As always, I'm glad everyone likes this story. I really work hard on it. As a matter of fact, my mom said I must be under pressure, typing at least one 1000 word chapter a day. I told her three chapters was my stress point! lol. Well, here's review replies, then the story. Enjoy! And remember, I like all sorts of reviews and replying to them, but I write more for longer ones, so don't feel bad if you don't get much of a reply. I'm not too great at on topic convo. I'm too random.
Devlinn Reiko-sama: Thanx. I thought I gota little deep on the ending, but I'm glad you liked it.
Baka Psycho: Thanx for the compliment. And it's spelled 'congratulate' FYI. I do plan to change the story later, but now, I guess I'm having a nostalgic moment for the characters. Next chapter, I can't resist...I had to put the stink spirit! It's too juicy to not include, cuz Sessho's a demon!
Ch. 5
Maru had been up half the night crying. His sobbing had given him a headache and a slight stomachache. And he was starving to death. When Rin woke him up, however, he dressed himself promptly.
"You ready?" Rin asked him.
"Yes. Let us get to work."
Rin and he went to the wall with the employee nametags. He grabbed his quickly, not bothering to look it over more than a second.
"Okay, it's the day to wipe the floors clean," Rin said. "Grab a bucket and rag so we can get started."
Maru did as told and folded the rag into a rectangle, dipping it in water. He observed the other workers, then mimicked them. Even with one arm, he seemed not to have trouble running up and down the floor and wiping the grime from the wood. However, he could feel the soreness and wear on his arm after an hour. After they had finished, it was cramping horribly and he was whimpering softly.
"You okay, Maru?"
"I am fine. It is just that I am not used to work and I am not used to low human tolerance," he explained.
"It's a killer," Rin said as she wrung the rag for her partner. She couldn't bring herself to consider him as an assistant. "How'd you lose that arm anyway?"
"My brother hacked it off with a sword I still believe should have been mine," he explained, feeling a pang of homesickness as he thought of his hanyou brother. He also felt as if he could welcome the prospect of being hanyou rather than being human. It was torture.
"Rin, is there not anything to eat?" he asked.
"I thought you had a lot to eat yesterday," Rin replied.
"I…ano…I vomited it back up in the grass…before I came to get a job…"
"Oh…that's a problem. Well, I dunno. I'll try to get you something."
"Rin! Maru!" a froglike worker said. "You got the big tub today!"
"Damn it!" Rin snarled under her breath.
She picked up her bucket and poured the water into Maru's.
"Dump this out, would ya?" she asked. "Just slide the door open over there. I'll wait."
Maru took the bucket and tipped it empty into the grass before following Rin to the enormous tub they needed to go to.
"Okay. Let's get scrubbing."
The former demon grabbed a coarse brush and began to scrub at the tub walls as Rin swept the area around it. She soon joined him.
"This is all caked on from ages ago. We never scour this tub like it needs to be, because it's too filthy, and that's the type of guest that uses it—filthy. It would take weeks to clean."
"If I still had my demon powers, I could melt the sludge away with poison. My Dokkasou is effective in many ways."
"Yeah. Wishful thinking, dog boy. Ugh, this is impossible!"
Rin growled as her brush caught onto a particularly crusty section of sludge. She was surprised Maru had reached the tub in a single foot-by-foot square.
"Is this the tub?" he asked, panting. "This little black spot?"
"Yeah, actually it is."
"Good. Because my arm is so cramped up I doubt it will function much longer.
So saying, he let it fall limply to his side, wincing and whimpering as the muscles spasmed horribly.
"Well, take a break from scrubbing and get me an herbal soak token."
"An herbal what?" Maru asked as he climbed out of the tub.
"An herbal soak token. The foreman has them. Just go and ask him," Rin said.
"Very well."
However, when he reached the foreman, he was refused.
"I'm not gonna give you anything. Clean it out yourself."
"I was explicitly told to get an herbal soak token. I shall not leave without one," he said firmly.
"That's all right. It's easy to ignore a human…"
The next thing both of them knew, the foreman was up against the wall with a very pissed off human pinning him there by his throat.
"Don't ever presume to judge me by what I am now," Maru said. "If I was a demon before, I shall be considered such now."
And ever so slightly, his incisors grew into fangs; it was for only a moment, though. They soon returned to normal. But something unnoticeable only to him had once again taken its place on his face, and that made the foreman change his mind about the herbal soak tokens.
"Here. Take one. Pick what you'd like," he mumbled.
"That's better."
Maru reached down and took a handful of bath tokens before walking off.
"Hey—wait, you can only have one!"
"And exactly what do you plan to do about it?" the former demon spat. The foreman shut his mouth.
"I thought so…"
As soon as Maru returned, Rin gasped.
"Your face! What did you do to your face!"
"Is there something on it?" he asked worriedly.
"There! On your forehead; a crescent moon!"
"What!"
Maru felt his forehead—like it did any good. But he knew Rin wasn't joking. It must have been his anger towards the foreman which triggered his demonic energy to return. However, it was only a small bit, just enough to make its presence known.
"This cannot be bad. It is one of my demon markings…"
"Maru! Rin! There's a customer on their way. Maru, Yubaba wants to see you!"
Maru turned to the frog that had addressed them and nodded. He followed it to Yubaba herself.
"What is it that you need, Yubaba?" he asked, his tone steely.
"We have a stink spirit on the way. I want you to greet him."
"A stink spirit?" Maru repeated. His heart skipped a beat.
He had just regained some of his demonic energy, which would sharpen his senses.
Oh, boy. This would be fun…
R&R please!