A flash of lightning streaked across the darkened skies as the only human around cursed softly. The roll of thunder that ensued startled his prey, just as he had predicted. The hunter watched with a small twang of sorrow as the deer sprang away in terror, ample behind bouncing with every clop.

There goes a decent dinner for the guys, he thought sulkily. Fancy being the leader of the most revered mountain bandit when he could not even catch a proper deer. As he gathered his gear, getting ready to head back before the imminent downpour seize him, a slight rustling of leaves to the right gave rise to some hope. Maybe he would get the prized meat home after all.

Like any good hunter, he set his gears down gently before straightening himself up. He scanned the horizon, taking a longer time at where the last disturbance took place. He silently hoped that this one would be at least as bountiful as the one he had been tracking since dawn. Quietly, he drew back his bowstring, aiming at the conspicuously shadowed patch just behind the bushes. Just as he was sure his prey would not bolt on him, he prepared to let loose the arrow in his hands when a series of low growls stilled his movements. Instead, he heard the crunch of dried foliage under many padded paws approach his prey.

With barely seconds for him to act, he released the arrow without any aim, effectively freeing both his hands as he cast the bow away, and whipped out a metal fan strapped behind his back with practiced ease. With both hands, he swung the metal fan down, shouting "Rekka Shinen" with all the force and vigor he could muster. Bright red fire spewed out from the tips like magic and singed more than a few coats of furs as the pack of wolves fled the scene wisely. The man shook his head incredulously. Something major is slated to happen to the country, hell even the world, if the shrewd wolves were to decide to hunt out in daylight.

But now wasn't the time to ponder over the fate of the far future. Just before his astonishing flaming act, he was sure he had heard the prey let out a very human yelp. He had thought it was just a misinterpretation of sounds in the forest but a string of equally human, albeit colorful curses that wafted over proved him wrong. He hurried over to where his "prey" laid, only to find a boy barely seventeen sitting cross-legged at what he had previously thought was a conspicuously shadowed patch, clutching his bleeding arm and glaring deathly daggers at him, despite the fact that the boy was trembling. Either from fear of the wolves or anger at him, he wasn't sure.

--FYFYFYFYFYFYFYFYFYFY--

"What in the bloody pink oceans was that all about!" the boy yelled, scaring away any living creature within a five-mile radius. "What kinda dumbass hunter are you, shootin' at a someone like that? Can't you tell the difference between a person and a porcine? Geez!"

"I…wha? …You're bleeding…" he stuttered lamely, obviously overpowered by such a formidable foe. Refusing to back down, he retorted with a just-as-lame, "What do you think you're doin' alone in the forest anyways?"

The boy, instead of feeling intimidated, snorted in displeasure. "Who died and put you in charge of the forest now? I can go anywhere I wanna go." Which was punctuated by a poke in his injured arm by the shooter himself.

"Oh yes, I see you're taking real good care of yourself," he smirked at the hiss the boy unwittingly let out.

"This wouldn't have happened if not for y—hey! What do you think you're doin'?" the boy shouted, yanking back the wounded hand that had been tenderly straightened out while he was yammering away, only to feel a jolt of pain that almost always ensued when yanking back wounded hands travel up his shoulder. The man had then fully utilized the abrupt rigidity that came over the boy to continue what he was doing—which was to cause more pain as he wrenched the arrow out of the boy's arm in one swift motion.

"What does it look like, you lil' tyke? I'm stopping you from bleeding all over my mountain and inevitably saving your scrawny ass," he finished with a knot and gave the boy a small slap on his newly bandaged arm just for good measure. "See? That wasn't so bad was it?"

"Scrawny ass?" the boy fumed but gave a small shake of his head. "More importantly, your mountain? Who do you think you are, Hakurou of Mt. Reikaku?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," He watched as the boy's expression morphed from a sneer to doubt and ultimately stopping at awe.

"You mean… you're the leader of the mountain bandits everyone is talking about? The ruthless pillager of villages and cruel dictator of the mountain pass?"

"Wow, my reputation does precedes me," he rubbed his chin thoughtfully before turning to the boy before him. "Well, now that you know who I am, shouldn't you introduce yourself? Or at least gimme your address so I can hull your scrawny ass home,"

A small murmur passed between the two before Hakurou leaned in, one hand cupped his ear. "I can't hear you" he teased, this time provoking a violent reaction that almost caused him his hearing.

"I DON'T HAVE A HOME OKAY!"

"Ouch, you don't hafta shout," the man wiggled a finger in a futile attempt to clear the ringing. "Where're your parents then?"

