Here it is! Have at it. You guys know how it is, but for the newcomers: commentary on the story itself is much preferred. I'll hold off on the final sweep for a thorough grammar and spelling fix.
Dear Sweet Kami-sama, Why Do You Hate Me So? - Chapter 5
Before me stood an army of
darkness. They waited, eager to lay
waste to my beautiful world.
They had destroyed many
worlds before. Some were worlds of my
own creation.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]MY WORLDS.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]WITH MY CHILDREN.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]They would not get another.[/color]
Because behind me stood my
army. They were various and misfit, each
one bringing something a little different to the battle. But, in the amalgam they had been forged
into, they were strong.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]I had made sure of it.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]We will be victorious, me
and each of my loved ones.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]My eyes opened and I saw the
familiar ceiling of Rei’s guest room.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Don’t move yet, grandson,”
said an old man to my side.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei’s grandfather.[/color]
“You passed out from
exhaustion yesterday. Not just physical
exhaustion, either. You’re a very
resilient child, but even you can push yourself beyond your limits. It’s time you got a bit of rest. If you don’t feel like you’re going to pass
out again, go ahead and sit up and have a look around.”
I tried to move and the
first thing I noticed was that I was heinously sore. I winced and forced my arms to work. They felt like they were made of sand –
shifting wherever they wanted and utterly inert. Oh, and do I dare mention how the muscles
burned? Despite that, I managed to
somehow push myself up far enough to look around.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]It was then that I noticed
the weight on my stomach.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei was lying over me from
the bedside, her face peaceful and her hair splayed out across her back and
over the bed.[/color]
“She stayed with you through
the night, you know,” said Grandfather from a chair at the bedside. “I’ve never seen her care so much for a man
since Kaidou. Well, seeing as you’re
alright, I’ll go ahead and leave you two alone together. I know you’re still too tired to really try
anything. And if she tries something…” The old Priest smiled and chuckled softly to
himself. “Well, that’s up to her.”
With that, he groaned as he
stood up from the chair then began to shuffle out of the room. Before he shut the door, though, he stuck his
head in once more and said,
“As far as I’m concerned
though, you have my blessings, Grandson.
Make my Rei-chan happy.” And then
the door slid shut.
I let my head thump back
into the pillow. “Well, that was surreal,” I muttered.
I sighed as pulled my hands
free of the covers and pushed the covers down from my chest – it was getting
warm under there. My left hand fell upon
Rei’s hair and I absent-mindedly began to play with it. Before long, I found myself stroking her head
lovingly, pushing stray locks behind her ear.
You see, this is one of my
major problems; I have a nasty tendency to simply fiddle around with something
and not really think about it. You know
how some people seem to have a problem with their brain-to-mouth filters? Well, I got a problem with my
brain-to-extremities filter.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]And just as I realized what
I was doing, her eyes slowly began to open.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Good morning,” I said
softly as I saw lucidity begin to fill her eyes and fear began to fill my
chest.[/color]
She then sat up. The motion wasn’t startled or jerky. She only wore a look of mild confusion as she
put her hand to the side of her head, feeling where my hand had been before.
“I can feel you here,” she
said. “Your energy… it lingers.”
I felt my eyes widen. “I’m so sorry! I really didn’t mean to do that! Honest!”
“No Zeke,” she said, putting
a hand on my chest and firmly shoving me down into the bed. “I don’t care anymore. Just make sure no one else sees anything like
that.” And suddenly she leaned over me,
her eyes shut, and I felt her lips pressing gently against my forehead.
Then she came back upright
with a smile on her face. She then
looked outside and I followed her gaze.
The sun was already rising high up into the sky. “Grandfather probably already told the school
that I’m sick today.” I looked back to
her and Rei faced me once more with a smile on her face. “That means you’re stuck with me today. Get up, Zeke!
The first thing you are going to do is have a good meal. Then you are going to bathe and have a nice
long soak in the furo to help loosen
up those muscles of yours. And that will
be followed by some of my calisthenics to beat the laziness out of your bones.”
