Wolf
Part Ten: "Visitor"
by Vega
I scooped Az up off the floor and placed her carefully on the bed. "Az, wake up!" I tapped her cheek gently, shaking her by her good arm. "Az!" I had to choke back a sob as I saw her lying there, her pale skin putting the white pillow to shame, the circles under her eyes bruises as dark as the ones yellowing on her face and bare shoulders. "Az! Snap out of it!"
My shouting attracted a nurse, who popped her head in the door and said, "Is there a problem, sir?"
"She just collapsed!" I said, taking a step away from her, my hands flying up into my hair in a gesture of desperate frustration. "She was standing and she just fell!"
The nurse's expression of curiosity immediately changed to one of determination and she barged into the room, pushed passed me and pressed the emergency call buzzer on the telephone by the bed. I crowded in again, wanting to touch Az, wanting to help, but the nurse pushed me away.
"Go sit down, sir" she said, "you'll only be in the way." I nodded and retreated to the chair I had been dozing in previously, curling my legs up, tucking my knees under my chin. What was wrong?
Sandalwood. She said she could smell sandalwood. Was she going into some sort of seizure, then, like the Canadian woman in the commercials, who could smell burnt toast? I wracked my brain, trying to remember every conversation I'd ever had with Aisilin, trying to remember why 'sandalwood' was so important.
But five hundred years is a long time. My memory was slightly hazy.
Other doctors and nurses and people in white coats came bustling into the room, and I just curled up on the chair, confused. I hated modern medicine. It was all pills and needles and beeping machines. Sterilized white and stern commands. It was loud and abrasive.
No one looked to nature anymore for the answers - no one trusted in the insects and the animals for the cure, to plants for the pain relief.
The flashing and wailing of ambulances still made me stop and yelp when I was passed by them. And hospitals were so thick with the stench of decay and death, rank with misery and anxiety, it's a wonder that more of the degraded youkai didn't haunt them.
Ah, but Kagome and Inu Yasha had done a very good job ridding the world of those sorts of youkai. They had worked tirelessly for years, purifying, destroying, saving... eventually Kagome's Miko powers got so strong that even those like Naraku could–
–NARAKU!
I sprang to my feet, scenting the air. Naraku had used the sandalwood in an air-borne potion to control Aisilin. That's what she had told me all those years ago, that's why it seemed so familiar. So somewhere, around here, either someone who knew the ingredients to that concoction was using it to hurt my mate or... or it was Naraku himself.
I shoved down a wave of trepidation at the thought - no, we had DESTROYED him. I had watched his body disintegrate myself!
Yet, there it was - the subtle spicy perfume of sandalwood, peppered with... with something else I couldn't identify. Power. Energy. Something that smelled old and dusty. Darting out of the room, away from the doctors - and hoping that they could do something to wake Aisilin up - I followed the scent trail until I could actually see the smoke.
It was coming from downstairs, in the lobby.
I ran up to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the posh entranceway of the private clinic and grabbed the railing so hard I scratched the mahogany trimming with my claws. I looked down to see two people standing just below me - one was a woman, with yellow hair and her purse clutched tightly to her side. The other was a rough looking sort of man who seemed to have seen better days.
It was from him that the smell of power emanated.
With an audible snarl I leapt over the side of the balcony and landed directly in front of them. The woman shrieked, and the man shoved her behind him.
"Get back, demon!" he smirked, holding, clenched in one hand, an ofuda and a lit stick of sandalwood incense practically under my nose. I took a step back because at that proximity. With my sensitive sniffer, the smell threatened to choke me. "We're here for the girl."
He smiled, his teeth yellow, and I stared. Then I began to yell.
"You stupid fucker, put that thing out!" I grabbed the smoldering stick from his hand and pitched it into the fountain that lay beside the ornate entry desk. The clerk on duty raised her eyebrows but said nothing. I suppose she was used to the eccentric behaviour of youkai - she was paid enough to be. I turned back to the couple before me, my lips pulled back over my teeth. "What kind of stupid Houshin trick are you trying to pull here, Amphitrion!?"
~~~
I met Amphitrion in his native Greece when he was but a pup.
He was a street kid, down on his luck, no money, no where to stay, no one to look after him. He was robbing my corpse. Well, I wasn't really DEAD. I had been walking along the rooftops, not paying attention to my footing, and had slipped on a loose tile and gone crashing down into the alley below. It was rather embarrassing, actually. I had smashed himself a good one in the fall and immediately slipped into unconsciousness.
