There were three people and only one of them she knew. Suzume was standing to her right. But the other two were complete strangers.
Suddenly, Hitomi was smacked with a sense of recognition. She pointed sickly at one of the others there, a boy that she had seen before.
"Hi!… Hitomi?" Suzume said, suddenly puzzled by her reaction to his friend.
It was that one guy from the movie store, the now painfully attractive one.
"Um… Hello." The movie store guy said uncertainly.
Hitomi suddenly remembered herself. A pink tinge covered only part of her slightly green complexion and she let her arm fall.
"Hitomi?" Kurama asked perplexed. The man she had been pointing at merely smiled a cold, amused smile. Beside him stood another person, a woman Hitomi briefly acknowledged before turning a weak smile on Suzume.
"How are you tonight? Are you ready to go and have fun!" Suzume asked enthusiastically, trying hard to break through the awkward cloud that had wrapped around them. Kurama stepped around them to close the door Hitomi had left wide open.
She merely shrugged and pantomimed being cold which was true. She felt numb all over; from the cold and… no, it didn't matter anyway. She glanced briefly at the boy she had seen at the movie rental store only to find he was watching her intently. She looked away quickly.
"Are you feeling alright?" Suzume asked kindly. Hitomi shook her head again and waved her hands in front of her chest. She blamed her sick expression on the fact that her breath hadn't returned yet.
Kurama watched her, having been pushed out of the conversation he was free to observe. Something was eating at her; he could practically smell it. Her back was straight, her eyes impassive and cold. She didn't look very well.
"So this is Hitomi! Suzume has told me a lot about you. You're as cute as he said you were!" The movie rental boy smiled sweetly at her and the other woman nodded demurely. They must have mistaken her choke as a silent laugh. She wanted to leave their company immediately. Suzume on the other hand, blushed furiously.
"Oh, please, forget my bad manners," Suzume said, his face still colored. He gestured at the movie rental boy. He was just as she remembered him, short sandy colored hair, wide brown eyes that seemed so innocent and kind it was almost sinister. "This is my friend, Higara Kurai." Hitomi nodded weakly as he flashed a dazzling smile on her, making her already nauseous stomach do an annoying back flip.
"And this here is Hinoshi Megumi!" Hitomi dully shook hands with the pretty girl at Kurai's side. She smiled placidly back staring at her through distant brown eyes. Her hair was a pretty ebony color and she had a slight dusting of freckles across her nose.
Things were becoming more awkward the longer Hitomi stood there.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before that I was inviting them because it was kinda last minute. I thought it might help because Megumi's little sister can't speak either and Megumi speaks sign lang-" Suzume suddenly trailed off and looked horrified. "I meant- well- I didn't mean it like that… I'm sorry," he finally finished. Hitomi just nodded, the pain sitting on her head making it hard to do so. Her numb fingers spelled out a Hello, nice to make your acquaintance. Her words were formal as all she could manage was a shallow mirage.
Megumi returned the gesture just a formally, yours as well. Hitomi didn't notice for she was far too preoccupied, or didn't particularly care, while having to contend with too much all at once. Kurama watched here closely, accurately guessing what had happened but he kept his mouth shut and in a downward position.
"Are you feeling well enough to go with us?" Suzume eyed Hitomi eagerly, smiling the same way. Who was she to deny that smile? He had done nothing, offering her more then those men around her age who merely toyed with her sexuality and nothing more. She would try her best to not take this out on him. The others were a different matter. Hitomi eyed them defensively, her chin tilting up ever so slightly and her eyes narrowed a touch. A motion so slight it was barely noticeable but changed her aura dramatically.
Again, Kurama was glad he was not a part of this conversation so he could watch his cousin with a critical eye. He was going to have a talk with Hiei, he thought bitterly.
Hitomi nodded dumbly before she held up an indicatory finger and slipped up stairs to tidy up. She threw her hat on her bed and heaved a heavy sigh before leaving for the bathroom to administer the hairbrush.
Hitomi didn't understand the great anger that was growing like fire around her liver. She hardly knew the pig headed fire jerk, thing, demon, or what ever he was. It could just be a demon thing a soft voice reasoned from a small side of her mind. But Suiichi was not like that yelled the other, dominant voice of her dignity.
She paused, feeling his the way Hiei's eyes looked at her again. The contempt she saw there, barely masked. There were other emotions but she didn't care about those because they didn't hurt her. But now they were just as insulting.
