A/N- THANK YOU, CATORRINA-CHAN FOR REVIEWING.
Disclaimer- My birthday's coming up. Not sure what that has to do with Okami, but my birthday's coming up.
"The one with the short hair and heart hair clips?" Larka asked. "That's her?"
"Yeah..." I answered, watching Ai.
While all of her other billions of friends were talking about something called No Nya Kaguya (I think it was an anime that came out while I was gone), she was eating her noodles in silence. Her eyes were deep and dark. She wasn't the same girl I had known what seemed like so long ago.
"She seems depressed," Yuuki stated.
"Nn..." I answered, watching Ai put her food down. The young girl then started listening to their conversation. Less than two seconds after that, the five minute bell rang. The girls all stood up, brushing off their skirts and grabbing jackets and other things that I'm unable to name since I'm not a girl. Even so, Ai just sat there, watching them.
"Aren't you coming?" One of the girls asked.
"Nope," Ai answered.
"Why not?" A different girl asked who was putting on her jacket.
"Because I'm waiting for my brother. He's really close. Soon he'll be here..." Ai murmured the last part, looking up.
The girls looked at each other. "Won't you be late or get in trouble for skipping out on class?"
"Nope," Ai answered. "And if I do get punished, it's stupid. Idiotic, really."
"Whoa," I stated, eyes wide. "That's kind of creepy... she knows how close I am and stuff. Do you think that the other-me was right?"
"Obviously," Larka said, rolling her eyes. "Dork."
I glanced at Ai again. There was something dark about her. Something that told me she wouldn't listen. No matter how I explained it, she wouldn't forgive her favorite older brother for leaving her. Something told me that this wasn't a good idea.
Yuuki shivered, her eyes downward cast. "It feels... cold..."
"So much for that global warming crap they fed me," I agreed. "It's freezing."
"Big brother, why are you hiding?" Ai asked... but the way she said it was scary. She sounded half-dead.
"Uh," I managed out, then stepped out. Ai looked at me and I saw her eyes.
They used to be a warm, caring brown that always showed joy. Now they were black and lifeless. They reflected nothing... and in them, I saw Lee and Riku.
"Why did you leave me?" she asked, slowly standing. "Hm?"
"Jin," Larka said warningly, stepping next to me. "A demon is possessing her. It's an Ukiyo, a beast that takes over someone's body for a short time, two years at most, then dies. There aren't many of them left, five at least and ten at most."
Yuuki grabbed my arm and looked at me with her big eyes. "What should we do?"
And that was the question of the day. What should we do? I couldn't kill the beast because it was in Ai and I couldn't kill Ai because she was like my little sister. However, if I didn't do something, then Ai (maybe I should start calling her Ukiyo...) would kill us.
What should I do? No, no, the real question was, what can I do?
Was she dead? It felt like it.
There was a woman. Her back was turned to her. The woman had white, red, and black hair. She was wearing a beautiful kimono.
Where was she? The place was white and colorful and black and doomed all at the same time.
Maybe she was really, truly dead.
The woman turned to her. The woman looked sad. She couldn't help but wonder why.
Although the woman didn't say it, she heard it clearly.
You couldn't help him. You've doomed them all.
"Hrrgggh..." Dravis growled, his one eye that was showing flashing red. "Where the hell am I supposed to go?"
Dravis looked up. Traveling as a demon through time made you get confused since you were aware of everything that was happening. You usually got lost from the other and ended up in a different time or place. Dravis had ended up closer than he'd ever been to Larka before: the other side of Aomori.
A girl in her high school uniform was riding by on her bike when she saw him. She stuck out her tongue and made an Eww, gross person face. He glared up at her, then sighed. He needed help.
"Do you know where to find an elementary school or the family of a guy named Jin Sakurada?" Dravis asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Jin... Sakurada?" The girl asked, blinking. "Yeah. Well, sort of. I guess my dad's his adoptive dad."
Dravis looked up at the girl. What a spark of luck. This teenage girl... wait, maybe she was evil or lying. Then again... he couldn't sense any sort of demonic things about her. She felt like a regular teenager. And... she had the slight scent of Jin. Faint, but there.
"I'm Yume Sakurada," she said, jumping off her bike. "Who're you?"
"My name is Dravis," Dravis stated, folding his arms. "Jin tries to steal my girlfriend and I hate him."
Yume didn't seem to know how to react to this so she just laughed. "So, do you know Jin before he got... well, before he disappeared?"
Dravis stared at her. "No."
Yume stared at him back. "I'm sorry, what do you want? It's hard for any of my family to talk about Jin at all, so could you get to the point?"
"He's a God and stuff, so I need to talk to Ai and beat her up if she's under the influence of the idiot king of the current past, Lee. I hope you don't give a damn, because I'm gonna do whatever I want." Dravis had no way with words.
