Ushio & Tora Fan Fiction ❯ Sempai ❯ Chapter 1

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Sempai

By Ysabet

(Hiya! The Holy Disclaimer: Yadda, yadda, yadda, Ushio & Tora don't
belong to me, & if they did there'd be more episodes to watch & a LOT
of translated manga. Sigh. I'm MUCH too broke for that! So instead I
play in somebody else's playground....... Viva Otaku Prost!!! (That's
garbled Japagermaspan for "Long Live Otaku who Drink Beer.) Enjoy if
it's enjoyable, and please review; this is ment to be a companion
piece to another fic of mine, `Mere Wickedness'. By the way, as I
understand it, a `sempai' translates into `social equal' or `comrade',
as in somebody in the same boat with you. Also, for future reference,
Pokysticks are Japanese cookie-sticks, like pretzel-sticks, covered
with chocolate or other stuff, and extremely popular.)

He's watching me again.

Here I sit, doing my damnedest to finish this drawing, and it just
won't come out right. I had this idea stuck in my head, and if I don't
put it down on paper or canvas I won't be able to sleep. So I'm at my
table, trying to squeeze out what I can see in my head through my
fingers onto paper--- and I feel this prickling sensation right
between my shoulderblades. So I know he's out there, watching me.

Why the HELL does he do that?

It's not that I mind that much, not really..... I'm not afraid of him
anymore (just careful.) He doesn't intimidate me like he used to, not
like he did when I first pulled the Spear from his shoulder and let
him loose on the world. But, y'know, even then..... Even when I was
sure he was going to eat me or rip me limb-from-limb, I don't know---
there was something that kept me from being completely terrified.
Something almost familiar about him.

Maybe it's in my blood. If the story my dad has harped on for my whole
life is true (and, at this point, how could I doubt it?), then my
ancestor the Great Invincible Killer Samurai was the one that stuck
the Spear through him. The way Tora tells it (when he talks about it
at all, which isn't often), my forefather was *this* close to becoming
Samurai-Pokysticks when he fiendishly stabbed the Terrible, Invincible
Bakemono through with the Kemono No Yari and condemned him to five
hundred unfair years of imprisonment. And all just for eating a few
humans.......

I'm not sure how I feel about the eating humans bit. I mean, obviously
I think it's horrible and all, and if I met a monster that ate humans
(what do I mean `if'? They *all* seem to eat humans.....) then of
course I'd kill it. Can't fault my ancestor for that. But...... It was
a long time ago. I know, I know, that doesn't make it any better; but
murderers get sent to prison for their crimes, don't they? And isn't
that what happened to Tora?

Or am I trying to justify the fact that I seem to have a monster for a
friend?

I can just see him, perched on the old temple roof. In the darkness
he's the color of sienna mixed with a little burnt umber, shading to
charcoal. Funny; I can't help but think in painting terms sometimes.
Tora's eyes would be the most interesting thing to paint--- they're
silver, really silver, like shining glass. But you can see into them
too, like you can into deep water. When he gets really pissed off,
they burn white. Terrifying but cool.

Not that I'd ever tell him that, of course.

As monsters go, he's pretty good. No tentacles, no slime or ooze
dripping all over the place; and he can fit through doorways (if
they're wide enough) or windows without too much trouble, when he
doesn't just slip through the wall like a ghost. No multiple eyeballs,
either (a lot of youkai seem to have those). He rips up the floor
pretty often, though; those claws of his. Last week I heard this
horrible crackling sound and looked out the window--- and the idiot
was sharpening his claws on the gate doors! Big, huge doors that've
been around probably since my ancestor put him down, and he reduced
them to splinters in a few minutes. He sheds, too.

And the way he goes through the groceries; man, for something that
doesn't really *have* to eat, he always seems to be thinking about
food. He likes junk food--- pizza and chocolate, hamburgers, anything
new. Hates soda, though. And I guess that if I'd been stuck in a
cellar for five hundred years I'd want to make up for lost time too.
But I wish he'd keep his claws the hell out of *my* lunch! Every
damned time I eat something, there he is, fishing 'his' share from my
plate, right in front of me! I've started buying bigger portions just
so I can manage to eat *something*.....

