Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Temple

Things hadn't yet healed up between Yuki and Kazuhiko. It seemed as if the demon wanted his space away from the girl ever since she had admitted that she suspected him of possibly aiding Naraku. It wasn't hard for her to think this either. Kazuhiko's character was still very unclear to Yuki, now more than ever. She would often catch him looking off into the distance in a trance like state, so serious looking with his eyebrows narrowed in deep concentration on his thoughts. Who knew what was going on in his head?

"Yoita!" Ichiro sighed one day as they continued on, "How much farther is it? I'm becoming impatient!"

"Not much farther," he replied simply.

"Yoita," Yuki addressed as she looked over at him, "How is it that you know where the Fire Temple is when I don't?"

"Oh… a family map," Yoita answered as he returned Yuki's glance, "I come from a line of Miyamota Guardians. It is our job to protect a Miyamota until they have learned to master their element and defend themselves properly."

"I see…" Yuki nodded, "So, I'm guessing that you never went into the business?"

"Right."

"Why not?"

The man stopped in his tracks, his dull brown eyes staring down at the ground as his mouth arched into a frown. "I wasn't strong enough," he answered, "No matter how much I trained, I was only human, unlike a lot of my family."

"But you seem very strong now," Yuki pointed out, trying to comfort his loss, "Why don't you become a Guardian now?"

Then, Yoita looked up at her and attempted a smile, though his eyes seemed as if they were about to start crying in that moment. He didn't, however. Instead he simply answered, "It's too late for me now."

Finally noticing that he had stopped the entire party, Yoita continued on, going to the head of the group and taking the lead so that his back was to everyone. Now, Yuki stood beside Ichiro as Kazuhiko traveled above the others, jumping from tree to tree and keeping an eye out for any oncoming trouble. But now Yuki was curious about Yoita's comments. Of course she didn't ask for any more information from him because it was obviously a sensitive area… so she asked Ichiro instead.

"What does he mean that it's too late for him?" Yuki interrogated in a silent whisper so that Yoita wouldn't hear, "Is there an age limit for Guardians."

"No," Ichiro replied, "In fact, my Guardian was physically well into his forties when I first met him. I'm not sure why it would be too late for our friend… then again… I haven't seen him in ten years so a lot might have happened. But he was closer to Kazu than he was to me. Maybe he knows why."

And so the subject was closed. Yuki would have to wait to talk to Kazuhiko though; he still needed a bit more time to stop his pouting.

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"There it is!" Yoita pointed up a long stone stairway built on the base of a lone mountain, "The Fire Temple."

"Okay then," Yuki smiled, relieved that the journey was almost at its end, "Let's go!"

And so they began on their way, taking each step towards the top that were only interrupted by several platforms. But the party was only halfway up when Yuki began to feel tired and stopped momentarily to look behind her at her progress. For some reason, the staircase had seemed much shorter from the bottom. But Yuki didn't want to show her lack of energy though, so she persisted, not wanting to start whining about it.

Luckily, they managed to reach the Temple, its large doors closed to them. "So is there a doorbell or something?" Yuki questioned, knowing that a simple knock on the door or an intrusion would not suffice.

"Not really," Kazuhiko replied, as he approached the protective wall of the Temple where a half ovular orb was inlaid there, containing a small fire that seemed to be feeding on nothing, "Yuki, come and feed this fire."

"Excuse me?" Yuki asked as went to his side in front of the flicker of flame, "How do I do that?"

"Here," he said as he took Yuki's hand and placed them on the glass, "Give it power."

"Okay, I got that part," she replied, becoming irritated, "But HOW?"

"I don't know how Fire works," Kazuhiko defended, "I am the farthest thing from Fire that there can be… just… try and strengthen it."

At first, Yuk could only stare at Kazuhiko with a knit brow, but then she only turned to the orb containing the fire and tried to configure on how to carry out the orders given to her. So, Yuki delved deep into her heart, trying to transfer some of her nurturing thoughts into the lick of flame. "Hey… you're doing it," Yoita told her, a smile in his voice.

"It's not big enough though," Kazuhiko added, "It's only a simple fire… you have to make it a blaze."

So Yuki nodded in understanding and tried focusing on the flame, nurturing it and strengthening it… but it would not grow beyond that warm flower of red, orange, and yellow. It seemed as if she just couldn't do it… 'Stop concentrating so hard,' a voice in the back of her mind told her, 'Let the power come bursting out of you. Force the fire to take it.'

Yuki wasn't quite sure what this meant though. Force the fire to take power? Let the power come bursting out? What did any of that mean? 'Don't doubt,' the unfamiliar voice tutored her, 'Just do."

And that was exactly what Yuki did. She dug once again into her heart as she began to feel the power that it held within it. There it was… so, she tensed her muscles, preparing herself for the surge of energy she was about to release. Then, she forced it out of her heart, into her arms and to the fire…. It was set into a blazing inferno, luckily only to be contained by the orb.

In surprise at the burst, Yuki jumped back and took her hands off of the glass while the doors to her right slowly began to open by themselves. "For someone who's never had a lesson you got that really quickly…" Ichiro commented, his eyes open with surprise as Kazuhiko and Yoita began to make their way into the Temple.

Giving no response to Ichiro's comment, Yuki followed the other two inside, only to find a long pathway with a middle aged man at the other end, heading towards the group. It was as he came closer to the others that Yuki was able to get a good look at him.

Of course he had the Miyamota purple eyes, his unique characteristic being that they seemed very mature and serious. He wore the robes of a monk in the colors of red and orange. But unlike an normal monk, his head was not shaved. Instead, his hair was rather well kept as he had put it back in a low ponytail that reached his shoulder blades. "I see that you have finally come…" he commented as he looked directly at Yuki, "But why have you brought so many with you?"

"They are my escorts," she explained.

"Escorts?" the man repeated, "Not Guardians?"

"Not exactly…" Yuki replied.

"Well, not anyone can come here," he explained as he looked at the others, "Only other Miyamotas and Guardians."

"Oh, well these two are Miyamotas," Yuki explained gesturing to the brothers, then to Yoita as she explained, "And he comes from a family of Guardians… does that count?"

The monkish man examined each of the boys individually, looking them up and down as he searched for reasons for approval. "The 'Guardian' may stay… the one with the strange eyes can also stay…. But the Ice Miyamota has to leave," he finally told them, "He is not welcome here. He is the enemy."

"But he's not!" Yuki protested suddenly, defending him without thinking, "I think that we get along quite well actually."

"That doesn't matter. We Miyamotas are not allowed to linger in places that we do not belong."

"Then if he cannot remain as a Miyamota, you will surely let him stay as a Guardian, right?"

"What?" Ichiro let slip, surprised at this turn of events.

But Yuki ignored him and turned to Kazuhiko and asked, "You wouldn't mind, would you?"

The ice demon could only stand and stare at Yuki in disbelief of what she was proposing. Then he smiled, signaling Yuki that they were on good terms with each other again. "Of course not," he replied, "I would be honored."

And so Yuki turned to the man and raised her eyebrows in expectation. For a moment, the Fire elder seemed very frustrated with how Yuki was able to find her way around the rules, but he said nothing. Instead, he nodded. "Welcome… all of you," he greeted at last, "My name is Fumio. I will be your instructor."

"My name is Yuki," she returned as she bent into a respectful bow, "This is Kazuhiko, Ichiro, and Yoita."

"Follow me," Fumio ordered as he turned and began to walk back down the gravel pathway, "You have much to learn so I think that you should get settled as soon as possible so that we may begin."