Disclaimer: Crescent Moon and all of its characters, places, and basic story line do not belong to me, nor do I claim them. This is strictly a work of fiction based upon the manga, which belongs to those who created it.
Rushed footsteps thumped harshly against the mats of the house, guards throwing open paper-thin doors as they frantically searched.
"Minister," the head of the men bowed before his master as they stood outside the destroyed home. "We… we've lost her."
The Minister of the Left's cold eyes stared down at the man who had failed to protect his daughter. Fury burned within him. He brought one of his armored feet back, then swung it forward harshly. The Minister's first guard grunted in pain as his master's foot jostled into his gut, causing him to fall backward. Blood forced its way up his throat, flooding his mouth with rusty liquid. His eyes met his masters as his vision began to shake and double.
"Master…" he coughed, choking on his own blood. It trickled out of his mouth and dripped from his chin, splattering onto his uniform. "Please forgive me," He begged. "Th-the beast," the man coughed again, this time blood shot from his lips as air tried to force it out of his throat.
Droplets spewed onto the Minister. His cold stare remained on his once trusted first guard. He knelt down, taking a fist full of the guard's uniform in his hand. He jerked the man close to his face. He started at the man for a moment before leaning forward so his lips were a fraction of an inch away from the guard's ear. The guard gulped as the Minister of the Left whispered one cold, threatening demand into his ear:
"Find them."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mahiru shot up in bed. Cold sweat clung to her body. Her chest felt like an anvil had been sitting there not a second ago. Her breath came and left in sharp gasps. Shakily, she turned to look at her glowing digital clock at her bedside table. 5:59 AM. She slapped the alarm button before the piercing noise of the buzzer had the chance to sound. She lifted her hand to her head, running her fingers through her honey-blonde hair. Her head was pounding.
That dream is going to kill me, she thought as she pushed back her bedding. Dizzily, she got to her feet. Her school uniform was thrown on her desk's chair; she had been too tired to put it away the night before. She managed to scramble out of her pajamas and into the uniform before she began her hunt for her hair brush.
"Mahiru, sweetie?" a woman's voice called from the base of the stairs. "Are you up yet? I'm making oatmeal for breakfast."
"I'm up, Auntie!" Mahiru called as she threw her assortment of school books into her bag. She hurried out of her room, following the scent of breakfast awaiting her in the kitchen.
"Good morning," Mahiru's aunt smiled as she held a cup of freshly made tea to her lips. The woman was an early riser, she always had everything ready and waiting for Mahiru by the time she managed to force herself out of bed. "You're up early." She noted. "Did you sleep well?"
Mahiru forced a smile. "Yes," she lied. "I woke up just before my alarm went off." Mahiru never told her aunt about her haunting dreams, so whenever one plagued her, she would brush it off as to not worry her only family. She shuffled over to their small dinning table and parked herself in one of the two chairs. A bowl of the warm food already sat waiting for her. "This smells great," Mahiru smiled up at her aunt before she began to shovel the food down.
"Then take time to taste it," her aunt laughed.
"Can't." Mahiru swallowed hard. "I want to get to the bus stop early so I can get to school on time today."
"I'm sure you'll make it in plenty of time, Mahiru-Chan. Just enjoy your food."
But it was too late, for Mahiru had already finished the heaping bowl. "Record time," she grinned.
Her aunt rolled her eyes.
"Have a good day at work, Auntie!" Mahiru waved as she rushed to the front of their small home. She donned on her school shoes and clung to her bag as she made a dash for the bus stop a few blocks away.
"Alright," she dug into one of the pockets in the front of her bag. "Where did I put that bus fare…" She knew she had it, it was just a matter of finding it. At times organization was an issue for her. Especially when it came to remembering where she put her bus fare.
"Found it!" she cheered as the long city bus of Tokyo rolled in front of her. She handed over her money and stood next to a window in front, holding on to the handle hanging above her head. Sometimes the bus driver liked to make abrupt stops making everyone in the bus lose their balance. It was necessary to hold on to something. Mahiru had learned that the hard way. Just a week before she had hit her head on the window when the driver smashed down on the brakes as he realized he almost missed his next pickup stop.
