A/N- Thanks, ZAP IS ZAK!
Disclaimer: Shouldn't the fact that the disclaimer is even THERE indicate something?
I managed to dodge the Lunar Cleaver, to which Larka seemed kind of pissed about. "You idiot! I told you that you need to freaking deflect the attack, not run away from it like the wimp that we all know that you are! For that, you get another penalty hit!" She punched my arm, making another bruise. There were four, now, I think.
It was more natural for me to move out of the way of things that were trying to slice up my body, but, hey, Larka was my teacher. I had to listen to whatever she said, or I would get the penalty hit, or, even worse, the penalty slice. Which is where she slices at me with the Lunar Cleaver. Exciting and scary, no? Just scary for me, though...
This is about the point that I usually explain what's going on, where we currently are, all that stuff, but Larka is swinging her sword at me, and I'm not very good at multitasking, so I'm going to focus on the action sequence until Yuuki gets dinner finished up and saves me from this fun. Wow, that was all one sentence.
Larka slashed at me again, and I jumped away, to the right. Larka gave me a malicious grin before running over to me, forcing me to back up... into a tree. Crap. She sliced right at me, and I managed to hold up my sword just before she cut me in half. Larka smirked before putting her sword down, breathing slightly hard.
"And, just to let you know, Frère, that is how to effectively tell what someone is going to do based off their other movements and force them into a situation where they have no choice but to finally do what you have been telling them to do for the past thirty minutes, dork," she said, putting the sword down. "Got it?"
"No," I managed out, breathing much harder than she was. My body so wasn't used to working this hard. Sure, it had gotten used to walking for hours at a time (my feet didn't hurt whenever I walked, now) but my body wasn't used to fighting to the death with Larka, who was an extremely skilled swordswoman who would kill me for sure if I screwed up on anything at all.
"Well, I guess we'll have to continue our lesson some more, won't we?" she asked calmly, holding her sword up to my throat with one hand despite the fact that it was obviously a rather weighty sword that I would be lucky to be able to hold onto with one hand.
"Oh, for the love of all that is holy, why did I have to say that?" I groaned, still panting.
Larka brought her sword back as though she had changed her mind, then suddenly tried to lop off my head, to which I ducked down low. It sliced off a lock of hair (I know that I was gonna cut my hair, but I hadn't gotten to it yet with this intense training...) but not my head, which was good. I popped up and tried to take a whack at her, but she easily deflected the blow.
"Finally taking the offensive, are we, Jin?" she asked calmly while she took an upward slash at me, knowing I wasn't very good at deflecting or dodging away from those. I managed to jump back before she ripped my pants in a very awkward way, to which she grinned, obviously pleased I was starting to learn. Finally. After forever. Like, a week and a half.
I was about to try another swing at Larka when Yuuki called, "Hey, you guys, get your butts over here! I'm done with your dinner! And, also, if you smell, sit on the other side of the fire or I swear that I'll kick your butt out of our camp!"
Ah, Yuuki. Wasn't she wonderful?
Larka punched my arm lightly, grinning. "Nice work today, Frère. You finally figured out that you can't dodge everything that I throw at you, didn't ya? Also, tomorrow, we're going to start working on your technique and how to get on the offensive better since you're not very good at that. It'll be less me trying to kill you and more you trying to kill me for a little while. Try to get back at me with all of your might, okay?"
"Please, I have to get back at you! I swear that I'm going to have more scars from you than from Lee," I joked, grinning as we walked back to the campground which we had strayed quite a bit from.
Huh. Well, I guess it's time to explain what has been going on... although I already sort of have explained it...
We, for the past few days, about a week and a half or two weeks now, have been traveling slowly south, taking our time, chatting a lot, occasionally enjoying some time to kill demons or even kill time... ha ha, not really, that would indicate that we were killing me, which wouldn't be a good thing. I'm so funny. Hilarious, really. Shut up. I know I'm not.
Oh, yeah, I found out the French word for older brother, which Larka had been calling me for a while now. It was "frère", I suppose. She had been calling me it, and, apparently, had called the Future Me that, too. However, I didn't catch what she was saying before, so this was news to me.
