Chapter 1
Another day…
In perfect silence, she arose.
Get up.
Make the bed.
Have a shower.
Wash face and teeth.
Get dressed into a perfectly pressed high school uniform, long black skirt, black jumper with white bow pinned to the front, long white socks and black pumps.
Brush and dry ghostly white hair.
Stare into those dark crimson eyes in the mirror sadly, void of any facial emotion, willing no tears to stain porcelain skin.
Pick up bag.
Lock door.
Leave for school.
That's the way a normal school day goes, right?
She had been doing the same thing day in day out for so long…it seemed strange to think there was any other way to start the day.
And school was good.
The best thing for her.
It was a distraction, something to keep you occupied.
Although…it was also the worst thing for her.
"Heh heh, did Oni-chan have a good ride to school this morning?" A girl with flawless short brown hair giggled cruelly.
"Oh no! Someone's poured bleach on your head! Oh, wait." Another one snickered. "That's natural for you, right?"
"If you can call that natural."
"And those eyes! Maybe she did something bad in another life?"
"Like kill babies in their sleep."
"Baby killer!"
"Baby killer!"
They would say that, to her, behind her back, in hushed whispers, in loud howling laughter.
Every.
Single.
Day.
Again, part of her normal routine. Nothing wrong there...right?
And then there were the teachers…
"Ms Tengu, if no one comes to parent's evening tonight, you will have another detention. Understand?"
"Hai, sensei." She replied with a bow of her head, like an obedient.
"Baka-chan. Don't spill that water pot. If my art project gets messy, then you'll be in for it for sure!"
And so she sits at her desk, quietly drawing the plant pot before her, before someone walks past her classmate's desk, and pushes the pot over. "Hay! Who did that? My work's ruined!"
"She did it." They would point, and she would say nothing.
"Ne? right! Sensei! Sensei! Tengu-chan just threw water on my work!" She would look to her lap, her eyes closed.
"Ms Tengu, why do you insist on being so troublesome? Report to the principle's office young lady."
"Hai sensei." She would get to her feet slowly, pack her back and make her way to the principle's office.
Just another average day…
And when she got home?
Unlock door.
Lock door.
Put bag down.
Get undressed.
Get out art pad.
And lost herself for hours in just drawing one picture, any picture. From a hand, to a fly, to a sunrise. Just anything to take her mind off her miserable existence.
Some days she forgot to eat, but that didn't matter. As long as she didn't stop, as long as she didn't let herself think too much, it was ok. She could pretend to be happy with her life, without having to smile to prove it.
This girl's name is Yasha Tengu, 16 years old, a natural albino and a natural outcast. She's an orphan and has been for as long as she can remember. Although…there are those dreams. The one with a women in it, with long flowing raven hair, blue eyes and a soft smile. and a man, looking over her shoulder and down at her. But she can't see him exactly. Just his outline. Just his eyes.
Those big, blood red eyes. Like mine…
At times, she wonders if they are her parents. And at other times, she wonders if they are just images her mind creates at night to help her to sleep, by fooling her into thinking that at one time, she actually was loved by someone.
But then…if that were true…
Then why did you leave me…?
Why did you leave me alone…
Alone…
oo0oo
"And Yasha Tengu?"
"Ohayo sensei." Yasha whispered, turning to face him as everyone else in the class hastily left to make their way home.
"I would like a world with you, Ms Tengu."
"Hai, sensei." Yasha sat herself in front of her teacher's desk, and politely waited. Mr Honga, a man in his mid forties with slowly whitening short black hair, a set of harsh rectangular glasses and work suit on, raised his eyes from his papers, only to shake his head and sigh at her.
"Ms Tengu, you're parents didn't come to parents' evening last night."
"I have no parents sensei. I never have." Yasha gave no hesitation. She had said the same thing countless times before, to her teachers, and herself.
"That isn't the point, Ms Tengu. Someone should have come. Like your guardian."
"I don't have one, sensei. I live alone in a council apartment given to me by the state. A landlady checks up on my once a month, and brings me groceries and allowance money."