I blinked at that. “You practice martial arts?”
Rei scoffed at me. “A miko must exercise her body as well as her
mind and spirit. That’s why you never
see a fat miko.”
“So, I see,” I said with a
grin. “How silly of me to not have
thought of that.”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
Rei was as good as her
word. I had a good meal, had an
hour-long soak in the Furo, and then
she promptly beat the ever-loving crap outta me with her calisthenics regime.
You ever wonder why Japanese
women are usually so skinny? Simple
answer: selective breeding. Women in
Japan were anything but sheltered. They
were expected to be able to fight for themselves if it came down to it. Marvel at the weapon known as the naginata –
a two-meter pole-arm with a wicked thirty-centimeter blade. That’s a hell of a lot of damage waiting to
be dealt, there. I think I’d rather have
the naginata than the katana.
And it was made explicitly
for women to defend themselves. A man
caught using a naginata was either completely out of options or cross-dressing.
A woman that wasn’t fit
enough to wield her naginata was not considered to be worthwhile. After all, she couldn’t even protect
herself. Japan was a dangerous place,
what with Samurai Lords waging war on each other all the time!
Times have changed, but the
genetic precedent that was set for a thousand years hasn’t. The majority of Japanese women are trim
looking creatures of femininity and they do not have to expend much effort to
maintain that fitness as long as they don’t overeat.
Trust me, that is pretty
much a given anyways. I saw how much Rei
was eating and was vaguely disturbed, even after she repeatedly assured me that
she would be fine with her small portion.
Usagi seems to overeat, but
that isn’t true either. The fact of the
matter is that she’s simply stocking up for what will probably be a colossal
growth spurt. I could tell because while
she’s shorter than the other girls, her shoe size is rivaled only by
Makoto’s. Mamorou wouldn’t have to lean
down for too much longer.
Rei, though, is evenly
proportioned. She’s already grown as
tall as she’s going to get, and I doubt she’s going to fill out much more than
she has now. The only way that would
change would be if she got pregnant.
…Do not go there. That is for much, much later, and only if she
wants the job.
But anyhow… I can’t argue
with the results. Rei is drop-dead
gorgeous. Even in a simple work-out ghi
that does as much as possible to hide her physique.
Focus,
Zeke, or else… Too late![color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]The wood of an unstrung
long-bow cracked across my head.[/color]
“Idiot!” snapped Rei. “Don’t look at me! Focus on what you’re doing!”
“Yes sempai!” I grunted out and corrected my stance. Calisthenics was not the only thing on the
regimen, it had turned out.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei studied Aikido.[/color]
Very fitting of Shinto – it
was all about harmony. A harmony
achieved with your opponent that you are in control of. It was a concept that I was very familiar
with.
Rei may have been able to
outmaneuver me the day I used a nikyou
hold against her. She meant every word
when she said that if she ever got out of that hold that she’d make me
suffer. I simply got the drop on her
there. And now, here, under her
Grandfather’s watchful eyes, she would mold me into a proper grappler.
It was really no coincidence
that I had started to learn Aikido myself.
My Grandpa Bear was a close friend of Rei’s Grandfather, and together
the two had studied Aikido. When my
Grandpa returned to America, he brought what he had learned with him and
eventually passed it on to his daughter, who got my Father hooked on it, who in
turn insisted that I learn some of the basics.
At least I had a foundation
to build off of. I just needed some
polish before Rei would really start teaching me other things.
Grandfather chuckled. “You see, Rei-chan? A man really will go to any length to please
his woman. You’ve hooked a good one.”
“Grandfather!” cried out
Rei, scandalized and turning an attractive shade of pink. “Not right now!” The old coot just cackled.
Mental Note: Ask Raven if
the old man’s got some sort of affiliation.
Though I sensed I already knew the answer.
Troublesome. I got a closet-follower of Raven for a
future-Grandfather.
“Heeeehhhh!” came a voice I
knew. Imouto-chan, aka Tsukino Usagi,
was here, and she brought the entire troop.
