Title: Odyssey
Disclaimer: I don't own KHR.
Summary: Tsuna is a weak youkai who runs away from home only to meet the famous-for-his-scariness exorcist Hibari and the way-too-cheerful swordsman Yamamoto, who, surprisingly, become his new companions. But Tsuna's past can't stay away forever, and when it catches up with them, he finds himself and his two new companions walking down a dangerous road.
AN: Okay, a new project of mine! Sorry that I haven't updated my other story in so long…the next chapter has been sitting half-finished in my computer for ages, but I haven't mustered up the time and interest to finish it. I'll try, I promise, but I had to get this out of my head. There's no set plot yet, so updates might be irregular.
Chapter One: A Narrow Road
The dark forest seemed a perfect setting for all sorts of grotesque and nightmarish creatures, with its thick canopy of leaves shutting out all sunlight, the gnarled trunks of ancient trees strangled with vines and roots choked with rotting foliage. A pungent, metallic smell of something suspiciously like blood permeated the air; a heavy mantle of stifling silence swallowed every whisper of wind. Shadows skulked and shifted at the least expected moments, giving the strange impression of fantastic beings concealed beneath the leaves.
In this setting, the small, thin figure that trudged through the thick underbrush seemed extremely out of place. It was a boy, or at least what appeared to be a boy (it was nearly impossible to be sure in these woods, where youkai lurked and illusions abounded) dressed in the unassuming attire of a peasant, head bowed and long brown hair obscuring his eyes.
He was following a small path, no more than a gap that wound between the trunks of the trees. His pace was quick, quicker than expected for such short legs, almost a run. The swift pattering of his feet, although muted by the soft dampness of the leaves, was nevertheless the only sound in the silence. His breath was coming in short gasps from lungs burning with the exertion, but he showed no sign of stopping, even though the place he was fleeing was days behind him.
Suddenly, he stumbled over a rock or a slight dip in the road (or maybe one of the shadows had reached out and tripped him). The slip sent a shudder through his thin frame, and he could barely keep himself from falling. In that instant, a pair of wide brown eye, opened in surprise, could be seen from beneath the brunette hair.
He stopped to catch his breath for a few moments, wishing that his body didn't tire this easily. it would have been a lot easier to just stop, he mused, but he quickly shook the thought from his head. He wasn't going back; he had decided this the moment he left that place. The moment he escaped. And though there were still a few people he regretted leaving behind, his decision stayed the same.
Behind him, something stirred in the underbrush.
Like a startled rabbit, the boy whipped around, scanning the bushes with wild, jumpy eyes. His mouth opened, as if about to give a yell of surprise, but he stopped himself at the last moment. It was not wise to make too much noise in this forest.
The bushes rustled visibly this time.
The boy's brown eye widened, filled with a panicked fear. He prayed, Please let it be a cute little woodland animal. A low growl that sounded like two pieces of granite rubbing together followed the movement of the bushes, and the boy blanched.
No such luck.
Very slowly, the boy started to back away from the bushes. As soon as he moved, the growl intensified, sounding almost painfully coarse in the silence of the forest. Something emerged from the shadows, which seemed to part in its way. The something was immense and black and covered in ragged fur, staring through red-rimmed eyes full of malicious intent.
It was a wolf, all bristled hair and yellow fangs, towering up to the edge of the trees and glaring at the boy with a look that promised a painful death by dismemberment. How it had hidden in the bushes with such a bulk was a mystery (one of the many that surrounded this forest), and one the boy was in no position to ponder.
There was no mistaking—it was a youkai. A low-level one that had yet to achieve a humanoid shape, but a youkai all the same. That meant it was dangerous, intelligent and, judging from the gleaming look in its bloodshot eye, hungry for human flesh. The wolf growled once more, and the air filled with the scent of its rotting breath.
A feeling of dread flooded the boy. It wasn't as if he hadn't steeled himself for a fight with a youkai here in this particular forest, but he also had not been expecting something this frightening, this powerful. He was not sure he could defeat it (but pretty sure that he would lose a limb or two before the fight was over).
