(Hello everyone! I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to get out and that the pacing is weird, but I hope you find it in you to enjoy it just the same. That being said, I own nothing and I hope you enjoy. God bless every single one of you!)
The forest had gone silent. The normally lively woods had either been abandoned or all that resided inside hid within the trunks and branches of the trees.
No one dared to speak, no one dared to breath, not even the muskrats common to these parts. The ensuing silence that echoed through these accursed woods was almost deafening, frightening, alarming, giving one the sense of danger at every corner and the instinct to run.
Fear engulfed this normally serene realm. This was her power over them.
No one would come out. No one dared be seen by the light of day as long as she was there, and in a rather poor mood, no less.
Of all the diverse yokai kept in the specimen chambers in the Zoologist Cross's care, Lenalee was the most strikingly notable out of the bunch.
At first glance, she was but a mere beautiful youth, skin as pure and white as freshly fallen snow, long strands of silky hair as black as night falling down the gentle slopes and curves of her slender body. Her fingers were thin like the legs of spiders and her facial features were symmetrical and without blemish, albeit quite cold.
The only possible blemish one could hope to pinpoint was the surgical most she insisted on wearing to cover up her probably perfect face.
At second glance, of course, well, most men don't make it past the first glance.
"Tell me…. kind sir, am I…. beautiful?"
Though every fiber of his being insisted she was, Cross held his tongue and remained silent.
With a steady hand, without fear or hesitation, Cross held out to the girl roosted upon the rock her daily meal; A fresh but very dead chicken, raw and uncooked.
She inspected it momentarily with her lovely dark orbs.
Yes, his hands were gloved, gloves being worn so often they practically became a part of him, but in the beginning, it was a mere safety precaution, because if his hands remained naked, he would surely lose them. These leather hands were ones she had grown accustomed to, being the familiar friends that fed her daily. He always wore the gloves when he fed her, so if he were to remove them, his bare hands would frighten her beyond any sane notion and she would surely go on a rampage.
"You are like many women." Cross replied, reciting the same lines he had said since he found her two years ago, "You are a common woman, Lenalee."
A moment of silence passed, the youthful girl's expression as unreadable and cold as ever. For the past several days, she was refusing food. It was a minor rebellion and she had them often. Cross couldn't properly pinpoint the cause, be it depression, some sort of pent up anger, problems in her diet or lack of interaction with those of her own kind, but being one of the last of her species, Cross could not very well afford to have her starve to death on his watch.
That's why he gifted her with this treat, something he knew she couldn't resist.
The rebellion ended abruptly. So much so, it was almost anticlimactic and disappointing. Cross always did love a chase when it came to beautiful women, and sometimes he couldn't deny that instinct even if Lenalee wasn't a normal girl.
With a heavy sigh, she let herself elegantly slip of the rock by the lake to fall right in front of him and snatch the bird from his hand.
She didn't say thank you. She never did.
Cross did not stay to watch, knowing her feasting sessions to be quite gruesome.
It wasn't her fault, though. She didn't want to live like this.
Lenalee was what most might know to be a Kuchisake Onna and he knew full well the secret of what lie underneath that surgical mask.
After a brief cold shudder that ran through his body, Cross could not help but sigh.
It was already midday and he had only managed to feed one yokai. He was probably going to pull another all nighter.
The life of a Zoologist hidden in the darkest parts of the suicide forest was a hard life and the people of the Organization were nothing short of slave drivers.
Nothing had ever changed in this abandoned facility. Nothing ever would. Cross Marian was most likely doomed to die as miserable old alcoholic, the only attendants being Mana and a handful of vengeful ex girlfriends coming for one final pleasure of splitting on this grave.
He honestly hoped that would happen so that he would be given the equally satisfying pleasure of returning from the grave as a Yurei and haunting all of them individually.
On the other hand, judging by the continual stream of bad luck he received, he might just end up being tied to this old abandoned facility, taking care of the residents for the rest of all eternity.
If that wasn't the perfect embodiment of hell on earth, he didn't know what was.
It was becoming noticeably sad that it took a common red tengu infant to liven up his miserably boring and pathetically putrid existence upon this earth.
The awful nuisance still didn't have a name yet.
Two long months had passed since the baby tengu's sudden and unexpected arrival and the Zoologist Cross was surprised to say the the little nuisance had nearly tripled in size.
Its wingspan had grown, its feathers longer and stronger, especially on the tail, expressing the usual signature markings of a Red Mountain Tengu. Small brittle talons were beginning to grow on its feet, which spelled nothing but trouble for Cross. Its bones were larger and it seemed to have far more energy than he had seen in any other specimens before.
Overall, it was growing at a significantly quick rate.
Of course, he had no idea what on earth could have caused this growth as every day, the common tengu was given to Onmiyoji Mana who took it who knows where and did who knows what with it.
Whatever it was that was done in these little outings, all Cross knew was that it got the creature madly attached to Cross' long time friend.
In Mana's presence, the bird now the size of a hawk, rested on his shoulder quietly and happily, nuzzling up against his neck whenever it could.
