Spring Structure

Chapter 1

Information and Arrival

"Alright Koenma, this better be worth is 'cause Keiko is going to kill me when she finds out I ducked out on our date again." Yusuke loudly said as he stormed his way into Koenma's office.

"It is, Yusuke; I am glad that you came so quickly." Koenma said, "I have another assignment I need to send you all off on immediately, as a re-paid favor."

"Yeah? And what is it?" Yusuke asked while using his pinky-finger to clean out one of his ears.

"It's a protection mission. Recently, there has been an extreme spike in the demand Angeni's blood and horns on the black market, which has caused a rise in them being hunted on their own land." Koenma said as he riffled through a stack of papers that were placed on his desk.

"The what?" Kuwabara asked "Never heard of the Angenee things…" he muttered.

"Angeni," Kurama corrected, "It's an old Native American word for Spirit Angel." He said slowly.

"You've heard of them, Kurama?" Koenma asked, looking at the fox spirit in surprise.

"Not much, I'm afraid, only from what I have heard." Kurama answered.

"Well, not much is known about them. They are a very secretive species." Koenma said with a nod as he went back to looking through the stack of papers. "Back to what I was saying, they are being hunted and their blood is being harvested and sold."

"What are Angenis?" Yusuke asked, looking back and forth between Kurama and Koenma.

"Think of them as along the lines of unicorns, Yusuke." Koenma said while looking at the detective. "Their blood can heal any wound no matter how fatal or how close you are to death. Their horns are popular ingredients in both poisons and remedies as well as supposedly, when worn as jewelry, is supposed to bring the wearing immense good luck." He explained. "That, along with their location, is all we know about those creatures sadly."

"Are they anything like the Ice apparitions, like Yukina?" Kuwabara asked.

"Not remotely," Hiei said dully, "The Kōrime are all female. The Angenis have both males and female."

Koenma looked between Kurama and Hiei with an impressed expression.

"Do you know what have may caused the demand?" Kurama asked as he took a step closer to Koenma's desk.

"Sadly no," Koenma said whilst rubbing the back of his neck, "Their race is limited in numbers as it is." He sighed as he looked over his detectives and the two demons, "I'm sorry I don't have much more information I can give you to go on."

"Just give us the rest you got and we can figure the rest on our own, like usual." Yusuke said while shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

Koenma laughed nervously, "Yes, well, their shaman and I go way back. I am repaying my favor him and he is expecting your arrival soon, so your accommodations should be ready by the time you get there. I would like it if you don't keep him waiting long, it's rude."

"Shaman?" Kuwabara asked.

"An elder, whom often takes the roles of healers and mediators within their people," Kurama said quickly.

"Though, I am going to ask a favor from you all; I need you to collect as much information as you can of the Angenis," Koenma said, "If we are able to document more information on them, then we might be able to understand and protect them better."

"We shall do what we can, Koenma." Kurama said politely.

"There is something I have to inform you all before you leave," Koenma started as a large screen descended from the ceiling then turning on once fully emerged, an image an almost solid white female human-like being, "As you can see, the name Angeni come from their appearance. When they were first discovered, they were often mistaken for angels."

Mostly every part of the creature was pallid, the skin almost completely colorless that transitioned into equally colorless hair; not even the lips or eyelashes had any tint. Only the exact areas where light hit and the eyes of the life form held color; a bright plum radiated off the hair whilst just kissing the skin; the iris was the color of saturated wine while the sclera was a less pigmented shade of purple.

The image changed from a female to a male, "Also, you should have no problems seeing the different in gender, but mostly you can see why they are commonly compared to unicorns as well." Compared to the girl previously shown, the man was clearly different. The same pallid color scheme was almost the only similarity; the life form had a single, long, spiraled horn protruding from the center of the forehead while its eyes were consumed in sold black. Its body structure was much longer and angular then the female previously shown, the structure was much closer to a stallion than a human. Where the light hit the creature reflected a metallic gold.

The screen then put the two images next to one another. "It is deeply disrespectful for those outside their own kind, on the verge of sinful, to touch the flesh of the Angeni; especially the women."

"Alright already, where do we find these Angenis?" Yusuke asked, taking a step forward to get Koenma's attention.

"Oh, right, the Angenis can be found in the middle of a mountainous region, close to the edge between the Human and Spirit worlds, in a land of eternal spring." Koenma said as he jumped onto his desk and pulling a purple circle communicator, "I had programmed the coordinates and directions to get you there."

Yusuke took the communicator from Koenma's hand and pocketed it, "How long is this protection assignment supposed to last?" he asked.

