Of Devils and Demons
A/N: Why yes, I am redoing this one (again), too... What? Date? Why, it's 12/18/2011 of course! This story has just been on hiatus til now, so please don't be fooled~~
I am just a lazy packrat of an authoress.
Previous Title: Akuma to Youkai no
Summary: Himura YukiAi is the daughter of the Uncle of Ciel Phantomhive, and a child of Nurarihyon descent. So what's a girl to do when she is sent to England under the care of an Earl -"Uncle"- who's even younger than she is? Why, run away to Japan of course!
AU! (-ish) Durr. How else would I get them all in the same place/time without time travel -ah, no. Don't answer that.
Genre(s): Supernatural, Fantasy, Drama, etc. (this is all just off the top of my head by the way), Action-ish? maybe adventure, who knows.
Pairing: hmn... I think... I'll leave that as a surprise. =P
Warning: OCs, chaos... "Devils" (akuma) and "Demons" (Youkai), and maaaybe Shinigami. Possible spoilers...
Disclaimer: NEITHER Nurarihyon no Mago NOR Kuroshitsuji BELONG TO ME! SO DON'T GO SAYING THAT I SAID THEY DO! Okay? I only own YukiAi, her Papa, and Shisui! ...So far...
And...now that that's over~
Other Notes: Be happy. I have decided to stuff both the prologue and the first chapter here (the original post was only the prologue) so there. This is not just a revision. I'm -sorta- rewriting this all, not that you'd notice since it all comes somewhere after the prologue that was already posted. =P
So yeah... I've decided to give up on the idea of a 'trilogy' since that typically never works out as I say. Soooo, I have decided to just go with the flow, and if there will be a sequel, there will. Depending on how you recieve this, and the review/hit ratio. So there.
Now shoo! Onto the story! Even packrat-people need their sleep y'know!
LEGEND:
"Speaking" - Japanese (unless otherwise noted)
"Speaking" - English
Thoughts - Thoughts
00. New Arrivals in Kyoto Japan
"Hmn~~" An onyx-raven haired girl stood in the middle of the street, stufying her surroundings with sharp, almost clear, colorless grey eyes as she tapped the rolled up map in her hand to her lip thoughtfully.
Suddenly, though, she stretched, in a way that would've sent her arms, and the map, flying if they weren't attached and/or held tightly in her grasp. The girl exuded a rather determined and confident aura from her person as she did. There was no mistake that she knew what she wanted, and would get it -whatever 'it' might be.
"Finally-! We're here~~!" she grinned, dispelling the near-dangerous looking aura as she did. "Kyoto... The Youkai Capital!" she exclaimed, an excited glint in her grey-ish eyes.
"Gah-!" From behind the young female protagonist, just a little ways off, an obsidian haired young man with somewhat messy long hair tied into a ponytail and wearing what looked to be a midnight blue and grey yukata (along with the sandals/clogs which made him look not unlike a samurai) tripped, spilling the pile of luggage in his arms out onto the strangely empty, and somewhat misty street.
"Ow...!" he groaned, wincing a bit as he picked himself up, rubbing his poor head (he had been hit in the head by a stray hard-cover bag, unfortunately, before it had caused the rest of the luggage to tumble out of his arms as well).
"Hmn...?" The girl paused, frowning a bit as she turned, before sweating slightly at the rather comedic scene before her.
"Ahah..." she sighed, "Shisui..." she sweat, looking down at the mess, "Er... perhaps I should take (at least) one of those from you after all..." she murmured, reaching for the closest piece of baggage as she spoke.
"Eh? Ah- N-no!" the man suddenly exclaimed, tackling the luggage away and surprising the grey-eyed girl, "YukiAi-sama mustn't!" he cried out stubbornly, scrambling to get all the other bags before she could have the chance to try for another one.
"Sh-Shisui..." she sweat -her 'servant' was so adamant about his duty, she thought, sighing.
"YukiAi-sama shouldn't have to lower herself to doing such things!" he continued from beneath the even more precariously placed pile of luggage, "It's not right!" he exclaimed, though his voice was a bit muffled due to the mist as well as the luggage.
If she hadn't long since given up on arguing with her steadfast retainer, she would've twitched and argued the point -unfortunately, as said, her 'servant' was stubborn and refused to give way on what he thought was proper protocal...
She sighed, twitching slightly for a different reason altogether now, sweating slightly as she spoke, "Er... Shisui..."
