Fluffy's Futures: Cara Ch. 07

Awfully full of herself, I thought with a shrug. "If you says so, Marika-san."

She flinched. "Must you call me that?"

"What should I call you then," I asked. "Inu Marika sounds far to formal, and well... I can't exactly call you the Japanese term for mother, Oka-san, now can I?"

"You could if she'd admit to what she did," Meele commented.

"Why is that so important to you," I asked before Marika could comment, staring at Meele. "She obviously is not ready to admit that I'm hers before everyone out there- why are you pushing the issue?"

"Because he wants to see me pay for abandoning my own kin," Marika said with a growl. Meele merely nodded before she went on. "It is a sin amongst us to leave one of our own to grow up with the humans. Most don't consider those children that are born a hanyu to be part of us, part of the yukoi. Meele has always believed differently, has always fought for the hanyu underdogs, so to speak. But you have shown the powers of the yukoi, otherwise Meele wouldn't have spent time on you. And that display with Raffia proves you've at least some of my strength. So you're essentially a yukoi under the rules of kin care."

"What's the punishment for abandoning me?"

"Oh, a rather nasty one," Meele said when Marika didn't answer. "She either gets to face trial by combat with your champion, or face the gauntlet to redeem herself of her sins. You're choice."

"What's the gauntlet?"

"A terror the like few have ever seen," Meele said with a vicious smile. "Tell her, Marika, tell my Cara what the Gauntlet truly is and whether you think your mind could survive another trip through?"

Marika glared at him, something akin to hatred in her eyes. "The Gauntlet is a place of nightmares run by the Spirit Yukoi Clan and their henchmen. A telepathic yukoi controls it, bringing out your worst fears from your deepest nightmares to torture you with. If you survive the full day in there, you're acquitted of your crimes."

"And if you don't?"

"You go mad," Meele said with a vengeful laugh. "Though for this I imagine the punishment would be more then a day, Marika. We already know you can survive that because you had to in order to clear your name of killing the Ice Cat tribe leader outside of a combat ring! No, it would be longer, perhaps a week, or maybe the length of time Cara spent in that school being tortured because you fucked a human and couldn't take care of the results!"

Tears pooled in her eyes though Marika did not cry again. I was pretty amazed- my own eyes were tear-filled and he wasn't even yelling at me. I think it was the emotion in his voice, the sheer disappointment and anger that shined through despite his words that made me want to cry with or for Marika, I was not really sure which.

Marika spoke at last, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands. "I will admit to her being my daughter, but I think her father's identity should remain secret. No one knows whether I slept with a sorcerer or a hobo and I'd like to keep things that way."

"I'm a bastard one way or the other," I said with a smirk. "Makes me no mind. Besides, the sperm donor didn't want me, not that I'm surprised. Married a goody two shoes Christian woman and gave up magic and all claim to it. Idiot."

"He was more powerful then sensible," Marika said with a rueful smile, though the fear in her eyes still showed. "Moving along, Meele will you be pleased if I acknowledge before the Council that she's my daughter?"

"I will not seek retribution on her behalf if you do so," Meele said with a happy smile. "You admit she's yours and let her into your clan and all is good on my side."

"And you, flesh of my flesh?"

It took me a few seconds to realize that she meant me, then I pondered for a moment before shrugging. "There is nothing to gain by punishing you for something you did over thirty years ago, however idiotic it was at the time. Admit that I am yours in flesh, blood, and magic and I'm happy. A clan would be nice too, but its not a big requirement. I'm not planning on staying here."

"What?" Marika studied me for a moment, eyes wide. "You're going to leave the yukoi?"

"We're leaving Japan after New Year's," I told her. "I'm only here for an assassination. Its what I do for a living."

"Assassination- you're a damn assassin!" Marika growled at me. "My own child, a killer for hire."

"What's wrong with that," I asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer. "It's a living, I'm good at it. And I don't kill anyone that hasn't murdered another human before. What's the big deal?"

"You're a damn assassin, that's the big deal," Marika said. "That raises your kill count, means you're higher on the Clan's totem pole so to speak because of it."

"And the point you're trying to make would be?"

"You come in with a secured position," Meele said with a smile. "Tell her, Cara, how many kills do you have now?"

"Oh, let me think," I said, tallying up numbers in my head. "I'm at 64 so far, wait, no that yukoi last month- 65 total so far."

