"What do you mean?!" kougaiji demanded. The demonic prince was stood with his back to the cliff wall, his deep red hair whipping around his face despite the band on his brow. His arms were outstretched for stability, the tips of his long pointed ears were noticeably lower as he snarled at the only other sane being for miles around. One of his sharp canine teeth was on show from how his lip curled up in irritation and annoyance.

"I mean exactly and precisely what I said!... Don't look at me like that... Please Kou...how was i supposed to know?" the other person whimpered, their eyes closed tight in terror. She was the other reason he had his arms were stretched out across the cliff face behind him as her delicate fingers caught in his long fingers, his talon like nails catching the fading sunlight. He looked back at her as he raised his gaze from their entwined fingers, his eyes settling on her face and he was reminded all too well of the damage he could cause her with only his nails as a weapon.

He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the memories that started to shift with the disturbance of these thoughts. it made him think back to when he'd first met Yuki, as the girl called herself.

It had been a cold and misty morning. kougaiji and his group had followed the sanzo party into a valley that was shrouded in mist and fog. there had been rumours of another sanzo priest with a holy scripture so it made sense to the youkai prince to challenge both priest and take the scriptures. killing two birds with one stone as the humans called it.

There was just one real draw back to this plan though and that was the fog. it was so thick that it made following the sanzo party near impossible, let alone keeping his own group together. after an hour of chasing the sanzo party kougaiji finally confronted a member of the sanzo party. as luck would have it, it was Gojyo. the charismatic red headed hanyou was quick to attack and, though kougaiji was stronger and the fight quickly over, the prince had taken some damage. he never aimed to kill unless there was no other way, so he left the exhausted but still very much alive Gojyo by the side of the road and continued slowly on his way.

With his injury, the prince's plan had changed and he planned to attack sanzo on his own. bound by his honour, Kou would fight the priest on one to one before taking the scripture but for this to happen he may have to run away with the priest.

Yes it was all coming together as he limped along and things started to look up as the mist started to part and he saw ahead a blonde slender figure with a golden crown on their head, wearing white robes and carrying a scripture on their shoulders. by their side were two more people, one tall and willowy and the other short and rushing ahead like a child.

Kou had smiled to himself at his luck and, gathering all his strength and energy, rushed forwards at the three people. the blonde priest had turned just as Kou lowered his shoulder, while running, lifted the person onto his shoulder unceremoniously, and darted off. as he ran he heard several things such as the clatter of the crown as it hit the ground and the gasp from the person slung across his shoulder, not to mention the screams from the two people who had been with sanzo... that's when it occurred to him; hakkai is a man who, even with his lighter than usual voice still wouldn't scream like that, secondly, goku would have run after him not away from him and thirdly, but most oddly, was sanzo. it was hard to explain but he'd expected the priest to... well... to be heavier and to be swearing more and also to be hitting and kicking in wanting to be put down. but he wasn't and, if anything, the priest was rather easy to carry.

Kou finally stopped as they got to the edge of the mist and put sanzo down. he'd expected some retaliation but wasn't ready to receive the swift slap across the face before he'd been able to get a good look at his 'hostage'.

"How dare you! Who the devil do you think you are? you could have seriously injured your back carrying me like that!" Kou heard the sweet female voice and slowly raised his gaze to look at her. he took in the long length of her legs as the wind whipped towards her. his eyes drifted further skywards and took in the curve of her hips, her slender waist and higher yet to her small but perk chest that was hidden by the golden plated breastplate that resembled the sanzo he was after. further skyward he took in her sloping shoulders, slender neck and finally her cute face. she had ash mauve eyes with naturally long lashes, natural porcelain skin, lush red lips and flowing golden locks helped set her face. yes, for a human girl she was certainly cute.
"Well? what do you have to say for yourself?!" She demanded, folding her arms and holding herself in such a way that demanded respect. it took kougaiji a moment to collect himself but he quickly recovered and stood proud before her, "you have no idea who I am don't you?" He demanded. "no, should i?" she asked. kougaiji wasn't used to her indifferent response so had to ask, "do you know what I am?"
At this she frowned in thought then surprised the prince by raising her hand. she didn't slap him but ran her hand across his cheek to his ear. Kou felt himself blush from her gentle touch, he wasn't used to the soft and sweet smelling skin of a human being so close. "an elf maybe?" She mused, bringing her hand away. her words shocked kougaiji who stared at her wide-eyed, "a... an elf?" He repeated. She nodded "I don't know what else has pointed ears." she said honestly. "I'm not an elf. my name is kougaiji. prince kougaiji. prince kougaiji of the youkai." he practically growled proudly. "the youkai? who's that?" She asked. "You're kidding. you really don't know what a youkai is?" he asked. The young woman shook her head, "I don't get to see many people and there's no longer any men at the village so you're the first I've spoken to... though I was on my way to meet a peer of mine until you ungraciously carried me off." she explained. "So... are you even a priest?" he asked with a frown. "no, don't be silly, I'm not a priest." she smiled which caused Kou to feel himself blush again though he was relieved to hear her say that but she quickly brought him down, "only men can be priest. I'm a high priestess, lady Sanzo Yuki." she said, bowing and, as was typical of the country, putting her last name first.

Kougaiji stood there, watching her and taking all this in. 'Well... she is a Sanzo and has a scripture after all. She's so naive that she'd probably just give it to me if I asked nicely.' he thought as he tried to decide what to do next but she broke his train of thought. "Oh, Kougaiji! You're hurt! I knew carrying me so recklessly like that would do some damage!" she exclaimed having noticed the tear in his trouser leg and the blood on his calf. She knelt down before him as he came back from the thoughts, just in time to see her pull his trouser leg up, rip the hem of her robe all the way around the base and then use this to bandage his bleeding leg. He was at a complete loss for words. Unlike his father, he'd never felt strongly one way or the other about humans. They were just there, like ants, and didn't bother him... but why was she being nice and helping him? She said she didn't know what a youkai was and she also claimed to have never met a man before so... was she really clueless to the things he could do? Well, not just him but any man? He felt sick at how twisted the Sanzo party were and thought her almost lucky to get dragged away by him... not that she knew this of course.

"Well... do take better care of yourself Kougaiji. Goodbye." she bowed politely and started walking back the way he had brought her. "Wait!" Kou called after her before he could stop himself but it was already too late, she had vanished into the mist.