More drama ensues! Le gasp. A new element is introduced in this chapter. Let me know how you feel about it with a review! (Pleeeeeeaaaase)
Thank you all so much for the feedback and birthday wishes. You guys are awesome. Here's another chapter for all you special people. Happy Monday and you're welcome.
Guest1: My hands are better and cranking out chapters again. Haha.
XAudra RoseX: They are warming up to each other, but don't worry. They're not turning to mush.
Guest2: You'll be seeing more Friday/Kurama interaction as time goes on. Promise.
Angel of Randomosity: Glad you thought it was cute! :3
bananamush: It makes me really happy that you enjoyed Larry and that you were able to relate to the snowy bit as well. As for their relationship... it's still under construction.
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"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally of dealing with men." - Joseph Conrad
. . .
We were running low on food, so I caught the bus down to the store. Because Genkai's was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, the bus was empty for a while, and old-man Larry gave me another free lesson, as promised.
It was fun. A little like doing parkour on a bus. He taught me how to jump up into the ceiling and suspend myself there, arms and legs jammed against the sides of the bus.
Then we worked on recovering a lost stance. He would jerk the wheel hard to the side and I would lose my balance, but he made me use my tumble to keep rolling and push myself back up. The best thing about it was that it was never the exact same exercise. It would be valuable to learn improvisation in a real fight.
Finally, another passenger boarded and we were forced to end our training session. The stranger must have thought I was a little wacko with the way I sat sprawled, unable to stop grinning, bangs sticking to my damp forehead as I breathed heavily. What can I say? We had been intensely training for a while. I just did my best not to make eye contact.
After my grocery shopping had been accomplished-with much confusion and awkwardness, might I add-I returned to the bus. The bus emptied as it past the first few city stops. Larry looked at me in the rearview mirror.
"How many pushups can you do, girl?" he asked gruffly.
I shrugged: "I dunno. Thirty or so." It was some unimpressive number, at any rate.
"Alright. Begin," he said.
I got down on my hands and toes in the middle of the aisle, pushing away any thoughts about how unsanitary it probably was. "One, two, three..." I began counting softly to myself.
"What are you doing?" he barked and I slipped, chin hitting the walkway.
"Straighten your back! Arms shoulder width apart. Stomach in," he corrected and I hastened to position myself right, "You have to go lower than that, missy if you want to see any improvement. All the way to the floor. That's it. Now straighten your arms. What are you, a seal? I said back straight! Like a table."
He suddenly jerked to the side of the road and came storming back to where I was currently planking. He rummaged in my groceries, pulled out the three cans of Japanese coffee I'd gotten from a vending machine, and popped open their tops. Larry came over and set them on my back, lining my spine. "Straight. Like a table," he ordered sternly, coming to stand in front of me.
I felt a trickle of nervous sweat roll down my jawline as I carefully lowered myself to the ground. The cans wobbled threateningly. In the end, I could only do nine pushups the way they were supposed to be done. I had spilled all three cans.
I laid collapsed on the floor, arms trembling and back spasming, shirt soaked in coffee.
"That was..." I panted, "All the coffee I had."
"Then go out and buy more tomorrow. You'll get to drink it when you can do a real pushup," he promised in a threatening sort of way, walking back to his seat. "Now do your crunches," he ordered over his shoulder.
I groaned, but flipped over and began. Not all training, it seemed, was fun after all. But I guess all the technique in the world wouldn't do me much good without muscle to put behind it. It seemed no matter what you were required to learn, you could never opt out of the basics.
Crazy old man. Luring me in here with the promise of some exciting lessons only to trick me into working out. The one redeeming factor about the exercises was the legwork, where Larry had to eventually tell me just to move on, seeing that I wasn't going to tire of that anytime soon. Thank you, dance.
I sighed as I finished the long routine he had put me through and rolled over on my side to look up at his deep-set eyes reflected in the mirror. I didn't bother to pick myself up off the floor.
