A girl that looked to be in her teens with long red hair and silver eyes panted as she lagged behind the three males running ahead of her. Sweat dripped down her forehead, mixing with the rain water that was already there, and fell in to her eyes as she cursed inwardly,
How come it's so hard for me to keep up with them? Takara squinted, trying to avoid getting anymore sweat in her eyes, before scowling an uncharacteristic expression for her, I've travelled with Hiei-san for over a century and a half but I'm almost as weak any human you can find on the street...
Her thoughts trailed off as they finally stopped in a strangely dry clearing and landed a few minutes after the other three. Chest heaving and her face red Takara quickly bowed her head, hoping that no one noticed how exhausted she was. Restraining herself from clutching her side where a stitch had developed not that long ago, she quickly tried to rid herself of everything she had thought during the trip, praying that Hiei-san hadn't noticed her many mental complaints.
One of the men, who had long red hair as well with green eyes and, to be frank, looked rather feminine in appearance, was trying to get a better look at Takara's beet red face.
"Miura-san, are you alright?"
Jerking her head up, Takara met his eyes for a split second before quickly averting her gaze,
Dammit, of course he would notice...
Turning her head to his gaze again Takara sent him a pathetic excuse of a smile,
"I-I'm fine Kurama-san, just a little tired. A robbery will do that to a person, no?"
The man, Kurama, narrowed his eyes at her feeble lie but nodded his head.
Tired from something as simple as running, pathetic. I don't even know why I let you stick around.
Takara should have been shocked or at least annoyed at the unwarranted insult but really she wasn't. After travelling with him for over a century and a half she was more than used to them, now they just made her face flush in shame.
I-I'm sorry Hiei-san, I'll try to do better next time.
The shortest of the group, a man who looked like a boy with gravity defying black hair, merely snorted in disbelief before turning his back on her. Despite the way he treated her Takara chose to stick around and unless he basically told her to 'screw off', she would continue too. Once again bowing her head, she leaned against a near-by tree, her entire frame slouched as she frowned.
Kurama had kept an eye on his companions during the silent exchange, wondering why they even travelled together. Hiei was sadistic, confident, quiet and never really showed any emotion beyond beyond anger and contempt but Takara was soft-spoken, kind, seemingly ashamed of herself and, well, weak.
I suppose opposites really do attract...
Don't get any ideas fox, she's just a tag along. I accidentally saved her worthless life and now she won't leave me the hell alone.
Of course, Hiei-san, of course.
With that rather short conversation over the red-headed male turned to leave, pausing to look over his shoulder,
"Please, don't kill anyone and try to not attract attention."
Takara lifted her head to give him a blank stare wondering if Kurama realized who he was talking too.
"Just remember to be back here at nightfall, fox." Hiei said, his usual scowl in place.
Takara rubbed her lower back as she continued to walk down the street, she really had no idea how Hiei-san could sleep in a tree and not be stiff in the morning. Other than that though she was completely fascinated by the city around her. Why, earlier Takara had even seen a giant metal worm that would swallow people before taking off at a speed she envied with every fibre of her being*!
Looking down she tugged at the edge of the white long-sleeved blouse she was wearing, having bought it along with an almost floor-length medium blue skirt a few hours earlier after she realized that she stuck out like a sore thumb. Choosing too continue wearing her originally-black-but-now-a-light-grey flats, which she had bought from a merchant who had recently been to the human world a few decades ago, instead of buying new ones she realized that her clothing of choice was rather out of style. Well, if the snickers of those girls that she had walked by not that long ago were anything too go by that is. How did she get the money for this? Why, she had pick-pocketed a rather well-off looking human of course! Takara wasn't exactly fond of being directly involved in any form of thievery but she really didn't have much of a choice if she didn't want to stick out so much.
Turning her head left and right she stared in awe at the large buildings, bumping in to a few people because of this. Stuttering out an apology each time this happened Takara quickly found her awe turned in to worry as she tried to dodge all the humans coming her way. Almost crying in relief, she collapsed on a nearby bench choosing to simply observe the swarm of people.
Her relief was soon gone though as she sensed a higher than normal amount of spirit energy.
Oh god, oh god, they found me. They're gonna drag me back to Koenma and torture me until I talk! Why, oh, why did I sneak off this morning? I should have known they would come after the weakest link first!
Takara's hands were trembling, clutching the edge of the bench in a white knuckle grip. Her eyes wide, her breathing laboured and almost rocking back and forth in panic, Takara shot up after a moment. Swaying as she did so Takara nearly fell down before beginning to stumble through the crowd, trying to get away from the source.
Stopping when when she saw a large crowd that seemed to be grouped around something she glanced behind her then forward again. The source wasn't getting any closer, in fact it seemed completely stationary.
Maybe... maybe their combined spirit energy will be enough to hide mine...
Nearly running over to the crowd Takara quickly pushed her way to the front only to stop short in shock,
Oh god Gouki, not in broad daylight, please...
Something quickly distracted her though, the source... it was right behind her. Breathing shallow she stood stock still, hoping for it to go away. It didn't, it was coming towards her!
