〄Hᴀʟғ-Bʟᴏᴏᴅs' Lᴇɢᴀᴄʏ〄 [Ch. 4 Up!]

[scmarshtacky]

Yeah. XD I mixed up the letters and made Okita. I thought about Akito, as well, but liked Okita better.
Thanks for commenting and welcome to the community of ABY.

[|~quitting~|]

That's really smart actually...never thought of that haha!

[scmarshtacky]

Chapter 40 – Farewell

“Keep your sword up!” Kaito instructed easily dodging Ayako’s headlong attack with her bokken. “And do try to come up with something a little more creative than that.”

“Urusai(Shut up)!” Ayako retorted spinning around to face Kaito who stood casually on the other end of the padded mats.

Today was first day available after school that the Kendo club didn’t have practice, and Ayako had jumped on the opportunity immediately, but now she was beginning to question Kaito’s teaching tactics. His only instruction after putting the wooden sword in Ayako’s hands was ‘come at me’, and after nearly an hour of doing just that, Ayako was panting and had no more of an idea of how to attack than she did a few days ago when she first requested that Kaito teach her.

With a shout of frustration, Ayako lunged at him again. She held her wooden sword above her head and swung straight downward. Kaito stepped sideways and the sword hit the mats with a loud thud.

“You’re wide open,” Kaito said tapping Ayako’s back lightly with the sword. “I could’ve killed you a thousand times over.”

“Well it would help if you actually told me what to do!” Ayako yelled as she whirled around to face him. “I’ve got no clue what I’m doing at all, and you’re not helping!”

“Hm... Well, to be honest, I’m not really sure how to go about teaching anyway,” Kaito said plastering an innocent smile on his face. “I’ve never taught anyone before. When I was taught, a bunch of guys came at me and I just had to figure it out,” Kaito said with a shrug.

“Hah?!” Ayako’s mouth fell open and she stepped back few steps to stare at him. “You should’ve said that the other day!”

“Well think about it. Considering my position, of course I’ve never taught anyone. You should’ve been able to reason that much.”

“This is just great...” Ayako said with a long sigh.

“Would you rather just stop then?” Kaito asked hoping that she would agree to.

“Of course not!” Ayako responded immediately. “If I have to figure it out for myself then so be it!” She faced Kaito once more with her bokken held at the ready thinking of how best to go at him. Head long attacks were ineffective, but she wasn’t sure of what else to do.

Come on, think Ayako, think, she rallied herself. There has to be something else... Oh yeah! Ayako sprinted right toward Kaito once more, and as she had expected, he moved to the right to get out of the way. As soon as Kaito took a step to move, Ayako quickly spun around 180 degrees, so that she was facing his back, and slashed diagonally downward.

Kaito turned around, and for the first time since they had started their ‘training’ Kaito’s bokken met Ayako’s. “Oh, look who’s starting to use their brain,” Kaito said with a chuckle. “You’ve been watching me fight way too much.”

“It was the only think I could think of at the moment,” Ayako replied with a smirk. She backed up and lowered her sword.

“Why don’t we take a break?” Kaito suggested noting Ayako’s red face and panting. “Catch your breath.”

“Fine,” Ayako agreed wiping the sweat off her brow with her shirt sleeve. She set her wooden sword down, and walked over to join Mika, Kana, and Okita who had been watching from the sidelines.

“Good job, Ayako,” Mika praised her friend as she offered her a water bottle. “That last one was pretty good.”

“Not nearly good enough,” Ayako said after she had taken a swig of the cool liquid, “but maybe it’s a start.”

“Brother isn’t easy to fight either,” Okita chirped. “Even the other clans talk about his strength. I’ve heard people throwing around rumors multiple times in the town.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Kaito said as he too joined the group. “Every clan knows the strong fighters of the other. The first general of the Air Clan’s army is a force to be reckoned with, or so I’ve been told.”

“Yeah! He is really strong, and then there’s the special force army of the Water Clan.”

“And there’s that one first lieutenant of the Fire Clan,” Kaito added.

“Okay, we get it!” Ayako interrupted. “Lots of strong demons from everywhere.”

“Hey, hey, Onii-chan, we should have a sparring match!” Okita said bouncing up and down slightly in excitement. “It would be so much fun!”

“We’d end up destroying the entire school,” Kaito said simply.

“No we wouldn’t,” Okita contradicted. “Not if we use these flimsy little wooden swords.”

