Author's Notes: I've tossed in a new original character, in honor of Japanese folklore. Also, lots and lots and lots of Minako. Please enjoy, and as always, I would love to hear your thoughts!
The doors fly open, and Murase stumbles in, falling to his hands and knees in the middle of the office. The block of ice around his right arm slams against the marble floor with a sharp clunk, cracking slightly on impact.
Leo pauses in the middle of his report as Minako rises to her feet in alarm. On her right, there's a hiss of steel; Guang Hong has drawn his twin blades. "Murase, what on earth – "
A gale of wind swirls in, and the temperature of the room plummets. White crystals, whipped into a frenzy by the gale, pelt against unguarded skin, clinging to eyelashes and hair.
Slowly, the wind calms, vortex falling to reveal the form of a small girl within its center. Garbed in an elegant kimono, one might have described her as human, were it not for the blueish tint of her pale skin, or the pure whiteness of her long, flowing hair.
The girl takes a step forward, wooden clogs clacking against the marble floor. Murase cringes.
"So you have no qualms with slaughtering the weak, but you run to your master when you face one more powerful than you," she says softly.
Murase protests feebly, "I didn't – I had no idea those youkai were your underlings – "
"They were my children," the girl says, edged words slicing through Murase's words like a knife. "And they have never harmed a human, as per our agreement." She fixes her eyes on Minako – irises as blue and clear as a cloudless, noon sky. "Is that not right, daughter of Kasenushi?"
"You are correct, Yuki-dono," Minako inclines her head in deference, blinking away the frost on her eyelashes. "I'm afraid my student here can be somewhat thoughtless when it comes to youkai extermination."
"Thoughtless?" Yuki coyly lifts a sleeve to blue lips. "I may have considered one attack 'thoughtless', but this is the third time the human has ignored my warnings."
Both Leo and Guang Hong suck in a breath.
"Is this true, Murase?" Minako hisses.
"I thought they were evil," Murase mutters, "I thought they were contaminated – "
"This is a clear breach of contract, daughter of Kasenushi." Yuki's smile doesn't falter, air growing colder as the soft flakes dance in a flurry around her form. "Surely you don't wish a youkai war upon your head?"
"No, of course not," Minako says, gritting her teeth.
Only a fool would challenge Yuki; the ice deity is capable of creating a blizzard that could blanket Hasetsu City with frost and snow in minutes. Worse, youkai place an inordinate amount of faith in oral agreements. Murase's dishonorable actions would spread across the region, and they would surely lose the peace that Minako had worked so hard to maintain between humans and youkai.
Time and again she had taught Murase that youkai were good until provoked. She had advised him that extermination was not a numbers game. She had warned him against angering formidable opponents.
Yet, time and again, the ambitious, obstinate, foolish man persisted in exterminating every youkai in his path.
Taking a deep breath, Minako nods to Murase. Her student – ever full of arrogance and cheek – is now trembling on the floor, thoroughly cowed by the ice youkai's aura. "Would it appease you to know that he will be punished for his indiscretion?"
"Hmm~" Yuki raises her gaze to the ceiling, tapping her lips. "Perhaps." Hands falling, she clasps them in front of her in a deceptively submissive gesture. "I would be far more appeased if I were allowed to decide his punishment."
"And what would that be, if I may ask?"
"As humans say, 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'." Yuki cocks her head toward Murase. "Tell me, murderer, do you have children?"
"Yuki-dono," Minako says in surprise, just as Murase begins to weep like a child.
"Please," he begs, "Please, I'll do anything…"
"I suppose that answers my question," Yuki says serenely over Murase's pleas. Her smile turns razor sharp. "What will it be, daughter of Kasenushi? The lives of all the humans you claim to protect, or the lives of this human's children?"
"That's not a fair choice," Leo growls.
"Oh, but Inu-san," Yuki turns to the shiki, blue eyes widening with innocence, "I am giving your mistress a choice out of respect for her heritage."
Her "heritage", indeed. Despite his love for her human mother, the great river dragon Kasenushi has always disapproved of her involvement with the human world. It was his belief that the impurity of the human spirit would bring about her downfall, just as the many youkai who fell to corruption before her time.
How irksome for her hypocritical father to be right.
Minako bows, low and deep. "What if I were to offer myself? A leader should take responsibility for her people."
