Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. I only own the fic.
I know that I said I wouldn't update this until Silent Whisper of Roses was done, but there was a snow-day and I got bored. So please enjoy this fic and do some reviewing! Suggestions are accepted and so are flames. If you're gonna flame, please give me a reason as to why you don't like this so I can fix it in an upcoming chapter.
__ =^~^= ________Chapter one________ =^~^=
Scrape. Plop. Scrape. Plop.
"Whew, at least I don't have too much more to do," Botan said breathlessly. She paused for a while and brushed her sweaty bangs away from her face. Even though it was cold outside, she was sweating from shoveling the snow that covered the sidewalk. She gazed into the distance where the teenagers her age were playing in the distance, throwing snowballs at one another. She sighed inwardly. She had only been here for less than a week and already the people here thought she was weird. Finding friends was going to be hard. She didn't know the first thing about friendship.
Maybe Touya was right. Maybe I am worthless as a human in Ningenkai, she thought sadly, returning to the tedious task of shoveling the snow. She shook her head. "No," she said firmly to herself. "There's no way I'm going to let him tell me how my future will turn out. I got this far alone." She looked up at the small house.
An old lady was nice enough to let her have this house free of charge. The woman had hired Botan to work as a maid after school. Already, Botan had a house and a job. This was a remarkable accomplishment to her. She felt that she was lucky to have gotten this far without a struggle. Still . . .
She gazed once again into the distance. Having a friend would be nice, even if it was a guy. Since her escape, she was reluctant to have formal contact with a guy because it reminded her of the Makai Yakuza. She did fine a lo of them attractive, but guys were only trouble, demon or no.
Botan set her mind to the shoveling once again, knowing that once she was done, she would be able to do something to treat herself for a change. She would do what the normal humans would do. Like shopping or eating in the eating places the humans called restaurants. That would be nice to do. She smiled thoughtfully.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the ominous feeling that would tell her someone was watching her. She didn't know that a thief was hiding behind the thick clumps of fallen evergreens.
Not that this particular thief was like any normal thief on the face of this planet. This thief was a demon—a well-known demon by the name Youko Kurama. He was on a mission to kill this specific girl as a final favor to the Yakuza.
A smirk graced his lips. Typical. The Yakuza fools want me to destroy her? Amazing how they are unable to see the potential in the humans they manage to enslave. She's actually beautiful—for a human. He cocked his head thoughtfully.
Now . . .how to kill her . . .? I haven't had much fun these days. After the Hell Rains, most of my prey has died away. I'll play with her a bit until her time comes. But how will I be able to manipulate her mind?
His amber eyes flickered across the area, scouring for something to aid him.
WHUNK!
Something solid made contact with the back of the fox demon's head. His fox ears twitched, a sign that he was irritated. He turned to find a small human boy.
"Hey mister, don't you know that Halloween is done? It's gonna be Christmas soon!" the boy said, bent down to gather more snow for another snowball. "You're a freak, mister."
Youko raised a clawed hand to kill the human child. "How dare you insult me? You're a waste of oxygen."
"What's that?" the boy asked in awe. He had managed to gather enough snow for two snowballs. He backed away. "You're weird."
Youko, still on his hands in knees, slunk forward to kill the boy without Botan having to notice his presence. The boy threw a snowball in his face. "Impudent human," he growled, following the boy with his hand still poised to strike.
"DADDY!" the boy screamed, running away to a nearby house.
Youko looked after him, shaking his silver hair from his eyes. No matter. I have more important things to attend to. He pushed a few branches of the evergreen aside to peer at Botan. She was nearly done with the sidewalk. He looked closer to see how much she had left to do. He felt the weak Reiki of an approaching human.
"You're the freak that's been harrasin' mah boy, ain't you?" a man said.
Youko looked up to face the man. A gun was clutched in the man's hand. Youko narrowed his eyes at the man. He had run-ins with guns before. It wasn't what he called fun. He let his Death Plants lose to home in on the man's specific Reiki level.
"Holy shit! You really are some kind 'a freak-show!" the man exclaimed. He let a few rounds from the gun escape and hit Youko full in the chest.
At close range, the pain wasn't something to laugh about. Not that the fox demon was worried, of course. He used his Reiki to heal the bullet wounds and push the metal bullets out of his skin. "Please do something more lasting. I want to know what you can truly do." he said to the man.
The man backed away and shot several more rounds until running off. Youko growled, beginning to chase after him. He could heal his wounds later. He stopped suddenly when he sensed Botan's Reiki behind him. He lay on his stomach in the snow, making sure that his wounds leaked out enough blood to turn the snow crimson around him. He knew how he was going to play this out.
"Is anyone there? I head gunshots and . . .oh my gosh!" Botan kneeled beside Youko and touched his back. "Are you okay?"
"Not really. Can't you see that I'm bleeding?" Youko said weakly. He held back a satisfied smile and controlled his voice well enough to make it sound like he was fatally injured.
"I'll get you some help. Can you sit up?"
"No, I don't need help from the humans. Can you help me sit up, please?"
"Humans? Who are you?!" Botan helped him sit up. She peered into his eyes. "It's you! You're him!"
"You know me?" Youko asked, truly confused.
"I've seen you a few times out of my window. Touya's talked about you a few times. You're Youko, the fox demon thief."
"I'm, touched, but right now I need you to help me." He looked at her imploringly, using his charm to make her soften under his gaze. "You're good at healing, right?"
"I-I don't know about that. I've never been able to test these things out."
"I'm sure you'll do fine. Please, I need help and I don't want to be seen by these humans. I already got attacked by one just because I look like this."
Botan felt touched by the remark. He sounded so sure of her and he knew what it was like to be discriminated in the living world. She smiled weakly. "You don't really look much different from everyone else."
"Nonsense. See these?" Youko made his ears flatten against his head. "That's eccentric for a human."
Botan giggled. She found Youko charming compared to the impression Touya had given her when he had described the fox demon. She also found him attractive. How was anyone able to resist the strange amber eyes or the unflawed skin? He was perfect in every aspect.
Perfect except for the fact that he was powerful and was able to kill her easily if he wanted to. She backed away from him. "I can't help you," she said suddenly.
"But I need your help! I—" Youko curled up in a ball, both hands at his wound. He pretended to faint from the loss of blood.
Botan gasped and touched his arm. "Oh no," she muttered distractedly. "What am I going to get myself into?" She took her scarf off and wrapped it around Youko's waist where the wounds were. She half-dragged him into her house, making sure to get rid of the crimson snow caused by he gunshot wounds.
__________________________________________________________
Please review and tell me what you think. If you think this fic should be taken down, please tell me.
Thanks to the following for reviewing my first chapter of this:
Fire Rose, dragonbabe, Moonlite Goddess, PassionateAngel, DarkAnimeChick, KitsuneGirl, crazy nixie, Kittykat, miyako14, sweetness, Mourning Fox, Rosie, and Kuramaandhiei4ever.
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry and if there's any misspellings, I'm sorry! Please keep updated with reviews!