YAY YAY YAY! IT's time for another installment of COTF: ROTL! And each one is more fun than the last. This time around, I'm subjecting Kouga to the insanity. and those weird Bird thingies are in here too.

And on a completely different note, I'm going to ACEN! It starts in two days and I'll be there and in costume as Sumomo from Chobits. that's right, I'll be (probably) the only freckle-faced one there. If you see me, say hi. IF you see my courier style Fruits Basket bag, you are in the presence of this and one other fanfic, in its infancy. Feel free to give encouragement, but all demands for me to write more and quicker must be submitted in the form of a composition book. Heehee! Those are what I write in. I can take them anywhere, and writing things out by hand forces me to go back and edit when i type them up. Otherwise, I don't bother. Nyah!

I'd also like to take this time to seriously thank my one reviewer. You totally rock! You've proven that my fic is good, and everybody else is just lazy! Feel free to ask more questions if you're confused at any time. I'll be sure to post the answers quick as a snap!

And finally, we managed to put down the Inu cast strike. I mean seriously, why do they need me to feed them?

Rejected Pokémon

It is often the case that two people involved in a love/hate relationship will be terribly entertaining to watch. There are whole sitcoms, movies and quite a few books that grew successful based solely on this phenomenon.

Being dead and several hundred years before the advent of such sitcoms and books in no way detracted from the entertainment value of such a couple. Being often sucked into the middle of their arguments against your will did.

What's more, the very fact that Aki had never been particularly partial to such stories completely removed any enjoyment she might otherwise have derived from Fred and Kikyou's company. That is, if she would allow herself to stay in their company long enough for them to do more than a cursory attempt to draw her into the middle of their frequent arguments before running so quickly as to leave them behind to continue arguing or get past whatever had caused the disagreement on their own.

Generally, Aki's swift desertion of the pair would inevitably lead to their favorite argument over which one of them was more to blame for driving the poor woman into avoiding them In the first place.

In short, Aki spent most of her time leaping from tree to tree far ahead of her two dead companions just as she was right now. That is, until she missed a tree and landed on a rising feather.

Aki blinked down at the humongous feather that was somehow holding her weight above the ground despite all sane logic and the efforts of gravity to the contrary.

"Who are you?" A loud voice muttered, wonderment leeching all demand from the question.

Aki was truly amazed at the number of physical laws this damn feather was breaking before adding the ability to carry two adult-sized females into the picture.

The red-eyed woman's eyes hardened as she again demanded Aki identify herself. "Who are you?"

"I often wonder that myself as of late," Aki smiled. "So much of me has changed in so short a period of time it is growing very difficult to tell what is me now, and what is me no longer. But as you didn't know me then anymore than you know me now I suppose I could give you my call-name if you would deign to give me yours."

The feather rider blinked half in confusion and half in frustration. "That doesn't make any sense at all."

"Sure it does, but you'd have to take it one sentence at a time and piece together its meaning at your own pace," Aki replied.

"Are you always so difficult when asked a simple question?" The strange youkai asked not really knowing what to make of her sudden guest.

"Only after spending several days with horribly contentious dead people as my only company," Aki replied with a shrug.

"You're terribly strange," the dark haired youkai declared.

"I never claimed to be normal. Besides you're one to talk, you fly around on a feather," Aki crossed her arms comfortably.

"Well I already knew I wasn't normal," the stranger grumbled.

"You wouldn't want to be normal anyway," Aki snorted, "it's over rated. You'd have to wear the same things as everybody else, talk like everybody else, think like everybody else. Being a conformist is just another name for inmate in the prison that is societal opinion. Normal is almost as rotten as being popular. It's tiresome and a tighter prison than your basic normality."

"I never thought of it that way," the stranger blinked.

"Most people don't," Aki shrugged. "Then again, a lot of people like the security of knowing what is allowable and what isn't. Free thinkers in the wrong situation threaten that and can incite people to rioting and lynching." She glanced over the scenery pensively, "It also depends on the type of free thinker as well. Violent rebels are more likely to incite violence than peaceful ones."

"Like calls to like," the feather dipped in a rather strong current of air.

"Exactly." Aki nodded. "So what are you doing? You do seem to have some purpose you know and if you keep moving in this direction I'll be forced to leave you."

"I'm following orders," the stranger spat angrily. "I am the wind! But I am forced to submit to a harness."

Aki blinked, "Okay then, Windy. Are these orders so distasteful to you? What are they anyway?"

"My name is Kagura!" Her red eyes flashed.

"I'm known as Aki to most," Aki replied nonchalantly.

