Chapter 15:

Spider Kelso surveyed the remains of the sparring robot morosely. He picked up the disembodied head and gazed at it a moment.

"Alas, poor Ardy – I knew him well," he intoned.

Kirsten bopped him lightly on the head. "Save it."

Tamisé smothered a laugh. "Can you fix him, Spider?"

Spider looked around. "Gentlemen… we can rebuild him."

"Alright," Kirsten said, pointing a finger at him and shaking it. "No more Space channel for you. And no more coffee, either."

Spider laughed. "Oh, stubble it, Kirsty dear. Don't know why you're so upset. Ardy's designed to take a beating."

"She's upset because she found out a few things about our guest that he conveniently forgot to tell her." Tamisé grinned and put an arm about Kirsten's shoulders. "Don't worry, darlin'. He's got a good long way to go before he's better than you." He bussed her cheek loudly.

"I really don't know if I can help him, Tam."

"Oh, now, darlin', of course you can. At least you don't have to go back to square one the way I had to do with you."

Kirsten turned her face towards her mentor's chest and allowed him to hug her tightly. Other than Jonathan, there was no man she trusted more completely than Tamisé. And if he said she could run to the moon and back again under her own steam, she would believe it to be true.

"We had this little talk about trust a few days ago, but apparently, he still doesn't trust me enough."

Tamisé smiled down at her. "Inuyasha's only known you a few weeks, darlin'. And he's known the rest of us only a few days. Trust doesn't come easily to him, living as he's had to. The only one he trusts without reservation is Kagome – and he's not even sure about her right now."

Kirsten made a non-committal sound. "I think I'll leave Spider to deal with Ardy, and take Inuyasha out for the afternoon. Maybe take him over to the Islands and see if we can find a quiet place to talk."

Tamisé shook his head. "He wouldn't like the wait for the ferry, dearest. Remember how dense the crowds are? He'd be panicky."

"Yeah," she sighed. "You're right. I'll think of something else."

OoOoOo

Inuyasha tried the door to Kirsten's lab and found it locked. After the Ardy incident, Kirsten had had TC take Inuyasha to the cafeteria for a break while the robot's remains were dealt with. He had gone back to the training room, only to be told by Spider that Kirsten had gone to her office.

"Is she in there, Sharon?"

"Yeah – she's in. What – has she locked the door again?" Sharon got up and tried the door. "She's probably still upset. Maybe I'd better get Jon or Tam."

Inuyasha lowered his ears. "Did I upset her? I thought… thought she'd be pleased."

"She gets like this sometimes. Don't worry about it." Sharon banged on the door, but there was no answer. She tried the intercom.

"Kirsty, Inuyasha's here to see you."

There was no response. Sharon sighed and picked up the phone. "Hey, Jon. Need you to pry Kirsty out of her lab."

Sharon put the phone down and folded her arms. "Jon will be up in a few minutes."

"What have I done?" Inuyasha folded himself onto the floor and propped his chin in his hands. "Is she angry over what I did to the robot?"

"Heavens, no! My guess is that she just didn't realize how strong you were, Inuyasha, and it threw her a little. It came as a shock to me, that's for sure."

"I've had to learn to be gentle around humans," the half-demon murmured. "I don't want to hurt anyone by accident. I'm well aware of my strength."

"Kirsty's pretty strong, too. I've seen her lift the back end of a jeep right off the ground with only one hand."

Inuyasha did not know what a jeep was, but Sharon seemed to think it was a pretty impressive feat.

Jonathan came down the hall. "At it again, is she?"

Sharon nodded.

Jonathan nearly tripped over Inuyasha as he tried to get to the lab door. "What are you doing down there?"

"She's mad at me, Jon. I know she is."

"What happened?" Jonathan had not heard about Inuyasha's display earlier that morning, so Sharon explained. He grinned at the half-demon. "I don't think she's mad at you, Yasha. For all her capabilities, Kirsty sometimes has a lot of self-doubt. I'll talk to her."

