Kohaku: Wow, damn, Obsidian, you and I are really popular. For the sake of my ears, I'm glad I actually show this chapter.
SilverRainbow223: Hope the email I sent reached you and explained things. If not, let me know, okay? n,.,n
Arano Honou: Should we get one of the girls to check up on her, Jenna? Damage to her brain is the last thing I want happening to her. Not even on the list. (Shiku is still busy nursing the injuries given him last chapter, muttering things about union rights and health plans)
Kitsune Kit: Yes, actually, I have in the case of Kurama and Aislin….(plots 'evil mean things' to do to characters)
Magus784: There are several differences between Obsidian and myself. One, I am not an energy-starved fox kit, I am a fully-charged kitsune. Two, 'Dian is out of practice with hiding his energy signature—besides which, all the fluff-head had to do was follow Aislin. Three, if Hiei actually does try something I have artistic license to alter his appearance and behavior any way I chose—including some things with Kuwabara. Blackmail; the system works. 'n,.,n'
Shadowkitsuneonna: Whoopsie! Lemme fix that! Thanks for the reminder! on,.,no
Asilin Kheldarson: Yummy, skittles! (Goes off chasing the rainbow to see if the end has either candy or shinies.)
—————————————————————————————
A few days pass, life returning to normal at Sarayashiki, the daily sprints of the new bishounen becoming a familiar sight as he tries to escape his fanclub between classes. His favored hiding spot is up on the roof, on the access shelter's own cement roof, soaking up sunlight while Yusuke chases the girls back down the stairs.
"Damn girls!" the punk complains after the eighth or so time, settling once again back into his nap pose; half reclining against the wall behind him, fingers laced on the back of his neck with his legs stretched out. "Ya think they'd get a clue when they keep finding me up here!"
"Yusuke," the violet-eyed boy drawls lazily, "that would require them to be humans with brains, not a flock of fluff-headed birds taking the roles of vultures."
The other teen roars laughter, slapping his leg and looking up to where Haru sprawls with that messy head chinning the edge of the small roof. "Gotta a point there, Haru!" When the laughter dies away, Yusuke leans back to gaze up at the new student. "So. Rumor mill has it you sprinted from Science wing to the nurse's office carryin' about a hundred ten pounds. True?"
A lazy grin. "If that girl weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet I'd be surprised."
"So Uotani got clunked in the head?"
"Yeah, but Myojin cleared her as being a non-hospital case." Obsidian rolls over so that all Yusuke can see is the back of his head, gazing skyward. "So what's her story, anyway? You know, right? I mean, a guy like you's got his finger damned near in the pulse, desu ne?"
"Yeah, that's pretty on. Uotani ain't too unusual, I guess." Yusuke rubs his nose as he thinks. "Lessee, she showed up 'bout three years ago, transferred when her folks got divorced an' her mom moved to get away from the guy. I guess she got full custody since I've never seen Uotani headin' off fer her dad's or nothin'. Pretty flashy little bit when she first started goin' here, but I guess someone managed to bully her without anyone else findin' out about it, 'cause she started clammin' up a couple weeks after that. Hardly says anything to anyone 'cept fer Amazuki or when teachers ask her to read aloud, sticks mostly to herself."
"Myojin said it was the third time she'd been in for kitten-rescuing this year."
"Yeah, that's Uotani for ya. She just wades in durin' a fight and starts whackin' heads together 'til it stops, then starts patching up anyone who needs it. Same goes for the few druggies around here; whenever one shows up she mother-hens 'em until they stop, just to get her to leave them alone. A real Mother Theresa with attitude."
"Yusuke, when you're going to talk about someone, you'd better make sure they aren't there." Both boys start at the sound of Keiko's voice, staring up/down to find the brown-haired class president standing there with her arms crossed, a blushing Zephyr standing behind her. "I came up to find you so you can be on time to Iwamoto-sensei's class for a change and instead I find you gossiping like an old woman."
"Hey, but Haru's the one who asked—"
"How's the head, Uotani-san?" Obsidian cuts in smoothly, smiling benignly down at his 'charge' with just the faintest hint of fang showing. For some reason, he can hide every other aspect of his strange blood except for his fangs. Oh, well. Things are weird enough around here that a couple of natural fangs don't even raise an eyebrow.
The girl blushes harder, pushing back the bangs over her left temple to show the slightest discoloration darkening her skin at her hairline. Keiko snaps her fingers, a smile replacing her scowl. "Oh, yeah! That's the reason Uotani-chan's here. She wanted to thank you for helping her out the other day. Come on, Yusuke."