“Zee-nii-san is so cool!”
“I think that will be enough
for today, Zee-kun,” said Grandfather.
“Good work today, both of you.”
We bowed to Dojo and then to each other.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Zee-kun, I never knew you
studied martial arts,” said Makoto, a gleam in her eye.[/color]
“Zee-kun small,” said
Kubiak, “but tough. Big surprise in
little package.” Kubiak smiled
innocently while we all suffered through an awkward silence with reddened
faces.
“Riiiiight,” I drawled,
breaking the ice. “So what bring you
guys here?”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“We have unfinished business,
young man,” said Luna from Usagi’s shoulder.[/color]
“Oh, right. Business with Raven-sama. Well, that would depend on my doctor’s orders
right now. Rei?”
Rei gave me a sidelong look,
then adopted a pious expression. “You
will need to take a bath first because you need to get cleaned up and relax those muscles again, followed
by another meal to restore your energy levels, and then you should be fine
after that.”
“What about you? Don’t you want to bathe first?”
Rei looked at me
sharply. “You’re the one that nearly
killed himself yesterday. I can wait a
few more minutes. Now go! The longer you stay here, the longer I have to wait!”
Whoah! Sir, yes sir!
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Right, I’m going then,” I
said as I turned and walked past the Meat Miracle and the other girls.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]I then smiled and stifled a
laugh as I heard Rei sharply snap at her friends.[/color][color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
The bath was exactly what I
needed. Muscles that were threatening to
seize under Rei’s carefully applied punishment relaxed and unknotted in the hot
bath water.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]It also helped that I placed
myself in a meditative state, finding the tense spots through judicious
attention to myself and getting them to relax.[/color]
I don’t really know how long
I was at it – time-sense goes to hell when you meditate properly. There was a sudden noise that brought me back
without warning and I knew that I was not alone.
“Zeke! I thought you were done already!” cried out
Rei in indignation. “Why didn’t you say
anything when I came in earlier?”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Crap.Next came the needle.
Right. Focus, Zeke.[/i]“Yes, Dad.”[/i]
Dear Sweet Kami-sama, Why Do You Hate Me So? - Chapter 5
Before me stood an army of
darkness. They waited, eager to lay
waste to my beautiful world.
They had destroyed many
worlds before. Some were worlds of my
own creation.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]MY WORLDS.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]WITH MY CHILDREN.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]They would not get another.[/color]
Because behind me stood my
army. They were various and misfit, each
one bringing something a little different to the battle. But, in the amalgam they had been forged
into, they were strong.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]I had made sure of it.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]We will be victorious, me
and each of my loved ones.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]My eyes opened and I saw the
familiar ceiling of Rei’s guest room.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Don’t move yet, grandson,”
said an old man to my side.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei’s grandfather.[/color]
“You passed out from
exhaustion yesterday. Not just physical
exhaustion, either. You’re a very
resilient child, but even you can push yourself beyond your limits. It’s time you got a bit of rest. If you don’t feel like you’re going to pass
out again, go ahead and sit up and have a look around.”
I tried to move and the
first thing I noticed was that I was heinously sore. I winced and forced my arms to work. They felt like they were made of sand –
shifting wherever they wanted and utterly inert. Oh, and do I dare mention how the muscles
burned? Despite that, I managed to
somehow push myself up far enough to look around.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]It was then that I noticed
the weight on my stomach.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei was lying over me from
the bedside, her face peaceful and her hair splayed out across her back and
over the bed.[/color]
“She stayed with you through
the night, you know,” said Grandfather from a chair at the bedside. “I’ve never seen her care so much for a man
since Kaidou. Well, seeing as you’re
alright, I’ll go ahead and leave you two alone together. I know you’re still too tired to really try
anything. And if she tries something…” The old Priest smiled and chuckled softly to
himself. “Well, that’s up to her.”
With that, he groaned as he
stood up from the chair then began to shuffle out of the room. Before he shut the door, though, he stuck his
head in once more and said,
“As far as I’m concerned
though, you have my blessings, Grandson.