He drove the bus with the same serious air that accompanied all he did. After a minute under my scrutiny, he broke my concentrated stare with a simple question: "What's your last name, girl?"
"Kuronosuke. Friday, Kuronosuke," I responded absently.
"Kuronosuke… huh. You Japanese?" he wondered with the same quality of surprise I'd had when asking if he was American. Names can be so deceiving sometimes.
"I think one of my ancestors might've been," I replied after a moment and shrugged, recalling what Hati had told me about the Sleeper's descendants.
"Which side?" Larry asked. I wondered where the sudden curiosity came from.
"Who knows? Must've been my grandpa's side," I sat up, rubbing the back of my neck and leaning back against the base of the seat, "His name was Sano, but he definitely didn't look Japanese."
"Sano?" Larry repeated, white patches of eyebrow shooting up in shock, "That was my name… once." He stared off into the distance, eyes seeing through the road, a pensive frown plastered on his face.
"Oh," I remembered Larry mentioning his old comrade who had taken his name with him across the seas to America, "Was your friend a tall man with glasses who liked to collect exotic teas?" I asked awkwardly.
He laughed: "The very one."
"Oh… I'm sorry to tell you, but…" I bit my lip, dreading the words that came next, "He passed away a few years ago."
A deep and heavy silence filled the space between us and stretched on and on, limitless.
"I see. Well, it seemed he had a good life, with a good family," Larry finally spoke, voicing his slow musings, "You reminded me of him a bit, when I first saw you. You have the same eyes. Stubborn... but kind."
I rested my head in my hands, thinking. I had never particularly liked my eyes, but now… I didn't think I'd change them for the world.
"He was a good man," I finally contributed, realizing I should reply.
A smile tugged at the corners of Larry's old, worn mouth: "Yeah, he was."
I gave him a moment to wander down memory lane, before deciding to call him back to reality. "Larry, huh? I never knew that was his real name," I chuckled, breaking the tension. Larry just snorted, one side of his mouth still quirked up amusedly.
.
.
.
"What?" the toddler prince shouted, banging his tiny fists down on the desk in front of him. I frowned. Apparently, no one had bothered to report to him the findings of our last mission after we'd finished retrieving Hati.
"This is terrible news! Why didn't anyone contact me sooner?" he glared around accusingly, before forcing himself to calm down as he steepled his hands before his face and continued on in a pensive manner, "It looks like our enemy is getting smarter… using demons. We'd better hope this doesn't continue."
"And what if this is all a new part of their plan?" I asked tentatively, not sure I wanted to know the answer.
Koenma met my eyes squarely, and there was a deep seriousness in his look as he delivered the bad news, "Then your life has just become much more difficult. You'd better hope the boys are around to deal with any demons they send at you. The apparition you faced, Friday, was only an upper D class. Enma forbid they've allied themselves with anything stronger. I'm afraid if you went up against an A-maybe even B class-you wouldn't..." his words trailed off ominously. I gulped.
Somehow, though, the nervousness wasn't overwhelming. It seemed like a far-off reality that I couldn't grasp. At any rate, I wasn't really too concerned, so I just tried to brush it off: "Well, it's not like Tsuki-Yomi has much to threaten them with either, right?" I looked around for confirmation and was met with only uncertain pairs of eyes, "And what can he possibly have to offer that a demon of a higher class would want?"
"You don't know much of demons, woman," Hiei informed me, crimson eyes peering into mine, as he tried to rid me of any hopeful delusions, "There are scores of apparitions who would aid Tsuki-Yomi simply for the pleasure of watching this pathetic human world of yours burn."
I puffed my cheeks out, pouting, as I looked away, muttering under my breath, "You would know about that, wouldn't you, Hiei?"
My eyes flicked back in time to see him relax his clenched teeth and shrug, the angry tilt of his eyebrows smoothing. Apparently I had ruffled his feathers a bit. Hiei crossed his arms and turned his head away as he closed his eyes, determined to ignore everything that transpired for the duration of the meeting.
.
.
.
