Disclaimer: See the prologue.
Author's note: I've been notified that the term of Lupi-jin caused some confusion; sorry! "Lupi" is the Latin word for wolf, and the -jin part means "person" or "being".. Hope it clears things up! ^-^
Chapter 1
Ichiro and his wife Ayame were busy packing boxes, being careful not to break anything. It was about four thirty in the afternoon, and the weather was getting very hot around this time of year.
"Phew, we're almost done, Ichiro," said Ayame. She wasn't as tall as her husband Ichiro, but she almost reached him with her five feet and six inches. Her short, blond dyed hair glistened in the sunlight, and Ichiro admired her features, which time had yet to alter. She did not look her thirty-nine years old.
"Thank God, I can't stand this heat anymore," answered Ichiro to his wife. He wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Ichiro was an ordinary looking forty-year-old, rather well built. He was not extremely tall for a man, he was about five feet and eight inches tall. His eyes were of a gentle brown, his hair neatly cut, and he had a little mustache that his wife and daughter kept telling him to shave.
Leamen. Their precious daughter. Nothing had brought them more happiness in their lives than their daughter. Ichiro was devastated when he learned that Ayame was sterile. They prayed, and hoped so much for a child, it had broken them.
Until one night, on a chilly November 1st . Someone had knocked at the door. Ayame had opened it; and to his surprise, he heard her call him to the lobby. He found her holding a smiling, lively baby girl. Since that fateful day, they had raised her as their own, even though she was different. They had yet to tell Leamen that she wasn't their biological child, but they suspected she knew it, for obvious reasons.
Ichiro was pulled out of his reverie when he heard the front door of their house open. "I'm hooooome! Hello Mom! Dad!" chimed Leamen, backpack swung over her shoulder, carrying her skateboard as she went to them. "I'm so glad the week is over! It's been rather long!" said Leamen as she noticed the packed cardboard boxes.
Ayame smiled at her daughter's look. "We're moving out this weekend, remember? Tomorrow, in fact," she answered. "I know that you were kind of looking forward to it.. I know that--" she said, eyeing her child, but she cut her sentence.
The girl had somehow tensed slightly, as this was a subject that always made her uncomfortable.
"Leamen, honey, you know that we don't care about what others think." retorted her father, trying to get her to ease up her tension a little. It didn't seem to work, for at that, Leamen lowered her eyes, and quietly walked to her bedroom, or what was left of it. "I.. I'll go finish packing up.later." she said quietly.
***
Leamen looked at herself quietly in the mirror of her small bedroom, the only object remaining, with her bed, alarm clock and nightstand in the middle of the packed, crammed boxes. She sighed heavily as she turned around, watching herself.
Leamen was indeed quite.. special. Her hair was the color of the sky, with many rough spikes in it. No matter how hard she had tried to get rid of them, they wouldn't stay down like the rest of her hair. Her eyes were also blue, sometimes darker, or lighter than her hair; it often depended on her emotions, or sometimes even the weather could affect their color. She rubbed her face with her sleeve, staining it with skin colored makeup, revealing strange purplish markings on her face. She had tried rubbing them off many times in her life, often bruising her skin in the process, but to no avail. The big marking on her forehead resembled a drop of water, and two rather long triangles were at the corners of her eyes. They exasperated her, but at least she could hide them with makeup everyday. There was but one thing she really hated about herself: her acute senses of smell and hearing. She often heard and smelt things she would rather not know about. Smelling people's strong emotions, like fear, or even arousal, wasn't what she really enjoyed in life, since it only succeeded in embarrassing her. The young woman also often tried to distract herself when she was in very crowded areas, because she heard about every conversation around her. Leamen remembered that one time, when she was about seven, she was waiting for the teacher to unlock the classroom, and she had heard two kids whispering about her, and they were at the other end of the hall. There was also this boy when she was in high school, which kept whistling at every girl he saw passing by, and when he whistled at her, she came close to punching him because the high-pitched sound hurt her head.
But the worst part of her anatomy was the tail. It was the color of her hair on top and slightly paler underneath, and it was about a foot and a half long. She had been called many names because of it: Dog-girl, Mutt- brains.you name it. Her parents had tried to get her in surgery to get it removed, but it could not be done due to a bone issue. There seemed to be extra bones and lots of nerves at the area near the base of the tail, and those elements interlocked and mixed so tightly that the surgeons were afraid that removing it would cause more damage to the girls body than actually making things better. Trying to hide her tail wasn't any better either. It would only make a big bump under her skirt or in her jeans, and the fact that it seemed to react according to her emotions wasn't of any help. So she just let it loose through the hole she'd made for it to go through.