Make it quick...
She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the finishing blow. Takara's eyes shot open in shock though as she was pushed out of the way... the source it was getting further away. Quickly her eyes darted around trying to find the source, seeing nothing she pushed through the crowd as well. When she finally made her way through she barely managed to catch a glimpse of the ghastly green, two-piece suit they seemed to be wearing.
Hesitating for moment, wondering if she should try to contact Hiei-san just in case, Takara followed behind them in a sprint. Slowing down, but jerking back slightly when they suddenly shouted at the child's soul, she followed them in to an alley way. She winced at the slight echo her steps gave off even after she had slowed down, she finally got a good look at their back.
Obviously male, if she went by build alone, wearing a two-pieced green, a rather horrifying shade at that, suit. He seemed to be slightly shorter than the average male in this region, if she used Kurama's human body's height as a comparison, with green hair. Takara didn't realize that it was in fact brown and only looked that way because of the incredible amount of hair product in it, assuming that he simply used that odd chemical mix humans seemed so fond of using**.
She quickly dropped her gaze to his feet, she found that enemies had a tendency to notice you following them if you stared at the back of their head than if you looked at their feet instead. She didn't consider this human an enemy per se, but if the drunken ramblings of one of Koenma's ogres was anything to go by, he'd been grasping at straws lately to find another spirit detective. Anyone with a slightly higher than average level of spirit energy was probably on his 'possible spirit detective' radar, so this human was most definitely a possible threat.
Her steps faltered as they got deeper in, feeling the multiple stares that locked on to her, trembling now she froze when the boy stopped. Chocking on nothing for a second Takara quickly dived behind a nearby garbage can, huddling as close to the wall as she could. Unaware that she had dived behind a garbage that was right next to one of the many thugs in the alley way, Takara released a pathetic squeak when she looked up just as he looked down. Realizing that person currently cowering beside him was a, not half bad looking, female he sent a sleazy smile towards her. Her face however contorted in to the expression most girls had when they saw a rather disgusting bug, as she mentally scoffed at the him,
Oh, in your dreams human. I might be weak but I'm not that desperate!
Turning away from him she peered around the edge of the garbage can, checking to see if the boy had started moving again. Flailing her arms slightly when she realized that he was turning the corner at the end of the alley way, Takara shot up from her crouched position before taking off in a brisk walk after him.
Turning the corner that last thing she expected was to nearly run directly in to his back. Slowly sliding her gaze from her feet up to his face, which he had turned too look at her over his shoulder, -he has nice eyes- a bored expression plain as day on his face.
"Why're you following me girl?"
Cue her trademark deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression.
"W-w-what me? F-following you? O-oh, no, I w-was just ... enjoying the ... scenery?"
Good lord, I need to learn how to lie properly...
His expression became a mix of being dumbfounded and a dead-pan,
"You were just enjoying the scenery?"
"Y-yep, the ..., " Oh, what's the word? Struggling to remember the word she decided to just wing it, "art! The people here are rather creative, no?"
Flailing her arms in an attempt to motion at the tacky words and drawings adorning the walls surrounding them.
Now his expression was a full-out dead-pan,
"Creative art? ... Right ..."
Sending him a nervous smile Takara scuttled backwards, fully intending to leave.
"W-well, it's been absolutely lovely talking to you but I really have to go... bye!"
By now she had fully turned, her left foot even lifted off the ground before she froze upon hearing his voice again,
"I'm Yusuke by the way and since I dealt with you following me I should at least get your name out of it."
No, no, no, don't tell me your name! It'll be harder to get over your death if Hiei-san kills you!
Shaking so hard that her teeth nearly chattered Takara turned back around,
"O-o-oh, I-I'm T-T-Takara Miura! I-It's n-nice too m-meet you!" Quickly bowing, stumbling slightly at the blood rush, she took off like a bat out of hell soon after.
Yusuke stood blinking at the spot she had vacated, wondering just why the hell a girl like that decided it would be a good idea to follow him of all people.
Huh, if she had stuck around I would've told her that she really needs to learn how to lie right. She really needs to get over that stuttering problem too, it's annoying.
*She means the subway, for those that don't understand.
**This time she means hair dye.
Shadow: Holy mother of... I overcame the previous word count by 700 hundred freaking words (This one having a final word count without the A/N of 1,962 words and the other one only having 1,227 words)! Comparing the two, this one and the original, I'm rather proud of the glaring differences between them.
The second chapter should be out in a week or so but it will be slowing down after that because, dismissing the fact that I have a life to live and recently joined a RP site, I will be writing from scratch. I have vague ideas of what I want to do but I want to write an outline first, or at least an outline for the first 'arc'. It's mostly an introduction, get to know Takara, find out that I really have no idea what the fuck to do with the canon characters, and so on. After that, things should pick up. Though I'm not sure if romance is going to be a factor.
This is a rewrite of an old story that I had on Quizilla, a link to my Quizilla user profile can be found on here in my user page.