Jonathan stepped past Inuyasha and banged on the door. "Kirsty! Getting near lunch."

"Don't want any."

"Well, at least we know she didn't slip out the back door. Kirsty – open the door." Jonathan knocked again. When there was no movement from inside, he sighed.

"Sharon, you'll have to get the custodian again. She can lock the door, but she can't keep me out."

Inuyasha leaped to his feet, staring, as Jonathan gripped the door and tore it from its hinges with a scream of metal. Down the hall, everyone stopped what they were doing to stare as Jonathan set the door carefully against the wall. Sharon did not bother to hide her grin.

"After you," Jonathan said to Inuyasha, gesturing towards the doorway.

Inside, they found Kirsten seated at her desk with her head down on her folded arms. Inuyasha crouched on the floor beside her and rested his chin on the desk. She gave him a sideways glance.

"Oh – just stop with the puppy-dog eyes, willya?"

Inuyasha grinned at her. "Nope."

She reached over and caressed his ears. "Sorry, Inuyasha. I'm just … I really don't know if I can teach you. Or what I can teach you."

"You said my technical skills with the sword sucked."

"I said they could be improved."

"Well then. There's one thing you can teach me." He bounced a little on his heels. "Are you going to get off that chair, sensei? 'Cause I'm getting a cramp crouching here like this."

"And what would you do if I decided to sit here for the rest of the day?"

Inuyasha gave a bark of laughter. He got to his feet and scooped the small mutant off the chair.

"Catch, Jon!"

Inuyasha swung about and threw Kirsten towards Jonathan. Kirsten landed in her husband's arms with a shriek.

Inuyasha planted his fists on his hips. "I want some lunch. Then I want to see what you can do, sensei. I've seen Jon and Tam, and I think it's gotta be your turn now."

Kirsten folded her arms and began to look stubborn. Jonathan got a wicked grin on his face and tossed her over his shoulder.

"I'll take you downstairs like this," he threatened, making a great show of patting her behind.

"Don't you dare! Put me down!"

"Only if you'll behave and stop feeling inadequate. You're the only one I know who can get this guy to stop swinging that sword of his around like he's swatting flies."

"I don't swat flies with the Tetsusaiga!" Inuyasha looked affronted. "I use Shippo for that."

OoOoOo

This time, it was Inuyasha's turn to sit and observe as the woman who would teach him displayed her skills. He settled back in his chair with a bottle of water while Jon sipped his coffee, perched in a chair beside him.

"She's not been able to exercise for some time," Jon said to the half-demon, "so she may be rather hyper. And after this morning, I have a feeling she may want to show you up a little."

Tamisé let himself into the room. "I heard Kirsty was down here."

Jon grinned up at him and hooked a chair over with his foot. "Show's about to begin. She's decided to wear a sensor suit so her movements can be compared with Yasha's. How's Ardy?"

"Oh – gone to pieces, poor thing," Tamisé said with a grin.

Inuyasha snorted with laughter, then sat up straighter as Kirsten finally came into the training room.

Gods! She was beautiful. The sensor suit clung to her as it did to him, but she did not wear a fighting kilt over it. The paleness of her scaled skin showed starkly against the dark fabric of the suit, and she had left her blue hair loose except for the Weaponsmaster's braid – a reminder to Inuyasha of her status.

Quiet instructions to Cerberus were issued and the room was altered for her. One of the wide balance beams came up, as well as a series of six uneven bars of various heights. In addition, at one end of the room, large metal rings came down from the ceiling at different levels, rotating a slow rate. They did not remain at static heights, but were slowly raised and lowered in a seemingly random fashion.

"Ay-yi-yi! What's our girl about?" Tamisé sucked in his breath. "Someone should be in there spotting if she's going to do that."

Jonathan shrugged. "I offered and was turned down. I'll go in if it looks like she might run into difficulty."

Kirsten curled into a ball in the middle of the room, still for a moment before Cerberus began to play the music she had requested.

"Ah! 'Midnight Blue'," Tamisé said with a nod. "She's always liked it. And it's a good one to start with."

