Through the Cracks Ch6 bit – Pawprints

~ crossovercreativechaos

“If a samurai woman is not interested in a suitor, she snubs him,” Kenshin said carefully. “She lets his poems languish without reply, or answers them with ones clearly meant to show her lack of concern for him. She lets his skill, his manners, pass her by as a leaf in the stream. She ignores him. She walks away. Into the rain, often, to show everyone she does not care to have even his scent upon her clothing. If he is… unmannerly, then she might injure him, or even kill him, if there is need.” Knuckles whitened. “But she does not run.”

Her throat was paper-dry. “Why?”

“Because there is that within us which is of the youkai, Kaoru-dono. Not of the dark, not of the demon,” Kenshin added swiftly, as she stiffened, “but of the mononoke Hoshiko called to aid.”

“The animal spirits?” Kaoru shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

Kenshin let out a quiet sigh. “The first hanyou, the first children born of an akuma who chose life as a youkai, were of wolf blood. And since they were first, blessed by the gods and Hoshiko’s allies, that pattern has been set within all of us, no matter the kind of youkai we carry. Neko, usagi, kitsune – it matters not. The wolf spirit is a ghost over us all, and it influences our magic to bind us to others. And to bind others to us. We form packs, Kaoru-dono. Those of a samurai clan are bound to each other not only by blood and honor, but by the power within us all….”

Wolf-packs? What’s that got to do with anything? She gripped her bokken harder, wanting to deal out another lump-

Wait a minute.

This was Kenshin. Who could take down half a dozen yakuza without blinking. Who dodged Kerowyn as if it were child’s play.

Who somehow, weirdly, almost never dodged her.

Which means he… lets me hit him?

According to the Animal Mindspeakers teaching her survival classes, wolves had rurouni, too. Grown males and females who would strike out from their birth pack, looking for a territory to call their own. Who might join another wanderer to start a new pack, or find a pack that had lost members and offer submission to be accepted….

He lets me discipline him. He lives in my “den”. He makes sure the oldest member of my “pack”, Gensai, remembers to eat when he’s busy seeing patients. He – he pup-sits! And he brought me an orphan. Like a rurouni wolf would to the head female- Kaoru stiffened. “Are you saying that if I run, I invite you to chase me?”

27 thoughts on “Through the Cracks Ch6 bit – Pawprints”

  1. Pretty sure that is exactly what he is saying.

    And that by youkai terms, he has been stating his intentions toward you very obviously and dare I say it, flirting . . .

    And if youkai and hanyou are like wolves, people would do well to remember that there are certain things that are okay if pack does them but anyone else and you are going to see blood . . .

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      4. Running away in front of him, not running away from him. Imports at distinction.

        And I don’t know either, that just what I’m told. *shrug*

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  3. I admit all the Youkai and Hanyou world-building you’re doing is effecting my head-canon as to several aspects of Inuyasha behavior as we see it in the manga/anime.

    Like Kaoru, he’s got various instincts (only a LOT stronger since he’s a first generation Taiyoukai Hanyou) that he doesn’t really understand resulting in him ticking off other people and himself.constantly. Probably didn’t help that Kagome was sending mixed (to him anyway) signals a lot of the time.

    And nobody could really teach him that much because his father’s court (seriously the guy was the Lord of the Western Lands, he had to have had more servants etc then what we saw on screen) didn’t give a damn about him and his mother wouldn’t really understand what it meant to be Hanyou or Youkai.

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    1. I think the whole Kouga/Kagome/Inuyasha mess makes a lot more sense when you realize by wolf standards that’s an alpha wolf trying to poach the female of another pack. (And wolves were sometimes called yama-inu, so we don’t know if the Inu-Taishou was really a dog, exactly.)

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    2. And Kagome is apparently catnip for canine Youkai or something (must be her shampoo brand). Though I recall that he originally grabbed her for shard-detection and only wanted to keep her for other reasons later. Granted I bet that at least half of it was him enjoying the chance to rub that lowly half-breed of Inu-Taishou’s nose in the dirt.

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      1. Totally.

        And still wasn’t entirely sure if he actually got it . . .

        So I imagine his reaction to Kenshin’s pack later, especially since they will know full well that’s what they are, will be along the lines of: “Oh good, that actually did get through his skull. Hooray for not having to re-explain it to my baka deshi and to a mixed pack who doesn’t know they are a pack . . .”

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      3. *Snrk* Although he might have a few words about some of Kenshin’s encounters with Saitou and Okita, and pack-level clashes versus political ones….

        That would have been an interesting conversation.

        Especially since it would have to start with something along the lines of “Alright, pups, break it up! Pack-level clashes aren’t supposed to get this serious . . . or involve this many politicians . . .”

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  6. So i have been waiting for you to post new things but since the “i loaded through the cracks ch5” i hadn’t gotten any. Cue speed reading catchup with posts.
    Also, one samurai women =BA. two kenshin flirting is rather cute. Maybe they will both get a clue…. he did just hold up a sign….
    And as far as the whole running away in front (not from) i think it is a valid tactic and has been used successfully. But that makes the woman the one with the fishing pole. Huh. Stereotype broken. It ain’t rednecks with coolers full of beers, it is fierce asain ladies in yukatas. Hehe

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