Koenma split the team in two, sending Kurama and Hiei out to comb the area for demons while Yusuke, Kuwabara, and I tracked down Nightmares. The city was cold, but the area wasn't very receptive to snow, so thankfully we were spared the frigid ground covering.
Our current job here wasn't too hard. All in a night's work. That is, until he showed up.
"Rikyu..." I said and leveled a sharp glare at his hovering form, "Here for more pleasantries?" I mocked, thinking of the violent peace offering he had come bearing the last time.
"Not quite. This time I'm simply here to put an end to your interference, last of the Sleepers," he addressed me, eyes twinkling with sinister humor.
I dropped into a fighting stance the way Larry had taught me, hands held ready at my sides.
A shout rang out from the shadows: "Spirit gun!" Yusuke had snuck up from the side and was now pointing his deadly finger straight at Rikyu's head.
But before the blue blast of energy could hit Rikyu, a dark, armored form moved in swiftly to block. The Nightmare's skin sizzled from the impact, smoking slightly, but it appeared to be essentially unharmed.
"Go," Rikyu commanded holding out a hand imperiously, and the Nightmares crept from around the corners of the buildings, stalking toward Yusuke in a loose circle.
Kuwabara rushed in with a battle cry, brandishing his sword, hacking and slicing his way to the center. The boys put their backs together defensively. Kuwabara used a clever technique to make his dimension sword wrap around in a the circle, incapacitating the Nightmares that had been closing in.
"Nuh-uh-uh. We can't have you interfering so, human boy," Rikyu admonished, fixing his gaze on Kuwabara. Menacingly, he crossed the two short blades as they appeared in his hands, gathering his sickly-looking energy at their intersect. He snapped his arms out to the sides, and I heard the scrape of metal on metal as the swords pulled apart.
The glow was different than the ones he had produced while fighting me before. Those had appeared in the form of spheres. This time, the energy shot through the air in bands; they wrapped themselves tightly around Kuwabara, head to toe, crushing his arms to his sides and sealing his legs together. The carrot top cried out as he was brought to his knees, finally toppling over completely.
"Kuwabara!" his punk friend called from the carrot top's side, dropping his firing stance.
The glow of the bands had faded, but Kuwabara still lay on the ground, unable to move.
"I'll be... fine... Urameshi. Just... go... get others," Kuwabara managed to grind out from between clenched teeth. It didn't seem like Kuwabara could move even his jaw in this tight grip.
Yusuke pulled out his communicator as Rikyu stared fixedly at me. I fidgeted under his gaze, shifting my balance, prepared to dodge an attack. But he just hovered there.
The spirit detective's rough shout made me jump a little: "Low battery! Whaddaya mean, low battery? C'mon!" Apparently, his communicator wasn't working. With an angry sigh, I heard him rush off to find the others on foot, muttering curses under his breath.
My eyes slid to the side, catching Yusuke's back as it disappeared around the corner. Suddenly, Rikyu closed in, hardly more than a blur. I almost missed him in my brief moment of distraction. I deflected his forward arm and the deadly blade slid past my shoulder. He thrust the other blade toward me. I ducked and jumped back, shoes skidding on the pavement as friction brought me to a halt.
As I wove my way through his barrage of attacks, I realized something. This time, he hadn't yet hit me. Not even once. It seemed Larry's training was already paying off. I smirked, and went on the offensive.
When he lunged, I dodged and followed it up with a jab of my own. I twisted my punch the way I had watched Yusuke do it. The blow made contact as I aimed for his shoulder, trying to knock him to the side and make him lose his balance.
Rikyu looked momentarily surprised, having probably expected me to continue running about and dodging. But apart from the change of expression on his face-an incremental lifting of his eyebrows-not much happened.
A corner of my mouth tugged down in a disbelieving grimace. No way. It had been a solid blow. My knuckles had certainly felt it. What was he made of? Stone?
