everything was there, and then handed them to the gate keeper.
"I'm actually surprised to see students here so early." He told us, thumbing through the papers. "You guys are a few days early. Of Couse your welcome in, but there are only a few tours today, maybe two…Not many are here."
I glanced over at Shippo, who was skimming over the schools calendar with his phone. "We thought the campus officially opened today, its March fifth right?" I asked to the guy out side.
"Oh, I guess you guys didn't hear then. Sorry about that. The Head Master had to leave on some very important business, so they moved it to the the seventh. It was posted on the schools site." He replied, looking curiously at the three of us.
Me and Sango looked at each other, and then turned to glare at Shippo in the driver's seat. "That was your one job moron." Sango muttered darkly.
"I-I'm sorry Sango! It's not like it occurred to me that they would change their schedule…" Sango turned her head, automatically excusing him. He let out a quick sigh of relief, only to let out a sharp yelp when she leaned forward and smacked him on the head with her papers.
She handed me a small sticker to put on her windshield as we drove through the gate after a quick thank you to the guy that had helped us.
The campus was set up more or less like a small town; at the end of the main street was the main building, where most of our classes would be held. But in front of it was a large park, surrounded by benches and fountains. Before you reached the actual school, the road split into a fork, to your right, the dorms; and to the left, fields upon fields of training grounds.
"Well, because we're so early, thanks to a certain kitsune, what do you two want to do?" Sango asked as Shippo pulled into a large garage next to the girl's dorm.
The three of us filed out of the car, a large tarp in my hand to cover it. Sango wouldn't be driving her precious baby for about six months, so as she kissed the hood of the car and whispered loving words, me and Shippo worked on pulling out our suitcases and covering it up. "Ugh, out of all the things we're leaving behind, this has got to be the worst." She murmured quietly, her voice muffled due to the fact that her lips were pressed firmly to the bright red car.
"Hurry up and lock it Sango, I want to find our rooms." Shippo said, trying his best to juggle all of our bags, "And besides, you're not even 'leaving it behind'. It's at least on the grounds with you."
I ignored the two as they began to argue, choosing instead to look over the small map of the institute. "Shippo, Sango," I called to them, "There's one more tour at two, in half an hour, I want to go. It'll be better to go now before the grounds get too crowded. Did you guys want to come?" I asked.
Shippo shook his head no, moving towards the exit while Sango seemed to contemplate for a bit. "You might be going alone Kagome, I think I want to find our room and settle in, is that alright or do you want me to go with you?"
I waved my hand dismissively, "No, no, it's fine. You go on ahead. How about we meet up for a late lunch at three thirty then?"
She gave me a soft smile and began to fallow Shippo to the dorms. Map under my arm, I walked the opposite direction, back towards the park.
There were hardly any people there, but I could already see a small group forming, getting ready for the next tour. In the center of said group I saw a young man, obviously a student, talking with everyone about the school. Answering questions and shouting out helpful facts, simple things. He stood on top of a large white crate to see over the heads of the students. Most of the people there seemed to be upper class-men there to just hangout. But there were still several freshmen getting ready to explore the grounds.
"We'll leave in ten!" he shouted, "I'm not picky, so if anyone has something they need to do, you can catch up with the group later on. Our route is marked on the schools map!"
I walked past the group to sit on a stone bench next to a large tree. Besides me sat a guy slightly hunched over a sketch pad.
Being me, I not so discretely glanced down at what he was drawing.
"That's amazing." I whispered.
He didn't even glance up. His hand moved in rhythmic, jerky motions. Under his fingers the picture came to life in a black and white ease.
I sighed and leaned back, still watching him from the periphery of my vision.
"Thanks."
I jumped and turned my head to him in surprise.
He was wearing a black and red plaid sweater, torn blue jeans. His face was covered mostly by his messy hair. His voice was soft.
"Mirokus real fun. Sometimes he'll buy the pictures I draw of him. I think he likes to slip them in his friend's lockers to creep them out." He whispered.
I scooted closer to him and looked down at the sketch pad again. It was a beautiful recreation of the main building's front pillars, a boy stood in front of them on top of a white crate. His arms were spread out in a friendly gesture, his handsome face smiling welcomingly.
