This originally started as a Daemon AU. But after some research, I decided that His Dark Materials was just to deep and complex for an amateur like me, so I made it a Spirit Animal AU! I've done research on the animals selected for each chapter and at the bottom, I will explain the meaning behind the animal and why I selected it. This is mostly to allow me to shake things up when I write the longer stories, but I hope you all enjoy it.

Ritsu had enough issues growing up. If it wasn't his last name and what it meant, then it was his marriage arrangement and how it would affect him; if it wasn't his marriage, it was his incredibly low self-esteem.

And if it wasn't any of that, then it was Sango.

His mother and her shrewish goose spirit said it was an affliction to be treated; his father and his intimidating great horned owl spirit said it was a phase that they would grow out of. An-chan and her yet-to-be-settled spirit, Shoji said that it was something that made them unique compared to everybody else.

Her human never let it affect him and his opinion was the most important, so she didn't let it become an issue at first. But one had to admit, it was quite unusual.

No matter what she turned into or how many times, there was always one constant.

She was pale pink.

She could be a parakeet on his shoulder or a mouse in his pocket, a weasel around his neck or a puppy at his feet. She was always the color of powdered blush.

At the time, it didn't mean much to her on a personal level; she was female, she wasn't upset about wearing pink every day and even if she was, she had the same arrangement as Ritsu. She had her significant other selected for her and it appeared that Ritsu wasn't going to fight it. What reason did she have to make a fuss over her pigmentation?

But the day Ritsu met him; she suddenly found a reason to take her appearance into account.

Sango didn't even take much notice of his spirit initially. While Ritsu was reaching for that book, she was a little pinkish grey mouse trying to push it out of the shelf for him to grab onto.

But while she was pushing, it suddenly wasn't there anymore and she was falling off the shelf. She landed in Ritsu's palms and got a small glimpse of the teenager who would end up tearing both of their worlds apart.

She saw his dark hair and his bright amber eyes and she watched as he held the book out for Ritsu to take hold of.

She didn't see his spirit then. It was when she turned into a small kitten and jumped out of her human's hands to the floor and landed right on her face, directly in front of her.

A large raccoon, sharing that same brilliant gold gaze, watched her fumble. Instead of laughing, the raccoon stared before reaching out a surprisingly human-like hand, grabbing the spirit by the scruff and placing her on her feet. The Raccoon then turned and stepped after her human.

They both fell hard, then and there and together, they spent the next three years pining from far away.

She had it just as badly as he did; peering around the corner as a little rat, sitting on the bookshelf as a tiny lovebird and hiding in Ritsu's pocket or pants leg when his spirit looked at her.

After that, Sango began to curse her situation. While Ritsu peeked around the corners of the bookshelves and stared at his love from afar, Sango suddenly became self-conscious about herself and all but dedicated her life to covering up her pink fur.

Spirit Animals could not dye their fur, as it was toxic to them. She also could not shave it off, because she was pink right down to the skin! It only became more serious as their love for Saga-senpai and his daemon grew.

Suddenly, new shades of pink began blooming throughout her body in patches. Now, she would appear mostly normal, but there would be blotches of salmon or raspberry on her back, hip or face. All she could do was try to divert attention away from her unfortunate markings.

She took to wearing a rose colored collar in an attempt to make people think that her odd look was just a case of an extremely well liked color. It would later cause some issues with how people perceived Ritsu's sexual orientation, but that didn't seem like as big issue considering the objects of their affection at the time.

It always became more apparent when she thought of the wary looking raccoon.

Sango learned her name when Ritsu finally started dating Saga-Senpai. She curled shyly around Ritsu's leg as a trembling dalmatian pup, wagging her skinny tail to alleviate her apprehension as the other spirit stared at her. She quietly asked for her name. "I-I just want to know if there's anything you…um, want me to call you." She said pathetically.

"Kagayaki" She said quietly after the humans agreed to date and she walked calmly after her person. Sango almost fainted on the spot and Ritsu was forced to pick up his spirit, whose pink spots were quickly spreading to engulf her whole body.

When Ritsu went to Saga's house for the first time, Sango tried a new shape, to show to Kagayaki.

She looked a bit like a raccoon, but she wasn't. She was smaller for one thing and for another, her coloring wasn't right; she had reddish brown fur on her body, black fur on her short legs and under belly, and stripes on her long, bushy tail. She also had a mask-like mark on her face, just like a raccoon.

Her marks were pink of course, but that was beside the point.

Sango didn't like this form. It looked like Kagayaki sure, but its stocky legs were too short to keep up with everyone and if she walked too closely to Ritsu, he would end up kicking her square in the face.

