Maiko felt as though her heart was being squeezed, as she stared at him. Every breath came as a gasp, and she clutched at her shirt with s shuddering fingers. Fear engulfed her, terror, grief, all those feelings flowed through her as one.
Shura put an arm around Maiko’s shoulder. “Are you alright?” he asked.
Maiko squeezed his hand sharply. “Scared.” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. “Scared.”
Shura hugged his best friend closer to him, glaring at the slender man standing before them. “Go away! Leave her alone!”
Kokoro felt taken aback by Maiko’s obvious distress, her previous anger replaced by confusion. Should she go to Maiko, or should she take care of the man? ‘Luna!’
‘Stupid.’ Luna padded calmly to Kokoro’s side. ‘Let’s take him out!’
Kokoro nodded, and slid into a fighting stance, one arm blocking and the other out front in attack. Luna crouched by her side, tail swishing from side to side.
‘She’, Luna prompted Kokoro, choosing the words Kokoro would‘ve used, sensing Kokoro was still distracted by Maiko. ‘Isn’t going to fight.’
“She isn’t going to fight.” Kokoro said. “But I will fight you in her place”
The slender man swung his long yellow hair behind an ear, and smiled. Then he was gone.
“Wha-”
A fist slammed upwards into Kokoro’s jaw, snapping it shut in the middle of her question, and a foot swung into her stomach, sending her flying backwards.
/WHAM/
The sound resounded through the air as she fell limply from the tree, leaves showering around her. A trickle of blood slipped from her mouth.
Luna was in the exact same spot she had been in before, the man sitting on her, pressing her to the ground with his weight. One hand leaned on her head, pushing it to the ground, and a casual boot trapped her tail. Nonetheless, the tip of it twitched irately.
Ears pressed flat to her head Luna face contorted into a ugly snarl. She growled deep inside her throat.
“That was easy.” he smirked at Shura. “Now. Who’s next?”
Shura just stared, first at Kokoro’s prostate form, then at Luna, in tiger form, being used as a chair. Then, sitting the terrified Maiko down gently, he took the sword from her hand and strode forward. “Me.”
He stood there, longish hair lifted by the breeze, sword unsheathed, glinting in the sunlight.
The slender man rather ruined the moment by snorting loudly. “You?”
Suddenly, he was at Shura’s back, pressing it to his neck. “You’re already dead.” He hissed.
The muscles in his arm tensed, and almost lazily, he made the cut. Not even bothering to watch him fall, he strode to where Maiko was staring with large eyes at Shura’s still body.
Without making any effort, he lifted her easily into the air, studying her. Shaking his head and making disapproving clucking sounds, he said almost sadly,
“My, my, my oh my. You are quite skinny my dear! To the point of malnourishment. Poor child.” He leered into her face. “I did tell them to feed you more, didn’t I?”
Maiko just stared at him with frozen fear, and he curled his nostrils in disgust, letting go carelessly. She landed with a yelp of pain.
“Now stay put like a good little murderer’s daughter.” He turned around,kicking at where Shura’s body was supposed to be. Instead, there was a log. He glanced around at the surrounding underbrush and trees. “I have some trash to clean up.”
***
Luna sat Shura’s limp body down on a tree branch gently. He was passed out, understandably. She looked at Kokoro, who was scanning the path through a pair of binoculars that had been tucked away in her ninja kit. There was Maiko, and the man striding away from her. Kokoro zoomed in on him.
“See anything?” Luna meowed.
“Yeeeah..” Kokoro said. “This guy hasn’t shaved in a while.”
“Do you ‘not’ see the gravity of the situation?” Luna hissed.
“Actually…”
“Yeees?”
“I feel sorta light.”
Luna smacked Kokoro on the face with her tail and stalked away irately. Humans!
‘Sorry Luna!’ Kokoro mind-called apologetically. ‘Whenever I’m nervous- to unwind - y’now, something new I’m trying out? Jokes? Felling light, gravity, get it?’
