WeyrdKat Teases

Short story pieces. That's it. Read and comment if you like. Or even if you don't.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Out of the Feudal Era, Into the Feuds: Chapter One

Chapter One: The Cat and the Dog Reunite


She sat quietly on the outer skim of the inner circle and felt somehow out of place, even in the classroom. Two circles made up their small group, but the thin girl with the odd colored hair really wasn’t a part of either. She was still included in the discussion, of course, even going as far as making comments every now and then. But, with her head slightly throbbing and her stomach beginning to flutter, her mind wasn’t quite all there. Her dinner had only been a handful of crispy, salty pretzels and half a bottle of apple juice, but that had been closer to two hours before. There was still another hour or so to go in her night class before she could head back to the dorm and give her stomach and her ears a rest. What appeared to be ears, and even felt like ears, hung below her hairline and above her cheek bones, but that wasn’t what bothered her. She longed to take her hair down and rub the two little fuzzy spots on the top of her head until they quit aching. Everyone else in the class simply saw a twenty-something year old in a tight black tee and jeans, with her light purple hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. ‘What I wouldn’t give to be only twenty again,’ Kylani thought with a silent sigh. She wiggled her barefoot toes, propped up as they were on the blue plush chair she sat in, as those around her discussed history and learning. Her flat, black flip-flops lay discarded beneath the chair as she attempted to outline all the things she had to do in the next week. The list, however, didn’t want to hold still. Instead, like spastic butterflies, it floated in and out of her consciousness, leaving sparkly trails that hurt her brain when she tried to focus. Something outside the window in the door moved in a whir of black and red, catching her attention. Without staring outright and drawing attention to herself or the figure, Kylani leaned on her hand and pretended to be self-absorbed for a moment. She hadn’t imagined it, unless the hallucinations from the last full moon were still stuck in her brain like the spastic butterflies she wanted to scorch. He was there, alright. He had stopped to peer into the room as if something had caught his attention too. Perhaps he had smelt her. Kylani pulled her youkai aura back to her slowly. She could sure smell him with little difficulty from where she was. He wore little cologne, but the aura of his power drifted to her, a strong masculine scent engulfing her senses and warming her to the core. His youki was every bit as strong as she remembered. The figure stared hard at her for a little longer before cocking his head in a beckon to her. With a little nod, Kylani caught the teacher’s attention, without disrupting the conversation, and excused herself, with her things, into the hallway. College life was much easier once you had lived all the history discussed.

The lemony-pine scent of the cleaning soap floated around like a fog as she searched out his scent and followed it around the corner to the end of an empty hallway, where a wall of windows stood overlooking the parking lot below. She regretted wearing her flip-flops as the smack of her shoes rising to her heels echoed down the hallway. Kylani slowed, the height of the building and the size of the window keeping her from rushing up to him. Even in the ugly, stale light of the fluorescent fixtures, which turned everything in the hallway a sickly yellow-green color, he was still beautiful. He stood with his back to her, but the slight movement of his bandanna told her that he could hear her fine. The light from the crescent moon outlined his jean clad figure in silver to match the waist length ponytail that swished in the stillness. He rested one clawed hand on the glass of the window, tapping it lightly with the knowledge that if he so wished he could break through it without so much as a scratch to himself.

“Would you mind not staring so hard? I can smell you starting to drip.” Tadashi’s raspy voice echoed to her and she licked her lips gently in reflex.

“You know, Tadashi, I’d probably be twice as wet if I hadn’t remembered what an asshole I was told you are. You don’t even know me, and you’ve already shown me that they weren’t wrong.” Kylani ignored the window and continued to walk up behind him, her fear being overridden by her slight anger.

“Well, I guess you being turned on is better than having to smell fear.” Tadashi turned at that moment and leaned against the glass, his long legs crossed at the ankles. “Who are you anyway, bishounjaga?”

“Pretty girl? I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. My name is Kylani Mianaka, but we can’t talk here. There are several classes that will get out soon and I don’t want to be caught by friends and have to explain who you are. We can talk on the way to my place.”

“Woah, woah. . .your place? Who said I’m going anywhere with someone I don’t even know?” Tadashi had to admit that her willowy figure, complete with rounded hips and shapely thighs, was nice. He swept his gaze up from the floor to her face, looking indirectly at her face, his eyes rested on the expanse below. Even thin as she was, her breasts would be more than a handful for his clawed hands. He flexed his fingers with a smirk. ‘Damn,’ he thought, his mind racing over the image his eyes had supplied. ‘How come I didn’t notice those from the classroom?’

“If you’re done ogling my body, can we get out of here? I need to talk to you about something rather serious, and I’d rather the world not know my secret . . . or yours for that matter.” Kylani shifted the weight of her messenger bag more firmly on her shoulder and turned, headed for a back staircase. Tadashi caught her shoulder, his thumb digging into the muscles of her back, causing her to flinch and turn back to face him.

“What do you know about secrets?” He growled, baring his elongated canines and trying to frighten her. She smiled up at him with a slight laugh, her canine teeth protruding just as long as his.

