Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of The Demon ❯ Meeting The Fox ( Chapter 3 )

Mark of The Demon

Chapter 3

Meeting The Fox

I stumbled backwards and fell onto my rear end, “It…can talk?” I stared at it, not sure whether to think this was all just some crazy dream or an insane hallucination. Last time I checked, animals couldn’t talk. I sat there on the dirt ground dumbfounded as Shinji appeared to be more wordless than I was. From the corner of me eye I saw him gaping dumbly. At least I wasn’t the one looking like an idiot this time.

Kuwabara seemed taken aback, but less than Shinji and me. Was he used to this kind of thing? I could see the shock slowly disappear from his face as he gave the thing a scrutinizing look. As if he was trying to figure out if it was good or evil.

It floated in circles around me again, looking me up and down. As if it were examining me or something, I felt like a bug under a microscope. I could feel the creature’s sapphire eyes scan over me excitedly. I blushed at all the attention because soon Shinji and Kuwabara were giving me curious gazes. It was all rather uncomfortable. It was that feeling you get when people are watching you, but there’s nothing you can do about it so you just stay still and try to act like you’re okay with it when you’re really not.

“I can’t believe it’s really you,” the thing called Nekagimaru finally said. He or she or whatever it was grinned up at me with almost admiration in its eyes. It then landed in my lap and flicked its tail, “I felt your energy, it has stayed the same for the past few millennia I see. I have waited patiently for your return for so long.” Its excitement then turned to puzzlement and it tilted its head to one side, “Don’t you remember me? It is I, your faithful companion who assisted you in many battles, Nekagimaru!”

I shook my head, “Sorry.” Faithful companion? This…thing? This thing looked like a plush toy come to life, though it was much cuter than any stuffed animal I had ever seen. Something like that I would have loved when I was a preteen, I shuddered at remembering my stuffed animal phase.

Before it could say anything else Kuwabara picked it up out of my lap by the scruff of its neck and brought it up to his eye level, “You’re from Makai?”

Makai? Demon world? He was joking right? Wasn’t that were demons come from?-not that I had ever seen any until perhaps now. This thing was obviously not from our world, even I could guess that much.

Nekagimaru broke from free Kuwabara and floated above our heads while violently shaking its head it him and pointing a paw, “Of course not! Why would such a dignified creature as I be from such a place? I’m a Spirit Beast from Rekai who has been waiting over thousands of years for her return to a conscious living form.”

Kuwabara’s eyes widened, “A Spirit Beast?”

I could see him thinking hard about something, but I had no idea what. It sounded weird to me anyway. My shock was fading, but I was still alarmed. This entire thing was starting to sound almost otherworldly.

“Thousands of years…” Shinji whispered finally speaking.

The creature nodded, “Thousands of years!” It then flew down right in front of Shinji as if incensed with rage, “A mere human like you and carrot top over there could never understand the importance of that girl! I have been locked away before you humans could even comprehend the world!” It then asked me, “Why’s there a hachimaki ion your head?”

I stood up and brushed off my skirt, ignoring the question, “You’ve been waiting for me…Nekagimaru?”

Its anger changed to delightedness as it heard me say its name, “Yes. I’ve been waiting over ten millennia for your re-”

“I think we get it,” Kuwabara said bluntly. He looked as if he was trying to make head or tail of this situation, more than Shinji and me at least.

Nekagimaru took to sitting on my shoulder placidly and continued in a clam voice, “I did dread the worst and I see I was right. Your memories are no longer intact nor your powers. Well,” it sighed admit tingly, “it has been a long time…” Its voice was now forlorn and almost sad. It gave me huge sad eyes then said, “It was to be expected. I should’ve known better then to assume you would remember.” Nekagimaru’s eyes lightened up, “But not to worry! I can train you and help you remember everything you’ve forgotten!”

I felt bad for not having the slightest clue what Nekagimaru was talking about. “You said you were locked away, right?” I asked before turning to Kuwabara, “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this would you?” Since he was the only one you didn’t appear completely and utterly astonished and he seemed familiar with the words Makai and Spirit Beast. I gave him a questioningly look.

Nekagimaru’s ears perked up suddenly and its eyes began looking wildly around, “We must leave this place.”

“What? Why?” I inquired furrowing my brows. Nekagimaru’s tone told me that something was wrong and I wasn’t in the mood for anymore surprises today.

“I fear my presence has given you away, we must find a safe place at once!” Nekagimaru’s voice was urgent and almost frightened. I felt its claws dig into my shoulder a little and it arched its back like a cat does when scared.

