Meeting the Youko Chapter 2
Hey there,
Just to let everyone know, this story will contain graphic depictions of a variety of sexual situations, violence, and other potentially unpalatable concepts. I will try to mark the chapters where these will take place, but beware that I marked the rating for a reason. If you choose to continue reading, I hope you enjoy.
START HERE:
It wasn't until morning that Anna finally woke up. Her hair was matted with dead leaves and the bruises she had taken in her fall had turned an ugly reddish color on her skin. Shooting her gaze down at her clothes, Anna noted that her shirt had ripped suggestively at the mid section. She now looked like she was trying to attract some attention, showing just a bit too much mid drift. Anna pulled out her pony tail and tried to comb her hair with her fingers. As she pulled out yet another twig, Anna looked at her wrist to see an angry red chain imprint. Staring blankly, she recalled her events from the night before and tried to keep her breathing steady as panic threatened to overtake her.
Since she had arrived, she had managed to get unofficially accused of drugging a jewelry shop owner, stealing from him, and apparently had become possessed by a bracelet from hell. Anna scratched her wrist, earning further red irritation around the barely visible burn. At least the mark proved her sanity. But still, the striking amber eyes of a silver haired man stood out in her mind as the defining feature in her memory. Despite all other strangeness, the figure stood as the most poignant image of crystal clarity. He was a dark promise of explanation, and Anna had no doubt that he would be the one to clear the mystery from the peculiar events unfolding before her.
Anna stood up and finished dusting herself off. Screening the area around for the mysterious silver haired man, Anna opted to run the way back home. Her muscles screamed at her to stop, but as she found her way back out of the woods and trotted across the Priston's back yard she could practically feel the soothing effects of the hot shower she would be taking all ready. Before her fantasy of easing out of her ruined clothes could come to fruition, Mr. Priston stood in her path.
He was a stout man with a white mustache and a full head of white hair. He wore a hunting outfit, and all ready had his rifle in hand. Anna gulped unconsciously as eyes fixed disapprovingly at the torn mid drift of her shirt.
"Interest night? Eh' Anna?" He said in a none-too friendly way.
"I seemed to have tripped while running last night." Anna replied, in a sweet voice she hoped would divert some of the military tone he was taking with her.
Mr. Priston nodded his head down towards her arm, the one which now shown a bright red mark around the wrist. "You wouldn't be out partying all night, would ya'? ' Seem to have a bit of a hicky there." He stated, causing Anna to blush in a flustered sort of way. It was a strange hicky if it went all the way around the wrist…or did he think Anna had been tied up last night?
"…Just a bruise from the fall, Mr. Priston." Anna said hurriedly. All though she smiled warmly at her landlord; she was actually ready to smack him if he made any comments about her "partying" with anyone. It was clear that the party he thought she had attended was only for two. Anna decided a change of subjects was in order. "Would you like me to plant the roses today?"
Mr. Priston nodded, having accepted her response and chosen not to grill her too hard about where she had been. In truth, he was a stern man, but not an unyielding one. To him, what she chose to do in the bedroom was completely up to her…clearly she could still be a sweet young lady the rest of the day.
Anna closed her eyes and smiled, excusing herself before her temper could flare. She was not used to having someone assume she had run off to have wild random relations in a stranger's bed all night. Chiding to herself about maintaining her patience, Anna went up into her apartment and stripped to enjoy a hot shower. As Anna washed and scrubbed her body clean of dirt she sighed with exhaustion. Wincing preliminarily, she brought the soup to her burned wrist and prepared for the upcoming pain. Her first reaction was surprise; the soap didn't burn when she touched it to the bracelet's mark. The second was relief until finally, Anna was alarmed. Pain is a normal warning sign from the body. Had her nerve tissue been damaged? As she scrubbed more vigorously at the mark, Anna watched in alarm as skin peeled away from the burn site. Perfectly undamaged skin lay underneath it; leading Anna to set the soap down to scratch at the wound with bare fingernails. As she scraped the last bit of burnt tissue away, Anna noticed a red rose petal, almost like a tattoo, above her veins on the inner side of her wrist. She had been marked, and she was fairly sure she knew who marked her.
After the shower, Anna had promised herself that she would only just "shut her eyes for a bit" and ended up only waking when her phone rang. The evening sunset had all ready started painting the sky in pinks and greens before Anna headed down into the yard to plant the roses.
"Hello Anna," the man on the phone said, "This is officer Saede from the police station. You remember me from the interrogation room? Mr. Tanaka has regained his senses and would like to talk with you. 'Says he remembers a couple of strangers coming in a few nights ago right about the time those jewelry pieces ended up stolen. I couldn't help but notice you got to town that very same night. Would you mind coming down to the station so we clear up this little mess?" All though the police officer spoke as if this was some big misunderstanding, he was obviously so content to waste his time accusing an outsider that reason didn't even make it playing field. Anna was more than finished with going along with officer Saede's blatant prejudice.