Don't insult me. It echoed like nothing she had ever heard before. She suddenly began to wield the brush harder, tearing it through her hair. Finally, her eyes became slightly misty. But she could not allow herself to cry. Tears were worthless; they never solved anything or helped anyone.
"Hiei is a tricky person to understand." Kurama said softly from the doorway. The hairbrush clattered to the floor. Hitomi looked at him sharply before bending down to get the hairbrush he had scared from her fingers. "If you would like I will go speak to him."
Hitomi gave him a hard stare clearly saying no. She tucked her hairbrush in the drawer before pushing past him to pick up her wallet and tuck it into her back pocket.
No. She signed at him, not bothering simplifying the language so he could understand. It's probably just something you demons think nothing of.
Kurama understood enough to flinch. Hitomi saw this but didn't care. She squashed her tears down, putting them with the rest that she never allowed to fall. It certainly didn't matter. Hiei was probably going to use her just like the rest of the men. If that's what you could call him.
"Great!" Suzume said when he saw her coming down the stairs. "So are you going to come?" Hitomi nodded mutely.
"What time can I expect you home?" Kurama asked, startling them all into turning.
"U-um well…." Suzume stuttered. He cousin looked rather imposing all of a sudden from his place on the staircase that began in the entryway.
Hitomi drew his eyes to her with a sharp gesture. We'll be back when we're back. Kurama couldn't understand all but her gaze told him enough. Kurai smirked, waved, and they walked out the door.
Hiei sat very quiet and very still on is coffee table. The room was quiet except for the strangely magnified sound of his fingers working the buttons swiftly. He had the volume of his game turned all the way down.
It was a strange sensation. He would have disemboweled anyone for respite from his traitorous thoughts. Hence why he was frantically playing such a silly human game that brought him so much satisfaction. He needed it now more then ever. And still he wanted to entertain his thoughts in a sick way. Redemption maybe. He never knew anyone who so pulled at his long since squashed and unnecessary emotions.
It was all he could to keep from following her out that door that afternoon. Every bit of his irrationality was screaming for him to go and do something. What? He had no idea. He did what he thought was the best thing. He turned her away and shut the door.
So there he was, in a strange way. He did his best to ignore it.
Suddenly a bright light bloomed from in his bedroom. He stood up, the controller falling to the floor. Kazuya was vanquished for the first time in a long time.
"You're here finally," Hiei said moodily, leaning against his doorframe.
The bat that was flapping wildly around his room finally settled on his bed looking ruffled and thoroughly agitated. It focused its cloudy eyes on Hiei.
"I'd like to see you make that trip," It drawled in its high squeaky voice, "Take this stupid thing from me and then I am out of here. Its another message from your precious Mukuro."
Hiei gave it a threatening look.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I can't speak like that because I am mercifully in her servitude," It spat and then promptly leapt up into the air and ripped another hole between the two realms, disappearing into the same bright light from whence it came.
Of the long list of things Hiei hated, that Suisen was nearly at the top. If it weren't so useful he would have dispatched it with his katana by now. Ugly bat like creatures that could cross the realms. He snatched the device off the bed.
It looked like a remote control with a single, oversized red button. He pushed it hard before dropping it back onto the blanket.
"Hello Hiei," A smooth, rich female voice emanated from the remote.
Hiei nodded to the remote.
"Isn't this a convenient device? It transmits straight between the two realms. Its powered by the blood of the Suisen," Mukuro made her tone light as if she were merely discussing the weather. Hiei allowed himself a brief, satisfied smirk. "I am actually speaking to you in person. No more messages."
"I hope you are fairing well over in the human world. I imagine it is not very pleasant,"
"I've adapted," Hiei said dismissively as he settled comfortably on the bed, " Now get on with it,"
"It's always business with you isn't it?" she chuckled darkly, "Very well, I shall cut to the chase. The Saiken."
"…A germ?" Hiei hissed, "You have me rotting in this stinking hell for a virus? I'm leaving."
"Ah but this is no normal demon virus Hiei. I would never dream of presenting you with information that you would find less then satisfying. Have I ever failed you?"
Hiei leaned once more against his headboard with shrug, resting his arm on his knee. She did have something there.
"Then what is it?"
"It is the Saiken, Hiei."
"And that means what to me?"