Inuyasha watched as Kirsten uncurled, rising to her feet. Arms stretched above her head as she arched back, then she bent forward slowly. As her hands touched the floor, one leg slid back, then the other. Kirsten arched her back slightly, then slid forward until she was prone. She levered herself up so her head and torso were off the ground and held the position for a moment.

"She's doing what's called the 'Sun Salutation', Yasha," Jonathan explained. "This will be taught to you as well. It's a good exercise for stretching every part of the body."

Inuyasha nodded silently, watching as Kirsten went back into a push-up position, then slid both legs forward one at a time, until she was once again on her feet, standing curled over. Slowly, she rose, raising her arms above her head again, then bringing them back in front of her, her hands together as if she prayed. She stayed like that for one breath, then two, and then began to move again in a different form.

Inuyasha watched, mesmerized by her graceful movements. He could not envision himself moving in such a fashion. He listened closely to the song and thought that perhaps she was telling a story with her dance.

The song came to an end and the next one began, a lot more lively. Kirsten vaulted onto the balance beam and began to move along it as sure-footed on the block of wood as Inuyasha was on a tree branch. At one point, she went into a handstand position, then slightly arched her body and legs.

"Nice Scorpion pose," Tamisé said. "That's a very difficult pose to hold, Inuyasha. Requires a great deal of strength and balance. Much of what you see her do on the beam is stuff we teach all our fighters, so their balance is improved."

"But she's doing very advanced things," Jonathan said, pointing.

Kirsten was moving along the beam in a turning motion that looked difficult. Inuyasha knew that he could do that on the ground, but not on something so narrow as the beam or a tree branch. Jonathan gripped the arms of his chair, ready to move, as Kirsten placed a foot just slightly off and it looked like she could lose her balance. But she recovered and continued on.

"I oughta be in there with her," Jonathan said, sighing. "This ain't no good for my heart."

Tamisé gripped his hand. "Me too. But you know she has to do this, Jon, and preferably by herself."

The song finally ended, and Kirsten was back on the floor momentarily, before launching herself at the highest of the uneven bars. Yet another song began and Tamisé started to laugh as Kirsten began to move around the bars.

"'Gravity'! Oh – that's a good one!" The big alien chortled. "If she misses a bar, she'll have to deal with gravity, all right!"

"I never said she didn't have a sense of humour," Jonathan said.

Inuyasha said nothing, but kept his eyes on Kirsten. She was incredible – better than Tamisé in certain respects. Her progress in and around the bars was smooth and in keeping with the music.

When the music ended, Tamisé began to applaud. He opened the intercom to the training room.

"Wonderful, darlin'! Just grand. What are you doing for an encore?"

Kirsten threw a grin over her shoulder at them. "Oh – one of your favourites, Tam. Cerberus, 'Instant Replay', please."

Tamisé blanched. "Not on the rings, darlin'. Not safe."

Jonathan got to his feet. "I'm going in."

"Jon's coming in, dearest. I want you to have a spotter for something like that."

"You are all a bunch of spoilsports," Kirsten retorted. "And you don't have any faith in me."

"I have faith that you'll break your fool neck if you miss one of those rings," Jonathan yelled in the door. "At least have them stationary."

"Nothin' doin'. Cerberus, start over. I missed my cue thanks to the grannies over there."

Before Jonathan could reach her, Kirsten had grabbed one of the lower rings and swung her self up. Inuyasha sat up straighter as he sensed the tension in the two men.

Kirsten set the ring to swinging back and forth, then launched herself to another ring, flinging herself up and over so she sat within the ring. Again, she started the ring swinging. As the ring was drawn upwards, she seemed to fall backwards, catching the metal behind her knees and reaching for another ring that had come into reach. It was harder for her to keep to the pace of the music, but somehow she managed.

Although it might have looked reckless to an untrained observer, Inuyasha could see that she was clearly calculating all her moves. He knew nothing of physics or trajectories, other than what nature had taught him the hard way, but he knew he could do something like that if he put his mind to it. Inuyasha was capable of the speed required, but he wasn't sure if he was capable of the mental gymnastics his mentor was exhibiting.

