Chapter 4

Rikuo stretched as the bell clanged for the end of the school day. Letting out a happy sigh he paused wondering when Kiyotsugu would let loose the next club activity. He already told them about the attack the Nura would be making on the Shinobi Youkai. As usual, Kiyotsugu went on a rampage demanding to go with them. When Rikuo and Kamina adamantly refused, he tried to negotiate them into wearing cameras so he could the battle. Kamina had promptly dropped a textbook on his head after she snapped. He wondered what other trick she would devise to further deter him. She was freed of Zen's ministrations last week when he said she was fully healed though he threatened to let her bleed to death if she overexerted herself. 'Rebuild your strength slowly'. Unless something happened outside of her control, Kamina would abide by Zen's advice. Already she had worked up from being able to manage forty push ups to one hundred. Her recovery speed surpassed his.

"Hey Rikuo-kun," Kana approached him, "Is it just me or is there something different between you and Kamina-san?"

"Eh?" Rikuo blinked. He didn't think anything was different…other than the…uh….well….since they were open about their emotions.

"Yeah, yeah," Maki suddenly piped up, "What's the deal Kaminazuki?" Kamina just glanced at Rikuo who shrugged. She shrugged back.

"What do you think?" she asked,

"I think you two are in love!" Torii piped up. Kamina and Rikuo both paused, Rikuo was in the middle of standing and Kamina was putting her homework in her bag. "I was right?" Torii glanced between them.

"Is that why Oikawa-san hasn't come to school?" Shima frowned.

"Uh…pretty much," Rikuo sighed. Tsurara still hadn't stopped sulking.

"AWESOME! My two favourite youkai are getting married!" Kiyotsugu suddenly yelled.

"Wha? Kamina froze horrified.

"NO!" Rikuo yelped, "I mean," he glanced at Kamina,

"Way too early to even consider it. With youkai you're counting centuries not decades, of being married." Kamina regained her composer.

"Oh. Then who gave that headband?"

"Rikuo." Kamina answered. Said head band stood out vividly against Kamina's black hair.

"So it was just a gift?" Torii frowned slightly,

"You went way out your way to buy it." Maki commented,

"Are you two getting married someday?" Kiyotsugu returned to his original track of thought.

"If we can still tolerate each other," Kamina chuckled,

Rikuo laughed as well, "I wonder if we can…"

"We might need to take breaks from each other. Which will work out good. You stay here in Ukiyoe Town while I go to Toono."

"Won't you be doing that anyways?" Rikuo grabbed his bag, "It's not like you've stopped being a Toono youkai."

"What's….OI!" Kiyotsugu yelled as Kamina pulled Rikuo out of the classroom. Darting down the stairs and to the outside, Kamina barley stopped running. The smirk on her face reassured Rikuo they weren't being prematurely targeted but he wondered at the sudden burst of energy. Catching his footing, Rikuo scanned for youkai presences but detected nothing specific. He noticed that she was following the path to his home. Just what…Itaku! Kamina must have sensed Itaku's presence at the mansion and was hurrying there to meet him.

In very little time, fifteen minutes at most, they had appeared at the mansion. Rikuo paused doubled over gasping for air but Kamina paused only long enough to kick off her shoes. Honestly, where does she come by that stamina? He heard Tsurara and Kejourou yelp. Kamina must have shot by them. Pushing himself up, he passed through the entry. Sure enough, Tsurara and Kejouro were both frozen with shock. After a quick apology, he darted past them to follow Kamina. Finally rounding the screen into the meeting room, he saw Itaku swinging Kamina around in a circle. This was the first time Rikuo had ever seen him relax enough to be a somewhat exuberant brother. Awashima and Amezou were there as well, clearly delighted to see their adopted little sister again. There more familiar faces from Toono, like Reira and Yukari but there were many more unfamiliar faces.

"Wow! You look cute!" Awashima commented, glomping Kamina the instant Itaku let her go.

"You're going to school?" Amezou inserted clearly not surprised.

"Rikuo," Itaku nodded, was as composed as ever, but he was still smiling slightly.

"Hey, how've you guys been?" He got a chorus of 'good', 'not bad', and 'could be better'. Rikuo smiled as he finally stood up with his heart rate at its normal pace.

"How's the injury?" Itaku turned to Kamina,

"All healed up." There was a lot of life in her now, "Good timing huh?" Itaku nodded though he didn't seem to agree.

"Hello," Nurarihyon appeared in the doorway, "Nice of you guys to come by and help out."

"Kamina asked."Akagappa answered.

"Still, thank you." Nurarihyon smiled.

"I won't be participating. This is for the others who are itching for a fight against the Shinobi Youkai. We have a grudge to settle."

Itaku's smile disappeared. "When are we heading out?"

"Two weeks from now. Until then, Itaku Ani-ue, do you mind training Rikuo a bit? I've been out of commission for the last few months so…."

"You're training too."

"Not too hard. If she opens the wound again I'll let her bleed to death." Zen appeared in the doorway behind Nurarihyon.

"Zen-kun," Rikuo sighed,

"Yeah right." Kamina peaked around Itaku, "You like me too much besides, I was good when it most mattered." Zen twitched slightly with annoyance but couldn't deny the truth of her words.

