Fan Fiction ❯ Corruption of an angel ❯ Unforgettable encounters ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4

Unforgettable encounters

It was in the early afternoon when the group stopped to eat at a local restaurant. The place was nice, but small, so the large array of people took up most of the space. Tenshi however was too caught up in his own thoughts to care that a young woman was serving him; he was so confused now that he saw that strange teen from his dream. //It couldn't have been him, or was it, how many people do I know that look like that \\. Kuroku looked at Tenshi; he was becoming concerned as the youth just kept staring at nothing and was in his own little world //did that thief say something to him? \\ he mused still looking at the troubled teen. The tanned man watched as Tenshi stood up and left the crowded eatery. Outside Tenshi found himself wandering through the alleys, watching a few dogs fight over a piece of rotting meat and occasionally a person walked by.

//If the prophecies are coming to life, then what of the other dreams I've been having \\ he thought sadly //all the darkness I can feel it, it may sound crazy, but I know that it's coming soon \\. Tenshi continued to walk and muse at the same time, until he collided with a figure, and went sprawling backwards. Regaining his lost composure he looked up to see who or what he ran into; he saw that it was a young woman about the same age as himself, with shoulder length brown, curly hair, with blond streaks throughout it and large gentle brown eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry" the girl said getting up and offering her hand "I didn't see you"; Tenshi smiled, immediately liking the girl. The girl smiled at him as he took her outstretched hand, "Thanks, it was actually my fault, sometimes I'm not the best with coordination" he laughed fixing his hair slightly. He stared at the girl for a long while and his hand was still holding hers. //She has such pretty eyes \\ he mused still staring at her, which was beginning to unnerve the young woman. She removed her hand and began to giggle at the Chouwan, "you are so odd," she said, snapping the young man out of his daze.

Tenshi laughed nervously and bowed to the girl, "My name is Tenshi Hikari," he said smiling in anticipation. Finally getting at what he was waiting for she did like wise and bowed; "I'm Erinu Mukugouenu" she acquainted. Tenshi began to speak to Erinu, but a small child with blue, almost silver hair distracted her; she watched as the smiling boy winked at her and took off running. Erinu let out an irritated sigh before running after the small child, leaving Tenshi somewhat stunned //well, that was…. interesting \\. Simply shrugging his shoulders, Tenshi slowly walked back to the restaurant, still thinking about Erinu //I felt something strange about that girl, I hope I can meet her again \\.

***Forest***

A lone figure ran through the deep woods outside Yoake, his black cloak swung around him loosely, and his feet pounded the earth as he ran. He stopped suddenly to catch his breath and looked behind him, afraid that the odd teenager had followed him, //Good, he's not there \\ he thought //but who was he, those eyes and the hair, it was so familiar, and those wings…..What the hell's up with that??? \\. The youth regained his lost breath and began to walk slowly through the vast forest; and he noticed strange shadows lingering between the trees. He gasped as he felt someone grab him, "HEY, LET ME GO!!!" he screamed, thrashing to be released. He felt hands cover his mouth and someone ushered him to quiet, "Calm down boy" a gruff voice commanded. The raven-haired teen looked around and noticed three other men.

"Now, now Li, let's not get so hasty" one of the men coaxed patting the green eyed youths cheek gently. Li's mouth was uncovered and he was placed on the ground; he looked around for any means of escape, but failed to find anything. He watched as one of the men approached him, "so, Li" he said rather calmly "where is your proof that you did anything today?" Li mentally kicked himself; he had given the wallets he stole back to that winged guy, so now he had nothing to show for //I am so dead \\ Li thought.

"Well?" the man asked holding his hand out for the stolen goods. Li lowered his head and kept his eyes downcast, "I don't have anything" Li whispered. The other man growled and tightened his grip on the ebony haired youth, causing Li to thrash again as his air supply seemed to be cut off. Li coughed and struggled, only managing to get a few words out, "I-I gave what I stole b-back to the people I stole it from" he said. The man in front of him smirked and snapped his fingers; the other man, obviously younger then the one who was manhandling him, and the one who wanted the money, approached Li and cracked his knuckles.

//Shit, no good can come from this \\ Li thought watching as the younger man began to advance on him. Li almost became sick at the impact of the other man's fist into his abdomen, but he would not give them the satisfaction of knowing they were inflicting pain on him. The youngest of the three men continued to punch at him, and for pure ignorance began to smack Li's face, causing blood to fly from one face to the next. His apprentice assaulted the raven-haired youth while the other man watched intently; he could hear footsteps nearing but chose to ignore them. The man was about to command another brutal, when he felt a sharp pain on the side of his head.

