Disclaimer: I do not own Nura Mago.
Author Notes: This chapter has been revised from its previous publication. The scene described is the combination of both the happenings in the manga and the anime. Please, I hope you can excuse the OOCness. And thanks for trying this amateur ranting, hope it was/is not a waste of your time. :(
Evening had just come. After saying goodbye and parting from the rest of the Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol, the hazel eyed brunette, Kana Ienaga walked along the footpath. The area she was in was not quite busy at this time, seldom shoppers or business people bustling in and out of the shops, or occasional teenagers walking and complaining about schoolwork and mostly people stopped outside the shops to talk with acquaintances. There were so many shops around and each one of them had bright lighting, such that it was difficult to imagine that it was still night time so long as one kept with the pathway. Frequent horns from passing cars too filled the air.
Some tapping could be heard behind her. Footsteps... from a heel. They did not synchronize with her own and, in fact, she could feel something of a beat, comprised of two noises whenever she took a step. Was there some...was she a target tonight? Her pace quickened. And yet, two noises still remained, the gap between the two being the same, though their tempo was faster.
The twelve year old swallowed and blinked.
She walked, solitary, along the footpath, past these shops, passing through a shady looking district, a place, dangerous for youngsters. She only intended to pass it as quickly as she could and be on her way when-
"Hey, little lady, in the school uniform," hollered a woman to a black headed young girl, about the brunette's own age, in a cream sweater and cobalt blue skirt, "Where are you off to?"
-drove the previous omen, out of her mind.
Compared to the adults around her, the girl was much shorter and now looked intimidated as older women with more painted faces, and men with unpleasant grins on their faces literally looked down to her.
They snickered sinisterly at her and she awkwardly tried to withdraw her gaze.
"Yura-chan!" shouted the brunette, instantly causing the heads in front to turn to her, including the addressed person's head.
"Ah…um…Ienaga-san…?"
"This isn't a good place to be at this hour," informed the brunette, giving a small smile.
Then she walked closer to her friend.
"Let's go. You live alone, right?"
"I still need a lot more training. Even though I believed they were there, I must have really insulted Nura-kun…"
Beside her now was the black haired, slightly sweating, found-to-be onmyouji, Yura Keikain. The girl was shorter than Kana from a head yet was from a greater proportion, braver. Although still unnerved at seeing a horrible, beastly rat scampering around the 'haunted' house, the brunette managed a smile as she saw her friend looking so serious. Even when she had first been recruited by Kiyotsugu Kiyoujuji, she had had something of an insipid expression on her face despite explaining sinister motives of youkai. Thanks to her fueling the wavy haired leader's excitement, she and Jirou Shima had been dragged around all over the old mansion, searching for supernatural beings.
"That rat sure was scary, wasn't it?" the brunette remarked mildly.
The ebony haired one looked up at her, the vapid look returning to her face.
"I'm so sorry for scaring you," she said apologetically.
"What? Not at all, it's alright," denied her friend with a cheerful look.
They were forced to part as a sigh accompanied the pushing of their shoulders by a man who was drunkenly slouching off in the opposite direction.
"'Scuse me…" he exhaled and walked off.
Kana narrowed her eyes at the departing, broad figure, then signaled to Yura to keep coming with her.
They continued walking in that area, quite bright because of more colorful lighting, even the floor reflecting their vibrant colors. But then, both girls gave a start when a young man in a suit came in front of them and began to bear his gaze down at them, hands in his pockets.
"Waa. This girl looks so sad! But I've found you now!" He went behind them and spread his arms in supposed delight, "Why don't I take you back to my store- or are you on your way somewhere? That's great too! Come hang out with me-" he continued with a cheerful demeanor.
The brunette raised an eyebrow in disdainful scrutiny while her black haired classmate drew closer to her in further perturbation. Kana snappily turned to the other direction, seizing Yura's hand.
"Let's go, Yura-chan," and they started to step forward.
"Huh?" exclaimed the onmyouji softly, "Wait a minute."
"What is it?" asked her companion in surprise.
"Get back, Ienaga-san," the frightened look was now replaced by a darker one.
"Yura-chan?" losing focus, the brunette began to feel uncertain as she observed the change in Yura's face.
They turned behind them where they saw more such men. Back to the front again and there were more here too. The one in white suit at the middle, with a rose attached near his neck, leered at them. He had fair skin and blond hair reaching down to his shoulders but some traces of hair surrounded his eyes, only mildly attractive.
With a barely audible sniff, Yura's eyes narrowed.
"You smell bad,"
He smirked toothily.
"What did you say?"
A small crowd of these suit wearing men started drawing nearer towards them leaving the two girls no choice but to back into the gap between two buildings.
"Yura, who are these guys?" asked the brunette shakily.
"They're the types I talked about earlier, with plenty of intelligence," her cream sleeved shoulder pressed closer to Kana's and she backed away further, "but with no rationality,"
Kana gasped.
"They're youkai?"
"There's no need to be so unfriendly my kittens," trilled the yokai in disguise, "You're friends with the Third, aren't you?"
