Nanashi kept to herself for most of that week, not wanting to leave her rooms or be around hardly anyone who could her lack of wings now. The queen had new shirts and dresses made for her that cover her back completely now, but she hated them, hardly wanting to wear them. Asa had to convince her to wear them. Asa could not convince her to leave her rooms though, or to be willing to see Haruto at all for what he allowed to happen.
Yusuke got sick of her moping around after a few days though. He came barging into her room before breakfast that morning. "Get up," he told her gracelessly, waking her up.
She jumped awake, wind dragon coming around her neck ready to attack. "Yusuke?" she said sleepily.
"Get up. I'm bored hanging around the castle. Let's go for a walk," he insisted. She stared up at him, not quite keeping in time with his words. "I'm not taking no for an answer."
Even with how tired and melancholy she was, he kept insisting until she gave in. When she changed out of her pajamas into regular clothes in the bathroom though, she paused, having to put on a new shirt with no hole in the back. She held the shirt in hand, wanting to destroy it more than wear it. When Yusuke rapped his knuckles on the door, she hurried up, getting dressed. She kept her long black hair down though, letting it cover her back completely.
When she was ready, Yusuke caroled her out of her rooms and down to the main gate of the castle. When she realized they were leaving the grounds, she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "I'm not allowed to leave the castle grounds," she explained.
"Says who?" he asked as he resumed walking.
"The king," she mumbled.
"Same asshole who let that rich dead douche bag kidnap your boyfriend because he wanted a chance to kill you?" Yusuke asked, waltzing right passed the guards at the main gate of castle with a nod.
Nanashi followed after him, keeping her head down. The guards did look her over, but let her pass. She wondered if they need not recognize her without her wings. They were what people ever stared out when she arrived at the castle... The thought made her want to stop, but she feared losing Yusuke in the crowd that was forming in front of her. She jogged after him, coming into the outskirts of the city's market. "Wait, what did you say? About the rich... man?" she asked, worried about what he might tell her about Sakyo. She hoped he was dead. Otherwise she was about to convince Yusuke to help her find him and kill him.
"You didn't hear?" Yusuke ask. "I thought your wolfy stepmom would have at least told you that part of it." She shook her head as they kept walking. "Well, what was left of him, a lighter and blood covered shoe, was found in a cage with a wyvern at the fighting pit. Apparently he just locked himself in with it after we defeated all the other beasts. It ate him."
She stared at him in disbelief. She had not been watching where she was walking, making her walk into an older woman who was shopping. She apologized to the woman, before turning back to Yusuke. "What do you mean, it ate him?" She kept her attention better on walking with him as he lead her through the maze of the market and the city with ease. He knew it impressively well.
Yusuke shrugged. "It was hungry. Weird rumor that the queen did it, but your short stack boyfriend insists she was with him the whole time. That was all after you had passed out though. The queen actually jumped into the fighting pit to get to you to heal you. The dumbass little prince followed after her. Then the king and the queen's body guard. It was some crazy shit. Kurama saved the prince's life even from the chimera."
Nanashi felt a weird wave of relief wash over her. Sakyo was dead... yet. "What about his guard? The big one? Younger Toguro?" She felt a little worried about him coming after her for killing his older brother.
Yusuke gave her a cocky smile. "I took care of him. After you were hauled out the fighting. Pretty beastly himself. I was actually tasked as a mission to take care of him anyway. He and his brother had been tampering with demonic enhancements. My uh, well, my boss you could say, wanted them to be stopped. Sakyo, too. He was caught up in some shady shit, too. Kidnapping demons, enslaving them at best. I hadn't quite managed to finish that mission though." He was rambling.
"What are you talking about?" she pressed.
