Author's Note: Because you all know this had to happen at some point, LOL. :P Crossover with Shonen Onmyouji!
Onmyouji and Troublesome Ayakashi
"Mokkun, are you sure that the demon will appear here?"
Crouched as he was behind one of the well-groomed shrubs in the courtyard of a minor noble's estate and considering his legs had begun tingling almost ten minutes ago, the apprentice onmyouji had informed him; Mokkun figured he could let the impatient note in the young man's voice slide. After all, the shikigami thought while barely restraining the urge to snicker, Abe no Masahiro he might be, but he was still only a teenager, and a remarkably impatient one at that.
When you took into account that this was the same onmyouji who had defeated the foreign demon Kyuuki and earned the blessing of the God of Takaokami, it was pretty hard to imagine yet true nonetheless. Not all missions to track down troublesome demons could be as action-packed and fast-paced as driving the foreign demons from the capital, and sometimes they were even pretty boring as far as tracking the monsters down went.
Case in point: the pair's current mission of finding the demon responsible for stealing food from at least a dozen noble houses over the past week and a half.
Masahiro had seen the first report of stolen food a week ago, and though his first thought was that a servant or two had just been sneaking a few morsels, he had had the nagging suspicion that something wasn't quite right. He hadn't been able to tell what however, since he had walked by the households mentioned in the reports the very next day and there hadn't been a trace of a demon's aura. Even his grandfather hadn't been able to find any trace of demon involvement, and so Masahiro had been fully prepared to just forget about stolen food and the like…at least until reliable sources mentioned a new demon who had been seen around town.
'Reliable sources' meaning the three minor demons that often jumped on Masahiro's shoulders and knocked him to the ground.
It wasn't hard to put two and two together after that.
The small, furry white ayakashi blinked bright red eyes and shifted into a more comfortable position across Masahiro's shoulders, voice gently teasing as he said, "Yes, Masahiro, I'm sure. I was right there when the minor demons told you, remember?" Seeing his charge's face start turning red, Guren nipped the impending outburst in the bud by finishing, "Besides, this demon can supposedly go unnoticed by humans even when entering their homes uninvited, so shouldn't you be paying attention instead of complaining?"
Masahiro's mouth, which had been in the process of opening to retort, abruptly clicked closed and he flushed sheepishly, looking back towards the main gate of the manor. His gray eyes were intently checking for any trace of demonic presence, and Mokkun knew that he was mentally going over his various spells to make sure that he was prepared for a fight if it came down to it.
There was a brief flicker at the edge of the shikigami's senses, and beneath his paws he felt the young man's shoulders tense, letting him know that his charge had also felt the tingle of demonic energy.
A flash of white and dark blue at the corner of his eye attracted Mokkun's attention, and he turned his head in time to see a human-shaped figure land silently inside the courtyard, long hair floating almost straight out behind it. A flash of moonlight illuminated the figure's face, revealing handsome male features and causing the white coat draped over his shoulders to shine briefly. Underneath the white coat, the hidden pair could barely make out a dark blue kimono with golden embroidery around the edges over a black kimono*
Masahiro and Mokkun had to admit to themselves that for a demon, this one wasn't half as ugly as they were used to.
When the demon began confidently heading towards the door to the house, both onmyouji and shikigami snapped out of it, and while Mokkun yelled, "Hey you! Stop right there!" Masahiro tried to stand up and not make it obvious that his legs had fallen asleep as he folded his hands together and chanted.
"Hidden soldiers; stand in line and take formation against the enemy!"
The demon turned towards the pair, a startled look on his face, just in time to dodge Masahiro's first attack, a blast of energy called forth by the apprentice onmyouji's spell. The man-shaped demon landed lightly several feet away from the blast area, not even a strand of odd white-on-top-black-on-bottom hair singed. Looking bemused, the demon withdrew a pipe from the folds of his kimono and was raising it to his lips when a stream of bright lashed across the space just in front of him.
Jumping back, Nurarihyon looked towards the direction the fire had come from, and blinked in confusion when he saw a small – and actually rather cute (Guren would have incinerated him right then and there if he'd heard that thought) – ayakashi, just as the creature taunted, "Here, let me light that for you!" Another tendril of fire lashed out, and Nurarihyon knew even as he dodged that it was no ordinary fire. Getting hit by it, he decided as he absently ducked another of the young onmyouji's attacks, would definitely be a mistake.
Nurarihyon sighed, wondering how he had wound up in a fight with a small ayakashi and an exorcist who couldn't be more than fourteen when all he'd been doing as looking for a bite to eat…
It never occurred to him that it was the fact that he stole the food that Masahiro and Mokkun objected to, not that he was looking for food in the first place.
Masahiro's eyebrow twitched as he swiftly withdrew a paper talisman and chanted another spell, hurling another ball of energy towards the demon, who calmly sidestepped to dodge the attack. What happened next looked more like a game of tag than a battle, with the apprentice onmyouji hurling spells and Mokkun yelling for the humanoid demon to stand still so one of the incantations would hit.