I looked back up in front of us at the small but growing crowd. "Is that Miroku?" I asked, pointing to the boy who would lead the tour.
"Yep." he murmured.
"And what's your name?" I asked him.
He glanced up and tapped his chin lightly with the tip of his pencil. The shade from the leaves above us shot shadows across his face and shoulders. "Onigumo."
I nodded at that. He looked over to me and smiled lightly. After tilting his head up I was finally able to get a good look at his face.
Angular cheek bones, proportioned nose, full mouth, red eyes, black eye lashes that weren't long but many in number…
He was cute.
"I'm Kagome." I told him, tugging lightly on my red ribbon and feeling slightly inferior.
"Are you a slayer?" He asked.
"No…a miko." I replied.
"That would have been my second guess," He sighed, "Just because you have the build for a fighter, I didn't think you would be a priestess or tier."
"Thanks. What kind of demon are you?" I asked.
"Kumo!" he shouted suddenly, throwing his arms up above his head and smiling some more, "My brother and I are the only spider youkai in the school." His tone was proud.
Sort of like a child's...
I laughed and stood up.
"Well," I told him, "I'll be leaving for the tour soon."
"Would you mind if I accompanied you?" He asked. When he smiled he had a small dimple on his left cheek, none on his right, "A new friend is always nice."
I paused for a moment before I answered him, "I don't mind, but I wouldn't want to pull you away from your drawing."
He gestured over to our tour guide, Miroku. "If my models leaving I might as well fallow."
We had only just begun walking towards the group when my phone started buzzing.
"Hello?" I said to the metal and plastic.
"Kagome, where do you want that egg of yours?" Sango asked from the other end. Onigumo looked down at me curiously as he heard her speak.
My eyes slid from his too look on ahead, "On my bed please, on a pillow."
"Which bed do you want?" She asked.
"I'm not sure how the room's set up, but I don't really care; whichever one you don't want." I told her, sighing.
"There's a small sitting room when you walk in and a shoji dividing the common area and a large room. So, bed by the window or the one closest to the bathroom?" She asked.
"Window please, if you don't mind."
"You know I prefer the one by the bathroom. Thanks Kagome!" She shouted before the line went dead.
"An egg?" Onigumo questioned.
I nodded as I put my phone away, "I've recently decided to invest in a bird."
"What kind?"
I looked up at the sky, "I won't know for sure until it hatches."
"That's cool." He said, rocking back on his heels, "I'll be right back."
I stood in the small lake of people as he ran up to Miroku, but turned my head when they began speaking. I didn't want to be nosy.
After a moment, "Alright everyone! Let's get moving!"
Onigumo ran back to my side with a smile.
"Did he want it?" I asked.
He held out his hand to show me, "Five hundred yen and a food ticket, but I'm not complaining! All that paper was worth was about fifty."
"The school does food tickets?" I asked him
He nodded and pointed to a machine a few feet away, "Yeah, keeps the lunch lines from getting too long. They're all around the school, so it's really convenient."
The small tour group began walking inside the main building, up the steps and through the thick wooden doors.
Onigumo and I were near the front so I could better see Miroku, being small in these situations doesn't help anyone.
"This is the Main Building. All classes will be held here, though outings to other parts of the campus occur often." Miroku spoke, "Everyone will have three main courses depending on your title. One class will be for fighting, one for protecting, and one for casting. For example; as a monk, the three I'm taking this year are Demonic Defense, Intro to Curses, and Alchemic Ties. Every week there are only three days of classes. On each of those days you will have one of your main classes, and two of your chosen classes. The main classes are assigned to you by the staff and Head Master; chosen classes are what you signed up for last spring. In total everyone will have nine classes each week."
Miroku paused for a moment and gestured behind him. The main building was one gigantic long hall way. The walls were all white marble, and doors on the left and right were made of Red Wood. Next to each door was a plaque with the instructors name and the class description. "Does anyone have any questions?"
I raised my hand up tentatively and called out, "How many classes does the school offer?"