Mahiru sighed happily as she watched the city whoosh past her from the window. For once, she'd actually make it to school in time. Maybe she'd get in the classroom early to get a sneak peak at the lesson plan, just in case a surprise test had been planed. The algebra teacher was notorious for doing that to his students. She had never been very good at math, so any warning for upcoming tests were always a big help to her.
Her gaze shifted to the front of the bus as new passengers began to board. She vaguely noticed the long line of colors ahead of the bus, not taking the time to register what they were. A few seconds went by before a sharp gasp erupted from her. She frantically looked down at her wristwatch. 6:39 AM.
"No…" she murmured, looking back up at what she now realized was an extremely long line of cars. "No, no, no!" she whimpered. So much for getting to school on time! she thought as she ignored the other passengers who turned their heads to look at the girl who was talking to herself. "Curse my rotten luck," she groaned as she gave up hope of being a good, non-tardy student.
Mahiru watched as a policeman walked around the side of the non-moving bus and tapped on the door adjacent to the driver. The driver pulled the lever next to his chair so the door could swing open. "G'monrnin, Sir. Is there a problem?" he asked, sweating a bit. He was praying this had nothing to do with running a red light a few blocks back.
The policeman stepped into the bus without glancing at the passengers. He hesitated, stepping forward so only the driver could hear what he was about to say. "Don't let anyone off for the next half hour," the dark haired policeman said to the driver of the bus.
The driver looked up at the man, wondering what could possibly be so important that he needed to delay his passengers more so then they already would be.
"There was a wolf spotted nearby," the policeman continued under his breath. "Ran right out into traffic--we think he might've escaped from the Tokyo Zoo. We haven't found it yet, but we're closing off the area until we drag the mutt back to the zoo. We can't risk civilian injury, since apparently this was one huge beast."
The driver looked horrified. "Y-yes sir," he mumbled. "No one gets off until y-you've caught it…"
The policeman nodded once then left. The driver was quick to seal the door tightly behind him. Other passengers whispered to each other, wondering what the holdup was. Mahiru looked around, wondering why no one was panicking. Had she been the only one who had heard about the escaped wolf? She peered out the windows, searching for the animal. Everything seemed normal as far as she could tell. The wind picked up, blowing old news paper along the sidewalks. From an ally not too far away, she thought she saw bats flying up into the strong winds. She closed her eyes and shook her head -- bats don't come out in the morning, it's too light out, she thought. By the time she opened her eyes, there were no signs of the creatures. The wind was dying down.
The minutes ticked by as the traffic slowly crept forward, frustrating the blonde girl to the point that she was sure she could get off and walk to school much faster than the snail pace they were traveling in the bus.
Finally the traffic began to thin out and she made it to school by the time first period was almost over.
"Hey, Duckie!" Junko called from her desk. Mahiru wearily smiled at her best friend. Junko pushed some of her long black hair behind her ear as she waved to her tardy friend from her desk. "What happened, girl? You're later than normal!"
Mahiru grimaced. "It's not my fault this time," she sighed. "My bus got caught in traffic, then some policeman came in and talked to the driver, telling him not to let us off the bus for a while." Mahiru decided to omit the part about the escaped wolf the driver had been warned about, and her possible bat sighting. Junko never really understood the weird things that always happened around her, so she tried to not mention them as much as possible to avoid the awkward looks she would receive.
"Poor girl!" Junko laughed. "It's okay, I copied my notes for you." she handed Mahiru a page of scribbles and doodles. Mahiru politely thanked the girl while making a mental note to copy someone else's notes just in case. Junko had been known to daydream in class and often left out the most important information in her notes.
Mahiru took her seat and tried to focus for the remainder of the day. Her dreams had been flooding her head, title waves over the wading pools of information class bringing her. She almost slipped and wrote her history paper on the scene from her dreams instead of the Samurai in the Meiji Area which was what she was assigned.
Eventually the school bell rang indicating the end of yet another tireless day. Mahiru gathered her things and dumped them into her bag. She felt sluggish after all of the lectures she got for being late that morning; the sick feeling stuck with her all through the day.
"Going to Swim Club?" Junko asked as they exited the class for the day. It was a silly question, she already knew the answer. Mahiru never missed Swim Club, even if she was on her death bed.
Mahiru nodded. "I need the break. It's been a long day."
Junko grinned. "Alrighty, let's go then."