Yup. So... that's pretty much life with me. Happy violence.
"What's for dinner? Does it have meat?" Larka asked eagerly, slumping down on the other side of the fire, away from Yuuki.
Yuuki rolled her eyes, sighing. "Yes, it does. I made meat buns, onigiri, and cut up what we have left of the oranges. Since someone keeps eating them..." her eyes, while rolling whilst she said these words, made their way over to Dravis, who had an orange peel in his hair. I couldn't help but wonder how it got there.
"Wasn't me," he said quickly, pointing to me. "It was him."
I rolled my eyes. Because both Larka and Yuuki had outlawed swearing unless it was absolutely necessary, he had been finding other ways to be somewhat mean to me, including blaming me for everything that he did that happened to be wrong. If he swore for no reason, it was my fault. If he flipped someone off, it was my fault. If he ate the food when Yuuki told him not to, it was my fault. Fun, fun...
"Stop blaming Jin," Yuuki said, frowning slightly. "Just because you don't like him that doesn't mean that you have the right to bully him."
Bully me?! What was I, that dorky teenager who everyone made fun of and all the nice girls felt sorry for?! Okay, that kind of bothered me... just a little bit...
"I'm not being bullied," I complained. "Dravis is just having problems expressing how he truly feels about me through words now that he gets punished every time he utters a curse word, so he uses other means to express how he feels, such as blaming me for everything. In other words, he hates me."
"Were you talking?" Larka asked as she stuffed half of her onigiri into her mouth. "Sorry, I wasn't listening since I'm used to ignoring you."
"Am I the only one that knows how to be nice to Jin?!" Yuuki complained, grabbing a slice of orange and chomping on it in annoyance. "By the way, Jin, you and I are going to be doing something about your hair tonight, because it's really starting to bug me that it's so long. It needs to get cut."
"You just wanna be alone with him," Larka said between the large amounts of food in her mouth.
Yuuki's face reddened. "Sh- shut up!"
"Da... ng," Dravis managed. "You rapist..."
"I'm not a rapist!" Yuuki squeaked. "Don't be an idiot! I just want to cut his hair since it's starting to go past his shoulders!"
I glanced at my shoulders. Huhn. So it was.
"I guess. He's starting to look like a girl," Dravis stated.
"My shoulders are too thick and my chest is too flat to be a girl's!" I cried. "Plus, I'm super tall! Like, two meters tall, (for all ye Americans, like me, that's about six feet and four inches) which is wayyy too tall for any Japanese lady! Are you..." I stopped myself before I could ask if he was stupid. I would probably just get in a fight again.
"Yuuki, where did you learn to cook like this, anyway? Your food tastes too good!" Larka said in excitement, stuffing a meat bun into her mouth.
"My dad. Back before..." she trailed off.
I frowned, wracking my mind. Did her dad die or something? I think so. I wasn't sure.
The rest of the meal we ate in awkward silence. Well, mostly. Larka muttered stuff to herself occasionally, obviously thinking about new ways to hurt me and make me learn how to use my sword. Ah, the joys of having a goddess/violent girl for you half-sister and your teacher.
"You two can clean up since you ate most of the food," Yuuki said, standing up. "Please don't do anything stupid while I help Jin with his hair."
"Come onnnnn!" Larka whined. "I've been working with Jin for a few hours in both physical and mental crap! Let me rest!"
"I've been doing nothing all day and I want to keep it that way," Dravis said, pouting.
"Don't whine, just do your chores," Yuuki said in a very mom-ish way before grabbing my arm and pulling me up and away from the nice and warm campfire, over to the nearby river that ran along the road that we were walking on to go to the Eastern Palace. Gosh, that was kind of long.
"Sit down," she instructed, pointing to a rock. "I can't reach your hair if you're standing."
"You seem able to reach my lips just fine..." I mumbled under my breath as I sat down.
"What was that?" Yuuki asked, frowning at me.
"Nothing," I answered quickly, obviously a little too quickly.
