"Deep breaths... focus your mind..."
A young kitsune with fire-kissed hair, (cream at the roots, gradually growing to a light orange, then a deep crimson at it's tips) and seafoam eyes stood alone in a clearing. Crimson and gold gaillardia petals floated in the air all around her. Slowly, she moved her hands in a swirling motion, willing the petals to spin lazily around her. She watched intently as the petals grew hard as stone, and sharp as razors.
She had been practicing this technique for months now, taking a simple blanket flower, and turning it's petals into a razor sharp barrier to surround her. Her mastery of this shield type technique was coming along well enough, but this was only the first step in her training. Carefully, she moved her arms in front of her, and pinpointed a cluster of the petals with her mind. Giving them a mental command, she placed her hands in front of her, palms out and thumbs crossed, the fingers creating a triangle before she spoke.
"EXPLOSION!!!"
While most of her petals whirled around her, the ones she had prodded with the command raced out of the procession towards a burnt oak, exploding on impact with the old tree! The girl smirked, her fiery ears twitching as she lashed her tail in triumph. 'Phase two success!!' She thought before gritting her teeth. 'Now for the hard part...'
She drew in another breath, and focused on the next batch of petals. Slowly she moved her hands, one over the other with palms facing, and touched her middle finger of each hand to the center of her wrists.
"PULSATION!!"
A strange noise filled the air, almost like a 'bwip' as the petals she had focused on froze in place. Her eyes widened in fear as they changed direction, focusing on her and not the tree.
"SHIT!!!"
She screeched, throwing her arms up to block her body as the petals thrummed against her. Small invisible explosions rippled across her arms and torso.
The golden barrier fell as she hit the ground, breathing hard.
"Ahhh-ooooowww..." She groaned, lifting a small fragment of aloe from her hair. She willed the aloe to grow, beckoning it to use it's healing salve on her wounds. The plant had nearly finished it's work when the sound of clapping rang across the clearing.
"Great job!! With a move like that, the enemy won't even have to fight you! They can just wait till you beat yourself up!"
A half-blooded cat-demon sneered as he entered the clearing. Mako Ren had been her guardian and companion for ten years now, and even as a voice in the back of her head told her not to, she returned the sneer.
"Well maybe if someone would actually help me train instead of lazing about all day I'd be able to get it by now!! Why are you here anyways, don't you have a rat to chase or something?" She watched the corner of his lip twitch, and knew she was close to hitting a nerve. He shook his head irritably, his black tail lashing twice before he spoke.
"Sharp words for a fox with no teeth! Are you sure you've got the bite to back them up girl?" He growled in warning. He knew she was upset, but there was only so much disrespect he could take from the little fox, and if she pushed him for a fight, he would be quick to re-teach last week's lesson.
She glared at him coldly, her crimson-to-cream tail lashing angrily as she got to her feet, spitting the next words at him with a snarl.
"WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE!! Isn't it your job to kill kids like me?"
She didn't mean the words that spilled from her mouth, not reallly... but she was bone tired with her assessment coming up, and her irritation won over as she snapped. "Oh wait, that's right. You got fired from that job! Now you're just a glorified babysitter!!!"
She knew better, she did. She regret the words the instant they left her lips as his ice blue eyes, lacking in any golden hue with the absence of his amulet, blazed at her in fury.
Crap... I really stepped in it now...' she thought as he vanished from her sight. She flinched at his speed, and pulled her arms into a defensive position as she tried to pinpoint his energy signature. 'Where the hell did he... oh shit!!!'
She braced for impact as he appeared behind her with a powerful kick that sent the little kitsune flying across the clearing to slam chest first into an old oak tree. She groaned as her senses returned, and reached for a blade of grass as he raced towards her, black claws poised to strike.
She raised her arm as the grass turned into a bright green sword, just in time to deflect his clawed attack, but he didn't let up. She blocked each attack as she backed her way around the clearing. She was careful to continue along the edge, never getting pinned against the surrounding trees. She chanced a glance towards his ice blue eyes and felt her blood run cold at the fury within them.
He saw the fear in her eyes and darted forward with his left claw. She blocked it easily enough, but failed to see him reach forward with the right. He retracted the black claws just in time, and slapped her hard across the face before jumping back from her.
Yumiko stumbled with a gasp as he struck her, even as soft crimson-gold petals began to swirl out of her hair, cutting the front of his shirt before he had time to jump away.
"You're not taking this seriously, dead girl!" He growled with a scowl, before moving his hand to his head, and plucking a single jet black hair.
Yumiko gulped and took a hesitant step back as the hair changed forms, his energy infusing it to turn into a long, corded whip. 'Oh he's pissed...' she thought before reaching into her pocket, and drawing out a fern frond.
