(A Memory From Takashi)
"Oh my God, I am so sorry!" came a voice.
Takashi gave a groan of pain. His head felt like it was split open. His hands slowly felt over the surface of his head. He counted the bumps, 1, 2, 3...4? He only remembered three...wait a minute. He slowly raised his eyelids to see a beautiful face. Wonderful brown eyes, long black hair, was this an angel?
"Am I...dead?" he asked slowly.
"No," she answered. "But I accidentally knocked you out cold with the magic of my blade."
She gave a weak smile and offered a hand to help him up. He took it, stood up and then collapsed again. He rested his back on the on the tree rubbing his sore head. The girl briefly left and then returned with a flask of cold water from the nearby stream. She dowsed her blindfold with the water and placed it on his head, then gave him a drink. After that he felt much better.
"You must not be a very good swordsman if you have to use a kendo stick," said the girl after a while.
Takashi slumped at the remark. The girl then quickly apologized and went back at examining the bumps on Takashi's head.
"Why do you come here, to the tree, to train?" asked Takashi.
"It's calming," she said. "I like the solitude away from the village."
They sat there for a long moment before they did anything. Then Takashi decided that he'd try to stand. He stumbled to his feet and the girl was there helping him up by the shoulder.
"Thanks," said Takashi.
"No problem," she replied smiling. "By the way," she said. "Will you be going to the village tournament in two weeks?"
Takashi briefly remembered his sensei, Seto, telling him that if he did not work hard enough that he wouldn't be able to go to the tournament. He looked down at his shoes then looked up with a smile.
"Of course," he lied. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Great!" she said. Then she started walking back to the village.
"Wait!" called Takashi, causing his head to throb. "I didn't get you name! Mine's Takashi!"
"Well Takashi," called back the girl. "Mine's Motoko!" and she quickly sprinted back to the village.
"Oh god, how did I get myself into this!?!" he cried. Then he turned his head to the left where he found, coincidentally, his sensei!
"Hey!" he cried. "What would it take me to get into the village tournament?"
Seto was perplexed at this question. Was Takashi actually going to work hard and pay attention now?
"First, you'd need to be able to wield an actual sword," he said. "But before that you'd need to be able to hit me once with that." pointing to the kendo stick.
"Okay," said Takashi
He picked up the kendo stick and struck at Seto. Seto swiftly pulled out his sword with the scabbard still on and blocked the shot. One week whirled by and Takashi was able to hit Seto and get real sword. Then another week blew by and he was able to pass most of Seto's training exercises and train himself. Then the say of the tournament came in a flash. He made it through the preliminaries up to the last two sparring groups. Then he faced her. She was looking quite professional up to the point where their eyes met. A great big smile appeared on both of their faces as they walked up to each other in the center of the arena. The referee stated the rules: first to draw blood wins, do not try to seriously hurt your opponent, no hitting below the belt, and the winner will be declared by either the referee or the judges.
They put their hands onto the handle of their blades and slowly put themselves in a slightly crouched position. Their faces were dead serious now, their body ready to spring into action as soon as the bell rang.
"Hey," said Takashi. "Let's make a wager. If I win we go on a date."
Motoko thought for a moment.
"Sure," she agreed. "But what do I get if I win?"
"Whatever you want." said Takashi.
"BING!" went the bell.
The match ended before it started. She stuck at him missing him by inches but the damage was done. He felt a wave of nausea and dizziness wash over him. He lost control of his body and slowly sank to the floor with the world swirling around him.
Kagura and Kanna meet Takashi
Sango was kneeling over Takashi's patched-up body. He'd been like this for the whole night and half the day it, seemed like Kagome's medicine wasn't as affective as they thought it would be. Suddenly, Takashi stirred from his bed; he looked up at Sango and raised a hand to her cheek.
"I remember this face now," he said smiling a little then struggled to get up.
"You shouldn't get up," cautioned Sango. "You took a really bad fall and got cuts all over yourself."
