AN:  ADV recently announced that it bought the rights to Blue Seed 2.  (does a little dance of joy)  I do have to apologize for taking so long to update, life happened and if I told you about everything my whine fest would probably be as long as this chapter so instead I will get on with it and let you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 15:  Green Seeds of Romance

Silence.  Not one sound betrayed Kusanagi’s presence as he followed Momiji’s car to the safety of her home.  After many years of practice, when Kusanagi wanted to, he made no more noise than a shadow.  However, while his body moved silently, in his head Kusanagi was screaming.  Anger, self-doubt, jealousy, longing, and fear all had their own voices to scream with.  Each screamed so that not one coherent thought actually formed.  There was only a swirling vortex of all the thoughts that caused Kusanagi pain.  It took all his control to not scream out, to not do anything but simply observe Momiji as she pulled up to her home and began to unload numerous bags from her car; she seemed perfectly oblivious as she even giggled a bit while unloading the last package.

After assuring himself of Momiji’s safety, Kusanagi could take it no longer.  There was only a slight creak from the branch Kusanagi vacated in his rush to get somewhere where he could vent out his emotions in private.  In mere seconds Kusanagi found himself deep within the woods by a rocky outcrop.  It was here that he allowed himself a primal scream, pounding his fists into the rough surface of the rocks.  Kusanagi welcomed the bitter bit of the stones as his fists quickly began to bleed.  In a strange way it was comforting.  It was real pain.  Real pain took precedence over his emotional pain. 

Kusanagi allowed himself the luxury of not thinking only briefly.  Letting out a final scream of frustration, Kusanagi fell to the ground.  Sitting on the damp earth with his knees to his chest, Kusanagi rested his forehead on his knees reflecting on just why his life was so tormented.  *Because I’m a freak!*  He thought derisively.  Kusanagi looked down at the mitamas embedded in his hands and briefly entertained the thought of smashing them against the rocks.  However, in his experience, when the mitamas of an Arigami where destroyed the creature died.  He did not wish to die.  *I want to be normal.  She deserves better than a half human freak.*  Kusanagi look at his exposed arm blades with disgust.  *But then I could not protect Momiji* he amended.  Then his face darkened with bitterness.  *Not that she even needs me for that.  She has a new protector.*  That was truly the source of his anguish.  His main purpose in life had always been to protect the Kushinada.  While his reason for protecting Momiji was different than his reason for protecting Kadea, he was still her protector.  Now not only had he failed to protect her.  But, someone else had taken his place.  *Now I could become normal and you would still be protected.*  However, Kusanagi could not accept someone else being the person his princess turned to when trouble came.

Punching the ground once more, Kusanagi swore.  “Damn it Momiji.  Everything was so much easier before you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Instantly Kusanagi was on his feet ready to fight.  With eyes filled with animosity, he took in Inda’s petulant stance.  In the calmness that always enveloped him when he needed to fight he took in every nuance of her stance.  By the way she was fidgeting she was nervous, scared even.  And yet, anger radiated from her stance.  What surprised him in a detached sort of way was the sorrow on her face.  None of these observations really mattered since he was already in motion to attack.

For a moment it seemed as if Inda was just going to stand there and allow him to hit her.  It was a bit disappointing.  Then her eyes widened and Inda leaped backwards and up into a tree.  Kusanagi’s fist barely grazing her foot as she retreated.  This was what Kusanagi wanted, a real fight.  With a slight smile and a gleam in his eye Kusanagi gave chase.  Being a cautious fighter he did not attack full force.  Instead he tested Inda looking for weak spots.  He found many.

At first Inda was just on the defensive.  Frantically leaping from branch to branch.  Barely escaping Kusanagi’s many blows and only striking out randomly in an attempt to bat him away.  Kusanagi was getting a bit annoyed when each time she barely escaped she let out a high pitched “eep” or “ack.”  With a snort of disgust he hollered out to her, “What are you going to do, protect Momiji by running away?”  Watching her nearly slip on a branch he taunted out again.  “Or better yet since you are such a klutz the Arigami will just assume you are Momiji.”

Inda visibly angered and began to attack back in earnest.  At which point Kusanagi lightened up his attack and instead began to dodge Inda’s attacks.  All the while taunting her by saying “too slow” and “almost got me that time.”  During this time Kusanagi confirmed to himself that she seemed to not have any real fighting skill and was going on instinct.  He also learned that Inda only knew how to fight close range.  Turning your skin spiky only worked if the person was close enough to touch. 

With a smirk Kusanagi decided it was time to end the fight having spent  enough of his rage.  He decided not to shoot her with his energy ray since the charge up time would give her plenty of time to dodge.  Instead he judged about where her leg would be when she leaped next and sent his arm shooting out to grab it, planning to throw her to the ground before she could spike him.  However, Inda must have been tiring and was a bit slow.  So instead Kusanagi’s arm hit her squarely on the left side of her chest.  As fast as he could, Kusanagi grabbed hold and flung her towards the ground.