While the fall would have killed a human, as a full-blooded youkai I was just winded for a moment. However, to the child Amphitrion I looked dead, and he pounced at the opportunity to pluck away my wallet, my gold earring, and my designer watch.
Just as he was trying to wiggle a ring from my finger I sat up and locked a hand around his tiny throat.
"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" I snarled in the Greek tongue and the kid yelped.
"You were dead!" he answered back, "I watched you fall!"
I let him go with a small shove and pulled myself up, dusting off the garbage and filth from the alley floor. "Hardly - takes a lot more than a knock on the head to kill me. Now, wallet, please."
The boy fearfully handed over the wallet. He clutched at the other things, and while I had not expressly requested them, I was annoyed that he didn't hand them over immediately as well. I took a good long look at him, meaning to intimidate, but instead found myself pitying him. He was filthy, hungry looking, and dressed in clothes two sizes too small and tattered beyond repair.
And something else twinged inside me. Something I couldn't identify.
I groaned at my inward swell of pity. Damn Kagome and all her progeny. Damn their 'let help all those who need it!' ways! It had started to rub off. I was becoming a damned SOCIAL worker.
Rolling my eyes, I pulled half of the money from my paper-clip and handed it back to the boy. It was paltry to me, the sum, but his eyes widened and I realized that this was probably the most money he'd ever held in his life. He tried to hand the watch and earring back to me to, but I crouched and closed his little hand over them.
"If you need them bad enough to steal them, they're yours."
The kid didn't look like he knew what to think, let alone do or say. He stared at me with big brown eyes and a second a queer sensation washed over me. I felt like I had stared into these eyes before.
Disturbed, and wondering where the extreme deja vu came from, I broke the silence by standing up and saying, "When was the last time you got a hot meal, pup?"
He shook his head.
"If you don't know, then it's too long. C'mon, I'll fill you up."
The child followed me without question and I wondered at that behaviour. Was he that desperate that he was willing to just follow after me, trusting that I wouldn't kill or rape him? It could have been, of course, that he knew but didn't care - he didn't look like he had a lot to live for. I used the time we walked beside each other to probe his scent - it was mildly familiar as well.
This was more than middling frustrating.
"I only know of one place," I admitted as we walked, and I shoved my hands into my jean pockets. "It's a bit scary, but the food's unbeatable. And the price isn't bad either."
The child followed me with wide eyes, and I deliberately took him through a few twists and turns to make sure he wouldn't be able to find the place again. He was silent the whole way except for one comment:
"Hey, mister... why do you have a fuzzy belt?"
I had to suppress a burst of laugher. I had threaded my tail through my belt loops to keep it out of the way and hidden. It was okay in America now, where people were enjoying the horrors of shag and faux fur, but here in Greece it did indeed look just like a fuzzy belt.
"I think it suits me, don't you?" I replied and the kid just shrugged. He knew better than to insult the source of a free meal.
When we got to the tavern, a dive with a black door called the "Tepac", I paused to look at him. I had come up with a theory or two as to why he seemed so familiar, and I wanted to test them. The kid didn't look scared. Points for him.
I knocked, suffered the once-over from the horse-youkai that answered the door, then slid inside, the human boy in tow. The place was filled with youkai of all breeds and nationalities, and not all of them in their human guises. I myself preferred my human facade just because it was easier to slip in and out of crowds, and to charm people into doing anything I wanted with these blue eyes and this smile.
When in my wolf form, my eyes were yellow and my smile a death's grin of lolling tongue and razor-like teeth.
The child pressed close to my leg, and I laughed. For the reincarnation of Miroku, he was quite the sissy.
Yes, I had decided on the walk over, when I'd had a chance to think about the big brown eyes that had startled me so, this boy was definitely Miroku. And as a fellow 'Naraku o ou Mono', I owed him. I couldn't let him starve on the streets.
We sat at a table for two in the far corner, and the child scrambled onto the well-worn and scoured stool, his eyes darting everywhere.
"Don't stare at them," I said, and he immediately brought his eyes to meet mine. "It's rude."
"They... they're not human."
"No, they're not," I agreed. "You know that, of course, don't you. Deep inside, you know which ones are what, which are full blooded and which are only part. Which are good and which evil."
The child gapped like a landed fish for a moment, before itching the palm of his right hand irritably.
"Oh, stop that, I hate it when you fidget like that Miroku," I said unthinkingly.
The kid stopped and stared at me.
"Sorry," I said hastily. "I didn't get your name, kid."
