A/N: Hello once again, Audience.
It's a little longer, this chapter. But the last of it was in the midst of something I wasn't willing to break apart, so yeah.
Ciao for now!~
Symbols Guide:
* : Written by CM; She writes for Akari and Hiei
3 : Written by Star (supposed to be the 'heart' symbol, but FF doesn't like the 'less-than' sign, so it's a 3 instead); She writes for Shikiyoku and Youko/Kurama
~!**!~ : A universal transition between scenes or characters, sometimes used to indicate a passage of time, but most often used to transition between major scenes that are happening. As the story progresses, this will evolve into mainly separating the (usually two) scenes happening between authors/characters.
As a general rule, anything in italics is thoughts.
Unless it's used in a sentence like this, which merely indicates emphasis.
(Words in italics and within parenthesis is dialogue between Hiei and Shikiyoku via the bond between them after Hiei becomes Shikiyoku's Consort. As soon as the 'thought' occurs, it can pass between them, and does not actually have to be formed into exact words-feelings and sensations can pass through as well-in order to be picked up and the meaning translated immediately by the other. For the sake of the coherence by the reader, words and sentences are used as normal. It cannot be picked up by telepathy.)
"Quotations are usually reserved specifically for telepathic dialogue being transmitted from one being to another, but sometimes this can also mean a character isn't being careful about what they're thinking and anyone with telepathy in the nearby vicinity can listen in without taking any effort."
The only exception to that last rule is for the Shiba Inu dog, Nabu. All of his "spoken" dialogue will be in italics and quotations, but is communicated through body language or dog-like noises, so unless a character is able to translate those they are unlikely to pick up on what he is saying any more than the average person might understand his general moods like aggression (bared teeth, ears back) or excitement (wagging tail).
The Nabu Exception also applies to anyone when they are in an animal form, if the dialogue is in italics and quotations, unless stated otherwise.
Previously on Yu Yu Hakusho!
Shikiyoku and her newly acquired follower, Kasai,
continue to trek through the lower levels of New Human World,
Shikiyoku occasionally leaving Kasai to wait for her
as she ventures into towns to find answers.
On one such occasion, she returns to Kasai
battered and bruised, and with short hair,
the price she paid for her inquiries.
There is a morning where Kasai rises before Shikiyoku,
and discovers that she weeps in her sleep,
himself suddenly realizing she searched for a who not a what.
Kasai's discovery leads to his tending Shikiyoku as she slept,
wiping away tears and wondering at her sorrow.
As the days pass and her nightmares worsen,
he finds himself laying next to her
with Shikiyoku clutching at him and calling him 'Hiei,'
a name Kasai does not understand,
but resigns himself to being a replacement for.
~!**!~
Hiei questions Shubou, leader of Central Tribe,
but does not get any answers he likes,
and finally makes his way to the Niiro Kaga and Kafu,
still looking for a way out of the level.
Kafu informs him that he will find no answers anywhere,
and eventually in his despair Hiei begins to turns to drink.
Some time later and the fire demon makes a journey
across the Ninth Level to the location of the True Fire,
hoping to find answers from it that he could not with others.
It tells him he can leave with Shikiyoku,
and of all the answers he receives,
it is this one that seems to calm him,
as he finally accepts waiting.
~!**!~
Akari discovers during her travels
that her tail and ears have been restored
and that the scars on her body have disappeared.
Soon after, she finds her dog form also returned,
and finds Moriko near their campsite
only to flop next to him for sleep.
They begin their trek towards the North...
This time, when Moriko called for a break, it was from several yards back, where Akari had left him to run behind her and struggle to keep up. When they finally did come to a stop, the sun had already set and the stars had begun to shine above the trees. The breeze was warm instead of cool, indicating it was closer to summertime than she had originally guessed. How was it she continuously seemed to miss the wintertime? It was almost as if the layers did not wish for her to experience her favorite time of year…
"It's your turn to hunt." Akari turned to look at Moriko, her expression unamused at the demand he had issued. "What? I got the food last time!"
"You seem to forget that I'm not from this Layer, and don't have any idea what's edible and what's not."
"There you go, talking nonsense again."
Akari raised a brow at him as she sat on her rump, giving off the air of I'm not moving.
The pair stared at one another for a long while, Moriko's sharp eyes never wavering from Akari's own calm gaze. Neither of them blinked, or even so much as moved in their silent struggle of power. In fact, they sat so long that the crickets began to chirp and the lightning bugs began to buzz about, the world continuing on even as the two of them refused to do the same.
That is, until Moriko gave a loud huff and stood. "Fine! You make the fire, I'll get the food. Don't be surprised when you get the gross stuff though!"
"Do that and you won't have fire."
"See, this is why you don't have friends."
Akari stood on all four, moving in the opposite direction of Moriko. "I didn't come looking for friends, moron."
"Rude." *
~!**!~
That same day proved no different from the rest: running themselves ragged until Shikiyoku dropped to the ground in a place that Kasai assumed would be lucky enough, just like all the other times, to not be near any Infected.
She fell asleep, he waited for the dreams to start, but just before he sensed the onslaught, Kasai lay down next to her on a hunch and pulled her into his arms.
The dreams did not even stir her countenance and he felt her readily relax in his embrace though she turned as the other night to face him, cuddling closer and giving out that same sigh, resting her fingers lightly over his core and dropping into a deep slumber.
Kasai could not say who exactly this 'Hiei' was. Or had been. But if Kasai could take his place, be his substitute, even if only for a few hours, then the fire demon resolved to do so.
Over half of their journey through the Sixth Level passed in this way: running and sleeping and more running. But each night after Shikiyoku fell asleep, Kasai would lay down next to her and gather her into his arms only for her to turn readily towards him and place her hand over his core. And each morning, he would wake up before she did and slip a few feet away to spend the last hour on his own.
And as a result, Kasai found her once tightly-drawn face started to ease into a softer neutral, the dark circles under her eyes beginning to wane just a little. Though she still did not smile, she appeared more peaceful, more rested with each passing night.
One such morning where he awoke to remove himself, Kasai flew into a panic when he realized she had a hold of his shirt, the fabric over his core gathered into her little fist, and she shifted with a murmur of quiet protest when he had started to release her and back away as he always did before.
Being caught in such a position made Kasai uncomfortable, unsure of how she might react if woken up, given that she had expressed thus far on their journey no such affection for him that might suggest sleeping next to one another like this, and regardless of his currently convoluted feelings on the matter that he refused to address directly, the thought of her immediately rejecting him or possibly sending him on his way made his pulse rise and had him growing stock-still as she shifted about, awash with a nervousness he had never experienced up to this point in his life and praying to the Kami that she would fall back asleep if he didn't move.
