A/N: Yes, I do in fact know that calico cats are always female. But you haven't ever met a cat youkai, so you don't know if they exist as males, right? Of course, right. Also…our friend the cat isn't *technically* male anymore.
O/C33: While Koenma and Misaki shifted through documents in an attempt to narrow the possibilities of who could have attacked the agency, Kurama and Hiei returned from their mission with a calico-colored cat in tow. The cat is actually a youkai who proceeds to latch itself onto Misaki and this seems to bother no one but her.
Misaki headed to her room, not wanting to embarrass herself further or 'show Hitune around' until he wasn't attached to her.
During the entire walk back, Hitune kept purring her at random, inopportune moments and Misaki would never have admitted it out loud, but it distracted her greatly. It seemed as though he knew this and he often purred with more zeal after a moment.
She arrived in her room without incident, skirting around anyone she thought might meet up with her.
The room remained as messy, and comforting, as ever.
"Are you ever going to let go of me?" Misaki stopped just inside the door and Hitune helpfully closed it behind them with one foot.
Hitune thought about it. "Maybe." He bit her ear again.
"That's extremely encouraging." Misaki grimaced, trying to swat him away, but only being able to bring her arms up so far, since his embrace circled her arms at the elbow.
He preferred not to answer, squeezing her middle with his tail instead.
"Why are you holding onto me?"
"I want to go wherever you go."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere without you, especially since we're in my room. Will you please let go?"
Hitune frowned, "You aren't going to leave without me will you?"
"No," Misaki breathed, "I won't leave this room without you."
"Okay." He released her.
Misaki stumbled forward and Hitune steadied her until he was sure she could stand on her own. He sat down where he was in front of the door and stretched out on his side much like he would if he was still in cat form. His ears and tail twitched occasionally in interest as Misaki moved about the room, attempting to clean the mess that she still hadn't managed to get the way she wanted.
After working under the eyes of Hitune for a while, Misaki realized what was wrong. She was making no progress, nor had she really when she tried to clean it last time. She had nowhere to put things. All of the stuff on her floor was there because there was no better place for it. She had no shelves to place things on and the closet was full of things she would have to pull out, making a bigger mess, in order to try and organize the chaos. Misaki wished she was at home where she could just think things and they would happen. Here it was a little harder, seeing as how she didn't have an infinite amount of space to think in.
Hitune quickly got bored and decided to explore the agency.
"Don't leave me."
"Just don't do anything to get yourself in trouble. Remember what I said: I will capture you again and make it a more permanent situation." Misaki told him. He acted as if he didn't hear her when he changed into calico form and somehow slipped out of the room.
Misaki shook her head and sighed. When she 'rescued' the calico from Hiei's unmerciful grasp, she didn't even consider this type of outcome. She thought the kitty needed love and comfort when…well it probably still needed love and comfort. However, she found herself less willing to provide snuggling and smooches to a fully grown youkai than to a helpless cat.
Night came eventually as Misaki puttered around her room, unaccepting of the fact that something couldn't be done about the mess. The bed looked inviting so she turned off all of the lights and flopped down. She couldn't sleep, of course, but she could get off of her feet and enjoy laying there on her side, one arm underneath her head.
The darkness swarmed steadily around her. A darker shape among the rest of the black nimbly leapt onto the bed and decided that she was a good place to lounge. Settling down on her hip, Hitune quickly fell asleep. Misaki smiled, hearing his heartbeat slowly grow steadier as he fell asleep.
The arm she had behind her head also decided to fall asleep and Misaki turned over onto her back, the cat giving a disapproving 'mrow' at having to move. Hitune concluded her stomach would do as a much better place to curl up.
The days marched on.
Misaki would get up, Hitune around her shoulders—he didn't change into human form very often, and would only do so when Misaki and he were alone—and go into Koenma's office to try and shift through the papers and find a decent suspect. Hitune's contribution to the situation consisted of batting at papers as she tossed them aside and messing up her piles so that she would scold him and put him back around her neck. He would lay there for a while until he got bored and started playing with papers again.
Kuwabara, Kurama, Yusuke and Hiei would come in and out for various missions from Koenma and that always made great fun for Hitune, who would yow suggestively at them, winding between their ankles and hoping to get them to trip and fall. He ignored Kuwabara, however, much to Kuwabara's chagrin, as the young man attempted to capture the cat's attention in almost every way possible. Kuwabara would bring treats and toys for the cat to play with, but Hitune ignored both and continued with his pursuits on the others. No one explained to him the real reason why Hitune paid so much attention to the other three and he felt left out.
