All she could hear were terrible screams all over her. She couldn´t escape from them, no matter how hard she tried. They were all around her.
"Help us!" They screamed all over again, like it was some sort of a prayer.
"I don´t…" She tried to say, but she was cut off as someone grabbed her arm from behind. She turned to look behind her even though she was scared to look. Behind her, all she could see was a face which was completely covered in blood.
"Help…" The person said as she locked her eyes on hers. After she recognized the person, she couldn´t help herself; she screamed as hard as she could.
"Oi! What is going on? What was that terrible scream!" Kurotabou asked as he ran in the mansion, towards the voice.
"Like I know! That´s why we are heading over there", Kubinashi said. He was running behind him.
"But no matter how you think about it. It was Yuki-Onna´s voice. Wasn´t it?" Kejoro asked. She was running beside Kubinashi.
"Yeah, I just hope everything is alright", Kurotabou said and squeezed his staff.
"I think someone should go wake Master!" Aotabo said while running.
"That won´t be necessary", a deep voice said, which made them all stop on their heels. They had arrived to that part of the mansion where Yuki-Onna´s room resides. He was leaning on the wall at the hall and he had his eyes closed.
"Master, you were awake", Kurotabou said with questioning look on his face. The spoken person opened his eyes and separated from the wall. Nura Rikuo, was currently in his night from.
"I´m pretty sure, that, after that scream everyone in the mansion are awake. And I think someone would have been bound to wake up, after this", he just simply added. Then he pointed at the hall in front of them. Everyone looked in front of them, when they saw the hall they were clearly shocked. The entire hall in front of them was completely frozen.
"What the…" Kurotabou started but his sentence was cut off when they heard another loud scream, which was like from another world. Everyone rushed over there, Night Rikuo leading them.
When they got to the Yuki-Onna´s room the door was completely frozen and it was impossible to just get in.
"Oi, Yuki-Onna", Rikuo said and knocked the ice. Immediately after he touched it the ice started to gather in his hand, and if he hadn´t pulled his hand out in time it would have swallowed it.
"What in the world is going on?" Aotabo asked. Rikuo just stared at the door.
"Oi Yuki-Onna! If you can hear us, we´re coming in!" Rikuo yelled. Then, to everyone´s surprise, he pulled out his sword.
"Master, you wouldn´t possibly…" Kejoro tried to ask, but Rikuo had already slashed the door open. Much to everyone´s surprise, the ice just shattered obediently.
When they walked in they were shocked: it was like straight from the middle of a winter. The entire room was covered in ice. They just kept looking around them until they found what they were looking for. She was lying on the bed struggling in her sleep. Rikuo walked over to her and lifted her gently up so that she was now sitting; she still kept on struggling.
"Oi! Yuki-Onna!" Rikuo tried to call out to her, but she didn´t listen to him. Everyone else gathered around them to look at Yuki-Onna.
"What should we do? She is clearly having a nightmare?" Kejoro asked, worry in her voice.
"The best option is to wake her up", Kubinashi said and looked down at Yuki-Onna, who was still struggling in her nightmares.
"Oi Yuki-Onna!" Rikuo yelled with his deep and strong voice. When it did no good he just sighed.
"Tsurara", he said and slapped her face gently. Suddenly she opened her eyes wide open and just stared at Rikuo´s eyes, like it would have been the first time she had seen him.
"Master…" She said with quiet and defeated voice.
"You finally woke up", Rikuo said with a smirk on his face.
"Finally?" Yuki-Onna asked and she seemed just now realize everyone else around them.
"Everyone? What are you doing in my room?" She asked slight panic in her voice. Everyone just sighed out of relief.
"All ends well, I guess", Kejoro said and shrugged her shoulders.
"What are you…" Yuki-Onna tried to ask, but then she realized that the whole room was covered in ice.
She stood up even though Rikuo tried to stop her.
"You shouldn´t get up in such hurry", he said, but Yuki-Onna didn´t listen. She just stared at the room in complete shock.
"I did this?" She asked with silent and shocked voice. No one said anything, but it was clear that she was only yokai in the mansion capable of doing something like this. Without warning she rushed outside of her room, even though others tried to stop her. When she saw the hall she almost collapsed, it was also covered in ice. She couldn´t help herself, her knees betrayed her and she fell to the ground.