"I'll just pretend I didn't hear anything, then," Yuuki answered, rolling her eyes. "How short do you want it?"
"About five to ten centimeters shorter?" I guessed.
"I'll just have it be the same as when we first met, then," Yuuki said. She held out her hand and I blankly stared at it.
"What?"
"Give me your little knife, stupid," she answered, rolling her eyes again.
"Oh, right," I mumbled, pulling it out of my shirt pocket and handing it to her.
I felt extremely awkward around her. I mean, Yuuki had been in love with the past me and now like the current me, possibly even loved me. I still hadn't been quite open about my feelings toward her, either. And by not quite, I mean I had no idea how I was going to tell her that I liked her.
Also, even if I did like her, how could it work out at the current time? Blood all over me after beating up demons then her kissing me, or something? No, that wasn't a very ideal relationship. If I was going to get in a relationship with Yuuki, it would have to be at a better time.
Then again, that might just be me being scared to get into a relationship since I've never been in one, before. Being open about my feelings, hugging, going on dates... oh, the horror! I couldn't even imagine me being in such a position. Hugging Yuuki... ha ha... breasts...
"Your face is turning red, so I'm going to assume you're thinking about me," Yuuki said before hitting me on the back of the head. "Don't be stupid."
"S- sorry," I managed, looking down. I felt her hands take up a piece of my hair and a sudden image of her touching my cheek came into my mind. I shook my head, forcing her to let go.
"Jin, quit it," Yuuki said, putting a hand on her waist.
"Teenage boy mind likes coming in to haunt me today," I answered. "Just start talking to me, telling me I'm stupid or something. I might stop thinking about sexual things, then."
Wait, was stroking someone's cheek sexual? Could it be considered sexual or is it just a loving gesture? Geh, I dunno.
"What should I talk about?" she asked, beginning to cut my hair now that I was trying to keep those images out of my mind.
"I dunno... what was I like before I disappeared and all?" I asked.
"A pedophile," she answered calmly.
"W- what?" I managed, turning slightly.
"Keep your face forward, Jin," Yuuki said. "You were a pedophile. What kind of a person falls in love with a six-year-old, after all?"
I felt my heat up. Okay, that was true. Kind of pedophile-ish.
"You were really nice, though. You played with me all of the time, helped me with my chores, and even bought me toys and clothes," Yuuki said. "I never really understood why you were so nice to me, though. You never told me how you felt about me. You were... my best friend..."
I glanced up at her. Her eyes were slightly glazed over as she remembered what I was like before. I wondered how different I was.
"You came to me, one day, and told me that you had to disappear for a while. Then you admitted to me that you had fallen in love with me at first sight, despite the fact that I was still a child. You... you were perverted enough that you took my first kiss at that exact moment."
I winced. I had appeared to be in my twenties, and I had kissed a ten-year-old girl who probably looked up to me like I was the big brother that she never had. I felt depression grab me. I was so gross in the past. Even if I still thought weird things, at least I didn't go about with those actions, now...
"I was in love with you, too. I had no idea what was going on, but... I realized that I had those kind of feelings for you. I told you how I felt after you kissed me, and you told me that you would come back for me. That you would most definitely come back and marry me when I was older."
I glanced up to her in surprise. I had said such a thing? Jeez. What a romantic. And how weird was it that she had felt the same? That was way too big of an age difference for me.
"For the next four years, I waited for you. Even after my father was killed right in front of my eyes and very few kids in my village were left alive, I still waited for you in that little shock. I saw you for the first time and knew immediately that it was you. You... you had no idea who I was."
"You acted kind of stiff at first," I answered. "Why didn't you go up and hug me or something?"
"I expected you to hug me or something," she answered. "When you introduced yourself, I was caught off guard and I just answered. My mind got a little busy and I slipped into polite mode. I was trying to figure out why you didn't know me... why you had forgotten me..."
Her hands, which were cutting my bangs, were now shaking. I could see tears in her beautiful, golden eyes.
"Oh, Yuuki, I'm-" I began.