"It's a germ that gives form to emotion. Makes it an entity rather then just a feeling."
"What does this entity do?" Hiei masked his curiosity with in his voice but could not hide it from his wine-colored gaze.
"Emotions are incredible things as we already know. They give power in the most extreme cases. You yourself can attest to that. If strong emotions were given a physical form, imagine the destructive possibilities."
Silence fell as the satisfying gravity of Mukuro's words settled on Hiei.
"Tell me more."
Mukuro chuckled coolly. "You truly are predictable. The Saiken grows in the heart, the symbolic center of all emotion. It needs an untainted heart to find purchase and to grow, a human heart. It is so rare for the virus to evolve that I feel quite lucky to be finding myself faced with it. I have only heard of it once before in all my years and even then it was under a cloaked name,"
"You seem quite the expert."
"Hiei do you think that Youko Kurama, that weak creature Gouki, and yourself were the only ones to steal into the depths of Spirit world? And I went unnoticed," Hiei pursed his lips.
"I stumbled upon that information quite accidentally while I was searching through the archives,"
"What were you looking for?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with."
Hiei scowled at the window. The room was stuffy and the street dark. The only light that filtered through the blinds was that from the street lamp below his window.
"As I was saying, the interesting thing is that the Saiken absorbs the emotion and then forms a shell, a cocoon around itself and then dies. The germ itself does not do much harm and is hardly detectable. The human may experience an increase of strong emotions but humans are such nasty creatures and always in such a state of emotional turmoil, they are oblivious."
"Why a human?"
"Do you know of many demons with an untainted heart?" Mukuro asked lightly.
"Humans are just as bad as demons." Hiei countered, unable to hold back the sweet image of his sister.
"You are right, but the demon heart is much too tough for the Saiken to survive. Humans are evil, but they are also weak. As I was saying, this cocoon is what really matters. All the emotion the virus collects, concentrates in this cocoon. When the Saiken dies, the form then crystallizes. It then looks almost like a gem, an emerald so dark it is almost black. It must be broken to unleash all the stored emotion,"
"They just smash it open?" He thought aloud, his mind calculating the possibilities such power could give a person if controlled.
"It needs an extraordinary amount of energy to form the bodies of the emotions. Usually heat works best, an attack from a particularly strong fire demon or-"
"The Darkness Flame." Hiei finished, a frown deepening his already southerly inclined features.
"Very perceptive, yes…" Hiei listened intently as Mukuro continued.
In the back of Kurai's car, Hitomi sat stony faced and sick, her glasses sitting askew on her nose. Kurai's driving was a terrifying experience and she really wished that she hadn't climbed into it.
He swerved through traffic, drove at break neck speeds, and turned sharply. None of the others seemed upset by this. On the contrary, they looked as if nothing was amiss when they nearly hit another person's vehicle. Their car horn blared their indignant anger. It nearly drove Hiei right out of her mind. Right now he only preoccupied the fringes of her scattered wits as the fight or flight drive had overridden any serious thought for the time being.
'Of all the stupid-ARRGH!!' A tight, strangled squeal escaped her lips. Kurai slammed on his brakes to avoid another tail end of a car. She tightened her grip on the seat belt wishing she had more of them. Six, maybe? They came screeching to a halt at a red light. She breathed a small sigh of relief.
'He's such an… an…' Her thoughts came back full force and full of Hiei. 'Crimanitley Hitomi, face it. You're the one to blame most and you know it. He hugged you ONE time and you take it as if he asked you to be his forever." Her internal voice raged at her. The chiding told-you-so tone belonged to her reason. The relationship-no, just relation- was never even there. So he treated her with more grace then others and could actually understand her, talking to her in a way no one could ever. That was it. He was hardly even her friend and she let her hope take her to the stars to only drop her once again, bringing her back to earth, letting her burn in the atmosphere before impact.
It all went back to pity, she guessed angrily. Oh the poor girl with out a damn voice box. Treat her like porcelain for surely if we get to close she will break. No touching, no interacting. Just set her on a shelf so she can observe. She showed them. She showed them that she wasn't just human, but also tough as nails. Once she was accepted, nothing they could say would ever hurt her because she could hurt them back. Their views changed all right. Her short hair scared them. Her cold, stony silence sent them muttering. Finally her dress sent them shaking their head while walking away. It was a shame, they said. She used to be such a nice, quiet girl, they said. What could have caused her to become like that? All a bunch of disgusting, blind idiots.
