ExFic 4: Final Confrontation with Kumiho

“I think you should have gone to Kumiho’s Rite of Initiation, petty rivalry or no,” Wearwolf said, lying at the foot of Katrina’s bed.

“It’s not petty,” Katrina argued. She curled up on her bed with her arms over her head, trying to shut out the sounds of merriment from the edge of town, shutting out the sounds of impending time. The proverbial sands were slipping through her fingers with each passing day. Far too soon will all her friends be traditionally recognized as adults, each one a testament to the erupting future and the quickly sinking past. “There’s more too it than that.”

“Perhaps you would care to educate me on the finer points,” Wearwolf inquired.

“Fine, we’ll start with history,” Katrina snapped, kicking her legs out as she shifted into a seated position. “If you must know, Kumiho and I used to be best friends. Us, Jaime, and Roger used to be a pretty tight clique.”

“If I am not mistaken, Roger is at least two years older than all three of you,” Wearwolf pointed out, his left ear and brow raised in intrigue.

“Yeah, and we all had major crushes on him, but I don’t think he knew about it,” Katrina said chattily. Her tone became more wistful as she added, “We were practically his minions. They used to call us ‘Roger’s Angels,’ like that old TV show, or that movie. God, me and Kumiho wanted to be just like him.”

“Kumiho?” Wearwolf inquired, lifting his head. The mere concept seemed to amuse him. “She did not strike me as the type. She is just so…”

“Girly?” Katrina finished. “Yeah. If anything, she was a bigger tomboy than I was. She was the first picked in any sport, even over boys. I would promptly be second, because I was the only one who could even challenge her. One-on-one games against each other would practically stalemate. But I loved being on the same team as her. Together, we were unstoppable. We knew each other’s moves inside and out. Or, at least, I thought we did.”

Katrina got up and walked to the window. She leaned against the sill, watching the ceremonial torchlights dance in the distance.

“Only Roger could best us, and I think we just let him a lot of times,” Katrina said to her translucent reflection in the glass. “But then he grew up, went on his Rite of Initiation. I wanted to go with him, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said I should grow up on my own time, and he wanted to strike out on his own. We all had dreams of becoming Chimera Knights, and I think for the others that day marked the end of them.”

“But I thought someone had gone with him,” Wearwolf said. “When I arrived in the village with you, Roger was still on his honeymoon with Becky.”

Katrina slumped down on the floor, sitting with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. Wearwolf sat now, too, in that way that dogs do. She glanced at him for a moment, but she couldn’t meet his gaze.

“He returned from his Rite with more than just a horse,” Katrina explained. “Riding behind him was a girl from another village. Becky. She was the same age as we were, but just happened to get lost in the woods one day while Roger was out there. Legally, she wasn’t an adult yet, so Roger couldn’t marry her, but now he was obsessed with her. I don’t know what happened out there, I was too young to be told, but that’s what happens when you share your Rite of Initiation with someone. You fall in love with them forever.

“It would be two years before Becky could go on her own Rite, and in that time they were inseparable. ‘Roger’s Angels’ were the furthest things from his mind. Ten years of friendship were discarded like an old melon rind. He wanted to spend all his time with Becky, and wanted nothing to do with us.

“The worst part is… You know what the worst part is? Becky is nothing like us. Nothing like us. She’s so… so… domesticated. Sure, she’s smart and pretty and all that, but she has no almost interest in sports or weapons or Chimera Knights or anything. None of the cool stuff, or at least just enough to cheer Roger on. She was into… Hell, I don’t know what she was into, except cooking. She is actually into cooking. I’ve never seen her lose a competition that involved cooking or pass up any opportunity to cook something or learn to cook something. She’s fascinated with utensils and appliances. I think she sleeps with an E-Z Bake oven. And she’s not just into baking, either. You should see her with a wok. It’s frightening. Have you seen the flames used to cook with a wok? A real wok? I can’t even go near that thing, and she doesn’t even roll up her sleeves. And she’s such a traditionalist, too. She’s probably into bunnies and flowers and bonnets and all that other cutesy junk.

“And she didn’t stop with Roger, either. Kumiho was next. She figured boys like Roger weren’t into tomboys like us. Not in ways she felt were important. She wanted to be like Becky now. I told her that was stupid. Any boy worth having wasn’t worth acting like something I’m not.”

“You’re not,” Wearwolf corrected.

“Excuse me?” Katrina asked.

