High up in the sky where no human eye could see flew a masked yokai. A yokai feared, respected and also known to be very mysterious made her way to Kyoto though the skies. The yokai's name was Yosuzume. She carried a sword all the way from Shikoku to her master in Kyoto.
Master. She had had many of this. After all, she always went with whatever clan she found strongest. She had been part of clans that had war with other clans and always left her clan to join a stronger one. Currently, she was working for Sanmoto Gorozaemon who had sent her to Shikoku to spy on a yokai named Inugamigyobu Tamazuki.
Tamazuki - a yokai who had received the Devil's Hammer. She was one of his top executives. Top enough to be considered his bodyguard or second-in-command. Despite their relationship of being master and servant being a lie from the start, Tamazuki stood out in her list of former masters.
Giving it some thought, why wouldn't he stand out? He had a long list of qualities he possessed that many admired. It was because of these qualities that Yosuzume(though denying it at first) wanted to be his number one. In terms of admiration, it was Kagibari Onna who won. In terms of loyalty, Inugami took the spot no matter how you looked at it. But in terms of strength and ability, it was her. At least she had that. It was a close fight between the three of them. Two of them, actually, since Inugami wasn't really competing for the reason that he wasn't even trying. Still she saw him and Kagibari as her rivals who stood against her on equal grounds.
The winged yokai shook her head. What was she thinking considering herself as equal to those weaklings? Those naïve weaklings whose lives ended by Tamazuki's hands. She was far more superior to them. She had a strong sense of duty, not blind loyalty.
…Now that she thought about it, she was just as pathetic as they were. She knew what Tamazuki was like yet even so, she pretended she knew nothing. Once, Inugami had described him as cunning and deceitful. This made the side of her that was his bodyguard and servant angry. After all, a bodyguard's job is to protect physically and the way she saw it, verbally. She wanted to protect her image of him even though she knew every word was true, she pretended at the back of her mind that it wasn't. She knew beforehand that Tamazuki only saw usefulness in others – even her.
She was always known for her usefulness. That's what made powerful yokai recruit her into their clans. Tamazuki was no different yet she still found some attraction to him. Was it because he took the initiative to awaken yokai like he did with Inugami? Or was it his persistence and determination? Or perhaps it was because he saw her along with the others just as they really are?
That was it. It was Tamazuki's ability to see the true persona in those he met. She was usually recruited because of her combat skills. Once, as a mode of transportation using her flight. Another time, just for her poisonous feathers. And in the past, because she was a beautiful female made to entertain guests. It was because of those pathetic "masters" and their pathetic "clans" that she never wanted to pledge loyalty to anyone and always looked for stronger clans. Tamazuki, though, saw more than that. Just like he saw Inugami's true potential, he saw hers and used her abilities to the maximum. That's why she found him fascinating, that's why she wanted to be his bodyguard. Him - one of the few people in the world who saw the whole picture.
She shook her head once more. There was no use in dwelling on this. A former master is no longer a master. She should have discarded his existence in her memory the minute she betrayed him. Technically, he was never her master to begin with. Her current master was someone else and for that, she'd forget him. Still, she couldn't help but think of going back.
Her hands gripped the sword tighter as she looked back. The mountains of Shikoku disappeared in the scenery behind her. Perhaps she'd check on how they were doing if she had the time and perhaps, just perhaps, when everything was over she'd go back to Shikoku and join the clan once more.
Done for RavenScout.
I must say, I had a bit of a hard time with this one. It took awhile to think about what to write about Yosuzume and Tamazuki(not to mention with exam week ongoing). They didn't seem to have as much of a relationship as Tamazuki had with Inugami or Kagibari Onna. In the end, I had to spend weeks thinking of why Yosuzume would remember of Tamazuki(and not to mention how long it took me to think of a background) and what she thought of him without being too OOC. For awhile, I even gave up on this to write something else about how Sodemogi-sama saw the others' relationship with Tamazuki(and epically failed at it so continued with this one).
Hehe, this is my fourth Nurarihyon no Mago fanfic out of the five fanfics I've written(and I'm thinking of writing two more). Was Yosuzume too OOC? Were my facts wrong at any point? Please review!