Chimera, Chapter 1: Outcast
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Rating: M
World: Canon Ninjaverse

"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it." - Niccoló Machiavelli

Mei Terumī was six years old when she witnessed her first kill.

She only remembered because the spray of blood across her face reminded her of the cool kisses left by breaking waves against the rocky shores of Kirigakure when the tide comes in, bringing with it the fisher boats and their daily haul. Except these kisses were warm and sticky, and the longer she stood there the more her face began to itch. She would never forget how easy and fluid he'd made it look. For a boy of nine, he was gifted beyond his years. Small wonder he would go down in history as the Monster of the Bloody Mist.

"The winner is Kisame Hoshigaki!" the proctor announced to the small crowd of gathered children and adult overseers.

A nudge at her side snapped Mei's attention from the carnage surrounding the young new graduate. His eyes were narrowed and unreadable as he glared at the mangled corpse of his opponent. The boy standing next to her tapped her hand and she looked down. He pressed a dirty cloth into her palm. It was damp from use, and when Mei looked up she noticed the faint smears of blood across his face, too. Biting her lip, she accepted the small gift and hastily wiped her face.

"Kisame Hoshigaki," came the soft-spoken voice of the venerated Fourth Mizukage, Yagura. "On behalf of the great Village Hidden in the Mist, I hereby congratulate you on your victory. From this day forth, you are an honored Genin. I expect you'll become an asset to me and my people."

Kisame bowed formally, a queer gesture considering he was covered in bone marrow and mud. A team of Chuunin on duty were already clearing the remains of his opponent, a fleshy boy of nine or ten years, out of the arena. Mei could only wonder how he'd managed to mutilate that corpse with only one curved kunai.

They call him a monster, but all geniuses are.

"Thank you, Lord Mizukage," he said, voice raspy as though he'd forgotten how to talk.

The proctor, a thin man with stringy hair and a complexion like the underbelly of a toad, nodded and told Kisame he was dismissed for the day. He was called Shin'ichi, but no one ever called him that. It was always only 'sir' to his face. Like the others, Mei had learned early on to keep her head down and agree with everything he said. No sense in earning a beating for a slip up. Shin'ichi beckoned to the next round of contestants. No one in this year's graduating class was over the age of ten. Kiri was efficient like that—take them while they're young and green, all the better to harden the heart. Hearts of steel don't shatter and bleed.

Mei bit her tongue at a sudden involuntary urge to gag as she got a good whiff of the blood staining the faces of her classmates and herself. It took all the willpower in her tiny body not to, lest she draw the ire of the overseers. Next to her, golden eyes peered askance at her, almost accusatory. Mei kept her gaze steadfastly ahead. There would be time later, she thought—precious moments away from cold eyes and colder hands.

Four more hours of standing here, all in a neat line like good little school children, and they were finally dismissed. The rag she'd used to wipe her face was now dripping with the blood of the fallen. Yagura stood and congratulated the new graduates as the half that had fallen to their classmates and friends were carted off to watery graves.

"Let today be a lesson to all of you. Only the strong survive and make our village great. I look forward to the day the best among you join my shinobi ranks."

No one said anything; they just kept their eyes downcast. Yagura did not like to be looked in the eye by anyone he deemed beneath him, and Mei and the others were hardly better than dirt under his shoe, if even that.

"Don't attract attention to yourself," her father had told her. "Stay ugly and unimportant, little rat, and maybe you'll make it out in one piece."

It was the only kind gesture he'd ever offered her.

Hunching her shoulders and following closely behind the boy in front of her, Mei skittered out of the arena, small and invisible behind her short, auburn hair. Once outside, the boy with the golden eyes grabbed her hand and pulled her into a nearby alleyway before any of the overseers could catch them and come up with an excuse to dole out lashes. She let him tug her through the shadows, past faded red lanterns over back doorways and stray cats whose hungry yellow eyes followed their flight. They didn't stop until they were near the rocky shores, the fishermen's ward.

