Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Tarnished Past ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Celin

.N. Sorry it took forever…my computer was being completely crazy…forgive me. I'll post regularly now I promise.

Chapter 4

Peregrine

The trip back to the mansion was an easy one; nature seemed apologetic about her actions earlier and deemed to reward Yoko and his protégée with a beautiful walk home. Mayako wasn't able to see the beauty around her; she was too busy trying to figure out why the blade of her dagger seemed to gleam in the sunlight. It reflected the ways that the sun hit the blade and then danced in front of her eyes. She held it up in awe, and tilted the blade so that the sunlight danced along the ground in front of her. “Sensei?”

Yoko turned around at the moment he first heard her voice. He looked at her quizzically not sure why she called to him. He smiled secretly when he saw that she was enchanted by the simple play of light upon the ground. Instead of letting Mayako see that he was pleased by the innocence of her simple act, he turned around and continued walking. /She is an innocent one, innocent in actions and in deeds. Will she be able to survive here, and more importantly will she be able to steal the possessions of others and live without guilt/ He thought to himself, his thoughts occupied with making sure that the life he saved wouldn't be a life wasted.

Mayako followed him slowly, the light dance that the blade could make easily kept her occupied. She was able to hear that Yoko was walking ahead of her, his pace set so that she could easily keep up. “Sensei…” she whispered again, her voice soft and lilting just enough to make Yoko understand her sudden change in mood. “Why do you think that the light catches the blade? Shouldn't the light be absorbed?”

“What would make you say that Mayako? The blade is only a weapon, not something that can be a cause of darkness.” Yoko answered quietly, trying to maintain his uninterested persona. He slowed down his walk just enough to walk side by side with Mayako. He studied her face with a thieves art, he saw her fascination with the dagger, and also an old dread of the knifes' blade.

Mayako looked up at Yoko and smiled grimly. “This dagger should take in the light, not reflect it. That is the nature of anything that could cause harm, yet at the same time most things that hurt you…you tend to want the most.” She whispered softly, before allowing her gaze to return back to the blade. She angled the blade so that the next time the dagger caught the light; it was a sliver upon her face. “It's amazing that something that could look so harmless could potentially cause the greatest hurt.”

Yoko nodded understanding her words, if not the meaning that lay behind them. “It's not the weapon that you hold in your hand Mayako that makes it dangerous,” Yoko said, his voice full of authority, as he made a rose appear in his hand as if out of thin air. “Frankly Mayako it is the person who is holding it that determines the danger.” He continued, before neatly flicking his wrist and transformed the rose into a whip. He looked at Mayako with an icy gleam to his eyes and flicked the whip in her direction. When she ducked, he attacked again, not aiming to injure just to prove a point.

Mayako dodged the attacks, knowing that if Yoko was meaning to hurt her she'd be dead before she could even see the whip descend. At one attack she suddenly decided not to duck, instead she jumped into the lower boughs of the tree that was behind her. As soon as she felt the rough bark underneath her hands she climbed higher. Scaling the tree with grace, and as soon as Yoko had the whip pulled back and ready to strike again, she was at the top of the tree looking down at him. With an aimed glance at the ground where Yoko was standing, she leapt from the tree, braced herself for the impact and landed gracefully behind Yoko. Yoko turned abruptly and moved his wrist as to attack before forcing the whip to disappear again. Mayako gazed at Yoko then smiled sheepishly. “Sorry if I ruined your lesson, it seemed like it would work.”

Yoko looked at Mayako then at the looming tree that she leapt from. He craned his neck back so that he could view the top. “You scaled that tree in the same amount of time as it took me to draw my whip back to make another strike. Milliseconds, not only that but you were able to dive from that tree, which is at least three hundred feet tall.” He stated, then sat down and motioned for Mayako to do the same. “When I first saw you I honestly thought that you were human. You had no aura of a demon, no powers that were forth and coming, and I stand by that statement. You aren't a demon, but you aren't human either.”