‘NOW is NOT the time!!’
‘Yes.’ Kokoro said more gravely. ‘Maiko seems to be in shock- I’m worried.’
Luna sighed. ‘That can’t be helped for now Kokoro.’
‘I know. I just feel- scared to see her so scared… The slender man’s physicals are, long brown hair, slim, sharp nose, slanted brown eyes, and oval face. Broad shoulders, slender body, wide placed legs. Slim fingers and feet. Stubble on face, seems to be about eighteen to twenty years old. No visible weapons, fantastic speed. Clothing consists of white shirt, brown jacket thingie over it, and matching shorts that reach a little past knees. Looks, in all aspects, a civilian except for facial feature which are rather fierce. His nickname is now Hawk because of his eyes.’
‘Why does he need a nickname? And what’s with the diagnosis?’
‘I don’t want to keep on calling him ‘slender man’, and it’s another thing I’m trying out. How is Shura?’
‘He’s still passed out. Seeing himself die proved a bit much for him.’
‘…It was for me too. Good thinking, by the way. Substitution jutsu and all…”
‘Thank you.’
Kokoro glanced at the path. “He’s gone!” she exclaimed, then rolled of the branch, holding on with both hands, and fell to the one underneath it. Luna landed a second later, Shura dangling from her mouth like an overgrown toy.
Kokoro heaved Shura from Luna’s grasp, and settled him on her back, piggyback style, grunting,
“Give him back!” cried Luna.
“Don’t be stupid!”Kokoro whispered furiously. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything with him in your mouth.”
“You won’t be able to do much with him on your back.”
Kokoro froze. Then, she jumped to the ground.
That was not Luna. Her voice wasn’t like that.
And, now that she thought of it, it hadn’t been in tiger.
Kokoro landed on the ground softly, Shura hopping a little on her back. She slid him off and lay him gently underneath a bush. Then she set off at a run through the forest.
She could hear the mysterious person behind her, running. Then she heard Maiko call, “Wait Kokoro! Please. Please” with a break in her voice.
Kokoro skidded to a stop and turned. “Maiko?” she called.
“Yes!” a breathless reply came. “Wait, please!”
“Alright.” Kokoro felt her leg itch and scratched at it with one foot, feeling awkward. Maiko had been so scared- near tears. Would she feel humiliated? What should Kokoro say? What did one say to a girl when she’s unhappy anyways? Kokor frowned, biting her lip. This- this wasn’t her forte.
Maiko stumbled into the clearing, her face flushed. Her eyes crinkled up, filling with tears like an overflowing cup. Kokoro walked over to Maiko, and put her arms out to hug her. Blubbering, Maiko leaned forward into Kokoro’s arms-, and grabbed them jumping over Kokoro to hold them firmly behind her back. There was a pop, and Maiko turned neatly back into Hawk.
Kokoro stood still as Hawk, civilian officer style (they’d studied this in the Academy- it had been interesting to see how non-ninja who couldn’t take the Academy courses apprehended criminals) tied her hands together. As he made the last knot with a sharp jerk, he asked Kokoro, “Where’s the boy?”
“Boy? What boy?”
Squeezing at the knots tighter, he leaned in close. “I’m not playing girl. Where’s the boy!?”
Kokoro winced, partly from pain, and partly from…fear. She’d recognized that tone in Kane. That was when he was close to losing his temper- and that was when people got hurt. Kokoro’s natural instinct was to babble Shura’s position to the man that very instant, her body remembering the pain… “No!” she gasped, her voice strained.
Hawk stayed quiet, and the two of them stood there with ought moving. Kokoro hated her stupid heart for beating, and beating so fast, hated her stupid voice for betraying her fear, hated her stupid scars for telling their story as slowly Hawk lifted up the sleeve on her shirt, slowly higher, higher, higher. Past her wrist, three inches away from where she knew sure as water falls down with one exception, her scars began, and she remained silent, vocally and mentally.
