Respect

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‘Wolf youkai are filth,’ Kagura thinks, wrinkling her nose as she stares down at the prince of the eastern tribe from where she hovers above him on her feather. She twirls her fan idly between her fingers before lifting it and bringing it back down in one fell movement. Wind blades twist downwards in a fury, and Kouga just barely dodges them, launching into the air but coming just short of where she sits. He falls back to earth with a ‘thump’.

“You bitch!” he yells, irate. “Get down here and fight me!”

A peal of mocking laughter escapes her throat. “You think I would ever lower myself for a mongrel like you?” He’s nothing, useless, like dirt beneath a fingernail, dirty and unbecoming. Once she has the shards that hide within his calf muscles, he’ll be nothing more than a fading memory to scoff at and forget.

But would she forget?

There’s something about him, be it in his coarse, dirt-smudged features or his hateful gaze or the defiant curve his mouth makes, but Kagura secretly finds him fascinating. Yes, he is her enemy, and no, he is nowhere near as attractive as Sesshoumaru, but...his determination, his unfaltering desire to exact his revenge reminds her of her own dream, the freedom she aspires for.

And that, however slightly, is enough to make her respect him.

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Written 9/14/2006