Hey! This is YellowWoman here. I'm sitting here this morning bored out of my mind and decided I might as well get a move on with the rest of my story, which was being delayed because my sister was typing. And school. And SCHOOL. So, here it is:
#3
Title: In Becoming Stronger
Features: Rikuo, age 17
"Okay, Tsurara-chan, now would be a good time to start."
Rikuo and Tsurara had been circling each other for the past forty minutes. She was afraid of attacking and injuring her master in his Day form
"Tsurara-chan." She could hear exasperation creeping slowly into his voice. She leapt forward and waved her hand, commanding a flurry of ice and snow to go towards Rikuo, and he neatly dodged the white, freezing tornado.
"Come on! At least try. I know you can do much more than that."
"I-I don't want to hurt you."
He smiled, running around in a large arc around Tsurara to stand in the back of her.
"I'll be fine. Now put a little bit of effort in this. This is just sparring, remember that. This is supposed to test ourselves." He shifted his voice to a darker tone. "Now please try. It's insulting to think that you don't think that you need to try."
"Yes Rikuo-sama." Tsurara didn't really believe it would take much effort to defeat Her master's Day form; he had been beaten by a clanless yokai, after all. But she knew he was about to drop into that tone. The scary one he used in the meetings, when almost no one had respected him and never listened to his polite requests. They listened now.
"Okay… now, no holding back. We have that well understood now right?"
"…Right."
Rikuo smiled pleasantly, his huge eyes reflected in the bright afternoon sunlight.
He ran at her at an angle from behind, ducking when she shot small sharp ice crystals. He had not even drawn his sword yet, it was tucked into his yukata, along with the two wakizashis hidden in the back of his clothing; one a spirit blade, the other a normal human one.
He dodged every attack she threw at him, he was ridiculously fast and very light on his feet. A small bit of her pride welled up inside her; her master was just a human at the moment, and she couldn't touch him! She was yokai, she was faster, stronger, much older, and she couldn't touch a (semi) human. She screamed in frustration and formed the ice spear she normally fought with in battle and raised heavy flurries of snow and sharp bits of ice, yellow eyes blazing like she had forgotten who she was fighting. One touch and she'd be left with no enemy and a frozen culprit. Solid.
She spun in a circle, and flung out her spear and felt it hit it's target.
"Hah!" she yelled triumphantly and rushed to shatter the ice of her sparring partner, until she remembered she had just froze her master fatally.
"Rikuoo-sama!" she wailed as she broke the ice carefully and dragged his cold body out from it.
"T-t-t-thanks Tsurara-chan. Can we go home for a bit ?"
He was completely blue.
"Of course! I'm so sorry Rikuo-sama, really sorry!"
He waved her off. "I'll be fine."
She hailed a cab because she didn't know how to summon the flying snake like yokai Rikuo usually used to get around when he had gone on yokai business. Right now, they were in an abandoned field on the east edge of Ukiyoe.
The taxicab driver didn't bat an eye at the shaking, shivering, perfectly blue Rikuo.
When they got to the house, Kejouro opened the gates and looked down at the now unconscious Rikuo.
"He lost, didn't he?" she asked nonchalantly.
Tsurara just nodded. It was not the first time Rikuo had been put to bed for weeks after a sparring match with a yokai, though Tsurara was a current loss.
Several of Tsurara's little assistant yokai scrambled over and took Rikuo from her hands to his room.
When Rikuo was conscious a couple hours later, Tsurara was surprised to find him up and perfectly okay, sitting up on his mattress.
"That was good Tsurara. Though I could tell you weren't trying that hard. Though I suppose if you did, I would be a little more than a bit cold."
"A bit cold? You had the worst case of hypothermia Zen said he had ever seen!"
Rikuo just smiled again. "Thank you, Tsurara."
The lack of an honorific made her blush slightly.
