Catse: Here's chappie numbah five! I hope you all like it. If you're wondering why I named the story Dance of Swords, you'll find out soon. It's a part of the story. Enjoy! (
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Disclaimer: No...not today...darn I wish I did...but I don't...puts on a sad face
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Hiei couldn't believe it!
He had made a friend with a girl...and not only that but a human!
He just couldn't believe himself.
Never had he allowed anyone so close before...and here he was sharing conversations with a human girl that seemed to know how he thought and functioned.
She was just so easy to be friends with!
It was a Thursday, so Kuwabara, Yusuke, and Kurama were off at school, and Botan was busy finding missing souls.
Hiei was intent on talking with Suta again, perhaps to ask her something about where she was born and how she had grown up.
Anything to keep him busy of boredom.
He was surprised to find her missing from her room.
But...where did she go?
He looked around the room, searching the closet and under the bed to no avail.
Where had she gone?
Hiei only just happened to notice the folded piece of paper on the table next to the bed before he jumped out the window.
I'm at the Flaming Swords Dojo near my house. Come on over and you might be able to learn some new moves. See yah!
Suta
Hiei read the note over once more, and then jumped from the window, leaving it on the table where he had found it.
It didn't take him long to find the Flaming Swords Dojo, for it was only a block from Suta's home in Tokyo.
Upon walking inside, he was surprised by the loud sound of music booming from one of the training rooms.
He looked through the glass window that showed the room and was completely stunned.
There were about ten or fifteen students with in, both male and female of all ages, each holding two wooden swords.
They all seemed to be dancing to the music, slicing around with their wooden weapons as if they were pretending to hit something.
At the very front of the class, was Suta herself, holding two wooden swords as she showed them move for move during the song.
He couldn't believe it!
Suta was a sensei and she was teaching students to use the sword, although it was in an odd way.
They swung their swords slowly, taking graceful positions to go along with the song, and then around the time that the base began to beat, they would clash their swords above their heads and continue with the dance.
When the music finished, Suta commended them on their good work, and then walked to the door, only to find Hiei on the other side.
"Oh Hiei. You're here! I'm glad!"
"You never told me that you taught a class at a dojo." He replied, looking confused.
"Oh, sorry."
"What do you do in there anyway?"
"It's an old art called Sword Dancing. It involves the balance, hand-eye coordination, and skill of the dancer with the sword."
"What good is it?"
"A lot of good! It's not as easy as it looks."
"What do you mean? It doesn't look difficult."
"But it is!" Suta replied indignantly. "Sword Dancing requires many things. You must know the exact weight and length of the sword for one, and then there is the fact that you have to keep her attention on the sword as you move. You have to work with the music and have perfect balance and fluency. Would you like to see the way it looks once the performer has mastered it?" she asked, looking excited.
"I guess so. Does the dance involve wooden swords?" He was just curious whether they used real ones or fake ones like when they practiced.
"No. We use real swords for the finished dance. Come in, please!" She ushered him into the room and closed the door behind him.
Every one there stared at Hiei for a moment, looking confused.
"Students, this is my friend Hiei. He has come to see a performance, so that he knows what we've been working for. I want all third year and fourth year students to collect your swords. Everyone else stand against to wall and watch what you'll look like when you have mastered the sword art."
Six of the students stepped forward and walked into another room at the side, only to each return with two fine sheathed swords.
The other students did as they were told and stood against the wall, looking rather excited.
Hiei guessed they were new students and had not yet seen a full dance carried out.
"Okay, we're going to do routine number nine. Everyone ready?" Suta asked as she set a new CD into the player.
"Yes Sensei!"
A song started up, a beautiful one with the soft singing of a woman to start it off to the soft sound of guitar in the background.
Instantly, the six students and their sensei Suta took the same position, where they were crouching with their blades, unsheathed, entwined before them in an X.
Their eyes were closed and their heads hung over the blades, as if asleep.
As the music deepened, the group began to move, slowly but in sync with the others.
They brought their swords apart and out and stretched them out as if they were birds, their eyes still closed and their heads tilted back, but they had yet to stand.
Then suddenly the soft play of music burst into a long but fast melody, with the woman's singing in the foreground and the strong hum of flutes, guitars, and drums in the background.
The seven moved with the music, clashing their swords over their heads at every certain drum beat, and then dancing about, with their feet moving gracefully and their heads turning towards the direction they moved.
Then, partially through the song, there was a strong drone of a piano solo, and the group slowed down again, with their heads once more bowed.
Then, just as earlier, the music grew faster, but more into the way of inspiration or strength.
That was the only way Hiei could describe the way the music slowed and sped up again and again.