"Oh I'm so sorry Officer Saede. I have work to do for the Pristons and can't make it right now. Maybe some other time." If Anna sounded curt over the phone, it was no match to the icy expression she glared to no one in particular. The policeman tried to convince her to come over but Anna interrupted. Saying something about being very busy, she hung up the phone without waiting for a goodbye. He had annoyed her to the point of rudeness, and Anna had to count to ten before her frustration caused her to throw a child sized tantrum. It wasn't like her to act so childish, even in the most irritating of circumstances. However the more she thought about how her new beginning in a new town had turned south, the less control she seemed to have over her temper. She knew this was only out of disappointment, but the thought was hardly a comforting one.
Anna leaned back over her chair and stretched her arms over her head. Exhaling with more force than was necessary, she got up and headed down to plant some roses. The evening air hit her and refreshed her mind even more than her rest had. The Pristons seemed to have retired early for the day, but had left instructions on where to plant the roses. As she picked up the pots and hauled them over to the edge of the property, Anna smiled as she leaned in to smell the flowers. Earthy, but full of a sweet organic smell, the red hues of the roses would look nice next to the dark lush green of the forest. Anna grabbed a shovel and got started digging the first hole.
The Pristons had bought five rose bushes in total, and Anna was just getting started on the last one when she heard a car pull into the Priston's driveway. Frowning, Anna stood up from her hunched over position and used her forearm to wipe sweat from her eyes. She furrowed her brow as she watched a blue uniformed man approach her, not even bothering to call out his name. She knew the man, Officer Saede had been her interrogator from the day earlier and she all ready didn't think too highly of him. His appearance, unannounced, registered as arrogant pride in Anna's mind. She scowled at him, and thought about turning to continue planting the roses before deciding against it. His eyes were disapproving and condescending. Anna didn't much feel like turning her back to him.
"Since you couldn't make it to the station, I thought I would come to you. We can talk while you work." The officer reasoned, relaxed enough to lean against a ginkgo tree beside him.
Anna started to make motions in protest, but heard a noise from the woods and stopped short. Her heartbeat palpitated and she could feel her face paling. Maybe she was still jumpy from the night before.
Officer Saede brushed his hands under his nose and sniffed. "…probably just some animal, miss. Maybe a fox or something."
Anna looked at the officer quizzically. Recalling the strange features from the silver haired man before, she realized that his ears looked like a fox's ears. His eyes held intelligence but also an animalistic side Anna only imagined in her more impassioned dreams. Officer Saede only raised a brow at her saying, "or maybe it was an old owl or something." He stepped forward when another set of noises sounded around the cove of the forest.
One twig broke a few feet back into the darkness of the woods, and some leaves crunched a few meters away. Officer Saede stepped forward and stuck his hand towards his gun. Gesturing for Anna to back away, he slipped in beside her unplanted rose bush and knocked it out of the way. Soil spilled out of the plant's pot and Anna moved forward to set the plant right. The officer glanced back in an annoyed way, but never mentioned anything about telling Anna to get away from the woods. Turning, he said that the animals must be restless tonight before returning the conversation to the robbery and assault.
"Wouldn't you know it, but Mr. Tanaka doesn't remember anything about the strangers who came into his shop that day, and we weren't able to find any drugs in his system. He does however, remember you hitting him with a broom. He wants to charge you with assault. Seeing as how we only have your word and some unreliable witness reports, it boils down to your word against his."
Anna shook her head, "What about the woman who was attacked first." She felt a jolt of sadness as the officer told her that the woman had passed on from a heart attack while recovering in the hospital.
Officer Saede looked almost smug as he stepped closer to Anna through her freshly planted roses. She was aware of the height difference between them. As she thought he would reach up and grab her to take her back to the horrid police station again, he stumbled just a bit. Both Anna and the policeman looked down to see his ankle caught up in a vine from one of the rose bushes. He spouted out a few curses and tried to jerk his leg free. Anna's eyes widened as she saw the vine only coil tighter around officer Saede's foot. His shouted a guttural noise and reached forward to grab Anna's arms as leverage. He was being pulled by the vine into the ground.
"Get an Axe!" He shouted, letting go of Anna with enough force to cause her to fall backwards. Breathing deeply with a terrified pale look on her face, she ran back towards the garden shed and quickly found a small axe. When she arrived back to the rose garden she found two more vines wrapping themselves around both of the police officer's arms. "Shit!" he cussed aloud, and looked desperately at Anna to start cutting. Anna reached back and took a carefully placed swing at one of the vines. It didn't even make a dint. The Axe bounced off as if Anna had struck steel and her arm reverberated with the shock.
