Fan Fiction ❯ Stars ❯ Painful Partings ( Chapter 6 )

Painful Partings

~*~

Kanaye said the words to stop the invisible shield and stood before the boy with the katana.

"Satisfied now?"

Nanashi just glared at him and hoped his sword would be enough to kill this guy. He stood still and just stared for a long time, occasionally glancing to the unconscious girl.

"So... you gonna attack me or do I have to give you an invitation?"

A split second later Kanaye was only three inches from Nanashi, if even that. The sword flew from his grasp, straight up and shot through a branch twenty feet up. It obviously wasn't going to be falling back down anytime soon.

"Bastard." The human sneered.

Kanaye just looked down at him; he was taller by at least seven inches, and smirked.

"You don't have a chance fool."

"Whatever... why are we fighting in the first place?"

The sorcerer's expression changed to one of mild confusion. He looked over his shoulder to the unconscious girl a few yards away and looked back to where the human was standing.

Emphasis on was.

Nanashi had jumped up into the tree while the other boys' head was turned away. He was glad his boots didn't make too much noise; he hurriedly climbed up towards his sword. Just as he was about to grab it to free it from its wood prison, Kanaye grabbed his ankle and tugged so hard that he had hit his chin on the way down, along with his back and his right shoulder.

He landed on his back; the roots of the trees didn't feel too great as they collided with his back.

So maybe that wasn't the smartest decision he could've made.

Kanaye looked down on him again, with that same snide smirk. This time he had his blade back in his hand. The fallen boy gulped and thought fast. He swung his leg up and knocked his calve into the sorcerer's knee.

He just stared down and rolled his eyes. He lifted his blade and brought it crashing towards the boys' body, aiming for his heart. Nanashi rolled over and as his opponent was hunched over from slamming the blade into the ground, he used the back of his foot to kick him across the face.

It was about time he did something to hurt the guy, and it had worked too. The boy fell to his side, as he pushed up from the ground the blood he spat out stained the tree roots. Nanashi grabbed the blade sticking from the ground and pulled it out without much force.

The hilt stung his hand but he ignored it as best as he could and took a swing at the sorcerer, if the boy hadn't moved he would've had a firm shot through his left shoulder and through his heart. Instead he sliced a large chunk of skin from the boys arm.

Nanashi smirked and brought the blade back, ready to slice off the sorcerers head. He heard the boy laughing; laughing at a time like this... he must've been clinically insane.

~*~

Michi and Kiyoshi had been running through the forest for a while, they didn't want to waste much time before nightfall. They ran for a good hour before Michi stopped to take a breather.

They sat up in the higher, thicker branches of a random tree, Michi kept her hands moving and her legs swinging. She knew it was unhealthy to just suddenly stop moving altogether after running so much.

"Oh I know, a volcano... your turn."

Michi smirked, they had been playing guess where no one could reach a glob of metal... for a while now.

"Uhm... marinas trench."

Kiyoshi sighed; she was good at this game.

"Did you hear that?"

He looked around wondering what the girl was referring to.

"What?"

The girl shrugged. "I thought I heard people fighting."

He then heard the loud clash of blade against blade, then a cry pain. Immediately they jumped up and ran as fast as they could to the source of the commotion.

They made it to where the fight was taking place, the two fighting were going at it pretty harshly. Michi could tell one of them was using magick, the other was just using brute strength.

Something on the ground below them moved, and then groaned.

"Is that... a girl?"

Kiyoshi jumped down next to her and helped her sit up.

"Are you okay?"

The girl nodded slightly and passed out, the boy caught her before she hit her head on the ground.

"What should we do? She's hurt pretty bad; I think a broken rib or two."

There was a loud cracking noise, one of the fighting boys had missed the other and slammed his blade into a tree, and it was now falling towards the three teens on the sidelines.

"Move!"

Michi jumped out of the way and closer to the battle, lucky for her she had good reflexes and dodged the blade that was coming for her neck.

"Whoa whoa whoa, I have no part in this... no reason to chop off my head."

Nanashi looked at the girl he almost killed, and his eyes widened.

"Michi..."

"Do I know you?"

"Wait? What? No... Just thinking out loud."

Michi would've interrogated him a little further had it not been for the blast of energy heading their way. She practically tackled the boy and rolled them out of the way before the blast hit. Michi got to her feet and pulled her pudao from its harness.

