Gekko no Senshi (Moonlight Warrior)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 18
Tomoe walked nervously towards the gate of the Nura Clan's mansion. Rikuo was happily yapping about his subordinates and comrades. Tomoe had zoned out a while ago…
I lost my mother and almost lost my humanity; I can't lose the few friends I've made…
"Tadaima!"
This brought Tomoe back to reality. At the foyer of the house, a youkai with a floating head and a scarf was sweeping the floor.
"Waka! Welcome home!"
"Tomoe, I want you to meet Kubinashi, one of Rihan's most trusted subordinates and friend," Rikuo introduced. Kubinashi was slightly surprised and blushed at the honorifics.
"I've heard good things about you," she smiled. "I'm Yatogami Tomoe, but please call me Tomoe."
"Tomoe-chan, such a pleasure to have you in our house," he did a slight bow.
"Ah, Kurotabo," said youkai was just rounding the corner, "please come meet my friend." The latter was a bit surprised that he wasn't supposed to hide from humans today. He heard the rumors that the young master had invited a human to have dinner with the family and that that said human was also the same person master Rihan had being visiting for the past few days. And there she was, in the flesh… and he couldn't help but be captivated by her beauty.
"Welcome to our home em…"
"Yatogami Tomoe, but call me Tomoe," rushed Tomoe.
"Welcome to our home, Tomoe-chan," he bowed and tipped his monk hat. She bowed back.
"I've heard great things about…" Tomoe was interrupted by a gigantic person with skulls around his neck, walked past behind Kuro and said,
"Have you heard about me?"
"Aotabo, where are your manners? We have a guest here?!" scolded Kubinashi.
"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly.
"What's with all the faffing around here?"
Everyone turned to see Rihan in his brown yukata and stripped-green haori, with a towel wrapped around his neck and a sheathed sword in his hand.
"Tomoe?"
"Rihan, I need…" she stepped forward, only for him to turn around and walk away. Her stomach dropped and she stood there with her mouth open and her eyes watery. I am not going to stand here and be humiliated like this!
She quickly dropped her bag and went behind him, only to find the hallway empty. She heard Rikuo calling her name, but she zoned his voice out. She really wanted to use her powers to find Rihan but it wasn't the time for him finding out who she really is. He's probably doing that disappearing thing again…. So she decided to call out, he might hear. Just when she was opening her mouth, a tall and very handsome man with long, grey hair, wearing traditional clothes rounded the corner.
Tomoe stood there without knowing what to do, wishing for Rikuo to appear. Is not that she was afraid, but she was snooping around someone else's house, let alone a house full of youkai.
"State your name," the dark voice of the man commanded.
"Yatogami Tomoe, sir," she answered quickly.
"What are you doing in this house, human?" he inquired.
Nice, he's making the separation of ningen and youkai to make me shake in fear, little does he know that I am a youkai myself, she thought. What makes me wonder, I don't do anything to hide my aura, is it all part of my powers?
Lord Gyuuki noticed her inquisitive face, for he said: "Human answer!" He found it quite fascinating that this girl didn't even bat an eye, and seem to be in her own world. Just when she was about to say something, night Rikuo appeared beside her and placed an arm around her shoulders. She leaned closer to him.
"She's with me, Gyuuki," he voiced.
Gyuuki understood and said, "Yes master Rikuo." and walked away.
"They all respect you," Tomoe said.
"They do." He said smirking.
"I get it you didn't have any luck finding my brother?" he asked as they walked back outside.
"Nope, he did that disappearing thing and I couldn't find him," she answered.
"That 'disappearing thing'?" he smirked.
"Yeah, that thing he does where he just disappears and you can't see him but you know he's there or he's just completely gone… ohh, when he took me to my own rooftop and I don't even remember moving," Tomoe blabbered a little too sheepishly. She was blushing.
"You're cute, you know?" Rikuo said, as he stood in front of her. She looked away, blushing even more.
"Ah, you are here again!"
Both Tomoe and Rikuo turned around to see Mr. Nurarihyon, Lord over all Youkai himself. It was a little too much for Tomoe to handle his suave demeanor.
"Yes, Nurarihyon-sama," she bowed.
"Here to see the knucklehead of my older son or just for Rikuo?" senior Nura asked.
"I-I'm here for Rihan-san," she looked down.
"You know he's being training at the dojo the whole day, you might want to look for him there. Rikuo-kun, take her there," instructed Nurarihyon.
Rikuo opened the door of the dojo and Tomoe walked in. No trace of Rihan but she could feel he was looking at her. She walked a little further inside.
"Are you going to be ok?" Rikuo asked. She turned around and said, "I'll be fine, I can handle it." With that he slid the door closed.
