Southern Love
Chapter 9: Tender Love and Fearsome Anger
(Kaiti's POV)
It's a perfect Friday afternoon as Kenmaru and I head home from school. Well as perfect as a Friday can be when it's in the beginning of January. "Wow, today was I great," I say with a sigh, "And our Spanish project went awesomely!" "Yeah it did," Kenmaru replies with a smile, "I'm glad that our teacher put you in my group after the whole perve incident. Besides, you had helped us out anyway." "Only a little though," I add, "So I do feel kinda guilty." "Aww come on koi," Kenmaru says, "Don't be like that. The others all agreed that you did as much as you could with what happened and all. Don't beat yourself up over it. Besides, you deserve the good grade after what those bastards tried to do." "Do you really think so," I ask just as we pull into my driveway. "Yeah I do," he replies with a smile. Soon, he has swiftly pulled into his usual parking space for my car and has turned the car off. "So," Kenmaru says suddenly, "What do you want to do tonight? It is a Friday night after all." "Let's have a movie night in," I say excitedly, "Mom just bought some awesome hot chocolate and marshmallows! Plus, I think she got graham crackers and chocolate bars as well! We can sit in front of the TV with hot chocolate and microwave smores!" "Sounds good to me," he says and leans in towards me, "But what movie do you want to watch koi?" "Well," I say softly, "Darnell did finally return my Phantom of the Opera DVD. I've not seen it in a long time. Plus, I love to sing softly along with some of the songs." "Good choice," Kenmaru whispers and kisses me gently, "I love it when you sing."
I sigh and blush slightly. "Thanks," I whisper, "It's one of my favorite movies." "Your welcome koi," he replies and finally opens his car door, "Now let's get inside before we freeze out here." "Ok," I reply and open my door as well. As soon as I'm out of the car, I feel something sting the side of my neck. "Ouch," I yelp, "Something stung me." "Come here," Kenmaru says, "Let me take a look at it." "Coming," I reply. As I begin to walk forward though, I begin to feel really dizzy. 'What's happening to me,' I ask myself, 'Why am I suddenly so dizzy?' "You ok koi," Kenmaru asks worriedly. I go to answer, but my lips don't want to work. "Help," I try to say, "Kenmaru something's wrong." I feel myself begin to pitch forward as I walk towards him. Before I hit the ground though, I feel Kenmaru's strong arms wrap around me. "Kaiti," he says in panic, "Kaiti are you alright koi?" I try to answer. "Kenmaru," I want to say, "Please help me. There's something wrong with me." When I don't answer out loud, I hear Kenmaru sniff the air tentatively. "Damnit," he curses, "It's poison. I can smell it." I feel one of his hands on the back of my neck and a slight pain as he pulls something from my body. "Don't worry koishii," he whispers, "You're going to be ok. I'm going to get some help." That's the last thing I hear before I finally pass out. The rest was up to Kenmaru.
(Kenmaru's POV)
'Damnit,' I curse inside my head, 'How could I have let this happen?' I sit by Kaiti's beside as she sleeps peacefully. As soon as she had fallen in my arms, I had discovered the poison dart. The first thing I did was pull it out and then rush her into the house. My parents had heard my cursing and had come out of the woods and into the house. "What's happened," my dad had asked, "What's wrong?" "Some youkai was hiding in the woods when we got here," I had told him, "And whoever it was shot a poisoned dart at Kaiti. Then she fainted." "Shit," my dad had cursed, "Do you still have the dart? We need to know what type of poison it is." "Yeah," I had replied, "Here it is." When my mom had seen the arrow, she had went deathly pale. "Get Myouga," she had told my dad quietly, "And quickly. I know he's around here somewhere. We need to get the poison out of her now!" Suddenly, my dad had slapped the side of his neck and then looked into his hand. "Should have known you would already be here Myouga," he had said, "You never pass up a meal." "Aww Master Inuyasha," Myouga had said in his usual way, "I swore that I just heard my name and the mention of poison. How can I be of assistance?" My mom took over from there. We put Kaiti into her bed and Myouga had sucked all of the poison out of her system. "She'll just need some time to rest now," Myouga had told us calmly, "And then once she wakes, you'll need to give her a blood restorative. I can make some if you like." "Oh don't worry about that Myouga," my mom had told him, "I have some medicine that will take care of that." Soon after, Myouga had left. Now I sit at Kaiti's bedside, waiting for her to wake up.