Useless. He heard the familiar voice sound in his head, and he had to keep from flinching and looking around to make sure that Reborn wasn't actually standing next to him. Nevertheless, the voice still said the same things he knew the Reborn would have said, You're better off dead, dame-Tsuna, if you can't even defeat a low-level piece of trash like this.
The boy shook his head violently, as if trying to shake away the imagined voice. That youkai was so huge! He couldn't fight; he would definitely die. And useless as he may be, he still wanted to live.
The wolf gave a final growl of warning and leapt, heading straight towards the boy's head. He yelped and leapt back, narrowly avoiding a sweep of razor claws. The maneuver which allowed him to escape with nothing more than a few gashes in his clothes, also, unfortunately, ended with his graceless fall onto the ground, directly beneath the youkai wolf's head.
For a terrifying second, the boy found himself face to face with a mouthful of wickedly sharp wolf teeth. The teeth clenched together, as if in surprise, before opening again in a bite.
Again, the boy rolled out of the way in the nick of time.
"I don't care if I'm useless" he whimpered, leaping to his feet with inelegant but quick movements. "I'm not going back and I'm not going to die."
When the wolf made another lunge for its prey, it found its mouth stuffed with a fistful of wet leaves. With a grunt of surprise at the bitter taste and sudden cold, wet, sliminess, the wolf spat out the decoy with a large growl before glancing up to search for its prey.
But the boy was already disappearing into the underbrush, running for his life.
In another part of the forest, two more travelers were walking down another small trail. Both had hooded cloaks obscuring their faces, and both walked with a steady but purposeful step, completely at home among the silence and shadows.
Any ordinary traveler walking with such ease in a youkai-infested forest would have looked out of place, but the long, thin stick-like scabbard protruding at the side of one figure and the surprisingly cute-looking yellow bird perched on the shoulder of the other clearly showed that these two were not ordinary (that, and the fact that every few miles behind these travelers there was evidence of fights and the corpses of slain youkai). They seemed to exude an air of fearless confidence that kept any youkai but the stupidest away.
For a while, they walked in perfect silence, until a voice broke the silence of the stagnant air, "Ah, did you hear that?"
It was the scabbard-wearing traveler who had stopped mid-step to glance around curiously for the source of the sound. His cloak lifted enough to reveal a pair of brown eyes, kind but not soft, skimming the bushes with the sharpness of a katana edge.
"I heard nothing." Was the terse and testy reply.
"Eh, are you sure? Because I could have sworn that—Ah, wait up!"
His companion had not slowed in his pace or even looked back. The yellow bird happily chirped a taunt and flapped its wings to shift into a more comfortable position on his shoulder.
The two continued on at a steady pace for a few more steps before, "Hey, there it is again." the brown-eyed one said again. His hand twitched, reaching towards the hilt protruding from the sheath on his hip.
His companion twitched too, though it was clear from the set of his shoulders that indicated his was a twitch of annoyance rather than caution. He spun around, narrowing slanted blue eyes at his companion, and spoke through clenched teeth, "I said, I heard noth-"
But that was as far as he got, because at the next moment, a blurred object flew out of the bushes and crashed into him, sending them both tumbling off the narrow path and into the brambles. A yellow bird chirped in startled surprise as it flapped up to a safe tree branch.
"Hibari!" a shout of surprise from the remaining person.
A katana was suddenly out of its sheath and in his hand, its sharp edge gleaming brightly against a dull obsidian body. "Hibari! Are you okay?" he shouted again, peering into the gap in the bushes where his companion had landed. But the dense foliage obscured all view of the forest floor where they had landed.
"Hey, where are—"
He broke off abruptly, as if sensing something, and whipped around, katana held out in front of him. As it turned out, he was just quick enough to halt two rows of deadly fangs from sinking into his back.
The youkai wolf gnashed its teeth angrily against the blade, trying in vain to reach the one who wielded the sword. "It's not nice to attack from behind." The swordsman commented lightly, using the same tone as if he were greeting a friend. He neatly sidestepped a swipe from a paw as large as his head and shoved—sending the wolf tumbling backwards.
