Fan Fiction ❯ Spirit House ❯ A Day To Remember ( Chapter 1 )

Spirit House






Disclaimer: All these characters belong to me.



Summary: Seventeen-year-old Kimura, Yuriko is planning on becoming a writer
and is working hard to fulfill that dream, but when she accidentally releases
five imprisoned spirit animals with their own crazy personalities, becoming
a writer will be a lot harder than she thought.


Chapter one
A Day To Remember









The car pulled to a stop in front of an old Japanese style house, their new house you could say. The outside was far from being called 'new' and seventeen year old Kimura, Yuriko could only guess that the inside was worse.




" We're living here?" Her question was answered by a nod from her mother.

" It's beautiful isn't it?" Cherry blossom trees and Japanese maples surrounded the house. Her mother was right. It was beautiful. The blossoms from the cherry blossom tree swirled in the light breeze, falling gracefully to the already pink and white covered ground. A bamboo fence went around the back, hiding a dried up hot spring. This was like a fairytale, a dream. Maybe moving here wasn't such a bad idea.







Yuriko clutched her bag in her left hand as her mother and she made their way over to the front door where a note was attached. The note read:




Dear Haku and Yuriko,


We hope you and your daughter will love living in this house just as my husband and I did. But please, remember the warning I gave you.


Sincerely,

Yabu, Kimiko





" What does that mean?" Yuriko looked at her mother. " What warning?"


" It's nothing Yuriko dear, just some story. Lets go in ok?" Haku slid open the door and stepped in, every inch in the old house was covered in dust.



" They didn't take very good care of the house did they?"

" They moved out years ago, I got in touch with the owners and bought the house." Yuriko looked around, it was a very nice house but it needed a lot of cleaning.



" I like it, it was always hard for me to concentrate in the city, but now that we're here I think I'll be able to write better. I'm going to look around ok?" Putting her bag down the youth started up the dark stairs.



" Ok, but be careful. Let me get you a flashlight." Haku reached for her small duffel bag and pulled out a flashlight.


" Ok..." Yuriko took the flashlight and turned it on as she walked up the stairs, once on the second level she started to investigate the rooms.






~*~*~




Yuriko's footsteps echoed as she walked down the hall. She shined the light up at the ceiling, finding a dull spider web that was starting to come apart. There were cobwebs in the corners where dust had collected over the years the house was empty.





" I wonder how long it'll take us to clean this..." The thought of cleaning this big house wasn't a very pleasing one, but she looked forward to the results. After looking around the hall once more she slid open the next door and took a step in. The room was bare, the only thing that was in the room was a chest with a broken lock. Curious, Yuriko made her way over to it.







' I wonder what's in it... Did they mean to leave it here?' Leaving the flashlight on, she placed it by her feet before taking the broken lock off and putting it by the flashlight. Her fingers trembled slightly, her thoughts on what could be in the chest.





The raven-haired youth's fingers gripped the handle as she pulled up and opened it. A dust cloud hovered over the chest until she waved it away with her hand. She coughed from the dust as she still tried to clear it away with her hand.






Once the dust was clear she looked into the chest with interest. Inside, piles of paper lay in it, small rips and torn edges could easily be seen. Lifting them out Yuriko's eyes caught five small stone tablets. A questioning look came on her face as she took the tablets into her hand and walked over to the window to see them better. She rubbed her thumb over an image of a wolf.






" Ookami...?" Yuriko read, she looked to the next tablet that had an image of a crow.


" Karasu...? Neko...? Kitsune...? And... Koumori...?" She finished reading the tablets, each of them having a picture of a different animal on them with their name scratched under it. A faint glow from the tablets brought Yuriko's coffee-brown eyes to them. All of a sudden Yuriko's eyes felt heavy, she didn't know why but all she wanted to do now was sleep, which is
what she did. Her body wavered and soon her head was on the ground. Her fingers were now relaxed and the tablets slid out of her hand, barely making a noise when they hit the floor. The glow from the tablets was the last thing she remembered before everything went black.











~*~*~





Yuriko's eyes fluttered open to different surroundings. No longer was she in the old house, she was outside laying under a Japanese maple.



" Hey, I think she's waking up!" A female voice said from somewhere up in the tree.


" Who? The human girl?" This time it was male, it was obvious Yuriko was not alone. The teen looked up hoping to find the owners of the voices.