"No," she answered, rubbing the tears away and shaking her head. "I- I'm fine. Don't worry."
In response, I stood up and hugged her. Her body was shaking. I was such an idiot. Such an idiot.
"J... Jin..." Yuuki said in a really tiny voice.
"I'm here now," I said softly into her hair. "Don't worry."
I will say that right now, I have no idea what the freaking crap what I was doing. All that I really knew at that moment was that I seriously liked Yuuki. A lot. I really didn't want to see her crying because of something that I had done in the past. I wanted her to always be smiling...
Be always smiling at me.
"U- um, Jin, I should probably finish up your hair," she mumbled into my chest.
I noticed, at that point, that she had long-since stopped crying. I felt my face heat up and I quickly let go of her.
"R- right! Sorry, sorry!" I quickly sat down, closing my eyes tight. What had I been doing? Hugging Yuuki for a long amount of time in a romantic way: not in the book of things to do to make sure that we don't end up together. Not at all. Jeez... idiot me again!
We finished off my hair quickly and in silence. Neither of us really wanted to talk about my feelings at the moment, being that they were confusing feelings that probably shouldn't exist in the first place. I should have gotten a crush on someone else... but not Larka. For the love of all that is holy, never am I going to like Larka like that again.
As I walked back to our camp, I felt a little bit sick. Sick with dread. Kind of like... "OH CRUD SOMETHIN BAD GONNA HAPPEN SO THIS SUX" type of bad...
I shook my head. Keep your head clear. No matter what happens, it can't be too awful. No worse than Ai and Miuri being taken prisoner by Lee. That was really bad. And to think of what he might be doing to them... like raping them or something... I shuddered just thinking about it. Ewwwww...
"Hey, Yuuki, your hair's all messy in the back," Dravis said, holding out a hand to Larka, who, sighing, took out about five hundred yen and placed it in the demon's hand.
"Jin, I was counting on you to not do anything pervy so I would win the bet," Larka half-whined half-said, pouting at me.
"You were... you were betting on us?!" Yuuki squeaked out, her face reddening.
"With your sex appeal and Jin's teenage boy problems and you two being alone... well, we couldn't resist," Dravis answered, shrugging.
I smacked my hand to my forehead. "Fudge."
"We- we were just hugging!" Yuuki cried. "I swear! We didn't do anything wrong! I just... got a little upset, so he was hugging me to make me feel better!"
"Still sexual enough to let me win the bet," was Dravis's answer.
"I'm going to bed," was all I said, turning away.
These people were so weird.
"He looks so much more relaxed when he's sleeping," Yuuki said, brushing some of her hair behind her ears and watching as Jin slept peacefully. "It's cute."
"I guess," Larka answered, watching the flames die down. "I don't know if I can call the dork cute, though, because he's my half-brother. It just feels weird. Plus, he's way too tall. I like short guys."
"Obviously, since Dravis is a midget," Yuuki said, smirking slightly.
"It's adorable!" Larka said, giggling.
Wow. Talking to Larka about what she liked in a guy... giggling about boys... Yuuki couldn't believe it. What a strange happening had happened.
"You should get to bed soon," Larka said, pulling her map out from who knows where. "It's getting pretty late."
"I guess," Yuuki answered, pulling her knees up to her chin. "I'm not very tired, though..."
"Ohhh..." Larka said, seeing something on the map.
"What?"
"It's a hot springs! Just about fifteen kilometers from here! We should go so we don't smell like crap," Larka said. "After all, then it's just about twenty kilometers to the Eastern Palace."
"Really?" Yuuki asked, surprised Larka would be interested in taking a bath.
"Yeah..." Larka was getting a somewhat freaky smile on her face. "We should go..."
Yuuki had no idea what Larka was thinking, but she knew that it was probably evil.
"Does it have to do with me?" Yuuki asked.
"Somewhat," Larka muttered.
"In a bad way?"
"Nope."
"Well, all right then."
"Good night while I scheme all night!"
"... good night... Larka..."
A/N- Ha ha, finished! :) That's always good! Reviewing would be nice, but you don't have to~
