Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction and is subject to the author's imagination. Themes may not be agreeable to all readers and the reader reserves the right to make comments and/or stop reading the story at any time. Any constructive criticism will be considered by the author and taken as a way to make her writing better. The Author does not own the characters of YYH and reserves ownership only to her created characters.
Authors Note: This story is set in a time before Yoko was hunted for his crimes and had to flee the demon world in search of sanctuary. As such, you, the reader, already have a pretty good idea of how this story will end. Bear with the first chapter as it may seem a little boring and slow. There is a lot to explain and little time to do it in. Happy reading.
Deep in the woods of demon world, a tall spiraling castle like base sat atop a hill surrounded by numerous layers of electric fences and defensive mechanisms. Inside the building itself lay floor after floor armed to the ceiling with guards, wards, and spells to deter any thief that would be bold enough to break through the front gates. Level yellow sat below level orange, red, and black. Each level was riskier than the last and held new surprises for a would be thief. Level black held the vault of course, which was guarded by a single sentry who is currently asleep at her post.
Black-blue hair spilled over her arms and a light snoring sound emitted from her mouth. Behind her, the monitors for the outside gates began to beep. The tiny sprite merely adjusted her position so that she was more comfortable, and went back to sleep. In the seven years she had worked In the Honkyochi castle, no thief had ever made it past the first set of gates. Perhaps this is why she slept so well in a half sitting position. She had been doing it for a very long time. In that time, both she and the lower level guards had become complacent and lazy, something they all would regret as the night progressed.
"Tali!" A voice roared from her compact radio on her hip, "Report!"
"Un…wha…" rubbing her eyes, Tali sat up and switched her mic on. "I'm here"
"There has been a breech in the main gates!" Mr. Honkyochi barked. "What the hell are you doing? Sleeping on the job? That's not what I pay you to do!"
"Relax dad", Tali Honkyochi replied rubbing her eyes. "No one ever makes it to the second…awww…sonofawhale!" Looking at the monitors with utter disbelief, she watched as all seven levels of the outside walls light up on her screen as they were dismantled. "How?" she asked her self breathlessly.
"Do you see what I mean?" Her dad growled into the radio. "Can you get picture confirmation of who or what we are dealing with?"
"Working on it" she muttered back while typing furiously on the key board. Soon she was able to wake up the underused cameras and she caught a glimpse of silver on the screen. Her eyes widened as she switched the cameras from the outside to the inside set just in time to see a very famous face burst through level yellow and engage the guards in battle. Bandits poured into the building and jumped into action. Tali stood in terrified awe as the silver haired leader dismantled the wards and by passed the spells to break into level orange.
"REPORT DAMN IT!" Her father screamed, almost giving his daughter a heart attack.
"They are in level orange…Dad…I think it's time to send in reinforcements. I can hold them off for a time if they reach level Black, but I think these guys will break through my defenses in short order."
There was a pause, then she heard, "I'll do what I must to protect the vault. You have my word on that." The line to her father went dead.
What about me, dad? She thought with forlorn sadness. She noticed that he did not make a promise to protect her. Once a sprite makes a promise, they cannot go back on that promise without suffering either immense pain or death. A broken promise literally causes their body to attack itself. His carefully worded vow made it clear to Tali what his priority was, and it wasn't her. Not that she should be surprised but still, it hurt. She shook herself out of her reverie and looked back at the cameras. She was startled to see that level red had been defeated, and the bandits were gathered at her door while they watched their leader deftly dismantle the wards. Bracing herself for the battle to come, Tali summoned her defensive barrier to encompass her and vault behind her.
Her heart pounded as the mechanical hiss of the hydraulic powered doors announced the arrival of her unwanted guest. Piercing gold eyes met her electric blue ones that glowed as she reached into her energy reservoir to enhance the power of her barrier. Silver hair cascaded down a powerful shoulder as the leader of the bandits cocked his head to the side, a small grin gracing his face. She took a deep breath and discreetly let it out when no one attempted to approach her.
" Do you know who I am?" Yoko Kurama asked.