I tried again. And again. Maybe a fourth time? He settled back into a smug stance, arms open, not even bothering to block. He even dismissed his swords. Rikyu's eyes gleamed and he grinned, watching my shocked face with amusement. It was like fighting a brick wall. I think my knuckles may have bruised. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
"This is ridiculous!" I shouted in frustration, bringing up my leg in a strong arc.
He caught it before it made contact. "Oops. Better be careful with that now..." he said genially, and with a tug had me dangling upside down before him. I was starting to get really tired of that position.
"Put. Me. Down!" I ordered, struggling against his grip.
"If you insist," he said playfully and let go. I fell to the ground with a thump in an undignified heap, thankful that he was barely levitating. Bare feet only inches from the ground, it was like he hovered just to flaunt the fact that he could. I gritted my teeth, righting myself to a proper sitting position.
Aiming for the side of his kneecap-that was a weaker spot, right?-I swung my arm out in an angry arc. Rikyu shifted back ever so slightly. I missed and my momentum flung me forward, chin making contact with the ground.
So... embarrassing. I heard Rikyu chuckle. I kept my fingers crossed Kuwabara wouldn't judge me. After all, at least I wasn't hopelessly bound up like he was... yet. I thanked my lucky stars the others weren't here to see me make a fool of myself.
Recovering as quickly as I could, I scrambled to my feet. With a frustrated cry I lunged forward, mixing some kicks in with my punches. They didn't do anything. Why? Why!
"Gah!" I cried out in exasperation, really putting my back into it. Where was the light that had helped me drive him back before? It wasn't there! I couldn't even feel it anywhere inside me. I was just... plain... lightless... ineffective... weak.
"Come on!" I shouted, begging the light to appear with this last punch as I aimed for the center of his chest.
He caught my fist in a large hand, twisting my arm around as he used his hold to toss me away from him, finally returning to the offensive. I bounced across the concrete. Steadying myself with an arm, I pushed my body up, the growing feeling of helplessness holding me back, asking me what the point was in continuing on. Somehow I didn't feel as if I could move another step, though I wasn't particularly injured. I wanted to just bury my head in my hands, close my eyes, and give up... That was it!
I looked up from my position on the ground to see Rikyu a few feet in front and above me. "Damn. Well, alright. I give up," I stated simply, brushing dust off my sleeve in a nonchalant manner.
He quirked an eyebrow, eyes searching my face skeptically: "I don't trust you." But he floated closer nonetheless.
When he was directly in front of me I spoke up again. "Good. You shouldn't," I informed him. I pushed myself up off the ground with more strength than I had realized I possessed as I rammed into Rikyu, tackling him to the ground. Sitting on top of his bare chest, I used my own weight to pin him down.
My hands went around his neck, and his form shifted. "Whatever you did to Kuwabara, I want it undone right now!" I demanded to Dark Rikyu, whose disturbing yellow eyes were wide with surprise. His gruesome form nearly caused me to drop my hold and run far away... screaming.
I felt the guttural chuckle under my fingers more than I heard it. Despite my threats and my chokehold around his neck, he smiled, wide and sickly. His eyes took on a strangely excited look as he replied calmly: "That boy was trouble... so you see, I had to bind him up."
"I don't care about what you think you had to do! Just undo it already!" I shouted louder, trying to intensify my threat which, to my chagrin, wasn't working out as well as I'd hoped. This, too, backfired as I realized the sick bastard was enjoying himself more than ever.
A laugh bubbled up through his throat, and I tightened my grip menacingly. His laughter died down, but the cocky, condescending smile he wore didn't fade.
I ground my teeth together and growled out, "I'm warning you! You'd better let him go right now or I'll-"
I felt something slide up the outside of my thigh and froze, a stunned look on my face. His hand was on my leg. Why was his hand on my leg? His roaming appendage reached the top of my thigh and stopped. He squeezed, and I felt sharp nails dig into the tender flesh beneath them.
Yelping, I jumped up off of Dark Rikyu like he had just burned me. My legs trembled, knees wobbling in what I thought might be nervousness. But for some reason, I didn't feel nervous just now. Only mad. The anger manifested itself as it burst forth from my lungs loudly.