" Of course the human girl! Who else would I mean???" The female once again talked, it was easy to tell by her voice that she's annoyed. The human's eyes finally landed on two beings in the tree. The female was sitting on a branch while the other was standing next to her. There was something odd about the girl and it finally hit the minor, the female had fox ears and a tail that was currently swishing behind her.







Yuriko rubbed her eyes, she must've been seeing things. Shaking her head she looked to the male, he looked normal enough. Shaggy dull black hair, dark brown eyes and even a earring with a small black feather on it on his right ear. But the girl! The girl wasn't normal, no normal person looked like that!.






" What...? W-who are you??" Her eyes were so fixed on the two in the tree, that she never noticed her mother.


" Who's who?" Haku got a confused look from her daughter, she decided it'd be best if she changed the subject.


" I'm glad you're awake, you've been out for hours! I was worried when I found you upstairs like that but once I saw that you were just asleep I laid you outside."



" Oh... Umm... Did you happen to see any small stone tablets while you were up there?" The mother shook her head.


" No, all I saw was papers scattered everywhere. Anyways, time to get up! We're staying at my parents house until this house is all ready for us to live in." Haku smiled and helped Yuriko up. Yuriko stole one last glance at the tree, but this time... No one was there.








~*~*~






Yuriko was now at her grandparent's house lying in the room she usually stayed in when she visited. She could hear her younger cousins playing downstairs while her mother and grandparents talked over a cup of hot green tea.




" Was it all a dream? Maybe the tablets weren't real..." She whispered to herself.


'No... They're real...' Yuriko's eyes widened, someone else was in the room.


" W-who's there???" Her voice trembled, the girl's heart pounded heavily in her chest.


'Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you. Don't look so frightened.' A familiar male voice said from somewhere in her room.


" C-come out! If you're not going to hurt me then come out so I can see you!"



Silence flowed through the room before the sound of paws against a wooden floor arose. Hearing the noise, Yuriko whipped her head around to be face to face with a black cat.





It took Yuriko's mind a few seconds to register that the cat was the one talking.


'Don't scream...' He hissed, his voice serious.


" I... I'm not going to scream... But... You're not the one who was talking just a while ago..." Her eyes never left the cat, the beautiful cat. Streaks of red were splotched over the black fur, starting from his head and going to the tip of his tail.





'Yes well, that stupid bird thought it'd be best if I came out first...' An angry look came across the cats face.


" Bird?" Her dark coal colored hair fell gently from her shoulders as she leaned forward. This was getting confusing, why was the cat talking? And what bird? None of this made any sense and it was giving the teen a headache





The flapping of wings brought her thoughts back to the present. Yuriko looked to the ceiling, seeing a crow circling her from above before perching on her shoulder.




' I believe I'm the one he's talking about...' The crow cawed earning a glare from the cat.




' What's going on here?!' Her thoughts rang through her brain. ' How are they talking?!'



' I don't see why you look so confused... Didn't you read the papers?' The crow asked.



" Papers?" Her voiced questioned as if she never heard of it before.


' The papers in the chest- you didn't... read them?' The cat cut in, with an annoyed attitude. He was pacing the room his tail twitching. Yuriko sat up straight, a flashback of her taking the papers out of the chest and not even looking at them played in her head.




" I remember now! I was going to look at them but I-," Her words were cut off when she noticed that the cat and the crow were wearing the tablets around their necks, a thin beige colored rope held them.



" Those! The tablets! I saw them!" The human girl pointed to them.

' Oh... these? Yes, well, they have our names on them. We were imprisoned inside of them. But it seems you released us. We all thank you for that... Even Neko over there was glad.'



" So your name is Neko?" Yuriko smiled to the cat that only glared back. Getting an uneasy feeling, she moved to the crow. " I've got a feeling you're Karasu. Am I correct?"



' Yes you are. I'm the spirit of the crow. Karasu. He's the spirit of the cat. Neko.'


" Well it's nice meeting you both. But there were five tablets. Where are the other three?" Karasu looked up at the girl.


' They're here...Would you like to meet them?'


The seventeen-year-old female nodded, her eyes closed with a pleasant smile of her face.


' As you wish... Come outside with me, the others are out there.'