When the dance was almost finished, the group began to slow down, but only a little by a little, and upon the last few beats and words, they retook their positions from where they had started, and paused, allowing the music to end.
The other students clapped enthusiastically, as their peers stood up and replaced their swords in their sheaths, and back in the room they had pulled them from.
Suta rose, huffing from the exercise and smiled.
"What did you think?" She asked, placing her swords in the corner of the room.
Hiei was speechless.
The dance had been so...so breath taking...
"Hello...you still living?" She asked, looking rather agitated.
"Hn." Hiei replied instinctively.
"Did you even hear my question?"
"It looked good." Hiei replied, blushing.
"Ooh! Sensei's got a boyfriend!" The girls in the back chorused, giggling.
Suta immediately turned on them.
"Hey! I do not! He's a really good friend of mine!"
"Right sensei." One of them replied sarcastically. "And we're all boys!"
"Hey! Some of us are boys!"
"Yeah but you act like girls!" Giggles behind Suta erupted.
"What...?" the boys replied, blushing. "We do not!"
They would have continued, except that Suta would have no arguing in her Dojo:
"Okay everyone! Times up! I'll see you all next Thursday at the same time." She bowed to them politely. "Ja Ne!"
"Ja Ne sensei!" The others replied, leaving the room in a fit of giggles.
Hiei could hear them talk excitedly about the class they had just attended, and how they couldn't wait for the next.
Something about always finding something funny at the Flaming Swords Dojo.
"What was that all about?" Hiei asked, watching them leave.
He only just noticed that there was one girl that hadn't left yet.
"Sensei?" she beckoned, standing timidly before her teacher.
"Yes Suki?" The little girl bowed her head shyly.
"Sensei, could you teach me how to fight with a sword?"
"Why would you want to know how?"
"...um...Can you keep a secret?"
"Certainly, what is it?" Suta replied, leading the little girl towards the door.
"I have...problems. I've got bullies at school that are always trying to hurt me...and my father's mean..."
"I see...those are quite the problems. Listen, how about you take one of the wooden katana's home with you. You know the dance technique I've been showing you and your peers this month."
The girl called Suki nodded.
"Well, if anyone tries to hurt you, you just use what you learned in class. Shift your feet so they can't hit you, swing your sword to stop their attacks, and then do that jab move I taught you last week to knock them out. But know this, don't you ever use it to become a bully yourself, understand Suki?"
Suki nodded again, her mouth wide in awe at the instructions her sensei gave her.
"Remember this Suki. No matter how good you are, there is always someone better. Now get yourself home. I'll see you next Thursday, but if you have a need to talk, this is the phone number of where I'm staying. Good day Suki."
Suki nodded and bowed.
"Good day and thank you sensei."
Once Suki had left, Hiei confronted Suta about what had just transpired.
He had heard the conversation, but he had never heard of the abuse of one human to the next.
"She has an abusive father and some mean class mates. Many of the students that come to my Dojo do. They don't have to pay anything to enter for classes, and all of the katana's they use are the ones I bought a long time ago." Hiei nodded. "Would you like to learn Hiei?"
That had caught him off guard.
She wanted to teach him...how to dance...
"I'm not into dancing." He replied, glaring at the floor.
"This isn't really dancing Hiei." She replied. "Why do you think so many abused children come to me for help? I teach them what appears to be dance techniques for show, but once learned, they come in handy. It helps the children to use a sword, because they master holding it and moving with it with dances. The better they get, the faster. The more they know, the more they are able to do. The techniques could prove useful to you later Hiei, so how about it?"
Hiei thought about it a moment.
He was no where near being a master of his sword...but he didn't sit too well with looking like a fool as he tried to work with the sword.
Finally, after much contemplation, he nodded.
"Okay! Here." She handed him two wooden katanas.
"What the—?"
"Sorry Hiei, but all of my students must prove to me that they have mastered the wooden katana's before using the real thing. Okay, I'm going to put some music on and I want you practice swinging those swords around your body."
She turned up the music, something in another language, and coached him through the song, teaching him how to work with the music with a certain rhythm, and how to hold the sword so as not to hurt himself.
Hiei was surprised by how little he actually did know about the use of the sword, yet, she complimented him on his experience with swinging it.
If it hadn't been for his sword, he would have been killed many years ago.
Over his life, he had learned to use the sword on his own, mastering it for the use of survival and survival alone.
Now he was learning to use it better so that he could use it better in the future.
Around the end of the song, Suta fixed a few problems he had with stance and the grip of the handle, and then she played another song.