“You said ‘something I’m not’,” Wearwolf elucidated. “Referring to yourself, as opposed to ‘something you’re not,’ which would refer to people in general in this context.”

“Since when are you an English major?” Katrina inquired. “And I thought our meanings were conveyed empathically rather than verbatim.”

“I am merely responding to the shift in your focus,” Wearwolf explained. “I could tell you were talking about Kumiho, but you appeared to be talking about yourself.”

“Are you saying I want to be like Becky? As if,” Katrina dismissed. She was offended, but her tone soon changed to a regretful one when she added, “Like I could be anything like Becky. She’s freakin’ MultiPets Barbie. Who could possibly live up to that standard?”

“It sounds to me like you are jealous of Becky,” Wearwolf replied. “Perhaps you should not be angry with Kumiho after all. She has done nothing to you, as far as I can tell.”

“She betrayed me, Wearwolf!” Katrina snapped, slamming her hands to the floor and glaring at him directly. “She gave up on the Angels just to get boys to like her. Just to get Roger to like her. I was all, ‘To Hell with you then!’ I didn’t need some chick hanging out with me, worrying about breaking her damn nails. You don’t need to change yourself, forget who you are, because one boy… one boy…”

Katrina sniffed. She wiped a tear from her cheek and rubbed her nose. She looked at the single drop of water on her finger and started giggling.

“Look at me,” Katrina said, her voice trying desperately to hold some middle ground between laughing like a maniac and crying like a baby and failing miserably. “I’m crying! I’m fucking crying! All because some boy left me for some chick two years ago! I’m a freaking mess, because the one boy that meant anything to me and my best friend in the whole world left me for some… stupid chick and I’m so stupid because I let them run out on me rather than adjust and let them do what they wanted to do instead of what I thought they should do. They didn’t fit in with my stupid lifestyle, so I just went on without them. For two years, I wanted to run away and leave them all behind because they reminded me of how fucking stupid I was. Because I let one boy… one… boy…”

Wearwolf padded up to her and nuzzled into the bundle of despondency that Katrina had become. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his warm, furry neck. He gave a sympathetic whine as she sobbed into his fur. Two years of misplaced emotion leaked out from her eyes and were summarily absorbed by his fur. Katrina’s tears faded out after awhile to be replaced with sniffling.

“Wearwolf, promise you’ll never leave me,” Katrina requested in a hushed tone.

“You have my word,” Wearwolf promised. “Just promise me you will never hesitate to express your true emotions. Do not give them the chance to build up inside of you. If they ever overwhelm you or if they ever confuse you, I want you to confide in me as soon as possible.”

“I will,” Katrina agreed. “I will.”

That night Katrina decided she needed to talk to Kumiho, get all of it straightened out. She wanted to make up for all the time she wasted hating her and sort out all the garbage between them, Roger, and Becky. By the time she came to this decision, Kumiho had already disappeared into the woods. She had left on her own, just as Roger had. It surprised Katrina. Boys were expected to experience the Rite on their own, but it was rare among girls. Katrina herself was the only other girl in recent memory to go it alone and, just like Kumiho, she had done it of her own free will rather than being rejected.

Unlike Katrina, Kumiho spent several days in the woods. Katrina wanted to speak with her as soon as she returned and she spent many a night staying up late, watching the tree line for signs of Kumiho’s arrival. However, despite her best efforts, she was not the first to know of Kumiho’s return. She learned about it from her mother as she came down from her room one morning.

“What!?” Katrina exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“It was only half an hour ago,” her mother explained. “And you were sleeping so peacefully that I thought it could wait.”

“God dammit, Mom,” Katrina muttered. “Do you know where she is now?”

“She shouldn’t be too far from her house now,” mother replied. “She’s probably there by now.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Katrina said as she dashed for the door. “C’mon, Wearwolf.”

From the living room, Katrina’s father watched her and her wolf leave before turning to her mother and saying, “Okay, I give. I know your Mysticat showed you when Kumiho would return before she even left. Why didn’t you tell Katrina sooner?”

“She needs to fix things on her own,” mother answered as she sat down in the recliner opposite her husband. She took a sip of her coffee and said, “Besides, I think she learns better through confrontation.”

“Confrontation?” father noted. “I thought they were just going to talk, not fight.”

“So does she,” mother explained. “But, well… Heh. If you leave now, you can catch the drama for yourself.”

“Son of a…” father started before getting up and grabbing his coat. “Are you coming or what?”