"Minako-sama," Guang Hong gasps.
"How noble," Yuki giggles, "But that will not avenge my children. No, I want the human to feel my pain, to witness his own blood die a slow death as I freeze them…"
White flakes spin together to form the tiny replica of a human, its mouth open in a silent scream as ice creeps up its flailing body.
"…inch by inch by inch."
The shape falls away in a whirl of cold dust, and the ice youkai smiles beatifically. "You have my word that I will abide by our agreement and harm no one else."
Minako closes her eyes and draws in another breath. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few; choosing to save Murase's family would either doom the prefecture to becoming a frozen wasteland at best, or start a full-blown war across the nation at worst. Her decision is clear, but the responsibility carries the weight of millions – no, of three adorable scamps admiring her scales and declaring their intent to be a dragon when they grow up.
"Sensei," Murase sobs, crawling towards her, a hand outstretched. "You wouldn't do that to my girls, would you? After all the time you've spent together? You'd side with me, a human – "
"The other youkai lords will not hear of his betrayal?" Minako says softly, eyes still closed. The familiar pangs of a migraine are starting behind her eyeballs, and she can't bear to open them for what she's about to say next.
Yuki traces a line across her lips. "My lips are sealed."
"Then," Minako exhales, shoulders sinking, "Do as you see fit."
The ice deity laughs, "A wise decision."
"NO," Murase roars. It's the last word Minako hears from her unfortunate student. She opens her eyes in time to see white snow enveloping his thrashing figure, sweeping him out of her office in a whirl of wind.
The silence that follows is suffocating.
"Minako-sama," says Leo, his eyes still as soft and moist as the small brown mutt that showed up one day at headquarters begging for scraps. "You did the right thing."
"Did I?" Her throat feels raw, growing dry and swollen with guilt, anger, and sorrow. "Then why does it feel so wrong?"
Victor is starting to feel the fringes of panic: a discomfort in his chest, his brain in overload and on excess caffeine. He hasn't slept for two days. Couldn't sleep for two days. Not when Yuuri is lying next to him, silent and so, so still. Occasionally, his angel makes a pained noise that has Victor scrambling senselessly to his side, but he doesn't wake, doesn't open those beautiful brown eyes and grumble about the brightness of the early morning sun. Victor wants to shake him, beg him to get up, please get up but he knows it won't work because he has done that (several times), and Yuuri doesn't get up. Yuuri doesn't get up at all.
Everyone has something to say. Seung-gil insists that Yuuri's delayed reaction rules out venom from the spider youkai they fought; venom effects would have been instantaneous, causing painful welts and even paralysis at the point of the bite. Phichit swears that it was just him and Yuuri on the field; he didn't sense anyone else. Chris reckons Yuuri's mental exhaustion may have finally caught up with his physical body. Kenjiro thinks – well, Kenjiro hasn't said very much. If he's not sitting stiffly by Yuuri with his bottom on his heels, fists curling and uncurling against his knees, he's wrapped around Victor in a tight bear hug and bawling his eyes out, young and lost and scared.
Victor wishes the others are more like Kenjiro. The boy has the right idea: why say anything at all, if you have nothing useful to say? No one knows what caused Yuuri's condition. No one knows why he's in this state. No one knows anything, and they can't bring him to see a normal human doctor, not when there might be a supernatural cause.
The feeling of helplessness, of not being able to do a thing when Yuuri makes those soft whimpering sounds, constricts Victor's throat with every passing minute, as if he's being strangled by the very air around him. All he can do is wait, and pray that Yuuri will open his eyes, sit up, and declare it all to be one mean, elaborate prank.
Approximately 20 hours, 3 minutes and 14 seconds on day three, Leo finally appears at their doorstep.
"You look like hell," Leo says, shedding his jacket and shoving it haphazardly into Victor's arms as he hurries to Yuuri's still form. "Have you been eating at all?"
Scowling, Victor flings the denim wear on the dining table. Who has the energy to hang up a stupid jacket right now? "Forget me, what took you so long to get here? I texted you hours ago. Aren't you supposed to be watching over Yuuri?"
"Hey, I'm spread thin monitoring Yuuri and his family," Leo objects. He crouches down to press his hand against Yuuri's forehead. "No fever. Any bites, scratches, or markings of any sort?"