"You have no one? No one at all?!" He sounded scandalised, sat before her wearing his pristine suit and expensive designer watch.
"No one. No one at all." Her blank expression never changed, her hands never twitched and her lips never trembled with remorse.
She had lost the ability to cry years ago. Although sometimes she felt like she could…
"I see." He took a deep breath, no quite sure what to say next. "Then I suppose you can go, Ms Tengu."
"Arigato, sensei." Yasha bowed her head, and quietly left the classroom.
Her long black skirt and long sleeved school jumper with a white neck ribbon, made her look like she was going to a funeral. Her long white hair flowed wildly behind her, her blood red eyes focused before her as she made her way home. though, her feet were automatically taking her the long way home.
To kill time.
To occupy herself.
To avoid her classmates…
…or at least try.
"Hay! Oni-chan!" She didn't stop, and instead increased her speed.
But so did they. "Oni-chan! Stop!" Yasha ran, panting desperately to will her slender body to work harder, go faster. She turned into a back alley she frequently used, and jumped up onto a set of dustbins. From there, she put the handle of her bag in her mouth, grabbed the metal pole of the fire escape above her, and hoisted herself up onto it. She then quickly climbed up onto the roof, and hung her upper half over the ledge, looking down with frantically scanning red eyes and panting lips. "Whoa! Where'd she go?" Yasha counted at least three of them, one girl and two boys. They were all in her class.
"She vanished! Just like a ghost!"
"She looks like a ghost."
"Maybe if we got some evidence or something, we could sell her secret or something."
"Heh heh, yeah right."
Yasha watched from above as they slowly left, going their own way home.
"…they're gone. That was close." She sighed, and closed here eyes.
"It was, wasn't it?" Yasha gasped, and snapped her head over her shoulder.
Stood there, was a boy.
He had gloriously long golden hair, sharp blue eyes, a foreign blue tunic over white trousers and shirt, and a smirk on his boyishly young face. "Nice moves by the way. You do that often?"
"In a sense…" Yasha gulped, holding the ledge behind her and pressing herself against it. "…who are you?"
"Who am I? How did I get up here before you? How did I see everything that happened? How did I know where you where?" he clicked his tongue with annoyance. "You certainly ask a lot of questions, don't you?"
"I, I, Gomennasai, I-"
"You just apologised to me on instinct, didn't you?" The boy stalked towards her, seemingly bored with his arms across his chest.
"I, I."
"Am making no sense." he then stood a few feet away from her, and became very serious. "Answer me this, Youma. How did you get to Wa?"
"To…wa? Y, Youma? Gomen, but…what?"
"I can smell the blood on you Youma. You can't fool my nose like you can my eyes. I could sense your aura from the moment I came to Wa. Now." He raised one hand in the air, and narrowed his blue eyes on her. "How did you get here?"
"I, I just climbed up the fire escape. Y, you saw me, didn't you?" Yasha's heart was pounding in her chest.
Something about this boy made her wary, frightened.
And deep inside her…angry.
But she was far too afraid to address that. She glanced back over her shoulder to the fire escape, and then back to the stranger. Yasha yelped as her feet snapped together, and were yanked from beneath her. Her back hit the roof floor with a painful thud, and she clawed at the floor for dear life as she was reeled in towards the golden haired stranger. The skin on her legs scraped on the cement roof, cutting in various places until her long white socks became spattered with red lines and patches. Her skirt rode up her body, and she twisted round onto her front, trying to claw herself away.
"Submit to my power, Youma. Combine yin and yang! Resist no longer!"
A pulse of something ran through her, and for a moment, she stopped struggling.
But as soon as she laid by his feet, and he began to reach for her face, she screamed at the top of her lungs, and slapped him hard.
Right across the face.
What an insult to a divine creature of the heavens…
"Itai! You little wench!" He recoiled, cupping his throbbing cheek with one hand, the other gathering a mass of golden light. "I said submit!"
"No!"