Shinji was cynical, “You’re kidding right? We’re not in any danger, are-”

Something moved from behind the trees and the next thing I knew blood splattered across my face and I was knocked back. I hit a tree hard and my body crumpled to the ground. I pushed myself up with my hand despite how much they were still stinging from when Nekagimaru had landed on me, I forced myself to look up and I saw Shinji laying face down with blood pouring from his body. Kuwabara was still standing, but he was holding what seemed to be a sword of light in his hand. Brandishing it the attackers who I couldn’t get a clear view of because he was in the way.

Nekagimaru rushed to my side, “Are you alright? We must get out of here!”

“Not without Shinji,” I protested as I scrambled to my feet. As I moved closer to my cousin I finally caught a glimpse of the attackers. They pretty much appeared to be human, except their eyes and their long pointed nails. Other than that they were wearing regular clothes, but I was soon transfixed on their eyes, I could see the bloodlust in them.

Before I knew what was happening Kuwabara had backed off and swung Shinji over his back and grabbed me roughly by the wrist, “We gotta run!” He yelled back at me and without thinking for another split second I ran as fast as I could as not to be dragged around again.

Nekagimaru perched on my head, “For now we must got out of here. It’s too risky to fight with the human injured and in your current condition you wouldn’t stand a chance against them, though they were low class youkai.”

“Do you know anyone who lives around here?” Kuwabara shouted back at me, “Oh wait, I think Kurama lives close to here!”

“Who the heck is Kurama?”

“Ah,” Nekagimaru said wonderingly, “you mean Youko Kurama? You know him? The infamous spirit fox?”

Spirit fox? Why did everything have to be about demons and spirit things today? It may have been wiser to have gone to school. If I hadn’t ditched with Shinji then he might not be hurt right now. I felt the guilt growing in me, my cousin was hurt and it was my fault. It was all my fault, I felt so terrible even though I was terrified.

“We’d be safe with him,” Nekagimaru reassured me in my ear. Maybe it could see how torn I was or perhaps it thought I was fearing for my own life rather than my cousin’s.

I gulped before taking a quick look behind us. I saw three figures chasing us and my hear began racing even faster.

“We are they chasing us?” I shouted at Nekagimaru.

“They’re not chasing us,” Nekagimaru said sharply, “They’re chasing you. I should’ve known it would have been too risky for me to seek you out at such a time, but I was so anxious.”

“Why are they chasing Rakuen?” Kuwabara asked as we found our way back onto the park’s cement path. He tugged me along, which astounded me. How could anyone run so fast while carrying someone and dragging another person? Maybe I should’ve given Kuwabara more credit, he was pretty strong or maybe sheer will power?

“I’ll explain once we’re safe!” Nekagimaru explained loudly.

We finally managed to get out of the park and were running along the sidewalk while people stared at us. I guess it wasn’t everyday you saw a guy towing a girl and carrying her cousin was it? And the fact that we were covered in Shinji’s blood wasn’t helping. We knew we were safe even in public, but still better safe then sorry. Sometime during the running my bandage flew off my head, but I was to busy trying to keep up with Kuwabara to care that much. So what if the world could see my stitches? I was too busy worrying about Shinji to give it a second thought.

Kuwabara let me go when we reached a house that was out of city. I was somewhat thankful since I didn’t think I could run anymore because my legs felt like they were going to fall off.

He then began pounding on the door with his fist, “Kurama! Open up, it’s me Kuwabara!”

I heard someone walk down some stairs inside and after a second the door opened. I saw a teenage boy standing there, shorter than Shinji, but had amazing emerald eyes and long red hair. He looked us over before beckoning us inside. I noticed that his eyes were on me, I guess the fact that I was still in my school uniform and covered in blood was more than just odd. Maybe highly unusual.

When we got inside, panting I bowed and said, “Thank you.”

He gave me a smile before helping Kuwabara bring Shinji into a living room. They laid him down on the couch after putting a few towels down so he wouldn’t bleed over everything. I stood in the entrance hall trying to catch my breath, I was hoping Shinji would be alright as I tried to cool myself down. Although I had lots of questions to ask Kuwabara and Nekagimaru.

After only some minutes I went into the living room and sat on the floor next to Shinji while leaning my back against the front of the couch. I had honestly never been so worried about my cousin in my entire life. I turned my head a little to look at him, there was a long gash on his chest. His shirt was drenched in blood and I felt like I was going to throw up. Besides those strange dreams, I never actually seen so much blood before.

The red haired boy and Kuwabara reentered the room with Kuwabara carrying a bowl of water and some fresh towels and the other carrying some bandages. It looked like they had done this before to me. Did they know people who got attacked by demons a lot? They seemed awfully prepared for this type of thing.

Nekagimaru was still on my head and I had a feeling it was a little tense as well.