Miroku nodded and restated my question loudly, "The school offers over one hundred courses. The classes not taught in this building are usually onsite ones, meaning that you're probably going to be blowing things up. Anything else?"
While Miroku turned to address another student directly I looked over at Onigumo. He was rocking back on his heels and glancing up at the high rafters. "You're not a first year, are you?" I asked him.
He looked down at me and shook his head, "Nah, my brother and I are third years. Only two more to go and I guess were out of here."
"What will we do when we don't have classes?" Miroku restated for someone else before answering, "When class is actually in session, the campus is closed and you either need to be with your class, in the main square, or in the dorms. Things can get dangerous and keeping student from wondering too much is necessary. On off days, the campus will be open. During those times students are free to seek out instructors, go to any of the training areas for practice, or hang out."
Another young boy spoke up, "What can we do in the main square?"
Before answering Miroku moved the group down the hall a bit. Between a couple of doors was a map of the campus. Miroku gestured to the large square that backed up to the Main Building.
"This hall leads out to the square. Around it is the recreation hall, library, cafeteria, and gym. Behind the buildings here there is a bit of forest. Be aware, you can explore all you want, but don't get lost, and don't get caught out there during closed campus. Offense classes use those woods just as much as the open training grounds to practice."
Next to me Onigumo let out a loud snort.
"Do you have something to say, Mr. Morikawa?" Miroku asked with a smile.
Onigumo nodded. "Sure do," he turned more to face the group, "In regards to those woods, it's not just off days you need to worry about. You should try not to go there after dark, or right before noon, definitely never during mating season, and just to be safe, avoid White Day too."
"White Day?" Miroku asked.
"White day," Onigumo confirmed happily. "The chocolate gets all the nasties riled up."
Miroku thought for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Let's continue on with the tour. We'll be going into the woods at the end so you can see how big it is, when we do don't wonder off."
The group continued on down the hallway. It was nearly never ending, and took us a good twenty minutes to get to the other side of the building. By the time we got to the glass double doors, we could no longer see the Red Wood ones on the other side.
"The building didn't look this big on the map." I mumbled to Onigumo.
He nodded and looked up at the high ceiling. "Yep, the map is dis-proportioned They couldn't get everything to fit to scale on the wall, so when they made it they shortened some things up."
"Doesn't that make the map completely useless then?" I asked.
"If you're trying to calculate distance, then definitely. It's mostly just so you can see where everything is in relative location."
"So the woods…"
"The woods are about five times as big as they looked on the map." He smiled, "but Miroku calls them small semetimes because he's been in there often, and knows it well. Don't let that fool you. Five minutes in there alone, and I can guarantee you that you probably won't be coming back."
And of course, he was right. After looking at the buildings around the square, we headed down a well-traveled path strait into the woods.
"Makeikusa no mori," Miroku told us with a broad smile, "The Forest of the Lost Battle!"
"How uplifting," I whispered.
Onigumo laughed and nudged me forward so that I was walking in front of him. "Do you know what classes you have this year?"
"hm, I only remember the ones that sounded interesting, I only looked at my schedule once." I said.
"Which ones then?" he laughed again.
"Recreational Ties and Survival 101.1, I think."
"Survival?" Miroku asked as he turned to us, "I'm taking Survival 101.1 too; maybe we'll be in the same class."
I nodded, "That'd be great!"
"Are you a slayer then?" He asked.
I shook my head curiously, why did I look like a slayer to everyone? "No, a miko. Why do you say slayer?"
Miroku seemed surprised.
Our small group continued to walk down that path. The twenty or so other people all chatting; Miroku, Onigumo, and me were at the front.
"I didn't sense reiki, that's why."
Now I was the one slightly shocked. "You can't?" I asked.
Miroku tugged lightly on the collar of his purple shirt. He shook his head and nodded over to Onigumo, "I don't think Morikawa-san can either."
"You can't?" I asked again, "Why didn't you say something before? That's really odd."
Miroku put his hands up in defense, "It's not a big deal at all! You might just be subconsciously drawing it in because of all the demons in the area. Are you around demons a lot?"