“KUSANAGI!  LET GO OF MY BREAST!!” 

The words echoed in Kusanagi’s head as he on reflex yanked his arm back.  He then began to chuckle at the absurdity of it.  Perching on a branch, Kusanagi looked down at Inda’s sprawled form, her glare making him chuckle more.  “So that is how you are going to fight Arigami…Yell at them for touching you.  You know you are not a very good protector.”

“Well excuse me!”  Inda yelled up and she struggled to her feet.  “It is not like I asked to be dragged to another dimension and implanted with mitamas!”  Inda held out her wrist showing her two green mitamas, her face showing a mix of anger and frustration.  “I’m sorry I don’t stand up to your expectations.  I had come out here to make nice and see if I could learn something from you.”  Blinking rapidly in a vain attempt to reign in her tears, Inda tuned to leave.  “I guess I did learn something though.”

Kusanagi was frozen.  Suddenly he realized what a jerk he had been to Inda.  He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have been normal and then to have the guise of becoming an arigami slave thrust upon her.  He himself knew the strong urge to protect the Kushinada.  Inda still symbolized a time when he had failed to be there for Momiji, and he was not sure if she could be trusted.  However, Kusanagi also remembered his own anguish over his lost humanity as well of the fact that the TAC had not trusted him at first either.  Most of all though, he was annoyed with himself for allowing his own self-loathing to overlap to someone else.  Somewhere in Kusanagi’s mind, Inda went from being an adversary to being an ally.  Refocusing on Inda, Kusanagi groaned at her tears.  He really did not know what to do with crying.  If anything they reminded him that she was just a girl, *or better yet a young women* he thought as he remembered the breast he had accidentally grabbed.  A girl that had had her life turned upside down by the arigami and now was trying pitifully to protect Momiji.  *She has done a better job of it than you have lately*  Kusanagi reprimanded himself.

Deciding that the best way to deal with her tears was to pretend they were not there, Kusanagi put on his best smile and leaped down in front of her.  “Well you did learn something.  You learned that you are not very good at fighting.”  Then cocking his head to side a bit, Kusanagi pondered just how he was going to help her since he had never really taught anyone how to fight before.  “Shall we see what we can do about that?”  He questioned out loud.

The change in Inda was instant and overwhelming.  “Really!?”  she cried out in joy as she lunged towards Kusanagi, wrapping him in a stifling embrace. 

Whatever else she said in her rush of words was lost on Kusanagi as he tried to extract himself from her grip.  Each time he thought he had found the key to getting her to let go she would shift her position and latch on in an all-new way.  Finally in frustration he yelled out, “Would you just let go of me?!”  Mollified, Inda released her grip on Kusanagi and backed away with a quiet apology.  Running his fingers through his hair in exasperation, Kusanagi grumble, “You’re worse than Momiji for mood swings and clinginess.”  Seeing her fierce glower he couldn’t help continuing.  “Japan is doomed.”  He stated in a flat voice.

Laughing, Kusanagi shot off as Momiji’s newest protector tried to take his head off.  “That was a close one.  Maybe in a few years you may actually hit close enough for me to feel a breeze.”  He taunted.   Chuckling still at her newfound rage, Kusanagi stayed just out of her reach.  Taking on a serious scholar voice he began to lecture her.  “Now see how if I stay just a bit away from you, you cannot even harm me.  That is your main weakness.  You only seem able to do harm if I come close like this.”  At that moment Kusanagi flipped over her head to hover behind Inda as she was perched on a branch and shoved her just enough to make her lose her balance.  Smirking at her ungraceful fall he continued his lecture.  “Seeing as you cannot fly you will need to improvise.”

“But how?”  Inda almost whined as she regained her feet and looked up at Kusanagi.

“Well…”  Kusanagi started as he tried to think up an answer a bit uncomfortable with his new position as teacher.  “You seem to be able to reshape yourself.  Just make something that can go a lone distance or maybe shoot off something.”

It was Inda’s turn to ponder.  “Well I don’t like the idea of shooting parts of me off.  It generally hurts when some part of me is separated from the rest of me.  Maybe I could shoot out clipping of my nails.”  Inda looked experimentally at her hands and then pointed them at the nearest tree.  She stood still for nearly five minutes, chewing lightly on her lower lip and her eyes nearly crossing with concentration.

Finally Kusanagi decided to stop her before she sent an eyeball flying out.  “OK, OK.  That’s enough of that.  Maybe you can try that later but let’s try something else now.  How about reshaping yourself.”

Once again, Inda pondered Kusanagi’s suggestion.  “Well it is actually my skin and hair that I seem to change…”  She trailed off as various spiky formations formed from her hair and skin.  Kusanagi could not help but laugh as her hair formed one huge spike straight up and the image of her as a human drill entered his head.  Then he nodded thoughtfully as the tips of her fingers lengthened into long knives.  The knives kept growing till they were a little over a meter long.