"Amphitrion," he scowled. "Mom thought I was gonna be some great historical hero."
"You already are, kid," I murmured, and then was distracted by the flighty little bird-youkai girl who showed up to take our orders. I requested a large rack of ribs and some chicken wings on the side, which let the boy stunned. "I'm a predator," I flashed a smile at him that was all fang, and surprisingly he smiled. "Order anything you want," I insisted and he fidgeted for a moment, scratching his palm again, the tentatively requested a hamburger and french fries, explaining that he'd never had them before. The waitress asked if we would be paying in the usual way, I agreed, and she was off.
I wondered just how much of the perverted houshin still existed in this child when I noticed his eyes flick to her ass as she sashayed away. He resumed perusing the patrons of the taverna, and I let him. Perhaps some of it was ringing bells.
The food arrived, and the kid was silent for the duration of the meal, busy devouring the treat, and I watched him. Yes, there was the little head flick to get his long black hair out of his face. The same way of blinking twice in a row. And deep below his surface I could sense the untrained houshin's power.
If he didn't start learning how to harness it now, it would be lost to him forever.
Perhaps some of the others in the place felt it too, for no people tended to stay inside of a seven foot radius around us. The tables near to us were all empty, even though the place was bustling.
"Hey kid," I said once he had finished and the waitress came to take our empty plates away. He snapped his eyes off her ass and back to me. "You ever have a dream that you were someone else?"
The boy looked momentarily startled, his lips pressing together in a thin white line, before he let out a breath and licked them. "Everyone wants to be someone else."
"I didn't mean 'dream about becoming someone else', and you know it." I levelled my blue gaze at him and he squirmed uncomfortably, itching his palm again. My eyes flicked to his whole hand and I said, "You dream that you were someone else, before this. You dream that there was once a hole in that hand, don't you? That's why you scratch it."
He froze and stared at me.
"How do you know...?"
"The man's name was Miroku," I said slowly, and he nodded, confirming this. "I knew him. He used to be a friend of mine."
I would have said more, but the waitress arrived with two small vials and a wicked looking scalpel. Amphitrion stared at it in horror.
"Righto, boys, ante up," she chirped and I rolled back my sleeve.
Taking the knife I placed the vial underneath my hands and made a deft cut in the tip of my finger. Then I handed the knife back to her and squeezed the digit until the vial was full. Satisfied, the waitress corked it, then turned to Amphitrion and held out the knife, which she had cleansed of my blood by wiping it on her apron. I could see his eyes flick down to the many rusty streaks on the frilly bit of cloth.
"Well, come on," she said. "You can't leave without paying."
"C-can't I just give you money?" the boy squeaked out, and I sighed.
Taking one of his wrists in mine and plucking the scalpel from the waitress' hand, I sliced his fingertip quickly and painlessly, and held him in place until the vial was full. "Youkai eateries accept youkai payment. The owner is a very well respected kitsune youkai and he requires our magic to work his. It's a fair trade in my mind. A meal for a few drops of blood."
The kid looked like he was gonna be sick, so I accepted the band-aide from the waitress, slapped it on him, and dragged him out of there. Luckily, he didn't spoil his marvellous lunch, but he was very green in the gills for a long while. He refrained from speaking, I think, because he feared he would vomit if he opened his mouth, and I took us to a bench in a park and waited him out.
When he was looking pink again, he asked, "What did all those words mean?"
"Which ones?"
"The strange ones. Yo–yoki or something."
"Ah, Youkai." I leaned back on the bench and threw my arm over the back of it, tapping out a rhythm with my fingers. My own cut was long healed, but Ampitrion kept staring at his own. "It's the word for what I am in my language."
"And what's that?"
"What I am or my language?"
"Both... who... what are you?"
I sat forward and met his eye. "I'm Japanese. My name is Kouga, Prince of the Ookami Youkai of the Westernlands. That means I am a Wolf Demon."
His eyes narrowed and I knew he was desperately trying to accept what I had told him. "Wolf Demon."
"Mmm-hmm."
He paused, processing this. The information didn't seem to scare him, nor did he think I was lying to him. Good progress. "Is that what they all were in there? Demons?"
"Yup."
"My... my memories... my dreams..." he swung his feet slowly, as they didn't touch the ground. "In them, I am a man who fights monsters. Demons... these youkai things. Is that right?"
I nodded again. "Miroku was a great Houshin - a Holy Monk. He spent his life purifying the world of the taint of the evil youkai."