"Right," Yume answered. "I'm just going to get onto my bike and ride away, little boy."
"Don't call me little!" Dravis snapped. "Just because I'm short that doesn't mean you have the right to screw around with me, old lady!"
"Old lady?!" Yume cried. "Who do you think you are, you little punk!?"
"Eh heh heh..." A voice that sent shivers down Dravis's spine chuckled. "Eh heh heh... you're so funny, Dravis..."
Dravis stepped away from Yume and said lowly, "Get on the bike."
"What?" Yume asked.
"Go. Go away. Ride away as fast as you can."
"Why?"
The one man... no, the one demon that Dravis feared, that Dravis hated was here. The one person that he was more scared of than Rosco, his homo uncle. The one person who he had been running from all this time. Ever since he had first met Larka in hell.
"Long time no see, Dravis," Dravis's father said, slowly walking out of the shadows.
"Just go," Dravis growled, his eyes turning red again.
"Now, now, I wouldn't hurt the pitiful human," Dravis's father murmured. "It can leave. All I want is you, my little son."
Dravis shivered. His father had the most chilling of voices that he had ever heard. And, although Dravis's eyes were frightening, his father's were worse. Just like Dravis, his father had no pupils, but his father had eyes that flickered from yellow to orange to red to black to white. His eyes never had any emotions; he displayed those through his body.
"Dravis, Dravis... why are you running from us? Why are you running from Lee? You can have anything you ever wanted... you could get your mother back. You could get a real home. You could get real friends. So why are you still running, Dravis?" His father asked, a slight smirk on his face.
"I hate you!" Dravis growled. "I hate you... I'll get Mom back my own way! I don't need your help. I have the Gods on my side!"
"Really?" Dravis's father asked, feigning shock. "I never knew. Let's be honest; they are outdated. They will die soon, anyway, Dravis. And when they do, Lee will take over. And, trust me, there's nothing you can do about that."
"Shut the hell up!" Dravis growled, turning into his demon-wolf form.
"A puppy! How cute," Dravis's father said, smirking. He then turned to Yume, who was still standing there, in a sort of trance. "You can go now, girl. Your time of death isn't here."
Just after saying that, Dravis jumped on his father, trying to put his mouth on his father's neck. However, the older demon brushed him off, smirking. Dravis rolled on the ground a few times, got up, and spread his wings, growling.
"So scary," Dravis's father stated, bringing out his sword made from human bones.
"D-don't hurt him!" Yume cried quickly, her eyes averted from the demon.
"What?" Dravis's father asked mildly, turning to her.
"I... I just met this guy, but he knows something about Jin. That's a good enough reason for me to protect him!" Yume said, clutching her arms tightly. Her eyes were wide with fear and she knew one thing at that moment: Ai had been right.
"Get lost!" Dravis snapped, baring his teeth.
"No!" Yume said defiantly. "I won't! You know my brother, and I want to see him again!"
"Is that so?" Dravis's father asked, fingering his sword. "And would you like to see your mother, too?"
"What...?" Yume asked, taking a step back, her eyes wide.
"Don't!" Dravis cried, trying to jump in front of the girl.
However, it was too late. Dravis's father was behind Yume, his sword outstretched. Blood flew from all around the teenage girl and she fell to her knees, eyes wide. Blood, after the huge spill, slowly began seeping from her deep side wound. Dravis's father looked on without any feelings.
"You shouldn't have opened your big mouth," he said coldly. "Idiot."
Yume touched her side and looked at the blood that now coated her hands, confused. She had just wanted to say goodbye to Michiru... and now she was going to die by the hand of some... some creature. She wasn't sure what he was, but he wasn't human.
He was a demon.
Who did she doom? She couldn't even remember who she was.
The woman's eyes flickered from golden to violet. Her eyes showed pain.
Look to the flames.
She looked to the flames and saw a girl kneeling, dying. The girl was close to her. But who... ?
"Who am I?" she asked.
The woman closed her eyes and did not answer.
"What's the matter?" the demon demanded. "Too scared to fight me, punk!?"
"Uh," I answered. That seemed to be my answer a lot.
"Chicken!" the demon screeched, turning into two. Dang it! Why'd they have to have the ability to change into more?!
"I'm not scared!" I snapped. "I just don't wanna hurt Ai's body, you big palooka!"
"Chicken!" Ai's body answered. "Chicken!"
"Rrrrrrgggghhh..." I growled. "Why did stupid me have to take me to stupid now?!"
"Eh heh heh..." Yuuki said, blushing.
"Yuuki likes the other yooouuuu!" Larka shouted, eating dango that she had bought. "She thinks the older you is seexxxyyyy!"
"Sh- shut up!" Yuuki growled. "I do not!"
