Chapter Twelve- Priestess Training, Part III

Fifteen minutes later, Asa stood outside with the twins, yawning and stretching one arm over her head, while holding a styrofoam cup of coffee in the hand of her broken arm, which was still in its cast and sling. "Okay, even if this is important for me to learn, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" she asked Katsumi, gesturing at the limb in question.

"You'll be fine, Asa-chan. We're not doing anything that will harm you physically today."

"You say today, but what about tomorrow?" Asa asked suspiciously. Kasumi just smiled, a little too innocently, if Asa thought about it long enough. "Alright, so what's on the menu today?" she asked, turning to the second twin.

"Today, you're going to learn how to find your spirit energy," Natsumi told her. "And we're going to start with you putting that coffee down. No mood-altering substances allowed."

What is this, rehab? Asa thought in annoyance, glaring at Natsumi before she relinquished her precious Irish brew. She realized in slight annoyance that Natsumi was explaining the reason behind her new caffeine drought, and listened to the last of it, blinking, "…it'll mess with your mental state and make you hyper; we need you calm. The sleepier you are, the better."

"…Riiight…okay." Asa nodded, pretending she heard everything Natsumi may have just said and agreed with it, and praying that the demoness' speech hadn't had a contract of her death inserted secretly in it. Then she noticed something, "Hey, where's Jin and Touya?"

"They're setting up your training station for today. Since only your cousin and grandmother can know about this, we're practicing in the forest. And since Sakai's somewhere, Natsu-chan and I are going to be switching with Jin and Touya-kun to keep an eye out for him."

"…That's oddly not so comforting. After all, you remember what he did to me? Yeah, and he's like, a higher class demon than you guys."

"We're not concerned."

"O…kay. So, take me to this 'training station,' so I can get this over with already."

"Alright, but you asked for it." The twins led her into the forest, then they walked along a path until they reached a clearing, where a small ring of land had been risen to look somewhat like a ring. Asa figured Kasumi had done it, being an Earth demon, and merely raised her eyebrow at the girl's handiwork, then noticed something she hadn't before – on the ring were four posts, each one had a carving of an element engraved onto it. There was water (in the shape of a raindrop), earth (in the shape of a rose hint hint), air (in the shape of two weird squiggles looking like wind), and fire (in the shape of a flame). In the earth, someone had also engraved the symbols for light (the sun) and darkness (a black-filled sun).

"What the hell?" she asked, looking up at Jin and Touya. "What's all this?"

"Well, lass, while's you was asleep, we lot decided we'd do a wee bitta readin'," Jin explained.

"In other words," Touya elaborated, "we were looking at an old priestess book we found, conveniently, in your grandmother's library. Thank Umi for that later. But we were reading up on training fields and styles for priestesses, and these symbols make their training more focused, especially when working with mind and soul." (a/n: I have no clue, really…I'm winging it with what I do know about priestesses…)

"…Alright, well, now that you've managed to utterly baffle me," Asa said, "Let's get started! What'm I to do first, Coaches?"

"Coaches?" Natsumi repeated.

"Uh, yeah…I guess you don't know what a coach is in this world…sorta like a trainer," Asa explained, scratching the back of her head with an apologetic look. "Forgot about the lack of slang vocabulary, sorry."

"Anyway," Touya interrupted, "Let's get started, shall we? Asa, if you'll have a seat there in the center of the ring…" Asa nodded, and clambered up onto the raised platform of dirt with Jin and Kasumi's help, doing as she was told. "Alright, first, we have to find your energy…what elements it's strongest in, and what senses it's best used with."

"Okay, how do we do that?"

"Well, you close your eyes and listen." She eyed him in disbelief for a minute. "Go ahead and trust us, Asa. Close your eyes."

"Fine," she sighed in annoyance, closing her eyes and putting on an expectant face. She didn't hear anything at first, but then someone slapped her in the head. "Hey!" she cried out, opening her eyes to glare at Natsumi. "What was that for?!"

