Dragon's Sacrifice5:
Sparring…
She sat with the quiet observance taught to her by her sensei, and she watched. Smiling quietly to herself, she took in all the wacky antics of the trio she was sharing the picnic with. Barely a minute passed before the two were back at it again. The lanky orange-haired ningen and the teen that radiated a strange mix of human and demon ki. She would just sit there and laugh politely at their silliness; after all, it did serve as a form of distraction from the tension that was still present between the strangers and her. Gracefully, she lifted her cup to her lips to sip the hot tea made from the leaves of certain Makai plants. The fragrance was pleasant and it helped her relax, the taste was faint and yet lingering with its subtle sweetness that remained her mouth after each sip. These were of course provided by the strange long-haired male sitting just beside her. His features were delicate and feminine. Every now and then his laughing green eyes would glance in her direction, as the corner of his mouth would tip upwards in a gesture of friendship. Again, in his slim frame was the suppressed ki of a S-class youkai, just like Hiei.
By now they had already finished all the food that was in the basket, all that was left was to relax and indulge in casual conversation, which was also something she found difficult to do. With the same grace with which she brought the cup to her lips, she placed it back gently on the mat. Sitting in a kneeling position, she moved her hands back to rest on her lap, fingering slightly with her long braid of deep violet hair that had strayed over her shoulders.
" Yukiko-chan, are you ok? You seem awfully quiet, don't be afraid of speaking to us. We're friends of Hiei's and you're supposed to be relaxing! After all this is a rare opportunity that Hiei's not around to grill you!" This statement won a small chuckle from her.
" There you see! You should laugh more! You look so much prettier this way. Do you feel more comfortable with us now?"
She nodded her head and flashed him a wide grin before uttering her first complete sentence since they settled down to eating,
" I'm fine, just a little wary. I mean even if you are Hiei-sama's friends, you're still strangers to me. I just feel a little weirded out since I'd usually be undergoing vigorous training at this time in the morning."
" Is that so? Perhaps you'd like to have a little spar with me? I must admit I'm quite curious as to how effective Hiei-sama's training has been." At the mention of the word 'spar' all action seemed to have ceased between the other two parties as their ears pricked up in attention.
" Hey! If you feel confident enough, you might even want to consider taking all three of us on at the same time! I've been itching for a real fight for a long time," here he throws a pointed glance at Kuwabara before continuing, " this sack of meat couldn't even make it last long enough for me to break a sweat."
" NANI?! KISAMA!!!!" and the two burst in to a dust cloud of feet and hands.
Minutes later when the two finally calmed down, they kept up the picnic stuff and prepared themselves for a spar. Yukiko readied her katana, given to her by Hiei, as the others kept a respectable distance away from each other before the signal to begin, which would of course be given by her since she was being challenged by all three of them. In a voice shaky from both nervousness and anticipation, she raised her last clarification before the start of the fight.
" Alright guys, let's have fun doing this and no fatalities ok?" there were a round of nods and a nervous laughter that came from her. All eyes were on her now, it did not matter if the signal was verbal or not, the three spirit detectives were waiting for her to make her first move.
Without warning, she disappeared from her position near the three. It did not take much to realize that she had taken a leap into the foliage for cover. The other three followed suit, each leaving a faint trail of their coloured ki behind them as they sprinted from branch to branch.
She crouched between forked branches as she observed them through the particularly dense foliage. Her heart was pounding in her ears and adrenaline coursed through her veins. Speed is important, but never be rash. The words of her sensei came back to her. From the looks of things, their ki levels all exceeded hers except maybe for the ningen. This means that she would lose in a head to head battle. Quietly she moved through the leaves, making not a sound. She would try to bring the numbers down to even the odds. Moving into position, she was now downwind of the ningen, positioned slightly behind him. It should not be hard to sneak a swift attack unnoticed…
DUCK! Her mind screamed. Barely missing an orange ki generated blade she managed to leap backwards into the foliage for safety. How the heck…? Her mind puzzled as she moved into position again, choosing to attack from the top this time. She crouched just before releasing a powerful jump with her blade outstretched to go in for the kill when she heard the ningen speak,
" There's no point changing your position to above me, I know exactly where you are. I'm very sensitive to change in ki. In other words unless you move very fast, you can't catch me unawares."
"Fair enough. Then we fight in a face to face combat. First one pinned and unable to retaliate loses, how's that?"
" Fair enough."
It was a blur of motions as metal and ki clashed. Parry. Parry. Slash. Duck. There was barely a moment to breathe. God she's fast. If she had chosen another sneak attack, I probably wouldn't have been able to avoid it. Damn it! I'm barely able to defend myself here.
God he's good. He's been able to block all my attacks. But he's slowing down. If this is the skill of a D class ningen, I don't know if I'll be able to match up the other two. God, S-class ki…
Hiei-san trained her well. Kuwabara's barely had a chance to go on the offensive. She has him cornered taking the defensive all the time, it's an endurance battle. The first to tire out will lose. Doesn't look good for kuwabara, he's slowing down. Hiei…you did good this time, she just might surpass you if you're not careful.