"You hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He nodded and they set off between the stalls and shacks concealing the day's wares. Sea salt hung in the mist rolling off the sea, and Mei took a deep breath. It was refreshing after the coppery tang of blood. The women in the streets passed them by, carrying baskets of clams and freshly pulled seaweed. Mei did not miss how they averted their eyes when they saw them. Blood on children's faces was a common sight, but the beast wearing a boy's skin was not.

"Utakata," Mei said, trying to ignore the flare of anger at their fear. "Over there."

"Smells good. Come on!" Utakata said, oblivious to the the civilians' stares. Or maybe he'd just learned to ignore them. Mei could never tell through the cheeky grins he wore like armor.

Ten minutes later the pair sat on a dock with their legs dangling over the edge above the rippling water, munching on fried squid rings. Mei sucked the grease from her fingers, uncaring that there was still some blood stuck under her nails from the earlier holocaust known as Academy Graduation. Around here, it was best to eat while one could instead of raising complaint. A boat pulled into the dock just then, and a group of fishermen moored her to a nearby pockmarked post. They started to unload their cargo, but as soon as they caught sight of Mei and Utakata not four feet away, they paused. Whispers drifted to Mei's ears upon chilly sea spray.

"...gotta sit here, o' all places?"

"...that boy..."

"...shoulda docked at Pier Four."

Mei glared at the whispering fisherfolk through salt- and blood-crusted bangs. Utakata sensed her mounting fury and put a hand on her wrist.

"Let's just go."

"No."

A familiar burning sensation swirled in her lungs as chakra began to build up and concentrate in her throat. Acid mist escaped her chapped lips in wisps of pale smoke. It curled around the nearest wooden post and melted it like ice under fire. The whispering fishermen suddenly became alarmed. They, like all the other civilians in this place, knew about the child terrors being trained up as part of the Bloody Mist's regimen, even if they didn't fully comprehend the powers of a shinobi. To them, it was all some kind of black magic, unnatural and not to be trifled with.

"Stop it."

Utakata grabbed a fistful of her shirt and shook it once to get her attention. Mei was startled out of her concentration, the interruption disrupting her chakra flow and canceling her technique. In the distraction, the fishermen had disconnected from the dock and jetted south a ways to the next dock.

"You shouldna done that," she pouted.

"You can't kill fishers. You'll get in trouble," Utakata said.

"You heard what they said."

"Yeah, I heard. I always hear. But if I killed everyone who looks at me funny, then everyone in Mist would be dead, even you."

Mei paused, wanting to tell him, 'No, you're wrong,' but she knew he wasn't. She'd feared him once, too, out of ignorance and blind adherence to the words of others. She rubbed her upper arm. Even after all these months, sometimes she could still feel the twisting pain of her father's bony fingers yanking her to and fro when he'd found out she associated with the Jinchuuriki.

"Don't need you drawing more attention to us, little rat. I'll wring your neck before the Fourth wrings mine, mark my words."

Mei never talked about her life with her father ever again. As a member of Yagura's council, he had an image to uphold. But Yagura was a crafty little worm. He surrounded himself with civilians and low-level shinobi like her father, unremarkable and completely forgettable. After the coup that happened years before her birth, the Fourth was too paranoid to keep high ranking shinobi around outside of his personal ANBU guard. If her father wasn't all the family she had left in the world, she wondered if she'd try to run away.

"Sorry," Mei said.

Utakata peered at her for a moment longer. At seven-years-old, he was older than her and thus wiser, a fact he liked reminding her of. It was better not to upset him, they all said, because the thing that lived inside him might come out to fight back. But Mei was certain he'd never try to hurt her. She was his only friend, after all.

"'S okay." The grin he flashed her didn't reach his eyes. "C'mon. I'll walk you home."

Mei nodded and wiped her mouth. The acidic mist always made her lips itch after she used it, and she didn't want her father finding out. He hated it when she did anything related to ninjutsu. It was simply a reminder of why they had no family anymore.

"Okay."

Fog followed them like slow waves, beating them onwards as they trudged back to the lives they'd escaped for a few precious hours.

"Mamoru Uzumaki."

"He led the Rebellion of the Five Seas."

"Good. And his eldest son?"

She hesitated. "Kiyoshi. Um, he killed the Lord of Talessa and took his castle."