"You weren't listening. Or else you might have been able to block that," Natsumi said simply. "Now, here's what we're going to do…" She pulled a blindfold out of a random pocket, and tied it over Asa's eyes securely. "Now, you have to listen. Or you'll get hit again."

"Crap…"

"Now listen."

Asa heaved a disgruntled sigh, and listened. Well, that's weird… she thought, furrowing her brow. She could hear the wind…and Natsumi and Kasumi breathing on either side of her. From the sound of their breathing, Natsumi was closer…maybe within five feet, and Kasumi somewhere a few feet behind her. Touya and Jin weren't anywhere near them, and Asa could hear them breathing, too. Then, a new kind of wind – someone running near, throwing out their hand to hit her…

Natsumi was most impressed when Asa grabbed her wrist before she slapped her head again. "Very nice, Asa-chan! You just passed the first test…within thirty seconds!" She and her twin exchanged a glance as Asa removed the blindfold and chuckled, bragging that 'of course she passed.' No one passed that test so quickly…

"Alright, my turn," Kasumi said eagerly. "Now, you know that I'm an Earth demon, so this is my natural element. Your second trial is to feel movement in the earth before we attack you, and to do that, we're going to blindfold and deafen you."

"Oh, great. And just how are you going to do that?"

"Ever read The Odyssey?"

"…Yeah…" Asa said slowly, narrowing her eyes.

"Remember how Odysseus protected his crew from the Sirens?"

"Beeswax…" (This was actually the technique Odysseus used to block the ears of his crew, when he tied himself to the mast and they were passing the Sirens…yeah, sometimes, Mythology just kicks ass. But, uh, that doesn't make school okay, younguns.)

"That's how."

"This gets better and better every minute, you know that?"

"Of course! We helped design this training program, didn't we?" Natsumi grinned as she took a small jar of some golden claylike substance out of her kimono (where'd that come from, the Pocket of Everything? Ooh, very Link from Zelda…) and removed a small wad of it, handing it to Asa. Asa glared at the elder of the twins for a moment before plugging her ears with the nasty-looking stuff. (And I mean it looks SERIOUSLY nasty…) She saw Natsumi speak, but couldn't hear anything. Then, the blindfold covered her eyes again, and she felt someone pulling her to her feet, then, once she was standing and balanced, whoever it was moved away.

This was a little troubling for her. Two of her strongest senses were now cut off, and she was pretty much helpless. Feel the damn vibrations in the ground? How the hell was she supposed to do that?! Ack – wait!! What was that?! It felt like a damn earthquake underneath her feet! …Um…wait, was that what she supposed to be feeling? She couldn't help but think, …I certainly hope not…

Then again…the ground rumbled again, and she had to force herself to stay on her feet. That might be happening for a reason…to compensate for her newly lost senses, her sight and hearing. Okay, she thought, relax and go with it…

She did…and the rumblings calmed. But only a little bit. So, what the hell? Where were they coming from?

Wait…okay, what was that? A tremor…to her right. Now behind. To the left. Really close now. Three of them. DUCK!

She sank to the ground in time to avoid an attack from Jin, Kasumi, and Natsumi. The three exchanged a look of disbelief, and when they stopped moving, Asa took off her blindfold, and unplugged her ears. "Hah, I felt you guys moving!!" she exclaimed, standing up and poking Jin's nose. "Don't do that again!"

"You have two more senses to finish up, Asa-chan," Touya said, appearing from the trees.

"Fine…wait, what would those two senses be?"

"Smell…and a sixth sense."

"Huh?"

"You'll see! Oh, this next test was designed by me, lass, so ye'd better pass it right-easy, ya hear?"

"So does that mean you're taking it easy on me, or otherwise?" she asked curiously, narrowing her eyes.

"Ye'll jus' hafta wait 'n' see, ya will," Jin answered with a nod of his head.

