Chapter 1

"In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time."-W. Somerset Maugham

Jirou paced quickly down the sidewalk with her bokken strapped across her back. She hated walking back home after practice at the dojo because she always felt vulnerable in the dark. Even though there were still people out in the streets at this time, she feared the suburbs where the streets are deserted and there are fewer street lights.

She adjusted her backpack on her shoulder, which held her kenjutsu uniform. After class, she would put back on her blue and white school uniform, but today, she had to wear last year's uniform to school and to practice because she forgot to do the laundry. She had grown out of it by far, and she feared the buttons would snap and fly off. Jirou had more emphasis in her figure than all the other girls at school. She didn't quite hate it; she hated everyone's reaction to seeing her. She didn't want the extra attention tonight. She wanted to be inconspicuous walking back home. Jirou hated standing out.

At the crosswalk, Jirou waited with several other people for the Walk sign to flash. She felt safe being surrounded by seemingly nice people. She tried to ignore the stares but when the women peered down their noses at her, she felt really embarrassed to even be alive. Men can be bearable, but when envying women look at you, or even the old school women who think small is better and big is well… sinful, it gets internally insufferable. Jirou couldn't stand that, especially when she does nothing wrong to deserve such names that girls call her at school.

The Walk sign flashed and Jirou stared forward as she walked along. Across the way there was a moderately large group of people at the street corner, about half of them actually stepping off the sidewalk to cross the street. Among them was a tall figure in a black and red kimono, wrapped like a mummy.

Jirou locked her stare on him; he was so out of the ordinary. She couldn't look away, and she slowed down to take in what she was seeing. Everyone else was oblivious to the freak walking amongst them.

As she got closer, she saw his large yellow eyes with red irises, like an owl's eyes before it grabbed its prey. Why couldn't she stop staring? It was so impolite, but something had control over her.

He stopped in the middle of the street when he noticed her staring at him. She stopped suddenly and gasped as she found herself nearly an arm's length in front of her. He had a surprised expression on his face, his mouth slightly open in contemplation. He smelled of burnt flesh, which made Jirou's nose wrinkle.

Everyone passed by around them and the Walk sign was about to flash Don't Walk. Jirou couldn't look away. It was like an accident you can't stop watching. And now that their eyes were locked, she felt like the one who was the victim in the accident.

"Hey, girl! You better get moving unless you want to get killed!" grunted a man who nudged her arm.

She glanced over to see the man urging her to cross and then switched back to find that the mummy was gone. Jirou was surprised, but she quickly ran across the street to keep from being more surprised when she became road kill. When she got to the other side, she looked around to see where the mummy had gone but he had indeed disappeared.

"Hey, did you lose something?" the same man asked her. He seemed awfully concerned for a stranger like her.

"No, I thought I saw something," she said softly, still trying to find the mummy. She turned to the man, giving up on finding what was probably a figment of her imagination. "Thank you for your help," she bowed.

"No problem," he bowed before walking down the sidewalk. She waited until he was well down the street before going the opposite way towards the suburbs.

Jirou's mind went back to the crosswalk and how macabre that figure was. Did it really happen? Was she seeing things? If it did really happen, then what was that? She had heard of ghosts and stuff, and things called ayakashi that were a different thing entirely. People at school say that ayakashi eat human beings and live in the forest near the town. Was that thing a ghost or an ayakashi? It wasn't transparent, so it probably wasn't a ghost. But Jirou didn't know what an ayakashi looked like, so she ended up stumped on the matter. She half-wished that the mummy was still around so she could find out for herself.

She reached her neighborhood with its quiet streets and tall walls. She hated walking around here during the night. She didn't know anyone who seemed sketchy in the neighborhood but you never knew who might be lurking in the shadows.

Jirou strode close to the walls, reaching up occasionally to make sure her bokken was still there. She listened carefully for any sound of someone nearby but the streets were dead silent and the houses seemed empty. A dog barked in the distance, receiving an answer from another dog. It wasn't like an intruder alert howl, more like is anyone out there sort of howl. Jirou let out a sigh of relief, feeling a bit more secure knowing she was alone.