Kurai took off again and her stomach did a few handsprings and a triple somersault. Her life-threatening situation effectively dragged her thoughts from her dark thoughts. She was thrown against the side of the car as Kurai raced to make a left hand turn after the light went red. After a while, Kurai slammed on his brakes again and this time it was more final. Hitomi peeked out of the window. He was in a parking lot, perfectly centered in a space.
Kurai caught Hitomi's eyes in the rear view mirror, his russet gaze wrapping around hers. They were strangely triumphant. He was attractive and had a mysterious air. Something she always fell for and found ample amounts in Hiei. She immediately looked away. His gaze was alluring and yet foreboding. She struggled to extract herself from the back seat.
Outside, the people flowed around her like water and the lights of the theatre blinked cheerfully. They certainly didn't do much to help her sour mood. Suzume chatted as they walked. Hitomi shivered. It was cold outside and she wished she hadn't forgotten her coat. She was just so angry and she had to move. That was always the remedy for her anger. If she moved, walked, ran, drove, whatever, she felt as if she was moving beyond. As if she was doing something.
Inside, the stream of people only worsened. She half listened to what the others were saying as they asked her opinion of this and that. She was good a pretending though. At the strangest times she would find Kurai's eyes upon her but they were fleeting moments that were quickly forgotten.
The movie itself was action packed, violent, fast, and all together boring. There was no depth to distract her. Every time she had tried to focus, things kept popping into her mind in as if it were a slide show. Hiei. The club. Hiei. The demon. Hiei. Her cruel words to Suiichi. Hiei. The stupid movie. Hiei. It repeated through the sequence. The buzz in her mind was enough to drive anyone insane.
So she fell asleep.
The final triumphant explosion sounded and the good guys beat the bad guys and there was much rejoicing. A bevy of buxom women and plenty of premarital sex included. The movie had been bursting with sound and projected thoroughly by the surrounding speakers. Still she dozed.
"Hitomi?" Suzume asked his voice filled with wonder and concern. She opened her eyes lazily and locked at him unsure if why he was there. Then she remembered that she was sitting in a theatre when she should be at home. She smiled at Suzume, stood, and left. They filed out behind her.
"Hitomi are you ok?" Suzume touched her shoulder gently. Again, guilt washed over her.
I just don't feel well she mimed. He looked at her
"We were going to go out for Ice-Cream but we can take you home now if you like," He offered kindly. Hitomi smiled at him gratefully and nodded.
She stopped outside of Kurai's car and stared at it uncertainly. She did not wanted to get in it. She wanted Suiichi to come and get her. She hated people so much sometimes.
Someone's phones rang. Suzume dug hastily in his pocket. He glanced at the unknown number and answered tentatively. All of a sudden the color drained out of his face.
"What?!" He exclaimed nervously. "She's ok, right? I'm on my way." Everyone watched him with different expressions on their faces as he hung up the phone. Hitomi looked startled and worried. Megumi curious and Kurai thoroughly unconcerned.
"M-my mother has had an accident. I must go. I am sorry," Hitomi, her own misery briefly forgotten shook her head understandingly, pointing for him to go. He smiled at her weakly.
"Thank you Hitomi. We will do this again," Swiftly, he leaned in and kissed her cheek, surprising her utterly before her hurried to the road to hail a taxi.
"Well that was certainly unexpected," Kurai said lightly. Hitomi glared at him although he did not see. She was coming to like him less and less. How could someone like Suzume be a friend with such a person? The idea that looks weren't everything was stamped all over her day it seemed.
"Well I, too, must be going," Megumi said. Hitomi looked at her incredulously as she made sure she had all of her things. Wasn't she Kurai's girlfriend? Why was she going? This was getting weird. Hiei was thoroughly pushed from her mind.
"My father is coming to pick me up so I don't miss my… curfew." She finished thoughtfully and wandered away and lost herself in the crowd. A horrible realization came upon Hitomi. She was going to be stuck with Kurai alone. He turned to her with a smile and she felt nervous. She didn't like this guy, his manners, his driving, or even his face. He suddenly was no longer attractive thanks to earlier events.
"Well," he said with a smile that no longer made her blush sickly. Hiei never smiled she remembered vaguely. "Looks like it is just you and I."
Hitomi shook her head and motioned towards the buildings. She would call her cousin so he could come and get her.