"Don't say 'um', girl. Either you know it or you don't."

Mei bit the inside of her cheek, tongue growing hot with the power of the sun resting dormant within her. But she held herself back. "Yes, Father."

Yuu Hanada peered down at her over his hooked nose, green eyes looking for the slightest hint of insubordination. He was a middle-aged man with more gray hairs than blond, weathered skin like beaten leather from too much sand and salt exposure, and stubble that grew in patches reminiscent of prepubescent boys. Mei had inherited her mother's clan name in honor of her manifest bloodline limits as befitted respectable Mist shinobi. Yuu, who was more likely to cut himself than any enemy with a curved kunai, married into the clan until it was decimated.

Even in her young mind, Mei knew he blamed her for it all, from her mother's death on her birthing bed to the subsequent elimination of the rest of the clan upon the discovery of Mei's potential for greatness (or terror) unmatched by any other living Terumī. Never before had the family produced a child with access to both its secret bloodline techniques. Yagura, seeing an opportunity to remind everyone of his ruthless ways, ordered the rest of them executed. Why keep twenty when one alone will suffice? Yuu was spared not for his position in Yagura's council or even for his lack of blood relation to his wife's clan, but because he was a weak man and no threat. Yagura liked to keep mementos of his great deeds.

"This should all be second nature to you," her father prattled on. "If you're going to be one of the Fourth's personal guards one day, you'll have to know these things. How else will you be able to assess a threat born of old grudges or past wrongs?"

"Yes, Father."

"If only you weren't so slow. Well, there's nothing to it but to keep at it. Am I clear?"

Mei nodded. "Yes, Father. I'll try harder next time."

"You better. Now go, leave me."

Mei rose and left the study as quickly and soundlessly as her little feet could carry her. Once out of sight, she broke into a jog down the stone hallways and followed the winding corridor past closed doors that would likely never be opened again. It was cold in here without any people to fill the empty spaces. Sometimes, she would make up stories about the relatives who'd once lived behind those closed doors. An uncle, reticent but kind, who would have spoiled Mei rotten for being born a rare female in the clan. A cousin, gifted with inborn talent and sometimes scary, but willing to set aside time to help her become a better shinobi. And her mother, a caring woman whose strength was surpassed only by her love for the daughter she'd never known.

Mei hurried to her small room a little faster. It was trouble to dwell on those thoughts. Her father had caught her staring at one of the locked doors once, fantasies getting the better of her, and had smacked her hard across the cheek for it.

"Shinobi don't cry. It's bad enough you're a woman, but I won't have you acting like one."

Reaching her room, Mei closed the door behind her and let out a shuddery breath. Here she could be alone, free from her father's vacuous eyes and the strange ghosts lurking in rooms she could not enter. The room was Spartan and unremarkable. A small, twin bed sat against the far wall with a squat chest beneath to house her scant shinobi gear. There was one window with polished, wooden shutters—rosewood. For all the wealth of the Terumī clan, Mei's father never seemed keen on spending any of it. But living in an empty house full of trapped shadows had been the only life she'd ever known. Mei had no use for nice clothes anyway, not when she dragged them through sea and sand training at the Academy.

After shutting her door (she didn't lock it because her father hated when she did), Mei walked to the large, antique mirror she'd hauled in from what used to be a powder room. The girl staring back at her had ratty auburn hair down to her chin and a chubby face. Even in the dim light of a bedside lamp, the green of her eyes was bright. But it wasn't her own reflection she liked to look at. Small hands traced the painstakingly carved designs in the brass frame of the mirror. There were shells, hundreds of them, seemingly fused into the metal work—so intricate was the design. As her fingers ran across their grooves, Mei wondered if her mother had touched this very mirror once.

Tapping on her window drew her attention, and Mei cautiously peeked through the shutters. A dark figure, short and blurry through the thick fog, looked up at her. She didn't need to guess the identity of the person waiting beneath her window; only one person ever came to visit her.

"Come out!" Utakata whispered through cupped hands.

"I can't. Father'll find out."