It's after nightfall when Kaiti finally opens her eyes. "Kenmaru," she whispers softly. Her voice is very weak, but I can still hear her. "Thank Kami," I sigh in relief, "Thank goodness you're awake koi. I thought I was going to lose you." "What happened," she asks weakly, "All I remember is getting stung and then not being able to do anything at all." I take hold of one of her hands and use my free hand to brush some of her hair off of her forehead. "You were poisoned koi," I whisper, "There was a youkai waiting for us in the woods. As soon as you got out of the car, he shot a poisoned dart at you. Thankfully the old flea Myouga was nearby and was able to suck the poison out of your system." "So that's why I feel so weak huh," she asks softly, "Because Myouga had to suck some of my blood along with the poison?" "Yeah," I reply, "But you'll be better soon. Here, my mom told me to give you this when you woke up. It's an herb that'll help restore your blood." As I say this, I pick up the small cup of herb tea and go to hand it to her. She goes to sit up, but she falls back upon the pillows with a sigh. "Can you help me sit up Kenmaru," Kaiti asks softly, "I feel so weak right now." "Yeah," I whisper and set down the tea cup. Gently, I pull her up and let her lean against me. I then pick the tea back up and hold it to her lips. Understanding my actions, Kaiti opens her mouth and lets me pour the tea into her mouth. She drinks it slowly and sighs when it's all gone. "Thank you koi," she whispers lovingly, "You always take good care of me." I help her lay back down and kiss her tenderly on her forehead. "You're welcome," I whisper back, "I love you koishii. I'll always take care of you." "I know you will," she whispers back, "And I love you too." She sighs again before going back to sleep.
(Kaiti's POV)
By the time that Monday morning came around, I was almost back to full strength. Kagome had even said that I was ok to go to school. Kenmaru, of course, was very worried about me pushing myself too far too soon. "Don't worry Kenmaru," I say with a sigh as I'm getting dressed for the day, "Your mom said that I'm well enough to go to school, and I feel fine. Besides, with all of the AP classes that we're in, I won't be able to catch up if I miss a day." "Fine," he grumbles, "But you're taking it easy today. I want you to save your strength. You never know when Naraku might decide to attack now. He thinks that you're either dead, or still weak from the poison." I give my hair one last brush and stand up. Turning to face him, I feel my expression soften at his concerned look. I sigh and walk over to him, where he wraps me in his embrace. I bury my head into his chest and breath deeply. "I could have lost you Kaiti," he whispers, "And after all we went through to defeat Naraku's last attempt to break us apart, I hate that he came so close to doing it again. Please koi, take it easy ok? For me?" "Oh Kenmaru," I murmur softly, "Don't worry, I'll take it easy. I hate feeling weak though, I always have. The poison, it scared me. I've never felt so weak in my entire life." Kenmaru just holds me tighter and whispers into my ear, "You don't have to be scared when I'm around koishii. I'll always protect you." His words comfort me, and I take a deep breath to settle myself. "Thanks koi," I say happily, "I needed that. Now let's go get some breakfast. I want some hot chocolate!" Kenmaru just laughs and says, "Alright, let's go."
After a wonderful breakfast of hot chocolate and strawberry waffles, I'm ready for the day. Kenmaru and I run into no problems on the way to school at all. But that fact doesn't lessen Kenmaru's protectiveness of me. The poison incident shook him up, like it did me. Both of us knew that Naraku could try it again if he wanted to. When we arrive at school, I'm immediately assaulted by a worried neko hanyou. "Geez sis calm down," I sigh, "I'm fine ok? I was cleared just this morning to come back to school. Don't worry about me." "Fine," she practically screeches, "How can you be just fine sis? You practically almost..." Thankfully, Kenmaru's hand interrupted her just as she was about to let the entire school know that I had been poisoned and almost died over the weekend. "Sis," I hiss at her, "Stop it. You're making a scene." "Fine," she pouts, "But you better take it easy today sis. You might be ok to come back to school, but that doesn't mean that you have to take everything full force yet you know?" "Exactly what I told her this morning," Kenmaru says calmly, "Don't worry Rissa. I'll take care of her. Even if she doesn't want me to." "You two are so protective of me," I sigh, "Thanks. I'm glad I have great friends like you." I feel Kenmaru wrap an arm around my waist as he says, "You're welcome koi. Now let's head to class." I sigh and nod my head as my body naturally responds to his touch. Leaning into him slightly, I wrap my arm around his waist as we walk towards the school building. Today is going to be a great day, I can tell.
(Kenmaru's POV)
Today actually went pretty well considering that Kaiti was just recently poisoned over the weekend. We made it through all of our classes just fine, and lunch was a hilarious as ever. Sitting at lunch with Kaiti, Rissa, Blaze, Darnell, and the rest of our friends is always relaxing. And with Blaze and Darnell telling jokes the whole time, while Marrissa makes witty and sarcastic comments, well let's just say that lunch can get crazy sometimes. We never get into any trouble, but sometimes we all head back to class with our stomachs hurting from how much we had just laughed. When we got home from school, everything was peaceful. Kaiti and I got our homework done earlier than usual, and so Kaiti suggested that we have our night in that we never got to have. She had me set up the DVD while she prepared us a dinner that consisted of ramen, a delivered pizza, hot chocolate, and for dessert, microwave smores. Her parents and brother had gone out for the night to have dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant, but we had passed on going out with them. We wanted to spend some time together actually relaxing for a change. "Ready to start the movie," Kaiti asks as she walks into the living room, "I've got everything set up in the kitchen if you're ready to fix your plate of food." "Let's grab our food first," I reply, "Then we'll start the movie."