Hovering close, Victor shakes his head. "Seung-gil said it couldn't be spider venom – "
"So no one thought to check?" Leo interrupts incredulously.
Victor bristles at the unspoken accusation. What aggravates him most is that Leo is right. "We just never thought – " He chokes on his words as the shiki throws off the covers and begins to casually rip Yuuri's shirt open. "What do you think you're doing!?"
Leo looks up, hands clutching the torn fabric, eyebrows raised. "Examining him?"
"That's Yuuri's favorite shirt! A merchandise for one of my movies!"
Thick eyebrows inch a tad higher. "You… dressed him in his favorite shirt while he was unconscious?"
Victor gives his fiercest glare. "I want him to feel comfortable when he wakes up."
"Is that a human thing," says Leo, mouth twitching, "Or just you?"
"Look, just – look over him without destroying his clothes."
"Fine, fine," Leo laughs, high and light despite the circumstances. He bends over and carefully begins his examination. Brushing back black hair, he begins with Yuuri's forehead, meticulously inspect every inch of skin. Then, slowly, he draws a finger across Yuuri's cheeks, down his jaw, the line of his neck, and ending, finally, at Yuuri's chest.
"Anything?" Victor asks. His back is starting to twinge from hunching over for so long, but he doesn't care.
"Nothing yet," Leo replies absently. "But I wonder…" Shifting, he slips hand to the back of the Yuuri's neck. And then he hitches a breath.
"Ah," he says.
Victor straightens, inhaling sharply. "Ah? What do you mean, ah? What'd you find?"
Gently, Leo rolls Yuuri's head to the side. Hidden beneath the tiny strands of hair at the nape of Yuuri's neck is a puncture in the skin: the size of a pinhole, barely visible to the human eye.
In that instant, Victor feels his insides burn with anger and shame – anger at Seung-gil for making assumptions at Yuuri's expense; shame at himself for failing to cover all the bases, like checking Yuuri for marks. If Yuuri doesn't recover – Victor lowers his head and bites the inside of his cheeks, hard.
No. Yuuri will recover.
He has to.
"I know what you're thinking," Leo mutters, tugging the covers up and under Yuuri's chin. "It's not the spiders."
Victor's eyes snap up. "It's not?"
"There should be two holes with a spider bite, but there's clearly only one." Leo frowns. "If it's what I fear…" He lifts a hand to his lips and chews on a nail in a distinctly human gesture. "I didn't detect anyone during your mission though."
"That's what Phichit said," Victor agrees, eyebrows furrowing. "What is it you fear, exactly? Murase?"
"Yeah, I'm just afraid it might be a dart dipped in – " Leo ceases abruptly, eyes widening. "The spider youkai."
"The spider youkai?" say Victor, confused.
Leo nods. "There were so many of them, they masked the scent of everything else around them. Or every person around them. Which means that – "
There's a low growl, like the sound of an animal on the prowl.
"Oh boy," Leo sighs. He throws up a hand, and something flashes a rich emerald green, seconds before sparks fly in a sharp, metallic clang that bounces off the white apartment walls.
Eyes glowing, Yuuri growls again, deeper and harsher, claws dragging shrilly across Leo's flickering shield.
"Well," Leo turns to a stunned Victor, "At least he's awake now."
It's raining outside: still and quiet, droplets tap-tapping against the window panes.
Yuuri loves the rain. Every rainy evening, he'll be at the window, hunkered down in a dining chair with knees tucked under his chin, cheek resting on the cool glass. Rain is best in the summer, Yuuri tells Victor once; the sensation rivals a cup of cold lemonade in the muggy heat. And then his cheeks press into the glass, rising in a smile as warm as the summer breeze, and Victor comes to love the rain too.
But Yuuri isn't at the window.
He hasn't dragged a chair from the dining room, hasn't called for Victor to join him, hasn't pulled his legs up and released a sigh of contentment.
Yuuri is –
"C'mon friend, it's me," Leo coos softly. "We're packmates, remember?"
Yuuri snarls.
"Yeah, didn't think you would."
Leo shoves him off and, just as the half-youkai lunges forward again, rapidly draws a square in the air. Instantly, translucent green walls in the shape of a box manifest around Yuuri, who smashes into a side with a hiss of pain.
