A/N: Before the introduction of mechanical clocks in Japan a common time system, especially in rural areas, was the Cat's Eye Clock, the namesake deriving from how a cat's pupil would dilate with the amount of sunlight and, thus, the time of day. The greatest changes were seen in, according to contemporary clocks, two hour spans. Thus, the Hour of the Rat lasted from 11 AM to 1 PM. For the sake of this story, if the Hour is capitalized like so then the system is being referenced as opposed to a modern "hour." Okay, history lesson's over. On with the show!
Red Snapper
Mopping her sweaty hands on the sides of threadbare work clothes, Rin heaved an irritated huff. Although a few minutes were spared to wash up, she'd skipped changing just to be at the brook on time, arriving promptly at the Hour of the Rat. Huh, and what a fruitful effort this is proving. For someone who called her late just yesterday, Kichiruka wasn't very punctual the following morning.
Annoyance aside, Rin shrugged off the basket and pulled out the cleaning knife she had brought along. May as well keep busy. High spring was upon them now, summer just a couple weeks away, and the nets had required daily emptying each morning. But yesterday was curiously low, Rin remembered. Not that it mattered too much; for now they were well in abundance and it was expected an animal might plunder a net here or there. Although the snares had already been emptied by the time lone village girl passed by, it never hurt to double check. Her sword resting on the bank, Rin wadded into the brook and frisked the first net. Nothin'.
Collecting her blade and continuing the upstream trek, she wondered if Kichiruka would be able to find her. He does seem just a little more geared to routine. Wonder if his sense of smell is better than a human's. Probably can't best an inu-yokai. Her musings came to a dead halt when she rounded the bend.
The contrast between blue eyes and red scales drew Rin's eye right to the crux of the matter: Kichiruka. A fishtail still twitching in the corner of his mouth. Culprit. He blinked with all the innocence of a five-year-old caught in the pantry – a sight Rin had seen it too many times to be affected.
"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, rushing into the brook and snatching the net from its feasting poacher.
"Wha? Mm jub eatig," Kichiruka said around a mouthful of fish. He swallowed, then realized how poor his manners were. "I'm sorry, Rin dear. Did you want some?"
In the fury of the fearsome growl she unleashed, Kichiruka could've sworn he saw flames flicker in Rin's death glare. "You're raiding my village's reserves," she snarled.
"O-oh...wups. Sorry." He grinned sheepishly. Then, like the brook he was standing in, his mouth started babbling faster than he could help. "I was kinda wondering why there were so many nets along this brook. Tell me, are there more than eight? I got too full to continue checking after that one yesterday."
Her last shred of patience hacked away, Rin smacked Kichiruka upside the head with her basket. He toppled into the small river with a satisfactory splash. Slogging back to shore, she retied the sword into her obi. When Rin turned around the orange spikes of a conch shell waved just under her nose.
"Couldja please hold this for a sec?"
A long-suffering sigh was suppressed in favor of examining the water demon's ever-present tool. The length of the staff curled and twisted with smooth, flat ridges that were just a shade paler than the creamy-orange seashell at one end. Not sure if it really counts as a staff, though, Rin thought. If anything, it more closely resembled a scepter.
Placing his hands on the bank, Kichiruka leapfrogged out of the brook. All too soon she had to hand him back the staff. Brown eyes watched intently as he fumbled to slip the abbreviated rod through his sash and over the short jacket.
"Why do you carry that thing if it's so cumbersome?"
"Why do you haul around that sword?"
"Because I have to," she stated definitively.
Kichiruka just smiled. A quick incantation and he was dry enough for training. Glancing to his side he noticed Rin combing out her hair, then setting to wring out the fringes of her sodden clothes.
"Here, let me," he offered.
Over laced fingers, Kichiruka muttered an icy-spoken spell. Then his hands hovered just above the garments, close enough for Rin to see the crystalline droplets that passed from the cloth to outstretched palms. She felt her mouth go agape as the water drops accumulated into a liquid sphere, gathering and rounding at the tips of Kichiruka's fingers.
"Hm, extra," he said, looking at the bubble, then tossed it to the grass where – without yokai influence to maintain the form – it splattered open upon contact.
"Can everyone in your world do that?" Rin asked.
Kichiruka smiled. "Nope. So far, just Master Tensai and me." He suddenly frowned. "Aw…should've hung on to that one. You could've seen me juggle."
Rin gave an amused huff. "I notice you don't cast a spell for breathing on land," she observed.
"Should I?"
"Well, I know that fish flop around and die if they don't get back in the water. It's like they suffocate outside of it."
Kichiruka nodded. "My teacher, Master Tensai, has to, but for whatever reason I'm unaffected."