That earned a smirk from the cat-demon, who waited patiently for her to summon her favorite weapon.
Carefully, she channeled her energy into the frond, willing it to grow to a length of 10 feet. As it grew, each individual leaf glimmered in the sunlight, a hard an unyielding needle ready to pierce through her targets. She grinned, and began to circle her guardian, careful not to show him her back. She had felt that lash of his many times over the decade, always accompanied by the words, "You're dead, girl..." immediately after, and had grown adept at avoiding it's sting.
Anyone who saw from a distance might think him cruel in how he treated her, but it was quite the opposite. In truth the tom-cat doted on her, and would do anything to see her fragile smile, including training as hard as she could withstand, so that no other would ever need defend her again. They both had an awful habit of holding back however, and the harsh words shared between them were empty of any true malice. They were merely a tool to break through their barriers, and put everything they had into these training bouts.
"HERE IT COMES!"
He yowled as he lashed the whip forward, causing her to dance to the side before striking it away with her own lash, and aiming the next strike at him in return. He jumped neatly to his left as a few of the spines from her weapon came free of the frond, and whizzed past his shoulder with deadly aim. He lashed his whip again and again, giving her little time to react as the two danced to avoid each other's attacks.
Finally he landed a blow sharply across her right arm, just below the shoulder, and she stumbled back. He was ready to leave it at that, but the girl reigned in her frond, and lashed it in a wide arc so it turned just before it would have struck him. The remaining needles flew loose of the frond, whizzing towards his chest with deadly accuracy. He moved to lash the whip up in order block the needles, when movement caught his eye, and he gasped.
On the other side of the clearing, Yumiko had dropped the frond, and put her fingers to her wrist in the same sigil she had used before, her blue-green eyes blazing, a barely contained fire within. 'Oh shit!!!'
Mako dropped his lash at once, and pulled his arms up to shield his face and chest just as the words left the little fox's lips.
"PULSATION!!!"
She screamed with everything she had, sending every drop of demon energy she had left into the needles.
All around him a soft "bwip" sounded. Time seemed to freeze just before the air around the needles rippled, exploding to every side of him.
Mako let out a scream as shockwave after shockwave tore at his arms and torso until the barrage finally ended in one gigantic blast that sent him hurtling back, crashing straight through an old dead birch. He let out a wordless groan as his body slammed into the pan behind it, and slumped to the ground as Yumiko threw her hands up in a cheer!
"I DID IT!!! Did you see that?? I finally did it!!" She grinned ear to ear as she half-pranced, half-ran across the clearing to where her guardian remained clumped up at the base of the tree.
"Mako? H-hey... you're okay right??" She tilted her head as she asked, all of the rage gone from her expression, leaving in its place nothing more than a curious young girl.
She leaned closer to sniff at his wounds. She couldn't smell blood, but she could see several bruises already forming around the skin not covered by his tunic.
"H-hey, come on, I didn't hurt you that bad... right?" She whined, her eyes glazing with worry.
She began to reach into her hair for another aloe clipping, when strong cords wrapped around her shoulders, and made her yelp in shock.
"No!" He half-whispered, then let out another groan as his head fell back against the ground, too sore to even laugh at the shocked expression on her face.
"Damn kit, it's a good thing you're not a fire elemental, or that might have actually killed me!"
His words were pained, but there was pure pride in his ice-blue orbs as he stared at the fire-branded kitsune with the gift of the forest. She had come so far from the scared little mite he'd scooped up in the remains of a kitsune village a decade earlier. Back then, the most she could do was call forth a few petals as a time, now any plant in the forest was her ally.
She grinned at him as the cords released her, changing back into his simple black hair strands. "I really got you good huh?" She purred, thoroughly proud of herself. "Think it will be enough to convince Koenma that I can control my powers now?"
"That's 'Lord' Koenma to you, girly... and you can consider me thoroughly impressed!"
A high pitched voice broke through the treeline as a toddler dressed in purple robes floated into view. Yumiko gasped and bowed to the toddler.
"I'm sorry Lord Koenma! I didn't mean to be disrespectful!" She squeaked nervously, her tail tucking slightly between her legs. Mako chuckled slightly and glanced over to the young prince.
"I'd bow to you too your highness, but I can't really move my back at the moment, seeing how I think I might have broken it on that tree over there..." He grunted, and tried to nod his head towards the remains of the birch tree, only to flinch and grit his teeth against the pain. "Any chance you'd be willing to heal an old tom-cat's broken bones sir?" He grinned at the prince, who simply shook his head and moved closer to them.