"Why not, I'll just drive you home, it will be enjoyable. Everything will be alright," Hitomi looked at him warily. Something in his eyes told her to get into the car. She walked with him to his sleek black vehicle. Every part of her body was yelling at her not to go but she did. She walked calmly beside him as he chatted affably to her. He opened her door gentlemanly and she climbed in.
That's when she finally asked herself why the hell she had gotten in the car. Sitting in the front seat with a person she did not trust settling behind the drivers seat.
"I'm sorry we've been stuck together like this. I hope Suzume's mother is going to be alright," He said to her. The car roared to life. She nodded and looked out the window, gripping her sea belt tight. The crazy driving was about to begin again. The only good thing about this driving fast was that she would get home.
Kurai's driving was slow and careful. It took Hitomi by surprise as he turned on some music and drove like a normal person. She relaxed into her seat a little. She was on edge. Hitomi was glad Kurai didn't drive like a psycho, although, it again left her to the mercy of her thoughts. She sat and let them wash over her. She had to face it eventually and it was getting easier to bear. She was just so insulted. Her anger began to build again and that made her feel better. Much better. She was thinking so hard that she hardly noticed where Kurai was driving.
Hitomi smiled coldly and contently. Hiei didn't matter that much in the end. He wasn't worth it. She looked out the window feeling relieved and smug.
Hitomi turned to Kurai, and tapped him on the shoulder. Something was wrong. She new very little about the part of Tokyo where her Aunt Shiori lived. Her surroundings looked familiar, painfully familiar. This was not where she was supposed to be.
Kurai looked down at her and smiled. It wasn't warm or kind. It was a wicked curl of the lips and his eyes gripped hers hard. They were no longer a warm brown but a hard polished amber color. They looked like those of a bird, an eagle or a hawk. Her insides turned cold. They, too, were horribly familiar.
"What's the matter Hitomi?" Kurai said pleasantly. He slammed on the breaks. The tires squealed and Hitomi's head hit the dashboard despite her seat belt. "Don't you want to talk to me?"
Hitomi's head was ringing and the world spinning. Everything inside her brain was jumbled but one thing still sang clear. She had to get away. She fumbled with the clasp of the belt, her fingers slow and dumb as her vision was whirling and head pounding.
"Where do you think you are going little human?" Kurai snarled at her as her seatbelt popped free and she began fumbling with the door lock. He grabbed and shoved her against the door. She squealed in pain, groping for the door handle.
"You were with that wretch Hiei," He said smiling at her coldly and triumphantly. Hitomi struggled for all she was worth. Kurai was surprised at her strength but it was still nothing to him. He just gripped her shoulders tighter. "Tell me what are you to him?"
Hitomi stared at him, her eyes leveled. She was terrified but she wasn't going to let him see it anymore.
I am nothing to him. He made that quite clear. She willed him to understand. Her fingers found hold on the handle.
"Look at me," Kurai commanded her. Despite herself she looked him right in the eye and was caught dead. His gaze held hers tightly. Something in his eyes stopped her movements and her hand rested on the handle.
Kurai stared into her eyes intently. His features had become very hawk like. She was like the His gaze was searching, calculating, and sinister. They held her tight. Now she knew what it meant to truly be prey.
"You are interesting," He said thoughtfully after sometime. "You are nothing. There is nothing extraordinary about you. You're a plain, disgusting human creature. And yet you are important. I can use you. You can tell me where he is."
Hitomi didn't know what was going on but one thing was certain, he was never going to get anything from her. If this demon went about it a different way, then she may have told him. Like maybe not revealing that he was a demon. If he thought he could scare her into telling him well, he picked the wrong girl. Plus didn't he know she couldn't even speak?
"Oh, I know you can't speak. I found that out tonight. Only a small hitch in our plans really,"
'Our?' Hitomi wondered. She knew the world was out to get her, but this was ridiculous.
"So I will make an example of you," He told her happily, his copper eyes glinting with malice, "I bet he can't help but do anything but come to us. You know much about him, I can see it in your eyes; you're his own little pet,"
Pet. He called her an animal, a possession. She broke free of his grasp quite suddenly and slugged him in the face. Kurai's eyes widened with surprise more than pain. She shouldn't have been able to break free from his control.
Hitomi wrenched the door handle at the same time her fist connected to his jaw, spilling her onto the ground. She scrambled to her feet and ran from the car.
