Chapter 21: The Beginning of Life Without Kyo

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Slowly, his eyes began to flutter open and he groans as he rolls around on the ground. "Ehmm…" he sighs and looks up. Kyo was still laying in the small makeshift shelter he, Kagura, and Kunimitsu built. Carefully, he gets to his feet making practically no sound. He walks out the creaky door and stares at the large slab of wood that was about twenty feet ahead. Instantly he recognized it as the roof that was once on top of the small house.

Approaching the wood quietly, Kyo steps on the edge of it and stares down at the smooth boarding. "Now I know where the roof went…" he mumbles, stretching his arms and legs a little. Kneeling down slightly, he looks at the slab of roof and sighs, and then falls backwards, somewhat tired.

Out of completely no where, Kazuma looks down at Kyo with one of the brightest, beaming smiles he had ever seen from a person who's home was just recently burned down. Kazuma watches Kyo roll over and stagger to his feet, then bow slowly. "Good morning Kyo. You're up early as usual." Shishou smiles once more then steps onto the piece of wood and advances to the center of it. His back to Kyo, Kazuma looks down then glances at him out of the corner of his eye. "You're missing a day of school… just for training Kyo… you realize that right?" He watches him quickly nod and sighs then faces forward, back completely to Kyo now.

Kyo jumps onto the board and stares at Kazuma's back. "What are you waiting for?" he exclaims eagerly. "I don't care about school right now! I already passed… I… I just need to beat Yuki, okay!" Kyo continues shouting at Kazuma feeling his hatred of Yuki flaring up inside of him. His hands close, fingers digging into his skin. He growls under his breath and glares at Kazuma angrily. "Let's hurry up already!" Kyo yells, slamming his left foot down as hard as he could into the wood without snapping or cracking it in any way.

Sighing slightly, Kazuma turns around and gives Kyo a gentle nod. He stands sideways, and watches Kyo get into an angered fighting stance. His mind is clouded with his hatred of Yuki. I can stand still and he'll probably miss me…. Kazuma thought to himself and grins at Kyo.

Charging at him, he throws his fist and misses to the left of Kazuma's head without him making the slightest movement. He drops his head onto Shishou's shoulder and groans. "I'm… not thinking straight… and you know it…." He mumbles to him quietly. Kazuma pats his head gently and he moans in annoyance. "Don't do that…" Kyo mutters and pushes his hand off of his head.

Suddenly, he feels a great rush of pain slam into the center of his chest and next thing he knew he was laying at the opposite end of the wood covered ground, arms around his abdomen. He coughs and rolls over, realizing that he shouldn't have sounded as demanding as he had when he said 'Don't do that' to Kazuma. Staggering to his feet in pain, Kyo draws his hand over his lips a little and then gets into a fighting stance, grinning at Shishou. "I'm ready now! Let's do this!" He exclaims proudly, then runs at Kazuma.

A quick spar began and, surprisingly, Kyo was able to block most of the punches and kicks that Kazuma threw at him. Swiftly, he spins around and sweep kicks at Kazuma's legs. Next thing he saw was Shihan lying on the ground in front of him, smiling and rubbing his back a little. "Shi… Shishou… I'm sorry…" he bows his head a little and sighs. "I shouldn't have attacked you like that…." Kyo scratches the back of his head in complete embarrassment. After watching Kazuma get to his feet, a soft smile crosses his face when he came to the decision that he was okay.

Kazuma waves his hands trying to stop Kyo from apologizing. "It's okay Kyo…" he says gently, clearly he was trying to make him understand something. This was the first time he had ever laid a direct hit on him and that was something he should know and be proud of. "Guess what…" Kazuma whispers to him still rubbing his back gradually. Kyo stares at him wondering about what he was going to say next. "You hit me…."

"No crap…" he mumbles sarcastically.

He laughs at Kyo's non-enthusiastic response. "Kyo… you've never exactly hit me directly before. Remember, I'm always blocking your useless attempts." His eyes grew wide as he began to actual pay attention to Kazuma's words. "You were right when you said that you were ready now. Your mind was completely clear and you were allowing yourself to concentrate on the task at hand." He continued on smiling every step of the way. "You have to be as clear as you were a few moments ago in order to defeat Yuki. There is no further training that your body is reques-." Kyo cuts him off, stepping towards him slightly.

"Shishou! You are going to train me for a month! Okay! You have to! I want you to train me to keep my anger under control so I can think clearly! I want you to help me become a little stronger, and faster, and more accurate…" His voice trails off and he sighs, his voice now becoming gentle as he speaks, "Please… just for this month… just this month. Once that time passes… I'll… be gone instantly!" Kyo informs him, even though he had said almost exactly the same thing to him a day earlier.