"I really don't like it when you take that tone of voice," Asa said in annoyance.

"Go on, then," Kasumi said, gesturing to Asa. "The boys will take care of you from here. We're going on watch."

"Oh, yay," Asa said unenthusiastically, waving a randomly appearing little white flag above her head. (Have you ever seen that happen? It's GREAT!) "Okay, Windy, let's get this little test passed so I can go back to sleep, shall we?"

"Aye, let's, lassie!" He sat her down promptly, and she glanced around, raising an eyebrow slightly as she did so. "Lookin' for someone, lass?"

"Yeah. Where'd Touya get to?"

"Oh, he's just goin' to set up the other part of this l'il test. By the way, you've got to complete this test in less than five minutes, or else this little forest around you – a pretty one, ain't it? – it'll all be gone. Okay?"

"Whaddaya mean, it'll all be gone?!" Asa shrieked, knocking him back on his haunches in midair. "This forest has been in my grandfather's family for generations! You had better not be threatening it in any way!"

"Well, if'n you pass yer test in time, lass, ye'll not be havin' to worry about losin' the forest, now will ya?" Jin laughed, mostly at her expression. "Dun worry, lassie! I've faith in ye! An' from what I've seen, ye haven't a thing to worry about! I betcha even ol' Foxy'd be proud of ye – OOF! – what was that for?!" he asked, after receiving and removing the shoe from his mouth. Asa just glared vehemently at him, telling him without words to shut the hell up. "Fine, fine, lass," he said, tossing back her boot and rubbing his jaw. "I didn't know ye was so sensitive about the topic…"

Touya appeared beside him, and nodded at him, then got a curious expression upon seeing the new bruise on his cheek and jaw. "What happened to you?" he asked.

Jin pointed a thumb at Asa, "I aggravated the lass."

"Bad move, buddy," Asa growled, standing up and sliding her boot back on. "Okay, what'm I doing now? You'd better tell me – I swear, if my grandmother's forest is harmed in any way, Jin, I'll have your head!"

"I told ye, it'll be fine! Just, use your nose to sniff'n out the fire that Touya started, and then Natsumi'll use 'er powers to put it out. But ye'd better hurry!" Asa's eyes widened in disbelief, and narrowed in anger, and she was about to hit him again, before he tapped her watch meaningfully, and with a furious grumbling, she turned around, and closed her eyes, lifting her nose to the air. Smell fire? What the hell?! How was she supposed to do that?! Oh…smoke. Right. For God's – or Jin's – sake, that fire better not be too far away, she thought, still grumbling even when she caught a whiff of the smoke she was looking for.

"Okay, Jin, you may not be so screwed after all," she said, opening her eyes again and running in the direction where she'd smelled the smoke coming from. Jin exchanged a nervous glance with Touya, who shrugged and chuckled in reply.

"That's Asa-chan for you, Jin. You knew that."

Asa grumbled, pausing to look around and catch her breath. She had been wrong…Touya hadn't been thinking about saving his best friend. Indeed, it seemed that, after running for what seemed like three miles, Touya was trying to get Jin killed. Asa couldn't exactly blame him, though. Okay, so, where the hell was that scent coming from?

The left. Cool.

She took off toward it again. When the hell did the damn forest turn into a big maze?! Okay, big tree, small tree, medium tree…

SMOKE! There was the scent, stronger now! And, looking up, she could see the billowing black cloud in front of her. She ran forward, and nearly face-vaulted when she found the fire – in a deep twenty foot ditch that had only recently been dug for such purposes as burning leaves.

"…Well, I'll be damned," Asa grumbled, then her face turned into one of anger when the two demons appeared on either side of her, the Irish-accented one laughing.

"Well, lass, did ye like yer little run? You made it to the fire with three minutes almost to spare!"

"I'm…gonna…kill you!" she growled, turning to him and suddenly looking very much like a demon. Jin 'eeped' nervously and hid behind Touya, who also looked a little scared himself. "But that's only after I castrate you, mangle you beyond recognition, impale you, burn you to a boiling point, and strangle you!"

