Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
CHAPTER 9 – They're Not Men.
Sesshoumaru stood once again in the corner of the dojo listening to a muttered commentary from Sango. "Kagome just knock him in the head…ouch, yes like that….Miroku's going to go for your knees if you don't stop trying that reverse attack improperly…told you so…quit trying to show off you idiot no cares and it's going to cost you…told you so again!" The last statement came on the heels of a pained and indignant shriek from Kagome and preceded a round of rather colorful expletives from said person. "Wow, she didn't use to let loose like that…" the commentary continued as the two fighting went at it again. Seeing as how the staff was a weak point with Kagome Sesshoumaru had ordered she train at it with Miroku every day till she got better. Today was the sixth, making it three weeks since her arrival. "Good…yes…NO not like that…you missed an opportunity there Kags…you're showing off again…you're showing off again…Kags quit trying to show off…if you don't stop he's going to get you aga…" Another loud shriek was heard and Sango sighed. Finally she started shouting out loud enough to be heard by more than just the demon standing next to her. "Hando this is not a bloody ball-room dance competition! Quit trying to add flare to your moves and keep your mind on the task in front of you!"
"I was just trying something a little different!" the younger woman hollered back, causing Sesshoumaru to wonder where the cool professional in her had gone.
"Well it's not working!" Sango snapped. Kikyou and Inuyasha arrived at that moment, one to watch and wait for his turn with Kagome and the other to deliver a message. "Oh hey you two, miss miko out there is trying to add spice to her style again."
"Feh, doesn't look like it's helping any judging from the two lumps on her head," the hanyou snorted.
"Well at least now she's annoyed enough to concentrate," Sango replied.
The four watched as Kagome circled Miroku, and then stood stock still, slightly hunched forward as she waited for him to attack. Miroku, thinking she had some defensive move in mind decided to thwart her little game by taking the same stance and not engaging her. Offense was her weakness, and he was going to make her come after him. Finally a frustrated shout escaped Kagome and she lunged for Miroku.
"He fell for it," Kikyou said calmly. The other three, who had all seen the look of mischief on Kagome's face despite the feigned frustration, nodded.
Miroku, thinking he'd finally have her, gave easily into her dive but in doing so flipped her over mid air and threw her to the ground, kneeling in front of her balled up form with his staff to her neck. "Nice try," he smirked, but it was all to brief a moment for him and she grabbed his staff and shot her legs out, feet planting in his chest. Since he still had a firm grip on his staff he sailed over her head and in a flash she had her staff to his throat, and her knees pinning his legs to the ground so he couldn't retaliate.
"Thanks, I thought so too," she replied panting and grinning at the same time.
"My dear Kagome, first you bash me in the head and now this?" Miroku smirked. "I'm beginning to see that unlike other women getting you flat on your back in not the wisest move!"
"You know Miroku," she chuckled, "strangely enough you're not the first guy to come to that conclusion."
Across the room Kikyou let out small sigh and shook her head. "She relies on that move too heavily, she's becoming predictable." Sesshoumaru nodded in agreement, pleased at her ability to see the fault he himself had noticed.
The four looked on as Kagome pulled Miroku up and healed the injuries the two had sustained, including a few broken fingers and toes on herself as she still hadn't learned to dodge all of the monk's attacks. Sesshoumaru once again watched the now familiar ritual of how she painstakingly repaired the damage to her fingers and wrists. He never tired of seeing the way streams of light would lace around her joints in a delicate and almost playful manner. As the two on the far end of the dojo turned to face their audience Kikyou called out to her sister, "Kagome, our mother just called."
Kagome froze in her tracks, her muscles tensing and her breathing becoming almost nonexistent. "And?"
"Chris and Reiner have just arrived," the older sibling replied evenly.
There was a brief moment of silence before Kagome leapt off the ground, punching the air and spinning as she whooped her delight. "YES! WOOOOOHOOOOO! Look out Tokyo my boys are in town and I'm gonna have me some fun tonight!" She made to race out of the dojo but ended up falling on her butt when she crashed into Kikyou's quickly erected barrier. "Hey, what gives! It's six pm, time to go home!"
"You are supposed to spar with Inu before leaving today, and it's your own fault for letting your time with Miroku run over. I'm sure that Sesshoumaru-sama would be most displeased if you were to go gallivanting off before completing your training for the day." Kagome's face fell in horror and she glanced from a smirking Inuyasha, to an indifferent Kikyou, and finally at a frozen Sesshoumaru. She loathed the idea of being thought of as a truant, but she really, really, really wanted to go see her boys. She'd been dreaming of them the past few nights…
"Indeed," the taiyoukai replied. "You will stay for a further hour." When Kagome gagged in disbelief he gave another stipulation, having picked up on Kikyou's plan. "Or, until you have Inuyasha on his back, which ever is sooner."
"Keh!" the hanyou scoffed. "As if she could!"
At his words Kagome glared and began to draw up some miko energy and hold it in her hand. She knew a way to have the hanyou on his back in less than five seconds.
"Without using any miko powers," Sesshoumaru added. He wasn't going to let her get out of this one, she had a lesson to learn and he was going to make sure she didn't cheat. Seeing the most anger on her face he had yet to witness, he looked on as Kagome stormed to the weapons along one wall and picked up two katanas.
"Inu…" Kikyou began.
"I know, when she tries to pull that kick in the chest stunt let her have it, right?" he asked, addressing both Kikyou and Sesshoumaru. At their slight nods he walked out to the middle of the dojo where Kagome stood waiting. "Hmph, guess your little boyfriends are gonna have to wait a while longer for you to come and play, Kagome. I can't see why you'd want to though, not when you've been blessed with the opportunity of staying here and training with ME," he said in mocking tones. The idea of catching the girl off her guard and beating her in her own game appealed greatly to him, especially as it was just the other night that she had slipped some puppy treats into the bag of his favorite potato chips. The fact that he had instigated their little prank war when he put a fake rattlesnake in her sheets causing her to purify her whole bed in shock meant nothing to him. It was his turn now to one up her, and he was going to have fun doing it too.