But she wanted to show it to Kagayaki and see what she thought of it first.

When walking into their house, Sango felt the hostility in the air. Kagayaki had warned her of her and Saga's poor home life, but it was almost tangible when walking in! The home didn't look all that different, but her fur stood on end and she found herself looking about nervously, as though something was about to attack her.

She was so on edge, that she ended up being scared to death by Saga-senpai's stray kitten. The grey and white fuzzball meowed in her ear and she jumped up and clung to Ritsu's pants leg.

Kagayaki nuzzled the little thing and the kitten was picked up and carried by her human. Sango wanted to die right there.

When they all sat in Saga-senpai's room, Sango curled up in front of her person. She felt humiliated and she was certain that the red fur was turning pink, so she couldn't even try to play it off! She put her rounded paws over her eyes and prayed that she would disappear.

She peeked at Ritsu, wondering if he was crashing and burning as badly as she was. She was just in time to see him get a kiss from his love. She watched as Saga asked Ritsu not to tighten his lips and request that he reciprocate the bodily contact.

Sango gasped when she felt a soft tongue tickle her ear. She turned and Kagayaki gave her a quick dab on the nose.

Then another and then another; Sango was pushed backwards onto a small cushion that smelled of the raccoon. An odor of asphalt and wood, with the subtle hint of human sweat, that pungent; thick odor engulfed Sango for the rest of the night, leaving her in a satisfying haze that spread to her human and added to his own pleasure. Kagayaki used her able paws to unhook Sango's collar.

Every single thing she felt was being shared with Ritsu and the opposite was also true. She felt her skin ripple beneath her fur as Kagayaki run her nose down her spine. Sango clenched her claws; only worrying for a single second about whether she would end up tearing Kagayaki's bed.

"It's tougher than you think," was whispered into her ear.

There was a slight ache in her haunches, as it was Ritsu's first time; but the pain melted away quite quickly due to the combined efforts of Saga-Senpai and Kagayaki. The warmth rolling and churning in her brain and stomach when Ritsu and Saga kissed gave her a feeling of drunken euphoria.

Sango turned onto her side and Kagayaki laid down next to her to gently rest her head on the soft black fur of her shoulder. She gently ran her claw over the mask like marking that glowed a very faint peach color in the moonlit room.

"I like this shape, can you use it whenever you come over?" She could have asked Sango to scale Mt. Fuji and she would have said yes.

Sango felt emotion welling up inside of her, emotion that was not entirely hers. Her ears tingled and she felt the ghost of vibrations moving down her ear canal; the words were not being spoken to her, but she knew what was being said.

No words but those would have ever made Ritsu feel this way. Sango sent her happiness for him through the bond as Kagayaki nuzzled their muzzles together.

Before Sango fell asleep, she felt Ritsu send his own pulse of joy to her and took a vague notice of tears matting the fur around her eyes.

In that moment, everything felt so perfect. As though nothing else mattered and never would. In that moment, she felt love and affection for every creature in that room; Kagayaki, Ritsu, Sango even felt the beginning of her own special fondness for Saga-Senpai.

After that, Ritsu and Sango continued the relationship; the two of them took every chance they could to make their lovers happy. They always met in the library, every chance they could. Sango would turn into the raccoon-ish animal anytime they met; she put up with the bow-legged gait, the obnoxiously fluffy tail and the looking like the animal supporting character in a hero girls anime, because Kaguyaki apparently thought it looked nice.

But she still disliked the form. "I probably won't settle on it, though." She thought, so she kept changing into it to humor Kagayaki.

Then it all went wrong. In that spectacularly horrible, heart wrenching way that she really should've considered.

Ritsu and Saga-Senpai had been dating for a while. They had been over their house again; the two daemons had been lying on the floor while the humans did what humans did. Kagayaki had flopped over on her side and Sango sat down to lean against her, staring at the ceiling.

"Kagayaki-san?" She asked hesitantly. She hummed in acknowledgement.

"Why do you like this shape so much?"

The raccoon turned on her back lazily, "Do I need a reason?" Her ringed tail, swayed back and forth on the floor.

Sango sat up straight. "I-I was just wondering?" Sango hoped she didn't make the raccoon mad.

"I just do." She said simply. "Why? Are you settling?" She tilted her head.

"I don't think so," Sango didn't think she was even close and even if she was, there was no way she'd settle as this thing!

"I just like you like this." Kagayaki said dismissively and closed her eyes as if going to sleep.

