Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Witch Hunter Robin Fan Fiction ❯ Demon of Makai ❯ Chapter 10

What do you know, I'm updating again. This is a rare thing for me, so enjoy while it lasts. My summer ends next Wednesday, but that's okay, I guess. I still need to do my summer assignments, which is bad, but hopefully I'll get it all done. Enjoy the chapter.

 

~*~

 

Serena was watching the fire, making sure breakfast didn't burn. Her hands were unconsciously playing with her Ginzuishou. Her neko, Crescent, watched her hands as they moved. Occasionally she would pounce on them, but Serena always moved them before she could land on them. So, one failure after another, she would return to her studying of her human's “paws” before trying again.

 

This place doesn't feel right. There are so many demon auras around I can't block them out. I should've just volunteered for sentry duty; it's not like I was able to sleep last night. Why does everything seem to annoy me today? First, they got me up WAY too early, and now they have me watching the stupid food. Maybe it'll serve them right if I let it burn. Wait, that would mean that MY food would be burned, too. Looks like I have to save it. The sight of the food starting to smoke made her bring out her makeshift gloves and take it off the fire.

 

“Breakfast, or whatever meal this is,” she called. Of course, all the boys were immediately drawn here like magnets, while the girls followed at a more sedate pace. She served the food onto their paper plates so that no one would take more than their fair share, as the boys were apt to do. Serena watched to make sure that no one accidentally stepped on Crescent, since people seemed to never notice until they heard a yowl, followed by the pain of having their legs scratched by claws.

 

Taking her own food, she sat down a bit farther from the others while still being in their makeshift camp. Crescent leaped onto her lap and rubbed against her, purring.

 

“I suppose you want to be fed,” Serena said to her neko.

 

Crescent only mewed and continued rubbing her.

 

Sigh. “Okay, I'll let you try some of mine. I'm not that hungry anyway.” Crescent put her paws tentatively on the plate and sniffed the food. After taking one bite, she put her whole face in. My old friends never would've believed that I would say I wasn't hungry. I was always eating around them, but my appetite's disappeared since then.

 

She heard footsteps behind her. Turning slightly, she saw the blue-haired boy they called Rowen behind her.

 

“Is there something you wanted?” she asked, not caring that she sounded more than a little rude.

 

“You're so far away from the rest of us,” he commented in his New York accent. “I just came to make sure you were okay.”

 

“I'm as well as can be expected,” she responded coolly. “Was there anything else?”

 

“Nope,” he said, sitting down next to her.

 

“Then why are you still here?”

 

“I've got nothing better to do, so I might as well stay.”

 

Serena proceeded to ignore him, turning all her attention to Crescent, who was still eating her way through the leftover food. She could still feel Rowen's gaze on her. Why can't he take a hint and leave? Why does he care if I'm not close to the other people? He doesn't even know me, really.

 

“Hey, Serena?” he asked.

 

She looked up and was surprised to see him kneeling in front of her, his attention on Crescent.

 

“What exactly is this?” He pointed to the kaneko. “I've seen them around the house, but I've never seen a cat like this anywhere else.”

 

“I doubt you'll find them anywhere else,” she responded. “She's a fire cat. Kitten, actually. They were only born a couple weeks ago.”

 

“It's a good thing I'm not either of my parents,” he said, his face growing dark for a second. “They would've had all of them in a lab and under a microscope before you could say “Wow”.”

 

“What?” This doesn't sound good.

 

“My parents are scientists. They travel around a lot, so I never saw much of them. Seeing this fire cat would've made them go crazy. They'd probably call it a new discovery.” His face and voice took on a bitter overtone. “They never had time for me. I doubt they even know I'm gone. No, scratch that. I don't think they even know who I am, or that they ever had a son.”

 

“Sounds like you've had a tough life,” she commented softly.

 

“Yeah, but it got better once I met the other guys.” He looked in the direction of the rest of the group. “I'm closer to them then I ever was to my family. They'd say the same, since we've all had a chance to go home, and just chose to stay with Mia. Well, some of us had a choice.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Ryo was in an orphanage since his mom died when he was young, and his dad, a wildlife photographer, was attacked by a wild animal and killed. Yuli hasn't found his parents, and there's a good chance that they're dead, too. And Cye's family lives in England, and he's here until he finishes high-school.”

 

“Why do you think Yuli's parents are dead?” she asked him, curious despite her wishes of him leaving earlier.

 

“Something happened about a year ago,” he said softly. “He was separated from his parents, and we sorta took him in. He's been with us ever since.”

 

“I never would've thought that something like that had happened to someone like him. He seemed so happy.” I've seen this sort of thing happen far too many times. It's always the innocent that suffer from things like this.

