~*~*~*~
“Come on, little one. Let's go over to the fighter's corner,” Kuroi told me with a snarl. He grabbed me by the arm and heaved me along with him. He walked faster than usual, in fact, he started stomping across the room and making loud noises.
I didn't get why Kuroi was so angry. Sure, Akira first said that Hanran would be the one to fight and then decided that I'll fight instead. So what? It'll be fun! I'm so excited, I get to stand in the fighter's corner with all the tough guys. Now I can be a tough guy, too. Or tough gal, doesn't matter.
There were at least forty or fifty students that were waiting to fight. They all looked to be Kuroi's age or older and all different shapes and sizes. Some were buffed out like Kuroi, some were tall like Hanran, and some were plain and normal like Yami.
I studied the clan members that surrounded me. They stared back with questioning looks in their eyes. They must be wondering how I had music playing during my kata performance. “I hired a guy to play his drum,” I explained with a grin to no one in particular. The ones who heard me didn't answer back, they merely turned their heads.
Oh, so they don't wanna talk, huh? Fine, fine. I realized that there were no girls in this large group of people. I looked back into the rows and in every direction there were people. All the fighters were men.
Does this mean that I'm the only girl? Whoever it is I'm gonna fight is going to be older, stronger, and taller than me. That... that makes me think... that this is gonna be so much more fun. Ooh, I should try making a battle threat or something. That's what someone like Kuroi does, I think he's called it ruffling their feathers. You know, letting your enemy know that you know. That way you'll both know, you know?
“Hey bubs, y'all better watch out!” I said to the whole group of guys. After that I laughed because I don't even know what they're supposed to watch out for. Me, I guess!
Kuroi put a hand on my mouth and held me in place right in front of him. “Luna, don't you go— ah!” Before Kuroi could finish his sentence, I bit his hand. It got his hand off my mouth. “Don't talk to anyone,” my team leader ordered while wiping my slobber off onto his shirt.
“Why?” I asked simply.
“Because I said so.”
“What makes you say so?”
“Because I say so!”
I huffed out a big breath and turned to face Kuroi. He had that classic old-man-grump expression on his face. He really knew how to look grumpy and unfriendly when he wanted to. “Alright, old man,” I told him, “I know something is up, and don't even lie to me and say that there's nothing up, 'cause I know there's something up.”
“The clouds,” Kuroi said dryly.
“The clouds what?”
“The clouds are what's up.”
I looked up. “I don't get it.”
Kuroi rolled his eyes. “Of course you don't.”
Bah, he's just trying to distract me. “Never mind the dumb ol' clouds,” I said, “I want you to tell me what's bothering you. Unless it's the clouds that are bothering you. In which case I don't know what to tell you, the clouds are a part of nature and stuff. According to Yami, anyway.”
“Forget the clouds. Forget all of this.” Kuroi turned me back around so I wasn't facing him anymore. You know, I'm tired of him handling me like I'm some kind of doll. I know he's bigger and stronger than me, but this is ridiculous!
“Is this about what happened to you and the old Sector 7?” I asked with a growl of my own.
His hands tightened their grip on my shoulders. “How did you know about that?”
“Tabby-Chan told me.”
“Freaking Meko-Chan,” Kuroi uttered, “I swear, that kid is gonna get it. What did she tell you, exactly?”
“She told me not to tell you that she told me what you told her.” I realized what I said. “Oops.”
“Go on,” Kuroi pressed. His hands weren't coming off of my shoulders any time soon.
I thought about how to phrase my explanation. “Okay, she said that you have been to one Battle Month before. You were here with your old Sector 7 crew and all that junk. The last Battle Month you went to was held here, at the Black-Sho Clan! So it's like a reunion thing going on but you don't seem happy about it. I'm guessing that something bad happened, which is why you're in a super-extra-grumpy-Kuroi mode instead of your normal default-grumpy-Kuroi mode.”
Kuroi didn't say anything but the tension on my shoulders did loosen. “That's all?” he asked.
“That's all,” I promised.