Since he wasn't protecting anyone and was about to attack a human, Inuyasha set Tetsaiga aside and picked up another long, broad sword that had dulled edges for practicing. Neither wasted much time as they both leaped into the attack. The observers could see that Kagome's skill was by no means lacking. Unlike the staff, she seemed completely comfortable with the blades she was swinging with deadly accuracy. Sesshoumaru was not a little taken aback by the girl's ferocity, and by how she seemed to know exactly how Inuyasha was going to move. If she hadn't have been forbidden the use of her powers, he would have been finished by now. 'Hn,' Sesshoumaru thought, 'I will have to start personally training with her now.' He had held off doing so because he didn't want to give her the honor of working with the head of Taisho Command too soon, but now that he could see her skill level it was inevitable.
Luckily for Inuyasha, his superior speed and strength were keeping the girl from doing any serious harm. "Hmph," he grunted as he parried a strike aimed for the back of his head and neck, "you're doing pretty well for a little girl. I hope these guys are worth the effort you're putting into this," he taunted. "It's just too bad they'll have to keep waiting!" He could tell she was getting frustrated, and he was having too much fun teasing her to stop. "So what exactly are you planning, some sappy shit like a candlelit dinner?"
Kagome's dual blades only increased their fury as she rained down hits, effectively getting Inuyasha to shut up. "Ha! As if!" she grunted. "The only thing to do on a night like this is to grab a hold of 'em, wraps my legs around and ride 'em fast and hard till they're out of gas, then use my arts to refuel them and go at it again!" This brazen speech actually caught both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru off guard completely as Kagome had never said anything like it. However, unlike his brother who was watching safely from the sideline, Inuyasha's lapse in concentration earned him a jarring knock in both the stomach and collar bone.
Aggravated by his mistake he now decided to come after Kagome. He charged and by brute strength began to push back her advances. The clanging of the swords was so intense that it was sending lightening bolts of pain up through her elbows, and as an embargo had been placed on her miko powers she couldn't sustain herself as she usually did. She had to disarm Inuyasha and engage him in hand-to-hand or she'd be ground to a pulp for the next hour. Aside from Sesshoumaru she doubted that there was a single person who could beat her in hand to hand combat. Peters was a master in that arena, and he had taught her well. So, feeling a tingling at the back of her mind she suddenly felt her next move and executed it without even considering what she was really doing. As Inuyasha made a thrust for her chest she bent over backwards, caught his sword by crisscrossing her two blades behind the hilt of his single, and with an almighty lurch she threw all three behind her, registering the sound of them impaling themselves into the wall a second later. 'Uh-oh,' she thought, 'Sesshoumaru is going to have something to say about that.'
Sure enough, his voice growled out a moment later. "I said no miko powers Hando!"
"And I didn't use any!" she screeched as she dodged a punch aimed at her back. "Did you see any miko light? I DON'T THINK SO!" she hollered, startling even Sesshoumaru by her uncharacteristic lack of respect. Unbeknownst to her the four watching her from the sidelines were staring incredulously at the swords buried more than half their length into the wall. Kagome had been right, none of them had seen any of the telltale pink of miko energy, but they had seen an odd green light which even now was surrounding the swords as the smell of trees filled the room. Turning their attention back to the two on the floor they saw that Kagome was trying to wrap things up
"Haha, come and get me wench!" Inuyasha bellowed as he threw Kagome backwards so that she slid a few inches before curling herself up like a spring, preparing to use her arms and back to give herself enough force to lift off and land a two-footed kick into his chest.
"There she goes again," sighed Sango.
'She really is predictable,' Sesshoumaru thought inwardly.
However, it took less than eight seconds for everyone in the dojo to find out how wrong they were. Inu had indeed let Kagome's feet come in contact with his chest, but before she could kick out he grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her forcefully over his head. Suddenly, a small amount of green light seemed to leave Inuyasha and enter Kagome's body, and as she flew over him she hooked her feet under his arms, arching her body as if she was merely doing a handspring while bending him over backwards. When her hands met the floor she let out a battle cry exactly like her opponent's as she proceed use her feet to whip his stunned body in an arc over her as she brought him crashing face first into the floor. She landed crouched over his prostrate form, and let out an unmistakable "Keh! Don't even think about trying to outsmart me again, loser!" She rolled him over and stalked out the door past a stunned and silent audience. "He's on his friggin' back, and in less that five minutes. TAKE THAT DOGBOY!" she bellowed, turning briefly to point at her fallen adversary. "Now I'm going home!" she growled as they heard running down the halls, very fast running.
Kikyou dashed over to a now grumbling hanyou and began to pour some of her miko energy in him, giving him the strength to rise. "What the hell just happened, I feel like she sucked the life right out of me!"
"I believe little brother," said Sesshoumaru in a deadly calm voice, "that Hando has just tapped into your own life force and used it against you." Glancing at Kikyou he continued, "Come, I wish to speak with Hando and your mother before she leaves for her date tonight."
At this point Sango inexplicably grinned. "Sesshoumaru-sama, don't you know?"
"Know what, Ikeda?" He was in no mood for humor at a moment like this.
"Reiner and Chris aren't men," she explained, "They're her motorcycles."
A/N: Well there you are, my consistently courteous and considerate readers/reviewers, another chapter. Hey and for once I even answered a question! Aren't you pleased? BTW, the next chapter or two are going to be a bit darker than normal, but no worries…it's not anything too horrendous.