Mahiru managed to smile back. Junko wasn't a part of the Swim Club, but she often waited for Mahiru as she did her laps. She wasn't sure if Junko was totally there for her support though, since the Swim Team was a great place to pick up gossip. It didn't really matter, Mahiru thought as she hurried off towards the gym's pool.
She needed a break from the real world that only the water could provide.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a brown haired boy with strange piercing and top of the line clothes was walking up and down the street seemingly sniffing the air.
"Don't be so obvious, Akira…" a smaller man told the brown haired boy. "Try to act casual. We don't want another mishap like this morning."
Akira sighed. "I think I lost the trail," he grumbled. "What should we do? Master Oboro told us to do our best to find the Princess today."
The smaller man looked up at the boy. He adjusted his glasses so they'd reflect the sun--there was less glair on his eyes that way. "We'll just have to keep looking, I suppose. Nozomu said he was going to try looking around the apartment buildings in the area and maybe the library. Mitsuru took off somewhere… we can't count on his help today."
The brown haired boy hung his head. Large wolf-like ears sprung out from under his hair. "Do you think he hates us, Misoka?"
"Put your ears away, Akira. We can't afford anyone seeing your transformation."
Akira obeyed as he continued to sulk. The young werewolf hated the idea that their new friend might very well hate them, even after Master Oboro had rescued him from a dark fate only a few months ago. They were searching for the princess in the adoption system at the time--they'd been to homeless shelters all over Japan. Humans with broken souls would stare at them as they passed. Akira always wondered if those people could see behind their human faces to what they truly were. Misoka told him not to worry about it, and Akira learned early on never to question the smaller man that he and Nozomu saw as the leader under Master Oboro.
They had spent a month in Kyoto alone picking through old records and trying to trace blood lines. For a while, they were afraid the Princess's bloodline had died out through the thousand years since she passed. The search almost seemed pointless, as Mitsuru had said once they filled him in. Some girl who might be related to a woman in a legend probably would've lost the power of the moon they'd been so desperate to find generations ago. The Moon Palace was about to give word to relinquish the search for the Princess right before they found Mitsuru.
Tokyo's Juvenile Correction Center, Akira remembered with a sigh. Master Oboro had Nozomu hack into every database he could find, looking for reports of children with strange abilities. Katsura had sensed a trail of the moon's energy one evening when she was walking home from doing the grocery shopping and informed Master Oboro right away. They all remembered that night well.
Nozomu set to work, searching through every file for every school he could find nearby. Being the skilled hacker that he was, sifting through the mess took him hours when it would've taken anyone else weeks.
"Look at this," Nozomu had told Mater Oboro as they both stared at the glowing screen of the blonde haired boy's laptop.
"A boy who can fly…" Mater Oboro mumbled.
They had found another member of the Lunar Race.
The only problem was, the boy had been passed through the foster care system so much he had left trails though nearly every one of the homes within a one hundred mile radius. Akira remembered how that made his insides twist. He couldn't imagine living his life with strangers, being passed around like a doll like that. He made it his personal mission to sniff out this person and rescue him.
Master Oboro had given Akira permission to search in addition to their search for the Princess. Eventually, they found a Tengu not much older than Akira locked away in the Correction Center--Jail for Juveniles, Akira remembered with a shiver.
The buzzing hum of his cell phone in his pocket shook the depressing thought from Akira's head. "Hey Nozomu!" He said cheerfully, doing his best to break from the glum mood he was just in. "Whatcha up to? Any luck?"
"Nah," The voice on the other end sighed. "She's defiantly not anywhere near the apartments. I wasn't thinking, I shoulda checked out the school before it let out for the day," the voices said gloomily. "I suppose I'll check the shopping districts before heading over to the library. We don't know if the Princess is a shopoholic or if she's a bookworm, so I might as well try and scope out both."
Misoka reached for the phone.
"Nozomu." He said once Akira handed it over.
"Yeah, Leader?" Nozomu perked up. Maybe they had some sort of news for him.
"We're going to check out the park then head your way. Meet you at the library in an hour?" he asked.
