No One Like You By: OtakuSailorV

Chapter 6:: Hate You

It was her third day being a hostage, and Yuka was thoroughly despising it. How long did they plan to make her march with them? Sure, she was used to walking for long periods and with a heavy load thanks to the large size of her high school and the weight of her pack, but she definitely wasn't used to walking from dawn until dusk every day!!

She had made up her mind that she would not tell them of her discomfort though. Despite the sore muscles, lack of sleep, and sores on her feet, she was not about to mention any form of weakness to them.

It wasn't Bankotsu or Suikotsu, really, that she was afraid of bruising her pride, but rather Jakotsu and especially that jerk Renkotsu! Her teeth ground as she remembered the superior smirk that he had given her when she stumbled the day before. How she hated him! He irritated her to no end!

'Ugh! It's like having a really annoying older brother!! I can't stand those kinds of guys! Doesn't he have anything better to do than bug me?!' Her mind swam with anger and she was again ignoring where she was going. Yuka stopped as she was about to tramp right into a rather large hole in the ground. Aware that she probably would have twisted her ankle badly from the fall, she wrinkled her nose at it in distaste.

"What are you staring at a hole in the ground for, wench?" Jakotsu asked smugly as he passed.

Yuka's temper instantly flared and she turned on him, her anger shining brightly in her eyes.

She was not used to her temper coming tot he surface so often, and she found that this made her even more irritable. Unused to the sudden change in her mood pattern, her mind and body were bruised as one as they tried to adjust to the new surroundings.

Jakotsu just smirked at her, aware that Yuka could do nothing to him, and that any verbal assaults was beyond her in this state.

Yuka, also, was aware that she could hold no arguments with her anger blinding her. Turning away, she let her hair flow around her head as she jerked it sharply. It gave off just the tone she wanted, and she could almost feel Jakotsu's sudden flaring anger.

Renkotsu smirked, though neither of them noticed. He would not admit it, but the girl had guts for someone that looked like she would die if she were left on her own. His face turned back to impassive though, as Suikotsu turned to look at him. Still, the man had seen the smirk and smiled brightly back at his fellow warrior. Renkotsu, embarrassed slightly, turned his head away, appearing to investigate something far away.

Bankotsu and Jakotsu had gone off to the Daimyo's fortress alone later that day, giving the others time to rest. Yuka had gladly accepted, her legs hurting her severely. She winced as she sat down near a tree. She had not yet come to trust either of them, though Suikotsu seemed all right when he was his regular 'doctor' self.

Still, she watched them suspiciously for a few moments before turning back to her own business. Since there was nothing else to do, she had occupied herself by trying to keep up with her studies and reading the few books that she had with her. Which was a book she had been assigned to read for class, and another that she was just reading for fun. Even though she had never really considered reading fun.

Yuka felt eyes on her as she skimmed the pages and she looked up with a defiant glare, already knowing which of the two men was watching her.

"What in the hell is the matter with you?" She barked at Renkotsu angrily. "Never seen a book before?"

His brows came together in anger, his eyes narrowing into a glare. Though he was angered, Renkotsu still held a tight control over his anger. Unlike the teenager, he had mastered his emotions and tamed them about as much as a human could have control over their emotions. "I have seen a book before, idiot. Is it a crime in your country for someone to wonder what a girl is reading?" He snapped back at her.

Yuka wanted to throttle him, take out all her anger and frustration on the older man, but she was aware that she was not strong enough and held herself back. Glowering, she raised the book so that it hid her face. "It's too smart for you." She contented herself with the harsh remark.

Renkotsu shifted in his seat on a large rock not too far from her. His bandanna slipped slightly and he fixed it, his nerves tense from her arrogant tongue. "Do they allow girls to speak that way in your country, or are you just strange? Maybe that's why you and your friend are out here, so far away from this 'home' of yours?"

The book came down so that he could see her infuriated eyes. Smirking, he was glad to see that he had hit a sore spot.

"No." She replied tersely. "Where I come from women have equal rights, and we don't take any shit from weirdo's like you." Huffing, she heaved the book back up over her eyes.

Renkotsu opened his mouth to speak again, when Suikotsu interjected. He could see where the conversation was going to go. Eventually, they'd have their hands around each other's necks, trying to throttle one another. Sighing, he decided that it was his time to set the 'good' example.

"I wonder when Bankotsu and Jakotsu will be back?"

Renkotsu looked at him sharply, his anger diverted from the girl to the doctor now. "They just left. They won't be back all day."

From Yuka there came a long, frustrated sigh. 'Guess that means I'm stuck with these two for the whole damn day.' She thought, her eyes no longer were reading, but going over the same paragraph over and over until it was burned in her memory.

A tense silence fell over them all, and Suikotsu dejectedly wondered if he should have just let them fight. Anything would be better than the overwhelming utter silence in the clearing. Even the birds had stopped singing, fleeing from the sound of the loud quarreling.

Gruffly, Renkotsu broke the silence with a question: "So, what are you reading, wench?" His narrowed eyes slid her way, one brow raised in slight question.

The book came down so that she could glare at him over the rim of it again. She watched him steadily for a moment, deciding whether he was seriously asking her, or if he was in some way trying to offend her again. After finally seeing that he was serious, she sighed and let the book flop down into her lap as she un-bent her knees. Exasperated, she held it up in one hand as if it were diseased and waved it at him with half-lidded eyes. "It's my Biology book, alright?"

