Chapter 3: The Cat
10 years later
Word Count: 1079
"(Y/n)! You need to move faster!" Tomoe calls to me from the ground. I pant as I try to find the strength to keep moving. Leaping through the treetops, my large black paws propel me forward. Splinters in my paws, dirt in my face, the wind in my ears.
Becoming a black cat yokai gave me powerful legs made for running and jumping, incredible agility, flexibility, and not to mention extremely heightened senses. However, Tomoe was hardly impressed. He took it upon himself to, as he put it, "train me to become a familiar worthy of serving and protecting Mikage" or something like that. He insisted that I gain muscle strength by taking laps around the forested shrine grounds in every way, shape and form.
If he tells me to take the form of a cat, then that is what I must do.
If he tells me to take the form of a human, then that is what I must do.
My paw slips from beneath me and I crash to the ground, an aching pain in my right shoulder throbbing the second I touch the ground. The pain forces me into my human form.
"What the hell was that (y/n)?" Tomoe stands above me, a disapproving scowl covering his face. His fan snaps in front of his face, and he waves it lightly. I rub my shoulder, only a slight ache now.
"I wasn't born a yokai, Tomoe," I mumble, my eyes to my shoulder. I push myself to my feet and dust the leaves of the tree off of my red kimono. "Excuse me if it takes me a few years to get used to." I continue to sit on the ground, taking the fall as an excuse to catch my breath.
I can feel his eyes on the top of my head for a while before he speaks.
"Go back to the shrine. You're not ready to be a familiar." My eyes snap toward his.
WHAT?
I've been busting my ass, doing always what he says, always listening to Tomoe, and he's telling me its not enough?
My patience snaps.
"Did you not hear what I just said?" I snap. "I don't even feel like I'm in the same body. I'd like to see Mikage stick you in a human body, see how well you-"
"Gods, all of you humans are the same, stupid and blind to anything but yourselves." He scoffs, folding his fan in his hand. "Not all yokai are familars, and newsflash, the mark of a god is highly coveted among them. A yokai will not wait a few years until you are prepared. The way you are right now, the only thing you'd be capable of is getting in the way!" He groans, looking me up and down with disgust and contempt written in his features.
"All you do is complain! Becoming a familiar is the biggest honor a human like you could ever hope of receiving, and you treat it so lightly, you're lucky I don't kill you on the spot! Mikage saved your life! Not only have you wasted 10 years of my time complaining about my training, but you refuse to learn!" His voice is harsh and hurt. "Do you know how long it took you to learn the basic duties of a familiar? Seven years One-hundred and forty-two days, (y/n)." Tomoe throws his arms in the air, looking absolutely exasperated.
"Its been three years since I've even dared to start pushing you outside to actually learn anything, and you've hardly improved." Tomoe sighs, turning his back toward me.
"Go back to the shrine. Don't come out of your room until you are ready to learn. I cant do this anymore." With those words he is gone, disappearing into thin air, leaving me alone with an injured shoulder and a few miles to walk back to the shrine.
Teacher Tomoe is an entirely different beast than the caretaker Tomoe that I first met.
I sit on the hard ground, a maple tree at my back.
He is impatient, strict, and holds very high expectations that I am not always able to meet. To be honest, I seldom impress him. I know that this is because he expects these same things of himself, yet I keep letting myself make excuses.
On days when he is not drilling me to run, tomoe does at least ten times the work I do in half the time, easy.
He's right. Danger will not wait for me to be prepared.
As much as I dislike it, I am a yokai now, a black cat albeit, but a yokai nonetheless. I am stronger than I was as a human. I am faster, I am better.
I just need to bring myself to embrace that, instead of shying away.
"Ughhhhhh!" I groan aloud, resting my head against the maple tree at my back.
"I'm trying, stupid Tomoe." The weight of my eyelids drags me into sleep.
It really has been an exhausting day.
I think you and Tomoe could learn a few things from each other.
What?
What could Tomoe ever learn from me?
I think what Tomoe needs is to learn how to live again.
Learn to live?
Just as you need to learn how to work, human yokai.
Mikage chuckles.
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I hope you enjoyed, I'm not sure if going to post a chapter next week, because I have finals next week, but I'll try to get two chapters out the week after if I don't
Love you guys so much, :)
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xo
Harleigh