The silver head and the black watch as Yusuke is dragged, kicking and whining, through the door and down the stairs. "If he doesn't like school so much, why does he even bother coming, I wonder?" Obsidian sighs, before jumping down to give Zephyr a sweeping, courtly bow. "It was my pleasure to help you, Uotani-san. After all," and here he grins up at her through his own messy bangs, flashing more fang and looking very much a scoundrel, "it's not every day a pretty angel just falls into my arms like that."
Zephyr turns tomato red and stares at the ground, not daring to speak a single word. The disguised youkai frowns, bending down so he can peer up through her bangs. "Hey, do I actually get a thank-you from your own mouth, or do I have to keep on imagining how you'd sound from the times you read in class? You sound so lifeless when you do that, I wanna hear the real you."
She looks away, still blushing. Obsidian maneuvers around to try and catch her cinnamon-colored gaze again, laughter beginning to bubble from his throat when she continues to evade his eyes. Finally he jumps up onto the fence and does a handstand, pretending to almost fall.
"Aw, come on! One word? Pretty please?"
She dashes over, fear blooming in her eyes as she watches in horror the fox hand-walk across the fence as though it is solid ground without a sixty-foot drop to his left. Zephyr bursts out, "Get down from there before you fall!"
"Who, me?" He drops to the roof beside her, giving the frightened girl his best innocent look. "I wouldn't fall from an easy stunt like that." And as she gapes at him, he reaches over and lightly flicks her on the nose, grinning like mad. "By the way, gotcha!"
The silver-haired girl starts to inhale, her battle-aura beginning to glow a purple-gray hue. "Why, you…! You…!"
"Prick?" he suggests helpfully, dancing away as she takes a swing at him.
"Get back here!"
"Why?" he counters, continuing to lead her a merry dance around the roof. "So you can swat me?"
"No, stupid! Your hand's bleeding!"
He stops, blinking at his gashed palm. It bleeds in a slow trickle, a trail of splatters having formed during his bit of mischief to glitter crimson in the sunlight. Totally without thinking, he licks it clean before studying it more closely. Eh, just a bit of a cut, I probably just caught it on a piece of something when I hopped down. Nothing serious, I should be fine. Zephyr makes a hissing sound before grabbing him by the shirt collar and hauling him off Keiko-style despite his numerous protests that he's gotten worse.
Nurse Myojin looks up from wrapping up Kuwabara's head as Zephyr pushes her captive into her office, the grey-eyed woman lifting one eyebrow while she ties off the bandage. It's an amusing sight; a wisp of a girl three inches shorter than the youkai boy brooking no arguments if one observes the stony expression the girl wears.
"Hey, Haru, what's up?" Kuwabara asks, reaching for his bookbag at his feet. The nurse yanks him back up by the jacket-collar, scolding him about extra blood-flow to that gash beneath his hair—courtesy of Yusuke, no doubt—while smirking at the protesting kitsune.
"I just scratched my hand is all and I really should be getting to class—"
"He licked it, Nurse Myojin." Zephyr glares at her captive. "And it's not a scratch, dummy! It's a good-sized cut from that rusty, dirty fence-top!"
"It ain't rusty!"
The middle-aged woman rolls her eyes as she snags Obsidian, dragging him over to the window so that his injury is lit properly by the early-afternoon sun. "Kuwabara, stay. Shinkai, hold still and let me look at this. For future reference, licking a wound is not a correct method of sanitizing it."
"Never hurt my ouches before," he mumbles sullenly. Zephyr makes another ones of those hissing sounds we're beginning to recognize as her trying to keep from smacking him.
"How many times have you just spread nasty saliva on an open wound?"
"What, you think I keep count? Ouch!" He scowls at the human prodding the slash, her pale, glittery reiki soaking into his skin. "Stop that!" Looking back over at his antagonist, he shrugs one slender shoulder. "I dunno, couple hundred?"
Twitch. "Nurse-sempai, please restrain me from hitting him."
"If you hit him, he probably deserves it, so no." The brown-haired woman leads Obsidian to the sink and tilts his palm up, pouring hydrogen peroxide on the still-bleeding cut.
"Nyowl!" The black fox wrenches loose and retreats behind a startled Kuwabara, cradling his hand and glaring ferociously at the two females. "Lemme alone! That hurt!"
