A/N: First, there will be mentioning of Huli Jing and Fènghuáng, two youkai from Chinese mythology. I however, changed Huli Jing's gender to a male. Which is practically a male kitsune.

Warnings: Genderbend Rikuo (as seen in my other fanfiction, The Third Heiress of the Clan). Zen x OC pairing. If you disliked OC pairing, please be kind and give it a chance if you want.

Disclaimer: I do not own Nurarihyon no Mago and the characters, they belonged to their respective owners. I do not own the yokai species I'm mentioning. I solely own the OCs.

Summary: Chapter 1: There was a mysterious golden phoenix, injured in the skies of Edo. Zen managed to catch it to fix it up, but then – a mysterious golden light engulfed the body of the golden bird, transforming it into a girl.


"Who was that? Is that one of Reina-sama's friends?" mumbled the tengu to himself.

"What's all the traps about?"

A deep, husky voice questioned. It was Zen, the khaki haired male whom had just woken from his slumber.

Well of course, he was instantly attacked by Karasu-tengu's nagging, scolding him about his health condition for sleeping at the corridor. Tengu asked if Zen knew the girl whom had just ran away earlier, but Zen was too deep in his slumber to even notice anyone's presence earlier.

"What's this?" asked the khaki haired as he tugged the yellow sweater from his body.

"Oh? I don't know, it was there since I got here," replied the crow.

-n-

"Eh... where did everyone go?"

The first thing that came out of Jiaying's mouth as she stepped into the well furnished dojo. She probably went on the tour earlier for too long, her friends ended up leaving her behind and travelled by themselves. Scratching the back of her head, she turned around and headed out from the dojo to look for the Kiyojouji Paranormal Squad.

They mentioned that they're headed to a shrine.

But which shrine?

'Lets just take a random guess…' thought the girl.

Her first thought was to go to the nearby shrine, but unlucky for her, she ended up at the wrong place. Wasted, 30 minutes walking, all for nothing. That was when she remembered – she has a communication doll! Facepalming herself, she scavenged her bag for the doll that was sewn to resemble her, uncannily.

Beep beep!

"Uwah!" Jiaying jolted in surprise as the doll started buzzing and ringing.

She then answered the call with a shocked expression on her face, but was then relieved because the caller was Kiyotsugu himself, telling her about their current position. However, it didn't take long for that relieved sigh to disappear. Kana and Yura, the members of Kiyojouji Paranormal Squad have gone missing.

"They might have been lost because you were too fast, Kiyotsugu-kun! It's alright, I'll head back to Reika's house in case if they've returned," answered her.

It shouldn't be a serious problem, right?

Just then when she was about to turn back around, a familiar voice could be heard, talking to her in a mocking tone.

"Ah, what is this? The fènghuáng is playing with her human friends?"

The girl perked her head up, looking around to find that suspiciously familiar voice.

Can it be…?

"Oh yes, it's me. Luckily I managed to find you here, my bride," the voice of what seemed to be a male echoed, as if replying to Jiaying's inner thought.

"You left China to get away from me, I'm hurt from your actions," said him, full of mockery.

She clicked her tongue out of annoyance, and shifted her hand in a swift motion – shooting golden needles made of her own fine feathers.

"Fox. What do you want from me, you trickster?"

The leaves shuffled as the Huli Jing made his appearance, leaping down from the trees as he dodged her attack. One hit from the needle and it's the end of him, he knew that very well.

"Can you blame me? The Heavenly Nāgas were the one who hid you from me. That act was…" the fox brought his hand up to his chin, pausing on his words.

"Unforgiveable."

The Huli Jing, for a long while had been assaulting her in all kind of ways – including sexually, physically and mentally. He – and most of the other desperate yokai, have heard about a phoenix living with the Nāgas, and thanks to that, many people tried to have her.

It was one of the Nāgas' idea for Jiaying to run away to Japan for a while, whilst they will join her after they've taken care of the problems from their end.

It shouldn't take a long time, and she should have been safe, but the fox slipped through.

The Huli Jing then charged at Jiaying, slashing his prideful nine tails towards her so that she couldn't flee. Seeing an opening, the girl dashed up, and stepped on top of the male's head, and kicked him from behind – making him fall down, as she was pinning him on the top. Using the golden needle, she kept it pointing right to his neck – stating that if he dared to move, she will jab it into his neck.

