Black Blood: Awakening

Chapter Four: Know Me, Know You

--

There was nothing but silence in the kitchen as Emi continued to prepare tonight's dinner. Sure, she never expected her friend or her sister to make a sudden visit, but that unfortunately opened up a new can of worms for her.

All she wanted was the simple task of controlling her flames, and now she felt like she probably wouldn't even get that.

Then again, the events in her life were never that simple to begin with.

She only let out a small sigh as she sat down and let her specialty chicken and dumplings simmer on the stove for a few minutes. As she waited, her eyes slowly focused on the palm of her right hand.

'Can he really help me control this curse?' she thought as she shook her head, 'No, no, I shouldn't doubt him. He knows how to control something like this. And if that's the case... I should be able to do the same.'

After that, she held her right wrist and began to channel her flames, trying her hardest not to flinch as she did so.

'Come on, just a little more...'

Once she took a deep breath, she then glanced at the small flame that formed in her hand. As she watched it flicker before it slowly dissipated, another thought came to her mind, 'It still hurts a bit. What more do I have to do?'

Before she could continue her thoughts, she felt a certain someone's finger poking the back of her head. Almost instantly, she turned around and softly cleared her throat before responding, "So how long have you been standing there, Master Kyo?"

"Long enough. Guess you were trying to go for a little extra credit, huh?"

"Um... probably," she muttered as she stood up, "It's nothing, really. Anyway, I guess you want me to tell you everything right now."

"Now? Before we even start eating?" Kyo mused before chuckling a bit, "Sounds like you're in a hurry to get back home or something. What are you so ashamed of?"

Emi could only react by sighing a little, "It's... well... you probably wouldn't understand."

"No, I'm pretty sure that I would. Problem is that you're not spilling the beans. And my problem for the moment is that I didn't get some of your food yet. How about we start that little dinner date, huh?"

"Yes, of course," she replied as she began to set everything up, "You probably know that it's kind of odd to consider this a 'date', right? I've only known you for about two weeks..."

"Hey, at this rate, we'll get to the bad romance parts faster."

"Um... I'm sorry?"

"Heh, it's just a bad joke. Guess I'm still trying to get you to loosen up a little here, you know."

"Oh, I see. You'll have to excuse me, though; I usually don't talk about my problems to others in situations like these," she said as he sat down.

"That's okay. I'm sort of the same way," the young heir said as he looked up, "Still setting those plates up, huh?"

"At least you won't have to wait any longer, Master Kyo. Here you go,"  Emi said as she handed him a plate, "It's my little specialty dish."

"Oh? If this is your specialty, then why'd you decide to go with the fish when you first came over here?"

"It... was Miyuki's idea. She told me that it was your favorite food."

"Why am I not surprised at this?"

She remained silent for a brief moment as she sat across from him while holding a plate of her own and a couple of forks, "That's just how she is. She'll always find some odd way to make something work."

"Well, that's pretty obvious if she's putting her own head on the chopping block for you."

"Yes, you're right about that," the younger one of the two said as she handed one of the forks over to him, "Well, now that everything's set up... where would you like me to start?"

"Let's start with what happened earlier. Why the heck did your sister flip her lid when she saw me?"

"Hmm. I wish I knew," the purple-haired girl said before she began to eat for a moment, "She normally doesn't lash out at people. Unless..."

Kyo simply looked up after noticing that she had trailed off, "What?"

"You had a bit of a reaction when she told you our family name. I know that it's a bit of a stretch here, but she always had a grudge against this person who kept calling her a 'brat'... and you did call her one earlier. Do you have some sort of history with her?"

"Not really. I probably ran into her once or twice a couple of years back, but I don't even know her that well. You're better off asking her yourself."

"I don't know, I'm not so sure that she would want to talk about it."

"It's either that or you're going to hear her grumble about me for who knows how long. Anyway, is she older or younger than you?"

"Younger. I'm eighteen, and she's sixteen," Emi said as she fidgeted a bit, "And yes, I was originally supposed to learn that style. I just... I didn't want to do it. It felt like a burden to me, so I just abandoned it. I didn't want to be a fighter. As a matter of fact, I don't want to be one."

"Then what did you want to be?"

"A regular girl... perhaps?"

"Nothing regular about those flames that you're throwing out," he responded, "Guess you're not a big fan of having a power like that, huh?"

She could only sigh and shake her head to that question, "Not really. In my family, you're supposed to take the sword arts if you're the first born child. If you dissent, well... it's said that the one who refuses becomes a 'cursed one'. It looks like that rumor just happened to be true."

"That rumor sounds like nonsense. Is that why you worry about that so much? Because 'your family said so'?"

"Aren't you doing the same thing yourself? Carrying the flames of your family because 'they said so'?" she asked in a slightly irritated tone. Once she caught herself, she simply cleared her throat a little, "I... I'm sorry."

After that, the two said nothing for a few minutes as they ate. It seemed as if the silence was slowly beginning to annoy them with each passing second. Before it could possibly get any worse,  the Kusanagi heir finally spoke, "Well. Never had an awkward date like this with a girl before. First time for everything, huh?"

"It's rather unfortunate that I had to be the first recipient of that... 'honor'. Again, I'm sorry. You wanted me to relax, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah. That was the whole point of this thing."

"I see. I do have a question, though. You see, Miyuki has been teasing me about this ever since we first met you, and she was curious about it. Are you... taken?"

"You know, that's not how you do the 'asking for a friend' lie, Emi," Kyo said as he smirked a bit, "And yes, I am. Sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'?"

"Long story short, it's a sort of on/off relationship at the moment. It's just on hold because she's studying abroad right now. Does that answer your question?"

Embarrassed at that response, the purple-haired girl could only laugh nervously, "Um... yes, it does. Thank you."