“I know more about secrets, than you think, but now is not the time or place to discuss them, especially your secret,” Kylani pulled away from his hand as a door down the hall swung open. She turned and took a few steps toward the stairwell before throwing her last word over her shoulder, “hanyou.

Drat the woman, she had him. Tadashi knew he had no choice but to follow this strange girl with the funny smell. Not many people could match him for wits and with that last word, she had guaranteed his attention. Kylani knew he had heard every word despite the noise as the people filed out of the room laughing. She could hear his booted footsteps as they followed her down the empty dark stairwell. The noise echoed around her, rattling in her ears and making them hurt, but she knew his more sensitive ears had to be stinging, even though his stoic glare trained on her back never moved. She bit down on her lower lip to keep from saying something to stop the stinging echo of their footsteps. The dark wooden door allowed only a few shafts of light as they neared it and she paused, trying to hear anyone moving beyond the tall wooden barrier.

“There’s no one there, just push it.” Tadashi growled, leaning over Kylani to place his palm against the door and give it a hard shove. It opened easily under his strength and Kylani slipped through and lead the way out of the building and across the parking lot. A few cars sprinkled the dark lot, but underneath one of the fading lamps sat a light amethyst Ford Shelby Cobra. She continued walking straight to the vehicle and slid the key into the slot, turning it and pulling open the small car door. “Who’s car you steal?” Tadashi asked, cocking an eyebrow while running his fingertips across the hood of the car, careful not to scratch the paint with his claws.

“No one, this is my professional vehicle. I got it new when it went on sale in 1965 and I’ve kept it up ever since. Beautiful, isn’t she?” Kylani smiled as she turned the ignition and the car purred to life. Tadashi didn’t speak as he slid into the passenger’s seat and pulled the door closed.

“What do you mean you got it when it went on sale in 1965? That would make you over a hundred years old if you could drive it when you bought it.”

“Yea, so?” Kylani simply smiled as she turned the car and let it crawl out of the parking lot.

“Keh. Lemme guess, more secrets.” Tadashi huffed as Kylani ignored him for the rest of their short drive. She turned off the engine and opened the door to get out. He hadn’t said a word since the comment about secrets and she was determined not to break the silence until they reached her loft. It didn’t take long to climb the six sets of stairs to her third floor door and as she unlocked the knob, she wondered how he would react to the picture she had to show him.

Tadashi just did manage not to gawk at the sparingly lush contents of the loft’s large main room. The kitchen, dining room, and living room all fed into the same living area with the same two red, gold, and black motifs, one distinctively Chinese and the other more of a Japanese way of drawing. Even if he hadn’t lived through the period, Tadashi would have still recognized that every piece was authentic or an exact replica of an authentic piece. He would guess they were from the Ming Dynasty in China and the Muromachi Period in Japan both around the 14th and 15th century, but pieces that old were even rarer than her car.

“Make yourself at home, Tadashi. I’ll set some Ramen to cook and then I’ll join you.” Kylani glided noiselessly into the kitchen area and he realized that she had slipped off her annoying flip-flops. She began to rustle things in the kitchen, so he took the liberty to glance around the room. A small dog carved in jade sat atop a marble fireplace mantel, the fireplace below it just a hollow spot for a wine rack. The statue looked strangely familiar even as he turned it over in his clawed hands to see the artist’s name. ‘Tai inu’ was partially visible, but the last character, or maybe it was two, was completely unreadable.

“Lovely, isn’t it?” Even Tadashi’s heightened senses hadn’t warned him of her approach, and as he whirled around with the statue still in his fingers, she only smiled and offered him a bowl of steaming noodles.

“Keh. I guess.” Tadashi set the figure down and shrugged. He sniffed the air lightly and had to tamp down his reaction to her scent of light jasmine and sakura blossoms that mingled with the Ramen. “Beef?” He raised an eyebrow and accepted the bowl.

“For you, yes. I’m rather partial to shrimp.” She gestured with her bowl. “Sorry it’s not fresh, but food time is limited.” She motioned him to the sofa and pulled her knees in under her as if it came naturally to behave as if she were still in Japan. It was only then Tadashi realized she hadn’t handed him a fork, but rather chopsticks – traditional bamboo chopsticks. He smiled sincerely at her and attacked his food.

“You said you knew my secret and I heard you say hanyou, but I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Tadashi mumbled around one bite of noodles before shoving another into his mouth.

“Then why are you here? Why come with me if you didn’t know exactly what I meant?” Kylani paused between bites and studied her chopsticks.

“Keh. I was being invited to a pretty girl’s apartment, of course I followed.”
“Wrong. You balked at coming and only followed me after I said hanyou. Don’t play baka with me, Inu. You know full well it means half-demon.” Kylani set down her bowl on the small woven and crossed the floor to her bookshelf on the far right wall of the room.

“So? What’s that got to do with me?” He finished the last of his noodles and set the bowl down, his chopsticks rattling against the fine china of the bowl. He chose to ignore the fact that she had called him ‘dog.’

