A/N, Right so back on track with updating, here is chapter 10. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please review!
Guest: YAY!
Irgoomer: Thanks, I'm glad that I'm improving in my writing style and that the story is starting to get itself into gear, haha now that you mention I kind of see it...It's basically him, just, you know, minus the misshapen head and a few years :P
Fantasyanimegirl283: Thanks, I'm trying to make them different to the ones of Kyo's time but maybe with one or two things in common. Hmm, they may or may not be making an appearance later on... It would, one could say, be awfully mean of me to keep them away from her forever...
So without further hinting from me, let's go with chapter 10!
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Tsukina continued to drag Kaida down the hall until she jerked her wrist from her grasp.
"You don't need to pull, I can walk just fine." Kaida snapped.
Tsukina looked a little startled by her anger but shrugged it off.
"Suit yourself. Your room is this way, you will be sharing with Anju Sohma. She's another member of the zodiac. I should warn you, she can be a little...brash."
Kaida raised an eyebrow but didn't reply. She walked alongside Tsukina until they stopped in front of a door with the number 9 written on it.
"Here we are. Welcome to your new home." She stated swinging the door open.
Kaida bit back a gasp. The room was far larger than she was expecting, it looked to Kyo like one you would find in a high end hotel just with a traditional theme to it. There was a large amount of floor space, with two king sized beds on either end of the room and a large glass panel at the back of the room leading out on to gardens. A door to her left implied they had an ensuite.
And standing in the middle of the room looking very annoyed was one of the most beautiful girls Kyo had ever seen.
She was short enough, only about five foot two or three but she made up for it by being toned, her defined muscles clearly visible as she wore only shorts and a tank top. Her tanned skin showed she spent a lot of time in the sun, her golden hair hung softly to her shoulders. She had strong features but she was still feminine in her appearance. Two canines protruded from her mouth and lightly indented her bottom lip, showing she was clearly not in a good mood. That and the fact her amber eyes were narrowed suspiciously at Kaida and Tsukina.
"Anju-chan. This is Kaida, she will be staying with you from now on."
"Why can't she stay with Sonomi?" Anju demanded bluntly.
Tsukina sighed, "Because our Lord has requested for her to stay with you. And Sonnmi lives with Kuya already. Plus she is nine."
Anju shrugged. "Well give her her own room then. I don't see why we have to share."
"It's so you can keep an eye on me. They're afraid I'm going to go run off into the night, I'm guessing." Kaida answered causing Tsukina to glance at her.
Anju looked surprised. She seemed to be regarding Kaida with new found interest.
"Are you?"
"Depends. Is everyone like you?"
Tsukina's palm came up to her face in despair.
Anju froze for a moment. Then her face broke out into a dazzling grin, her canines retracting to a normal size.
"I like you. You can stay."
"Yay, I'm so excited." Kaida said sarcastically.
Tsukina groaned, "Great. Now there's two of them." She muttered.
"I'll have Shun-kun bring your things here once he's finished with the others." She added before leaving Anju and Kaida to each other.
Kaida turned awkwardly to the other girl.
"Your hair is kind of weird." Anju said, her head tilted. Her fingers came up to touch the ends of Kaida's fire locks.
"I get it from my mother. The curse makes it more pronounced."
Anju nodded. "Kind of like my eyes. Or Eri's hair."
"Yeah, I've never met someone with gold eyes before." Kaida agreed.
"Mine go a little like that when I change." She added absentmindedly.
Anju frowned. " I thought you were the dragon? How can you tell when you're a seahorse what colour eyes you have?"
Opps.
Kaida swallowed faintly. "I, I can see them fine when I'm that size. They look black to other people but I can see some gold in them..." She back tracked, not sounding very convincing.
"Anyway, what animal are you? If you don't mind me asking." Kaida said, changing the subject.
Anju frowned but let it slide. "I'm the tiger."
"Ah, well that explains why you're so territorial."
Anju chuckled. " Speaking of which, let me show you around the room."
As Anju told Kaida which bed was hers, what she was and was not allowed to touch there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Anju shouted.
"Room service. Who'd you think fluff ball?"
Anju glowered at the door. "Shun."
She swung open the door and Shun pushed past her, his arms laden with bags.
"Hello fluffy. How are you this fine morning?" He asked, throwing the bags on Anju's bed.
"Hey, that's my bed!"
"I know."
"Dammit Shun, put Kaida's stuff on her bed." Anju growled, her eyes glowing a more intense gold.
"But I'm tired now, I don't want to have to carry all of these things anymore." Shun whined although his eyes sparked mischievously.
"What are you complaining about? You made me carry all the heavy things you damn mule." A new voice grumbled from the door frame.
Kaida, who had been watching the exchange with amusement turned to the new voice. In the door frame stood a tall and slim figure. He had grey-black hair and deep blue eyes. Cat ears popped up from the top of his head and he moved with a certain air of tension.
"You must be the cat. I'm Kaida, the dragon." Kaida inclined her head in place of a bow. Stupid injured back.
The boy looked taken back by being directly addressed.
"Yeah, so what if I am the cat?" He grunted, dumping her belongings on the ground.
"Is that everything Shun or do you need me to do some other crap as well?" He shot at the older man. Shun glanced over to him and waved his hand.