"If it hurts, it means it's infected," the carrot-top explains, twisting around to half-grin at the bristling fox. "Personal experience, dude. Better let Myojin-sempai take care of it 'fore you get gangrene or something."
"Licking will get it properly clean if they'd just let me do it right, I'll have you know," Obsidian complains to his possible ally, not budging an inch. "Not once has a hurt of mine gone bad after I washed it." He conveniently forgets that more often than not any hurt he obtained once within the circle of Yoko's band was doused with healing herbs or youki-Healed as soon as it was noticed.
"You sound like you were born with four legs instead of two!" Zephyr snaps, distracting him long enough for the nurse to walk over and grab his ear, hauling him back over to the sink, the student never noticing the twin winces both fox and Healer share. That's entirely too accurate for comfort. "Now stop being such a baby!"
Submitting with a most sullen expression while an unruffled nurse pours more hydrogen peroxide on the slash wound, Obsidian grits his teeth as it foams and froths its way down to the bottom of his injury with a persistent sting. His fingers twitch and he nearly bites through his bottom lip in his effort to hold still and not embarrass himself any further.
To be honest, he's had more physical contact in the last four or five days than he's had in almost a century and he still isn't accustomed to it, having been kept in a small cell that contained a bed, an enclosed privy, and a small table upon which food would appear or disappear. Occasionally he'd get a book that would occupy his mind for only a few hours no matter how thick, his imagination hungrily devouring the new information and storing it away to be contemplated later.
Until the stinging stuff had been applied and woke dormant nerves, he'd even forgotten the sensation of pain. It's not a welcome experience. But he holds still, swallowing the blood he'd drawn from his inner lip to prevent another outburst from the glowering female guarding the door and his only viable means of escape—she thinks. He even allows antibiotic cream to be liberally applied to the cut before it is bound in light cotton bandage and tied off.
Kuwabara had left sometime during the proceedings, heading off to class after getting a firm reminder about how to treat that head injury. Not that he'll listen, really. After so many years of taking abuse from Yusuke, other punks, and demons, he's got the best constitution of anyone he knows.
"Now, young man, I expect you to leave that bandage on for a couple days except for cleaning it correctly with warm soap and water, not your tongue, applying more of this cream to it after every wash. Understand me?"
"Yes'm."
"Good. Zephyr, you can take him to class now."
Mr. Iwamoto gives them a hard stare as the two walk into the classroom, Obsidian still sulking, Zephyr still fuming. "You are both tardy."
"Uotani's fault," grumbles the black fox, pointing to the indignant girl with his bandaged hand. "I didn't want to bother going to the nurse's but she made me."
One craggy eyebrow rises. "What did you do to your hand?"
"He cut it on the fence, sir," the girl replies, forgetting in her residual temper that she rarely speaks aloud unless told to by an adult. "Then he thought he could get away with just licking it."
"What's wrong with that?" her companion nearly shouts, stomping to his seat and bringing his books out with a bang. "Geez, a little self-sanitizing's never killed me yet."
"Just you wait, one day it will," she retorts back, taking her own seat and handing him the test he'd finally gotten to just two days ago. It's marked with an eighty-seven in red pen, some of the black fox's irritation washing away. Heh. Not bad for someone who hasn't read Shakespeare in thirty years.
The two fall silent as the short-fused teacher goes back to his interrupted lecture, Obsidian apparently writing notes with utmost concentration. Zephyr finds out differently about halfway through the class when a small origami tiger lands on her desk, the lines on the paper forming some of his stripes.
She glances sideways to find her rescuer looking back from the corner of his eyes. When he catches her attention he wriggles the fingers of the hand resting on his desk, the rest of him seeming intent on the lecture. 'Open it'. Though reluctant to ruin such a delicate piece of work, she unfolds the tiger while watching Iwamoto-sensei, to keep from getting in trouble for being inattentive or for passing notes.
That illusion is much harder to maintain when she glances down and reads the single line of hiragana written there. 'At least I got you to talk to me, didn't I?'
——
"Hiei, any news on the Avalon?"
"Hn. No. It appears he's found himself a bolt-hole and is using it to full advantage. I have suspicions of where he's hiding, but no solid leads yet."
A resigned, impatient sigh as the prince of Reikai leans back in his oversized chair to scrutinize the impassive fire apparition standing on the other side of his desk. "There are more reasons than the obvious to recapture him quickly, Hiei. For the sake of what you hold dear, find him fast."
Hiei turns on his heel and stalks out, calling over his shoulder, "I hold no thing dear, toddler. Those people I consider important can take care of themselves." And woe to the one who harms the one person he values who cannot.