"Ah- y-yes, YukiAi-sama? !" somehow, the young raven-haired man had managed to poke his head through a space in the luggage to look at his mistress -as always, it was a rather amusing sight, but she had other, rather more pressing issues to deal with at the moment.
"The luggage..." she started simply, pointing to one of the bags above his head, "You're spilling my clothes," she sighed. If he would just let her help, then this would be going much faster, and smoother -unfortunately experience dictated that he would whine and complain and grumble for hours on end afterwards... the annoyance just wasn't worth it, and if she tried to point out that it was his fault for not being a good servant, he would become depressed and start moping in a corner...
Yes, definitely not worth dealing with her childlike retainer over such things, no matter how annoying it was -on the plus side, her patience had been extended by miles (not much, really) from what it used to be.
"Eh...?" Shisui blinked, once again wobbling under precarious pile, only to drop it all again. "Ah..." was all he managed before he was, once again, half-buried by the mini-avalanche.
"Oh no-!" he gasped, as he somehow unearthed himself and began scurrying about to put everything in order again, before straightening with a relieved look on his face, though he looked more than a little disheveled. "Phew! managed to take care of it!"
"..." The girl just gave him a blank stare, twitching slightly as she did. "Shisui..."
"Eh... yes...?" he started, turning to face his mistress a bit quizzically -and warily.
"...Your hair," she stated simply, her face sporting a carefully blank expression of neutrality as she spoke.
"Wha...?" Shisui blinked, slowly allowing his eyes to wander up to where he could see the edges of his hair peeking over, only to flush a red almost brighter than the healthiest tomato as he caught sight of the lacy garment.
"Th-th-th-this is-? !" he paled so suddenly after the flush it looked as if he might faint from the sudden and erratic changes in blood flow (he continued to blush and pale in a rather dangerous, and fast succession -not healthy if you really thought about it).
YukiAi just sighed, silently picking the undergarment (no idea whose it really was either, though she was guessing it was for her, along with a few other pastel-colored pieces of clothes she had seen earlier -possibly the 'new wardrobe' her father had gifted her... she hated pink, though not for the reasons one might think, as she actually had a reason to) up off the flustered male's dark bangs and stuffed it back into its respective bag as quickly as she could, ignoring the other's near spastic, incoherent babblings (apologies and painful-sounding offers of suicide/harakiri, as far as she could make out from his jumbled wordings).
She waited patiently for the babblings to slow and die out, but when, after nearly five minutes of this and no sign of her so-called retainer(/servant) stopping, or calming down at all (in fact he just seemed to get more and more worked up -which, brought her to the question of whether he may or may not have been masochistic...not that she really cared), she sighed.
"Shisui..." she started, waiting a moment before deciding to repeat herself (he probably hadn't heard her over his own exclamations of killing himself in the most painful -and impossible, really- way known to man). "SHISUI-!" she snapped, finally catching the man's attention.
"Yes-!" he yelped, snapping back to attention -and reality- almost immediately.
"If you're done...?" she said, more patient than any other person might have been dealing with his outbursts, even as she wore every physical sign of annoyance -from her posture, her folded arms to the finger tapping the map which was in turn tapping her arm at a steady (yet clearly annoyed/impatient) beat.
"Ah... y-yes... I'm sorry," he apologized meekly, blushing once more as he stared down at his feel -or, rather he would have were the luggage not in the way, so he contented himself with meticulously star- I mean, inspecting- the clasp on the bag right under his nose.
Yuki (or Ai for short) just sighed. "I would like to be able to get going now, you know..." she hinted, pulling him out of his silent wallowing of depression and (probably) self-pity if she knew him well enough.
"O-oh-! Right, of... of course," he stammered, looking just a bit embarrassed as he began walking (and rather hurriedly, too).
She twitched again, this time settling for shaking her head at the man exasperatedly. "Shisui," she called once more.
"Ah, yes?" he asked, turning his head to face the teenager.
"You're going the wrong way," she said blankly, pointing a finger in the opposite direction. "It's this way," she said as she pointed.
"Oh...
"R-Right."
Notes: And there's the prologue. I was originally going to go straight to the 'first chapter' -well, okay, not the FIRST chapter since that's the prologue, but Chapter 01. Buuuut I figured I should throw in some Kuroshitsuji as well, since it would be so terrible of me just to have you all wait all the way until the end to see what Ciel and the others in the Phantomhive family are doing~~
So you get the 'omake' early -I say omake, but it's really more of an extra bit that is relevant to the story. Besides, I'm sure you'd all like to know how Ciel reacted to not only finding out about YukiAi but when she skipped out on them ;P
That, and the two 'omakes' (again, extras, really) featuring the KS gang, need to come before chapter two, cuz that's when they 'officially' appear, so... xP yeah...