Beside him, Tamisé breathed a sigh of relief when the song ended and Kirsten returned to the ground. Jonathan grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a good shake, hissing something in her ear that no one else could hear.

"Relax," she told him. Putting her hands on either side of his face, she kissed Jonathan soundly. "I'm going to do weapons now if that'll make you happy."

"I'll spar with you."

Kirsten shook her head. "You're not at the level I'll be working at, Jon. I'll have Cerberus generate me a partner. Go back in the observation room and sit yourself down."

Cerberus opened a panel in the wall and a rack of various kinds of weapons was revealed. Inuyasha recognized many of them and bounced a little in his chair.

Now we're talkin', he thought to himself. This is what I want… what I need to learn.

Kirsten picked up a pair of sais. "I need a partner, Cerberus."

The computer did not reply, but Jonathan began to laugh at something over his wife's shoulder.

"Huh?" Kirsten spun around. "Aack! You must be joking!"

Cerberus had generated a solidograph of Inuyasha dressed in his fire rat robes. The solidograph spun a sai negligently around and raised an eyebrow at the small mutant.

"Got a problem?" Cerberus said through the solidograph's mouth.

"Couldn't you come up with something else?" Kirsten moaned.

"I like this form," said Cerberus.

Jonathan folded his arms across his impressive chest. "You got some 'splainin' to do, Cerberus, old buddy."

"How so?"

"Just how the hell did you generate a solidograph of Inuyasha so fast? We've only just begun to work on the data."

"You've only just begun," said Cerberus. "I don't have to sleep or eat, remember. Are we talking or fighting?"

Kirsten sighed. "Why do I think I'm gonna regret this?"

The solidograph grinned saucily and licked his lips at her. "I'm gonna chase your butt all over this room, darlin'."

"Oh, just perfect. Now he sounds like Tam."

"Just watch it, you hunka circuits. I'll have Freddie punch your motherboards."

"Oooo! I'm so scared, Jon." The solidograph stuck its tongue out. "I'll have you know that there are lots of other things Freddie likes to do with my motherboards." The solidograph gave a very convincing leer.

"Aack! Too much information!" Kirsten cried, but she was laughing. "Jon, you'd better check his personality circuits. Must be a short in there somewhere for him to start talking like this."

"I'm perfectly fine," the fake Inuyasha said. "Come on, sweetie. What's the hold-up?"

Kirsten groaned again. "I can't do this! Cerberus, change form."

The solidograph remained unchanged.

"Change form, Cerberus."

"Nope. Jon, clear the room, or get caught in the cross-fire." The solidograph took a fighting stance. "Ready when you are."

Inuyasha sat on the edge of his chair, watching the scene in the training room. That solidograph looked very real and very dangerous. Did he really look so threatening before he attacked? No wonder people ran from him. He looked over as Jonathan came back into the room. The mutant looked worried and chewed his thumbnail nervously.

"Do you think I should go down to Cerberus' clean room, Tam?"

Tamisé shook his head. "He's still within parameters, Jon. Personally, I think he's just having a little fun with Kirsten. If anyone's going to bring her out of feeling inadequate, it'll be him. Don't you see how he's provoking her and throwing her off-balance?"

"So he's pretending to be me?" Inuyasha was not sure how this worked.

"Well – I think he's also giving you a lesson, lad. I think he'll use the data we've gathered on you so far to show you how you may improve. You see the stance he's taken there? I can tell even from this distance that he's not balanced perfectly – and I see you do that all the time." Tamisé patted Inuyasha's shoulder. "Just relax, my boy. Cerberus will give her a good fight, but he'll see that no real harm's done."

Inuyasha bit down hard on his knuckle as his double suddenly charged at Kirsten. There was a clash of metal as the sais met. He could see Kirsten straining to keep her opponent at bay.

Gods! It looked like the solidograph might overpower her. Was Tamisé wrong about Cerberus' intentions?