——
Zephyr walks beneath the trees by the Science Wing two days later, looking for a quiet, non-otherworldly occupied place to eat her lunch. These days, it's getting tougher to find a spot that won't have something drift by sooner or later. Faint snoring reaches her ears just as a presence impinges on her awareness, the silver-haired girl looking up to find Shinkai asleep on a thick branch, as perfectly comfortable up there as a hunt-weary panther would be. His cheek is pillowed on his crossed wrists, wet-ink hair tumbling loose from its normal ponytail to curtain his face.
For a moment she has a sense of déjà vu gazing up at him, a different picture overlapping the one she knows is real. A young boy dressed all in black, with hair hanging down nearly a foot, his golden eyes shining down at her in mischief.
Blinking that vision away, she finds herself surprised when she notices that not so much as a bug-ghost is buzzing around here. That's a surprise, but a very pleasant one. Ever since she got here, when she hasn't been busy with school, she's been trying to lower the city's—or at least a four-mile radius around Sarayashiki High—hauntings.
With anticipation making her cinnamon eyes glow, Zephyr takes a seat beneath Shinkai's tree, prepared to have a nice, quiet lunch for a change. For once, she won't have to banish, seal, or bother with a single spirit of any sort while digesting. (1) Wonderful!
"Mzzph? I smell chicken…" a sleepy voice mumbles from above, Zephyr once more looking up, this time to find glazed violet eyes blinking down at her. "Oh, hi, angel-girl."
"Hello," she replies quietly, smiling up. "I have plenty of food—Okaa-san always packs extra. Would you like to share?"
"Smells heavenly." The black fox drops down to crouch beside her, still drowsy from sleep. "Thanks." Something percolates through his spider-webbed mind, that fey head tilting sideways in an endearing expression. "Hey. You're talkin'."
Still in a good mood from the lack of uninvited guests, she hands him one of her sandwiches before replying. "I scolded you the other day, it seems kind of pointless not to. Mind the pepperoni."
His cross-eyed expression as flavors explode over his tongue is priceless. In about five seconds the sandwich is entirely gone and his fingers are being licked appreciatively. "Scrumptious. Whazzit?"
"My own concoction. Italian dressing on white bread with a filling of leftover chicken, fresh spinach, and some slices of pepperoni. Salami makes a good substitute but the pepperoni gives it a nice bite." She hands him another sandwich with a chuckle. She wasn't exaggerating when she'd told him her mother always packs extra. Despite it being her daughter's recipe, Kumiko Uotani uses it because she is forever convinced that her slender daughter will starve between breakfast and dinner; so she always packs four or five sandwiches, two bags of chips, and two bottles of soda or juice in the teen's bookbag.
This time the handout disappears more slowly though with no less relish, Shinkai taking the time to discern the different flavors so he can memorize them. Heavenly spirits, he thinks to himself, if I DO get caught again I'm requesting this as lunch every day.
"How's your hand, Shinkai-san?"
He swallows his current bite and raises the hand he'd sliced on the fence. Not so much as a pale scar marks where it had been. "All better. I heal super-quick." He squeaks when Zephyr grabs his wrist and tilts his palm into a patch of sunlight, face shocked.
"But it's only been two days! There's not even a scar or anything!" He tugs his hand back, wriggling the fingers in a playful gesture of counting them.
"So? I told you, I heal quick. Speaking of which, how's your head?"
A slender hand rises to Zephyr's hairline, pushing back the bangs to reveal not even a bruise marring the pale skin. In retaliation for her own grab, he gently grasps her chin and tilts her head to one side, eyeing it carefully. Nope. All healed. Not even a hint of discoloration. With the same gentleness he had used to touch her, he releases her and sprawls back on the thick grass. "Glad you're all better. But you gotta learn how to climb trees."
"I know how to climb trees just fine, panther-san," she retorts playfully, dropping a bag of chips on his chest. "It's just that some branches think it's funny to drop me."
"Panther-san?"
"You looked like a big cat sleeping up there."
"Oh." A pair of expensive-looking sunglasses are pulled from his pants pocket then slipped on, a yawn creaking the hinges of his jaw. "I just got tired of napping up on the roof is all. Trees are much more comfy and they smell better than fake rock." The bag of chips just sits there, forgotten, as the black-haired male is reclaimed by sleep.
