4. Our Secret

"You're alright?", the taller boy asked Yoshi after he had turned his face at her again. Unable to speak because of what just happened in front of her she just nodded.

-Flashback-

"HEY! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY WIFE, YOU BRAT!", Haiki shouted when he saw the position the younger yokai and his 'wife' were in.

The boy hugging Yoshi looked angry at him while slowly releasing Yoshi's shoulders. She somehow felt disappointed by their seperation but stayed silent.

"You shouldn't speak to me in that kind of tone, especially when I'm busy with a woman.", he said to Haiki with a death glare while taking his fighting stance.

"Don't get cocky brat. Who do you think you are?", he shouted back. A moment later he was already split into two halfs.

"You don't know who I am? You should at least know in which territory your stepping in to. I'm the Sandaime of Nura Gumi, Nura Rikuo.", he exclaimed forgetting that Yoshi could hear everything he said.

-End Flashback-

As Night Rikuo approached her the other yokai, his subordinates arrived at the scene panting hard.

"Yo, you guys are late. I already defeated that Haiki fellow.", he said cooly.

Yoshi now snapped out of her trance and tried to aske the one question that was in her mind.

"Are you really Nura Rikuo-kun?", she slowly asked him with curiousity.

The newly arrived yokai were surpprised by the sudden question. They looked at each other in order to see what they should do. Tsurara was the first to have an idea. She wanted to use her technic 'Noroi no Fubuki, Yukiyamagoroshi' in order to make Yoshi fall asleep. She took a step forward and placed her hands in front of her mouth but was met by a glaring Yume-Neko standing in front of Tsurara's actual target. She and the others including Rikuo were surprised to see the wild cat yokai protecting an ordinary human girl.

"Don't you dare touch Yoshi.", she hissed between her clenched teeth.

They were more confused by her protective gesture. Rikuo then stepped in front of Tsurara and gave her a sign to step back and let him handle the situation. Yume-Neko's eyes narrrowed more and glared at the young man in front of her.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt her. In fact we came to rescue her. From you. I persume you're Yume-Neko, the yokai who slaughtered this house' owners during World War I.", he said calmly. Everything was silent. Something was strange, shouldn't Yoshi be surprised and scared of the revelation he just gave? He turned his gaze towards Yoshi who still was standing behind of Yume-Neko. Calmly.

'What's wrong here? Shoudn't she be scared? What happened between them before I reached them?', he asked himself in his thoughts.

He registered her moving towards Yume-Neko. She placed a hand on her shoulder and said something into her cat ears. It appears that Yume-Neko calmed down because she released her stance and looked into the eyes of her new master with adoring ones. Wait adoring?

'What happened just now?', everyone asked themselves while looking at the very strange view in front of them.

Yoshi then turned towards Rikuo again and looked deep into his eyes. He started blushing because of her piercing gaze. He thought he would be swallowed by those beautiful jade green eyes and held by them forever. But then he remembered what she had asked him a short while ago: 'Are you really Nura Rikuo-kun?'

'Shit, I accidently said my name to Haiki without thinking. She heard it. My cover is blown.'

Yoshi must have realized that the boy facing her was in trouble because she sighed and smiled gently at him.

"If you really are Nura-kun then don't worry. I won't tell anyone about today night. It would be to much to explain and I don't really get all of it myself.", she said before bowing and turning towards the exit (missing wall). She was shortly followed by Yume-Neko in her cat form but this tme in the normal size and with a normal reddish brown color.

As she walked off, her thoughts were still by the boy who exclaimed that he was Nura Rikuo.

'Could it be that Nura-kun is part yokai? I really should investigate it.'

Soon she was out of sight from the bunch of yokai and silently walked home. She then felt something soft against her feet. It was Yume-Neko who was brushing her body comfortable against her legs.

"You followed me? Well can't say anything against it. I am your master now after all."

The cat looked up at her face and miaowed at her. Yoshi picked her up and walked away with her in her arms.

"I'm going to call you Yume-chan because 'Yume-Neko' would be a weird name for a 'normal' cat. Everyone can see that you are a cat, no need for me to call you 'neko'.", Yoshi explained.

"As you wish, master.", was the reply from Yume-Neko, pardon Yume-chan.

After Yoshi had them left behind without saying anything else than her 'promise' towards Rikuo, they also left the old building and went to the main house of Nura Gumi. It was weird for them, they hadn't encoutered a human that wasn't at least surprised by the sudden appearing of yokai.

"I see you returned unharmed, Rikuo." Nurarihyon greeted his grandson.

"Don't underestimate me. I won't be beaten up by a cat.", he replied arrogant. "Well it wasn't the cat that did the rucus. It was an other yokai, Haiki no Yama, or something like that.", he continued.

His grandfather made a weird face. "Did you just say Haiki no Yama was there? That's weird. I thought that that kind of yokai stay at the places they were born."

"Well he said something about Yoshi being his wife. But obviously that was a lie because she herself didn't knew about it."

"His wife?" Now Nurarihyon was really confused. In all his years he hadn't heard of a haiki yokai that left his birthplace for a women. Something must be up with that Yoshi-girl.

"And what about Yume-Neko? What did you do with her?", he asked his grandson again. He tuned his face towards him and answered bored.

"Nothing much. When Yoshi went off she followed her, right after she had calmed her down before she could attack us."

The Shodaime was now totally dunbfounded. How could a human girl calm down a yokai that had given him and his son so much trouble in the past?

'That girl definitely is special. I'd like to meet her and see what kind of girl she is.', he thought while taking a deep pull from his pipe.

Rikuo was sitting on the sakura tree in the garden of the Nura Gumi main house. As alwasy he was staring at the lights of the town but this time his thoughts were focused on one particular girl. He thought only of her. Her beautiful jade green eyes that were like rare jewels. Her long dark brown hair flowing down to her waist gracefully. Her slender body fitting perfectly into his embrace. Her pleasant scent that reminded him of the smell of sakura petals. Delicate, sweet and compelling. His thoughts were becoming more and more intimate. He imagined how it would felt to touch her soft lips with his, how she would moan in pleasure when he would be caressing her body softly with his hands.

When he realized where his thoughts were drifting into he suddenly sat up and clutched his head with one of his hands.

'What am I thinking? What's wrong with my head. Sure Yoshi is pretty and gentle and much more than other girls I met up until now but...aaarrrgghh!' Even when he tried to not think of her his head would automatically bring her image up again.

"Maybe I just need some sleep.", he mumbled before he jumped down from the branch he was sitting on landing gracefully on the ground.

'I should try to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a pain if I was too tired to attend classes like normal.', he thought before turning back into his day form. He laid down on his futon in his room before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Unknown to him Yoshi too had weird imaginations about them kissing and caressing each other. She too decided that she was only tired and needed a good sleep. She went to bed at almost the same time as Rikuo did. But unlike him she was watched by other strange yokai outside of her apartement. One of them was an insect yokai who resembled a butterfly. He approached the window of her bedroom and peeked inside taking a look on her sleeping face.

"Soon you will be mine.", he said before he flew away into the night sky.