"Get your hands off of my brother please" a voice asked; the three men looked to the sound of the voice and saw a young man, no doubt in his early twenties, with shoulder length red hair tied back loosely and rather dark unearthly sapphire eyes. Li smiled when he heard his brother's voice; it had given him an opening to escape, he put his head forward and lifted it back up to make impact with the man that held him. Finally being released, Li ran to his brother's side, "Thanks Oniisan" Li said; the two brothers ran from the other men to their current home.

"So, what did you do now?" the red headed man asked trying to catch his breath. Li looked up and scowled at his brother, "I didn't do anything Riku" he snapped "why would you think that?" Riku put his hands up in defense, "I didn't mean anything by it, I was just wondering what they wanted from you" he stated. Li sighed and slumped down on an uplifted root, "they simply wanted what I had stolen today" he stated bluntly taken out some rations and chewing on them silently. Riku sighed and sat down next to his brother, "how much did you make?" the blue eyed man asked.

Li froze, he had forgotten that he gave those wallets back to that winged freak he had met //what was I thinking giving them back? \\ Li thought unhappily, picking bark of the tree absentmindedly, "I gave it back" he told his older sibling. Riku smiled at the sound of despondency in Li's voice; he patted his brother on the shoulder and began to walk to his temporary home, occasionally looking back to make sure Li was still there. After about five minutes, Li arose from the radix and walked in the direction his brother had gone; he passed many of the other pillagers, who at this time, were beating on a cheat.

//Some never learn \\ Li laughed silently and entered his home his family shared, which consisted of his father Atsuko and Riku. Li walked down the hall and entered the largest room in the house; inside the chamber there sat a large gathering of men, two of them were discussing current events of what had been going on with a man named Tomoe. Li sat down next to a middle-aged man, with dark red hair and blue eyes, and a short beard; the man turned to Li and smiled a little before returning to speak with the other members of the group. The raven-haired youth sat still and observed quietly what commenced between the elder men; he caught only so much of the conversation however.

"I'm telling you Yamasaki-san" one man said quite enraged "that Tomoe is nothing but a twisted maniacal monster, and not only that his army is hard to come by, and their archers are the best I've seen". A few of the men agreed and added comments that seemed meaningless to Li, but he didn't comment; although he was only seventeen, he had learned a lot from attending meetings with his father when he was a little boy. Li watched his father intently as he discussed the current issues; sometimes he became saddened. When he looked between his brother and father, for they were father and son by blood, and he was, as one of the men had said, something they had fished out of the river to replace the loss of Riku's mother.

Though the man was right in a sense, seeing as how Atsuko's wife had died six months prior to finding Li. He also stood out a lot to his family, they both had the same colour hair and eyes, as well as skin tone, while Li had lightly tanned skin, black as night hair, and emerald eyes. Li shifted uncomfortably, he hated when he began to think about his real parents and possible siblings, or why they abandoned him, or worse, if they were even alive anymore. Li felt a light tapping on his shoulder and looked up; he must have spaced out, because now only his father sat there smiling at him.

"It wasn't that boring was it?" Atsuko asked his adoptive son, still smiling; Li shook his head and smiled back, "well it must have been Li, I've never seen you so out of it before" the man explained. The ebony-haired youth turned to his father and again felt that unpleasantness " I was just thinking, that's all" Li said, trying not to worry his father. Atsuko knew that something was up, but he didn't press the issue any further, he knew that if something was really bothering Li, that the teen would tell him eventually.

Li remained silent as he rose to his feet and left the dominant room, and retired to his own room. He opened the door and walked in, tripping over almost everything, until he lit a lamp; he could see his pet, which happened to be a large white wolf, Etowa-ru curled up in the corner of the small chambers. The large creature lifted its head as Li sat down and rested his head on the wolf's body, and closed his eyes in deep thought.

"Something wrong?" Etowa-ru asked, looking down at the human; Li shook his head, and remained still. The wolf, sensing the youth's uneasiness, nudged him to give him an answer. After some time Li sighed and turned to the wolf, "I don't know why I gave up what I stole" Li stated simply before turning back around. Etowa-ru remained in silence before speaking "what happened?" he asked. The raven-haired youth sighed loudly and sounded very annoyed.

