Rated T
Authors note: Thank you to my now considered hype man, Nobody Special, really the only one to keep me motivated to write this story. I appreciate the effort and the kind reviews. Writers block can be the worst when it wants to be.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
After Sota had watched his sister run to the well house and safely make it inside, he closed the blinds and pulled the curtains over the window. "Mom, we should set up our sleeping area here. I 'll go get the pillows and blankets from my room." Mikasa nodded her head. Hands clutched together at her waist politely. "Okay, Sota. Would you like me to come with you? Some of those blankets are heavy, Dear." Sota softly hummed a 'yes' to his mother as he trotted upstairs; hand on the railing and head angled down. His mother's eyes followed him until they landed on her father.
"Oh, grandpa. What are you doing?" Mikasa turned and dropped her hands to her side when she saw her father sticking enchantment stickers to the door and walls.
He slapped the last enchantment sticker on the window before turning around to face his daughter. "I'm protecting this family!" He proclaimed loudly. Mikasa walked towards him ready to walk him back to the couch. "No, Grandpa. There's no demon; it's just a man." Mikasa sat her father down and placed the remote in his hand. "Tell us if you find anything else about the guy out there, Father." She smiled sweetly before following Sota upstairs. The hallway was dark and Kagome left her room locked to the teeth with bungee rope and belts she had found around the house. Mikasa found the switch on the wall and tried to flip the lights on, expecting the off yellow glow of her old light bulbs but nothing happened. A few more clicks before she sighed and continued walking in the dark. "Sota?" Mikasa called out; a light seeping from her son's room.
"Yeah?" he called back, his voice strained. Emerging moments later with a mountain of blankets and pillows in his arms, exceeding the height of his head easily. Mikasa giggled softly into her hand before taking half of the pile from him. His eyes peaking over a blue and white striped pillow case. "Sota, you'll trip going down those stairs like that."
Sota laughed and opened his mouth to reply before a loud rapping resounded at the front door. Mikasa froze in the middle of teasing her son; looking to the door with trepidation. Again, the rapping of knuckles on wood echoed through the house.
A deep voice followed soon after. "Police. Open up." Mikasa set her bundle down next to Sota's feet and paced down the stairs. Reaching the door with outstretched hands, she grabbed the handle and slid it open after fidgeting with the lock. A sharp man, dressed neatly in uniform, held his hands behind his straight back. He looked down his nose at her, stoic expression on his face.
"Can I help you, Officer?" Mikasa questioned timidly. Hand held delicately against the edge of the door as she leaned on it. With a deep breath, the officer replied. "Ms. Higurashi, we have reasons to believe the perpetrator is hidden somewhere on your property."
Mikasa's blood drained from her face. "What?" her fingers lost their grip and she slipped slightly before catching herself on the doorframe. Sota came up beside her, catching the officer's attention. "What's going on?" Sota pushed through to the front, looking the officer in the eyes, matching his speculation. "Sota, get back inside." Mikasa rested her other hand on his shoulder to catch his attention. Sota quickly looked behind him to his mother before returning his gaze to the cop; slowly turning and walking back inside and sitting next to Grandpa. "May I enter." The office more demanded than asked. Mikasa widened the entry and gestured inside, sweeping her arm beside her. "Please, come in."
The shine from his polished shoes shifted as he moved, the faint wrinkles in his uniform coat disappearing and reappearing as he minutely swung his arms in rhythm with his march. Removing his police cap and tucking it in his elbow; he looked around the living room meticulously. Scrutinizing every nook and cranny trying to find any evidence of harboring a suspect. Soon after, his cold eyes returned to Mikasa. "I'd like to search the entire premises, Ma'am." Mikasa timidly nodded; not taking her eyes off him. "Of course, Officer." She replied; locking the door behind him.
Sota followed him with his eyes, arms crossed over the velvet covered back of the couch with his knees pressed into the cushions. The officer marched through the bottom tier of the house; finding nothing of interest. Looking towards the stairs, he marched towards the landing. "Uh, Officer?" Mikasa stopped him in his tracks, turning his head in her direction. "… Never mind." She didn't know how to tell him there was bungee ropes and belts all over her daughter's door because she was worried about the guy coming in through her broken window. Mikasa rung her hands together, nervous about the reveal and trying to think of something to say when he finds it. His boots thumped against the stairs loudly as he ascended to the second tier of the house. Soon disappearing into the shadows of the hallway. She could hear him try the switch before removing his own flashlight from his utility belt and clicking it on. The beam illuminating the floor and walls. The ropes casting a shadow on the wall next to them. The officer raised his eyebrow at Mikasa before continuing his search. He unraveled each binding quickly before turning the doorknob to find it also locked.
