ZFSF

6/3/11

Summary: Just as the contest with A-loan is picking up, someone new joins Z-Loan. But is it a good thing, or much, much worse?

Rating: ver: T ver: M

This place was new yet the same, old and new, calm but chaotic. Dim and bright, filthy and clean. She stood, wondering where she would go from here. "Familiar and unfamiliar, heh." She brushed the dirt from her shorts after standing up. Taking note of a strange smell, she followed it. She exited the alleyway and followed the smell. In a nearly deserted parking lot, she found a man bloody and stumbling. When she tried to help him, he attacked her, leaving a large bloody gash across her neck. That; that was the last of Kizu.

Or so she had thought herself. When her eyes opened she was surprised. There were no angels or demons, just teens surrounding her, in what looked like an office building. She sat up and scooted away from them. They looked at each other and one tried to touch her. She snarled at the white haired teen, about 17 or so, and snapped her jaws on his hand. He yelped and pulled his hand back and her fur stood on end. The girl, now turned fox, growled.

"Hm… I've never had a debtor like this." A man in his late 20s or early 30s brushed long blonde hair out of the way of his glasses. "You died, welcome to Z-loan." The girl changed back and held her head low. "Who are you?" "The ferryman, the one who controls whether or not you get to live." The man grinned and instantly Kizu knew something was off. Men only grinned like that over money.

"I… died. I shouldn't be here." Kizu stepped away from him, and eventually got trapped in a corner. "But you should, unless you want the shinigami to go after you…" he trapped her in the corner and told her the conditions for revival. While she thought it over, he returned to his desk. A conversation between the other debtors caught her attention. "…That other loan company, can't believe they're beating us…" "Yeah, they're gonna bankrupt us."

Kizu stood, now infuriated. "There is another loan company?" The ferryman sighed. "Yes. They also have similar debtors, but… more work to be done between them." Kizu scoffed. "What kind of work?" The ferryman, Bekko, grinned. "Zombie hunting. You see, there is a contest between the two companies, and because they only have three people working for it, more work between them, unlike my company, that has over five." Kizu thought it over, and then asked the price.

When she was told, she yelled. Not because it was outrageous (even thought it was), but because it was in yen. She was in a different country than she had thought. "What do you mean yen? Where am I?" She yelled and the ferryman chuckled. "You're in Japan. Where did you think you where?" "I thought I was home! In California!" She yelled and looked out the window, before swearing like a sailor. Buildings, as far as she could see, with kanji.

"Ferryman! How did I get here?" The girl snarled while he laughed. "You don't speak Japanese do you?" Kizu snarled 'no' and sat in a chair while the rest of z-loan talked to each other. "I can't understand her…" "Is that English?" "She does look foreign… think she's American?" Kizu started throwing questions at the ferryman even more. "If I'm in Japan, how can you understand me?" The ferryman replied. "I know many languages. It becomes useful as a ferryman. How about a trade, I pull a few strings, and give you the language, if you pay a few thousand yen more? Hmm?" Kizu had to agree, it was the only way she could survive. "But I'll need you're payment first." "I have no yen." The ferryman thought it over then grinned. "That solid gold necklace. I'll take that, but all your other payments must be either work here or in yen." Kizu agreed and tore the necklace off her neck. "I've been waiting to get rid of this thing. He was a cheating bastard anyway…" She snarled and left, slamming the already cracked door.

One week into what she felt was a prison sentence; Kizu was already used to the work. Go out, hunt prey, kill it, earn back her life, repeat. A-loan was still hunting zombies, but her nose was just as efficient as Toko's demon sight. Kizu stayed away from the other debtors, especially Chika, Shito and Michiru. They were too friendly to her, and she wanted nothing to do with them. She did treat Shito with respect, but only because he stayed away from her.