With that one, she again fixed his stances and movements. By the time the night had crawled in, Hiei had mastered almost every aspect of holding the sword.
"Come on, let's head home. You did really well today Hiei. I was impressed."
She commented as he opened the portal for them to return to the Spirit World.
"Hn." He replied, although he took the compliment to heart.
"If you like, I can teach you every afternoon. After all, I have nothing better to do, and I'm sure you don't either."
"Suta?" Hiei requested, waiting for her to glance at him. He was going to ask something that had been bothering him for a while. "How do you know how to use a sword so well?"
Suta was silent for a moment, and Hiei wondered if she would answer at all.
Finally, with a sigh, she answered his question:
"My mother was a master of the sword. Sword dancing was always in our family and her mother had taught her when she was little. It was only natural that she teach me. The Flaming Sword Dojo was originally bought and founded by my mother in the first place, and she taught many students the art. I learned from her, but I could never be as good as she was. She could move so fast that not even demons could read her moves, and she knew so many techniques that no one could out match her in a sword fight. She was the expert. I was supposed to take after her, but she died too soon, and so I wasn't given the chance to fully master the technique. You see, dance techniques range in numbers from one to thirteen. One to five are easy beginner songs, like what I played for you at the Dojo. Six to Ten are mastered songs, for those that are good enough to move at the fast rate of the music itself. That's what I had the girls and I dance to when we were showing you how a full dance looks. But eleven to thirteen are expert moves, run so fast and dangerous that someone who isn't the expert would end up cutting something off by accident in their haste to keep up. My mother could do those easily. She was that good. I've tried, but I can only make it half way through the song. Then, after that, I'm either too tired to finish, or I've started bleeding somewhere that my sword accidentally cut. I just guess I'm not good enough yet. But I will be, even if I have to practice all the time!"
Hiei stared at her in curiousity and interest.
She was one of the humans that worked so hard to live, even if it meant their misery.
She was strong...most definitely strong...
"Why was it called the Flaming Swords Dojo? Couldn't it have been called the Dancing Swords Dojo?"
"Well...my mother was an expert at the dancing part, but she also had mastered the art of dancing with flaming swords. A flaming sword is more dangerous than a usual sword. You have to work with it a little farther than with a regular sword, for if you're not careful, you could burn yourself. Plus, in order to get a sword to flame, it must be coated in oil, and so the oil is constantly dripping off on you when it's on fire."
Hiei took in the information with interest.
Flaming sword...?
One time he had had the Dragon of the Dark Flame (I think that's right) take over his sword and he used it to kill an opponent, but this fire sounded a little more risky...a little more dangerous.
He wanted to do that with his sword someday...!
"Hiei?"
"Hn?"
"Why do you always wear that bandana all the time? Doesn't your forehead get sweaty?" Hiei had nearly forgotten about the slip of cloth he kept over his Jagan eye, and he didn't know whether he should tell her or not.
Well...he could lie...but how would that help him later if she found out about his third eye...
No...better just be honest...
He pulled the bandana off and revealed his Jagan, expecting her to be disgusted or revolted.
He was surprised when she sighed with a smile.
"Okay...I thought you were hiding something really bad behind that bandana..."
"You aren't disgusted with it?"
"No. Why should I be? You are a demon so it's only natural that you have something different from the regular human. I just thought it would be a mouth or something on your forehead, looking to take bite of flesh or something."
She giggled, and Hiei found himself smiling his relief.
He was glad she wasn't frightened by the eye, but in any case, he figured he would keep the eye covered.
He didn't really like showing it off, and the only reason he had gotten it was for his own survival.
It was rather painful to get it implanted too.
"Well...I guess it's getting late. Good night Hiei."
He knew how to reply now!
"Good night...Suta."
"Hey!" she replied, smiling.
"What?"
"That's the third time I've heard you say my name. A few more and I might have actually broken the shell around you to make us best buddies."
She walked into the palace with a giggle, leaving Hiei to his thoughts.
This was a weird human indeed.
She wasn't afraid of the Jagan, had nothing against his heritage, and, to top it off, she was almost a master with a sword.
He didn't think there was anything alive with all that rolled into one.
Hiei jumped into the tree next to the window and got comfortable.
He was going to watch her room, and keep her safe...
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Catse: What do you think? Do like the idea of Suta knowing how to use a sword? I had come out with the idea, but I couldn't find any real good information for the sword dancing, so I came up with my own. I think the explanation came out pretty well. Now you know why her mother's name means fire right? Well, now you know why I named the story the way I did. I hope you enjoy the story, and the next update will be soon if I can't do it now. (I'm always being called off to do something else when I'm working on something) Ja Ne!