“Nah, I’ve already seen it,” mother said as Mysticat hopped into her lap. She stroked the cat and it purred loudly. “Besides, I can just catch it on pay-purr-view.”

Katrina and Wearwolf ran down the street. Katrina knew the way almost by heart. Before Becky came around, Katrina probably spent more time at Kumiho’s house than her own. She was already reliving happier days in her mind in hopes of reliving them for real. Unfortunately, what she saw when she turned the corner to Kumiho’s house gave her such a shock that the mental reenactments, and the thoughts surrounding them completely vanished. Kumiho was embracing Rion, the boy who had been trying to all this time to be the surrogate for Katrina’s emotions for Roger, and the sight of them just made her blood boil.

“Gee, Kumiho, I missed ya and all, but not this much,” Rion said, a little taken aback by Kumiho’s show of affection.

“Just act like it, okay hon?” Kumiho requested. “Just a few more seconds. Besides, how often does a hot girl in a buckskin tunic hold you this close, hmm?”

Right about then, Katrina shoulder-tackled her, sending all three of them to the ground. Katrina’s attempts to throttle Kumiho were thwarted when Jaime pulled her off and held her in a full nelson.

“Dammit, let me go, you little…” Katrina protested.

“Calm down, Katrina!” Jaime exclaimed. “It’s not what you think!”

“I said let go!” Katrina shouted, driving her foot into Jaime’s shin. Jaime collapsed in a heap, clutching her shin as Katrina proceeded to lunge at Kumiho. Wearwolf fused with her, but instead of acting as armor as usual Katrina was surprised to feel Wearwolf weighing her down, trying to restrict her movements.

“Stop this, Katrina!” Wearwolf commanded. “You aren’t here to fight her! She is your friend!”

“I’m gonna-GAH!” Fighting Wearwolf in his armor form was unexpectedly painful. Muscles moved in opposing directions all at once in attempt to keep each other from moving how they wanted. It was like being torn apart from the inside, and it looked just as painful from the outside.

“Stand down, Katrina,” Wearwolf said firmly. “You’re hurting me!”

“Then let go of me, you son of a…” Katrina said, growling through the pain.

“It’s just tearing your apart, isn’t it?” Kumiho teased. She got up and dusted herself off. “You don’t know whether to kiss me or kill me.”

“You tramp!” Katrina spat, screaming in pain. “I’ll tear you in half!”

“Katrina, it’s not what you think,” Rion explained. “She…”

“No need to explain ourselves, Rion,” Kumiho interrupted. “I think it’s patently obvious by now. If Katrina wants to throw down, I’m ready to throw down. There’s no way she can take me, MultiPet or no. Even if she can, it won’t change anything. C’mon, Katrina, give me your best shot.”

“You want some of this?” Katrina said. Her muscles relaxed and her breathing slowed but remained heavy. “’Cause a little of this’ll go a long way.”

“If it’s the only way you’ll learn, I’ll take as much as you can give,” Kumiho challenged. “You can even keep Wearwolf on if you wanna, ‘cause there’s still no way you can even touch me.”

“You’re on,” Katrina accepted. “How about it, Wearwolf? I promise not to kill her. I just want to express myself with my fists.”

“I still have reservations, but I trust you,” Wearwolf replied. “I will assist you in this display of dominance, but I will pull your punches.”

“Fine,” Katrina conceded. She stared down Kumiho in her buckskin tunic and tan dress. It was a sort of Native American Indian princess look, simple yet flowing and even had a blue bandana with a feather sticking out. How she retained such a glamorous visage after being in the forest for over a week was confounding. “You ready for this, Kumiho?”

“You shouldn’t’ve bothered asking,” Kumiho said, rolling her eyes. “Trust me, your best bet now is to catch me off-“

Katrina’s claws somehow missed their mark. It was like an optical illusion, the one where the penny is inside a mirrored container but looks like it was resting on top of it. Katrina’s claws were exactly where she thought Kumiho’s face was, but Kumiho was instead about a foot to the left.

“-Guard,” Kumiho continued. “But even that would be futile, because I know every-“

Katrina swept to the side with a kick aimed at Kumiho’s midsection, which had displaced itself and the rest of her body a few inches out of reach.

“-Move you make before you make it,” Kumiho explained. “I’ve always been perfectly matched with-”

Katrina charged forward with a strong hook punch, but managed to pass her target entirely.

“-You before, but now you don’t even stand a ghost of a chance,” Kumiho finished.

