The doctor scanned over the final blood result, nodding his head absently as the young wolf demoness watched him with wary eyes. Nodding his head a final time, he looked up and smiled comfortingly at Mystle. "Your results are all clean, nothing came back, which means you're free to go. Though Koenma-sama won't be very happy that there's no immediate cause for..." He trailed off, shaking his head slightly before smiling at her again.
She blinked her head at that. "No immediate cause for what sir?" she asked, one ear cocking towards him in curiosity.
"Oh, nothing you have to worry yourself about right now, Mystle. Right now you should go out and enjoy your freedom. I think your training starts today," he said.
She perked up at that. "Training? I wasn't aware I would be training with anyone," she said, furrowing her brows.
"Well ya better get used to it, Wolfie, cause I'm here to pick you up for training," a gruffer teenage voice said from the doorway.
One ear swiveled towards the voice before slate gray eyes follows suit, the girl's head tilting to the side again. "And you are...?"
"Urameshi, Yusuke! I'm the Spirit Detective currently," he said, smirking in his cockiness.
She arched a brow before chuckling. "Alright, shall I call you Yusuke then? I'm Mystle, but I'm certain Koenma-sama has already told you that," she said.
"Yeah yeah, let's just get goin' Wolfie, I have things I need to do. Like kick Kuwabara's ass at Mortal Combat again," he said, a glint coming to his eyes at the thought.
Mystle shook her head lightly, standing up and walking over to him. "Lead the way," she said, gesturing with her hand before waving farewell to the doctor and then starting to follow the Spirit Detective to where ever it was he was taking her. A part of her wondered if she should be leery of him, but her instincts said he was okay to trust, so she was going with them. "Yusuke-san? Where exactly are we going?"
"To Grandma's. You'll be staying there while you're training and baby breath has his eye on you. I don't know why you're so special, but hey, I'm just here to do my job," he said with a shrug to his shoulders.
She chuckled slightly. "If you say so Yusuke-san," she said softly.
"No san. Just Yusuke," he said gruffly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.
She only smiled before nodding, taking that time to look around. From what she could tell, the Reikai palace was huge and simply bustling with activity. She watched ogres moving around, stacks of papers balanced precariously in their arms and just barely peering around them to watch where they were going. I'm surprised that none of them have run into each other yet. It must come from centuries of practice, she thought, watching them with a touch of amusement now as they yelled across the room to each other.
Then everything slanted and she was suddenly on her behind staring up at blue sky and a long set of stairs. She blinked, suddenly disoriented at the change of location. Then the pain hit her from landing on her still mending tail, causing her to growl and scramble to her feet, grabbing her tail and checking it over. "Ow ow ow," she ground out, biting her inner cheek and trying to ignore the sharp pain.
Laughter reached her ears, making them twitch and she looked up, seeing Yusuke half way up the steps. "Come on Wolfie! Grandma is waiting and I have a game to win!" he called.
She scowled and started up the steps, ears pinned to the back of her head in her distaste. Shortly after she watched as Yusuke topped the steps and heard the brawl happening before she came upon it. Chest heaving from jogging the last fifty steps, she couldn't help the chuckle that slipped out from the sight of the raven haired boy pinning a carrot top to the ground and almost literally punching the lights out of him. He was yelling something that she couldn't make out, but overall it made her ears lie flat again.
A short woman with faded pink hair walked over and kicked Yusuke off of the carrot top. "Dimwit, the girl is here. Stop messing around and get Kuwabara to take her out for her training."
Yusuke shot to his feet, growling. "Dammit Grandma that hurt!"
The carrot top, Kuwabara she assumed, also got to his feet. "Neh? Mystle's here? Where?"
The wolf girl chuckled slightly. "You should try looking before asking, Kuwabara-san," she said softly, watching him through eyes filled with curiosity. She fought back a smile as he jumped, spinning in her direction with wide eyes, of which she noticed the color were so dark a blue they looked black. "It's nice to meet you," she chirped, lightly bowing before straightening up.
Kuwabara blinked again before hastening to bow as well. "Ah, nice to meet ya too, Mystle," he said before looking at Genkai. "Shouldn't we let her get settled in before training starts?" he asked, furrowing his brows in his confusion.
Genkai sighed slightly and shook her head. "No. She doesn't have anything with her, and her room is already prepared, which means her training starts now," she said. "Now go." The last part was strictly said, the firm tone letting it be known that there would be no room for questions or arguing.
The orange-haired boy nodded quickly before looking at Mystle. "Well, follow me then pretty lady," he said, grinning at her.
She blinked at the pet name before shrugging it off, tail lightly wagging at the thought of being able to train again. The wolf demoness followed behind him, noting how they circled around the main building.
"We're gonna work on spiritual awareness and stuff like that, alright?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
A ear flickered towards him as she nodded, though her gaze was on the scenery. "Kuwabara-san, who does the gardening at the temple?" she asked, flicking her eyes towards him briefly before looking back towards the small flower bed that held an array of flowers she didn't know the name of.
"Eh? Oh, Kurama and my lovely Yukina work on the gardens here," he said, stars practically growing in his eyes at the thought of the ice maiden.
"Yukina is your intended?" she asked, focusing her gaze back on him as her ears perked up. "I thought humans didn't have intendeds."
"Inten-wha?" Kuwabara asked, looking at her.
"Intendeds, the one you plan to mate or hand-fast with in the future," she responded, looking just as confused as him.
"Oh! We- ah... Humans don't... I don't think anyway... we have girlfriends or boyfriends, and fiance's..." he said. "Er, you're better off askin' Kurama about that stuff. I'm not good at explaining human things to demons."
She chuckled and nodded. "I understand just fine. Now... where exactly are we training?"