"What kind of fish are you?"
"A unique one," he answered with a broad grin.
Rin rolled her eyes. "Must be a yokai quirk." Saying no more on the subject, Rin rose and dusted off her clothes. "C'mon, let's go. Stand up."
Kichiruka grimaced as his knees cringed and readjusted to the environment. His upper body was used enough to the strain and, with elbows bent, he pushed off the ground, catching his footing on the rebound. "How's that?" he asked, giving a second bounce in place to steady himself.
Rin nodded approvingly. "Good, but you'll have to smooth it out to just standing without all the gymnastics." She looked the demon up and down, his weight distributed between his spread feet. "Can you move forward?"
Kichiruka hummed his certainty, but Rin saw the moment his knee buckled and took up the navy sleeve in a second.
"Thanks," he grunted, grateful for the support. The little ivory comb just under his chin bobbed in a complacent nod. Back to basics, he sighed inwardly. Kichiruka half-wished he could be nearly as patient. In spite of her outbursts, he gave Rin credit for her amazing tolerance in the face of his repetitious learning process. Surprisingly, for a creature he heard many in his realm call "short-life," she acted like they had all the years in eternity plus one. Rin didn't just leave him alone with "Figure it out yourself" as her only instruction.
They walked – okay, Rin walks, I shuffle – in companionable silence for a while longer until Kichiruka started wondering aloud. "So, why aren't you all dressed up today?" he asked.
"'Cause I was trying to be on time for Mr. Punctuality."
"Really? Who's that?"
Rin groaned. "Just focus on walking. You're leaning too much on me now."
As Kichiruka regained the balance he left with yesterday, the support under his arm and at his side diminished. But she's keeping pace with me still. He tried lengthening his strides, but the timing was off and he had to reach for Rin again.
"Slow down," she advised. "Little by little, you're getting there."
To his credit, Kichiruka was the first to move away. He found a little more balance could be garnered if he kept his gaze set on the hills that grooved the horizon, something picturesque and unmoving. Someday, I might be able to walk even those.
Rin pulled away until she stood full arm's breadth from the water demon. His motions were a tad jerky, but it was passable for walking. "Uh…and you don't have to keep going straight."
Kichiruka tried to turn his head to look at his coach, but quickly had to stick out his arms at the sides to keep from teetering off balance. He smiled awkwardly. "How do I change direction?"
"Angle your feet this way," Rin instructed. Walking backwards, she motioned with her hands for Kichiruka to follow. Unfortunately, he tried swiveling at a sharp degree and toppled to his side. When he didn't get up, Rin briskly walked to his side. "Did you hurt yourself?"
Staying put, he kept his eyes glued to the grass. "Look at this!"
"It's just a bug," she said, but Kichiruka wasn't listening anymore. Got to remember he's like some deprived child when it comes to this stuff. She waited until the beetle disappeared under a mushroom. "Ready?"
As if returning from a dream, the demon lapsed back into the present, realizing he'd been laying on the grass all this time. But Rin stood patiently nearby, waiting. The spots on Kichiruka's face rippled with his smile. "Thanks. Let's try again."
oOo
"I…I need a...break…" Kichiruka rasped. His knees shook, then, tapped of all willpower, he flopped exhaustedly to the ground. "Ahhh…" How good it felt to stop resisting gravity.
Rin kept her erect posture, hands on hips and mouth askew. They were barely halfway through the Hour of the Ox and already Kichiruka was wheezing for a break. The weather was temperate, so it couldn't have been the heat. I thought yokai were supposed to have superior strength and stamina. On land, this guy would so be dead.
Rolling around on the green grass with a big, goofy grin on his face, the water yokai certainly didn't look like he would mind it much. "Oh!" Kichiruka's eyes popped open and he reached into his haori. "Check this out." With a practiced flick of his wrist, he tossed the withdrawn item over, watching it wink bright blue in the sunlight.
Rin caught a stone and had to use two hands to cup it. Her feet slipped from under her when she realized exactly what kind of rock she held. "A gem!"
"Milord's gift to me." Kichiruka elbow-crawled to where Rin sat. "I don't doubt that my teacher has received equal, if not greater, compensation." He chuckled. "Keeps Sensei from giving up on me, I'm sure."
Rin marveled at the large sapphire, rotating angles so it caught the sun in an array of colored light. She looked from the gemstone to Kichiruka's matching eyes. "Are you the ocean lord's son?"
Kichiruka laughed harder. "Not by a long shot!" Composing himself a bit, he rolled on his side to better meet Rin's gaze. "But he has taken me in favorably and for that I am grateful."