“Now that might be useful.”  Kusanagi watched Inda experimentally move her fingers watching them in mute fascination.  “Now, try to attack me,” he commanded.  The result was comical.  Inda swept her arm out towards Kusanagi, intending to skewer him with her newfound claws.  However, she was not used to the length and her pinky claw immediately snagged on a tree, stopping all forward motion as her claw embedded itself into the trunk.  In the sudden shock of hitting the tree, Inda reflexively closed her hand causing her thumb claw to come swooping between her other claws neatly trimming her middle finger and because of the curve of the claw, almost stabbing Inda in her shoulder.  Kusanagi had to fight hard to not laugh.  In the end he decided *why not* and laughed whole-heartedly as Inda pouted. 

“OK”  Kusanagi started, once he could stop laughing.  “That may work if you shorten them a bit.”  Inda seemed to agree and shortened her claws till they were only a quarter of the previous length.  After a few practice swipes it was clear that Inda liked the idea of fighting with claws.  “Now that you have that under control, we still need a way for you to attack in a more long range manner.”  Kusanagi pondered for a bit. 

“Maybe I could try to stretch my arm out.”  Inda put forth hesitantly.

“Sure let’s try that.”  Kusanagi agreed.  “It can also be really useful if you need to grab something.”

“Pervert!”

While Kusanagi had not meant to grab her chest, he didn’t really want her to know that.  Plus it was always a fun to rile someone up.  Looking down he couldn’t help riling her some more.  “Wow when the red of your blush mixes with the green of your skin you turn a really gross color.”  This got the reaction he wanted as she screamed in outrage and began attacking him once more.  Many gouges were left in the surrounding trees as she tried to use her new claws.  After she had worn out her rage, Kusanagi decided to get back to the teaching.  “What I was actually thinking about when I said grab something was that you may need to catch Momiji at sometimes, since she falls… a lot.”

Inda just huffed at his last remark and then turned to face Kusanagi where he stood about 4 meters away and concentrated.  Inda stayed that way for quite awhile.  Occasionally jerking her arm out like she expected it to suddenly extend out and grab Kusanagi.  Kusanagi decided it was a lost cause and was caught completely by surprise when in fact her arm did in fact shoot out.  He nearly screamed as her hand grabbed him not on the arm, chest or head, but on his crotch.  “What the hell are you doing!?” he yelled out in a panicky voice as he hastily knocked her hand away and leaped back about three meters.

Inda was looking at him smugly.  “I just thought turnabout was fair play.”  She chirped innocently.  She then looked at her hand where it lay on the ground.  “Um… How do you make it go back?”  She questioned with concerned eyes. 

Kusanagi shrugged.  “I never really thought about it.  It just goes back.”

Inda looked down at her arm with ever widening eyes.  “Make it go back!  Make it go back!!”  She screeched as she shook her arm about in panic.  Kusanagi felt the need to back up a bit farther as there were still claws at the end of her wildly flailing arm.  “I don’t want my arm dragging around” she whined.

Kusanagi had to chuckle at the thought of Inda having a four-meter long arm for the rest of her life.  He was brought back to reality as he had to duck Inda’s flailing arm as she kept walking towards him in her panic.  “Calm down before you hurt yourself!!” he bellowed over the din of her panicked whining. 

“Well at least we know I can do a longer ranged attack.”  Inda tremulously spoke as she tried not to twitch the arm that was clearly still freaking her out.

“Yeah.  You will grab the arigami in the crotch.  Then freak out and slash it to pieces.”  He stated in a dead pan voice.  “Now calm down and try to focus on going back to neutral.”  Kusanagi demanded as stood directly in front of her.

Kusanagi heard Inda take a couple of deep breaths.  Looking down at her arm Kusanagi waited till he saw it finally starting to go back to normal.  After her arm had gone about of a quarter of the way back to normal, Kusanagi saw out of the corner of his eye a color change.  Following Inda’s arm up to her body he saw breasts, naked one.  “YOU’RE NAKED!!”  Kusanagi yelled without thinking. 

The scream that issued from Inda could have shattered glass.  “YOU PERVERT!” she screeched as she went to slap him.  However since her arm was currently twice its normal length, her elbow hit Kusanagi on the side of his head while the rest of her arm wrapped around and propelled him forward.  Her first scream was only a warm up for the one Inda released when Kusanagi collided with her and they fell to the ground with Kusanagi still on top. 

Light moved slowly compared to how fast Kusanagi pushed him self off of Inda and leaped about ten meters away to the safety of a tree.  Purposely not looking at Inda he yelled out.  “PERVERT?!  I’m not the one out here naked.”  To which Inda only growled as she turned her back on him and restored herself back to normal.  Leaping away, Kusanagi yelled back, “That’s enough for today.”

He was halfway back to Momiji’s house when a thought stopped him in his tracks.  *If Inda turned naked when she went back to neutral… she was naked the whole time.  That means when I grabbed her breast…*  “Shit.”

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