Rei- Tsume Chapter 1: A Fated Meeting?

Hakuhyō P.O.V

'What had he gotten himself into?' Hakuhyō thought to himself as he tried to track his marks mana signature. It was starting to become a hassle taking on a partner of sorts on his travels. Wait… there it is.

"Em, I pinpointed her location" a smooth voice spoke slightly strained. "The target is moving quickly north east of the town towards the forest two clicks outside the city."

"Copy that Hyō-Kun. I'll meet you at the waypoint in five minutes." Em replied her own voice filled with longing.

"Hyō, we need that girl if we want to survive till the deadline without breaking the decrees."

"… I understand Em. No need to worry. We'll get what we need very soon." Hyō spoke softly attempting to calm Emily down.

It had been two months since they had first met up and it had become rougher hunting for two and avoiding detection. He saw a lot of himself in the younger teen. Both exiled from their families at a young age. Left with nothing but the clothes on their back and the weapons born with them. Both of them would never be accepted in either world. One world was of Humanity; the other being of the Supernatural. Being a Dhampir, he had no place as a child of the Noble Vampire House of Tepes. "Stop remembering," he told himself "All that will come from it is unnecessary pain." After five minutes of waiting Emilia finally arrived. At 13 years of age she stood at a decent 5'3'' dressed in red and light green nomadic robes. Most would worry about her catching a cold in the brisk January air, if they didn't know what she was that is. Two tonfa attached to her lower back on top of the tailbone. They were beautiful and deadly. The blades on them were made of silver and gave off the uneasy feeling of blessed weaponry. Gifts from her mother she would say every time he would ask about them. "What are you staring at Hyō" she barked impatiently. "A little girl that can't survive without Me." he replied frostily. "Now enough chatter if we want our blood we need to make sure it doesn't get away. This forest holds our future survival inside. Keep up or you'll be lost in no time." He spoke with as much seriousness he could muster.

XXXX

The glen was dark, even with no moon out tonight it shouldn't be this dark. Haku would have no trouble with it being what he was. Emi on the other hand had no such advantage. She was half Blood Elf on her mother's side and her race only had lowlight vision. As much as she tried to remain silent, she would tumble over small rocks and fallen branches. Even then she was still quieter than most. "Come out of those trees, I can sense where you are." Hyō called out with no emotion in his voice. A moment passed and no one moved until they saw the leaves in a tree rustle and a small figure emerged. A young girl in rags that could have been an army uniform at first fell from the tree. She looked to be only 10 years old and well nourished. Her eyes though told a whole other story to him. Heterochromic eyes one golden, the other as black as the void both dull with no light to them. Attempting to hide all the pain she had to go through in her young life. Hyō sighed at this development. He had three choices right now and none of them felt right to him. Option 1: was to ignore the fact she is an innocent and have both of them drain her blood dry. Immoral but then he and Em could survive until the next summit.

Option 2: Leave her here and risk breaking the decrees by hunting down the nearby kitsune or Okami tribes.

Finally Option 3: take the girl with us and find a place for the three of them to bunker down for 2 weeks. He hesitated choosing the last option due to the girl's aura. A faint white line cloaked her form but that was overshadowed by the pure black aura around it. It wasn't that uncommon to have multiple colored auras, some would be layered some mixed, his own aura was new moon sky black and snowy gray. Yet the fact that she has two that were on the complete opposite spectrum of powers was… unnerving.

"Em patch her up we'll take her with us to the closest safe house… we'll decide what to do there. This forest doesn't feel right to me." Hyō spoke eyes scanning the surrounding area.

"Alright you're the boss Hyō." Em replied moving towards the small enigma.

Just then a howl flared up from the surrounding trees. Almost two-dozen Wolves appeared to the left of them and equal amount of Kitsunes to their right. All eyes turned toward them. One Okami and one Kitsune separated themselves from their packs and came within 15 meters of Haku. The Okami had white grey fur with a streak of black over the right eye. The Kitsune was Red furred with small flares of orange here and there.

"Why have you trespassed on our territories brats?" the wolf growled out voice to the brim with annoyance. "Speak quickly or my pack will feast on you and the Elven girl behind you!"

