Lyserg stiffened, oversouling Morphine into his pendulum as stealthliy as possible. Someone was there, and close. Energy was radiating from the person, whoever they were; in small but intense waves. Waves so intense that even Horo-Horo was noticing that something was off. Or at least, Kororo was trying to alert him that something was off with marginal success.
"Lyserg. Do you sense someone?" Yoh stated in a low tone, looking as casual as he could. Lyserg nodded, glancing around. There weren't many places that one could hide along the highway they were currently walking on. Unless one was able to burrow under the endless oranging brown rocky ground that surrounded them. Ren too was looking around cautiously, the frustration becoming clear on his face as he too could feel the person's energy so god damned clearly, but could find no visual manifestation of any sort.
"Whomever is following us is a master of stealth, wouldn't you say, Yoh-Dono?" Yoh nodded.
"Ne, Lyserg, could you dowse?" Lyserg nodded, concentrating on the small intense presence, willing Morphine to follow it. And sure enough the pendulum shot out behind them, and if they strained their ears they could hear a low gasp and a tiny skid as the person landed a few feet away. More noticable was the light plume of dust that resulted from their feet hitting the ground.
"Come out you coward!" Ren called, his spear drawn. Morphine was holding fast onto the person's presence, circling around them before he pulled the wire tight trapping them. Lyserg felt a smile creep across his face, proud of his success.
"You can undo whatever is making you invisible" Yoh said calmly. Sure enough the air shimmered, revealing someone dressed mostly in black. A white and red tiger mask covered the persons face, and the hood of a dark short-sleeved sweater hid their hair from view. Lyserg walked towards them cautiously.
"Who are you?" Lyserg stated, trying to keep his tone calm. The figure merely struggled against the wires, causing little red marks to begin to show up on their pale arms.
"Struggling is useless. You aren't going to break my wire" the person paid him no heed, even when blood began to run down her arms and under her fingertips. Blood that they used to draw a strange looking symbol on their leg before disappearing into a puff of smoke. Causing both Horo-Horo and Ryu to let out something along the lines of 'what the hell!' Lyserg smirked as Morphine simply flew off after her presence as it reappeared a moment later.
But this time they seemed more prepared for the pendulum, and didn't even try to dodge it. In fact the person reached out towards it. That was Lyserg could register before the person pulled sharply, flinging him towards them. Lyserg felt his eyes widen slightly at the persons apparent physical strength, but pulled in his wire, speeding up his flight towards them. Lyserg smirked as he clenched his other hand into a fist.
As she came within his range he flung out his fist, hoping to punch them in the face, just like Yoh had done to him a couple of days earlier. The person ducked out of the way to avoid the majority of the blow, but Lyserg still managed to knock the mask away. The bottom half of their face was still covered in black cloth, but now their eyes were visible.
And what a pair of eyes they were. They were clear and focused, wide cream doused lilac pools framed by thick soft looking lashes dark as a night without the benefit of a moon. The eyes had no pupils, which though somewhat unsettling, also made it harder to look away from their pale beauty. But most of all, they were feminine eyes. Blank near white eyes with the knowledge of both how to create life and bring about death. And speaking of which the person's skin was pale as well, falling just shy of a shade that most would deem unhealthy.
But their hair was cut short. In fact Lyserg was pretty sure that Yoh, Ren, and Ryu all had longer hair then the person. But bangs that cut straight across their forehead like theirs were more common with females. And the strands that hung and framed their face also made a case towards them being female. The person didn't have the visible curves that a girl would have, but their legs were also rather skinny for a male. Lyserg frowned. He had skinny legs too, so that wasn't really much to go by. Lyserg frowned at the confusing dilemma. Which was it? Girl or boy? Lyserg kept debating back and forth in his mind as he did his best to block the girls well placed blows and trying to strike back with Morphine as he could. Finally Lyserg decided that he was going to find out the person's gender for sure. He made another swipe at the cloth covering the person's face, and thankfully managed to pull away the black cloth.
Lyserg's cheeks turned bright pink. The rest of her face was just as pale, and a pair of full pink lips were revealed, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt; for him at least- that the person was in fact a girl... Which was something of a surprise. He'd really been leaning towards her being a boy due to the lack of visible curves.
"A... Girl?" Lyserg stated. He'd meant to mumble, but his voice had come out loudly. Immediately her cheeks turned scarlet. Ryu's jaw dropped.
"You're a girl!" He stated, pointing rather rudely, causing the girl to blush even more as she nodded, her head hanging slightly, hiding her eyes from view.
"Sorry... It was kind of stupid to assume that you were a boy" Lyserg apologized, holding out his hand for her to shake. She shook her head.
