1 Club Land
2- Follow the Yellow Brick Road
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
The three pairs of hands flew out upon the plain fields of a coffee table, with only two victors left. The pair of hands that were shaped into a rock slowly slid out as the two papers went into the same chant as before.
They fell out onto the coffee table once more, taking extra time to try and second-guess the opponent. But the hands fell and time was running out. One pair shaped scissors; the other retreated to paper.
"That's the third time I beat you!" Miaka shouted zealously. "Now will you come with us to turn yourself in, Demon?"
Nuriko growled silently in his throat, thinking of plenty of ways to get revenge on the girl. "One more game! Just one more game! And then I'll let you take me… But until then… One more game!"
"No more!" Yui shouted. "We've already gone through five games! Miaka has beaten you three times! You are coming with us now!" She grasped his hands, only to be pulled back by non-human strength.
"Please!" he muttered, with innocent eyes that had started their work on Yui already. "You can't send me to Nakago! Please, please, please! I'll clean the place, I'll buy your groceries, I'll wash your dog!"
"We don't have a dog…" Miaka muttered. "All though there might be one back at my home…" Miaka finally noticed the battle of faces going on in the living room: Nuriko's innocent cute eyes and Yui's cold glare. "Right…" she added before sitting down on the couch.
Nuriko's face switched to seriousness, and he spoke in Miaka's direction instead of the cold-faced girl. "I'm a shiftshaper. We live in packs, you know! You guys could be my new pack! Just think of it! With my sleight-of-hand tricks, you guys could be making so much more money then you make now. Just imagine it…" he murmured, waving his hand in the air.
"That's great. That's just wonderful. But listen: We will get more money then you could ever give us by turning you in to the right person. Got that? So we're not going to play your little game. You're gong back to where you belong", Yui said in a cold voice that went well with her expression.
"Oh…" he muttered to himself. "Well, we've played a fair and square game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and now I must turn myself in, I guess…" He gingerly threw out his wrists, awaiting for his arrest, and trip back home.
**
The moon let her blue and white rays beam down on the earth that had traversed her skin, allowing light for the night traveler. He preferred walking than using those damnable elevators. You'd never know when one of them would break down and then you'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere!
His partner, the one with the annoying laugh, kept his sunglasses on, even if the sun wasn't up. He had his hair tied in a high ponytail, the way he always kept it, with a black leather jacket.
The night traveler kept his black cape billowing around his ankles, his blue armor so un-scientist like. Unlike his partner for tonight, he kept his long blond hair down, and his cold blue eyes were not hidden behind the shades that his partner wore, and he would never be seen wearing them. In his hand, he held the beginning of a leash that held a cat-freak monster. The cat-freak purred deep in its throat, staring at the night traveler's partner.
"Just keep him away from me…" night traveler's partner muttered, repaying the cat-freak by glaring. It's not like the cat-freak noticed, for the sunglasses were hiding the partner's eyes. It only cleaned its dishwater blond fur and growled with fierce slit blue eyes.
The night traveler pet his creation that stood almost at his waist. He did not answer his partner, and he didn't feel like it. Sometimes his partners could really get on his case… but now he was miff.
She was supposed to be here an hour ago…he thought, thinking back to the deal he had made with the girl. She and her companion would bring back his creation, whether they wanted to or not.
"Maybe they're not going to be here, Nakago…" his partner mumbled, probably hoping he didn't hear it. His partner did not know what he could do to him if he dared to oppose him…
"Shut up, Tomo…" was all he could say. He would spare his cold inflection and somber voice for the girl and her friend. While he waited, he petted his cat-freak. Children from the orphanage always made the best creations.
"Now they're coming…" he muttered, ignoring Nakago's comment. He would let him comment on him, but he wouldn't let it get to him. Besides… he liked the man's cold company on a summer night.
Finally…Nakago thought to himself, She got the bright idea to turn in my little creation…And as he thought it, he could see the green cape that the girl wore, and her bone necklace shimmering in the night. Following her was her healer companion, and his pet with its purple braid.
His other pet, Nuriko, held a somber face. Somebody didn't want to go back home… Nakago thought to himself. They came closer, and Nakago petted his cat-freak once again.
Yui dragged Nuriko the last few steps as Miaka petted his shoulder reassuringly. "All right…" Yui muttered. "I brought your demon, now give us our money." Miaka stood to Yui's side, nodding her head.
"Why, my pet, I have missed you! Why did you take such an unexpected absence?" he asked with a tint of fake emotion in the apathetic voice. Nuriko gave one last look at Yui, innocence at its peak.