"I-i-i-I'll get you something to eat," she excused herself, not wanting to fall into any of his charming aspects again, like she had last week, where he had managed to get her two feet away from him and leaning into his body. She had enjoyed it very much, but at that moment they had been interrupted.
She ran into Kejouro in the kitchen, reminiscing fondly of the moment of quiet they'd shared together.
"That boy is as bad as his father was," the older yokai commented offhandedly.
Tsurara just nodded, and began preparing a plate when she felt Rikuo's hand over her wrist.
"It's fine, I can eat here in the kitchen with the rest of you."
Kejouro looked over rikuo carefully, who was barefoot and perfectly fine, though a few hours ago he was gasping for breath and blue.
"How'd you get better so fast?"
He shrugged. "Something I discovered after the whole 'incident' in Kyoto."
He never did like talking about the Nue, and everyone had been out of it when the ultra powerful demon had been slain.
Rikuo had inherited Youhime's power of healing, he didn't use it often, as it only worked in his Day form since it was a completely human trait.
Kejouro shrugged and turned back to whatever she was doing.
Rikuo leaned in close and whispered discreetly in Tsurara's ear. His warm breath made it tingle pleasantly.
"Thank you for helping figure out my flaws."
He took his food and sat down to eat as if nothing had ever happened.
Tsurara held her spoon, a pale pink spreading across her cold face.
"Gozumaru!"
The yokai stoped and turned around to face the Soudaime, who stood a couple inches taller than him.
"I would appreciate it if you could let me test myself against you one more time. In my Day form."
"You've already lost to me so many times. I don't why you insist."
"because I get better every time, and I don't like losing. Especially if they are going to throw it back in my face every time I need something to happen, and most definitely if it's going to get someone killed."
Gozumaru was surprised. It was the first time Rikuo had even stood for mention of his dead friend. That was what everyone assumed he was doing everytime he challenged a yokai from the main house to a sparring match, and coming home getting himself beat up. Badly. It was pathetic everytime Gozumaru witnessed the young head dragged home incapacitated.
"No."
"Gozumaru."
That single word was enough to make Gozumaru want to do it. The teenager's babyface was shadowed from his hair, and he had a threatening tone in his voice that made the yokai shudder on the inside. Day Rikuo didn't punish. He tortured, embarrassed, and ruined the reputation's and mental health of his enemies. Death was nice compared to the things Rikuo cooked up in his head, and could carry out without anyone's assistance. Just another part of his human self.
Gozumaru sighed. "Fine."
A couple of days later, Gozumaru and Rikuo stood in the place where he had previously fought Tsurara. There was still an evil chill in the air, and whenever a breeze blew, it sent chills up his spine. He ignored this.
Rikuo was not smiling now, but had a serious look on his face, standing seemingly unarmed. It seemed no one but the women knew where he kept his weapons, and it seemed to appear whenever he needed them.
I'll make sure he needs them, Gozumaru thought, not really intending on inflicting any serious damage.
"Okay, go!"
Rikuo dashed straight at the yokai, who immediately activated his 'fear. The enormous claw (thingy?) came from his back and blinded his vision, swarming the area in front of him where Rikuo had run. Gozumaru knew he would never defeat him in a frontal attack, or an attack from the back.
Except once the fear dissipated, no one was standing there.
He felt a blunt strike to his side, and he fell over and felt a bruise forming.
Gozumaru looked up to find Rikuo clutching a dull square tip katana, and if it had been a real sword, Gozumaru would've died.
The bruise was really starting to hurt, in fact, Gozumaru wouldn't have been surprised if a rib was broken. The strike had hit perfectly in between the ribs.
"Are you okay?" Rikuo's face was concerned.
"Fine. Besides, shouldn't you worry about yourself? You can't even beat—"
He stopped, about to say 'me' when he realized he just had been beaten.
"Let's just go home." Gozumaru said, scowling.
Rikuo smirked. "Yeah."
As they were on the way home, Rikuo thought.