Then he brushed his hand against his forehead and when his face was then revealed, it was found to be brown and hairy, like a monstrous rat's, "The night is long…let's gnaw on you until you're nothing but bones,"
Hearing such hostile words announcing a gruesome end, Kana could not help herself. The man had used a terribly literal term, making it clear that he intended to do nothing but just that. From his face, it certainly looked they would be appetizing, more than enough for him. The brunette's gaze fell on his teeth- his fangs...thought about how they would pierce her body, keep piercing until there was nothing soft enough left to cut. The pain was of course, beyond her comprehension and if she were to experience it tonight...her shoulders trembled, until she was worse than a cellphone on vibrate, letting out small gasp the more she looked at her enemy and heard his cohorts jeer evilly. Her shrill scream pierced the remoteness of the area, followed by even more intense shivering of the brunette's shoulders. Dismayingly, it seemed the area would still remain just as relatively silent.
Yura Keikain, on the other hand, gave a wry smirk.
"Don't get fresh with me. I'm not a big fan of rodents,"
How on earth could she so pluckily say that?
"Get 'em," announced the blond leader.
As some youkai rushed towards the younger schoolgirl wildly, she made sequential footsteps on the ground.
"Uho, Tenho,Tennai, Tensho,Tenho tennin!" she stopped and gripped tightly the paper ofuda in her hand, "Kenkon genkoritei! Come forth, my shikigami! TANRO!"
Bright, fierce red flames appeared from the ofuda she had thrown. They transformed into icy blue and soon their hue and shape changed to white for there to materialize an enormous, fearsome, yellow-eyed, white mane wolf, tall as the summoning girl herself, with inky markings on the area of its legs. It galloped forward and right before the brunette's eyes, captured the ayakashi's head with its paw and squashed it on the ground. It also easily dispatched with the other attackers by using its fangs.
"That's a good boy Tanro," a smiling onmyouji stroked its fur.
"Damn that girl," muttered the one in front of the group, "She's pretty strong,"
While Kana was busy observing, she did not notice that comparatively regular sized rats but with more prickly fur and beastly features were creeping up on her. And by the time she realized it, they had surrounded her silhouette backed up against the wall. Letting out another high-pitched cry, she alerted Yura to her distress.
"Help… please help me," tears started to fill her eyes as the leader's earlier words still rang in her head.
"Stop! She has nothing to do with this! Just let her go!" she listened to the onmyouji's infuriated shout but after that paid no more attention.
She began to fidget as much as she could against the wall, trying to prevent the hairy horrors from touching and maybe actually gnawing on her. Having observed what the onmyouji just did, she wanted her to direct that montrous wolf shikigami to her side, but that desire was fading as two of the rodents actually crept under her shirt. Swaying to and fro, she managed to shake them off.
Letting out grunts, she also tried to raise a hand against the rodents but they chittered threateningly at her.
These rats…they did not simply look and act ferocious, when Kana looked in their eyes, she felt nothing besides helplessness and a certain urge to protect her skin from their touch- or else it would be shredded, she felt. In short, summoning the courage to even try to resist, was impossible.
A sound of harsh contact being made against a cheek drew her eyes to the front. The Keikain's heiress's face was swerved to one side, as though slapped, and her irises were dilated in shock. As she collapsed to the ground, the brunette tearfully yelled, "Yura!"
The blond person had picked up the scrap of paper- an ofuda and clenched it in his hand. Beneath all her fright, the brunette felt a surge of anger she tried not to show. Yura, who had just tried to protect her, as though made for the purpose even though they had recently been acquainted…Kana understood that it was her job, but still, she could have gone through with it, without worrying about her but she did not. Instead, she embraced the notion of defeat to save her from these hairy shredders. And now, thanks to her fear which she had so carelessly shown (it felt careless as the Keikain's sound of collapsing to the ground brought home the increase in gravity of their situation), it looked like neither one of them would live this night.
Her shivering stopped very slightly, but it was more out of shock than anger. There were dead ends everywhere. Screaming was the only thing she could have done, which was out of the question. But the brunette knew one thing, perhaps as redemption for not being able to help her dear friend: she was not getting humiliated like her, just to be knocked out cold- not for both their sakes. Doing her best to ignore the rodents, trying to convince her frightened-to-death self as best she could that this was the least she could do, for the one who had just been saving her life, as the men drew near her, she let a soft sigh escape her mouth and then slumped to the ground, slowly closing her eyes. With the sigh, she managed to half her trembling. Falling to the ground with a convincing thud, she feigned unconsciousness for- she did not know which purpose.
One of the men in the suits, she could hear, drew near her, his feet grating against the ground as he dragged them lazily.
"Can't handle much, this one," he jested scornfully, tapping his knuckles against her head.
Sounds of rustling told her that her friend's limp body was now being lifted. Then one of these ayakashi came near her and she felt rough hands grab her from the waist. Stay away from me, you trash, she wanted to say. However she struggled not to grimace and let herself be slung on the youkai's shoulder.
"Send someone to alert the Third Head," drawled the leader's voice from ahead of her, "Treat them courteously. They are precious bait,"
The brunette's head was filled with nothing but the desire to escape with the onmyouji so she decided to make the most of her accepted farce. She realized she had heard this person say 'third' before. Though in this situation, it should have mattered little to her, she did not fail to observe that the sentence suggested a person needed to know of their capture due to either benefit or loss. Thus, she did not place much hope in this individual, but, intended to do whatever she could to not let them have their way with her, whether or not it worked.
Realizing that her eyes were clamped shut, she tried to smooth creases on her face in her current hanging position, as they set off to wherever their hideout was.