Rin absentmindedly touched the comb in her hair, realizing just how little she knew about this odd demon who simply showed up in a fishing net a few weeks ago. "Taken you in? So you're –"
"Look a butterfly!" Blue eyes comically crossed as Kichiruka kept still in the inspecting wave of antennae and probing feet. The toothy grin stretching across his face threatened to break any second. "Hey, uh, Rin, I don't wanna scare it away." The water demon gestured frantically with his eyes, his smile growing by a couple molars more. "Can you take it?"
Rin stifled her own giggle, then, setting down the gemstone, reached out to let the insect crawl on her finger. Kichiruka sat back, a sigh of relief eddying out. "Phew! Thanks!"
"Umm-hm," Rin hummed. As a little girl, she used to love chasing butterflies, and never could quite catch them as they always flitted out of her grasp. When she got older, Rin understood you could actually get them to land on you if you just held still. Now, a while since, she couldn't remember that last time she was able to get one to sit on her finger.
The water demon noticed how much attention she paid the insect, even as it returned to the skies, and with a much different appreciation he had the beetle before. It's not a novelty to her, but it is precious, Kichiruka realized.
"Something special about it?" he inquired.
"Yes, I'd say so," came Rin's dreamy answer.
"Like a treasure?"
She nodded. "A jewel or a butterfly…I really don't think it matters. They're of equal value."
Kichiruka blinked owlishly…then burst out laughing.
Snapping back to the here and now, Rin frowned. "What's so funny?"
"That's just it!" he brayed. "I never thought I'd see the day anyone, human or yokai, would say such a thing!"
Rin fumed. "Are you calling me an idiot?"
His cackle subsiding to a chuckle, Kichiruka made a real effort to sober. Though the merry twinkle in his eyes betrayed him somewhat, he was determined to be taken seriously and lightly wrapped webbed claws around Rin's fingers. "Don't worry, the first time I said it, I was also deemed a fool. It's all the same: an army swearing fealty and a single, hearty laugh."
Rin considered that for a moment, or rather, considered what Lord Sesshomaru would say to it. "There is a disparity between those two," she said matter-of-factly.
"Don't be so serious, dear Rin!" Kichiruka said, covering a smirk with his palm.
"I'm not overly serious," she snipped.
"'I'm not overly serious'," the demon mimicked, looking away from the stern village girl in a poor attempt to keep a straight face. It didn't hold. Seeing Rin's brow furrowed through the tears in his eyes, Kichiruka dismissed the subject and moved back to the sapphire. With the pointed end of the conch staff, he jabbed at the gemstone. "Anyway, you can tell it's of quality 'cause it doesn't break, see? …Oops."
The sapphire fractured in twain.
"Well, er, it doesn't break unless faced with a demon-forged weapon like this."
"Ri-ight." Rin pointed at the staff. "And you still don't know how to use that thing, do you?"
"Its secrets will reveal themselves to me in time." Kichiruka recited his excuse with the ease of repetition. With the acrobatic bounce from earlier, he clamored to his feet. His gait was stiff and awkward, but the sea demon sufficiently "walked" to the edge of the brook where Rin had left her basket and other equipment.
On the brink of chancing a dive into the shallow water, Rin came up with a better suggestion. "Here, let's practice kneeling." Doing so herself, the girl gestured for Kichiruka to follow suit. When Rin heard the cartilage pop in his joints and saw the grimace that creased his face, she did her best to encourage him. "Just bunch your knees. There you go! Very good."
Kichiruka smiled, not so much at his own accomplishment this time, but as having Rin around to be there.
"Okay, now extend," she said, tapping her toes to the top of the stream.
The moment he touched his feet to the brook's surface the rest was easy. Kichiruka slid back into his familiar element, sinking deep and drawing the water around him like a shifting blanket.
"Thank you for the lesson, Rin."
She nodded. "See you tomorrow?"
"Yes, of cour– oh…" Palms clapping together, Kichiruka held his hands over his bowed forehead in a deep apology. "I'm sorry, coach, but I won't be able to attend practice for the next few days. We're expecting company in my domain and I'm to be in attendance."
"That's fine," Rin chirped agreeably. "But you promise not to completely forget everything you've learned so far?"
Kichiruka gave her a smile that quaked around the edges. "I'll try….eheh…"
"How many days?" she pressed now.
"Four…maybe five."
"You better practice," Rin ground out.
Kichiruka's laughter was his promise. And it wasn't until Rin later checked her basket that she realized he let her keep half of the sapphire.
.
A/N: Thank you all who are reading, reviewing, and tuning in. And for anyone who's wondering about a certain off-screen dog-demon, he'll be back in the up-coming chapter.