7

I tap my fingers on the damaged knee, the leg being outstretched and open to my hand range. Bankotsu sips on some sake and Yuri cowers…sorry, seeks cover, behind my back just an inch away from the far right corner of the room. Apparently that's not enough to hide from Suikotsu. I scratch the back of my neck and look down to the damaged ribs, the slight prickle alarming me vaguely. The food before me is untouched, just as the food to Yuri's left. If you'd like to know my opinion of the situation, it's two words: Holy F*CK. I huff in defeat and push against the wall to stand, Renkotsu following in my footsteps. It looks like I won't be as lucky as last time.

I mean seriously, if someone was looking for me, don't you think they'd find me by now? It's total SH*T if you ask me. It's like Buddha kept me alive just to make me miserable. Want to know what's worse? My knee is worsening more than healing! Yuri's right, someone's probably going to lop it off instead of help relocate the knee and some other thing. I sit back down, thinking what the he**, and stare down at the untouched food. Yuri's stomach lightly rumbles and she covers it in hopes it'll somehow hush. Bankotsu chuckles, making me glare.

"I assure you there is nothing wrong with your food," he leans in closer. "Now eat, we have a ways to go."

I spit in his eye, making the others stand. He shuts them and straightens his back, wiping the saliva out. Yuri squeaks once she sees his wide grin, as if he actually took the spitting as some complement. If I have learned anything in life, that grin means the exact opposite. I stand my ground, unlike Yuri who clings to the back of my neck. He looks down onto the floor, several stray strands of hair falling in front of his eyes, but not that toothy grin.

"You know, I don't recall him ever saying we needed to bring her alive," he chuckles darkly.

Yep, the spitting was a big mistake. I rush up and push past, Yuri assisting by keeping them at bay with the fox magic she tosses over her shoulder. I hear my knee click in and out of place, but now I'm not really paying much attention. I dig my heel into the ground to stop, staring in horror at the trees. Yuri slams into the back of my legs and we fall forward. She grunts and stands, dusting off her little kimono.

"Hey what was the stop for?" she demands, paws on her shoulders.

I pry my face from the rock fragments and point a trembling finger to the trees. Brown wolves snake out, form dripping from their mouths as if they were starving for centuries. Yuri gulps and nervously waves, yanking me up (what can I say, she's strong for a little fox demon) and practically dragging me away as they leapt onto my previous spot. The six men come out of the hut we were in, fending them off as we get away. Yuri is panting heavily, and looks up at me with a slight glare.

"MAYBE IF YOU KEPT YOUR SALIVA TO YOURSELF, WE WOULD LIVE LONGER!"

Now, until you've heard that personally, you do not know the mere definition of random.

O)(O

Two words and a conjunction: I'm F*CKING starving! I know I don't complain about that sort of thing out loud, but have a dislocated knee, be lost and RARELY found by the people you WANT to find you, and nearly starve to death five or six times in a day and try not to at least complain in your head! I huff and hold my ribs, fearing they are soon going to fall apart somehow. My feet are bleeding slowly, my neck pulsating and my skull thumping painfully. I don't know how much longer I can walk, seeing it's been at least a day since we left the village in retreat of the six men and the wolves. Yuri also doesn't look like she might make it, so we stop at the side of a river, cupping water into our palms and sipping the cool fluid into our sore throats. I hear something rustle, so I grip a nearby rock with my damp fingers and raise it over my head, freezing at the next sight. It's a fairly large bull demon, so I drop the rock and let out two nervous chuckles before backing up, falling on my butt due to a sudden shift of the knee. The demon raises a club like chunk of wood and a top of a sort smashes onto its head. Yuri is shoveling rapidly through her tricks, throwing the most painful ones at it. The bull suddenly charges for her, and something rips through it. I blink at first, not completely understanding what the object is, but I squint to see an arrow above my head, slightly parting three strands of messy hair. I pluck the arrow from the tree bark and look up, to none other than Kagome.