Also, this is AU, so certain technological advancements will exist while others will not -ie, planes and most public transport. If it doesn't make sense to you please just ask and I will try to answer the best I can (yes I have anonymous reviewing on by the way). But anyways, yeah. Semi-AU I suppose.
Now then, onto the next segment...!
(This will be my last note for this chapter by the way *dislikes long A/Ns so is trying to cut back unless necessary*)
~~Murasaki Argenteria; Notes End [12/19/2011]
(P.S.: since they're all talking in English I'm not doing bold/not-bold for language differences, k? k.)
"...Sebastian..." the youngest, yet possibly the most mature person in the group, started, looking over at his butler with irritation plain on his features. He wore a crisp, midnight-blue Elizabethan styled suit and two rings, one with a beautiful blue stone just a bit too big for his finger, and one made entirely out of gold with the Phantomhive family seal on it. He also had a simple, black satin eye patch over his right eye.
Not too far from him, a tall, obsidian-haired butler with deep red eyes poured tea out for the young lord -Earl Grey to be specific. "...yes, Young Master?"
The boy's uncovered blue eye was twitching quite visibly as he continued. "How did this happen?" he asked, looking quite disgusted with the current situation. And by 'this' he meant being on an private aircraft with his butler, three failure servants -among which were a chef, a gardener, and a maid- as well as three or four other acquaintances/associates. All of whom, by the way, were currently being unbearably childish at the moment.
Although, considering that they were headed towards an Asian continent were none of them (the single -well, two or three, if Ranmao or even Meirin was counted- asian of the group included) had ever been.
"Hm~" the butler, or Sebastian Micheals, as he was known, seemed to actually take a moment to think about it before answering slowly. "Well, I do believe that this all began with a note from Lady YukiAi. Apparently, the previous Earl Phantomhive had an unknown brother. Ah... Neil, I believe his name was. He married a young Japanese woman during his worldly travels, but settled in the Northern Americas to make a name there," he continued.
"It seems he has been travelling more ever since his wife died, throwing himself into work, so he decided it would be best to put his daughter under Phantomhive care," he went on. "But, a few days ago, when we went to pick her up, she had vanished, leaving four of her bags as well as a note saying that-"
"I know that," he said with a sigh, muttering angrily as he stopped the amused looking butler. "It said that she was going back to her motherland, and that a... "child"... even younger than she was would most certain not be able to care for her, and nor would she even listen to a 'kid' anyways," he muttered blackly -clearly the girl knew where to hit where it hurt, the butler thought, wiping away the amusement on his face, sweating slightly.
"Ah...yes," agreed the butler, sweating slightly. "but," he refilled the now empty teacup before the young Earl. "You decided to go and bring her back, so we returned to the mansion first, to prepare for the trip. Unfortunately, we couldn't leave those three..." he glared chillingly at the three raucous servant, who immediately -and meekly- settled back into their seats, several rows away. "And those four," he started, frowning at the Undertaker, his model of the human body (who, creepily enough, had been named Josephine by the silver-haired male and insisted 'she' was a person too), the Indian Prince and his butler, Agni, as well. "just had to tag along when they found out," he said, the frown darkening to a glare, causing the trio (and the anatomical model, which for some reason, could be taken apart, and now was left as what looked like a human skeleton, with the rest of the parts in the Undertaker's bag) to settle down as well, but for the Indian Prince Soma, who decided to hide behind his butler fearfully, while the rest somehow managed to continue to be cheerful.
"Also, he," he continued, sounding greatly disgusted, and even going to far as to twitch, as he looked pointedly at the Chinese Opium Lord, Lau, who sat with the girl that always seemed to be with him, Ranmao, on his lap, as said Triad Leader turned his head towards them with a quizzical look. "had to bring yet another passenger along with him," he finished, "so you decided to chart a private-aircraft," he tacked on afterwards, as if it were the least important part (which, knowing the duo, probably was).
"..." Ciel sighed, "of course," he muttered, looking about as disgusted as the demonic butler felt by their company.
"Oh yes, and we left Tanaka and the...mutt... to watch the estates," he remembered afterwards, even more disgusted, now. He even went so far as to wrinkle his nose at the mention of a canine.