Miaka smiled back at Nuriko, and mouthed, "Good bye". She patted Yui's shoulder, hoping she would change her mind and bring the blithe shiftshaper that had brought joy to Miaka. He had been the only funny thing in the house other than the television…
"Very well…" he muttered, pulling out a heavy pouch. With his empty hand, he tossed it too Miaka, and instead of catching it, it hit her chest hard. "Have fun in hell, little girls…" he muttered, taking the leash off of the cat-freak.
"Damn it… Why does everybody turn on us?" Yui asked while the cat- freak paced forward. Fear could be smelled by the cat-freak, and Tomo grinned.
"What's the matter, brave bounty hunter girl? You must be allergic to cats, eh? Well, don't worry. You won't need allergy medicine where you're going! Kakakakakakakaka…" he chuckled to himself.
"Shut up, Tomo", Nakago interrupted before the man could go on any further with his annoying laugh. Although he tried to hide it, he was interested to watch the bounty hunters reactions.
Yui and Miaka had backed up now, hoping the cat-freak would do the same. "What is this… this thing?" Miaka asked in a rude tone.
"It's quite easy to understand, really…" Nakago muttered, while blowing on his nails. The cat-freak was taking a slow time to get to them, and Nakago let his boredom run rabid. "In Japanese mythology, there was an old couple who couldn't make enough money to support them. They had a little cat that talked to them one day and told them that she would make money for them. She turned into a human and became a geisha. Only one man saw her transform into a cat, and she told him that he shouldn't tell any of his friends. Unfortunately, he did, and while he was on a boat, a big hand came down from the sky and grabbed him. His friends never recalled what had happened to him or what he told them. Basically, it's an okesa."
"Okesa…" Miaka muttered. She swore she had heard that word before… Maybe it had been in class… And when she hadn't been listening.
"Miaka… If I were you, I'd stop looking to the sky and start saving your power or getting out your blade…" Yui whispered to her friend. Miaka nodded and pulled out her blade, trying to transfer some of her power to it.
"What's the point of setting Suboshi on them, eh Nakago?" Nuriko asked, both intriguingly and rudely. Nakago's body shivered violently, and he swore that he would make the boy suffer upon getting back home.
Yui didn't care if Nuriko was angering her betraying client; her attention was centered on the Okesa that now came closer. Something was wrong about it; its eyes were just… too human. It had those same blue eyes that the student in her class had… and its fur was the same color as his hair… Connection, Yui? She thought to herself. There definitely was a connection. And either she could die right now, or she could survive, and she and Miaka could kick his butt when they saw him at school. IF she survived, that is… The last time she had been very careless, and maybe she would do the same thing today.
"Fine then…" she muttered, pulling out her blade. Even now she could see the Okesa grin like the Cheshire Cat, and she could sense something in the wind. Miaka could feel it too, shivering so little, that you could hardly see it.
The Okesa lunged at her, possibly trying to tear her throat apart. But Yui had been prepared for an attack like that when she had begun training; she thrust her blade into its arm, and gritted her teeth when the blood spilled mostly on her instead of him. The Okesa fell back, and licked its arm. Surely it had learned its lesson… hadn't it?
Obviously not, and especially not when the Okesa lunged at her again, this time sliding for her leg. Yui let a scream of rage out of her throat when its claws pierced her leg and slammed her blade down onto its back. Now it had learned its lesson.
But the Okesa slid away from her leg and grinned at her as it had done before. Its job was still not over, and it sat down for a minute, wondering if it should attack or not. Wondering where exactly would there be a clean kill. It was too late to go after the healing one; she was too far away for him to run to and actually save some strength for. The necromancer one would have to do.
It would be one more attack before she finally killed him, but he could kill her at the same instant if he had to. And for his last attack, he lunged at her torso: Something Yui had never learned to counter attack. Now she was going to learn.
By the time it wrapped its claws around her torso, she plunged her blade into a shoulder with fur that was rapidly changing into human skin and a usual riding cloak. Before Yui knew what was happening, a strange object came out of his shoulder, with fur at the end and it was spinning rapidly. The object, whatever it was, for Yui had no clue, shredded her shoulder before the now human Okesa could collapse. Yui fell to her knees, and quickly looked over to Miaka, signaling for help.
"Damn… why does that always happen?" Nakago asked Tomo, who shrugged without any care in his emphasis. "And this whole entire time, I thought you would jump out and save one of them. That's how you react, anyway…" he muttered to Nuriko.