"I was in the market town today and there were so many people" he began "so I saw this one guy and I stole his wallet". Etowa-ru nodded and waited for the slightly enraged youth to continue "the guy knew I was taking it and turned around; he tried to grab it, but I ran away" Li continued. "I was sure I was safe, when I looked behind me to make sure I wasn't followed, but when I turned around there he was". Li paused; he was trying to think about what he had seen exactly; after deciding on a good explanation before he started his description. "It was strange Etowa-ru, there he was standing there, with two white wings protruding out of his back, long silver hair, and very strange green eyes, they were so ethereal". Etowa-ru watched the youth, he knew from the very instant by how Li spoke of him, that he was already infatuated with the mysterious angel, but it was obvious that Li was completely ignorant to this thought.

Li looked over at the large wolf, wondering what his friend was pondering; he wasn't one to interrupt someone while they were thinking, so he decided to just lie and sleep. Unfortunately someone poking at him interrupted his rest; he looked up and saw Riku smiling down at him, "So, gave back the money because you are so deeply infatuated with the most mysterious, voluptuous, man this side of the planet, am I right?" Riku asked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively. Li rolled his eyes and pushed the older man away, cursing and trying to hide the blush forming on his cheeks.

"No, you're not right" Li sneered walking out of his room followed by Etowa-ru, and lagging behind just a little, Riku. Li did care about his brother, but sometimes the man was so annoying, and what's worse of all, he states that Li, a guy, liked that freak he had met today //what a baka \\ Li thought standing on a large cliff that over looked most of Yoake. This place was his own sanctuary; it was where he could look up at the sky and think, without being distracted. When he was up there all he could really focus on was where his real family was, albeit he still loved his brother and father, it's just he wanted to know what really happened instead of assuming.

Li sat sown and stared at the horizon, the sun slowly began to retreat home, and stars peeked out and slowly littered the darkening sky. Li stared up until his vision blurred as suppressed tears began to fall from his emerald eyes and caress down his face like the shooting stars that now fell to earth.

//One day \\ he though //I'll find someone who will never leave me, and until then, I'll wait….. I'll wait \\

***Yoake Castle***

Tenshi sighed and fell down on the bed in which he believed he heard a small crack coming from the bed. He lifted his head when he heard giggling; he saw Nami sitting down on the balcony looking at him. "Wow, you shouldn't eat so much, then maybe you wouldn't break the bed" she laughed, which caused Tenshi to mock laugh at her "very funny" he said his head making contact with the down filled pillow. Just as it was getting quiet, Tenshi could hear a very familiar voice and loud footsteps approaching his room, his eyes snapped open and he leapt off the bed. Nami watched this in a confused state, "what's your problem?" she asked as she watched Tenshi quickly dress in darker clothes, "it's her!" he whispered loudly running to the balcony.

"What are you talking about?" Nami asked perplexed as she watched the silver-haired youth climb down the vines next to the balcony. He could hear the footsteps stop and the door open, slamming into the wall, probably leaving a dent in its wake. Nami looked over the ledge as Tenshi retreated from the one person, who he claimed struck evil into the hearts of all men, one Sakura Yoake. Sakura walked over to Nami and demanded to know where Tenshi had gone, "I don't know" Nami said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. Sakura huffed loudly and left the room, she was determined to locate the Chouwan.

On her way down the stairs she accidentally ran into Tomoe; the ice-eyed man stared down at her menacingly, "what are you doing making so much noise" he asked "did your father teach you nothing?" Sakura scowled and pushed past him and out the door to the castle. Tomoe smirked, he loved hurting the feelings of that girl more than anything //she's such a nuisance, she deserves to die as soon as possible \\ he thought licking his lips and laughing harshly. [NO! leave her alone!] a voice commanded, but he only smirked and walked into the study to speak with Katsuhiro.

***Yoake Kingdom***

Tenshi breathed a sigh of relief as he stopped near a vendor's cart; he had heard the doors open to the castle and knew that Sakura was following him, but the one thing that puzzled him the most was why she even followed him around so much. He looked around and decided that it was safe enough to leave the cart, plus the vendor was getting a little annoyed with his hovering around. Tenshi gave a goofy smile to the gruff man and sped away looking back to see the man still glaring at him; laughing to himself, Tenshi removed himself from the wall and walked about. It was late and not many people were out, however from the corner of his eye, he could see familiar brown locks of hair and another person along side of her. Tenshi made up his mind and ran after the figures "Hey, Erinu!" he called out, not entirely sure if it was her or not. His answer came to him when the girl turned to him and smiled, her brown eyes sparkling and the yellow dress she was wearing made them stand out even more. It was then that Tenshi was able to see the other person next to Erinu. She was a little shorter then Erinu, with long black hair, bright vibrant green eyes, and fair coloured skin.