I sighed in relief and shook my head. At least nothing was wrong with me or something like that. "No, I have a friend that's a demon, I grew up with him. But that's it. There weren't many in the neighborhood where I grew up."
Miroku also looked relieved, "That's good then. Your reiki must be doing it on its own. I was worried that you looked so surprised when I told you. A lot of really powerful people choose to suppress their auras to keep people from getting uncomfortable. I thought that that was what you were doing. Well, I guess you are doing that, but not intentionally."
"Should I try to stop it?" I asked.
Both Onigumo and Miroku shook their heads in the negative. "Leave it alone," Onigumo said, "If you're doing it without realizing it, then it probably means that there's a good reason for it."
My phone began to ring again.
"Hello?" I asked.
I could practically hear Sango's smile. "Kagome! Have you seen the cafeteria yet? It's enormous! It's already three, when will the tour be done?" she asked. I could hear Shippo laughing at something in the background, another male voice.
"One second," I said. I looked up at Miroku and smiled, "Is this the last place we're going? I was supposed to meet my friends for lunch."
Miroku nodded, "We're circling back now. This path leads out again on the other corner of the main square. Do you mind me asking where you're meeting your friends at?"
"The café I guess."
Onigumo smiled, "Great! We can all eat together!"
"Oh! That is a great idea," I put the phone back to my ear, "I'm on my way now Sango. I've met some guys I want to introduce you to."
Miroku waggled his eye brows at me, "This a good friend of yours?"
I ignored his question when I saw Onigumo roll his eyes. "I may not hang out with you much," he said, "But that personality of yours isn't going to get you very far with women if you're always so forward."
Sango told me where to meet her, and a few minutes later had us walking out of the forest. The path the group took was a small loop. It had branched off at several places, but Miroku led us right back to the square and released everyone there. When we had come through here the first time, we had just stopped out in front of the building, but didn't go inside. Sango was right, though. Once we got into the cafeteria, I was able to see just how big it was. The problem was how deceiving the place looked from outside. Standing in front of it, all you could see was a decent sized building with windows higher up, and a vaulted roof. But from the front, the ceiling looked out of place, because it was relatively close to the ground for its shape. After going through one of the doors, there was a wide entryway with machines for food tickets. Maybe twenty feet in from the doors, there was a stair case that went down a decent way and strait into the dining area. It could have been described as a food court, but the long tables made it more elegant.
Sango was near the back wall, like she had said. I couldn't see them from the doors (that's how big the room was), but I could sense Shippo and her down there. Three thirty was an odd time to be eating. Most people weren't, but there was a surprisingly large amount of students still milling around, talking and having fun.
Miroku stood to my left and also surveyed the crowd, unsurprised. "Most students come here to hand out in the evenings. You can't be too loud in the library, and it gets nippy at night."
I nodded and led him and Onigumo down the stairs and to the back.
When we reached the table where Sango and Shippo were, I was surprised to see another face there that I recognized.
"Inuyasha?" I nearly yelled.
The boy I had spent one evening with, eating bread after he had saved me.
"What's up Inuyasha?" Miroku said, stepping past me and hitting him lighting on the back.
Onigumo patted me on the shoulder as he also past, "Hey Inuyasha!"
Sango smiled and pulled me forward when I didn't move. "Kagome! I saw Inuyasha a few tables away and told him to join us, I thought it's be a good surprise."
Inuyasha looked up and met my eyes with a grin, "How have you been Kagome?"
I gave myself a quick mental shake and moved forward to hug him. "Inuyasha! I had no idea that you went here!"
"Of course I do woman. There's no way in hell I'd be going to some school like Tengoku."
The six of us settled down around the tables. Shippo already had a couple trays of food for everyone, burgers and fries, that he must have gotten just before we arrived. They were still warm.
"When did you meet these two?" Inuyasha asked.
"Miroku led my tour group. Oh! Sango, Shippo, I forgot." I looked at them from across the table, "This is Miroku and Onigumo."
Miroku was sitting next to Sango, across from me. He leaned over and whispered something into her ear.
Onigumo just nodded his head, "It's a pleasure to meet you. All of you."
