Disclaimer: All you guys demanding action, I think you'll like what you see. Don't own YYH, or Katrina Kon. I only own the storyline.
Chapter 14: My First BattleIt's 3 days until I have to go back to school. And, somehow, I've been fitting in 10 hour a day training for 2 weeks. Genkai has not only taught me how to handle my panther mind, for the most part anyway, but also to camouflage myself. And it's not just camouflage; it's more of a complex form of How-To-Be-An-Invisible-Chameleon 101. However, camouflage requires an enormous amount of chi (energy) and its also very hard to do.
I'm panting on the ground again, in a pushup-like stance. Now you know why I hate camouflage. It takes so much incredible energy to rearrange my pigment.
I collapse. The floor is so soft...
"GET UP!" Yells Genkai, making me jump a foot in the air.
"STOP YELLING AT ME!" I scream back. "I'M TRYING, OKAY?!"
"Pitiful, just pitiful. Yusuke had more spunk than you."
I could have sworn I felt my eyes light themselves on fire. My brain is melting into a mess of rage. I hate everything...
"AGAIN!"
I do it to make her shut the hell up. This time I really knock myself out trying.
She slaps my face, of course. I'm starting to see what Yusuke meant when he said that she was a heartless old hag. My god, a little kindness wouldn't kill her.
Or would it...
As I stare up at her evilly, I finally see a spark of pity in those cold, cold eyes. "Okay, I think that's all of the practice you're going to need for some hand-to-hand combat now. Are you ready?"
"Yes! That's what I've been trying---"
"---I'll call Yusuke by mirror..." She pulls out a mirror and calls him from his room. He runs in at top speed. I guess he must have his own room here, being Genkai's apprentice and all.
"What's the deal, Grandma, I was sleeping---" She cuts him off with a hand gesture and points to me, exhausted little me, lying on the floor. He looks at me with abject horror.
"You don't seriously mean...Genkai, she needs to see a healer! Yukina, maybe....I'll kill her like that..."
"What?" I say, shaking with anger. "Y-you think I'm weak?!"
Genkai rolls her eyes. "He's right, you know."
"HE'S WRONG!!!!"
After much more shouting and foot stamping and unwilling dragging, Genkai gets me under control with a rather stunning blow to the head. As I'm cuckoo and paralyzed, she touches my hand to hers, and suddenly my exhaustion was lifted and annuled. I could also move again.
"Ahhhh..." I stretch. "Never do that again." I warn, indicaing her severe blow.
"I won't if you won't."
"All right, sheesh." I mutter. "So, I hafta fight him, right?" I ask in an undertone.
"Yes. Think of it as an exam."
"Okay, then," I stretch again. "Bring it on, tough guy."
Yusuke was sputtering before I said that, but now looks pretty hungry to fight me. Now I know he responds easily to taunts. That will definitely be valuable later.
He hopes to prove that he really is stronger, in front of Genkai also, I realize. He must be thinking of that last conversation they had outside my door.
"Follow me," says Genkai. "I'll bring you to a rink where you can battle."
We both follow. I'm a little apprehensive, because I'll never live it down if he beats me. But if I beat him, he'll never live it down...Too delicious for thought!
Genkai leads us down to the basement, or what seems like a basement, and flicks a switch. What was dark is lit by many light bulbs, and we see a large circular rink. "Fight here." She commands.
We stand at the middle of the gym, and both of us adapt Karate or Kung Fu poses. I feel kind of silly, but that's the best way I know of how to fight. Yusuke grins, obviously thinking I'm no worthy opponent for his status. Well, I'm going to show him up, all right.
"I promise to go easy on you," he taunts.
"Try me," I reply. "We'll see if I'm really weak or not."
Yusuke sneers. "Bet you can't even...huh?"
I'm glowing with blue fire. Though this wastes power, I need to unnerve him. Let him be stupid, I think to myself.
He is obviously worried, judging from the look on his face. I would be too if I saw my opponent glowing. My fire is intensifying slowly, as I build up power. Going for the stun factor, without warning I let it flare out from my body. I strike him, and he just lays there. Too easy. It isn't over yet.
He stands up. "Well, little girl, I underestimated you. I won't make the same mistake again."
"I'M AS OLD---OLDER---THAN YOU ARE!"
He ignores me, and just circles me warily. He's taking caution, and so he should. Then---
I sidestep a huge fist aimed for the KO pressure point on my back. That was awfully quick.
As I'm feeling foolishly over-confident, because I avoided that attack, he strikes me a glancing blow on my arm. It was his unfortunate miss, not my lucky dodge. It stings! He lands another one, this time in my gut, when I'm trying to recover from the first, and this one hits home. I wince and double over. God, that hurt.
I feel sweat on my face. If that happens again, I might be in real trouble. Even his glancing blows are murderous. Time for desperate measures.
