The Cursed Iris

Sprout 52: Toru's and Ayame's Test

Ayame took in every detail of the small wolf on her shoulder. Pure white coat, ears were lopsided with one up and the other folded over, it had a tail so fluffy that Ayame wanted to rub her face in it and go to sleep on it. The wolf's tail also had beads surrounding the base of it.

"What are those?" Ayame asked as she reached for them.

"Don't touch those!" it yelled jumping off her shoulder. It looked like it wanted to bite Ayame's fingers off, but it was so small that it probably couldn't even achieve biting a fingernail.

She had a relaxed grin on her face, "You're so cute Toru," she said as the name flowed out of her mouth.

"Ah so you already know my name. That makes this a lot easier, Ayame if we want to get back to your friends we must complete this test my father has given us." Toru stated.

"Wait Toru I have a quick question," she said with a nervous chuckle.

"What?"

"I'm just curious about something. Would you care to tell me exactly how wolves fall into the order of things? If I remember correctly foxes have a part in life force, so what do wolves have?" she asked. She didn't know that her question was a touchy subject for Toru because there was an awkward silence between them now.

"You know what, never mind me asking that."

"It's fine, anyway you are able to utilize nature's runes correct?" he asked.

Ayame nodded in response, and she summoned the few runes she could. She still hasn't recovered from earlier, so there weren't many.

Toru flicked his tail, and he became surrounded by runes as well. Ayame was amazed at the amount that were around him. "As you can see I also have the Voice of Izanagi. It seems like the ones blessed with it are more drawn to each other. Take Minori, I almost had her as my partner, but she declined." Toru explained.

"Why so?"

"It's because she knew someone more worthy that her would be coming."

That surprised Ayame. "Minori..."

"Anyway Ayame we should get going." Toru said as he began walking away. Ayame followed him, "So tell me something Ayame. With this journey what do you think it'll lead you to?"

"I don't know to be exact, but I want to at least make the right decision when the time comes," she replied.

Toru chuckled. "I expected that answer to be honest. You know I can tell when a being is lying, and I'm glad you didn't. Ayame I'll be sure to help you throughout this journey as much as I can."

"You're so much more different from that fox Kikyo has," Ayame noted.

"Of course I am, because I'm better."

Ayame smiled then her expression shifted; she couldn't help but worry about those two. They had been separated for so long she wondered how their training was going. She knew that she had to at least learn how to harness her own spiritual energy before they head to Shangri-La, but how exactly will she?

"You already know the answer to utilizing spirit energy Ayame," Toru stated.

"I do?"

"The key to it is emotion, conviction, and training. You know what you want, don't you?" Toru asked.

"I want to protect them, especially him," she said as she thought of Katsumi, "He's always risking himself for my sake. He's kind, strong, and reliable. I look up to Katsumi a lot, even when he was only a dream. I want to be the one who's strong and reliable for him and all of my friends."