The Heart of the Night
By: Finmide
[Note: I don't own Kaze no Stigma or its characters. Also I plan to keep this one short, like five or six chapters, maybe a little more depending on how the story goes.]
Chapter 1
The crimson haired Ayano was walking back home with her friends on the breezy autumn day. As always she was walking home with her friends Yukari and Nanase. Yukari was rambling on about something going on in the student body, which Ayano wasn't really paying attention to lately her thought have been elsewhere. Thinking of the possibility of a mission to go on, or maybe training or something of that sort, also she kept stretching her sense out in search of any yomas that would be present.
"I really don't think Itsukari should be class president. What do you think Ayano?" Yukari asked.
Ayano, who wasn't paying attention was caught off guard by the question, "Um, yeah whatever you said," she quickly respond.
"Ayano you seem to be distracted," Nanase brought up.
"Yeah, are you thinking about you boyfriend Kazuma?" Yukari teased.
"WHAT!? No, I'm not thinking of him and he's not my boyfriend," Ayano fought back without success.
"I don't know why you insist on keeping it a secret, It's obvious that you like him," Yukari said with a smirk.
Suddenly something bothered Ayano's consciousness. She could feel a dark presence in the air. Ignoring her friends she quickly looked around. But however she could not see anything at the moment. Ayano started to relax a little thinking that she probably over reacting. But just as she let her guard down something grabbed at her leg and lifted her away. The dirty slimy tentacle pulled Ayano into an ally way toward its owner which looked like nothing but a pile of trash with a face. Ayano also then recognized that the yoma grab Yukari and Nanase also. The yoma started pulling Ayano toward it's greasy and grimy mouth.
"Ah, what kind of Yoma is this?" Ayano shrieked in disgust at the pile of garbage, " I will not be eaten today," She said stubbornly.
Summoning Enraiha, she imbued the sacred sword with her fire and used it to cut the tentacle, which caused the creature to scream in pain before using more tentacles to grab Ayano by all of her limbs and prevent her from attacking. Ayano struggled and pushed against the ground to try to get away but the Yoma was strong and kept pulling her closer.
"Must kill Kannagi," the Yoma moaned.
Ayano was shocked, now the yoma can talk? Since when could yoma's talk, because all the ones Ayano encountered couldn't. Ayano struggle trying as hard as she could to move her hand to attack the beast but the tentacles held her arms in place.
In her mind she now was thinking that this would be the end; that she would die by getting eaten by a trash monster. However that's when she felt an even stronger dark presence nearby. Black shards flew through the air, and stabbed through the beast as it shrieked in pain. Finally one single shard shot through the yoma in between its eye. The creature scream and fell apart into nothing but a normal pile of trash.
"Hey I had that under control!" Ayano yelled out expecting Kazuma, but however when she turned it was someone else. Someone with black hair and silver eyes, they wore a black coat and black cargo pants.
The person turned and walked away, not saying a single word. Yukari and Nanase who had got all the garbage off their clothes walked up to Ayano.
"Looks like your boyfriend has some competition," Nanase said, but however Ayano didn't care at the moment.
"Who was that?" Ayano asked.
"I've seen him before; he actually goes to our school. His name is Royuku Fujimoto; he usually keeps to himself sitting in dark corners. He never talks to anybody well not to anybody I know, which is everyone in our school practically. Rumor says his parents were murdered by gangsters, and ever since he isolated himself from others," Yukari explained.
When Yukari finished she was met with the stares of her two friends. They looked scared and amazed at her knowledge of this person.
"You know I'm starting to wonder where you get this information, because it's a little creepy," Ayano remarked.
Back at the Kannagi grounds, Ayano lay in her bed looking up at the ceiling. When she got back from school it ended up that there were no missions or anything for her so she just walked about the property meditating and training. They ate the family meal, and now it was time to go to bed. But Ayano couldn't stop thinking about that person who saved her. She could still see those eyes of his. They were silver and glowed somewhat like the moon at night. Ayano knew that wasn't normal, there's no natural way a person could have that eye color. But they were so mesmerizing just by looking at them once. Ayano closed her eyes and went to sleep. Her dreams were filled with fighting yoma's and spending time with family members. But she could still see those eyes in the darkness.
In the morning Ayano quickly bathed herself, and got dressed for school, and then she went down to the family breakfast. When down there she saw that everyone was already gathered, but she also noticed that Kazuma was there. This usually would have set her of in a bad mood because she gets irritated at how he keeps trying to seduce girls. But strangely today she felt okay by his presence.
"Ah Ayano good morning, I trust you slept well?" her father Jugo asked her when she entered.
"Yeah, I slept fine," she said off handily as she got herself some food.
"Good because once you get home from school I have a job for you and Kazuma to handle, so please don't make any plans today," Jugo informed Ayano.
"Sure thing," Ayano replied.
She started to eat when she noticed that Jugo was looking at her. At first she tried to ignore it, but her conscience told her something might be wrong.
"Is there something else you wanted to tell me father?" Ayano asked.
"yes, please come with me," Jugo told her as he stood up and left the room.
Ayano, slightly confused got up and followed him, they were just in the next room over which was far enough to be considered alone. There Jugo posed his question, "Are you alright? Something seems to be occupying your mind. I can tell from your lack of attention you started showing yesterday."
Ayano was slightly taken aback by the question, how come everyone said she seemed distracted. However she did need to tell him something but she was unsure how to word it. Maybe she could just say it for what it really was. She had nothing to lose anyway, plus this might help the Kannagi family.
"Father, I encountered someone yesterday," She started, "I could sense a lot of dark energy coming from this person."
Jugo thought for a moment, he seemed disturbed at the information.
"Is this person dangerous? How powerful was he?"
"Well he wasn't exactly dangerous, he actually saved my life. I also found out that his name is Royuku Fujimoto, a social shut in practically," Ayano told him.
"We would need to find out more of this person, because people who keep things to themselves usually could become dangerous. I'll give you and Kazuma this job, the other mission can be completed by Ren," Jugo figured.
Ayano was surprised that Jugo would tell her to actually go and find this person. However she is going to be the next family head and she needed to learn how to handle situations like this. So it only made sense, but unlike most of her missions she was unsure how to handle this one.