"But you're a youkai," the kid insisted, "and you were is friend!"
"Yeah. But I'm not an evil youkai."
"Oh." He accepted my words at face value and that was that.
We were silent for a moment, then I said, "Kid, where's your family?"
He looked down at his tattered shoe laces, and mumbled, "Don't got one."
"Is there anyone who would miss you?" His head shot up and his eyes grew wide, his face going suddenly pale. "Oh, relax, I'm not going to eat you. I can sense a great deal of a Houshin's power within you. I want to take you back to my homeland where you can learn how to use it right."
"You would... do that for me?" he whispered.
"Do you have any better plans for tomorrow?"
He smiled briefly. "Well, I was planning on stowing away on a boat for America, but that can wait, I think."
"So do I."
~~~
I looked at the man standing before me, smelling like the same street urchin, but undercut with a sort of raw power that I was not familiar with. The watch I had let him keep still sat on his wrist.
"Amp, what's going on!" I heard the woman behind him screech and I took a good long look at her and groaned.
"You're Az's mother, aren't you?" she nodded fearfully, clinging to Amphitrion's shirt. "Well you can't see her right now, she's sleeping," I lied, not knowing what else to say. "As for you," I turned to Amphitrion, "It's obvious she's hired you to help her out, but as we can both see, I've got it covered. Thanks anyway, kid. Go home to your wife and pups, okay?"
"My wife is dead," he sneered, and I took a step back. There was a meanness in his voice that I hadn't heard ever before. I mean, I hadn't seen him in nearly ten years, but... "And so are my children. A demon like you killed them."
"Not like me!" I protested.
"You're all the same," he snapped, "all of you! All slaughtering monsters!"
"Amphitrion!" I said, aghast. What could have happened that was so awful as to make him loose faith in the principal that not all non-ningen creatures were human? It was something that he had clung so desperately to in the past.
He walked past me without an answer, and the ningen woman followed him. I just stood in the lobby, stunned and unsure what to do. I heard the woman demand the doctors outside of Az's door move aside so she could see her baby, and they did so only after I got my butt in gear and walked up behind her, giving them an affirmative nod.
She noticed our exchange and glowered at me, hating that I had the power to gain access to her child freely and she did not.. I moved forward to open the door for her, disguising in a move of gallantry my desire to put myself between this mad mortal and my mate. I winced to at the woman's gasp when she finally caught sight of her daughter.
Az was all bound and bandaged up, tubes attached to her arms by needles and tape, sticky things leading to cords and beeping machines, and a breathing mask over her nose and mouth. She was still out cold, and it terrified me, although I strove to remain calm.
What if she never woke up?
I could hear Amphitrion's heavy breathing behind me as he peered over my shoulder, but he didn't smell the least bit surprised. If anything, I thought I detected a bit of disappointment. Had he known what his stupid sandalwood would do all along? If that was true, I had to keep an eye on him - he knew one of Naraku's spells.
I was distracted by my perusal of th man who was once the boy I had considered a fairweather friend by the ningen woman's collapsing into a chair beside the bed and burying her face in her hands, bawling.
"No one warned me that she looked half dead," she sobbed, and despite what a horrid bigot she was, I felt a wave of pity for her. "God, I feel so... helpless!"
I knew exactly how she felt.
~~~
Author's note
Gah. DONE. Now I have a 9am class, so wish me luck and pray that I don't sleep through it.
Here there be plot!
Reviews:
sashlea: if you watch the series, Sesshoumaru always refers to himself as "This Sesshoumaru" - I think it's a nobility arrogance thing that yes, Rin must have picked up. And I hope Sandalwood enjoy's it, it's "freaky" on purpose!
Neo Genesis1: glad you're glad! Heres' your update, at 4am. 9am lecture what...?
Pallas Athena: one Dramatic climax coming your way! And aren't people like Az's mom SCARY? I know a born-again Christian like that and she freaks me out.
Ariane: I ENJOY being evil. And Cliffhanger and Plot are great friends of mine!
InuyashazFukaiMori: It's nice to see fluffy-sama laying a smackdown every once and a while, isn't it? And of course she won't heed him - she's STUPID. And sleep? Sleep is for the WEAK! BWA-hA! ... and I'm weak so I'm going to bed now...
Jaye: Well, he's not NARAKU... And Time paradoxes intrigue me. Would Aislin's name have been the same if Kouga hadn't slipped up? Who knows!