“The cut is quite deep,” the red haired boy noted taking off Shinji’s jacket. He and Kuwabara were both leaning over him to observe the seriousness of the injury. He then looked up at Kuwabara, “You’re lucky my mother isn’t home.” I took it this meant that if his mother was home this entire situation would be very awkward. I couldn’t imagine Kuwabara trying to tell and elderly woman that he wanted to see Kurama while having an unconscious boy slung over his shoulder accompanied by a bloody girl.

“Is he going to be okay?” I wondered sadly. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Kuwabara said, “Kurama has some experience bandaging people up!”

I didn’t feel at ease with his comment anymore than I did a couple of seconds ago, but I wiped my tears away feeling silly for asking.

Kurama gave me a soft smile, “He’ll be fine. Though I need to ask you to leave the room.”

I felt embarrassed again, but I left and closed the door behind me before sinking to the floor. I exhaled heavily and buried my face in my hands. This was all my fault. If I had just gone to school Shinji might still be alright and I wouldn’t be so anxious.

Nekagimaru tried to comfort me, “I’m sure the human will be okay, Youko Kurama is a master of plants. I’m sure he knows some that can heal the boy up faster.”

Master of plants? That wasn’t comforting either.

Anyway, I didn’t answer. The way Nekagimaru said human was a reminder that humans are mortal, meaning they could die. Though I didn’t know if I was quite fearing for Shinji’s live anymore, the injury didn’t seem as severe as I first though. Maybe the blood just freaked me out. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to Shinji, I never did. He was my cousin and even though he teased and annoyed me…he was the closet thing to a sibling I ever had. Sometimes, though I’d never say it to his face, I thought he was like the older brother I never had. He was my best friend, I couldn’t imagine living with myself if I was the cause of his death.

I pressed my ear to the door to see if I could hear them talking, but I only heard the sound of hushed voices. Perhaps they anticipated that I might eavesdrop on them. I couldn’t even make out snippets of sentences or words which made me worry even more. I understand why he wanted me to leave the room, I knew they were talking about me because I sneezed. But what about me were they talking about, I heard Kuwabara tell Kurama my name but that was all. Then they went silent making me press my ear harder on the door just in case they were talking extra quietly.

The door abruptly opened and I fell forward at Kurama’s feet. I got up to my feet quickly and stood on my tiptoes to try to look around to see if Shinji was okay, “He’s not dead, is he?”

“Nowhere near it,” Kurama said stepping past me, “just unconscious.”

“See?” Nekagimaru told me, “I told you he’d be fine. And you were so worried about the human too.”

I relaxed. I could breath easy once again.

“Would you like something to drink?”

I blinked, “Uhh, sure.”

“I’ll got you some spare clothes too.” He eyed my blood covered clothes before he kept on walking.

I watched him as he went upstairs before bolting into the living room and almost knocking Kuwabara out of the way.

Nekagimaru jumped onto the top of the couch after I knelt down next to Shinji. I had never ever felt so relieved to see him alive. He was laying down with a bandage wrapped around his chest, his arms at his sides. I slightly blushed because in order to put the bandage on they took his shirt off, I tried to take no notice of that fact completely. He was my cousin and I was glad that he was at least breathing. I couldn’t bring home a dead Shinji to Uncle and Auntie. Uncle was still sad over my mother’s death, I don’t know if he’d be able handling losing another family member like his son. I bit my bottom lip, I could feel tears in the corners of my eyes. Tears of respite not tears of sorrow.

Kurama came back down and handed me a pair of spare clothes then showed me a bathroom where I could change. I told Nekagimaru to stay by Shinji even though it tried to follow me until I threatened to shave off all it‘s fur then I continued I went into the bathroom. I managed to mumble a thank you before closing the door to Kurama who then informed me that tea would be ready once I was done changing. I made a face to myself, I didn’t like tea very much.

I took off my bloody school uniform then put on the spare clothes which turned out to be a large t-shirt and very baggy pants. The clothes basically swallowed up my body, that’s what I get for being short.

I noticed my stitches in the mirror. I moved closer to examine my own injury. I traced my finger over them, the black thread was caked with dried blood. I counted them. Ten. Ten ugly black stitches across my upper forehead. I took my ponytail down and tried to cover them up with my bangs, but they were still visible.

Giving up, I left the bathroom while carrying my old clothes.

I could smell the scent of tea in the air and I scrunched my nose. As long as it wasn’t that nasty tea medicine stuff that supposedly helped heal sore throats, I find that tea to be sickly bitter and hot.

I went into the kitchen where I saw Nekagimaru licking some black tea out of a bowl looking very content.

I sat next to Kurama, “Do you think it’s safe to give that stuff to it?” Did demons eat human food and drink human drinks? I thought they ate flesh and stuff. Maybe I’ve seen to many zombie monster movies?