"I would have…" Nuriko muttered back, "If some lug hadn't stood in my way the whole entire time…" He quickly moved his eyes to Tomo. Glare. Glare.
"All right then, Miss Necromancer(1), why don't you see what it's like to face Tomo…" he said with a grin that could almost match the Okesa.
"You don't seem to have the girl's attention, Nakago…" Tomo muttered, hoping for a grander entrance then just tapping the girls on their shoulders. But if their attentions were not on Tomo or Nakago, where were they?
"Miaka, I said no the first time, it's no this time too."
"Oh, come on! I never leave a patient! And you saw him! Maybe he can turn into a cute house cat, too!"
"Yes, a cute house cat that shreds your legs to bits and pieces!"
"But I never leave a patient…" she muttered, picking up the human. "And I never will. Now you can either fight without a healer, or you can come home with me."
Yui shook her head and patted her friend's shoulder. "I'm starting to believe you have more will power than I first thought you had."
"Um… girls?"
The two turned around to see Nakago, Tomo, and Nuriko. "Girls?" Nuriko asked again. "Well you see, it's the funniest thing. They still want to kill you, and the other thing is that they were going to send Tomo after you, but you destroyed his great entrance."
"What?" Miaka asked, before something from behind grabbed her shoulder. Yui was grabbed as well, on her newly healed shoulder, from behind. And before Yui knew what was happening, a great pain entered her side. She heard Miaka give out a bone-chilling scream, and she was sure she could feel the now human Okesa leaning on her side.
"What is your problem?" she asked the Okesa, who only shrugged limply. She shoved him and turned around to see what had been the problem. And instead of Miaka being in the way, there was a blade not unlike hers or Miaka's saying hello to her nose.
"Nakago!" shouted a masculine voice.
See you next time.
Notes: Wow! I actually went on to a chapter two! Most people who know me as a writer know that I never go on to chapter two. Okay, this time I actually described just what an Okesa was, and I've been thinking of describing what Nuriko is a little later along the way. As for the number notes…
1- Ong: Missee naycreemahncay!
Axle: Let's all say it together: Knee-Crow-Man-Ser.
And say hello to my new ending phrase: See you next time! And maybe even Ja Ne!
2- Follow the Yellow Brick Road
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
The three pairs of hands flew out upon the plain fields of a coffee table, with only two victors left. The pair of hands that were shaped into a rock slowly slid out as the two papers went into the same chant as before.
They fell out onto the coffee table once more, taking extra time to try and second-guess the opponent. But the hands fell and time was running out. One pair shaped scissors; the other retreated to paper.
"That's the third time I beat you!" Miaka shouted zealously. "Now will you come with us to turn yourself in, Demon?"
Nuriko growled silently in his throat, thinking of plenty of ways to get revenge on the girl. "One more game! Just one more game! And then I'll let you take me… But until then… One more game!"
"No more!" Yui shouted. "We've already gone through five games! Miaka has beaten you three times! You are coming with us now!" She grasped his hands, only to be pulled back by non-human strength.
"Please!" he muttered, with innocent eyes that had started their work on Yui already. "You can't send me to Nakago! Please, please, please! I'll clean the place, I'll buy your groceries, I'll wash your dog!"
"We don't have a dog…" Miaka muttered. "All though there might be one back at my home…" Miaka finally noticed the battle of faces going on in the living room: Nuriko's innocent cute eyes and Yui's cold glare. "Right…" she added before sitting down on the couch.
Nuriko's face switched to seriousness, and he spoke in Miaka's direction instead of the cold-faced girl. "I'm a shiftshaper. We live in packs, you know! You guys could be my new pack! Just think of it! With my sleight-of-hand tricks, you guys could be making so much more money then you make now. Just imagine it…" he murmured, waving his hand in the air.
"That's great. That's just wonderful. But listen: We will get more money then you could ever give us by turning you in to the right person. Got that? So we're not going to play your little game. You're gong back to where you belong", Yui said in a cold voice that went well with her expression.
"Oh…" he muttered to himself. "Well, we've played a fair and square game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and now I must turn myself in, I guess…" He gingerly threw out his wrists, awaiting for his arrest, and trip back home.
**
The moon let her blue and white rays beam down on the earth that had traversed her skin, allowing light for the night traveler. He preferred walking than using those damnable elevators. You'd never know when one of them would break down and then you'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere!
