Politics of Mice - People are Confusing

Yumika was going to disappear from the public eye for a bit. I didn't have any solution that would let me appear in two places at once.

As a fan of the series, I had experimented with trying to replicate the shadow clone jutsu, but it was really expensive to pull off, and very unreliable.

For now, figuring this out will have to do…

Ram… Snake… Tiger…

The signs for the academy clone technique.

I had three kinks to figure out to apply this.

Pulling it off, getting around them just being visual illusions, and getting them to do something other than mirroring my movements.

It was far from a permanent solution, but if I pulled it off, it could buy me time to figure out the shadow clone well enough.

When I had chakra, I practised the jutsu. While recovering, I practised with the staff. I attended the classes as Rukia, and I made sure I was rested in time for my meetings with Isae and the doctor.

Taekwondo, archery, my lessons with Natsuhi, and basically everything else was put on pause.

Natsuhi didn't know about Hei and Rukia.

She knew something was going on, but I told her that it wouldn't work if she knew.

There were… obvious moral implications to what I was doing. A lot of stories explored the idea of pretending to be someone else, and the most common theme is the deception coming back to bite them. Hell, a Naruto fic I read once was very close to this situation, what was it? 'A Drop of Poison'?

So I made a silent declaration to myself.

I will reveal everything when it's over.

I was Rukia.

I was waiting outside of class.

Where are they?

I'd been hanging out with them almost every day most of the week, and had taken to meeting them outside and following them in.

Class would be starting soon, and neither Beniyo nor Waho had shown up yet.

They probably finally decided I was too much trouble…

Bad Ru-mika. No self destructive thoughts.

The bastion of positivity held a whole second, but was quickly drowned away when my mind jumped to Kin.

It's happening again…

Oh, god, I was going to tear up.

A shadow loomed over me, and I looked up from the floor, hopeful.

It wasn't them.

A dignified looking girl from our age group stood over me, an arm socially pinning me to the wall. A feat made possible by virtue of Rukia being short. She had dark brown hair and black eyes. She looked down her nose at me

I was the dirt beneath her feet.

"So you're the girl they replaced me with."

I flinched at the tone, like a biting winter breeze, but there was something else…

"Hey, leave her alone!"

Beniyo had arrived, and stood at the top of a nearby stairway with her arms folded and her back straight. So unapologetically cool.

Gainax Pose.

Backing her up was Waho, leaning against the wall.

The nameless girl backed off and I slid down the wall to the ground. She flicked her hair out of her face, before she strode into a different classroom.

Beniyo jogged down to meet me.

"Sorry, we had to take the long way. Don't mind Asuri, she's just a meanie. Are you okay?"

I kept staring lamely the direction Asuri had gone.

"She..."

She seemed sad.

Beniyo helped me to my feet.

"Come on, we're late."

I managed a slight strained smile, as Beniyo pulled me to class. Waho silently backing her up as usual.

What had all that been about?

Girls are confusing.

The weekend rolled around, which meant fight club.

So I was Hei.

I needed to fight a clan ninja to prove myself to Motoe.

So I needed the teach' to arrange a fight between me and one of them.

I also needed to make sure that they didn't break that down by having Motoe lose to a clan ninja afterwards.

Friendships were smothered, while the fires of arrogance and animosity raged.

That was the pattern I noticed last time. So those were the rules I operated by if I wanted to get the Teach to set the fights the way I wanted.

It also meant I should avoid trying to act friendly with Motoe in line of sight of the Teach.

It was with this in mind, that I picked a mark, and shoulder checked him as I made my way 'to the railing to watch the ongoing fight'. Well in view of the medic who ran things.

"Hey!"

I leaned my head back to look at him, a lazy expression on my face.

"What? You have a problem with me?"

He spluttered at my confidence. Was probably hoping that I would be intimidated by him being one of the clan kids.

"Yeah, I do."

He strode up.

I turned, and leaned against the railing. Smirking at him in the kind of way I knew could infuriate a person.

"Ah-a-a. Ya gotta wait your turn."

I could almost feel the medics' eyes on me. If I judged her right…

"Match. Next up, Motoe, you're up against Funida."

…she would let the brat's anger fester before letting him have his shot. Probably sometime near the end.

The clan kid extra leaned close to whisper.

"You know what the difference between you and me is?"

Oh this was going to be good.

"...I'm from the Kureto clan and you're not."

I brought my pinky out of my ear to inspect it.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

He looked like he was going to pop. How long did it take him to come up with that line?

Yumika felt kind of bad about treating the kid this way, but Hei was having the time of his life.

Motoe inched out a win and came back up to the stand, and eventually…

"Hei."

"That's me, Teach."

"You're up against Rayuki Kureta."

My grin grew feral.

I was right.

I made sure to give Motoe a subtle wink before I went down.

I'd picked out Rayuki. He was likely to take my bait, and while he wasn't the weakest of the clan ninja, he was a slow hard hitter. Which worked well for me because…

…I had a stick.

"I'm going to enjoy this."

"Haha, did your clan teach you that one?"

"Begin."

I leaned forward with a slide of my foot, and sent a thrust into his shoulder, then reset.

He hooked a fist at me.

Good form, a strong attack, if it hit me it would hurt, even with a block.

…but I had a stick.

Block.

His head was open.

Whac-

The medic stepped in and caught the staff before it impacted.

The match was over.

She gave him some shitty advice, before turning to me.