"You know, one day you're actually going to get yourself killed... You know the cats having nine lives thing is just a myth. Right, moron?" He scolded while using his energy to heal the demon's spine. He shivered as he heard the bones snap back into place. "Yeesh, that sounds painful! How in the hell are you even awake right now, Mako?"
The cat-demon just shrugged his shoulders, the pain considerably less.
"What can I say man? When a three year old, pulsing quest-class demon goes nuclear in your arms, it kinda puts pain into a new perspective..." He said with a monotone voice, his eyes flashing a brief moment of genuine sorrow before he buried it deep.
In truth, he was glad to have lost his job as one of King Emma's dog. Since Genkai's test 10 years ago, he'd managed to save 4 other children from his sister's fate, including that little girl who had damn nearly killed him, and leveled a small coven at the same time. He genuinely hoped he'd never see that girl again, and still felt the pain of his skin exploding and rebuilding itself in rapid succession if he tried to recall it.
"You're early..." He told the prince, his icy eyes hardening as he questioned the toddler. Even the great Koenma gulped at the dark look in the cat-demon's eyes, and he quickly shook his hands in front of him.
"It's no need to panic I promise! We were already in town for another matter, and figured we'd go ahead and get this over with. So, how about we head back to the temple, and we'll go over your case. If what I've seen here is any indication, this shouldn't take long at all!!" He said with a jovial tone, putting both demons at ease as they started the trek back to the temple grounds.
_______
Genkai took a puff of her cigarette as the gathered demons and royalty watched the footage from Yumiko's latest training session. The girl's work was still slow, but there was no doubt in her control over the remnants of the 'pulse' power. She breathed out a sigh and allowed herself to feel a moment of pride in her work, before focusing on the young prince.
"Well, what do you think? Is it enough to convince your father?" she asked.
Koenma grinned wide when she mentioned his father.
"Funny thing about that. My father no longer has any sway in what happens with this case! He's wiped his hands clean of it, and given me sole discretion when it comes to dealing with the former 'pulse' children in your possession Genkai!" He beamed, thoroughly proud of himself for being given such a responsibility.
"It was my idea to bring the girl here in the first place, so he's deemed it only fitting that I should bear the outcome of that choice, no matter what it brings! Granted he doesn't have much faith in this program, but after what I just saw? I think it's safe to say you passed, girl!!"
Yumiko just stared at the toddler prince for a moment, the words sinking in. She had spent ten years on Genkai's compound, never once allowed to step outside it's borders. She wanted more than anything to go to school, and be around others her age, even if it would mean hiding her ears and tail while in the city. She had already passed a practice exam for the academy she wished to enter, but before she could go and take the entrance exam in earnest, Lord Koenma had to clear her to leave.
Her eyes started to widen as he spoke again.
"Now, I do have my own condition to you leaving the compound. You see, I've recently promoted a new spirit detective. As he's honestly younger than you are, he might need your help on his future missions..." He cut off, throwing his hands up in front of him as a snarl cut through the room.
Mako had already began his advancement on the toddler prince, his icy eyes raging as he closed the distance and lifted him by the front of his shirt.
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU! YOU'RE NOT TURNING THESE KIDS INTO A DAMN WEAPON!!!" The tom-cat snarled in his face, his left hand raised with claws poised to strike.
"A-A-AS A HEALER!!! SHE WOULD BE HELPING AS A HEALER, NOT A FIGHTER!!!" The little prince shrieked. "O-OGRE!!"
A strong blue hand clapped down on Mako's right arm.
"I'll ask you to put my boss down gently, if you'd please..."
Koenma's iconic loincloth wearing ogre George said with a low voice that was very uncharacteristic for the usually timid beast.
Mako blinked twice at the odd blue beast before lowering the boy to the ground. He glanced at Yumiko, her eyes filled with worry, and knew she feared he would say no. He let out an irritated sigh and ran a hand through his hair before returning his gaze to the prince.
"Fine... I won't break her hopes... but you'd better keep these kids safe Koenma..." He growled with no semblance of respect.
Master Genkai cleared her throat to break the tension in the room, and walked over to a table by the wall.
"Yes yes, the pissing contest is very impressive boys, but now that we've been given permission to move forward, there are things we should discuss... Girl, fetch us some tea and be quick about it!"
[A/N:
This first chapter is a little rough, but is important to set up the dynamic between these two, as well as setting up the relationship between Genkai's little project, and the spirit world's involvement in such. Chapter two will follow Mako a bit more as he sets everything in motion as Yumi's guardian. Little does he know, he's about to run into an old friend in a new form! Will the revelation help him feel safer about Yumiko entering high school, or will he be even more on edge than before?]