Chapter IV: Life, Liberty, and a Random Twist of Fate
Akurei was just patrolling the border of the Tribe's territory a few days after being accepted into the clan. Eager to prove herself, she wasn't expecting her next step to send her into the middle of twenty-first century Tokyo. The sudden onslaught of noise, light, and smell dizzied the girl and she swayed on her feet, bumping into a short boy with long blond hair. She backed up, and suddenly a woman screamed. Akurei whirled around and saw the woman was staring and pointing at Akurei. Well, more specifically, at Akurei's ears. The flapping of her cloak caused the woman to scream again as she caught sight of the claws that punctuated each toe. Without thinking, Akurei ran straight towards her and leapt twenty feet into the air. She landed on the top of the light pole and clung for dear life as other people began screaming and shouting. A thunderous crack broke into the noise and everyone started running away from her. The pole shivered with the resonance of the gunshot since it struck the pole, just barely missing her claws and tail. Two more shots followed and one of them clipped Akurei's leg. She hissed and lashed her tail in pain. Another shot went through her cloak. "What is that?!" someone shouted.
"What are you doing?!" Akurei shouted down at them. Then she noticed that her tail and legs were exposed to the open air, and that she was the enemy in their eyes. She turned and looked for a way out. Her eyes rested on the next light pole. Gaining her balance, she leapt and landed lightly on the top of the next one, scratching it close to ribbons with her talons. More gunshots sounded around her, but none landed their mark as she was running so fast. Leaping from the light pole to the ground got her out of sight but the cloak was distinctive. People were jumping out of her way left and right as she tried to zigzag to prevent the people chasing her from getting her. One guy wasn't fast enough and she plowed into him, causing them both to fall. Akurei scrambled to her feet again and took off, gouging the ground beneath her. Someone hit her with their briefcase and she fell again, but couldn't get up in time. A troop of police officers appeared practically out of nowhere and pinned Akurei to the ground. "Stay down!" one of them ordered.
"Are you kidding?! I've done nothing wrong!" she shrieked.
"I said, stay down!" he repeated. Akurei got really mad then. She stayed down and her eyes began glowing violet again. Only, there were no demons nearby. "I. Have done. Nothing. Wrong!" she shouted. Her body morphed and shadows encased her, shaping her, changing her body. When they faded, a black dragon was crouched in their midst, twelve feet long with sixteen foot wingspan, and all muscle that was ready to destroy everything. Her eyes were still violet and she hissed, sending several of the officers running. She leapt and spread her wings, catching the air to rise above the clouds.
After flying for a few hours to make sure everything calmed down, she landed in a quieter area and her body reverted to its original shape quickly. She leaned back against the trunk and huffed a sigh of relief that nobody found her. She stayed there for a while, completely missing seeing the boy with silvery-white hair and dog ears walk from the little shrine into the private home of the grounds. His scent wafted up to her, however, and he seemed to be moving with urgency. Akurei turned around and crept through the branches, trying to see what was going on. The boy seemed to be a demon, but at the same time, he didn't have that menacing aura around him that most of the other demons had. He returned shortly, with a girl that looked vaguely familiar. They were too far away for Akurei to discern any features from them, so she doubted she knew the girl. The pair ran into the shrine, with a family chasing them. Lots of shouting about hair and a tet-something reached her ears. Suddenly the sound stopped and only the scents of the family were left. The girl and boy must have left, she decided. Akurei leapt down and landed in a forest again. Only, these weren't the trees that surrounded the Northern Tribe's territory. She walked forward until she reached a clearing. After looking around and seeing nothing, she leapt into the air and flew towards the north again to find her new clanmates.