A scraping sound was heard at the door, pulling her out of her thoughts. Leamen went to open it to let Nikkou in. Nikkou was an old black dog, there were streaks of grey hair around her muzzle and ears. They didn't exactly know her race; Nikkou was a stray black dog they got at an animal refuge for Leamen when she turned four years old. Poor Nikkou didn't have that much time left, as she was already 15 years old. She'd be 16 soon.
Leamen sat on her bed and made room for Nikkou and then helped her to jump on the mattress; and the young girl soon returned to her distressed thoughts.
Nikkou sat beside her quietly, only panting a bit once in a while, and then she lay her head on Leamen's lap, sensing her master's emotional distress. Leamen fought tears back as she stroked the dog's rough fur, finding comfort in her old companion.
***
About an hour later, Ayame knocked on Leamen's door softly.
"Leamen, dinner's ready.. Hurry up or it'll be cold, " she said through the door.
There was no reply, but she heard the shuffling of paws and feet on the floor. The door opened and Leamen stepped out lightly, looking rather down. She went to the kitchen while Nikkou headed for her own food and she sat down at the low table; Leamen didn't eat much, she only toyed around absently with her food. Her father looked up and sighed.
"Are you okay Leamen? You seem concerned about something.." Ichiro asked, concern dripping from his tone. Her parents always knew when something bothered her. During those times Leamen would look depressed, and worse, she wouldn't eat.
"No, no, nothing's happened.. I was just wondering.. I.." she sighed at this. "Nevermind, Dad, I'm okay." she answered, and she started eating, with little appetite.
***
Leamen helped her mom clear the dishes when dinner was over, and they all packed the last objects that needed to be packed, such as chopsticks, glasses, cups and the occasional forks and knives.
She returned to her room, at around twenty-five past ten in the evening, carrying a two-litre bottle of Pepsi. Leamen eyed it carefully. Her mom kept telling her that she'd get sick from drinking the stuff all the time. Leamen would laugh and tell her that she was fine everytime. She chuckled silently to herself and opened the bottle and took a sip. She didn't know why she was so addicted to Pepsi, she just was. Coffee comforted her too, but she hated the bitter taste. It usually cheered her up, and made her feel better. " Yeah, talk about some medicine, " she thought to herself. Leamen then went to the door, leaving it slightly open in case Nikkou would want to come in.
She looked at her alarm clock, which still wasn't packed. It was now five past eleven PM. She couldn't sleep. She felt too anxious, happy, and sad about the next day. She'd be leaving her hometown tomorrow.True, she wouldn't lose many friends, but she was sick of this place, and she truly hoped the people at Nekomi Institute of Technology would give her memories she could cherish.
" Might as well go shower. " Leamen thought, " might help me sleep better afterwards."
The girl got up from the bed, got some clean underwear from her boxes and a clean, rather large, T-shirt that had once belonged to her dad. She then headed quietly towards the bathroom. Nikkou got up at the sound and went to her in the hallway. Leamen crouched in front of her and scratched behind her ears, before getting up and entering the bathroom.
She opened the light and dimmed it as she entered the tiny room. She rubbed her eyes a little, then quickly got undressed and got in the tub, which doubled as a shower. Leamen put the water as hot as it could go, putting the shower on, hoping it'd burn and wash her troubles away, and enjoyed its rather stinging heat on the skin of her bare back.
***
He shifted his position on his chair, watching her through his waterpool. That pool was rather nice to look into the realm of Humans, but he couldn't wait; he was getting very sick of his situation..
" Soon enough," he thought to himself.
His thoughts suddenly drifted back to reality as he saw her getting up from bed and going to the bathroom, carrying some clothes.
She was going to take a shower! What a nice opportunity!
Those were his last thoughts before he got a huge nosebleed; she had just taken off her clothes and turned the water on. He watched her carefully, his cheeks red, a tissue stuck in his left nostril, as her skin turned slightly red, he guessed the water was way too hot. The man was about an inch away from his pool of water, watching her wash the curves of her feminine body. He noticed her looking up at some point, a confused look on her face, and then subtly turning away from his view.
" Interesting woman, " he said out loud, as he noticed her tail, confirming it was the right girl he was observing. Not to say that he didn't enjoy watching any other girl showering.
He groaned as something stirred inside him. That wretched goodness in him.
He made a little face when he saw the water stop running, probably from annoyance or deception, or perhaps both.
He waved his hand above the bassin, and it went blank as the girl wrung most of the water from her soaking, long blue hair and put her clothes on.