"That works," Nozomu agreed. He clicked off his phone and shoved it in the pocket of his jeans. The sun of the mid-afternoon was beating down hard on the young vampire. Not even his sunglasses were offering much assistance to block out the harmful rays. His father had the same problem--or gift, as others called it--sunlight was not something that would kill him unlike much of the rest of his kin, but it gave him an everlasting migraine. It was something he'd learned to deal with as a child, but it was on days like today when the frustration of something else added to his battle with the sun. He glanced at the clock on a nearby building. 5:30 PM. Only about another hour and a half before the sun went down. He'd survive.
Nozomu walked past the groups of school kids on his way to the shopping district. Some of the girls turned to stare at him as he passed. He'd heard excited giggles once they thought he was far enough away. Nozomu was used to this. Being blonde in the middle of Japan always brought attention; attention he'd grown to amuse himself with. It's not that he enjoyed being a heartbreaker, but it was the closest he could get to the normal folk around him. If he couldn't join them, he might as well look godly so they would gape at him. He grinned at the thought.
There seemed to be a lot of students lingering from Tokyo's Private Academy around--he'd recognized the uniforms well. He and Akira were going to infiltrate that school in the next few days to pose as students if their search for the Princess was not fruitful by then. He didn't love the idea--he wouldn't be able to wear his sunglasses in class--but he was willing to suffer through near-blindness if it would bring them another step closer.
As he walked, he noticed a group of girls hanging outside the local café. They'd seemed to be teasing one of the girls--a blonde girl--about her luck. A truck had just drove past where they stood, splashing muddy water from the previous night's rain onto the girl's shoes. He was taken aback as he listened to their conversation, trying his hardest not to let a chuckle pass his lips.
"These are brand new shoes…" the blonde haired girl said sadly. "My aunt just bought them for me."
One of the other girls with short light brown hair held her hands up as to try and get the blonde girl to laugh it off. "Well, at least you didn't get mud on your uniform too," she said, still trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, that's good, right?"
Nozomu watched as the blonde girl turned and walked away from her friends. He smirked a little as the two girls who were left standing gossiped about where she'd ran off to.
Women are so fickle, Nozomu thought to himself as he continued on his search.
. . . . . . . . . .Mahiru walked along the cooling sidewalk. The summer air was starting to chill during the evening as fall approached. She watched her feet as thoughts enveloped her mind. One muddy shoe in front of the other. The breeze ruffled through her hair. She could smell the sea now. The cries of seagulls were swirling in the air around her. She breathed in heavily as she looked over her secret place. The docks--her home away from home.
She had always loved the water. As soon as she was old enough to notice the ghost-like fish swimming in the bathtub with her when she was no more than a few years old, water fascinated her. It was the secret she kept from the world. Through her eyes, water was a window into another time. A looking glass to another world. An escape from her unlucky life.
"Please share your luck with me!" the girls from school would say. They would pass her around like living a good luck charm. Not hours ago they were attacking her in the pool, trying to touch her and soak up what they believed would be luck. What's up with that? Mahiru asked herself as she looked down at her hands. Who would start a rumor so ridiculous?
She was the most unlucky person she knew. Nothing ever went right for her, no matter how hard she tried. The last memory of her parents replayed in her mind. The car. Bright, warm sunlight. Clear blue skies. And the squeal of breaks locking.
Mahiru closed her eyes as she felt her memory take life. The metal frame of the car bending and smashing like it was aluminum. Her parents yelling from the front seat. Glass from the windshield breaking and flying all around her. Her sweaty palms covering her eyes as the car spun into a guardrail. Sounds of bones breaking. Her mother's final cry as she was thrown from the broken heap of metal.
The never found a legitimate reason for the crash.
An accident, the adults had told her as she clung to one of the beds her parents' dead body was laying on.
An unfortunate turn of events.
That wasn't the only thing that her luck effected. The little things seemed to happen so many times a day, she had grown to expect being nailed by bird droppings weekly. Outings she was looking forward to always got canceled. All the boys she'd ever had crushes on always had girlfriends. She always managed to trip over hairs on the floor, or fall up the stairs if she wasn't playing extra attention to what she was doing. Mud spraying on her when cars drove too closely to the sidewalk seemed to happen a lot lately, too.
Mahiru slowly opened her eyes and looked to the skies. She wouldn't be surprised at all if a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the heavens to electrocute her. That was just how her luck went.