"Dead from some disease years ago," Hakurou raised an eyebrow. The big plague happened more than a decade ago. Could this boy actually be living on his own since then? "How about friends or relatives?"

The boy shook his head.

'The boy's a survivor… it'll be a damn pity if he was left to die out in the wilds like this,' he thought before voicing a totally different concern. "How about a name then? You do have a name right?"

"I…" the boy went silent again.

"You…?" he prompted.

"I don't remember," the boy brooded. "Maybe I had a name once but I don't remember it anymore. For as long as I remember, everyone else was calling me koji—orphan."

"Orphan aye? Technically, they are correct. You are an orphan aren't you?" Hakurou felt bad for teasing but that was such a good chance to get back at the boy that he couldn't resist.

"Doesn't mean I hafta like it do I?" the boy snapped at him before turning away to mope.

"Nope you don't. That's why I'm gonna make you a deal," That immediately caught the boy's attention. "From now on, you'll have a name. You will be called Kouji!"

Almost as quickly, the boy's face fell before turning into annoyance. "Like that is very much different from what I'm being called now."

"No, no. This is different," Hakurou grabbed a nearby twig and began tracing two words on a bare patch in their vicinity. "Kou as in strike. Ji as in son. Not 'orphan' okay."

"Kou…ji?"

"Yea! Kouji. Now you can proudly proclaim your name to the world," Hakurou got up from his crouched position and began packing his gear. "I don't know about you but it's getting late and I'm getting hungry so I'm gonna be heading back now. You should too." And with that, Hakurou turned and left.

"…Wait!" the boy called. "Let me go with you. I don't have anywhere to go to anyways!"

"…You just don't wanna go back to town coz everyone will make fun of your new name, aren't you?" Hakurou laughed as the boy's cheeks flushed red.

"That—that's not true!"

"Whatever you say," Hakurou teased. "However, since we are in need of an errand boy… Consider yourself hired, Kouji."

"Yessir!" the boy who'll now be known as Kouji ran after his savior, both physically and psychologically.

End.

Phew… what started as a small exercise had turned into a full-blown story with a word count of over a thousand. It's truly been awhile since I wrote anything. It's been a longer while since I wrote anything Fushigi Yuugi. And this fic idea is long overdue. I've been toying around with this idea since the start of last year but never managing to discipline myself enough to write it out. I also didn't have a good plot to write to too. And my plot was tragically trashed after I reread Genrou Den. Some quick revisions were made so if you find any ill-placed phrases, please don't hesitate to review and correct me. Email works fine too if you think your comments will be too long.

My sincere apologies if Kouji and Hakurou seemed OOC. Kouji was scared shitless by the pack of wolves and attempted to cover his fright by being angry with Hakurou, who did fire a shot at him, even if it was to save him. Who wanna argue that being fired at would not warrant some form of anger? -Waves a Magnum with a maniacal grin plastered on her face- But since this is written mostly in Hakurou's P.O.V., I can't quite explain it. Maybe I'll write a companion piece but that'll hafta depend on my mood. It might take years for it to form fully so I wouldn't bet on it.

Also, just in case you feel like correcting me; yes, I do know Chinese and yes, my Japanese is so-so. I know for certain that the kanji for Kou means attack (but strike sounds nicer. Heehee…) and the kanji for Ji means child or son. So 'Kouji' effectively means 'striker kid'. Haha… Not so, I jest! As for 'orphan', I could be wrong about it but from what I gather, the jap pronunciation for it is 'kouji' as well. Same stress on the same syllable but for differentiation sake, I decided to use 'koji' instead. Hope you guys don't mind me taking things into my own hands. Kouji the Kouji… that's gotta sound weird. A sure-fire way of getting village kids to tease you too.

I'm also sure that with all these stuffs that I took liberty in changing (like Kouji's parents being dead a long time ago, him living on his own for that long a time and how come he didn't bother to run away sooner), I could classify this as AU, or semi-AU at least. Haha… I might seriously need to consider a companion piece very soon to explain all these plot holes. -frowns-

Last but not least, reviews reviews reviews. I can't stress enough on that. Your opinion is what shapes my future in writing so please, help me improve on my poor story.

Edited: Many thanks to KittyLynne for her wonderful review. And I didn't say it's wonderful just because it's my first review either. Heehee… I've done some rereading and touching up, so I hope you'll find that the flaws you'd pointed out are smoothened out properly. If it doesn't, well, your offer as a beta reader still stands right? -sugary smiles-