"Excuse me?" Nanashi asked for what felt like the millionth time. "I'm looking for a group of men..." She would ask after Sakyo and Hiei and the other bounty hunters to anyone she could get to stop to talk to her in Gandara. The few who would listen to her rather than shy away from her knew nothing. At least that was what they said anyway.
It had been a week since she hit the road in pursuit of Hiei. Stealing Sakyo's money from her uncle had come in handy. She was hard press to recover from the nightlock poison and getting to rest up in nice rooms at the inns she came across, as well as gentle meals on her stomach was an added blessing.
She promised herself one more day in Gandara asking after him and then she would head north again. She saw an older man with his daughter walking near an alley way. There was vendor selling candy nearby, which the daughter was drawn to.
"Excuse me, sir," she said approaching him. "I'm looking for six men. Two large and four smaller. All on horseback. One of the men had long black hair with a scar running vertically down his face. Have you seen anyone like that?"
The older man ignored, paying the vendor. The vendor gave her a side long glance. The man led the girl away from him. She caught the girl asking, "Daddy, was that lady a demon?"
"Hush now," was all the older man said in reply.
Nanashi huffed, watching the pair of them walk away. It was not their fault that she was so pale she looked like a demon. Did not stop her from wanting to rage at them for it though.
She turned away from the vendor, casting a stray glance at the alley way to her left. She heard someone clear their throat. She turned to see a figure in the shadows between the two buildings. They beckoned her over to them. She took a second to point at herself. The figure nodded. Her hand slipped to her knife on her hip for a second before she walked down the alley towards them.
The figure never moved. When she was near enough, he, it turned out, asked in a low voice, "you're looking for Sakyo?"
"Yes," she said cautiously. "Have you seen him? Or the other men he was with?"
"That depends. Why are you looking for them?" the figure asked. The darkness of the shadows obscured his face.
She finally had a chance at a lead and she was ready to risk taking it. "One of them is my-" she stopped, not sure which word to use. "My mentor, friend, um, was kidnapped by Sakyo and his bounty hunters. I am here to rescue him."
The figure looked her up and down and then let out a laugh of disbelief. "Is that right?"
She felt her face flush. "If you don't know anything useful, then quit wasting my time," she snapped.
She turned away, but the figure grabbed her by her left wrist, wretching her back over to him. She spun around on the balls of her feet, punching him in the jaw. He let her wrist go. She punched him again, feeling the quickening of fear about this stranger. She went to strike him again for a third time. He blocked it, throwing his own. She managed to block the strike and back away from him. It forced him out of the shadows.
She saw him. He had pitch black hair that cascaded down his back and over his shoulders. His skin was dark brown, eyes slightly slanted. He was smirking slyly at her, as if she was a form of entertainment. She charged at him, but he shoved her back, pinning her against the wall behind her. She kicked at his shins, trying to get herself free. She snuck her hand down to her knife. He caught hand, clutching it in his. He took her other hand in his free hand, pinning both of her hands to the wall behind her.
"You're with Sakyo, too, aren't you?" she accused.
"What makes you think that?" he purred.
She bit her lip, taking another risk. She brought her head back and forward, headbutting him in the nose. He groaned in shock, letting her hands go to bring them up to his now bleeding nose.
She shoved him back, trying and failing to push him down to the ground. she did manage to get around him at least to make a break for it down the alley and back to the main street.
Or at least she could have if it was not for another man standing in the middle of alley before her. She skidded to a halt, drawing her knife from her waist before she lost the opportunity again. She was trapped between the black haired man and the new man. The new man looked sharply different. He had light skin, long red hair, and green eyes.
"Yasha," the red haired man called over to the man standing behind her. "Couldn't you have been more discreet about finding her. You've got blood running down your face and neck."
The black haired man, called Yasha, stumbled around her and towards the red haired man. "I'm aware of that, Kurama," he answered. "I wasn't planning on letting her do much damage." He wiped the blood away from under his nose. It did not take long for a new flow to replace it.
The one called Kurama dug into his pocket and handed Yasha a tissue. He was quick to shove them up his nostrils, stalling the blood. "This little demoness is quicker than I thought," he flubbed out.