After a moment Zephyr retrieves it, tucking it away before she leans back against the tree, soaking up the unexpected quiet. Since she and her mother had moved here, her world always seems to be filled with noise—either from the living, the dead, or the what-the-hells-are-yous. So she had become quiet herself, just to find some measure of that elusive event.
Without intending to, she too, drifts off to sleep.
Later on, when they are emerging from detention, Haru gives her a sheepish smile. "I guess we need to bring alarm clocks, desu ne? Hey, can I walk you home? Pretty girl like you shouldn't wander around by herself. Gives the scumbags bad ideas."
"No, that's okay, but thank you," Zephyr replies sweetly, watching as his face falls. "I have some errands to run for Okaa-san on my way home, and besides, I know how to take care of myself. Angel's honor."
He reluctantly agrees, parting ways with her at the main gate as he starts to head for his apartment, and she takes the turn that will lead to the downtown farmer's market. She doesn't notice the navy shadow trailing a half-block behind her, nor does she notice the black shadow trailing her own.
Obsidian has just taken a perch in a tree when a hand comes out of nowhere and grabs his shoulder from behind; the fox automatically moves to flip whoever's trying to capture him but stops when a length of cold steel is pressed ever so gently to his throat.
(("Oh. It's just you, Janganshi-san. Don't scare me like that.")) He releases his captor and the steel is withdrawn, Obsidian turning to watch the fire apparition sheathing the magnificent katana at his hip. (("Why sneak up on me like that?")) The young apparition uses Kitsune, a tongue he knows Hiei will understand since Aislin told him once that Hiei knows practically every language in the three worlds. How, though, she has no idea.
(("Hn. Habit.")) The reply is short, brusque, and totally Hiei. (("What are you doing?"))
(("Following the fallen angel over there.")) A hand points out the silver-haired girl busy bargaining at a fruit stand selling several kinds of melon. (("Just keeping an eye on her, you know? I got a bad feeling something's going to happen."))
(("And you're so adamant about it because…?"))
Bemusement colors those violet eyes gold for a breath. (("Funniest thing. No idea."))
Hiei rolls garnet eyes in exasperation. Here the kitsune is on the quest of his life and he ends up chasing after a pretty girl. Typical hormonal fox. But curious despite himself, he too, chooses to follow the human girl as she makes her way through the bazaar, buying some fruit here, vegetables there, and snapping up a few new varieties at the tea-seller's stand.
Eventually she makes her way out of the bustling crowds and heads for a quiet alley that leads back towards the neighborhood of Sarayashiki High. And that's when the scented trouble strikes.
One moment Zephyr is strolling along the clean, empty space between the backs of several businesses, and the next massive hands that are all the colors of bruises knock her groceries from her arms and clamp down on her wrists. What the assailants probably don't know is that they've effectively stopped her from reaching the spell-seals she always carries in her pocket.
As if from another person, she finds herself growling at these oafs, pissed that they dared accost her and destroy her property without so much as a by-your-leave. That growl is swallowed when her antagonists come into view, five not counting the one holding her, so six in total. The shortest is close to six feet, the tallest more than seven, all dressed in unkempt clothes that stink of unwashed bodies overlaying the metallic tang of blood. All of them have hides that appear to have through a most thorough but careful beating that covers every exposed inch of flesh.
"Aw, lookie at the little ningen girl," the one with vise-grips on her wrists laughs to his cronies. "She growled at us, ain't that cute?"
"Let me go, now."
"Huh, ain't skeered, neither," another huffs, grabbing her chin and tilting it back to look at her face. "Real pretty though. Think we can make 'er skeered, boys?"
"I will warn you again," she says quietly, without inflection, gazing steadily at the male who holds her face. All the fear is firmly stamped into a deep hole far back in her mind with a good tight lid; it won't do her any good now to panic. "Let me go, now."
"Girlie's got guts, give 'er that," a third chortles, rubbing his hands together with glee. "Le's have some fun, eh, boys?" A hand that lifts at her skirt is kicked away with another of those sourceless growls.
"Paws off, muck-for-brains!" Crap. Why did they have to grab both hands?
"Girlie's got temper, too." Her captor tightens his grip enough to make her squeak with pain as bones rub together. "Let's do somethin' about that." She starts struggling in earnest as they start pulling at her clothes, one rip informing her that her skirt hem is no longer intact, another mentioning that her shirt is now considering missing a sleeve.
