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"Hmph...Fine. Mimi. Whatever." The youth grumbled as he straddled a branch to balance himself. Despite his bitter tone, his actions spoke a bit louder than his words, and seemed to make the indifference in his voice a might displaced as he leaned down to offer her a hand. Was he helping her out of instinct? Respect?

Truth be told, it was legitimately neither, though it leaned towards respect. He'd actually come to appreciate Mimi for not being the typical domineering she-b***h that he'd come to loathe. The didn't change the fact that she was a girl, though; hence the gruff tone he'd chosen to use.

Alright, so he'd never really used anything but a gruff tone; male or female.

His opinions on the girl were a bit mixed at this point, if he were to be totally honest. She seemed quite tolerable; nice, even. But it still didn't change the fact that she was female, and Hijiri had made a sort of pact with himself to never trust any kind of woman so long as he was cursed to remain on this stupid plane; no matter how nice, or helpful, or pretty, or amusing, or tolerable they were...

[Don't worry, I'm not having a cow. I got patience in that regard. Well, at least for today. ]

"I didn't say you were a child," Responded Mimi as her fingertips weaved leaves between the open spaces of the basket. "A grown man may still have a mother of his own in this world. Besides, having a woman like her for a mother isn't such a bad thing. Rough in her love she may be, but considering the way we are to be brought up in this society can you blame her? She's quite gentle in comparison. I know women who would have eaten their cubs for being blind and males who would have taken the tiniest of the litter to abandon them in the jungle for a certain death. As far as parents go, I'd be honored to be one of those whom she took into her care."

Because I never got to meet my parents and I do believe they were a bit like her. Someone had to stop the clan members from abandoning *me* in the jungle. Someone had to have cared to some point. If not, why am I still alive?

"Anyway, I'm ready." Mimi had even fashioned an extra long handle to fit the long, deep, wide basket. It meant that more fruit could be carried, which meant shorter foraging periods. Her body shifted, that tail of hers adjusting and with the basket strewn over her shoulder, Mimi began to climb higher as to help with the gathering.

[ Now, I got to go pick up my car from the s**t-garage down the street. ********, I'm half an hour alte. ACK! ]

"Cats and Fae are neither enemies nor friends, " He stated, looking almost handsome in the way those pale locks of wavy hair fell across his eyes and the manner upon which his lips half pouted with seriousness. "But we're very loyal to the earth and our territory. We've seen the land that falls into the hands of the enemy turn from something beautiful to utter s**t. We won't allow that to happen with this paradise."

His eyes flickered from the strewn neko to the changling whose hand he clung to. "This is our home," he stated. "We will die if needs be to keep this place alive." Leslie then gestured to the jungle's dense, beautiful foliage with his free hand. "Besides, household cats eat tiny birds--But this guy's a vulture in comparison and that neko's tired as hell. I'm guessing his last prey must've been a tough one."

Leslie offered the changeling's hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it. The truth was that he didn't know what he could to do help and he was scared. A ki'mei was one thing; they often relied on magic and that he could counter. The Tengu were quick, predatory and gifted with flight -- or rather, the ability to moved at speeds that made them seem they could fly and often times they too were blessed with the ability to manipulate the air. A batillion of 100 fae were hardly a match for someone like a Tengu, let alone a single one.

The muscles of his jaw twitched as he chewed his lip in thought. "At the moment, I don't know. Hopefully the cat can do something. We should watch and see." And so said he beckoned her to the thicket of leaves at a short distance. He folded his wings and wrapped them about himself, his skin acquiring a pale, dark color. Vibrant still, but muted, he resembled now a catterpillar in a crysallis awaiting to emerge as a butterfly.

Diss' eyes locked on the tengu from his position. Prone, unarmed and naked, still he was no less dangerous. Diss scoffed at the intruder’s words, though he himself was not in the mood for another fight and tengu made such poor meals. “Prey?” he spit at the word, “ you couldn’t be much better if you considered him prey. Your so called ‘prey’ made similar claims of being unbeatable. Only fools declare such things.” Diss couldn’t help but laugh at the bird’s threat to spill his innards. “You’re worse than that corpse. Telling people how to not attack you.” Sitting up he continued to chuckle. “Not a damn person around here knows a thing about respect, or how to fight.”

Standing with a groan, Diss began brushing off the wet sand in his fur. “Or is it, that you’re afraid of me? Hmmm? A lone tengu, far from home, confronted by a wild beast. You carry many reasons to be scared. Lucky for you though, you’re the worst tasting kind of bird.” Diss was still very weak from his previous fight, but he kept himself from wavering as he stood. If a fight was going to happen, there was always more to burn.

"I was but a cub when I lost my mother. It was a difficult birth for her and we lost both mom and two of the cubs. " stated Mimi as she caught the fruits with ease and dumped them into the basket. One or two she had to struggle with, forcing her to stretch out at awkward angles to catch the little projectiles. If it weren't for that excesively long tail, surely, Mimi would have fallen over completely. "We tried saving the others...my sister and I but... "

Mim's voice trailed of and a fruit slipped past her fingertips only to crash onto the ground. It split open, the loud, hollow sound followed by the splash of liquid reminded her of a skull being split in two. It was followed by the sound of muffled cries, the meowls mixed with whimpers and muted purrs. Daisuke... the first born of the Kusanagi tribe and Mimi's older brother had taken it upon himself to execute the remaining cubs "for the sake of the tribe." Mimi herself had narrowly escaped death when her sisters fought him off-- as frail as she may have been (she was the runt of the litter), Mimi was a woman... and as long as their numbers were greater than his, Daisuke could not take charge of their clan.


