Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ People are Never Who They Appear to Be A Hanyou Story ❯ Old Family Friend ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“Talking” `Thought”

Chapter 7

A Fox from Neko-youkai's Past

That night they had a feast in their honor but unbeknownst to them they were being watched by a youkai from afar with a plant. Neko-youkai had decided to go since he had already lost his powers and the days events had finally caught up with him. Everyone had finally gone to bed when Chikako headed to the main entrance to place the locking spell on the door. Her hand was about to touch the spot of the door where the spell lay when a knock on the door stopped her.

She took a deep breath; she slid the door open slowly, and saw a handsome seven foot tall golden eyed silver Yoko staring at her. She asked, “May I help you?”

It was obvious that he was shocked that she wasn't distracted by his looks but answered, “I'm looking for a hanyou by the name of Saigo Made Neko-youkai. I heard that he lives here.”

“May I ask why you're looking for him?” she gave him no indication that the hanyou lived there or not, only that she heard of him.

“I'm a friend of his family.” Suddenly the air around them started to heat up to an uncomfortable temperature.

“Really?” as her expression hardened, “It's hard to believe that when there have been a lot of youkais attacking him whenever he's in the area. So it's hard to believe that and so I say goodnight.” She shut the door and quickly placed the locking spell on the door as she left the Yoko outside in the dark.

A few weeks later, Neko-youkai and Chikako were coming back to the house from their last mission when suddenly he sensed a youki closing in on them. He got into his battle stance: his hand over the hilt of his katana and his body crouched over ready for any attack. Chikako didn't need to ask what he sensed, she knew it was better to trust his senses, she turned so she had her back to Neko-youkai's and had her Neko-teon her hands ready. Suddenly plants bursted out between them and they jumped forward to escape.

As Chikako landed vines wrapped around her ankles and held her arms apart from each other, as if she was focusing her reiki into her hands. Neko-youkai turned to go to her aid when branches of a tree wrapped around his arms as a tree grew behind him. He struggled against the branches of a tree as they swathed around his limps. He saw Chikako struggling to burn and pull at the fire-proof plants that swathed around her legs and arms, keeping her from using her jutsus. He could faintly hear Chikako yelling at someone before he felt the plants' mind entering his'.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” Chikako yelled at the Yoko when he appeared a little ways from her as she watched the plant complete swathe around Neko-youkai's limb.

“I need to know what wrong with him,” the Yoko simple answered as he watched.

“Don't you understand? If you do this you might trigger horrible memories that his subconscious has tried to keep locked away! Those memories could make him commit seppuku! Please! Let him go!” as tears began to run down her face, “Please!”

“We'll see . . .” as he ignored her other pleas. It didn't take long before them noticed Neko-youkai's hand going for his wakizashi.

“Oh, no . . .” the Yoko heard Chikako as she saw it too.

The hanyou's hand struggled to tap his wakizashi and let his hand be pulled away little then he repeated the process two more times. The next thing they knew youki was pouring from his wakizashi into him as it tore apart the tree.

Neko-youkai stood in the Takashi home but instead of it being filled with life it was in ruins and fire. His' limbs tremble as he looked around and he slowly turned around when he heard a familiar voice scream a battle cry. Before him lay the whole Takashi clan laying died on the ground, women, children, men, and elders, all died. Then he saw the last member still holding on as they fought a single youkai.

He heard Chikako yell, “Die!” as she came down at the youkai.

Then he saw the youkai bring a katana up and stab her through the heart before she could come down on him. He watched the youkai lower her to the ground, put his foot on her chest, and pushed her off his blade. Neko-youkai watched in horror as his love fell to the ground cursing at the youkai before she was died. Then he saw who the youkai was; it was him, in full youkai!

“Oh Gods! This can't be real!” he exclaimed as he started to cry, “The only family I ever known! No . . . No . . .”

“Do you honestly think that they thought of us as a family member?” he heard his full youkai self tell him, “We're the same person, Neko-youkai-kun, and deep in our heart we both know it's true that they would never truly accept us! That's why we hate them!”

“No! They welcomed me with opened arms!” before he cried out mentally, `Someone! Help me!'

“No, they hate you. They're ninjas, they know how to deceive. They've been doing it this whole time.”

“No . . . no . . . it's not true . . .” suddenly he broke free of the plants' grasp as he yelled, “NO!”

The Yoko stared at Neko-youkai surprised as the hanyou's aura swirled around him, completely tearing apart the tree. He landed on his feet with his head bent so his bangs covered his eyes and his power level went higher. Suddenly they heard the angry voice of Neko-youkai, “You think you can get to me . . . I don't think so,” and it was then that he looked up.

