Disclaimer: I do not own Nurarihyon no Mago
A/N: this occurs after the Hagoromo Gitsune Arc and before the Hyaku Monogatari Arc, so it's that empty time in between that this fanfic happens in
Kiyojuji's Paranormal Investigation Squad had officially gained a new member several days ago and there was something unusually intriguing about her, Rikuo thought, the young commander relishing in the tranquility that his little inner-house garden gifted him with. As he sat upon the branches of his beloved sakura tree and peered out at Tokyo's nightlife, his free-spirited mind wandered to the thought of the new student that had arrived in the middle of the semester not too long ago from Europe. With Hagoromo Gitsune finally defeated and Yura cleaning things up back in Kyoto, Rikuo's life had fallen into a comfortable routine that did not contain much excitement aside from preparing for the upcoming final battle against Nue. That was until the mysterious new student came along. Despite being a foreigner, she had apparently learned Japanese prior to her transfer and was able to speak the language fluently.
Anna Tepes.
With skin as pale as snow, hair the shade of platinum blonde and deep violet eyes, Tepes–san was truly a beauty to behold. However, appearances aside, there was something else that intrigued Rikuo about the foreign new girl. She looked perfectly human and sensed like any other human, but there seemed to be something inhuman about her that Rikuo couldn't quite pinpoint. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself or the way she was unusually intelligent, but he could never know for sure.
"A Westerner, huh," he silently mused.
Languidly, his crimson eyes shifted their focus to the room diagonally across from the tree he was resting on. The traditional paper doors reflected no silhouettes and the lights had been turned off, which meant that his friends had already fallen asleep. Rikuo sighed, mentally reprimanding himself for finding such difficulty in saying 'no' to his friends.
Last week, Kiyotsugu had run out of paranormal things to investigate and instead opted for an abrupt club retreat at none other than Rikuo's gigantic, haunted mansion. Truth to be told, it was nothing but a simple slumber party and Rikuo had no choice but to agree and succumb to the troublesome duty of ensuring that every one of his clan members stayed hidden within his friends' stay. This brings us to where he is tonight, sitting on his sakura tree, monitoring his friends' room and thinking of their new club member. Surprisingly, despite being new, Tepes-san had still agreed to come to stay over at Rikuo's house.
Suddenly, a faint nose caught his attention and he turned to the room where his friends were sleeping. The door had been slid slightly open and out of the darkness, Tepes-san stepped out of the room.
"Where is she going this late at night?" Rikuo thought to himself, "The restroom?"
Barefoot, the girl stood on the porch in front of the room as a gentle breeze blew by for a few moments before taking a seat by the edge of the porch. It wasn't until her pale hand moved that he realized she had been carrying something in her hand. She brought the plastic pouch filled with a red liquid closer to her face and pulled out a straw that she stuck into the plastic. As she sat there, facing the traditional Japanese garden, she peacefully drank the substance within the pouch with a content sigh and gazed at the intricate architecture of Rikuo's home appreciatively. For a moment, Rikuo could almost swear that he had seen her eyes flash a dangerously scarlet red color.
"Cranberry juice? She has some odd taste. Perhaps it's a European thing."
Thankfully, she hasn't noticed me, Rikuo noted, still staring at the girl from his spot on the tree. It wasn't until a few minutes later when Tepes-san was nearly finished with her drink that his enhanced yokai senses picked up a scent in the air.
"Something… metallic?" his eyes shifted to the black-haired girl on the porch, "And it's coming from… her direction."
His stare was broken when the girl shifted her gaze swiftly and made direct eye contact with him. Bewildered, Rikuo's eyes widened, but he did not break away from her violet gaze.
"You can come down now, Yokai-san," she smiled lightly, "It's not very polite to be staring so much at a girl from afar now, is it?"
Rikuo remained composed as he calmly hopped down from the sakura tree, "You know what I am?"
Tepes-san pulled away from her drink and licked her lips, "It was a small guess, but you only proved me right. No wonder the house felt like it was filled with yokai. You do seem familiar though."
"How so?"
The girl paused for a few seconds before she chuckled slightly.
