Battle Wounds

(anybody wanna join? Its open to TE.)

Grace walked into the Medical Bay. She had gotten through the Mirror battle without too many injuries. She had been lucky.

It was a strange thing to have to fight your friends. Even now, Grace flinched every time somebody came around a corner or opened a door. It was scary. She felt guilty for not trusting her friends. To make it worse, now she had misplaced her black book.

Toji was in the room, resting and healing. Grace frowned. Didn't he have healing powers? Or was that only JaK? Toji seemed to be able to do so much that it was surprising to see him hurt like this.

Wait. What was that? There was a small book hanging out from under Toji's pillow. Was it Grace's black book? Had Toji been reading it?

Even though she had no proof of this, Grace grew angry. Her icy eyes beamed down on Toji.

"Toji, what is that under your pillow?"

"Your log?" The book fell on the ground, opening up and revealing a page. Grace ran up to it despite Toji's request. Grace needed to know for sure that it wasn't her book.

'Your eyes, are like shining stars...'

What? What was this? Grace had no idea what a love poem was. They didn't have them among the warlike Koori tribe. In any case, it wasn't Grace's book, which was a relief.

"I see, it is your book. I forgot that you had a journal." Toji had shown the book to Grace once before, which was something Grace would never do. She had never even shown it to Will. It revealed secrets that she didn't even want to know herself.

Eyes like stars? How were eyes like stars? Grace didn't understand. Was Toji just writing jibberish? Who's eyes was he talking about?

"Um, Toji. Your hair is glowing. Does it normally do that?"

His hair only glowed when he was embarressed or excited? Well, which one was he? Toji asked her not to tell anyone about 'this.' Very well, Grace would tell nobody about his hair.

Toji looked around and then whispered in Grace's ear. He explained that it was a love poem. It was meant to convey romantic feelings from one person to another. Furthermore, it was a private matter.

Grace's eyes opened wide, realizing that she had imposed upon Toji's privacy. "Oh, I'm sorry, Toji. I had no idea what it was. We don't have those up North."

Come to think of it, her black book was one long love letter to Necati. It disgusted Grace that some part of her soul actually longed to join with the Grim Reaper, but it was undeniably true. It was a corrupted form of the letter that Toji had innocently written here.

"I won't tell anyone. Who is it for? Who has caught your eye?"

Guess? Well, it was probably someone on the team, so it was either Brianna or Grace herself.

"It's for me?" Grace felt her heart flutter. Although he was injured, Toji had been thinking of her and even writing a love poem to her. "Oh thank you, Toji. I had no idea that you felt that way. It certainly is manly of you to express your feelings like that."

But Grace still didn't understand the poem. How were her eyes like stars? Stars were far away, glowed, and could only be seen at night. "What does it mean that my eyes are stars?"

'Gaaaaah! What? No, you're like a sister to me!!" Toji's hair reached a new height in glowing. How did this happen? Oh well, at least she wouldn't go telling everybody else."Its someone else!"

(lol, poor toji)

It wasn't her? Oh. So it was Brianna then. For a moment, Grace felt jealous. She had been the only girl on the team for a long time, ever since Kat left. She had become too used to it.

But Brianna was a good person, in spite of the fact that she didn't have any powers. Grace liked her, and wanted to become good friends with her. She also kinda liked having a little brother Toji on the team. He was a lot more kind than Argo had ever been.

"Ok. Why don't you want Brianna to know about it? How do you intend to marry her if she doesn't know how you feel?"

Grace didn't know anything about Brianna's background. If her family was the least bit respectable, then Toji would need to defeat Brianna's father in order to marry her. It was the father's responsibility to protect their daughters from unworthy suitors. Grace was certain that Toji could beat up any powerless man, but perhaps he was not so confident. Perhaps Toji thought of himself as unworthy. Grace decided to 'help.'

"I'm sure you can defeat her father, Toji. You're strong and fast and...electric. No mere man stands a chance against you."

Tojo groaned. This was excactly how it went down on The Darkness Hunters episode he watched yesterday."T-that's not how it works....and how did you know it was Brianna?"Sighing, he explained exactly why he wanted to keep it secret, so far."It's just, I watch tv, and I see a guy being teased mercilessly after liking a girl, and if she doesnt like me back...Gaaah, it'd be terrible, even more so because we live together!"Trying to switch to another topic, he asked, "You remember M-Tojis last words?Do you think he was right?"He thought back to it...

Flashback:

Tojis sword clashed with M's, sending a huge wind gusting around them.M grinned."Hahaha...I see the bloodlust in your eyes, kid. Face it, your just like me!Your dark side is to powerful, you will destroy all you foolishly care about! Give in!!"Toji gritted his teeth, slamming m back. As M stumbled, Toji stabbed him in the stomach."I Banish you, in the name of the Okami Clan as the Heir!!!"

That wasn't how it worked? It was how it worked in the Koori tribe. It was still strange for Grace to think that anyone else would do it a different way. A man liked a girl, he would profess his love for her, and then he would beat up her father to show he was worthy. It was simple.

Toji listed off all the worries that Southern culture had given to him. What if Brianna didn't like him? Grace hadn't considered this. Grace herself had been promised to Necati, and she did not want to marry him for obvious reasons. But Toji was not an evil demon who brought death to the world. He was a good, upstanding man.

Actually, he was a half-demon. Grace remembered this suddenly. Was that what Toji was afraid of? That Brianna would be afraid of his demonic blood? You couldn't blame her for such fear. Demon blood had a mean way of turning good people evil. Grace realized that if she sympathized with Toji, then she herself was a hypocrite.

But no. Necati had killed her father. That proved that he was unworthy. Custom had given Grace a full year to find a new suitor, and she was certain it would favor Toji as well.

"If she doesn't like you, then she shall soon learn the error in her judgement," Grace finally concluded. "You are different from your kind, Toji. I am certain that you shall not give into violence and hate as M-Toji predicted. He was your opposite, Toji, and he was pure evil. That means that you are pure good. Brianna will just have to learn that."

Grace smiled, glad that she had talked some sense into the boy.

He was still hurting. Grace wondered why Will hadn't healed him. Perhaps his demonic blood did not allow for Toji to be healed by Will's light magic.

"Are you going to be okay? Is there anything I can do for you?"