"These?" he said fingering the bandages. "These are nothing," he said as he pulled away the bandages revealing whole, healthy, skin.
Sango looked at him with awe.
"It's another surprise after another with you, isn't it?" said Inuyasha in front of the door.
He stared at Takashi for a little and then spoke again.
"What did you do to the demon we fought?" he asked. "After that flaming thing took down the tree you were there with that armlet sucking stuff up from the remnants of the demon. I was even more surprised when it didn't start regenerating after you did that."
Takashi looked down at the armlet; he saw the stone glow contently. Its hunger had been appeased, for a little while. Then he raised his head to speak but then a cry came from outside.
"Inuyasha!" cried Miroku. "Inuyasha, its Kagura and Kanna they're coming here!"
Everybody filed out except Takashi, who was pestered, by Sango and Kagome, to stay in bed. Down came Kagura and Kanna on a large feather. They dropped to the ground and straightened themselves out.
"We've come for the jewel shards that Taiboku lost and your shards as well," Kagura said, going straight to the point. "And the man named Takashi you have cooped up in the shack."
"What no 'hello'?" asked Inuyasha, with a load of sarcasm.
Kagura glared at Inuyasha with contempt. She waved her fan. "Blades of wind!" she cried as blades hurled themselves at Inuyasha and the gang.
Inuyasha drew the Tetsuiga and braced himself for a blow. Miroku, Sango and Kilala took off into the sky and Shippo and Kagome took cover by the shack. This had been practiced many times before with previous encounters. The blades, however, took a different direction and headed toward the shack in all their howling fury to smash, smack-dab into the shack that housed the healing Takashi! Everyone stared at the rubble waiting for some sort of miracle.
A flash of movement and there was Takashi, swords and all, a little dusty but looked fine.
"That wasn't very nice." said Takashi. He looked at Kagura, but when he looked at Kanna he seemed to look a little disturbed, but quickly snapped out of it. "Who are you?"
"They're detachments of Naraku," said Inuyasha. "They maybe detachments but they're still just as evil."
"When did Naraku get such power?" asked Takashi.
"He got this power from the Shikon jewel shards." replied Inuyasha again.
"Shards, how did the Shikon jewel turn to shards?"
Kagome looked up over the rubble and raised her hand. "Guilty as charged." she said, raising her arm.
Takashi rolled his eyes. Now it's back to business. He faced Kagura and Kanna and pulled the sword from his right scabbard with his right hand. Kagura gave another wave with her fan and sent another wave of crushing wind. Takashi quickly dodged and weaved through them and charged at her. Kagura looked at him with frustration, he wouldn't slow down!
"Kanna," she said "Absorb this poor fools soul. It would make a nice to store in your collection."
Kanna moved in front of her to intercept Takashi. Then her expression changed from blank to confused look as she shook her mirror a little.
"Kanna," said Kagura, looking down at her. "Hurry up and take this idiots soul so we can retake the Shikon jewel shards."
Kanna looked up to her older detachment.
"This man," said Kanna. "Has no soul."
Everyone was shocked by this news and everybody looked at Takashi dumbfounded, a man with no soul and the power to demolish everything from here to the next village.
Takashi was still charging at Kagura. He jumped and struck his sword down onto Kagura and Kanna. They quickly scattered and faced him again as he hit the ground, but before they could do anything Takashi swiftly moved towards Kagura and aimed for a fatal blow. Kagura waved her fan to slow him down, but it didn't work, he weaved through the blades and continued forward. Kagura pulled the feather out of her hair and jumped onto its inflated-self grabbed Kanna and soared into the air away from the battle.
Takashi looked up at the retreating creatures in disgust. He shrugged and turned back to the others.
"You know," said Takashi in a bored tone. "I thought they'd be harder if they were Naraku's detachments.