After that, he could only chuckle at her sudden flustered state, "Oh, come on. You were never good at hiding that little crush that you have on me. It's been pretty evident since we first met."

"It's nothing. It'll go away. Besides, I'm just your student... Master Kyo."

"For now."

"Stop!" she said as she frantically waved her hands a little, "I mean... no. It can't happen. It... shouldn't happen. We both know that, right?"

"Alright. If you don't want it to happen, I'm not gonna force you. In the meantime, you can go ahead, get distracted... never finish your training..."

"Cut it out. Besides, I don't want to date someone that I barely know. All I know about you is what Miyuki told me. And aren't we getting off topic here? You said that you wanted to know about me."

"At least I know that you get a little hot every time I tease you," he said as she puffed her cheeks a little, "Thanks for proving my point. Now, about your family..."

"Oh. Right. You wanted to know more about the curse, didn't you?"

"Eh, I might as well know about it. It's not really a curse if it's not killing you, huh?"

"Maybe that's the odd thing. My family's history always mentioned it, but nobody really knew what it was... or what it actually did," Emi said as she blinked a little, "The successor always took up the sword of my family without question for the last 500 or so years."

"500?! Ha!"

As she narrowed her eyes, she could only manage to mutter a simple "Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry," Kyo said as he straightened himself up a little, "I just... choked a little bit. Anyway, why don't you pretend that you were born with your flames? You're not going to go anywhere if you keep thinking that it's a curse. It's just a power that you haven't controlled properly yet."

"I see. If that's the case, I also need to learn to trust you a little more, too."

"You're already doing that. Your real problem is that you're still beating yourself up over everything. Scared of failing or something?"

"Well, um..."

"Yes or no? Stop dancing around and spill it."

As she shifted in her seat for a moment, Emi sighed and finally admitted it...

"Okay, fine, so I'm scared, Master Kyo," she began, "My own flames scare me, okay? I was constantly worrying that I would hurt someone with this power, and that's why I kept it to myself this whole time. And now you're mixed up into this whole thing... I... I didn't want to waste your time with this."

"Oh, trust me, you're not wasting my time."

"Huh? But... you said that you had 'too much on your plate' when we first met."

"I was just trying to get you off of my back because I thought you had nothing to offer. Looks like I was wrong about that," he said, "At least training you will keep me busy for a little bit. It's been pretty quiet around here lately."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Shingo's in training with my old man, Yuki's studying in England, and there's no KOF tournament this year. Only thing I usually get nowadays is the occasional visit from Benimaru."

"I see. Um, I know that it's a little odd to ask you something like this, but... would it be okay if I spent a weekend here to keep you company? I think you said that you have a spare bedroom."

"Only if your parents are fine with it and your sister doesn't chop my head off. She probably thinks that I'm trying to get you into my bed or something."

"Stop it," Emi said as she waved one of her hands a little, "She's not going to kill you. And yes, I'll ask my mother when I'm more comfortable."

"Just your mother?"

"Yes. My father... um... he's not around. He abandoned the family shortly after my sister was born."

"Yikes. Sorry that I hit a nerve there."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know," she replied as she finished eating, "Anyway, I should get back home before it gets too late."

"Don't rush yourself. I'm taking you home."

She immediately halted herself from getting up upon hearing those words, glancing at him in a bit of surprise, "Well, that's a first. What's the occasion?"

"Well, let's see... I'm in the mood to give my bike a little spin."

"You own a motorcycle?"

"Well, yeah. Damn thing had some problems a few weeks back, so I had to walk everywhere while it was being repaired. Stupid thing is that I would've never met you or your pal if it was still working."

"I guess everything works in mysterious ways, Master Kyo. By the way, are you finished? I still need to clean up."

"Almost, but go ahead. I might as well start getting ready to take you home, anyway. I'll be waiting outside."

----

"You know, now that I think about it... is this another test of bravery?" Emi asked as she glanced at her master's motorcycle.

"Only if you want it to be. You're not afraid of falling off, are you?"

"No, it's not that, it's just..." she muttered before trailing off, causing Kyo to sigh in response, "Sorry."

"If you're really that worried..." he said as he handed her a helmet, "Here. I'm not gonna knock you for this."

"Thank you," she replied as she put it on, "So... now what?"

"It's real simple. Just sit right behind me and hold on tight," he said as he sat on the bike's seat, "Least that part won't kill you."

"Sure," the younger one of the two responded as she followed his request. Once she settled in, she took a deep breath as he revved the engine, "I'm ready, Master Kyo."

"Well, then... enjoy the ride. I'm sure it'll be good for you as it will be for me..."

----

"Christ, we have to look through all of Osaka for this punk? At this rate, we probably won't find him for a couple of months at best," Kyo-2 muttered to himself as he stuck his hands into the pockets of his jacket, "Whatever... I should be used to this stuff. Sure hope the other two are having better luck."

Ever since he discarded his old crimson school uniform in exchange for a somewhat flashier set of clothes, he seemed to be a bit annoyed recently... it may have been a bit of a side effect of dealing with a rather temperamental shadow clone for the past couple of weeks.

Currently, he was walking aimlessly around the edge of the city, hoping for an excuse to clear his mind a little. Even if he failed in doing that, at least the night air would probably help him.

'Hmph. Looks like it's getting darker by the minute now,' he thought as he stopped at a street corner. Before he could make an attempt to cross, he noticed that something was quickly approaching.

'A motorcycle?'

As it passed him by, he soon asked himself two certain questions...

'Wait... was that the guy that we're looking for? And who was that girl with the helmet...?'

As he made his way across the street, he began to smirk a little, "I think we're slowly getting our mark. At least this search won't take forever now..."

--

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