The man had begun checking in on her late at night without warning since she started at the Academy. Unwilling to risk a smack in the face or worse should he discover her out of bed at all hours of the night, Mei instead opted to drag out her days at the Academy and return as late as was permissible. But at times like these, when her father was in a sour mood and she felt a little lonely, it was nice to have someone to talk to.

"Then I'll come up," Utakata said, already starting up the wall to the second story.

"No, you can't!"

"Can too!" He was at her window in a matter of seconds, grinning through the damp mat of bangs that usually concealed half his face. "Don't make such a fuss."

There was no fighting him when he decided something. Mei retreated to her bed and hugged her knees to her chest.

"You shouldn't be here," she reiterated. "If Father finds out..."

"You worry too much. I'm a Jinchuuriki, I can do anything."

Mei frowned. "Not everything."

Utakata flopped down on the bed and stretched his legs across Mei's feet. "Oh, yeah? Like what?"

Mei stared at her knees, ashamed but empowered by the familiarity between them. He would understand, more than anyone. Surely.

"You can't be like them."

Utakata said nothing for a while as he appeared to doze with his hands folded behind his head. "Maybe I don't wanna be like them."

"You don't mean that."

"Yeah, I do."

Mei straightened her legs and pushed Utakata's legs off the bed in the process. He sat up.

"No, you don't," she bit out. "You don't wanna be an outcast. Being an outcast means being a target. You don't want that."

"No," he said, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes. "You don't want that. I know you. I'm the only one who knows you. And I know you don't hafta be afraid. You're not alone."

"I am alone!"

He leaned back, but she hadn't succeeded in disrupting him. Utakata slipped off the bed and glared down at her.

"Shut up," he said, his voice low and feral. "Don't you dare say that. Like I'm not even here. Not you." He blinked rapidly and stared at the floor, shaking. "Not you."

Mei bit her lower lip to hide the hiccup in her throat. She scooted forward and reached for him.

"Don't!"

But she didn't let his outburst faze her. Slipping off the bed, Mei stood up and forced Utakata into a tight embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder, ashamed. It was a rare sight to see her cry, but Utakata was one of the privileged allowed to witness it. She blinked hard and held him close, even though he didn't return the embrace.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry."

She held onto him, clung to him, even. And finally, he wrapped his arms around her.

"You're not alone," he whispered into her tangled hair.

Mei let out a tremored sob. Worthless. Absolutely worthless. He was him, a Jinchuuriki of the Bloody Mist, and she was crying to him about her worries.

Worthless.

Maybe her father had a point.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his neck.

You're not alone, either.

But the words never came, and Utakata had never been the type to need to hear them.

The next two years Mei spent at the Academy dragged on and on. She and Utakata rose in the ranks, but that was to be expected. Whispers followed her everywhere, but when Mei turned all she could find was silence. They were scared of her, she thought. No one wanted to face the girl with the sun in her veins. To hide their fear, they did the only thing they could: they picked on her.

"Hey look, it's Mei the Stray. When's the last time you bathed, pond scum?"

"Probably in the ocean with the Jinchuuriki. Water rats, the both of 'em."

"Aw what's wrong? You gonna cry to your mommy? Oh wait, you ain't got a mommy!"

Mei glared at them through her dirty bangs. Stupid boys, all of them. She was one of only a small handful of girls in the class, and somehow the boys had chosen her as their target dummy over the others. Why, she would never know. Surely they knew to keep a respectable distance, lest her acid mist boil the flesh off their bones.

"Come over here and say that," she said through the tears that threatened to fall.

"Hey, I think she really is crying!"

Mei remained rooted to the spot, but her fingers itched to summon her chakra and melt those cruel smirks off their faces. "I'll kill you. I can do it."

"You're not the only one Yagura wants to graduate," said the biggest boy of the group. "The three of us're stronger than you, anyway."

"Three on one's a rip off," a voice said from directly behind Mei. "Let's even the odds a little."

Mei peered over her shoulder at what seemed to be a potential defender. She took in the slate tint of his skin and the flak vest that marked him as a high and mighty Chuunin. But what truly caught her eye was the red stitching across the left breast that marked him as one of the up-and-coming Seven Swordsmen. The other boys didn't notice, or maybe they didn't care.