She crossed the street and took the path down an alley that took her straight to her street. She noticed it was darker there than yesterday, and it unsettled her. The streetlight in the alley must have died or busted the bulb, she heard glass crunch under her feet as she entered the dark domain.

There was a low pitch growl behind her. It wasn't like a dog's, it was human. Before she could turn around and draw her bokken, her attacker had her slammed up against the wall, their clawed hands grasped elegantly at her throat so she could breathe. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. To come out of nowhere and quickly take her from the middle of the alley to the wall several feet away without her even feeling the distance, it couldn't be human.

As soon as the surprise and blurriness went away, the big yellow eyes glared back at her menacingly. They were all she could see in total darkness, but it was more than enough to know who her attacker was.

"How can you see me?" he asked her angrily.

"I don't know," she said, trying to keep her cool. In situations like these, it was best not to lose your head.

"Are you a caster? Have you ever seen things before? Odd things…" he began to calm down by a huge amount.

"No, I have no idea. I had never seen anything like you before," she replied.

"Then you have the Sight," he relaxed his hands a little and began to talk to himself, "But still, I cloaked myself enough so that even a human with the Sight couldn't see me. Only a caster can see through that illusion." He took one hand off her neck and stroked his jaw line as he pondered. "You must have caster relations. What about your parents?"

"I doubt it," she said.

He replaced his hand over her neck and pushed up against her body. "What is your name, girl?" he asked.

"Jirou Takagawa," she breathed. She didn't like how he pushed up against her like this.

"A boy's name, huh? Interesting. Second son. Pretty girl with daddy problems?" he neared her face, his lips curling, baring his sharp teeth.

She glowered at him. He hit home run alright. "Just what are you anyway? Who are you?"

"I'm Kaguro, you're worst nightmare!" he pushed her into the wall with his own body and grinned.

"There have been worst things that lived under my bed," she stared at him, un-amused.

An expression of shock crossed his face. She could see clearly his failure at intimidation was a huge let down. His grin disappeared and his eyes seemed to dim like headlights. Did he get off by scaring people?

"Really, you're not so scary," she told him seriously.

He withdrew a hand and leveled it with his waist like a waiting uppercut. A sword blade shot out of the palm of his hand. Jirou gasped in surprise and fear. He was really going to hurt her. He thrust it at Jirou's chest and she winced from the oncoming impalement.

The blade stopped just inches from her chest. His hand released her throat and retreated to the wall where he leaned up against it, watching the blade shake furiously. Jirou opened her eyes to see him standing before her, unable to kill her.

"Why?" he whispered. Angrily, he withdrew his hand and attempted to stab at her again, but it also stopped just inches away, as if there were forces protecting her like a shield and holding the sword back simultaneously. "Why!" he yelled.

He stepped back and glared at her, the sword slipping back up into his hand. She pressed her back up against the wall for support, wishing it would suck her up and make her disappear from his sight. It wouldn't make a difference, he couldn't kill her.

"You must be a caster, I know it. My blade can cut down anything in my path, but for some reason, I can't even touch you with my blade," he told her. With a quick movement of his hand, the trash can next to her was split in half, all of its garbage spilling out. He came up to her again and took her chin in his hand. "Let this be a warning to you girl, as soon as your guard is down, I will kill you."

He saw something in her eyes. It was something like fear, but also sternness. She was afraid of him, but she seemed determined. He liked that. Everyone else he had killed had only shown fear in their faces. She was willing to take his crap even longer, determined to duke it out and fight for her life.

"What is your problem?" she asked lowly, staring back at him.

His lips curled into a small smile which drove Jirou crazy, like a little kid sitting on top of you with a baseball bat and that cocky grin on his face. Kaguro stepped back and in a flash, he was gone.

"Jerk," Jirou kicked the ground and gathered herself before running home as fast as she could.