InuYasha Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Tales of the Night ❯ Night III: Glimpse Part II ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Title: Night III: Glimpse Part II
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of Sengoku Otogizoushi - InuYasha or Yuu Yuu Hakusho. InuYasha belongs to Takahashi Rumiko, Shogakukan, Viz Media, ShoPro Entertainment, and Shounen; while Yuu Yuu Hakusho belongs to Togashi Yoshihiro, Shueisha, Viz Media, and Shounen. No profit or money of any kind is made from this fan-created crossover.
Warning(s): Mild Violence, swearing


It was mere boredom and nothing more. It was merely boredom. Hiei continued to repeat those sentences in his mind as he followed after a human woman for the second night in a row. He did have nothing better to do as he was stuck in the Ningenkai, after all. It was part of his probation, or so that toddler decreed. He figured he got off easy for stealing three artifacts of darkness, attempting to turn a human woman into a youkai, and being an all-around jerkass. Though given how the air in the Ningenkai blocked his nose, and he did not even have an enhanced nose, he considered it to be more of a punishment than the god intended.

Also, it was not everyday he came across a human who had managed to see him. Most were too caught up in their own lives, their own trivial matters to look beyond the leaves and see him. It had become something of a game to him, and with each passing day he lounged in lower and lower branches until he was clear to even human eyes. Yet no one bothered to look, or if they did, they did not look twice. Their oblivious nature was almost enviable if there were not so many more intriguing things hiding in the shadows. She managed to look into the darkness straight into his eyes without fear. In fact, he would even go so far as to say that she was excited and happy to see him. It was very strange, though there was no denying that she was a strange creature.

Maybe there was a bit of curiosity mixed in with the boredom as well.

So Hiei kept to the shadows, watching as she walked through the streets with a dark melancholy surrounding her. From what he had observed, she existed throughout her days and that emotion would cloak her at night. She would stare at her window with a certain kind of longing imprinted on her face and showing through her odd eyes of midnight blue. Only when she was wandering away from her shrine did it lift. He could only scoff; humans these days were always depressed about something trivial more often than naught. It was amazing so many had managed to live with how stupid, materialistic and self-absorbed they had become.

For one such as he, disgust also colored his scoffs. What did they know about life? About pain and suffering? Ninety-nine percent of the time the answer was absolutely nothing. At the moment, it was still too soon for him to tell which category she belonged in: the majority, or that elusive one percent.

He needed to know who she was to be able to look beneath the obvious and do so without fear. He refused to be seen by just anyone, and if she turned out to be just anyone, he would find a way to make it so she never breathed the same air as him again. Yet if there was one thing he had learned in the time he had been forced to stay in the human realm, it was that humans feared the unknown. They feared what it might reveal about the world and their own selves. Yet she did not. Perhaps she was not looking into the unknown at all. He could not figure her out.

It was because of his elevated position on the top of power poles that he saw her other stalker, one that was not going to be as benign as he. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword as he came to a stop, still in the shadows above her. She had stopped as well; perhaps she had realized she was not alone at last. Despite if she realized it or not, there was nothing she could do against a youkai. She was only a weak human. And he knew if he let a human be killed in front of him it would give that damn toddler a reason to keep him under his thumb longer.

When the youkai made to move and attack the girl, he made his. Lucky for her, Hiei was faster than any low-ranking youkai.

His sword cut through the youkai without effort, muscle and bone gave way in the face of the razor-edged blade. His feet touched the ground not far from her, his face ahead toward the horizon while she stared at the now headless youkai that tried to kill her. The metallic fragrance filled the night air as a few drops clung to his skin as if they were trying to match the color of his eyes. It was an aroma that reminded him of home: battlefields of the fallen where the earth reclaimed the unworthy.

He could hear her smile. She was a strange human, to smile in the face of carnage. "I knew I wasn't going crazy, you really have been following me."

She was either mentally unstable or stupid to ignore the immanent peril she had been in. He knew all about defense mechanisms, but this was ridiculous.

"As if I would ever stoop to follow you around like a lost puppy."

It was amusing, in a sick sort of way, how he could tell what she was feeling without even having to look at her. He could hear the relieved happiness be sucked from her smile and replaced with a content melancholy that did not quite match up to what she had been feeling earlier. She had to be stupid to wear her emotions on her sleeve.

"No, not a puppy," she said. "More like a blood-splattered guardian angel."

He never heard her move. His attention had been focused more on the emotions that surrounded her until it was too late. A foolish mistake he had lived long enough to know not to make. Her hand came to rest against his cheek, her fingers wiping away the drops of blood. He could feel the callouses on her palm. Perhaps she was not as weak as he first thought to have hands that were not soft. He wondered how she got those callouses as they were not from a sword.

Yet they were warm against his cool cheek. It was the first time anyone had touched him in such an intimate manner. In fact, it was the first time anyone had touched his face at all. He jerked out of her reach, nearly dropping his sword in his haste to sheathe it, and retreated to a safe distance that he was sure she could not see. Her warm, flawed hands set him off-balance more than he would ever admit. Who did she think she was to touch him in such a manner? If anything, she should be too terrified and repulsed to even want to be within breathing distance as one such as he.

She was proving to be even stranger than he first though as the smile never faded from her face or eyes. Less with his eyesight (as he did not have the enhanced eyesight as other youkai species) and more of just knowing, he could tell that the blood of the youkai was still on her fingertips. She bent down, her school uniform making her seem even more out of place, and touched the corpse with those sullied fingers as her power purified it from existence. He had been so focused on the emotions that flowed easily from her that he never realized how dangerous she was to one of his kind. He narrowed his eyes as he realized she was not as stupid as he first thought to have no issue evincing all her emotions.

"Thank you," she said, either knowing he could hear her or read her lips, "my bloody little guardian."

Her laughter was soft and almost silent amidst the twilight of the city, it made him marvel over it almost enough to not glare at her. Almost.


A version of this chapter was posted to the livejournal community 30_Nights for their theme #014: Guardian Angel.
Word count: 1327
Edited: 3 June 2010