Kagura blinked. "My orders are to find an undead Miko and basically harass her."

"No wonder you're not pleased," Aki commented dryly. "Kikyou's already in a bad mood, what with Fred harassing her about 'doing things'. In fact they haven't done more than argue for days."

"It does not matter, orders are orders," Kagura sighed.

"Perhaps," Aki declared flippantly. "But forewarned is forearmed as I was often told when I was younger."

"True," Kagura nodded her thanks.

"In any case, I'm avoiding the both of them so this is where I get off," Aki smiled and prepared to launch herself from the feather.

"Wait," Kagura grabbed her arm. "You're not worried about me hurting your companions?"

Aki snorted, "they're already dead, what could you do? Fred doesn't have a corporeal form to hurt and Kikyou's a frigging miko. Really, what is there to worry about?"

Kagura didn't know whether to be insulted or relieved, she kind of liked this strange unassuming youkai. "Luck to you."

"Freedom to you," Aki replied with a half smile.

"Is that what your people say to each other?" Kagura asked confusedly. She'd never heard anyone wish someone freedom before.

"No, but it's much more meaningful to wish you something you want." And then Aki launched herself off the feather into the air.

Thanks to the elevation of Kagura's feather, Aki was actually able to take flight, and since the wind was with her, she covered quite a lot of ground in the direction of a somewhat rocky region kept company by a waterfall and a pack of rather scruffy looking wild wolves. Wolves who were having a small bit of trouble with an airborne assailant that looked rather like a demented flying jigglypuff with humanoid horns sticking out of their foreheads.

Aki really didn't know what to make of the situation as crazy wolf-speaking human-looking figures broke onto the scene on the side of the wolves and laid into the flying pokemon rejects quite viciously. In all honesty, she was quite content to stay back and watch until she knew which side deserved her help and whether or not she wanted to bother getting involved.

And she would've got away with it too if it weren't for that green baseball wannabe attacking her, as one of the flying fiends had spotted her and gave chase.

"Well, da-yam!" Aki muttered, as she inevitably got up close and ugly with the gravity-defying monstrosity. Did this thing ever smell bad or what? It was the smell of a chicken coop that hadn't been cleaned out for too long and had managed to produce and crack half a dozen rotten eggs to boot. "I do believe you," she grunted as she smacked the thing into the waterfall with the back of her skillet, "could use a bath!"

The ball of outraged drenched feathers and scales hissed at her as it launched itself at her rather haphazardly. It managed to slam her into the hard rocky ground with the full force of its clumsy weight, trapping both her and it on the ground while the chaos of the altercation around them continued.

Aki may not have been formally trained in any form of martial arts, but she had a mean kick and knew how to throw a good punch and when the situation called for it, as it did now, she could claw and bite with the best of them.

Somehow, the thing managed to catch her left arm in its mouth and clamped its teeth on her shoulder. Aki screamed more in surprised than anything else and released her miko powers into its maw without a single thought. The bird of paradise's left cheek burst out the side of its face like a balloon filled with watery red goo and thicker things.

"Oh Ew! Bleh!" Aki gasped in disgust at the taste it left in her mouth. She rushed to the clear waters under the waterfall and dove in depositing her miraculously clean shoulder bag on the shore on the way. Really how did that thing always manage to remain completely out of the path of whatever blood, gore or what have you, even while she couldn't? She dove into the water without any real thought to the consequences and furiously began to scrub the reddish goop off her skin and hair.

When she resurfaced, she was just in time to see the wolves and their men finish off her attacker. Aki shook her head; the crazy bird ball's death really had been inevitable she just had to convince herself of that. It wasn't her fault. This death hadn't been because of her. Nope and Fred would take up ballet and play the sugar plum fairy next Christmas. She snorted, but it would've been something to see.

Aki hauled herself out of the cool water near where she'd launched herself into it only to find a bevy of wolves sniffing around her bag. She must be going up in the world, before it was just one dog at a time, now she was surrounded by an entire pack of wolves. What was it with her and canines?

"Hey, fluff balls, do step away from the bag, I kind of need to get into it," Aki grumped at the milling pack of wolves good-naturedly

"Oi Bitch! Show them some respect!" a gruff voice demanded. "Who are you and what are you doing in my territory."

Aki ignored him in favor of focusing more on walking through the pack of wolves to get to her bag. "What is it you guys always seem to find so fascinating about my bag? I mean really, it's just a bag." She wondered out loud. This was kind of like walking through tall furry grass, only the grass had enough strength and substance to knock her on her ass if she didn't pay attention.