Make my Rei-chan happy.” And then
the door slid shut.
I let my head thump back
into the pillow. “Well, that was surreal,” I muttered.
I sighed as pulled my hands
free of the covers and pushed the covers down from my chest – it was getting
warm under there. My left hand fell upon
Rei’s hair and I absent-mindedly began to play with it. Before long, I found myself stroking her head
lovingly, pushing stray locks behind her ear.
You see, this is one of my
major problems; I have a nasty tendency to simply fiddle around with something
and not really think about it. You know
how some people seem to have a problem with their brain-to-mouth filters? Well, I got a problem with my
brain-to-extremities filter.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]And just as I realized what
I was doing, her eyes slowly began to open.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Good morning,” I said
softly as I saw lucidity begin to fill her eyes and fear began to fill my
chest.[/color]
She then sat up. The motion wasn’t startled or jerky. She only wore a look of mild confusion as she
put her hand to the side of her head, feeling where my hand had been before.
“I can feel you here,” she
said. “Your energy… it lingers.”
I felt my eyes widen. “I’m so sorry! I really didn’t mean to do that! Honest!”
“No Zeke,” she said, putting
a hand on my chest and firmly shoving me down into the bed. “I don’t care anymore. Just make sure no one else sees anything like
that.” And suddenly she leaned over me,
her eyes shut, and I felt her lips pressing gently against my forehead.
Then she came back upright
with a smile on her face. She then
looked outside and I followed her gaze.
The sun was already rising high up into the sky. “Grandfather probably already told the school
that I’m sick today.” I looked back to
her and Rei faced me once more with a smile on her face. “That means you’re stuck with me today. Get up, Zeke!
The first thing you are going to do is have a good meal. Then you are going to bathe and have a nice
long soak in the furo to help loosen
up those muscles of yours. And that will
be followed by some of my calisthenics to beat the laziness out of your bones.”
I blinked at that. “You practice martial arts?”
Rei scoffed at me. “A miko must exercise her body as well as her
mind and spirit. That’s why you never
see a fat miko.”
“So, I see,” I said with a
grin. “How silly of me to not have
thought of that.”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
Rei was as good as her
word. I had a good meal, had an
hour-long soak in the Furo, and then
she promptly beat the ever-loving crap outta me with her calisthenics regime.
You ever wonder why Japanese
women are usually so skinny? Simple
answer: selective breeding. Women in
Japan were anything but sheltered. They
were expected to be able to fight for themselves if it came down to it. Marvel at the weapon known as the naginata –
a two-meter pole-arm with a wicked thirty-centimeter blade. That’s a hell of a lot of damage waiting to
be dealt, there. I think I’d rather have
the naginata than the katana.
And it was made explicitly
for women to defend themselves. A man
caught using a naginata was either completely out of options or cross-dressing.
A woman that wasn’t fit
enough to wield her naginata was not considered to be worthwhile. After all, she couldn’t even protect
herself. Japan was a dangerous place,
what with Samurai Lords waging war on each other all the time!
Times have changed, but the
genetic precedent that was set for a thousand years hasn’t. The majority of Japanese women are trim
looking creatures of femininity and they do not have to expend much effort to
maintain that fitness as long as they don’t overeat.
Trust me, that is pretty
much a given anyways. I saw how much Rei
was eating and was vaguely disturbed, even after she repeatedly assured me that
she would be fine with her small portion.
Usagi seems to overeat, but
that isn’t true either. The fact of the
matter is that she’s simply stocking up for what will probably be a colossal
growth spurt. I could tell because while
she’s shorter than the other girls, her shoe size is rivaled only by
Makoto’s. Mamorou wouldn’t have to lean
down for too much longer.
Rei, though, is evenly
proportioned. She’s already grown as
tall as she’s going to get, and I doubt she’s going to fill out much more than
she has now. The only way that would
change would be if she got pregnant.
…Do not go there. That is for much, much later, and only if she
wants the job.