Victor whirls on Leo, anger surging. "A cage? Yuuri isn't a beast!"
"A barrier," Leo corrects as Yuuri slams bodily into the sides, making enraged noises. "And I'm pretty sure we're not dealing with Yuuri anymore. Not with Murase's serum taking effect."
Victor's heart kicks in his chest. "Serum? But how…?"
"I have an idea, but now's not the time." Leo glances at the barrier. The walls are wavering; Yuuri's next body slam sends ripples through the green surface. "Call for reinforcements. I'll get Guang Hong and inform Minako-sama."
Victor reaches into his pocket and pauses. Christophe wouldn't know how to handle the situation, Kenjiro would be a terrified, blubbering mess, and Seung-gil can't fight, unless standing by the wayside and mouthing off counts as combat. Reinforcements would mean Phichit, and Phichit equals a promise made between best friends, and Phichit never breaks a promise.
"Let me talk to him. Maybe he'll listen to reason," Victor says, stepping towards the barrier.
"Hang on a second, love." Leo lowers the phone from his ear. "I don't know if that'll…"
When Victor lays a hand on the green entrapment, Yuuri quiets, gold eyes trained on the hunter with a penetrating stare.
"… work," Leo finishes. "Huh."
Victor lets out the breath he was holding. Yuuri recognizes him – or, at least, the fox recognizes his mate. If Yuuri's supposedly functioning on his primal instincts, he shouldn't be sentient enough to comprehend words. Still, it's worth a try.
Resting another hand on the barrier, Victor murmurs, "We're trying to help you. Murase's done something awful to you… to Yuuri. And we want to make it right. Won't you let us help?"
Yuuri stares at him for a minute longer, before the bright eyes flicker to Leo. The shiki has resumed his conversation over the phone, back turned away from the barrier. Victor understands.
"He means no harm. He's your, uh," Victor quickly recalls the word Leo used, "Packmate, right? He's just… afraid. For you. For us."
Yuuri huffs in response, the forceful exhale blowing his bangs off his face. The action is so reminiscent of human Yuuri that Victor's face softens into a smile. His angel also needs a haircut, but that can wait. First, they have to figure out what exactly happened to Yuuri, how this damn serum actually works, or even whether the serum is in him at all.
Without warning, the green wall vanishes and Victor topples forward into Yuuri's arms, nose bumping into the lean shoulder. He feels Yuuri's growl vibrate against him, before he looks up and discovers, with chagrin, that he's now inside the barrier.
"Leo," he snaps as he rights himself, "An explanation, if you please?"
"Sorry," Leo lowers his free hand with a sheepish grin, "But your scent seems to calm him. This way, we might actually be able to hold him until Minako-sama arrives."
"That just won't do, I'm afraid."
Leo spins round, hand buzzing with bolts of green, but it's too late: the intruder claps a charm on his temple that sizzles on his skin and has him screaming. Leo's cellphone falls, Guang Hong's voice growing louder and more frantic through the speaker, as the shiki morphs into a large white dog with glowing crimson eyes. Anguished howls rip through its throat, tail smashing into furniture with its writhing. There's chanting, and then the dog – with one last desperate, futile snap of its giant jaws – is sucked into a clay urn.
"Word of advice." Murase slaps a lid with a seal into the mouth of the urn, lips curling. "Might want to consider locking your front door."
Before Victor can react, the barrier falls, and Yuuri leaps at the exterminator with the roar of a wounded animal.
"I'll kill him," Guang Hong snarls, eyes flashing blood red.
"Guang Hong, stop," Minako yells, snatching for the small shiki, but he's faster, fueled by sheer vengeance. Within seconds, he's out of the cave, leaving them in tense silence.
"Oh, hell," Morooka mutters, hands trembling as he tilts a test tube filled with pink liquid over another. "You know I don't work well under pressure."
"We don't have much of a choice now, do we?" Minako snaps. She slams her palms on the counter, test tubes and beakers shaking from the impact. "You said we're close! If we don't get an antidote done soon, someone's going to get killed, and half-bloods and their descendants will be hunted to extinction!"
"Yeah, that's really helping with the whole pressure thing," Morooka says dryly. He manages to transfer the pink liquid without too much spilling. "Wouldn't it be better for everyone if Yuuri or Guang Hong kills the prejudiced fool?"