Karasu flew over to the already opened window. He flapped his wings a few times before soaring out and landing on a tree branch. Neko was next; he jumped out the window landing on the ground.



" Ok..." Yuriko swung her feet over the side of her window before ungracefully falling the ground. Picking herself up she dusted off her clothes.



' Nice land...' The spirit cat spat sarcastically.

A scarlet blush tinged her cheeks in embarrassment; her black bangs hid her chocolate brown eyes.


" Well I'm not a cat! I don't always land on my feet!" She shot back, still embarrassed.



' Believe me... That cat doesn't always land on his feet...' An almost mystical voice rang through the air, startling the human. Looking from side to side Yuriko finally found the owner of the voice. A large gray wolf walked out from the shadows and sat in front of her.





' This is Ookami... The leader.' Karasu cawed from his perch.

" Ookami?" Looking around his neck the girl found the tablet with the 'wolf' on in. " Well it's nice to meet you... I like your fur... The beads are pretty cool, and I like the earring." Yuriko carefully stroked the soft fur of the wolf. Four strands of red and black beads were on the back of his neck, and another two on the side, a dark red earring curved around his right ear
connecting to the back side of it.






' I'm the spirit of the wolf... Ookami...' The wolf got up walking over to a small stream that was behind her grandparent's house. As the stream came into view, a fox could be seen lying next to it. Karasu flew down to Ookami, landing on the large wolfs back.




' Hey, hey! Kitsune!' The bird left his perch on Ookami's back, landing next to Kitsune, who was now looking up at Yuriko.


' Oh you brought her here?'

' Seems they did...'

' Oh, Koumori you're up?' The golden three tailed fox looked up into a tree where a small bat hung upside down, he stretched his wings yawning, and it's small fangs gleaming in the light.




Yuriko looked up as well. " I'm guessing that's Koumori… spirit of the bat? And Kitsune... Spirit of the fox." Kitsune nodded lifting her front right paw where her tablet was tied, a small fox on it with 'Kitsune' engraved in it.





' Yes, you're correct.' Her three tails swayed behind her moving in an almost hypnotizing manner.



" We all lived in Spirit House..." Yuriko turned to the voice of Ookami to find him gone and in his place was a brown haired boy with the same beads that the wolf had in his hair. Wolf ears sat on the top of his head, his amber eyes fixed on the human




" W-what…?" She backed away from the humanized wolf before tripping over a root and falling into the steam. Lifting her arm, Yuriko looked at her soaked clothes before standing up. " Y-you all have human-like forms?"

They all nodded.

" I see… Well I think I better go back inside and get dressed before I catch a cold. You can wait in my room if you'd like."

" Your room?" Ookami looked puzzled. " And how're we supposed to get in there??"






" Yuriko!! What happened to you?!" Haku panicked getting up from the low table and running to her soaking wet daughter.


" I only fell in the stream..." Yuriko said dully as if it had happened before.

" Why were you outside? I thought you were up in your room?" Her mother questioned.


" Long story mom..."

" Will you be explaining?"

" I don't know if I should..." The teen mumbled to herself. Her thoughts were on the five that were currently in her room. It took a while but she convinced them to go through her window and wait for her. " I'm going to my room ok? I need to change..." Without waiting for another word from her mother, the youth made her way up the stairs and into her room.









Each of the spirit animals were now in their humanized forms doing various things in the room. Ookami was busy looking through shelves of books while Kitsune looked at herself in a mirror. Neko and Karasu were busy arguing while Koumori entertained himself with papers he found.




" Girl... Tell us your name. I find it best that we know each other since we'll be staying with you." Koumori shot out of nowhere. Yuriko's eyes widened. Since when were they staying with her?



" My name is... Kimura, Yuriko.... And wait a moment! You're all going to be staying with us??"


" Yes Yuriko, didn't you hear Ookami before? Our home is Spirit House and since you and your mother are moving in it's only right to let us stay."



" Okay... Well what's Spirit House?" This time it was Kitsune who talked. She glanced away from the mirror.


" Spirit House is what the house you're moving into is called. The ones who sealed us away named it that…"


" Yeah, too lazy to think of a cool name..." Koumori said sarcastically with a shrug. Yuriko let a small laugh escape her lips.


" I understand... But what about my mom?"

" Your mother... I've been thinking about that...-," Ookami began, every eye in the room turned to the leader. " I figure we should tell her... At least we won't have to sneak around."