Today, she ran into Alive Loan. A bullet was in her arm and she snarled at them. Already, with no words exchanged, she knew so much about the three just by how they acted. The short one was in charge, and left prey only wounded, while the taller one finished them off and followed. The girl with the two males found their prey, and without her they would probably be useless. She snarled at them and got a brilliant idea. If there was no Alive Loan, there would be much more prey, and she could earn her life back so much easier. Kizu grinned at this plan, and ran from them, hiding behind a dumpster. They passed her and she changed forms, borrowing her sister's form, a white wolf with green eyes. She followed them from behind, stalking her new prey.

The two males split up from the girl, and she went home. The two guys went into a convenience store, and she sat outside of it. When they came out with some food, she played a 'hungry dog' and was given some food by them, and patted on the head by a few others. She continued to stalk them, and decided the taller male would be a better target, because of his machine gun; he was harder to take out when aware of what was happening.

Kizu stood outside of a house he had entered, thinking over what to do. Should she find a way inside, and kill him there, or wait until tomorrow, when she could brag to the rest of z-loan that she was more useful than them? She decided now was better, because tomorrow she could take out the other two in their panic. Kizu climbed through the open window, and made her way to the teen's room. She found him already sleeping, with his headphones on.

"He would never know…" Kizu grinned and bared her fangs, ready to sink them into his neck, but a call from someone downstairs alerted her that she would have to wait. She ran into the closet, and hid temporarily. The boy's mother came in the room and woke him up, then left shortly after telling him about food being ready. He grumbled and rolled over, saying he was too tired. 'Too lazy to eat? Hmm, I think I'll eat his meal after I kill him…' Kizu grinned and came into the open when the coast was clear. Once again, she was standing over him, ready for the kill.

He was awake, but turned away from her, changing the music playing on his ipod. She snarled and he jumped, turning around. Kizu thought it would be fun to scare him before ending his afterlife brutally. He scrambled away from her and pushed himself under his desk, trying to get away. Kizu snapped her fangs over his ankle and tore at his jeans, spilling the foul tasting dead blood on the floor. He yelled and tried to kick her, and Kizu ripped more flesh from his leg. He screamed and thrashed, managing to get away from Kizu's grasp. He tried to stand and fell to the ground. Kizu circled him, grinning all the while. The teen's parents run up the stairs, and Kizu shoved the door shut, blocking his escape. "Shuuji? Let us in!" His parents pounded the door, and Kizu snarled attacking it momentarily. "W-What was that? Are you okay?" Shuuji, the teen, tried to stand again and shuffled to the window, and Kizu grabbed him by his other leg, and knocked him down again. He tried to fight back, but stopped when Kizu had her jaws around his mid section.

Shuuji laid there, oddly calm seeing as a wolf was about to disembowel him. Kizu was confused. She loosened her grip on him and spoke, knowing her voice sounded different than in human form. "What are you doing?" He twitched and Kizu tightened her grasp, so if he began to struggle, she wouldn't let go. "W-wai…ting…" He groaned in pain and started to move again, and Kizu bit harder. He pushed her head, and it was clear he was completely drained of energy. "Aren't you going to fight back?" Kizu questioned him and he shook his head slightly.

"A-alread… dead… no poi…ngh… point…" He sat up slightly and tried to push Kizu's head again. "C-cause… you won… et go… either maannn…" He struggled to speak and Kizu let go of him, and he collapsed. "You are pretty pathetic. To lazy to fight back, to lazy to live." Kizu ripped at his neck, but tasted metal. 'So that's why, he was saving energy to summon his weapon…' Kizu let go of the machine gun and snarled, and he tried to shoot her, but missed. The bullet embedded itself in the wall, and Kizu tried once again to bite him, but he hit her with the gun, and she decided that it was a good time to run. She jumped onto the window sill, and smashed the window before running out it, leaving him to bleed.

The next morning, Kizu woke in the loan office. Kizu had been sleeping here, and cleaning for Bekko so she could stay away from the others. She woke in a great mood, knowing that the injuries she gave to the A-loan boy, Shuuji, would limit their ability to hunt, leaving a gap for Z-loan to earn more cash. Kizu arranged the items on Bekko's desk, and vacuumed the office.