“I think Nekagimaru will be fine,” he replied sipping his own tea from a cup.

I hugged my clothes to my chest, blushing. “Where’s Kuwabara?”

“He went looking for Yusuke.”

“Oh…okay…” Wait. Why would he be looking for Yusuke?

Nekagimaru stopped drinking for a moment, “Kurama, she doesn’t know that Yusuke is the Rekai Tantei.”

I flinched, what was with all the word names today? Makai. Spirit Beast. Youko Kurama. Now, Rekai Tantei? I felt like my head was going to explode.

“I know what a Reikai Tantei is!” I blurted out, standing up and pounding my fists on the table, feeling the heat raise to my cheeks. Although that made me look like a bigger dim-witted. That was a bad and very not smart move, but you can’t turn back time no matter how badly I wanted to now. I’m an idiot, I thought bitterly. But maybe if I held up face they’d believe me.

Kurama gave me a spectacle look and Nekagimaru narrowed her eyes at me. Okay, now there was no chance in hell I could keep a straight face, they saw right through me.

“Really?” They both asked in unison.

I slunk back into the chair in defeat, “No, not really…” I felt like crying out of my own imprudence now.

Kurama poured me a cup of tea which I willed myself to sip out of politeness for all that he’d already done before he dove into a embellished explanation of basically everything that perplexed me today. I sat stilly as he told me about the three realms, Koenma-sama, demons, spirits, Spirit Beasts, Reikai Tantei, ferry girls and spirit energy. Which was a little more than I wanted to know though when he talked about Spirit Beasts I peeked at Nekagimaru, who was happily lapping up the last bit of tea in the bowl.

I found everything a little hard to believe once he finished. I don’t know how I refrained myself from spazzing out a him, maybe I had a little bit of common sense.

Looney, I thought in the back of my mind, maybe it was just random coincidence that what he had told me fell in sync with what happened today. Coincidence, I told myself again, but that was a hell lot of coincidences for one day. I didn’t dare say anything aloud though.

“Though,” Kurama stated suddenly, “I’m still distrustful of you, Nekagimaru. You say you were locked up in Rekai jail, why were you there?”

That was a good question. I had been pondering the same thing when Nekagimaru had told me earlier.

“It’s a long story,” it exhaled noisily. “A very long story, but I won’t tell it now. Young girl tell me your name.”

I hesitated before saying, “Arakawa, Rakuen.”

“Rakuen,” it said as though that name was unsuitable for me. “I expected the humans to give you a better name, but they are out of the loop about your importance. You’re an orphan, correct?”

I nodded, looking to Kurama to see that he was still eyeing Nekagimaru apprehensively. I could already guess that he was the inquisitive type, very cautious as well.

“Yes, I knew that much.” Nekagimaru didn’t gave the impression that it cared that my mother was dead and that my father may be as well. “You see, your mother was never meant to live past your birth, it goes with you, understand? In order for you to be born your mother must give up her own life which is why it took so long for you to regain a new form.”

“You still haven’t told me who I am suppose to be?” I snapped angrily, mad that Nekagimaru had reminded me about my dead mother.

“Ah, well you are the rebirth of one of the greatest warriors in the Youkai Wars around ten thousand years ago,” Nekagimaru explained. “You were one of the fiercest fighters, merciless and ruthless and I was always be your side. You were brave and valiant. You are the new form of,” Nekagimaru took a deep breath then uttered the name, “Kurenai, princess of the youkai! But enough of the small talk, I must start training you and help you regain your old memories. Without them you stand no chance against the youkai coming after you!”

“Wait,” I said, “why would youkai want to hurt their princess?”

“Because in the Youkai Wars,” Kurama started, “she sided with the humans.”

“You are well informed of the Youkai Wars, aren’t you?” Nekagimaru commented respectfully, “Not many youkai know the real details of it because it happened so long ago. There were barely any survivors that were youkai and they have probably passed on by now. It has been ten millenniums and Kurenai is long forgotten, but now she has returned!”

“But doesn’t that mean…” Kurama trailed off while staring intently at me.

“Yes,” Nekagimaru beamed, “another Youkai War is about to begin!”

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BP: Forgive the OOCness, it wasn’t intentional, it’s been a while since I watched YYH. I’m going to be gone next week (Mon-Saturday), but I should have another chapter before then. I’m still working on the plot line unless a writer’s block hits me…*block falls out of sky and lands on BP* o.O

Disclaimer: Why do I do these at the end? It’s a mystery, but yeah…no own so bleh…

Reviews: Yay! People actually like this! Go me! Go me! *does a little dance* Go me!