 

“Yuli tries to hide his real feelings from others, even us. But there's not a whole lot we can do about it,” Rowen said sadly. “We'd help him if we could, but he hides so much, we can't even start.”

 

Hey, are you two ready to leave yet?” asked an annoyed voice. Spinning around, they saw Kagome was ready to go, as was the rest of the group.

 

“I guess it's time to leave,” Rowen said, sounding a little embarrassed. “Shall we? I don't think it's a good idea to keep the rest of them waiting.”

 

“I agree,” replied Serena, picking up her neko. Shuichi took her plate and gave it to one of the plants, which ate it greedily. “It's high time we left this place.”

 

~*~

 

I really don't like this place, Kagome complained to herself. The bugs are terrible, it's humid, and we have to find a demon that could be anywhere. Those boys seem to know an awful lot about this place, considering that they're human, and humans for the most part aren't allowed in Makai. Their auras are different, now that I actually look for it.

 

“Robin,” she murmured to the Fire Craft-user to her right, “do you sense something…strange…about the three that were with Hiei?”

 

“They seem to know a whole lot about a place that doesn't welcome humans,” whispered Robin, echoing what she herself had just been thinking. “I don't think that they're human.”

 

“I think you're right,” agreed Kagome, “but they aren't demons. Inuyasha would've thrown a fit if they were. What else could they be?”

 

Robin shrugged. “Maybe they're a different type of human, like witches. It's possible, you know.”

 

“Maybe. Their auras are bright like our kind of witches, but they don't seem to be witches.”

 

“Something you wish to share with the class?” asked Jordan, coming up behind them.

 

“It's nothing,” they chorused together. Jordan just raised an eyebrow.

 

“That's an awful lot of nothing to be talking about,” she retorted.

 

“Um, we were just talking about our guys,” Kagome hurriedly whispered. “I mean, we didn't even say good-bye, and now we're stuck in a world full of demons that eat humans. What are the odds of us seeing them again?”

 

“And this is why you've been whispering?”

 

“Well, it's not like anyone else needed to listen to us talk about them,” Robin said, following Kagome's lead.

 

Jordan didn't look like she believed their lie, but she didn't pursue it. Instead, she dropped back to talk to Serena and Crystal. The other two decided not to mention this conversation until they weren't surrounded by curious people, some of whom they were talking about.

 

“Where did you learn to lie so fast?” Robin asked.

 

“When I go to through the well, my grandpa had to make up lies for me so people would think I was sick, and when I actually did go to school, sometimes I had to make things up right there because of incidents where Inuyasha would show up or something like that.”

 

“I don't think I could learn to do that.”

 

“I didn't either until I had to.”

 

Five days and eighteen grouchy people and nekos later, they came upon their first town. A different aura covered the place, making them wary, but not wary enough for them to avoid the place if it meant they could spend the night NOT in each other's company. However, the place seemed to be deserted. There wasn't a person in sight. Everyone looked puzzled at this, since the town seemed to be well-kept for a ghost-town, but Kagome saw the auras of the townspeople, and sensed their fear.

 

“There are people here, but they are afraid,” she whispered so her voice wouldn't carry outside the group. “Somehow humans found a way into Makai, and created their own village.”

 

“They must think we're demons,” said Hiei matter-of-factly. “If they're the only humans here, then it would be a logical assumption. Where do you sense the nearest human?” That question was directed at Kagome.

 

“There are some hiding in that building,” she pointed towards a place that looked like a storage area for food. “Why? What are you going to do?”

 

“This.” He walked over to it, the others following and forming a half-circle around him and the door, waiting to see what he would do. He opened the door. The sound of screaming children filled the air. Startled, he leaped back, away from them and going into defense mode. Children ran out of the warehouse-sized building, but had nowhere to go, as they were boxed in by the half-circle. This, of course, did nothing to ease their panic.

 

Their cries brought out their parents, who were also in hiding. Bringing makeshift weapons with them, they charged the group from Ningenkai, shouting. They didn't get very far, however. Kento had picked up a huge wooden beam that used to support the roof of the building that hid the children and threw it right in their path. This earned him stares from all around, except for his four friends. He just shrugged and said, “I work out a lot.”

 

That wouldn't be the reason he could pick up a beam that weighs more than four monster trucks! Kagome internally shrieked.

 

The townspeople got over their surprise at a wooden beam being thrown at them and had started their forward movement again. “Stupid ningens,” Hiei muttered, taking out his katana and preparing to slice through them. However, before he could make another move, some of the children threw themselves on him, preventing him from moving. This served to enrage their parents more, as it looked like he would target their children now.