"N-no... it's fine" She mumbled, her hand shaking slightly as she shook Lyserg's hand. Her hands were calloused, and her handshake was weak at best.
"you aren't the first people in this country to m-mistake me for a boy." She said, a small smile stretching across her face.
"I guess it's because my hair is s-so short" She bowed slightly.
"S-sorry to cause you guys so much trouble" She stated, retrieving her mask from the ground and began to walk away.
"Wait! where are you going?" Yoh called. The girl blinked.
"I'm n-not sure yet" She stated, her index fingers dancing around each other. Yoh raised an eyebrow.
"then why don't you travel with us for a bit?" The girl blushed, waving her hands in front of her as if to swat the notion away.
"I c-couldn't t-trouble you like that! I'm f-fine walking alone h-honest!" Yoh blinked.
"We don't mind, if you want you can just walk with us until we hit the next town" Yoh let his trademark carefree smile streach across his face, and the girl swallowed.
"R-really... Y-you don't need to-" She mumbled
"Are you crazy!" Ryu interupted, causing the girl to turn even more red, if that was even possible.
"N-No..."
"It's dangerous for a girl to be traveling alone!" Ryu went on, seemingly oblivious to the girl's protest.
"Yeah!" Horo-Horo jumped in, a huge smile on his face.
"We can protect you!" The girl's eyes instantly narrowed at the word 'protect'.
" I don't need anyone protecting me" She stated tersely.
"Ignore them. Obviously, they have trouble sensing a persons strength." Ren stated, catching on to the girl's annoyance. She shook her head.
"T-that's fine... I shouldn't have g-gotten angry" She replied. averting her eyes.
"What's your name?" Lyserg piped up, his curiousness once again becoming obvious.
"M-My name?" the lavender eyed girl said softly, her tone almost afraid.
"Yeah, it's kind of odd to talk to someone and have no idea what they're called" Lyserg stated amiably.
"I g-guess you're right... My name is Hyuuga Hinata" Lyserg smiled.
"I'm Lyserg, It's a pleasure to meet you Hinata-san" The newly named Hinata blushed.
"Y-you too" Hinata said quietly, following Lyserg and his group of friends as they walked on down the road. She did not know what about the green haired britt made her so happy. He didn't mind her stutter, and sometimes if no one else was looking, he'd even hold her hand, and even taught her some of his language, English.
His guardian spirit was beautiful and always smelled like flowers. Sometimes she wondered why he was so nice to her, even though she was shy, and rarely told him anything about her life. But now that she thought about it, he didn't really talk about his life either.
All she knew that he had no parents. When he'd told her that his voice had gotten tight, and tears threatened in his eyes. Hinata had overcome herself that night and hugged him as tightly as she could. She'd never hugged anyone before. Naruto had hugged her once when they were on the mission to find the bikochyuu bug, and even then she'd been to shocked to hug back. Now Lyserg is the shocked one. Sure people have hugged him before, but not since he was a child and certainly not like this. Her hug is strong, and he can finally feel just how curvy she is. His cheeks are red, and when she let's go all the air rushes from him, and the tears finally fall.
"d-did I do something wrong?" She stated fearfully, instinctually checking him over for injuries, just in case she had bruised him by accident. Lyserg shook his head.
"No... You didn't. It's just that... No one's hugged me since...Since my parents" Hinata's eyes widen.
"I...I'm so sorry!" She whisper shouts, her finger goes to her lip, and she bites down to try and quell her nervousness, just like she used to. Lyserg shook is head.
"No... It's fine... My mother's hugs are nothing like yours" Hinata blinked.
"Your mother hugged you?" Lyserg narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Your mother didn't?" Hinata shook her head no.
"No... My father didn't want me to grow up into a soft woman... At least that's what he told me when I was little... I think he didn't want me getting attached" Lyserg still looked confused.
"My mother was a sickly person. My father knew that she would die when I was young... He didn't want me forming too much of a bond because he knew that it would only cause me grief" Lyserg blinked slowly.
"Did your father ever hug you?" Hinata shook her head no.
"No. He was not an affectionate person" Lyserg's eyes softened.
"Hinata-san?" Hinata nodded
"H-hai?" Lyserg wrapped his arms around her, causing Hinata to turn redder then he'd ever seen.
"I r-really like your hugs... Could... could you do that again?" Hinata swallowed nervously, but wrapped her arms firmly around him, and as he closes his eyes and breathes in her scent of dust, metal and flowers he can feel her heart beating against him, and his heart beating in response. Her body is solid, and her breathing is steady enough to lull him towards a deep blissful sleep that is for once free of nightmares.