His partner, the one with the annoying laugh, kept his sunglasses on, even if the sun wasn't up. He had his hair tied in a high ponytail, the way he always kept it, with a black leather jacket.
The night traveler kept his black cape billowing around his ankles, his blue armor so un-scientist like. Unlike his partner for tonight, he kept his long blond hair down, and his cold blue eyes were not hidden behind the shades that his partner wore, and he would never be seen wearing them. In his hand, he held the beginning of a leash that held a cat-freak monster. The cat-freak purred deep in its throat, staring at the night traveler's partner.
"Just keep him away from me…" night traveler's partner muttered, repaying the cat-freak by glaring. It's not like the cat-freak noticed, for the sunglasses were hiding the partner's eyes. It only cleaned its dishwater blond fur and growled with fierce slit blue eyes.
The night traveler pet his creation that stood almost at his waist. He did not answer his partner, and he didn't feel like it. Sometimes his partners could really get on his case… but now he was miff.
She was supposed to be here an hour ago…he thought, thinking back to the deal he had made with the girl. She and her companion would bring back his creation, whether they wanted to or not.
"Maybe they're not going to be here, Nakago…" his partner mumbled, probably hoping he didn't hear it. His partner did not know what he could do to him if he dared to oppose him…
"Shut up, Tomo…" was all he could say. He would spare his cold inflection and somber voice for the girl and her friend. While he waited, he petted his cat-freak. Children from the orphanage always made the best creations.
"Now they're coming…" he muttered, ignoring Nakago's comment. He would let him comment on him, but he wouldn't let it get to him. Besides… he liked the man's cold company on a summer night.
Finally…Nakago thought to himself, She got the bright idea to turn in my little creation…And as he thought it, he could see the green cape that the girl wore, and her bone necklace shimmering in the night. Following her was her healer companion, and his pet with its purple braid.
His other pet, Nuriko, held a somber face. Somebody didn't want to go back home… Nakago thought to himself. They came closer, and Nakago petted his cat-freak once again.
Yui dragged Nuriko the last few steps as Miaka petted his shoulder reassuringly. "All right…" Yui muttered. "I brought your demon, now give us our money." Miaka stood to Yui's side, nodding her head.
"Why, my pet, I have missed you! Why did you take such an unexpected absence?" he asked with a tint of fake emotion in the apathetic voice. Nuriko gave one last look at Yui, innocence at its peak.
Miaka smiled back at Nuriko, and mouthed, "Good bye". She patted Yui's shoulder, hoping she would change her mind and bring the blithe shiftshaper that had brought joy to Miaka. He had been the only funny thing in the house other than the television…
"Very well…" he muttered, pulling out a heavy pouch. With his empty hand, he tossed it too Miaka, and instead of catching it, it hit her chest hard. "Have fun in hell, little girls…" he muttered, taking the leash off of the cat-freak.
"Damn it… Why does everybody turn on us?" Yui asked while the cat- freak paced forward. Fear could be smelled by the cat-freak, and Tomo grinned.
"What's the matter, brave bounty hunter girl? You must be allergic to cats, eh? Well, don't worry. You won't need allergy medicine where you're going! Kakakakakakakaka…" he chuckled to himself.
"Shut up, Tomo", Nakago interrupted before the man could go on any further with his annoying laugh. Although he tried to hide it, he was interested to watch the bounty hunters reactions.
Yui and Miaka had backed up now, hoping the cat-freak would do the same. "What is this… this thing?" Miaka asked in a rude tone.
"It's quite easy to understand, really…" Nakago muttered, while blowing on his nails. The cat-freak was taking a slow time to get to them, and Nakago let his boredom run rabid. "In Japanese mythology, there was an old couple who couldn't make enough money to support them. They had a little cat that talked to them one day and told them that she would make money for them. She turned into a human and became a geisha. Only one man saw her transform into a cat, and she told him that he shouldn't tell any of his friends. Unfortunately, he did, and while he was on a boat, a big hand came down from the sky and grabbed him. His friends never recalled what had happened to him or what he told them. Basically, it's an okesa."
"Okesa…" Miaka muttered. She swore she had heard that word before… Maybe it had been in class… And when she hadn't been listening.
"Miaka… If I were you, I'd stop looking to the sky and start saving your power or getting out your blade…" Yui whispered to her friend. Miaka nodded and pulled out her blade, trying to transfer some of her power to it.
"What's the point of setting Suboshi on them, eh Nakago?" Nuriko asked, both intriguingly and rudely. Nakago's body shivered violently, and he swore that he would make the boy suffer upon getting back home.