The fur-clad speaker from before gave off a rather menacing growl before launching an attack at her head. Aki would've liked to say she ducked on her own, but in all truth she really hadn't noticed the attack. Her dodge out of the way at that moment was manufactured by an accidental bad step that caused her to roll her ankle and give the wolves an opening to knock her flat on the ground. Then the real attack came with curious wet noses and affectionate licks.

"Oh stop it! You big bunch of overgrown puppies!" Aki let out a strained laugh. "That tickles!"

"Oi! Bitch I'm talking to you!" the furry-skirt-with-tail wearing guy growled at her again.

Aki was a bit busy shoving the amorous four-legged animals away from her so she could rise up off the ground. "I live," She mock gasped as she came to her feet above the fog of fur around her calves. "Damn," she muttered, "too bad Fred wasn't around, he would've gotten a kick out of that."

The strange guy's growl escalated into a snarl of outrage. His two companions fought to restrain him, pleading with him to contain his anger. "C'mon Kouga," the one whined slightly, despairing at his pleas possible effectiveness. "There's no need to attack her. She's obviously on our side if the Birds attacked her too."

"Yeah Kouga," the other pleaded, "Besides the pack brothers seem to like her. Maybe she's just deaf and means no disrespect," He finished rather hopefully.

"Sorry, buyos," Aki cut in after finally having retrieved her bag and the towel it contained, "But neither of your arguments holds any merit." She flicked some of the excess water from her hair. "Just because we happened to have been attacked by the same batch of yoyos doesn't make us the best of friends." Kouga growled a little louder, "And by now I've proven I'm not deaf. I just refuse to suffer an interrogation before being allowed to get cleaned up and dried off, thank you very much! And I figured that somebody who smelled that strongly of Kagome would understand that!"

"Kagome-nee-san!" The two restraining youkai gasped in surprise just as Kouga's sharp growl was abruptly cut short.

"How do you know my Woman?" Kouga demanded.

"I doubt very much that Kagome actually agreed to that rubbish," Aki commented dryly.

"She really does know Kagome-nee-san," one of the two murmured to the other.

Kouga glared at his two companions, forcing them to cower in fear of his wrath. "Answer the Question!" my but he's impatient.

"Gee you're so charming," Aki muttered "I can see how Kagome couldn't help but be swayed into a high opinion of you. You must've had to beat her off with a stick." Aki ran the towel over her hair again, wondering if she should just change her clothes before judging Kouga's face to be quite enraged enough by her evasion of the question. She sighed tiredly before answering the question; "I was Kagome's tutor, once upon a time."

Kouga looked her up and down with disbelief. "I can't believe that my Kagome would actually take lessons from someone like you," he declared disgustedly.

Now just what the hell did he think she taught? Aki let out a few choice phrases in her native language. What was with all of Japan? Did she somehow miss the seminar where all women tutors in the feudal era were whores? "Now just what the hell are you thinking?" She demanded in Japanese. "I was her Language tutor. I taught her my native language!" Then she added a particularly vicious insult in French just for good measure.

"Keh, what would a woman know about Languages?" Kouga was stupid enough to ask without thinking about it.

Aki chuckled, "Who uses speech more than a woman? I don't see many men gathering to gossip anywhere I go do you? And I don't see men spending all the time around children that it would take to teach them proper language." She added another insult in yet another language just for good measure.

"What the hell gibberish do you keep saying about me?" Kouga demanded getting seriously suspicious.

Aki just smiled sweetly, "What does it matter, you over-bearing pain in the ass?"

"Wench!"

"Jack ass!"

"Bitch!"

"Cur!"

"I'M NOT A DOG! THAT'S DOG TERD!" Kouga screamed.

Aki blinked, "Who?"

"Ah, Kouga," one of the other two wolf-youkai tried to interrupt.

"Shut up!" the wolf prince bellowed.

Aki chuckled softly, "Really it's been fun and all that, but we do need to get down to why Kagome would leave you with your jewel shards."

That got their attention. "What do you mean?"

"Well, from what I can see, Kouga has two of them," Aki replied blandly. "One shard in each leg. I can only think that Kagome left them there for one of two reasons," Aki absently secured her bag over her should and draped the towel over top of it to dry. "One reason is that she could've decided that they were perfectly alright where they were and she left them because she'd at least know where they were. Another reason would be that you kidnapped Kagome and the shards and her friends were just so glad to save Kagome they left the shards behind happy enough to know where they were."

One of Kouga's companions whispered to the other "She's not too far off about the kidnapping thing, is she?" To which the other told him rather firmly to shut up before Kouga heard him.