"Yes." She bit out the one word answer.
"Then do yourself a favor women and step aside."
"I can't. I made a vow to protect this vault."
"And you always keep your word…ahhh," he said when he breathed in her scent, "You are sprite who made a promise. Too bad it's about to be broken".
With that pronouncement, he lashed out against her barrier with his rose whip, testing her barrier for weaknesses. She flinched slightly as if the sting of the whip had touched her skin. He narrowed his eyes and lashed it again. Once again she flinched. Any damage done to her barrier is done to her, at least in a small par,. Kurama thought, almost feeling sorry for the little thing. Unfortunately for her, nothing was going to stop him from breeching her defensives and gaining the contents of that vault. He had worked too hard and planned for too long to allow himself to feel sorry for her, but he still stopped his assault to think of a way to get through and cause minimal damage to the girl. His right hand man, Kuronue, leaned in to speak to him softly.
"Every time she filched, there was a flicker in her barrier." He said out of the side of his mouth.
Upon a quick review, Kurama realized that Kuronue was right. Every time the girl felt pain from his strikes, her barrier would weaken in that moment. The quickest way to breech it was to cause her so much pain the he would be able to punch through it quicker than she could reinforce it. He turned to the dragon warrior in their group.
"Blast it with a medium level fire wave" he ordered softly.
The dragon, Kasai, nodded and concentrated on his attack. Tali noticed that something big was about to happen and braced herself for the attack. I can't let them through. I promised to defend the vault to the best of my abilities. I have to give it my all. She thought, pulling the rest of her energy out of her reserve and sending it to her barrier. Kurama noticed her doubled efforts and amended his comment to Kasai with a thumb up, indicating him to kick it up a notch. Kasai nodded and his power level increased. The fiery shock wave he unleashed caused Tali's heart to flutter with unchecked terror. The shock wave slammed into her wall and she barely suppressed a scream as the pain blasted through her skull and heat rashes formed on her body. Another sharp pain of a different attack registered on her radar and she whimpered softly. She felt her energy flicker as her legs wavered beneath her, threating to bring her to her knees. Strong hands gripped her upper arms and a silky voice whispered at her ear, "Gotcha".
Tali trembled from pain and fear as silver hair tickled her face and arms. Kurama lifted her over his shoulder as he walked to the vault behind her. She groaned as another wave of pain slammed into her as the result of her broken promise. She hadn't used everything she had to reinforce the barrier. She had not tapped into her life source. Had she done that, the fox never would have made it through. She knew this but still elected not to use her life force for a stupid vault full of stupid material things. If she had to suffer the pain then so be it. Although, to be completely honest, she hadn't expected the attack to hurt so much or for Kurama to be so damn smart. Life was a bitch and loved to bitch slap Tali like this any opportunity it got. As Kurama set her against the wall she slumped to the ground on, she knew that the backlash from her father was what she really needed to fear. He didn't give a damn about her. His precious "investments", items she knew nothing about, were all he cared about.
"How do I get in?" Kurama asked her, his focus on the wards on the door.
"Bite me." She gasped out at him.
"Stubborn little sprite.," he chuckled as he spoke then concentrated harder on the wards. After a minute he said "Ahhhh". And began to chant under his breath. After a few beats, the doors hissed open and Tali glanced inside curiously. It was empty.
"What the fuck?" Kuronue burst out when he saw nothing in the vault.
"I think we have been played". Kurama said softly, dangerously.
"Correct," Tali heard her father speak from the speakers on the wall and started. Had he been watching the whole time? "You have been played. We knew sooner or later the famous Yoko Kurama would make his appearance at our door. So we moved the reassures to a different location. In turn, we spread the news and boasted about our treasures and security systems to lure you out. Now, it's time to take care of this little problem once and for all".
"OUT. NOW." Kurama roared at his men.