"What's your problem?" She directed the question towards the sorcerer ahead.

He looked at her for a moment, he looked her up and down and then it felt as if he was looking at her soul. She couldn't move and could only sense his gaze. Everything else was a blur.

"Found it." Said the boy as he ran towards Michi.

She didn't have enough time to be confused, only to react. She held her pudao firmly and was somewhat surprised to see the boy stop in front of her, not trying to strike her with the katana in his hand.

Instead he had pulled some weird looking flower from his cloak and muttered something; a glittering dust arose from the flower and swirled around the girl. He looked into her green eyes and noticed it looked as if a storm was boiling in them. Literally, the grey clouds came rolling in and now her eyes were completely different.

She held her breath and jumped from the swirl of glitter. That stuff was making her dizzy and sleepy. She shook her head and cleared her mind. Now she could see the power radiating from the flower boy. She looked over to the one he had been fighting with; he also had a vast amount of power.

He had put the flower back, so he had underestimated her, not much of a problem. He'd just have to go through a little more trouble. Placing his hands at his sides he walked towards the girl, no longer caring about the boy he was close to slaughtering only a few moments ago.

"It'll be a lot less painful if you just cooperate and come with me girl."

Michi backed up slowly keeping her pudao ready for anything. He began to speed closer to her, as if he was gliding. She swung her pudao and ripped the front of his shirt. He stopped and took a few steps back. It's not like he could kill her, that would ruin everything.

"Stubborn are we..."

He smirked and began to form a small glowing orb in his right hand, it swirled with different shades of orange and kept growing until it was the size of a baseball. Michi had noticed the energy in his hand, had her eyes been normal she wouldn't have.

She broke into a run, hoping he wouldn't notice her pull two shurikens from her bag. She held them between her fingers. Only recently had she started practicing with these so she wasn't the best marksman.

She stopped and turned to see the sorcerer pursuing her, once he was close enough she threw the stars. One hit his hand that held the orange ball; the other hit the tree behind him. The ball of energy didn't disperse as she had hoped it would.

He was walking calmly towards her, she was now nervous, he could tell by the way her eyes darted around for a passage away from him. Deciding it was best to get this over with as soon as he could he sped up until he was right next to her. She had slammed her blade into his thigh but he didn't even wince. He just grabbed her by her upper arm and then shoved the ball into her stomach.

She was expecting it to hurt like hell, usually attacks involving magick did. But the pain didn't come. Instead her body became warm all over, then numb. Her Vision blurred and she began to relax too much. Her body slumped against his and her eyes were drifting close, she snapped out of it when she felt a sharp pain in her leg.

She gasped, her eyes shot open and she pushed the boy from her. Michi looked down at the shuriken that was inserted in her leg, ruining her new outfit. Then looked up to see the boy that had almost beheaded her standing by the tree it had hit before.

She probably should've been thankful but didn't think much of it; she pulled the weapon from her leg then grabbed her pudao and ran through the trees again. Running slower than usual she made her way through the trees and climbed one that she could easily hide in thanks to the leaves.

With that sort of coverage she figured she could defiantly kill the sorcerer when he walked near.

~*~

Kanaye lay on the ground, he was not very happy at the moment. He was thinking of a new approach to kidnapping the girl. He had used too much energy to try that last trick again and his patience was growing thin.

He'd have to stop being nice and just knock her out. He got to his feet and walked through the trees. Sometimes seeing a few drops of blood that could've only belong to the girl.

He stopped walking, unsure of which way to go now; she was good at hiding... that was for sure. He felt a drop of water hit his face, he wiped it away and looked at his hand, the water was red... blood.

He looked up and saw the silhouette of the girl in the trees, deciding not to let her know he knew she was there, he looked around a little more and began to walk away. It had worked, the girl threw her pudao at his back, and he turned around, caught it and jumped up into the tree.

He hit her across the face with the loop on the end of the handle of her weapon and then kicked her out of the tree. She fell backwards and landed on the ground, the wind knocked out of her lungs and now she was gasping for air.

She coughed a bit and painfully sat up; she hadn't been in this much pain since she first started training with Masuyo. Body shaking she got to her feet, she couldn't stand straight up so she placed her hands above her knees, leaned forward and breathed heavily.

Where the hell did Kiyoshi go?