"It won't cut!" Anna was crying now, and dropped to her knees to start pulling at the tightening vines. The officer shouted at her to keep pulling at the vines but no amount of tugging would budge them. His body was slipping into the dirt at an alarming rate and as he tried to scream, a vine tipped with a rose bud found its way to his jaw. Officer Saede's curses were muffled as the rose bud opened into a full bloom in his mouth. Anna screamed and attempted to start her struggles to free him anew only to slide in the grass which came to life below her feet. It writhed in such a way Anna couldn't hope to gain her footing but it made no attempt to grab her. She watched Officer Saede's face tuck under the dirt as the rose pulled him down to the roots. She then noticed a silver shimmer and out from the forest walked a black-winged man with dark hair and a wide brimmed hat. Beside him, the silver haired fox from earlier.
Anna froze, staring up at the two men in shell shock. The winged one smirked and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Looking towards the silver fox he muttered, "Apparently the human world hasn't made any advancements in protecting their maidens." He gestured to the upturned dirt that marked officer Saede's grave.
The silver haired fox took a step closer to Anna and chimed in his response, "It would appear that she needed protection against her protector. Perhaps you should thank us, human." The kitsune raised a brow at Anna and waited for her to respond. He grinned as he watched her close her eyes tightly together and try to blink the confusion away. Her lips were somewhat parted in a bewildered fashion, forcing the fox to notice the fullness of them. Anna's hands slipped into the grass and dug into the dirt. She gripped the earth like it would protect her from the bizarre apparitions in front of her.
"You killed him." Anna whispered, though her comment was more to the wind than to the fox who had taken a few steps closer to her. Anna was in a quiet panic, her eyes widening and tears threatening to pour over her lashes. But Anna was not an animal that would allow herself to be cornered so easily. Reaching beside her to the forgotten axe, she hurled the Axe like a tomahawk at her attackers. As she turned and hurried to sprint towards the apartment stairs, she hardly had the time to notice the amused stares from her assailants.
Quicker than she could blink, the bat winged demon was on her, grabbing her upper arms from behind and hoisting her to stand of the tips of her toes. "Get the hell off of me!" Anna screamed and attempted to kick backwards in the hopes of hitting a soft spot.
His bat wings rustled in annoyance, and the dark haired stranger turned to hold her out to his bemused partner. The kitsune stepped closer and stopped barely a few feet away. Anna stopped her struggling to watch him lift a delicate hand to his own throat. Reaching under his hair, he lifted the chain of a necklace, making sure that Anna could get a perfect view. Around his neck was the matching necklace from the robbery. Its ruby pendant gleamed a menacing glow which resulting in Anna whimpering from a renewed burning sensation in her wrist.
"I hadn't planned on testing the power of the subjugation crystals on a human." He spoke, his voice deep and with a growling undertone. "So I do hope that you will continue to fight the whole way to the Makai. I would like to test the charm's power." The fox smirked just slightly and reached forward to brush the hair from Anna's face. As he did so the bat let go of Anna's arms, initially causing her to stumble forward. Anna's stubbornness took over and she decided to use the momentum of the trip to swing a right hook at the fox's fair skinned face. He growled and before she could register Anna found herself across the yard and pinned against the ginkgo tree Officer Saede had leaned against not moments before.
"I'm not going anywhere." Anna's voice shook in a medley of rage and fear.
The fox only leaned forward, sliding his hand on either side of her against the tree trunk. "You'll learn I've killed for less infractions." The fox promised.
Before Anna could stop herself she spoke, " …like with Officer Saede." Anna gasped at her own stupidity and closed her eyes tightly as she expected the killing blow to strike her. Instead, she opened her eyes to see the kitsune with the necklace's ruby pinched between two clawed fingers. Pressing his fingers tighter a burning erupted under her skin. Starting at the mark on her wrist, the pain moved up her arm as the fox pinched the gem harder in his fingertips. She whimpered and gasped, sliding down the tree trunk to fall to her knees. Anna made a nonsensical cry from within her throat and looked up at the fox baring and intolerant expression down at her. "Please stop." She begged in a whisper, ashamed to hear such submission coming from her own voice. The pain continued for a while longer before the fox finally stopped his punishment.
His voice lowered a few decimals as he spoke his promise to the human maiden before him. "While I where this gem around my neck, you will belong to me. I alone hold the key to your release and torment." The fox flicked his tail behind him as he continued, "I am Youko Kurama, and you are the new property of the Makai thieves' guild." Anna watched his eyes completely unaware of the bat demon's approach. As Youko stepped aside, Anna's gaze caught the swinging pendent in the dark haired one's hand.
"Sleep." The youkia ordered. And Anna slumped against the bark behind her, unaware as they carried her off from the forest of the human world to the dense undergrowth of the Makai woods.