Lone Wolf
I stand alone…..
By Crystal Arrow
Disclaimer- You will notice that there are a lot of original characters in this story, along with the characters from Inuyasha. Please get it through you thick skull that I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters, but all of the original characters, which I am hoping you're able to discern on your own.
Chapter Six: The battle
The competition between Inuyasha and Kouga was finished as Kouga pounced before Aiko, swiping at her with his claws in a futile attempt to actually harm her. Aiko simply moved gracefully and effortlessly out of his way. Kouga roared out, "I don't care what you are, but I know you are part wolf! And no wolf will exist in my territory outside of my pack! Either submit to me or DIE!!!!"
Aiko giggled as she carelessly brushed her hair from her face. "You truly are a silly puppy! So let's play a game! I'll give you five minutes, should you be able to strike me, or even touch me within that time, you may do as you want with me, should that be to kill me or to merge me into your pack, but should you fail, I fight!"
"You stupid girl!!" Kouga yelled, "This is no GAME!!!" With that word he launched a ferocious attack that Inuyasha never could have dodged in order to save his own life of Kagome's. However, just as Kouga's claws were about to make contact with Aiko's seemingly delicate pale skin, she was gone. With his target gone, Kouga lost his balance and fell face first into the poor ground, creating a face shaped indent in the ground.
Whipping his head up, he looked around him, Aiko was nowhere in sight. A low growl escaped his throat as he desperately tried to keep his cool. He could tell that the girl was far too fast for him even with the Shikon shards in his legs. In order to beat her, he would have to outsmart her. He stopped searching and just stood there, waiting for her to make her move. "Thirty….thirty-one….thirty-two… you're wasting you time wolf, the rules are you find me, not I attack you. Seriously, you can't be that dimwitted. Half a minute has passed, you'd think with your superior speed you would at least be able to keep up!"
Well that idea failed miserable in a total of ten seconds. A new record. Time was wasting away, this girl was obviously faster than him, who knows how much stronger she is, she must be defeated before five minutes, or else he would to be the one defeated. Randomly choosing a direction, he launched himself into the air leaving a cloud of dust behind him. Faster than anybody could see, he pounced from tree to tree searching the insolent girl, Aiko. He began to hear whispering, but from where. It was Aiko, mocking him. "That's two minutes, Kouga, you're not getting any where, now are you?" the whispering continued like a fairy's breath on the wind. Counting his time in finding her second by second, "twelve…thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…sixteen…"
Try as he might, Kouga couldn't find her. He stopped on a tree branch to try and find her by sight once more. Nothing.
Sesshoumaru still waited patiently and quietly in the bushes, upwind of the clearing in which his worthless hanyou brother, Inuyasha searched in wonder for the girl. How stupid are these idiots? he asked of himself. It was obvious the girl was superior to the worthless and arrogant wolf. He is making a fool of himself.
Just then, Kouga stopped on a branch several feet above Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru watched on in his stoic way as Kouga tried to discern the whereabouts of the girl. I have to give the wolf some credit, he's standing upwind of the clearing, therefore he can smell anything in the clearing. Sesshoumaru's momentary praise of the wolf was demolished as the girl landed soundlessly behind the wolf. Obviously, the girl was wittier, smarter, and faster than the wolf. The girl stood behind Kouga, upwind of him so he couldn't smell her, and her presence hidden in the shadow behind him.
Sesshoumaru gazed silently at the girl who so arrogantly challenged the wolf's senses. For a girl of her age who was once human, she held the beauty and superiority of a high class and powerful demon. Long black hair cascaded behind her in ocean like waves, while her long bangs covered a pale-fleshed face. Pale green eyes glinted mischievously as she stood stock still behind the unsuspecting wolf. Sesshoumaru could barely make out the light blue streaks on either side of her delicate face, and her clan mark, a star cradled within a crescent moon, was almost completely hidden by midnight black bangs. But that was not all that made her beautiful, her body was also quite nice. Sesshoumaru was no hentai, but he knew a hot body when he saw it, and there was certainly a lot of it showing on this girl due to the fact that the majority of her stiff uniform had been destroyed. Mass amounts of pale smooth skin was visible through the scanty remains of her clothing, and with the wind factor, the clothes were very well pointless.
The girl seemed to notice his gaze as she glanced down at him. The playful smile disappeared from her face, leaving a stoic mask in its place, which glared down at the demon lord whom she has just right to call a pervert. Her gaze was cold, challenging his own cold stare in its coldness. With a small frown, the girl mouthed something to him, before turning her attentions back to the wolf. That which she had signed was, "I respect you, you respect me, honor that and keep your eyes to yourself!"
Sesshoumaru was slightly taken aback by the girl's sharpness, especially given that since her clothes were so torn up, what else was he to look to. Apparently this arrogant girl thought that this great demon lord would respectfully revert his gaze from her indisposed self, she was apparently wrong, However, before Sesshoumaru could reply to the girl, she turned away from him, regained her cool and calmly leaned closer to Kouga.
"You're loosing time, wolf, only two minutes left." Aiko whispered into the unsuspecting wolf's ear. He jumped away to a nearby branch growling viciously. Aiko, finding herself in control of the battle at hand, calmed slightly from her prior discomfort from the yokai lord's penetrating gaze. Aiko knew her clothes were pretty well torn up, but the yokai made her feel as though she wore absolutely nothing at all, which for her, was an extremely unsettling thought. How dare that cocky son of a bitch just stare at me like that!! Why, I should have dropped the fight just to beat a lesson into that pompous head of his! I knew I should have left these weaklings and gotten some decent clothing, how could I have been so stupid?! I mean, I rarely ever even dressed in a normal bathing suit because I hated the way guys always stared at me, I should have known better than to go jumping about in this!!!
