A/N I really can't get this story out of my head, it's moving a little quicker than I planned, but I don't care :) No beta at present, so please excuse any errors.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mai Hime etc


Fingers tapping away at the keys were the only sound permeating the room. Not including the gentle breathing from its sole occupant, or the slight squeaks coming from the chair as its occupant shifted, nor the soft shifting of papers being moved. All right so the room was not all that quiet. In truth the fan from the air conditioner was rattling like a rattlesnake. The flickering lights were making a bizarre buzzing noise. And the sound of rock music from the office next door was coming through the paper-thin walls.

Shizuru Fujino sighed in frustration, glad that she could let her mask down inside her dingy office. Pausing for a break from the insistent typing, she leaned back and took a sip of luke warm tea. She grimaced slightly and went for a refill. Eyes flicking over the poor selection she picked one at random, hoping that it would be somewhat better than the previous. Her hopes were for naught as she took a small sip, lips tightening slightly.

Oh what she would do for a decent cup of tea!

"Oi! Fujino!"

The walls shook from the yell.

She inwardly sighed, turning with a smile to greet her red faced editor.

On the whole an average man. Average height, average face, average build. The only things not average about him were the very unusual muttonchops and waxed moustache. Said moustache was now twitching. That only meant one thing; he was annoyed about something.

The editor slammed a magazine down on the desk. It opened at a page with an article Shizuru knew far too well, having written it.

"What is all this garbage about werewolf theories? Have you actually lost it, Shizuru? Dog attacks being turned into ferocious werewolf attacks? Not even our magazine claims that kind of stuff." He sighed and collapsed in the only other chair in the room that groaned under the unaccustomed weight (it was very much used to hosting paper rather than people). "Do you know what they're starting to say, Shizuru? That you're an utter crackpot."

"Ara, they've been saying that for years." Shizuru said, seating herself down behind her desk.

Her editor glanced up and smiled. "True. Very true, Shizuru. But now they're thinking about it seriously. I've been hearing murmurs of psychiatric wards and the like. All sorts of rumours really. Drugs. A mucked up childhood. A few too many cups of tea."

Shizuru's smile tightened ever so slightly. "I don't see how this ties in with the article, Editor. People talk, that is the way of society."

The Editor sighed and rubbed his face before answering. "Keep things low key for a bit. You know, the usual rubbish. Ghost sightings. Alien abductions. Contacts from the other side. Anything but more werewolves."

Shizuru nodded after thinking it over in a blink. "Very well, no more werewolves for the next few articles."

The Editor sighed in relief and sank back. "Good. I'll let you get back to work then." He rose to leave, but paused as if a thought had come to mind. "On second thought, Shizuru. Take the rest of the week off. Get some rest, go out with your friends. I know you take this seriously for someone your age."

Shizuru frowned in confusion. "But sir, it's only Monday. I couldn't possibly–"

"Boss' order, Fujino." The Editor said firmly, leaving no room to manoeuvre.

She agreed and bid him good day.

It did not take long before she was walking through the dim hallways to the exit, and then home.

Home.

It was less of a home and more a house. Somewhere she slept at and kept all her belongings, but never somewhere she would call home. For as long as she could remember there had never been a proper home except that one right at the start of her memories, when they seemed more like fragments of dreams than memories.

A place to call home, where loving parents waited to embrace her as they laughed.

All torn away in a night of fire.

Shizuru shook her head, shaking the memories off.

She knew what had happened from reports and old newspaper clippings, but no one knew the cause. That was what had set her on her path of searching into the unknown. Digging for secrets long since buried. From the supernatural to the bizarre. From the norm to the dull. Anything that caught her eye she delved into with single-minded intent, telling her not-so-avid readers all about what she had uncovered.

They thought it a bit of entertaining reading while they travelled to and from work. She considered it a form of private investigating. When mouths remained shut, she coaxed them open. When doors were sealed shut, she found a back door. When…well you get the picture.

Her own personal crusade to find the truth.

The truth of what had happened seventeen years ago, when she was barely six. And the cause of her not-so happy upbringing.


"Shizuru!" that soft and gentle voice, calling for her.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." deeper, rougher, but no less loving.

She grinned, watching as the two adults searched high and low. Checking under the couch. Pulling aside the curtains. Pushing aside books. Looking in every nook and cranny for their hiding daughter.

Her father stood up, hands on hips and said a little too loudly. "It seems our lovely daughter has run away my dear. Whatever shall we do?"

Her mother's lips twitched before her eyes started to water slightly. "Oh my poor baby. All alone. How I will miss her." She hugged her husband, shoulder shaking in mock sobs.

"Mamma, Papa! Please don't cry. I'm here. I'm alright." She raced from her hiding spot behind the pot plant and hugs her parents' knees, red eyes watering as she looked up at them.

Her father smiled down at her, before reaching and lifting her up.

"It's alright my little angel. Papa's here for us. I'll protect you no matter what."

The family hugged each other, content to be in one another's company.

But dreams are not meant to last forever. They end in two ways. When you wake up, or when they turn into a nightmare.

"Mamma! Papa!" she screamed.

"Run, Shizuru!" her father yelling at her.

Animal sounds.

Growls and snarls.

Crashes and screams.

Roars of fury.

A sickening crack as bones break.

She stood frozen. Staring at the magnificent beast with its jaws around her father's throat. Emerald eyes staring at her. Watching her with intelligence far above that of a normal creature.

Flames formed a halo about the dark wolf. All she saw was a dark, shadowy mass of fur and fangs, and those two piercing emerald eyes.

The wolf released her prey. Muzzle raising as she sniffed this new scent. The scent of a new prey.

"Papa?" Shizuru asked quietly, fearfully. "Papa, get up. Stop playing. Papa I'm scared. Help me Papa."

The wolf snorted and prowled towards the small girl.

She backed away. Tripping over the rug.

Sirens screeched nearby.

The wolf's ears twitched, focusing on the sound. It glanced back at the blazing fire, then down at the girl. Up at the ceiling, watching the thick smoke.

It snorted before darting through the house and out of sight. A crash of glass evidence of its exit.

The little girl lay frozen, staring where the wolf had vanished, tears spilling from her eyes, leaving tear tracks on her soot covered face.

That dreadful scene of red.

The blazing red of the flames. And the bright red of blood.

Shizuru awoke with a gasp, shooting upright, panic in her eyes as she tried to dislodge the nightmare. In the darkness of her room she cried.

"You broke your promise, Papa. You didn't protect me." She whispered, before drifting into dreamless sleep, emotionally exhausted.


A/N So what do you think? Good? Bad? Plain strange? Please review!