“You should Kaito!” Ayako chipped in.

“It would be really fun to see,” Mika and Kana both agreed.

“It’s too easy to get carried away,” Kaito argued, “and I doubt that these wooden swords would last very long if we really started fighting.”

“Please?” Okita puffed out his bottom lip, and lowered his head slightly to gaze up at Kaito with an irresistible pleading look.

Kaito broke eye contact first, and sighed in resignation.

“Yay!” Okita shouted throwing his arms up in the air in victory.

“However,” Kaito emphasized breaking through his brother’s little happy dance. “No powers –”

“Yeah, yeah,” Okita agreed readily.

“And, if your bokken breaks, you automatically loose.”

“Alright!” Okita shouted cheerfully. “Shall we go outside?” he asked picking up the wooden sword that Ayako had abandoned.

“Probably,” Kaito agreed taking up his own bokken, and heading for the door with Okita hot on his heels and the trio trailing closely behind him.

In just a couple of minutes, Kaito and Okita were facing each other on the open lot behind the school where Kaito had sparred with the Kendo club leader many months ago. Kaito dug into his pocket and took out a 100 yen coin. “You ready?”

When Okita nodded enthusiastically, Kaito flicked the coin as far as he could into the air. Both opponents held their breath and time seemed to slow down as the coin fell toward the ground. As soon as it hit, both Kaito and Okita leapt from the ground and rushed toward each other.

Their bokkens hit with a loud clack. They both pulled back instantaneously, and Kaito moved around to Okita’s left side; however, before he could even aim an attack, Okita had leapt straight up into the air and prepared to strike Kaito from above.

“Horizontal block,” Okita said mostly to himself. “Downward diagonal right.”

Kaito hesitated for a brief moment and quickly changed the plans he’d had in his mind. Instead of performing the combination that Okita had just recited, Kaito dodged to the left and launched an attack to Okita’s lower right side. Again their swords hit. For a seemingly endless amount of time, the two were locked together putting so much weight on their swords, it was a wonder that they both didn’t snap in half. Okita was the first to pull back, and then Kaito half a second after him.

“I said no abilities!” Kaito shouted at his brother as they faced each other again.

“I can’t help it,” Okita whined.

They both simultaneously started forward again, at a slower walk at first and gradually getting faster as they neared each other.

“Upward left diagonal,” Okita shouted out.

“Keep your thoughts to yourself!” Kaito responded as he intentionally slashed vertically.

Okita blocked the attack easily, and then ducked downward to jab straight upward toward Kaito’s chin. Kaito stepped backward to avoid the hit, blocked with his sword, and then sent a kick toward Okita’s chest. Okita jumped to the left, and for a moment, their movements were blurred. When they both stopped, each had their sword pointed at the other’s throat.

“Tch,” Kaito hissed through his teeth straightening up and backing out of his stance. “I lose,” he resigned with a sigh thrusting his severely cracked bokken onto the ground. “Stupid things just aren’t sturdy enough.”

Okita burst out laughing. “That was so much fun! We should do it more often, but with our real swords next time.”

“The whole of Tokyo would be destroyed if we really went at it,” Kaito muttered as he and his brother headed back in the direction of the trio.

As Okita took a step to follow Kaito, he wobbled slightly and stumbled.

Kaito moved to his side in an instant and put a hand on his brother’s shoulder to steady him. “See? This is what happens when you decide to live ahead of the moment.”

“Haha, I know,” Okita said as he regained himself and started walking again with Kaito by his side.

“That was awesome!” Ayako exclaimed as the two neared them, “even though I didn’t see a lot of it. What were you saying Okita? ‘Downward diagonal’, ‘upward left diagonal’” she recited. “What does that mean?”

“It’s what Kaito was planning on doing,” Okita said with a wide smile, “until he decided to change his attacks. Not that it mattered, cause I still saw most of it.”

“What?” Ayako asked cocking her head slightly to the side.

“This one,” Kaito thrust his thumb in Okita’s direction, “can live a couple of seconds in the future so to speak when his brain his wired during a fight. That’s why he nearly falls down when he comes out of it.”

“You can see the future?” Mika asked.

“Something along those lines,” Okita replied. “I’ve gotten up to almost five seconds before,” he informed them smugly.

“And I’ll bet it took you a good minute to recover from it too.”