I follow Kaiti into the kitchen and grin at the sight before me. "Wow koi," I say impressed by the amount of food in front of me, "You really out did yourself." "Thanks," she says and flashes me a grin, "I wanted everything to be perfect. We've not had a movie night together in so long." "Yeah I know," I reply, "And don't worry. It's perfect." Kaiti flashes me one of her beautiful grins and gestures to the food. "Well," she says, "Go ahead and dig in." "With pleasure," I say and grin back at her. We quickly fix ourselves plates of pizza accompanied by small bowls of ramen. Also, we each grab huge mugs full of steaming hot chocolate that each have marshmallows floating on top of the creamy liquid. Kaiti tells me that she'll wait until we're done to make the smores. "There so much better when they're warm," she says happily, "And it's always better to each dinner before dessert." "Fine by me," I tell her, "Ready to start the movie?" "Heck yeah I am," Kaiti says and grins, "Tonight is going to be awesome!" We walk into the living room and settle down together on the largest couch. The TV is still on the DVD menu, so I just pick up the remote and press play. I sense Kaiti's excitement and happiness start to pour off of her in waves as the opening scene begins to play. Smiling to myself, I take a quick bite of pizza and lay back to watch the movie. I love it when I make her happy. "Oh Phantom of the Opera," I suddenly hear Rissa squeal happily, "I love that movie! And I smell yummy food!"
(Kaiti's POV)
"Sis," I moan, "What are you doing?" Not even five minutes after the movie had started, Rissa had barged in squealing about the movie and food. "I smelt food," she says happily, oblivious to my annoyance, "Where is it?" "The kitchen sis," I reply, "Where else?" I look over at Kenmaru, who had known to pause the movie as soon as Rissa barged in. "Sorry," I say, "I should have known she would have done this. My sister is very nosey, and she loves pizza." "I am not nosey," Marrissa says from the kitchen, "But I do love pizza! Pizza with hot sauce, yum!" "Bleh," I mutter, "I don't know why you ruin perfectly good pizza with that crud. Hot sauce is nasty. And you are too nosey sis." She just laughs at me from where ever she is inside of the kitchen. "Hot sauce ain't nasty sis," she laughs, "At least I don't think so. And so what if I'm a little curious? I am a neko after all." "Yeah I know you are sis," I say a bit louder, "And you do know that curiosity kills the cat right?" Kenmaru begins to chuckle softly. "What's so funny eh," I ask him angrily. "Sorry koi," he replies and calms down, "It's just that when you two tease and argue with each other like that, I can see why you call each other sis. You have regular sibling rivalries often." I laugh then, knowing what he means. "Yeah," I say, "I guess you're right. Now it is a bit funny." "Well if you're finished laughing," Rissa says calmly as she walks back into the living room, "Let's start the movie back up. I love this movie. Want to duet during Meg and Christine's duet sis? I'll be Meg, you be Christine." I sigh and am about to answer her when a familiar evil aura begins to touch me.
"Damnit," Kenmaru swears, "He always comes at the worst of times." "Got that right," Rissa hisses, "Better call in the rest of the team eh?" "Yeah," Kenmaru says and pulls out his phone. He dials his parents' number and waits for a sec. Soon, he's telling his dad to come quickly and to bring the rest of the family. While Kenmaru calls his family, Rissa flips out her phone and sends a quick text to Blaze and Darnell. "Everyone will be here as soon as they can," Kenmaru says, "But we'll need to be ready in case he gets here before our reinforcements." "Right," I say and rise from the couch, "Rissa you better get your hammer ready girl. We'll have quite a lot of fighting on our hands soon." "With pleasure," Rissa says and grins wickedly. Both of my dear hanyous then pull off their concealment charms and hand them to me for safe keeping as usual. Marrissa's hammer is at her belt and Kenmaru's sword, Kouensha, is sheathed at his side. Placing my hands in front of me, I focus my powers and summon my trusty weapon. Soon, I hold my familiar slender, sliver staff. On each end, a sharp blade glows brilliantly with mystic blue aura. Along with my staff, spiritual armor also appears on my body, replacing the clothes I was wearing. I hadn't noticed it the first time I had fought Naraku, but the armor was a part of my using the staff. It looks much like the demon slayer's outfit that I had seen Sango wear in the anime, but the parts on hers that had been pink were blue on mine. "Let's go," I say confidently, "Naraku's gonna pay for poisoning me and also ruining my movie night." Kenmaru and Rissa both nod and we leave the house to wait for Naraku to show himself.