After a few extraordinarily tense seconds where Kasai did not so much as breathe, Shikiyoku settled back down and loosened her grip upon his shirt just enough that he could gently remove her hand from it and place it on the ground between them with excruciating slowness, staring intensely at her face the entire time so that he could track each twitch and analyze whether or not her eyes might pop open in the next moment.
Without moving a single unnecessary muscle, Kasai continued his measured escape once he was free of her grasp, only releasing the most relieved sigh of his existence after he sat with his back up against a nearby tree several feet away...
The very next night, Kasai made no hesitation of holding her once more, the experience of that morning filtered out of his thoughts by his exhausted mind.
The memory soon returned to him when he jolted awake out of a dream just as the night around them began to lighten, and as he blinked his fuzzy, sleep-laced vision clear he froze in place as Shikiyoku shifted once again, perhaps responding to the now-forgotten distress of his own nightmare.
Kasai jerked again as the rush of adrenaline that coursed through his body demanded a fight or flight response, and this time Shikiyoku murmured something Kasai thought might have been reassuring, though it was a nothing.
His problems increased tenfold when he felt her hand slip up to cover his core as if the motion would calm him and as he quickly attempted to back away her fingers tightened around the material of his shirt.
Flashes of the previous night came back to him, but instead of becoming frozen in place, this time Kasai's panic resulted in him simply trying to scoot out of her reach, and he was certain he nearly woke her up in the process.
With his wits returning, Kasai stopped moving and began the difficult task of waiting, nerves wound tight, until Shikiyoku fell into the deeper parts of slumber and he could more safely remove himself from her side.
After that encounter, Kasai would remove his shirt before laying next to her in the following nights, never once considering that he would let her sleep on her own for fear that the dark cloud from before might return to her eyes.
Unfortunately for him-or perhaps he would have considered it fortunate if he ever stopped to truly consider his feelings-being shirtless meant Shikiyoku would often rest her cheek against his chest, seeking out his warmth by getting as close to him as possible when he went to wrap his arms around her. He was however better equipped to remove himself from her as she had nothing to grasp when he would move away.
The only downside he found was the fact that it took him longer to fall asleep as his mind would keep him awake as it took particular note of how soft the skin of her face felt against him, or how she tended to position her head just underneath his chin and nuzzle at his jaw or the crook of his neck in her sleep.
Kasai tried his best not to let the lack of sleep affect his attitude during the day, but his reactions to every little encounter or slowing of their progress were tempered greatly by the limited hours of rest and he found himself snapping at anything that sought to impede them as they finished their trek through the Sixth Level and began to work on the Seventh.
His mood steadily grew more sour as he found himself wondering what Shikiyoku would do upon finishing their path through the Seventh Level. If their previous efforts proved anything, it was that this 'Hiei' would not be found here either, and her journey would surely be at an end for everyone knew the Eighth Level had become the dumping place of the Infected which the Hunters and mercenaries had been able to capture. And if this Hiei were to be found there...
He kept waiting with his own shortened temper for her mood to turn south, watching the peacefulness of her face intently for any insignificant indication that she realized the futility of her actions. But he never found any such thing in her now-soft expression and her down-to-earth, steady rhythm, instead feeling as if all of what he thought she should be experiencing mentally he was burdened with brooding upon.
At one point, he found himself scoffing aloud one night when they stopped after seeing her fling herself to the ground without care for how many little bits of clumped up dirt or rocks lie beneath her.
It would be the fourth or fifth night in a row where he just knew whatever tiny amount of sleep he might get would be lessened by the condition of the ground next to her.
"What?"
Kasai blinked and realized that he had been staring at Shikiyoku and while she may not have had her eyes open, she could feel the ferocity of his glare.
"Tch." Kasai turned his head away to stare off into the distance, contemplating as always when Shikiyoku might realize all her searching had been in vain.
"You always pick the most uncomfortable spots to lie in."
Shikiyoku had awaited his answer, but it had taken long enough for him to reply that she almost asked her question a second time.
"You could just leave you know." She mumbled into her arm.
Kasai whipped his head back in her direction. It was the closest she had ever gotten to telling him to 'go away,' and while the thought that she might do so still haunted him on occasion, he found that when she said it this way it was almost as if the choice had been his since the very beginning, that he could have chosen to simply stop chasing after her at any time, but she never would have forced him to go.
He turned away again.
"...I'm not leaving."
"Then shut up and get some sleep, hothead."
~!**!~
It seemed to Kasai as if the morning would never dawn.
Heaving out a sigh, he let the back of his head come to rest against the trunk of the tree behind him.
Blinking for a moment into the near-darkness, he closed his eyes, but his thoughts quickly turned back to the reason he was here against the tree in the first place and he sat up again, shifting around as if to take his mind off of it.
So far, he had gotten no sleep that night.
The last few weeks had all become a blur, and even if he had known anything about the layout of the Seventh Level, he doubted he would have had any idea about how much ground he and Shikiyoku had covered.
He reached up with a hand and rubbed at a sore spot on his shoulder where a portion of the bark behind him had irritated his skin.
Tonight though…
Kasai found his gaze wandering over to where Shikiyoku lay a few feet away from him, her silky hair streaming jaggedly across the bottom of her neck and in front of her face. It had grown a little since its original unintended cut and he recalled the feeling of it between his fingers-
No.
He forced himself to look away.
The night had started out like all the others on the Seventh Level: Shikiyoku falling asleep, Kasai removing his shirt and laying next to her before her nightmares could start.
He could only blame himself for the amount of sleep he had been getting, as ever since he decided it was the safer option to sleep without his shirt, it had become more and more difficult to only lay next to her, to only be the presence she needed, instead of what she wanted.
Which had become exceedingly clear that night.
Kasai felt his skin beginning to heat up as he tried in vain to forget.
His mind still reeled from the encounter, from the moment in which he realized she had started kissing him in her sleep, soft, inconsequential little things that even with his complete awareness of the feeling of her up against him he had not at first noticed.
He could still feel the gentleness of her touch, of her lips against the underside of his jaw, leaving a trail of flame all the way up to his ear from his collar bone the likes and temperature of which he was unsure he could conjure himself if he burst into flames.