Let me catch you up to speed: we had decided to go to my house, but the stupid demon who can't really do anything wants to follow us. No, scratch that, it can do something: annoy the crap out of anyone that it wants. Right now, we're getting some food because we haven't eaten anything for almost three hours. Ah hah, just kidding.
More like twenty seven hours.
"I don't care if Yuuki thinks the older me is sexy or not, I'm friggin' hungry!" I moaned.
"I don't think the older you is sexy!" Yuuki shouted, her face bright red. "That's disgusting! I mean, I honestly don't know-"
"Hey guys," Older-me said. "What up?"
Yuuki's face turned brighter red and she hid behind Larka. Larka smirked and turned to me.
"I've proved my point."
"What point is that?" Older-me asked, sounding somewhat interested.
"Yuuki thinks you're sexy," Larka answered. "Now what are you doing here? We're very lost."
"First of all, I'm here to help out. Second of all, I'm going to send the Ai-beast to the Cell of Hell. Thirdly, that ryhmes. I can't believe I never noticed that. And, lastly, I think you're sexy when you're older, too, Yuuki," he said easily.
Yuuki blushed even deeper. "Eh... EHH!?"
"Have I kissed you yet? I can never tell..." Older-me mused.
"This is where I ask you to shut up," I growled, feeling my face turn red. What in the heck did he mean by kiss Yuuki?!
"Chicken!" Ai's body screeched. "Chicken! Chicken!"
"We can talk all day about how much we love Yuuki's cute little body later but right now we have a job to do," Older-me said, forcing me to blush even deeper. I was getting better and being less perverted, but I guess there was a nose-dive somewhere in there because I was discussing with myself about how... "good-looking" Yuuki was.
Yuuki was tightly hanging onto Larka's arm, her face very red. As other-me walked in front of us, I took some steps back, catching up (or is it down?) with the two girls.
"I'm disgusting," I said honestly.
"Yes," Larka agreed. "Yes you are."
"You really are hot when you're older..." I heard Yuuki's say very very very quietly.
"What?" I asked blankly.
"Nothing!" she cried, blushing even deeper, if possible.
"You think that freak who is me is hot?" I asked, pointing to the other-me. "And by saying that he's hot, that I'm hot? So in a technical sense, you think that I'm hot?!"
"You're twisting things!" Yuuki cried, covering her face. "Shut up!"
That was when I noticed that we had passed the other me. He was staring forward, eyes in shock. When I looked up, I stopped, too.
Where my house was supposed to be, there were flames.
They were all dead... and it was her fault.
Those innocent people were all dead. They were dead. So far, twenty-nine people.
The boy, Jin, was supposed to go next. Supposed to die.
"We have to save him!" she cried. "We can't just stand here!"
The woman looked away bitterly. There is nothing we can do.
There must be something, she thought. There must be something. Something we can do.
Something to save him.
"You're wonderful, Riku," Lee growled. "Too wonderful..."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Riku asked.
"I think you know what I mean... every night since you've come back, you've been screwing around with me. You want to screw around with Jin or Miuri more than me, don't you?"
Riku looked up and sighed. He was himself again; his white hair fell barely past his shoulders and his eyes were blood red. He appeared to be twenty-five or so. He was a somewhat a beautiful demon, if you can call a demon that. He was amazing.
"Yes..." he said softly. "Yes. Yes I do."
"Get out," Lee growled, acting like a sullen child. "Get out."
"I still want you, though," Riku said, leaning in closely to Lee, whose eyes were turned away.
"No, you don't," Lee whispered.
Riku closed his eyes, sighing softly. "Lee. I would never ever ever ever betray you. You were there first. You'll stay with me, and I'll stay with you."
"Really?" Lee asked softly.
"Of course," Riku replied, touching Lee's arm gently. "You know that, don't you?"
"We may have to kill her, though. You won't forgive me, will you?" Lee asked. "You'll be angry."
"Yes, but I'll get over it," Riku said, brushing Miuri's death aside.
"Will you?" Lee challenged. "What about Jin? Will you get over Jin's death? Will you kill Orochi and Ninetails when they kill him together? Will you ever forgive me?"
"You'll be all I have left," Riku answered.
"Tomorrow we'll attack Mount Fuji and begin the raid on Western Nippon. Are you sure you're strong enough?" Lee asked.
"If I'm not," Riku answered, pushing Lee down and getting on top of him. "Who is?"
Lee sighed. He just wasn't sure.
The woman was Amaterasu. She kept asking about her name, but recieved no answer.
The Sun Goddess seem resigned to the fact that Jin was going to die. She wouldn't help.
So Ai's spirit knew that she would have to save Jin and bring him back to the past to fix everything.
To fix her own mistakes.
A/N- It is longer than the last. That's gotta count for something. And... sorry for the yaoi between Lee and Riku if you hate it. I don't like yaoi so it's awkward for me to write. lol I wonder why I put it in the story.
Please review if you can!