" Indeed, very interesting. "
End of Chapter 1
Author's note: I've been notified that the term of Lupi-jin caused some confusion; sorry! "Lupi" is the Latin word for wolf, and the -jin part means "person" or "being".. Hope it clears things up! ^-^
Chapter 1
Ichiro and his wife Ayame were busy packing boxes, being careful not to break anything. It was about four thirty in the afternoon, and the weather was getting very hot around this time of year.
"Phew, we're almost done, Ichiro," said Ayame. She wasn't as tall as her husband Ichiro, but she almost reached him with her five feet and six inches. Her short, blond dyed hair glistened in the sunlight, and Ichiro admired her features, which time had yet to alter. She did not look her thirty-nine years old.
"Thank God, I can't stand this heat anymore," answered Ichiro to his wife. He wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Ichiro was an ordinary looking forty-year-old, rather well built. He was not extremely tall for a man, he was about five feet and eight inches tall. His eyes were of a gentle brown, his hair neatly cut, and he had a little mustache that his wife and daughter kept telling him to shave.
Leamen. Their precious daughter. Nothing had brought them more happiness in their lives than their daughter. Ichiro was devastated when he learned that Ayame was sterile. They prayed, and hoped so much for a child, it had broken them.
Until one night, on a chilly November 1st . Someone had knocked at the door. Ayame had opened it; and to his surprise, he heard her call him to the lobby. He found her holding a smiling, lively baby girl. Since that fateful day, they had raised her as their own, even though she was different. They had yet to tell Leamen that she wasn't their biological child, but they suspected she knew it, for obvious reasons.
Ichiro was pulled out of his reverie when he heard the front door of their house open. "I'm hooooome! Hello Mom! Dad!" chimed Leamen, backpack swung over her shoulder, carrying her skateboard as she went to them. "I'm so glad the week is over! It's been rather long!" said Leamen as she noticed the packed cardboard boxes.
Ayame smiled at her daughter's look. "We're moving out this weekend, remember? Tomorrow, in fact," she answered. "I know that you were kind of looking forward to it.. I know that--" she said, eyeing her child, but she cut her sentence.
The girl had somehow tensed slightly, as this was a subject that always made her uncomfortable.
"Leamen, honey, you know that we don't care about what others think." retorted her father, trying to get her to ease up her tension a little. It didn't seem to work, for at that, Leamen lowered her eyes, and quietly walked to her bedroom, or what was left of it. "I.. I'll go finish packing up.later." she said quietly.
***
Leamen looked at herself quietly in the mirror of her small bedroom, the only object remaining, with her bed, alarm clock and nightstand in the middle of the packed, crammed boxes. She sighed heavily as she turned around, watching herself.
Leamen was indeed quite.. special. Her hair was the color of the sky, with many rough spikes in it. No matter how hard she had tried to get rid of them, they wouldn't stay down like the rest of her hair. Her eyes were also blue, sometimes darker, or lighter than her hair; it often depended on her emotions, or sometimes even the weather could affect their color. She rubbed her face with her sleeve, staining it with skin colored makeup, revealing strange purplish markings on her face. She had tried rubbing them off many times in her life, often bruising her skin in the process, but to no avail. The big marking on her forehead resembled a drop of water, and two rather long triangles were at the corners of her eyes. They exasperated her, but at least she could hide them with makeup everyday. There was but one thing she really hated about herself: her acute senses of smell and hearing. She often heard and smelt things she would rather not know about. Smelling people's strong emotions, like fear, or even arousal, wasn't what she really enjoyed in life, since it only succeeded in embarrassing her. The young woman also often tried to distract herself when she was in very crowded areas, because she heard about every conversation around her. Leamen remembered that one time, when she was about seven, she was waiting for the teacher to unlock the classroom, and she had heard two kids whispering about her, and they were at the other end of the hall. There was also this boy when she was in high school, which kept whistling at every girl he saw passing by, and when he whistled at her, she came close to punching him because the high-pitched sound hurt her head.
But the worst part of her anatomy was the tail. It was the color of her hair on top and slightly paler underneath, and it was about a foot and a half long. She had been called many names because of it: Dog-girl, Mutt- brains.you name it. Her parents had tried to get her in surgery to get it removed, but it could not be done due to a bone issue. There seemed to be extra bones and lots of nerves at the area near the base of the tail, and those elements interlocked and mixed so tightly that the surgeons were afraid that removing it would cause more damage to the girls body than actually making things better. Trying to hide her tail wasn't any better either. It would only make a big bump under her skirt or in her jeans, and the fact that it seemed to react according to her emotions wasn't of any help. So she just let it loose through the hole she'd made for it to go through.