"What´s going on?" She asked her gaze glued to the floor.
Rikuo looked at Yuki-Onna for a while before he nodded everyone to leave. Everyone disappeared in complete silence leaving both of them alone. Rikuo walked next to Yuki-Onna and sat on the floor in front of her.
"You okay?" Rikuo asked. Yuki-Onna didn´t answer she just kept on shaking and looking at the floor.
"My fault…" She just kept mumbling.
"That was quite a nightmare you had", Rikuo said. Yuki-Onna lifted her face in surprise. Rikuo wasn´t looking at her anymore.
"Mind if you tell me what it was all about?" When Yuki-Onna remembered the dream, she had shivers and she hugged herself, like she was cold. Cold? That was impossible for Yuki-Onna.
"Well let´s just leave it at that", Rikuo said as he stood up. Then he looked at the Yuki-Onna´s room and grinned, it looked awful.
"Before we clean this up, you should stay somewhere else." Yuki-Onna lifted her face to look at Rikuo, then she turned her face to look the other way; she didn´t want her Master to see such a weak face.
"It´s okay", Yuki-Onna said while biting her teeth together. Rikuo heard her painful voice and turned his face to look at her. Her face was completely covered by her hair.
"It´s okay you don´t have to act tough", Rikuo said and smirked. Yuki-Onna bit her lower lip so hard it started to bleed. Rikuo smelled the blood immediately and lowered himself so that he could see her face. She still refused to look at him in the eye.
"Oi Yuki-Onna", he said trying to make her to look at him. She just turned her head the other way and Rikuo was able to see something glitter in the moon light. After a while he realized it was a tear. He sighed and sat down next to her again.
He kept on looking at her as she tried really hard to hide her face.
"Listen, Tsurara…" Rikuo said slowly. After hearing her name, Tsurara lifted her face and looked at Rikuo; he was staring at the moon.
"As long as you belong in my Night Parade, I want you to understand that you don´t have to shoulder everything on your own. After all…" He said and turned his gaze to her.
"We two drank sakazuki together." He said with a knowing smile on his face, which was very like Night Rikuo. Tsurara looked at him with a surprised look until she lowered her face, she was shaking again.
"I´m so sorry", Tsurara said with a quiet voice. Then much to Rikuo´s surprise she leaned her face to Rikuo´s shoulder.
"I´m sorry, you have to keep someone as weak and useless as me in your Night Parade", she said and her voice was shaking.
Rikuo sighed in frustration; what has gotten in to her today, it must have been a really terrible nightmare.
"None of you, who are in my Night Parade, are useless. The same goes especially for you, Tsurara", he said with a reassuring voice. Tsurara knew that Rikuo was looking at her, but she just couldn´t get herself to look at him. Then the two of them just sat there without saying anything; Rikuo looking at the moon and Tsurara covering her face in Rikuo´s shoulder.
After a while Rikuo finally realized that Tsurara´s breathing had slowed down; she was sleeping. Rikuo sighed in relief and moved slowly so that he didn´t wake her up. Then he lifted her slowly in his arms and started to walk towards his room.
"Maybe it would have been better if I was never born." When Rikuo heard the small voice he almost dropped Tsurara because he was so surprised. But when he looked at her face he realized that she was still sleeping. Rikuo hugged her more tightly in his arms.
Rikuo dropped Tsurara gently in his bed and covered her with blanket. Then he just looked at her. After he looked her little bit closer, he discovered small tears falling from her eyes. Rikuo wiped them away gently, which was very unlikely of him.
"Just rest Yuki-Onna and leave the rest to me", he said with a smirk, remembering that this was the second time he said those same words to her. Soon the tears stopped and Rikuo moved to lean against his room´s wall. After a while of watching Tsurara he also fell asleep. At the same time he returned back to his day form.
"Rikuo! Rikuo! If you don´t wake up you´re going to be late from school." Rikuo heard a gentle voice calling for him. He slowly opened his eyes and after swing his mother reassuring face he got up.
"Morning mother", Rikuo said and cleaned his eyes from the sleep.
