Mayako was gasping for breath, she was holding herself up on one knee, her clothes were dirty and tattered sweat dripped down her face she whips her forehead and stands up slowly she staggeres a bit but, she's able to stand straight she lets out a sigh. "I can't believe, it's been only a few weeks since I started training" she groaned Keishi hadn't told her how much of a tole summoning her Foxes Fire over and over again would have on her or, that if she gathered too much energy it would erupt and cause her damage which is why her clothes were in such a sorry state.
Mayako had thought she made some progress when she was able to summon her Foxes Fire three times without incident but, it got to her head and made her start to mess up, this was the fifth time that her Foxes Fire erupted "Damn, I put too much into it again" Mayako kicked at the ground she was fallowing the steps Keishi had told her yet, she was failing, and she didn't like that one bit. She heard the sounds of her brother and sister going at it, the two of them were training together, she saw Keishi toss several of his own Foxes Fire's at Yone who threw out her own which negated some of Keishi's but not all of them so, Yone dodged out of the way.
Mayako stood and watched in amazement as she watched her two older siblings, she wanted to be like them strong, confident, and above all respected. Her brother and sister were very famous in school, she'd hear about her brother exploits from his teachers and Yone's would sing praise of her Yone also had fallowers, a small group that liked to fallow her around and thought that Mayako wasn't worthy of talking with her own sister.
All she ever heard about at school was how great her older siblings were, and how she was a weakling that was making their name bad remebering all this caused a bit a anger to rise in Mayako, "Is it true.." she mumbled "Am I, really making their name bad" she mad a sad and hurt face, she had an odd habit of putting herself down, Mayako shook her head "No!" she shouted she clasped the sides of her cheeks "I'm not the same as I was then!" she told herself she stared back at the black tail behind her "I have this now, and everything will change". She made this thought circle around her head but, it was usless as the memories of being called weak, or pathetic, or a disgrace where far more potent, she could hear all of the voice shouting at her "Your nothing!", "A zero will always be a zero!", "Why don't you just disappear!", "The weak will always stay weak no matter what they do!".
Mayako gritted her teeth, her anger rising, "Shut up..." she mumbled but, the voices didn't stop they continued and got worse, "Shut up..." she said again, the voices intensified, "Shut up...Shut up...", Mayako now had her hands over her ears she looked around and she imagined seeing many people shouting at her and giving her dirty looks, her anger continued to rise, "I'm not weak!", "Yes you are" said a collective of voices, "No!", "Yes", the collection of voices said. She glared at the images of the people shouting at her "I'll show you!" she growled a fire started to form inside Mayako, the voices continued their onslaught "Shut up.." she said her face growing an almost killer intent, the fire inside her was raging just like her anger was.
She then happened to glance over at her two siblings, "You'll never be like them" the voices taunted she looked back to the images of the people "Watch me" she said in a low tone "You'll never be like them" the voice taunted a second time, that was it something snapped inside Mayako at that moment, "I'll show you!" she growled suddenly, the fire inside of her burst forth, and she blacked out, she could feal a new surge of power inside of her, and she liked it, it thrilled her, she felt just like when her first tail appeared, full of strength and power, so much power, so much so that she could make all the people that badmouthed her pay.
"I could show them..." she mumbled "I can show them how strong I am..." she grinned "I should..." evil thoughts flooded her mind of what she could do "I can make them pay..", "I can make them pay for everything" she chuckled a bit, images of her annihilating all those who said anything remotley bad about her. But, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she suddenly saw her brother, a concerned look on his face "Maya!" he shouted "Nii-san" Mayako mumbled suddenly she seemed to be taken out of another reality, and brought back to the real world.
Mayako found she was still inside the training realm, but, she had move from where she had been, "Maya!" she her Keishi call Mayako looked and sure enough just like she had seen in the other reality her brother had touched her shoulder and he still had the same concerned look on his face "Nii..Nii-san" she shook her head "What happened?" Yone came up "Why don't you tell us?" she crossed her arms "What do you mean?" Mayako said with a puzzled look. Keishi and Yone looked between each other "You..don't remeber what happened?" Keishi asked Mayako shook her head the two looked at each other again.