But anyhow… I can’t argue
with the results. Rei is drop-dead
gorgeous. Even in a simple work-out ghi
that does as much as possible to hide her physique.
Focus,
Zeke, or else… Too late![color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]The wood of an unstrung
long-bow cracked across my head.[/color]
“Idiot!” snapped Rei. “Don’t look at me! Focus on what you’re doing!”
“Yes sempai!” I grunted out and corrected my stance. Calisthenics was not the only thing on the
regimen, it had turned out.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]Rei studied Aikido.[/color]
Very fitting of Shinto – it
was all about harmony. A harmony
achieved with your opponent that you are in control of. It was a concept that I was very familiar
with.
Rei may have been able to
outmaneuver me the day I used a nikyou
hold against her. She meant every word
when she said that if she ever got out of that hold that she’d make me
suffer. I simply got the drop on her
there. And now, here, under her
Grandfather’s watchful eyes, she would mold me into a proper grappler.
It was really no coincidence
that I had started to learn Aikido myself.
My Grandpa Bear was a close friend of Rei’s Grandfather, and together
the two had studied Aikido. When my
Grandpa returned to America, he brought what he had learned with him and
eventually passed it on to his daughter, who got my Father hooked on it, who in
turn insisted that I learn some of the basics.
At least I had a foundation
to build off of. I just needed some
polish before Rei would really start teaching me other things.
Grandfather chuckled. “You see, Rei-chan? A man really will go to any length to please
his woman. You’ve hooked a good one.”
“Grandfather!” cried out
Rei, scandalized and turning an attractive shade of pink. “Not right now!” The old coot just cackled.
Mental Note: Ask Raven if
the old man’s got some sort of affiliation.
Though I sensed I already knew the answer.
Troublesome. I got a closet-follower of Raven for a
future-Grandfather.
“Heeeehhhh!” came a voice I
knew. Imouto-chan, aka Tsukino Usagi,
was here, and she brought the entire troop.
“Zee-nii-san is so cool!”
“I think that will be enough
for today, Zee-kun,” said Grandfather.
“Good work today, both of you.”
We bowed to Dojo and then to each other.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Zee-kun, I never knew you
studied martial arts,” said Makoto, a gleam in her eye.[/color]
“Zee-kun small,” said
Kubiak, “but tough. Big surprise in
little package.” Kubiak smiled
innocently while we all suffered through an awkward silence with reddened
faces.
“Riiiiight,” I drawled,
breaking the ice. “So what bring you
guys here?”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“We have unfinished business,
young man,” said Luna from Usagi’s shoulder.[/color]
“Oh, right. Business with Raven-sama. Well, that would depend on my doctor’s orders
right now. Rei?”
Rei gave me a sidelong look,
then adopted a pious expression. “You
will need to take a bath first because you need to get cleaned up and relax those muscles again, followed
by another meal to restore your energy levels, and then you should be fine
after that.”
“What about you? Don’t you want to bathe first?”
Rei looked at me
sharply. “You’re the one that nearly
killed himself yesterday. I can wait a
few more minutes. Now go! The longer you stay here, the longer I have to wait!”
Whoah! Sir, yes sir!
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]“Right, I’m going then,” I
said as I turned and walked past the Meat Miracle and the other girls.[/color]
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]I then smiled and stifled a
laugh as I heard Rei sharply snap at her friends.[/color][color= 10pt; line-height: 115][/color]
The bath was exactly what I
needed. Muscles that were threatening to
seize under Rei’s carefully applied punishment relaxed and unknotted in the hot
bath water.
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115]It also helped that I placed
myself in a meditative state, finding the tense spots through judicious
attention to myself and getting them to relax.[/color]
I don’t really know how long
I was at it – time-sense goes to hell when you meditate properly. There was a sudden noise that brought me back
without warning and I knew that I was not alone.
“Zeke! I thought you were done already!” cried out
Rei in indignation. “Why didn’t you say
anything when I came in earlier?”
[color= 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Crap.Next came the needle.
Right. Focus, Zeke.[/i]“Yes, Dad.”[/i]
