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... Gleam ~ Darkness of Light ...

Chapter IV: You ...

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"Well?" Jin continued to pursue when I did not answer his question.

Under the surface, I was drowing in the sea of deceit I had clouded

myself in, scraping for a way out.

I thought it seemed as though Rinku was suffering the same sort of

fate I was at this point though. It was obvious that he wished he had

swallowed his words instead of letting them fall from his lips, when

obviously it wasn't the case.

"Naa! Touya! Ya mean you're gonna be my partner?!" He cried, and

put his face down closer to mine. The hip of his gleaming white horn

tapped my forehead. He wore that impish grin still, and one of his eye

teeth protruded.

The tamer of the Devil Yo-yo stepped in to be my saviour. "No! Mine!"

I blinked. "Touya told me I could be his partner so he could teach me

something I wanted to learn of his!" Jin pulled back away from me, I

sucked in the breath I had forgotten to take all this while. I had to

remind myself that I needed air to live, and could not just survive on the

intoxication of Jin.

Rinku just kept on going though, "Then! When we.. were out on the

walk, yeah, he said that he'd tell you, and he thought you'd beat him

up for it! So.. when.. when we came in, I thought you were killing Touya,

Jin!"

Shishiwakamaru stifled a chuckle, and Suzuki threw him a warning glance.

Seems it was Genkai's turn to save the day though. she slide the door

open, then slammed it, looking up at the lot of us. I just stared at her

blinking.

"Training begins today," she said cooly, "We will begin at the other side

of the moutain. You had better be there. Fast." then she left as abruptly

as she had come.

Regretablly, at that point Jin got up and walked over to the remaints of

my poor shirt. "Maa.. Sorry Touya," he said in a dejected tone. "It was

just burning and it happened so fast ... I'll fix it." He picked up all of the

rags and held them in a bundle, then left them room with his head bowed.

Rinku came up behind me. Still I had not said anything, and still I knew

not what to say. "Touya, wear this shirt for training," he offered a skimpy

wife beater. "It's a little big on me, but it should do just for this while."

Suzuki came up as well. They were forever going to be my close allies in

this little adventure it seemed. The blonde lifted me to my feet, brushed

me off and looked me over, then nodded to himself. "Well, no doubt that

you're going to have to co-ordinate with Rinku's dirty rag- I mean the

shirt he's lending you. I have some black sweat pants that will match."

When I heard that, I thought he wanted to tell me something in private.

Though when we exited the room, he was actually serious. "I want you

to look pretty," he grinned, then left me to change.

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We all piled around one another. All of us out of our usual wear. I felt a

little uncomfortable in these clothes though. They weren't the fine silky

material I was used to. Stupidly, I felt ugly in them, wanting Jin to see

me in more flattering clothes.

Not surprisingly, Rinku's shirt wasn't really too small on me. Really, I was

shorter then I always tried to make myself out to be.

Jin hadn't looked my way once since our little endeavour. Maybe..

maybe he hated having been that close to me.

Kurama entered with Genkai.

Chuu grinned merrily and felxed his biceps. "Wait until they see this!"

He laughed, then at the flip of a coin grew serious. "It's been a long time

since we had a serious fight."

Rinku was pearched on his shoulder. He sucked in a deep breath through

his nose and looked satisifed. "We're gonna be a lot stronger now though!"

Jin stood near the two of them. "Just got to work harder and then ... "

he trailed off.

I nodded, enthusiastic to hear Jin's voice again. "I'm eager to fight

again."

Suzuki leaned on Shishiwakamaru's shoulder. "We're going to give it our

all this time, that's for sure."

The lavender haired warrior scoffed. "Don't work too hard you may pull

something Suzuki."

Kurama looked pleased himself. "To restore the balance between

Ningenkai and Reikai!"

Everyone was enthralled in the thought now. "Right!" we call cried,

and teamed up.

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Kick, kick, punch, punch, block that, counter this. It went on like this

for sometime. Though, I learned well enough not to judge by size.

Rinku was a force to be reckoned with. Jin had paired up with Chuu.

I stole a glance at him, and saw him come alive. Jin lived for a

challenging fight. I suppose that was like his.. light. His already enticing

eyes took on an enchanting glow, and I was lost too long in them..

Ouff.

Rinku had landed a kick in my jaw. I caught a smirk on the boy's face

as if he was trying to teach me a lesson in discipline when it came to

staring at Jin. I grinned in return, not really sure what I felt at this point.

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We were instructed to go outside for what we thought would be a break

from all the work. No one complained though, as far as I knew we were

all enjoying being able to exercise to what was almost our full potential.

It wasn't a exactly the right kind of break we were outside for though.

Chuu was taken ahead to a break in the moutains by Genkai, given a

bottle of sake, and ruthlessly pushed by her off of the edge.

"Chuu!" Rinku yelled, running to the ledge.

Genkai laughed.

We all rushed over. Chuu was standing on a tight rope, drinking. When

he had had a sufficent amount out of the bottle, he laughed, gained

the right footing, and set about corssing the rope. He wasn't amused

halfway through this. "Bad enough I have to play ballerina!" he yelled,

"But drunk?!"

All of us watched from the side, when all of a sudden, he lost his footing

completely, cursed and began his plummet to the rocks below. His scream

didn't last though, as it turned to that familiar laughter again and there was

a great commotion of rocks being broken as he landed safetly.

Rinku was next. He was in the middle of a similar break in the mountains,

though he stood on what could be considered a pedestal.

"DEVIL YO-YO! FULL POWER!" He yelled, as he sent reeling four at a time,

then five from the other hand, crushing the mountain around him. Five from

the right foot, five from the left.

He stopped, breathing heavily. Then he looked up at the lot of us, showing

the cervace between his right thumb and index finger.

"I still have one left over!" he cried.

The attack was impressive though.

I couldn't tell ig Kurama was pleased. He stood off to himself with an odd

look on his face. It seemed a look I had not encountered when it came to

him before. It puzzled me, and he turned away. I wanted to talk to him,

see what had made him so different this past while, but Genkai's words

proved to have another purpose.

"Don't think it's all done yet! You need more training! In order to survive

in the Makai, you're going to need a lot mroe then just fancy drinks

and toys!"

We all looked to one another, though Jin still wouldn't meet my eyes.

I hated my eyes anyway. Cold, steely.. Too small and beady.

He probably hated them as well..

"Right!" The group called again, this time without me. We all took off

into the air though, for tomorrow we would be in the presence of Yomi,

having to prove ourselves.

And be damned if any of us were going to look the fool in front of him.