"Yuuri's half-youkai and Guang Hong's the shiki of a half-youkai," Minako counters. "How would that look to the rest of the Society?" Her voice drops slightly, tinged with sadness. "They're more inclined to listen to their fellow humans as it is."
Morooka shoots Minako a sympathetic look. "Look, why don't you go help them? Just keep your cellphone on you so I can track you down when I'm done."
"But you – "
"I'll be fine." Morooka gestures around him. "If Murase hasn't found this lab in the mountains for this long, I doubt he'll know its location now."
Minako hesitates, before she nods. "Very well. Call if anything goes wrong."
"Doesn't Yuki-dono live around here?"
"Youkai protect only their own," Minako says wistfully.
Morooka watches as she starts to float, silvery blue scales climbing across her exposed skin, black hair lengthening and curling behind her in gentle waves. And then she soars away with a blast of speed, the wind blowing his rough, uncut hair back over his forehead.
How anyone could want to harm such magnificence is beyond him.
Scratching at his unshaven fuzz, Morooka turns back to his experiment with a sigh. Right, back to work – the fate of half-bloods rests on his shoulders and all that.
Victor barely has time to explain the situation to Phichit when the yaksha arrives. There isn't much to explain, really.
The forest near Yuuri's apartment are strewn with bodies, the air pungent with the smell of blood.
Murase's attempt at an ambush had failed miserably and nearly cost him his life. It took all of Victor's strength to yank Yuuri off the exterminator, who seized the chance to scramble out of the apartment, clutching at his bleeding chest. Ignoring Victor's fevered whispers to calm down, Yuuri had ripped out of his grasp and bounded after Murase. Even with a team of exterminators running to their leader's defense, Yuuri's fox, ignited by pure animalistic fury, tore through them with frightening brutality.
And then Guang Hong flew into battle with the force of a hurricane, twin blades twirling through air and flesh like a pair of deadly silver butterflies.
The exterminators had fled in terror, but by then, the damage was done: Yuuri – no, Yuuri's fox – had reverted to a primal state, and even shy, reserved Guang Hong had gone mad with grief.
It's a miracle Murase is still alive.
"What's Murase's game?" Phichit says, grimacing as they run past what looks like a severed arm dangling from a tree branch. "If he did inject the serum into Yuuri, he should've known Yuuri would be on a killing streak. What good would an ambush do?"
"He didn't account for me," Victor says, holding a wrist to his nose, fighting hard to contain his nausea. The overwhelming stench is churning his stomach.
"What, the thing about your scent calming him down?"
"If Yuuri doesn't attack anyone, Murase can't prove that Yuuri's dangerous to humans… or too dangerous to be kept alive."
"So he follows you back to Yuuri's apartment and pisses off the fox, just to ensure Yuuri's killing spree." Phichit hisses through gritted teeth. "What could Yuuri have done to offend this nutjob?"
"It wasn't Yuuri," Victor says grimly, adjusting his quiver strap with one hand.
Phichit arches an eyebrow, but nods at the object in Victor's hold instead. "Care to explain why you're carrying that pot around?"
"It's Leo," Victor replies, left arm tightening round the urn. "I couldn't get the seal off, so I was hoping you could. It's the only way to show his mate that he's alive."
"Wait, Leo? Like Yuuri's youkai friend? And he has a mate?" Phichit shoots Victor a hard stare. "You're telling me there's another vengeful youkai out there?"
As if on cue, the ground pulses with raw energy, almost knocking them off their feet. The next shriek drives birds out of the trees, leaves flying.
"TOUYA MURASE! Come and face me, you murderous coward!"
"That would be Leo's mate and Murase's second miscalculation," says Victor.
"Perfect," Phichit deadpans, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Anything else you want to tell me?"
There's a cracking noise – a sonic boom – before Minako lands in a spot between them, dark hair billowing around her like a cape. At least, Victor surmises it's Minako, based on the beauty mark that is visible even above the shiny scales in lieu of human skin.
"We can still stop those two from further violence," she chokes out, shock and horror and pain reflected clear as day in the bright gold orbs. "Take care of Yuuri, I'll handle Guang Hong."
And then she's gone.
(So that's how an emotionally healthy half-youkai should look, thinks Victor.)