As for Nurarihyon, he was content to laugh as he slid by the various attacks the young exorcist was sending at him, though he was curious about the small ayakashi who was able to send out tendrils of fire. Those actually came close to singeing him, and he could feel the heat of the flames from several feet away every time he dodged. He wondered how the young onmyouji even managed to find him, since his abilities insured he was almost never noticed by humans unless he wanted to be.
Oh well, the leader of the Nura Clan thought in amusement, at least the exercise would insure that he had quite the appetite when he raided this noble house's kitchen.
Masahiro, for his part, was both relieved that his legs had woken up due to moving around to attack from different angles and annoyed that none of his attacks had connected. At the moment he just seemed to be wasting his paper talismans, and that really ticked him off. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot he could do about that if he couldn't even land a hit on the elusive demon, and so far it was looking like Mokkun was the only one getting close to striking the demon.
A yelp escaped the teenager as one of Mokkun's fire blasts narrowly missed hitting him, slightly singeing his left sleeve and causing him to stand still and blow on it to try and lessen the sting. He barely managed to yell back, "I'm fine!" in response to his shikigami's worried question before he continued blowing, hissing under his breath as he felt thankful that the fire had only barely grazed him. He didn't notice that both Mokkun and the demon had stopped moving around the now-tattered courtyard to look at him, preoccupied as he was by gently patting at the singed part of his sleeve.
Nurarihyon withdrew his pipe and lit it smoothly, idly puffing on it as he looked at the young onmyouji and then glanced back at the white ayakashi, murmuring to the creature, "You know, I think we can call this battle a tie, what do you say?" A beat later, and he added, "I'm Nurarihyon, by the way."
"Mokkun," was the reply, and Nurarihyon chose to count that as a victory.
The shikigami watched his charge in concern, worried that the errant fire blast had done more than singe Masahiro's clothing, but after several moments he relaxed when he saw that everything was okay. It had been a close call, too close, and Guren mentally scolded himself for not making sure that Masahiro was nowhere near the line of fire before launching his attack. He breathed an inaudible sigh of relief when Masahiro stopped examining his arm so closely, and he called out idly, "Neh, Masahiro! I think we should probably let this demon go!" two pairs of eyes looked at him, one in shock and the other in interest as he continued, "After all, it isn't like he's really doing anything aside from eating a few things, and it's not like the noble's can't afford it."
The onmyouji's protest was cut off before it even started when the small ayakashi added, "Besides, I'm inclined to think that we did more damage than he did," and when Masahiro looked around at the partially destroyed courtyard, a large drop of sweat formed on the back of his head. It was true; most of the damage had been done when the demon had dodged their attacks…Masahiro blushed scarlet.
Just then, light suddenly appeared behind one of the sliding doors that led into the courtyard, and both Masahiro and Mokkun were barely able to muffle their yelps as they ran for the gate, neither of them wanting the apprentice onmyouji to get caught, apparently alone, in the midst of such damage to a minor noble's property.
It was only after they were two streets away and trying to catch their breath that they realized Nurarihyon was standing next to them and appearing greatly amused. Several minutes and an uncomfortable silence later, and Masahiro sheepishly told the human-like demon, "Don't worry, you're free to go, Mokkun and I were just worried that you would get tired of stealing food and decide to hurt somebody…"
Nurarihyon supposed he could understand the worry, and he was more amused than angry, since the exercise he had gotten from dodging the young onmyouji's attacks had been the most fun he'd had in at least a few weeks. He took a few more puffs from his pipe and responded easily, "Don't worry about it, no harm done. Except to that noble's courtyard, that is." He chuckled, and even Masahiro and Guren laughed little at that. "I am Nurarihyon, by the way, Leader of the Nura Clan of demons."
The teenager smiled and bowed respectfully, Mokkun jumping on his shoulder when he straightened and prepared to leave as Masahiro said, "Ah, my name is Abe no Masahiro, it was nice meeting you!" With that, the onmyouji and his shikigami turned and ran back towards their home to hopefully get a few hours of sleep before they had to get up again and head to the onmyou dorms.
Nurarihyon watched them go idly, knowing that he would have to find another house to sneak into if he wanted to get something to eat sometime that night, but he couldn't say that he regretted meeting those two. It had been an interesting diversion if nothing else, even if Karasu-Tengu would likely scold him if the crow found out he had been attacked by an onmyouji and let him just walk away – well, technically run, but the point still stood.
The demon shrugged and turned to go in the opposite direction, still chuckling under his breath as he faded from sight. Maybe one day they would meet again, since who knew what the future held? It would certainly be interesting if nothing else, Nurarihyon thought with a slight smile on his face.
And 400 years later, the grandson of Nurarihyon would meet a descendant of Abe no Masahiro long with a small white ayakashi, and an adventure would begin once again.
*Sorry for the bad description, I didn't know if Nurarihyon's outfit actually had a special name or not…
Author's Note: And there you have it! I know the ending wasn't that great, but I didn't really know how to wrap it up without sounding cheesy…plus I wanted to set up for another Shonen Onmyouji/Nura story I'm thinking of writing, and in pseudo-related news I'm pecking away at a Rihan/Wakana fic, so that one might be up first, LOL!