He walked into the forest and came back a few seconds later with a large log. He chopped it up into smaller pieces and set it up a small fire pit. He tapped it with his sword and the sticks lit up in flames. He threw in a few more sticks and looked at the others who were still standing in shock.
"Well?" said Takashi with and eyebrow raised. "Do you want to stand there and freeze?"
Everybody slowly walked towards the fire and took a seat. Inuyasha, looking smug, sat down closed his eyes and looked as if he were concentrating. Miroku was staring at Takashi. Kagome, Sango, and Shippo looked a little uncomfortable being so near a person that had nothing inside. All the while Takashi was just staring into the fire crossed- legged.
"Takashi," chirped up Kagome. "About what Kanna said about you having no soul is that..."
"True?" finished Takashi. "Yes, yes it is true. I have no soul."
Everyone just turned away a little and fell silent for awhile. Moments passed and Sango turned to look at Takashi. He had his eyed closed now. Sango opened her mouth to say something but quickly returned to her huddled position.
"If you want to say something, say it." said Takashi.
"I wanted to ask you how it felt to have no soul." she asked.
Takashi opened his eyes revealing their white silveryness. He sat there for a while thinking it over.
"You feel nothing," said Takashi. "You want nothing you need nothing except what you want the most. The first time I left my soul I felt paralyzed, but I found a way to prevent it." He rubbed his armlet unconsciously.
"What do you want the most," asked Kagome. "What made you give up your soul?"
"That," said Takashi. "Is a rather a tender subject. I'd rather not go that far into my past."
"Will you tell us?" asked Shippo.
Takashi closed his eyes once again.
"Maybe," he said. "Just, maybe."
End of Chapter
Sorry for the long, long, long wait but I needed a break. I'm beginning to think that I should cut my chapters into 1 per two weeks, but if you have any objection to that you can e-mail me about it.
Incase you want to picture Takashi's eyes think Riddick style and you'd have the same basic thing.
Keep sending e-mails and stuff I'll still need demon names for later use so keep those coming. Thanks for those who like my stories I'll see you later.
Till Next Time,
A. the C.
"Oh my God, I am so sorry!" came a voice.
Takashi gave a groan of pain. His head felt like it was split open. His hands slowly felt over the surface of his head. He counted the bumps, 1, 2, 3...4? He only remembered three...wait a minute. He slowly raised his eyelids to see a beautiful face. Wonderful brown eyes, long black hair, was this an angel?
"Am I...dead?" he asked slowly.
"No," she answered. "But I accidentally knocked you out cold with the magic of my blade."
She gave a weak smile and offered a hand to help him up. He took it, stood up and then collapsed again. He rested his back on the on the tree rubbing his sore head. The girl briefly left and then returned with a flask of cold water from the nearby stream. She dowsed her blindfold with the water and placed it on his head, then gave him a drink. After that he felt much better.
"You must not be a very good swordsman if you have to use a kendo stick," said the girl after a while.
Takashi slumped at the remark. The girl then quickly apologized and went back at examining the bumps on Takashi's head.
"Why do you come here, to the tree, to train?" asked Takashi.
"It's calming," she said. "I like the solitude away from the village."
They sat there for a long moment before they did anything. Then Takashi decided that he'd try to stand. He stumbled to his feet and the girl was there helping him up by the shoulder.
"Thanks," said Takashi.
"No problem," she replied smiling. "By the way," she said. "Will you be going to the village tournament in two weeks?"
Takashi briefly remembered his sensei, Seto, telling him that if he did not work hard enough that he wouldn't be able to go to the tournament. He looked down at his shoes then looked up with a smile.
"Of course," he lied. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Great!" she said. Then she started walking back to the village.
"Wait!" called Takashi, causing his head to throb. "I didn't get you name! Mine's Takashi!"
"Well Takashi," called back the girl. "Mine's Motoko!" and she quickly sprinted back to the village.
"Oh god, how did I get myself into this!?!" he cried. Then he turned his head to the left where he found, coincidentally, his sensei!