Be strong. Never relent! You are mighty! "Leave me alone!" Yasha screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks. She pushed herself up until she sat with her legs curved round her and her hands supporting her on the floor. She opened her watery red eyes and looked to him desperately. "Leave me alone! What did I ever do to you?!" Yasha yelled, hung her head over and sobbed hysterically. "I never hurt anybody…never…did anything…just leave me…alone…"
Enki stared down at the pitiful young girl before him, and started to question himself.
He smelt blood on her, and it was making his head slightly dizzy. He could even sense her powerful Youma aura.
She was definitely a Youma.
But…she also seemed like an ordinary, troubled young girl too.
Her long, slightly scuffed black skirt billowed around her ankles, her long sleeved black jumper flapped slightly in the cold wind (they were high up on a roof, after all) and her long, ghostly white hair flowed wildly in the air around her pale face. He was truly stunned by her.
"Who…what are you?" Enki took a step back from her, as she whimpered sadly to herself. She's not human, that's as obvious as her eyes are red. And her hair…she smells Youmanic. I can't just leave her here. I was supposed to find Taiki. But…I should return. He turned his back to her, and a heavenly orb formed on his forehead. A Shoku opened up in the ocean, whipping trees from their roots and crashing waves against the urban shores. Yasha screamed the wind making her own hair whip around her face until she couldn't see.
All she felt, was a firm hand on her upper arm, and then suddenly the feeling of being off her feet.
Then it was as if she were falling for eternity, ocean mist spraying at her face and clothes, the smell of salt saturating her as she fell, and yet, the feeling of warmth.
"I…feel…cold." The warmth left her, letting her fall faster, harder, the force of her decent making her skin tingle and breathing became difficult. Yasha's long white hair flowed behind her at last, letting her stare down into the depths of a golden mass in the middle of the ocean.
The one, she was about to fall into. "NO! AHHHH!!" Yasha screamed, crossing her arms over her face to protect herself, and fell out of control, hurtling straight through the Shoku and…felt the icy knives of an ocean cut at her skin.
She forced her eyes open, only when she erupted through the water's surface. Yasha gasped deeply, throwing her arms and legs around to stay above water. Her crimson eyes scanned around her, and she saw land. Her mind playing mental havoc through shock, allowed her body to go on autopilot and paddle herself desperately towards the dirty shore.
By the time she got there, her arms and legs hurt, her lungs ached, her mouth was bitter with sea water and she was shivering from the freezing cold. Her breaths came out in puffs of smoke, and she wrapped her arms around herself, for what little warmth that would give her. She was soaking wet, and started crying again. "Why…why…where am I?" Yasha staggered up the dark sandy shore, and soon met with a forest edge. She whimpered to herself, and made her way through the trees.
If she stayed out in the open like that, then that boy might find her.
She didn't even care if he drowned.
When you'd lived a life like Yasha, you knew it was foolish to concern yourself with other people. They will only hate you for it.
So instead of looking back over her shoulder, or pausing even once, Yasha headed on, holding onto tree barks as she passed them, just walking on.
Surely she would find her way back to the main road, or at least to a house where she could get directions from, right?
After all, the ocean, from the roof, had been only a few miles down the valley. She couldn't remember there ever being a beach like this, or so much woodland either, but she accepted that there was. Because she wouldn't be stepping between mossy foliage covered tree roots and dead leaves, if it wasn't there. Now would she?
I'll get to the main road, and follow it north. That way, I'll get home in about an hour or so. Yasha shivered, sniffling her tears away, and ignoring her trembling weak knees, or her cold stinging skin.
Yasha ended up treading leaves for at least 3 hours, before her legs buckled from beneath her. Tears burn her cheeks, but were unnoticed by the throbbing pain in the rest of her body, and her heart hurt especially. Yasha fell forward onto her hands and knees, her tears falling in large droplets to the dank bed of leaves beneath her. She hiccupped through her sobbing, and finally gave in. She fell, half her face in the grime, her hair fanning over her face like a silken cover, and her breathing slowed. Consciousness left her, and she dreamt of that beautiful woman and that pair of red eyes looking down at her happily.
Mommy…daddy…