"LEAVE HER ALONE, SCUMBAGS!" a furious voice roars from above, a black blur plummeting from one of the roofs to slam into her captor with both bare feet before shoving off into the other off-guard youkai. "PICK ON SOMEONE WHO CAN FIGHT BACK!" Within seconds her mysterious rescuer has cleared a space around them, herding Zephyr to the wall by the simple means of standing in front of her and reversing, forcing her to retreat as well or trip them both.
She scrutinizes her unexpected knight-in-black-silk as he bristles in front of her, her eyes widening at the sight of a bushed-out black tail lashing behind him, and as he risks a glance back she gets an almost Roman profile with ears the same obsidian black as his hair pressed tight to his head. And a sharp, burning golden eye with a dilated elliptical pupil.
"You okay, miss?"
"Fine, but my clothes aren't exactly in what I could call modest condition."
"Heh, I think that can wait." And he turns back to the semi-circle of youkai, that tail bushing out even further.
The leader steps forward, arms crossed over his chest. "Well, if'n it ain't the ragged Avalon all growed up. How'd you get outta prison, brat?"
Zephyr stares. Avalon?
The males apparently ignore her for a moment as they engage in the usual posturing. The one named Avalon crouches a bit, bloody hands spread wide to display talons already glittering with greenish ichor. "'Cause I'm stronger than you, that's how. Feh. How'd a bunch of vermin like you get past any of Koenma's watchers? Boss-sama normally catches rats like you before they get five feet from whatever portal they use."
"'Cause we're smarter than you, boy." Zephyr screams as the hulking brutes all launch themselves at her savior at once, but she whips out a fuda and presses it to the skin of the first attacker she can reach. When it sticks, she shouts a word that scalds her throat and watches as that unlucky youkai turns into a living torch, screaming and running around in random circles.
Avalon disposes of him mere moments ahead of the others, all six bodies crumbling into ash that swiftly starts blowing away on the breeze. As Zephyr stands there shaking, the black fox—for a kitsune he must be—growls softly before licking at a shallow slice on his upper bicep. "Inari take them," comes the muttered oath after he spits out a mouthful of blood. "I was rusty, careless, and weak to boot. I'm going to catch all kinds of hell if the bosses find out I got nicked."
A few more licks from his rough tongue before the wound is considered clean and he faces the shivering girl, the toes of one bare foot picking up the slightly-singed piece of paper lying atop one of the ash piles. The anger is gone from the golden eyes but not from the shoulders—those are still singing with tension at the close call. Cinnamon eyes blink as the scrap is offered while he still stands at least three feet away. "You're sure you're okay?" he asks meekly, sighing with relief when she nods and takes the spell-paper from him. "Good. For a moment there I thought I wasn't going to be fast enough."
"What about you?" she counters in a voice almost as meek. "You got hurt in that fight."
A startled glance at the light wound that has already stopped bleeding. "What, this? Cha. Give it a day or two and it'll be gone like all the others I've picked up that were just like it." A roguish smile. "I'm truly glad you're all right, miss. I'm sorry for frightening you, but scumbags like those were need to be dealt with as fast as possible. Pretty angels like you shouldn't have to even hear about slimeballs like lust-youkai."
"Who are…?"
"You can just call me Avalon, pretty lass." As graceful a court bow as he can manage on knees turned to jelly. Guess I'm still not at full strength yet. Better hightail it home soon before I fall flat on my nose. "It was my pleasure to rescue you." He then turns and crouches down as though to leap back to wherever he came from.
"Wait!"
"Yes?" he responds, looking back over his shoulder at her, half turning to reveal a head of lettuce in his claws. Floored, she watches as he starts picking up what groceries hadn't gotten stomped or blood-splattered. "What is it, pretty lass?"
"Um…thank you. But…don't I know you from somewhere?"
A brilliant smile. "You're very welcome, lass, but I don't think I've run into you before. I'd remember such a lovely face as yours." He places what turns out to be a majority of the items back into their cloth bags and hands them to her gently, making sure her uncertain arms aren't going to drop them. "I'd walk you home, but I'm afraid I'd catch a bit too much attention, what with the ears and all." He turns to the alley wall and jumps, clambering in silence onto the fire escape despite his tired body before looking back down at her with another smile. "Now, I want you to head straight home and pretend this was all a bad dream. Safer for the both of us that way. Swift travels."
And he's gone. Zephyr stands there a moment longer with her eyes threatening to pop out of her head until she comes to herself with a shake. "Mother will be wondering where I am," she tells herself firmly, pushing away from the wall and walking resolutely past the last smudges of blood and the few things that got crushed. "And I need to fix my uniform." A rent the length of her palm has been torn in the fabric near the hem of her skirt, her sleeve hangs half off of its seam.
