Meeting the Youko Chapter 3
Youko and Kuronue arrived back in the demon world sporting a bundle of human over one shoulder. Kuronue hardly noticed the weight of the girl but registered the delicateness in which he must carry her. Though it was hardly for his benefit, he knew that Youko wouldn't likely appreciate it if he damaged the girl before they even made it back to the guild. Kuronue smiled to himself about how poetic it was that they should find her planting roses. He would chide Youko about it later, much to the fox's chagrin.
Youko stole a glance over to the package his demon partner carried. She still had dirt under her nails from digging for the rose bushes and had a few bits of bark in her hair from the ginkgo tree. Her tears had collected dust from the air, hiding the fairness of her skin. She was lovely for a human, but Youko would hardly waste his time consorting with a one. The woman had been the unlucky target which would provide him a route in which to deal with the human-eating youkia of the demon world. He would present her as a wild-thing, one who's "flavor" hadn't been altered by the constant flux of demonic energy in the Makai. All though he rarely dealt with the S class bound to refuel their energy with the flesh of psychics, Youko never had a reputation for being unprepared.
Anna winced and muttered something about "monsters" as the pair leaped over a large stream skirting the edge of their territory. Momentarily, her own energy circulated more powerfully within her veins. It wasn't enough to wake her from Kuronue's pendant induced sleep, but it was enough to get the bat's arm to tighten around her form. He doubted that even the girl was aware of her own psychic ability, but they could never have taken her to the demon world had she been a regular human. Kuronue and Youko shared a glance of knowing as only two brothers in arms could. It seemed that this human managed to have the odds stacked against her without even being aware of it.
They approached a cliff side decorated in a variety of demon plants all writhing threateningly at the approaching pair. All though their footsteps barely sounded on the ground, the movement alerted the plants to narrow their sights on the potential intruders. Youko took the lead, jumping ahead of the bat to land and walk confidently towards the thorn baring vines of one of his newly placed specimens.
"I see you've rooted yourself well, Scythen." Youko mused to the plant. Scythen was a proud youkia tree standing twenty feet tall and more than half again as wide. Youko had noticed it on a heist of spirit world guarding one of the banks of the river Styx. Even there it had been foreboding; with it sickly green leaves and burnt looking vines complete with a trunk that appeared to be peeling off layers of bark. Of course, the way in which the tree looked so starved of water and nourishment was only a way of bringing in prey. Now infused with Youko's own demon energy, his youki, Scythen's leaf cover had swelled to twice its bulk and its leafy vines now dripped with paralyzing poison. Had the plant been from the human world, Youko expected biologists would have called it a new type of weeping willow with a poison defense. Youko reached forward and touched the back of his hand against a few leaves, earning a shuttering response as the tree recognized him. Pulling its branched apart, Scythen created a path leading down a small staircase to the entrance of the thieves' guild.
"Take the woman to the holding cells in the east corridor." Kuronue ordered a young sea demon as he stepped into his home. "See that she is given water and rations."
Youko shook out his hair in an attempt to get the human world's scent off of him. "And also have one of the females get her to the servant's baths. The scent of her civilization will easily alert our enemies to the guild's location." Youko added, scantly noticing the way the sea demon lowered his gaze to avoid eye contact with him. As he turned to walk further into the depths of his Cliffside hideaway, Youko heard Anna's breathing quicken in the promise of soon rising from sleep. She had a better resistance to Kuronue's charms than either demon would have guessed.
Anna opened her eyes to find herself in a room that seemed to be carved out of nothing but stone. Tulip like flowers served as light sources and were scattered about in seemingly random order. She lay atop a set of brown blankets long past their prime on what appeared to be a Japanese platform bed. Sitting upright, Anna found herself nearly overcome with an intense wave of nausea. Clearly, she would have to move very slowly for a while. Taking caution to stand at a sloth's pace, Anna stood to walk forwards to the only entrance or exit to the room. The door was well crafted with swirls of garden designs cascading to a silver gilded handle. Anna was nervous about touching it, remember how the two youkia had used the environment of the rose garden to kill Officer Saede. She wondered the fox had set a trap for her by providing her with such an easy route of escape as a single door. Bracing herself, Anna turned the handle.
Naturally, the door only clicked in annoyance. "Of course, the door would be locked." Anna blew hair out of her face in irritation. As she turned to press her back against the door and slide down to sit on the floor, she fought back the burning desire to cry out that she had been holding since awakening to the demon world. Had anyone asked her a week ago, never would she have imaged that the animal aberrations that brought her here could possibly exist. The thought of trying to survive in a world she knew nothing about was more than overwhelming, but another thought pressed against the back of her mind. She had not spoken to anyone since arriving in the Makai, but she was instantly aware that this was a world of demons…far from the one she had left behind.