To Kouga, Aiko appeared as cool and collected as when the fight began, but with her now in his smell range, he could smell her discomfort. "What's wrong puppy girl? Getting worried? Don't worry, I wouldn't kill you." He sneered.
"Don't be so full of yourself, stupid mutt." Aiko snarled, "I wouldn't be scared of you even if you had come close to catching me in the first minute. Now you have but a minute or so more as time ticks buy. I suggest you don't waste you time trying to frighten me!"
Just as Aiko finished her sentence, Kouga charged at her, his technique changed from his former violent one to a quick and cold one. Before Aiko could catch a breath, Kouga was before her, preparing to strike her down at last. Shocked at first, Aiko jumped back just in time to avoid his full forced blow to her face. Though the punch didn't land on her, the aftershock sent her reeling back to the clearing where she landed gracefully…on her tailed rear end. A thin cloud of dust and torn grass blades rose in a poof around her. Kouga penetrated the translucent cloud effortlessly and aimed a kick at Aiko's head. The young demon ducked beneath the wolf's leg and rolled between the spectators, Inuyasha and company, where she was greeted by yet another well aimed kick to her delicate face, which she dodged once again.
One would to think Aiko was now actually trying to escape Kouga's wrath. In fact, Aiko wasn't thinking about Kouga or the fight at all, but of Sesshoumaru. Why that big headed ass! He's still there. Who does he think he is, lord of all the western lands?!(hint hint: irony!) I can't believe he would just stare at me like that, that disrespectful little shit! Yes, she was still mad over that. In fact, she was so upset over Sesshoumaru, that she continued to mindlessly dodge Kouga for another two minutes when Kagome, who had been timing the battle on her stop watch yelled out to her, "Um, that's eight minutes, you do know that right?"
Aiko snapped out of her violent little dream world and stared at Kagome as Kouga's latest punch flew straight past her head. "Well what do you know," Aiko giggled. "I gave you three extra minutes, times up!" Kouga had not even recovered from his last blow when Aiko's knee lodged itself rather firmly in his solar plexus. The proud wolf doubled over in pain, lowering his head, which would normally have been just an inch out of her kicking range to just the right level for Aiko to kick him clear into the next island of Japan. The kick connected with Kouga's already pain distorted face and sent him flying through the air straight into the nearest tree, which was about five feet away. The poor tree doubled over and cracked upon impact, allowing Kouga hard passage to do the same to the following three trees before he lost his former velocity and hit the fifth tree and slid slowly to the ground, cute little stars dancing before his dazed eyes. "Ohmigosh, I'm so sorry!" Aiko cried as she ran forward to inspect the damage she inflicted upon the trees. Inuyasha and co. fell over as Aiko talked to the damaged trees apologetically, completely ignoring the fallen wolf.
As Aiko blushed cutely at the destruction she caused from only two kicks, Sesshoumaru, nodded approvingly and stored the girl's scent into his memory for later reference. He rose from his place in the shadows behind the bushes and silently left the clearing, unnoticed by even the young demoness who had absolutely no idea what Sesshoumaru looked like in the light, his strengths or weaknesses, or even his scent by which to identify him.
"Heh heh…woops." Aiko stuttered.
" 'WOOPS??'" Inuyasha yelled, "You say 'woops' to that?"
"I'd say 'nice.'" Sango commented.
"Yes, and I say 'will you bear my child?'" Miroku asked as he took Aiko's hand in his. To this, Aiko blanched out as Sango dealt Miroku a knock out blow to the back of the head with her boomerang bone.
"….., Um, well, yeah…" Kagome stumbled for words. Finally she just stopped and asked, "Would you like to travel with us?"
"WHAT?" Inuyasha roared. "There's no way in hell I'm letting some odd freak like her join our group. Who gave you that authority anyway?"
With that, Inuyasha and Kagome launched into a heated argument, into which Sango did not join or try to stop. Aiko smiled and shook her head sadly as she turned to leave unnoticed by the quarrelling band of shard hunters. However one cute little kitsune bounced in her path, and asked innocently why Aiko would not join them.
Aiko smiled, " That my young fox is because Kagome would try to take me home with her, back to the future. I can't take the pain of going back there and having made clear to me again that I don't belong. I must go, perhaps we'll meet again." With that said, Aiko knelt down before Shippo and kissed him on the forehead, and gently ruffled his hair. Aiko rose, and this time succeeded in disappearing from the clearing for good.
As she walked alone down the warm forest paths, she cried silent tears. In this world she had nothing, not even decent clothes. Aiko had no home and no friends, save for the strange band of demons and humans she left behind, for the pain she felt may come should she stay among them. "I said it myself," Aiko whispered to herself, "I stand alone, I think I just jinxed myself."
Author's note:
Yeah, I know, it's taken forever fro me to get this chapter up. I alternate between stories, and I haven't had the time to write, don't expect new chapters soon, but I'll try to update as much as possible (which isn't much….- _ -,) Please review, it motivates me to write faster, which is good unless you hate my writing so much you'd prefer I just quit. :'(
~Crystal Arrow