"By the way," Awashima suddenly plucked the gold and white hair band out of Kamina's hair, "when did you get this?" The sudden silence and awkward tension had him glancing over to Rikuo who glanced at Kamina.

"Uh about that…."

"NURA-KUN AND TOGAKURE-SAN!" Kiyotsugu suddenly burst on the scene, mad as hell, "WHAT….oh." He trailed off when he noticed the stunned company. Who is and where the hell did this human come from?

Considering this was Rikuo's home, a gathering place for youkai, he could assume they were youkai but precisely who they were was a good question Kiyotsugu thought to himself.

Kamina smiled, "You're brilliant. Real fucking brilliant and that's a compliment right now."

"Sorry about this Rikuo-kun," Kana appeared,

"You guys were right on time," Rikuo interrupted Kana. There are gods he thought as he sent a prayer of thanks to Heaven. There was little doubt in his mind that Toono will be intent on shoving him into an early grave if not for his relationship with Kamina, than from the fact the Nura clan was once again claiming their best mercenaries. Well, in his case, the best mercenary they ever had and the fact they were only dating. He wasn't intentionally snatching her out from underneath them.

Sure enough, Kiyotsugu wasted no time trying to interview the visiting Toono. Try as he might though, he couldn't find out anymore about Toono Village than he got from Kamina. Maki, Torii and Ienaga had slipped out before Kiyotsugu could reprimand them for not being enthusiastic. Shima lingered hoping Tsurara would show up as evidenced by the way he was always glancing around hopefully.

"Okay so what's this fear?" Kiyotsugu pressed. Kamina was wondering if she should drop Itaku, who was sitting on her back while she was doing her finger push ups, and bean the guy. It's a really tempting idea right now after hearing the same question twenty times. "C'mon Togakure-san, Itaku-kun?" Kiyotsugu continued to plead with them but they both remained silent.

"Two hundred. Next hand," Itaku glanced out to the courtyard where thwacks reverberated from Awashima's and Rikuo's sparring match. It was still daytime which was unfortunate for Rikuo. Awashima wasn't using his Fear and tuning his skills down but he was using enough power to have Rikuo purple and blue. Credit had to be handed to Rikuo as he only grunted when a blow collided with him and didn't whimper.

"What is fear?" Kiyotsugu was still asking this time turning his attention to Amezou and Kappa who lounging in Kappa's pond.

"Ask Rikuo," Amezou growled. How did Kamina stand this guy?

"He's kind of busy."

"Kamina then?"

"…she isn't answering."

"What? Kamina!" Amezou hollered, "How did you get so weak so fast?"

"She's trying to not strangle a certain human." Itaku answered for her, "Done." He carefully stepped off of Kamina who leaned back on her knees and stretched her arms out in front of her. "Fear is exactly what it sounds like."

"Really? Then how does it do all these different things?"

"It varies from youkai to youkai." Kamina finally answered stretching her hands above her head. "The first stage for activating Fear is Hatsu. Pretty much it produces an aura designed for scaring opponents. Depending on the youkai, they either hallucinate or run screaming. The second stage is where Fear is materialized into an attack. Kappas, like Amezou, tend to use water as a medium while Yuki-Onna uses snow and ice. Each attack is unique to the youkai species and individual. Rikuo's utilizes the same idea as the rest of the Nurarihyon but it is also unique to himself in how he uses it."

"What do you use?" Kiyotsugu hesitated, not sure if he was venturing into forbidden territory. He only knew that Kamina was a Shinobi Youkai. Going off the tangent of shinobi meant they could be very secretive and ruthless if someone found out something about them that they didn't want anyone to know.

"Same as any other Shinobi Youkai." She ducked as Itaku abruptly swung a scythe at her. They moved into a furious sparring match where Kamina pressed Itaku. She wasn't hesitating to use any of her Onmyouji techniques as she summoned her shikigami, Mountain Lion. Kiyotsugu was thrown for a loop at how serious Kamina and Itaku were. It was really frightening he had to admit but so awesome! Neither was holding back. Then Itaku disappeared and Kamina was swinging her blade at empty…or rather, not empty air. The blade would swing than stop as if she had connected with an invisible blade. Light seemed to bounce off the blade in Kamina's hands in the form of crescents and follow the line of attack she had sculpted with her arms. A piece of fabric materialized as one of the light blades brushed against something. The rest cut deep gouges into the grass. He blinked twice, thrice before he understood what he saw. Kamina, in her human form, had her blade against Itaku's throat. She just sighed as they both put the weapons away.

"Why hadn't I seen anything?"

"That is the Hatsu," Kamina shrugged. "Now time for supper."

Tsurara appeared calling 'supper' just as Kamina said it.

"Is there something special about your sword?" Kiyotsugu asked Kamina just before he left.

"Yeah. Its name is Akikiri and was forged as an Onmyouji blade by my father." Once Kiyotsugu was out the gate and on his way home Itaku and Awashima were apart conversing apart from the others. Kamina shrugged and continued to the dining room. She always became ravenous after a sparring match in her human form. A pattern of unsteady footsteps drew her attention back. Rikuo was black and blue all over. Nothing seemed broken or overly strained though despite his colourfully mottled skin. There were some patches of untouched skin, mostly his face and neck. The rest could be seen on his arms where his kimono had been sliced through.

"Ouch."