Chapter two: Kyasa
Pa gave me a glare as I puffed along. Translation; Get a move on.
It was another gruelling session of training, and it was speed. Around the forest twice and back to the middle again to him. It wasn't hard, but it was tiring.
"Useless," he muttered when I returned back to him. "Enough for today. Breakfast now."
We got back to camp. Ma was cooking some rice and pickled radish, which I personally hate, but I ate it because I was starving.
Ma and Pa were chatting, while Ma kept glancing in my direction and frowning.
She turned to me, still guzzling down the disgusting porridge. "Work harder," she simply said, and clicked her tongue.
I stopped my chopsticks halfway and frowned back at her. I was trying my hardest, but they just couldn't accept that. The expected me to be just like them, powerful and perfect. No flaws, no clumsiness, fast, strong. Every single bloody faultless thing to be within me. Perfectionists.
Come to think of it, Rin was exactly like them. Perfect and flawless. No wonder they wanted me to "Follow her example."
Without my noticing, the pickled radish juice thing had slid down to my fingers and made them all… wet. The chopsticks slid, and I tried to catch onto them, but they somehow got flicked up and punctured a dent in my forehead.
"Clumsy oaf," Rin muttered as she came out of her tent.
Of course, she didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn for training. Oh no, she woke up at any time of day or night, with no training, and a meal waiting ready for her.
Her eyes were soft and clear with a challenge, but I rejected it with a slight narrowing of my own eyes, and a small shake of the head. She smirked, and I saw her mouthing, "Coward."
Gritting my teeth in a firm, straight line, I picked up the chopsticks, practically crushing them to dust with the force of my hands. A thin crack appeared on one of them.
"Don't destroy the chopsticks," Ma said her back still to me.
Yeah, don't destroy the chopsticks, Kyasa, Rin mouthed mockingly to me.
I 'hmphted!' and returned to my own tent, all the while with Rin's tongue out like a frog's waiting for a fly. I wanted to be a fly that could grab it and burn it to a crisp. Sadly, that would not happen.
Picking up my fire-fan from the floor, I aimed casually to a little piece of cloth with Rin scribbled on it on the other side of the tent. The area around it was all burnt like a bush fire, thanks to my poor aim. Amazingly enough, I actually hit it, and I burnt it slightly.
Rin and I were nothing alike, even though Ma and Pa told me we were sisters. She had black hair and eyes, which she probably got from Ma. I had silvery, white hair, thanks to Pa, and feral, yellow eyes, also credits to him. I had a few, weird, purple lines on my left cheek, I think also from him, but weird, wolfish ears, which no-one else had, including Ma. Really weird.
"Kyasa! Accuracy Practice!" Rin yelled thoughtfully through my door.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered back.
I emerged, her playing with some stones by the river, with Ma cooking some fish. Fish, yum, Radish, yum, PICKLED Radish, even better. Pa was obviously waiting in the forest for my practice.
With my trusty fan in my hand, I went into the woods where Pa was awaiting.
He was waiting in the middle ring, a tree obviously marked out with something red I'd rather not think about.
He nodded towards it.
Taking a deep breath, I mustered the 'fire' within me, and it shot out the fan. Missed, too high.
"Useless," Pa muttered. It seemed to be his favourite word lately.
I tried the casual flick that I had done in my tent. No, no good. I hit a bird flying, which was pretty damn good, but no tree.
Last one and I managed to just graze the red cross. I could have jumped with joy, but kept my feet firmly on the earth.
I could see by Pa's look that he wasn't that happy. Something along the lines of, "Out of three shots, you only managed to hit the cross once? And that was a fluke, of pure chance. Shame."
He shook his head with disappointment. Yep, I was right.
I tried again and again, but I just could not do it.
Rin emerged from the direction of the camp, and managed to send one of the stones in her hand to the exact centre of the cross. Bloody brat. Pa looked at her in approval while she smirked evilly at me.
How can I survive in this place anymore?
An idea struck me like a baseball bat in the head. Why not? It sounded good. I grinned, happy with this thought. If I could just work it our properly, it could work out. And I could do it soon. Like tonight.
I could run away tonight…