"You seem very tired, did something happen yesterday?" Wakana asked with a smile as she stood up.
"Yesterday?" Rikuo asked, and then everything flood back what had happened yesterday night, and suddenly he was wide awake. He stood up and looked around, but Tsurara was nowhere to be seen.
"Mom! Do you know where Tsurara is?" Rikuo asked slight panic in his voice.
"Tsurara? Ooh, Yuki-Onna! Yes she is already up. She should be somewhere…Oi Rikuo!" Wakana yelled as she saw Rikuo running away.
When Rikuo got to that part of the mansion where Tsurara´s room was, he realized that the corridor was clean from ice. At the room; Tsurara was sitting in the middle of the floor with a bucket and mop.
"Ooh Master! Good morning!" Tsurara said with her normal cheerful tune. She had her school uniform on and she had put her hair on a ponytail.
"I woke up so early that I thought I should clean up this mess!" She announced and smiled at him. Rikuo was speechless he had no idea how to respond. Then Tsurara seemed to notice Rikuo´s get up and widened her eyes.
"But master, you´re going to be late, if you don´t dress up soon", Tsurara said and walked past him with the bucket. That seemed to wake Rikuo up and he turned around to look at Tsurara; she had her back turned to him.
"Tsurara…" Rikuo said with a serious voice, which made Tsurara stop.
"Are you really okay?" It took her awhile before she finally answered.
"Yes! Of course, master. Why I wouldn´t be?" Tsurara said with a cheerful voice and turned to look at him with a smile.
"But I must be on my way, master!" After saying that, Tsurara rushed forward and soon disappeared from sight.
"But…" Rikuo tried but Tsurara had already disappeared.
Rikuo couldn´t help him but to sigh and then scratch his head.
"But still, what in the world…" He said. When he remembered that he had carried Tsurara all the way to his room, he blushed.
"Ooh! What was I thinking!" He said in frustration and brushed his hair with both of his hands.
"Master…" After he heard a voice calling out for him he turned around and saw; Kurotabou, Aotabo, Kubinashi and Kejoro standing behind him. They all had really serious looks on their faces.
"Had we not woken up the whole mansion might have been frozen", Kubinashi said and looked at the direction where Yuki-Onna had just disappeared. Rikuo lowered his head, even though he didn´t want to think about it; it was true that this was a bad situation. If they didn´t think something and fast, something even more terrible might happen.
"We don´t know what happened, so it´s too early to make any assumptions", Rikuo said and looked to the direction where Tsurara had just disappeared.
"For the time being, we´re just going to keep an eye on her", he continued said with a serious voice. Everyone behind him nodded in agreement.
After getting away from her master Tsurara stopped to lean against a wall, to catch her breath. When she remembered last night she couldn´t help but to shiver to the memory of the nightmare she had. The sudden coldness went away quickly as she remembered waking up from Master´s room. She couldn´t help herself but to blush.
"How in the world did I get there", she said and covered her red face with her other hand. Then she remembered that she should get ready for school and rushed towards the kitchen to return the bucket.
In the kitchen everyone was already in middle of making breakfast for every yokai living in the mansion. She headed towards the sink to get rid of the water. When she got ready to pour the water in to the sink her hands suddenly got completely numb and she dropped the bucket; luckily it dropped to the sink and only little amount of water fell to the ground.
"Yuki-Onna?" She turned immediately around and saw Kejoro standing behind her, with worried face.
"I´m sorry, my hand just slipped. Don´t worry, I´ll clean this up immediately", she said hastily and tried to look for a towel.
"It´s okay, you should probably go Aotabo and Master are probably waiting for you", Kejoro said and pointed at the door.
"Yes, thank you", Tsurara said and quickly left the room, leaving worried Kejoro looking after her.
After getting out of the kitchen Tsurara stopped to look at her hand confused. It has returned back to normal and there was really nothing out of the ordinary about it. But still it was clear that for a second her entire hand and arm had gotten completely numb and it had felt like her entire had been cut off.
"What in the world is happening to me?" Tsurara asked, while still staring at her hand.
Disclaimer: I don´t own Nurarihyon no Mago or its characters.
Now finally I got this story started! I hope you all enjoy reading it!