"Hey!" he cried. "What would it take me to get into the village tournament?"
Seto was perplexed at this question. Was Takashi actually going to work hard and pay attention now?
"First, you'd need to be able to wield an actual sword," he said. "But before that you'd need to be able to hit me once with that." pointing to the kendo stick.
"Okay," said Takashi
He picked up the kendo stick and struck at Seto. Seto swiftly pulled out his sword with the scabbard still on and blocked the shot. One week whirled by and Takashi was able to hit Seto and get real sword. Then another week blew by and he was able to pass most of Seto's training exercises and train himself. Then the say of the tournament came in a flash. He made it through the preliminaries up to the last two sparring groups. Then he faced her. She was looking quite professional up to the point where their eyes met. A great big smile appeared on both of their faces as they walked up to each other in the center of the arena. The referee stated the rules: first to draw blood wins, do not try to seriously hurt your opponent, no hitting below the belt, and the winner will be declared by either the referee or the judges.
They put their hands onto the handle of their blades and slowly put themselves in a slightly crouched position. Their faces were dead serious now, their body ready to spring into action as soon as the bell rang.
"Hey," said Takashi. "Let's make a wager. If I win we go on a date."
Motoko thought for a moment.
"Sure," she agreed. "But what do I get if I win?"
"Whatever you want." said Takashi.
"BING!" went the bell.
The match ended before it started. She stuck at him missing him by inches but the damage was done. He felt a wave of nausea and dizziness wash over him. He lost control of his body and slowly sank to the floor with the world swirling around him.
Kagura and Kanna meet Takashi
Sango was kneeling over Takashi's patched-up body. He'd been like this for the whole night and half the day it, seemed like Kagome's medicine wasn't as affective as they thought it would be. Suddenly, Takashi stirred from his bed; he looked up at Sango and raised a hand to her cheek.
"I remember this face now," he said smiling a little then struggled to get up.
"You shouldn't get up," cautioned Sango. "You took a really bad fall and got cuts all over yourself."
"These?" he said fingering the bandages. "These are nothing," he said as he pulled away the bandages revealing whole, healthy, skin.
Sango looked at him with awe.
"It's another surprise after another with you, isn't it?" said Inuyasha in front of the door.
He stared at Takashi for a little and then spoke again.
"What did you do to the demon we fought?" he asked. "After that flaming thing took down the tree you were there with that armlet sucking stuff up from the remnants of the demon. I was even more surprised when it didn't start regenerating after you did that."
Takashi looked down at the armlet; he saw the stone glow contently. Its hunger had been appeased, for a little while. Then he raised his head to speak but then a cry came from outside.
"Inuyasha!" cried Miroku. "Inuyasha, its Kagura and Kanna they're coming here!"
Everybody filed out except Takashi, who was pestered, by Sango and Kagome, to stay in bed. Down came Kagura and Kanna on a large feather. They dropped to the ground and straightened themselves out.
"We've come for the jewel shards that Taiboku lost and your shards as well," Kagura said, going straight to the point. "And the man named Takashi you have cooped up in the shack."
"What no 'hello'?" asked Inuyasha, with a load of sarcasm.
Kagura glared at Inuyasha with contempt. She waved her fan. "Blades of wind!" she cried as blades hurled themselves at Inuyasha and the gang.
Inuyasha drew the Tetsuiga and braced himself for a blow. Miroku, Sango and Kilala took off into the sky and Shippo and Kagome took cover by the shack. This had been practiced many times before with previous encounters. The blades, however, took a different direction and headed toward the shack in all their howling fury to smash, smack-dab into the shack that housed the healing Takashi! Everyone stared at the rubble waiting for some sort of miracle.
A flash of movement and there was Takashi, swords and all, a little dusty but looked fine.
"That wasn't very nice." said Takashi. He looked at Kagura, but when he looked at Kanna he seemed to look a little disturbed, but quickly snapped out of it. "Who are you?"