 

Before they could come close to Hiei, though, they were stopped by both Jordan and Crystal, who proceeded to shang-hai those closest to them. And of course, the boys weren't about to let girls show them up, and only Serena, Kagome, and Robin were left on the sidelines, trying to keep Hiei from slaughtering every human there. The children refused to let go of him, and the remaining girls wouldn't let him hurt them, so he was stuck. His aura was pulsing madly, indicating that he was furious, but he wouldn't go against either Kagome or Robin, much less both of them, so there wasn't much he could do.

 

“You could at least try to get them off,” he said in an annoyed tone.

 

“We are trying, but they look like they'll strangle you if we get too close,” Serena called to him. The other kids had placed themselves between them and Hiei, making it impossible for them to reach him.

 

“They're only children. How strong can they be?” He was getting impatient.

 

“Look at yourself. And you call yourself a demon,” Shuichi remarked while fending off angry parents.

 

“They won't let me hurt these children,” he complained. “Besides, if I do, eventually King Yama will find out and I'll be thrown back in this place. And while we're talking about handicaps, why haven't you used your Rose Whip? It would save lots of time and trouble.”

 

“The same reason as you, Hiei,” he said as another crazed father slashed at him with an axe. “I like this place no more than you do, and I would miss my mother too much to jeopardize my staying in Ningenkai.”

 

Apparently, they had forgotten that they could be overheard, or they were just past caring at that point. The three girls didn't make much of it, figuring they'd find out later. Instead, they focused on the more immediate problem of getting to Hiei before he lost his temper.

 

Robin sighed. “Looks like we'll just have to scare them a bit.” She stared somewhere in the center of the wall of kids, unblinking. Smoke sprang up and the young ones close to it leaped away, yelling and coughing.

 

“You didn't.” Kagome knew she did, though.

 

“I did,” Robin confirmed. “There's our path, ladies.” She walked down the aisle the kids made as they ran from the fire.

 

“Don't you think that was a bit drastic?” Serena asked as she and Kagome followed the fire witch.

 

“We had to get them to move, so I burned some dry grass between two kids. It's not that big a deal,” Robin replied as she continued on to Hiei. “I didn't hurt them, and they ran before they were burned.” She glanced at the kids still clinging to Hiei, rendering him immobile. They had just seen her glare at the ground and it burst into flame, so they were understandably terrified. Shrieking, they ran like their lives depended on it, which they thought it did. “Now why couldn't you have done something like that?” she asked Hiei, who was trying to get his muscles moving again.

 

“You wouldn't let me,” he replied, picking up his katana. “If I even so much as looked at them with hostility, you'd all have my head.”

 

“He's right, you know,” commented Serena. “Let's go over to and see what Jordan, Crystal, and the boys did to the adults here.”

 

They had beaten almost all the grown people to the ground, and the only one left standing was apparently the headman of the town. He was glaring fiercely at Yusuke, Jordan, and Kento, who were pointing sharp things towards him. He started babbling something that sounded almost like Japanese, but had mutated, so the listeners were left with a feeling that they should know what he was saying, but not quite knowing what it was. Poor Cye just looked confused; he didn't speak Japanese fluently, and this was completely lost on him.

 

“Um, do any of you know what he's saying?” asked Ryo, looking at him like he was a crazed lunatic that had just broken out of the nuthouse.

 

Heads shook a negative. “Who are you?” asked Yusuke slowly.

 

The man looked surprised. With an obvious effort, he said, “I am Yoshiro. Who are you, demons?”

 

“We aren't demons!” Ryo said indignantly. Yoshiro only looked at him with confusion and hostility. “We are not demons,” he repeated, slower that time. Now the chieftain looked more confused.

 

“What are you, then?” he asked, still painfully slow.

 

“We're human,” Kuwabara answered him. “What else would we be?”

 

“But only demons live here.”

 

“Then you must be demons, according to that,” Hiei pointed out.

 

Yoshiro turned red and started shouting in the mutated language again. They looked at him, nonplussed. “I'm not sure if this is what he's saying, but I think that he's saying that these people aren't demons,” Shuichi murmured to the others while keeping an eye on the steaming Yoshiro.

 

Finally figuring out that they didn't have a clue as to what he and been saying, he muttered something under his breath and stated, “We are not demons.”

 

“Well, neither are we!” exclaimed Kuwabara.

 

“Thank you for telling him that, Captain Obvious,” Yusuke said sarcastically.

 

“Why did you attack us, if you are not demons?” Yoshiro demanded. “We have done nothing to you, yet you come and destroy our homes.”

 

“You attacked us first,” Kento said indignantly.

 

“No, you attacked our children,” Yoshiro pointed out once he understood what Kento said. “We would have left you alone if you had done the same to us.”

 

“All Hiei did was open the door,” Yusuke countered. “Your kids screamed and then you came out with pitchforks and axes. What were we supposed to do? Let ourselves get run through?”