"..." Just then, they passed over Moscow...
01. New Student (/Classmate/Youkai in Town)
"Ah, Rikuo-kun!" a cheerful-looking, short-haired girl called to her friend. "Good morning!" she greeted.
"Hm?" the boy turned at the sound of his name and the girl's voice. "Ah, Kana-chan! Good Morning to you too!" he grinned.
On the other side of the room, a pompous, wavy-haired boy spoke to another boy and three other girls.
"So you see...?" he was explaining to them, "This plan is fool-proof!"the boy exclaimed, his eyes, tone, and entire being, practically shining with excited confidence.
The listeners sweat, even the girl (Kana) and boy (Rikuo) from before, despite having only just 're-joined' the group.
The kids laughed nervously, "Eheh...heheh..." they sweat at the boy's unbridled enthusiasm for the paranormal.
Thankfully, though, before the boy could continue on again, the classroom door opened, closing not too long afterwards with a distinctive 'snap', causing all the students present to turn.
"Alright, class, to your seats," the teacher intoned, giving a clear order despite the politeness.
They scrambled to their seats -Sensei seemed especially unhappy that morning...
The teacher (male) looked around the room, waiting for the last of them to get into their seats before sighing and addressing them once more. "Well, class, today we have the dubious pleasure of a new addition to our class. So please welcome-" he continued, looking bored, though he was interrupted when the door slid open again, and a girl stepped in, closing the door softly behind her.
The new arrival had what seemed to be mid-length, onyx-colored hair tied up into a side, high ponytail, leaving only bangs that differed in length to frame her face. She seemed to be studying the class out of the corner of her clear, dreamy grey eyes as she walked up a few feet from the teacher and bowed, turning to them all with a cheerful expression.
"Sorry if I'm late!" she said, smiling, "I'm Himura YukiAi," she introduced, lifting a hand in greeting as she gave them all a small wave as she did. "I look forward to making lots of new friends here!" she chirped, beaming.
The teacher cleared his throat, "ahem! Ah, yes... As I was saying, Himura-kun has been staying in the U.S. but she'll be staying here for a while due to her..." he glanced down at the new student profile in the folder on the podium, "father's work," he finished.
"Heheh~~" she grinned a bit sheepishly, "But no worries~ It's been decided that I won't be moving around anymore~~" she told them cheerfully, "I came here because the only legitimate guardian of relation I have lived here, so here I stay~~" she smiled, only the slight emphasis on the additional and unneeded word 'legitimate' showing any hidden meaning or annoyance on her part.
The teacher sighed. He could already feel the headache coming on...
"Yes... Well, I'll give you free period for today to allow you to have the chance to get to know our new addition," he said, almost cheerfully for once, before walking out. He could be heard muttering as the door shut behind him, though. "Two students in the same semester!" shaking his head as he did, leaving the class to its own devices for the time being, conveniently forgetting about the typical reminder of rules, not that it would've mattered.
In any case, as soon as he was gone, YukiAi immediately found herself surrounded by a surging sea of students that asked question after question.
"Himura-san, is it true you lived in America? !" "Uwah~~ Himura-chan is so cute!" "You speak such good Japanese, Himura-san!"
"Oh...my," she blinked, looking just a bit flustered by the onslaught, "Everyone seems to be so nice~!" she exclaimed, chuckling a bit. "I'm afraid it'll all go to my head!" she exclaimed, smiling.
The students around her laughed as well.
"Hmn?" she blinked, looking over to the earlier group which had gathered once again in a free corner, and somehow managed to distangle herself from the sea of students, walking over, "What're you all doing?" she asked, a look of innocent curiosity on her face as she came up from behind them.
"Oh? Does Himura-chan have an interest in Youkai?" asked two of the girls present, both had long hair, though one of the two wore hers into twin braids.
"Hmn~" she hummed, seeming to think about it. "Well, it's interesting, isn't it~?" she asked, giving them a somewhat innocent yet thoughtful look. "I mean, they're supposed to have so much power, yet they continue to exist in anonymity. They could do anything they want, so why hide?" she asked logically. "I mean, if they wanted to, they could probably turn us back to the middle ages at the very least!" she pointed out.
"Uwah~~! That'd be totally scary!" exclaimed the blonde, "I mean, think about it! No electricity, or Junk Food, or... or... or brand names-!" she exclaimed, eyes wide.