A scraping sound was heard at the door, pulling her out of her thoughts. Leamen went to open it to let Nikkou in. Nikkou was an old black dog, there were streaks of grey hair around her muzzle and ears. They didn't exactly know her race; Nikkou was a stray black dog they got at an animal refuge for Leamen when she turned four years old. Poor Nikkou didn't have that much time left, as she was already 15 years old. She'd be 16 soon.
Leamen sat on her bed and made room for Nikkou and then helped her to jump on the mattress; and the young girl soon returned to her distressed thoughts.
Nikkou sat beside her quietly, only panting a bit once in a while, and then she lay her head on Leamen's lap, sensing her master's emotional distress. Leamen fought tears back as she stroked the dog's rough fur, finding comfort in her old companion.
***
About an hour later, Ayame knocked on Leamen's door softly.
"Leamen, dinner's ready.. Hurry up or it'll be cold, " she said through the door.
There was no reply, but she heard the shuffling of paws and feet on the floor. The door opened and Leamen stepped out lightly, looking rather down. She went to the kitchen while Nikkou headed for her own food and she sat down at the low table; Leamen didn't eat much, she only toyed around absently with her food. Her father looked up and sighed.
"Are you okay Leamen? You seem concerned about something.." Ichiro asked, concern dripping from his tone. Her parents always knew when something bothered her. During those times Leamen would look depressed, and worse, she wouldn't eat.
"No, no, nothing's happened.. I was just wondering.. I.." she sighed at this. "Nevermind, Dad, I'm okay." she answered, and she started eating, with little appetite.
***
Leamen helped her mom clear the dishes when dinner was over, and they all packed the last objects that needed to be packed, such as chopsticks, glasses, cups and the occasional forks and knives.
She returned to her room, at around twenty-five past ten in the evening, carrying a two-litre bottle of Pepsi. Leamen eyed it carefully. Her mom kept telling her that she'd get sick from drinking the stuff all the time. Leamen would laugh and tell her that she was fine everytime. She chuckled silently to herself and opened the bottle and took a sip. She didn't know why she was so addicted to Pepsi, she just was. Coffee comforted her too, but she hated the bitter taste. It usually cheered her up, and made her feel better. " Yeah, talk about some medicine, " she thought to herself. Leamen then went to the door, leaving it slightly open in case Nikkou would want to come in.
She looked at her alarm clock, which still wasn't packed. It was now five past eleven PM. She couldn't sleep. She felt too anxious, happy, and sad about the next day. She'd be leaving her hometown tomorrow.True, she wouldn't lose many friends, but she was sick of this place, and she truly hoped the people at Nekomi Institute of Technology would give her memories she could cherish.
" Might as well go shower. " Leamen thought, " might help me sleep better afterwards."
The girl got up from the bed, got some clean underwear from her boxes and a clean, rather large, T-shirt that had once belonged to her dad. She then headed quietly towards the bathroom. Nikkou got up at the sound and went to her in the hallway. Leamen crouched in front of her and scratched behind her ears, before getting up and entering the bathroom.
She opened the light and dimmed it as she entered the tiny room. She rubbed her eyes a little, then quickly got undressed and got in the tub, which doubled as a shower. Leamen put the water as hot as it could go, putting the shower on, hoping it'd burn and wash her troubles away, and enjoyed its rather stinging heat on the skin of her bare back.
***
He shifted his position on his chair, watching her through his waterpool. That pool was rather nice to look into the realm of Humans, but he couldn't wait; he was getting very sick of his situation..
" Soon enough," he thought to himself.
His thoughts suddenly drifted back to reality as he saw her getting up from bed and going to the bathroom, carrying some clothes.
She was going to take a shower! What a nice opportunity!
Those were his last thoughts before he got a huge nosebleed; she had just taken off her clothes and turned the water on. He watched her carefully, his cheeks red, a tissue stuck in his left nostril, as her skin turned slightly red, he guessed the water was way too hot. The man was about an inch away from his pool of water, watching her wash the curves of her feminine body. He noticed her looking up at some point, a confused look on her face, and then subtly turning away from his view.
" Interesting woman, " he said out loud, as he noticed her tail, confirming it was the right girl he was observing. Not to say that he didn't enjoy watching any other girl showering.
He groaned as something stirred inside him. That wretched goodness in him.
He made a little face when he saw the water stop running, probably from annoyance or deception, or perhaps both.
He waved his hand above the bassin, and it went blank as the girl wrung most of the water from her soaking, long blue hair and put her clothes on.
" Indeed, very interesting. "
End of Chapter 1