Every time Mana left the room, however, to either return in a moment or to bid it goodnight, which was usually very early in the morning due to his insomnia, the tengu immediately turned into a feral nightmare, growling and nipping at Cross' fingers, throwing the Zoologist's work and belongings across the room, being loud and destructive, overall doing everything it could to terrorize Cross and disrupt his work.
And, of course, as soon as Mana made his way through the doorway, the behavior ceased and it went back to being the man's perfect angel.
Of course, Cross could not simply request Mana perform an exorcism on the demon Tengu because, despite being his friend first, he never believed him. The blatant betrayal of trust drove Cross absolutely mad, sometimes.
In his search for a cause for this seemingly spontaneous bipolarity in the creatures psyche, he was baffled to realize that Mana was most likely the one and only cause, do to his need to spoil the creature absolutely rotten.
He once had to spend two full hours in his very busy day with Mana at five in the morning baking a double chocolate mousse cake to perfection only to give every crumb to the dumb bird child who accepted it without so much as looking greatful. It ate the full thing in twenty minutes tops only to nudge Mana's side in ruthless demand for more junk food.
When asked for the reason of this complete and utter waste of his time, Mana simply told him with a smile that it was the tengu's birthday as he had been its guardian for exactly two months now.
Cross was filled with so much fiery rage that if Mana was anything other than the only person who ever came to visit him, Cross would have thrown him off a cliffside and laughed till daybreak at his demise.
The man was delusional, treating an obnoxious animal like it was his own child, but Cross just couldn't find it within the cold empty depths of his heart to deny him this. Even if the bird child bought his so much misery, it made Mana happier than he had seen him in a long time and somehow, though forced beyond his true nature, he prefered it.
But he only put up wit the bird to some extent.
When Mana was busy back at the temple, Cross, not wanting to deal with the ravenous beast eating and destroying all that was his, put the bird in the specimen chambers along with the rest of the endangered yokai raised in captivity but the Zoologist knew even less of what went on in there.
He guessed he should be thankful the tengu didn't return with life long trauma.
There were many occupants of the chambers, ranging from the humble kapa to to sly crow tengu to the noble snow women. In bringing such a group together, who knew what could happen.
What could possibly possess a perfectly healthy Kamaitachi pair, also known as the Infamous troublemakers Jasdevi, to grow a more human intelligence and build mannequins of humans out of sticks and leaves simply to practice their cutting skills? Had they been influence by someone? Were they more intelligent that he previously thought? Even if they were, they still had to act like it.
On that note, why on earth, at six in the morning, was the second Yuki Onna, other wise known as the Yuki Josei Alma, at the very top of a pine tree, blubbering like a child about how wind stole his mayonnaise jar? What on earth even gave him the notion that the wind was stealing His things? But more importantly, how on earth did he get the mayonnaise to begin with? And even more importantly, why on earth did he want fifty jars of the nasty abominable spread? How on earth did he get addicted to mayonnaise?
But who could forget about the absolute disaster a year ago when Lavi, one of the two kitsune in Cross' possession, thought it an absolutely brilliant idea to cut the previously mentioned Yuki Onna's hair as one of his pranks. Even if it was just a small strand, Lavi declared that it was his most prized possession and he would treasure it for the rest of all eternity, which immediately riled up the second Yuki Josei of the pair, Yuu. Immediately the otherwise beautiful and delicate creature began to go on a murderous rampage, throwing chunks of ice at everything, not caring what he hit. Yuu injured several other yokai in his rampage and knocked out a solid half of the security and electric system. Its because of the bill of said maintenance on the chambers and the yokai within that Cross was no in so much debt, he could scarcely pay for a day's meal. Yes, Cross is still quite angry about it.
Don't even get the man started on when the Gashadokuro, Krory, and the Nure Onna, Eliade fell in love and began to try to find ways to escape the chambers so that they could marry in Europe. That was just simply awful. He still had nightmares.
Yes, Cross hated the creatures he guarded. He couldn't deny that he despised every one of them down to his very core, but he despised everything down to his very core. He was a bitter man and he could not simply deny his nature as one.
Even in his bitterness, he could not deny the fact that these creatures, these seemingly mythical and magical monsters and legends that deny the laws of science to the breaking point needed to be protected. Yokai pelts, claws or eyes go for high prices on the market or they are just shot in the forests for sport. Increasingly limited land space and the mere ignorant cruelty of humanity was driving these creatures to extinction so if he didn't at least make an effort to protect them in this awful Organization where, though all us conducted in the name of protecting these endangered species, no one really seemed to care about anything but money, who would?
Besides, he may despise them, but if Maria loved them so much, perhaps he could put up with them another day, in honour of her memory that still remained so vivid in his mind.
Now, having said that, Cross could not deny the fact that having a completely useless Tengu around just didn't match with the perfect pattern of beautifully endangered specimen.
It had bothered him before, it bothered him now and it would probably continue to bother him till either he or the bird died of old age.
Honestly, he thought as he pitched a coconut, a personal favourite, in the general direction of the Kappa known as Johnny to most, If Mana was going to get a pet he should have gotten some kind of dragon, not a completely commonplace red bird child. At least the dragon could be of some value, far more aesthetically pleasing and it could protect him from danger.
A red tengu couldn't do any of that and he had no idea why his long time friend had grown so attached to the stupid thing.