"Learn to hold back a little bit."

I shrugged and took a couple of steps.

I stopped.

"You know what the difference between you and me is?"

I looked over my shoulder with a smirk.

"I have a stick and you don't."

People started clearing out of the arena, we were the last fight.

I caught Motoe outside.

"So, wanna learn how to use a stick?"

He hesitated.

"...or ya gonna keep being a pansy?"

Again, contrary to my demeaning behaviour, he seemed to grow more confident.

"Show me."

I placed a hand on his shoulder with a feral grin.

"That's the attitude I'm looking for."

This whole pride exchange made no sense.

Boys are confusing.

I recalled something from my past life.

A friend of mine was in a bad place, and as a part of that, he was given a cat. Humans are apparently much better at taking care of others than themselves, so he had to take care of himself in order to care for the cat.

Which was why for most of the next two days, my thoughts drifted to how I'd train Motoe.

I was still unsure of myself when I found myself waiting for him to arrive. How could I teach someone something I didn't myself fully understand?

Except, no one actually understands anything. We can only reach for perfection.

I straightened my back and rolled my shoulders.

I was Hei.

Hei didn't doubt himself.

Hei was confident.

Hah, what do I have to worry about? I'm the best!

That was Hei.

A sound from the door announced Motoe's arrival, a couple of minutes late, but within reason.

"Took ya long enough, get over here."

He moved over hesitantly.

"So, first things first…"

This would be the first thing in the lesson.

I gave him a light chop on the shoulder.

"...we play tag to warm up."

I didn't usually bother with it myself, but I had a 'cat' to take care of.

He seemed disappointed, but I still had some faith to go on before he backed out. The goal was to get him something he could recognise as useful before his faith ran out.

So we played tag. He was too focused to notice, but he was definitely faster and tougher. I stopped us before I started reaching my limits, so I could keep up the illusion of being unfazed.

"Alright, here…"

I tossed him a water bottle.

"...it's important to stay hydrated."

Again, not something I bothered with when alone.

Time to regain some of that faith.

"Warming up is important. It loosens up the body, and lets us better soak up the motions we're going to be learning."

I was bullshitting out of my ass. I didn't know why warm ups were important, but he didn't either. What was important here was that I sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

I grabbed my staff, and tossed him the extra one Natsuhi used.

"First things first, get used to holding that thing."

Huh, know what Ichino? I get it now. Randomly tossing things at people who are expected to catch them, is sort of amusing.

"Get a feel for the balance…"

I held my staff out horizontally with a straight arm.

"...the material…"

I stepped towards a training dummy, hitting it like I was using a bat, with a sharp tap.

"...and the weight."

I brought the staff back, and slid my grip so that I was holding the bottom, before smacking down on the dummy with a larger swing, resulting in a satisfying thunk.

"Now…"

I patted my left shoulder with a feral grin.

"...hit me."

He hesitated, but in the face of my bravado, committed to the action.

I blocked, naturally.

While I was barely moved by the exchange, he was fumbling over himself-.

"Now…"

I tapped his left shoulder with my staff.

"...I'm going to hit you, there."

I adjusted my footing and my grip.

"Stop me."

I pressured him, but waited until he had something up before hitting him with a full powered swing.

He fell over.

"Get up, and hit me!"

He struggled up to his feet, and got ready again.

Whack.

Better…

…but I held while he stumbled.

"Are you going to win a fight by falling over? Fix your footing."

I adjusted.

"Stop me!"

Whack.

"Hit me."

Whack.

"Stop me."

Whack.

Whack.

Whack.

"You're getting it!"

I adjusted my pose.

"Faster!"

Block. Whack.

Block. Whack.

Block. Whack.

…

"Ok, let's stop for now. Drink some water."

He was a lot more tired out than me, despite his superior stamina. Which was understandable, he moved a lot more than I did.

5 minutes later…

"Alright, other side now."

He picked it up a lot quicker, he had some idea of what worked now and what didn't, so it was just applying the same ideas.

I still drilled him until he was steady.

…

"Since you managed that one so quickly…"

I tapped his chest with the tip of my staff.

"Next step, thrusts."

…

"Alright, water."

5 minutes later…

I didn't need to tell him to get ready this time.

"Now if you fail this…"

I tapped his head.

"...you will die."

I didn't give him time to think.

I did an overhead heavy swing, the one that beat him in our earlier fight.

I definitely put the fear of God in him.

But the only god here is me!

Thing is, the overhead block with the staff was very intuitive.

The thunk of wood on wood announced his success.

"Good! Now hit me back!"

I think I might have awakened something, because he unleashed a fear induced battlecry with his swing.

Thunk.

"Again!"

…

Then we were done for the day.

"Alright, good progress."

Motoe, out of breath, didn't seem to agree.

"We… didn't do anything."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, we covered just about everything."

Motoe sat upright. The aggravated look on his face was like I was keeping him from the fountain of youth.

"Bullshit."

"Fighting isn't that complicated. I hit you, and you hit me. The one who doesn't stop the other loses. That's all there is to it."

I crouched down to his eye level with a serious expression.

"If you master those four blocks, no one will ever be able to hit you ever again. If you never get hit, you never lose. Which is why we're going to do this again, and again, and again, until you know that stick better than yourself. Got it?"

Then I bounced back to my feet with a laugh.

"...but you've got a long way to go before we get there."

I turned and left with a wave.

"Cya."