With a yelp of surprise (it was clearly not expecting to find anyone who could match the strength of its battle-hardened muscles and steel-shattering teeth), the wolf deftly twisted its body until it was on all four feet again. It looked up, ready to lunge again—only to see a flash of white, a katana blade descending in a graceful arc.
The sound of hot liquid pelting the leaves like rain, followed by the shing of a sword reentering its sheath announced the end of that battle. The victor did not spend any time rejoicing in his triumph, but rather started to move through the foliage, a look of concern on his face.
"…Kyoya?"
In the branches, the little yellow bird chirped a reply. A second later, something came stomping through the bushes, and burst back out onto the trail with an angry growl. The swordsman's fingers twitched toward his sword again, until he saw that it was only his companion, looking livid enough to murder and dragging something behind him with one hand. Although his cloak was slightly torn and his hood had fallen off to reveal mussed raven hair, he looked otherwise unharmed.
"Ah, there you are!" the swordsman's worried look was wiped off by a relieved smile, "I was worried for a…second…"
He trailed off, silenced by a glare from Hibari. "I don't need your concern." The words were spoken vehemently, with a tone implying that argument would result in repercussions ranging from gruesome to fatal. "And if you call me that again, Yamamoto Takeshi, I will bite you to death."
"Ahaha," Yamamoto, obviously inured to such threats, responded with a sheepish laugh, "If you say so."
Hibari's toxic gaze abruptly turned away from the swordsman to the thing in his hand. It was, incidentally, the very thing that had knocked him off the road in the first place. The unfortunate object was a boy, clothes and skin torn and a look of wide-eyed terror in his soft brown eyes. A flicker of pain flashed through those eyes as Hibari tossed him down none to gently in the middle of the trail.
"Huh, who's this?" Yamamoto knelt down until he was face-level with the boy. He gave a reassuring grin, "Are you lost? What's your name?"
"Uh…" the boy opened his mouth to reply, only to be interrupted.
Hibari, still angry from the collision, lifted his right arm, where a metal tonfa glinted dangerously, "I'll bite you to death, herbivore."
The boy gave a yelp of fear, trying to scoot backwards, away from the (in his eyes) homicidal maniac out for his blood. It was just his luck, he though, closing his eyes and bracing himself, that he would escape the wolf only to be bitten to death by a scary stranger.
"Maa, maa, Hibari," Yamamoto intervened at the last minute, grabbing onto the tonfa that was about to descend on the boy's head and holding it still with a surprisingly strong grip, "There's no need to bite him. I'm sure it was an accident."
Hibari frowned and swung his left arm, also wielding a steel tonfa, towards his head. The attack was expertly parried by a sheathed katana, and the right tonfa was released as Yamamoto quickly backed away, dragging the unfortunate and unintentional instigator of the entire affair by the collar.
"What do you think you are doing, herbivore?" Hibari demanded with thinly veiled anger, but he made no further move to attack.
Yamamoto released his grip on the boy's clothing as soon as he saw that they were no longer in danger from being smote by tonfa. "That was close." He commented.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hibari spat.
"Ah, well I couldn't just let you hit him, poor kid. He's probably traumatized already from the wolf incident and doesn't need anything else done to his head."
Hibari froze and stared at Yamamoto for a long while, as if he were trying to decide whether to ask if the wolf youkai had smacked him in the head, or simply bite him to death for such an offense. The offender in question stared back, a slightly apologetic smile on his face (and smiling under the smoldering gaze was quite a feat in itself), but no intention of backing down.
The boy, on the other hand, looked, if possible, even more terrified than when he was being chased by the wolf. He certainly felt so. His eyes kept flicking back and forth between the dead corpse of the wolf, Yamamoto, who wore few splatters of youkai blood, and Hibari, who looked as if he were about to burn down the forest around him with his eyes alone.
"Didn't you notice?" Hibari's voice was flat with disbelief.
"Eh?" Yamamoto looked around wildly, as if he expected another youkai to jump out at them any second, "Notice what?"
Hibari's blue eyes flitted towards the boy on the ground at Yamamoto's feet, meeting for a second a pair of terrified chocolate orbs. His lip curled into a derisive scowl.
"He's a youkai."
TBC
So…what do you think?