The buildings around her rose dark and foreboding in the cold night. The sky was partially filled with clouds, the moonlight filtered through dimly, a blessing and a curse. For the second time that day, Hitomi navigated the streets of Tokyo at a run. Her breath was ragged and the air stung her lungs. The only difference was, this time she knew the streets like the back of her hand.
Once upon a time, in a far away place in her past, Hitomi roamed these streets. It was with a few others. They had claimed this territory for themselves. It was shady place, where few dared to go, making it the perfect place to be situated. They were out of the way, in this dank and forgotten district. It used to be a nice place but all the big businesses left and the buildings decayed, great proud creatures turned into twisted and lifeless shells. It was home for her a lot of the time. Whenever she snuck out, it was here she would stop first. They weren't always around, but many a time the gang she was part of could all be found lounging around their central base that was a haven for their troubled minds. Unconsciously, that place was where her feet carried her now, full throttle. The need to feel safe still stuck with her today.
A force slammed hard into Hitomi's back, wrenching what little, rattling air she had from her lungs. She sprawled onto the pavement scraping her arms and face. Before she had time regain her breath, she got to her feet ready to face what was coming at her.
Kurai stood a few feet away. He looked changed in the half-light. His face was longer and more beak like. He had light markings down the sides of his face that suggested the beginnings of feathers. By far, the most bizarre part of his appearance was the large, wings that had burst from his back. They were a golden bronze color, with flecks of russet. If she weren't so scared at the moment, Hitomi would have thought it all quite beautiful.
"You have no hope, you stupid animal," He snarled, eyeing her as if she were merely prey that he could snack upon. She decided to hazard a guess and say that she was. "You get to be my example to Hiei and to Mukuro. If you're gone, Hiei might question his loyalty, then I'll move on to the others. Your cousin perhaps."
Kurai spread his wings, their span proving to be wide and quite magnificent. He pumped his wings once, twice, sending powerful gusts of air at her. Hitomi threw her arms up in front of hr face to protect her eyes from the flying debris. Homeless men who once stood gaping at the creature Kurai had become, now scrambled away in terror. She was definitely alone in this.
Hitomi's mind raced in many ways, any plan bouncing chaotically in her mind like a room full of crazy ogres. She knew of a place to go. Any other place that could be more beneficial to her survival seemed to not exist. It was the only safe place she knew. By some stroke of luck or serious miscalculation or both, this demon brought her to one of the places that she knew better then most. Every crack, rat hole, and tight space was there at her fingertips to be slithered through to give him the slip. They only thing that seemed to remain blank in her plan was how to distract him long enough to give her a head start. Without that little juicy nugget she would become one herself.
Kurai had continued higher into the sky to be silloutted against the lights of the distant city. Hitomi began to back towards a pile of trash, her eyes constantly focused on Kurai who had finally stopped rising into the air. He hovered above her, wings rising and falling to keep him in the same place. Like all predatory birds, she knew what was coming next.
"You're MINE!!" Kurai screamed, his words ending in a high-pitched shriek. He dove at her.
Hitomi grabbed a sack of trash as her heart began to pump harder. Fear rushed through her veins.
'Chh… you bastard,' She thought, as she grabbed the top most bag and flung it into his path, hitting him. She turned around and ran for the nearest crack in the buildings as he let out a shrill, satisfying scream. Hitomi slithered through a fence and ducked behind a pile of plywood.
"Hiding does you no good if I can smell you," The now changed voice of Kurai screeched with mirth behind her. Hitomi wasted no time getting out of there. It seems that he could follow, small as her hiding spot was.
Hitomi ran, terrified; her senses, razor blade sharp. It was late, the sights and sounds of the dank, neglected ground accosted her senses. Her memory, if once ever cloudy, was now bright and shining unlike the night above her.
Winding through the city, Hitomi fled for her life. Kurai, as she had feared, was a lot faster then she was. Her feet pounded on uneven pavement, dodging this and that. She knew he could easily catch her, despite her best efforts. Her plan had not slowed him down. Plus, he could probably smell her. He was playing with her, and she despised that. To think she had ever thought him cute.
Hitomi slid around a corner, nearly loosing her feet before shimmying in between two buildings close together. Kurai laughed at her, enjoying her desperate flight as he soared up above the buildings to follow her. If Necessary, he could still fit down, in between the buildings so there was no safety anywhere. Her chest was tight and her head sore. She was over this.