Kataionna: *whines like an impatient child*
Part Ten: "Visitor"
by Vega
I scooped Az up off the floor and placed her carefully on the bed. "Az, wake up!" I tapped her cheek gently, shaking her by her good arm. "Az!" I had to choke back a sob as I saw her lying there, her pale skin putting the white pillow to shame, the circles under her eyes bruises as dark as the ones yellowing on her face and bare shoulders. "Az! Snap out of it!"
My shouting attracted a nurse, who popped her head in the door and said, "Is there a problem, sir?"
"She just collapsed!" I said, taking a step away from her, my hands flying up into my hair in a gesture of desperate frustration. "She was standing and she just fell!"
The nurse's expression of curiosity immediately changed to one of determination and she barged into the room, pushed passed me and pressed the emergency call buzzer on the telephone by the bed. I crowded in again, wanting to touch Az, wanting to help, but the nurse pushed me away.
"Go sit down, sir" she said, "you'll only be in the way." I nodded and retreated to the chair I had been dozing in previously, curling my legs up, tucking my knees under my chin. What was wrong?
Sandalwood. She said she could smell sandalwood. Was she going into some sort of seizure, then, like the Canadian woman in the commercials, who could smell burnt toast? I wracked my brain, trying to remember every conversation I'd ever had with Aisilin, trying to remember why 'sandalwood' was so important.
But five hundred years is a long time. My memory was slightly hazy.
Other doctors and nurses and people in white coats came bustling into the room, and I just curled up on the chair, confused. I hated modern medicine. It was all pills and needles and beeping machines. Sterilized white and stern commands. It was loud and abrasive.
No one looked to nature anymore for the answers - no one trusted in the insects and the animals for the cure, to plants for the pain relief.
The flashing and wailing of ambulances still made me stop and yelp when I was passed by them. And hospitals were so thick with the stench of decay and death, rank with misery and anxiety, it's a wonder that more of the degraded youkai didn't haunt them.
Ah, but Kagome and Inu Yasha had done a very good job ridding the world of those sorts of youkai. They had worked tirelessly for years, purifying, destroying, saving... eventually Kagome's Miko powers got so strong that even those like Naraku could–
–NARAKU!
I sprang to my feet, scenting the air. Naraku had used the sandalwood in an air-borne potion to control Aisilin. That's what she had told me all those years ago, that's why it seemed so familiar. So somewhere, around here, either someone who knew the ingredients to that concoction was using it to hurt my mate or... or it was Naraku himself.
I shoved down a wave of trepidation at the thought - no, we had DESTROYED him. I had watched his body disintegrate myself!
Yet, there it was - the subtle spicy perfume of sandalwood, peppered with... with something else I couldn't identify. Power. Energy. Something that smelled old and dusty. Darting out of the room, away from the doctors - and hoping that they could do something to wake Aisilin up - I followed the scent trail until I could actually see the smoke.
It was coming from downstairs, in the lobby.
I ran up to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the posh entranceway of the private clinic and grabbed the railing so hard I scratched the mahogany trimming with my claws. I looked down to see two people standing just below me - one was a woman, with yellow hair and her purse clutched tightly to her side. The other was a rough looking sort of man who seemed to have seen better days.
It was from him that the smell of power emanated.
With an audible snarl I leapt over the side of the balcony and landed directly in front of them. The woman shrieked, and the man shoved her behind him.
"Get back, demon!" he smirked, holding, clenched in one hand, an ofuda and a lit stick of sandalwood incense practically under my nose. I took a step back because at that proximity. With my sensitive sniffer, the smell threatened to choke me. "We're here for the girl."
He smiled, his teeth yellow, and I stared. Then I began to yell.
"You stupid fucker, put that thing out!" I grabbed the smoldering stick from his hand and pitched it into the fountain that lay beside the ornate entry desk. The clerk on duty raised her eyebrows but said nothing. I suppose she was used to the eccentric behaviour of youkai - she was paid enough to be. I turned back to the couple before me, my lips pulled back over my teeth. "What kind of stupid Houshin trick are you trying to pull here, Amphitrion!?"
~~~
I met Amphitrion in his native Greece when he was but a pup.
He was a street kid, down on his luck, no money, no where to stay, no one to look after him. He was robbing my corpse. Well, I wasn't really DEAD. I had been walking along the rooftops, not paying attention to my footing, and had slipped on a loose tile and gone crashing down into the alley below. It was rather embarrassing, actually. I had smashed himself a good one in the fall and immediately slipped into unconsciousness.