"I'm not a demon. Or even part demon," she called out.
"Prove it," Yasha challenged.
She sighed. She bent down without taking her eyes off of either man. She rolled up her pant leg, revealing the three pinkish doxy scars on her lower leg. "Doxy attack. Any demon or part demon would have died."
Kurama simply studied her at a dead stare while Yasha raised his eyebrows in intrigue. "How does a non-demon come in contact with doxies?"
"A trio pack of them attacked a sheppard's flock near my town. Saif, mmm, Hiei and I took them out," she responded in fake confidence.
"He used a fake name, huh? Didn't realize he was smart enough for that," Yasha teased.
"Enough of this," she said, feeling herself grow impatient. "Where's Sakyo? Where's Hiei?"
"That's what we were hoping to ask you," Kurama stated, studying her with a cold look. "Would you mind coming with us to discuss this more privately?"
Her stomach twisted at the idea, not wanting to trust either one of these men. Yet they knew who Hiei and Sakyo were. No one else she had spoke with knew any of that.
They led her to a large inn with a giant dining hall. The hall was packed with lunchtime goers. Yasha was able to smooth talk his way into them getting a semi private table tucked in a corner underneath a staircase.
They spoke quietly. Both Yasha and Kurama revealed to her that they were both former pit fighters from the capital. They knew Hiei from the fiting pits. Yasha had not been indebted, but did it for sport. He had bought Kurama out of his own debt though. The perks of, surprisingly to her, being a bastard elf from a noble house.
"You're an elf?" she breathed out in shock at him across the table.
He smiled at her, narrowing his eyes. He flipped his dark hair away from his right ear, revealing the sharp slant and pointed tips of it. He let his loose hair go, covering his ear back up. "I'll take it from your face I'm the first one you've ever met?"
She nodded dumbly. "Why are you- why were you a pit fighter?"
"For the fun of it my dear," he teased over to her. "The thrill of the fight. Especially since Hayato is a country at peace. For now..." She stared at him dumbstruck, not sure what to say to him in response. "I think a cat's got your tongue. Or maybe a doxy?"
"How did you come in contact with Hiei?" Kurama asked her. "In detail this time," he insisted.
Numbly, she explained her first meeting with Hiei. Yasha thought it was entertaining that she had been afraid of him when they first met. He leaned forward, enthralled as she explained her bonding and training with Hiei. Kurama sat stone faced, but listening just as intently. She almost left out the kiss, but felt like with how Kurama was watching her that he would know she left something out. Yasha eyed her shrewdly when she mentioned that kiss, almost like he did not believe her. When she explained about Sakyo, his bounty hunters, and her poisoning, Yasha finally interrupted her.
"Wait, what kind of poison did he give you?" he asked.
"Nightlock," she said. "And then the bounty hunter threw me into the house. I assume they rode north, so I came this way."
"You're sure he said nightlock," Yasha hissed.
Kurama put his hand on his shoulder, pulling him back to sit up straighter. Nanashi noticed nearby patrons looking over at them. All three of them seemed to freeze until the patrons lost interest.
She nodded. "Nightlock. Hiei freaked out about it," she whispered.
"You're not demon though," Yasha commented. She nodded. "How did you survive that?" His voice was as harsh as he could be while trying to keep his voice down.
"I threw it up," she said. "And... someone... someone gave me a drink... cool, creamy something... and think healed my stomach and wrist... I don't know who it was, but I think what they gave me was an antidote."
She stopped, realizing Yasha was leaning forward towards her again, staring her like she had grown an extra head. Kurama was sitting still, frozen in his own composed posture. He did not look like he believed her either with the harsh way he was studying her.
"What?" she breathed, wanting to break the silence and the tension.
"Nightlock's poisonous to humans," Kurama said so quietly she almost did not hear him. "Fatally. You should have been dead before the juice hit your stomach."
"But the antidote-" she sputtered.
"There is no antidote," Yasha insisted. He sat up straighter and looked over at Kurama. He shook his head and said, "it must not have been nightlock."