"Cruelty can be mistaken for love, "murmured the young female as she caught yet another projectile fruit. "and love mistaken for cruelty, Hijiri." After all, she'd been taught all her life that compassion was wrong and for the most part, the Kusanagi women had gone out of their way to stray Mimi from her 'humanitarian' ways. All for the sake of 'love' and power.

-------

Leslie peered from his frozen cacoon out at the visage before him. The Bakeneko was being an idiot and the Tengu a proud moron. Harsh words were said and for the most part, it seemed like nothing was going to come out of it. Still, it was good to keep an eye on stuff, just in case....

His beloved moved off to the side and shifted to conceal herself appropriately. For a moment Leslie contemplated staying were he was, but even with his flesh muted, he couldn't pass for a very convincing crysallis and so, he quickly unwrapped his wings. He shifted, dashing into the dense folliage, then twisting and dipping between the leaves. Leslie purposely sought out the light: it made him opaque and concealed the glowing of his skin.

Eventually he landed upon one of those large, toothy, velvetten leaves of Liriel's design. Without a second thought he laid down, spread his wings flat about him as if they were a blanket and peered outward once more. "So, what do you think's going to happen?"

His words, but a mere whisper.

-------



Kyari smirked, tossing a sidelong glance to the unwanted passenger. Was that a faint smile, a hint of amusement, that crossed her lips? Perhaps, but with the demoness, it was hard to tell. "Careful of whom you choose for company, old man. I've been told that I'm not the best of people to spend any decent amount of time with."

The truth was that Kyari was much like an aged, red wine: Alluringly soft, and delicate, even draped with an inviting, aromatic bouquet which conveyed images of warmth in heavy winters. But she was vastly different on the inside, much like the taste of an old wine: there was a belying bitterness amid the dark canvass of color, a charred, complex aftertaste that dried out the tongue and remained present long after the first sip. Kyari Ki'mei was definately an acquired taste. "Lonelyness comes with age, really? Hmm.. I must be older than I thought then."

For the most part, the Ki'mei Shogun wondered off on her own, untrusting of even her own shadow. She did things on her own, for herself and no one else. One could percieve the demoness to be a lonely creature when in reality, she seeked for it. And Kyari wasn't the sort of person to play along and answer pointless questions.

Perhaps she would have continued in the rousing game of banter but for the moment Kyari seemed distracted. Her left ear twitched almost as if to flick off a pestering flea before it bit the flesh, or a fly upon landing. There it was again, the soft, hardly audible sound of children laughing, engrossed completely in their daytime play. Their voices were boystreous, mischievous, perhaps a little haunting even by the demoness's standards as, she had come to know, it was a sound that only she could hear.

Kyari arched a brow, then tilted her head once more, hellbent on ignoring the melody of laughter. It would fade into the background soon enough, right? "So tell me again, why is your newest poppet so dissapointing?"

[mass post, yay! Sorry for keeping you guys waiting; I've had one shitty week and a half. I couldn't bring myself the energy to post until now. ]

((Yeah, life's been kind of harsh for me as well. Anyway, I'm back now. ^o^ Anyway, it's not like I've had anyone to reply to, to begin with. @.@; Too many 'anyway's. >o<))

The older rooster very well could be close to having his head lopped off, or perhaps he'd made one of his greatest allies of all time? That much was rather unknown, and for the old man he didn't care too much. Kyari, while a killer of unheard of abilities did not kill unless she was ordered to or felt the need to. As far as he knew, anyway, it could be a massive misonception on his part.

He may be sharper than he potrayed himself as being, but he was still a senile old man. Though, with his age came a rusty technique which had kept him alive for nearly two thousand years. She wouldn't bring him down too easy.

"Ki'mei, Kyari I get the feeling you're more than the two dimensional being you're often viewed as. Besides that, you've proved to be rather interesting company thus far." stated the old man as he rose and fell on the hind quarters of the beast he sat upon, watching the rocks as they flew by.

Now while Kyari could compare herself to a fine wine.. Ku'on was just an old ******** - to be blunt.

He was an old man who was surely lonely as he wandered between empires, stopping in now and again to visit his old friend Sojobo. He was a drunkard, that much was obvious. He was also senile, and that confused people to the point of pushing them away. How much of that was of his own free will - however? His brain should not be having any problems, he was a creature of immortality.

"But then again, as a woman immortality must be rough on you. I wonder how many gallons you've bled yet?" the old geezer cackled through muffled, thin lips as that black beak turned itself to the dark heavens of the August Star. "I certainly wouldn't want to be around you during that time of the month!"

However his focus became more serious, as did his voice. "It's not nessicarily dissapointing." stated the black rooster. "But I expected more of him. The way he hyped himself up I truly thought he'd take that Ki'mei out within three strokes."

((Sorry about the cruddy post. Ku'on and I aren't communicating well.))