Tomoe took a deep breath, "Rihan, I know that you're here or that you can hear me. If you don't want to show yourself, that's fine…" she sighed and continued, "I am sorry for the other day… I talked too much, asked too much questions. This is really hard for me for I never apologize for anything but I don't want our friendship go to shit for a dumb fight… it-it's clearly my fault, I'm sorry." She exhaled.
No answer after a few seconds. Tomoe sighed heavily and turned around towards the door. She was about to slide open the door when a wall of rock hard abs stopped her. She looked up to see golden eyes and a smile looking down at her. She sighed relieved and did something that none of them was expecting: she hugged him.
Rihan was surprised by her sudden action. Her chest felt warm and her heart fluttered. She smiled. He leans down and kisses the top of her head, whispering: "Tomoe, I've missed you."
Both of them where enjoying the moment as they stayed there hugging each other, none of them had noticed that the door was a crack opened. Tomoe smelled something burning:
"Rihan, I smell something…" her eyes grew big as she saw Rihan's haori caught on fire.
"RIHAN!" she yelled, making him turn around and yelled like a girl as he took off his haori, running to the nearest pond and threw it there.
"Shit!" he yelled. He looked over to see his brother, Aotabo and his father rolling on the floor laughing. Kubinashi and Kurotabo stood on the side sweatdropping.
"Oh son, you make me laugh," Nurarihyon said as he wiped off the tears.
"You ruined my moment with Tomoe," Rihan whined and hollered at the same time. His face was priceless, making his father laugh even harder.
"Oyaji!" he was about to unsheathe his sword when Nurarihyon disappeared. Tomoe saw this and realized, is this a family thing? A technique of the Nurarihyon…?
As his father was gone, Rihan turned around towards Kubinashi, "Why didn't you do something?"
"Is not like I can stop your brother and father!" Kubinashi retorted back.
"You could've warned me!"
"Aniki, you are such an easy mark when you are around Tomoe," Rikuo laughed.
Rihan shook his head and walked over to Tomoe, who was bewildered by the entire situation. He took her hand; she gave him a small smile. Rikuo was looking from afar and wondered with did she see in his brother. Was it his persistence? His good looks? He couldn't fathom what was it that got their attention.
Was he jealous? He laughed at himself for being silly. He cared for Tomoe as a good friend, even though he couldn't shake away that her beauty was mesmerizing, let alone her skills as a youkai. He believes the way she dances in the air, as she is about to land an attack to her opponent is her most powerful weapon. Take away the swords, daggers and other armaments; she enchants her victims before she strikes, making them an easy target. He sighs, and there she is, falling for my brother's charms…
Rikuo kept thinking if he's ever going to find love like that, sometime in the future. He thought about Kana and the way she was behaving lately and he couldn't shake the thought of her liking him. He admitted to himself that he likes her, but… did he love her? Certainly not, at least not right now. He knew she was jealous of Tomoe.
He really wanted them to get along now as Yura gets along with Tomoe. Those two seem to make a nice team. Yura is a very headstrong, good willed person with a very spunky personality. She either hates you or likes you; she's black or white. Probably has to do with her onmyoji upbringing. The only thing that has ever being grey in her life is he. He smiles as he thinks again about the first time she found out about him being a youkai.
He would hate himself forever if she wasn't part of his life; if she had decided to go the other way and persecute him, try to destroy him, knowing that he could never bring himself to harm her. She means a lot to him, her unwavering friendship towards him, defying her own family and beliefs… it made him consider that maybe, just maybe… there was something more there… something that would make him really, really happy…
-0-
"So your parents are away for the weekend," Rihan started as the walked to the dinning room. Tomoe was invited to stay for dinner.
"Yes and they are not my parents," she said.
"All right, but you actually never talk about them, what are they like?"
Tomoe didn't feel comfortable sharing that type of information. She kept quiet for a few seconds, Rihan understood.
"Ok, we will not talk about the parents then," he smiled. Tomoe gasped, as it was very rare; he was always smirking and looking devilishly delicious. I can't believe I just said that… devilishly delicious? Really Tomoe?
She hadn't realized she was blushing and biting the corner of her bottom lip. She relieved a breath she was holding; her actions where taunting Rihan in every sense. She continued to bite on her lip, making him grab her by the wrist and pull her close to him.
"You really need to stop doing that or I'll pull you into my room and do things that you only do when you're married."
She gasped loudly and could only stare agape. His smoldering golden eyes made her insides melt and all she could do was keep her mouth open. Forgetting herself and her surroundings, Rihan pulled her even closer to his chest, leaving no personal space. Tomoe react! Say something! Do something! But her body didn't seem to pay attention. It was as if her spinal cord was severed and there was no communication between the brain, medulla oblongata and the rest of her body.
With one finger, Rihan closed her still gaping mouth. Tomoe kept it closed and he said, "That's more like it."
She finally regained movement on her limbs. "Rihan, you have to stop that."
"Stop what?" he whined.