While the fall would have killed a human, as a full-blooded youkai I was just winded for a moment. However, to the child Amphitrion I looked dead, and he pounced at the opportunity to pluck away my wallet, my gold earring, and my designer watch.
Just as he was trying to wiggle a ring from my finger I sat up and locked a hand around his tiny throat.
"What the Hell do you think you're doing?" I snarled in the Greek tongue and the kid yelped.
"You were dead!" he answered back, "I watched you fall!"
I let him go with a small shove and pulled myself up, dusting off the garbage and filth from the alley floor. "Hardly - takes a lot more than a knock on the head to kill me. Now, wallet, please."
The boy fearfully handed over the wallet. He clutched at the other things, and while I had not expressly requested them, I was annoyed that he didn't hand them over immediately as well. I took a good long look at him, meaning to intimidate, but instead found myself pitying him. He was filthy, hungry looking, and dressed in clothes two sizes too small and tattered beyond repair.
And something else twinged inside me. Something I couldn't identify.
I groaned at my inward swell of pity. Damn Kagome and all her progeny. Damn their 'let help all those who need it!' ways! It had started to rub off. I was becoming a damned SOCIAL worker.
Rolling my eyes, I pulled half of the money from my paper-clip and handed it back to the boy. It was paltry to me, the sum, but his eyes widened and I realized that this was probably the most money he'd ever held in his life. He tried to hand the watch and earring back to me to, but I crouched and closed his little hand over them.
"If you need them bad enough to steal them, they're yours."
The kid didn't look like he knew what to think, let alone do or say. He stared at me with big brown eyes and a second a queer sensation washed over me. I felt like I had stared into these eyes before.
Disturbed, and wondering where the extreme deja vu came from, I broke the silence by standing up and saying, "When was the last time you got a hot meal, pup?"
He shook his head.
"If you don't know, then it's too long. C'mon, I'll fill you up."
The child followed me without question and I wondered at that behaviour. Was he that desperate that he was willing to just follow after me, trusting that I wouldn't kill or rape him? It could have been, of course, that he knew but didn't care - he didn't look like he had a lot to live for. I used the time we walked beside each other to probe his scent - it was mildly familiar as well.
This was more than middling frustrating.
"I only know of one place," I admitted as we walked, and I shoved my hands into my jean pockets. "It's a bit scary, but the food's unbeatable. And the price isn't bad either."
The child followed me with wide eyes, and I deliberately took him through a few twists and turns to make sure he wouldn't be able to find the place again. He was silent the whole way except for one comment:
"Hey, mister... why do you have a fuzzy belt?"
I had to suppress a burst of laugher. I had threaded my tail through my belt loops to keep it out of the way and hidden. It was okay in America now, where people were enjoying the horrors of shag and faux fur, but here in Greece it did indeed look just like a fuzzy belt.
"I think it suits me, don't you?" I replied and the kid just shrugged. He knew better than to insult the source of a free meal.
When we got to the tavern, a dive with a black door called the "Tepac", I paused to look at him. I had come up with a theory or two as to why he seemed so familiar, and I wanted to test them. The kid didn't look scared. Points for him.
I knocked, suffered the once-over from the horse-youkai that answered the door, then slid inside, the human boy in tow. The place was filled with youkai of all breeds and nationalities, and not all of them in their human guises. I myself preferred my human facade just because it was easier to slip in and out of crowds, and to charm people into doing anything I wanted with these blue eyes and this smile.
When in my wolf form, my eyes were yellow and my smile a death's grin of lolling tongue and razor-like teeth.
The child pressed close to my leg, and I laughed. For the reincarnation of Miroku, he was quite the sissy.
Yes, I had decided on the walk over, when I'd had a chance to think about the big brown eyes that had startled me so, this boy was definitely Miroku. And as a fellow 'Naraku o ou Mono', I owed him. I couldn't let him starve on the streets.
We sat at a table for two in the far corner, and the child scrambled onto the well-worn and scoured stool, his eyes darting everywhere.
"Don't stare at them," I said, and he immediately brought his eyes to meet mine. "It's rude."
"They... they're not human."
"No, they're not," I agreed. "You know that, of course, don't you. Deep inside, you know which ones are what, which are full blooded and which are only part. Which are good and which evil."
The child gapped like a landed fish for a moment, before itching the palm of his right hand irritably.
"Oh, stop that, I hate it when you fidget like that Miroku," I said unthinkingly.
The kid stopped and stared at me.