"In either case there's no way to verify it is there?" Aki thought out loud.

"You can see the Jewel shards?" Kouga was incredulous. To think there was actually two women running around that could actually see where the shards were. Still, given the choice, Kagome was still his pick. She at least wasn't so blatantly…well um, like this one.

Aki held up her tinkling case of Shikon fragments, "If I couldn't, these would've been a lot harder to find."

"Hand them over!" Kouga demanded. If he captured more shards and presented them to Kagome… hey she might just like him the right way. Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

"I will not! I don't know if you stole those shards you've got from Kagome and I worked too hard to find these." Aki wrapped her fingers around the film tube more firmly.

"And we don't know if you're really a friend of Kagome's or not! You could be lying about being her tutor or whatever you claimed you were. For all we know you're like Naraku, planning to take over the world when nobody's looking," Kouga declared pompously. He really was putting his whole heart into relieving Aki of her shards as a way to gain Kagome's favor.

"What would I want with a world?" Aki snorted. "It's a rotten horrible place and you can keep it!"

"That's what you want us to think!" Kouga yelled.

"Oh please! That argument didn't even work for Shippou! And he's a lot cuter than you," As if cuteness had anything to do with the stupidity of the argument.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Maybe I just thought you'd be smart enough to realize how stupid it sounded, my mistake."

"So where does that leave us?" The male with the patch over his eye asked.

"Damned if I know?" his brother replied.

"It means we'll have to settle this some other way," Aki sighed.

"Bring it on!" Kouga growled cockily, expecting a fight.

"How about a race?" Aki suggested.

"A…Race?" Kouga's jaw dropped.

"You want to race Kouga?" Ginta Asked flabbergasted.

"That's what I said isn't it?" Aki shrugged. "Really I thought the stupidity was limited only to him," she pointed at Kouga.

"Watch it, Bitch!"

"Flea bag!"

"You really want to race?" Hakkaku asked her again.

"Yep," Aki replied evenly. "Half my shards against half your shards."

"Are you kidding?" Ginta blinked in further disbelief. "You have a great deal more Shikon than Kouga does."

"Shut up!" Kouga snarled.

Aki nodded, "I don't think I'll lose. You can even use your shards if you want."

"Why only half the Shikon shards? Why not all of them?" Kouga demanded.

"I already told you, I put too much effort into getting my hands on these. To wager them all on one race would be foolish," Aki replied evenly.

"So you think you'll lose," Hakkaku said.

"I'm acknowledging the possibility of that outcome. Only a fool wouldn't honestly consider the chance of failure. But I don't think it'll happen," Aki shrugged. "A tie is more likely than me outright losing. In that event neither one of us actually gains or loses anything."

"As if you could actually keep up with me," Kouga asserted smugly, rather firm in the belief of his own ability.

"I don't know why I wouldn't be able to," Aki said blandly. "I've yet to meet a youkai that I couldn't dance circles around."

"Yeah, but this is the first time you've met Kouga," Ginta pointed out.

"And those other youkai were first time acquaintances too," Aki returned. "Really, you shouldn't try to restrain strange youkai who have challenged you in a seemingly foolish manner that appears to be mostly in your favor. I mean, as awesome as I think you are for trying to do right by me, I should point out that it's your friend you think has the advantage and your friend's good fortune will transmit to you in one way or another I should think. Trying to convince me not to put forth such a large portion of the Shikon as a wager or to talk me out of the race completely isn't the wisest thing you could be doing at this time. It's certainly nice of you, but hardly wise."

Ginta and Hakkaku blinked at each other in surprise. They hadn't thought of it that way.

Aki smiled at their bewilderment. "Well at least I know you won't let either of us cheat." Indeed they were much too stupid to think that they could allow one or the other of them to win falsely. "Which is good because somebody's going to have to monitor and referee this crazy race."

"You're dead serious about this crazy race aren't you?" Kouga couldn't believe it. Most people, human and/or youkai, would just fight this out. "You definitely have to be a friend of Kagome's," he muttered softly to himself.

Aki didn't bother to comment on anything the wolf youkai said. Partially because they answered themselves and partially because it was better they weren't aware of just how good her hearing actually was. Instead she went about setting up the racecourse and rules. "See that tree way over there?" she pointed to a lone bush like tree that stood some distance away. "Whoever manages to get there and back wins. The rules are simple enough. Run your fastest, run around the tree, and cross the line first. You may take whatever route you want and you must stay on the ground. No flying. And there's really no need for blows, checking into rock surfaces, and so on." Aki had quite pleasantly made it this far without actually suffering the evil witches spell, she'd like that to continue. "And since these two honorable gents are so concerned about me being cheated or swindled, they'll be here watching the finish line and watching for us to round that tree. They get to judge who won if for some reason it happens to be a close race."