"All solo kills?"

"Yup," I said. "I don't count the ones Meele takes out when he comes along to help. Though that's a rare thing now and days. Lately he's been mostly playing part of my cover, like now."

"You help her?" Marika sank onto the seat. "Even I have 70 kills, human and yukoi, and I'm Clan leader. My second only has 48. This isn't good. Yukio will have to fight you to keep his position as my second."

"But I don't want to be your second in command," I protested with a sigh. "Why is everything here about fighting?"

"Because they're more animal then human now," Meele said with a smirk. "They've cloistered themselves among one another to the point where they no longer have the ability to reason higher then animals."

"That's not fair," Marika told him. "A few, okay a lot of us in the Yukoi are more animal-minded then anything else, but those are the weaker ones amongst us. Those of us in power still retain our human forms and reasoning."

"Then why do I have to fight this Yukio?"

"Because he will challenge you," my own mother told me. "He wants to lead the Moon Clan, I know this. But since he cannot defeat me, and yes he's tried, he will kill to remain second. He's a very good fighter."

I shrugged. "We'll deal with that when it comes, que sera sera."

"Then let us get on with it," Marika said, rising. "You should replace your veil until I claim you as my own and there for part of my Clan without the need for combat."

"Nice, no more fighting."

"Not quite," Marika said. "Yukio is here and he will more likely then not challenge you to a duel. He will try to kill you, daughter mine. Perhaps you should join the Fire Clan. It would be safer."

"Life is not safe," I said matter of factually. "I'll join the clan of my mother. It is appropriate after all."

"Come, Fiery Silk," Meele said spelling out the Kanji used to spell my name these days, holding his hand out to me as he rose. I took it after replacing the purple veil that hid the lower half of my face. Marika started at what he'd called me. "You surely did not think I'd leave her with the a spelling meaning 'emptiness' did you?"

"It meant sky, and well you know it," Marika said haughtily.

"Could have fooled me," Meele said. "I changed the spelling a bit to two symbols- fire and silk, spelling Kara."

"You had not right," she said as she lead the way from the room, unsealing the doors then locking them behind us.

"Your point?" Meele asked right before we entered the Council arena once more when Marika couldn't answer.

There were more people in the stands now, almost every seat filled. The all wore something in common with their leaders- Marika's people all wore a scarf with her symbol, Dokkasomaru's people's clothing had flames licking up their sleeves, and Shinkoru's people all wore muted earth tones in brown and black. There were two other groups whose leaders were now perched in their respective chairs on the dais. Both were female but the similarities ended there.

Marika, leading me with Meele taking the rear, whispered to me. "The one in the twelve layer kimono is Kanoko, Chief of the Wave Rider Clan Yukoi- she's the child of a yukoi powerful enough to be known as the Water God. The other one, the short female in those odd miko's robes, has no name. We call her 'Tama-chan' or Soul child for lack of anything better. She leads rules the Spirit yukoi... and the gauntlet."

"Creepy little thing," I whispered back before seeing Raffia lean into Shinkoru's ear, whispering probably that we were here.

I must have been right for he spoke. "Welcome back to our chambers, Dragon's Companion, Phantom Dog and hanyu. Have you reached any conclusions?"

Marika lead the way to the center of the arena, motioning for Meele to stay back. Her hand seemed to fly at me out of no where, ripping the veil from my face. There were gasps as she stood next to me, the purple cloth trailing from her clawed fingertips.

"I, Inu Marika, Holder of the Second Seat of the Yukoi Council and Chief of the Moon Clan, have an announcement."

"Get on with it then," Dokkasomaru said impatiently.

"All in due time," Marika said calmly. Gone was the emotional mess we'd seen in her private chambers. Now she was commanding, strong, like an impenetrable fortress of walking will power. It was quite a change. "I would like to remind all, my clan especially, of the two year sabbatical I took to the US before returning here to Japan to begin the fight for leadership of the Moon Clan."

There were mutterings in the crowd, nods and bewildered looks. Marika went on. "For reasons my own, things happened during those two years that I have told no one else about, saving my teacher, Rye Meele. In that two year period, I became pregnant by a human and gave birth to a girl child. Rather then risk a hanyu who would probably be powerless, I left her to the humans, to be raise among them as one of their own."

Gasps and shouts of outrage filled the hall before Shinkoru demanded silence. "Go on, Inu Marika."