“Wait,” Ayako interjected. “I’m still confused. So you literally live a couple of seconds in the future when you fight? Like your mind is a couple seconds ahead of your body, and you see what's happening then rather than now?” When Okita nodded she continued, “How do you manage not to get yourself tangled up? I mean, you would ‘see’ the sword coming for you but your body would be a couple of seconds behind your mind right? So how do you coordinate that?”

“Lots of practice with it,” Okita replied. “I still can’t keep up with the drawback though after the fight’s over. It’s coming out of it that’s hard. The world kind of spins around and where I saw myself before isn’t where I actually am... It’s hard to describe.”

“And when you go into it, is it like a jump forward in time or...?” Ayako trailed off unsure of how to finish asking the question.

“It’s not all at once,” Okita responded. “It’s a bit more gradual. The more hyped up I get, the more ahead I get.”

“I guess that kind of makes sense...” Ayako mused still mulling over the concept.

“Do all demons have a special ability?” Kana asked quietly.

“No,” Kaito answered. “It’s actually pretty rare. In any case, are you all ready to go home?” Kaito he said abruptly changing the subject. “It’s quite late.”

Both Mika and Ayako lifted their heads to the sky to confirm what Kaito had said. Without even realizing it, the time had slipped right by them, and the sun was now on the horizon.

“I guess so,” Ayako said with a shrug.

Okita put up the bokken that was still in decent condition, and the group of five headed down the road toward their houses.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next several weeks passed by in a blur. Every class was gearing up for winter break, and all of the teachers were trying to cram as much material as they could into the remaining week which meant massive amounts of homework for everyone.

However, Kaito’s concentration was a long way from school work. He could just imagine the tensions in Akukai, and every time he thought about it, he wanted to return immediately. Just one more week, then we’ll be on break for a while and I can take care of the business that I need to.

“Oi, Kaito!” Ayako leaned over and snapped several times in his face trying to bring him out of his thoughts.

“What?” he questioned turning to face her.

“The lunch bell just rang,” Mika said.

“Oh.” Kaito stood up, stretched, and headed out of the room collecting Okita on the way.

Kaito assumed his spot on the upper part of the roof while the trio, and Okita sat below him chatting away. He crossed his arms behind his head and stared up at the swiftly moving cumulus clouds. It’ll probably be impossible to end this dispute in a month though, Kaito continued to muse. I will be lucky if I even return within the school year. No, I’ll be lucky if I get to return at all.

Kaito turned his gaze toward the school yard, and then to the skyscrapers of downtown Shibuya in the distance. It was at this point, he noticed the group, namely Mika and Ayako, staring at him. “What?” he asked again.

“You haven’t been listening to anything we’ve said have you?” Ayako asked doing her best to glower at him from a meter below.

“Not really, no,” Kaito admitted.

“Well, never mind then,” Ayako huffed as she stuffed a sushi roll from her lunch in her mouth.

As Kaito sat up to demand that Ayako tell him what she had said, a faint scent caught his attention on the breeze. He stood up abruptly, and jumped down onto the lower part of the roof, and headed for the door to the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Ayako demanded also standing up.

“I’ll be back,” was all Kaito said as he swung the door open and exited the roof.

“Geez, what’s his problem now?” she muttered sitting back down again and taking another bite of lunch.

“More demons,” Okita said lifting his head up slightly.

“More?” Mika asked quietly. “How many more?”

Okita considered the question for a moment before saying, “I don’t know, about five maybe. They’re minors though so Kaito can handle it just fine.”

“It seems as though the number of demons has been increasing lately,” Kana remarked. “Why is that?”

“They can all sense the coming war, I’d imagine,” Okita responded, “The minors are trying to get out before they are annihilated in the crossfire of everyone else, and the safest place to lay low for a while is the Human World. I don’t really blame them though. If I thought I’d be killed in a war that has nothing to do with me, I’d get the heck out of there too,” he finished with a slightly laugh.

“I guess...” Ayako said slowly.

The lunch bell rang again, and the three girls packed up the remainder of their meal before heading back down to the classroom again. Kaito still hadn’t returned from wherever he had gone off to, but right before class began, he slipped into the classroom without catching the teacher’s attention.

“Where did you go?” Mika asked quietly as he sat down in front of her.

Kaito glanced over her for a moment before shaking his head. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Mika wanted to contradict him, and tell him that it did matter to her, but the teacher began talking, and she was forced to hold her thoughts to herself.