"But…I may not settle like this. We're probably gonna be together for a while right?" Sango asked hopefully. "After all, Saga-Senpai loves Ritsu, doesn't he?" She looked to where Ritsu was speaking quietly to his Senpai, a small smile on his face as he radiated the afterglow.

Sango looked back at Kagayaki. The raccoon had a smile on her face and turned onto her back, stretching lazily like a superior feline bathing in the sunshine. She looked totally relaxed and placid, her hind foot twitched as she chuckled slightly.

She opened one eye to look at Sango and Sango saw the condescendence and the small tint of disbelief in that eye that caught the rays from the window. Sango suddenly felt very cold in the stomach, as though her gut had been turned into a snow globe.

And then there was pain, set deep in her chest; flooding her like water in a clogged sink. Sango fell to her forelegs in pain and heard the sound of someone getting hit. Then, she suddenly felt herself being picked up by her scruff and moving very fast.

She heard crying, sniffling and the pain continued to grow inside of her.

She found herself gasping through the agony.

"Rits-, Ritsu, wh-, what's-," She couldn't get the words out, but Ritsu pulled her close to his chest, bundling her with his jacket. She felt his rapid heartbeat in her ears and heard her own heart answer out with a pulse equally as fast.

Ritsu ran all the way home. He ignored the butler and cocker spaniel spirit who greeted him at the door, hurried up the stairs to his room and shut the door once he was inside. He sat on the bed and gripped her tightly, squeezing the dazed little spirit whilst he cried.

Sango saw double, she struggled to breathe; not because she was being held too tightly, but because it felt as though the breath was being punched out of her. She shivered and soon, she too felt herself crying. She felt a change on the inside, she felt like something was clicking and shifting in her core, as though she was filling out her fur. Her tail curled upwards to her belly, her claws clenched tightly and she breathed in as deeply as she could.

For about forty minutes, Sango was clutched like a teddy bear, soaking up tears and drool in her fur. Not once did Sango try to get away, she did not complain, she did not ask to be released; she just went limp and listened to her human's sobs.

Eventually, Ritsu calmed down. He continued to sniffle, but he no longer hiccupped and gasped for breath. Sango felt detached and dazed, as though she was operating a puppet in fog.

Ritsu's arms fell away and Sango dragged herself out of his grip listlessly. She turned towards him and took in his shocked, broken face. Sango's haunches did not seem to want to work, so she wriggled her way into his lap and licked the salt off of his face. She gently washed the tears off of his cheeks, her paws gripping his shoulders and she felt his hands come up to hold her under her arms. He held her as she kissed him.

"What happened?" She asked and the tears almost come again.

He told her about how he asked Senpai if they were dating, about how he asked if he was really loved.

He told her about how he had laughed.

Ritsu held her close while Sango remembered Kagayaki. That look, that smile, that response…

Sango hated herself. She cursed her idiocy, her gullibility and her lack of sense. She couldn't believe that she had not seen this coming!

She had known how Ritsu wore his heart on his sleeve! She had known how sensitive he was and she had allowed him to open himself up to some teenage horn dog with issues! All because she got lost in a pair of pretty eyes…

"I'm sorry Ritsu." She whispered.

She said it over and over again.

She lay on his chest, wrapped up in his thin arms. She looked at him as he snored slightly, congested from his crying.

"I'm sorry…" She thought. Sango curled up slightly, looking at her haunches and tail. She looked at the pink rings on her tail, the pink boot marks on her feet and the pale pink color stretching from her underbelly.

She knew that she would never change again. She knew that she would spend the rest of her and Ritsu's life looking this way and she knew that Ritsu would ask her why she didn't change into something else. He would ask why she wouldn't turn into something that didn't have such a sour affiliation, something that didn't immediately remind him of his first love and his first heartbreak. He would ask, she would want to, but she wouldn't do it. She couldn't do it.

Sango rubbed her head on her sleeping human's chest.

"…I am so very sorry…"

Sango (珊瑚)= "Coral"

The Red Panda is a reclusive animal that lives in almost total isolation in the mountains of China. As a daemon/spirit animal, it mostly represents people who look cute on the outside, but aren't as cute on the inside. I selected a red panda for Onodera because I feel that when he was a teenager, everyone would have immediately thought they could pick on him due to how cute he looked. After the incident with Taken/Saga, he would have become hardened and thus, he wasn't as sweet and sensitive as he used to be.

I'm not going to use the term "Daemon" in this story. But if you want to, you can consider this a Daemon AU.

Review if you like it and PM me if you have questions, conversation starters or anything else!