"Unlock the door." He demanded, hand pointed towards the door impatiently then placed his hands on his hips. Mikasa raced upstairs and shirked around the officer, reaching up on her tip toes to search the top of the door frame for the key with her slim fingers. Bringing back down an Allen Wrench Key, she unlocked the door. Stepping aside for the officer to enter; ignoring the stare from him when he saw the mess inside her daughter's room. "What happened." He didn't bother to look at her as he spoke, attempting to step around the mess. Loose leaves of paper strewn across the floor with muddy footprints splotched on them haphazardly. Something caught the officer's attention before he could walk in further. A red origami swan on the upturned mattress. Mikasa soundlessly put her shaky hand to her face; dumbfounded. The officer, angry now, swung around to face Mikasa head on. "What is this!" He nearly screamed. A loud crash outside took his attention away from her. He ran towards the window; now uncaring about the mess. A shadow passed behind the shed, disappearing from view. "Do not move!" He bellowed as he passed her into the hallway and racing out the door. Tears threatening to fall when she turned her head to face her son. Anger was evident on his small face. Wrinkles prominent on his brow and his mouth set in a hard line with his hand twitching by his side; a big sign he was agitated. "It's okay, Sota." She tried to calm him but the sound of her shaky voice made him blow. "No. No, it's not. He can't just storm in here, yell at you, and then run out!"
"Sota, drop it; you don't understand. There's nothing you can do." Her stern voice startled Sota into silence. Mikasa never talked to him like that. He didn't know how to respond so he rushed down the stairs and sat on the couch with Grandpa again. The cop's shout echoed outside, Mikasa hearing it just below the window outside the house. Skipping over paper and office equipment to reach the windowsill. Below, a man scaled the wall like an acrobat with the officer chased him from behind.
"Close the fucking window!" The cop's deep voice carried out on the wind. Quickly, Mikasa slammed the window shut and tried to find the lock before remembering that it had broken a few years ago. She turned and raced to the bedroom door, turning the lock lever as she shut it. Her hands shaking too bad to handle the belt fastener; it kept slipping from her grip. The tears fell down her cheeks when a hard body slammed against the door on the other side; the doorknob jiggling noisily. Mikasa whimpered as she struggled harder. "Mom?" Sota called up from downstairs, getting up from the couch. "Stay back, Sota!" She called down. The lock lever clicked and the door swung open to reveal a man with a feral look in his eyes. His sclera red with blood and purple bruises under his eyes. The wicked smile stretching his skin horrifyingly to show his shaved down and rotting teeth. Mikasa shrieked and bolted down the stairs towards her family. "Go outside!" She yelled as she pulled Grandpa up from the couch. Another body slammed into the wall in Kagome's room. The cop tackled the intruder to the ground, causing the commotion to spilled out into the hallway. Loud animalistic shrieking came from what sounded like a wild animal but in reality, it was the man in the red sweater.
"Mom, What's that!?" Sota screamed as he unlocked the front door, forcing it open and running for the well house. "Sota! Where are you going!" Mikasa held onto her father, helping him walk out the door. She heard bodies fall down the stairs but was too scared to see what was going on behind her. Sota stopped and turned 180 degrees; running back to his mother. "The guns." He spoke low; afraid the officer will hear him over his wrestling match with the monstrous man. "Sota, leave them. Guns are illegal for citizens in Japan! You'll spend the rest of your childhood in prison if you're seen with those." Sota began to argue, but when he took a look behind him and saw the intruder wailing on the officer, he had no choice but to obey his mother. The intruder would kill the officer and get to Sota before he could even reach the bag in time. Grandpa grunted with the effort to stay up right. "Come on, Grandpa. Almost there." Sota thought of the stairs suddenly; how were they going to get him down that flight of stairs in time before they were done fighting in the living room. "Sota, go to the bunker." Mikasa whispered. Sota had no idea they had a bunker on the shrine's property. He had been all over this place and not once had he ever seen a bunker door. "Where?" His panicked look evident in his eyes.
"Below the shed." Mikasa pushed him along. "There's doors on the floor at the back of the shed." Her soft voice laced with fear when she heard fleshy punches thrown and the officer grunting with each blow. The feral growls menacing to mortal ears. Sota nodded once and ran for the shed doors; Mikasa followed behind with Grandpa.