"Yeah that's it. You can go Hisao-kun."
Hisao spun on his heel and stormed out of the room.
"Wow, what's his problem?" Kaida muttered.
Shun and Anju shared a look for a moment.
"Well, you know, he's the cat. That makes a guy kind of edgy."
Kaida looked at them in confusion.
"Why?"
Anju's mouth was open and she looked, for once, a little lost for words.
"Eh well. You know, he's not part of the Zodiac..."
"But he's cursed." Kaida said.
Shun cleared his throat. "Right, well have fun explaining that one tiggy. I have business to attend to."
"What business?" Anju demanded.
"Something someone as young as you could not possibly comprehend."
"Why, what age are you Anju-san?"
Anju looked at Kaida blankly.
"Fifteen."
Kyo's eyebrows shot up. He would have guessed eighteen. Minimum.
Clearly Kaida was thinking along the same lines.
"Wait, I'm older than you?"
"That depends. Have you been alive for longer than fifteen years?" Anju asked sarcastically.
Kaida gave her a withering look.
"Yeah, I'm sixteen. So is there a lot of people around here who are around our age?"
Anju nodded. "Kira has just turned twenty. Hisao is eighteen. Then there is Haruka's my, well she's fifteen too. She's really annoying."
"For Anju that's code for not a bitch. Ironic considering she's the dog..." Shun put in from the door.
"I thought you said you were leaving!" Anju shouted, flinging a shoe at his head. He caught it.
"Eww, it's pretty. Do you have the other one?"
"Shut up!" She said throwing the matching pair.
"Thanks! These will go great with my new kimono!" Shun said sarcastically before darting out of the door.
"Uh! I hate that stupid donkey!" Anju snarled, collapsing onto her bed.
"He's a pretty big kid considering his age."
"You're telling me. My guess it's because there isn't really anyone else around his age here except for Suki and Kira and Kira has his head so far up his ass he can breathe through it. As for Suki, well she's about as interesting as she is dangerous."
"Whose Suki?" Kaida asked, getting irritated by all these new people she had to learn about.
"Hmmm? Oh she's the rabbit. She's twenty three and spends most of her time tending to small wounded animals."
"How horrible...?" Kaida asked sceptically, her brow furrowed.
Anju dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Yes, yes. That's very nice of her. But still, boring."
Kaida scoffed a laugh and rolled her eyes.
"So, moving back to the subject you tried to deter from, the cat?"
Anju groaned. "He's just, not like us, alright? Look do you know the story of the cat being told the wrong day and all that crap?"
Kaida nodded. "Yes. My grandfather told me about it."
"And yet he couldn't find it in him to tell you this bit. The cat is basically beneath us. He's cursed. But not like we are, cause at least we're part of the original zodiac. He's the freak of the zodiac. It sucks but that's just how it is."
Kyo's jaw tightened and he looked away from the pool, wanting to put his hands over his ears and block out the words that he had been hearing all his life.
Kaida's voice emanated up to him from the water.
"But, that doesn't seem right." Kaida said.
He glanced back at the pool.
Anju was looking at Kaida exasperated. After a moment she nodded.
"No. It doesn't."
Anju glanced out the window.
"I have training to go to. When you've finished unpacking, come find me. I'll be in the dojo." Anju pushed past her, possibly hoping to avoid anymore of this conversation.
"Em...Okay." Kaida called after her.
The image in the pool swirled and Kyo imagined it was skipping past Kaida putting her stuff away as when it cleared he could see her walking out of the main house.
She was looking around with wide eyes, as though it had just dawned on her how large this place was.
And that she had no idea where the dojo was.
She pursed her lips in thought when a figure walked past. Kaida brightened and ran up to her.
"Hey, excuse me." She called but this seem to prompt the person to move away.
"Hey!" Kaida shouted, catching her wrist. The girl she had just caught let out a terrified squeak.
"I'm sorry, miss, I'm so sorry, I should have made sure there was no one here before I came in. I didn't mean to interrupt you Miss Sohma."
Kaida looked at her incredulously. The girl was wearing a maid outfit so she presumed her to be a servant. Her brown hair was pulled up tight but some wispy bits framed her delicately featured face. Her grey eyes looked absolutely terrified as they stared into Kaida's gold brown ones.
"Em...I just wanted to ask you where the dojo was. I'm sorry if I've frightened you, I didn't mean to." Kaida muttered, shamefaced. She dropped the girl's hand.
"My name is Kaida. What's yours?" She asked tentatively.
The maid looked like Kaida had asked her to strip naked and slap Osamu across the face.
"Right... Well, you don't have to tell me, I suppose. Could you just, perhaps, point in the direction of the dojo?"
She nodded minutely and raised a shaking finger. Kaida smiled.
"Thank you. I'll be seeing you, I guess. Or not, I don't really know how things work here yet... I'm sorry again for scaring you."
Kaida began to walk away.
"Mura." The young girl whispered.
"What was that?" Kaida asked, glancing back at the girl who looked about as old as she was.
"My name is Mura, miss."
Kaida grinned brilliantly, "Nice to meet you, Mura."
She danced off towards the dojo. As she moved out of sight, and what she imagined Mura thought was ear shot, she heard her whisper,
"Nice to meet you, Miss Kaida."