"…Okay, first of all, revoltingly 'ew,' and secondly, maybe you can do all that later," Touya said. "You have one more test to do, and then we'll know for sure what your element is, so calm down."

Scary, horrible Asa disappeared, and curious one reappeared. "Oh, okay. But what's the last test?"

"It's Touya-lad's!" Jin risked poking his head out from behind Touya's shoulder, but Asa growled at him, and he dove back behind his best friend.

"Yes," he continued, casting a strange glance at Jin over his shoulder, and raising an eyebrow. "You see this fire? Well, we do need some water to put it out, and Natsumi's unfortunately nowhere to be found. So, find us some water."

"Uh…how?"

"This isn't a physical sense anymore…this is your sixth sense, so to speak. We've already showed you how to use it by giving you the other tests first, so you could sort of 'feel out' your senses, so to speak. Now, all you have to do is do whatever you did then to form a picture in your mind…" He trailed off when he realized she was staring at him incredulously. "…Okay, so it sounds a little crazy. But Asa, think about this seriously a moment. You've already proven to us that you're a little on the extraordinary side. Why not prove it to yourself? Just for 'kicks?'" he tested the phrase with a strange expression, having heard her use it before, and she laughed.

"Alright," she said after a moment, nodding in agreement and wiping the laughter tears from her eyes, "Just try not to use slang so much anymore. It'll be Death by Laughter for me otherwise."

"…Death by…?" they both started to repeat, in utter confusion.

"…Never mind. So, um…yeah. Last test. Finding water with my little brain, right?"

"Some would call it 'foresight,'" Touya informed her.

"I don't care what some would call it, I call it a pain in the neck!" Asa said in reply, turning around and plopping down on the ground. She looked up at the two demons, who were both exchanging an amused glance, and glowered at them a moment before saying, "So, like you said, picture in my mind?"

"Hai, that is correct."

"Okay then. Give me a minute."

"Oh, by the way, Asa…" She almost face-vaulted with the interruption, and looked up again at the icy-eyed Touya. "If you pass this test, we're going to start the physical part of your training this evening."

"…Great."

-

Okay, so. That seems like a good place to stop. Nice and cliffhanger-ish. But don't worry, you'll find out what happens to Asa in about…two chapters. (nervous look) I wanted to put a little mystery into it for you, so I decided to um…make the REST of her training a little private, so we can get back to the boys, since the bigger part of the storyline (and the little thing that's gotta sort of PUSH it along) lies in their part…So, next chapter, look forward to a big long chapter about threats and rose whips and the end of the world, okay? (Oh, by the way, pay special attention to that sentence, because it's a clue.)

Okay. Boys!!! Review responding time!!!!

Yusuke: We quit. This gig's worse than working for the two-year-old.

I'm glad you think you CAN quit…but you can't. Sorry.

Yusuke: (grumble)

Anyway. Get to it.

Kurama: Mel-chan! Hello! First of all, I'm personally apologizing for Meka-chan's tardiness in updating this story, because I make her go the hellish horrific place she refers to as "school." But thank you for keeping with us! And we're sorry the story updating lateness makes you sad. (hands you a cookie) Meka said these make sadness better.

…Yeah, I gave him about four hundred sugar cookies over Christmas. (By the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody!) NEXT!!

Hiei: Sazuka-chan, thank you for the compliments. We hope your interest stays with the story and we thank you very much for reviewing. DETECTIVE. Your turn.

Yusuke: Sun Priestess, um…sadistic? I'll have to look that one up in the dictionary.

…Idiot…

Yusuke: ANYWAY, thanks for reviewing, and Kurama at least is glad you're learning . Stick with it!!

Okay, that looks like it's about it. Did I have any notes…? No, guess not. Okay, have fun, eat chocolate, and live happy!)