"Right," Phichit says after a while. "I'd ask why no one called me sooner, but let's just conclude that there's a lot I don't know, release that poor youkai, and go find Yuuri."
Victor grabs his arm. "Don't kill him. Please. Leo can make barriers; he might be able to contain Yuuri again once he's released."
Phichit unsheathes his sword, face darkening. "No promises."
Guang Hong lets out a cry of relief when Leo spills from the unsealed urn, whimpering, and curled in a white fuzzy ball. Dropping his swords, he rushes to his mate's side, tugging the dog youkai into his arms with a gentleness that was absent in his delirious need for revenge.
Minako drifts slowly to the ground, immensely glad that a fight with Guang Hong has been circumvented. "Leo, thank heavens."
Cracking an eye open, Leo chuckles weakly, "What kind of shiki would I be if I was exterminated so easily?"
"I thought I lost you." Guang Hong shakes, tears pouring down, cleansing traces of blood on his face. "You were in so much pain…"
"Silly kitty." Leo spreads his jaws in a wolfish grin and laps Guang Hong's cheeks with a large, pink tongue. "I'd never leave you alone like that."
"Ew, dog breath," Guang Hong whines, but he buries his nose in the white fur, and allows a deep, rumbling purr to roll out of his throat.
Minako fondly watches over her shiki. Now all that's left is Yuuri. Already, she can hear the sounds of clashing weapons some distance away; Victor and Phichit must have engaged Yuuri in combat. (The other exterminators are too cowed to fight now, even in self-defense.) Murase's plan may have succeeded, but she won't stop protecting Yuuri.
"I hate to interrupt, but do you think you could hold Yuuri down?" Minako asks Leo, who hums pensively in response.
"I'll need a bit of rest," Leo concludes, tongue rolling out. "And even then I don't think I can manage more than one barrier."
"Minako-sama, he can't even return to his human form," Guang Hong protests.
"Actually, I just like it when you scratch my ears in this form."
Minako smiles indulgently as Guang Hong swats at his laughing mate. And then almost leaps out of her scales when something vibrates in her back pocket.
"I'm on the way," Morooka says cheerily on the other line. "With a surprise."
"My shiki and secret protégé have effectively slaughtered a bunch of exterminators tonight," Minako sighs. "I'm done with surprises."
"Trust me; you'll like this one."
The fox, Victor realizes, hates Phichit with a passion.
It must know of the promise Phichit made, and is now fighting harder than ever to prevent Phichit from fulfilling it.
Or maybe it just really hates Phichit.
The second Phichit appears in its line of sight, it crushes an exterminator's head into a tree trunk, and then attacks Phichit with a snarl, neglecting the remaining exterminators.
("I'd run if I were you," Victor flashes a winsome smile at the terrified men, who turn and disappear into the forest without a second glance.)
Their fight is so fierce and so fast that Victor can hardly follow their blurry figures with his eyes. It's like his first mission with the lizard youkai, but without Yuuri's heightened sense of sight to save the day.
Honestly, Victor's not exactly sure how he can help, much less save the day. Back home, he's one of the most feared demon hunters, the heir to the Nikiforov line. Here, he's nothing, unable to even rescue the man he loves. His teeth clenches together so tight that it hurts, his stomach boils, and he fumbles in his attempt to string an arrow – an attempt to do something.
Then, finally, an opportunity presents itself.
There's a momentary lull in the fight when Phichit slams against a tree, letting out a noise like a punctured balloon.
As the yaksha slides down with groan, Victor springs in front of him and spreads his arms wide. Yuuri – the fox – freezes, his claws inches away from Victor's neck.
"Enough," Victor says softly.
If he can't hurt Yuuri, if he can't kill him, then it shall be his duty to stop the madness. (Take that, Lee Seung-gil.)
Pulling his arm back, the fox looks torn, gold eyes narrowing in bewilderment. And for a second, just a second, the blood-covered features soften, and Victor is reminded of rain, of cicadas, of warm summer breezes.
That is, until Phichit shoves him aside to ram a blade through Yuuri's side.
No.
As Yuuri falls with a howl, Victor tackles the yaksha down before he can make another strike.
"Are you mad?" Phichit shouts, beating at Victor's shoulder and arms. Yuuri's sprawled on his back, teeth bared and breathing heavily. The wound has already begun to close, healing swiftly on the spot. "This is our only chance!"