Mayako looked at Yoko quizzically before looking up at the tree that she had jumped from. “I have no idea what you're talking about.” She muttered; already tense from the encounter with Taiki. The conversation that Yoko was trying to make was making it harder for her to calm down. Her blue eyes flashed gold, and for a moment phantom wings appeared at her shoulders before she shook her head and returned to normal.

Yoko didn't mention what he saw, but he continued with what he was saying. “I believe that you could be one of the bestia amoveo… an animal shifter. An animal that is able to turn into a human at will.”

Mayako shook her head deftly, her mind already refusing what Yoko was telling her. “I don't think so…after all if I was a bestia amoveo then wouldn't I have to of been born an animal, or something like that?” She asked softly still looking up at the tree. “After all I'm sure that climbing the tree was a fluke, I don't think that I would be able to replicate that.”

“You don't think so? I believe that you would be able to, after all Kawazoe told me of the feat that you pulled off when you first met her. That was quite a jump. Tell me something Mayako; do you honestly think that the fall from the bridge would have killed you? Thinking back that bridge measured pretty well to the tree that you just leapt from.” Yoko surmised, and slyly looked at Mayako who looked at him in denial.

“I thought about that, but I figured as long as I landed on my back I should have been sufficiently paralyzed enough to be killed from the injures received from the fall.” She responded innocently, then her eyes widened when she saw that Yoko was glaring at her. “What did I say wrong? You said that you thought that I wouldn't have been killed, but I just told you what my plan was so that I wouldn't have been able to survive the fall.” She said, trying to justify her actions. “Besides Sensei I didn't know you then, and I did ever meet you then you can be sure that I wouldn't have tried to jump off of the bridge I would have came and sought you out.”

Yoko raised one eyebrow in disbelief, his eyes warm once again. He laid back on the ground and looked at her. “Would you of? You don't seem like the person who would accept help from many people.”

Mayako sat back against the tree, then looked down at Yoko and nodded. “You're right I probably wouldn't of. Though if you remember, as I'm sure that you do…when you prevented me from jumping off the bridge, I was relieved. Perhaps in my own way I didn't want to die, just to see if someone cared enough to save me…though on second thought, that's not right either. I needed to know what awaited me when I finally did die, after all if I didn't die by my own hand, then I would have died by my stepfather's hands at some point.” She stated truthfully, shrugging the grim fact off with a lift of one of her shoulders.

“You say that with such conviction of your voice, with a honestly that would normally force people to believe that opposite of what you are saying. When you speak of your family, of whom I have only met one, you seem to age from the girl-child of not even two decades, to a woman that has seen more years and grief that she cares to remember.” Yoko replied and saw that Mayako tried to understand the full meaning behind his words. Suddenly Yokos' ear cocked to a sound that Mayako heard at the same time. The sound of running feet, and the laughter of the only person whom Mayako knew and talked to for a length of time.

“YOKO!” Kawazoe yelled, before skidding to a stop in front of them. Her breathing was labored, and her face was flushed. “We found our next target; we know what we want to steal…c'mon! Kurone said that we have start getting ready now!”

Yoko sat up, his interest piqued. “Where is this item that you all seem to desperately want? Not in this realm by the way that you are acting.”

Kawazoe shook her head, and her smile seemed to illuimate the forest. “It's in the human realm, and it would be great if Mayako could come, she should know the area quite well.”

“First tell me what we are stealing, and then we will decide who is going to accompany us.” He commanded all business and no warmth, an odd sight for Mayako who was used to the kindness that Yoko normally showed her.

“We want to grab one of the captured bestia amoveo…you know how rare they are. By itself it's worth millions! Can you imagine? Actually finding one? You've always wanted to bring one here!”

Yoko sighed; he knew that the opportunity was too good to pass up. “Fine we'll go…just let me talk to Mayako a bit about what we do before she gets the wrong idea.” Yoko stated calmly, and turned to look at Mayako who had suddenly disappeared. In her place was a single feather, a shrill cry was heard overhead before Yoko looked up and smiled. The smile was not the one that Mayako or Kawazoe was used to seeing. The smile that lit his face was of the thief who had found an object that he had to have, one that he would kill to possess.