It certainly has been a while since I've posted another chapter, hasn't it?
Ah, well...Gomen, and all of that. I'll try to do better, but no
promises.
Now where were we?
Chapter 7 - Kagome Prepares
A faint whistle slices through the air and a thump is heard coming from a building with the look of an old fashioned dojo.
Inside, Kagome can be seen belly flat on the wooden floor and a diminutive ancient youkai holding a bo staff in a ready position.
Hitori-san can be visualized if one can picture a conglomeration of Cologne and Happosai, in that the facial structure is very similar to a certain panty thief, but this male youkai has the long white hair of the Amazon elder. Hitori-san is also equipped with a pair of sharp ears, aged brown eyes, and only comes up to Kagome's mid-thigh.
Kagome's torturous instructor relaxes from his stance and squats beside his student. Patting her arm elicits a groan of pain, but he has a pleased smile on his face. For one who professes to know noting of the art, she has a good grasp on its basics. He has never once had to correct her on her falling technique; she always lands without the possibility of breaking a bone.
And those reflexes...What the old youkai wouldn't give to have some of his previous demon students contain an ounce of the reflexes that this ningen girl showed. Now if only he could have her harness the speed into offensive maneuvers.
~-~-~-~-~-
Kagome hurt all over. If this was just the beginning class, she didn't want to see what the final techniques and teaching strategies were.
She could feel a certain amount of pride in something, however. All of her aches and pains were from a concentrated effort of movement and not from blows of the staff her teacher wielded. The miko always seemed to be able to dodge just enough to get out of the way.
This meant that most of the time, she had been throwing herself to the ground more often than not, thus the assorted pain. Kagome felt it was well worth it, though, when her sensei smiled at her and helped her to regain her feet. They had been at this for most of the morning, and the appointed end of class was nigh.
Hitori saw great potential in this girl, even if she was a human. He had heard of her treatment by the lord's half-brother, and still could not understand why the idiot would bypass such a useful resource that the miko could become with only a little training.
From what she told him, Kagome was treated as a worthless china-doll, left to rot in the background, and become a liability if caught by an attacking youkai or evil human. He would make sure this situation would not happen again. Although this assignment was a sop to his old age, the once formidable retired master at arms still retained the knowledge it took to train another in the deadly skills of his craft. With such an apt pupil as Kagome at his disposal, Hitori-san would be able to mold an excellent warrior; one who might have been able to rival the great Sesshoumaru-sama if she were any but a human.
With his own inner thoughts running their glorious patterns, Hitori missed Kagome's heartfelt thanks and disappearance. She still had an appointment to keep with Rin, out in the enclosed meadow under the tower that Sesshoumaru kept as his apartments.
~-~-~-~-~-~
Kagome had previously memorized the route she needed to take to get from the training hall to the place where she would pick up Rin.
Skidding to a halt at a cross-section, Kagome's new combat garments fluttered around her in a slow motion display for secret eyes in the shadows.
Kagome, although she could feel a youkai's aura, had momentarily placed her senses on hold, as she was in a castle entirely filled with the species. She was not stupid enough to completely ignore her abilities, so she left open the channel in her powers to sense immediate hostile intentions. No alarm was ringing in her head along that pathway, and the girl continued on her route to the meadow, leaving the watcher in the shadow.
All is still for a moment after her departure before the silent eyes close and then open again. This would prove most intriguing if what the watcher sensed was true.
The eyes close one last time and the being disappears from the shadows. A click is heard from the wall behind where the figure was standing, and a sliver of light momentarily outlines a doorframe before everything goes dark again.
Ordinary shadows once again gather in peace in the dark corners of the castle, but this time, there is an air of expectation in one remote corner of the palace, along the route that a simple human girl had taken to meet with a friend. Something awaits the key presence needed for fate to step in and correct a trivial flaw and throw a huge wrinkle into the life of a certain demon lord.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Speaking of demons, one might wonder what a small kitsune cub thinks about the presence of his adoptive mother, or lack thereof.
"Wah!!! I want Kagome!"
"Shippo, don't worry, I bet that Kagome-sama is with Kaede and that there's - "Miroku is interrupted.
"Miroku!" Shippo wails. "I've already been to Kaede's! She's not there, and she said she wasn't going home for another two days."
"Umm, well..." The monk is clearly at a loss.
Sango puts forth her own opinion. "Perhaps we should ask InuYasha. Maybe he knows where she is."
Shippo jumps up and declares, "That must be it! Dog-turd must have said mean things to Kagome and now she's gone back to the well and left me here." The little demon pops into his pink balloon shape and goes floating off to find InuYasha.
Miroku looks at Sango with a certain gleam in his eye and ooches closer. The exterminator narrows her own eyes and clenches a fist, popping knuckles in a clear warning.
We now switch views to follow Shippo, our protagonist's adopted son.
Floating among the foliage, Shippo uses his own sharp nose to detect where the hanyou has holed himself up.
Stopping at a tree favored by the half demon for its view, Shippo looks up and spots a glimmer of white through the leaves. He mutters to himself, "Man, I wish I had Kagome's ability to sit that mutt. Then he'd be down here on my level..."
InuYasha hears this and lands silently behind the little brat. Looming over him, the white-haired male virago shouts and scares the kid badly. "Whaddya mean 'I wish I could sit him'?!? And where is that worthless girl anyway? We have shikon shards to go find."