From the rooftop above, Obsidian watches as his chosen…well, not quite ward but close…walk with efficient strides down the street towards home. His lips are curved in a relieved smile, his elbows braced on the crenellations with his hands resting on his biceps—incidentally covering that slash and the rip made in the black silk of his open-front shirt.
A sardonic comment from behind hardly makes an ear twitch. "Not bad for a half-dead, half-starved kit fresh out of prison."
"That means a lot coming from the strongest fire apparition in the worlds, Jaganshi-san," the 'half-dead' kit replies calmly. Hiei snorts and mutters something that sounds like 'damned with faint praise' as he walks over to stand beside Obsidian.
"Got some spunk for a human girl. And those spell-things she's carrying are nothing to sneeze at, either."
Obsidian beams as the braid flicks around a corner out of sight. "I know. Isn't she wonderful?"
The owner of said braid: "Atchoo!"
-
"What's the report, Hiei?"
"Hn. No sign of him yet, toddler. However, he does appear to have taken out five D-class that escaped the notice of the fox, the snowflake, and myself. Judging by the smells, he was rescuing a ningen female."
The toddler-prince Koenma, pro-tem ruler for Spirit World when his father, the giant King Emna Yama is away, sucks pensively on the blue binky that has only once been removed from his mouth. "Why would he want to rescue a human?" he wonders aloud. "He's a criminal, born and bred. Saving a human shouldn't even have occurred to him."
"Perhaps she's his current prey. You know how complicated a fox's dance can be." Inwardly, Hiei apologizes to the three foxes he knows-Kurama, Aislin, and Obsidian—for the slight that he knows would earn him several dressings-down from his soul-sib if she ever found out about it.
"Good point. Do you know who this girl is?"
"No. I could find her scent again if I felt like trying that hard, but I don't. There are far too many ningens packed into that city." If pressed, technically nothing in any of the three statements could be considered a lie. Hiei doesn't know anything about the paper-magic girl other than the fact that she goes to Sarayashiki—and Obsidian is showing a marked interest in her. And the fire apparition's opinions on anything in the human world (any thing, mind you) are extremely well-known.
"Another good point. If you find her, get Yusuke and Kuwabara to keep an eye on her if they can, or Aislin and Kurama if she's in their half of the city. She might be the key to recapturing Avalon."
"Hn. Whatever, Koenma."
-
"What's up, Koenma-san? Usually it's Yusuke-kun you haul in kicking and screaming. Or Hiei-koi, glaring and scowling for that matter." The toddler stamping papers at an oversized desk looks up, oak-brown eyes serious. Standing with her hands tucked behind her head, her hips tilted and one foot resting behind the other is a young woman no older than seventeen, with slanted peridot eyes framed in glittery purple make-up. Her long, milk-chocolate hair is streaked in purples and greens, her body decorated with neon blue mesh under bright purple tanktop and black jeans, gel bracelets, and leather. Silver earrings glitter from her ears, a blood-red orb the size of her thumbnail hangs on a gold chain around her neck. A stylish mp3 player is hooked to her belt, earbuds left to dangle down her shoulders.
"Kohaku," the ruler greets absently, nodding towards a photo resting on his desk. The wolf youkai steps forward and picks it up, examining the image of a filthy young fox, so besmirched she can't tell if his hair is naturally black or if it's dirt making it that way. Half-crazed, empty eyes stare up at her, his fangs bared in a silent snarl of despair.
"Who's this? And why on earth does he look like a bath is a foreign concept?"
"That's your first solo case. His name is Obsidian Avalon, and he escaped from prison just a few days ago. Hiei has already been set to it, but for some reason it feels like he's hiding something about it. Normally he'd have caught his quarry within a few hours, a C-class like this."
"He mentioned it, I think. C-class, huh? Not much of a challenge—"
"He's faster than Hiei."
Silence. Then, "Holy shit, and you expect me to catch him? I think you've been stamping too long, the ink's damaged brain cells."
"Kohaku, Hiei is evading this case like it's a fangirl. I need you to work on it. Yusuke can't, he's chasing some bigger prey a few towns over starting this afternoon with Kuwabara as back-up."
Hiei's mate-to-be eyes the picture again dubiously, then shrugs. "Eh, why not? Mind if I see if Hiei's picked up anything, though? He has a much harder time hiding things from me than he does you."
