Mayako walked down a dirt path, her three tails swirling behind her, she had a duffel bag strown across her shoulder, it had now been at least ten whole months since Mayako had left home to go into hiding in that time, Mayako had matured greatly she was able to do mostly everything for herself she wasn't the young fox girl she use to be, being on the run from the Elder Council had made her change, she had to be strong, tough, and above all ready for anything. Mayako had no idea when or where operatives from the Elder Council would find her, so when she wasn't preoccupied with running away from near capture she had Kurookami teaching her, he had started teaching her things that would help her survive, she was taught new techinques, she was also taught some new skills that Kurookmai said would aide her greatly. Mayako sighed "I wish I got get a nice bath.." she complained, Mayako had not gone into any towns or vilages as of late, the reasoning behind it was in each one she had passed through she saw posters from the Elder Council with her discription on it, stateing she was to be captured and brought to the Elder Council for trial for her crimes. Mayako was lucky that no one noticed her, but after ten months out in the wild on her own, she was missing life's necessities.

"Whats the matter with you, didn't you take a bath in that river a few miles back?" argued Kurookami, Mayako grumbled "I miss 'hot' baths" Kurookami groaned "Don't be like that, wasn't it you who chose this life?" Mayako groaned, knowing she couldn't argue back as it was true, she had chosen to do this, she wanted to keep her family out of trouble, and she really didn't want them getting hurt because of her. Just thinking of them got her mind wondering, what was her family up to, what had been happening back home in the ten months she had left, were her parents alright, what about her siblings, "Siblings..." she uttered the word, her mind drifted to solely to Keishi. What was he up to, was he coping with her being gone, she still couldn't believe that he was in love with her and her with him, "I'm not your blood related brother" echoed Keishi's words in her head, she also had to wrap her mind around that. All along, she had believed Keishi was trully her brother, but, he himself had revealed to her that he wasn't, this made Mayako feel like all the things they did together was all a lie but, deep down she knew she couldn't feel like that. Mayako shook her head, trying to knock out all the thought swirling around in it she couldn'tbe distracted, she had to be on gaurd at all times.

There was no telling what could happen if she was one hundred percent focused, "Still..." she mumbled with a frown "I wonder how he's doing..." Mayako continued down the dirt path in silence, that is until her ears twitched, she stopped dry, she foucused her hearing, she keyed in on the sound of footsteps, walking on the same dirt path she was. "Damn" she cursed had she been fallowed, Mayako had no time to think, she looked around for a place to hide, this had become part of Mayako's life now, constantly running, and hiding, it wasn't like she couldn't fight, it's that she chose to leave that as a last resort, incase there was no other options. Mayako spotted a thick bush on the side of the path, "Perfect!" she dashed over and hid inside she parted the bushes leaves and peered out at the dirt path, now all she had to do was wait until she saw whoever it was to pass right by so she stood and waited. While she did, she felt a nostalgic feeling come over her, she had done this once before, when she was really young, she remebered how she had to run and hide to get away from bullies, and now even though she was strong enough to fight back, she had to revert back to this tactic, running and hiding.

Mayako gritted her teeth, "Calm down kid" Kurookami commented "Don't get so riled up" Mayako shuddered, "I know..." Mayako took in a breath, she needed to calm herself, she couldn't risk herself getting angry and causing her fouth tail to appear which she believed would cause her to lose control of herself. Mayako took a few deep breaths, slowly she felt herself become calm, "Good, now use what I taught you" Mayako nodded, Mayako closed her eyes, she focused her senses, "Find the Spiritual Wavelength" this was one of the skills Kurookmai had taught her, he called it Soul Searching, it involved finding a person Spiritual Wavelength, which was the wave of energy that connected a person soul to their Spiritual Energy, finding it would allow someone to figure out who the person was, and how strong they were. "Got it" she slowly opened her eyes, her amber eyes were glowing, "Cat Spirit, Twin-tail, Spiritual Energy..." Mayako swallowed hard, "Massive..." this person was really strong, whoever they were, she was hoping a praying they weren't after her. "Don't worry kid, remeber what I taught you" Mayako took a breath and nodded, her eyes stopped glowing, "Got to hide my Spiritual Energy" Mayako foucused, she had to lower her Spiritual Energy to were it wasn't able to be detected.

This was another skill Kurookami had taught her, it was called Spiritual Erasing, which allowed one with extermly high Spiritual Energy to hide themselves, "A little lower" she mumbled, Mayako smirked when she felt she had lowered her Spiritual Energy enough "I've gotta thank Kurookami later" Mayako then went back to watching through the bush at the dirt path, her ears twitched, the footsteps were getting closer. Soon, a figured came into view, like she had found out, the figure was a male twin-tailed cat spirit, from the bush she could feel the twin-tailed cat spirits massive Spiritual Energy crushing her, "Man, I don't want to mess with him" the cat spirit stopped. He looked like he was looking for something Mayako started praying that it wasn't her he was looking for, she had no way of telling if he was an operative from the Elder Council. "Why isn't he moving?" Mayako wondered, the cat spirit hadn't moved and was looking in every direction then he did something Mayako wasn't expecting, he looked straight at where she was hiding. "No way, does he know I'm hiding here?" Mayako shook her head "No,that can't be possible.." but to Mayako's dismay, the cat spirit was still looking right at her hiding spot Mayako stayed still, she still believed she was hidden and that the cat spirit must be trying to fool her.

Suddenly the cat spirit spoke, "You can come out, I know you're there, fox" Mayako shuddered, how was it possible that he found her, "If you don't come out, I'll make you" Mayako saw the cat spirits tails flare up and claws extend from his hands Mayako swallowed hard she had no choice she sighed, "Guess I've got no choice" Mayako walked out from the bush and into the light. The cat spirit sneered at her, "Wise decision" Mayako scowled "Who, are you? What do you want with me?" the cat spirit crossed his arms, "I'm with the Elder Council" Mayako's eyes went wide, "Damn" she cursed, her worst fear had come to light, she was face to face with a Elder Council opperative. [Ch.12 END]