The last town in which Shikiyoku had gone to gather information had been several days ago, and the fire demon had applied himself to the task of finding a local 'business' in which he might temper the burning ache she had unwittingly awakened within him.
The several hours she spent scouring the town for news he spent in more than a few dimly lit rooms of the establishment, seeking to quench his fiery blood, and had come out the other side of it satiated and able to rejoin her without hesitation.
Just the sensation of her held against him, her hand over his core, would make sleep nigh impossible as reigning in what he wished to do in those moments took much concentrated effort. And naturally he was forced to admit to himself that at this point he actually found her attractive, whereas upon first seeing her she had appeared too much like some dark, brooding human teenager for him to even consider her appearance as anything he might find pleasing to the eye.
However, without sensing any indication of mutual attraction from herself, he was not about to jeopardize his position as...whatever following a female for months on end for no clear reason made him...just because of his inherent nature as a male compounded by his identifying as a fire demon, which he would indeed confirm in an instant the rumors that his kind were more easily driven to the heights of passion in all parts of their lives, not just in their quick tempers only.
This particular night the pinnacle of his self-control had manifested in his managing to resist responding to Shikiyoku as she slowly laid a blazing path along his easily excited skin, himself nearly biting a hole in his cheek as he struggled to not let the forest around them erupt into a wildfire, unable at the same time to swirl up enough sense of mind to pull himself away from her.
She had nearly broken him when at the last she reached up with one hand and slid it to the back of his heated neck, finding that she had somehow coerced him into tipping his head towards so and letting her plant a final kiss on his own lips, unwittingly igniting a smolder in his eyes as his body screamed for him to do what it thought she asked for and pushing him to the brink of a blinding insanity that had caused the edges of his vision to give off red and blue sparks.
With an agonizing slowness, Kasai refused to let her kiss deepen, instead starting to unwind himself from her with a single-mindedness that threatened to shatter around him, but he managed to slip away before he lost all control.
A stray branch near Kasai's head burst into flames and dragged him back to the present from the all too solid memories he found himself reliving as he extinguished the fire with little effort, leaving the branch to smoke a bit in the aftermath.
Thinking about it was only making things worse, but she had been so...what was the word?
Not gentle, though it had been that as well. Caring? Strangely enough, the word did not seem strong enough to convey the sensation she had left shooting through his veins, leaving him fascinated by how she had called up his very energy to pulse through his body without his direct say-so, leaving him feeling uncomfortable in his own heat and still having not put his shirt back over himself.
Heaving out a giant sigh, he slumped back against the tree trunk in an effort to relax himself.
And there was something else she had stirred deep within his soul as well. Not just his singular passion, that he could already name. But something else entirely. Something he found he had no previous experience with and thus seemed incapable of associating with a word in his vocabulary.
It was in the midst of his musing, the best he could do at a distraction from his other thoughts, that he realized he was being watched. His initial instincts proved correct as he turned his head to met the pair of green eyes watching him from where she had woken up without a sound.
Somewhere inside his mind he flipped out, wondering what she was doing awake so early and why hadn't he just put his shirt on earlier and why did that even matter-
He somehow managed to maintain the same sort of calm in his gaze that she afforded to him, though there were flashes of his previous emotions flitting about in the darker corners of his eyes.
She raised a single eyebrow at him and he could sense within it the exact question he had hoped she would not ask.
He shrugged, blinking and turning away as he managed to mutter, "Too hot."
Perhaps fire demons were more sensitive to that sort of thing. Shikiyoku really had no idea. And thankfully for Kasai, she only shrugged back and did not press the issue as she stood up and looked around for her bearings before taking off again with Kasai hot on her heels. 3
~!**!~
Several hours passed, and suddenly Akari had the thought that Moriko may not be coming back. She blinked once at the fire, having swapped forms just long enough to create the blaze before returning to her furrier form to lay beside the flames. It warmed her body all the way to her soul, keeping her relaxed even with the thought of her traveling companion not returning.
She wouldn't have been surprised, after all. He was a fox demon- usually a fox moved on its own. But still, for some reason or another, the thought had her feeling… antsy. She couldn't quite explain why, she simply knew that she didn't enjoy the idea.
So when the sound of his heavy footfall came to her awareness, there was a certain amount of relief that smoothed the muscles in her back and shoulders. When the large fox came into view, she lifted her head in greeting, only to see that his fur was darkened and mangled, some spots tangled with a liquid she immediately knew to be blood.
She said nothing, knowing that since he was walking, it was not a serious matter. If he were seriously injured, he would be sitting somewhere preening himself, grooming his fur and treating his wounds.
"Have a rough hunt?" she finally asked, her tone light and only mildly curious.
"Something like that."
She lowered her head to her paws again, her chin resting on the tops. her eyes followed the fox, who moved closer and closer, until he lay next to her on his side, eyes closing. "Mind if I lay here?"
Though she thought it too late to ask, she didn't deny him the space he had claimed, even if she didn't enjoy his back against her side. "Shut up and sleep, fox."
Moriko let out a long sigh before he drifted into sleep.
And for the first night, Akari decided to stay awake and watch over the other, just in case. *
~!**!~
The going on the Seventh Level proceeded much as it had on the others.
Kasai eventually got himself another shirt, having left his other one behind in his haste to follow after Shikiyoku, and instead of letting her place her hand over his core at night, took to holding it in his own.
Her grip in that manner was never such that he couldn't slip away from her by morning. And she didn't seem to mind.
Ever since the moment where she kissed him, Kasai found his entire temper surrounding her and their situation to have settled at least somewhat. He spent his days musing over what change she had awoken in him instead of souring over how quickly their trek around the Seventh Level was drawing to a close.
In fact, Kasai found himself so lost in his thoughts and their routine that it wasn't until he nearly tripped over her that he blinked and realized she had slowed and he couldn't at first make out why.
One feature of their path across the Seventh Level had been what was likely Shikiyoku's deliberate avoidance of any contact with others. When they came to a populated area, she would skirt past it just close enough that she felt she had gotten a read-a negative-as to whether or not what she sought was there.
While outwardly her mood had not changed, the further they got into completing the search across the Seventh Level, the more excited she happened to feel.
If he was not here, then he must have gotten flung into the Ninth Level and that explained everything because he would have been unable to leave it and-
"Where are we going?"
Kasai's question coming from just about at her ear as they continued to dash forward pulled her from her thoughts and she pointed at a break in the trees towards a building of some sort that stood several miles away from the edge of the forest on flat, rocky ground. About half a mile on the other side of the building was a drop, a cliff, that one could not make out the distance of from their current position.