To her surprise, it was not a bolt of lightning that was falling towards her, but a boy her own age who seemed to be caught in a cyclone of icy air. Some of the seagulls had gotten caught up in the wind and were thrashing against the boy as he fell to the earth.
Horrified, Mahiru took a step back as the boy crashed onto the cement a few feet away. What is this? …Is …is he dead? she asked herself while he was laying there. Is my misfortune never going to end? she thought as his blood began to pool around him.
"A-Are you alright?" She managed to ask as she crouched down next to the body. She suddenly registered the sirens nearby.
The boy looked up, gritting his teeth and glaring at her with cold eyes. "Damn it," he mumbled, trying to push himself from the ground.
Mahiru gulped. Those eyes! her thoughts screamed in her head. Those are the eyes of the demon in my dreams!
She reached out for him, now seeing the Demon instead of the boy.
"Don't touch me!" The wounded teen hissed.
"But you're hurt!" Mahiru yelled back. She couldn't stand the sight of blood. She continued to reach out for him, but he shoved her hand away.
"Ow!" she cried. Electric shocks burned through her fingers from where he'd touched her. They numbed her skin and began to throb clear through to the bone. The boy fell backwards as he stared up at her with horror.
"Y-you…?" his shape began to quiver. The back of his shirt bulged, and he doubled over in what looked like great pain. "It just can't be…" he gripped his black-green hair between his hands as he tried to get the world to come back into focus. Angled stripes seemed to rip down his cheeks as his eyes went from brown to green to black.
The thing looked up at Mahiru then, reaching out for her. "But it is! It's you!"
Mahiru felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. "N-no!" she yelled. Grabbing her bag in her uninjured hand, she made a dash for the street around the corner. She crashed into a man who had been running her way--hopefully someone coming to her aid.
"Hey, slow down!" he said as he caught her from falling backward from the ricochet.
Mahiru looked up at the man as he tried to get her to stop shaking violently. It was the policeman she'd seen on her bus that morning, only in street clothes.
"Kusakabe," another policeman in street clothes whispered to the man who had caught her. "She's not wearing any shoes, sir…"
Mahiru's knees buckled. She dropped to the ground, sitting with her knees pulled to her chest as if she were trying to become so small she would be invisible. Tremors of fear still shook through her. The second man knelt down to look at the terrified school girl in the eye.
"We're looking for someone," he told her. "A kid about your age. Dark hair, white button up shirt, jeans. Have you seen him?"
Mahiru's voice had vanished. She pointed a shaking finger towards the docks. The undercover policemen looked towards the water as the men that followed--more police than Mahiru had ever seen--charged the area. One of them brought Mahiru's muddy shoes over to her.
"The area's clear," he told the undercover men as he handed the girl her shoes.
Mahiru searched the area with her eyes, still too afraid to move.
The demon was gone, leaving nothing but a pool of his blood behind.
AN:
That ends chapter one! Thank you so much to anyone who reads this! I'm so excited to work on this story, I'm going to do my best to make it one of my most vibrant works.
This is actually going to be a novel-version of the manga. It most likely won't follow the storyline perfectly (as you might've already guessed since I've already changed some things around), but it'll be close. I'll leave all the important stuff in there.
Since I'm lame, I'm going to post my play lists for each chapter. (what I was listening to while writing) I hope you guys will be able to relate the story to the songs. :P Here goes:
Fear (from the .Hack/SIGN soundtrack) - Mahiru's dream
Was it a dream? (30 Seconds to Mars) - Misoka / Akira / Nozomu searching for the Princess
Sold Your Soul (Yoko Kanno - Wolf's Rain soundtrack) - On the docks / Mahiru's memories
Animal I have become (Three Days Grace) - Mitsuru as realized Mahiru was the Princess
It's The Fear (Within Temptation) - Mahiru while she realizes Mitsuru is a demon
Sorry if you guys get confused by my picks. It's pretty much for my own amusement, but since music reflects on what I write, I thought it might be fun to include the tracks for this story.
Please, please forgive any spelling typing errors. I have trouble picking them up on my own, but I do try. I'll fix any I miss as soon as I notice them, I promise.
Also, if you enjoyed this, please review -- knowing your guy's thoughts keeps me going!
Thanks again to anyone who reads this! I'm really looking forward to writing more.
-RH