San dodged low hanging branches as they sped through the forest in the direction the wolf unknowingly pointed to them. If a red elk was spotted that means Ashitaka has to be with it; there were no other red elk here, they weren't indigenous to this part of the world. He must have followed her when she traveled to this forest. Those brown wolves aren't smart, but they are dangerous. Moro always told San that stupid was deadly. Her brothers panted with excitement and suppressed energy as their legs worked harder to run faster; trying to reach Ashitaka before those miscreants do. The sound of water reached their ears before they saw it. A lazy river molding itself around polished rocks and a sheer drop off waterfall to their far right. San scanned the area for anything that remotely looked like a body of both elk or man. San sat on her haunches and looked closer at her surroundings until her eyes landed on a shadow in the bushes. "They found us." Her other brother showed his teeth and growled at the incoming intruders. Another rustle before the wolf man from before emerged with another she hadn't seen before. They looked to be searching as well until they saw her and her brothers looking their way. The wolf men stopped and froze, seemingly too transfixed to move.
"What do you want." San spat as she stood next to her brothers; earrings glinting in the early sunlight. The one with the mohawk and raspy voice threw his hands up in show of surrender. "Whoa, whoa; we're just looking for that delicious elk. We saw it run somewhere but we lost it." The one with the gray hair and a tuft of black nodded his head with his friend's words; his hands shown in mercy as well. "Yeah, we just want the deer."
"Leave it. It's mine." San growled out. Times were so much easier when she didn't have to fight other animals for food or territory. She was growing tired of these mongrels claiming things as their own without thinking. "Tell your leader you'll hunt somewhere else." San didn't turn her back on them but she made it clear she was dismissing them both. The one problem men had, were large ego; and these two found it extremely hard to hide theirs. Their chests puffed out and they squared their shoulders with defiance in their eyes. "No, he said to hunt here; so we are. Who are you to tell us otherwise?" The mohawk one spoke strongly.
San looked to her brother out the corner of her eye, head tilted in a way to show annoyance. "What's wrong San? Want me to crunch their faces off." He threatened menacingly towards the opposing pair, showing more teeth than before. Their stature faltering a little before recovering poorly. San could visibly see one swallow their pride before opening his mouth again.
"Good point. We'll hunt somewhere else." One turned and marched back into the forest while the other stood stock still, unmoving until the other came back and yanked on his arm abruptly from behind causing him to lose his balance and stumble backwards into the bush the way they had come. San let out a huge sigh and continued to study the tracks. They were inconsistent elk tracks showing Yakul had run into the water to escape something.
San didn't see any other tracks besides the elks. It couldn't have been the wolves chasing him, they would have trampled growing trees in their chase. The attacker either came from the sky or it was in the water to begin with. San had never seen the beast that had taken so many villagers before come up this far. She wasn't even sure it could get up here, it never left the water. San stood and looked to the sky; looking for evidence of an attack. She had never witnessed a flying demon but she had heard it was common in these parts. "Do you smell it?" San asked, lightly sniffing the air with her brothers. "Over here." She ran, crouched slightly, up the river. The scent grew stronger the closer she came to a floating lump. It's blue back and a bump of brown the only thing visible.
"It's him." Her brother picked up his pace and walked into the water before San. She saw Ashitaka float unconsciously when she came near enough to turn the lump. His hair flowed in the water below his head while the hair on top his forehead was plastered, lifting and repositioning when water encroached above it. Ashitaka's scarred body was littered with new injuries; seeping blood before the waves washed it away. His blue sleeve had been torn along with the side of his haori. "Ugh, what is that smell." San covered her crinkled nose with her wrist as she bent down to look at Ashitaka more closely. A blacker substance caked his clothes, it smelled like poison. "Stay back, San." Her brothers backed away as she did the same. "Demon's blood." He informed her. "We need to get him out of here." San grabbed Ashitaka's shoulders from behind, dragging him to the river's edge. The black ooze slopped off in patches around his body and clothes as if it had congealed on top his skin. Her brothers kept guard as San worked but it was only a matter of time before something would appear, drawn to the smell of blood in the air.