"However long it takes, Yusuke, until the demand falls back to near nothing or better yet zero," Koenma said as he hopped off his desk and landed back into his seat. "I will try to be in constant contact, so update me when possible."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." Yusuke said while turning to leave; the other three men followed behind. Once out the doors of Koenma's office, Yusuke pulled the communicator from his pocket and flicked it open, "It seems we are in for a road trip, guys."

Kazue pushed me further behind him as the lizard type demons closed in on us; taking a step back to add more distance between us and the demons. I now had one of my heels pressing against a tree. The hissing noises the demons made began to make my ears ring; by how Kazue's face is beginning to contort, it's causing his ears to ring too.

"What do we do?" I whispered while slid my other foot back; I coward behind him further, keeping my hands on his shoulders and refusing to look at the demons before us. Under my fingers I could feel him shaking.

"Just stay behind me," He said, keeping his voice as steady as he could.

"Go for the male," one of the demons said, "he's the one we want; it's a two in one package."

Kazue slid further back, dragging his feet across the ground to assume a firmer stance. Leaning forward at his waist, he brought back one of his feet snapping a stick; in that instant the two scaled beasts jumped at us.

I closed my eyes and I screamed.

An explosion like sound made my voice choked up in my throat after a few seconds, allowing me to hear the quiet. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Kazue was now on his knees holding himself and that the two demons have disappeared into thin air. I dropped to my knees, "Kazue, you okay?"

"Just a flesh wound," he said, giving me a weak smile.

"Well, seems that we arrived just in time."

Kazue lifted himself off the ground and held one arm out in front of me to push me back; walking into our line of vision, out from behind several trees, came four strangers. Kazue dropped his arm and relaxed, "Seems as if you did."

I looked back and forth between the men and Kazue, "You know them?" I slid behind Kazue more just to be safe.

"Yes, by association. Father told me these men were coming, it is why we are out so far away from our village," Kazue explained. "They mean us no harm," he added with another weak smile.

"You're injured," one of the men stated as he took a step forward, his red hair caught my attention. "Allow me to help."

The man who spoke walked toward us; I took a few steps back and hid mostly behind the tree. When he was close, I managed to get a good look at his face. The man's hair was close to the color of a saturated rose that flowed elegantly down his shoulders and back. When he knelt down to Kazue he glanced at me, his eyes matched the color of a polished emerald, as if asking permission to be near my friend; I noticed that he had a pair of brown gloves on his hands while reaching for Kazue.

I paid close attention as the man planted a seed into the earth which almost instantly sprouted a brightly colored flower.

"I apologize for my father's absence of meeting you," Kazue started, he let out a short hiss in pain before continuing, "He has not been feeling well as off recently."

"That should do it," the red-headed man said as he stood while helping Kazue to his feet. "The wound wasn't very deep so it should heal quickly."

"Thank you," Kazue said.

"Wait, I thought your blood heals? Shouldn't you're wound be healing on its own?" one of the men, a tall with rusty-orange colored hair, said while pointing at us.

"It does, but we are unable to heal ourselves or our own kind with it," I said, leaning just far enough out from behind the tree for me to not be rude.

Kazue looked over his shoulder at me before looking back at the men then bowed at them, "Allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Kazue." He stood back straight. "Behind me is my friend, Anemone."

I reluctantly moved away from the tree and bowed. "Pleasure to meet you," I said when I was straight again.

"Please excuse her, she is shy," Kazue said.

The man who helped Kazue bowed in return at us, "My name is Kurama."

Before anyone else had a chance to speak, horns began to sound from the direction of our village. Kazue looked up through the trees and smiled, "It seems they know of your arrival already." He looked at the four again, "Getting acquainted can wait until later. Now, we should be getting you to the village. It's not often we get welcomed visitors."

I took my place at Kazue's side and grabbed his wrist, "If you would please follow us, we would like to show you the way now."

The trail to the village was much like a maze as it winded through the brightly colored forest, it was easy to get lost if you didn't know the path well enough; must be why Elder Hikaru sent us to lead them back.

"I recommend memorizing this path," I started to say as I looked back –though I kept my eyes mostly on the ground instead of actually looking at the men, "There is only one way to and fro our village. All other forks will get you lost."

Well, Chapter 1! Yay me! I hoped it's not too bad… anyways, I had the first half of the chapter written then I couldn't think of what else to write, so it took almost a week to get this out.

Also, I would like to get a vote starting on who should be paired with the oc? I would like to know your opinions.

I'm also thinking of weekly updates to let me know when a day would be good and I'll begin weekly updates for you all. I also promis that no chapter will be less then 2,000 words.