"Oh look, your knight in shining armor. This is why girls're no good. Can't do anything without men."

"I'm just as tough as some boy!" Mei said.

"Hey wait, that's Kisame Hoshigaki," one of the boys said. "Let's just get outta here."

"What? Don't be such a pussy."

"Yeah, he's nothin' special. 'S against the rules to attack Academy kids anyway. He can't do nothin' to us."

Kisame took a step forward. "That rule only applies if you get caught," he said with a grin as he rested a hand on the hilt of his tanto.

Mei frowned. She may have been a girl, but she was no pushover. If there was one thing she'd learned from growing up with her father, it was that no one listened to the weak. Anger finally bubbling to the surface at being dismissed, she pushed past Kisame while finishing a round of hand seals. By the time the bullies noticed her advance, it was too late. Mei's cheeks swelled and spewed forth a jet of magma. What followed were screams and a sloppy retreat, and one boy was too slow to avoid the lava entirely. His wailing sounded like that of a dying animal as the liquid heat burned through his pant leg and the skin of his thigh to the bone underneath. The other two boys yanked him along, horrified.

"Freak!" one said over his friend's shrieking.

"You're so dead for this!"

Mei wanted to chase after them and just kill them for real, but a strong hand on her shoulder stopped her. Livid green eyes turned on her restrainer, and she found Kisame watching her carefully.

"That was a bold move, kid."

"I don't need your help."

"I can see that."

He released her shoulder and she righted herself.

"They're gonna whip you for that," he said, the look in his eyes unreadable.

Mei glared into the distance where the boys had run off. "I don't care."

Kisame chuckled. "I guess that's why they picked you. You're a weird girl."

"Well, you're a monster."

Kisame grinned, and for the first time Mei noticed that his teeth were unnaturally sharp. "You're one to talk."

Mei was about to respond to that when Utakata's voice called her name from the distance. He was running toward her and waving, but it didn't look like a friendly greeting. Those boys must have already reported her little temper tantrum to the Academy overseers.

Kisame looked between Mei and the approaching Utakata, grey eyes calculating. "They call me a monster 'cause I'm easy to spot from a distance. But I'll tell you a secret, Mei Terumī."

Mei had not been expecting him to know her name, and it showed on her face. She wasn't even a Genin, and he was a Swordsman in training. Why would he ever notice a grimy little ant like her?

Kisame leaned in closer and wiped the excess lava, now cooled and congealed, from the corner of her mouth. He rubbed it between thumb and forefinger before continuing. "We're all monsters here. Some of us just hide it better behind pretty masks."

"Mei! Hey, Mei!" Utakata said, finally within hearing distance.

"I'm not a monster," Mei said.

Kisame studied her as though she'd said something amusing but not funny enough to merit a laugh. "You'll have to be if you wanna survive this place."

Utakata finally caught up to them and doubled over panting. He looked between Mei and Kisame, hiding his surprise at the sight of a Chuunin hanging around an Academy student. But there was no time to throw questions.

"They're looking for you, Mei," he said between breaths. "What the hell did you do this time?"

"She bit back," Kisame answered for her as he turned to leave.

Utakata watched him with no small degree of suspicion, but Mei ignored him.

"I don't care what they do to me," she said with startling conviction for an eight-year-old. "They deserved it."

"I bet. Let's just get outta here before they find you."

Mei nodded and let him take her hand as they scuttled past Kisame. She turned back to look at him over her shoulder and found him watching them, sharpened teeth bared through the rising fog.

They turned a corner and Kisame was gone.

"Insolent little bitch. Did you think you could run from me? Did you?"

Mei kept her eyes trained on the dirt floor and tried not to shiver. She knew the price to pay for mutilation of a fellow Academy student outside the battle arena, but she did not want to appear weak or worse, remorseful. Utakata stood against the far wall. His hair appeared almost grey in the washed out fluorescent lighting as he awaited his own punishment for abetting her escape.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Shin'ichi asked, although it didn't seem like he cared to listen either way.

"They were making fun of me, so I made them stop," Mei said.