"This is a proper fight, dammit. Stop trying to feel me up! Just 'cause I'm a girl doesn't mean you don't have to take this seriously!" I shouted down at him, one hand clenched in a fist before me, the other gesturing severely at my side.
"I never take anything too seriously," he replied, cocking his head with a smirk as he rose effortlessly to hover again in the air.
He appeared before me, too close for comfort. "You need to loosen up," Rikyu informed me, gripping my covered biceps tightly as he pulled me toward him. There was a strange gleam in his eyes that I didn't particularly like.
Whatever he was about to do, I was sure he hadn't been listening to my demand to take this fight seriously.
Suddenly, I felt the light well up inside me as it poured out through my eyes. Fueled by rage and desperation, I brought my arms up to his chest and shoved him roughly away. He went, landing against one of the walls that formed a crater upon impact. The resulting rubble buried Rikyu completely.
That was strange. This time, no light had come out of my hands, but it seemed that the energy I felt build up inside me was enough to lend me some strength. I flexed my fingers experimentally, studying them.
The pile of broken concrete shifted and the dusky blue of Rikyu's long head of hair rose up from it. He cracked his neck, but was still grinning, much to my vexation.
It looked like this inner strength was enough to push him around, but it was nothing like the blast I had shot off at him to end our first meeting. At that time... there was real fear in his eyes. He hadn't been smiling.
But now, his laughing face caused mine to darken. Was there nothing I could do to ruin his cheerful mood? It was seriously getting on my nerves.
"Don't touch me again," I growled out, eyes flashing brightly for a brief instant, "Or I will remove your fingers one by one."
"Can't we work this out, love?" Rikyu replied smoothly, floating cross-legged up from the rubble.
"I don't know how you came by that delusion, but you'd better get it out of your head this instant... before I have to forcefully remove the thought," I glared at him and cracked my knuckles threateningly.
"I'd greatly enjoy... seeing you try," he purred, floating closer. His eyes narrowed, practically glowing with pleasure. I raised my fists in a guard position.
Footsteps. I heard the boys come running up before I saw them. Yusuke skidded around the corner, followed closely by Hiei and Kurama. The tight creases around my eyes that I hadn't noticed before melted from relief.
It was short-lived. Rikyu took advantage of my momentary distraction. He caught me with an arm snaking around my clothed waist. The emotions flashed across my guarded face: first surprise, then anger.
I didn't know what to do. Any attempts to push him away would be futile, I knew, and I didn't want to turn him to Dark Rikyu when he was only inches from me. That form was terrifying, haunting, and it lingered in my mind long after Rikyu himself was gone. Those yellow pits of eyes...
I shoved that thought away, unconsciously shrinking back from Rikyu.
His eyes roved over my features. "Kawaii..." his smile grew wider, more self-assured, "I think I might just take you with me. What would you say to that, Sleeper? I'm sure we could... resolve... our differences."
Rikyu leaned in, making a kissy face. I jerked my head back and smacked him, hard, raking my fingernails across his vulnerable cheek.
He leaned back, but after a ponderous moment-where he rubbed his hand over his cheek, examining it-he smiled condescendingly.
"And so the little kitten thinks to injure the lion with her claws," Rikyu shook his head amusedly, mockingly.
"Why you..." my fist shook in barely-contained rage.
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AN: For anyone who doesn't know, "kawaii" just means "cute" in Japanese. Sorry, I try to stick with English for the sake of different levels of understanding and good writing etiquette, but "cute" just sounded dumb when spoken by a dark and sinister enemy. You understand.
Oh yeah. One other thing. I posted a short drabble about the Forlorn Hope. I would really appreciate it if anyone read it and let me know what they thought. It was just a concept that popped into my head one day...
I still have a deviantart account where I will be posting some pictures of characters, etc... to go with this story. Check it out if you want. I'm theanonymouspen . deviantart . com (no spaces)
Thank you for reading :)
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