His liquidity hazel irises turned to fresh blood red as he stared angrily at the Yoko. Then with the only warning of a hiss he extended his claws and went at the Yoko. The Yoko only had a few seconds to react and defend himself as Chikako watched in fear. She had never seen Neko-youkai angry before to this extent not even towards `The Shadow'. She pulled harder against the plants that held her in a last ditch of hope to free herself. She did by tearing free of her kimono, revealing her shinobi shozoku, and ran to Neko-youkai.

“Neko-youkai-kun! Stop!” she screamed as tears reddened her cheeks. He turned to her as she wrapped her arms around his neck, “Neko-chan . . . please stop . . . whatever that plant did i-it wasn't real . . . It was just a Yoko trick . . .”

Then he asked the most outrageous question she had ever heard from him, “T-then you would never deceive me?”

“No! . . . I would never do such a thing! Why would I do that to someone who means so much to me?”

It was then that she felt his strong arms wrap around her shoulders as she felt the dark aura slowly retreat into the wakizashi. Ichiro suddenly appeared beside her as Neko-youkai's body started to collapse. This had been the first time he had used the power of his wakizashi and it had drained him completely of his youki. Ichiro and Chikako took each of his arms and put them over their shoulders to support him.

Chikako looked over her shoulder at the Yoko sitting on the ground as fear still filled his eyes and said warningly, “Next time I might be able to stop him,” then they were gone.

The two of them made it to their home and took Neko-youkai into the house as his feet dragged in the dirt. They didn't get that far into the house when they were met with some of their relatives. Her two other brothers' helped them get Neko-youkai into his room and Chikako stayed with him all night.

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Neko-youkai struggled to pull himself out of his meditated state; he didn't want to relive those memories but then something ran through his body numbing him. He was forced to continue to relive the next memories.

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Two years later they were having a winter festival and Chikako's littlest brothers, who were between their teens and twenties, Gora, Rokuro, Shichiro, and Hachiro, all decided to play a trick on Neko-youkai. Neko-youkai needed to ask Chikako something and asked them if they had seen her. They told him that she was in the dressing room, but she was putting on her make-up. So, he went to the room and opened the door without knocking. As Chikako let her yukata drop to the ground and he looked up just at that moment to see her naked back to him. As he stared at her, with his mouth dropping open, she looked over her shoulder at him before she screamed drawing him back to reality. He quickly closed the door as he took quick breathes before he dumbly opened the door again to apologize, but got screamed at again.

He ran to the dining hall and yelled at the brothers, “You said she was putting on her make up! She wasn't, she was still getting dressed!”

“Really?” Gora asked as he ate his rice, “Getting dress and putting on make up is all the same thing to us.”

“Yup,” answered all the boys.

“Omae o karosu!” Neko-youkai yelled as he started to run after the boys as they got up and ran.

The older brothers, Ichiro, Jiro, Suburo, and Shiro, all watched them as Neko-youkai chased them through the house. Late in the evening Neko-youkai sat in front of their sensei's dojo trying to think of something else besides of Chikako's body he saw early in the morning. His ears couldn't pick up Chikako approaching and was startled when she sat down beside him.

She looked at him and asked, “Neko-chan?”

He looked at her startled and said as his dark brown black hair glistened in the starlight and moonlight when he looked down, “Chikako-san I am so sorry about this morning. Your brothers told me that you were just putting on your make up and that is why I walked in.”

“Is that the reason why you were avoiding me?”

“Yes,” as he bowed his head again to hide his blushing.

“Neko-youkai-kun, I know that you didn't mean to, but you shouldn't always listen to them, and besides you should always knock. I am just glad you didn't see my front,” as she looked at the starry sky not noticing him turn an even deeper red, “Neko-youkai-kun . . . you remember when we met?”

“Of course . . .” as he looked at the starry sky, too.

“Remember when we looked at the sky every night?”

He noticed that Chikako wearing a winter kimono and while he was wearing his winter skins his pack mother gave to him at the beginning of the winter a few years ago, after all was finally quiet and all were asleep as they lay quietly under the stars looking into the night sky to relax. “Yes, it was always the best part of the day for us and yet the worst time of the day for me. It allowed me time to think about my pack family.”

“To get away from it all, not needing to teach you how to speak, or worrying about my duties,” she said not even listening to him.

“Yeah . . . what I find funny is that I sometimes I thought something was watching us even though there was no one there.” They stopped talking for awhile but Neko-youkai kept looking sideways at Chikako as his thoughts kept him from relaxing. He finally had to ask, “Chikako-san . . . who's that Yuma-kun boy?”

“Yuma-kun . . .” she answered, “he's an only child and his parents died a year before you came to the family. He's about ten years younger than me but he still tries to court me.”

“D-do you have any feelings for him?” he gulped nervously.

“Yes, but my feelings for him are like the ones for my brothers nothing more . . . why?”