"Psychics can detect the underlying youki of the demon world. It's really not so strange that you can tell you're not in Ningenkai any longer." The voice was high pitched and sweet sounding. Whoever spoke couldn't be a day over 18, Anna thought to herself. The voice sounded once more from the other side of the door, "Actually, I'm 148."
This time Anna chose to be the one to chime in, hoping she didn't sound as queasy as she still felt, "You're also telepathic." Anna pushed away from the door and looked down to see a shadow flooding amidst the crack under the door. The silhouette didn't give her much information about who the demoness speaking so openly to her was, but it did tell her that the girl had a tail. "I'm Anna of the human world." Anna decided that it was up to her to make the formal introductions, "May I ask who you are?"
The demoness murmured lowly with a reverberated noise that could only come from deep within her chest before speaking. "I'm Anya, of the Makai. I'm going to open your door now."
Standing before Anna was a tall, thin representation of a cat demoness. Her eyes were slanted yellow in the feline fashion and she sported spots of fur clearly patterned like a mau housecat. She flicked her tail in what appeared to be anticipation. "I've been ordered to clean you of your human stench." Anya spoke cheerfully, clearly unaware at how rude it sounded. She frowned apologetically after gauging the reaction her comment made. Whether her sudden embarrassment was from Anna's disapproving glare or Anya reading the equally disapproving thoughts of the psychic before her was anyone's guess.
Anna decided that it was probably best to just ignore any social awkwardness the demoness presented. Seeing as the cat demon wore clothes more typical of doing housework that fighting, it was possible that she had been assigned to jobs that didn't require any social grace.
Anya pouted with legitimate trepidation as she turned her back to Anna. "It's the telepathy." She explained, "You try to have a normal conversation when half of the information is passed strait from the other person's mind."
Anna felt instantly guilty, but also relieved. Before the cat apparition had arrived to carry her off to bathe, she had felt the beginning pangs of feeling particularly bad for herself. The full effects of being trapped in another world had been momentarily sedated now that she had found someone she could at least talk to. It was calming even if her mind was completely open to the other woman. "Do you mean to say that you can't turn your telepathy on or off?" Anna asked, hoping to continue the conversation with the pretty young demoness a little while longer.
Anya turned around and fixed Anna with a gape-mouthed stare before answering, "No, only a few of my tribe can. My brother can, but not me." She stated, quickly turning melancholy again. Clearly Anya was as moody as they come.
Anna signed inwardly before asking, "Can you help me walk? I've not been feeling so great since I woke up. It looks like your starting to grow two tails." Indeed, as Anna's vision teetered between blurry and perfect clarity, the cat youkia seemed to have a split tail.
Anna heard a jingle-bell like sound slip past the cat's lips. She was laughing at Anna like she thought she had just heard a joke. "Oh that's right, you are new here! I'm a nekomata. And the two fellows you met before are Kuronue, who is a bat demon, and Youko who is of course a kitsune…but he has a spirit fox form too." Anya reached down to yank Anna up like she was going to rip out her arm. All though it was obvious that this telepathic cat youkia was not particularly powerful, she was still strong enough to crush Anna should she try to run.
Anya led Anna down the corridor turning a few lefts and a right before ending up facing a set of double doors. The doors showed a water scene of a satyr chasing naiads amidst a gently flowing water fall and some sakura trees. Water lilies in full bloom managed to lace over the breasts and hips of the naiads, while the satyr's hip was turned so that the goatman's frontal view was saved for only the water nymphs carved in the woodwork of the doors. Anya nodded a "yes" to Anna when she mentally asked her if this was the path to the baths.
The bath layout was formed in a way to conserve as much of the natural beauty of the cave-work as possible. Pools steamed from an inner source of heat, possible youki fueled, amidst shinning black stone which seemed to function as mirrors. Anya stepped behind Anna to guide her to a pool that didn't seem too likely to boil her skin. "This will be your first and last trip to these baths, as such is the will of the guild masters. These are our baths." Anya finished.
Anna assumed correctly that these were baths only meant for demon-kind. Her temporary visit was only tolerated so that her pores would take in the scent of youkia carried within the steam. Possessing only a human's sense of smell was clearly a disadvantage. Should she try to escape, Anna realized she would have to be especially careful not to leave a scent trail behind her.