"Thank you, Council head." Marika said with a deep bow in his direction. "As I said, I left her to be raised by humans because to bring a hanyu child into a power struggle would have been, in my mind, giving her a death promise. That I could not do, even to a child with powers. So I left her there where she was raised by humans. Meele, as we all know, left me shortly after my accent to Clan Chief, for parts previously unknown. He left Japan for America and watched over my child, saw to raising her to control her powers, which she did develop, despite being hanyu. Now, as an adult, she has returned to the yukoi.

"I present before you, Inu Cara of the Moon Yukoi Clan," Marika said grandly, ripping off my veil. I felt as if I were being presented at a livestock show due to all the eyes that studied me careful. "Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, clan of my Clan, she be. Killer of 65, a mix of humans and of yukoi, she is well bloodied in combat and needs no entrance battle into my clan!"

Shouts went up from the Moon clan, some in protest others in praise. A voice from their top bleacher silenced them all.

"Quiet! All of you," hissed a male yukoi who looked a few years older then I. He stood and took a leap to the floor, landing about ten meters from Marika and I. "Marika-sama, far be it from me to question you, but she has not been bloodied by one of our own. How can we, the Moon clan, accept what we have not seen proven?"

I looked at the man standing before us and before I could help myself I said, pretty loudly, "You've such beautiful eyes!"

The eyes in question, a deep sea-green, widened before narrowing suspiciously. His angled face was framed by light brown hair that fell to the bottom of his cheeks. Feline ears peeked through his hair, a slightly darker brown with pink insides. The center of his forehead, above his slightly upturned nose, was a solid black sphere, I guess it was supposed to be a moon. A forest green shirt flowed over his upper body, apparently tucked into a pair of leather-like black pants. Around his waist was a long red scarf bearing Marika's symbol sewn in solid black on the ends. All in all a rather handsome guy, not as handsome as my Samu, but close.

My hands flew to my mouth. "I'm sorry, that was just a bit... um..."

"Presumptuous," he supplied, walking up to me, his gait like that of a big cat. He looked me over from head to toe and back again. "Well, you certainly look somewhat like Marika, if one accounts for your American heritage. Still, I don't think you are truly of the yukoi. The claw trick is really nothing special, hanyu."

He said the word the way Marika had earlier, as if it were a huge insult. I laughed, couldn't help it. "You seem to think that's insulting. I am a hanyu, I freely admit it. I'm half yukoi and half human, can't change it so I've accepted it. I'm used to being a freak."

"You lie," he said.

"I never caught your name," I pointed out, ignoring his statement. Whether he believed me or not, it'd be no skin off my nose. At least not yet and I wasn't planning on letting it be. Skinned noses hurt.

"I am Neko Yukio, Second of the Moon Yukoi Clan and Chief of the Ko'ori Neko Zoku!"

"Impressive sounding," I said sarcastically as I mentally translated "Ko'ori Neko Zoku" to Ice Cat Tribe. I stepped away from Marika and held open my hands. "Am I supposed to cower now?"

"Yes, hanyu," Yukio growled.

"Perhaps you've found someone to bloody your bastard, Marika-san," said the woman in the third council seat, her voice kind where her words had not been. She was the one wearing the twelve layer kimono yet she looked almost cold in it. Long black hair reached down to her ankles, leaving her face clear. A blue violet water drop adorned her forehead set above a small nose. Deep brown eyes surrounded by the what I would have said was pale skin if I hadn't had the little girl on the dais's to compare it to. The woman was smaller then Marika, taller then Shinkoru. "I am Kanoko, Chief of the Wave Riders Water Yukoi Clan. If you are truly of the Yukoi, then you will be able to call magic to defeat Yukio, who has very little magic of his own. If you are not of the Yukoi, then you will die."

"That's a great set of options," I said with a sigh. I unclasped my bracers and tossed them to Meele. I breathed out then in deeply, gathering my magic around me as I did so, slipping back into my full yukoi form. My pupils went from rounded human eyes to the diamond eyes of my mother, my eyebrows taking a sharper tilt. I could feel my claws lengthening and my body growing slightly taller. Shaking my hair, I looked up at Kanoko. "Well, how's that for a start?"

"If you can back it up, it will be worth noticing," Kanoko said, her voice even kinder now.

I turned back to Yukio. "Well, cat boy, bring it on."