Katrina swung back, intent on slamming her elbow into the side of Kumiho’s head. The younger woman instead caught the arm easily and wrenched it behind Katrina’s back. Katrina attempted to swing around the other way, but Kumiho applied more pressure and stopped her in her tracks.

“Now where’s all that anger got you?” Kumiho interrogated. She wrenched the arm a little more to make sure Katrina didn’t try anything funny. “You have to fight with a clear head if you want to be a true Chimera Knight. If you allow rage to distract you, you won’t even be able to take down a chick like me, much less some terrorist or major criminal. Now, are you ready to calm down and act civil for once?”

“Yeah,” Katrina conceded. “Just tell me how you were able to move like that.”

Kumiho leaned forward, putting her head over Katrina’s free shoulder, and whispered, “Look down.”

Katrina looked down. Sitting at her feet was a Mysticat. Unlike her mother’s, which had mostly pink fur, this one was more of a deep violet with white feet.

“Isn’t she just the cutest?” Kumiho squealed, still holding Katrina’s arm behind her. “I named her Bootsy!”

“Cute,” Katrina deadpanned. “So Bootsy allowed you to know what moves I would use so you could dodge them easily?”

“Yep,” Kumiho confirmed.

“But, like with my mother’s Mysticat, you actually have to be touching it in order to see the future, right?” Katrina inquired.

“Yeah, what’s your-“ Kumiho asked. Katrina’s free arm wrapped around Kumiho’s head before she hopped up and dropped to her knees, taking Kumiho’s head along for the ride. Kumiho’s chin collided with Katrina’s shoulder and Kumiho collapsed to the ground.

“Betcha didn’t see that one coming,” Katrina said jocularly.

“Yeah, I did, but I didn’t think it would hurt so damn much,” Kumiho said, rubbing her chin and neck. “Ow. God dammit, Katrina.”

“I’m sorry,” Katrina said apologetically. “Are you okay?”

“No, you could’ve broken my neck with that move,” Kumiho complained as she sat up. “I might even have whiplash, you little bitch.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay,” said Katrina. “And… I want to apologize for being mean to you for the past couple of years.”

“Whoa, I’m not hurt that badly,” Kumiho said. “I might not even need a neck brace.”

“No, I mean it,” Katrina insisted. “I didn’t come over here to fight, I wanted to make up with you.”

“You did?” Kumiho noted. “Wow. I didn’t know that. I only saw the fight. I didn’t know you had other intentions. I’m sorry about goading you into it.”

“That’s okay,” Katrina said. “I guess I still have issues to work out since you left us so long ago.”

“I left?” Kumiho exclaimed. “You’re the one who got all moody when Becky became the center of attention and got pissed off when I started talking about how much I liked her.”

“Uh, no?” Katrina argued. “You got upset because I didn’t want you to be like Becky just to get boys to like you.”

“It wasn’t just about boys, you twit,” Kumiho countered. “I only brought that stuff up because I knew it’d piss you off. I liked Becky because she allowed me to explore another side of myself that I ignored hanging out with just you and Roger. But you couldn’t get over the fact that she stole Roger away to see her as a person than just some chick.”

“Why should I?” Katrina demanded. “You think she’s so great since Roger likes her. I knew from the moment I saw her that she was just some trollop.”

“Becky is not some trollop,” Kumiho argued. “No one else thinks she’s a trollop. After two years, you’d think someone would’ve noticed something.”

“I noticed!” Katrina snapped. “I’m the only one that noticed! It’s written all over her face!”

“I’m so sure. You were fourteen! What made you a better judge of character than any of the village elders?”

“Just because you were too stupid to see it…”

“At least I wasn’t just a closed-minded little brat!”

“At least I’m not a whore!”

“I’m still a virgin, you dyke!”

“I’m not gay, you tramp!”

“Will you too shut up!?” Jaime screamed. “I can’t stand watching you too argue like this! I left because you two were at each other’s throats all the time! You two were too wrapped up in your own little drama to even notice! The whole issue is ridiculous! Neither of you can have Roger anymore, so just get over it! Katrina, Roger’s married to a great woman now, so just try to be happy for him instead of hating on Becky. Kumiho, just because you think Katrina’s acting like a baby doesn’t mean you should too! Now just kiss and make up already!”

There was a moment of stunned silence before Kumiho turned to Katrina and asked, “Did she just insult us?”

“Did she just tell us to kiss?” Katrina asked.