"Hey Tenshi" Erinu greeted smiling at the Chouwan "sorry I took off like that, I saw someone that shouldn't have been out at that time". Tenshi smiled and returned his attention to the girl beside Erinu, she was wearing a long black skirt, a red shirt, with blue sleeves, which he though was a rather unusual colour combination. "That's all right, I had to leave anyway" he explained looking at the other girl again. Erinu picked this up and put her arm around the girl, "hey Tenshi this is my friend Suiko Ame" she said pushing Suiko forward. Suiko held her hand and Tenshi did likewise "I'm Tenshi Hikari, it's nice to meet you" he said shaking her hand, which caused Suiko to blush lightly.

"So, you're a Chouwan right Tenshi?" Suiko asked fixing her hair; Tenshi nodded then looked back to make sure no one was following him again. He almost screamed when he saw her talking to the vendor he had hid by; the man was pointing in the direction of where Tenshi was now standing. He turned to the girls and quietly excused himself, before running for dear life out of the castle gates and toward the forest. Again he breathed a sigh of relief, he knew that Sakura was not allowed to leave unless escorted by a solider or her father. "Miyaka ni ona (I'm safe)" Tenshi cheered in Chouwan "Sasouya, Kiseki, Baransu, ah, itio Yuusha (thank you Kiseki, Baransu, ah, and Yuusha)". He began to walk slowly towards a tree stump and sat down with a loud thump; he listened carefully for any sounds of movement before he relaxed and looked up at the sky.

"Heheh, what are you running from anyway?" someone asked; Tenshi turned around and saw a young boy standing there, with ice blue nearly white hair, eyes so dark he couldn't figure out the colour, fair skinned and wear nothing but white and blue. Tenshi smiled at the boy, "um, Hi, shouldn't you be with your mother kid?" he asked. The child smiled, his eyes showed wisdom far beyond Tenshi's years and even the way he spoke. Tenshi looked at the boy oddly as the child stood next to him, "What do you search for?" the boy asked not looking at Tenshi "what are you afraid of?" The young Chouwan thought for a moment //what do I search for? \\ he thought //I'm not afraid of much except Sakura haha \\

The child turned to him with questioning eyes "well?" he asked in a different voice that left Tenshi completely bewildered "what do you fear, what do you search for?" the boy asked again. Tenshi remained quiet, then spoke after a few minutes "I search to find who I really am" he stated "and I'm afraid that my friends will be hurt because of me". The child remained silent as he watched the stars in the night sky glitter and mingled with the black sheet called the sky. "A very noble answer" the boy said, again in a voice that wasn't his own, "you remain true to your friends and care for them greatly, that's a hard quality to find in people this day and age".

Tenshi listened intently, he was more confused then ever at this sagacious young child, "but it's not all true, I am selfish in my attempts" Tenshi admitted. "I often put others aside occasionally to search for who I am, to find anyone who can help me find out who I really am". The ice-haired boy nodded slowly and looked at Tenshi "it's not wrong to want to know about one's past or even their future for one" he explained "wait Tenshi, eventually all your answers will come to you". With this last statement the child turned from Tenshi and disappeared into the night from whence he came, leaving the ethereal eyed youth alone with his own thoughts.

"That only furthered my confusion over everything that has been happening these past few weeks" Tenshi whispered aloud "I know nothing of why these memories and dreams are coming to me". Tenshi sighed whilst he removed himself of the stump and onto the soft grass; he placed his arms under his head and stared into nothing. ["Tenshi, it's alright, you did what you had to do, thank you"] Again suppressed memories of the youths past came back to haunt Tenshi ["Believe me when I tell you, that I love you even if this is the last time I will ever see you again"]

Tenshi closed his eyes and felt tears slowly trickle down his cheeks "please gods" he whispered "help me with everything, tell me what to do". However the crashing of thunder drowned out his pleas and clouds quickly covered the once clear sky as water began to pour down on the depressed young man in search of what he has lost, and what he could find. Tenshi rose from the ground and slowly walked back towards the gates of the castle. He looked about and saw rats crawling away from the down pour; it was then that he realized that he was the same way, running from something that posed no threat to him. It was now that Tenshi decided that he would find out his meaning, by finding those who knew him from long ago, for him his destination was a place he knew from many years ago…..

Gaijin………

End of chapter 4