I suppose it's OK; after all, look at what he COULD be eating.

You know, I didn't plan on him being around for long. When I let him
out, almost two years ago now, I though I had made the greatest
mistake of my soon-to-be-truncated life. Oh man, he was evil. Bigger
than anything I'd ever been around, furred and fanged and clawed, and
with some habits that took a lot of getting used to. The biggest one
had to be the way he likes to perch on my shoulders, usually with a
handful of claws resting on my head. It's a good thing he can go
weightless--- he'd squash me like a bug otherwise.

But it's not so bad. When he would hitch a ride, back at the
beginning, we wouldn't usually try to kill each other----- sort of an
armistace, for a little while.

Now I can see his eyes shining through the darkness; they look like a
pair of low-hanging stars from here, but bigger. Y'know, when you're a
kid and you hear legends about red and green oni and other monsters,
you don't think about what they do when they're not out pillaging and
eating villages or stuff like that. You never think about what they
might be like at home in their lairs or wherever. That they might
snore, for instance; or that they might think television is the most
interesting thing to ever, EVER exist. You don't think of them having
opinions about what kind of detergent you should use for washing
clothes (Tora claims that the stuff we used to use smelled too strong
and that it made it easier for monsters to locate me), or that they
might complain when you order pizza *without* anchovies for a change.
Or that they might drink ALL the milk before you could get even *one*
glass of the damned stuff! AND put the empty carton back in the
fridge---!

No; monsters are just supposed to eat people, terrorize the
countryside, stomp on poor little houses, and be killed by adventurous
samurai. Or be Godzilla, in which case all bets are off (except that
you'd have to be a damned fool to live in Tokyo). I remember the first
time Tora saw a Godzilla movie; man, he laughed his ass off! It was
one of the old black-and-white ones (and I'll tell you, THAT took a
little explaining) and the monster-costume wasn't exactly the best in
the world. First he stared; then he looked at me with this puzzled
expression and asked me if this was some new kind of kabuki. Then he
just looked back at the TV and started to laugh (you could see the
seams on the costume). By the time the monster was stomping Tokyo into
the ground, we were both cheering for Godzilla.

On the other hand..... one night he came back from a little
exploration trip, and he had been to Hiroshima. He told me so. But he
didn't say much else that night.

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

I just woke up; it's sometime after 2 a.m., and I think Tora was just
in the room. You'd think I would be worried, but I think I must be
getting used to it. Anyway, the Spear didn't wake me, so it was OK.

Why the hell does he come into my room, though? Sometimes I can tell
he's been looking at my drawings and paintings (they'll be rearranged
and sometimes they have clawmarks on the corners). I drew one of the
Spear once, and he ripped it to shreds. He *really* hates the Spear. I
guess I can't blame him for that.

It's next to me, leaning against the headboard of my bed. If I move
just a little, I can touch it, and I do that often while I'm drifting
off to sleep. Sometimes I'm not sure where I end and the Spear
begins..... That should probably worry me, but somehow it just-----
doesn't. It's a little like gaining a new arm or hand, but one made of
wood and metal rather than flesh; you don't think about it, it's just
there, part of you. The Kemono No Yari. When it takes me over-----

When it takes me over, it's not so much a change (I think, sometimes)
but more a simplifying of me, Aotsuki Ushio. The parts of me that
aren't needed (the civilized ones, the ones that would hold me back)
get..... put aside, clipped off cleanly by the Spear's edges. The rest
of me gets sort of channeled, pulled into a purpose. And the way that
feels........ When it happened the first time, it hurt; it hurt a lot.
And every time hurts some, I suppose. But it's a little less each
time, you know? And I get the feeling that, someday, I'll pass some
point, some milestone--- and it will never hurt again.

It also feels *good* in a wierd sort of way..... and that DOES worry
me. It's a little like sticking your finger in a light-socket, and
likeing it.

Maybe the idea of being channeled isn't quite right; it's more like
being forged, beaten on an anvil. Each time I change, I get heated
again in the Spear's fires, and then hammered out. Yeah; that feels
right.