"Just you being… you! I can't contain myself…" she said looking to the ground.
"Well then don't contain yourself," he smirked.
"Don't mock me Rihan, you know I won't act upon it," she said.
"Then I will act upon it and you won't have to worry about it," he smirked even bigger.
She rolled her eyes, "Shut up, let's go eat, I'm hungry…"
Dinner was uneventful, if you could say that knowing in which house you are. Yohime and Tomoe chatted while Nurarihyon and his sons talked about important matters.
"Dad, I don't think is necessary for us to send messengers to the nearby lands outside our territory to gather information. It could be counterproductive," stated Rikuo.
"You may be right son, but how do you think we will get the info that we need knowing that a youkai army sooner or later will be upon us… we need to gather it somehow," Nurarihyon said.
"Why don't we use the Sanba Garasu, they've proved excellent in the past," added Rihan.
"It's very obvious that they're part of the Nura Clan," said Rikuo.
"They could be more discreet," said Rihan.
"They're birds, dumbass. How discreet can they be?" Rikuo pointed out. Rihan just rolled his eyes.
After some consideration and mulling over, Rihan had made a decision. He wasn't very keen on it for he would have to leave a certain someone unattended but it was for the best.
"I'll do it," Rihan said.
His father and brother just looked at him. "Are you out of your mind?" said Rikuo.
"Look, no one but us can be as inconspicuous milling around the lands without a single soul noticing. Oyaji has to take care of the clan, while Rikuo has to go to school," Rihan said. Rikuo sweatdropped.
"Very well then, I leave this to you Rihan," said The Sodaicho. He smiled inside as finally Rihan was going to do something for the Clan. Perhaps that girl has done something good to him. She seems to be a sturdy and headstrong woman, someone that can effortlessly put up with Rihan's antics.
Rikuo grunted for he wasn't pleased but his brother was right, he had school to worry about and he could also personally take care of his friends if things get bad. Besides, somebody has to take care of Tomoe while Rihan is gone, not that she needs any help, naturally but Rihan has no clue as to who she truly is. Just as if on cue, Rihan speaks.
"Rikuo," bringing him back to reality; he finds Rihan looking over to where Tomoe was happily chatting with their mother, "you see that girl, she means a lot to me, I want you to look after her. I don't know how long will I be gone…"
Rikuo nodded, "I understand." A small smirk was placed on his lips. Rihan noticed for he added, "No hanky-panky, asshole… she's to be untouched when I come back."
"She can take care of herself, there's not much I can really do," Rikuo said in as-a-matter-of-fact way.
The sudden shift on Rihan's humor was so evident that even Yuki-Onna who was about to bring more tea, skedaddled away. Tomoe and Yohime immediately ceased their chat. Rikuo gulped. Rihan's irises glowed as the whites of his eyes became darker. A dark atmosphere surrounded him as his youki flared.
"Not one hair of her head shall go missing, do you understand?"
Rikuo swallowed hard. Tomoe had no idea what to expect. The last time they where together he had being severely angry with her but he never was like this. She grew scared.
"We will make sure that she's unharmed by the time you get back," Nurarihyon intervened. He could feel the resolve burning inside Rihan. It made him feel proud. This is what a true leader of the Clan is, to fiercely defend what he believes and loves…
Tomoe took all the courage she got and walked over to where Rihan was, almost at the wit of murdering his brother if he didn't do his biding. She has never seen Rikuo with deer-at-headlights eyes. The fear she felt, the one that everyone felt, made her realize Rihan is not to be messed with when he's truly angry.
Placing a hand over Rihan's shoulder, his breathing, which was raged, became more composed. She knelt facing him, a few centimeters beside and ahead of Rikuo. She bore her eyes into his, taking his attention away from his brother. The whites in his eyes returned to normal but you could still tell he was angry by his furrowed brow.
She started, "Rihan, I want you to listen to me carefully. I don't know what matter brought you to be angry with Rikuo like this, but I overheard you talking about my well-being. I will be ok, understand? I have your brother and your family to back me up; you don't have to worry about it. Please," placing her hands on his face, "don't be angry…"
Yohime placed a hand over her mouth; Nurarihyon opened his eyes to look over his wife and smirk, Rikuo still looked as stunned. Rihan lowered his head and said, "Ok." With that he stood up and left the room. Rikuo sighed heavily and grabbed his chest. Tomoe sighed as well and put a hand over her stomach. A few seconds later Rihan returned and said,
"I have to take you home."
Tomoe looked up to him and saw that he was back to his normal self. Taking his hand she walked outside. She thanked his family for having her over again and both walked out the gates.
A/N: This chapter was pretty tedious to write. I broke my pinky finger over the stupidest fall ever... even bruised my new (open wound and all) in the process, so it takes forever to write... Please help my pinky feel better and write some REVIEWS! PLEASE! Yey! Thanks!