(Kenmaru's POV)
When we all begin to feel Naraku's youki approaching, I curse and immediately call my family in for back up. Marrissa also sends quick texts to Blaze and Darnell. We haven't seen Naraku since the day he tried to set me on Kaiti and my family. There's no way to guess what he'll try, so we prepare for the worse. Both Marrissa and I take off our concealing charms and hand them to Kaiti. She places them around her neck and then summons her staff and armor to her. As we head out of the door, anger flashes in her eyes. She's out for payback. Naraku had done way too much lately to piss her off. I wince mentally at the intensity that Kaiti's anger can reach. Naraku is in for quite a defeat if he tries his usual cocky tricks. Not long after we reach the usual battle ground, Naraku's usual horde of youkai floods from the woods. Rissa pulls her hammer from its place at her belt and I pull Kouensha from its sheath. Before I can make a move, Marrissa jumps into the air and uses her momentum to swing the now very huge hammer. Bringing it down brutally upon the earth, she screams out, "Shockwave Thunder!" "Nice move sis," Kaiti says with a grin as one by one, all of the youkai are destroyed. "Thanks," says a calm Rissa, "It was no sweat really. I'm just warming up." "Knowing Naraku," I growl, "It's going to be your turn next koi. Be ready." "Right," Kaiti says and sets her body into a fighting stance, "I'll purify whatever the bastard throws at me."
My parents arrive moments later, the rest of the family not far behind. Behind them are Blaze and Darnell. "What we miss so far," my dad asks gruffly. "Not much," Kaiti replies, "Naraku has already sent his usual youkai wave, but Rissa took care of them." "Used the hammer did you," Darnell asks his girlfriend with a grin. "You bet," she replies and winks at him, "And I was just warming up." "Ok you two," Kaiti groans, "Stop flirting will you? You can do that afterwards." "Hmph," Rissa says, "Way to ruin my fun sis." "Well there isn't anymore time left for fun," I growl as Naraku's foul miasma begins to roll towards us, "Here comes Naraku's next wave." "I guess it's our turn now then," my mom says and looks at Kaiti, "Ready dear?" "You bet," Kaiti says and readies her staff, "Whenever you're ready." My mom raises her bow and notches an arrow. "Ready," she says, "Let's go." With a nod, they both attack at the same moment. Mom's arrow purifies half of the miasma while a swing from Kaiti's staff purifies the rest. "Good work girls," my dad says, "Now the real fight begins, because here comes Naraku." Naraku's disgusting stench suddenly fills the area as he steps out of the woods in front of us. "I see," Naraku sneers, "Everyone is all here. Not in the mood to play now are you?" "Bastard," I growl, "You're gonna pay for all that you've done to us. I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you." "Oh," Naraku says mockingly, "But you don't even know what I'm going to do this time. I sent no warning to the miko like I have done previously." "We don't care what you plan to do you bastard," Kaiti says angrily, "All we care about is finishing you off. You've caused enough trouble as it is. You're gonna lose Naraku. I'll make sure of it." "Hmm," Naraku says evilly, "It seems that Midoriko's reincarnation has quite the temper. I guess it's to be expected in the spirit of a warrior miko."
Kaiti gasps in shock. "What did you just call me," she asks stunned. "You heard me girl," Naraku says suddenly thrilled, "Did the pup not tell you then? I did tell him about this. I believe it was the very first night of his capture actually." I stand there shocked as well. Before he had said anything, I hadn't even remembered what he'd told me that first night. But now, I suddenly remember every single word that he said. He had told me about his theory of Kaiti being Midoriko's reincarnation, but I hadn't remembered until now. "Bastard," I growl at him, "What else did you do to me when you took control of me eh? I didn't remember you telling me this until just now. I would have told her if I had known." "Curse you pup," Naraku says angrily, "You noticed my small memory erase. No matter though. Now she knows why I've been watching her for all of this time." "Yeah," Kaiti says angrily, "Now I know why you've been trying to put me and the people I care about through living Hell. Just because you believe that my soul once belonged to Midoriko, you think that it's now yours for the taking. That's why I've gone through all of the crap you've thrown at me. You're trying to regain what you lost when you were defeated over half a millennia ago. Now you've really pissed me off." She looks up at him and glares at him fiercely. Fire burns in my koishii's eyes as she lectures the evil hanyou in front of her. "I'm not Midoriko bastard," she yells at him, "I'm my own person. My life and soul are my own. They're not yours for the taking. I'm not some sparkly jewel that you can just grab and control. This is my life, and I want you out of it!" Kaiti then raises her staff in front of her and her body forms a fighting stance. "I'm ready to end this," she growls at him, "We're about to send you back to Hell where you belong."