I should probably be worried. But I'm not, not really. And it's not
like I'd ever give up being the Spearbearer. I've been this way too
long, too hard, too much; it really *would* be like cutting off my
arm. Or my head.

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

Ha! I just did something I've never done before. Tora headed off
somewhere----- I could see him soar off like some big furry ghost
towards the city----- so I slipped downstairs and over to the old
temple. It was an easy climb onto the roof, really; nothing like some
of the things I've had to do while fighting (there was a tree nearby
that helped a lot). He invaded MY space, so now it was my turn.

It was pretty interesting, too. He *collects* stuff! Little things,
all kept in a piece of what looked like a silk table-runner: a bowl of
rocks, an old comb, some money, a monster's tooth (I wonder which one
it was?), things like that. I never knew he collected stuff! But the
wierdest thing of all was this: The tiles on top of the roof-ridge had
DRAWINGS on them! All sorts of pictures; mountains, monsters, people
in wierd costumes, and a lot of drawings of the sun and the moon and
stars. Those last few were doodles, sort of; cruder than the others,
and scattered around all over. One thing that was really interesting
was that he had traced around each of his hands with a claw, so the
outlines were right on the center-top of the ridge. Kind of a claiming
territory sort of thing?

I wonder what he'd do if I drew MY handprints up there next to his?
Have huge, furry hysterics all over the place, probably. Broken walls,
broken windows, smashed trees, more scars, that kind of hysterics. No
thanks. He's going to have fits about my being up here anyway--- and
he'll know I was, he'll be able to smell me. Huh. Well, it was only
fair; he looks at MY stuff, doesn't he?

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

I got back into bed just in time; it's beginning to rain, and it looks
like it'll come down hard. Good; that should wash my scent from Tora's
'stash.'

Not that I was worried, really; but I felt a little guilty..... It was
like reading somebody's diary. For all that we've been together for
more than a year now, there's a lot we don't really know about each
other. When we fight, when we've traveled, we've always sort of lived
in the present moment; I don't ask him about his past, he doesn't ask
me about mine. I guess mine's pretty bland, though; but his.....

I wonder how old he is?

Does it matter? He spent the last 500 years in a pit. Ancient bakemono
or not, that's got to make this like a whole other life for him. Look
at what he missed: The arrival of all those Europeans, the end of
imperial life, World Wars I and II..... the atom bomb.....

This must be like another planet for him. Oh yeah, the 'Space Race'
stuff, too. I tried to explain that man had landed on the moon, and I
think he thought I was lying. He gave me this look like 'Yeah, sure'
and laughed.

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

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like without monsters, without
the Spear, without Tora. Losing the monsters, well, hell! That'd be
great..... wouldn't it? I mean, who likes to get bitten, clawed, and
otherwise mauled on a regular basis? Yet, I can't really imagine not
fighting *something* at this point!

As for losing the Spear: No, and no, and no. Wouldn't work.

And Tora? My first impulse: Great! No more lost food, rude comments
that only I can hear, no-one poking into my stuff without permission;
yeah. But......... You know, he's the only--- person?--- that really
knows what this is like: hunting, fighting..... killing your enemy.
I'd rather not kill, but there's not much choice when something is
trying to disembowel you. Tora may not be human, but he *does*
understand. And I can talk to him about what we do, even if we don't
always agree on things. He's there, and I *do* talk to him.

Maybe..... he'd be even harder to lose than the Spear.

Or am I just an idiot? He sure seems to think so.

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

It's barely morning, and I'm sitting at my desk drawing. Burnt sienna,
umber, charcoal, silverpoint. Tora's face looks out at me from the
paper, eyes slitted and teeth just showing, that mass of hair of his
blowing around him where he's sitting on a wall. It's one of my best
drawings; and I'll bet it will dissapear sometime in the next few
days. So I'll spray it with fixative to waterproof it; it'll last a
lot longer up in his 'stash' that way.

Time to go downstairs for breakfast. I'll leave this where he can find
it tonight.