Yusuke clicked his teeth. "See, the problem is, I don't know how much I am allowed to you. I kind of already slipped up telling you I died and came back back in the arena." She frowned at him, completely puzzled. "A kid almost got ran over by a wagon, and I shoved him out of the way. Stupid kid. Look. I'll put it this way. You've got your boss in another dimension that stands apart from this world. The Great Hawk Spirit chick. I've got a boss who is something like her, but more on the childish side. I made a deal to get to come back to life that if I worked for my boss, doing a detective like job for two years at least, I could come back. I have to deal mostly with issues relating to demons and humans, once elves, misbehaving. There are some who want the demons moved to their own world because 'they are all dangerous.' Yet those blokes are the ones who frame demons for heinous crimes to make them look bad. It's complicated. I might have told you more again than I am supposed , too. But those rules are so dumb because your family, anyway. Besides, I'm retired now. Officially went through yesterday."
He stopped in front of a hole in the wall diner. She stared at it, not sure what made it special. She looked in the window through the door, seeing a young brunette woman stalking towards the door. She backed away from the door, apprehensive at the sight of this new angry woman.
"Yusuke!" the angry woman shouted at her cousin. She charged over to him, slapping him hard across the face. "Where in the world have you been?!"
"Dude, Keiko, chill out," Yusuke grumbled at the angry woman, rubbing his face where a red hand print was already forming.
"Chill out! Chill out!" Keiko shouted at him. "You begged me to let you go to the fighting pits while I ran the diner. Then come to find out from Kuwabara later that you two decided to jump in the ring with the fighter and that angel and two former pit fighters! All those demonic beasts! Not to mention you two brawling with and then killing that giant man-beast! Ugh!"
Nanashi took a few more steps back, watching the two of them. Yusuke actually dropped to his knees before her, groveling. "I know, I'm sorry, but my cousin and her boyfriend would have died if I we didn't."
"Kuwabara came home days ago! Why didn't you?!" Keiko snapped, hands on her hips. "You don't think your wife should know where you've been?!"
"Spending time with my cousin. And my uncle- sort of. My dad already skipped town days ago after he watched her get engage, but she's still worthwhile family," Yusuke explained. "Besides, the king is pretty grateful in all that his son is still alive."
Keiko scowled down at him, looking as if she did not want to believe him. She turned her gaze back to Nanashi. Nanashi gave her a shy smile. She reached for the wind dragon just in case. "Nice to meet you," she said politely to her. "You look hungry." Nanashi's stomach growled loudly in nonverbal response. She felt sure she had not properly eaten in over a week at least. Keiko chuckled at that, stepping over to Nanashi. "Come on, let's get you something to eat." Keiko led her into the empty diner, arm locked affectionately around hers. Yusuke followed them in at a distance.
Keiko sat her down at a four person table near the kitchen, ordering Yusuke into it to cook for them. As he did so, Keiko spoke to her, telling her about how she met Yusuke, rescued on one of his mission after being kidnapped by a thief. Then falling in love with from that, and joking that she hated him for it. That this diner was owned by her parents, but she mostly ran it now since they were older. How Yusuke, when he had not been working, helped them. How they had gotten married a month ago, even though he had not quite finished his mission against Sakyo and the Toguro brothers.
By the time that part of the conversation was finished, Yusuke was sitting with them, eating. Nanashi ran down what had been happening to her in her life since Yusuke had run away from his uncle's house. Talking about how her wings grew were the most difficult part, being that she was still grieving for losing them. Keiko managed to coax her to keep talking after that part, mostly by distracting her by getting her to talk about rescuing the prince and convincing the king to rescue Hiei, Kurama, and Yasha. She kept going until she had explained everything up the fighting pit drama.
"... and then I woke up, feeling hot and sweaty, my wing burning... Asa was with me. She gave me medicine for the infection, tried to get me to stay awake, but I couldn't. I woke up the next time around, and my wings were..." she choked on the last word she tried to say. "My father let it happen," she added darkly.
"Well, if he hadn't, you would've died," Yusuke pointed. "You know, I don't even think Keiko could be as pissed off as the king was about that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Keiko asked him, prodding him in the ribs.