Kazuma sighs and nods once more. "Fine, again. You can stay Kyo…and I'll train you in the ways you want me to… but you will not argue with me or raise your voice…" his voice trails off as he watches Kagura come out of the little house in her pajamas. She smiles at them both and waves then goes back into the house and changes into her regular clothes. After a few minutes, Kagura approaches them and sits just behind the edge of the wood slab on the ground. "And you wont interject while I'm speaking…" Kyo nods and then drops his head bowing.

She couldn't help but smile at the both of them and stand up to bow to Shishou as well, even though she was a good forty feet away. Carefully, she walks back into the house and bumps into Kunimitsu, instantly changing her into a boar. She grunts and scurries into a corner that was dark enough for her to change back to herself without being seen without clothes on.

Kyo's training went on for hours, and during that time, Tohru and everyone else was at school, even Kagura had left for college since she is about two years older then Kyo and Yuki.

x

While at school, Tohru couldn't help but sit beside Kyo's empty desk, gazing out the window just as he usually does. She couldn't find a way for her to pay attention to the teachers during any class. Her mind was solely on Kyo and only him. Was it true that it was his fault her mother got into a car accident? Maybe he was reading what happened wrong, she thought. Sighing she looks at the front of her fifth period class; which happened to be an algebra type math class that she didn't like at all. Carefully, she props her head up with her hands, elbows on the desk top of her chair.

Yuki, on the other hand, couldn't help but worry about Tohru and how she will be feeling for the next month without Kyo. It was going to be horrible for him to see her so lifeless, but the fact that Kyo wouldn't be around for a month was raising his spirits a little. He made sure that he sat next to Tohru in every class they had together so that he can make an attempt at taking her mind off of the subject that was bothering her: Kyo.

Throughout the day, Tohru moped around. She barely even spoke to Arisa and Saki, until lunchtime arrived. Taking their seats at their classes assigned table, she weakly smiles at them seeing that they were deeply worried.

"Tohru-chan's waves are telling me that she is sad. Why are you sad Tohru?" Hanajima asks tilting her head to the side slightly.

She sighs and stares at them, tears swelling up in her eyes. Quickly, Tohru rubs her eyes wiping away the tears before they got the chance to fall. "Kyo-kun's going to be gone for a month… and… it's making me sad…" she whispers quietly, replying to Saki's question.

Arisa pounds her right fist into her left hand and grins. "I'll go find Orangey and rough him up for you!" She exclaims eagerly. "No one makes my friend sad!" Uo-chan adds wildly.

Tohru quickly throws her arms around hoping to stop Arisa. "No! No! Don't hurt Kyo-kun…" she says to her pleadingly. Her two friends stare at her curiously wondering why she was sounding so much more objective at the mention of violence then usual. "I… I…" Tohru stutters at first and looks down, her face red from blushing. "I love Kyo-kun…" Her voice trails off leaving Arisa and Saki in utter shock.

Rubbing her ears, Arisa laughs a little and says, "You're joking right!" She cracks up in slight hysteria laughing with the quiet chuckling Saki. After seeing Tohru shake her head, Uo straightens up and then leans across the table a little to look at her more closely. "Is there another Kyo we don't know about?" Once again, she shakes her head and then looks down. She smiles and sits back down on her seat, "In that case… I'm happy for you Tohru-chan… Maybe he'll come back sooner or whatever…" she says trying to raise her hopes a little to make her slightly cheerful.

She smiles at her two friends, then gets up from her seat after finishing her lunch quickly. Waving good-bye to Arisa and Saki she leaves the school cafeteria and enters the main hallway, walking sadly towards her next class. Suddenly she finds herself stopped in the middle of the hall by Haru and Momiji who were looking at her anxiously. "Tohru-chaaan! Why are you upsettt?" Rabbit-san asks grabbing her hands.

Haru sighs and pulls Momiji away from Tohru slowly. "Tohru-chan… whatever it is… that's bothering you… I hope it gets better." He smiles and advances closer to her, and whispers into her ear. "Kyo will be back soon… don't go and worry yourself into pain, okay? Just wait… remember that little story you told me. Maybe… you can change that little tale around and make it into your current situation." He pulls back and puts his hands at his hips. "Whelp… we have to get to class… later." He turns and waves his hand by just flicking his wrist a little.

Momiji waves good-bye to Tohru happily and chases after Haru. "How come I couldn't hold Tohru-chaaan's hands?" She heard him ask as they got a little farther away. It brought a small smile to her face, but it allowed her to stay on her feet for the rest of the day as she tried to ignore her pains.