"Why?"
They'd never stopped before.
With the wind rushing in their ears, it wasn't as if they could have a lengthy conversation about it, but Kasai found himself a little suspicious in spite of it all.
"I know people here."
And that's all she would say on the matter.
It distracted Kasai enough that he found himself wandering back to his old mantras: wondering what she would do now, if this stop was her finally giving up. And a new one, one that left him nervous with the idea: might she leave him behind and try going further on her own? Did she realize how much he had helped her? Did she see how much of her former reticence and darkness had receded? Did she have any idea that it was thanks to him? If she left him, would it not all return?
Shikiyoku only slowed to a jog and finally a walk when they were close enough to the building for Kasai to see the symbols swinging over the entrance in the bit of wind that picked up around them for a moment.
The Last Stand.
Frowning, he followed Shikiyoku inside to find that the entire place was filled almost to the brim with demons he could call nothing else but mercs and guild members. There were Hunters interspersed among all of them, and the noise was overwhelming given that it had been weeks since Kasai had been around many more people than just Shikiyoku and himself. The Wilds were not this loud.
He could make out nothing of the conversations between characters as drinks were served and thrown back and pounded onto the tables, as food was stuffed into hungry faces and deals were made and money exchanged.
Shikiyoku made as much of a beeline as possible to the bar and the tender behind it, who may not have been gifted with extra hands like Kafu, but who appeared to be just as at home whipping up drinks with his two assistants as the white-haired demon of the Niiro Kaga.
Shouldering her way easily between two larger mercs who glanced at her and only grabbed their drinks when served so they could move on, Shikiyoku caught the bartender's attention as Kasai hovered over her back as close to her as he could managed, as if afraid he might lose her in the crowd.
"Surprised you've survived the Infection this close to the passage." She commented with her voiced raised so that the barkeep only had to lean forward slightly to make it out. She jerked her head a little to indicate the building around her.
As the bartender leaned farther forward to answer, he continued wiping his hands before letting the towel hang from the ties around his waist.
"Defensive barrier."
"Strong defensive barrier to stop any waywards or escapes."
"Strong allies who'd like to see this place stay standing."
Shikiyoku nodded and asked about any rooms that might be available.
The bartender gave her a nod in return and held up a finger, turning away to slip behind one of his assistants and get to the back wall to check for her.
Kasai leaned down and stuck his face near her ear.
"What is this place?"
"Last safe haven before the ruins of the Eighth. The Blight's extended to the forest now."
Kasai remembered the sad state of the ground as they ran the last few miles to the bar.
The bartender returned and Kasai let his attention wander and Shikiyoku leaned across the bar.
Shrugging the bartender mouthed, 'all I've got' and Shikiyoku only thanked him as she took the room number from him and slid off the barstool, tugging at Kasai's sleeve as she started to weave her way through the bodies towards the staircase.
Once they broke free of the crowd and started climbing the stairs, Kasai felt himself finally able to breathe freely for the first time since they walked in.
When Shikiyoku reached up and put her hand in front of her mouth and yawned, Kasai realized he couldn't remember the last time they stopped to sleep, and felt little surprise about her decision to not interrogate anyone in the room beneath them and instead went for a room first.
The room was small, and afforded little comfort outside of the chair in the corner and the bed against the back wall.
A bed which Shikiyoku immediately made for after removing her shoes and outer cloak by the door.
The lack of ceremony on her part as she collapsed on top of it made Kasai shake his head, almost smiling at her as she scrambled up like it was the best thing she had seen all day.
Slipping his own shoes off, Kasai made as if to lie down on the floor next to the bed and found that even though her back was turned, Shikiyoku lifted her arm from her side and appeared to wave him away from the idea.
"We c'n both fit." She might have been half-asleep already, but she did scoot closer to the wall. "I don' take up much room." She let out a little heft of a breath and settled down again, clearly intending for Kasai to join her.
Frozen half bent over, Kasai stood back up and warily assessed the situation.
"You shouldn't invite a fire demon to sleep next to you." He warned her even as he took a step closer, seeing her wave her hand again to both dismiss his words and insist on it anyway.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." He half-grumbled as he climbed up and lay down on his back, noticing that she didn't in fact take up hardly any room at all.
After relaxing into the pillow, Kasai glanced over and felt amused as he realized Shikiyoku always slept on her left side, it was just that usually he was on the other side and facing her.
Kasai started up at the ceiling, thoughts roiling around in his head and all of them centered around the strange creature laying next to him.
A little 'ping' went off somewhere in Kasai's mind and he felt his eyes drawn towards Shikiyoku's already sleeping form as she started to shift around.
The smile that he resisted earlier finally rested lightly across his face as he turned over and gathered her up in his arms, surprised and amused to find that as she made a soft little noise, she flipped herself around and only then let him draw her closer.
The softness of the bed beneath him and the warmth of the woman in his arms had Kasai quickly slipping out of awareness and into a deep sleep before too long, taking with it all his little worries and wonderings as the darkness overtook him. 3
~!**!~
When Akari woke, it was to a dying fire and singing birds. Her eyes came open to look around herself, taking in the still-smoking embers of last night's fire and the sun that had risen high in the sky this morning. It was no surprise she had slept so long, since she'd stayed awake most of the night to watch the fox demon sleep.
She shifted her head a little to look at the other, her head sliding over the dirt and grass until she was facing the spot where Moriko had been laying the night previous. Now, there was only dirt that had been stirred, and a few pawprints that faded away in the grass, his tracks untraceable.
She blinked once at the spot, as if unregistering the fact that he was gone. Slowly, she turned from her side onto her stomach, so she could then rise to her feet and take a look around herself. His scent was still on the air, but really, it mixed with the other scents of the area, which just so happened to have ferns and flowers and things that smelled of him.
By the time she realized it, the fact that he was gone, there was an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach and the back of her mind. The hairs on her neck began to raise, sensing eyes on her, and she turned in the direction from which she felt watched, only to see a flying ball of fuzz launch in her direction.
The fuzz and fur collided with her side, knocking her to the ground in a fit of growling fury as she rolled with the momentum, her teeth finding the first bit of flesh she could get hold of and taking hold just as hard as she could, the taste of blood running into her mouth and over her tongue even as she came to a stop.
There were teeth at her ears, tugging and pulling, and paws digging into her stomach, holding her to the ground as she kicked and snarled at the assailant.
"-got you while you weren't paying attention!"