 

One of the children came up and babbled something at him. The worried and wary expression on his face returned with full force. “I have been a fool to believe a story such as yours,” he stated stonily. “You summoned fire among our children and almost burned them.”

 

Hiei was suddenly the center of attention of the Reikai Tantei, and the others, since they had no idea what happened, followed their gaze. “Don't look at me,” he said crossly, “I didn't touch them. Robin's the one who set things on fire.”

 

That transferred their looks to Robin. “She dropped a lit match, and some of the dry plants caught on fire,” Kagome lied for her, holding her hands in front of her. “They startled her, and she dropped it.”

 

The gazes now swung to Serena and Robin for confirmation. They both nodded their heads, backing up Kagome's lie.

 

Shuichi took it upon himself to explain what happened to Yoshiro. “My friend found a small firestick while we were traveling and kept it. She likes to finger it when she's nervous, and she had it out when it burst into flame. This startled her, so she threw it away from herself, not really aiming at anything. It happened to land amongst the children. She is very sorry about that.”

 

Yoshiro's face cleared up immediately and he turned to the child by him. He asked him something, and the child looked uncertain before nodding vigorously. Yoshiro turned back to them, smiling broadly. “I apologize for our behavior. We thought you were attacking our children, and had to take action. What might bring you younglings to our humble town?”

 

“ `Younglings'?” Kagome whispered to Serena. “We're the demons coming to eat them, and now we're `younglings'?”

 

“Well, all of us are sixteen,” she pointed out. “This man appears to be in his early forties, so we would be young to him.”

 

Yoshiro was talking to Shuichi about something, while the children looked at them with awe, their earlier fear forgotten. “I think we'd better tend to the injured,” pointed out Robin. “We did hurt them, and it's only right that we heal them.”

 

“Good point,” agreed Kagome, “but I think we'd better tell Yoshiro, or we'll be thrown out for practicing witchcraft.”

 

“Would they be wrong?” asked Serena, causing them to laugh. Walking up to Shuichi and the leader of these people, Serena explained that they were going to tend the wounded. Yoshiro absently waved her off after acknowledging what she had said. “Let's get to work,” she instructed those not busy, meaning everyone except Shuichi. Robin paired herself with Cye to explain what exactly had just happened, as the poor Brit was still lost.

 

Serena paired up with Kagome. “Let's get started, shall we?” she suggested.

 

“The sooner the better,” Kagome responded. Gathering her energy, she focused on the first injured person she found, which wasn't hard. Vaguely aware that Serena was using a crystal to heal another person, she released her healing energy into the person. Satisfied that the person was healed, she moved on to the next person. She knew there were too many people to heal like this, so after the first four, she started picking them up with the help of Serena and took them into a building that the kids brought them to.

 

“I guess this is their new hospital,” Serena commented when they started putting people on the “beds” there. There were already people there, so they assumed the others knew to take the hurt ones here. They were in the process of bringing another person to the hospital when Shuichi approached them.

 

“A long time ago, their ancestors came here via a portal from Japan to this place, and it collapsed before they could go back. They've been here ever since. Something was placed over this town so that it repelled demons, but recently, whatever it was broke. It was placed there so long ago, they no longer know what it was, but they know that it isn't there anymore because a demon has been ravaging this place for a while. It creates a portal into this town and takes what it wants before leaving again. It's been happening for a few years, ten to be exact. That's why everyone was hiding when we came. Only demons have come to this place since they've been here. Their Japanese has mutated, but a few know the pure language still.”

 

“How can they still be alive?” Kagome asked him. “I thought humans couldn't live in Makai.”

 

“Did Hiei tell you that?” he asked, his eyes flashing for some unknown reason.

 

“No,” she replied, startled at his intensity. “A friend of mine told me.”

 

“How did your friend know of Makai?”

 

“I don't know. He only mentioned it in passing, and I didn't think he was serious. I didn't even know what he was talking about.”

 

“Who was he?”

 

What's with him? “I don't remember. He moved away a long time ago.”

 

Shuichi relaxed somewhat. “I'll go tell the others what's been happening.” He turned to leave, but Serena asked him something before he was out the door.

 

“Could this be the demon you're searching for?”

 

He stopped at the door. “It could be,” he replied, “though I seriously doubt it.” He walked out.

 

“I think we'd better stay here with these humans,” whispered Kagome as she and Serena followed Shuichi out the door. “They'll need help if another demon comes along looking for a free lunch, which will be soon.”

 

“I think you're right,” Serena whispered back. “That way, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Shuichi can look for that demon, and then we can all go home.” She looked uncertain for a minute. “You don't think they'd leave us here, would they?” she asked apprehensively.

 

“No,” Kagome said with confidence. “Hiei would never let them even if they wanted to.”

 

Serena's face brightened. “If you're sure,” she said.

 

~*~