SUMMARY:

A story about a "girl" named Yuriko. Or is that not her real name? She was on her way somewhere and ended up unconscious right outside of Kamui. Luckily, a certain Oina warrior found her and lugged her home with him. Will something end up developing between them? Or are there greater forces working behind the scenes.

EDIT: This story is undergoing re-write. I decided that it was a lot of work to insert the OC as well as her problems into the game play, plus there is a second Okami comming out soon, and the ending to this story is quite satisfying if I do say so myself.

rated T for:
mild violence
slight language
minor themes (if you know what I mean)

The snow pelted down on her back as she trudged through the snow complete with ice covering to top off her misery. The cold had been intense, the wind was fierce, and the outfit her supervisor had supplied her with was surprisingly lacking in the warm department. All that it was was a blue, green, and purple plaid, strapless dress that had a tie below her chest and ended right above her knees, a white over coat that had purple designs. It's collar was high, the sleeves were tight all the way, and had one golden button that cause the coat to part and show some of her cleavage. The only articles that made her warmer were her blue gloves and green leg warmers.

"I can't believe he is making me do this!" the girl complained. "'But you have to get there by foot' he says! Why did I accept that offer? Oh yeah, because I had to!" Her heart filled with anger and pain as she collapsed on the cold, ice hard ground.

Minutes later, a warrior of the nearby village, Wep'Keer, was walking along the path when he spotted the girl and quickly rushed to her side. He checked her pulse and her breathing. He sighed with relief for he found she was indeed breathing and alive. The man picked the girl up bridal style and hastened back to his house which, coincidentally, was right outside of Wep'Keer.

Once inside his small home, the man laid the girl down on the ground by the fire and draped a long blanket over her and placed a hot compress on her forehead. For the following days, he spent most of his time sitting by the mystery girls side, waiting for to awaken.

Six days later, she rolled over on her side and pushed the blanket off of herself. "Where am I?" she moaned, rubbing her bare hand across her forehead.

"We're inside my house," the man explained. "It's right outside of Wep'Keer. I'm a warrior of the Oina tribe; my name is Oki."

"Pleased to meet you, I guess. I call myself Yuriko," she responded, sitting up as she regained her strength, taking notice that she had been stripped of her shoes, leg warmers, gloves, coat, and mask. Only wearing her dress revealed the purple tattoos on both her shoulders and face that were the same as the designs on her coat. "I guess you could say I am a weary traveler."

"When I found you on the path, you were holding this mask in your hands, are you from around here?" Oki pushed aside some scattered debris, grabbed her purple cat mask, and hand it to her.

"Kind of, I guess. To be completely honest, I don't really remember anything. The last thing I remember was why I am all the way out here in the first place." She tied the mask around her head and looked around. "Do you live alone this far away from the village?"

"Yes I do, is there a problem with that?"

"No it is just that… never mind. It is not important. What I really want to know is how good of a warrior you really are."

"How exactly are you going to be figuring out how great of a warrior I am?"

"It is easy!" Yuriko jumped to her feet and waved her hand over her head. Oki noticed a purple dot on the middle back of her hand. As she waved it over her head, a sword appeared, floating a few inches away from the purple dot. Oki was astonished at the sight of this "magic." Never before had he seen anything like it. Oki once again rummaged through some debris and found his old sword lying aimlessly on the ground. He picked it up and followed Yuriko outside.

Yuriko took the first swing. She swung at his gut, but Oki dodged the attack and rebounded with a combat move he had been working on. However, Yuriko flipped over him, landing out of his sight, and swung at his back. Her sword cut through his shirt and scratched his skin, causing his blood to drip down his back. "Hey!" Oki yelled.

"If you are really a warrior, then you surely wouldn't be upset over a ripped shirt now would you?" Yuriko remarked, smirking.

Oki readied to make his next attack as he glared at Yuriko. Instantly, the strange girl knew what he was going to do. Not even raising her sword from her side, she stepped to the left, dodging the attack entirely. Afterwords, she quietly giggled, but it wasn't quiet enough for Oki no to hear. "Shut up!" he called, charging.

Once again, Yuriko maneuvered out of the way every time, refraining from striking back. This action angered the other greatly, causing him to yell, "Strike back! You're the one who asked for a fight, so fight!"

"A fight doesn't have to be between two swords," Yuriko retorted, still dodging the anger inflicted attacks.

Confused, but still furious, Oki dropped his stance and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I don't have to strike you for this to be a fight. It's still a fight because you are still struggling, emotionally and physically," she replied, moving into a readied stance.

Nodding, Oki dashed back in to attack her, but Yuriko ducked underneath his sword. Once his guard was down, she back flipped from her crouch, kicking him in the underside of his chin with the top of her foot, sending him toppling to the ground. She then backed up, positioning herself for a running start in order to collect all of the momentum she could find. Oki immediately noticed what she was going to do, but couldn't gain enough energy to pull himself to his feet. As a result, he was nailed in the face by Yuriko's heels, creating a dent in the earth.

"I win!" she called. "You should thank me. I spared your life."

Oki grumbled something under his breath, being careful to make sure that Yuriko couldn't hear him.

"Get over yourself and just except my invitation to help you become stronger."

As the two of them started planning their daily routine of combat, Yuriko grabbed the back of Oki's ear, pulled him inside, and wrapped him in bandages.

A/N:

EDIT: When I first wrote this, I bet I thought that I had accomplished an amazing feat by writing so much, when actually, I wrote practically nothing. Sorry for the length, but it had to stay. Moving onward.

Read and Review please!