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"What did happen?" Mayako asked Keishi sighed "Well Maya, you went crazy on us" Mayako gave a confused face "What do you mean?" Yone scoffed "While we were training, you came rushing at us" Mayako looked at her sister "I...What?" Mayako had a puzzled look on her face, "We shouted at you to stop but, you weren't listening" Yone continued "You started fighting us, you went after Keishi first" Mayako looked at her brother, she went after her own brother, and she didn't remeber it "Then, you came after me" Yone interjected.
"Y..You as well" Mayako mumbled "I never thought you'd be such a challange, I thought I would be able to stop you but.." Yone had a displeased look on her face she then huffed and stopped talking "You see Maya, Yone here couldn't stop you at all", Mayako's eyes widened she had fought with her sister, a four tails, and she couldn't do a thing against her. "Serisously, I thought you were going to kill me for a second" Yone complained "It wasn't until Keishi touched you that you decided to stop" Mayako was confused even more, she had fought both her brother and sister, and she didn't have any recollection of it. She heard Keishi chuckle "You were amazing Maya" Mayako looked at her brother she wanted to smile at his praise but how could she when she had no memory of what she did Yone sighed "I have to admit, you were pretty good if I say so myself" Mayako's heart pounded in her chest her brother and sister were praising her yet she felt guilty for accepting it. "What happned.." she wondered to herself she remeberes training with summoning her Foxes Fire, then all the voice and the people shouting at her, calling her names, calling her weak, and among other things and then, nothing, and now her she was, being told she had fought with her brother and sister.
Just remebering what happned caused her anger to rise, she felt her tails rise in anger, "Wait..." Mayako mumbled "Tails.." she mumbled, she looked behind her, and there were two pitch black tails swirling behind her, "What the.." she said as she watched them coil like snakes. Her brother and sister hadn't noticed as they were talking about Mayako taking it to Yone "Nii-san..Nee-chan" she called they looked her way "What is it Maya?" her brother asked "Uhm..I think there's something you should see" she motioned behind her Keishi and Yone exchanged a puzzled look. "What?" they both said "Uhm.. well, does this mean anything" she raised her two black tails into view Keishi and Yone were silent, "Well?" she asked a bit concerned "Maya!" her brother exclaimed "What!?" Mayako gasped "That's a second tail!" Mayako looked at the twin black tails behind her "A second tail.." her eyes widened "A second tail!!" she exclaimed. Yone had a confused look on her face "But how, you just became a One-tail a few weeks ago!" Mayako gave a puzzled look.
"Is it really difficult to become a Twin-tail?" she asked Yone furrwoed her brow "It took me several months to become a twin-tail" she grumbled "And you do it in just a week of becoming a one-tail" Mayako couldn't help but chuckle, was her sister mad that she had done something she couldn't. Keishi smiled "Well, let me be the first to say, congratulations Maya, for becoming a Twin-tail" he tossled her hair "You brother is really proud of you" he beamed Mayako blushed and smiled back "Thanks nii-san" she looked back at the two tails behind her "I'm a twin-tail now" she grinned happily "Come on, we have to report this do dad" Keishi said placing a hand on her shoulder.
Mayako nodded, Keishi started walking off and she fallowed behind him and Yone fallowed them as Mayako was walking she felt like she was being watched by something, Mayako looked around she could feel that whatever was looking at her was inside the training realm out of the corner of her eye, Mayako saw it, a huge black nine-tailed fox looking right a her with what looked like a huge grin on it's face.
Before Mayako could say or do anything, the nine-tails vanished, and she no longer felt she was being watched at all,"What..was that?" she wondered at that moment an errie sense of dred came over her like something bad, really bad, had started. [Ch.4 END]