Nanashi put her spoon down, not wanting to finish her meal anymore. "The whole mess of them were arguing. Asa said the infection that healed inside of her by the queen was bad, that if they didn't remove her wing, the infection would continue to spread and kill her. The king refused to believe it. The queen said to wait longer, to see if her wind dragon could fend off the infection given more time. Haruto stood there mutely, saying becoming wingless was the second worst thing that had ever happened to him. Hiei was demanding they listen to Asa. Finally, Haruto decided to do that- Nanashi are you okay?"
Nanashi was staring down at her hands in her lap, feeling numb, but with a rising tide of depression threatening to rise up and drown her. She shook her head. "No..." she choked. The two of them kept silent around her, waiting for her to speak next. "How can I be an angel... without my wings...?" she asked.
Yusuke snorted. "The same way you always have been," he said nonchalantly. She blinked up at him. "It is in your blood. Your half angel, just cursed to look more like you're half demon. You didn't have wings for the first seventeen years of your life, but that doesn't change your genes, doesn't change who you are. You're still the same good spirited person you've always been, even with the sucky childhood we went through. You don't wings to be an angel, just like you don't need to be an angel to be a good person." She swallowed thickly, looking at him shyly. "One thing certainly has changed though..." he added, letting his sentence linger unfinished.
"What's that?" she asked, rising to the bait.
"You finally seem able to win a fucking fight," he commented with a grin. She laughed out loud at the ludicrous comment. "Taking out a pack of dire wolves and saving the prince. Killing one of the Toguro brothers. Not to mention that fucking thunderbird that threatened to flood the whole fighting pit with water and lightning."
She smiled in spite of herself at that. "Most of that was the wind dragon. It insisted I let it get struck by lightning to super charge it up in the sky so it could grow big enough to have an aerial battle with the thunderbird. I was just along for the ride." Inside her mind, the wind dragon was purring at her for her comments.
"Yeah, but your its mistress. It has to do whatever you say. Has to manipulate itself to your will. Form the weapons you want and stuff," he pointed out. He paused, staring at her with a pondering face.
"What is it?" she asked nervously.
"It is just weapons it can shape shift in?" he asked.
She shrugged and shook her head, relaying the question to the wind dragon. 'No,' it answered. 'Within the limits of your spirit energy, I could become anything you wish.'
"A fork," she said aloud to it. She felt Yusuke and Keiko looking at her curiously. The wind dragon rose up from her neck, forming a fork in her right hand. She laughed aloud at the sight of it. "It can do anything within the limits of my spirit energy," she answered Yusuke.
"What about a set a dragon wings?" he imagined. "Large enough for you to fly with?"
She gasped at him, blown away by the suggestion. 'It's worth the try, mistress,' the wind dragon purred within her mind. 'Once we've recovered though. You barely have enough energy to sustain me now since your fighting and infection. You must rest and recover.'
"It's possible," she said out loud, finding a spark of newfound determination surging through her. "I need some time to recover my energy though."
Yusuke smirked at her. "Tell you what, once you've recovered, I help kick your ass- I mean, train you until you reach that goal."
She gave him a small smile while Keiko gave him a pleased one. Keiko asked, "next time you disappear, you plan to tell me beforehand, right?"
Yusuke pushed his chair back standing. "Yeah, sure," he promised halfheartedly as he scratched the top of his head. He nodded over at Nanashi, asking, "hey, how much of this city have you seen since being here?"
She hummed under her breath, feeling slightly embarrassed. "The castle... and the fighting pit..." she answered.
"That's it?" he asked her, dumbstruck. She nodded awkwardly. "Get up. You got some sights to see."
He started swaggering towards the door before Nanashi even managed to stand up. Keiko called after him, "hey, what about the dishes?"
He stopped, turning around. "I cooked, you wash up. That's the deal we made. One cooks, the other cleans up."
Keiko stood her ground. "You can clean up as an apology for disappearing for days."
Yusuke stalked back over to the table, gathering up the dirty dishes. He carried them into the kitchen, grumbling, "I wasn't gone that long..."