Akari kept her jaw locked, her eyes finally cutting up to look at the demon who held her down, and she realized that this was who she had been looking for moments before, and he was… playing?
Was that what he was doing?
Her jaw released out of instinct, no longer feeling threatened, and the fox demon leapt away, his head bowing to touch the ground between his paws, tail lashing in the air as he eyed her, lips spread wide in a toothy grin just before he pounced again, high into the air and landing on her stomach again.
This time, she kicked at him and made an attempt to roll away, though he ended up with his teeth at her ears again, tugging and pulling and- was he yipping?
She blinked, not sure of how to handle the situation.
And after a few minutes of no reaction from her, Moriko pranced away to hide in the treeline again.
….Stupid fox. *
~!**!~
When Shikiyoku's eyes opened of their own accord an indeterminate amount of time later, she found that her sleep had been the best one she'd experienced in recent memory.
She also found herself quite unexpectedly in the arms of the one she had fallen asleep next to.
Feeling a bit taken aback at the situation, and wanting to extricate herself without waking him for fear of his reaction should he wake and find that she had placed herself in his arms sometime in the night, Shikiyoku slowly attempted to shimmy backwards, slightly unsure at how she might escape without notice.
In the end it didn't matter.
The arms that were clasped around her loosened of their own accord as Kasai shifted around to release her, mumbling something that sounded like, "I did warn you," before stretching a little and turning to his back.
As Shikiyoku pushed herself up and watched him settle back down, she felt the strangest sort of smile tugging this way and that at her lips, one filled with a sense of confusion and amusement at the predicament and his reaction to it.
He seemed to fall back asleep pretty quickly without further concern, even with Shikiyoku watching him.
After another minute or so, Shikiyoku crawled quietly from the bed, grabbing her cloak where she dropped it near the door and tucking her feet into her shoes, looking back at Kasai's peaceful expression only for a moment before opening the door and slipping through the opening to close it behind her.
~!**!~
Reaching his arms up above his head and stretching out his entire body, Kasai woke himself up when his hands brushed against the wall and the sensation made his awareness crash back into place as he became truly conscious and opened his eyes to the ceiling of the upper floor of the bar he remembered arriving at with Shikiyoku.
Shikiyoku.
Sending his eyes to the other side of the bed, Kasai vaguely remembered her waking up and-
What did she do then?
A rising sense of panic boiled up from Kasai's gut as he sat up abruptly and quickly established that he was the only one in the room.
And just as suddenly he had bolted from the bed, grabbing for his shoes by the door and beginning to hurriedly shove them on his feet as he tore the door open, the panic rising further into his throat when he noticed that neither her shoes nor her cloak were on the ground any longer.
Shooting out the door and not bothering to close it, Kasai bolted down the hallway, adrenaline pumping wildly in his veins as he ripped around the corner and nearly fell over as he skidded in an effort to change his direction so he could begin his descent of the stairs.
Skipping the first four stairs and landing ready to continue, Kasai stopped dead in his tracks when he heard quite possibly the strangest exclamation of his entire life.
"Kasai! I figured you'd sleep the whole day!"
Eyes bulging out of his head, Kasai could only stare at the dark-haired demon sitting in the empty room at the bar as she lifted her pint of drink in his direction as if to toast his presence before throwing back another swallow.
She looked...different. There was something glittering in the air around her and it was almost as if her eyes were sparkling, an expression that threw Kasai further off the track of his derailed thoughts, which had started with something about how she had never called him by name.
He wasn't even sure until that moment she knew his name.
After adjusting his wary stance at his initial shock, Kasai couldn't bring himself to move, a few seconds of pause revealing the nature of the shimmering air that distorted the air around her and caused some sort of haze.
Her energy.
Standing stock-still, Kasai realized he had never questioned what type of demon he had been running around with, but the nature of energy warping the area around her immediately made him swallow nervously as one word passed over his rapidly swirling thoughts.
Succubus.
It was the only one he had heard of that would use her energy to make her appearance come across as more welcoming, and there was no doubt in his mind that as she looked up at where he stood, her eyes were wanting him to join her.
And he found his feet moving of their own accord before his mind caught up, traversing the rest of the steps to the bottom and walking across the room to sit next to her.
Resisting pulling up a chair immediately, Kasai let himself glance over at the bartender and back to the shimmering energy of Shikiyoku, who was likely drunk enough to not fully realize how much of her energy was permeating the air around her.
"How many of those has she had?" A single eyebrow rose higher on his face, his lips twitching in an absent smile that did not quite bloom.
"Six, I think." The bartender was not quite so reserved with his grins and shot one at Kasai as he finished wiping down a glass and lifted it in Kasai's direction in a gesture to ask what the demon wanted it filled with.
"Seven!" Shikiyoku interrupted a little loudly. "Oh no wait-" She appeared to consider it for a moment longer before indicating that her current glass was in fact, "Seven. I've had six."
It was already half gone.
The smile that had earlier threatened to pierce Kasai's expression finally broke through, and unbenounced to him it was a mirror to the one Shikiyoku had given him before leaving their room earlier that morning: amused if slightly confused.
"Don't stand there all day." Shikiyoku insisted, waving him to the seat next to her.
It wasn't that he didn't want to, but Kasai did find her insisting to cause a reaction from himself that he almost felt he had no control over, but he somehow could not bring himself to grow concerned about it.
As the bartender served Kasai a drink, a group of mercs walked in the door and the bartender excused himself to serve them, leaving the two by themselves at last.
"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" Kasai finally said.
"You ordered one too, didn't you."
She didn't turn and wink at him, but Kasai had the distinct feeling that was how she meant it.
He'd never seen her in such a mood and it lightened his earlier fear of being left behind significantly. But still…
"I thought you left me behind." He said it as if in explanation of why he had gone ahead and ordered the drink.
She lifted her pint to her lips before answering him as he stared down at the counter under his elbows.
"I tried."
Kasai felt himself stiffen.
Shikiyoku sighed, "I was going to leave without saying anything to you. I really was. I had been planning it for about a level and a half." She raised and lowered a shoulder. "But I couldn't go through with it. I picked this place for you, you know." As she raised her pint again, she indicated the building around them and then took a sip. "You could easily join one of the roaming merc groups that go through here. You still could."
She took a longer drink this time and while Kasai had let her ramble initially, he interjected in her silence.
"And what you are going to do?" Kasai fiddled with the side of his mug.
"I think you already know."
He did.
He took a drink.
"You really think he's among the Infected?"