As soon as school had ended for the day, Ayako also demanded to know where Kaito had gone running off to, but like with Mika, Kaito simply shook his head and stated that it wasn’t important. The walk home passed in relative silence with Ayako fuming at Kaito, and Kana and Mika not wanting to upset either of them by breaking the silence.

The rest of the week continued to pass by fairly quickly, and at last it was Friday morning. Mika got ready fairly quickly and headed outside. It was only after she had jogged down the front steps that she looked up and noticed Kaito was not waiting in his normal spot.

Well, I did get ready a bit more quickly than normal, she reasoned as she sat down on the steps to wait for a few minutes. Despite what she told herself, she had an underlying sense of unease which only intensified as her wait lasted longer.

At last, she couldn’t afford to wait for him any longer or she'd risk being late to school. She was already fifteen minutes later than she normally was. She collected Ayako and Kana, and they all three had to jog down the street to make it into the classroom before the bell rang.

Mika sat down in her desk panting and stared at the empty desk in front of her. Maybe he just had to take care of something... she reasoned. She glanced over at Okita’s desk, although she knew that it too wasn’t occupied.

The day seemed to pass by ten times more slowly than normal, and the more Mika stared at Kaito’s desk, the more slowly it seemed to go. Lunch came and went, and still, no Kaito. By the time the day ended, Mika couldn’t control her anxiety any more.
He wouldn’t have left without saying anything would he? He couldn’t have... As soon as school ended, Mika made a beeline to Kaito’s apartment with Kana and Ayako hot on her heels.

“That stupid Kaito,” Ayako mumbled behind them. “Skipping school on the last day, who does he think he is?”

Mika was only half listening to Ayako’s ranting as she rode the elevator up to the apartment. She headed quickly to the door and tested the handle to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, and she flung the door open and gazed around. Empty.

“Kaito?” she called out hesitantly. “You here?”

“Ah! It’s you guys!”

Mika’s focus shot up to the top of the stairs where Okita’s blond head was popping around the bedroom door. “Kaito’s not here?” she asked.

“Nope,” Okita said shaking his head slowly. “I asked him to wait here until I got back, but apparently he didn’t want to. I just got here right before you did.”

“So he’s really gone back?” Ayako asked stepping forward into the living room. “That’s not fair! That jerk’s still supposed to be teaching me!”

Kana had stopped listening to the group, and moved over to the table where a small piece of paper had caught her eye. She picked it up, and scanned over it. “Come look at this,” she said holding the paper out toward Mika.

Mika grabbed it and scanned it over.

By the time you all read this, I’ll probably already
be back in Akukai. My time here has been fun, but
I can’t afford to stay any longer. I do hope to see
you lot again relatively soon, but I doubt that will
be possible. For now though, Farewell.

A/N~ I really considered playing a mean trick and saying that that was the end, but I decided against it. I could already imagine that glares I'd get through my computer screen. I feel like last week I made a bigger deal out of the cliffhanger than I intended. Of course, it did attract catch everyone's attention and I got more than double the amount comments than I usually do. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone with this as far as the quality goes. Now the story really gets fun.

I'm really sorry this is so late everyone. >.< I'm on spring break right now, and the fact that today is Friday just completely left my mind. Hate me all you want, I probably deserve it now.

<==Chapter 39

Chapter 41==>

[.Sweet-Paradise.]

Amazing! I love how Mika is slowly progressing from her so quiet self <3

Kaito's brother. I frikkin love him.

[scmarshtacky]

Yeah, Okita is a lot of fun. XD He's lovable in a completely different way that Kaito. I think of him more like a little puppy. lol

I don't know if you guys have noticed or not, but my 40th chapter marked the 500th post. That's just absolutely amazing to me. I can't believe I've covered 50 pages in a thread, and I owe it all to my amazing readers and commenters.

[.Sweet-Paradise.]

Nope, it's the awesome story you wrote that attracted all the readers and commenters!

I don't know who Kaito fits better with at this point, but he's so cute with awkward Mika xD

[scmarshtacky]

Well I'm glad you think so. ^^

[elsaphaba]

*sigh*
mika and kaito romance...when is this coming in the story? Lol.

[scmarshtacky]

Be patient. You have to realize that romance isn't so much my forte. ^^"
There's little moments here and there though.

[|~quitting~|]

Nope, it's the awesome story you wrote that attracted all the readers and commenters!

I don't know who Kaito fits better with at this point, but he's so cute with awkward Mika xD

Agreed!

*cough*mika*cough*


WOOT!!!! 500 posts!!!