"Wah! That's my bride! It's my lost here! ...But if you kill me, you could never find your precious human friends~" stated him with a loud laugh, breaking the tense atmosphere between them.

That was when, she was caught off guard. Did he have her friends? She clicked her tongue once again, frowning as she looked down to him.

"Where are they?!"

Easily swayed by emotions, the golden flame merged with her needle, creating a high temperature pressure on the fox's neck. Not crying out of pain however, he smirked and laughed – knowing that he managed to provoke the younger female this far.

"You're naïve, my dear fènghuáng..."

Slash!

Blood spurting out from the mouth of the fènghuáng, side, and her stomach. It was the tails of the fox that managed to make their way to wound her real bad as she was distracted with her thought. She launched back before the fox managed to attack her again. Her body was covered in golden flames as she leaped onto the tree – trying to find ways to escape.

Jiaying then transformed into a majestic golden phoenix, with the wings of swallow and the tails of peacock. She was severely wounded. She was careless about it, and it was her own fault. She didn't know for sure, but if her friends were taken by the huli jing, then she can't rest just yet.

Meanwhile, back at the Nura Clan's mansion, there were a huge uproar about the Kyuso Clan's attack. Zen headed out to aid the injured, whilst his sworn sister headed out to save her friends whom was captured by the other clan.

As he was riding the Oboro-guruma, he saw a being, identical to what it seemed like a golden bird. It was pretty, to be honest, he has never seen anything like it but… something seemed wrong. It wasn't flying well. He then took notice of the blood dripping off its body, and the wings beginning to stop flapping.

It's going to fall.

Zen almost panicked, and ordered the ox-cart to fly lower so he could catch the golden bird.

"What the hell is this...?" mumbled him softly as he caught it in his arms, and laid it down on the cart's seat.

Severely wounded, this beautiful bird. He brought out his ointment and applied it on the golden bird's wounds, having no idea that it was the girl whom has just stumbled across his leg earlier.

He gritted his teeth and told the ox-cart to turn back to the Nura Clan's mansion, since he didn't have the proper medication to stop the bleeding of the other.

-n-

"Ah, Zen-sama!" Kejoro called out in surprise as Zen waltzed down the cart with blood drenched kimono.

"Zen-sama! You're wounded?!" Tengu whom happened to be there, panicked as well. He flies around Zen, checking if the male was injured anywhere. Judging from the quantity of the blood stain, it must have been one hell of a big wound

"It's not my blood, it's this fella over here," replied him in slightly irritated tone, telling Karasu-tengu to calm down.

He shifted the sleeve of his kimono aside, revealing a golden bird that was wrapped in his kimono, wounded in his embrace. He asked for medical implements so he could stop the blood instantly. He then worked on Jiaying's wound gently, not willing to hurt the bird any further.

"W-what is that thing?" curious, Kejoro asked as she handed over white bandages to Zen

"I don't know, never seen anything like this," replied him shortly.

Both of them looked up to Karasu-tengu, hoping that he could provide them an answer. The crow was honestly surprised as he took a closer look at the golden bird. The two of them waited patiently for their answer.

"That's... the fènghuáng... How did it end up here in Japan?" said the tengu as he fly towards the golden bird.

"What do you mean? This thing isn't from Japan?" Zen asked.

"Not really. The fènghuáng were most common as Chinese yokai, and it was said that this mythical bird is really powerful, so that they were many seeking for it, but there were no evidence of its existence."

"Until today," Karasu-tengu added.

"If it was that powerful, then how come it appeared out of blue with severe wounds?"

"How should I know!" the crow started flapping his wings out of annoyance, comical vein popped on his head.

As they were talking, the golden bird in Zen's embrace started to gleam a bright golden light. Its figure started to grow, and eventually, taking the shape of an unconscious young female. Of course, the three youkai were surprised to see this.

"Wh-what the hell?" Zen jolted in surprise, but he was careful enough not to let the earlier bird spirit to fall from his arms. He then secured the girl properly and took another look at her.

"E-eh! Isn't that-?" Kejoro covered her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono, her eyes widened

"She's Reika-sama's friend!"

"What?"