"It most certainly won't be a close race!" Kouga boasted. "I'll be leaving you drowning in my dust!"

"Alright then," Aki shrugged off her shoulder bag. "If you two gentlemen would be so kind as to start us off."

Ginta glanced at Hakkaku and Hakkaku glanced at Ginta. Since when were they considered gentlemen? Together they shrugged in unison as Ginta stepped up to draw a line in the moist dirt at their feet.

Kouga came up to the line eager to have this sorry excuse for a race over with already. This wasn't worth the time they were wasting on it. It was a foregone conclusion that he would win the race. No question about it.

Aki stayed a few steps behind the line. She really didn't see a reason to act like this was going to be a particularly difficult race. Nor did she desire to get too close to any of the males, the urasue may be dead, but it was better to be cautious.

Hakkaku stood on the other end of the line Ginta had drawn and studied the strange female bouncing on the balls of her feet behind Kouga. She was very strange, to be sure, but he still couldn't figure out why Kouga couldn't accept that she was a friend of Kagome who was just as strange.

"Ready?" Ginta asked.

Both nodded in a manner befitting their respective temperaments and mood.

"Start!" Ginta and Hakkaku ordered together.

And the space in front of them was empty. The two wolf youkai turned to watch the two contestants speed towards the distant tree. Kouga was running full tilt as always, his form and posture so very familiar to them. But hers…the strange youkai female appeared to be easily keeping up with Kouga's determined pace and all while maintaining the air of merely taking a leisurely stroll to keep neck and neck with him.

"You think she's pacing him just so that he'll be sure to see her get to the tree at the same time as him?" Ginta asked his companion quietly.

"As difficult as it is to believe, I think that's just what she's doing. She's making sure he sees that she didn't cheat just as surely as she's making sure we know it." Hakkaku commented to his brother in awe.

The milling wolves at their feet whined in boredom. They couldn't understand why their youkai kin refused to recognize what they sensed so easily. She was powerful, yes. She was strange, yes. But she was gentle and good. They knew this, could sense it almost instinctually.

"They've rounded the tree," Ginta commented.

"Look at her go!" Hakkaku exclaimed in disbelief.

Kouga was still running as he always did, full tilt and too fast to really see, but Aki was quickly leaving him behind. She ran so fast the dust didn't have the chance to stir up in answer to her passing, so they could clearly see the rampant disbelief painting Kouga's face.

Aki began to dig in her heals to slow herself down long before she crossed the finish line and she still skid past them and into the shallows of the pool of water she had previously dunked her self in. "Safe," she shouted somewhat playfully. Nobody understood what she was getting at, so the word didn't meet with the smiles and humor it might've somewhen else.

Kouga finished as she stepped out of the water. "I can't believe you beat me," he blinked rapidly. It wasn't possible was it? He had the shards; no one should be able to beat him.

"I'll collect my winnings from you at a later date," Aki declared dismissively. "Winners privilege, I collect when I choose. And I don't need them just yet." To be totally honest, she had decided before the race that these guys weren't bad guys and that Kagome had quite probably left them on purpose. The two wolf brothers and this Kouga guy himself had proved that they both knew Kagome as a friend by both their actions and their side comments to themselves. Comments they hadn't thought she could hear.

"All that and you're just going to leave the prize here?" Ginta asked rather confused.

Aki grinned, "There you go again, trying to talk me into taking away from you instead of being generous."

The wolf brother blushed, chagrined.

"Don't worry about it though," Aki picked up her bag. "You can't persuade me out of my seeming insanity," she smiled. "Bye-bye boys." She turned and began to run away from them.

Kouga stared after the crazy female, still flabbergasted at his loss. He couldn't lose; it just couldn't be possible. He had the shards, he used the shards, and he hadn't gone easy on her either. How could she have won? "She must have cheated," Kouga's eyes narrowed in thought as he mumbled his first thought of denial aloud. "That's it! She cheated! Get back here bitch! Lets have an honest rematch, you cheating wench!"

Ginta looked at Hakkaku, Hakkaku looked at Ginta and both sighed. The wolf brothers and the pack of milling wolves watched after Kouga as their leader took off to chase down the female that had the speed and gall to beat their mighty prince in a fair race.

Wearily they chased after the wolf youkai set on a mission for a rematch.