My tactic worked! So now I need to fight someone I haven't sparred with before, and play up my strengths.
Rikuo wasn't very strong, at least, not strong enough to hold his own against a yokai; they would have him on the ground before he could do anything. But he had always been fast, almost ridiculously fast, not even any of the powerful yokai could keep up with him when he put up an effort, even when he wasn't trying that hard they still couldn't keep up, as proved when Tsurara would used to run to school with him.
He had to find someone new to try with.
(Hey, I totally suck at fight scenes, so you're going to have to put up with the utter horribleness of it all. Carry on, people.)
Rikuo and Kubinashi stood in the same meadow on the outskirts of town where he had fought Tsurara and Gozumaru. This was a new experience for Rikuo, he had never fought Kubinashi, so he was stunned when the first thing Kubinashi did was run away.
Kubinashi had no sort of inhumane speed, so Rikuo was just able to keep up with him without exerting himself. He followed the sharp twists and turns through downtown Kubinashi made, and then he jumped straight up, and was shocked to find a trail of the glowing red string; Kubinashi's fear. And he had the advantage of being on the ground.
Rikuo twisted in the air, narrowly avoiding the thin, indestructible wire, but getting sliced into on his cheek in the process. He skidded and landed heavily on his hands and knees. Kubinashi ran towards him, running through the complicated web of string, as they did not affect him. Rikuo was on the defensive, and didn't try to attack. Instead, he ran further into the town.
He noticed a tiny string soar in front of him and halted abruptly, just missing the weaving that would have engulfed him and pulled him to shreds had he taken a step further.
This is certainly different, Rikuo thought, rocking backwards towards his current target, before turning around sharply and drawing the first of his wakizashi.
The short thin sword was not a dull blade.
He focused and flung his arm out, running at top speeds, when he felt the string wrap around his sword and his arm, binding it tightly and drawing blood, which ran freely down his arm as he was pulled into the air, but the sheer momentum of his run took him over Kubinashi's head before the other string could tear through him. He pulled out the other short sword, the dull one, and thrust it hard into Kubinashi's back. The older yokai groaned and drooped to his knees.
Perhaps I hit him harder than I intended too.
Rikuo quickly unfurled the demonic string from his arm and sheathed his sword, and ran to Kubinashi to see if the force he had exerted had broken anything. He had; once again, a couple ribs.
Rikuo sighed. He had to learn not to get out of hand with these spars.
"Are you all right Kubinashi?"
The neckless yokai swiveled his head to face Rikuo, and just waved his arms stiffly. Rikuo called the snake and they departed home.
Okay, feel free to hate on me right now, but I kinda want to get to the point of this story, which is Rikuo getting revenge for Kana, so I promise I'll make the rest of these sparring matches between Day Rikuo and the Nura Gumi individual short stories sometime after I post chapter three. But let's get on with the show here. He's is currently hunting around for the yokai that murdered Kana.
Rikuo had spent the last couple of days asking around about the murders of the young pretty, highschool girls that fit the same area of death that Kana had. Turned out, there were hundreds of them, all in midafternoon, all pierced thousands of times through and through, but only on the body, face still kept perfectly intact. He then used the marvelous tool called the internet and looked into each case of these murders carefully, using the laptop he had bought and the internet modem he had stolen. He kept it locked up in his room, away from the curious little yokai that would definitely destroy it. There was an even amount of exactly three days between each murder, an Rikuo thought back to what the yokai had hissed at him that night:
"Thisssss issss mine."
"I have spilled blood here."
Definitely territorial. And it was evident she was not particularly powerful, because she only preyed on humans and attacked in daylight, when any threatening yokai were weak.
He checked the date. Three days since the last murder. He knew the location. She would be moving today. He set out, dressed in his usual home fashion, in his yukata.
"I'll be back guys, okay?"
"Wait Rikuo-sama! Do you wish some company? I don't want you out all alone." Tsurara cried. He hadn't told anyone where he was going.