They both knew the state of the Eighth Level at this point.
"I hope not." Her response this time appeared more sober, though the glittering energy around her did not wane. "I don't have any idea what I would do if-" She stopped and shook her head as if to stop the thought before she could complete it. "But I don't think so. I'm almost certain I would know if that were the case."
There was another moment of mutual silence between them as more of their beverages disappeared.
The bartender reappeared behind the counter to fill the orders of the table behind them and make sure their drinks were not too empty.
Once he left, Shikiyoku picked up the conversation again.
"I've been asking the mercs and Hunters if they've seen him along the way or if any of them have chased after or captured him and none of them recognize the description."
"Is it possible we missed him on one of the other levels?"
She shook her head before he finished the sentence.
"Impossible. I am without doubt in my ability to track him. And feel just as assured that he would have found me regardless of his- Of whether or not he-" Finding herself once again refusing to complete the sentence, Shikiyoku took another drink as if that was meant to fill the spot. Holding the mouthful for a moment and letting it burn the sides of her mouth, Shikiyoku let out a sigh after swallowing.
After another pair of drinks, Kasai squared his shoulders and sat up a little straighter before speaking again.
"So...what's our plan?"
For the first time since he had appeared on the stairs, Shikiyoku actually looked at him, albeit briefly, with a sort of bemused expression to her face before regarding her mug once more.
By the time Kasai realized she had looked at him, her gaze was gone, but it drew his face into looking at her as a wave of what he recognized as a buzz delayed his reaction.
"You're going to stay here."
The words echoed a couple of times in his head before he heard them and knew that she had almost immediately said them after she had looked away.
He shook his head, "What's our plan?"
She did not appear to be convinced, but continued anyway, "My plan is to run the same general pattern of coverage through the next level and then do the same on the Ninth."
Kasai blinked, taking note that he was still staring at her and had no desire to look away before answering, "There are two things wrong with that plan and both of them are all of it."
He was perfectly aware of just how many infected demons had been cast into the next level to run themselves dry, and knew just as certainly that there was no way she would be able to get into the Ninth Level anyhow. No one could.
Finally inadvertently fulfilling the desire floating around unawares in Kasai's mind, Shikiyoku met his gaze and then squinted at him, her eyes glazed with an alcohol-induced shimmer that she could not directly control and one that initially softened Kasai's expression.
Until she spoke.
"I don't understand you."
Kasai barked a laugh and finally turned back to the front in his brief humor, "Ha! Rest assured: the feeling is mutual."
That pulled a chuckle from Shikiyoku's lips as she turned back to her own drink and took another swig.
Eyes darting over to look at her in the midst of downing the last of his beverage, Kasai wished her brief laughter had lasted longer, as he found himself enjoying the sound immensely, one that he knew he had never heard before and had been longing for since early on in their journey.
As he emphatically slammed his now-empty mug onto the counter, Kasai worked up the courage to respond.
"Seriously, though. I know you have this weird knack about you when it comes to the Infected, but even you aren't going to be able to avoid all of them once we get down there."
"I wasn't planning on trying to avoid any of them." Her response made it sound as if she thought it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Kasai whipped his face back in her direction, his expression clearly indicating just how insane he felt she was in that moment, and his momentary speechlessness left her uninterrupted as she also finished her drink and then continued.
"The information I've gathered has been pretty clear about how packed it is down there nowadays-"
"Then you know going down there is going to be a death sentence!" Kasai sputtered, "Only someone who's completely lost their minds would knowingly wade into something like that!" And at the moment, he wasn't sure if she wasn't crazy for considering it.
His former speechlessness returned as he could think of nothing more emphatic to say in that moment than that, but it left an opening for the returning bartender to refill their mugs, though the brown vessels both remained unattended as Shikiyoku stared quietly at hers and Kasai stared silently at her, waiting perhaps for her to concede his point and move on to something more reasonable.
"Do you know why I have such an easy time avoiding Infected?"
Kasai had nearly looked away by the time Shikiyoku's lips parted and she spoke again. And it was so soft that it took him a moment to register her question.
As he turned to take a gulp of his drink, he snorted. "Yeah, you're pretty damn lucky."
When she didn't answer right away, Kasai noted as he tilted the mug further that the former sparkling energy around her had slowed as if she had sobered within the last few seconds. He lowered his mug and set it down silently this time as she started to continue.
"I was one of them."
The way she was staring at her mug made it appear as if she thought perhaps the intensity of her gaze would bore a hole through it and let the alcohol flow onto the counter. The fingers she had circling the tankard tightened, knuckles whitening with the exertion.
Kasai wanted to laugh it off, to ease the tension that had settled over her shoulders so quickly and yet he found he had nothing to say, that she had never appeared to serious in the whole time he had known her and that he could not bring himself to look away as she admitted something he had never considered to be possible.
"The Infected we've skirted so far have been stupid. Mindless. Driven by their hunger and little else. I was more subtle. Faster. Smarter. Knew where to hit and how long to stay, when to run, where to hide and how to wait. I had patience at times. I've only come across one other Infected like that and it was before I met you. And the only reason I walked away was because I knew exactly how he thought. What made him tick." She took a drink and Kasai found himself too absorbed in her retelling to speak up.
"These Infected in the Eighth Level...they aren't like that. These are the ones the Hunters can catch, the ones who always follow the same patterns, fall for the same traps. And the ones that can no longer escape now that the layer-walkers are no more."
As her words faded off, Kasai blinked, unaware that he had not done so since she began speaking, and then swallowed before finally speaking.
"So...you really think you can avoid them all?"
"Not a chance."
"Then what the hell are you going to do?" It was almost a statement, he said it with such vehemence, almost certain that if she were to truly go down there that she would die, and for what?!
After another drink, her response seemed casual in comparison to his heated question.
"Run straight through them." She took another sip.
If Kasai had any liquid in his mouth, it would have spewed all over Shikiyoku as he sputtered nonsensically, unable to even manage a successful word in his disbelief, in his utter astoundedness at what, to him, was nothing more than a death sentence.
Had she really reached the end of her rope? And this was the way she was going to end it?
Finally he managed to put his words in a coherent order, "Y-You really are insane! All of this just so you can go get yourself killed? There's no way you can outdistance that many of them!" And having ran so many levels with her, he knew exactly her speed, her limits, her stamina, and knew that if the numbers down there were even remotely close to what had been reported, she would never stand a chance.
"All I have to do," Her calm response was in utter contrast to his quickly building emotional tirade, "Is make it to the Ninth Level."