…
Hitune stretched his paws and long, lithe body all the way down to his tail. He got up, licking himself unashamedly and looked around the room. His territory. He crinkled his nose; messy territory. He jumped off the bed with ease, following his nose to a smelly corner of the room. A pile of yummy soft clothes of Misaki's laid in the corner, covered in her scent. He rolled around in the pile for a good long time, covering himself with her smell. Satisfied, he decided that it was time for Misaki to get up. He knew that she did not sleep and somewhere in the back of his mostly cat-like mind it bothered him. He knew that he slept more than a normal being would, he was a cat after all, but he also knew that everybody needed some sort of sleep.
He hopped back onto the bed and realized that it was empty. He scattered the covers urgently, as if she had become mouse-size and hidden away from him. He whipped around, every inch of his cat body in a sense of panic. She promised. She promised she wouldn't leave him. He liked her. She was pretty. His ears and whiskers went into overdrive along with his nose and eyes. He searched the room quickly, knowing before he started that she was no longer there—cat senses told him that. They also told him that there was one person who would know where she had gone and why. He launched himself out of the room and appeared in Koenma's office through the best of cat means mere moments later.
All Koenma saw was the calico scampering into the room through the closed door and leaping up towards him. While in the air, the cat changed forms as quick as a lightning strike and when Hitune landed on the desk he was crouched like a cat except as in human form.
"Where is she!" He thundered murderously, his tail snapping back and forth in a fury.
"Where is who?" Koenma asked in a rather calm voice, considering Hitune's mood and the fangs that breathed down Koenma's neck.
The rumble that came from Hitune swelled from deep in his chest and when it snarled out of his mouth, it sounded eerily similar to a lion's threatening roar, tail lashing angrily to accompany it.
Koenma's expression looked detached, as if he didn't really see the sharp white teeth formed into a growl inches from his face.
"So, it's this day is it?" He said, his voice sounding like it came from somewhere far away.
"What day?" Hitune demanded ferociously, but Koenma didn't, or wouldn't, or couldn't answer him. He just stared blankly at Hitune, but past him.
Hitune snapped his teeth in frustration before getting up from the desk to pace the room back and forth. His body phased in and out of cat form furiously. One turn he was pacing at a humanoid, the next turn he was the calico cat, though tiger-sized, then he was humanoid again, then the regular-sized cat.
While he paced tiger-sized, Coahtu materialized into the room in a storm of blue fire, singing Hitune's whiskers. He growled viciously at her, but she ignored him.
"Where is she?" Coahtu demanded, her iron voice gripping like a vice over Koenma's throat.
He just shook his head.
Hitune stopped his pacing in the hopes that he would finally get the answer he wanted, but he started again and faster this time.
Coahtu's hands came smashing down on Koenma's desk and made imprints after from the heat she emanated.
"You will tell me where she is. I have looked everywhere and...it..." She trailed off as she studied Koenma's face closer. "No...no, it can't...what...It is, isn't it. I had forgotten." All of the rage within Coahtu had sudden snuffed out and her hair, previously a lashing tirade of her emotion, waved minimally down her back as normal, perhaps a bit less.
Hitune purred comfortingly, coming to Coahtu's side and rubbing his head on her thigh. She absently placed a hand between his ears and petted him. Hitune calmed down when he felt the dramatic change of moods in Coahtu. Something remained awry, and he vowed to get to the bottom of it, but this fiery woman next to him needed more comfort now than he.
...
Misaki stroked the gravestone fondly, tears streaming uncalled down her face. The ground beneath her began to rumble, then there was a faint sigh from deep within the earth as drops of rain slowly fell. Lightning struck not far from where she sat, lighting up the sky for an instant.
"I usually prepare myself for this. It's usually not this hard."
The rain around her seemed to laugh for a moment.
"Okay, so it is always this hard." Misaki admitted, "But I usually remember a few days in advance. I guess I've been concentrated on trying to figure out who attacked the agency. You remember the agency don't you? Or was that after your time?"
The droplets of rain mixed with the droplets of tears so that one was not distinguishable from the other.
The rage that always followed the tears came as expected.
"What point is there in a grave? A headstone? There is nothing here, just a useless piece of rock! Burned! Incinerated! Ashes in the wind! No body!" Misaki pulled back an arm and punched the solid, quiet tombstone, breaking it clean in two.
"There wasn't even a body."