"I'll be just fine. I can take care of myself."
Most of the yokai still assumed that Day form =weak and pathetic, even though he had managed to beat most of them.
He ran out of the door before she could say anything else.
Rikuo got many an odd look from some of the younger people; most young men did not wear traditional clothing, mostly older people did at that point in time. Rikuo kept his head down and turned into one of the many alleys in Ukiyoe, disappearing into the darkness, and began running in the shadows. Eventually he reached the bright yellow police tape that signified the girl's place of passing. She had been at the same high school as Kana, though a grade younger. There was still her blood staining the ground. He stepped under the tape and fingered the walls of the building nearby tenderly, there was also blood spatter here. The sun had turned it brown.
"I know that you are here, yokai."
Silence. Then:
"Human boy, interfering human boy…"
The yokai dragged itself from the darkness, body writhing.
"Go away…don't befoul my sanctuary…I have spilled blood here…"
He looked at her serenely. He could see the remains of what might have once been a beautiful face. He supposed that was why this particular yokai killed pretty young girls, in reminiscence of itself.
"Oh, how nice, you remember me. Do you remember Kana? I was knocked out. And then you spilled blood there also. Do you remember that?"
He slowly drew out the twin spirit blades. Rikuo scowled, contorting his usually innocent face, and then dropped it to callous expression. He dropped his arm and held the other with the blade in a sideways position.
"You killed her, and hundreds of others in a territory you claim are yours. But it is not yours, it is mine. And she was mine. Can you pay the price I require?"
The yokai looked down at the human boy with the short swords, the invader who claimed what she had taken was his. Everything belonged to her. Everything.
"I have no price to pay you, filthy human. You are in no place to challenge a yokai!"
Hundreds of tentacles zoomed out of her body and pulled at her grotesquely, their tips sharp and unforgiving. She loved seeing them writhe and wiggle their way through the body of her victims.
The human boy just stood there, facing her with his pathetic excuses for swords held outward. At the last moment, before the wave of tentacles pierced him, he swiped them gracefully in a chopping motion, like scissors slicing hundreds of straws in half. They landed wetly at his feet.
She was in agony. Her babies…the ones that grew off her body and took away what she could no longer have, were lying dead at his feet. She had had a small taste of the pain that as inflicted by the cuts with the human katana… what was a mere human doing with a spirit blade, and a powerful, well crafted on at that? She dropped to her knees. Her tentacles receding to wet boil like spots on her body. It hurt so much.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
The boy crouched and sat on his heels, wakizashi sheathed. It was clear in his wide brown eyes he was going to leave her in this agony for a while.
"Do you know where you have been killing?"
"Who are you?"
He looked serenely at her. "Nura Rikuo. You are…?"
She looked up into the emotionless brown eyes. "Shu, who has lost her beauty and her land, and must get it back."
He leaned closer.
He's quite the pretty one, she thought dizzily, looking at the handsome boy.
"You should be Shu, one who yearns for what is lost, and thus takes it away from other. Bitter Shu."
She pulled her hands over her ears. Something was evil about this boy… he was definitely human. Cruel. If yokai were the embodiment of pure fear, then human were the embodiment of evil. She wished it was a yokai torturing her as she heard his tormenting words though her hands. She wished that her tentacles were still there, so she could pierce his body over and over again, and take this cruel beauty of his words away.
"Can you hear my voice Shu? I have to thank you, because you let me see how weak I was to let yokai scum like you defeat me and kill Kana. But that can never happen again Shu, thanks to you."
His verbal abuse continued, like a fountain that never stopped running, and despite herself Shu listened, and heard the sense it made.
Dusk fell, and Shu could hear the yokai stir inside her. She opened her eyes when she felt the sound of his voice stop and him stand up. She was terrified to find the crimson-eyed demon she had encountered the night after she had taken a new victim, the one whose friend had come to torture her with.