She was scared. She was scared all over again, of pain. Fear crippled her froze, broke her mind in two, fear that Kane wished she had felt when he had been interrogating her. Then she had been cool, so cool, but now the fear engulfed her like a tidal wave.
Suddenly, the silence in the forest was broken by a roar of anger. Luna leaped from the trees, right between Kokoro and Hawk, breaking Kokoro free from his hold, and spun around grumbling protectively. Her claws sheathed and unsheathed menacingly.
Kokoro had fallen forward into the ground, her legs unable to support her. Luckily, she’d closed her eyes and mouth to the dirt, and clenched her fists tight. The fear settled like a stone to the pit of her belly, weighing her down, dulling her movements, her thoughts, but not her heart. ‘that’ raced fast as ever.
‘Get up.’ Luna meowed.
Kokoro didn’t answer. She didn’t move.
‘I’ve had enough of your silliness! Get up you coward, or I’ll make you myself!’
Kokoro’s body kick started. In all the time they had known each other, Luna had never used that tone with her. It was dead serious, meaning what it said. It wasn’t the type of voice friends ever used with one another.
‘Idiot! My hands are tied together!’ she snapped.
Luna let out a low hiss of annoyance, and, keeping an eye on Hawk, reached over with her back paw’s claw to neatly slit the rope. ‘Get on with it, you helpless ‘baby’!’
Kokoro felt her hands free of one another, and stood up slowly, rubbing dirt from her face.
Luna held Hawk at bay, her pure ferociousness keeping him aback. Although she was an adolescent, she looked pure wild animal. Her tail stirred up dust, and she bore no resemblance to the soft child tiger she usually looked. While others might have felt fear, Kokoro eyed this new Luna with fascination. This Luna- was rather mad! Not full berserk, mind you, not full mad, but partially so. She had grown bigger, and muscles rippled obviously underneath her fur.
‘Luna’s gone berserk.’ Kokoro thought, without realizing.
Large mass of black, white, and tiger propelled itself through the air straight towards Hawk. Hawk, dodged to one side, and, mid-flight, Luna rebounded off a tree in pursuit, leaving deep scars in the bark. This was repeated several times as the two played a game of cat and mouse, then, getting tired off it all, Hawk vanished up into the trees, faster than the eye could follow. As Luna got ready to bound up and away, Kokoro hopped up onto her back, grabbing a fist full of fur. Luna hopped unsteadily onto a branch, her graceful leap cut short, and when the branch creaked threateningly, wobbled to the next one. ‘Are you crazy!? Get off! We’re too heavy together!’
‘Yah,’ Kokoro scoffed, ‘Obviously. You’re staying on the lower branches- the higher ones should be stronger. Giddyap, kitty cat!!!’
Luna bucked wildly, hissing, but Kokoro had already leaped off up to another branch. As she fell down to the original one, she glared at the splinters embedded in her palm. She still hadn’t quite mastered tree jumping yet.
Kokoro leaped down to the ground, and ran back to the path, linking her mind to Luna’s. ‘Have you caught him yet?’
‘No. He’s fast. I’ve lost sight of him. I’m doubling back.’
‘Alright. Meet you at the path.’
Closing her eyes, Kokoro felt for her tiger self. It had risen a little when Luna had gone a berserk-ish, and it was easy to find.
‘Just a little.’ Kokoro thought, snatching at it. ‘That won’t hurt anybody.’
Power, speed, strength, and a feral-ness coursed through her blood and she opened her eyes suddenly.
Kokoro grinned, feeling at her sharp teeth with her tongue.
This felt wild.
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Chapter notes: Ok, so this chapter is a little rough around the edges, but i feel it met standards... Whose standards you ask? My standards! Muwahahahahahahahahahaha! Ok, hysterical laughter over. I deleted the chapter Maio's dairy/ something something (sorry-forgot my own chapters name. You know what they say- out of sight, out of mind) so it's not there....
Ok, so here you go. Revision of chapter 34! Enjoy!
(it's muuuch longer.)
Read/Review!