"So what? So you can die with your back to a wall? You're insane!" He repeated again as if maybe her hearing it again would convince her. "It's not like you can get down there either!"
The look she gave him immediately sent him into a spiral of doubt, even as she simply replied in the midst of her sidelong glance at him with, "I can't?" Her eyebrows raising higher on her forehead.
As if struck with a blow to his head, Kasai's features twitched briefly, blindsided by what she appeared to be suggesting and turning to stare at his tankard as if it held all the answers.
Shikiyoku left him to his thoughts, but almost spewed out her next mouthful when he came back to her with, "Just how old ARE you?"
The suspicious look he gave her nearly warranted a bout of laughter and in any case, she lifted her arm to cover her mouth and attempt to dissuade herself from releasing the beverage that was already passed her lips, but she only barely managed it before she could no longer help it and began laughing, almost stunned that of all the things he could have chosen to say, that was what he landed upon first.
Tension finally diffused, Kasai found himself grinning into his mug as she calmed down until she turned to eye him and with a frank appraisal informed him that, "You have a nice smile. You should do that more often."
When Kasai put the drink down and shot a glance in her direction, he noticed that the glitter was back and swirling fairly furiously around her, her eyes sparkling at him once more in something that could have been laughter, but made him feel as if he were in on the joke and not at the center of it.
Somewhere he realized that for her at least, the alcohol appeared to affect her control over her energy, lowering what might have been her inhibitions about it and what it could do.
Strange that a succubus might be afraid of her power.
"I still don't think you're fast enough to even think about what you're suggesting."
"I'm not." Shikiyoku shrugged, finding no need to attempt to argue a point that she agreed with.
"Then what exactly is your plan?" 3
~!**!~
Akari walked in circles, eyes searching for the fox demon who was suddenly able to hide himself within the treelines, his scent masked by the surrounding ferns and trees, his energy masked by whatever method he used to hide himself. The area was silent, which should have made it easier to hear him breathing, what with him having a body bigger than hers and all.
Her ears twitched before they lay on her head, her tail lowering a little as she concentrated, her patience beginning to run thin.
How the hell was he able to hide himself so thoroughly? It was almost as if he didn't exist!
She slowly let out a sigh, her eyes still roving around the area over and over again, looking for a shadow that didn't belong or-
Actually, she could use his shadow to find him.
She blinked, and the world seemed to shift, every shadow seemingly darker than everything else in the world, more pronounced, as if called upon and brought forth from wherever they'd been hiding.
Seconds passed, and then she pounced, leaping forward and tearing through the brush to tackle the fox that had been crouched, watching her behind the ferns that had so easily masked his scent.
He let out a sound that resembled a screamed bark, a sound that echoed tenfold through the area as they rolled in the dirt, one trying to get away and the other trying to pin the victim to the ground.
And when they came to a stop, it was with Akari on Moriko's back, the victor of this battle. Her head held high, she made a small sound akin to a scoff.
"Nice try, fox demon."
Never did she know that she started a war. *
~!**!~
"You're crazy." Kasai repeated for what was likely the hundredth time since hearing Shikiyoku's plan back in the Last Stand.
Shikiyoku just shook her head, a light smile threatening to upturn her lips. "You don't have to do this with me, you know."
"You're insane."
She just gave him a look.
He crossed his arms over his chest, "Since you're so dead-set on getting yourself killed, someone with a level head ought to accompany you."
"Uh huh." Shikiyoku knelt down and pressed a hand to the barren earth beneath her, the two of them standing as close as she dared to get to the entrance.
Behind them by several miles loomed the giant cliff they had jumped down earlier, leaving behind any semblance of civilization and making their way quickly across the blighted plains.
"And if I'm crazy for trying, what does that make you for following?" She didn't look up at him.
He stared at her for a moment longer before huffing.
"Tch."
He looked away.
"More crazy." He eventually mumbled.
That drew a silent chuckle from her that shook her shoulders.
He gave her a crooked sort of smile without realizing it.
"Ready?" She stood back up and tilted her head at him.
He let out a ridiculously heavy sigh, "As I'll ever be I guess."
Any former mirth that had danced in Shikiyoku's eyes disappeared all at once as she turned towards the direction of the portal and took off at top speed, Kasai right on her heels.
The passageway was open, the side now behind them containing the defense of the Last Stand being high enough up that it would see anyone entering the Seventh Level, and they made it through with no difficulty, Shikiyoku leading them forward through an unrecognizable area that had once been lush, but was now a strange sort of shade afforded to them by the lifeless trees, no longer green, and the dead bushes, devoid of leaves.
It did provide them with some cover, at least for a mile or so, but then Shikiyoku abruptly came to a stop and Kasai halted not an inch behind her, peering over the top of her head.
The horde.
Countless numbers of them stretching as far as they could see across more Blighted plains less than a mile from where they stopped, not yet alerted to their presence, but instead shifting around among themselves like some horrible zombie movie, blocking the invaders' path.
Kasai gave Shikiyoku a look as the thought, 'you're going to run through that' crossed over his mind.
She either ignored him or did not notice as she appeared to stretch her neck and assess the situation.
"Remember," She murmured, "As soon as I take off, stay right behind me. In my wake."
Kasai nodded, though he felt as if 'wake' was a strange way of putting it.
Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Shikiyoku let the emotionlessness she had come to know from her time in the bacta tank at Mukuro's wash over her, the last thing she remembered thinking being a single image of Hiei, his back to her at first, but one in which he started to glance over his shoulder at her.
She couldn't remember his smile, and his face was nearly fade from her memory, but it was him.
One more breath and Shikiyoku left their cover, speeding across the empty land with Kasai directly behind her.
It did not take long for them to be noticed.
Empty eyes began to fill with hunger as the horde undulated as if one living being and slowly started to turn towards them, beginning to pick up the pace at the prospect of something they had gone so very long without: food.
Shikiyoku saw none of them, only the path which she had long before laid out in her mind, kicking up the dust beneath her feet as she and Kasai dashed straight towards what was now a mass of demonic bodies rushing to meet them.
The instant Shikiyoku plunged herself into their midst, her body erupted with an energy that nearly made Kasai trip in the feel of it as it blasted passed him in countless ribbons.
This was not the shimmering, sparkling energy he could associate with her due to their drunken encounter, this was much darker.
And he suddenly understood what she meant by 'wake.'