Now where were we?
Chapter 7 - Kagome Prepares
A faint whistle slices through the air and a thump is heard coming from a building with the look of an old fashioned dojo.
Inside, Kagome can be seen belly flat on the wooden floor and a diminutive ancient youkai holding a bo staff in a ready position.
Hitori-san can be visualized if one can picture a conglomeration of Cologne and Happosai, in that the facial structure is very similar to a certain panty thief, but this male youkai has the long white hair of the Amazon elder. Hitori-san is also equipped with a pair of sharp ears, aged brown eyes, and only comes up to Kagome's mid-thigh.
Kagome's torturous instructor relaxes from his stance and squats beside his student. Patting her arm elicits a groan of pain, but he has a pleased smile on his face. For one who professes to know noting of the art, she has a good grasp on its basics. He has never once had to correct her on her falling technique; she always lands without the possibility of breaking a bone.
And those reflexes...What the old youkai wouldn't give to have some of his previous demon students contain an ounce of the reflexes that this ningen girl showed. Now if only he could have her harness the speed into offensive maneuvers.
~-~-~-~-~-
Kagome hurt all over. If this was just the beginning class, she didn't want to see what the final techniques and teaching strategies were.
She could feel a certain amount of pride in something, however. All of her aches and pains were from a concentrated effort of movement and not from blows of the staff her teacher wielded. The miko always seemed to be able to dodge just enough to get out of the way.
This meant that most of the time, she had been throwing herself to the ground more often than not, thus the assorted pain. Kagome felt it was well worth it, though, when her sensei smiled at her and helped her to regain her feet. They had been at this for most of the morning, and the appointed end of class was nigh.
Hitori saw great potential in this girl, even if she was a human. He had heard of her treatment by the lord's half-brother, and still could not understand why the idiot would bypass such a useful resource that the miko could become with only a little training.
From what she told him, Kagome was treated as a worthless china-doll, left to rot in the background, and become a liability if caught by an attacking youkai or evil human. He would make sure this situation would not happen again. Although this assignment was a sop to his old age, the once formidable retired master at arms still retained the knowledge it took to train another in the deadly skills of his craft. With such an apt pupil as Kagome at his disposal, Hitori-san would be able to mold an excellent warrior; one who might have been able to rival the great Sesshoumaru-sama if she were any but a human.
With his own inner thoughts running their glorious patterns, Hitori missed Kagome's heartfelt thanks and disappearance. She still had an appointment to keep with Rin, out in the enclosed meadow under the tower that Sesshoumaru kept as his apartments.
~-~-~-~-~-~
Kagome had previously memorized the route she needed to take to get from the training hall to the place where she would pick up Rin.
Skidding to a halt at a cross-section, Kagome's new combat garments fluttered around her in a slow motion display for secret eyes in the shadows.
Kagome, although she could feel a youkai's aura, had momentarily placed her senses on hold, as she was in a castle entirely filled with the species. She was not stupid enough to completely ignore her abilities, so she left open the channel in her powers to sense immediate hostile intentions. No alarm was ringing in her head along that pathway, and the girl continued on her route to the meadow, leaving the watcher in the shadow.
All is still for a moment after her departure before the silent eyes close and then open again. This would prove most intriguing if what the watcher sensed was true.
The eyes close one last time and the being disappears from the shadows. A click is heard from the wall behind where the figure was standing, and a sliver of light momentarily outlines a doorframe before everything goes dark again.
Ordinary shadows once again gather in peace in the dark corners of the castle, but this time, there is an air of expectation in one remote corner of the palace, along the route that a simple human girl had taken to meet with a friend. Something awaits the key presence needed for fate to step in and correct a trivial flaw and throw a huge wrinkle into the life of a certain demon lord.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Speaking of demons, one might wonder what a small kitsune cub thinks about the presence of his adoptive mother, or lack thereof.
"Wah!!! I want Kagome!"
"Shippo, don't worry, I bet that Kagome-sama is with Kaede and that there's - "Miroku is interrupted.
"Miroku!" Shippo wails. "I've already been to Kaede's! She's not there, and she said she wasn't going home for another two days."
"Umm, well..." The monk is clearly at a loss.
Sango puts forth her own opinion. "Perhaps we should ask InuYasha. Maybe he knows where she is."
Shippo jumps up and declares, "That must be it! Dog-turd must have said mean things to Kagome and now she's gone back to the well and left me here." The little demon pops into his pink balloon shape and goes floating off to find InuYasha.
Miroku looks at Sango with a certain gleam in his eye and ooches closer. The exterminator narrows her own eyes and clenches a fist, popping knuckles in a clear warning.
We now switch views to follow Shippo, our protagonist's adopted son.
Floating among the foliage, Shippo uses his own sharp nose to detect where the hanyou has holed himself up.
Stopping at a tree favored by the half demon for its view, Shippo looks up and spots a glimmer of white through the leaves. He mutters to himself, "Man, I wish I had Kagome's ability to sit that mutt. Then he'd be down here on my level..."
InuYasha hears this and lands silently behind the little brat. Looming over him, the white-haired male virago shouts and scares the kid badly. "Whaddya mean 'I wish I could sit him'?!? And where is that worthless girl anyway? We have shikon shards to go find."