Yui didn't care if Nuriko was angering her betraying client; her attention was centered on the Okesa that now came closer. Something was wrong about it; its eyes were just… too human. It had those same blue eyes that the student in her class had… and its fur was the same color as his hair… Connection, Yui? She thought to herself. There definitely was a connection. And either she could die right now, or she could survive, and she and Miaka could kick his butt when they saw him at school. IF she survived, that is… The last time she had been very careless, and maybe she would do the same thing today.
"Fine then…" she muttered, pulling out her blade. Even now she could see the Okesa grin like the Cheshire Cat, and she could sense something in the wind. Miaka could feel it too, shivering so little, that you could hardly see it.
The Okesa lunged at her, possibly trying to tear her throat apart. But Yui had been prepared for an attack like that when she had begun training; she thrust her blade into its arm, and gritted her teeth when the blood spilled mostly on her instead of him. The Okesa fell back, and licked its arm. Surely it had learned its lesson… hadn't it?
Obviously not, and especially not when the Okesa lunged at her again, this time sliding for her leg. Yui let a scream of rage out of her throat when its claws pierced her leg and slammed her blade down onto its back. Now it had learned its lesson.
But the Okesa slid away from her leg and grinned at her as it had done before. Its job was still not over, and it sat down for a minute, wondering if it should attack or not. Wondering where exactly would there be a clean kill. It was too late to go after the healing one; she was too far away for him to run to and actually save some strength for. The necromancer one would have to do.
It would be one more attack before she finally killed him, but he could kill her at the same instant if he had to. And for his last attack, he lunged at her torso: Something Yui had never learned to counter attack. Now she was going to learn.
By the time it wrapped its claws around her torso, she plunged her blade into a shoulder with fur that was rapidly changing into human skin and a usual riding cloak. Before Yui knew what was happening, a strange object came out of his shoulder, with fur at the end and it was spinning rapidly. The object, whatever it was, for Yui had no clue, shredded her shoulder before the now human Okesa could collapse. Yui fell to her knees, and quickly looked over to Miaka, signaling for help.
"Damn… why does that always happen?" Nakago asked Tomo, who shrugged without any care in his emphasis. "And this whole entire time, I thought you would jump out and save one of them. That's how you react, anyway…" he muttered to Nuriko.
"I would have…" Nuriko muttered back, "If some lug hadn't stood in my way the whole entire time…" He quickly moved his eyes to Tomo. Glare. Glare.
"All right then, Miss Necromancer(1), why don't you see what it's like to face Tomo…" he said with a grin that could almost match the Okesa.
"You don't seem to have the girl's attention, Nakago…" Tomo muttered, hoping for a grander entrance then just tapping the girls on their shoulders. But if their attentions were not on Tomo or Nakago, where were they?
"Miaka, I said no the first time, it's no this time too."
"Oh, come on! I never leave a patient! And you saw him! Maybe he can turn into a cute house cat, too!"
"Yes, a cute house cat that shreds your legs to bits and pieces!"
"But I never leave a patient…" she muttered, picking up the human. "And I never will. Now you can either fight without a healer, or you can come home with me."
Yui shook her head and patted her friend's shoulder. "I'm starting to believe you have more will power than I first thought you had."
"Um… girls?"
The two turned around to see Nakago, Tomo, and Nuriko. "Girls?" Nuriko asked again. "Well you see, it's the funniest thing. They still want to kill you, and the other thing is that they were going to send Tomo after you, but you destroyed his great entrance."
"What?" Miaka asked, before something from behind grabbed her shoulder. Yui was grabbed as well, on her newly healed shoulder, from behind. And before Yui knew what was happening, a great pain entered her side. She heard Miaka give out a bone-chilling scream, and she was sure she could feel the now human Okesa leaning on her side.
"What is your problem?" she asked the Okesa, who only shrugged limply. She shoved him and turned around to see what had been the problem. And instead of Miaka being in the way, there was a blade not unlike hers or Miaka's saying hello to her nose.
"Nakago!" shouted a masculine voice.
See you next time.
Notes: Wow! I actually went on to a chapter two! Most people who know me as a writer know that I never go on to chapter two. Okay, this time I actually described just what an Okesa was, and I've been thinking of describing what Nuriko is a little later along the way. As for the number notes…
1- Ong: Missee naycreemahncay!
Axle: Let's all say it together: Knee-Crow-Man-Ser.
And say hello to my new ending phrase: See you next time! And maybe even Ja Ne!