The school day droned on and left every single student in a state of boredom. There was completely nothing to do until the graduation came. She spoke to Yuki a little on the way back home about what they would do later, but it turned out that he just had to go to another student council meeting. So, instead, she had fun with Katsuro and Kisa after they got home from school. Hiro just watched them run around saying that they all looked really stupid.

"Why are you running in circles like idiots? Is that amusing? Do you find it fun?" All he got as a response was lots of shouting laughter and giggling from the three of them. "You haven't done anything yet you're still laughing. You look and sound stupid you dumb woman."

Tohru stops and looks at Hiro smiling. She still answered to whatever he called her because she had gotten so used to it by now. "Hiro-chan… play tag with us!" offers Tohru, gesturing for him to come. He sighs and gets up from the front steps and walks over to them. Soon enough, a large game of tag bursts into action. At first, Hiro didn't have a clue at what to do since he didn't play games often, but eventually he caught on and did fairly well. For today and today only, Tohru allowed herself to forget about Kyo's month long trip and enjoys herself as she plays with the three children.

x

Meanwhile, at Kazuma's makeshift dojo, Kyo stands breathing heavily, his body battered from training with Shishou the entire day. He lifts his arm up and runs it across his mouth, wiping away any trace of blood that may have been there; even though there wasn't any. Kyo leans forward, his hands gripping his kneecaps tightly. He groans and glances at Kazuma who was a little less worn out then him since all he was really doing was avoiding Kyo's onslaught of attacks. The whole time everyone was at school (about five hours) Kyo had landed only one more hit and at that time his mind was on nothing but attacking his Shihan.

Kazuma brushes the dirt off of his clothes and looks toward the little house and laughs seeing Kunimitsu and Kagura slurping soda and eating popcorn as they had become extremely entertain by their constant sparring. Finally, Kagura stands up and smiles at them. "Though I wasn't here to watch the entire training session, I think you did really well Kyo-kun!" Kagura exclaims in support of his determination to become stronger. Quietly, she goes back into the little home and begins to cook happily.

Suddenly, Kyo collapses to the ground and lays on the wood weakly. "I'm… so tired…" his voice trails off as a bursting gust of wind lunges past them. "I don't even know how I lasted as long as I did…." Kyo coughs and folds his hands behind his head, looking up at the now darkening sky. "I need to wash up…" he staggers to his feet, his body beyond sore, and walks towards the old dojo and enters it. He goes into what was once the bathroom and takes a shower since that was the only room in the house that wasn't destroyed in any way. He takes his clothes off and takes a shower, growling at the feeling of water as he always does.

Outside the burnt down dojo, and near the mini dojo Kagura and Kazuma were talking to one another. "Do you think… Kyo can stand a whole month here Shihan?" She asks him curiously, sounding a little worried deep down. She sees him sigh and stares at him anxiously.

"He'll stay even if he can't withstand it… you and I both know that. He's truly bent on staying here that entire month to get the training he wants…." Kazuma replies plainly, then he bows slightly and walks into the forest.

Kagura watches him and sighs, then gets on her knees and then shifts her positioning to sit Indian-style. She rubs the top of her head a little and thinks about the injuries she had when Akito attacked her and compared them to Kyo's wounds. Her's was much worse, and she was in the hospital. But, Kyo's was still extremely bad and he ends up deciding to come here and ignore that pain in order to train. Sighing once more she gets to her feet again and turns around to see Kunimitsu staring at her.

Approaching her slowly, Kunimitsu smiles a little. "You shouldn't worry about Kyo so much. He's strong he'll be fine… Don't worry." He reassures her, smiling the entire time. "Now… lets fix this house… Shishou took the roof off of it last night. Kyo can rest while we do this, okay?" She nods and smiles back. Quickly Kagura runs and searches for wood. Kunimitsu walks to the door of the small house and groans. "Kyo… you worry everyone… but… some don't like to express it…" he whispers under his breath and to himself.

x

Back at Shigure's home, Tohru was cooking dinner, quiet as ever. She shook the pan a little so that every inch of the fish would be cooked. The rice cooker beeps many times before she scurries over to it and empties the rice out into a large bowl.

Kisa, Hiro, and Katsuro sat at the table, drawing pictures of Mogeta since they had just finished watching the latest episode of that anime. Turning around, Tohru gently smiles at them, and then the sadness returned. The chair Kyo always sat in was completely empty, and she wasn't able to see him walking around the house anymore. A month is so much longer when you're in love with the person that's left you for that amount of time.

And wa-lah! Chapter 21! And I actually can't wait to type the next one even though this chapter didn't end with much… but chapter 22 will begin halfway through the month. So…well I hope you all enjoy(ed) this chapter. And I'd like to thank all my reviewers! I still read your comments and reviews! Please continue to R&R! I love knowing what you're thinking and ur reactions to the events taking place in the story!