He looked away, “Nothing! No reason . . .”

She sat up, looked at him suspiciously, and then realized, “Neko-youkai-kun . . . are you jealous?”

“No!” as he blushed.

“You are so jealous!”

“I am not!” he jumped to his feet, by throwing his knees close to his chest as he put his hands on either side of his head and pushed himself up, and started to walk to the house as he blushed.

“Oh, no you don't!” she said as she tackled him.

“Agh!” as he went down under her weight.

“You are too jealous!” as she held him down on his stomach.

“I am not!” he exclaimed as he tested her grip on his wrist.

“You, of all people, are jealous! I can't believe it!”

“I am not jealous!”

“Then why are you asking about Yuma-kun?”

He suddenly flipped them over and they rolled down the snowy hill, laughing. They settled at the bottom with Neko-youkai on all four over Chikako as they laughed. They stopped and stared at each other's eyes for the longest time. Chikako notice his whole body start to shake as some weird feeling flowed through him. She couldn't stop herself as she slowly placed her hand on the back of his neck and brought him down until their lips met. Neko-youkai just sat there unable to move or think as an odd feeling filled him.

By ningen standards he was about the same age as Chikako, thirty-three, but by youkai standards he was only sixteen. While ago, they calculated his birth with the help of Mine, who gave them more information about youkai age development, and found out that he was born in the same year as Chikako. So his body was that of a sixteen year-old ningen male teen and Chikako's body on the inside was twice the age of his own, even though it looked younger than it was suppose to be. When he came to the Clan he was just thirteen in a half (as in youkai years) and she was twenty-seven.

He pulled away from her as he got up and sat down with his back to her. She sat up, watched him sit in front of her, and sighed, “Neko-youkai-kun . . . I'm sorry I didn't mean to impose anything. I just thought because I and Minako-san are leaving for China soon-It was stupid of me to assume anything of you.”

Neko-youkai turned as she ran to the house and smelled the scent of tears of sorrow fill the air. `What have I done? I probably missed my only chance to tell her . . . I'm such a baka!”

A sudden stabbing pain on the back of the skull brought him back to reality as he cradled his head in his hands. He heard a familiar deep voice say, “You pervert.”

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Why the hell did you do that for?” he turned and saw `The Shadow'. He turned to run but a hand on his collar threw him onto his back, knocking the wind out of him.

“Not this time . . .” said a deep voice. “You sure are a pain in the ass to find.”

“Maybe because I didn't want you of all people to find me,” he retorted as he thought, `Damn! Why did Chikako-san have to leave me now? She knows I can't really defend myself when I'm like this.'

`Let me fight for you,' said a voice in his head.

`Great now I'm hearing voices . . . '

`No you baka! I'm your wakizashi! Just pull me out.'

`Great, now I'm being told what do to by it. Oh, well . . . '

He rolled out of range of `The Shadow' and unconsciously drew out his katana and wakizashi. He watched as the man pulled out his katana and gave him a look that said `Okay, let's see what you can do'. There was a flash of red that covered Neko-youkai's vision as he felt his youkai aura growing stronger inside his wakizashi. The man gave him a surprised look and got ready for battle.

Neko-youkai ran at him with his hands held behind him for it felt awkward to hold his blade(s) like this but his wakizashi had grown into a katana so he had no other choice. What was even more bizarre was that he began to fight with both blades and it felt natural. That wasn't what disturbed him the most but the fact that he felt balanced mentally and physically. With his speed and skills he thought he would be able to win this battle until something wrapped around his ankles.

He fell flat on his face as he still held onto his blades. He looked over his shoulder and saw it was the Yoko smirking at him. Neko-youkai cursed for he knew they cheated and won until a kunaihit the vines. He quickly got up as he saw the two youkais become distracted and took the chance to run; for it was now or never. He knew it was the martial arts teachers and they could take care of themselves but he couldn't without his youkai powers.

Neko-te: or neko-de are hand-held weapons more or less identical to the Indian bakh nahk, though usually consisting (classically) of a wooden handle with a series of blades a fixed to it. Use of the neko-te is identical to the bakh nahk, as are the injuries inflicted. Neko-te were broadly associated with ninja (or shinobi), as they were highly concealable. It is possible that neko-te may have helped in climbing, though shukos would have been more practical.

Seppuku: is when a samurai uses his wakizashi to stab himself in the gut to commit suicide this is to prevent dishonorable capture or act. Sometimes the enemy samurai helps by cutting off the others head after he stabbed himself if they catch their enemy samurai. Watch the `Last Samurai' it gives you a good history about how the samurais died out but be prepared for a lot of graphic fighting.

Omae o karosu means I will kill you.

Kunai is a small dagger that ninjas use to injury or disable an opponent.