Kuwabara you idiot! Haven't been training much have you?! She's thrashing him. Darn she's good. Heh…Hiei's always been good at training people,…must have been damn grueling for her. Damn it! That's fast…
He crashed backwards. He had taken too many hits. His arms were cut and bleeding. His ki sword fizzled out in his hand. Too much pain clouding his senses. He lay on the ground, his breath coming to him in short gasps. He had has not been this badly beaten since that fight with the Toguro brothers.
" You give up? Hurry! I don't know when those other two will attack!"
There was a quick nod and she had concealed herself back in the branches again.
"Kurama, what do you say we combine our attacks?"
"You can't be seriously scared, Yusuke? She's not even A-class yet."
" I don't know man, she's almost as fast as Hiei, that's always something bad…"
"Ok then, you come in from the left and I from the right. A little help from the greenery in the area will solve any other problems. Ok?"
"Yosh!"
She sat amidst green tinted darkness as pin-pricks of light squirmed their way through the dense foliage. That first fight really tired her out. The ningen lasted much longer than she expected him to. And now she still had two more combatants to worry about. In…out…in…out…her heartbeats became less erratic as her breathing slowed; closing her eyes, she spread her senses outwards. In her mind's eye she visualized the forest and felt the energy emanating from the trees themselves the breathed deeper and looked for signs of foreign ki… the branch she was crouching on gave way under her.
Actually, to be more exact, it did not give way, it sort of just tipped her off. In her shock she crashed through a few branches before her hand shot out reflexively to catch on to another branch. In a graceful arc she swung round the branch and released in time to let the momentum carry her through a back flip before reaching a balanced landing on an opposite branch. Her feet had barely touched the said tree limb before it moved out from under her feet to leave her falling straight towards the ground.
This time she met with the forest floor in an clumsy tumble as she rolled to one side and tried to stand. She was caught unawares a second time by a moving branch! Pain shot up her leg as she rested her weight on her ankle. She let out a surprised yelp at the pain and immediately tried to stifle her want to cry out in pain. Falling to one knee, she instinctively pressed herself flat against the ground to evade a ki-energy ball whiz past overhead. Immediately followed to a dive to the right as the ground she was previously lying on was lashed with a thick green whip. As she took a double take at the ground she realized that the earth was ripped upwards, raked right out of the ground by the sharp thorns adorning the whip that snaked the ground near the red heads feet. He was still wearing a pleasant smile on his face as he asked her,
"Is your foot ok? Would you like to give up now or continue fighting?"
Narrowing her eyes, she released three shurikens towards his as she darted to one side. It did not take much effort on his part as he stayed relatively still, needing to move only his wrists to knock the flying weapons out of the air. With a sharp *chink*chink*chink*, her shurikens were embedded instead in the ground. He stepped over them and dashed forward towards her when Yusuke leaped over his shoulder and landed in front of her. Smoothly sliding into position, his fists glowed with ki as he readied himself. She too slid into position, sword held up fast before her as she watched him, wary of his every move. Without warning, she launched into a forward thrust, but he evaded to the side. With a deft turn of the wrist, she brought her blade swiftly to the side in a diagonal cut upwards…when she realize he had already moved out of danger's range. Following her instincts she spun around only to have his fist connect with her jaw. Time seemed to freeze as she felt herself flying backwards from the force. Her back crashed into the tree with devastating force. She lay limp and crumpled on the ground as she tried to gather her scattered senses. She could not even tell sky from floor as she force her body upwards. Amazingly, her katana was still firmly in her grasp. The coarseness of the leather handle brought her little reassurance as dark spots continued to dance in her vision. Relying almost entirely on her instincts, she managed to sway out of the line of fire of one of Yusuke's ki balls when Kurama's whip caught her round the wrist, the force of the lash caused her to drop her katana as the thorns dug painfully into her flash. Defiantly, she tugged on the whip in a futile attempt to free her arm but it only cause the green spikes to lodge themselves deeper into her flesh.
"Do you yield?"
"Never."
Somewhere along the way, the spar had taken on a deeper meaning. It was not just for fun anymore, it was about pride and tutelage and honoring the sensei. It did not seem fair for her to admit defeat. It would be like letting Hiei down…
"I think the outcome of the spar is clear enough."
All three spun around in a chorus of,
"Hiei!"
A/N: hey pple sorry for the delay, but yar I didn't get that feeling that makes you wanna write up till now. Perhaps it was the stress that was killing my senses but I can't believe that I actually forgot how fulfilling it actually feels to write and complete a chapter or a story. I'm so sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Anyway, same thing as always, OOCness or not happy with anything feel free to review and leave your complains there for me to pick out or flame if you feel you must. But as long as it's constructive I'll accept it no matter how curt. But yes CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!! I love you!