At this she watched the human freeze and take a glance around before jogging over to section of the yard, she noticed it was close to a forest that had a demonic feel around it, that was obviously set aside for cases such as this. "Right here!" he said, grinning broadly.
A small smile from the wolf girl was what he got in reply, and she followed to the makeshift ring, stepping over the cord that marked the boundaries. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what exactly is your training style?" she asked, tipping her head slightly.
"Well, ya know how to get to your energy, righ'?" he asked. At her nod he continued. "Well, I'm going to hide in the forest, and you have to use your energy to search for mine."
She stepped forward, ears perked up in her interest. Leaning forward, she sniffed him - noting how he smelled of oranges and... was that a cat? - and then leaned back again, flaring her energy briefly to get a feel for his, again it had an orange feel to it. "Okay, I'm ready," she said, smiling at him. She noted the disgruntled look on his face, chuckling just faintly as she assumed it was from her sniffing him. Perhaps she should have explained that she didn't see auras, she smelled them. He probably wouldn't have been giving her a funny look had she done that. Oh well, what's done was done.
She watched then as he shrugged it off and took off into the forest, yelling behind him not to follow for ten minutes. Amusement briefly flared through her and she settled back on her heels, watching the forest. Her ears were pricked up, listening to the sounds around her and swiveling towards every new thing she heard. Footsteps sounded behind her and she stiffened, one ear swiveling back as she growled lowly, warning whoever was creeping up on her.
"Relax girl, it's me," came the gruff voice of Yusuke's master.
Mystle smelled the smoke before she turned, spying the item in Genkai's hand and looking confused by it for a minute. Sniffing again, she wrinkled her nose at the acrid scent. "What is that thing?" she asked, her ears laying flat on her head.
Genkai tipped her head. "It's a cigarette. Now ignore me and focus on your training, girl," she said, looking out into the forest.
Her ears were still pinned back on her head and she managed to force herself into ignoring her, staring into the woods. Waiting was getting annoying, she wanted to play now. Not to mention get away from the stench of that... cigarette... that's what Yusuke's mentor called it anyway. It was hurting her nose, which meant it would be harder for her to find Kuwabara. Or maybe that was Yusuke's mentor's entire plan...
Mystle gave herself a mental shake. Concentrate, you need to find Kuwabara-san, she thought, focusing herself again. Had it been ten minutes yet? She couldn't tell. Perhaps she should just start sniffing him out now? With her nose impaired by the cigarette smoke, it would take her a few minutes to even pick up on his aura.
Taking half a step, she sniffed the air lightly and only got a lung full of smoke. She growled, annoyed at the interference. Fine, can't sniff his aura out, I'll just feel for him, she thought, spreading out her awareness. There was nothing... Her confusion was obvious from the way one ear was flat and the other was perked up, she'd always been able to feel people out when she couldn't sniff them out.
"He's out of your range," Genkai stated, her tone somewhat bored. Letting out a stream of smoke, she blew it in the wolf's direction. "You obviously don't have a wide enough range for it, so work on spreading your power out further to search for him."
Mystle's other ear laid flat against her head and she shot the older woman an annoyed look. She stepped into the forest then, ignoring Genkai. Yet she did as she said, forcing her awareness to spread out farther. There. It was just a flicker, but she caught his aura. She veered directions, heading towards it and feeling the aura strengthen as it came back within her natural boundaries. She kept her pace slow, not wanting to wear herself out before she could even find him.
Suddenly the orange feeling aura that was Kuwabara disappeared, leaving a very disgruntled wolf standing dumb struck in the middle of the woods wondering where it went. She stretched her awareness again, feeling him just on the edges of how far she could go. He had moved again, which meant he was testing her boundaries. Damn, she was right. I do need to broaden them. I guess eight years of inactivity cut my powers more than I realized, she thought, furrowing her brow.
Feeling the aura start to move out of range again, she started running to catch him. She was not letting him get out of her range again. She could feel the aura getting closer before it suddenly disappeared again, and she stretched her awareness even further. She was straining though, feeling the extra length taking it's toll on her mentally. With a burst of speed – she wasn't quite certain where it had come from – she managed to keep him inside her boundaries and after a few more minutes, found him. She came to a stop, bending over slightly with her hands on her knees and panting slightly. Now she was tired from running and from stretching herself to her limits.
As he stepped up to her side, she forced herself to straighten up. Kuwabara looked pleased. "That didn't take you as long as I thought it would. Good job. And now that I know your limit, we can work on pushing you past it!"
She gave him a look that could kill. "When did you arrange for Yusuke's mentor to blow smoke at me so I couldn't smell your aura?" she asked, glaring.
"Eh? Genkai did that?" he asked, looking confused. "That was all her, man- er... girl. I didn't know anythin' about that."
She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Never mind then, Kuwabara-san. Shall we try again? I think I can go a few more times before I pass out," she said, somewhat teasing at the end and then not at the same time.
He chuckled. "I'm going to be goin' outta your range again, Mystle. Are ya ready for that?"
With a roll of her eyes she made a shooing motion. "Just go before I change my mind."
Angel: Well would ya look at that, I returned from the dead. Talk about spending a very long time staring at that block with a biiiig white 'W' printed on it. Anyway, here's (finally) chapter four of Blood. Now that my sticky notes are back and I have the entire thing outlined, updates should be evening out without months of breaks in between them. Also, huge shout out to wicked gothic angel for reviewing and being an awesome person. Made my day when she reviewed. ^-^
Okay, now, read and review please! Tell me if you liked it, what I can do to fix it, make it better, etc. Anything really. Hard to become a better writer when no one tells me what's wrong... Soo... Angel out!