My team leader didn't seem to be as defensive as he was a moment ago. “Fine, I'll tell you. I dunno why, you're just a dumb kid, but I'll tell you,” he said in an exasperated tone. “I came here with my old team once before. We were lead by Zuko, not Akira. My team leader at the time, Shiro, was the one who called the shots. He assigned me to fight in the sparring division. He had faith in me, even though I was a fresh meat.”
I smiled. “It's nice to put faith into meat.”
“Anyway,” Kuroi continued, “I fought my way through the sparring, just like we'll fight here pretty soon. It came down to me, Shiro, and our two opponents from the Thorn-Goku Clan and the Tiger Rage Clan. Shiro had the Thorn-Goku guy, I had the Tiger Rager. After hours of sparring, I just had one match left. Just. One. Match.”
“They let you have a snack break, right?”
“No.”
“Oh snap, that's awful.”
“That's not the point! The point is that I had one final opponent keeping me from victory! And I choked, Luna. I lost to that damn Tiger Rager and Shiro lost to the Thorn-Goku fighter. The Kitsune Clan was so close to the finish line and we tripped. Zuko wouldn't let us hear the end of it, he harped on our loss the whole way home.”
Okay, I would hate to be lectured by Sensei Zuko. I can feel Kuroi's pain on that one. “I'm sorry,” I told him.
He shook his head. “Sorry ain't gonna cut it, kid. I just don't want a repeat of last time, alright? I don't want the feeling of failure, of almost being good enough. I got a bad taste in my mouth from that already, I don't want to taste it twice.”
Kuroi was being very honest with me, a gesture that I appreciated. I punched him in the arm; it didn't hurt him, of course. “Hey,” I said, “This doesn't have to be like all those other times! This time around, you're not the fresh meat, you're the team leader! Now I'm your package of fresh meat!”
“Yes, that's precisely what worries me.”
“Well, it shouldn't. Who was that Tiger Rage Clan guy, anyway? I'm sure he's not so tough now. He's probably jellied up into mush, y'know, the kinda mush that squishes between your fingers.”
My team leader gave me a look that said shut-up-now. “Uh, Luna? Yeah, the Tiger Rage guy is right ahead of you,” he told me sourly.
I turned around and looked where Kuroi was pointing. There was a tall and muscled guy whose arms were so huge he had to cut the sleeves off of his gi top! Whoa, what does he do, lift brick houses during his workouts?
“You had to fight him?!” I nearly shrieked.
“No, the guy standing next to him,” Kuroi corrected.
Oh. I looked at the guy who stood next to the big and bulgy guy. This other guy looked normal, actually. He was an average height, average build, and had average features like nicely cut brunette hair and a plain uniform. He looked like the very definition of average. “Him?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Kuroi growled. “That's Takeo Akiyama.”
“So that's his name!” a new voice exclaimed. To my surprise, Tabby was standing right behind me and I didn't even know it.
“What the? How did you?” Kuroi asked.
Tabby waved her hand in his face to shut him up. “Not important. So his name is Takeo Akiyama, huh?”
“You know him?”
“No, but I think he's downright adorable!” Tabby smiled. Her eyes were twinkling. “Watch, if he smiles you'll see he has dimples. I've been watching him all day!”
Kuroi shoved Tabby a
way from us with one arm. “Get outta here!” he commanded.
“Just be sure you don't hit Takeo in the face!” Tabby squealed. She left, thankfully.
Tabby's brief appearance seemed to make Kuroi in an even worse mood. “I swear,” he grumbled under his breath.
“You want me to call you adorable, too?” I asked him, “I'll be lying when I say it, but I'll still say it.”
My team leader smacked his palm to his forehead. “I just want this day to end.”
Before I could reply, new things started to happen. Jian-Sho, the host of this whole Battle Month, stepped in front of the group. He addressed the entire fighting crowd. “Gentleman,” he said. His old eyes then spotted where I was at. “And lady,” he added. I gave the elderly man a thumbs up. “Are you ready to begin?” Jian-Sho asked.
“Yeah!” the whole crowd cheered.
The cheers all around me were so loud that I couldn't hear myself think. Everyone started to shuffle out of the corner and make their way to the center ring. “Believe in me, old man,” I said to myself.