"Good point. Do as you will, you've got almost full carté blanché. Just try to keep the collateral damage down because our insurance is through the roof already."
"Gotcha!" Kohaku Piers the wolf demon chirps, strolling out with the photo tucked into her pocket.
—————————————————————————————
(1) That's what she thinks.
Well, the net of hunters is starting to draw in on Obsidian, since Kohaku is most decidedly not someone to shirk her duties. If somebody correctly guesses what happens when our kawaii little kitsune meets out Glitter-Goth wolf then they get a cookie and the chance to visit trouble on our favorite ice-fox. It'll be a yes-or-no question, without the question. 'n,.,n' I'm so evil sometimes. Ready? Good. Start guessing!
Terms:
Baka: dummy, stupid, fool
Bishie: This is a must-know for any anime fan who's also a girl. It's a shortening of 'bishounen' or beautiful boy. Can also be used for the counterpart, bishoujo, which is beautiful girl. Mostly it's used for boys, though.
Chibi ichi: in this case, little ones. Japanese doesn't really have plurals for some reason…
Daijoubu desu ka?: Are you all right? Can be answered with a hai (yes) or daijoubu (I'm fine)
Desu ne: right/affirmative?
Domo arigatou: thank you
Douzo: you're welcome, please take this; you get the idea.
Haru: spring
Ikazuchi: Thunder. Called 'Zuchi by the Avalons when they were younger, this half-lightning, half-wolf demon is the current King of Thieves, having taken over the role when Yoko Kurama fled to the Ningenkai. (Long story explained in Winter's Rose)
Ikeike/kisama: take a wild guess from the context.
Inari: A deity (or kami, in Japanese) that can be either male or female. Is the patron kami of rice and foxes.
Kasai: Hiei Jaganshi's first thief-name back when he was a century or so old (give or take a decade or two). It means 'fire'.
Kikan: Mirror. An affectionate nickname used between Hiei and Aislin.
Kimiko: noble child
King Enma Yama: Ruler of Reikai and Ningenkai, very big and very powerful. (Seriously. The guy's at least thirty feet if he's an inch.) Father to Prince Koenma.
Kizi: short for kizuishou, or citrine
Koi: love, also fish but I usually use it as 'love' in this fic.
Koorime: Ice maiden, a kind of apparition that almost always lives atop a floating island of winter. There are currently three known exceptions to that rule living elsewhere; Hiei, his twin Yukina, and Aislin. Only Yukina is a full-blood koorime, and given the fact that she was sired by a fire apparition I wouldn't be surprised if she's got a few tricks hidden up her sleeve that have nothing to do with ice.
Koneko: kitten
Koshou: Pepper
-kun-chan: affectionate suffix generally used for children or good friends. –chan is closer but is usually meant for girls, while –kun seems to be easily crossed between genders, much to many fan's confusion.
Makai: Demon World
Mizu: Water. Mizu (aka Mercenary Guild Captain Mizu) is one of Aislin's good friends from about five centuries or so ago. He's a cat youkai.
Mou: gentle negative
Myojin: 'gracious kami'
Neko: cat
Nezumi: rat
Ningen: human
Ningenkai: Human World, also known as Living World
Okaa-san: mother, respectful tone
Reikai: Spirit World
-san: respectful suffix. –sama is another, but ranked higher, like royalty or gods high.
Sensei: teacher (can also be applied to doctors, etc.)
Sensui: Fountain. See Shinobu
Sempai: Upperclassman, 'person who knows more than I do'
Shinkai: Deep sea
Shinobu: Remembering. Sensui Shinobu was the previous Spirit Detective before Yusuke took the job; went bad after a particularly gruesome case. With the help of several discontent psychics and one Oracle demon he nearly opened a portal between Makai and Ningenkai that would allow even B-class or A-class—hell, even S-class—to pass freely between.
Shishou: master
Taiko drums: those really big, cool drums they pound on during festivals. Watching people play on them is fascinating.
Youkai: demon/apparition
Youki: demon/apparition energy. Human energy is reiki (literally, spirit energy)
Yukata: cotton kimono, usually summer-wear. There are specific colors and patterns used in kimonos to indicate age and rank; a girl below puberty will usually wear something pastel with some form of nature or somesuch on it (ie goldfish, bubbles, flowers)
Yuuki Miyami: Courage; (from several) not yet darkness. Was the very first Spirit Detective (in my fic, that Aislin has encountered)
Uotani: Sorry, no translation available.
All the names of the actual characters can be easily looked up online.