He shook his head, oily hair swishing limply. "This is why I'm against female recruits, always whining when you feelings get hurt. You're lucky you're the best of your clan, or I'd sooner sell you to the whore houses. They wouldn't pay much for an ugly little runt like you, though."

Mei said nothing even as the anger boiled within her and chakra burned beneath her skin. The last time she'd talked back to Shin'ichi, she'd earned herself a beating that had left her bedridden for a week. Her father had screamed at her the whole time, leaving her with little time for sleep or peace. But he never did more than give her a good smack across the face. He'd never dare, unless he had a death wish.

"Get over here, girl. I'm going to give you a beating you'll never forget," Shin'ichi said, making a grab for her.

"What's all this?" a voice said from the entrance to the chamber.

Mei froze, recognizing that voice instantly. True fear gripped her at the knowledge that she'd now done the one thing her father told her never to do.

"Ah, Lord Yagura, please don't bother yourself with this. I'm just punishing a student for bad behavior. Standard procedure."

Footsteps, light like a girl's, approached from the right. Mei dared not avert her gaze from the hole it was burning into the ground.

Please go away, please go away, please go away...

"Let's see that cute face."

A hand on Mei's chin nearly made her scream, but she bit her tongue so hard it bled. Yagura tilted her face upwards to catch the light. If she'd looked him in the eye (she didn't), she would have seen the unfeeling hardness in the Fourth Mizukage's lavender eyes as he scrutinized her face, still slightly plump with timeless baby fat despite his age.

"Terumī," he said after a moment. "What's your given name?"

Mei swallowed the blood in her throat and kept her eyes focused on his upper lip. "Mei, sir."

"Ah, that's right. Anzu Terumī was your mother. I can see her in you under the filth. How sad for you to lose her without ever knowing her."

It was a cruel game he played, this young prince, just to watch the anguish in others. He liked to say cruelty brought out the truth in people. But Mei was too terrified even to respond, much less understand. If he wanted, he could kill her now and never think twice about it.

Yagura smiled, and Mei wished she could disappear. "And what is Utakata doing here?"

Shin'ichi cleared his throat. "He tried to hide her, but my people found them at the shore. He'll get his punishment when I'm done with the girl."

"He most certainly will not," Yagura said. "Utakata is not to be harmed. I thought I made that clear."

Shin'ichi sputtered and wrung his hands nervously. "Oh, ah, yes sir, of course. It must've slipped my mind."

"I don't doubt it. You're incompetent and weak. I'd hardly expect anything more."

Shin'ichi smartly remained silent, but Mei could almost feel the dirty look he was aiming at the ground. Yagura finally released her, and she nearly fell over as the feeling returned to her body. Resisting the urge to rub her face, Mei stole a glance at the Fourth Mizukage. He was a short young man with soft, lavender eyes, boyish in his looks but as hard and cold as a winter storm.

"Do you know why you're alive, Mei Terumī?"

Mei shivered at being addressed directly. Still, she dared not look him in the eye.

"It's because you have talent, and I think that's what this village needs. I have high hopes for you, just as I had for your mother before you came along. Do you understand me?"

Mei nodded.

"The Mizukage asked you a question, girl," Shin'ichi said.

"Yes, sir," Mei said.

"I saw the damage you did to that boy," Yagura continued. "Normally I'd have you whipped bloody for something like that, but in your case I'll refrain."

Mei's eyes snapped up in shock. He wasn't going to punish her?

Yagura smiled at her expression. "I'm not an unreasonable man. I want the best shinobi with me, so why risk scarring you?"

Mei swallowed, green eyes flickering toward Utakata.

"However, I also want my shinobi to be loyal. And I've learned over the years that loyalty, like obedience, has to be carved into the soul to ensure its indelibility."

Two shinobi that had accompanied the Mizukage suddenly emerged from the shadows and grabbed Mei's arms, pinning her with meaty hands. Panicking, Mei knew she shouldn't struggle but could not help herself.

"Hey, what're you gonna do to her?" Utakata said from his place at the wall, alert and ready to intervene. "You said you wouldn't punish her."