San had been so deep in thought, it had startled her when Yakul burst through the brush, his saddle removed. "Yakul, steady." San laid Ashitaka down and approached the red elk with caution. Yakul shook his head up and down while his hooves moved in place, snorting as he showed his side while San held onto the reins with one hand. A large hole bled into his golden fur on his hindquarters. More anger boiled in San's blood. She lightly placed her hand near the fresh wound and quickly retracted when Yakul flinched away. San released the reins and unbuckled them, slipping them off Yakul's head. She hadn't thought about how they were going to heal him. His wounds were too extensive to heal with herbs and this forest didn't have a Forest Spirit. San remembered there was a village near by just beyond the waterfall. There was a priestess there that could help. "Let's get him down." San moved towards the cliff, stopped by a noise behind her. A village hunter walked out into the open with what appeared to be a spear poised and ready in his hands. San recognized him as the town huntsman; a silent hunter, for a human. Her brothers immediately growled a warning at the man, causing him to tighten his grip on the shaft of the spear before regaining his composure. She didn't dare say anything to him, keeping all of her attention on his weapon. Finally, the man spoke. "You stole that cow, and you killed that boy. You are going to pay for that." The man slid his left foot farther back behind him for more balance and San saw his muscles bunch together before her brother, the one free of the burden on his back, leapt at him with his maw wide open; full intention of harming the villager. "Brother! Leave him!" San screamed but she was too late. Her brother was on top of him and tearing the hunter apart. The man's screams cut short by the wolf's jaws on his throat; teeth wedged into his neck like a blade through a steak. She hadn't known her brothers would have acted so rashly; they had been so calm before. It must have been the brown wolf tribe hunting in their territory that had set them on edge. She could hear the rest of the hunter's group racing towards them; their leather clad feet stomping the ground beneath them. San went with the first idea she thought of to get Ashitaka down and away from harm. She grabbed Ashitaka by the arms and dragged him and herself into the river, letting the current take them to the edge. San felt adrenaline course through her as the edge came nearer and nearer. Second thoughts were out of the question now, she couldn't turn back even if she wanted to, the force of the water moving forward grew stronger the closer they got to the edge of the cliff before it plummeted down to the rocks below. "San! What are you doing!" Her brother cried out as the other wolf sibling jumped in after her only to just miss her as she went over the edge with nothing more than a gasp.
"Damn it!" He spat as he fought the current back to shore, much stronger than his sister. He shook the water from his thick fur, the droplets spraying out in a perfect circle around his body. Before the hunting group could clear the tree line, the two siblings bound into the forest and made their way down to where they hoped to see their sister alive and well.
San curled her body around his as they plummeted down with the water spraying around them. She tucked her head against his in hopes to protect him before their feet broke the surface tension of the water below. Water flowed around them, encompassing them thoroughly. San opened her eyes and focused on the glittering surface above, her hair flowing in front of her eyes as she moved minutely. Her hand tightening around Ashitaka as she kicked and swam up with one hand, breaking through the surface and gasping for breath. The gravely shore just to her right, she dragged Ashitaka with her to the river shore, her strength weakening the more she tugged. Soon, her feet caught traction on the mud and rocks below letting her use more force behind her pulling. San tried to keep Ashitaka's head above water to prevent him from inhaling too much water. Yakul trotted next to her from the bushes, snorting and kicked the rocks with his front hooves as he watched Ashitaka being dragged from the waters. San did the best she could to sooth the timid beast when she finally set her friend down on the dry ground.
"San, that was reckless of you." Her brother scolded as he emerged from the forest, wet from the river. He had an angry frown on his muzzle but worry was in his brown eyes. "Brother, they would have killed him." San dropped her hands and faced her sibling head on. "Us, San. They would have killed us. You should have left him for the humans to find. Now he will be hunted for just being seen with us; unconscious or not."
San opened her mouth to reply but was taken aback by the scent carried on the breeze. Human. They had found them. Her brother growled towards the other side of the river, legs spread and ready to pounce if there was ever need be. San pulled her dagger out of her side holster and focused on the boulder she had seen movement behind. Slowly, a human girl rose with her hands shown. "Uh… Hello." She timidly shouted to be heard over the river and wind. San hadn't moved from her spot, too focused on the girl. "I just want to help." She confessed taking two steps forward. "What's wrong with him?" the girl moved her arm and took another step forward. San heard her brother growl deeply but knew the girl across the river couldn't hear it. She looked harmless enough, San wondered how she had managed to stay alive being so skinny and always looking scared out of her mind. Her attention was caught by the girl again when she spoke the words she had been looking for since she found Ashitaka. "I'm a healer." San looked at her clothes then. She had never seen a healer dress so indecent before, even in her lands. She couldn't possibly be a healer, but she was the only chance she had at getting Ashitaka the help he needed.
"Brother, wait for me. I won't be long." San spoke without taking her eyes away from the girl. "San-" Her brother started but San interrupted him. "I can handle her if she tries anything." She reassured him.
"I'll be right behind you." He offered before turning and walking into the forest with his sister's hand gliding over his fur as he went, hopping over a fallen log before disappearing into the greenery. San re-holstered her dagger and stepped in front of Yakul. "He fell." San could see the panic in the girl's eyes as she tried to assess Ashitaka's injuries from where she stood. "I can take him to the village, I can heal him there."
"My name's Kagome." The girl shouted and walked to the edge of the river. "What's yours?" She inquired brightly. San had no intention of answering her but Kagome's smile brought it out of her. "San." She answered back. "San." Kagome repeated quietly. "It's nice to meet you, San. Let's get your friend some help."