"They're detachments of Naraku," said Inuyasha. "They maybe detachments but they're still just as evil."
"When did Naraku get such power?" asked Takashi.
"He got this power from the Shikon jewel shards." replied Inuyasha again.
"Shards, how did the Shikon jewel turn to shards?"
Kagome looked up over the rubble and raised her hand. "Guilty as charged." she said, raising her arm.
Takashi rolled his eyes. Now it's back to business. He faced Kagura and Kanna and pulled the sword from his right scabbard with his right hand. Kagura gave another wave with her fan and sent another wave of crushing wind. Takashi quickly dodged and weaved through them and charged at her. Kagura looked at him with frustration, he wouldn't slow down!
"Kanna," she said "Absorb this poor fools soul. It would make a nice to store in your collection."
Kanna moved in front of her to intercept Takashi. Then her expression changed from blank to confused look as she shook her mirror a little.
"Kanna," said Kagura, looking down at her. "Hurry up and take this idiots soul so we can retake the Shikon jewel shards."
Kanna looked up to her older detachment.
"This man," said Kanna. "Has no soul."
Everyone was shocked by this news and everybody looked at Takashi dumbfounded, a man with no soul and the power to demolish everything from here to the next village.
Takashi was still charging at Kagura. He jumped and struck his sword down onto Kagura and Kanna. They quickly scattered and faced him again as he hit the ground, but before they could do anything Takashi swiftly moved towards Kagura and aimed for a fatal blow. Kagura waved her fan to slow him down, but it didn't work, he weaved through the blades and continued forward. Kagura pulled the feather out of her hair and jumped onto its inflated-self grabbed Kanna and soared into the air away from the battle.
Takashi looked up at the retreating creatures in disgust. He shrugged and turned back to the others.
"You know," said Takashi in a bored tone. "I thought they'd be harder if they were Naraku's detachments.
He walked into the forest and came back a few seconds later with a large log. He chopped it up into smaller pieces and set it up a small fire pit. He tapped it with his sword and the sticks lit up in flames. He threw in a few more sticks and looked at the others who were still standing in shock.
"Well?" said Takashi with and eyebrow raised. "Do you want to stand there and freeze?"
Everybody slowly walked towards the fire and took a seat. Inuyasha, looking smug, sat down closed his eyes and looked as if he were concentrating. Miroku was staring at Takashi. Kagome, Sango, and Shippo looked a little uncomfortable being so near a person that had nothing inside. All the while Takashi was just staring into the fire crossed- legged.
"Takashi," chirped up Kagome. "About what Kanna said about you having no soul is that..."
"True?" finished Takashi. "Yes, yes it is true. I have no soul."
Everyone just turned away a little and fell silent for awhile. Moments passed and Sango turned to look at Takashi. He had his eyed closed now. Sango opened her mouth to say something but quickly returned to her huddled position.
"If you want to say something, say it." said Takashi.
"I wanted to ask you how it felt to have no soul." she asked.
Takashi opened his eyes revealing their white silveryness. He sat there for a while thinking it over.
"You feel nothing," said Takashi. "You want nothing you need nothing except what you want the most. The first time I left my soul I felt paralyzed, but I found a way to prevent it." He rubbed his armlet unconsciously.
"What do you want the most," asked Kagome. "What made you give up your soul?"
"That," said Takashi. "Is a rather a tender subject. I'd rather not go that far into my past."
"Will you tell us?" asked Shippo.
Takashi closed his eyes once again.
"Maybe," he said. "Just, maybe."
End of Chapter
Sorry for the long, long, long wait but I needed a break. I'm beginning to think that I should cut my chapters into 1 per two weeks, but if you have any objection to that you can e-mail me about it.
Incase you want to picture Takashi's eyes think Riddick style and you'd have the same basic thing.
Keep sending e-mails and stuff I'll still need demon names for later use so keep those coming. Thanks for those who like my stories I'll see you later.
Till Next Time,
A. the C.