Amused, Rikuo raised his brow at the strange girl who seemed to show no fear despite talking face-to-face with a powerful yokai, "Is there something funny?"
"I was kidding," Her violet eyes shone with small hint of mischief, "I know who you are, Nura-kun. The emblem on your back shows you are from the Nura clan. If you wanted to truly go under disguise, your human side should've changed the last name. The emblem and the fact that I have a classmate named Nura Rikuo with a familiar scent to yours make it perfect fitting pieces to the puzzle."
Scent…? He had been right. At this point, there was no way she was an average human being. Rikuo wondered to himself as his earlier surprise faded away and he stepped towards the girl.
"Who exactly are you, Tepes-san?" his baritone voice deeply contrasted with her fairy-like tone as the moon peeked from behind the clouds to illuminate his features more clearly.
"You can simply call me Anna," she took a sip from her drink again before turning back to Rikuo, "I'm your new classmate and club member from Europe."
"Let me rephrase that question so that you can understand what I had meant, Anna," Rikuo took another step closer to her until he was directly in front of her, "What exactly are you?"
"You don't believe that I'm human?" Anna's question was met with Rikuo's silent answer, "Well, at least I tried to hide myself, but seeing how it has only been a week or so and somebody has already found out, I suppose I'm not doing a very good job at it."
"So you aren't human."
Anna moved her hand so that the plastic pouch she had been drinking from was held in front of Rikuo, "Take a sip and you'll understand what I mean."
Reluctantly, the young commander grasped the pouch out of Anna's hand and sipped cautiously from the straw. The moment the liquid touched his tongue, a metallic taste exploded in his mouth and the familiar scent flooded his nose.
"This is… human blood..!"
Before Anna could blink, Rikuo had flung the nearly empty pouch to the ground beside him and used his hands to pin her hands down on the wooden floor of the porch with a loud thud. Hovering above her, Rikuo observed how Anna's violet eyes turned into a deadly red and fangs barely peeked out from her slightly parted lips.
There was one distinctly famous mythological creature that had originated from the West and was now known throughout the world. It was a creature that feasted on human blood, used sharp fangs and had red eyes. Rikuo had never thought that he would one day meet the famed Western yokai species. Vampires.
Searching Anna's eyes for some sort of fear in a situation such as this, Rikuo found none and was instead met with her gentle voice, "I apologize if I had surprised you. There is no need to worry – I didn't kill any human for that. I stole the blood pouch from a nearby hospital."
His grip on her hands tightened, "Are you a threat to humans or the Nura clan?"
"No," her scarlet eyes gazed up at him with determination, "I have no intention to bring harm upon any humans or any member of the Nura clan, especially you, Nura-kun."
Rikuo held onto his grip for a few more seconds, ensuring that Anna's expression was genuine, before he let go of her completely. To her surprise, rather than walking away, Rikuo shifted his position and sat next to her on the porch. Propping herself up on her elbows, she blinked at the young commander in confusion before sitting up as well and allowing the silence of the night to swallow them both up.
"Rikuo is fine."
Anna turned to him at the sudden break of silence, "Huh?"
His crimson eyes lazily glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, noticing how her eyes were back to their normal color – violet, "You don't have to call me Nura-kun. Rikuo-kun is fine."
Slightly stunned at the quick change of demeanor, Anna hesitantly replied, "Alright then, Rikuo-kun."
"So you're one of those, hm?" his sharp eyes tilted back to her in an enchanting way, "Vampires? I've always thought they were just human fantasies, but I suppose that's the case for yokai here as well."
"Sort of. To be exact, I'm a dhampir – a vampire human hybrid. We have the same abilities as a normal vampire such as supernatural strength, speed, intelligence, senses and the like, but we aren't as sensitive to sunlight and we can survive on just human food. However, it's always nice to have human blood once in a while – it's extremely delicious and nutritious for us," Anna ended with a small chuckle.
"You're half human? No wonder you sensed like a human."
"Yes, my mother was a human and my father was a vampire. My father was killed by an exorcist when I was still an infant and my mother recently passed away from cancer, so I came to Japan to start over and see what it's like here."
"An exorcist must be like the Western equivalent of onmyouji here then. I'm sorry for your loss."
