WOW! This took a while! Sorry about that! I just got a HUGE writers block and couldn't think of what to write! Thanks for waiting...oops
The Evil Liar: Yeah I am a sucker for reviews
Shadowangel16: I LOVE REIKO!
Standard disclaimers apply
Chapter Three
(Reiko)
It was like I was slowly being pulled apart while crashing down towards solid ground but the ground never came because before I hit all went black.
"What's a pretty little thing like you doing in a rough part of town like this?" A tall man asked grabbing my wrist and lifting me up off the ground.
"Let go! You're hurting me!" I cried twisting trying to escape his grip.
"Pain tells you you're still alive," the guy had turned into the man I had called father for most of my life before I found out he wasn't, "Pain is a good thing!" I was then thrown into a wall my lower back connecting with a metal pipe running along the wall.
"Mamma!" I was at the river and Jomei was drowning, oh God he was drowning.
"Hold on!" I flung myself into the raging waters fighting to get to him.
Finally reaching him I dragged myself to where a person was waiting to grab him, handing him off I reached for their hand. But I slipped and was carried away by the current over the waterfall.
"Reiko, Reiko…" a voice called.
"Reiko!" Jerking awake, I gagged and struggled for breath my lungs seemingly filled with water; flinging myself forward I tried to expel the water from my respiratory system. Nothing seemed to be coming up but my body kept convulsing until I brought up the contents of my stomach, for a minute longer I just stayed like that and drew deep breaths. My body was trembling from having to retch up what had been in my stomach and having to relive my past in such a realistic way. Groaning to myself softly I shoved myself up into a standing position and swiped the back of my hand across my lips and spat trying get rid of any remnants of bile from my mouth. Shrugging my shoulders in an attempt to loosen them up my lower back screamed in pain and I lightly placed my hand over the place where I knew there was a huge bruise from my memory.
"What was that all about?" Hiei demanded glowering at me.
"You wouldn't understand." I croaked before clearing my throat and spitting out more of the left over gunk. Wearily I wondered if the memories would ever fade, if I would ever be able to close my eyes and not worry about having to relive my past. The only thing that would stop the episodes I knew was the death of the one who had started it all, the one who had sired me and then abandoned me.
"So what's the plan now?" Hiei asked and one eyebrow rose in question as I ruffled my short cut hair.
"We infiltrate Taro's home…after I change." I announced taking off my backpack and fished around in it until I found a small mirror with an ankh on the back, carefully extracting it I held it up. Gazing at my appearance I drew on my energy and focused on the change I wanted, slowly my hair grew longer and turned a dark chocolate brown and my eyes swirled a dark sapphire blue. Next I made myself slightly taller and rounded out my miniscule curves as I turned my lips fuller, changed my nose and made my ears just a little bit bigger. With one last thought I changed my clothes to a pair of light blue loose cloth wrap around pant and a flowing blue bell sleeved v-necked embroidered shirt.
"You done?" Hiei demanded watching me slip the mirror back into my bag.
"Do you have the invitation?" I looked at him and raised an elegant eyebrow. I loved the disguise I was in, it made me feel desirable.
"Yes," he snapped.
"Ok, let's head out, his house is only a hop, skip and jump away," I turned to the direction I wanted to go and began walking, Hiei close behind.
X-X-X-X-X
"This place is bigger than I thought!" I exclaimed staring at Taro's home, it was huge and modeled after a castle, there were amazing stained glass windows and the towers looked like the mushroom ones in Russia. It the elegance of the later French castles in the Ningen world, but it was easy to see that its defenses were impenetrable. I knew it would have taken me a couple years to get in there without an invitation, but I wasn't about to tell Hiei that, I knew he'd rub it in.
"You have to go first; you're the one that was invited." I nodded at the gates where a man was standing looking harmless enough but from his stance it was easy to tell he was a guard. Hiei sauntered up to him and waved the invitation at him.
"Hiei Jaganshi?" The guard looked up from the invite.
"And guest." Hiei hooked a thumb at me and I smiled as prettily as I could without barfing.
"Can I have your name Miss?" The man pulled out a clipboard with a pen attached.
"Rei, just Rei." I informed him quietly.
"Hold on one second and you'll be shown to your room." He wrote down my name and signed his next to it. "Tonight will be the open party that everyone can come to, meaning the ones who aren't staying here. Tomorrow morning is the gift giving procession and then that night is the select party, if you are invited you know. The next day at noon is the judging of whether the children shall be recognized as adults or not."
"Thank you." I inclined my head to the man before a pretty servant came out of the shadows.
"May I take your bag?" She held out her hand and I politely declined. With a swift nod and curtsy she took off down the many twisting and turning passages in silence. On the walls hung many portraits of people, both demons and apparitions alike, some were well-known while others were probably only known to the family members. Statues of monsters and heroes were placed in strategic spots to show them off subtly. A few of the rooms we passed had name plaques on them to show who stayed there.
"Here you are, if you need someone to show you to where you need to go all you must do it pull on the bell and a servant will be with you shortly." The maid unlocked the door and placed the key in Hiei's palm. "The party shall begin at seven o-clock and if you are hungry before then we can have food sent up." With a final curtsy she left.
"Who would have thought that Taro would actually have pleasant staff in his household…I mean being the jackass that he his?" I began to poke around the room taking in all possible entrances and exits. There was always the possibility that someone would attack and you always had to be prepared. There were two beds, a private bathroom with bath and shower, a couch and two cushy chairs along with a big window that looked out on the "courtyard." It was like a hotel room but better.
Plopping my bag down on the bed closest to the window I dropped down on it and peeled off my shoes. It was going to be a long night and a little bit of shut eye would do me good. Not paying Hiei any mind I swung my legs up onto the bed and allowed myself to drift off into the oblivion of dreams.
"Isn't she adorable?" A woman with long beautiful blond hair asked the man next to her. "She's perfect!"
"She looks like a tomato," the man responded. He was shrouded by shadow so I couldn't see who he was, but I was more inclined to agree with him, the child in the woman's arms looked like a tomato. "Why does her head look like a cone?"
"Well, she was just born! She'll look better in a day or so." The woman defended the silent bundle she held clutched in her arms. "But can you believe it Lion? She's ours! Our own flesh and blood, with ten teeny-tiny toes and ten teeny-tiny fingers." The smile that flashed across her face lit up her bright green eyes.
"Doesn't look like mine, doesn't look a thing like me," the man muttered teasingly. "Did you have an affair with the milkman?" Outrage made the woman's mouth drop open.
"Lion! You are horrible! Even a blind man could see she has your nose and ears! Not to mention your eye shape!" She scowled at him. "I'd hit you but it'd disturb her."
"What about her hair? I am quite sure that white doesn't run in my family or yours…" Lion was having a hard time keeping his amusement out of his voice.
"I'll have you know my grandmother had white hair!" The baby shifted in her sleep and her mother gently soothed her.
"Before or after she hit old age?"
"Before!"
"Calm down Mikki, I'm kidding you." Lion reached out and picked up his daughter's miniature hand, dwarfing it in his much larger one. "She's going to be a beautiful woman some day and give me fits, I know it."
"What shall we name her?" Mikki asked.
"Something equally beautiful." Lion picked up his tiny child and cradled her close. A stray light fell across his face illuminating two bright copper eyes.
And the plot thickens...REVIEW!