She looked around and realized she hadn't seen him since the tree had fallen. She didn't have time to worry about him; it would have been nice if he could help her out though.

She spat out some of the blood that had gathered in her mouth then looked at the boy who had just jumped from the tree and loomed above her. He was still holding her pudao; she glared at his feet not being able to look up at his face.

Deciding it would be better to just try to get her weapon back at least she grabbed a shuriken and held it between her fingers. She did this with both hands then made herself stand up as straight as she could.

She swung her left hand, aiming for his neck. He caught her hand in his own and let go of the pudao and punched her in the stomach. Not letting go of her hand he punched her across the face.

A horrible ringing consumed her ears and her vision kept blurring then sharpening with each beat of her heart. She looked up at him not caring about the pain and then she smiled slightly, she flicked the shuriken in her free right hand to the tips of her fingers then brought her hand in front of his throat as if she was slapping the air. The shuriken tore through his skin but didn't reach deep enough to kill him.

"Aw damn... I can't seem to catch a break." She said through her heavy breathing.

Kanaye grimaced at the pain in his throat and looked at the girl; she was getting on his last nerve. He let go of her hand and took a step back. He jumped up slightly and kicked the girl in the middle of her chest. She flew back straight into the tree that stood a few yards away.

She screamed out in pain her back was beyond throbbing, she couldn't describe it. She landed face down in the grass below, unable to move and hardly able to breathe. Her eyes warily looked around the forest; it seemed to take forever for her to blink. She saw the boots of the boy she first encountered.

Why the hell wasn't he helping her out?

She couldn't fight back the pain and no longer could hold off the darkness that was clouding her vision. Her eyes slowly slid shut and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Mission accomplished.

Kanaye walked over to the fallen girl and picked her up. He threw her over his shoulder. He looked over to Nanashi who was leaning against a tree. His katana was sheathed at his hip and he looked amused.

"Why didn't you help the girl?" Kanaye asked out of curiosity.

"She's not my problem." The boy shrugged.

"Then why did you bother helping her once?"

"She saved my ass, I returned the favor."

Kanaye sighed, he turned his back to the boy and began walking through the trees, he chanted softly under his breath and became invisible once again.

~*~

Kiyoshi was caught on one of the tree roots that stuck annoying high out of the earth, he pushed the unconscious girl out of the way and was hit full force by the falling tree. The world spun faster and faster until he figured he'd throw up any minute now.

He shook his head slightly, ignoring the pain in his neck. Where was Michi?

He tried to pull himself from under the tree, and then he realized both of his legs were caught and undoubtedly most of his ribs were broken. He cursed and began to push the dirt under him away, trying to dig himself out of his entrapment.

He struggled for what seemed forever and still no success. He heard a cry of pain, it couldn't have been anyone but Michi.

"Michi!!!" he called trying desperately to get free.

He heard someone walking towards him, some boy who looked like he had just gone through hell and back.

"Where's Michi? The girl! Is she alright?"

Nanashi smirked and crouched down.

"Oh you mean the girl with the long honey coloured hair?"

He nodded.

"And uses a pudao for her primary weapon?"

Again he nodded.

"Oh, so you mean the girl that just got beaten to a pulp then kidnapped by some powerful sorcerer?"

"WHAT?!"

Kiyoshi struggled harder, he could feel the muscles in his legs and back stretching.

"I wouldn't worry about her anymore, there's no way you'll be able to catch up with them."

Still he struggled.

"Get this god forsaken tree off of me!"

Nanashi just rocked back and forth on his feet and looked over to Kimi.

"Aww how Ironic, you saved her but let the `important' one get kidnapped."

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

For a long time they just glared at each other, eventually Nanashi got bored and stood up. He dusted off his arms and looked at all of his wounds; those would hurt like hell tomorrow.

He walked over to Kimi and rolled her onto her back, she'd be hurting too.

"You can have this one."

Nanashi got up and dropped Kimi's weapon next to her. He headed off into the trees, in the same direction as the sorcerer had gone.

"You son of a bitch!"

Kiyoshi wasn't sure if he could hear him anymore, and frankly didn't care. He had to get out of there somehow and get to Michi as soon as he could.

~*~


Wow, this was an interesting chapter to write... I wasn't sure if I should of let Michi get taken or not... but I think it'll be more fun this way. *Evil laugh*

~Proofread/Edited by Ansem ^.^ *Hands him a cookie*