School 02

[yukatado]

Disclaimer:
All characters of "Inuyasha: Sengoku Otogi Zoushi" a.k.a. "Inu-Yasha: a Feudal Fairytale" are the 1998 property and copyright of Rumiko Takahashi; Shogakukan Inc.; Kitty; Fuji TV; and, Viz Communications. No copyright infringement is intended.

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School

Chapter 02 - Join the Club

A fanfiction by Yukatado

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Sakurabara Joshi Kouritsu Kougakkou, - Cherry-tree Field Girls Public High School had been established not much more than a year previous to Kikyou's entrance as a first year high school girl. Built in the contemporary western styles, yet with hints of Japanese traditional design, Kikyou gazed upon it with not a little trepidation. She had seen and experienced much in her long existence on this earth, and yet, nothing had truly prepared her for much in the way of modernity. She rarely left the shrine save for the occasional outing, or even for some travel. She needed no food, so there were no regular visits to the local market, and her only regular contact with people was with those going to the shrine to pray.

As she approached the gate, he saw a well dressed gentleman standing there inspecting the girls as they entered, bowed and made their way across the courtyard to the school's genkan, where she saw girls carefully removing their calf-length laced boots and replacing them with the indoor slippers emblazoned with a gold five-petal cherry-blossom that twinkled in the morning sun.

"Young lady!" the gentlemen barked gruffly at her, "You look new here, so I shall forgive this infraction this time. One bows to one's school before entering the gate!"

Yes, nothing quite prepared her for the coming militarily patterned school life she was about live. "Yes, sir . . ." she apologized and bowed before entering and changing her shoes. The man noted that his usually intimidating glare and stance had little effect on the waist-length-haired girl before him, but at least she was respectful.

Kikyou sat through her classes until the allotted lunch period, wherein she chose to go outside and peruse the various tables set up by the school's clubs, recruiting members. The Sado club was serving thick, rich traditional Japanese green tea to the students for a yen and she went ahead and paid for a cup. The Koto club played their instruments for the entertainment of their juniors and the new freshmen students. To her right, a makeshift stage had been set up for the some of the clubs to do demonstrations. At the moment, the Naginata club twirled gracefully with their pole-arms, making swift, deadly strikes and slashes at imaginary opponents. Girls sat about under cherry trees growing in the East-courtyard, chatting idly. Kikyou sat down alone and watched the demonstration finish. The girls cleared the stage and a single target was set up on the center of the stage. Suddenly, an arrow careened down the length of the courtyard and hit the target nearly in its bull's eye.

Now she was interested.

Beniko Hayashibara stepped down from the Archery club's table and bowed as she was cheered on by her classmates. She looked up to find Kikyou standing before her. "I am Kikyou, and I am interested in joining this club," Kikyou greeted Beniko.

"Can you shoot with a bow, or do you need instruction?" Beniko asked frankly.

"I can demonstrate my skill if you like. I've been practicing since I was a little girl," Kikyou replied, and silently added "for nearly four hundred years."

Beniko handed her the bow, and an arrow. "Well, do be careful."

Kikyou nodded, looked at the target, gave a couple of test pulls on the bow string to acclimate to its tightness and fired the arrow nearly straight up into the air where it disappeared. Beniko was about to slap the impudent girl when, with a semi-loud thunk from across the courtyard, the arrow fell, severing Beniko's arrow only millimeters away from the target before sticking into the wooden stage. There was a stunned silence amongst the girls on the field.

"Sometimes an arrow descending from the skies into an enemy's head is much more effective than an arrow straight into the chest," Kikyou said in a slightly cryptic tone, before handing the bow back to Beniko. "I simply wish to do Archery."

Beniko robotically took the bow and nodded, dumbfounded. "It's . . . It's not polite to speak so familiarly to your seniors, but I have a feeling, Kikyou, that you and I will be good friends, but rivals nonetheless. Welcome to the Archery club. I am the captain, Sakurabara High School third-year, Beniko Hayashibara."

Kikyou smiled. "I'd like that . . . sempai."

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Time passed at Sakurabara and the two girls grew close as friends and rivals. Kikyou never did reveal that level of skill again in the club, contenting herself with remaining merely one step ahead of any person she competed against on the range. Beniko's skills improved two-fold under Kikyou's guidance, and eventually, despite the breech in supposedly tradition protocol of junior/senior relations, Kikyou took up teaching Beniko privately at the shrine.

"Good day, sensei," Beniko said, her ever present smile forming into a smirk as Kikyou's eye's rolled.

"Good day, sempai," Kikyou said, at the torii gate of the shrine waving good-bye to her friend. Beniko, despite being her "sempai" loved teasing Kikyou by calling her "teacher."

When Beniko was down the steps and around the corner, a cold wind blew across the nape of Kikyou's neck and she turned towards the shrine proper. "What?" she said in a cold tone.

"Who's that sweet little thing you keep bringing around here, Kikyou? Don't tell me that you've gone  . . .  that way, have you?" Onigumo taunted from within. "Do you sense something about her? I do. I can't place it, but I know it's there . . ."

"Yes, the faintest hint of youkai blood. But I wonder from whence it came."

"I wouldn't mind some of that," Onigumo commented.

"You're the lowest of the low, you know that?"

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To be continued . . .

Author's Notes: Hmm . . . Not really. To my reviewers, thank you for your reviews. I of course would love to have more. For those of you who know any Japanese, or at least, you know how to look up kanji, you may be able to figure out whom the great-great-great-great-great grand-daddy of Beniko is. Otherwise, stay tuned.

[Dracos]

The first part is still terribly dry and sterile.  The last bit has a little life to it, but it still doesn't feel anything like the Kikyou from the actual series.  It just feels like stereotypical pseudo-ancient supergirl.  She doesn't even really give off any sensation of the tiredness you hinted at in the first chapter.  She doesn't feel alive.  It feels instead like watching a puppet show.  This isn't something that's merely gramatical.  Instead it's more a deeper flaw in the style to work on.

Dracos