"It's alright," Anna brushed away a stray strand of her blonde locks as another breeze passed by, "Anyway, it's quite nice here. I blend in well and your human friends are very kind, Rikuo-kun."
At the mention of his human friends, Rikuo glanced back behind them to the room where his friends were staying, ensuring that they were all still sound asleep, before closing his eyes in thought and letting a small smile grace his lips, "Yeah, they're quite a rowdy bunch."
"So what about you?" she looked up at him, "What's your explanation for your human side?"
"I'm the Third Head of the Nura clan and I'm ¾ yokai and ¼ human, which means that I can only maintain my yokai form – this form – during the nighttime. During the daytime, I'm the brown-haired Rikuo you always see at school."
"I see," she hummed, "That's interesting."
The two slightly human teenagers fell into a comfortable silence as the conversation came to a slow end. As they sat quietly on the porch, they watched as the sakura petals fluttered down from the tree in the middle and reflected on the sudden revelations they both came upon.
"He has a petal in his hair…" Anna thought as she stared at the top of Rikuo's head, focusing on the pale pink petal that gracefully landed on his silver strands, while Rikuo's gaze remained towards the garden.
"Oi, Anna"
She jumped at Rikuo's sudden words, "Y-Yes?"
"Are you strong?"
"…I suppose, being a dhampir and all."
Abruptly, Rikuo rose from his seat on the porch and stood facing the girl, towering over her, "Then become my ally. Join my Hyakki Yako."
Anna peered up at him, taken a back, as the sakura petal fell from his head at Rikuo's sudden movement, "Excuse me?"
"Japan is not as peaceful as it seems," Rikuo determined stare didn't break away from Anna's, "A very powerful being called Nue is being resurrected soon and with his followers, he is planning on wrecking that peace. I'm building up the strength of the Nura clan for the upcoming battle with Nue. So I'd like your help."
"Why would you trust me? You only met me several days ago."
"You said you were strong."
"That's all?"
"Yep," Rikuo smirked at the girl, "I'm a free-spirited yokai. That's the kind of a yokai that a Nurarihyon is. I do what I want and what I want right now is you."
If Anna didn't have the composure and control that she did, she would've swooned right then and there. Rikuo's smoldering gaze and charming words would've been too much for any girl.
"It should be a crime for this boy to be this attractive," Anna mentally scolded herself as she fought the blush that was slowly making its way to her pale cheeks.
"…Okay."
Rikuo raised a brow at her brief answer.
"I mean that I'll help you," she replied in a quiet voice, "But I'm not exchanging sakazuki with you. I don't like to be bound to anything."
He smiled at the slightly blushing girl, "Good answer. You live alone, don't you?"
"Yes, why?"
"In that case, how about moving in to stay in the main house?"
Taken aback, Anna stared at him with a slightly incredulous expression, "You're asking me to move in here?"
"Yeah," Rikuo shrugged, "You agreed to being part of my Hyakki Yako and to fight alongside me, so that means you're now a member of the Nura clan. You don't have any family to take care of you either, and you're already here anyway. I don't see a problem with it."
Anna remained silent, contemplating her options.
"In the morning, you can just stay behind when the rest of our human friends leave, and then I'll introduce you to the rest of the clan. I'm sure they'll welcome you well. After all, the Nura clan often takes in yokai they believe are strong and loyal to us," he went on to explain, attempting to further persuade Anna.
After a long silence, the young dhampir finally sighed and spoke, "Alright. It does make sense for me to move in here."
"Great," a lazy smile stretched out on Rikuo's face, "You'll like it here, I promise. We're all one big family, and you can be a part of that too."
At his words, a contemplative frown appeared on Anna's face. The word 'family' evoked a strange sensation in her as she thought back to her dead parents and her solitary lifestyle since their deaths.
"I'll see you in the morning, newbie," Rikuo stood up and gave a gentle wave before disappearing in a flurry of black mist.
"Strange kid," Anna muttered to herself.
Thus, within the span of one night, Anna found herself gaining a new position, a new home and a new family as a Nura clan member. Leaning back, she closed her eyes in thought, pondering on what new events might happen now that she had joined this strange Japanese organization.