"My name is Hakuhyō and we were only preventing the young girl from foolishly entering your tribe's boundaries." Hakuhyō spoke as calmly as the situation could allow him.

"As you can see she was attacked quite recently and according to the decrees because she is under 16 we are required to aid her. She ran off into the woods the second we got close enough for her to sense."

Replied Haku as he wove his tale. If he pointed out that they were "caring" for a youngling then they may be able to escape from this with both supplies and their lives. He wasn't lying whatsoever; he made it a point not to lie. That being said he never swore to not withhold truths. They had decided to take care of the girl. She was injured she appeared to be hurt and she did run from them when she sensed their auras. As he glanced at the two tribes he could see that the tale took hold in their minds and was calming all of them down. That was until an arrow made of light based magic and a fire-coated kusarigama flew at him. He ducked under the Kama and blocked the arrow with the sheath of his Uchigatana. From the Okami side a male wolf in human form stepped forth with a bow at his side. Wolf ears on his head that were the inverted colors to the pack leader's fur. From the Kitsune side a male Kitsune in his human form stepped past his brethren glaring both at the Wolf boy and Hakusho's group.

"Don't believe that bloodsucker. He and his kind will lie and cheat their way out of any mess they create." the wolf boy yelled voice thick with venom. "They were probably the ones who were hunting that girl in the first place hoping for an easy meal most likely."

"Senshi you idiot pup hold your temper back and think for a moment will you. Even if they were hunting her the two girls are under aged. Hurting them will cause the whole pack to receive the Sentinels wrath." scolded the Wolf pack leader. "Also since the Dhampir is the technical Guardian of the Elf we have to extend that right to him as well. As much as even I would love to tear out the throat from a member of that family paws are tied." Hyō stiffened in place as he heard what she said. How could she know that he was from the Tepes family? It should be impossible he sealed off his aura into his blade. The she wolf glanced at him and mouthed two words in his direction 'Blood Scent'

"But Mother we just can't let them get away with trespassing on our turf without consequence!" the wolf boy cried out hoping to sway his mother's mind. Hyō could tell all it was actually doing was infuriating the Okami Matriarch. If the slitting of her irises and the increasing amount of mana leaking from her was any indication.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH you should teach your whelp of a bastard manners and patients Gesshoku-Chan" chided the Kitsune Matriarch voice to the brim with mirth.

"Shut up Nisshoku I could say the same of your bastard of a kit. He also attacked them unprovoked as well as flirting with one of my daughters not to mention." Gesshoku snapped back irritation plain in her voice.

"Sorry to interrupt this… interesting moment but we have to leave and find food for the three of us. We haven't been able to eat in days and the strain is slowly becoming unbearable for chibi-chan, Hyō-kun and I." Emilia called out for the first time since they had arrived in the clearing just loud enough only for the Matriarch duo and her companions to hear. Both stopped arguing and had sheepish looks on their faces, clearly realizing this was not the place for that particular conversation.

"Very well then you little kits you can stay with us of the Kitsune-Bi clan for the required two days. After that you all will leave and not trespass on our lands again. Understood!" Nisshoku told them with a stern yet kind expression on her face looking towards us… No she was looking past us and at the aptly named chibi-chan. Hmmm this could work to their advantage. When he came back to reality he observed that all of the Kitsunes were moving eastward from the clearing, as he went to follow his gaze met the wolf boy who tried to hit him with the arrows. His eyes said one thing; 'I'm coming after you.' Hyō ignored the empty threat and swiftly caught up with Emilia and the enigma girl. He decided that she couldn't just keep being called chibi so…

"What is your name little one?" he asked with as much grace as he could summon. She flinched at suddenly being addressed but soon calmed down when she realized nothing was going to hurt her.

In a shaky voice she replied "My name is Muttsu and what is yours?"

"Well I'm known as Hakuhyō but I guess from now on you can call me nii-chan if you'd like. You can call Emilia over their nee-chan as well" I spoke to her my voice filled with mirth and kindness. It was worth it to see her face go from small reserved and scared to bright happy and full of happiness. As her mood changed I observed her aura as it happened. The light grew and the darkness shrunk and he had to resist the urge to groan in frustration. He did sigh to himself though, what had he gotten himself into to deal with all of this?