“You are one.” Kylani said simply as she located the book she wanted and pulled it off the shelf. It looked as old as the rest of the room. Tadashi knew that if he had been still eating, he would have choked or threw up on her nice Asian rug, but he was able to hold his emotions and appear only slightly amused. Kylani still noticed the fear seep lightly into his aura. She took her place beside him on the red silk couch and flipped through the parchment book. Most of the pages were crude watercolor paintings of landscapes with notes about where they were done scrawled down the sides. She stopped flipping and turned the book toward him. A young half-demon in a red hakama lay perched on a low branch of a Goshinboku tree, asleep. His arm lay wrapped over his middle with his silver hair floating on an unseen breeze and his small triangle dog ears stood at attention on the top of his head. The place was carefully recorded on the side of the painting next to a name he didn’t recognize, but the title lovingly written out directly below the drawing wasn’t something he would soon forget: ‘in goshujin mugen tetsu,’ Peace in your dreams, Tadashi.’ He looked up at Kylani coldly. The God Tree was an integral part of his history and he remembered the comfort of the red pants well.

“Where did you get it? It’s a beautiful painting.” Kylani refused to be intimidated.

“I didn’t buy it, Tadashi. I drew it. You did notice the date, didn’t you?” She knew he had seen the date 1245, and that he hadn’t been more than seventy years old in the picture.

“You couldn’t have done this if the date’s right. You would be over a thousand years old.” Tadashi pretended the age was outrageous. After all, he didn’t look any older than 30 and he never would.

“Not quite 900, as you well know. You might as well take off your bandanna, Ashi. I know it’s pushing on your ears.” He watched as she pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair and let it fall down her back slowly. Two small black triangles began to push their way out of her flattened hair to stand up at angles outward on her head. She could feel Tadashi’s temperature rise as his heart started pounding. “Let’s talk secrets, Tadashi. You now know one of mine.”

“But you have human ears. They’re even pierced.” Tadashi lifted his hands to his bandanna for a second before returning them to his lap. Kylani watched his hesitation with a small smile.

“These?” She pulled on the small hoop at the bottom of the fleshy looking extension. “They’re stage make-up and spirit gum. Not real.” Kylani closed her eyes as Tadashi reached for the human ear. The heat from his hand radiated against her cheek.

“You don’t feel that?” Tadashi rubbed the false lobe between his claws. The feeling of soft plastic negated the real look. His thumb nail began to pierce just above her earring and all she did was watch his face.

“Nothing. I told you it’s not real.” Kylani pulled his hand away from her head. “Are you going to show me, or not?” She allowed Tadashi to pull his hand away.

“Who are you? I don’t know who you are. . .you couldn’t have drawn that picture cause I don’t know anyone named Kylani.” Tadashi pushed himself off the couch and stared out of the picture window. “Or . . . uh . . . I know who that painting originated from and you couldn’t have known him.”

Kylani smiled as he tried to save face by backpedaling as fast as his jaws would take him. “No, you don’t know a Kylani. I’ve only been Kylani Mianaka for less than a hundred years. Before that, I was Jasmine Akishi, and before that one, Sakia Yumeshi. You may have kept your name, Tadashi, but the name I was born with hasn’t been used since I left the end of the Sengoku Jidai. I was born Nekusenjo, the youngest daughter of a union between a cat demon and a human servant. You knew me as Koneko . . . kitten.”

Tadashi looked closely at the girl sitting before him with the cat ears and the purple hair. He closed his eyes and let himself be taken back to the Feudal Era of Japan, before his mother died and long before he had married Satomi. Small flashes of memory like the pieces of a movie ticked through his head showing him the God Tree where he loved to sit and the servant girl in the tan dress who followed him around as if she was the puppy and not him. “Koneko? You mean that thin little waif of a half-demon that tried to attach herself to my hip?” Tadashi smiled lopsidedly out of one side of his mouth. Kylani laughed.

“I suppose I was sort of in your way, but I couldn’t help it. Your brother scared me to no end . . . a huge dog demon like himself, he could have smushed me with no problem.” Kylani uncurled her feet from under herself and closed her sketch book. There would be plenty of time for pictures later. “Tadashi, look again at that figure.” She pointed to the figure on the fireplace mantle.

“The dog?” Kylani nodded. Tadashi picked it up and turned it over in his scarred hands once again. “Tai inu, what’s worn away is youkai, isn’t it? It’s my father.” Kylani nodded again. It was good to have him back near her. Perhaps this time, she wouldn’t be so foolish as to let him leave again.

“Welcome back to me, Tadashi.” She whispered to herself, sure he had absorbed himself in memories of his father. She walked toward him and set a hand on his waist, content to ease slowly back into her old life, after all, they had centuries to reacquaint themselves.






Okay, I know it’s not much now, but there is more to come. Remember, feedback is a sexy thing that I will take out and have my way with. Send me more. This is my first "Inuyasha"-type fic, so if you know how it could be better, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. =^.^= Weyrd Kat

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