Hitomi scanned the ground for something, anything that she could fight with. Even though she was so close to her safety, she knew that she wouldn't be able to get away. She didn't need to lead him to her former companions. She certainly wasn't afraid to die, as long as she got in a bite or two.
Finally at the other end, she barely saw the form of a partly wet timber, a soggy and quite forgotten piece of a two by four. It would do.
Hitomi jumped towards it her momentum slowing. Kurai grabbed his chance. With a triumphant shriek, dove and latched his claws into her clothes and lifted her. Her body stung as his claws raked her skin. Hitomi made one last grab for the timber and her fingers enclosed upon swollen and cold wood.
With out stopping, Hitomi adjusted her grip and swung the board blindly over, behind her head. With a crunch, Kurai yelled and Hitomi managed to hit him once more, with all her might before he dropped her.
From the end of the street, a pair of blue eyes watched, wide with disbelief and fear.
Hitomi hit the ground, the board clattering away from her. She landed hard on her knees, grateful that she wasn't any higher from the ground. Hitomi scrambled to her feet groping for the piece for timber. She heard Kurai scream his bird like call again a she tried to swing the board at him again but instead, she missed as he jammed his foot into her chest. She skidded across the pavement, her breath being left behind. She grabbed at the wood, but Kurai stamped on her hand painfully. Her face contorted and she open her mouth in an unheard cry. She heard something crunch, unsure of whether it was her bones snapping or the 2 by 4 that had broken.
Hitomi found satisfaction in the gash above his head that now bled freely. It would scar and it would be a constant reminder how she wasn't worthless.
"You weren't worth my time," he spat, his golden eyes shining with anger, "Then again, you humans never are," Hitomi, was pinned beneath him, as he stood over her, standing on one of her hands. He looked fondly at one of his claws before smirking and lowering it down to her neck. Hitomi just closed her eyes.
"HEY! LEAVE HER ALONE, UGLY!"
Kurai shrieked in pain as Hitomi heard something shatter and felt bits of glass rain down upon her face. Kurai's weight lifted from her hand. Again glass shattered and Kurai shrieked. But his voice was different as his yell was angry.
Hitomi turned her head to see a tall, willowy figure with shinning blond hair. I her hand, she held a bottle. It was Shishono.
Kurai rushed at Shishono. She screamed, dropping her bottle and tried to run away. Hitomi climbed to her feet the best she could, not wanting one of her oldest and best friends to be lost to this thing. She staggered, trying to do something yet knowing she would never get there in time. Still she had to try.
Shishono screamed as Kurai grabbed her and lifted her from her feet. Hitomi stumbled forward, looking for that lost piece of timber. Gripping the biggest piece remaining as firmly as she could in her left hand, she ran towards him. Kurai merely swept her away with a pulse of his wings. She rolled to a stop near the buildings. Hitomi jumped up to go after him again when she saw the most curious thing.
Kurai stopped and looked Shishono over. Her blue eyes were wide with terror and seemed to glow more then usual. She gripped his arms, frozen as she stared straight into his eyes. Then he set her down, back on her feet. Confused but relieved, Hitomi didn't wait to press their incredible fortune and ran at him before she wasted any time. Kurai snarled and caught her up by the neck tossing her into a wall. The air left her lungs again and she slumped to the ground, her head ringing and vision blurring.
"Good bye my little pet. I'll see you later," Kurai then lifted off and disappeared. Calm descended in the forgotten streets as Hitomi wheezed and tried to keep her mind clear.
Shishono and Hitomi looked at each other. Hitomi eyes filled with pain as she sat up again while Shishono's brimmed with irritation. Hitomi understood her feelings but also didn't realize why now, in this situation, Shi would let her anger get it the way.
Shishono knelt by her, helping her to her feet.
"C'mon, Pinch," Shishono said softly, putting her arm around Hitomi's shoulders and leading her away almost reluctantly. Hitomi's body ached with every step but at least she was alive.
"Su…chi," She mumbled, her already broken voice impeded all the more by her beating.
"Your cousin? Don't worry, I'll call him. You'll be ok," Shishono said.
Hitomi smiled at her gratefully, as they walked down the street and into a door. It seemed Hitomi would make it to her original destination after all. Though she didn't know if she was so desperate to do so now.
Sorry, but its here…. Urgh the pain.