"Oh my gosh, that's true!" exclaimed the pigtailed girl, "How scary~~!" she cried.
"Er...no... I don't that's all -I mean, we could be living in Dear and Misery for an eternity~!" Kiyotsugi added, shivering slightly at the thought.
"Ah..." they all sweat. It was a rather good point...
"W-well... that is possible," Himura conceded slowly, "But... I think that's also a part of why they're so interesting, y'know?
"After all, who's to say they're not just like us, with hearts and minds -and even souls!- just stuck in an inhuman form?" she asked them, "I mean, if there are good and bad humans, can't there be good and bad youkai as well...? Right?" she smiled warmly as the others fell into a rather stunned silence, staring at her with a bit of surprise, rather impressed and -just a little- admiring of her logic.
"Y-Yeah! That must be true!" Rikuo exclaimed, his eyes shining (with something not unlike gratuitous joy), "There's got to be good Youkai out there as well!"
The others started, staring for a moment, while Himura blinked, a slow smile stretched across her features, before it turned into a full-out radiant looking smile, "Right? I'm so glad there are people who think so too~~!" she beamed, hands clasped.
"That's right!" exclaimed Kiyotsugi with sudden inspiration, as the rest blushed slightly (well, aside from Rikuo who pretty much looked like he could resemble a tomato at this point).
"Ah, I-I..." he stammered as a long haired girl seemed to pout slightly, looking suspiciously, and rather unhappily, at Himura. Before anyone could say much more, though, the door snapped open and another teacher entered.
"Alright, bring out your text books, and open to page 59!" the teacher exclaimed, "Himura, you can share with keikan," she said as YukiAi murmured to the others, before nodding to the teacher.
"We can talk again at lunch," she whispered, before slipping into her seat next to Yura...
End Notes: Pfff otl! Took me a few seconds to figure out I was done typing out chapter one xd;;; lol! So yeah... Yay!
That's done now! And now, for the last omake for the time being~~ TTwTT
Almost done! ^w^- otl. You guys have no idea HOW happy I am, as this means I can start working on the second chapter of the rest of my stories as well. Rewriting/Revising/etc everything was an entirely STUPID idea... and I admit it. lol! So anyways, another look at the Kuro-Gang~~! Yay!
Pfff so hyper off the completion of this chapter xd;;;; The omake's pretty short, so I don't mind too much xd;;; It takes place just a bit before the chapter? possibly... *needs to reread the next chapter again* meh, close enough. You'll see when we get there~~ -w- otl Well, anyways. As I said before *or if not, am saying now* I will be updating by REVIEW. The more reviews, the sooner I work on the next chapter! So... seeing as This story is close to last... meh, Good luck!
Don't worry, though, as soon as it's this story's turn, I just have to type it out... I have the next chapter already written out, and I just need to type it. Unfortunately, it'll probably be a bit of a wait for me to post...
But in any case, onto the Omake~~! *so happy right now TTwTT* Oh, and Happy Belated New Year's Everyone~~!
(Oh, same rules as last omake -ie, all English, durr xd;;; )
~~Murasaki Argenteria; End Note [1/3/2012]
Back with the KS(KuroShitsuji)-Gang:
The blue-eyed boy twitched. "Sebastian..." he managed to get out without sounding (too) annoyed.
"...yes, young master...?" replied the butler as he served the young Earl his tea-time sweets.
"...How long did they say this flight would take...?" he asked, and quite coolly under the circumstances, as he gripped the arms of his seat rather tightly, gritting his teeth as he tried to block out the sound of certain other passengers, clearly annoyed.
"..." the butler straightened, holding the empty serving tray to himself before he spoke, "I believe they said we would land around seventeen hours after take-off," he informed the youth, "It has been... twelve hours since then," he added, giving his pocket-watch a cursory glance for the time.
"...Five more hours...?" he intoned.
"...I'm afraid so, my lord," he answered, only the slightest twitch crossing his features betrayed the twinge of annoyance that, if Ciel, himself, were not currently so irritated as well, he would've found amusing, as another crash of porcelain sounded close by.
...Well, it could've been worse, he supposed, sighing.
Elizabeth could have had come along as well, he reminded himself tiredly, clearly in no mood do deal with the girl's extraneous obsession for pink, frills, or her overall 'bright and cheery' disposition...
Women, so damn moody, he thought, a twinge of annoyance revealing itself as he shot the louder group a glare that went unnoticed.
It couldn't possibly get any worse... right?