"For demonstrating her skills? No. But I'm going to teach her a lesson about acting freely. My shinobi only kill when I order it."

Yagura cracked his knuckles and watched as Mei's eyes followed his every movement. "Mei, did you know that under ideal conditions, some corals can theoretically live forever? With enough sunlight, they can thrive unrestricted."

Mei watched his left hand as it began to glow with eerie, green chakra. That wasn't the color normal chakra was supposed to be. Was it Yagura or his demon? Was there even a difference?

"It's actually quite fascinating, you know. Your chakra is superheated because of your bloodline limits, so in effect you're like a living, breathing sun. Coral would take to you beautifully."

"Please," she said as he approached. "Please, I-I won't do it again."

Yagura smiled, but it wasn't friendly. "I know you won't."

He grabbed her thigh with his glowing hand and she screamed. The agony was unbearable, like nothing she'd ever felt before, and it was growing from within her. Vaguely, she heard the sound of flesh ripping and felt something warm splash her leg.

"No, stop it! Stop it!" Utakata said somewhere in the distance.

Just as Mei was about to relinquish her grasp of consciousness, Yagura leaned into her ear and said, "You're mine. Don't ever forget it."

She passed out to the sound of his voice ringing all around her.

"Mei! Hey, Mei..."

Mei frowned in her sleep, wishing she could escape that sound. Phantom fingers shook her with intention to rouse, but she didn't want to give into them. If she opened her eyes, he would be there.

"Wake up already, c'mon."

Green eyes cracked open and took in a blurry vision of black and blue. She could not speak for a few moments. When she blinked, the memories of Yagura and his haunting half-threats faded and she was staring up at the one face she wanted to see.

"Finally," Utakata said. "I thought you'd be out of it forever."

Now that she was awake, Mei noticed she was back in her room in bed with the shutters drawn and only an oil lamp to light the cramped space. She tried to sit up only to find that she had a massive headache, and fell back against the pillow. Groaning, she raised a limp hand to her forehead, wondering when she'd smacked her head. "What happened?"

Utakata was silent for a moment. "You don't remember?"

Visions of a dark room, dank and dirty, and cruel lavender eyes returned to her. Alarmed and uncaring of her migraine, Mei fumbled for the spot on her thigh where Yagura's insidious coral had taken hold and forced its growth through her bones. There was nothing.

"What... Where'd it go?"

"Where'd what go?"

"The coral. It was here, growing. E-Everywhere, through my skin...everywhere. It hurt so bad." Green met gold, and Utakata suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"He used a genjutsu on you."

"Genjutsu?"

"Yeah, when he walked in. Grabbed your face and then you kinda lost it for a while. They had to drag you out."

Mei's heart was racing as she processed this new information. It was all an illusion? She tested her leg again, and sure enough it seemed as normal as ever.

"I really thought he was gonna kill you for a minute."

Unbidden, tears prickled her eyes. "Me too."

Utakata nudged her legs and sat down on the bed opposite her. In the dim lighting, his eyes shone like cut amber and shadows slashed his face like wraith's. He looked sinister like this, closer to the demon the villagers feared he was, but Mei had never felt safer than when she was with him. Lying back, she tried to will away the pounding in her head.

After a moment, Utakata got up. "I better go before your dad finds me."

He shouldn't have been here at all, she reasoned, but solitude was the last thing she needed right now. "Wait."

A small hand tugged weakly at his salt-stained shirt, and he rolled his eyes. "You're bein' silly. Just sleep. I'll see ya tomorrow."

"Just for a little," she pleaded, suddenly feeling terribly embarrassed but unable to help it.

Utakata peered at the only girl bold enough to call herself his friend. The little boy in him wanted to push her away, the demon to devour her whole. But in his heart, he knew he would never deny her anything. She'd given him more than anyone ever had, and there was nothing in the world he would deny her.

"Okay," he said, pulling out his bone flute. "One song till you fall asleep, then I'm outta here."

Mei nodded and sank into her pillow, moving only to push her tangled bangs out of her eyes for comfort. Utakata took a breath and began to play softly, the notes like warm whispers meant to soothe and lull.

She was asleep in a matter of seconds.