Among the Wolves [Hakuouki]

Chapter 9

The soft murmur of several people talking filled the air as Rin walked alongside Kondou-San through a large training ground belonging to another dojo. Many other dojos had gathered here along with the Tennen-Rishin Ryu dojo for the much anticipated tournament.

"Ahhh...my muscles are really sore. I don't think I can do this today" Shinpachi sighed as he rubbed his right forearm.

"Idiot. We warned you not to over do it yesterday, but you hardly seemed to pay heed to what I said" Hijikata said angrily as he recalled the previous day's training.

"Hijikata-San. Please calm down. You're drawing attention to yourself." Sannan-San said calmly, smiling.

Hijikata sighed, then shifted his gaze to an unusually quiet Rin, who barely seemed to be fazed by Souji, who also happened to notice her absentminded behavior and started poking her cheek every now and then to try to get her back to reality, but failing.

"Rin? Rin....RIN" Hijikata called out as everyone stopped walking.

Rin, who was slouching and had a lost expression on her face, suddenly snapped up. "Did...Did someone call me?" she asked, confused as she looked at one person at a time.

Sonosuke raised an eyebrow at her in a worried manner. "Rin. You zoned out really badly back there. Is something wrong?" he asked the expressionless girl.

"She doesn't really look fine." Heisuke said to Sonosuke. "Look at those dark circles under her eyes" he added.

It was Kondou-San's turn to fuss over Rin. "Did you get enough sleep Rin? We told you not to tire yourself out during yesterday's practice."

Rin scanned everyone's faces before sighing.

"I didn't get any sleep last night at all" she declared. "I felt nervous about today. It's the first time I'm taking part in something like this. And besides, this event is supposed to be really important for you guys to establish this group you keep talking about. Sponsor's are going to be here...What if I screw up during my spar against Fukushima?" Rin said, pouring out her thoughts.

Everyone stared at her in silence; they had all experienced a similar feeling of nervousness during their first time in a tournament, and they knew it would only last until right before the spar. After that, their natural instincts would take over and their nervousness would immediately become non-existent.

"You'll be fine" Sannan-San simply stated.

Those three words of reassurance was all Rin needed. Although they were three simply spoken words, they had a deeper meaning behind them; it showed that everyone believed in Rin's strength and abilities.

A smile crept upon the pale girl's face as she nodded with a revived confidence.

The tournament started after an hour or so. One by one, the pairs chosen for the spars faced each other in the middle of the training ground as the others sat by the side as the audience in a much anticipated silence, waiting eagerly to see the standing victor.

Shinpachi ended up sparring with a man twice his size, however, he looked prepared to take his opponent down.

"I didn't build these beautiful muscles to only show off old man" Rin heard him say at the turning point of the spar between the two.

After a bit of more efforts, Shinpachi emerged victorious from the spar, later followed by Sannan-San, who easily struck his opponent down with a deadly calm look on his face and pure skill.

Hijikata was up next. Watching him fight strengthened Rin on the inside; every move the future vice-commander made was precise and accurate, as if his moves were saying how sure he was of himself and his life.