He studied me for a moment before shrugging and whistling. A woman in the stands threw him a kitana in its sheath. "This is going to be fun, I get to rip up the child of the infamous Inu Marika and there's not a damn thing she can do about it."

"I don't have a blade," I protested.

"That's not my problem," Yukio said, advancing on me. "I call you out, Inu Cara, daughter of the Chief of the Moon Yukoi Clan. Come at me if you dare."

"I'm so going to kick your kitty ass," I growled before feeling a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at my mother.

Marika smiled at me and offered me her own sword, Moon's Song which she seemed to pull out of thin air at her side. "If you are truly mine, it will head your call. If you are not, well, then we need to know that too."

"That's reassuring," I said with a roll of my eyes. I looked at the kitana in my hands with hope. It looked normal enough, if a little old. Pulling the blade from the sheath, which I promptly dropped in surprise, there was a flash of light. The sword flared, then settled down to a dim glow, humming softly in my hand. I looked at the blade in bewilderment. It was not longer scruffy looking, but a piece of master craftsmanship. I could feel it in the weight as I wielded it. Something inside me clicked, fell into rhythm with the blade, as if it had a heart beat that matched my own.

Twirling the blade around I smiled then laughed. "Oh, this is a fine blade in deed, mother mine. Well, Yukio, we're evenly equipped, relatively speaking. Shall we dance this dance of battle?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Yukio said, slinking toward me. We circled one another, the kiss of steel against steel the only sounds in the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marika on her throne on the dais and Meele sitting on the base of the Moon Clan's bleachers.

"You're not paying attention," my opponent hissed, taking the opportunity to run his blade down my unprotected left arm to leave a shallow cut that I was able to heal on the spot. I was really missing my bracers right about now. "I won't kill you- we don't do that to new entrants. But I'm going to enjoy making you kneel before me, watching you bleed, hanyu! There's no way you can win this fight, little dog. No way you're taking my position in the clan."

"I don't want your position," I growled at him and at the pain I felt. I redoubled my efforts, putting everything I had into the sword, hoping that I'd find a way to beat him. I had no illusions- Yukio only had to outlast me. My stamina wasn't going to last anywhere near as long as his because it took extra energy for me to switch between hanyu, yukoi and human forms. Not to mention I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, I thought as I threw myself into a roll. Calling power into my left hand, I rolled into a crouch a few feet away from and flung a fire ball at him. The fire ate through his shirt, making him roll along the floor, screaming in anger as he beat out the flames with both hands.

A bit scorched and furious, Yukio rose to his feet. "That was a cheap trick, hanyu."

"Effective though," I said, stepping up to his sword. I kicked the blade under the bleachers, knowing better then to try to pick it up myself.

"Unfair," Yukio said, his eyes on my hands now instead of my face.

As he rushed me once more, Moon's Song pulsed in my hand, almost forcing me to bring it to bear against Yukio. The blade sang out as it bit into his flesh, taking him in the side, a flesh wound yes, but a very bloody one. Blood from his wound flowed unchecked, a small stream of crimson on the dark tile floor. Apparently he couldn't heal small wounds on command like I could. Made me think he wasn't full blood yukoi.

In the moment it took me to free the sword from his body, Yukio's clawed hand found my right arm, grating along the bone near my elbow and ripping out finely near my wrist. He didn't hit the main nerve or muscle groups but it bleed and hurt like hellfire and forced me to switch sword arms. I was decent with my left hand but not as good as I was with my right. Still, in pushing him away, I put myself between him and his sword.

I danced back, away from the blood pooling on the floor, careful of my footing. Heeled boots on slick marble tiles was not a good combination. Calling another fire ball to my right hand (about all it could handle at the moment), I released it on Yukio as he tried to circle around behind me. He dodged this time, expecting the attack. The dodge put him in his own ever growing pool of blood.

Then, I did something truly unexpected. I literally threw Moon's Song at Yukio, aiming for a point a foot beyond his chest, not caring if I hit him or not. The blade screamed through the air as I dropped to my knees, sinking both hands into the puddle of blood and letting the spell of blood poisoning wash over me. It would contaminate his very blood and eventually his soul if he didn't get the spell reversed in time. It was a last ditch effort because I knew that I only had so much magic left in me. Without the bracers, I wasn't able to keep my full yukoi form for very long and I needed it if I was going to withstand Yukio's attacks.