"Sorry," I said hastily. "I didn't get your name, kid."
"Amphitrion," he scowled. "Mom thought I was gonna be some great historical hero."
"You already are, kid," I murmured, and then was distracted by the flighty little bird-youkai girl who showed up to take our orders. I requested a large rack of ribs and some chicken wings on the side, which let the boy stunned. "I'm a predator," I flashed a smile at him that was all fang, and surprisingly he smiled. "Order anything you want," I insisted and he fidgeted for a moment, scratching his palm again, the tentatively requested a hamburger and french fries, explaining that he'd never had them before. The waitress asked if we would be paying in the usual way, I agreed, and she was off.
I wondered just how much of the perverted houshin still existed in this child when I noticed his eyes flick to her ass as she sashayed away. He resumed perusing the patrons of the taverna, and I let him. Perhaps some of it was ringing bells.
The food arrived, and the kid was silent for the duration of the meal, busy devouring the treat, and I watched him. Yes, there was the little head flick to get his long black hair out of his face. The same way of blinking twice in a row. And deep below his surface I could sense the untrained houshin's power.
If he didn't start learning how to harness it now, it would be lost to him forever.
Perhaps some of the others in the place felt it too, for no people tended to stay inside of a seven foot radius around us. The tables near to us were all empty, even though the place was bustling.
"Hey kid," I said once he had finished and the waitress came to take our empty plates away. He snapped his eyes off her ass and back to me. "You ever have a dream that you were someone else?"
The boy looked momentarily startled, his lips pressing together in a thin white line, before he let out a breath and licked them. "Everyone wants to be someone else."
"I didn't mean 'dream about becoming someone else', and you know it." I levelled my blue gaze at him and he squirmed uncomfortably, itching his palm again. My eyes flicked to his whole hand and I said, "You dream that you were someone else, before this. You dream that there was once a hole in that hand, don't you? That's why you scratch it."
He froze and stared at me.
"How do you know...?"
"The man's name was Miroku," I said slowly, and he nodded, confirming this. "I knew him. He used to be a friend of mine."
I would have said more, but the waitress arrived with two small vials and a wicked looking scalpel. Amphitrion stared at it in horror.
"Righto, boys, ante up," she chirped and I rolled back my sleeve.
Taking the knife I placed the vial underneath my hands and made a deft cut in the tip of my finger. Then I handed the knife back to her and squeezed the digit until the vial was full. Satisfied, the waitress corked it, then turned to Amphitrion and held out the knife, which she had cleansed of my blood by wiping it on her apron. I could see his eyes flick down to the many rusty streaks on the frilly bit of cloth.
"Well, come on," she said. "You can't leave without paying."
"C-can't I just give you money?" the boy squeaked out, and I sighed.
Taking one of his wrists in mine and plucking the scalpel from the waitress' hand, I sliced his fingertip quickly and painlessly, and held him in place until the vial was full. "Youkai eateries accept youkai payment. The owner is a very well respected kitsune youkai and he requires our magic to work his. It's a fair trade in my mind. A meal for a few drops of blood."
The kid looked like he was gonna be sick, so I accepted the band-aide from the waitress, slapped it on him, and dragged him out of there. Luckily, he didn't spoil his marvellous lunch, but he was very green in the gills for a long while. He refrained from speaking, I think, because he feared he would vomit if he opened his mouth, and I took us to a bench in a park and waited him out.
When he was looking pink again, he asked, "What did all those words mean?"
"Which ones?"
"The strange ones. Yo–yoki or something."
"Ah, Youkai." I leaned back on the bench and threw my arm over the back of it, tapping out a rhythm with my fingers. My own cut was long healed, but Ampitrion kept staring at his own. "It's the word for what I am in my language."
"And what's that?"
"What I am or my language?"
"Both... who... what are you?"
I sat forward and met his eye. "I'm Japanese. My name is Kouga, Prince of the Ookami Youkai of the Westernlands. That means I am a Wolf Demon."
His eyes narrowed and I knew he was desperately trying to accept what I had told him. "Wolf Demon."
"Mmm-hmm."
He paused, processing this. The information didn't seem to scare him, nor did he think I was lying to him. Good progress. "Is that what they all were in there? Demons?"
"Yup."
"My... my memories... my dreams..." he swung his feet slowly, as they didn't touch the ground. "In them, I am a man who fights monsters. Demons... these youkai things. Is that right?"
I nodded again. "Miroku was a great Houshin - a Holy Monk. He spent his life purifying the world of the taint of the evil youkai."