"But Sakyo's used it before, for," Kurama cast her a side long glance. "Before. Besides, she said he meant to kill her since her uncle told her to run off with Hiei."
"That alone is fucked up," Yasha swore. Nanashi frowned, thinking an elf, even a bastard one, would not be that vulgar. "Someone could have given him the vial, saying it was nightlock when it was really like some blueberries or something."
"I've never been poisoned before, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened," she insisted. "It tasted sour, like rot and earthy. It burned as I swallowed and choked on it."
Yasha shook his head. "Could have been mixed with wine or something to give it not sweet flavor."
Kurama looked at her. "What color was it? The juice from the vial."
"Purple. A violent sort of purple," she explained.
Kurama flicked his gaze back to Yasha, who met it. "Not many things are that color naturally. As for that healer of yours, likely it could have been a hallucination from the nightlock." He turned back to her. "You said you lived with your uncle. What happened to your parents?"
She shook her head. "My mother died shortly after I was born. I don't know who my father was. My uncle assumed it was a demon of sorts." She held up her hands in a nonverbal gesture.
Kurama turned back to Yasha. "Elvish?" he queried.
"With how pale she is? Unlikely," Yasha considered.
"Sometimes human genes win over the elvish genes. Her father could have been a half elf or quarter elf. More human genes over elvish genes," Kurama thought aloud. "And it would explain how she survived. Nightlock only makes elves sick, but it isn't strong enough to kill them."
Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Before the doxy had scratched her leg, she assumed she was half demon. She had never imagined anything else since it fit. Then she assumed she was fully human because she survived the doxy attack. Now the two relative strangers sitting with her were quietly debating whether or not she was part elvish like she was not even there. It was impossible to wrap her head around.
"I can't-" she started as she stood up.
"Sit down before you have a panic attack or something," Yasha told her boldly. She did as she bid. He studied her face. "Some elves are lighter skinned than others. Not that light though. The king is lighter, and his hair a dark blonde. So is his son."
"Look, I just want to rescue Saif. I mean, Hiei," she insisted. "That's what I came here for. If don't have any leads and aren't going to help you, then you'll have to excuse me." She threw the threat to leave at them, but with no bit in her voice to back it up.
"Well, we're on the same page there," Yasha told her calmly. "He ran off after killing that pompous ass. He's not one to kill and run. Deadly in the ring. Never lost a fight. A friend of ours. We were trying to get to him before Sakyo did."
"So you'll help me save him?" she asked hesitantly.
The two men exchanged an unreadable glance. "That depends," Yasha started. "Are you going to get in the way?"
"I wasn't planning on it..." she mumbled out. "I can help with funds during our search. I did steal the money Sakyo gave my uncle," she admitted guiltily.
Yasha sucked in a breath. "Your uncle took that money?"
She nodded. "Sakyo forced it on him. As a gift."
"Did you spend any of it?" Yasha asked.
She fumbled. "A little bit. I wanted somewhere comfortable to rest. I've only just recovered from that nightlock poisoning and all. And my wrist injury." She felt like a small child caught in the wrong.
"Damn it," Yasha swore. He softly tapped the table with his fist. "This complicates things."
"Why?" she asked.
"It put your uncle, and now you in Sakyo's debt when you took the money," Kurama explained. "A gift from a man like that is expected to paid back with interest. You've got to give it back to him with that interest, or he'll use it as leverage to drive you deeper in debt. Or into the fighting pits."
"Or a whore house," Yasha threw in.
"But I-" she stuttered. "That's not what the word gift means."
"It does to the men in Sakyo's tax bracket," Yasha added. "Intriguing girl you turned out to be. Trying to break my nose, got a man I assumed was gay to kiss you, survived both doxy and nightlock poison, and is now running around with a millionaire's debt money in your bag. Not very elvish of you. Kind of fucked up if you think about it." She gaped at him, opened mouth. He turned back to Kurama. "So you want to team up with this intriguing girl? Rescue Hiei, who did actually commit that murder?"
She felt like a foolish child sitting in front of them. Kurama looked over at her. She threw him a pleading look. He closed his eyes for a span of a few breaths. "I guess so."