The energy streamed around his body, but never touched him, instead enveloping him something akin to his own private space where the Infected would not bother to touch him, instead feeding upon the bounty of energy Shikiyoku was willingly providing for them, and subsequently chasing after her for more.
As soon as she made it into the front few demons, Shikiyoku felt her skin explode with scars as her core ripped itself apart and immediately shifted her form. Without understand what was happening, she felt her clothing tearing and shredding to pieces as she reached up and wrenched her cloak from her neck where it was beginning to choke her, letting it fall aside. Where moments before her hair had only been rustling around her head, it was suddenly streaming behind her, a white streak of color in the midst of the dark yellow energy that she was freely discharging from her body.
The heart-shaped scars at her lips and arm throbbed with a pain that echoed in her core as she ran, and she managed to kick off one shoe as the other split at its seams and flew off behind her, her socks no longer the correct size and quickly following suit, the pieces dropping to the Blighted ground.
Any article of clothing on her person was not fit for the new size she was taking on, though Kasai did not actually notice the change himself as her body was so densely wrapped in energy that he only saw the dark concentration of energy before him and the strands that were twirling free at a mad pace to either side.
Shikiyoku felt on some level the change in her body, but her senses were so focused on protecting the fire demon behind her from the onslaught of demons that she took no real time in assessing the event, instead releasing another set of ribbons of energy for the masses to feed upon as she cut herself and Kasai a path that led them further into the density and lower into the level itself.
If Hiei was not in the Ninth Level, she would come back and find him.
Her plan changed in an instant when she realized how quickly her reserves of power were literally being eaten through. She would not be able to scour the entire level looking for him and survive, much less keep her companion in one piece as well.
Each set of grabbing hands was force-fed her energy so that she could in the next instant pass, her stride never faltering over the flat land as she dove with single-mindedness through the throngs, the scores of demons who had been banished here and who would live longer now that she had appeared to extend their lives with her own.
How long she had been running, she could not directly say, she could only force her feet to extend for the next stride, unable to equate this mad dash for anything other than a life-threatening sprint, for no dance in her entire life had been this frantic as she felt more and more of her energy leaving her, now being pulled ravenously by the consuming creatures that surrounded them.
Kasai only looked up the first time she faltered.
He blinked and realized that the energy around him winked for a moment, leaving him with free view of the terrifying faces that wished to either turn him to one of their own or feed upon him until he had no more to give.
He felt his core skip a beat as his own energy began answering their silent summons before Shikiyoku's flickered back into place and another set of seemingly infinite strands unraveled themselves from the dark yellow core in front of him.
But these were thinner.
He couldn't exactly examine them very closely, but the feeling came more from his other senses.
She was running out.
And he had no idea how much further they had to go.
In a giant explosion of power, Kasai released as much energy as he could muster in a split-second into the space around them, finding that the blast did in fact throw most of the demons in their immediate area away, but realizing that the fire did not truly take effect and "explode" as the energy was absorbed immediately upon entering the air.
Shikiyoku could not waste the breath on telling him not to bother, as the ranks of those blown away by his exertion were quickly filled by the continuous onslaught of the rank and file surrounding them.
Kasai waited this time, gathering his energy together until he saw another set of strings released from Shikiyoku. He counted, waited until it looked as if that energy was waning, and then set off another roar of his own energy.
The pair continued in this way, Kasai's blasts remaining the same size as his energy had been in reserve this whole time and Shikiyoku's weakening with each unfolding, her breath coming faster as sweat dripped down the back of her neck and the sides of her face, her entire body an actual sheen of exertion.
Pushing their speed as much as she was able, they approached the entrance to the Ninth Level and Shikiyoku felt her core falter as she gave up the last of her energy into spirals around them hoping that perhaps Kasai would be able to escape at least, her vision darkening at the edges of her eyes in such a manner that in the next second she knew she would fall to the ground.
Kasai felt more than saw her stumble, shouting her name as the heart of energy that had surrounded her winked once, then disappeared completely as he watched her misstep and start to fall forward.
With his next yell, a torrent of power burst outwards to drive back the hungry ones that wasted no time in beginning to pile over her, and as Kasai shot forward, he managed to pull Shikiyoku's limp body into his arms before it had a chance to collapse to the dirt and make another dash out from their grasping arms, suddenly finding himself absolutely alone, the Infected around him gone completely and hoping Shikiyoku was still conscious enough to get him through the passageway as well.
He did not so much as pause, even as the dead silence roared in his ears and he shut his eyes, afraid that in the next moment he might be standing back in the horde they just left.
Just as he thought he felt a tug backwards, he burst out into a lively red forest, the now-comforting sounds of the business of predator and prey music to his senses.
He slowed, unable to catch enough breath to snort at the red sky and the red grass and the red trees and even the red stream bubbling near him.
He soon turned red himself.
Glancing down at Shikiyoku and seeing that her eyes were half-mast, Kasai suddenly found himself almost certain that he held a seductress in his grasp, and nearly dropped her as the sensation of her skin against his arms settled fully into his mind. The only things she still wore were a matching set of leather necklaces, each of which had a single, strange blue bauble in the front-middle of them, the pair dangling from her neck.
Her chest was heaving with her efforts, but to him it meant she was awake, and he hurried to set her feet on the ground, one of her hands clutching at his shoulder for stability.
She wouldn't be able to go far on her own feet.
He's here.
All of the relief that had been escaping her up to that moment flooded into her entire being as the bond within her let out a single, distant song.
Kasai slipped his shirt over his head and quickly wrapped it around Shikiyoku's now much longer torso, at least managing to cover her enough that he wasn't entirely distracted as he scooped her up again, though his skin still heated quickly once she was in his arms and he forced himself to close his eyes and swallow as if it might focus him more on the task at hand.
"Where?" He managed to say, somehow finding her new, darker form to be entirely too enticing, the scars perhaps intentionally uglier than necessary, but lending her appearance to that of some fierce warrior instead of petite schoolgirl.
When she opened her eyes to slits, they were a deep amber, coated in a darkness he did not understand, but that he felt fit with her now-bronze colored skin-though it was more ashen-grey than he felt was right-and long white hair. And she was much longer in limb and form now, though there was something about her face that reminded him of her-what he now realized to be-human form.
Still breathing heavily, Shikiyoku managed to lift her arm enough to indicate the direction he should go, her hand dropping heavily to her shirt-covered stomach without enough strength in her to wrap her arms around his neck.
Kasai nodded and took off. 3
Thanks for reading! Bless your face. If you sneezed during this chapter, bless you. Peace off!