" I agree with Ookami... Lets just tell her..." Karasu looked away from Neko turning his back to the fuming cat.


" I say we kick her out! It's our house not hers!" Neko spat, his cat-like ears flattening.


" Enough... Bri-," the wolf spirit started before the door to the bedroom opened.



" Yuriko dear, I brought you some-," Haku stopped in mid sentence looking at the six in the room including her daughter.


" Will someone finish their sentences?! It's really getting annoying!" Neko was now crouched down, his tail flicking from side to side.



" Mom...? Umm..." Silence soon spread across the room like a fire would spread over gasoline.



" W-who are they?" Haku's frightened voice could barely be heard, it wasn't everyday you went into a room to find five complete strangers that didn't really look human with your child!



" Mom... I know this is hard to believe... But-,"







" So... Spirit animals...?" Haku listened carefully to the story Yuriko told her. It was hard to believe, but it seemed to be real enough.



" They lived in the old house we're moving into.... So they'll be staying with us... That's ok... Right?" Her mother was silent, she seemed to be processing everything that was said.



" Yes... They can stay... It's a big house after all, we'll need help cleaning it!" A sudden smile danced upon her smooth tan skin, she placed the tea on a nearby table and left the room obviously proud of her answer.




Silence once again flooded the room.


" What was that...?"

" What was what Kitsune-san?" Yuriko inquired.

" What kind of mother is that?! She just lets five strangers live in your house?! She doesn't even know us!" The golden fox screeched.


" She's a great mom, maybe not all- together, but she's still great!" The teen protested with her arms crossed.


" Enough of this fighting... It's late... We're sleeping..." Whatever Ookami said, the others did. He was the leader, the 'alpha'. Walking over to one side of the room he sat on the ground, his legs and arms crossed. Soon the others followed, lying in a circle shape around the already sleeping wolf.






" Well... Maybe... While they sleep I'll start my writing." Yuriko whispered to herself. She sat down at her desk where her laptop was.


" Now... Where're those papers...?" The girl continued to look but still no luck. They weren't there.


" Where could they be? I had all my writing on them!" Her voice was full of panic as she searched frantically over and under the oak desk.



" What are you looking for?" The voice of Koumori asked.


" Oh.. Koumori-san, my papers... I'm looking for my papers." The youth looked to the bat, his elbow length brown/black hair was tied back to keep out of his face, his wings tucked behind his back. Koumori's hazel eyes seemed to hold mischief.




" Papers? Oh I saw those... I didn't like them on the desk... Made too much of a mess so I threw them away!" He smiled happily as if he did a good thing.



" Y-you.... What?!"

" Threw-them-away" The spirit of the bat said slower.

" I know that! Those were mine! You shouldn't throw them away! I worked hard on them!!" Yuriko's face had long passed looking nice. Her eyes were on fire, her heart was beating fast. With her fists clenched together she stomped over to the trash bin and began to dig through the garbage.




" I don't see why you're so mad... You should at least keep everything neat. Do you want people to think you're a pig?" Koumori was now sitting up, tapping his fingers on the finely polished wood floor..




Yuriko didn't answer, so much anger built up she could barely breathe, much less talk, and make any sense.



' How could he?! He had no right touching my things! Stupid bat.... Stupid cleaning freak!' Reaching into the bottom of the bin, her hands grasped onto papers. Pulling them out a small smile smoothed her once angry features.



" I.. I found them..." Sitting back at her desk she looked over at Koumori to find the bat completely taken over by sleep.


' I know... He didn't mean too. I'll have to set rules up tomorrow for them all. I can't wait to get to know them better.'





Yuriko sat at her desk drumming her fingers on the table. She finished moving what she had on paper to computer but now she was stumped. Her mind went blank as she tried to write.



" Great..." She murmured to herself. " Just great..." She sat for a couple of minutes before turning back to her laptop.




" Maybe I'll write in my journal... After all.... Today is a day to remember..."

Well here's the first chapter to 'Spirit House'! I hope you liked it, please tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, and comments are ALWAYS welcomed! I can't stop people from giving this story a flame but if you do flame please don't curse or go on and on about how it sucks. Anyways I hope it wasn't too slow and if it was I promise the next chapter will be better.

Also, I'll put up bio's of the characters up soon!