He watched her for a moment before she disappeared behind the book again. After a moment of silent contemplation, Suikotsu asked the question he had been about to inquire her for. "What is this 'Biology' that you are reading about, Miss Yuka?"

Yuka popped out from behind her book and stared at him with a mixture of annoyance and anger. "Well, it's no use reading it anymore, I can't concentrate." She began, pointedly glancing at Renkotsu. "And it's something for my. . .uh. . .studies abroad."

It had taken her a moment to find the right words for it. She didn't want to explain it as 'school' for fear of more questions; and she certainly didn't want to let on as to where she had actually come from.

"Studies abroad? Is that why you were traveling?" Suikotsu was trying to make pleasant conversation now that she seemed willing to talk in a regular manner again. So long as Renkotsu didn't interject, he was sure that he wouldn't have to hear anymore arguing that afternoon.

Yuka crossed her legs and scratched the top of her head in thought. "Uhm, well, yeah sorta." She said, looking skyward for some form of an answer. "Yeah, I came here for studies in the culture outside of our own when I fell down this rather large hill that we all called 'The Well' and ended up lost."

"How could you have gotten lost when all you did was fall down some stupid hill?" Renkotsu snorted indignantly at her. He could tell when someone was lying rather easily, and he could tell that she was skilled in the art, but no where near good enough to fool him yet. Though Suikotsu seemed to have bought right into it.

Yuka looked over to him sharply, her lips thin in her sudden, fiery anger. Her eyes flew with sparks that threatened to burn him alive if he got too close. "I was knocked unconscious from the fall and some old guys came and helped me. They thought I was some priestess, I learned of my friends coming there, and promptly left to find her." She spat this all out rather fast, trying to keep the facts straight in her head for future reference. She knew she would need it too. Now that she was getting some story concocted, she would need to make sure that not one part was different from another so that this group of men would believe her and leave her alone about her home.

"What kind of language to they teach you there? Such a strange tone of voice and so many words in your speech have been cut of formality. What do they call this?" Suikotsu spoke up, as he tried to avoid yet another argument between the two.

Yuka looked to him and her features softened, though her rage was still imminent in her glowing eyes. "It's called Japanese still. My generation just doesn't follow the rules of. . .formality. . .very well sometimes." Her eyes narrowed and she seemed to be glaring at some past memory for a few brief moments before she snapped back out of it.

"Ah, I see. . ." Suikotsu decided to end the little interview for the moment. Something seemed to bother the girl about talking about her homeland, and he didn't wish to press her and make her ill willed toward him.

Yuka immediately picked up on what he was doing and looked at him sidelong through the half-lidded eyes. They shown with annoyance, but there was a strange form of comfort in her tone as she spoke. "You don't have to stop asking questions cuz I'm angry. Go ahead and shoot all you want."

Suikotsu looked up at the strange term, raising both eyebrows in stunned confusion. Renkotsu seemed equally as curious, but not as much of it shown on his face as Suikotsu's did.

Yuka noticed almost immediately what it was that he was so excited about and quickly corrected her speech. "Oh, uh, that means you can go ahead and ask me all you want where I come from. I'm sorry, I forgot you probably didn't know what I was talking about." She smiled weakly at him, sweatdropping slightly at her foolish mistake.

"You're forgiven." Renkotsu replied pompously.

Yuka's eyes and demeanor changed almost instantly again as she growled menacingly at him. "I wasn't talking to you, idiot! I was talking to Suikotsu-san!" She snapped angrily.

Renkotsu narrowed his eyes, and they began what would appear to be a staring contest.

Suikotsu, feeling trapped in the middle of it all hastily tried to regain some control over the matter. "Miss Yuka –"

"You can just call my 'Yuka'."

"Uhm, fine. Yuka, where does this home of yours lie?" Suikotsu asked. Always polite, he felt odd using her name as if he knew her well enough when in fact he knew nothing about her at all. But if she were willing to let him call her that – no, demanding that he call her that, then he would comply without question. Despite the awkwardness.

Yuka's eyes did not leave Renkotsu's the whole time as she replied: "Sorry, it's very hush-hush."

He raised an eyebrow, but received no explanation, so decided to question that as well. "'Hush-hush'?"

"Can't tell you." She replied simply.

"I see. Can you not even describe it to us?" He tried to persuade her, for he was very curious, but he could not blame her for not wanting to tell them. After all, she was just a hostage with no guarantee that she would be kept alive after she had fulfilled her purpose of helping them meet up with that Inuyasha character again. So why would she trust them enough to tell them anything about her home and who she was? She might not act it, but he was sure that inwardly she was sacred of them.

Yuka finally broke her gaze from Renkotsu's. He smirked, considering this a submission on her part. "Well. . ." Yuka thought about the busy streets, her giggling friends, the traffic, the school, the overwhelming everything. There were no beautiful, untouched forests like this one anymore. Everything had been mapped out and charted in her world, in this one everything was so new and crisp. It made her feel better than being stuck at her house. ". . .You guys wouldn't like it." She said simply, her eyes wandering a little.

"How do you know?" Renkotsu demanded. He never liked anyone telling him what he would or would not like, especially some girl he barely even knew.

Yuka looked at him slyly. "Because I like it."

Hmm. . .trying for more detail in the story here. sweatdrop Heh.

Not much to say for an author's note her, sorry everyone. Except to thank my reviewers, of course. smile You guys are awesome, thanks minna-san!!

See you soon! Ja'ne!

Review please!!