Misaki sat looking at the two pieces, not a coherent thought running through her mind. The tears blurred her eyes, as always, and as always she picked up the dislodged piece and mended the two back together by running a hand over each side. She picked up the candelabra that had fallen off with the shuttering hit and placed it back on the top. In the storm, the candles would not light and they just barely stayed on the headstone.
In anger and sadness and rage and sorrow, Misaki cried out, her voice drowned by the wind picking up to swirl around her. Another wave of thunder boomed in the sky, as if in response. Drained, she sat against the stone wearily, head coming to rest on her chin.
A trail that went cold. Desperate information. Time. Brother. Mourning.
After the years went by, the sting of loss would lessen for most. But there were so few Elements, and Misaki and her brother were closer than lovers without making love, twins who were not related in blood.
Eventually she knew the tears would stop, but in that moment, Misaki cried herself out until there were no more tears left, just heaving and sobs and anger boiling up inside of her again.
Misaki's eyes shot open, blood-red with her crying. Something was coming. Something dared to approach the sacred shrine of her kindred. Something triggered her pent up rage and she stood to her feet, blind in the storm and her hair and her wrath. As the being came closer, Misaki sneered into the air at its repulsive heartbeat that pounded with its exertions; a heartbeat that should be her brothers. Her hand lifted almost of its own accord and she tapped relentlessly into a power shelled within her.
A single shot of energy was all it took to fell the being.
Misaki strode forward with grim satisfaction, prepared to taunt the thing before it died completely.
Hitune.
It was Hitune.
Beautiful Hitune in his calico form, bigger than Misaki had ever seen him before, paws almost the size of her head and sleek coat practically shimmering in the rain.
Inadvertently, a distressed cry tore from Misaki's lips as she sank to her knees and put a hand on his gorgeous neck.
Hitune's cat body phased out into his humanoid appearance and his auburn eyes opened to look at her. He raised a hand and interlaced his fingers with hers where they lay across his neck.
Her shoulders shook with weeping, but tears could no longer come from her.
Hitune opened his mouth to say something as Misaki gently pulled his head into her lap, calico hair streaming every direction, plastered to his face from the rain. Misaki moved that hair away, clearing his face so that they could look at each other.
"You're…a good shot." He smiled up at her, his voice low and reserved.
"You're a beautiful creature." Her lips simply refused to turn up into a smile, "Quite the calico." An image of Kurama floated through her head, followed quickly by one of Hiei, "Stupid beast." She fondly traced the outline of his jaw.
So many questions echoed into Misaki's thoughts, all concerning Hitune. Where did he come from? What had he done? Who had he met and seen? The ache in her heart longed to know his life but…there was not time to learn his history, she would have to settle for keeping the Hitune she knew as he was in within her memory.
Out of all of her questions, one kept returning to the front of her mind, "Why did you leave the agency?"
"I could feel your sadness and…and wanted to be with you."
Her voice choked up, "And I killed you for it."
He shook his head sadly, "The agency would have killed me for leaving. I…like it better this way…" He struggled to raise an arm, finding her hair and running his fingers through it.
A simple, satisfied smile on his face, his eyes closed and his hand dropped. He died.
The storm grew steadily fiercer around Misaki and her emotions echoed its frenzy, and purposefully so: she could sink into and forget the losses of the world in which she did not belong.
Behind her, a dark figure stepped up to the gravestone, waving a hand over the candles. They spurted to life despite the storm and they flickered and danced, knowing the true way of fire.
"Come, Ansatsusha. This is no place for you now." The fire-haired woman came up to her. Not even the storm could quench her hair.
Misaki sat still in the storm, a statue in the midst of the raging elements. Finally Coahtu saw her sides heave as she took a deep breath. The Ansatsusha stood, placing what had one been Hitune's head gently onto the ground.
"And where would you have me go, Lady of Fire?" She asked formally.
"Back with me. There are those who need you where I have been, Arenai Ansatsusha."
"No, I do not go back there. Not yet." She turned to the gravestone and walked up to it, placing a hand on the smooth surface. "I will find your assassin." She vowed to the stone and who it represented. She looked back at Coahtu who stood with her arms in the sleeves of her kimono, "I continue my search for the killer. I have wasted too much time already."
Coahtu bowed to the Ansatsusha, knowing that nothing she could say would change the mind of one so determined.
And so Misaki Ansatsusha left.
Here ends Part One of The Ansatsusha Saga.
-lotsm
I am going to be taking a break for the month of November since it's NaNoWriMo. However, part two is the subject for my project so when I get back I plan on there being updates galore. Also, reviews make me happy 3