Though the air was warm, a shock of cold sensation hit her abruptly as Anna felt the cat claws of her demoness escort shred the clothes from her back. She was left bare, with nothing but her own hair to cover her breasts and her hands to modestly try and cover any other bit of sensitive flesh she could find. Anna took the hint, and stepped forward to dip a toe into the water. There was no sense in protesting a bath, her body practically beckoned her to clean off the dirt chaffing against her skin. So Anna glided into the water, first shivering even in the immediate warmth of the bath. Anya had taken to perching on one of the stones to gaze at her reflection in a blackened mirror. She yawned, wider than humanly possible and showed a set of pearly white canines on either side of her mouth. She gave the mirror a cat smile, and used the reflection cast to watch Anna swim to the center of the bathing pool.
At the center, Anna couldn't hope to touch the bottom. The water was perfectly clear, so she took the opportunity to dive down. She hoped Anya's telepathy could reach far, as she searched in vain to find a port in the bottom of the pool which provided the bath water. Maybe if it was big enough, Anna could take her chances and hold her breath long enough to ride it out of her captor's keep. Anna swam deep enough to hear her ears pop before she realized that there wasn't any hope she could find the port before her need for air forced her to the surface. As she resurfaced to gulp air, Anya tossed her a glass container full of what could be called bath soap. The bottle landed just a bit short of Anna's position and she watched the glass bottle drift towards the bottom. Feeling much like Anya had asked her to play fetch, she dove to grab the bottle before it sank to deep to recover.
Anya did nothing but smile her cat grin again as she started to fix her hair in the mirror, seemingly unaware of the irritated expression adorning Anna's face. Swimming back over to the bank of the pool, Anna dripped a bit of the soapy liquid in her hand before running it through her hair. Her hair seemed to untangle effortlessly in her fingers, becoming almost more lustrous than it had been after washing it in her own shower. "Demons really know how to make hair products." Anna commented to Anya, noted that the demoness ignored her with a few flicks of her split tail. Anna blew out a bit of air in frustration, before standing to use some of the soap over her body.
Anna started with the top, dripping a bit onto her shoulders and trying to ease some muscle tension out with self massage. Taking care to wash her arms thoroughly, Anna moved on to swirl the soap around her breasts. She moved down to wash her stomach, back, and butt before stopping to get a bit more soap from the bottle. Since Anna spent more time working her legs than any other part of her body, they always got more attention. As Anna started massaging the soap into her other leg, her prison guard chose to speak up.
"I would be careful moving like that in from of the males. They might begin to think you're asking for it." Anya taunted.
Anna scowled, "Moving like what, and what am I asking for?"
Anya smiled, "Maybe I should invite one in here so you can see."
At this point, the quiet malice Anna was holding within was threatening to flood over. When they had met, Anna would have described the cat as a bit fickle, but otherwise happy-go-lucky. Now, she seemed to be almost a different person, her mood had soured to almost snobbish. Anya still sat with her back turned to the quietly raging woman clothed only in bath soap. Anna wondered, what could change to make Anya becoming so indifferent?
"Anya, I have to ask." Anna spoke, not waiting for Anya's tail to flick in attention, "Your telepathy wouldn't also be tied with empathic ability, would it?"
Anya mewed an affirmative, then ordered Anna to rinse as she scuffed off arrogantly to get her new clothes to wear. So that was it, thought Anna, the cat's personality changes depending on who she's around. That meant that while the nekomata was alone with Anna, she would reflect the friendly qualities of her own personality. Now that she was surrounded by what was likely the female youkia's corridor, she reflected the attitudes they most likely would have with her. Anya was like a mood ring.
As soon as Anna had dawned the plain white dress that might as well have been called an over sized T-shirt, she had been dragged back down the corridor towards her holding cell. As they walked, Anna watched the cat aberration's shoulders drop, and her chin lower so her nose wasn't quite so high in the air. When Anya turned to look at the human woman beside her, her smile was no longer pretentious, but showed warmth buried within feline playfulness. Anna wondered how much of the cat's personality was her own, and how much she reflected what was around her. It was entirely possible that the demoness didn't even register the change when her moods switched to what was around her.
"You're the only one we have down this way. You'll have to scream pretty load if you want help." Anya told her captive. "Also, I think Youko will be down to see you tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm jealous or feel sorry for you."
Anna chuckled a little, "Thanks for your honesty. Do you know what I can expect?" Anna twirled her hair in the nervous fashion she did when she didn't know what to expect out of a situation. She turned to watch the Neko's shoulders stiffen up and the hair on her exposed cat-patterned patches raise up to give her an alarmed look. The image hardly did anything to improve Anna's anxiety.
As Anna found herself placed back in her stone walled room, she watched the feline give her one last parting stare before looking the door behind her. Anna walked towards the platform bed, hoped that nothing would crawl out of it, and fell atop it without even bothering to slide under the covers. She would dream of nothing both the silver fox and pine over the upcoming day.