"Who are you?" she whispered shakily.
He grinned and placed his face uncomfortably close to hers. "Nura Rikuo. Sandaime of the Nura Clan. Goodbye Shu."
"Do I have it back?"
"No."
And then everything was gone.
Everyone was horrified when they found Rikuo walking home in the dark of the night in his Night form with blood running freely from his arms and staining his robes. He was perfectly fine, and walked silently pass them offering no explanation. He disappeared into the highest branches of the sakura tree, and stayed there for five days. He didn't come down for meals, or for a change of clothes, or even at the order of his mother, or grandfather. Finally, after five long days, five long unbearable days, they watched the Sandaime of the Nura climb down from his tree, robes crunchy with brown blood, and disappear into the house.
Thirty minutes later, he appeared in the kitchen, calm, and clean.
"Are you alright Rikuo-sama?"
He gave a small smile.
"I'm just fine."
Whew, finally done with that one. Now something to lighten the mood, also something that was in my head. (I absolutely, positively promise I'll finish the middle of the previous story. Please forgive me! I'm just jumpy like that.)
It sorta building off the setting I placed inside the first story.
#4
Title: School and Companions
Features: Rihan, Nurarihyon
Rihan was enjoying himself just relaxing around the house when his grandfather's shout echoed across the house.
"Rihan!"
Rihan wondered what he had done to deserve to be yelled at like so as his father stormed into the room.
"What now, old man?"
"You need to control your son."
"What about Rikuo?"
Nurarihyon pulled out his pipe, which had been burning dried sakura leaves instead of its usual opium/tobacco mixture. It now smelled like flowers, and had a slightly pink tone to it.
Rihan shrugged. Rikuo had finally gotten to Nurarihyon. He had already managed to trick and therefore infuriate the rest of the Nura Gumi and the council.
"He's just a little kid."
"He needs something to do."
"You didn't say that when he got Hitotsume."
Nurarihyon scowled at his son.
"Just do something with your son. I most certainly did not give you this much free reign."
"Yeah, but I had people my age to hang out with. Rikuo hasn't got anyone."
Nurarihyon rubbed his chin. "So what?"
"Obviously, he bored out of his skull, and by being surrounded by yokai, he must've gotten the idea that he had to be frightening to get some attention. He knows he's way to innocent looking to convince anyone to be afraid of him, so he tricks people, and makes them feel like idiots to make himself feel better. I suppose he's lonely, and he simply enjoys doing this a lot."
Nurarihyon just looked at his son. He had had no idea Rihan could sound so intelligent if he wanted to.
"In fact, I'm thinking about enrolling him in school when he's old enough."
"School?"
"Yeah, you know the human school a little ways from here? The public one?"
"The human one?"
"Yep. He'd have people his own age to be with, and he'd spend a lot more time out of the house."
Out of the house was what caught Nurarihyon's attention the most. The little brat would be out of the house for most of the day!
"How old do you have to be?"
"Five, I think."
Way too long a wait, he thought, looking at his pinkish flower smelling pipe.
"Isn't that a human school?"
"Duh. Rikuo seems entirely human now, so it wouldn't be a problem would it?"
Nurarihyon just leaned back and sighed. He did have a (sadly) human grandson.
"Fine. But tell your son if I find him stealing my things again he will be punished accordingly." He got up and left the room.
Rihan thought about his son, and how sneaky he was if he was able to sneak a pipe from his father. Even Rihan couldn't do that, he always got caught, even when he was using his fear. And then he thought about how excited Rikuo would be when he told him about his decision to send him to school when the time came. He thought about how happy his son would be in just three years' time.
Sadly, poor Rihan wouldn't be there to witness it.
So, i hope you enjoyed that. i would appreciate if you could give me a list of the people in the Nura Gumi and a detailed explanation of their fears. i read from a crappy scanlator, and i don't want to make a mistake. i'd deeply appreciate it.