I call on the orb of blue fire that is my magic. Though I sweat, I feel myself, my chi, vanish. Cool, I think. My camouflage technique actually worked! It really is hard to call that much power up, and to hold onto it even more so. But once you are fully camouflaged, it's the opposite: It's hard to make yourself visible again.
I circle him, completely invisible to the human eye. I'm certainly enjoying myself. He's looking petrified. I lunge for the pressure point on his back, and he notices the change in air pressure behind him and dodges too late. I press that special, vulnerable spot. All I feel is a slight twitching motion. I leap away as Yusuke falls, his eyes wide and staring.
I hit his head again. As soon as I'm sure he's out cold, I struggle to make myself visible again. As soon as I do, it feels like a huge weight that was my magic was taken off my shoulders. Using magic is hard work!
I vaguely hear people clapping. I turn to see my brother, Hiei, Yukina, Botan, and all the others cheering. Now when did they get there?
Genkai actually smiles. "Katrina, to beat Yusuke...you're really something, you know that?"
Next, paddle girl-Botan, I think-steps up. "Incredible," she begins in that annoying sing-song voice. "No one has beaten Yusuke---ever. And all he landed on you was a glancing blow on the arm!" She studies me. "And one in your tummy!"
Now I'm scared. She's talking ot me like I'm five years old. "It was his overconfidence that lost him the fight, Botan. If he had known how much I've practiced using my powers, even outside of lessons, I think I probably would have lost. My training time, thus my skill level, doesn't compare to his."
"Oh, but you're being modest!" She practically yells. "Overconfident or not, one simple touch took him out cold! No one's done that to him for so long..." She takes a deep breath, obviously preparing for a long sentence. "I'm glad you beat him he was getting kind of chubby this will spur him on to more vigorous training someone needed to put him in his place and you did a fine job of that my dear!" She grins widely. She takes another deep breath, but fortunately Kurama stops her. She takes the cake for yakking nonstop, all right. And I didn't think Yusuke looked fat at all! i thought he looked kind of skinny!
"So, how about dinner everyone?" Everyone, even Hiei, smiles at this and zips down to the dining room.
Yusuke is finally coming to. The whole gang, including me, is standing over him, having finished our dinner of steak and potatoes. His eyes widen.
"Wha-whaa-WHY is everyone staring at me?"
"Just wondering when you thought was a good time to wake up, you moronic Sleeping Beauty." Mutters Kuwabara.
Yusuke shoots him a paralyzing glare. "Well, I guess I just got tired after beating Katrina," he says, yawning. "She was a tough opponent, but she's got aways to go."
Genkai just barely smothers a giggle. Kurama is taking deep breaths and is chewing his thumbnail. Hiei just look on amusedly. Botan and Keiko laugh outright, all manners forgotten. Soon everyone else joins in, except for me.
"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?"
"Well," says a hiccuping Genkai. hic "You seem to be (hic) confused (hic) about the outcome of (hic) that match."
"You're not telling me....." Genkai nods, coughing into her hand happily. "I lost.....to her? How...."
I think it's time for me to speak up. "Yusuke, you just got overconfident. Next time, just..."
He runs out, shoving through our circle, steam issuing out of his ears. I watch worriedly.
"Don't wory, Katrina," says Kurama. "His drunken bum of a mother never taught him sportsmanship, and he never had to learn it because he always beat his enemies. Now I guess he's going to have to."
"I don't need more enemies," I say hotly. "Beauty's plenty..."
"Speaking of Beauty," interrupts Hiei. "I studied your clock, and it had her fingerprints on it. I think she must have switched it with your regular alarm clock when you were at lunch class or something."
"There's no such thing as lunch class, stupid," I say meanly. Everyone glares at me. I stare at the ground. "I'm sorry Hiei, I just have no tolerance for poor sports."
"Agreed." he mutters. He didn't seem too impressed with Yusuke either.
"I'm lying down, okay? No one disturb me." I walk off to my room expecting to find solitude. Instead, I find Keiko. She opens her mouth, but I cut her off. "I don't want to talk about it, okay? I know I have a bad temper and that I'm selfish and awful and---"
Keiko glares at me. "I just wanted to congratulate you on your victory, but forget it."
My grand total of people I've hurt today is 3. Sheesh!
"I wish you wouldn't be so suspicious of me all the time, Kat." Only she calls me Kat. "I mean, we're supposed to be friends, right?"
"I'm sorry, Keiko. I just hate it when someone is a poor sport. Which is how your boyfriend is acting, by the way."
"Yeah, he's like that. It can't be helped. But tell me how you beat him, please! I'm dying to know. I wasn't there until the very end."
Well, since she asked so nicely...
I eagerly tell her everything, from the camouflage to the pressure point, and she's incredulous, all traces of anger left behind.
I wake up in the middle of the night, to rinse my mouth out, and guess what
MY CAT EYES ARE GONE!
A/N Hope you enjoyed it. R&R!