Kirei na Kanjou

~ Beautiful Feeling ~

by feifu

01/14/2002

homepage: www.freewebs.com/killersrant

email: domain_of_fire@yahoo.com

Disclaimers: (Can't make a fanfic without putting this) Yuyu Hakusho, and all its characters and plot, is the original creation of Yoshiro Togashi. I do not claim to own any of the characters in this story except for Faith Phillipp and Annette Barton, who are my own creations and are inspired by people I know in real life. Any similarities to real life people/events or if you by chance know anybody whose names are similar to the two characters, I avow that these are mere coincidences. I don't profit from writing this fanfiction so please don't sue.

3

That night, Annette was walking home alone, having spent most of the afternoon and the early evening at the library catching up on her readings for other subjects. Faye had refused to accompany her to the library saying she'd rather go with some classmates to a movie even though she supposedly had a graded recitation for the next day. She just couldn't understand that girl's carefree attitude at times.

She once again bumped into Minamino-san in the library that afternoon. He returned some books he borrowed and then sat across her. After about ten minutes, he had excused himself saying he needed to meet someone. She regretted the fact that her lack of things to talk about with him, plus the fact that she truly was shy when it comes to talking with the opposite sex, made him seem distant again. She almost wished she had Faith's lack of trouble with finding things to say. Almost, but not quite.

She was just turning around the corner of their street when she bumped into a man who was going the opposite way. Since it was dark, she couldn't exactly see his features but something about him seemed odd. She had the nagging feeling that he looked vaguely familiar. Shrugging, she walked onwards, home.

She was searching for her key when she heard a faint noise from inside. She warily opened the door, readying her pepper spray first, and went in. As soon as she hit the light switch, she couldn't help but gasp aloud. The room was in complete shambles. Her first thought was that there was a burglar, and judging from the faint scraping noises coming from the next room, he was still there.

Heart pounding in fear, she nevertheless went towards the next room, which incidentally was the kitchen, and tried to see who the intruder was. Instead, she saw Faith vainly trying to stand up, her clothes bloodied and looking like an enraged animal had mangled her. A really big animal.

Faith saw her and managed to stretch out a hand towards her, face clearly asking for help, before she collapsed and fell unconscious.

Hiei's eyes snapped open. He could not be mistaken about it. His nose crinkled at the familiar and distinct smell of fresh blood.

He hurriedly followed the scent, jumping from building roof to the next until he spied the mangled corpse of a young man in an alley. He got down cautiously, scanning the area with his preternatural abilities and sensing that the ningen's assailant couldn't be too far off. He took off at a run.

A mere dark blur to the normal eyes, he sped from tree branch to rooftop until he came at a dead stop facing another grisly site. A huge figure, manlike and yet not, hunched over an old woman tearing her torso open with its claw-like hands. He watched dispassionately as said figure took the woman's heart out and proceeded to eat it.

He had seen worse, he thought. Had seen things that are more grisly than this, and it didn't upset his stomach anymore whenever he saw things like this happening in front of him. He was used to it.

Could this then be their target? The creature that caused the Reikai to hound him into going back here just so he and his old comrade can investigate?

Hiei felt decidedly disgusted. He sensed that this creature wasn't even fit to meet him in combat; so low was its spiritual power that it still hadn't sensed his presence despite him being less than ten meters away. He won't need anything but his trusty katana against such a creature. No use calling Kurama as he could easily handle this himself.

The creature looked up from its feeding just as Hiei was already atop it, sword out and about to slash. It stood stunned for mere moments, looking dumbfounded about what had just happened and then grunted when a vertical line split its body into two.

Hiei kicked at the creature's carcass. He didn't like the idea of having to have to clean up after himself, but he knew he must, else come morning, there would be a general uproar when the ningen discovered the two bodies. He coldly examined the creature's face, peering into the glazed golden eyes and inspecting the claw-like hands that in the end didn't even have much use against him. With a very put upon sigh, he summoned his black fire and as he walked away, it engulfed both the creature and its unfortunate victim till nothing remained but dust that the wind eventually blew away.

Kurama had found no trace of the mysterious man he and the two girls had encountered that morning.

He was tired, having gone around the whole city, and realizing it was already late, decided to cut short his search until tomorrow and go back home. His mother and stepfather were used to him coming home late so he didn't have to worry about them being angry with him for doing so.

He realized he was hearing quite a bit of a commotion coming from near his house, and hurried. When he rounded the corner, he saw an ambulance parked at the house across from his. This, he knew now, was the place Faith and Annette lived. He curiously looked on, wondering what happened when he caught sight of a distraught Annette running after some men bringing down a stretcher were in somebody was strapped in.

"Barton-san, what happened?"

Annette looked at him with blank eyes before recognizing him. "Minamino-san! It's Faith! She was attacked! She got hurt! I-" she broke down crying, "I don't know what to do! When I got home I thought there was a burglar in the house coz the house was in a complete mess. Everything was overturned and then when I went to the kitchen I saw her there and she was all bloodied and-"

"Calm down," Kurama held her arm. "You did the right thing." He indicated the ambulance.

One of the paramedics came towards them and hurriedly asked Annette if she wanted to ride with the ambulance to the hospital. Seeing that the girl couldn't decide, Kurama answered that they would both go if it was alright. The paramedic nodded and they boarded the ambulance.

They both watched as the paramedics tried to staunch the blood that was seeping through a particularly major wound at Faith's left side.

She was losing too much blood, Kurama observed. Faith wouldn't last the ride even to the nearest hospital if she didn't get a blood transfusion now, but the paramedics were in a fix for they didn't have a stock of the type of blood she needed. Sighing, Kurama indicated he had the blood type they needed and was willing to donate his blood for the injured girl.

A few minutes later, he felt weak from having had so much of his blood drained from him, but he could also see that Faith now had a fairly good chance of surviving the night. She hadn't woken up but her heartbeat was now steadier than it was a few minutes ago. She was going to live. Kurama closed his eyes against the nausea that threatened to overpower him. He didn't want to think about how his youkai blood was going to react inside the girl's body.