When the ferryman came into the office, he undid all of her work. She growled and sat on the couch, then looked out the window at the A-loan office. She saw that the long haired teen was limping, but still moving. He seemed restless. The other ferryman glared at Bekko through the window, which he opened. "You know our deal Bekko-kun, my debtors don't count." Hakka said calmly and the teen, Shuuji leaned against the closed window, rubbing a bandaged wound on his neck. "What are you talking about Hakka?" Bekko asked and Kizu walked up to the window, listening in on their conversation.

"My worker, my Shuuji was attacked, and don't you have a werewolf in your group? What was it's name…" Kizu stiffened and Shuuji turned around, facing Z-loan's office. He saw Kizu and tried to talk to her, but she ignored him. He was prey, not a potential friend. "Lyca. He is the werewolf." Bekko answered for Hakka and Kizu mentally sighed. She could get away scott free. She got tired of Shuuji trying to capture her attention, and she snarled at him. "What?" "You're bleeding." She looked over her body, and found a cut across her arm, from one of his bullets the night before. She grabbed a box of tissues from Bekko's desk and covered her wound. Now that he had gotten her attention, he kept talking. "How did you die?" Kizu grumbled under her breath and the teen leaned out of the window a little more. His ferryman grabbed the back of his coat and pulled him back, so he wouldn't fall.

"I didn't hear ya man, care to repeat that?" He asked and Kizu covered her face with her hair. She needed it cut badly, the scar over her eye was showing. Maybe if she cut it over her face, no one would see it, and it would look grea- "Hello? Um, what's your name?" He was still talking. "Kizu. Now will you leave me alone? And I'm not telling you how I died." She growled and grabbed scissors off Bekko's desk as the two ferryman chatted, mainly about who would win.

"Oh, sorry man. If you care to know, I-" "I don't care." "Oh…" this was how Kizu and Shuuji's conversation went. He would try to be polite to her, try to be somewhat friendly, even though their loan company was going to kill them, and she would give the same responses over and over. "I don't care." "Shut up." "Nmmph." Were her favorites it seemed. Shuuji rested his head on his hand and sighed. Zen and Toko went hunting without him because he couldn't keep up anyway, and now he was hurt. The more this girl brushed him off and ignored him, the more curious he was. 'Were was she from? Who was she? Was she foreign?' He was full of questions, but she had all the answers, and wasn't telling.

A small part of Kizu wanted to talk to him, to let him know something, because it seemed the less he knew, the more he talked. 'He's polite, and does seem nice. Hell with it.' Kizu thought and stopped trying to cut her orange and blonde hair. "I'm American." She said and Shuuji looked up. "Huh?" "You wanted to know where I was from, right? I'm from the US." She explained to him and he smiled lightly as he sat up. He winced and rubbed his side, which had caught on a part of the window frame. "What part? Ya speak English man?" Kizu nodded and answered him. "California. And yeah, I do know English." He leaned out of the window again, this time spitting out his gum into the alleyway. "Then say something in English." Kizu laughed at him, actually amused.

"-Why won't you go away?-" Kizu said, in clear English, knowing that he didn't understand her. "Cool man, what did you say?" He asked and Kizu swore under her breath. "I asked what you were listening to. On your headphones." Both ferryman chuckled and Kizu remembered that they could understand her. Both doors in both offices opened, and the rest of Z and A loan greeted their ferryman. Sotetsu messed up Kizu's hair by putting his hand on top of her head. She snarled and fixed it. She was still trying to cut it. "Ha ha ha, you love birds getting along?" He asked and both Kizu and Shuuji turned red. Chika and Zen started yelling.

"WHAT? THEY are the ENEMY!" "SHUUJI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Kizu pushed Chika's flailing arms away from her and growled at him. "Shut up. He was joking." She said and turned to glance at A-loan, taking note of Shuuji holding Zen down, so he wouldn't climb out the window and into the Z-loan office. "Besides, he isn't my type."