"But you're a youkai," the kid insisted, "and you were is friend!"
"Yeah. But I'm not an evil youkai."
"Oh." He accepted my words at face value and that was that.
We were silent for a moment, then I said, "Kid, where's your family?"
He looked down at his tattered shoe laces, and mumbled, "Don't got one."
"Is there anyone who would miss you?" His head shot up and his eyes grew wide, his face going suddenly pale. "Oh, relax, I'm not going to eat you. I can sense a great deal of a Houshin's power within you. I want to take you back to my homeland where you can learn how to use it right."
"You would... do that for me?" he whispered.
"Do you have any better plans for tomorrow?"
He smiled briefly. "Well, I was planning on stowing away on a boat for America, but that can wait, I think."
"So do I."
~~~
I looked at the man standing before me, smelling like the same street urchin, but undercut with a sort of raw power that I was not familiar with. The watch I had let him keep still sat on his wrist.
"Amp, what's going on!" I heard the woman behind him screech and I took a good long look at her and groaned.
"You're Az's mother, aren't you?" she nodded fearfully, clinging to Amphitrion's shirt. "Well you can't see her right now, she's sleeping," I lied, not knowing what else to say. "As for you," I turned to Amphitrion, "It's obvious she's hired you to help her out, but as we can both see, I've got it covered. Thanks anyway, kid. Go home to your wife and pups, okay?"
"My wife is dead," he sneered, and I took a step back. There was a meanness in his voice that I hadn't heard ever before. I mean, I hadn't seen him in nearly ten years, but... "And so are my children. A demon like you killed them."
"Not like me!" I protested.
"You're all the same," he snapped, "all of you! All slaughtering monsters!"
"Amphitrion!" I said, aghast. What could have happened that was so awful as to make him loose faith in the principal that not all non-ningen creatures were human? It was something that he had clung so desperately to in the past.
He walked past me without an answer, and the ningen woman followed him. I just stood in the lobby, stunned and unsure what to do. I heard the woman demand the doctors outside of Az's door move aside so she could see her baby, and they did so only after I got my butt in gear and walked up behind her, giving them an affirmative nod.
She noticed our exchange and glowered at me, hating that I had the power to gain access to her child freely and she did not.. I moved forward to open the door for her, disguising in a move of gallantry my desire to put myself between this mad mortal and my mate. I winced to at the woman's gasp when she finally caught sight of her daughter.
Az was all bound and bandaged up, tubes attached to her arms by needles and tape, sticky things leading to cords and beeping machines, and a breathing mask over her nose and mouth. She was still out cold, and it terrified me, although I strove to remain calm.
What if she never woke up?
I could hear Amphitrion's heavy breathing behind me as he peered over my shoulder, but he didn't smell the least bit surprised. If anything, I thought I detected a bit of disappointment. Had he known what his stupid sandalwood would do all along? If that was true, I had to keep an eye on him - he knew one of Naraku's spells.
I was distracted by my perusal of th man who was once the boy I had considered a fairweather friend by the ningen woman's collapsing into a chair beside the bed and burying her face in her hands, bawling.
"No one warned me that she looked half dead," she sobbed, and despite what a horrid bigot she was, I felt a wave of pity for her. "God, I feel so... helpless!"
I knew exactly how she felt.
~~~
Author's note
Gah. DONE. Now I have a 9am class, so wish me luck and pray that I don't sleep through it.
Here there be plot!
Reviews:
sashlea: if you watch the series, Sesshoumaru always refers to himself as "This Sesshoumaru" - I think it's a nobility arrogance thing that yes, Rin must have picked up. And I hope Sandalwood enjoy's it, it's "freaky" on purpose!
Neo Genesis1: glad you're glad! Heres' your update, at 4am. 9am lecture what...?
Pallas Athena: one Dramatic climax coming your way! And aren't people like Az's mom SCARY? I know a born-again Christian like that and she freaks me out.
Ariane: I ENJOY being evil. And Cliffhanger and Plot are great friends of mine!
InuyashazFukaiMori: It's nice to see fluffy-sama laying a smackdown every once and a while, isn't it? And of course she won't heed him - she's STUPID. And sleep? Sleep is for the WEAK! BWA-hA! ... and I'm weak so I'm going to bed now...
Jaye: Well, he's not NARAKU... And Time paradoxes intrigue me. Would Aislin's name have been the same if Kouga hadn't slipped up? Who knows!
Kataionna: *whines like an impatient child*