"You can't kill him," Victor heaves, "Yuuri's still in there. He's alive! I just saw him – "
"Christ, Victor, I know he's still in there, but Yuuri's not coming back."
Victor falters. He was expecting Phichit to deny Yuuri's presence, to say that Yuuri's gone. He wasn't expecting Phichit to agree with him.
Phichit speaks over his stunned silence, pointing at the smashed head of the exterminator nearby, limbs still twitching in its death throes. "Do you honestly think Yuuri would do that? Or live knowing he's going to continue to do that? Yuuri asked me to kill him because he couldn't bear the thought of living in a body that would go on killing people, a body that's out of his control!"
Shaking his head, Victor persists. "But if Yuuri's still in there, then how could you even think to – "
"Do you think I want to kill Yuuri?" Phichit blurts out in a yell. His voice cracks and his eyes well over, strong demeanor crumbling into something damaged, and scarred, and so vehement that it almost knocks Victor backwards. "Do you even know how I felt when I passed Seung-gil's stupid test? No, you don't, because you had Chris to do the dirty deed for you. You want to know how I could think to kill Yuuri? Because my best friend in the whole, wide world knelt down in front of me and begged me to end him when he turned!"
"I…" Victor swallows, heart hammering in his ears. It's the first time he has ever seen genuine emotion in the Thai man. Hell, it's the first time he's ever seen Phichit Chulanont cry. And he doesn't know what to say, so he says the first thing that comes to mind:
"I'm sorry."
A swell of quiet, broken only by Phichit's labored breathing.
Suddenly, the temperature takes a nose dive around them, and white snow starts to fall, sticking to their cheeks and eyelashes. In amazement, Victor looks up to find Minako gliding down towards them, accompanied by a pale girl in a kimono, carrying a scruffy-looking homeless man in bedraggled clothes, bridal-style.
"Where's Yuuri?" Minako demands, while the girl lands next to her, and unceremoniously dumps the man onto the forest floor.
"He was," Victor glances around in dismay, "Just here."
"Damn it," Phichit swears, banging a fist on the ground.
Leo pads out from between the trees, Guang Hong in his original form – a big black cat; of course – by his side.
"I can sniff him out," Leo offers.
"And I have a cure," the homeless man says perkily, holding up a tiny bottle containing a bright orange liquid. "Now we just need a plan to inject it in him!"
"You have a what," Victor and Phichit exclaim in unison.
"Leo, Guang Hong, find Yuuri," Minako commands. "Victor, Phichit, ride with Leo; we'll explain along the way."
Victor exchanges a glance with Phichit, before they obediently clamber onto the back of the huge dog youkai, who has lowered his body to the ground for easier access.
Next to them, the pale girl rolls her eyes heavily as the homeless man stretches his arms toward her with a beam of childish delight.
"Thank you for riding the Leo Express," Leo quips once they're safely onboard. He sniffs at the forest floor once, twice, before he begins to lope off, hard muscles bunching and loosening rhythmically under the white fur.
"Keep your hands and feet inside at all times," he adds.
Beside him, Guang Hong giggles appreciatively at the joke, stretching in a more graceful run.
Grasping a fistful of fur, Phichit releases a long sigh. His eyes are still red, still damp, but he seems to have calmed since his earlier outburst. "Is this how you've felt the past few months? All the information overload?"
Victor nods, clapping a hand on Phichit's shoulder. "Welcome to my world."
Notes
Yuki is a portrayal of Yuki Onna, or the snow woman, in Japanese folklore.
So we're seeing a little more of the youkai society now. They do have a hierarchy, with more powerful youkai sitting at the height of power as lords or "deities", and they have youkai that serve and worship them, just as humans serve and worship their monarchs. Certain species, like dragons, are automatically near the top of the food chain, if not the top, because of their celestial powers. Minako commands respect among youkai simply because of her father being a dragon; unfortunately, being half makes her weaker than the youkai lords or deities at the top. Yuki, for instance, is much, much stronger than she is.
For those who might be curious, Minako's oral agreements with the youkai lords and deities are still in place with Murase at the helm, so he did learn a lesson. He just learned the wrong lesson: don't mess with pure youkai, but half-youkai are a different matter altogether. Doesn't help that neither youkai nor human really care about half-youkai. :(