Before anyone could make a move, an alarm sounded as the buildings power went out and the doors dead locked, sealing them all in the room. Tali felt panic well up inside her and through the pain, she was able to feel the changes begging in the room. Her lungs felt like they were slowly collapsing in on themselves and her breathing became more shallow. Gas, she thought, he's gassing us. But that wasn't the end of the assault . she knew her father. He would leave nothing to chance. As a fire spread through the air, fueled by the gas from the air vents, she decided she hated being right. Electric sparks showed her from the ceiling as the lights exploded above her. As she floated away on a cloud of pain and lack of oxygen, she barely felt two powerful arms scoop her up and run for the vault.
Kurama scooped up the nearly unconscious sprite as he and his men stumbled for the vault. Once inside, he called on his vines to seal it shut and summoned a few demon trees that fed off toxins in the air and emitted clean, safe oxygen. The room filled with sighs of relief and he watched as the girl in his arms started to show signs of life again. He bounced her a little in his arms to jolt her awake.
"Hey. Listen to me. This room only has so much air in it. We have to get out. This vault's back leads to the outside complex yes?"
"Yeah," she replied groggily, "If you want to jump 90 feet to your death."
"Take her," he said handing her off to Kuronue, "And stand back."
He called out his rose whip and increased the amount of energy he normally put into the weapon. He cocked his arm back and hit the wall with a powerful strike. The thorns cut through the metal and they could see the solid brick behind it. Several more lashes, and the shape of a rectangle took place.
"Push it out." He said and his men rushed to obey him, pushing with all their might until the chunk of metal and rock fell to the ground below. Calling on his vines, he created a zip line from the vault to the grounds outside the castles gates. He bade his men to slide to their safety. He waited until all but Kuronue were out and then turned to his partner.
"Give me the girl and go."
"What about you?" Kuronue asked handing Tali over.
"I'll be behind you. Go."
Kuronue way wrapped a piece of cloth from his clothes around the vine and slide down the vine out of view. Kurama bounced the girl in his arms again to wake her up. Her head lolled back as she looked up at him with unfocused eyes.
"If you want to live, "he said setting her on her unsteady feet only to place her arms around his neck and lift her up again, "I suggest you hang on."
"Okay." She said, battling through the pain to hold on to him as tight as she could. She felt him brace himself, then air began to whip around them. She kept her eyes closed tightly and buried her face in his shoulder. The sound of an explosion, however, had her eyes snapping back open. Level black ignited and sent scraps of metal and rock their way. To make matters worse, the fire was spreading down the vines rapidly. Kurama cursed as they began to free fall. Wrapping both his arms around her, he summoned a large squishy type plant that Tali couldn't identify, to break their fall. They landed on it and rolled off with Tali trapped beneath the fox. He used his big body to shield her from the next shock wave that rocked the building. Then he was up and running, dragging her along with him.
"Come on!" he yelled as she lagged behind. She struggled to keep up with him, panting as her body screamed at her to stop. As they ran, he summoned his rose whip again and lashed a hole through the outside gates. He did this seven times before they were out of compound and in the woods. Someone yelled , "BOSS! DOWN!" as the world around them shook. Kurama dropped to the ground, taking Tali beneath him. A large chunk of brick slammed into the ground a head of them. If they had not ducked in time, both Tali and Kurama would be dead. The ground shaking began to subside and Kurama lifted himself off her and stood by her, looking at the fiery remains of the compound.
"Son of a bitch tried to kill us." Kuronue growled.
"Let's make them pay!" another bandit snarled.
"We will." Kurama said quietly as he looked down at Tali. "What about you? He tried to kill you too."
She rolled over and looked up at him, fire burning in her eyes. "I'd be happy to assist you in that." She flinched as another spark of pain hit her. She growled, "as soon as I recover."
"Kurama, do you think using an inside man…sorry, woman , is wise? What if she narks on us?" Kuronue asked, crouching beside the sprite and peering into her eyes.
"I won't." she said softly, dangerously.
Kurama crouched beside her too and took her chin in his hand, turning her face to his. "Then vow it. Vow that you won't betray us. Period. "
"I will not betray you so long as you don't betray me" she vowed.
Chuckles sounded from the group and Kurama smiled. "Smart girl." And that was the last thing Tali heard before darkness claimed her.